Rick, who had gone ahead, opened the door and was left petrified by the scene before him.
Bones—human bones. The room was filled with bones, severed human body parts hanging from the ceiling by ropes, and a few walkers lying on the floor. Their flesh had been completely stripped from the bones, and the meat hanging from the ceiling had been cleaned.
Several civilian-dressed corpses could also be seen in the corner of the room, with long trails of blood running from their mouths, staining their entire bodies and forming a dried pool of blood on the floor. These bodies seemed relatively fresh, and they had most likely taken their own lives by biting off their tongues. Those who did this had no choice but to stab them in the head afterward.
But that didn't stop their chests from being cut open—there was no mercy, not even for the dead. This room, which Rick and the others had assumed was merely filled with walkers, had left them speechless.
Unexpectedly, they had been chatting just moments before, unaware of the horrifying and cold scene just next door. A chilling wave swept over them—men and women tied to beds with parts of their bodies severed, their mouths gagged tightly to prevent any sound.
The eyes of the corpses on the beds were wide open. The purplish bruises on their necks from strangulation were the most fatal wounds they bore. At that moment, some corpses were shriveled and had clearly suffered a great deal.
Skulls, heads, and eyes had been pierced with sharp weapons. Some had even died very recently. Blood still dripped from one of the beds, forming a thick puddle beneath it. The mattress beneath one woman was in worse condition, and the stench was unbearable. There were so many bones that it was impossible to tell exactly how many people had died in this room.
On another bed, a man lay tied down. Rick could tell at a glance that he had been killed cleanly with a head wound and had no other injuries on his body.
"Oh my God…" Daniel's trembling voice sounded behind Rick, and then he vomited right there in the room. It was likely Daniel wouldn't be able to eat meat for a long time.
Rick's eyes were filled with rage. His body trembled slightly as he looked at the pile of bones in the room. Unlike Daniel, he didn't show much expression. You'd have to be a fool not to understand what had happened here.
Those sons of bitches deserve to die.
Rick left the room without a word, but Daniel rushed to stop him.
"What are you going to do? Go after them now? Rick, this is not the time to get sidetracked with that kind of thing. Those bastards have already escaped—we'll only be wasting time if we chase them now!"
Rick angrily shook off Daniel's hand, reached for his waist, grabbed his radio, and reported: "Zz... Mike, respond if you can hear me!"
"Rick, I hear you! How's it going over there?"
"Mike, send some people to look for a red truck. There are five individuals in military gear. Listen to me—if they're found, kill them on sight."
A few seconds later, Rick handed the radio to Daniel while trying to clear his mind. Daniel took it, pressed the button, and said, "Captain Mike, about those people…"
After explaining everything to Mike, Daniel handed the radio back to Rick and said in a low voice, "It's really not worth going after them—they'll die one way or another."
Mike's voice came over the radio at that moment.
"Rick, they've already gotten away. Tyler will file a report to make sure none of them are ever allowed into our base, and everyone will be warned. If we see them again after this, they'll be eliminated for sure."
Rick gradually calmed down. He regretted letting them live, so he picked up the radio and said, "Mike, send more trucks and more people to this location. We've encountered runners—we shouldn't even call them walkers at this point. And one more thing you should know… Ten people died. The walkers caught us off guard."
"Sorry to hear that. I'll inform the others…"
"Alright…"
…
Before long, Mike sent a full team to the military base with people who weren't full soldiers. Many of them escorted Candace and a few researchers to examine the corpses of these special infected… At that point, even though the corpses Jason had dealt with had already arrived, these red-eyed walkers were very different.
Many began cleaning the room where the cannibals had been feeding for a long time, and soon all the corpses were gathered in one specific area to be incinerated.
Rick had made a mistake—one from which he learned something very important: he should never trust people too easily.
After speaking with the researchers, everyone began loading the supplies they had obtained that day, which helped lift the spirits of many who had been feeling down.
Even though it was still early, everyone began making trips back to the prison. Seeing boxes of food, weapons, and ammunition being loaded onto the truck, Guillermo—who had arrived later—couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as he hugged Rick enthusiastically. He couldn't wait to start making a list of everything that was being sent to the base.
The base had been secured and cleaned within hours, and now a full squad was being dispatched to the site to handle the incoming materials from the other military base where Jason was located.
Rick, sitting in a Humvee, looked silently at the landscape beside the road. The recent events stirred something deep inside him that he hadn't been fully aware of. He had been following Jason since he woke up and hadn't needed to think about these things much.
Who should we kill? Why do we kill, and what are the consequences if we don't? Are we truly evil for doing it?
Rick knew that he was a leader now, and his decisions were critically important. He couldn't afford to be so cautious anymore.
The cruelty of recent days had never hit him as hard as it did now. From the moment he stepped into that room, it became clear that the death of his soldiers and the escape of those cannibals had set off an alarm in his mind.
He seemed to understand now why Jason hadn't wanted him to come along—something that moved him deeply. Jason was truly a strange person: young, yet experienced, and highly respected at the base.
Now, under Jason's trust, Rick had become a leader. The vision that had once been obscured by someone else was now clear before his eyes. Rick knew the time had come to stop being the "good guy."
But everyone, including him, awaited his orders anxiously. Thinking of the weight of his responsibility, Rick clenched his fists and resolved to be much more cautious.
Suddenly, a house passed by Rick's line of sight. He knocked on the car door, and Jim, who was driving beside him, slowly pulled over.
"What is it?"
Rick looked into the distance, pointed to a small side road, and said, "I think I saw something. Turn around and let's check it out."
Driving down the small road, Rick left only two cars behind while the others rushed back to base.
An armed group observed the house not far from their position. They waited a bit longer before silently surrounding it.
It was a small town with just a few houses. Rick looked at the roof of one not too far away and confirmed that it was the place he had just seen.
"Since we're here, we might as well take a look."
Daniel and Jim scanned the homes. Having just taken a military base moments earlier, both of them felt there wasn't much here that could surprise them.
Rick looked at Jim and said, "What? We don't clear houses like we used to?"
"That's not it…"
Just as Daniel was about to give the order to the people in the vehicles, a cry for help suddenly rang out from the second floor of one house.
"We're here! Help us!"
Rick pulled out his machete and ran toward the house where the cries had come from. The others followed close behind, weapons raised.
As Rick entered the house, he could clearly hear the growls of walkers from the second floor, along with banging on a door and the desperate screams of a man and a woman coming from a room.
"Please, save us!"
Without hesitation, Rick raised his weapon and blew a walker's head off.
Bang! Bang!
The walkers collapsed and tumbled down the stairs.
Jim and the others rushed in through the door behind them, but Rick ignored them, his weapon still aimed at the second-floor door.
With a creak, the door opened slowly, and a pale-skinned girl with short hair limped out, followed by a short, older man with blonde hair.
"Don't shoot, we're alive!"
"Oh God, they have guns…"