The vehicle slowed.
The fire truck gradually disappeared into a thin, translucent mist.
The sun, directly overhead, cast a distorted light through the mist, making the road ahead appear blurry.
Faintly, Daryl, holding the steering wheel, seemed to spot something and suddenly brought the vehicle to a halt.
"What's wrong?"
Shawn, who was 'chatting' with the two in the back seat, inquired.
But before Daryl could respond, as Shawn looked up through the rear window and front windshield, his eyebrows involuntarily rose.
This place seems to be…
"It looks like this is where Rick took Shane and the others back then."
Daryl, crossbow in hand, spoke as he opened the car door and jumped out.
Underfoot were scattered pebbles, and blocking the fire truck was a massive, angular stone, with fragmented brick pieces still clinging to it, evidently once part of a building.
Everyone quickly followed him out of the vehicle.
Shawn casually picked up his hammer and slung it over his shoulder, taking a few steps forward.
A gust of wind blew from a distance, dispersing the thin mist, and a 'colossus' immediately revealed its true appearance.
Huge, visible stones were irregularly distributed within two hundred meters around, and at the center, an entire ruin with rebar foundations pointing skyward came into view.
Just by looking from afar, Shawn could see the charred marks on the ends of the rebar.
"What happened here? A big fire?"
"No, it was an explosion; the explosion completely destroyed this place."
The CDC.
Shawn concentrated, imagining the CDC that once stood here, now seemingly destroyed by the sudden apocalypse, completely vanished from this world.
The five of them looked at the ruins without speaking, as if the impact of the CDC site was more profound than it appeared on the surface.
It was unclear what Columbus and Tallahassee were thinking at that moment, but for Shawn, Daryl, and Merle, the first thing that came to mind was the Prison.
'Will there ever be a day when the Prison will also…'
The moment this thought appeared, Daryl was startled.
He subconsciously shook his head, throwing the thought out of his mind.
But when he came to his senses, Shawn realized that he and the others had unconsciously walked to the vicinity of the CDC.
After taking one last look at the ruins, Shawn spoke softly, "Let's go."
Hearing Shawn's voice, everyone belatedly came to their senses and quickly responded.
Merle turned his head and teased Columbus, who was frowning and making his way around a large stone.
"Kid, if you don't come now, you can sleep with the Walkers tonight."
"Coming, coming."
Columbus quickly replied, and before he could fully see what was behind the stone, he hurriedly turned and followed Merle.
—Never use a public restroom that is suspended from below, because you never know what might crawl out from there the next second.
This was a relatively early rule in Columbus's 'survival guide'.
However, due to some subsequent events, Columbus later added another rule.
—(Dash) Never let something that blocks your view stand in front of you.
This was precisely why Columbus couldn't suppress his curiosity and wanted to go around the stone to see.
'What is that?'
'It looks like half a broken solar panel.'
Columbus got into the car and glanced in the direction of the CDC ruins.
But in the end, he still dismissed this discovery.
"Forget it, it's not important, just some scrap."
After this detour, Merle and Daryl switched places, and Merle got into the driver's seat and continued driving north.
But no one, including Shawn, noticed.
After they left, the thin layer of mist was completely dispersed by the wind, and sunlight began to largely touch the ground, incidentally illuminating that half of the solar panel.
At the same time.
Not far from the Centers for Disease Control, among the broken rubble, a burnt-out loudspeaker suddenly made a'sizzling' sound.
…
They drove for about 4 hours.
The fire truck was traveling through the desolate 'no-man's-land', having just passed a large sign.
"Welcome to Carolina."
Merle, glancing casually at the very American-style sign, spoke.
"We've entered South Carolina."
"At our current speed, with the remaining time today, plus a little less than half of tomorrow, we should be able to cross the southern part and enter North Carolina."
Shawn looked out the back window.
The no-man's-land of South Carolina was not a barren wasteland.
Dense vegetation and constant calls from the forest proved the excellent natural resources here.
Before the sun completely set, Merle drove the fire truck through the no-man's-land and found a small town to stop in.
They found a medium-sized inn.
The five of them stood in front of the inn's door, looked at each other, and finally their gaze fell on Shawn.
Shawn twitched his lips: "Why are you looking at me? Choose your own rooms, clean your own rooms."
Having said that, Shawn turned and walked towards the fire truck.
His weapons were placed to the side, and Shawn lay on the floor of the back compartment of the fire truck, hands pillowing his head, with the constant sound of his teammates gaining experience points from killing.
Experience +75
Experience +75
Experience +75
…
About 5 minutes passed before the last experience acquisition sound abruptly stopped.
"Not bad, Columbus even killed one?"
Shawn looked at the information log, commenting with interest.
Columbus was actually quite talented, but he was just too cautious, almost completely following the 'survival guide' in his every action, which made him seem a bit cowardly.
But haven't you heard the saying?
The combat power of characters in apocalypse comedy films must not be weak, otherwise, before they can even mess around, they'll kill themselves off.
"When I get back, I'll have Shane train them well; if I have to do everything myself, I'll be exhausted."
Raise troops for a thousand days, use them for one hour.
Even Columbus, who gave Shawn a headache just thinking about him, should be decisively handed over to Shane when they get back; Shane would naturally have a way to make him 'tough'.
Before going to sleep, Shawn routinely browsed the system interface for a while, opened the Blood Bar MOD, and looked towards the inn.
Four health bars immediately appeared there; the two rooms closest to the main entrance belonged to Daryl and the others.
Because they were all in Shawn's 'team system', Shawn could see them directly through the walls; as for the health bars of the remaining Walkers in the inn, he could only see them when they appeared within Shawn's field of vision.
Turning off the MOD, Shawn turned over, ready to fall asleep.
But before he could close his eyes for two seconds, a rustling sound came from the outside door of the fire truck's driver's cabin.
The sound was very faint, and Shawn initially thought it was a Walker, so he ignored it.
With the current defensive capabilities of the fire truck, a Walker would either play for a while and then leave, or get impaled through its body and head by the iron spikes welded to the outside of the fire truck.
But very quickly, Shawn sensed something was wrong.
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