Florida, in a remote town away from the cities.
A man and a woman were supporting the injured man and stumbling forward. The injured man also walked with his eyes tightly closed, but it was evident that he was on the verge of losing consciousness.
The group of walkers behind them was growing, and the two extra men who traveled on either side, with machetes in their hands, were trying to clear the walkers that appeared in front of the group from both sides.
Suddenly, the legs of the injured man gave way, his eyes closed, and he fell directly to the ground, but fortunately the people holding him on both sides sensed this and supported him with all their might, preventing all three of them from falling to the ground.
"Alex! What's wrong with you? Damn it!" The man shook his head and quickly told the woman beside him, "Hurry, give me a hand so I can carry him on my back."
Just as he frantically tried to lift Alex, he found that the woman beside him was not responding.
"Emilia?"
The man looked back nervously, and what he saw was the surprised faces of several people in his group.
"What's going on?"
Just as the man was about to look up completely, he heard several motor sounds and knew they were survivors. He quickly turned his head to look in another direction and, sure enough, saw two military vehicles advancing towards them.
Carefully placing Alex on the ground, he drew the gun he had in his waistband. This was the only gunpowder weapon left in his group. It's not that he didn't want to use it, but these bullets were prepared for humans and not walkers.
In the small town, his group found that every weapon they found had no bullets, and now some are only used for intimidation. For them and any survivor, the gun has a unique symbolic value that can get them out of many problems with humans.
The man holding a machete was named Leo, and he kept waving his hands and shouting loudly, but this made the walkers in the vicinity come out from various places, and now the group that was chasing them was no more than ten meters away from their position.
"Leo, shut up! Do you want to attract all the fucking walkers that roam ten kilometers around?" Growled the man in front, named Adam.
This time, Adam tried to wave his hand towards the Humvees, but he saw that they did not slow down, so he moved to a more secluded place away from the walkers so that they could see that there were people here.
With a bad feeling, Adam secretly thought that the other party might not plan to make a move to help them, so he quickly signaled Leo and the other man, intending to continue escaping with Alex on the ground before the walkers approached.
Chkrrrr!
But just as they saw that the Humvees were not slowing down, the front one finally slammed on the brakes, and then a group of people in strange-looking uniforms hurriedly got out.
The gun in Adam's hand was held tighter, and his eyes were fixed on these strangers who appeared suddenly. As long as the other party made any changes, he would raise his gun to counterattack without hesitation.
But these people didn't even look at them after getting out of the cars. They all raised their weapons and began killing the zombies walking around them.
Adam noticed that all his weapons were equipped with suppressors, bayonets at the front of the weapon, and the magazines seemed much larger. Along with those uniforms that still had the flag of the United States, Adam's group immediately thought they had encountered some branch of the military.
The little girl in Adam's group grabbed her father's clothes, pointed with a bright smile at Airon and the others, shouting with excitement. This small horde of walkers was absolutely nothing for Airon's group, but they didn't have much time, so they wouldn't waste ammunition to finish off these walkers.
After a burst of shots, Adam watched these strangers destroy the group of walkers that gave them a headache, his gaze was full of doubt. Adam knew that his aim was not bad, and he could shoot accurately. But these soldiers didn't miss a single shot even though they were firing dozens of bullets per second.
And now seeing how things have developed, Adam was not foolish and kept his weapon, as this would tell that group of soldiers that they were not at all hostile.
When the last walker fell to the ground, the man with messy hair and a cold expression who was standing in the front approached slowly.
"Are there any infected?"
Seeing these soldiers asking for wounded, Adam nodded, then tried to give context: "He was not injured by a walker, but was injured by the explosion a moment ago!"
Following Airon's slight hand movement, the people behind him approached with their guns raised, and Glenn kept his P90 while his sight evaluated these people.
"I'm afraid if you want help, you have to surrender your weapon."
Adam seemed to have realized this a long time ago. His weapon was on his right waist, but at this moment, he stretched out his left hand to hold the handle of it. Then with his open hand and fingers away from the trigger, he extended his hand and handed over his weapon.
"Are you a cop?"
"Yes, it was a long time ago..."
Airon nodded, then signaled to the soldiers who were waiting behind with first aid kits. "I'm Airon, commander of the remaining military forces in Atlanta..."
"Oh, I'm Adam..."
After the people approached, they lifted the wounded and took him to a Humvee with some of the survivors from the group.
Emilia, who was still protecting Alex, had an expression of disbelief on her face when she heard these words, but when she saw Adam looking at her, she reluctantly stepped aside.
Glenn and T-boy quickly brought a stretcher and lifted Alex into a Humvee. Emilia, who still suspected at this point, relaxed a bit, thinking that someone shouldn't go to such extremes as using a stretcher to deceive people. After relaxing, she turned her attention to Airon, who was talking to Adam.
While Airon was asking for information about the group, he kept looking at this group of people. Adam was the leader, a very muscular man who was obviously the strongest in the group, and Airon even found out he was a police officer.
The girl named Emilia was probably only in her early twenties, she looked good, but her clothing was a little reserved and her personality might not be very gentle.
The little girl's name was Daniela, a very common name, and she was Adam's daughter. They both lived nearby and had recently met Emilia's group.
There were two other men, one named Leo and the other only introduced himself as "Mandarina."
"Given the situation, this place is not suitable for a long conversation, let me put you all in a safe place."
...
That night, Airon's convoy returned to a quiet town and after choosing a random house with a large yard to park the Humvees, they established a temporary shelter.
After simply eating something, Airon gathered the group he had just met. "Listen, you need to know that we are not from here, so I need you to provide me with information about this place."
Adam hugged his daughter, and the way he checked on her felt natural to someone who only wants to provide for their family. "If you want to know our information, it all depends on who you are and what you want to achieve."