"Do you know what time it happened?"
"It can't be known for sure, but we are at least a few hours late."
Upon hearing Daryl's discovery, many people, including Airon from earlier, knew that something wasn't quite right.
When Airon got off the truck, he pointed out several places on the truck that had been pierced by bullets. Daryl approached the tank, and there were clear shrapnel holes.
"These bullet marks are new, and the fuel tank has also been pierced since the fuel is still wet on the ground. It must have been attacked. Then, the fuel tank was punctured, and they continued to advance. Finally, they ran out of fuel and were forced to stop here."
Airon approached the most obvious evidence and observed for a moment before agreeing with Daryl's judgment.
"We haven't been attacked since we arrived in North Carolina, so these attacks are new. Someone must have attacked them."
Airon and Daryl looked at each other. There was nothing they could do in this situation. The only thing they could do was find these people and bring them back to the base as soon as possible.
"Daryl, Victor, and Ezekiel, each of you should lead a group to expand the search along these three roads and report to us once you find them. We are unaware of the group's situation and the state of affairs, so you must be cautious and assess all threats."
"George, come with me. Let's walk through the forest alongside Daryl's group and see if we find any traces. We'll meet back here in an hour and update the situation every ten minutes on the radio. Any humans should be considered a threat."
"Understood!"
Three groups of soldiers began to move in four directions. Airon and Daryl, along with their respective groups, entered the forest and, with Daryl's excellent observation skills, found traces of humans.
The group was in perfect physical condition. Although they had been on the move for many days, their steps were not slowed down even when they encountered walkers along the way.
However, after a brief advancement, they realized that things were not as simple as they seemed. In a forest about two kilometers from the road, it appeared that the group that entered had vanished without a trace.
"Here, it seems like they stopped."
Daryl stared at the disordered ground and looked around strangely. Due to the thick fallen leaves in the forest, there weren't many visible footprints. All they could rely on was the degree of trampled vegetation to estimate how far they had advanced at that time.
Airon nodded without saying a word and walked in one direction for more than ten meters along the disordered tracks.
"Something or someone must have made contact with them..."
Daryl walked towards him, looked at a long stretch of trampled earth on the ground, and said with some resentment.
"Damn it! I'll kill them when I find them."
The two continued to pursue along the tracks, and after about two hundred meters, Daryl stopped.
It wasn't that he didn't want to continue following the tracks, but the footprints suddenly disappeared here.
"It's impossible to vanish into thin air with such a large group."
Daryl muttered and looked around, while Airon frowned cautiously, knowing he couldn't guess what had happened, thinking about what could have attacked his people.
Suddenly, Airon turned around and took a few steps back, leaped onto a tree, then looked at the open space from a higher point and remained silent for a long time before descending.
"What did you see?"
"I already have an answer."
Upon hearing this, Daryl looked forward again in the direction Airon was looking. This was an open space of hundreds of square meters. The rest of the place was more or less covered with treetops, resulting in insufficient light. But in that spot, there were no trees, and it was directly facing the sky. There were some plants that grew better when sunlight was dense and the ground was moist, so that place seemed to have many dense bushes.
However, at this moment, the wild grass in this open space was bent outward in a circular shape, as if a powerful force had exerted pressure from the center to the surroundings.
"What happened here?"
"Helicopter, it's the most logical explanation considering the vanished tracks."
Upon seeing this scene, Airon couldn't help but think of something that greatly worried him. Maybe the people from CRM encountered Glenn's group.
After all, among the forces he was familiar with, they were the only ones capable of handling helicopters. Furthermore, because of the trap or distraction he had set with Cesar, North Carolina was a place where CRM could arrive at any moment.
What he had to worry about now was where they were taken and if it really was CRM. Whether the whole group was together or divided in different directions, if they used weapons, and if anyone was injured.
Without dwelling too much on it, it's impossible to deduce what happened based on the current clues. So the most important thing now is to find the survivors who escaped to gather more information from them.
Suppressing the slight unease in their concerns, the two continued moving along the tracks.
...
Another half hour passed.
"There's blood and shell casings here!"
A report came from up ahead, and soon everyone discovered large circles of blood with a sculpture-like sphere made of corpses in the center.
"Identify the corpses!"
"For God's sake..."
"This is inhumane..."
Numerous corpses were gathered in a circle, with each foot, hand, and head carefully scattered around as if someone had tried to create a work of art.
Daryl and Airon moved forward, both maintaining firm expressions. This mountain of corpses was truly repulsive and horrifying, but as they continued forward, they saw a figure crouched and naked.
Raising his hand, all the soldiers abruptly stopped and lowered their bodies while gripping their weapons.
"The Red Lord will be proud of me, they were all so foolish..." The figure was covered in blood when suddenly an arrow pierced through their calf.
Boom!
Ahhhhh!
"What the hell are you doing!"
...
"The Red Lord did it, he will free everyone from their bodies."
"You keep saying the same nonsense."
"Zz... Airon, we found them."
"Where?"
...
An hour later, Daryl stood in front of a corpse, his breath heavy. He had tortured a madman, but at least he knew the people who did this weren't far away.
Looking at the rest of the group that hadn't departed with Airon, he signaled, and both of them moved forward to catch up with the group.
Two hours later, they all gathered again, and the first thing they saw was the slender body of Glenn under a tree, easily recognizable by the cap he wore.
But at this moment, Glenn appeared severely injured, with black and red blood all over his body, a bullet hole in his leg. He held onto his rifle tightly and silently received medical attention.
The rest of the people, about a dozen of them, were in a similar state. Sasha and her brother were even worse, and at first glance, they seemed like walkers.
Their group, which should have been at least fifty strong, had dwindled to just a dozen or so. From their faces, everyone was terrified, with some women clutching their heads in extreme pain.
However, there were also a few people who looked slightly better but were still covered in blood. Each of them held a machete in their hands, with red and black on the blade, indicating their participation in the battle.
Glenn was exhausted and at that moment, he closed his eyes, holding a water bottle in his hand and pouring it into his mouth.
He finally opened his eyes when he heard footsteps, and the first thing he saw was Airon walking toward him.
"I'm glad you guys are okay!"
Glenn immediately stood up and walked toward Airon, holding him with his hands.
"Airon! They took our people, some managed to escape into the forest." Even before letting go, Airon was listening to Glenn's anxious words.
Having mentally prepared for this, Airon indicated for him not to worry and spoke slowly.
Glenn also realized that what he said was too vague, so he took two more sips of water and then slowed down his speech.
"Airon, they took Kim. Those people had a helicopter, and there may be other groups around."
...
Airon knew exactly who he was talking about, but he still couldn't believe that CRM could find this place. If it was really the actions of the entire organization, then people like Glenn probably wouldn't survive.
"Tell me in detail, when did this happen? How many of them are there?"
Glenn did his best to remember what happened last night, and it took him a long time to organize his words.
"Not long after I deviated from the path to find another route, we suddenly heard something hitting the armor of our truck, but there was nothing after that. Then we ran out of fuel halfway on the road, and it was late when we discovered that the gas tank had been hit by a bullet."
As he spoke about this, his expression grew a little angry, and it was evident they were subsequently attacked.
"They attacked us from the forest, from all directions, so we had to run toward the opposite side of the road and split into groups. By the time the rest of us who had escaped with us reached the sound of a helicopter in the distance, they had taken some of our unconscious ones."
"Are they from CRM? Those damn bastards killed our people. We must find them as soon as possible."
"It wasn't them!"
At that moment, Daryl emerged from the forest with a group of soldiers closely following him with vigilant expressions.
"Airon, we have a big problem!"