"My name is Tommy, Tommy Miller." Said a man with long hair and a bushy beard. He had been following his brother's trail for a long time since he fled with a girl. They had been separated for several months, and now he seemed to have finally found traces of the Fireflies where he could possibly find his brother.
Perhaps saving Manny was a good idea, possibly the only chance to find his brother in this rotten world.
...
As soon as Tommy entered the room, he was drawn to a series of whispers. Following the sound, a black-skinned woman was sitting with a frustrated expression. In front of her, the desk was filled with maps, documents, and weapons.
The woman extended her hand, indicating that he should sit down, then looked at the others to leave the room.
"Do you want something to drink?"
The woman pointed to the cabinet next to her, and Tommy looked over to discover that it was full of drinks, which were very rare sodas to find nowadays, and next to it was full of wines and liquors.
Tommy gestured with his hand to indicate that he did not need it, but he saw the woman getting up and taking out a bottle of whiskey.
Taking the opportunity, Tommy took a brief look at the layout of the room. It should have been an office before. The various baseball star posters on the wall were not torn down, and there were many trophies and signed baseballs.
Obviously, this should be the office of the stadium owner, but the woman in front of him was very relaxed, poured herself a glass of whiskey, raised it, and took a sip, with an increasingly tense expression on her face.
Then she noticed Tommy's gaze, smiled, and got up directly.
"This office belonged to a rich man before this whole world went to hell, you know? I heard you saved Manny from being bitten, things are much more complicated than they seem."
"Do you have a lot of problems?"
"Yes, more than fifty of my people were killed... You come from Texas, right? That's a long trip to South Carolina, this place wasn't looted so we managed to integrate without too many problems."
"I heard you're looking for your brother..."
Tommy was speechless, of course, he had heard of the Fireflies. He was with these people in New York, but after a while, he deserted because he had not located his brother.
Things were much more complicated with just a few words, it's not that they are enemies of the Fireflies, but there are several misunderstandings and many terrible things on their way to this place.
In addition, the reason he comes to this place is that he heard before that the Fireflies' base in Texas believed that there was a very large stable base, so he dared to come without knowing if his brother had managed to make it here.
Seeing Tommy's serious expression, the black-skinned woman smiled. "By the way, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Marlene, and I'm the leader of the Fireflies. What's your name?"
"Tommy!"
"Wow, great name."
"Thank you."
"Your name is familiar to me, but I want to welcome you to the Fireflies."
Tommy's face cooled down, he had left this organization because they didn't fight against the system specifically in a fair way.
"I'm sorry, but I'm looking for my brother, and if he's not in this place, I'm afraid I'll have to leave."
Marlene nodded, indicating that she understood, and said, "What's your brother's name? A while ago, many people joined us, and now they work and survive with everyone else in this place."
"Joel..."
"Joel? Is that the Joel who beat up five of my men?"
This question made Tommy stand up suddenly and say, "Is he here?"
Tommy hoped to receive a pleasant answer, otherwise the first thing he would do now was to kill Marlene and then Vera who was with Manny.
"Well, that Joel might be your brother. There were some misunderstandings between us, but in the end, we decided to cooperate with him. He's outside right now..."
Tommy's expression relaxed a bit, and he sat back down, waiting for Marlene to tell him more about his brother.
"As you can see, we have our own system here. Everyone has to do things to earn points. They are allowed to live here peacefully only if they have points. However, the base also has a cost, and the points you get when you leave will be more. Some people stay in the base to get fewer points. Once a person who leaves is killed by someone, their points disappear. So it's normal for people to die, but today more than 50 people died because of a heavily armed group."
"Do you know how they can kill 50 people so easily?"
Tommy didn't understand the meaning of Marlene's words, and he knew very well how the Fireflies' bases operated, but he wasn't interested in revealing his identity.
"Those people are dangerous, much more than I had thought, possibly equal to the power of the CRM... You say you're from Texas? Have you ever heard of the Fireflies?"
...
Half an hour later, Tommy was dazed next to a cornfield, and the people working around him just looked at him and continued to focus on the work in front of them.
"Is my brother here? What the hell is he doing?"
It turned out that half an hour ago, Marlene had told him that his sister had decided to join the Fireflies, which was crazy since they had killed many Fireflies in Texas. He didn't know the difficulties his brother faced, but there should be a clear explanation of why he had made that decision.
As he looked around, a childish voice sounded behind him.
"Sir, are you new here?"
Tommy turned his head angrily and ended up facing a little girl wearing a hat who was standing right behind him, looking at him with a happy expression.
Tommy couldn't find anyone to talk to, how could he let this opportunity pass at this moment? He quickly crouched down and looked at the other party, saying in a soft tone. "Yes, little one, are you a resident here too?"
The girl shook her head slightly and spoke again. "I was kidnapped..."
"When did you arrive?"
"It's been many days, maybe a hundred days. They say they might be able to find a cure from our bodies, but in the end, many of those taken never return..."
As he watched the girl count on her fingers, Tommy frowned. How could a little girl be the cure for this disease? So he changed the subject. "So, all of you here test subjects?"
He thought the girl would answer cheerfully, but Tommy didn't expect to see a flash of hesitation on the girl's face, and instead she asked a question.
"Where were you captured?"
"Everyone is looking for a girl, they say she's the cure for the virus, but none of the girls they brought to this place are the right one."
"What?"
...
At the same time, a mile and a half outside the Fireflies base.
A long convoy parked outside a building, and the rest of the people were on guard ready to engage in combat at any moment. The dozen or more people in the car were focused on the streets on both sides.
Glenn looked through the observation window for a long time, feeling his eyes getting a little dry, and there were still no signs of the enemies appearing.
"It's been almost an hour, aren't those people coming?"
"Impossible, they will surely take longer to arrive, are they afraid?"
"It's okay, don't talk, pay attention to the surrounding situation."
George has been wielding a weapon since he arrived here, and his eyes are constantly scanning both sides of the road, as if he has no doubts that those thugs will come here.
"Do you see a convoy over there?"
George ran in an instant and followed the man's hand to look towards the distant street, only to see some small black dots in the smoky haze and dust moving towards this side.
"Zz... A group of cars is approaching your location."
"It's them, prepare for battle!"