"Sarah, I'll put you down later. Go find Brian nearby and hide with him!"
The scene of soldiers shooting survivors made Joel very nervous. He didn't dare to leave the life and death of the group to the soldiers, especially when his daughter was among them.
"Um."
Sarah looked a little depressed because she had been frightened too much along the way, but she also knew that letting her father hold her would only continue to burden him, so she agreed obediently.
"Shit...did you guys ever ask for my opinion?"
Brian couldn't help but complain in his heart as he silently watched the interaction between the father and daughter, but when Joel put Sarah down, he still reached out and pulled the girl over.
During this period, the girl's injured leg was inevitably touched, but no matter how painful it was, the girl still clenched her teeth and said nothing.
"Here's the gun. I'll take Sarah to hide in the bushes over there!"
Letting Sarah lean against the rock, Brian hesitated for a moment, walked behind Joel, used his back as a cover, and put his pistol in his trouser pocket.
"Okay, I understand."
Feeling the extra gun in his pocket, Joel felt relieved. Then he heard Brian say:
"The watch I'm wearing has a timer function. The time is three minutes later. I will throw it into the bushes on the right side of the soldier. If he wants... it should attract his attention."
After hearing this, Joel fell silent. He didn't expect the other party to think of so many things. It seems that he underestimated this boy.
"That..."
He turned his head and was about to ask Brian why he did this, but he saw that the two children had disappeared behind the rock next to them.
On the slope, the soldier was also feeling a bit embarrassed about the people in front of him. His mission was to eliminate the dangerous targets nearby, and he had no other mission instructions. He had no choice but to turn on the radio and ask:
"Several citizens spotted on the perimeter, requesting instructions."
After a while, the radio was connected, and a male voice came from the intercom, issuing an extremely cold order:
"Whoever it is, shoot them on the spot."
After hearing the instructions on the walkie-talkie, the soldiers felt a little unbelievable. They didn't know why the order to shoot on the spot was given. This was obviously against moral laws.
"But sir, there are children here..."
"Follow orders!"
"but..."
"That's enough, soldier, you just have to obey!"
The soldier wanted to argue, but after hearing the increasingly cold voice on the other end of the intercom, he did not dare to continue arguing. He could only say:
"Yes, sir!"
"sorry."
Apologizing silently in his heart, the soldier raised his rifle, wanting to give the men and children opposite him a quick death.
But just as he picked up the assault rifle, he found that the girl in one of the men's hands had disappeared at some point, and the other boy standing next to them was also missing.
Just now, most of his attention was on the walkie-talkie and Tommy with a gun in front of him, and he really didn't notice what was happening on the other side.
"Damn it, where are those two kids going!"
The soldier sensed something was wrong and immediately questioned the two men in front of him in a harsh voice.
But Joel and Tommy heard what he said on the radio. Although they didn't know what orders were given on the other end, they could guess it from the soldiers' reactions, so of course they wouldn't say anything.
Joel calculated the time silently in his mind, pointed to the empty rock behind him, and said carefully:
"They are all tired, I let them lean back and rest..."
"Let them out."
"But sir, my daughter's legs..."
"I said, let them out!"
Seeing that the soldier had raised his rifle, Joel became more and more anxious, and cold sweat slowly flowed down his forehead.
"drop--!"
At this moment, there was a sudden noise from the bushes on the right. The soldier was startled and instinctively fired a volley of bullets.
But after only a few shots, he realized something was wrong, and quickly turned the gun around, not caring about the children, and shot the two men directly.
But Joel would never sit there and wait to die. He was waiting for this opportunity. His will to survive made him move extremely quickly. He took out his pistol, pointed it at the soldier's head and pulled the trigger.
Unfortunately, due to the rush, the bullet did not hit the target's head, but only hit his chest.
"ah!"
Hit by a bullet in the chest, his body fell backwards. The severe pain made the soldier subconsciously press the trigger. The spray of gunfire unconsciously sprayed violently into the air, and bursts of gunfire continued to echo in the air.
Tommy, who was standing nearby, also jumped forward and picked up the pistol on the ground after the soldier was attracted by the watch. Before the soldier fell to the ground, he shot him in the head with a precise shot.
"call..."
