Abraham glanced at Rosita, then asked Calista, "Ma'am, you need someone to deliver the 'invitation,' right?
"We'll take it over. Once the hospital sees us doing that, they'll definitely assume we're with you. That should put your mind at ease, shouldn't it?"
Calista turned toward the two barely conscious prisoners in the trunk.
"Then thank you. While you're there, give Dawn a message for me.
"Tomorrow at noon, at the abandoned gas station lot three hundred meters from the hospital's main entrance.
"My people, Glenn and Dr. Caleb, in exchange for these two police officers, and..."
She paused.
"...for the possibility that the Police Gang's so-called order continues to exist. Dawn can bring guards. I'll be there in person."
"What if Dawn refuses?" Rosita asked.
"She won't," Calista said calmly.
"Because if she does, the moment noon passes, there won't be a single living thing left in that hospital under the Police Gang's control. My people will turn the building into fireworks with rocket launchers.
"Tell Dawn I'm not asking.
"I'm informing her."
"You really think Dawn will show up, Calista?" Carver asked.
"She will. Trust me, Carver." Calista sounded certain. "Her position isn't secure, which means she needs even more to preserve her image as a 'protector' in front of her people.
"Public negotiations are Dawn's only way to save face.
"And she has no idea how much weight we're really bringing to the table."
She turned toward Abraham and Rosita.
"You said you wanted to help. This is the first thing.
"At noon tomorrow, my people will be preparing for whatever comes next. I need reliable people beside me for the face-to-face negotiation.
"Can you stand in the open with guns pointed from both sides?"
Abraham straightened proudly.
"Ma'am, I crawled out of a battlefield. As long as your people don't shoot me in the back, I don't give a damn who's standing in front of me."
...
At noon the next day, the Atlanta sun beat down mercilessly.
A clear stretch of ground had been prepared in front of an abandoned gas station near Grady Memorial Hospital.
On Calista's side, only Calista, Jonathan, Carver, Merle, Maggie, Abraham, and the two prisoners stood openly in the clearing. Lamson and Licari had their hands tied behind their backs and their eyes blindfolded.
They appeared almost completely exposed.
But Daryl and Rosita were already hidden on the second floor of a half-collapsed fast-food restaurant to the right.
Zhou and Murphy were positioned on the roof of an abandoned repair shop to the left, their rifle scopes fixed steadily on the entrance to the gas station.
Leon, Leslie, Donald, Vance, Bessent, and Hegseth had already boarded the Black Hawk with rocket launchers and were waiting atop a tall building along the hospital's flank.
If the negotiations collapsed, they would execute Plan B.
They would fire several rockets, rappel onto the hospital roof, and fight their way down from the top.
At noon, the hospital's side entrance slowly opened.
Nine people emerged.
At the front was a middle-aged woman in a sheriff's uniform with a pistol at her waist. Six heavily armed police officers followed behind her, two of them restraining Glenn and Dr. Caleb.
Even from a hundred meters away, Maggie's breath caught the instant she saw Glenn.
His face was bruised, his broken arm was in a sling, and his clothes were torn.
Dr. Caleb looked to be in better condition, though he was noticeably more haggard.
Calista pressed a hand to her earpiece and gave a quiet order.
"Everyone, keep your weapons locked on target. No one fires without my signal."
The two sides stopped in the middle of the open ground, twenty meters apart.
"Commander Calista?" Dawn spoke first. "I'm Sheriff Dawn, leader of the Grady Memorial Hospital community. I've brought your people as agreed."
"I can see that. First, I need to confirm that my people are conscious and haven't suffered any irreversible injuries.
"Glenn, can you hear me?"
Glenn lifted his head and squinted against the harsh sunlight as he looked toward Calista.
He nodded firmly.
"Calista... Maggie... I'm okay. Dr. Caleb's okay too."
"Good."
Calista looked at Dawn.
"Let them come over. I'll release your people at the same time."
Dawn studied the small group behind Calista, then glanced warily around the surrounding ruins.
Finally, she nodded to her men.
The two officers holding Glenn and Dr. Caleb released them and gave them a light shove.
The two stumbled forward, then started walking toward Calista.
At the same time, Carver and Abraham untied Licari and Lamson and pushed them ahead.
The four passed one another in the middle.
Nothing happened.
No one suddenly lost control.
Glenn and Dr. Caleb reached Calista's side safely.
Abraham pulled Dr. Caleb behind him while Maggie hurriedly drew Glenn back and immediately began checking his broken arm.
Dawn recovered her own two officers.
When she saw Lamson's battered face, her expression steadily darkened.
She lifted her chin, trying to maintain her authority in front of her people.
"The exchange is complete, Commander Calista. As for the order you mentioned before..."
Behind Dawn, O'Donnell, a police officer with a sinister look in his eyes, suddenly stepped forward and whispered urgently into her ear.
Jeffries, the Black officer beside him, also leaned closer, openly sizing up Calista's small group with contempt.
As Dawn listened, the hesitation on her face gradually gave way to a forced show of toughness.
She took a deep breath and raised her voice, trying to reclaim the initiative.
"Wait, Calista. The exchange is done, but I don't think... this is fair."
Calista raised one eyebrow.
She said nothing.
She simply watched.
Dawn grew visibly uncomfortable beneath that gaze, but forced herself to continue.
"You injured two of my people. Meanwhile, Glenn's broken arm was treated at our hospital, and Dr. Caleb was treated well too.
"That isn't an equal exchange.
"If you want to discuss this so-called 'new order' of yours, you should at least show some basic good faith.
"Give us enough medicine to treat these two first. Then we can talk about what comes next."
O'Donnell stood beside her with his arms folded and gave a contemptuous snort.
His eyes swept over the empty ruins behind Calista.
"Exactly. Anybody can make threats.
"Who knows whether those rocket launchers you're talking about are anything more than a bluff?
"The hospital has thick walls and plenty of supplies. If we lock ourselves inside, what are you going to do? Blow the walls down?"
Jeffries joined in just as arrogantly.
"Dawn, if you ask me, the fact that they only brought a handful of people out here means whatever trump card they've got probably isn't much.
"We've got plenty of people and weapons. Why the hell should we take orders from them?"
The other police officers behind Dawn didn't openly agree, but their shifting expressions made their thoughts obvious.
They resented Calista's earlier ultimatum too.
As far as they were concerned, they still had the fortified hospital to fall back on.
"Since you brought up good faith..."
Calista took one step forward.
Just one.
Yet the pressure radiating from her changed instantly, as if the calm she'd shown before had only been a thin disguise.
Dawn and her officers tensed at once, fingers moving toward their triggers.
"Relax."
Calista smiled.
"I just want you to understand exactly what these negotiations are based on."
She raised her right hand high and made a simple gesture toward the sky.
The next second, a thunderous roar tore through the silence overhead.
The Black Hawk suddenly plunged from its concealed altitude and dropped rapidly to less than three hundred meters.
The rotor wash from the massive aircraft whipped dust into the air, forcing Dawn and her people to squint and shield their faces.
What truly terrified them, however, was what they could clearly see at the open cabin door.
A multi-tube rocket launcher.
Its dark launch tubes were aimed directly at the hospital behind them.
Jeffries immediately shrank back and fell silent.
O'Donnell, however, was still forcing himself to stand his ground.
There was even a trace of madness in his eyes.
At this point, Dawn was too timid to hold the situation together.
If O'Donnell could step forward and take control, then he could prove that he was the one better suited to lead the Police Gang in the post-apocalypse.
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
p-@-treon/GhostParser (70 Chapters Ahead)
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.