Far from the central army base, Sergeant Castro drove a Humvee away from the base with Mayor Mayors tied up.
"This is insane; you're letting a kid control a whole base?"
Sergeant Castro said in a calmer tone, "I'm saving my family."
"That's absurd. How can he have that power outside of military bases? No government would authorize saving specific families, even if they're outstanding soldiers, on a damn dead-end ranch." Mayors knew that selecting useless families would be pointless.
This annoyed Mayors, who immediately confronted Castro and said, "We've come this far."
"Now you're going to kill me? I'm not surprised; I could always see in your eyes all that contempt and unwillingness to follow orders."
"Yes, you've always been an idiot."
"Get your hands off me, you damn traitor." Mayors resisted as Castro tried to pull him out of the Humvee, but this didn't prevent him from being removed.
Sergeant Castro removed the restraints from his wrists and, without hesitation, threw a knife. "Get out of here; go find your family. You can take any car from here; I won't kill you."
"Do you despise me, Sergeant?" Mayors picked up the knife from the ground, and just as he was about to attack, a walker approached from the distance.
Sergeant Castro walked towards the Humvee and said, "If you come back, you'll be killed; better leave while you can."
He knew there was no need to kill anyone; Dominic had what he wanted, so without anyone opposing him, there was no need for a death.
"I hope I haven't made a mistake," murmured Sergeant Castro as he watched Mayor Mayors move away from the walker.
...
In the medical room of the provisional central base, Daniel was holding his wife's hand, grateful that she was alive given the circumstances of her injury.
"Have they treated you well?" Daniel asked a question while stroking his wife's head.
"They haven't been bad; they did nothing but help me. Many have died; everyone brought here except me has died." Griselda held Daniel's left hand tightly; she needed her husband because she was very weak.
"I'll be here; I won't go too far for a long time." Daniel had spent about twenty minutes with his wife until a large number of armed soldiers approached.
"Sir, you've currently taken over the orders of Mayor Williams. You must report to him immediately." Corporal Cole immediately informed Daniel of the details before handing him a report.
Daniel took the uniform and nodded, looking at his wife, Griselda, who had seen how her husband was treated kindly, so she asked, "What have you done?"
"Whatever is necessary to protect our family from what's happening in the world." Daniel moved away from his wife, Griselda, after kissing her forehead.
Griselda held Daniel's hand and, with more strength than she had, said, "Don't get hurt; our daughter needs you."
"Of course, I'll be back as soon as possible." Daniel nodded before leaving with the soldiers, and as he passed the cages, he could see some people being released.
Cole, who noticed Daniel's interest, immediately said, "By Dominic's orders, these people have been released; we'll only limit ourselves to those who aren't sick or psychologically distressed. Mr. Victor is taking charge of evaluating them; he's the best at evaluating people, according to Dominic."
Daniel passed by a black-suited man talking to a strong man and thought, "He's selecting the strongest ones; I suppose those who are useless will be the last option."
When they left the room where the prisoners were, they soon reached an elevator, and upon reaching the upper floors, they found Dominic holding a radio.
"I don't want delays; we must move now towards the coasts, where we'll take control of what remains of the coastal force." Dominic seemed more serious than usual when he said this.
"Zz... Understood, sir. The locations where we'll establish two emergency bases will be ready in less than fifteen hours."
"Understood, keep me informed now at all times of any changes." Dominic didn't need to hide his communications with his subordinates now.
Cole was surprised by this, and upon entering the room, he said, "I've brought Mr. Salazar; should I ask him to come in?"
"Yes, no problem." Dominic nodded because he didn't have much to hide and didn't need hierarchy in a place like this with useful people.
The strong followed the intelligent and those with much information; Dominic was not only intelligent but also had a lot of information, thus making the best decisions that would make them one of the largest forces when the collapse came completely to the country.
In simple words, if he took control of all of Los Angeles, it would be more than enough for him to be calm.
Dominic could take advantage of Los Angeles' geographical position; not only would he have the power of the coasts but also the fruits of the sea. He also had a connection with Mexico and the possibility of reaching Canada; he would have Navy tools if he made contact with frigates or even warships.
Without food, warships would begin to be abandoned on the coasts, and at that moment, Dominic would take advantage of all that power that they would be giving him if he took control of the sea.
The walkers couldn't reach the water; civilians even less, not to mention those who wanted to take something from them.
Dominic felt it when Daniel entered the room but waited for him to speak.
"It seems everything turned out as you expected. What will you do now, and what do you expect me to do?" Daniel asked after a moment; even Dominic could feel Salazar's grumpy demeanor.
However, this didn't matter to him.
To him, Daniel was a powerful tool that would be useful to him to place the pieces on a bigger world board, one that could perhaps reach global levels. Nothing more, nothing less.
"What do I want? What I want is for all of this to end after a while, but we know it won't happen. The collapse is imminent, so we must take advantage of the little time we have to bring the most amount of materials to the island marked as our base." Dominic would continue his plan to take the island, reform it into a base, and, after everything had fallen, start reclaiming what remained.
For that, it took at least about seventy days; there would still be military at that time, but their presence would be less. Even they could be welcomed by his organization at that time; everyone useful could be taken under his command.
"So, when are we leaving?" Daniel walked towards Dominic, who was looking at the movements outside for the evacuation.
"As soon as possible, our outermost base near the sea is a large stadium that is completely free of infected. That place will be temporary while we mobilize materials to the island; I'll keep the survivors there." Dominic shared his thoughts.
"Only the weak and sick?" Daniel seemed to understand Dominic's plan in a short time.
Dominic nodded and said, "Children too, those who can't help speed up the work. But we won't abandon anyone; I'm not that heartless. If a leader abandons his people, he won't get anywhere."
Daniel was about to respond, but at that moment, Victor entered the room and immediately said, pushing aside the soldiers who wouldn't let him in.
"What the hell is this commotion?" Daniel asked with a serious look.
Victor looked at Dominic and said, "We have a problem."