Seeing that the crisis was over, the two brothers couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but at this moment, behind them, dense roars and footsteps suddenly sounded.
They were stunned for a moment, turned around and looked behind them, and densely packed infected people appeared behind them like waves.
"Damn it, run!"
When Tommy saw this situation, he realized that these infected people must have been attracted by the gunshots, so he grabbed Joel and tried to run away.
"Sarah's still there!"
At this critical moment, Joel remembered that Brian and Sarah had not caught up yet, so he turned around and wanted to look for them.
"We can't go looking for them now. Sarah's leg is injured. You can't run fast if you hold her. We can only lead these monsters away so that they can be safer."
Tommy grabbed the anxious Joel and told him his thoughts to prevent him from doing anything stupid.
"Can..."
Joel didn't say anything after hearing Tommy's suggestion. He knew this was the best way at the moment, so he shouted towards the bushes on the right:
"Brian, let's lead these infected people away. You take Sarah to the highway and we'll meet on the bridge!"
After saying that, Joel did not hesitate and turned around and ran with Tommy towards the downhill direction on the left. The road there was rugged and difficult to walk on, which could greatly slow down the speed of the infected.
......
In the dense bushes not far away, Brian covered the girl's mouth with his hands to prevent her from making any sound.
Sarah was also aware of the danger, so she simply closed her eyes and stopped looking at what was happening outside.
Feeling the infected people constantly passing by them, their hearts were pounding wildly. If they made even the slightest sound at this moment, their end would be extremely miserable.
A few minutes later, the footsteps gradually disappeared in the distance and silence returned to the surroundings. Brian heaved a sigh of relief and loosened his hands that were covering Sarah.
"Hurry, get on my back, let's get out of here."
Although the infected people have been led away by Joel and Tommy, no one can guarantee whether there will be other infected people coming here, so it is better to leave as soon as possible.
"What about my dad and Uncle Tommy?"
Although her own crisis was resolved, Sarah was extremely worried because her relatives had led away so many infected people in order to protect her.
"Don't worry, they'll be fine. Let's go to the bridge first."
Brian squatted down and carried Sarah on his back, whispered to the girl and walked with some difficulty. Although the girl weighed only about 40 kilograms, don't forget that he was only 13 years old.
Walking up the dirt slope with great effort, he picked up the assault rifle from the dead soldier's hand and put it on his back. Although he couldn't use it yet, it was better to have it than not to have it.
He also took a pistol and several magazines from the soldier's waist, along with a radio, and put them in his pocket without any hesitation.
After the search, the two men looked in the direction of the bridge and slowly walked forward.
This time Brian learned his lesson and did not walk on the flat road. Instead, he chose to walk on the rugged and wooded areas.
Although this would consume his physical strength too quickly, he did not dare to bet that he would not encounter other soldiers along the way.
Sweat kept running down his cheeks, and some sharp branches in the dense bushes kept scratching his arms.
Every time he walked a certain distance, he had to stop and rest for more than ten minutes to recover his strength.
During this period, Brian checked Sarah's leg injury during a break. He had not had time to take a closer look because he had to avoid the infected and be wary of sudden attacks from soldiers.
But when he rolled up Sarah's trouser legs, he found that the injury was not as serious as he had imagined. The small area soaked with blood was just caused by a skin abrasion.
The real reason why Sarah couldn't walk was that her calf was dislocated, so she felt pain and couldn't walk.
"Forget it, let's just get to the bridge first."
Back on the road, without a watch, time seemed to be extremely long. They didn't know how much time had passed, but after climbing over a dirt slope, they could clearly see the isolation guardrail of the highway not far away.
"Fuck, it's finally here."
Seeing that the long journey was about to come to an end, Brian couldn't help but burst into tears. He almost cried. It was really too difficult!
"I don't know how Dad and the others are doing..."
Watching the bridge getting closer and closer, Sarah felt both happy and nervous.
But just as they were about to reach the highway, Brian heard a rustling sound on the radio he had taken from the soldier, followed by a voice speaking from it.
"Attention, checkpoint six. A large number of infected people are moving towards the bridge. If you cannot defend, evacuate quickly. Over."
"...…."
Listening to the content transmitted on the radio, Brian's face suddenly became extremely distorted, and he held his head with both hands and howled to the sky:
"This is such a bummer!"