A week had passed since they took Washington. The city had been thoroughly explored, both underground and above ground, clearing out walkers from every corner. Only after confirming the area was clean did they start working on the city's defenses.
The first and most obvious step in defending a city was placing containers filled with sand around it. This was the only way to control and keep the walkers out of the cleared and protected zones.
As they established the defensive containers, they cleared the roads of abandoned cars and set up special surveillance posts monitored by drones.
Dominic knew they didn't need to worry much about the Virginia area, as the walkers there weren't very dangerous. The real concern was the walkers coming from Canada, who would be directed straight to the White House through specially selected routes.
Estimates suggest that these walkers could scale walls up to 30 meters high, a serious concern for everyone. However, the defenses established at the White House were strong enough to halt one million of these types of walkers.
Nevertheless, confidence wasn't something they had in abundance. They planned to use bomber aircraft to eliminate as many of these approaching walkers as possible.
Meanwhile, to stay safe from any assassination attempts, Dominic left Washington to search for the Alexandria community, which should be somewhere in Virginia.
This time, he was accompanied by Nick, Alicia, Merle, Daryl, and Rick, along with a special forces team of thirty men led by Sergeant Castro.
The entire team traveled in a convoy of five military Humvees, a modified truck with machine guns, and enough protection to clear paths filled with walkers. Additionally, this large truck had an anti-air defense system and integrated missiles.
Despite being a small group, they could easily eliminate any enemy they encountered. They also carried a truck full of supplies in the center of the formation to prevent it from being damaged.
"So, where are we headed exactly?" Nick was curious about their destination.
Alicia, who was next to Dominic, responded, "The idea is to find survivor communities to help us clean up Washington and protect the walls."
"The lack of manpower for certain tasks needs to be addressed as soon as possible. The military can't waste all its energy on tasks that can be handled by less selective personnel," Sergeant Castro added after some consideration.
Dominic agreed with this reasoning and said, "We have little time. We don't know when we might be attacked by a horde of walkers from Canada, so we must fortify Washington and help the survivors in this area."
There was someone in this area that Dominic needed in his ranks, and that was Negan. Having Negan by his side would be a safeguard, as he would handle detecting traitors.
The important question here was, What does Negan need?
To Dominic, every man needs a purpose; otherwise, they couldn't continue on the path of life. Negan might seem like an evil man to many, but to Dominic, he was just a man surviving.
"Zz... We are approaching the gates of the Alexandria safe zone."
"Alright, boys, treat the congresswoman from Ohio well," Dominic said as he sheathed his knife and checked the time.
When Dominic's convoy arrived, there were many people on the walls of this settlement, armed but not pointing their weapons at the group outside.
"This is the National Armed Forces. We are here for an extradition and to gather additional data from this specific area. Any sign of a threat will result in your elimination. Please lower your weapons so we can talk."
The person on the wall ran down to inform the others. The soldiers outside seemed to come from a safe place and were possibly the same ones traveling by helicopter, eliminating walkers.
Within ten minutes, the gates were opened, and an older woman stood in front of everyone, waiting to understand the true intentions of this military group.
"Who's in charge?"