Calista and Daryl rode ahead on a motorcycle, while Leah and Merle sat in Shane's sedan.
Suddenly, Daryl honked twice in quick succession, then pointed behind him and made a clear "we've got a tail" gesture.
The motorcycle's engine growled as he accelerated to ride alongside Calista.
Through her rearview mirror, Calista clearly spotted the pickup truck trailing them several hundred meters back, unhurried yet persistent, like a shadow that refused to shake off.
"They followed us after all," Calista murmured, not particularly surprised.
In the apocalypse, greed was the best tracker there was.
They might not be certain Randall's situation had anything to do with them, but their vehicle alone was enough bait to make people take risks.
"Damn it, these bastards just don't quit!" Merle cursed from inside the sedan, his eyes turning vicious.
Shane's expression darkened as he stared through the window at the pickup behind them. "What do they want? The car?"
"The car, our gear, or worse." Calista's voice carried over the wind, calm to the point of being chilling. "We can't lead them back to the farm."
Her eyes swept quickly over the road ahead.
They had already left the town center. One side of the highway was lined with sparse woods and rolling dirt slopes, while the other side dipped into a weed-choked lowland.
Up ahead was a bend in the road. Beside it stood several half-collapsed farmhouses and a pile of abandoned agricultural machinery. A perfect ambush point.
"Listen," Calista raised her voice so everyone could hear, "if we can't shake them, then we make sure they stay here for good."
She began issuing orders without hesitation.
"At the bend ahead, we set up an ambush. Daryl, keep riding forward for a bit. Make it look like we're fleeing in a panic, then loop back through the woods on the side and take position on that small hill. Provide long-range support with your crossbow."
"Got it!" Daryl twisted the throttle and shot forward, kicking up a trail of dust.
"Leah, Merle, Shane. Pull the car over and hide behind that pile of farm equipment. Leah, you take the first shot. Aim for whoever gets out first, preferably the driver or that Jane."
"Merle, cover the left flank and handle anyone in the truck bed. Shane, you're a good shot. Stay with me and suppress the front. Focus on the one with the shotgun."
Her commands were crisp and decisive, as if she had done this countless times before.
The sedan slammed on the brakes, swerved off the road, and barely managed to conceal itself behind the rusted remains of harvesters and tractors.
At the same time, Calista cut the engine on her motorcycle and quickly pushed it into the shadow of a roadside ditch.
Leah crawled to the edge of the machinery pile, raised her rifle, and steadied her aim at the bend.
Merle drew his pistol.
Shane and Calista each took cover behind rusted steel, aiming toward where the pickup would appear.
Watching Calista set everything up in such a short time, her ruthless decisiveness made Shane's heart pound.
This wasn't Rick's hesitation bound by morality, nor Hershel's naive avoidance. This was pure survival instinct.
A thrill surged through his veins, the feeling of finding someone like himself.
It felt right. Completely right.
Out of the corner of his eye, Shane spotted Daryl already prone on the small hill behind them, hidden in the grass, his crossbow raised and locked onto the road below.
Almost the moment Daryl got into position, Leah seemed to sense it. She flicked a quick glance in that direction before refocusing on her aim.
That silent coordination, without a single word exchanged, made Shane even more certain. This team was far more professional than he had imagined.
"They're here," Calista said under her breath.
The engine noise grew louder as the pickup rounded the bend, completely unsuspecting.
The people inside clearly thought their prey was just running. Their guard was down.
The driver was even chatting and laughing with the person beside him.
Now.
"Fire!"
At Calista's command, the ambush began.
"Bang!"
Leah's shot punched cleanly through the passenger-side window. The man inside snapped backward, red and white splattering across the glass.
Almost at the same instant,
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Calista and Shane opened fire.
Bullets slammed into the cab, and the windows shattered instantly.
"Ambush!" someone screamed from the truck bed.
Merle grinned and fired into the back, cutting the screams short.
"Sniper. On the hill. " The last survivor in the bed barely got the words out before a crossbow bolt shot in from above, piercing his throat and pinning him to the railing.
The fight turned one-sided in moments.
The pickup ground to a halt. Inside the cab, there was still movement. The woman named Jane and the driver were still struggling.
"Cease fire. Take them alive," Calista ordered.
She needed information. There were likely more of them nearby, and even if they planned to leave, she couldn't leave such a threat behind for the farm.
But just as she finished speaking, the driver's door was kicked open.
Jane, covered in blood, moved with ferocity. She raised her revolver and fired blindly toward Calista and Shane.
"Bang! Bang!"
Bullets struck the rusted machinery, sparks flying.
Calista's gaze turned cold. She didn't hesitate.
She shifted, raised her gun, aimed, and fired.
"Bang!"
The bullet went straight through Jane's forehead.
Jane's face froze between rage and disbelief as she fell backward.
At the same moment, Shane fired and took down the driver trying to crawl out from the other side.
The gunfire stopped.
Calista stepped out from behind cover cautiously, confirming there were no remaining threats.
Leah and Daryl moved in from their positions.
"Damn it all! Who the hell wrecked the engine? That's another car gone!" Merle cursed as he inspected the burning pickup, searching for anything still usable.
Shane watched Calista walk over to Jane's body. Without a trace of emotion, she checked it, then efficiently stripped her of ammunition and her revolver.
He stepped closer, looking at the burning truck and the bodies as flames slowly consumed them.
"Do you do this a lot?" he asked, his tone complicated.
Calista slid Jane's revolver into the holster at her lower back without looking up. "Looting bodies, or killing people?"
Shane said nothing.
Seeing his silence, Calista frowned slightly. That didn't seem right.
Wasn't Shane supposed to understand these rules better than anyone?
She added, more firmly, "Being merciful to your enemies is being cruel to yourself. You should understand that better than I do, Shane."
Shane did understand. He understood all too well.
It was just that before, he had always been held back by Rick's ideas about humanity.
Now, looking at Calista, it felt like the part of him that believed in absolute survival had finally been set free.
A thought began to grow uncontrollably in his mind.
Leave the farm. Follow Calista.
This is what surviving is supposed to look like.
Daryl walked over to Leah and silently handed her a canteen he had found in the wreckage of the pickup, still in decent condition.
Leah looked at him in confusion but took it anyway.
Daryl said nothing and turned to help Merle clear the scene.
Calista distributed the collected ammunition, then gave the burning pickup and the bodies one last glance.
"Clean up the traces. We're heading back to the farm. What happened today stays between us."
After several days of failing to find a vehicle, Calista was starting to feel uneasy, wondering how things were going on Carver's side.
Watching Daryl over the past two days, she was confident he would come with them.
In that case, two motorcycles would be enough. There was no need to wait any longer.