On the streets of Dallas, early in the morning, a boy and a girl of 12 or 13 years old were running slowly along the spacious streets. Although the temperature was low in the morning, their clothes were still wet with sweat. The first pedestrians on the side of the road looked at them with strange eyes and were very puzzled by their behavior.
"Brian... slow down!"
They ran through the streets and alleys, not knowing how much time had passed. Little by little, the girl began to fall behind, her pace becoming slower until, finally, she could go no further.
She stopped, panting, as she looked at the young man still running ahead of her. Hearing Sarah's scream behind him, Brian turned around and looked around. The movements of his hands and feet showed no intention of stopping.
"What's wrong? You can't run anymore? You still have the nerve to say you were the captain of the school team!"
"That... that happened a long time ago. I... I can't do it anymore. I can't really run," Sarah said as she pressed her abdomen and took a deep breath. Her entire body felt numb, uncomfortable, with a constant itch. Her legs were shaking non-stop. All she wanted at that moment was to find a place where she could rest properly.
"Don't sit down. It's not good for your health. Get up and walk around before you rest."
Brian, who was standing in front, saw Sarah suddenly walking to a stone pier on the street and wanting to sit down for a rest. He quickly ran over and picked her up again when she was about to sit down.
"What are you doing?" Sarah saw that she could sit down and rest, but she didn't expect to be suddenly lifted up by Brian. The discomfort in her body made her a little grumpy, she frowned and shouted.
"Okay, don't be like that. I'll go for a walk with you, okay? You can rest afterward," Brian said, patting Sarah on the back. Then, without waiting for a response, he held her firmly and gently pushed her forward, making sure she kept moving forward.
Leaning on Brian's body and being supported by him, Sarah felt much more relaxed. She didn't resist much and walked forward step by step in a vain manner. After a while, she felt much better, so she put down the support and began to walk slowly by herself. Recalling that she seemed to have lost her temper just now, she complained a little: "Why am I almost exhausted from running and you are just normal?"
"Maybe it's because my body is better than yours," Brian said with a smile as he looked at Sarah who was complaining. In fact, he felt a little exhausted too, but it wasn't as exaggerated as the other person. This left him a little puzzled. He had worked out before and knew that when he first started working out, he would usually feel fatigue or be in danger of exhaustion.
However, despite having run for over thirty minutes, he was only slightly out of breath, not experiencing anything serious or out of the ordinary.
"Forget it, there's no point in dwelling on it anymore."
Brian shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it any further . He continued walking with Sarah for another ten minutes. Checking the time, he commented, "It's always like this at the beginning. You'll get used to it in time. That's enough for today. We've just started, so let's take it easy. We'll pick up the pace little by little."
"Great." Hearing that today's exercise was over, Sarah immediately relaxed and smiled happily. " Tsk , tsk , it's only your first day, I'm too lazy to exercise you to death." Looking at Sarah's happy smile, Brian shook his head helplessly and cursed with a smile.
" Tch , take care of me!"
…
The two returned to the RV and found that Kelly was already in line early. Brian had informed them of his decision that morning. Although there was some reluctance reflected on their faces, both Kelly and Osborne simply nodded to show that they understood, without trying to stop him or persuade him to change his mind.
They knew that the situation did not leave much room for choice. They grabbed a change of clothes and entered the bathroom one by one to begin showering. There are public hand-operated water pumps in the cities.
Although there are many people queuing up to get water every day, luckily they have a large bucket and you can fill it with water every two or three days on average. The electricity used in the RV basically relies on small, silent generators and solar power on the roof.
Once the quarantine area is opened, all civilian vehicles will not be allowed in, so they do not have to save up now. As for the changes of clothes, they were directly stolen from the clothing stores in the previous riots in the city. In addition to the places where food was stored, the clothing stores were also the focus of attention.
However, these people took adult clothing, unless they had children at home, otherwise no one would touch the clothes in the children's area.
After taking a shower, Brian immediately felt refreshed and casually threw his clothes aside, as he could wear new clothes every day, there was no need to wash them. He then took his ID card and called Sarah heading to the management office.
