IBM Southeast Employees Federal Credit Union.
Brian stood at the door of the bank, staring at the building's sign and then at the dark reception lobby inside, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
Although by chance he escaped the crisis at the entrance of the hospital, at that moment he realized that the outside world was more dangerous than he imagined. With his age, body and bones today, and his aim half-hearted, it was impossible to live safely in the final judgment.
"Sure enough, my ability is still insufficient..."
He sighed silently in his heart for a moment, which made Brian even more eager to enter the quarantine area as soon as possible, because only there can he provide long-term shelter and space to learn. Perhaps the quarantine area will be destroyed one day, but when that time comes, it must also have the ability to protect itself.
"Let's go in!"
Just as Brian was thinking, the people behind him couldn't stand the cold outside anymore and climbed the stairs one by one towards the bank door.
This bank building, like the restaurant, is divided into two floors. The first-floor lobby handles ordinary business, while the upper floors are basically office rooms.
Tracy picked up a bottle of wine covered in ice and snow on the floor, opened a hole in the door, and threw it with all her might. Only a "click" was heard and suddenly the harsh sound of glass shattering sounded. The bank was silent.
Everyone waited at the door for a long time, and no sound was heard on the bench. It seemed that there was no infected person inside.
Seeing this situation, everyone looked at each other, then slowly opened the door and walked into the reception hall to look around.
In normal times, there wouldn't be too many people on the bench, only some of the staff would be stationed here permanently, not to mention that after the Cordyceps fungus broke out, all those staff must have fled, so this was what several expected, there were no infected people inside.
Brian looked at the bills scattered on the floor. He knelt down and picked up a hundred-dollar bill. He looked at the Benjamin Franklin printed on it and was extremely excited.
Who would have thought that the banknotes that were once loved by everyone and that drove people crazy would become useless waste paper all over the ground after the apocalyptic disaster, without anyone caring?
"Quick! Fast! Quick!"
"Hurry up and light a fire, I'm freezing to death!"
After confirming that there was really no danger inside, everyone got to work as it was too cold.
Tracy and Wilfred found some wooden chairs and tables upstairs and began violently dismantling them at the location. Anna and Sylvia collected snow from outside and picked up fallen branches from the ground. The other children cleaned up an open space and sorted out some papers and bills to use later as fuel.
Observing the people in front of him piling up firewood and starting to light a fire, Brian sat to the side, opened the three backpacks he and Sarah were carrying, and began touching the supplies he still had.
Not to mention the food and guns, which almost everyone carries. In addition, he also has a walkie-talkie, which was given to him by the soldier Tommy shot dead in Austin, but he hasn't used it many times.
A shotgun, although it was dismantled again in parts after killing that bastard last time, but in this case, it's time to use it again.
Next to the shotgun, there were two egg-like things. If you look closely, they turned out to be grenades. He found them from that bastard. Originally there were four or five, but he didn't dare take them all. So he just took these two.
Then he took a square can full of gasoline. He pulled her out of two RVs before leaving. After all, this is good for making incendiary bombs.
Finally, he took out a small iron box from the deepest part and opened it carefully. What was inside was the morphine injection and the injection needle in Antoine's safe.
Brian put everything back and remembered it. When she looked at the dense towels in the bag, she remembered some excruciating past events, moved the corner of her mouth, and quickly zipped up to stop looking.
Along with a burst of cheers from the front, the fire gradually ignited, giving the dark hallway a warm color, and then a crackle of flames was heard.
Then they all took their things and sat down around the fire. They stretched out their hands and placed them by the fire, feeling the heat coming from within, their bodies trembled and they let out a cry of extreme comfort.
But little by little everyone fell silent. The entire convoy was dispersed by the sudden group of infected people. Nobody expected it. Recalling the massacre at the entrance of the hospital, everyone felt a small chill in their hearts.
If Brian hadn't reminded them to leave...
Thinking about this, everyone except Tracy, who didn't know, looked at Brian's position again.
