"Look, it's snowing!"
"Why did it snow so early this year..."
"Wow, how beautiful."
"I don't know if it will affect the road to Atlanta."
"..."
The scene of the falling snowflakes quickly attracted the attention of everyone in the gathering area. Some people were glad the snow came so early this year, while others worried that if it snowed heavily, it would cause them inconvenience on their next trip.
"It's snowing!"
Sarah looked at the snowflakes in the sky, stretched out her hands, and smiled happily when she saw the snowflakes melting in her palms.
After rubbing Sarah's little head, Brian's eyes flashed with concern. The arrival of this snow is not a good sign for now...
Three hours later.
After confirming that there was no problem with the identity of all the people in the concentrated area, the military asked the driver of the passenger bus to park at the designated point, and then began arranging for civilians to get on the bus one by one.
"Come on, slow down."
Brian took Sarah's hand and told her to be careful when stepping on it. Under the command of the soldiers, he climbed the high steps and boarded the bus.
Since they got on the bus relatively early, there was almost no one in the seats at that time. The two walked to the middle seat and randomly sat next to each other.
Brian looked out the window of the bus and found that the soldiers who had gathered outside were also beginning to board the military trucks one after another. Looking at the number of these soldiers, he made a rough estimate in his mind, around two thousand soldiers!
Do we need nearly 2,000 troops to escort 5,000 civilians?
Brian thought about it for a moment and then understood the connection. He thought that in addition to escorting civilians, these soldiers were probably also opening a safer path for convoys that will be escorted later.
In addition, the firearms of those who left Dallas had been turned over to the military. Obviously, the military wanted to reduce unnecessary risks as much as possible while also picking up firearms.
However, the convoys of civilians had pistols at hand to protect themselves. I am afraid that the military had also planned that, if the situation became critical, civilians might be forced to participate in the battle.
As Brian meditated for a moment, the seats on the bus gradually filled up and the bus that was originally quiet became noisy.
After everyone was seated, a young soldier with a rifle got on the bus and said to everyone in the car, "Please don't walk casually. If you have any questions, you can come and talk to me."
He then sat in an empty seat in front, facing forward, waiting for the convoy to depart.
....
Just as all the civilians had boarded the buses and were getting ready, the army's preparations not far away were coming to an end.
Somewhere in a temporarily arranged room, there was a detailed map of the United States on the table. Around the table, there were three tall men in military uniforms. At that moment, they were looking at the map carefully, discussing something with each other.
One of the men, with a long scar on his face, looked at the map and, with a frustrated expression, commented, "This road was no longer very safe from the beginning, but now it's snowing outside. It's really unfortunate!"
The man with the scar is named Harry and is the main commander of this trip to the quarantine zone in Atlanta. The two who are next to him are his staff officers, Colbert and Justin. All three are high-ranking officers on this trip.
Seeing his commander like this, Colbert said with relief, "Everything should be fine. If all goes well, we should be able to get to Atlanta by taking the interstate tomorrow at noon at the latest."
"That's the most ideal situation." Harry turned his attention to the map and looked at the location of the quarantine zone on its marked route. "Now we don't know what's going on outside, and we don't know what's going on on the road, I just pray that nothing important happens on the road..."
Justin looked at the sad faces of the two people on the side and, with a touch of humor, said, "They're thinking too much. We are going step by step, even if we find someone infected, with the two of us together there is nothing to fear, we have an army of two thousand soldiers."
After hearing this, Harry rolled his eyes at Justin and, visibly annoyed, replied, "The number of infected people and the unpredictable nature of the infection are what make them so scary. If it weren't for that, we would have been done with this disaster by now and we wouldn't have to be escorting civilians. Could you please use a little brain and stop always resorting to force, reckless?"
"Knock! Toc! Knock!"
Just as the three of them were about to continue discussing preparations for a crisis situation, they suddenly knocked on the door of the room from outside.
Hearing the knock on the door, the three of them stopped talking for a moment. Harry raised his head, looked at the door, and said, "Come in."
Then the door opened and a soldier with a stern face entered, made a military salute to the commander and said in a sonorous voice: "Inform the commander, outside everything is ready, please say the following order."
"How fast!"
Harry looked at the time and found that it was almost 9 o'clock before he knew it. He gestured to the soldier and said, "Are the two tankers ready too?"
"Everything is ready and the gas is full."
