The middle-aged man did not look very happy when he heard that his enemy had been caught as the others cried for joy, and instead the old man pulled the excited Stevens aside and remarked, "Tell me about what just happened in detail."
After some explanation, the middle-aged man looked at him in annoyance, and Stevens' heart was startled, knowing that this old man did not approve of his trust in strangers.
Ignoring the whispers of the others, the middle-aged man who seemed to be the leader of this shelter approached Airon and extended his hand.
"Hello, my name is Alberto, and this is my wife Natania."
Airon nodded and said, "You can call me Airon."
...
The following becomes much simpler, Airon argues with Alberto about the fate of these people who had them threatened for a long time and he suggested that he kill them all. Although he did not care about the fate of these people, he indirectly told them that it was not because of them, but due to the fact that his group did not leave living enemies behind.
But Albert refused to kill them, and simply imprisoned the ten men in a room and sent someone to guard them, and then accompanied Airon's group to the bridge.
"Sir, these supplies are the reward for your help."
Airon averted his gaze and saw some people behind carrying some bags made of creepers and some suitcases with weapons, the bags of creepers on their side was dried fish, shrimp and some kind of dried food that was personally collected by these people.
In all this time, Airon made no suggestions and merely observed. He would not deny that he would love to tell him about himself and his people, but he decided not to.
Alberto's expression suddenly became serious, and he said with some warning, "Airon, we don't like contact with people outside our group, although this is the first time we see each other, I hope it will be the last. We are a self-sufficient group."
"We are not interested in exchanging any supplies, if it was in normal cases we would not let you go, but since you have helped us, many could feel your kindness, so I hope you can forget this place after your people leave here."
Merle's eyes looked with surprise at Jon as he stroked his gun, indicating obvious things, and the other people in the group were also angry when they heard those words, but Airon expected it.
If these people are talkative types, the Saviors won't eliminate them.
"Your words are so welcoming that they make me feel at home, but Alberto, don't you think your words are very arrogant when you were swallowing from someone else's hand? I want to remind you that there is strength when the more numbers the group has, and it's better for your numb people that we have some relationship, but I guess those words don't understand, do you?"
Alberto's expression became a little serious, he made a gesture towards Airon with his hand, the meaning was already obvious.
Seeing that this old man was closed-minded, he smiled wryly, turned around indifferently and signaled to the books in his group to load the things and get into the cars. This kind of stubbornness from an old man was impossible to appease.
Stevens approached with a bit of nervousness, he was dissatisfied with Alberto's rude attitude, but he also understood those thoughts and could do nothing but try to diminish the message.
"Airon, I'm very sorry, Alberto is a bit stubborn and more so being the victim of a strange group that we had originally helped." Speaking of Alberto, many people were also very dissatisfied with the behavior of the people they had just saved. However, Airon did not say anything at this time and perhaps it is for the best.
Many had understood the various attitudes to strangers, even the people of Alexandria had acted that way at first.
But now the next step for their group is to start exploring Ohio. They shouldn't be that far west. The location is the same as in the original story. Likewise, they could run into the Commonwealth.
Once all Commonwealth issues are resolved, it would be time to return to the prison. At that time, the growth of the central base would mark a new development with the next phase of the plans.
As Airon walked, he looked at Stevens and said, "It's okay, don't think about those kinds of details. You just have to be prepared."
...
Tonight was a very special night, for two S.C.T. rank two people, numerous meetings were being held to explain to everyone about the new news involving the Commonwealth and the even more mysterious organization, the CRM.
Airon explained to his closest people, Liam did the same in Alexandria with the closest soldiers. But when Airon finished the explanation, everyone was calm and Airon was puzzled by this.
"Aren't they nervous?"
"Boss, as the explanation says, we are equal or stronger than that organization called CRM, there is not much to worry about. Besides, I should have thought of a plan to solve this."
"Yes, there are certain plans that are still in development..."
...
In the following days, Airon and his group traveled through Virginia and then Ohio, but due to the existence of the Commonwealth he did not dare to go too far to the border. From now on, whenever they came to an unfamiliar place, they had to search carefully.
Airon was slow to search around, sent many soldiers in all directions and many people were brought to Alexandria. In all these weeks, the growth was getting bigger and bigger. And at last he was able to find traces of the Commonwealth.
Airon was in favor of the merger plan, while his community has soldiers, the Commonwealth could be the police in their communities. He had no purpose to destroy the Commonwealth, so he should be slow and observant.
But this idea you can't use when you are looking for a CRM branch in the future. After all, the other side is a group that he does not accept negotiations from and it is not a good group. You just have to be careful and also be mysterious.
Alexandria on its side was not inactive. Deanna has used the radio on a large scale to communicate or send messages, constantly changing radio channels to contact other survivor bases.
In the original story, Eugene spent a lot of time trying to contact the outside world. So Airon really didn't hold out much hope.
While he has not been able to contact people in the Commonwealth, he was able to contact the central base, after a brief exchange with them, he learned the situation in detail about Rick and how the expansion development is going.
Time passed so slowly.
Just as Airon was hurrying toward the Virginia border, in a small town a hundred miles to the northwest, more than four hundred people arrived in this small town with more than a dozen trucks and large tankers. Several cars pulled up in front of a warehouse, and a man in a leather jacket got out of the lead truck, he had short hair and a beard, not tall but muscular.
He waved his hand and immediately a group of men and women in ragged clothes came out of the back of the bus. They all had bladed weapons and stared at the building in front of them.
After dozens of people got off the bus, a group of people with guns came after them, and they did not see the result of their deaths. The dozens of people at the front walked toward the warehouse, and soon there was a scream of death inside the building.
Ten minutes later, several armed men came out of the warehouse and approached the man dressed in black leather.
"Boss, the interior has been cleared."
Hearing this, the leather-jacketed man nodded, and slowly entered the warehouse, as he charged the people to move the supplies.
The man in the leather jacket led some people inside the warehouse and found a place similar to an office, which had been cleaned. He entered the room and sat down on the couch before instructing the others to sit down.
A sullen-faced man was the first to say, "Boss, tomorrow I'll take people to look for survivors."
Hearing this, the leather man stepped back a little bored and casually replied, "Pick up everything in this place, we have to go to Washington, so don't waste your time in this place."
"Yes, boss."
A tall man also said, "Boss, if there are women in this group of survivors, can I...um?"
"Send me the best two, and you can do whatever you want with the rest."
A trace of anger flashed in the tall man's eyes, but it disappeared randomly, and a smile appeared on his face immediately.
"Okay boss, I guarantee you'll be pleased with the results."