The convoy moved slowly along the empty highway with the scorching sun distorting the air above the asphalt, giving the illusion that the road would melt at any moment.
They had left the CDC behind a while ago, currently the group was heading toward Fort Benning, a military base that according to the rumors was still operational.
Of course, Carl was aware that it was nothing more than an illusion doomed to fail, Fort Benning had fallen a long time ago, but it just so happened to be in the same direction as the Greene farm, so he said nothing.
"Do you remember the time we went to the Grand Canyon?" Rick asked while looking at Lori sitting beside him.
"Of course I remember it, especially because we never made it there." Lori replied with a small smile.
"Yeah, Carl got sick, threw up all over the car and we had to turn back before even passing Fort Worth." Rick said letting out a small tired laugh.
"It wasn't funny at the time." Lori murmured while shaking her head.
"I don't remember it." Carl said from the back seat while looking out the window.
"Because you were a baby." Lori replied while slightly turning toward him.
"But when all of this is over, we'll go, you, me, Sophia and Carol." Rick added trying to sound optimistic, although even he didn't seem to fully believe his own words.
Daryl, who was riding the motorcycle a few meters ahead, slightly raised his gaze toward the highway full of abandoned cars.
"I hope you like the smell of corpses because that's the only damn thing you're gonna find in any damn canyon." He grunted through the communicator, causing Glenn to let out a nervous laugh from the RV.
"Hm, I hope so." Carl murmured to himself, eagerly waiting for the day when he could farm points like a madman.
While pretending to observe the scenery through the window, he decided to take a look at the system, it was time to collect the rewards.
The first thing that caught his attention was the enormous amount of points obtained from the explosion, but he decided to leave that aside for now.
|[ Mission: No One Gets Left Behind
• Description: Make sure no one dies in the CDC explosion, including Dr. Jenner and everyone else.
• Mission Reward: Diamond Tier Card
• Penalty: Depression for one week
• Status: Completed ]|
"System, open the Diamond Tier Card." Carl ordered, this was his second Diamond Tier Card, so he was excited.
|[ Diamond Tier Card: Minimap
• Description: Generates a dynamic map of the surrounding environment showing terrain, structures and entities within detection range
• Special Effects: Detection of hostile, neutral and allied entities
• Current Range: 10 Meters
• Level: Beginner ]|
Carl remained silent while observing the skill description, he immediately felt a strange connection forming in his mind.
With a simple thought, an interface appeared before his eyes, it was a circular map floating in the corner of his vision, but for some strange reason, it wasn't uncomfortable nor did it interfere with his sight.
The terrain around the convoy appeared represented in real time, the road, the abandoned cars, the trees and even the small elevations in the terrain could be seen clearly.
But the most impressive thing were the multiple points moving across the map, the green points represented allies and the red ones were walkers on the side of the road.
Carl slightly held his breath when he noticed dozens of red points scattered throughout the forest and the abandoned vehicles on the sides of the highway.
"Fuck!" He murmured to himself while feeling a small chill.
With this ability, resisting ambushes and surprise attacks would become much easier, especially considering that the minimap was still only at beginner level.
At the same time Carl let out a sigh of relief after carefully observing the minimap for several minutes, he didn't find any suspicious yellow or red points mixed among them.
Even though yellow means neutral, it is still dangerous, with a simple shove it can become an enemy the next second.
"Alright, I have enough points, system, use 100 points and upgrade the minimap to intermediate level." Carl ordered.
The minimap's range expanded noticeably to a radius of 100 meters, however Carl felt it wasn't enough, so he used another thousand points to upgrade it to advanced level.
Instantly, the range expanded once more to 1,000 meters, exactly one kilometer, Carl decided to stop there, after all he couldn't keep upgrading it and for now it wasn't necessary.
"Now use 1,000 points and upgrade Precise Shot to advanced level." Carl ordered once again.
A burning sensation passed through his eyes and spread into his brain, it was as if thousands of needles were slowly traveling through every visual nerve in his body.
He closed his eyes by reflex while resting his head against the car window, trying not to attract attention, Carl felt as if the entire world became clearer, his senses became noticeably much sharper.
But when he took a look at his stats, they hadn't increased at all, which was strange.
"Hm, I still have more than 3,600 points, looks like it's time to increase my stats, system, buy 30 stat points." I ordered and decided to leave 688 points in case of emergency.
|[ Purchase in progress, purchase completed ]|
Carl smiled and began assigning the new points, he assigned thirteen points to strength, seven points to agility, five points to endurance and five points to intelligence.
The first three are obvious, as for intelligence, he decided to increase it because he discovered that with every five points, he can summon one more clone without suffering headaches, now he can summon three in total.
Suddenly, a wave of power invaded him, it was as if every muscle in his body was being compressed and reinforced from the inside.
His bones cracked slightly while a warm sensation traveled through his arms, legs and torso, Carl clenched his teeth trying not to attract attention.
The discomfort gave way to euphoria, soon a warm current of power invaded him, he was quite sure he could crush the rotten heads of walkers with his bare hands if he wanted to.
"System, show my status." Carl ordered mentally.
|[ Name: Carl Grimes
• Age: 10 Years Old
• Affiliation: Rick's Group
...
