Chapter 20 : Entering Dallas
"Attention, please have all vehicles enter the queue in an orderly manner. Medical staff will inspect you. Anyone who refuses to cooperate in performing their duties by the law will be severely punished."
In the night sky, the moonlight shines on the interstate highway. The cars on the road turn on their headlights one after another. The soldiers on the separation wall turn on their searchlights and shine them toward the dark corners around them to guard against anyone sneaking into the city under the cover of night.
"When You guys are inside; what are your plans?" Osborne lazily leaned on the driver's seat and asked Brian if he had any plans next.
Interstate 35 is the fastest road from the South to Dallas. There were already a lot of cars crowded here before they arrived, and the inspection at the entrance and exit was extremely slow, so even if they started at noon After waiting for nearly 9 hours, they could barely reach the outside of the separation wall.
Behind them were closely followed by escape vehicles coming from all directions, and the traffic flow was still endless as far as the eye could see as if it had never changed.
But even so, the people in these cars are still willing to continue waiting, just to get into the city. It is hard to imagine that there are so many cars crowded, and not a single car around them honks their horns.
Brian looked at the night outside the car, thought for a while, and said softly, "When we were in Austin, we met an old man. He once invited us to come to Dallas, but at that time we were looking for Sarah's relative, so we didn't go with him."
As he spoke, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and said, "But he left us an address. I'll see if I can find him and learn about the situation from him. Then I'll find a way to Washington to my parents."
After telling him about his plan, Brian asked, "What about you? Is there anywhere you can go after entering?"
"Not yet." Osborne shook his head helplessly and sighed: "I will contact my former comrades first and report Austin's information. Don't worry about me. The worst I can do is that I still have this RV."
Brian nodded and didn't say anything else. Seeing that the vehicle in front of them was about to arrive after inspection, he turned around patted the car twice, and said, "Ladies, we'll be there soon. It's our turn, so get ready."
...
The RV slowly stopped at the checkpoint. A soldier in protective clothing stepped out of the window and knocked twice with a serious face, signaling the people inside to lower the window.
As the window slowly lowered, the soldier looked into the car. He couldn't help but be startled. There was a middle-aged man and three children sitting inside. For some reason, this made his face soften slightly, and he said kindly, "First of all, please get out of the car. We want to inspect you and the vehicle."
"OK."
When the four of them stood next to the RV, Brian saw a soldier holding a rectangular instrument and holding it next to him. There was a cylinder on top. He knew that it should be the so-called "infection scanner."
Two other soldiers got into their car and rummaged through it, looking for anyone who might be hiding in the car.
The soldier holding the scanner walked behind the four people, placed the end of the cylinder on the backs of their necks, and pressed the detection button. Every time a person was checked, two beeps would be heard from the scanner. There were no reports of infection among soldiers.
After confirming that none of the people in front of them were infected, another soldier took the record book and asked them in detail about their names, ages, and previous residential addresses, as well as what kind of relationship they had, whether they had any relatives in the city, etc.
After ten minutes of tossing like this, the soldier confirmed that there was no problem and then allowed communication. Then he used the intercom to notify the console to open the isolation door and let them enter Dallas.
The army would not let the survivors, who had just entered the city, wander around the city. When the RV drove to the designated place, a guiding soldier drove in front of them in a small car and kept waving to them. The vehicle followed him.
The inside of Dallas is far from as nice as it looks from the outside. There are densely packed tents in the open area, similar to a park. When vehicles pass by them, even in the car, you can hear the sadness coming from inside and the sound of crying.
It's been almost half an hour since they drove, and it's the same situation. It can be seen that as there are fewer and fewer places to house survivors in the city and more and more survivors are accepted, Dallas may not be able to use many more. The day will become saturated.
The guiding car took them outside the abandoned factory. The large open area was divided into two halves by a barbed wire fence running horizontally in the middle. The area on the left was all set up with tents, and the area on the other side was full of RVs parked. The ground was covered with gray lines in separate areas, and each area could accommodate an RV.
"Strange, why are all the RVs parked here?" Brian noticed the situation outside the car and felt a little curious.
"This is nothing surprising, because an ordinary car is just a car, and our RV is a home." Osborne was not surprised by the surrounding environment. When he saw Brian was a little confused, he explained to him, "Who asked us if our country is a democratic and free country."
After dumping the RV into the designated location, the leading soldier got out of the car and walked to Osborne. He handed him a pamphlet and four ID cards and said,
"This is what you need to receive supplies. Dallas is currently under martial law, and a curfew is implemented after 8:00 p.m. There are also many precautions mentioned above. Remember, don't get into trouble."
After saying that, the soldier said nothing more, turned around and drove away in his car.
"Hey, I have a neighbor!"
Not long after the soldiers left, the owner of the RV next door got out of the car. He was a ragged, drunk old man. He held an empty wine bottle in his hand and sat down on a chair next to him. Brian and the others waved hello.
Seeing the old man in front of him, Brian's heart moved. He turned around and ran to the RV, took two bottles of wine from it, sat down next to the old man, and pulled his hand close to him.
"What is he doing?"
Kelly looked at Brian, who suddenly started talking to a stranger, and asked her father with some confusion.
"Ah, he is collecting intelligence." After touching his daughter's head, Osborne looked deeply at Brian and said softly, "Okay, let's go to bed early; there are other things. I'm busy."
Watching the two get into the RV, Sarah did not follow them but sat on the footrest, tilting her head and looking at Brian's profile quietly.
The drunken old man took a big gulp of the wine that Brian gave him. No matter how he looked at the kid in front of him, he was so pleasing to the eye, so he answered all his questions.
"The army will distribute living supplies to the central block at 9 o'clock every day, but remember to keep an eye on your supply card. Those soldiers only recognize the card, not the person. When you go to collect things, you must bring a gun. I'm not sure. you can be robbed."
"There are tourists here, but I advise you not to join them. That is a very stupid thing."
"Your place should be in the North District. It's not too far from here. If you go out from here, turn, and keep going; you can find it."
"I don't know how to get out of here, but I advise you not to bother. Don't believe those people on TV who tell you that the infection is under control. There is already chaos outside. How do I know? Hey, I just ran here from the west; what don't I know? The results are not the same everywhere."
"..."
The old man in front of me didn't know much, but as long as he could answer the question, he could explain it clearly and in great detail.
After getting general information about Dallas, Brian sent the old man to his RV and also learned the other person's name, Antoine.
"What's wrong? Sarah!" Brian turned around and was about to return to the RV. Suddenly he saw Sarah sitting at the door and looking straight at him, and he asked a little uncomfortably.
"Huh? No!"
When Brian asked, Sarah came back to her senses in an instant, blushed, and then quickly covered it up and said, "How are you? Did you get any key information?"
"It's not clear yet. I think we may not be able to leave here for a while."
Brian looked a little ugly as he thought about the information he had just obtained. It seemed that his previous guess was correct. The epidemic had begun to get out of control, which also meant that other places would become unsafe. This made him hesitant. It is still necessary to risk leaving.
"Then what should we do next?" After hearing that she might not leave here, Sarah felt secretly happy for some reason.
Her relatives were gone, and she didn't want Brian to take risks outside, but she knew that the other party was also looking for his relatives, and no one had any reason to stop him, so she didn't express it and just kept silent. The thought was buried in her heart, and wherever the other person went, she would also go.
"Let's go to sleep first and wait until the day goes by to find Arman and ask again."
With a sigh, Brian looked at the time, took Sarah's hand, and entered the RV. In any case, everything would have to wait until the next day to be decided.
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