When Shawn arrived on the first floor of the Administrative Building.
Daryl was leaning against the iron gate of the cafeteria, crossbow slung over his shoulder, idly playing with an arrow in his hand.
Seeing Shawn come downstairs, he raised his chin at Shawn and walked over.
"I thought you'd be there for at least a few more hours."
Seeing Daryl constantly raising his eyebrows as he spoke, Shawn immediately understood what the guy meant.
"When did you become as annoying as Merle?" Shawn said with a laugh.
"Maybe that's the only thing Merle and I have in common."
Daryl didn't deny it, just tilted his head coolly.
Although Merle was annoying, he would never dislike Merle.
Daryl and Merle
The two walked out of the Administrative Building, and the wolfdog Dou Dou trotted over from the side, tongue hanging out, and sat down beside Shawn, receiving Shawn's 'daily pat' coronation ceremony.
From afar on the playground, Shawn saw his red overlord, steadily parked in the center.
The rear door was open, with one leg sticking out and wiggling.
It seemed to have noticed Shawn's gaze, as the leg suddenly stopped, then pulled back, and a head with not much hair poked out.
"Yo--"
Merle waved his hand, greeting Shawn from a long distance.
Shawn pointed to the side, and only then did Merle come running over, huffing and puffing.
"Brother, don't you know it's exhausting to run at this time?"
"I'm taking you two to get a few things."
Shawn ignored Merle's complaints and simply led the two into the Prison, arriving at the guard room in Sector C passage.
He lifted a black cloth in the corner, revealing several items quietly lying on a box.
"These are for you, Daryl."
Shawn picked up the quivers made of animal leather, and inside both quivers were iron crossbow bolts that Shawn had personally crafted.
Materials: iron arrowheads, wood, feathers.
Shawn had no shortage of metal and wood, and the feathers were plucked from the birds and chickens Daryl had hunted.
And in each quiver, Shawn also prepared two extra pure metal arrows for Daryl to handle any other unexpected situations that might arise.
Arrows were consumables after all, and Daryl hunted every day; his arrows were almost worn down, which was why Shawn prepared these for Daryl.
Then Shawn picked up a sleeve knife and several cylindrical objects, handing them to Merle.
"These are for you."
Shawn thought about it again and again, and still decided to prepare a sleeve knife for Merle, the kind that pops out with a single-handed press.
However, though called a sleeve knife, it was actually made by Shawn using a metal dagger blade, along with springs and some simple metal structures.
The overall craftsmanship wasn't exquisite; it could pop out, but to retract it, one had to force it back in.
The rest were all tubular explosives, the gunpowder sourced from bullets, which Shawn extracted by knocking off the bullet bases one by one.
Although in terms of power, they couldn't compare to the columnar explosives Shawn had obtained before, they were sufficient.
Whether against Walkers or survivors, the effect was not weak.
The two held the items Shawn had prepared for them, their expressions varying.
Daryl still had that cool face, his head even lowered a bit at this moment.
But if one looked closely, they would surely notice his eyes were oily, with a sensation of wanting to speak but holding back.
Merle, however, was the opposite; he wished he could jump up and hang on Shawn, passionately kissing Shawn's face.
If not for Shawn's repeated 'threats,' he probably would have done everything only Beth could do.
Kicking Merle away, Shawn got into the car with his knife, hammer, and spray.
After saying a word to Jimmy, who was guarding the gate today, the three of them and the car left the Prison without looking back.
...
"First thing, open the treasure map."
Shawn's goal was clear.
Atlanta was north of the Prison, and the entire state of Georgia was in the southeastern part of the continental plate.
The second destination of this trip was the Alexandria Community, which was in Virginia, also in the eastern part of the continental plate, separated from Georgia by the two states of'South Carolina' and 'North Carolina.'
But if one were to traverse it from bottom to top, it was actually less than the distance of one Georgia.
Now, this trip had no convoy, no family in tow, so Shawn could drive at maximum speed.
Having previously traveled for a whole week, Shawn estimated this time it would only take about three days.
In fact, if everything went smoothly, they might even reach Atlanta in less than three days.
As for the red overlord's fuel consumption, Shawn had never worried about it.
Shawn had stored a large amount of gasoline and diesel in his backpack, and with the 'wrench' in hand, as long as he could find a car, he could find fuel, always able to extract oil.
'So, it's best if nothing goes wrong on this journey,' Shawn thought to himself.
His purpose was actually very simple: just to collect rewards, and then incidentally cross two large states to find the Alexandria Community.
So, even if nothing went wrong the whole way, that would be quite reasonable, wouldn't it?
But when Merle had been driving for half a day and finally merged onto the main road, not long after, two figures appeared on the side of the main road, one stout and one thin, one wearing a dark cowboy hat and the other with curly hair.
They stood by the roadside, and when Merle drove the red overlord into view, they quietly stood by the roadside and then gave a thumbs up towards the middle of the road.
Anyone familiar with American road rules knows that in America, this means hitchhiking.
Because of the unspoken rules and the passing of goodwill, when seeing this gesture, people would always choose to stop their cars.
But today was different from the past; it was the apocalypse now.
Not to mention why there would be people wanting to hitchhike, at least 99% of people now would not stop their cars, much less let strangers in.
And the remaining 1% could basically be confirmed to have something wrong with their heads.
When Merle honked the horn, and Shawn subconsciously looked out the car window, that's when he suddenly realized.
It turned out that these two people by the roadside were that 1%.
"Stop."
Shawn suddenly spoke, and Merle and Daryl looked at him in surprise.
"What?"
"Stop," Shawn repeated.
Merle and Daryl exchanged glances but still stopped the car, about a dozen meters behind the two people.
Shawn poked his head out of the car window; in a place unseen behind the car door, Shawn held a gun in one hand.
He waved at the two, and they grinned, immediately running over.
"Sir, excuse me, sorry to bother you."
The young man with curly hair seemed quite polite; he was dragging a gray-blue suitcase in one hand, and clothes were draped over his other arm.
"What's the matter?"
Shawn looked at him, and the face before him gradually overlapped with the person in his memory.
"My name is Columbus, and he's Tallahassee; we're on a hiking trip."
"But we suddenly got lost here, so we were hoping for a ride."
After speaking, Columbus nudged Tallahassee beside him, and Tallahassee strained to curl his lips, showing Shawn an awkward smile.
Then Columbus turned his head, and like Tallahassee, gave Shawn a 'kind' smile.
Left: Tallahassee, Left Two: Columbus
-------------------------------
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