[ Stats ]
• Strength: 20
• Agility: 17
• Intelligence: 15
• Endurance: 10
[ Note: 1 point equals 5 kilograms in bench press ]
...
[ Skills: [Precise Shot • Advanced][Infinite Inventory][Multi-Shadow-Clones][Minimap • Advanced]
[ Shop Points: 688 ]|
"Wow, now maybe I could even beat up Rick or Shane, although I'm still lacking real combat experience." Carl thought while slowly closing the system interface.
Rick and Shane were police officers, both had been in real fights, violent arrests and situations where a second of hesitation could cost you your life.
Even Daryl could probably beat him up using only his fists if Carl became too overconfident.
"I'm still not strong enough." Carl murmured while watching the forest quickly pass by through the window, shortly after, the convoy slowly began reducing speed.
"What's happening?" Lori asked while looking ahead.
"I don't know." Rick replied while frowning, a moment later, Daryl's voice sounded through the radio.
"There's a blockade ahead, looks huge, everyone slow down and keep your distance." Daryl said and the convoy advanced a few more meters until everyone could finally see it.
Dozens and dozens of abandoned vehicles completely blocked the highway, some were burned, others overturned and several had dried corpses trapped inside.
"Fuck..." Glenn murmured from the RV, Carl slightly narrowed his eyes and activated the minimap.
Within the one kilometer range there were practically no red points near the convoy, which was strange considering the amount of abandoned vehicles.
That could only mean one thing, the area had already been cleared or something had dragged all the walkers away from here previously.
"The only ones I can think of are Hershel and his family..." Carl murmured, of course, this didn't make him lower his guard.
According to the original plot, a walker horde would eventually pass through this highway, forcing the group to hide among the abandoned cars, at which point Sophia would get lost in the forest, causing the entire tragedy afterward.
Carl carefully observed the minimap for a few seconds before slightly relaxing, at least for now, there was no immediate danger.
The group tried maneuvering between the abandoned cars for a while but soon found the road completely blocked.
Boom!
Suddenly, the engine of Dale's RV began spewing smoke like a chimney, it was obvious that the old coffee maker couldn't take it anymore, so they had no choice but to get out.
"Everyone, check the vehicles and see if there are any useful supplies, but don't go too far." Rick ordered after shutting off the engine.
Carl got out of the vehicle alongside Rick while the rest of the group began spreading among the abandoned cars and started racking his brain trying to find a way to keep everyone away from danger while also successfully leading them to the Greene farm.
The reason he wanted to go to the Greene farm was Hershel, a veterinary doctor, Maggie and Beth were also there, two of his favorite characters in the entire series.
But the main reason was the farm itself, with his ability to travel to Minecraft, it shouldn't be too difficult to turn the farm into an agricultural fortress.
Therefore, Carl quickly came up with an easy way to avoid the entire original tragedy, while also allowing everyone to take refuge at the Greene Farm.
"Shane, can you come here for a moment? I have something to tell you!" Carl said out loud, Shane quickly approached upon hearing his voice.
"Carl, what's wrong, is something wrong?" Shane asked worriedly.
"Shane, I think we shouldn't all stay here looking for supplies, instead, we should send someone to the front and the rear!" Carl said.
"Hm, you think walkers are coming toward us?" Shane asked with a frown.
"That's right and even if they aren't, being cautious doesn't hurt." Carl replied while nodding.
Shane had already learned a lesson last time at the quarry, so he didn't dare argue and even felt a chill run down his spine.
"Carl, you're right, I'll go find Daryl and ask him to go on his motorcycle." Shane said while immediately turning around.
Shane first found Rick and told him about Carl's suggestion, Rick felt very embarrassed and proud of his son at the same time.
Without delay, Rick called Daryl, who was looking for spare parts, and told him to go to the rear on his motorcycle to keep watch, then he called Glenn to watch the front.
Both of them respected Rick greatly, so they didn't refuse, Daryl got on his motorcycle and drove away, Glenn did the same by climbing onto the roof of a car at the front.
...
Half an hour later, Carl, who was standing on top of the RV, noticed Daryl returning, through his telescope, he noticed that Daryl looked very nervous.
Of course, Carl already knew the reason, the minimap on the interface showed hundreds of red points slowly approaching them along the highway.
Sure enough, when Daryl returned with the news, everyone began panicking, Rick was still a novice when it came to dealing with hordes, so he also couldn't find a good solution.
The same happened with the other team members, some were even stupid enough to suggest crossing the road on foot, leaving the vehicles behind.
They didn't even think about how far they could get in the current environment without vehicles, without vehicles to transport supplies, how long could they really survive?
"Dad, I saw a small road beside the highway, we can take the side road and wait for the horde to pass before returning to continue our journey." Carl said deciding to intervene.
"Really? Good, you heard him everyone, get back into your vehicles!" Rick ordered while getting into motion.
"Move, quickly!" Shane roared while everyone ran back toward the vehicles.
Fortunately, Jim the mechanic had already managed to repair Dale's RV with the spare parts found in the abandoned vehicles, another advantage of having professionals on board.
The convoy quickly left the main highway and sped down a small side road, leaving a cloud of dust behind them.
Author's Note: Don't forget to leave your thoughts, it's what motivates me to keep writing.