"Tell me!"
Looking at the familiar scene in front of her, Tracy frowned slightly. After a moment of hesitation, she was the first to break the silence and asked, "You... It seems that you expected that danger to occur. Can you tell me why?"
"..."
Everyone was shocked when they heard what Tracy said. They didn't understand why the other party suddenly asked that question. Because this matter was so unbelievable, Brian once reminded them that it was best not to tell others.
"What... What do you mean?" Wilfred looked at the expressions of the people around him and secretly said something bad. He spoke first to get Tracy's attention and asked as if he didn't understand what you were talking about.
But Tracy had already noticed the changes in the expressions of the people next to her, and she immediately understood that her guess was correct. They must know something. When he saw Wilfred, he still wanted to hide it, and said with a hint of mockery at the corner of his mouth, "Actually, you all know it, right..."
As he spoke, he expressed his opinion without waiting for anyone else to respond, "The reason why you suddenly left the bus and risked running a hundred meters was not because of Sylvia's injuries, but because you were already expecting it... No, it has to be said that you are not sure if there would be danger, so you just hide a hundred meters away."
"Moreover, after witnessing the emergence of the infected group, although you were also very shocked, your eyes focused more on the child. Your surprise seemed not only to the infected people, but also to the child. Yes, and I've observed along the way, you're still looking at it intentionally or not. You were like this just now. If my guess is correct, is this crisis related to this child?
After saying these words, Tracy's eyes locked onto Brian, who had been quietly in a corner, as if he wanted to detect some anomaly in him.
Everyone present looked at Tracy in surprise, not expecting that she would deduce that with such small clues.
"Well..."
Sighing softly, Brian shook his head and smiled helplessly. He never expected that female soldier's senses to be so acute. At first, I didn't want to share those strange things with others, because if the matter came to the ears of someone too worried, it wouldn't do them any good.
"Since you want to know, I'll tell you..." After thinking for a moment, he slowly raised his head and looked directly at Tracy.
When he saw the other party sitting upright and seemed to be listening intently, Brian sorted out the order of the words in his mind and then counted the ins and outs of it all.
And Tracy's face, also during Brian's explanation, was the same as Anna and the others when they first heard it. From being unquestionable at first, it gradually turned into an expression of surprise, and in the end, she was dumbfounded, she sat there stunned.
After a long time, she came to herself, turned her neck stiffly, and turned her gaze to the faces of everyone around her, as if to confirm the authenticity of her words.
Seeing her like this, the others also knew what she wanted to say and nodded to express that all this was true. Anna, who was sitting next to him, said slowly: "At first, none of us believed it, we just listened with a cautious attitude and really didn't believe it until the infected appeared."
Hearing this, Tracy's expression suddenly twisted, and she shouted at Brian angrily, "Then why didn't you tell us earlier? Do you know how many people could have been saved if we had been prepared in advance? Damn it, they are all dead because of your selfishness!
"Even if I say it, would you believe it?"
Brian looked at that angry face and frowned after hearing what she said. He suddenly felt annoyed. A faint smile of disdain appeared on the corner of his mouth as he retorted, "Don't say it was too late. Even if I had told you before, I'm afraid you'd think it's a joke and ignore it."
"You!"
After hearing Brian's answer, what Tracy wanted to say suddenly choked in his throat. He looked at the brat with burning eyes and was speechless for a long time.
Then he turned around suddenly, picked up a stick from the ground, and began to beat and destroy things around him, venting the pent-up anger in his heart. In the end, he collapsed weakly on the ground, crying silently.
Seeing this situation, no one tried to comfort her, knowing that at that moment it was better to leave her alone for a while and calm down.
Everyone quietly pulled food out of their backpacks. They hadn't eaten in a long time, so now they had to replenish their energy. Also, the weather outside was getting darker. They would definitely have to stay here all night anyway.
"That..."
As everyone enjoyed the food in their hands, Allan hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "So what should we do next when this snowstorm passes? Should we continue to Atlanta?"