"Holy shit!"
"What the hell is going on?!"
The team jolted awake at the sudden thunderous roar overhead. Hearts pounding, they instinctively grabbed their weapons.
And that damned noise might as well have rung the dinner bell.
"Haa!"
"Haa-haa-haa!"
Deep in the mountains and forest, from places that had been silent moments before, the growls of walkers rose at once.
The sounds came from several directions. Not enough to be overwhelming, but in the dead silence of night, they were painfully clear, filled with the frenzy of creatures roused from stillness.
Then came the rustle of bushes being pushed aside and the crack of dry branches snapping underfoot. Something had clearly been drawn in and was shuffling out of the darkness toward the source of the noise.
"The walkers are coming!" Bossie reported quickly from the rocky slope. "They're scattered. First wave looks like twenty or thirty, coming from the north and west! They're moving slow."
"Prepare to engage!" Calista snapped, anger edging into her voice.
Where the hell had that helicopter come from?
It had swooped in, dragged a herd of walkers straight toward them, then vanished without a trace!
It was dark outside and bright inside. Calista couldn't see a thing.
"Put out the campfire! Daryl, Bossie, call out their approximate direction and distance!"
Darkness swallowed the cabin again, but it also made the sounds outside much clearer.
A mass of slow, dragging footsteps was closing in. The growls grew nearer, carrying a suffocating pressure that set everyone on edge.
"North, thirty meters, five targets!"
"West, forty meters, seven or eight, scattered!"
"Flank too, number unknown!"
In the darkness, the team relied on their training and their understanding of one another, quickly taking defensive positions at the windows and doorway.
Their breathing grew heavy. Fingers tightened on triggers as they waited for the order.
"High-intensity flashlights ready!" Calista ordered in a sharp, clipped voice. "Turn them on together. Prioritize the closest threats!"
"Light them up!"
Whoosh!
More than four blinding beams shot out from the cabin's doors and windows like blades.
Under the glare, the walkers had nowhere to hide.
Most wore tattered outdoor gear or farm clothes. Their movements were stiff, their faces covered with rotting flesh.
Stimulated by the scent of living humans, the walkers let out even wilder growls, though their pace did not quicken.
Calista fired first.
Bang! With one precise shot, the nearest walker to the north dropped.
A second later, gunfire burst out like a string of firecrackers.
"Tap-tap-tap!" Turner's short bursts brought down two.
"Bang! Bang!" Leah and Carver worked smoothly together, each taking one out.
The others kept steady fire on the walkers farther back.
Daryl stayed on the perimeter, using the light to his advantage. His crossbow bolts almost never missed. Michonne moved along the edge of the beams, her katana cutting down several walkers as well.
The fight was intense, but the Rock Fortress Team had the pace completely under control.
The team stayed calm, covering one another with crossfire and wasting almost no ammunition.
The number of walkers visibly dwindled.
Ten minutes later, the gunfire gradually died down.
The last walker was pinned to a tree twenty meters from the cabin by Daryl's crossbow bolt.
The beams of the high-intensity flashlights swept across the bodies, confirming there were no remaining active threats.
"Clear!"
"North side cleared!"
"West side done!"
Calista walked to the doorway and looked out at the bodies scattered across the ground, roughly thirty of them.
Just as Bossie had guessed, the walker density in this deep mountain forest was low.
If not for that damned helicopter, they might have kept sleeping until they rotted away completely.
"Count our ammo."
No one was hurt. They had only used a small amount of ammunition.
Leah walked up beside Calista, her expression ugly as she stared in the direction where the helicopter had vanished. She cursed under her breath, "Those bastards flying that thing… do they even know they almost got us killed?"
Calista did not answer. Her gaze also lifted toward the pitch-black night sky, a cold glint flashing in her gray-blue eyes.
She would remember this.
That helicopter. Could it have belonged to CRM?
The mysterious military organization still active after the apocalypse flashed through Calista's mind, just like in the original storyline.
Was it them?
Had they started abducting people all the way out in the mountains?
As she was trying to figure out which faction the helicopter belonged to, Bossie walked over.
With a grave expression, he said to Calista and Leah, "The helicopter made too much noise, and our gunfight just made even more. The walkers in the mountains will keep gathering toward this area. We can't stay in this cabin."
Daryl added, "This kind of forest looks empty, but there are plenty of hikers. And after that landslide earlier, some silent walkers might've been stirred up too. They're probably heading this way. We need to leave before they gather into a herd."
Calista nodded. "We travel through the night. Destination, the prison."
The convoy moved slowly along the pitch-black mountain road and finally made it safely out of the Clayton County mountains by daybreak.
The next two days passed without trouble, and the group drew closer and closer to the prison.
...
The convoy traveled along the highway, drawing scattered walkers along the way into chasing after them, but no reckless raiders dared to come up and provoke them.
When the prison's familiar high walls and watchtowers appeared on the horizon, the convoy gradually slowed.
On the wall, Carol and Axel were on watch duty today.
Axel was lazily scanning the surroundings through his binoculars when he spotted dust rising in the distance, along with the unmistakable outline of a large vehicle. He froze for a moment, then jumped up as if he had been burned.
"Oh! Jesus! Damn it! Carol, look! Someone's coming?!" His voice was sharp, full of panic and uncertainty.
Carol snatched the binoculars from him. After just one look, her face immediately lit up with excitement.
"It's Calista and the others!"
She immediately rang the makeshift alarm bell on the wall. "Axel, go get Rick and the others. Get ready to open the gate for Calista!"
An empty can hanging from a wire was struck until it clanged loudly.
The prison instantly erupted into commotion.
The alarm made everyone's hearts tighten.
Rick, T-Dog, Glenn, Maggie, Andrea, Jacqui, and the others quickly grabbed their weapons and rushed up onto the wall.
When they saw the familiar convoy outside, all their panic turned into surprise and joy.
"Holy shit, they're back!" Glenn murmured, barely able to believe his eyes.
The convoy stopped at a safe distance outside the prison gate without making any threatening moves.
The lead vehicle's door opened, and Calista got out first. She was still wearing that battle-worn combat uniform, but her presence had become calmer and more restrained.
The ones who got out after her were not only Leah and Carver, but also Michonne, with her dreadlocks, hood, and katana in hand.
"Rick!" Calista looked up and called toward the wall, smiling as she waved to everyone. "It's us. Open the gate."