When the motorcade slowly stopped, civilians and soldiers exited the bus and stopped again in a new town. Except for a few new survivors, the rest of the people felt like they were in another world.
Following the same action as last night, soldiers set up sentries around the city and at intersections to connect streetlights for lighting.
The civilians cooperated as usual to clean the houses, bring food, light fires to warm themselves, etc... But this time they had one more task, which was to remove snow from the road.
Judging by the snowfall trend of the last two days, if the snow is not removed, tomorrow morning the thickness of the snow cover may be thicker than the soles of the feet, so as not to hinder the emergency evacuation that may occur at any time, it is necessary to be prepared in advance to avoid possible surprises.
Brian rubbed his frozen hands together as he waited in line in front of the supply receiving area. For some reason, when the adults saw him, when he was just a child, they all seemed to suddenly become kind, giving way to him spontaneously. However, far from being moved, he experienced a sense of indescribable strangeness. Could it be that I have thought too much about the darkness of the world? he wondered. Or maybe I just don't believe in the goodness of people anymore?
As people showed their humility, he soon made it to the front of the line. It happened that the person distributing the food was Tracy, the soldier in charge of the bus he was on.
After handing over his and Sarah's ID cards, Brian waved his fingers and said, "Sister, I'll receive two supplies."
Tracy took the ID card and looked at it. Looking at the boy in front of her, she suddenly felt familiar. When he saw the other ID card, he remembered that they appeared to be the two people on the bus he was responsible for.
He recalled that when he looked at the information, it was noted that the two children were not accompanied by adults. This inevitably touched her heart, and she wondered if she should take the time to take care of the children who were not accompanied by adults on the bus.
"Here, this is yours."
After returning the ID card, Tracy pulled out two packaged foods and handed them to the other person. Once she saw how he put away the food, he took the two bowls that the boy offered him, filled each one with soup using a large spoon and then carefully returned them to him.
"Thank you." Brian carefully took the two steaming bowls and walked to a red-roofed house on the side of the street.
When passers-by saw this, they consciously avoided the boy for fear of colliding with him.
The room inside the house was much less spacious than the night before. When Brian walked in, he discovered that Sarah was not in his position. This left him a little stunned. His eyes began to search back and forth in the house, and he finally found her in the corner.
He saw Sarah squatting there, and next to her was an African-American woman who was leaning against the wall and looked weak. She was the woman who had done something brave yesterday. The two of them were talking and laughing, and they looked very happy.
Although she didn't know how the two got together, she thought it wasn't a bad thing, judging from the other person's desperate attitude last night, well, she seemed to be a good person.
"What are you talking about so happily?"
Brian walked over with the hot soup, gently placed the two bowls on the floor, then took the food out of his backpack and handed it to Sarah, asking with a smile.
Sarah saw Brian coming and sat down next to him. After he put down what he was holding, he tugged at his sleeve and said, "Brian, this is yesterday's brave sister. Her name is Sylvia, let me introduce her to you. "
"No need," rolling his eyes, Brian feigned disgust and pulled Sarah's little hand away. Then he held out his hand to the African-American woman named Sylvia and said solemnly, "Hi, my name is Brian."
Sarah withdrew her hand and touched her numb back, her cheeks swollen, she looked at Brian fiercely, snorted softly, turned her head, and pretended to be angry.
"hehe..."
Sylvia was a little amused by the interaction between the two children in front of her. It seemed quite interesting. He laughed happily, then raised his hand and shook Brian's outstretched hand slightly.
But when he moved, it also affected the wound on his back. The pain he felt caused his smile to fall instantly and his eyebrows to wrinkle slightly. Yesterday's blow caused him great pain in his back. Judging by what the military doctor said, he needed to rest for at least 10 days to make a full recovery. She endured the pain and said, "Hi, I'm Sylvia."
Brian noticed something unusual about the other party when thinking about the fierce fight the other party had yesterday and the impact on his back, even thinking about it now gave him chills, so he quickly let go of his hand.
"I'm sorry, I forgot that you're still hurt."
Now that he had made a new friend, Brian would routinely start asking about the information the other party knew, and he also learned how the woman in front of him escaped from a city full of infected people.
