Chapter 114: Harvest
Randall lowered his eyebrows submissively, head down, not even daring to look at Merle. His psychological defenses had long since collapsed.
He cried like a helpless child.
Seeing Merle about to continue with more methods, Caesar stopped him.
"Merle, wait."
"Boss?" Merle turned his head, startled.
Caesar approached Randall. The damp air in the cell, the strong smell of blood, the rusty smell of torture instruments—all mixed together into a scent named despair.
Caesar's cold voice echoed in the cell. "Randall, I need some interesting intelligence. Tell me everything you know, whether you saw it or heard it."
Randall's group was a bunch of wanderers. If Caesar remembered correctly, Dave and Toby even came from Philadelphia.
Unfortunately, those two couldn't possibly know Philadelphia's current situation, or they definitely wouldn't have left Philadelphia.
Moreover, Caesar didn't trust old foxes like Toby.
But this young guy Randall—Caesar believed he could pry some good news from his mouth.
At least he'd heard quite a bit of news from other people.
Randall opened his mouth with difficulty. Saliva mixed with blood foam dripped down the corner of his mouth. He shakily lifted his head.
"I don't know much, and I'm not sure if it's true and reliable."
Caesar didn't respond, quietly waiting for Randall to continue.
"Toby and Dave came from Philadelphia. They were always bragging, saying the North had completely fallen."
Caesar curled his lip. The North was doing much better than the South. At least now the Three Cities had been established and could house millions of people.
Caesar did believe that Toby and Dave came from Philadelphia. Before the CRM was established, Philadelphia had also been bombed by the National Guard and once overrun by walkers, falling.
But the National Guard's strength was formidable. They easily reclaimed Philadelphia and established the CRM on Philadelphia's ruins.
As for the other two cities, Omaha and Portland, Caesar was more inclined to think they hadn't fallen—just had better luck.
Unlike cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, which were bombed, lost their vital forces, and could only be swallowed by walker herds.
"There was a veteran in the group who escaped from Fort Benning. According to him, that place fell very quickly, but some soldiers also escaped."
"He also said there's a Newnan base nearby. It's about to fall too. The panicked soldiers would even escape in helicopters and armored vehicles..."
Caesar's eyes narrowed with interest.
Helicopters, armored vehicles, soldiers, panicked escape—what did that bring to mind?
Caesar thought of the soldiers that the Governor victimized.
In one encounter, they were ambushed to death by the Governor's men. Maybe they were mentally disturbed, or maybe hearing the dog tags the Governor produced, they believed it was truly companions calling them.
In any case, they were also a decent combat squad, with no camp, no affiliation, and they had a helicopter.
Air power was absolutely rare in the apocalypse.
Caesar thought of that helicopter that crashed at the beginning and drooled with desire.
"Ahem..." Caesar interrupted Randall. "Where is that group of soldiers' base?"
"..." Randall's brain, like paste, moved slightly. "Newnan is only 61 kilometers from Atlanta. Very close..."
After hearing the geographical location Randall provided, Caesar turned around and looked at Morales and T-Dog, who had followed him to the prison.
Morales calmly extended a sheet of notebook paper. Caesar took it and looked—it was exactly the address Randall had just mentioned.
Caesar nodded with satisfaction and looked at Morales with encouraging eyes.
T-Dog standing beside also glanced at Morales, but his eyes didn't contain encouragement—they contained resentment.
Morales looked straight ahead, continuing to hold a pen and notebook, ready to record important information at any time.
After that, Randall said a bunch of useless intelligence.
Caesar had already returned to his office to handle official business, until Morales came running into the office.
"Morales?" Caesar frowned and looked up at Morales.
Morales saw Caesar's expression and, slightly out of breath, handed over a sheet of paper.
Just like the scene in the prison where Morales recorded Randall's intelligence, Caesar's brow relaxed. There was even some joy between his eyebrows.
"Sit, sit, sit!" Caesar took the paper and pointed to the chair in front of the desk, having Morales sit down.
Caesar then focused his attention on the freshly torn paper. An address was written on it—not far from Atlanta, but at a certain distance from Black Pine Valley.
Just as Caesar wanted to find a map to compare, Morales had already handed over an unfolded map. "Here, boss."
Caesar looked at Morales and smiled. "You're doing excellent work."
Morales humbly bowed, appearing very modest.
T-Dog, who had been gasping for breath running into the office behind him, saw this harmonious scene between lord and subject and paused in his steps.
The scene was awkward for a second. T-Dog took a step back and carefully closed the door.
Caesar didn't notice T-Dog's movements. At this moment, he had already found the location of that address. "What's here?"
Although he'd found the location on the map, there were no markings—neither a town name nor any mine or other geographical designation.
Morales answered, "According to what Randall said, there's a large construction site here."
"Some minerals were discovered here. The government was planning to build a mining town here and had already constructed a small portion of buildings. There are lots of abundant building materials inside."
"Then Buffalo Pass's gate is settled." The corners of Caesar's mouth lifted in a smile.
Finally. Finally.
After spending so much time, Caesar had always been worried that Buffalo Pass's gate wasn't blocked, concerned about encountering a walker tide.
From what Caesar knew, a few months later Atlanta would definitely experience a massive walker migration. Large numbers of walkers would surge out of Atlanta, migrating in Black Pine Valley's direction.
Walls built with these materials could fearlessly face these walker tides. As long as they maintained silence for a certain period, the walker tide would naturally migrate elsewhere.
Worth mentioning was that in the original series, it was this walker migration that destroyed Greene Farm.
Now, Hershel's family had all joined Black Pine Valley, and the farm had been destroyed early. Naturally, there was no need to worry about the destroyed farm being destroyed again.
The huge stone pressing on his heart could be removed. Caesar's smile couldn't help but overflow, and he laughed heartily from the bottom of his heart.
"It came without any effort. Didn't expect we'd have this harvest from this trip!"