Chapter 23 - The Escape Plan

Airon didn't need to force him to surrender or make him a prisoner, he just needed to make it clear to him that if he ever commits an action that endangers everyone, it will end in a way he doesn't want to mention, Merle Dixon had to be aware that he shouldn't mess with him. 

"Merle Dixon, I can understand you and I respect the way you live, there is only one little rule you must follow and that is not to create any danger to the team, so you have a chance to put an end to our problems, how about it?" 

The crowd around them had just calmed down from the tense atmosphere, and when they heard Airon's words again, they all turned their heads to look at Merle to find out what he was thinking. 

Merle neither felt embarrassed at all, with a smile he put his arm on Airon's shoulder, turned his head to the crowd and said, "Haha, Airon I can follow your words because it's you, no one here has the intention to make trouble, if anyone breaks the plan, I Merle Dixon will teach them a lesson." 

Everyone was speechless when they heard those hypocritical words, T-dog even started to ignore Merle Dixon's words. Rick shook his head, this guy seemed to be a very troubled idiot. 

Seeing that Merle had controlled himself, Airon had nothing more to say, so he turned to look at the situation under the building. 

"Let's look at the situation and see how best to arrange what we'll do next to get out of this place." 

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking, we need to see how to get out of this damn place." Seeing that Airon dropped the subject, Merle Dixon replied.   

Airon stood and looked below the city, waiting to see what the best and least troublesome idea was. If he communicated with his people outside the city right now it wouldn't solve his situation at all, starting a full scale firefight to get out of this place would bring nothing but losses. 

When he seemed to think of something, Airon looked at Mike and said, "Give me your radio, is there anything I overlooked when we came to this place." 

"Okay." Mike pulled a radio out of his vest and handed it to Airon, a calm expression on his face. 

"Zz... This is Airon, I want you to put out a radio communique to find other survivors in the city, right now we're about to figure things out on our end and make decisions." 

Speaking of which, Airon looked at Mike and said, "When is Marco coming with the others?" 

"They took the survivors back. I don't think it will take more than two hours to meet up with the group outside Atlanta." 

After hearing those words, Airon heard the radio in his hands beep, "Roger that sir! We will be broadcasting distress messages, all is quiet on our side." 

"Do you think there are any more survivors in this place?" Rick asked with a puzzled expression. 

"I don't think so, we've been coming into the city for a long time and haven't run into anyone, I doubt anyone will respond." Glenn shook his head at Rick's question. 

"Well, the first thing is to save ourselves before we think about other things." Rick was also immersed in his thoughts. 

Airon then analyzed the current situation in detail and proposed several plans. 

One is for everyone to escape through the roof from where they arrived and then find a way down through a farther building, and then go down with the ground slowly and safely, that method requires a lot of strength, and the advantage is safety but the disadvantage is climbing ability.

The second is to leave by force and quickly clear the way to the outskirts of the city, but they would have to eliminate many walkers and mutual trust would be priority on the way, and if someone within the group hesitates or makes a mistake in eliminating a walker, the pace would be lost. 

The third method is that two to three people should leave together and go to a parking lot not too far from the building, and drive a car back. This method is dangerous, but this way everyone could collect the materials that everyone had gathered. 

And the last method is to use the subway pipes, but Airon himself mentioned that this method was not optimal. Airon explained to everyone that the subway pipes of this outdated building are all sealed with steel filters, which without the necessary tools would be impassable, so there is no need to waste time trying this method. 

All the proposed methods to get out of this place have their own advantages and disadvantages, Airon asked them all to think it through and decide to see which is the most reliable.

Airon and his people had no problem with getting out of this place, but there were people with different physical conditions in this group of survivors and he had to consider their aptitudes to make the trip safe for everyone. 

Rick was the first to speak, "I think the first three methods are feasible, but if we decide to get out of here and force our way through, we need to move fast and not fail to eliminate the infected, so I vote for the third method, it would be the safest." 

"If I may ask... About the third method, how do you plan to get to the parking lot without making a fuss like the first method?" Merle Dixon's hoarse voice rang out, it was more realistic than the first and third method, but in case they get trapped by walkers or in a building, then it would be the third method.

The safest way would also become the most dangerous. Merle feels that if he can walk to the parking lot safely, the chance of getting out is greater. 

"The third method seems feasible, considering their meager equipment and weaponry forcing our way out would be very likely to backfire on us." Mike voiced his thoughts. 

