Chapter 134: Moonlight
Caesar cleanly eliminated all the walkers and sat on the ground.
Merle, drained of strength, lay on the ground. Turning his head sideways, he could see a walker head with mouth open. His chest rose and fell violently—he had no mind to deal with the walker beside him.
That mother held Ada sitting not far away, timidly watching this newly appeared person.
Caesar removed his helmet, smiling as he extended his hand. "Hello, I'm Caesar, leader of Yellowstone."
That mother's eyes widened. Delightedly, she gripped Caesar's hand. "It's an honor to meet you, Leader Caesar. My name is Monica, and this is my daughter, Ada."
"Hello, Ada."
Caesar extended his hand toward Ada again.
Ada, like a little adult, learned from Monica's example and gripped Caesar's hand. "Hello, I, I'm Ada. I'm five years old this year."
Caesar was amused by Ada's appearance.
"Leader Caesar, I want to ask you a question."
Monica gathered her courage and asked quietly.
"Just call me Caesar. Calling me boss is also fine—that's what Yellowstone people call me." Caesar waved his hand, indicating Monica didn't need to be so formal.
Monica had to change her address. "Bo-boss, I want to ask—can Yellowstone let me and my daughter join?"
Monica had encountered some relatively kind camps before. Their scale was mostly just a dozen or so people. Monica had proposed joining, but they all refused.
It was because of Monica's daughter, Ada. A five-year-old child counted as an unstable factor. They worried that after Ada joined, if she didn't listen, she'd attract walkers, leading to the camp's destruction.
Monica also knew Merle had said before that Yellowstone would let them join.
But involving her own and her daughter's survival, she couldn't feel at ease—could only seek definite answers again and again.
Caesar looked at Monica seriously. "I have several questions for you. Please answer."
Monica nervously pinched her daughter's small hand and nodded.
"How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? Why?"
Caesar asked.
Monica paused, then answered.
"I've killed over a dozen walkers."
"...I've only killed one person." Monica lowered her head, looking at her daughter's head. Tears swirled in her eyes, falling on Ada's head.
Ada touched her cool head, raised it to look at the crying Monica. Sensing her mother's low emotions, she hugged Monica tightly, her small head burying in.
The hands embracing Monica gently patted, just like when her mother comforted her.
After recovering a while, Monica continued. "The one I killed was... my husband. He was bitten by a walker."
"He... he, he developed a high fever. I didn't know what to do."
"People outside all said if you get a fever, you'll become a man-eating monster." Monica raised her head, sobbing as she continued.
"My husband and I both saw others become that ghostly appearance."
Monica wiped her tears, took a deep breath, forced a smile, and extended her hand to touch Ada's small head.
"My daughter is my husband's and my treasure. He didn't want his daughter to see him become that way. He begged me, begged me to do it."
"Wuu..."
Monica could no longer hold back. She wailed and cried.
Ada also cried together with her mother. She pressed close to her mother, trying to make her mother stop crying.
Watching the mother and daughter embracing, Caesar sighed.
This world—such things were everywhere.
He himself was just a lucky person.
"You can join Yellowstone."
The basement was quiet for a long while.
"How did you come alone?" Merle asked.
Caesar glanced at him, sneering once. "Wasn't this because I was afraid you'd die?"
"Fuck." Merle's mouth corners twitched. "If you hadn't come, I could have killed them all."
"Really? Just now I saw someone being knocked around like a bowling ball."
Caesar vividly described Merle's appearance just now.
Merle, in anger, got angry for a moment.
After a long while, Caesar explained. "There are too many walkers outside. We attracted walkers away wave by wave, but couldn't lure them too far."
"Once they leave the group too far, they automatically return."
"This is very strange."
Caesar recalled that scene, his expression grave.
"So we could only risk attracting large numbers of walkers. The effect was good—I led people charging in."
"Upstairs is almost the area with the most walkers around. Even after attracting many away, many still remained. I alone could barely charge through. Bringing them wouldn't work."
"They should arrive soon."
Merle nodded, as if suddenly thinking of something. "I suspect it's related to their migration."
"Migration?" Caesar's eyes narrowed. A flash of inspiration in his mind.
Right—migration.
How had he not thought of this?
In the original story, Greene Farm was completely destroyed by the walker horde migrating out from Atlanta.
That walker horde was extremely terrifying. Merely the walker horde's front end entering Greene Farm destroyed the entire farm.
If Rick's group hadn't retreated fast enough then, they'd all have become part of the walker horde.
Also, Atlanta city's resident population was 420,000. Calculating conservatively—ninety percent becoming walkers was still a full 370,000.
Although this didn't sound like much, anyone who'd seen a scene of ten thousand people knew how terrifying this number appearing before you was.
Much less walkers who knew no pain, only biting humans.
"Right, migration. I think it's related to migration." Merle said.
"Okay, I understand your meaning. After returning, I'll chat with Dr. Jenner." Caesar patted Merle's shoulder.
Not long after, movement came from the basement entrance. Footsteps were clean—obviously different from walker footsteps.
"Boss, boss, are you down there?"
"You finally came. Dammit, hurry up and pull me up."
Hearing this, Merle knew it was his squad members' voices. He stopped pretending and shouted loudly.
"Captain, captain!"
Excited shouting came from the passage. Merle's squad members couldn't wait to enter the basement.
Several relatively young warriors suddenly pounced on Merle, crying loudly.
"Ah!"
Merle let out a pained cry. Pushing and kicking, he cursed fiercely.
"Get lost! All of you get lost! Crying about what? Still kids crying?"
"I'm not dead yet—crying nonstop."
Merle couldn't stand squad members acting like sissies, crying endlessly.
Immediately, the entire basement filled with joyful laughter.
Several warriors who'd just been crying had faces flushed bright red. They adapted to Merle's expression style, lifting him up to walk outside.
After leaving the basement, outside was covered in moonlight on the ground. Looking from afar, it was like scattered silver.
Taking advantage of the moonlight, the convoy quickly left Atlanta and returned to Yellowstone.
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