"Friendly?" Merle let out a scornful laugh. "Leah, does real friendliness even exist in this world anymore?
Even if there really are people in there, you'll understand once they're pointing guns at our heads!
We strike first. With food, we'll have leverage to negotiate!"
Leah was a mercenary.
In the original storyline, even after years under The Pope's influence in the apocalypse, she still insisted on sparing innocent lives during missions and treated Daryl very well.
At her core, she was kind and principled.
Calista understood Leah's reasoning.
Honestly, if this weren't the apocalypse, she would have been a model citizen too.
But hunger and the instinct for self-preservation were screaming inside her.
She was starving, her stomach cramping. The rabbit meat they had eaten was nowhere near enough to make up for the energy they had burned.
And Calista's moral bottom line was, comparatively, flexible.
She wasn't as kind as Leah.
So...
Calista gently tugged on Leah's arm and leaned slightly against her, looking both exhausted and famished.
"Leah, I'm so hungry…"
She rubbed her flat stomach, her eyes pitiful.
"From yesterday until now, we've only eaten that tiny bit. I can barely even walk anymore!"
She felt Leah's body stiffen slightly, but Leah didn't push her away.
Calista pressed on while the moment was right. She lifted her head, her eyes filled with what she framed as "reasonable" speculation.
"Look, the farm is way too quiet. There's not a single sound of people, and no one is watching the livestock. Maybe the people here already left, or..."
She didn't finish, but the meaning was obvious.
Calista continued, "Merle is fast. We'll stay outside and cover him. If there really is no one here, we grab the sheep and leave, find a place to roast it, and recover our strength.
If someone does show up, we'll say... we thought this was an abandoned farm, that the sheep didn't belong to anyone, and we're willing to trade for it!"
She gave herself a justification she could stand on.
"This is the safest option, right?"
Leah looked at Calista's hopeful eyes, then at the silent farm, her resolve wavering.
She knew how much of Calista's reasoning was just self-justification, but their weakness and hunger were real.
And Calista wasn't entirely wrong.
The farm was indeed unnaturally quiet.
"…It's too risky." Leah's tone was no longer as firm as before. "We move fast, leave no trace. If we spot anyone, we stop immediately and try to make contact."
That was agreement.
Calista felt a surge of joy but kept her expression grateful.
"Okay! I'll listen to you. Merle, you're quick. You confident?"
Seeing Leah give in, Merle rubbed his arms excitedly and lowered his voice.
"Relax, watch me. That post is a bit loose. Give me a minute."
It was as if luck was on their side.
There was still no movement from the farmhouse. The sky was growing darker, giving them better cover.
The fat sheep was still leisurely grazing by the fence.
"Go," Calista said, her heart pounding with both nerves and anticipation.
Merle shot out of the bushes, crouched by the fence, and started prying at the wooden post with force.
Leah gripped her weapon tightly, scanning the distant farmhouse with sharp vigilance.
Calista held her breath, hoping for success while fearing discovery.
At last, the post loosened enough to create a gap.
Merle slipped through first and lunged straight at the unsuspecting sheep.
The sheep only reacted when he was right in front of it. It tried to flee in panic, but Merle tackled it and pinned it down with his body.
The sheep let out a shrill, desperate cry.
"Quick! Hold it down!" Merle hissed.
Calista and Leah exchanged a glance, then gritted their teeth and rushed out of hiding, squeezing through the gap to help restrain the struggling animal.
"Hurry, knock it out!" Calista urged, glancing nervously toward the farmhouse, afraid the noise would draw attention.
Just as Merle raised his metal arm, preparing to strike the sheep with the back of the axe blade...
"What are you doing?! Let it go!"
A terrified child's voice rang out, like ice water dumped over their heads.
All three of them froze and turned stiffly.
In the shadow of the grass not far away, two children had appeared at some point without them noticing.
A boy around seven or eight held up a thick branch, pointing it at them.
Even though his face was pale with fear, he still bravely stood in front of an older girl.
The girl had blonde hair and looked about eleven or twelve, wearing a blue top.
She clutched the boy's shirt tightly, her wide eyes full of fear as she stared at the three filthy strangers attacking the sheep.
The air seemed to solidify. The sheep cried out, and the children stared at them in fear.
Silence fell heavy over the scene.
Leah's expression immediately turned grim.
She let go of the sheep at once and shot Calista a complicated look, filled with regret.
Merle was still pinning the sheep down, frozen in place, glancing between the children and Calista, not knowing what to do.
Calista's mind raced, trying to figure out how to explain this.
Should she pretend they were lost survivors? Or just threaten the kids into silence?
But right as the tension peaked, the boy spoke again.
In the dim light, he carefully studied Merle's dirty yet sharply defined face. His mouth slowly formed an O.
"You..." The boy sounded incredulous, the tip of his branch lowering slightly. "You're Merle? Merle Dixon?"
Merle, who had been ready to lash out, froze when he heard his name come from the kid's mouth.
He narrowed his eyes and stepped closer, studying the boy and girl carefully.
"Hey. Wait a second. You two little brats..." The fierceness on Merle's face faded into confusion. "You're... Carl? Sophia?"
Carl. Sophia.
Calista instantly recalled the original storyline. Hershel's farm.
By sheer coincidence, they had ended up here.
So the farm hadn't been overrun by walkers yet.
At the same time, Leah recalled their brief standoff with Rick's group on the highway and how she had eventually directed them to this farm.
She recognized Carl, and her gaze quickly shifted to the girl behind him.
Sophia.
So this was the girl who had once gone missing and later been found.
After confirming Merle's identity, much of Carl's fear faded, replaced by confusion and a hint of childish accusation.
"It really is you! Merle! What are you doing? Why are you grabbing the sheep?"
He looked at Leah as well, recognizing the older sister he had met before, the one with cold eyes but who didn't seem like a bad person.
"A-and you..."
Leah, being called out, showed a rare trace of embarrassment. She instinctively hid her hands, still smeared with grass and dirt, behind her back.
No one felt more awkward than Merle.
Getting caught stealing a sheep by people he knew, and by two kids no less, was more unbearable to him than losing his arm.
...
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