Chapter 195 - Minutes

Hilltop 

Two hours after Airon's group left for the military base in Texas. 

A convoy of two Humvees with machine guns, a military truck with supplies and two other cars advanced towards the shelter that was to be protected by Airon's orders. The captain of this AA-10 squad was a young man named Bruno Lastra, who had been in training for nine months since the base opened in the city of Atlanta. 

This time, the gate at Hilltop was not opened as it had been with Airon's group, and the people on top of the walls of this community alerted the people below and soon Jesus came out to meet these people. 

"You should be Jesus, right?" Bruno got out of the car and walked to where Jesus was and introduced himself, "I am Bruno Lastra, captain of the AA-10 squadron of the S.C.T. community, my commander sent me to protect this place and train your people, we bring food and medicine that will serve you well for the future." 

Jesus looked back and then sighed helplessly, he looked at Bruno and said, "I am very sorry, but our leader Gregory convinced the community to be denied entry until I talk to Airon again." 

Bruno frowned, this was not what was in the plan originally, so following Airon's words in case this happened he said, "My leader will not like to hear this, the disappointment about the poor decision your people made will have its consequences if they encounter a group that is not pacifist like us." 

"I know, I can't do anything even if I wanted to..." Jesus talked to Gregory many times, but that old man wouldn't negotiate when he said this group was evil and all they wanted was to kill them. 

"Too bad Jesus from Hilltop, my commander right now is on his way to Texas, can you imagine the power of our organization? Never mind, once he arrives our leader will get back in contact with your community, but as we are all clear, you must pay for the medicine and food that was delivered to you when our people came to this place, also the weapons must be returned along with the ammunition." 

When Bruno Lastra's words were finished, several soldiers covered with a dark gray uniform got out of the cars and with weapons in hand stood behind Bruno. 

"Yes, I understand, that's fair. I'll talk to Gregory, wait please." Jesus said as he walked back into Hilltop. 

"You have twenty minutes, we shouldn't be here long as we have work to do elsewhere." Bruno smiled coldly, things went as Airon had originally intended. 

At the same time, in the Kingdom the same amount of soldiers, weapons and food arrived in this community led by Ezekiel, but unlike Hilltop the people were welcomed with open arms and everyone was happy that these soldiers were very kind and understanding to their people. 

Before long, work began in the Kingdom to improve the security of that community. As per the deal, Ezekiel would lead the community and its people, all he would do was wait and see what Airon's plans and the development of the kingdom were for later. 

Now Airon was not in this place, so his plans were delayed a bit at least until he came back. First of all, the Kingdom is a suitable place to take care of and where the Salvation Army will not set foot inside that community and Airon's people will not be seen. 

As for Hilltop, they need to learn that the way they lead them is not the right way and when things happen, they will realize, Jesus will realize that he had a lot of chances. 

If they don't value their help like the Kingdom did, they will have to suffer some more. It is true that Airon deliberately did not explain everything he knew to Gregory as he did to Ezekiel, but it was not a good idea to trust that old liar either. 

... 

Military base in Texas. 

At this moment, a large horde was heading for the military base and even now the soldiers began to shoot with everything they had at these undead while the supposed help was arriving. After all, this was the least they could do at this time. 

On one side of the highway, numerous large crates of weapons and ammunition, military food and many other items too important to leave in this place were being placed. Whether soldiers, civilians including children had been moving materials since the message came through that help was on the way. 

Just when they thought there was no one coming to help them, in the sky a C5 aircraft was handled excellently and in no time, as if the plane was about to crash to the ground, it landed perfectly on the runway of the military base.

"Move out now, first team take charge of uploading resources and others take charge of refilling the fuel tank!" 

"Yes sir!" 

Everyone was extremely excited, that help they had been waiting so long for had arrived. At first, they had inevitably thought it would not happen. 

As the plane landed and gradually came to a stop, it was positioning itself to take off again as soon as possible. The rear door was opened and the soldiers Airon had brought with him stepped out in an orderly fashion. 

The color of the uniforms varied between gray and dark green, the weapons were the same and they all began to cover the perimeter. Ben Miller looked at the man who had already approached. 

A man in a dirty military suit approached Ben and Airon who came out last and said, "I'm proud to have you here, right now we'll start bringing in all the essential supplies to begin the journey." 

"Finally, how many of you are there?" Airon stepped out and looked at his people as he began to open a secure perimeter. 

"We are a little over two hundred civilians and one hundred and twenty soldiers. Right now our people are taking out the infected, but we won't last long in this place." Said the soldier with a nervous look on his face. 

"Hmm, let the soldiers start loading the supplies and the civilians get on the plane, my people will make sure they don't have any unforeseen events."

Airon signaled Dayl who nodded and followed them closely, they had to see if it was as bad as these people had said, just verify the situation in a nutshell. 

But at that moment, an explosion was heard in the distance and a few seconds later several military cars and armored vehicles began to retreat, and behind them hundreds of runner class walkers followed close behind them at all speed. 

