The military truck was peacefully cruising along the highway when it suddenly came to an immediate stop.
"What happened?" Roxy stood up and looked ahead of them while radioing the driver.
[We're heading to Russell, ma'am] The response from the driver caused the expressions of the people around Michael to change.
Roxy immediately looked around them, and only then realized that they were indeed leaving the city towards the neighboring small town of Russell.
"Hey, don't tell me you.. Did you come here from this direction?"
Michael looked at the grave expressions of the two people who were riding with him at the back and were confused. "Yeah, so?"
"There's a horde of biters blocking from that road, how did you manage to get past those things?" Roxy was astounded and the way she was looking at Michael slightly changed.
Michael was even more astounded to hear those words from her. "Horde? You mean a herd, right? There was nothing of that sort when I travelled past that place. There were several walkers, but that's about it."
'If there were any, then I would have patiently farmed them'
"Impossible, that biter horde at Russell was one of the reasons why we weren't able to get to Fort Benning." Roxy didn't quite believe it as it was just a couple of days ago when they last checked the place and it was still teeming with walkers.
"I don't know what happened, but there was really no horde or herd when I passed by that place." Michael shrugged his shoulders and figured the herd must have already migrated somewhere else.
"And I drove past Fort Benning. It was already overrun. There's no point thinking about that place."
"So, what now?" Joel, who has been quietly listening to them, remarked.
Roxy looked at Michael and after a short moment of hesitation, she radioed their driver. "Continue on ahead. Michael mentioned that the horde was long gone when he got here. I want to see it for myself if it's true."
".."
[Roger that.]
There was some hesitation coming from the driver, but despite that, he still obediently followed her orders despite his nervousness and clear unwillingness on his face.
Vroom!
The truck hummed as it resumed its journey, but it was clearly slower this time.
Joel had been staring at Michael, and it made the latter uncomfortable and had to address it.
"What? If you have something to say, just spit it out." Michael looked at him with slight annoyance.
Joel just chuckled as he also realized that his actions were somewhat inappropriate. "Did..did Fort Benning really fall?"
Michael looked at him from the corner of his eye. "It did. That place was crawling with walkers by the time I got there."
He was obviously lying, but he knew that Fort Benning did not last long before it disappeared off the map.
Joel let out a sigh. "I wonder if there are still any surviving government bodies out there?"
"Aren't we one?" Roxy turned around to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
Joel rolled his eyes and responded. "Except for us of course. What I meant was if there is still a standing government remaining."
"It's possible since the President's safety would be first prioritized above all else's." Michael didn't deny the possibility since it would be too convenient for the President of the Nation to be among the first ones to fall.
And the show didn't explore much around it, so the possibility is still up in the air.
"..."
A deafening silence between them followed as they just watched the passing scenery that was mixed with destruction and an abundance of life.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
"Stop!"
Ahead of them was the place where Michael had hidden Daryl's bike, so he immediately got the driver's attention while repeatedly tapping the side of the truck.
The truck came to a slow stop and he immediately came down.
"What's out here?" Roxy also came down with him in curiosity.
"My things, weren't you curious before?" Michael responded with haste in his steps and was relieved to see that the underbrush he had thrown the bike under wasn't disturbed.
Michael arrived before the underbrush and immediately pushed them aside, revealing the bike underneath.
"You travelled here on a bike? It's surprising how you're still alive this long ." Roxy was extremely curious at first, but it was immediately doused when she saw the bike since she had already seen a lot of people getting thrown off from them and getting killed because of walkers managing to grab them.
Michael ignored her and pushed the bike back onto the road before turning his head to look at her. "Only unskilled drivers dies fast."
He hopped onto the bike and gave it a start. He was about to drive it around when he felt an additional weight behind him.
Michael looked over his shoulders and in a stern voice. "What are you doing, woman? Get down."
"I'm riding with you, let's go. Let's quickly head to Russell, I want to see it." Roxy repeatedly tapped his shoulder and urged him
"Come on, we're burning daylight." She urged him one more time.
"Tsk!"
Michael just clicked his tongue. "I already got what I came here for. I don't see enough reason to drive back. You just have to take my word for it."
"No, I want to see it with my own eyes. We listened to your request, now it's your turn to listen." Roxy let out a snort.
Michael let out a sigh of resignation. "This is a waste of fuel."
"Less talking, more driving."
Left with no choice, Michael led the way back to the small town of Russell with the military truck closely following behind them.
A couple of minutes later, at the edge of the community.
"No way, where did they all go?" Joel was awed and terrified at the same time when he imagined the poor sods who would unfortunately bump onto that monstrous horde.
"Those monsters are really gone. We need to make a quick trip back to base and let them know of the changes here so they can quickly assemble people to gather the remaining resources left." Roxy had no concern where the horde had gone to and was more inclined into the resources left behind here.
"I told you they were gone." Michael remarked at the side.
Roxy turned around and walked past him. "Yeah, yeah, let's head back quickly. We're not the only survivors in the area and I don't want those resources getting snagged by the others."
Michael chuckled and hopped back onto the bike. "From your words, you make it sound like those things were yours to begin with."
Roxy rode behind him and snarled. "It was ours to begin with. Most of the survivors living in the base are from here."
"Ohh, okay." Michael casually responded. Since he was just passing by, he does not have an ounce of care on the way things are handled here or what justifications they have while fighting over resources.
In fact, he was even surprised that there's already friction happening between survivor communities in this location.
'It's clear that this place was established almost at the same time as Alexandria, except that they adapted far quicker than everyone else.'
He attributed this adaptation due to the presence of the soldiers since they were no average joes and were better equipped than most survivors.
'Without my existence, these people would have been far luckier than Rick and the others.' Michael had that thought while driving back to the city.
The group took a quick stop at Greenville to report their findings and left shortly after.
With no more trouble on the road, their small crew immediately arrived at the edge of the city proper and left its vicinity.
At the same time, a convoy of large vehicles were also disembarking from Greenville and were heading to Russell with Captain Nova on the lead.
"I think everything is going to get better from now on." Captain Nova muttered while letting out a chuckle as the convoy made headway towards their destination.
Night.
While Michael and others had taken refuge for the night inside an abandoned house along the road, an unexpected and dangerous event had taken place back at the farm.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hershel and the others were just about to retire for the night when the sound of multiple gunshots going off reverberated in the distance.
They would have just ignored it like the rest these past couple of nights, but the sound was too close for comfort for them to ignore this.
Hershel came downstairs with his hunting rifle and saw Glenn and the others who were already preparing to head out.
"If it's not any of you.." Hershel did not need to continue as the men quickly realized the gravity of the situation.
"Keep an eye out. We don't know what kind of people are heading here. Maggie, turn off all the lights. No one goes out until we return." Hershel instructed.
"Okay dad." Maggie nodded.
"Let's go." Glenn was the first one out of the door with Hershel and Otis following behind him, and shortly after them, Maggie also left the house and shut down the nearby generator.
Soon, the whole place was enveloped in darkness while Maggie hurriedly went back inside the house, all of them armed.