"Ahhhh!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With the combined intervention of several organized groups, the intruders in Alexandeia were finally dwindling, and the remaining wolves showed signs of wanting to retreat. There were more than fifty corpses, and with Liam's continuous and furious attacks only a few of the enemies escaped.
Many of the guards standing in the square fell silent, looking at the ground at the blood of several men with faces covered in blood and feeling a chill. The people lying on the ground beside them were originally those who had followed Pete's arguments; now of all of them only about four people remained, and the rest died in the wolves' attacks.
On the other hand, the people trained by Jason and his group were able to defend themselves even if they suffered serious wounds — at least they did not die at the wolves' hands. Of course there were casualties: many of the outer guards died from the enemy's Molotov cocktails, producing an extreme feeling of helplessness.
With a more extensive search of the refuge, the group led by Liam soon realized that the wolves had not invaded houses because of the guards' quick response, which meant not much happened inside.
...
Pete's house.
Jesse in the corner remained silent for a while; after standing up he looked at Maggie and said, "We have always agreed with the decisions your leader made. We opposed Pete; now that he is dead, will you accept us without any problem?"
After this incident, regardless of whether Pete was dead or not — even if no one had died — Jesse was aware that he could no longer keep a cold distance from his wife.
"Of course. We never wanted to force you into anything. We simply tried to show you what the world is like outside this refuge..."
At that moment there was a bespectacled woman named Olivia. Her job mainly ranged from managing supplies to handling firearms. Since Jason's people arrived at this refuge, managing the firearms was not as significant. New supplies had arrived, so it wasn't the first time she had worked in the warehouse. That was why Olivia wasn't immediately noticed: she had been the one to close the door when she heard the chaos outside.
But when she heard noises outside, she soon found Maggie's group and followed them quietly to keep herself safe.
She was a person without strong opinions; seeing that she was the only one who hadn't voiced an opinion, she quickly followed Jesse's lead.
"I think similarly. It's not that we feel bad about the way you do things; it's just that Pete's words persuaded me, saying we shouldn't trust you like Deanna did..."
"Blaming a dead man — what a cruel and clever woman..." Madison thought as she went down the stairs.
At that moment Negan emerged from a house with a blood-soaked baseball bat over his shoulders. He had just checked on his wife and was happy to see she was alright. However, after stepping outside, the smile on his face vanished and was replaced by a serious expression.
Seeing people gathered outside, he approached and said, "Any news of Jason and the others? It's already midnight — we may have survived, but that doesn't guarantee those idiots won't come back."
Unable to answer that question, Maggie moved her hands and looked at the fires around them.
"Let's put out the fires first. Although the flames mostly haven't reached the houses, it's a big problem if we remain exposed to outside groups. And even less so the people — the walkers will be a problem."
"All right, let's fetch water!"
There was a cistern in the middle of the Alexandria community, and a dozen people didn't hesitate to take tools and begin putting out the fires.
...
At this moment, without anyone noticing, two in the morning had passed, and the fire in Alexandria was still burning. After another hour of work, they at least managed to extinguish the flames on the walls.
Looking at the remaining houses that had become balls of fire, Liam sat on the ground extremely angry.
"The only thing we can do is control the fire so it doesn't spread to other houses. Don't get married much because it would be impossible to put out the fire that way." [Note: retained literal sense of original line.]
At that moment the sound of an engine was heard outside the community. Everyone looked back and saw the community gate slowly opening; they felt much more at ease — the leader had finally returned.
Jogging all the way to meet him, Liam spoke first.
"Boss, you're here..."
"I know what happened. We ran into some wolves on the way back. You did well."
Liam's face changed slightly at that and he asked with a little more interest.
"Did you kill them? You didn't let any escape?"
After receiving an affirmative answer, Liam felt relieved. If these sick people were not eliminated, they could reappear at any moment. From the news he'd heard, these wolves were the only ones left.
"What's going on here? Any casualties?"
"Many people died. Those who had no training died the fastest. Of those who opposed us, only Jesse and his two children and Olivia are still alive."
Liam felt a bit bad about that. Although some of these people weren't good for his organization, most of them weren't bad — they simply couldn't adapt to this world.
"We must gather the corpses and make sure they have head wounds. I don't want walkers to deal with tonight."
"Understood. Will we return to the main base now? We have enemy after enemy. Really, no one wants to stay here."
Before Jason could answer, he heard Ezekiel's voice behind him say, "Jason, what happened? Were you also attacked by those types?"
King Ezekiel didn't understand the current situation at all. Seeing the flames, the blood on the ground, and the heavily armed people around, he thought the Saviors had attacked them.
With lingering fears in his heart, he approached to ask for clarification. At this moment, the people on the buses behind had already gotten off one by one.
Members of the group guarded the bus door in pairs and were sorting the crowd. The hundred strangers in the last two buses had been rescued at the Saviors' base before they had time to say anything.
Therefore, because they had no mutual understanding, there was a lot of work to be done.
The trucks in front were all familiar faces. After getting off the trucks, everyone planned to help put out the fires, but Jason stopped them. He motioned for everyone to wait in the square and left behind a few leaders.
When a dozen or more members of Negan's team stepped off the truck, they saw their leader standing not far away with a baseball bat in his hand. The last trace of tension on his face vanished, and all these people stood behind Negan.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Jason looked around but discovered Gregory was nowhere to be seen, so he looked at Jesus beside him, who also had an angry expression on his face, as if very upset.
"Where is Gregory?"
"That bastard no longer belongs to Hilltop. He betrayed us, he even informed on the Kingdom."
"What!" Ezekiel shouted angrily.
But before an unsustainable scandal could erupt, Jason intervened: "Stop!"
A sharp shout froze them in place.
"I planned to tell you about this tomorrow morning, but seeing that the smoke from the fire may reveal our whereabouts to our enemies, I must do it now."
"My name is Jason. I am the leader of a strong organization that now protects Atlanta, Georgia, and extends to the surrounding areas. There are thousands of people we protect; your strength and help will allow us to continue advancing as a civilization."
"If you decide to follow us, we can become stronger, and what I promise you is food, security, and many other things I can assure you believed lost. But that is a decision you will make — you can think about it for a while and give me your answer when you are ready."