"Fire!" 

When they heard Airon's shout, everyone fixed their sights on the walkers in the distance and began to open fire, the numerous gunshots soon flooded the whole place and the situation became chaotic. 

Faced with the sound of gunfire and noises of walkers, this sudden movement naturally alarmed everyone in the military base, awakening them from their calm and joy. 

In just a dozen seconds, the entire military base was seething and everyone rushed out of the places and began to invade the military plane in a hurry, looking at the accident with horror or concern in the distance. 

"We're leaving, we can't stay in this place with these infected, Daryl go and help our people to cry out those stupid civilians!" 

"Yes!" Daryl took off running and behind him followed by Calros. 

Airon on his side stood in next to Morgan and Billy, watching as those runner class walkers approached at high speed. His eyes, which were obvious, were red. 

The base that was quiet a few minutes ago was now being overrun by hundreds of walkers. 

The military dogs moving in cages on the ground also started barking uncontrollably, as if celebrating that the demons eating their own flesh and blood were about to murder everything. 

On the west side of the military base, the iron gates on both sides of the base rattled, but a horizontal iron bar blocked the walkers.

The people inside ran to the inside of the C5 and it had already started its engines, hoping that they could get out of this place. 

Airon looked at the crowd in front of him, and the crowd was running like frightened birds. Only now, he knew that the next thing he was about to do depended on the life and death of his people. 

Morgan watched this in silence, he knew they were in danger right now, and then looked at Airon waiting for his orders. 

"We need to clear the way so the C5 flight is not disrupted, we need to regroup and you guys get back to the plane right away." 

Airon went back to the plane and grabbed a bag with some extra guns and bullets, he walked up to that soldier who was organizing the people and yelled, "Listen to me good, call your people and tell them they need to hold on until this fucking plane is in the air! We can't take them all, I'll see to it that at least these civilians are taken to safety." 

"I... I don't know."

Seeing the hesitation on this soldier's face, Airon snatched the radio from him and said, "Soldiers, the time has come for you to offer your life to save others, I need you to help me so that plane can evacuate from this place safely, we can escape in the helicopters if the situation becomes untenable." 

As Airon said that, he looked at the two helicopters in the distance and closed his eyes, "No retreat, kill all the infected before they reach C5." 

Daryl in the distance saw Airon running forward and after understanding what this lunatic wanted to do he stopped helping in the plane and ran out to where Airon was going, "No, no, don't be an idiot and go back!" 

Carlos, who was near Daryl, held him tightly and shouted, "Master, Airon knows what he is doing, we have to get out of this place and take these people to a safe place." 

"Let go boy!" 

Unbeknownst to Daryl and Carlos, a civilian who had his face covered began to slowly change under the effect of the virus and his eyes slowly turned red, and when he lost control of his body, he lunged next to Carlos who was trying to stop Daryl and Carlos bit his neck. 

Daryl froze for a moment before pulling out his gun and shooting the infected, Carlos and the infected fell to the ground and when Elias saw this he stopped bringing in civilians, no one else was accepted and the others were ejected from the plane. 

"No, stay with me boy!" Daryl tried to stop the bleeding in Carlos' neck but it was not possible, slowly and in plain sight Carlos' eyes were turning red and under the unspeakable words he held Daryl tightly. 

"Daryl, we have to go now!" Shouted Elias before he sent some people and they dragged Daryl into the interior of the plane. 

Airon had climbed into a helicopter and began firing from a light machine gun at the thousands of walkers that were overrunning the base, looking at the plane that still wasn't moving he grabbed the radio and ordered, "Elijah, Morgan and the others we're in the air, we're giving you time but it won't be long! Get out now!" 

From high in the sky, Airon didn't care about anything but getting out of this place, he didn't have much time to think and this was the best he could come up with in a short time. What comforted him was that most of them had escaped, except for those soldiers who were on the ground, being eaten by the runner class walkers. 

After the C5 plane took off, Airon looked at the driver and ordered, "Let's take off to the city, any place is better than this!" 

"Yes, sir!" 

Airon looked at Morgan and Billy who followed him and shook his head with a bitter smile. 

... 

Ten minutes later, Airon had contacted Daryl and heard the unfortunate death of Carlos and an internal infection that ended the lives of some more civilians, this time it could be said that everything went wrong. 

Suddenly, the helicopter's engine burst into flames and the driver began to lose control of the flight. Losing power, he had to land in a safe place if they didn't want to crash later. 

"Sir, we've lost power and an engine, we can't keep flying and now we have to find a place to land!" shouted the pilot with a nervous expression. 

Just as Airon was about to say reassuring words, a series of bullets hit the cockpit of the helicopter and two soldiers were killed on the spot. 

"Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!" 

"Everyone cover your heads!" 

Airon didn't understand what was happening, so he made sure to take care of Morgan and wait for this thing to land to see who the idiot was shooting at them. 

"I'm not in control sir!" 

"Brace for impact!"