5 PM, somewhere in Atlanta City, Georgia.
Bam!
"Brrr! It's starting to get cold."
Nolan and Glenn hauled the cargo door shut. The former let out a sharp, ragged shiver and began rubbing his palms together, huffing hot breath into his cupped fingers to chase away the cold.
"But where did Michael and Daryl go?"
Glenn just gave him a glance before looking away.
Nolan shrugged his shoulders and started walking to the head of the trailer. "Let's wait for them inside the truck. It's starting to get cold with night approaching."
Glenn ignored him and instead continued looking around their surroundings with a tense expression. He pulled his pistol out from his holster and prepared to shoot. He slowly moved with his gun pointed ahead and towards the alley just several meters from him.
Glenn swallowed hard as he eased forward with silent caution. A meter from the alley he stopped holding his breath—then he sprang, his boots skidding slightly on the ground as he leveled his gun at whatever waited in the corner ahead.
He furrowed his brows in confusion. 'Was I being paranoid? I thought I saw someone for a second here.'
"Weird.."
Feeling confused, he slightly tilted his head for a quick second before turning around and disappeared onto the corner.
On the opposite side of the dumpster from where Glenn had stood just a second ago, someone was there. It was a young woman, clutching a child of about seven or eight in her arms, her finger pressed against her own lips as a way to tell the child to keep still.
Hearing the sound of footsteps walking away, the young woman sighs with relief. She looked at the kid in her arms and reassured her with a smile.
'I didn't expect there'd still be people coming here when the place was already emptied.' the young woman thought while ruffling the kid's hair.
"Are we gonna be okay?" The kid in her arms asked in a sweet, soft voice. Her face filled with the same worry as the young woman.
The young woman smiled reassuringly at her. "We are. We just need to wait for them to leave, then look for another place to crash since I don't think this place is safe for us anymore."
"I don't think this was a good place to hide, miss."
Suddenly, Glenn's head popped out from beside the dumpster, startling the poor girls.
"Ahhh!"
The young woman yelped and reeled back in shock. She only stopped when her back hit the wall of the brick building. Realizing something, she quickly pulled the little girl towards her and pulled out a knife and pointed it towards Glenn.
"W-what do you want? How did you know we were here?" The woman tried to put up a brave bravado, but the stutter in her voice and her hand trembling did not convince Glenn one bit that she's a threat.
"Relax, I'm no threat to you. I just wanna talk."
Glenn took a couple of steps back to reassure them that he's not. He looked at the young kid hiding behind the legs of the young woman and couldn't help but feel pity towards them, especially when he saw how dirty they looked.
"How did you know we were here? Are you one of those bastards?" The young woman ignored his words and repeated herself.
With his hands up in the air, Glenn slightly smiled with a shrug and pointed at something behind them with a finger. "Your shadows betrayed you."
The woman became obviously annoyed and lightly gritted her teeth. "We don't want any trouble. Please just ignore us and go on your way, but if you insist on taking my niece."
Her face suddenly became tense and dangerous. "Then I don't mind dying with you."
"Noo.." Her niece whimpered in a small voice.
Glenn genuinely looked surprised to hear those words from her. He chuckled and became a little uncomfortable and nervous. "Hey, hey. No one's dying today, okay? And I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not taking your niece. So, let's talk calmly here, alright?"
"Hey Glenn, what are you..Natasha?"
From out of nowhere, Nolan suddenly appeared from the corner. He came out to check on Glenn since he had been gone for a while and became worried, but when his eyes landed on the young woman by the dumpster. His eyes widened in surprise and it cut his words short.
"You know her?"
"Yeah, she's my..ex from my hometown."
"Dang.."
Glenn became amused with the sudden situation.
Several moments later, Michael and Daryl had returned and found two new faces inside the truck.
They were a little suspicious at first, but the story they told soon piqued his interest.
"Hmm..are you saying there's a group out there kidnapping children and they're killing them to perform satanic rituals?" Michael was not sure if he should believe her. He felt a little doubtful about her claims since there weren't any groups like that in the story.
"Yeah, I saw it with my own eyes and now those scenes live free in my head." Her voice trembled while forcing a smile.
'But since this is not a TV Show, it's possible that there might have been a group like that but Rick and the others just never encountered them when they started moving up north.' He thought they were PADRE at first and became surprised that their influence had reached this far.
While he was engrossed in his thoughts, everyone was silent and waited for his opinion on this, everyone only felt surprised and anger at such news.
Ending his thoughts, Michael realized that everyone became quiet and were looking at him.
"Hmmm…that is certainly disturbing news while we're on the eve of conflict with another group. By the way, I didn't get your name."
"Natasha..Natasha Forger."
Michael stared at her for a moment since he didn't expect to hear such a familiar surname. "Quite a rare family name you have. These people you're talking about, were they heavily armed?"
Natasha nodded her head. "Yes, though most of them looked like they served in the army. There were a few who looked very important among them. Though I'm not familiar with who they are."
"I know hearing it sounds absurd, and I also wouldn't believe it if I were you. I get it that you're suspicious of my claims, but I can show where they did it. Though the things they used there are already gone, there should still be traces of it left." Natasha hurriedly explained when she saw the flash of doubt on Michael's face.
"It's true..my friend..my friend got taken by them." The young kid with her quickly voiced her support to her Aunt.
Michael smiled at the kid, then turned her eyes back to Natasha. "I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I guess we still have some time to spare to check out the place you're talking about."
"Okay."
Soon, the crew with a newfound objective. Headed somewhere under Natasha's directions.