"I set up three walkers with severed arms and jaws in the back of the building. Everyone knows that me and my team came from the CDC and I'm in touch with the latest research at the center." 

After saying that, Airon noted, "In the most recent research, it was discovered that once the infected have their limbs cut off and the ability to bite, when those things lose those means they become very docile and will have no tendencies to attack us." 

"This way, we can stay with them and we can avoid attacks from the other walkers, but the trick is that they can't make any sound." Airon explained the method that would be the key to finding a car. 

"Really?" Andrea was a little skeptical. 

"It's true, I saw it with my own eyes." Glenn nodded with certainty, and looked at T-dog and Morales at the same time. 

The two also saw it as they ran off and nodded to Andrea in the same manner. 

"Are you sure?" Rick looked at Airon, he just wanted to see his wife and kids as soon as possible, so he just wanted to make a plan quickly and implement it as soon as possible. 

Airon nodded, "I'm pretty sure, we've done related experiments, and the chances of the corpses with the virus seeing through the disguise are very small in this case, unless you accidentally make a sound." 

"There is a way! I'll vote for this." Jacqui decided to trust Airon. 

"Me too!" 

"Same!" 

"So, who's going?"  Andrea asked a key question. 

Merle sat next to her, looking at the others with a mocking look except for Airon and his people, but he didn't speak. 

At this point, someone must volunteer, Airon simply took the initiative and said, "I came up with the idea, I'll be the one to go." 

"I'm going too." Mike said with a determined look, but Airon's words ruled him out. 

"No, I need you two to stay in this place to take care that everything is okay." After speaking, he turned his head and looked at Rick. 

"You're joining?" 

Rick nodded when he heard the words, saying okay. Whether Rick is a cop or not, he always has a sense of righteousness, so other people are willing to follow him. 

Seeing Rick nod, Airon looked around and finally fell on Merle, raised his eyebrows and looked at him. 

"Merle, are you coming?" 

Merle shrugged indifferently, and replied, "I don't care, if you need me, I'll come, I definitely won't be a coward like the others." 

Everyone's faces were not very good. Although Merle Dixon's words were not pleasant, they were true. If Airon hadn't volunteered to go, I don't think anyone here would dare take the risk of doing something so dangerous themselves. 

In fact, Merle is not very afraid of walkers. They move slowly and don't fit a picture of real danger in Merle's mind. Although there are a great many of them, in Merle's heart, he despises these unintelligent walkers. 

Seeing the low look of these people in front of him made him want to leave this place even if he has to switch to the walkers' side. On the other hand, Airon refreshed his knowledge on what can be done to survive. This soldier who doesn't look more than 25 years old, strong and with a very creepy look on his face. 

The dissatisfaction with Airon at this point has quietly dissipated a lot, at least the requests of these people do not seem to be for his benefit, so it will help.

Now that the plan had been made, the three stopped loitering and went downstairs to get ready. 

Airon and the others quickly got to the back door of the building, dragged the three hot guys that had been tied up earlier to the door and asked Glenn to find three oversized jackets. 

After thinking about what he was going to do, Airon handed his gun to Mike and put on some gloves before stabbing the three corpses multiple times. 

"Now, put the gloves on and cover the jackets with some blood." Airon instructed the two as he wiped the blood from his hands on his jacket over his body. 

"What good is this?" Andrea asked with a look of disgust. 

"We'll have one more layer to cover our scent. If the walkers outside are sparse there is no need to do this, but if there are large crowds of walkers in the streets, this would be one more layer of protection." Airon patiently explained, these means of survival, in the future will slowly teach everyone. 

In this way, soon there was a line of six figures on the streets of Atlanta, each of the figures holding a walker with the rope tied around their necks. 

"It's like I'm going to walk my dog..." Merle couldn't help but make a joke. 

Rick just frowned hearing those weak words from Merle's mouth, definitely that man that an idiot. 

According to the plan, Airon would drive. After they reached the destination, Rick and Merle would try to get the keys. 

The three of them moved slowly, and the parking lot fence in front of them was getting closer! 

On the rooftop, everyone was lying on the edge of the fence, looking intently at the figure of the three. As the three got closer and closer to the parking lot, everyone was extremely excited! 

"Boom!" Thunder exploded over Atlanta, signaling that rain was approaching.