Another day began in Atlanta.
At Grady Memorial Hospital, Dawn would soon discover that two of her police officers had failed to return on time.
The game had begun.
...
West Tech Building, B2 parking garage.
The two captured police officers had been dumped on the open concrete floor like a pair of discarded garbage bags.
Both were awake now.
The shorter man, Licari, had put up a tough front during the fight, but once captured, he became remarkably cooperative. He curled himself up as tightly as possible, like a snail trying to retreat into its shell.
The taller Lamson was the opposite.
The moment he woke up, he discovered that somehow, for reasons completely unknown to him, one of his legs appeared to be broken. Grimacing in pain, he managed to prop himself upright with his other leg.
His wary gaze swept over the five men before pausing briefly on Carver.
This man looked the most normal of them all, even the most handsome, but some instinct told Lamson that he might actually be the one he needed to fear most.
Then both Lamson and Licari noticed Calista emerging from the stairwell.
She stood just outside the circle of large men, the underground garage's emergency lighting falling across her at an angle and outlining her straight, slender figure.
Her pale golden hair was tied neatly into a bun at the back of her head. A few loose strands framed her cheeks, stirring gently in the damp breeze drifting through the garage.
Her face showed no unnecessary emotion. She wore a dark jacket left open over a gray T-shirt, with a handgun and dagger at her waist and the legs of her pants tucked into sturdy combat boots.
Surrounded by men covered in dust, sweat, and the unmistakable air of violence, Calista looked startlingly out of place.
Young, clean, and strikingly beautiful.
Lamson swallowed.
Licari saw her too, and a faint spark of hope immediately appeared in his eyes.
"Ma'am!" Licari struggled upright and tried to shuffle toward Calista on his knees. "Please, let us go... We were only following orders. We didn't want any of this either..."
Lamson said nothing, but his eyes remained fixed on Calista, desperately searching her face for even the slightest trace of sympathy.
They were disappointed.
Calista merely tilted her head.
There wasn't a ripple of emotion in her gray-blue eyes.
She even stepped slightly closer so she could get a better look at the two men.
"Who's interrogating them?"
"I will!" Carver answered eagerly when he realized Calista intended to watch.
He casually began undoing the fasteners on his tactical gear one by one. Once he had removed it, he tossed it onto the hood of an abandoned car nearby.
Underneath, Carver wore only a tight black short-sleeved T-shirt. The fabric was damp with sweat and clung to the muscles of his chest and arms.
Jonathan folded his arms and gave Zhou a knowing look. "Ha. Peacock's showing off his feathers."
"I'll give you a hand. Save us some time." Merle grinned and flexed his fingers, his knuckles cracking. "Guys like these won't talk just because you ask nicely."
Daryl leaned against a support pillar farther away, its paint peeling away in strips.
With his head lowered, he repeatedly wiped the head of a crossbow bolt with a dirty cloth, seemingly absorbed in the task.
But from the moment Calista appeared and the prisoners began pleading with her, his movements had slowed slightly.
"Half an hour." Calista shifted her gaze from the prisoners to Carver. "I want Glenn and Dr. Caleb's exact locations, the hospital's guard deployment, and the inner circle of the Police Gang."
"Ten minutes is enough, Calista~"
Carver walked toward the two prisoners.
For Licari and Lamson, the next few minutes were a slow descent into hell.
Carver crouched in front of Licari until they were eye to eye.
He didn't shout.
He didn't curse.
He simply asked his questions in a calm voice, then waited.
Whenever Licari hesitated, Carver's hands would find one of his joints with unnerving precision and apply exactly enough pressure.
They were ordinary men, after all.
Carver didn't even need to take out a knife.
Merle preferred a different approach.
He liked running his mouth and adding a little blood to the proceedings. But with Calista present, he showed unusual restraint, avoiding most of his usual insults toward women and focusing instead on the prisoners' body parts.
He was clearly enjoying himself.
When Lamson finally screamed after his little finger was crushed, a pleased expression spread across Merle's face.
The two prisoners completely broke down.
Tears and mucus streaked their faces.
Several times, they desperately looked toward Calista, silently begging her to intervene, even a little.
But the beautiful woman remained completely unmoved.
Watching from a distance, Daryl finally stopped cleaning his crossbow bolt.
He carefully put it away.
The atmosphere in the garage seemed to be making it difficult for him to breathe.
He looked at Carver and Merle, absorbed in the interrogation, then at the two prisoners, and finally at Calista's expressionless face.
Then he suddenly spoke, his voice slightly hoarse.
"Calista, I... I'm gonna head upstairs. Get some air and keep an eye on what's happening outside."
Jonathan and Zhou glanced after him but said nothing.
Everyone else remained silently in position, their expressions carrying the numb indifference of people who had seen this kind of thing before.
Before the post-apocalypse or after it, none of this was particularly unusual to them.
Carver noticed Daryl leave, but his expression didn't change.
His T-shirt was nearly soaked through now, clinging tightly to his body. He slowly wiped his fingers with a bloodstained cloth, then walked over to Calista and reported what they had learned.
"Grady Memorial Hospital is run by a group of police officers. Nine of them total. The woman in charge is named Dawn.
"There's also a group of survivors they've brought in to work. All of them were screened first and picked because they were considered suitable.
"A few of those cops are real pieces of shit. They deliberately ram survivors with their vehicles, knock them unconscious, and pick out the ones who don't look dangerous.
"Then they take them back to the hospital, treat their injuries, and claim they owe a debt. The survivors have no choice but to work indefinitely to pay it off.
"Glenn and Dr. Caleb were both taken to the hospital.
"Glenn was injured in the crash. His arm was broken, and he fought back hard, so they originally weren't planning to keep him.
"But Caleb told them he was a doctor. That's why they brought Glenn back too.
"Sounds like Dawn's position isn't very secure. Gorman, O'Donnell, and Jeffries aren't completely loyal to her. Those three were the ones who rammed Glenn and Dr. Caleb and dragged them back to the hospital.
"Most of the others are just following orders. A lot of them don't like how things are being run, but they don't have much choice. The Police Gang controls the food and medicine, and Dawn can't keep her own people under control...
"That's basically it."
Calista nodded.
She remembered that Dawn wasn't completely evil.
She was simply incompetent.
Some of her subordinates wanted to take her position. Others freely abused vulnerable women. Dawn couldn't control any of them.
It wasn't until Beth arrived and Dawn finally had a capable, intelligent ally that the two of them worked together to eliminate several of those corrupt subordinates.
If this had happened before Calista's change in thinking, she might have done what Rick had done in the original storyline.
Trade the two captured police officers for Glenn and Dr. Caleb.
But things were different now.
Atlanta's location was too important.
It sat directly between Rock Fortress and the prison.
If Calista wanted Rock Fortress to hold unquestioned authority, if she wanted every major and minor faction in the surrounding region forced to submit to its power, then she couldn't settle for a simple prisoner exchange.
She was going to take the entire Police Gang at Grady Memorial Hospital.