While the three of them were chatting, a figure stood next to them at some point. Brian looked up and saw that it was the pretty girl they joined halfway through. He also noticed that the other person was also holding a bowl of hot food in his hand.
"Anna, come on, sit down quickly."
Seeing the girl, Sylvia raised her hand slightly and greeted her warmly to sit down. At the same time, she told Sarah and Brian, "This is Anna. His mother is a nurse. If it wasn't for her, I, I'm afraid I'd still be bad for a while."
She then said to Anna, who had already sat down, "This boy is Sarah's partner, Brian."
Brian raised his eyebrows and looked back and forth at the two women in front of him. The one named Anna seemed to have just joined the team. Why did it seem that these two had known each other for a long time?
"Hi, I'm Brian." He nodded slightly to show respect. He remembered that Sylvia seemed to have introduced him just now, so he turned his head and pretended to be casual and asked Sarah, "What's wrong, Sarah? Have you met Sister Anna yet?
"Yes." Sarah nodded, indicating that she had known her for a while, and explained, "When you left just now, Sister Anna asked me to help her take care of Sister Sylvia. Anyway, it was just a minor matter, so I helped."
"Wow..."
Hearing Sarah's explanation, Brian just said oh. At first she thought it was Sarah herself who went to chat with Sylvia, but she didn't expect this girl to have any credit...
Taking the steaming bowl, he blew twice and took a sip of the hot soup. He looked at the girl named Anna. Was he used to thinking the worst of people and was he thinking if the other party approached them intentionally?
As Brian and Sarah talked, Anna also brought food and hot soup to Sylvia's mouth to help her eat.
After swallowing all the food, Sylvia felt the fullness in her stomach, and sincerely said to the girl in front of her, "Thank you, I'm so sorry to bother you."
"Okay." Anna was very happy when she heard the most sincere thanks from the other party. She had high hopes of becoming a person like her mother, and her lifelong dream was to be able to treat diseases and save people. She couldn't go to school after the Cordyceps fungus outbreak, but as long as she can help others, she still feels very happy.
When the three-person talk turned into a four-person talk, everyone had the most basic knowledge of each other. At the same time, they also knew that the person who got into the car with Anna was her father, but at that time, the other party was cooperating with the soldiers by collecting supplies.
At this time, Anna stretched out, sat cross-legged, and asked curiously, "I heard others say that everyone chose the quarantine area for themselves. How could you choose Atlanta so far away..."
Brian recalled his purpose of going to Atlanta, drank the hot soup in his hand, sighed helplessly, and said, "My parents are in Washington, but the closest quarantine zone given by Dallas is Atlanta. I have no choice but to choose her, when I get there, I will find a way to go to Washington or write a letter and ask them to come and see me."
Anna looked at Brian and then Sarah, her expression gradually became a little strange, and she was a little confused about whether to ask or not.
Unexpectedly, Brian saw her thoughts at a glance and explained, "Sarah is my neighbor. His parents... they're missing, so I'll take care of her first."
When he talked about Joel and Tommy, he was obviously stunned for a moment. He still did not say death but disappeared. He turned his head and saw Sarah's grim expression. He quickly stroked her back and comforted her gently.
"Ahem..."
Seeing that he seemed to have touched on some question he shouldn't ask, Sylvia coughed twice and took over the conversation.
"My sister is studying in Atlanta. Now she's the only family member I have left, so I have to go get her. I don't know if she's still alive..."
Speaking of this, his eyes couldn't help but moisten, as if he remembered some bad memories.
Anna was a little speechless and looked at the sad Sarah and Sylvia. Are there any errors? Obviously I didn't ask anything bad.
He could only reach out to comfort Sylvia and said, "Don't worry, it's a big city there, and there will definitely be government troops stationed there. What's your sister's name? We'll help you find it when we get there." ".
Sylvia was a little embarrassed and wiped away her tears, but when she heard that the other party wanted to help her find her sister, she hesitated and said, "Her name is Marlene, she is eighteen years old, and she is a senior at the Senior High School in Georgia."