The lobby of the management office today is not as deserted as yesterday. It is crowded at this time, but the strange thing is that most of the people are gathered in front of a wall, but there are few people queuing up. Brian looked over there and found that the crowd was surrounding the wall with the map of the United States on it.
She was a little curious as to what the group of people were doing there, so Brian led her into the crowd and, taking advantage of his size and agility, began to make his way through the people.
As he got closer, Brian noticed that there were many more red dots on the map than he had seen the day before. The dots were scattered all over the territory, marking the quarantine areas.
As he listened to the conversations among the crowd, he understood that the military had confirmed the quarantine zones that were accessible to those who wanted to leave the area voluntarily. Brian looked at the map carefully and found that most of the red dots were clustered in the cities around Dallas.
As the distance became greater and greater, the number of red dots became smaller and smaller. He took a look and headed to the furthest point in the east. There was only Atlanta.
"What are they looking at?" At the door of the administration office, Sarah stood on her tiptoes and looked inside. She saw Brian coming in and out again and asked curiously. "It's nothing, just a sign for the quarantine area."
Brian wiped the sweat from his head, walked to the door, and let out a long sigh. People were crowded together, and it was a little difficult for him to get in. With two ID cards, he led Sarah to the staff who served him last time to queue up. Last time he forgot to ask the other person's name.
This time, looking at the name tag on her chest, it should be Clarisse . Although there were not many people in front, the procedure seemed a little cumbersome, so they still waited for half an hour to queue up.
"Hello, please show me your ID card."
Clarisse lowered her head and quickly typed on the keyboard, entering the information of the citizens who had just left and the quarantine area they requested into the computer.
After finishing, she raised her head and said habitually. But when she saw the person in front of her, her expression became a little horrified. In front of her were two children, a boy and a girl. She was very impressed by the child among them. He was the first boy to come to him yesterday.
"Little brother, why are you here again?" After handing over his and Sarah's ID cards, Brian nodded with a smile and said, "Yes, sister, I already thought about it yesterday and decided to voluntarily go to the quarantine area in Atlanta."
Clarisse took the inserted ID card and looked at the information on it. For the first time, she knew that the boy in front of her was called Brian. She looked at him deeply and tried to dissuade him one last time.
"Have you really… decided?" "Thank you, I've decided!" Brian listened to the other party's dissuasion and knew that the other party had good intentions. He sincerely said thank you, but he didn't change his decision.
"Oh, I hope you're really ready."
Seeing that her attempts to dissuade him were useless, Clarisse could only sigh in her heart and didn't say anything more. After all, it had nothing to do with her and she was just looking at a boy who is more pleasing to the eye, so she said a few more words.
"This is..." After Clarisse entered Brian's information into the computer, she took out another ID card, raised her head and glanced at the girl beside her, raised her eyebrows, and said jokingly, "Your little girlfriend?"
Sarah, who was a little bored, suddenly heard Clarisse say this, and her face immediately turned red. She didn't understand how this elder sister could say such a thing, and shyly hid in the corner behind Brian.
"Ahem…" Brian coughed twice and blushed slightly at the other party's teasing, but he still explained, "She's my friend."
" Mmm ~" Clarisse replied in a long tone, her fingers drumming on the keyboard, but her expression and smile clearly said "I don't believe you."
Brian shook his head helplessly. Brian didn't explain further. He just misunderstood. Anyway, he probably wouldn't see her again in the future. A few minutes later, Clarisse handed the ID card out the window again, put away the joking expression on her face, looked at Brian seriously, and said, "I've entered your information into the Atlanta quarantine volunteers.
You are the first batch on the list, just go back and wait for the notification and report with your ID card." After all, the Dallas army's vehicles were limited for such a large-scale migration. They could only send their own troops to nearby quarantine zones to pick up people from the Dallas quarantine zone in person.
What really requires the use of Dallas vehicles is transportation operations in remote areas such as Atlanta, and it is impossible to transport tens of thousands of people at a time. Not to mention whether there is enough food and vehicles, the appearance of such a large group of people in an infected area is simply a sumptuous meal that will definitely attract the attention of all infected people.
This is why the government needs to send survivors in several batches and ensure that most people can reach their destination safely.