Hearing this, everyone in the camp turned their gazes toward Merle in surprise.
"What are you looking at?!"
Merle, feeling a bit impatient under their stares, craned his neck and shouted, "Weren't you in a hurry to get back? You think I'd let them dawdle there while I drove off by myself?"
Upon hearing this, the crowd looked away one after another.
Morales rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Had the tension between them eased so much just because of this incident?
Just then, Amy, who had been standing quietly in the crowd, let out a heartfelt smile.
She walked quickly to Louis and gave him a big hug.
"Louis, thank you." She let go, looking into the boy's eyes, her voice filled with sincere appreciation.
"We wanted to warn the others about the city before, but we never managed to do it."
She smiled somewhat sheepishly, then added with absolute seriousness, "But you did what should have been done long ago for all of us. You're truly amazing!"
Louis blushed slightly at her praise. Just as he was about to say something, several small figures came running toward him with cheers.
"Louis!" The one running in front was Duane.
Louis's eyes lit up when he saw him, and he shouted excitedly, "Duane! You guys came too!"
"Yeah, yeah! We got here even earlier than you!"
Duane ran up to him, his expression full of joy. "I knew you'd make it back safely!"
"Right, Carl?"
He looked excitedly behind him.
Louis followed his gaze.
It was a boy slightly shorter than him, wearing a clean plaid shirt and sporting soft, brown curly hair.
The boy still had some baby fat on his cheeks, and his large eyes were sizing him up with a mix of curiosity and shyness. He was Rick's son, Carl.
Lori stood behind Carl and gave him a gentle push forward.
Looking at Carl, Louis let a slightly nervous smile surface on his face at the right moment, intending to say something.
Carl, however, took a direct step forward, opened his arms, and gave him a solid hug.
"Welcome home, brother."
Louis was slightly stunned.
As expected of the crown prince... He chuckled inwardly and reached out to hug him back.
"Someone else you know is here too," Rick's voice sounded from the side. "I think you'll be very happy to see him."
Hearing this, Louis let go of Carl, a look of confusion appearing on his face.
Rick gestured for him to look toward the lakeside on the other side of the camp.
Louis turned his head. When he saw the tall, familiar figure walking toward them, his deep blue eyes instantly erupted with pure surprise.
"Shane!"
The boy's voice was crisp and loud, carrying undisguised excitement as he ran toward the figure.
Shane had clearly seen him too. The gloom and fatigue on his face from camp chores were replaced by a brilliant smile.
He stepped forward quickly and scooped Louis up as the boy reached him.
"You little rascal," Shane's rough palm rubbed vigorously against Louis's blonde hair, filled with the relief of a survivor. "I heard from Rick! Do you think your life is too long?"
"You dared to lure those things away alone at night before, and now you've learned to go charging through Atlanta on a horse?"
"Do you know how many Walkers are there!"
His tone sounded like a scolding, but his eyes were full of hidden concern.
"I think it was terrifying too," Louis said with a shudder, as if still feeling the lingering fear. "I don't want to take risks like that ever again."
He paused, his clear eyes looking at Shane with a bright smile. "But looking at the result, it was all worth it. We all survived!"
"We all survived..."
The smile on Shane's face faltered slightly as he slowly set Louis down.
The boy's simple words stirred a whirlwind of emotions in his heart.
He reached out and patted Louis's shoulder, his gaze complex as he murmured, "Yeah, kid... we all survived."
...After sharing their respective harrowing experiences, the group decided to hold a simple welcome party tonight to celebrate the Jones Family officially joining and the safe return of Rick and the others.
The women were busy washing gathered vegetables and fish, while the men gathered around the campfire, dressing several squirrels they had just hunted. The camp was filled with a long-lost lively and warm atmosphere of domesticity.
On the surface, Louis looked delighted, sharing candies brought back from the nursing home with his new companions, Carl and Duane, but internally he was silently complaining.
A welcome party?
Heh.
Are you preparing a 'warm welcome' party for the Walkers?
With his knowledge of the plot, he knew very well that tonight, a large wave of Walkers would attack this seemingly peaceful camp.
It was this very attack that would cause heavy casualties for the group.
Among those who would die were Andrea's kind and cheerful younger sister Amy, and Carol's useless, domestic-abusing husband, Ed.
In the original plot, Shane was full of suppressed rage because he had been "abandoned" by Lori, with nowhere to vent it.
When he saw Ed laying hands on Carol again, he used it as an excuse to give him a brutal beating.
Because of that, Ed spent the night alone in his tent nursing his wounds instead of attending the party, becoming the first unlucky soul to be bitten to death by a Walker. His shrill scream was what finally sounded the alarm for the camp.
But what Louis found strange was that he didn't know what had happened in the camp today.
Although the atmosphere suggested things were indeed off between Lori and Shane, Shane apparently hadn't gone to beat up Ed this afternoon as he originally had.
Right now, that bastard was sitting not far away in perfectly good health, drinking beer.
While it was a bit of a pity that this domestic abuser would likely survive today, Louis didn't dwell on it too much.
The most urgent thing now was to find a way to warn everyone in the camp to avoid tonight's disaster.
So, as everyone began to serve food and chat, and the atmosphere reached its peak, Louis took his portion of dinner and walked over to Shane, who was drinking alone in a somber mood.
He looked at Shane several times as if hesitating to speak, successfully catching the man's attention.
"What's wrong, kid?" Shane put down his beer bottle and looked at him. "Food not to your liking?"
Louis shook his head without touching the food in his bowl. He glanced at the people laughing heartily nearby, his expression of unease deepening.
He frowned and asked tentatively, "Shane, is everyone celebrating here right now?"
"Yeah, is there a problem?" Shane asked, somewhat confused.
"Then..." Louis looked even more uneasy, even putting down his tray. "In that case, doesn't that mean no one is responsible for patrolling and keeping watch?"
"What if Walkers are attracted by the firelight and noise here? What should we do then?"
Hearing this question, several nearby adults who were chatting also looked over.
But no one seemed to take it seriously, thinking only that Louis's previous experiences had made him a bit too sensitive.
"Don't worry, child, the camp is very safe."
Dale took a sip of soup and said with a gentle smile, "I'll head up to keep watch after I finish eating. Besides, we're so far from the city, there won't be that many Walkers."
But after hearing this, Louis didn't relax at all. Instead, his expression became increasingly grave. He lowered his head and stopped talking, looking like someone who had something to say but didn't know how to say it.
Seeing this, Rick's heart stirred.
He recalled his previous interactions with the boy and didn't believe Louis would say something so discouraging on such an occasion without reason.
Others in the camp might think Louis was just worrying unnecessarily, but Rick felt that things might not be that simple.
His expression turned serious as he looked Louis in the eye and said earnestly, "Louis, have you discovered something wrong?"
Louis had been waiting for those words.
He nodded in silence, glanced at the adults around him, and under their encouraging gazes, delivered his fabricated explanation.
"I can't be sure, Officer," he said, followed immediately by a revelation that shocked everyone:
"But I think the Walkers might already be very close to us."