Tailing someone was an art.
Too close, and they'd notice you. Too far, and you'd lose them.
In a large city filled with ruins and walkers, you also had to account for the condition of the roads.
Some streets looked passable but were actually blocked by collapsed buildings. Others were riddled with deep potholes that could trap a tire. In some places, too many walkers had gathered, and trying to force a way through would only get the vehicle surrounded.
Carver drove steadily, always keeping the police car at the very edge of sight. Sometimes he deliberately let it disappear entirely for a short stretch, then used shortcuts Zhou pointed out to pick up the trail again.
"They're heading northwest," Zhou said, watching the road ahead. "There's a small commercial district that way. The map shows a few pharmacies and grocery stores. They might be looking for medicine."
"Know which building?"
"Not sure. But there are a few relatively intact places there. A CVS pharmacy, a small supermarket, and a hardware store."
The police car turned another corner.
Carver didn't follow immediately. Instead, he turned right, made a wide loop, and approached from a parallel street.
About ten minutes later, the police car stopped in front of a two-story building.
Most of the sign had fallen away, but the remaining letters were enough to identify it as a CVS.
The car pulled over about ten meters from the front entrance.
"They stopped," Zhou said.
Carver turned into an alley and parked between two buildings, completely hidden from the main street. "How many?"
"Two got out. Nobody stayed in the car." Daryl had already rolled down his window and rested his crossbow on the frame. "One tall, one short and stocky. Both armed, both carrying backpacks."
"We split up," Jonathan ordered quickly. "Carver, Merle, you're with me. We'll go inside and take those two. Fast and quiet. Avoid gunfire if we can.
"Daryl and Zhou, stay with the vehicle. Keep the engine running and be ready to pick us up the moment we come out."
"Got it."
"Check your gear. We move in one minute."
The sound of pistols being chambered filled the vehicle.
One minute later, the three men got out.
Carver led the way, circling through the alley toward the rear of the building.
The CVS had a back door. It was locked, but one of the windows was broken.
Merle carefully used the tip of the axe blade on his right arm to pry open the window frame, and the three climbed inside one after another.
The pharmacy looked even worse inside than it did from the street.
Shelves lay overturned at odd angles. Empty medicine bottles, shattered glass, and rotting packaging littered the floor. Water dripped through several holes in the ceiling, forming foul-smelling puddles below.
A walker lay near the back door with only half its body left, still clawing weakly at the floor with its remaining arm.
Carver frowned, drew his dagger, strode over, and drove the blade into the back of its skull.
The walker twitched once and went still.
Then footsteps came from the direction of the front entrance, accompanied by low voices.
"...Check the medicine section first. Dawn said antibiotics are the priority."
"Shit! Shelves are empty."
"Look carefully, Licari. Sometimes things fall underneath..."
Carver gave a hand signal.
The three moved forward without making a sound.
The collapsed shelves divided the pharmacy into several sections, providing plenty of natural cover.
Through a gap between the shelves, Jonathan spotted the two men.
The tall one was searching through a fallen display rack. The shorter, stockier man was keeping watch toward the entrance, his pistol tucked at his waist and one hand resting on the grip.
About fifteen meters away.
Carver pointed to himself, then to the tall man.
Then he pointed at Jonathan and indicated the stocky man before glancing toward Merle, signaling him to handle anything unexpected.
The three exchanged a knowing look.
Carver moved alongside the shelves, quietly slipping around a pile of collapsed cardboard boxes as he approached the tall man from behind.
The man was bent over, picking up a medicine bottle and holding it toward the light to read the label.
Now!
Carver lunged.
His left hand clamped over the man's mouth and nose while his right arm locked around his throat.
The tall man jolted in surprise and immediately began struggling, but Carver was immensely strong and even taller than he was. His arm tightened around the man's neck like an iron band.
It didn't take long before the man's body went limp.
But as he collapsed, his foot knocked over an empty medicine bottle.
"Clatter!"
The sharp sound was deafening in the silent pharmacy.
The stocky man, Licari, spun around and drew his pistol.
"Lamson?"
Then he saw Carver and his unconscious partner on the floor.
"Fuck you!"
Licari immediately pulled the trigger.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Gunshots thundered through the pharmacy.
Bullets tore into the shelves beside Carver. He dodged cleanly and dragged the unconscious Lamson behind cover with one hand.
At the same time, Jonathan moved.
He didn't fire.
Instead, he rushed in from the opposite side.
Licari heard him coming and swung his pistol around in alarm, but Jonathan was already within reach.
A heavy punch slammed into his gun arm.
The pistol flew from his hand.
Licari grunted in pain but reacted quickly, immediately retreating.
Merle was already behind him.
Holding his gun in his left hand, he smashed the stock hard against the back of Licari's bald head.
"Aaagh!"
Licari hadn't expected a third attacker behind him.
Completely surrounded, he screamed, his face turning pale as he clutched his head and crumpled limply to the floor.
At that moment, an engine started outside, followed by the screech of brakes.
"Daryl and Zhou are here," Carver said as he hoisted the unconscious Lamson over his shoulder. "We go out the back!"
Jonathan and Merle each grabbed one of the half-conscious Licari's arms and roughly dragged him toward the rear exit.
They hurried back toward the broken window.
The moment they climbed out, Daryl came running around the corner with his crossbow still in hand.
"Hurry. The gunfire drew walkers," Daryl said quickly. "At least twenty coming from the north. Zhou brought the car around to the back alley!"
"Move!"
The four men and their two prisoners rushed toward the alley.
Walkers were closing in from both sides of the street, more than twenty of them. They weren't fast, but they were beginning to form a ring around the group.
The alley was even tighter, hemmed in by the rear walls of buildings and cluttered with garbage and abandoned debris.
A walker suddenly lunged out from behind a stack of cardboard boxes, straight at Carver.
Daryl reacted instantly.
His bolt struck the walker through the eye with a soft whistle, then he kicked the corpse aside.
"Left!"
Another walker squeezed through a fire door on their left.
Carver stepped forward and used the tall cop slung over his shoulder as a weapon.
He swung Lamson's lower body in a wide arc and smashed the confused walker off its feet, sending it sprawling onto the pavement where it struggled helplessly to get back up.
"Thud!"
Carver had put so much force into it that after knocking down the walker, Lamson's leg slammed hard into a trash can.
"Oops! Sorry, bro~"
Merle winced in sympathy.
No telling whether the poor bastard had just broken something.
They raced through the alley.
Zhou had already brought the SUV around, its rear door wide open.
Carver dumped the tall man he was carrying inside with a heavy thump.
Jonathan and Merle shoved the still-struggling Licari in after him.
Then everyone piled into the vehicle.
Zhou floored the accelerator, and the SUV roared out of the alley.
In the rearview mirror, a mass of walkers poured around the corner, at least thirty by a quick estimate, snarling as they gave chase.
But the rotting corpses had no chance of keeping up with a vehicle.
The SUV turned onto another street, and Zhou accelerated hard.
"Well done!"
They wound through downtown Atlanta, making several loops to ensure no one was following them before heading back toward the West Tech building.
Jonathan checked his watch.
From staking out the hospital to tailing the targets and capturing them, the entire operation had taken less than two hours.
"Once we're back at the building, Calista will use these two to contact the leader of the Police Gang."
He looked out at the ruined streets beyond the window.
"Now we hold the initiative."
...
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