Chapter 14: Arriving at Camp
Riding the boundless sunset, several vehicles traveled on the highway.
No roaring walker cries, no heartbeat sounds echoing in their ears, no companions' shouts.
In the cargo truck bed, Rick, Glenn, Andrea and the others felt as if they'd already escaped this cruel apocalypse and returned to peacetime.
Their taut nerves gradually relaxed.
Enjoying this moment of peace, the convoy gradually approached a valley.
In the middle of the valley was a lake. The surrounding mountain roads had been carved out for the quarry.
The mountain road leading to Glenn and the others' camp was crude—just simple gravel paving, and rather narrow, barely able to accommodate two vehicles side by side.
Rip drove the wide cargo truck up this dirt road, occupying most of the space.
That cargo truck traveled at the very back. Merle drove one pickup, Tate drove another.
Merle had one hand on the gear shift, one hand on the steering wheel. "Everyone in this camp is a pushover, very easy to bully. Only one county cop is a bit of trouble."
"But this cop is easy to handle too. He's got an old flame, and this old flame has a son. He actually treats this son as his own."
"Playing stepdad and getting addicted to it. Hahahaha—"
As Merle spoke, he couldn't help laughing. Really didn't expect such a person to exist.
Caesar glanced at Merle but didn't voice his opinion.
Actually, Shane and Lori being together only victimized Rick. For everyone else, it was only beneficial, not harmful.
The cargo truck at the tail of the convoy made a lot of noise. In the empty valley, it stirred up huge echoes.
For a moment, the sound reverberated back and forth through the valley.
Dale, standing on the RV roof, widened his eyes, put down his binoculars, and turned to shout, "We have a situation!"
At his shout, the small camp instantly descended into chaos.
Women doing housework ran in panic toward hiding places. Men with weapons stood up and gathered toward Dale's RV.
Among them, a burly man holding a shotgun ran two quick steps out of the crowd. He raised his hand. "Dale, binoculars."
Dale looked at Shane and tossed the binoculars.
Shane caught them and looked out. Sure enough, dust rose on the mountain dirt road. He could see two pickups and one cargo truck inside.
That cargo truck was huge. If it charged over, their camp would definitely be overturned instantly.
Shane's expression immediately darkened. He chambered a round in the shotgun and said to the people behind him, "These people don't come in peace. Everyone get ready."
"Take all the weapons. Let these people know we're not to be trifled with, that this is our camp. Make them go find a camp somewhere else."
Shane had good authority. At his command, many men in camp nodded one after another, turning to search for weapons in the camp, trying to have something in hand.
Sweeping his eyes over the weapons in everyone's hands, Shane's heart sank considerably.
What they held—fruit knives, shovels and such weapons—you could tell at a glance this camp was exceptionally shabby.
But Shane had no choice. Suppressing his emotions, he pressed the stock to his shoulder and aimed at the approaching convoy.
The convoy stopped on the dirt road in front of the camp. Shane's entire body tensed, moving his gun barrel to aim at each vehicle's door position.
Ensuring that if an enemy got out of the car and opened fire, he could counterattack immediately.
Clang—
The cargo truck door opened. The ones who got out weren't strangers—they were Glenn, Morales, Andrea and several others.
Seeing they were companions from camp, Shane instantly breathed a sigh of relief and moved the gun barrel away.
Andrea's sister, Amy, saw Andrea had finally returned. She pushed through the crowd and rushed up to embrace her sister.
"Andrea, what took you so long to come back?"
"We... we got trapped in Atlanta, but fortunately, we made it back alive."
Morales also embraced his pair of children and his wife. Laughter washed away the camp's tense atmosphere.
Merle pushed open the car door, spreading both hands, laughing arrogantly. "Oh my God. Were you all about to piss yourselves?"
"Seeing this master return, did you all feel your sphincters tighten? Hahahaha."
"Put away your junk and clear the road."
Merle swept his eyes over the broken junk in everyone's hands, mockery piled all over his face, the sarcasm making many faces flush red as they glared angrily at Merle.
Merle wouldn't indulge them. Putting away his smile, he strode forward, staring closely at one person.
"You got a problem?"
That person swallowed saliva and stepped back several paces, answering weakly, "No... no."
When this person backed down, everyone else dispersed too.
Shane noticed Merle's bullying behavior. A flash of ruthlessness crossed his eyes and his eyelid twitched.
"Shane!"
"Hm?"
The sudden shout made Shane put away his expression and look at Morales. "What is it?"
Morales had his hand on his wife's shoulder, smiling and pointing at the cargo truck. "In that convoy, there's someone named Rick. He says he's looking for his wife and son—seems like it's Lori and Carl."
"What?"
Shane suspected his ears had a problem. Frowning, he asked again.
When he clearly heard Morales's words, he only felt his ears ringing.
He instinctively looked toward Lori and Carl in the camp.
He saw Carl screaming and running toward the cargo truck. Getting out of the cargo truck was... Ri... Rick?
Immediately after, Shane saw Lori also run over and embrace her son and husband.
Yeah, the family reunited.
Then... what am I?
Shane's mouth curved into a mocking smile as he looked at the happy crowd around him.
All of Shane's expression changes fell into Caesar's eyes.
Caesar smiled mockingly. "Tsk tsk tsk, could have become an apocalyptic hero-type character, but because of a woman became like this."
"Really absurd!"
...
The sun disappeared below the horizon, black mountaintops blocking the light.
The temperature dropped quickly. The camp lit bonfires—the fire pit in the middle of camp was largest.
Many people sat around the central campfire—Shane, Rick's family, Glenn, Morales's family and so on.
All were core figures in Shane's leadership team, plus Caesar and these outsiders.
Families on the team's edge like Carol's enjoyed a small fire pit.
"So how did you escape?"
Shane asked in confusion.
He was very certain that when he'd abandoned Rick, Shane was very sure Rick was dead, or at least Rick had no heartbeat.
Rick looked at Lori. Lori gazed back at Rick affectionately.
"I don't know what happened. I suddenly woke up in the hospital, then met a father and son. They saved me."
Speaking to this point, Caesar's eyes lit up. He interrupted Rick's words.
"You're really lucky. Hospitals are often the places with the most walkers. Being able to escape is quite rare."
Rick thought for a while and shook his head. "At the time, there were very few walkers in the hospital. Only behind one tightly locked door were there walkers. Other places had very few walkers."