"Well, very good" Harry nodded and continued: "Then notify all the soldiers and contact the console, tell them that the convoy will leave in ten minutes, and let them be ready."
"Yes!"
After receiving the new order, the soldier again performed a military salute, then turned around and left the room.
Seeing the soldiers leave, Harry turned his head and said to the two people next to him, "Okay, let's pack our things and go."
The three packed everything on the table and then, surrounded by several soldiers at the door, left the temporary place, got into a military truck that had been parked at the gate and headed in the direction of the army.
Ten minutes later, a convoy of nearly a hundred vehicles heading to Atlanta, led by dozens of military trucks, headed toward the outskirts of the city under the gaze of all the remaining Dallas residents.
The console received a warning beforehand that the convoy was about to depart. As the convoy was about to arrive, the isolation door slowly opened. All the soldiers gave a solemn military salute and watched another convoy depart.
The convoy followed the indicated road signs and drove to Interstate 20. However, because the vehicles were too large and it snowed continuously, to avoid problems on the stretch of road and vehicle collisions, the convoy continued to maintain a normal speed and not too fast.
On a certain trailer bus, Brian leaned back in his seat and stared dazedly at the landscape outside the window. It wasn't until he heard a sound next to him that he came to his senses.
As she turned around, she saw Sarah holding her chin and staring at the back of the seat in front of her, with a decadent expression on her face. He reached out, waved it in front of his eyes, and said amusedly, "What's wrong? You didn't sleep. Is that okay?"
Hearing Brian's words, Sarah just glanced at her sideways and replied weakly, "No, I just feel a little bored..."
"Tsk tsk, you should have told me earlier."
As if he had expected this to happen, Brian opened his backpack, pulled out some comics, handed them to Sarah, and said, "Well, these are enough."
Seeing the comic book being handed to her, Sarah's eyes suddenly lit up, she quickly picked it up, and said in surprise, "When did you bring it? How did you know I wanted to read this?"
Seeing the way Sarah's eyes sparkled, Brian smiled slightly.
Then she saw that the other party was focused on reading the comic and didn't bother her. He got up slightly and began to observe the situation in the car.
At that moment, most of the people on the bus were chatting in whispers, and there were also people like him, looking at the scenery outside the window and killing dull time.
Of course, some people understood that this would be a long trip and that no one knew what would happen next. Therefore, they took advantage of the beginning of the journey to close their eyes and rest their minds, making sure to conserve enough energy and physical strength to be able to face any unexpected situation that could arise at any time.
Seeing that there was nothing unusual, Brian sat back down in his seat. He was no longer interested in looking at the landscape. He reached back into his backpack with the intention of taking out the book he had brought with him.
"Well... that's good for me..."
Just as Brian was pulling out the book, suddenly a head appeared from the front seat and greeted them.
Hearing the voice, Brian and Sarah looked up at the same time and saw a boy of about 8 or 9 years old looking at them with an embarrassed expression. It seemed like he was trying to talk to a stranger for the first time, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
Sarah looked at the boy in front of her and said with a friendly smile, "Hi, what can I do for you?"
The boy climbed on the seat, looked at the comics placed in the middle of the seat, and said with some expectation: "Can you... Can you lend me a comic book to read?"
He just looked back through the space in the middle of the seat and saw that there was a comic book. For a moment he was a little greedy, so he had the courage to borrow it.
"Sure."
Seeing the boy's expectant eyes, Sarah was not a stingy person. He took a comic book from the seat and handed it to him.
"Thank you, sister." The boy happily picked up the comic, thanked Sarah, and continued, "I'll finish reading it later..."
But before he could finish his words, a woman suddenly came out next to him and shouted, "Allan, what are you doing? Come here quickly!"
This sudden scolding obviously surprised the boy. His body suddenly shrank and he didn't dare to say anything else. He quickly climbed down to sit down and disappeared from the sight of the two people.
Seeing this scene, Brian and Sarah looked at each other and smiled, saying nothing, and continued to leaf through the books in their hands.
Half an hour later, the sounds in the car gradually began to calm down. Some were already tired of talking so much, and besides, they had not slept well the night before. Gradually, they leaned against the seats and fell asleep. The vehicle was full of people, but at that moment, everything was quiet.
I don't know how much time passed, but someone in the car suddenly noticed that the speed of the car began to slowly decrease. In the end, the body shook violently, waking up everyone who was still sleeping in the car.
Everyone quickly sat down and looked out of the car. Her first reaction was... something happened!