As the standoff dragged on, Eugene got to his feet with one hand over his eye. A large purple bruise had already swollen around the socket.
Abraham and Rosita still refused to reveal who they were. Instead, they tied Maggie's hands behind her back.
Then Abraham began questioning her.
With her wrists bound, Maggie seethed with frustration.
By now, she could tell that these three weren't part of the Police Gang, but they clearly didn't trust her either.
Maggie kept the details about her own camp vague and tried to earn their trust by telling them more about the Police Gang. Abraham remained extremely cautious, though. He let her talk but promised nothing.
Eugene sat on a pile of rubble, clutching his backpack protectively while continuing to mutter about his "potentially impaired cognitive modules." Every so often, he stole a glance at Maggie with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.
Rosita never let the muzzle of her shotgun stray far from Maggie, her gaze shifting between her and the hospital across the street.
Abraham stood in the doorway with his arms folded, thinking.
Rescuing strangers wasn't a priority for them.
They had their own mission. They were only passing through Atlanta and had entered the city to replenish their supplies.
But if the Police Gang at that hospital really behaved the way this woman claimed, they could become a problem while Abraham's group searched the city for supplies.
Should they avoid them, or...
After considering it for a long time, Abraham ultimately decided to steer clear.
Their mission was more important. Greater than anything else.
If the Police Gang was really that overbearing, then they would simply go around them and avoid unnecessary trouble.
The three took Maggie downstairs, walked two blocks, put her in their Jeep, and drove away from Grady Memorial Hospital.
Along the way, Maggie watched Abraham and Rosita dispatch every walker in their path with ruthless efficiency.
Her heart sank further.
The stronger they were, the slimmer her chances of breaking free and escaping.
After they had driven several kilometers, a faint rumble pierced the stagnant air over Atlanta.
It grew steadily louder.
Abraham and Rosita looked up almost at the same time, their eyes snapping toward the sky outside the windows.
An engine?
A powerful one, steady and rhythmic.
Not a small plane.
It sounded more like...
"A helicopter?" Rosita whispered in disbelief.
Maggie's head jerked up as well.
The sound was still distant, but she would never mistake the thumping roar of rotors cutting through the air.
In the post-apocalypse, what did a helicopter mean?
A powerful organization.
Precious fuel.
Unmatched mobility.
Rock Fortress!
Calista and the others were here!
"It's a rescue!" Maggie blurted out, her voice cracking with excitement as she twisted against her restraints. "It's our people! Rock Fortress is here!"
Rosita shoved her firmly back into place, hard enough to make Maggie grunt.
Abraham slammed on the brakes, bringing the Jeep to a sudden stop by the roadside.
His expression had turned grave.
"Rock Fortress? Your camp? How the hell could they be here? And with a helicopter?"
That was far beyond anything he associated with an ordinary survivor community.
"I told you, we're not some ordinary camp!" Maggie said urgently, staring toward the direction of the sound. "It has to be the Commander! She must've found out! She came herself!"
At that moment, Maggie's faith in Calista became something solid enough to cling to.
The helicopter's roar seemed to descend somewhere in the distance, then gradually weakened and disappeared.
It wasn't flying directly toward the hospital.
Clearly, whoever had come was being cautious and had chosen to approach covertly.
Abraham and Rosita exchanged a quick look.
"Watch her!"
Abraham signaled to Rosita, opened the door, and got out. He stood by the roadside, staring into the distance and trying to judge where the helicopter had landed.
Maggie leaned against the back seat, her heart pounding so hard it felt ready to burst from her chest.
Calista was here!
The Police Gang's end might already be close.
And Maggie had to let Calista know where she was.
Glenn and Dr. Caleb were inside Grady Memorial Hospital!
"Those are our people," Maggie said.
Her hands were still bound, but her eyes were blazing as she stared at Abraham outside the Jeep.
"Our Commander must have come in person with a team.
"Listen, big guy. Whatever you were planning to do and wherever you were headed, things have changed. Our people are being held inside that hospital, and there could be other innocent people they've taken too.
"They're lunatics wearing police uniforms. They're organized, they're armed, and they've turned that hospital into a slave camp. I'm not lying to you!"
Abraham turned around and climbed back into the Jeep.
His red beard shifted slightly as he pressed his lips together.
"So what, ma'am?"
He glanced at Eugene in the passenger seat, who was still rubbing his eye and muttering under his breath.
The meaning was obvious.
They had their own burden to deal with.
"That's your problem, not ours. We have a mission. We don't have the time or the obligation to help you fight a war to get your friends and family back."
"Mission?"
Maggie immediately seized on the word, her mind racing.
"What mission could possibly be more important than getting rid of a threat right in front of you and gaining a powerful ally in the post-apocalypse?"
She tried to steer the conversation toward cooperation.
"There are only three of you. No matter how capable you are, can you really expect to complete your mission without anything going wrong? There are walkers and raiders everywhere.
"You don't even have to look that far ahead. You came into Atlanta for supplies, right? What happens if the Police Gang from that hospital comes out looking for supplies too? What if they grab you the same way they grabbed my husband?"
Rosita's grip on Maggie loosened slightly.
She looked toward Abraham.
Maggie's words had clearly gotten through to her.
Abraham snorted, apparently unmoved.
"Our mission is important, ma'am. Important enough that we don't have time to get dragged into somebody else's mess!"
He paused, visibly debating whether to say more.
In the end, perhaps believing that giving Maggie part of the truth would stop her from trying to recruit them, he spoke gruffly.
"We're escorting Dr. Eugene to Washington."
"Washington?" Maggie stared at him.
"Yeah. Washington, D.C."
Abraham's voice took on an almost reverent seriousness that seemed completely at odds with his rough appearance.
"Dr. Eugene... he's a scientist. He knows how this whole disaster started.
"He believes there are still government agencies operating in Washington. Real scientists. People who might actually have a chance of fixing all this.
"What's in his head... might be humanity's hope."
As he said it, Abraham glanced at Eugene again.
There was something complicated in his eyes, a desperate all-or-nothing conviction that he himself might not even realize was there.
Hearing his name and title, Eugene instinctively straightened his chest.
Then the pain around his eye made him grimace.
"T-that is correct," he added, sounding slightly uncertain.
"The information I possess is, uh... highly classified. It pertains to the core mechanism of the walker virus. In simpler terms, how it may be stopped.
"Washington possesses the necessary facilities and surviving government personnel required to verify my... theory."
The longer he spoke, the less confidence there seemed to be in his voice, especially under Maggie's stare.
Maggie understood immediately.
So that was it.
A scientist supposedly carrying "humanity's hope," and a man absolutely committed to getting him to his destination.
That explained their caution.
It also explained why they didn't care about anything unrelated to their mission.
But it also gave Maggie exactly what she needed to persuade them.
...
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