Looking at the bloodied man, Airon signaled two of his soldiers to enter and secure the gun room immediately, then shortly thereafter the sound of a gunshot was heard coming from inside the room.
Bang!
"Clear sir, there's no one else!"
"Alright, lock that door and contact the people outside so they can secure this place and don't let any of these survivors do anything stupid."
Saying this, Airon looked at the man who still remained on the ground and after some hesitation said, "Something tells me that you have prevented that door where the weapons are stored from being opened, may I ask why?"
The man who was covered in blood looked at Airon, his eyes wide open and said, "The cult is my enemy..."
"Then why are you here?" Airon asked again, interested.
"I was kidnapped by these people, once the gunshots were heard outside I was able to escape and I came to this room, I saw a man panicking and what I did was attack him."
Airon nodded with understanding, it was a believable story ignoring many other factors, this black skinned man was a bit stocky, he had a fierce expression and looked as if he had been through a lot. "I'm Airon, I'm looking for a man named Teddy, so it would serve me well if you happen to know that place."
The black-skinned man hesitated a bit then without much thought said, "I'm Vicktor Strand.... I'll take you to that place since I know the way."
"Then I thank you, now give me a few seconds while I sort out some misunderstanding in the crowd." Airon then turned around and said to the crowd that had been gathered in a corner while a gun was pointed at them.
"My name is Airon and I am the leader of those who are attacking you at this very moment, I want you to know that I am not the bad guy in my story. Your people attacked one of my helicopters and ended up killing an important friend, in the beginning I was not interested in attacking this place and that I could swear to you..."
With a loud voice, Airon shouted to the crowd, "But suddenly I found out that your leader wants to send the world to hell with nuclear weapons, that's a damn bad decision and I'm here as I don't want to die from radiation."
"I tried to dialogue with Teddy, but that idiot wouldn't say a word. Me and my people are slowly rebuilding civilization, we need civilized people with a will to go on living. Maybe my people have killed their fathers, their mothers or their brothers..."
Airon looked at them all and with a cold voice said, "I can swear to you that you will live as long as you resolve not to hold any kind of grudge with my people, no one is bad after all. We all want to survive, if you want to live, you will work just enough for it and together we will be unstoppable, but if you do something foolish instead, I will make sure someone else dies and the living will suffer the consequences."
"Don't do anything foolish and I promise none of you will die, we can still fight together and forget all that new beginning crap. Something like that, the new beginning is in our hearts and wills, ask yourselves if you want something like that."
"Sir, walkers!"
At that moment, a few dozen walkers arrived at his place. With indifferent eyes, Airon just waved his hand and said, "Get rid of them, I want you to keep an eye on these survivors and if they do something stupid you can kill them without any trouble."
As Airon said this, he signaled two people and along with Vicktor headed straight for Teddy's office.
Just as the battle outside seemed to lower its intensity, Airon's group went up some stairs and before turning into a hallway he made everyone stop. As they braced themselves, Airon and the others advanced with extreme caution.
Bang! Bang!
With two shots, both guards outside a room were eliminated, their bodies falling to the floor and generating a thud. Seeing that there was no one else, the four continued to advance and stopped outside the door of this room.
Airon took off his rifle and handed it to one of the soldiers, after waiting a few seconds he decided to knock lightly on the door.
Knock knock knock!
"Looks like you're already here, what took you so long?"
An old voice came from the other side of the door, and after delaying the people behind him, Airon nodded and opened the door. With weapons raised, two soldiers followed by Vicktor and then Airon entered the room.
But the scene in this place was chaotic, there were two bodies lying on the carpet and then there was an old man who could only be described as Teddy, sitting on a couch while quietly drinking coffee.
"You people sure have caused a lot of trouble outside, was it necessary to kill them all?" The old man asked as he looked at Airon without any fear.
"We are just surviving, they would have killed us if it was this way.... But you and I know who caused all this commotion, don't we?" Airon walked carefree to an empty armchair and sat down, looking carefully at this old man.
"Hahaha, we don't seem to understand each other..."
The man called Teddy by his people sighed and said, "What have you found outside this place besides death and rot?"
Seeing where this conversation could go, Airon replied simply, "An opportunity..."
"Is there such a simple thing as that?" Teddy didn't expect this answer, so he said, "Everything is dead and not quite dead, you know what I mean? I was just trying to find a complete reboot so that life would be reborn on the right course, is that so hard for you to understand?"
Airon frowned, he knew how unhinged the person leading this cult had to be and right now he is slowly understanding her way of thinking. It's not that hard to understand, Teddy seeks a final judgment to eliminate both walkers and people, but what good life can be born from that?
"There is a big difference in our organizations. I thought your cult was an organization of a different category, I could have killed all of you by just a helicopter gunship, but I wanted to do it personally as life is important and I was curious if there were good people in this place."
"I will kill all your followers Teddy, I will personally take it upon myself to run the future from now on. So, for that to be accomplished, I need the key you have to open the submarine."
Teddy touched his beard, and asked curiously, "What do you need a submarine for if the nukes won't be used?"
"Who knows if I might use them in the future? I plan to re-establish a new order, something different from the fragmented and shitty society we had. Hard times create strong people and I plan for my people to remain strong even after beating the walkers."
"My name will be remembered even after my death, not only do I want to restore order in our country, I am also doing this for the state of the entire world and if this is all we have left, I plan to take care of it."
When he mentioned this, he stood up and walked to the window, by this time the bullets had already stopped and right now Airon's people were carrying the survivors and those who surrendered towards the center of the square.
"We have already won."