In the end, Leah and the others couldn't avoid trouble entirely.
Their original plan to skirt around the city had to be changed again when several routes turned out to be completely blocked or overrun by massive wandering herds of walkers.
Eventually, they were forced onto a highway choked with traffic.
Cars of every make and model were jammed together, stretching for miles with no end in sight.
"Fuck! This is bullshit!"
Mike's good mood vanished instantly. He cursed under his breath, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
He had no choice but to slow to a crawl, squeezing the Humvee through narrow gaps. The vehicle occasionally scraped against abandoned cars on both sides with harsh screeching sounds.
As they slowly passed a wider stretch of the shoulder, loud arguing suddenly erupted ahead.
A furious male voice with a rough country accent shouted, nearly cracking from emotion.
"So that's it, Shane?! You're just gonna leave her behind?! Just because you couldn't fucking find her?!"
"Daryl, calm down! I'm not abandoning her! But we can't have everyone stuck here forever!" another man shot back, trying to stay composed but clearly losing patience.
"Listen, Shane—we need a plan! We'll keep searching!" a third voice said tiredly, his Southern accent obvious.
Mike immediately hit the brakes and signaled the others in the back to stay alert.
Leah looked out the window.
About thirty meters ahead, a group of people stood facing each other on the roadside.
A rough-looking man with a crossbow and sleeveless vest was confronting a broad-shouldered man with the swagger of a troublemaker.
Between them stood a blue-eyed man in a police uniform, trying to calm them down.
Several other men and women watched anxiously nearby. One short-haired woman looked completely on the verge of breaking down.
Almost at the same moment, Rick and Shane noticed the Humvee that had suddenly appeared.
The argument stopped instantly.
Every pair of eyes turned toward the vehicle, full of suspicion.
Click.
Shane raised his shotgun almost immediately and aimed it straight at the Humvee.
Rick drew his pistol and shifted sideways toward cover.
Daryl's crossbow was already aimed steadily at Mike in the driver's seat.
Inside the vehicle, the atmosphere tightened instantly.
Mike kept both hands calmly on the steering wheel. He didn't reach for a weapon, but his gaze turned icy as he stared back at them.
Leah, Turner, and Wells quietly tightened their grips on their guns.
Dr. Jenner hugged the instrument nervously.
"Hey! Relax! We're not hostile!" Leah called out through the window. "Just passing through! The road's completely blocked—we're crawling through!"
"Passing through?" Shane snapped. "Like hell that's a coincidence. Who the hell are you people working for?!"
Leah's expression cooled at the hostile tone.
Just as the situation teetered on the edge of exploding, Felipe suddenly leaned forward from the back seat, staring hard at the man in the police uniform.
"Wait—wait!" Felipe suddenly leaned out the window and waved.
"Officer Rick?! Is that you?! It's me—Felipe! The nurse from the Atlanta nursing home! You guys came to our place before and left us a bunch of guns! Remember?"
Rick paused and looked closer.
Glenn recognized Felipe first. His eyes lit up as he grabbed T-Dog's arm.
"Hey! That's Felipe from the nursing home!"
Someone they knew?
The tension on both sides eased slightly.
Rick lowered his pistol a little.
"Felipe? It's really you? What are you doing here?"
His voice dropped.
"We… we went back to check. We thought the nursing home had fallen. Everyone was devastated."
Felipe quickly turned to Leah.
"Don't shoot! They're good people—really! They helped us before!"
Wells let out a whistle.
"Wow. Man… are these the 'good people' who shot you in the ass with an arrow?"
Felipe laughed awkwardly, then turned back toward Rick.
"Rick! These people are good too! They just rescued us from a group of raiders! They're not enemies!"
"Raiders attacked the nursing home?" Rick and Shane exchanged looks, both clearly surprised.
Daryl's crossbow lowered slightly, though the caution in his eyes didn't disappear.
"Yeah. Everyone else is dead. Only Miguel, Guillermo, and I got out…"
Felipe's sudden recognition and explanation poured cold water over the confrontation before it could erupt.
Both sides still kept their distance and stayed cautious, but the hostility had clearly faded.
Rick took a deep breath and finally holstered his pistol.
"Have any of you seen a little girl nearby?" he asked tiredly. "About this tall, blonde hair. Her name's Sophia."
He gestured with his hand, the anxiety in his voice impossible to hide.
Carol suddenly broke down crying, and Andrea wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"My baby girl is out there all alone," Carol sobbed. "She's only twelve!"
Leah fell silent for a moment.
Then she rolled the window down.
"We didn't see a little girl on the road coming here. But…"
She paused, recalling the memory.
"A few miles west of here, we drove around a wooded area and saw a pretty large farm in the distance. It looked inhabited."
"If the girl ran far enough… maybe she went there looking for help."
She didn't claim certainty—just offered a direction.
But for Rick's group, especially the nearly shattered Carol, it was like grabbing a lifeline.
"A farm?" Shane still looked skeptical, but Rick clung to the possibility.
Carol rushed forward and grabbed Rick's arm.
"Rick! Sophia must be there! You lost her—we have to find her!"
Lori quickly pried Carol's grip off her husband.
"Carol, listen. We will go there. But you can't rely on Rick and blame him at the same time!"
"He did everything he could! He ran off with the walkers to draw them away!"
Carl stood nearby, looking confused and uneasy—worried about his missing friend but also curious about Leah's group that had suddenly appeared.
"Thank you," Rick said to Leah after being freed from Carol's grasp. His tone softened.
"This area is really dangerous."
"I can see that," Leah replied calmly, glancing over their exhausted group. "Looks like you've had your share of trouble too."
After a brief silence, Rick seemed to offer a piece of information—perhaps as a gesture of goodwill, or maybe to learn more from them.
"If you're heading to the CDC or Fort Benning," he said, "don't bother. They've both fallen."
"We found supplies near the Atlanta CDC earlier, along with a note saying the CDC was destroyed. Fort Benning's gone too."
Glenn sighed.
"We're trying to find a new place to settle, but we don't even know where to go."
"We're not heading there," Leah said. "We're just passing through Atlanta, trying to find a doctor for my sister."
She raised an eyebrow slightly.
She hadn't expected the small act of kindness Calista had left behind to end up helping this group.
With a faint smile, she added:
"That message at the gas station? My sister left it there."
"Looks like you found it."
...
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