Eddie stared at the medicine on the ground, then finally sighed. "The day after tomorrow, my guys will stay in the stronghold. But they're moving into Block B, and after that, they'll probably take the other blocks too. Block D isn't exactly safe…"
"You mean… those things?" Cole frowned.
Eddie nodded. "Ever since the Red Scarf Gang fell apart, nobody's dared go near Block D. There are way too many walkers there, and…
"Some of them don't look right. I suspect Lorenzo and those Italians did something there before."
Cole thought for a moment. "Should we tell them?"
"Tell them?" Rex snapped. "Then what leverage do we have left?"
"If we don't tell them now, and they find out on their own later, what will they think?" Cole asked in return.
"They'll think we deliberately hid it from them and refused to cooperate. If we tell them ahead of time…"
He looked at Eddie. "It counts as goodwill."
Eddie clenched his jaw. "Fine. But how do we tell them? Who goes?"
Tony raised his hand on his own. "I'll go. They know me, and… I want to take another look at Jason. I want to know what kind of place he found."
And so, the decision was made.
Tony set out for the fire station that very night to deliver the message, while Cole and Eddie returned to their own strongholds to calm their people and prepare for the day after tomorrow, a day that might change everything.
As they left the sewage treatment station, Eddie stopped at the door and turned back to Cole. "If this Rock Fortress really is as good as they say…"
"Then we should be glad they chose to talk first, instead of clearing us out," Cole finished for him.
The two men looked at each other in the night, and both saw the same confusion in the other's eyes, along with a faint trace of hope.
Maybe after the day after tomorrow, they would no longer have to live like rats.
Maybe.
...
Tony ran quickly through the night, his heart pounding as if it might burst out of his chest.
Ever since a few Scavengers had gone out at night to look for food and been eaten by walkers until nothing was left, Cole had made a rule that no one went out except during the day.
This was Tony's first time moving at night since then.
He knew every crack in these ruins. He could run from the sewage treatment station to the fire station with his eyes closed, as long as there were no walkers on the road.
His luck was good tonight. He only heard distant growls and dragging footsteps, and never ran into anything head-on.
When he saw the red outline of the fire station in the dark, Tony slowed down.
Before the apocalypse, the building had been nothing more than an ordinary roadside fire station. Now it was completely different.
The second-floor windows had been reinforced with wooden boards, and steady yellow light shone through the gaps.
An array of antennas had been set up on the roof. The area around the building had been cleared, with makeshift barriers made from abandoned vehicles and barbed wire scattered around it.
In such a short time, this place had been turned into a carefully arranged defensive position.
When Tony was still a hundred meters from the fire station, a shout suddenly came from the darkness ahead.
"Stop! State your name and purpose!"
He froze in place, his heart nearly stopping.
He had not noticed anyone there at all.
Then two dark figures rose from the roadside drainage ditch, rifles raised, their muzzles aimed directly at him.
"I… I'm Tony! Scavengers! I have information for your people!"
Tony raised both hands high and shouted in a panic.
One of the guards said something into his collar, then replied, "Walk over slowly. Keep your hands up. Don't make any sudden moves."
Tony did as he was told, every step cautious.
When he got closer, he could finally make out the guards' faces. Or rather, their equipment.
Both guards wore matching dark-gray combat uniforms and helmets fitted with night-vision goggles. Their faces were painted with camouflage, like… soldiers.
He was taken to the side door of the fire station.
When the door opened, warm air and light poured out, making Tony narrow his eyes.
Inside, it was nothing like what he had imagined.
Large maps hung on the walls, marked with colored pins and lines.
At least four radio units sat on a long table. Several people stood around it, both men and women, all dressed in clean, neat clothes.
In one corner, a generator hummed quietly, powering the whole space.
Shelves against the wall were neatly stacked with bottled water and bags of food.
A clean blanket lay spread over a folding bed.
There was even a corner set up as a small medical station, with common medicines and simple sterilization tools.
This did not look like a survivor hideout in the apocalypse. It looked more like… a military command post from a movie.
"Tony?" a voice called.
Tony turned and saw Jason, the man he had met that afternoon.
"Jason…" Tony's voice was a little dry. "I-I have a message for your boss."
Jason looked at him for two seconds, then gestured toward the radio equipment. "Come over here and say it."
Tony was brought to the long table.
Danny was operating the radio.
He looked up at Tony, nodded, then spoke into the microphone. "Command Center, this is First Outpost. The Scavengers sent a messenger. He says he has important information. Requesting access to Channel One."
After a few seconds of static, a pleasant female voice came from the speaker.
"First Outpost, received. This is Calista. Give him the microphone."
Tony froze.
He had not expected their boss to be a woman. And she sounded… so young.
Danny handed him the microphone and motioned for him to speak.
"Uh… hello, ma'am," Tony stammered. "I-I'm Tony. Cole sent me.
"He said… he said thank you for the negotiations this afternoon. The Scavengers will stay in the warehouse district the day after tomorrow as agreed, and we won't interfere with your operation."
"OK," the young woman replied simply. "Anything else?"
Tony took a deep breath and tried to steady his voice. "Also, Cole asked me to tell you something. We discussed it with the Throat-Slasher Gang. It's about a chemical plant in Block D…"
He described the information Eddie had revealed in detail.
When the virus first broke out, Lorenzo could not return to Italy, so he quickly gathered Knoxville's local gangs and thugs and formed the Red Scarf Gang.
But some people refused to accept him and wanted to set up on their own.
Lorenzo's method of dealing with them was simple and brutal.
He captured everyone who defied him and locked them all inside a chemical plant in Block D.
Before the apocalypse, that chemical plant had supposedly been researching some kind of specialty pesticide. There had even been news reports about workers being poisoned there in large numbers.
"Back then… nobody knew people would turn into those things after they died," Tony said, his voice dropping. "Lorenzo locked them inside and gave them no food or water.
"A few days later, there was no sound from inside. So he had the doors welded shut, and they were never opened again. Later… later, everyone found out the dead could come back, but nobody dared touch that place."
The radio fell silent for a few seconds.
Inside the fire station, the others stopped what they were doing and looked at Tony.
"Where is that chemical plant?" Calista's voice was still calm, but now there was a trace of gravity in it.
...
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