Rick felt his whole body begin to tremble, a chill creeping down his spine and spreading through every limb—cold in the middle of summer.
The hostage those men had taken wasn't just anyone—it was his wife, the mother of his two children. If anything went wrong now, she would be in danger.
His body's reaction didn't affect his ability to think clearly. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but in the end, he restrained himself and didn't take a step forward.
He knew he absolutely couldn't get close. Once the other side recognized him, Lori's fate would be sealed. Thinking of that, Rick quietly stepped back a few paces and tugged on Shane's sleeve in secret.
Shane looked at him with a puzzled expression, seeming a bit tense as he approached awkwardly.
"What's going on?"
Rick didn't answer right away. He adjusted his position so that Shane blocked his face from view, then quickly ran through his mind, trying to remember who else had been with him back then.
Morgan!
Damn it!
"Morgan! Get over here!"
Rick lowered his voice as he called to Morgan, who was not far away.
Looking back at him in confusion, Morgan approached without thinking too much about it.
"You two, don't move."
Rick stood in a spot that couldn't be seen by the captors—who hadn't noticed he was even there.
Rick secretly sighed in relief, then spoke to the two men beside him.
"Do you remember the report I made a while ago about a group of cannibals? It's them—the ones I let go from the military base."
After Rick's reminder, Morgan vaguely recalled hearing something about that report. He immediately understood this wasn't a simple problem. He wanted to act, but stopped himself.
"We can't do anything right now. Morgan, go find Glenn and tell him to contact Jason through the intercom. He's wearing an earpiece, so no one except Jason will hear you."
As Morgan slipped away quietly, Rick turned to look at Shane.
"They've seen me, and I'm sure they'll recognize me. You have to help Jason with the negotiations. I need you to save Lori, you understand?"
Rick's expression was deadly serious as he spoke. He patted Shane's shoulder, showing his trust, then turned and walked toward where Morgan had gone.
Shane took Rick's words to heart. The two had been close even before the world ended. Shane was single and often spent time at Rick's house, so both Lori and Carl felt like family to him. He didn't care if Lori had become difficult or demanding—he just wanted to help his friend.
Shane was a deeply protective man. Whenever there was someone he wanted to protect, he would rather become the villain of the world to keep them alive than watch someone close to him suffer.
Now that he knew who the enemy was, Shane remembered the report about that military facility. He hadn't thought much of it back then—he had run into plenty of scum in Georgia—but this kind of filth always had to be dealt with.
Still, he couldn't afford to scare them. These men weren't ordinary—they were former soldiers, likely intelligent and dangerous. To handle this situation, he first needed to make sure Lori didn't get hurt.
But what could he do?
With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Shane unknowingly walked up behind Jason.
Both sides were still negotiating. After a while, Jason had already learned the names of the men and was listening to a man named Derek explain how they got there.
It turned out the five of them had been soldiers in the army. When the world ended, they were trapped inside a military base. Later, they were rescued and came across a family of survivors. At the terminal, several people planned to come here to try their luck—but unfortunately, the family of three died in a walker attack along the way.
The five men had fled all the way here. Gereth had heard they were soldiers and wanted to take them in, but since they were strangers, he let them stay in a nearby cabin under observation.
When Shane stepped forward, Derek was still talking about their situation. His hoarse voice carried an unsettling tone that made Shane uneasy.
"We just arrived a few days ago. We don't know much about this place, and we don't have any grudge with these people. But we don't want to be your enemies either."
Jason appeared calm, as if seriously listening to what the man was saying—but in reality, he was listening to Morgan's voice in his earpiece.
After Morgan had left, he quickly found Glenn and used the intercom to communicate with Jason.
As Jason listened to Morgan's report with a composed expression, he secretly sighed. Derek's words were half-truths—half lies. If it had been anyone else, they might not have been able to tell the difference.
Normally, when people like this showed weakness, everyone would calm down by now. But that wasn't the case for Jason, who was watching Lori being held hostage.
How did that annoying woman end up here?
"That's our story, sir. I don't know what your intentions are, but we just want to leave and never show our faces to you or your people again."
Hearing that, Jason suddenly spoke.
"You said you were soldiers, right? Then have you ever thought about joining us? We're a large force—we've already taken all of Atlanta. Right now, we need experienced soldiers to help us expand our territory."
That invitation left Derek—who had been smooth-talking moments ago—completely dumbfounded. A thin layer of sweat formed on his forehead.
The expressions of the other four men turned serious as well. They hadn't expected their opponent to play so far off the usual script.
After all, they still had a hostage—but the man in front of them didn't seem to care about that at all.
Jason smiled at the man who clearly wanted to leave from the very start, but that smile was filled with killing intent. Whether people knew about their cannibalism or not, the fact that these men had managed to live at the terminal without becoming food said enough on its own.
Lori, who had been unconscious, suddenly stirred and slowly opened her eyes. She looked around in confusion. Not far away were Jason and Shane. Remembering what had happened, she froze and didn't move.
She looked up and searched the crowd but couldn't find Rick—so she quickly asked,
"Shane! Where's Rick?"
"Rick?"
Derek frowned. The name sounded strangely familiar, as if he had heard it before.
Seeing Derek's reaction, Shane thought, Damn it, this woman's going to get us all in trouble. He had clearly heard Rick's warning earlier, so he didn't answer directly.
"If you want to leave, you have to show that you're not like the people at the terminal. Let her go, and we'll let you go."
And Jason, who had just heard Morgan's explanation about Rick's connection to these men, understood Shane's intention in stepping in. So he cooperated and said, "I don't think you want to join us anyway, so I won't force you. Let her go, and you can leave. How does that sound?"
Derek let out a quiet sigh of relief. The men behind him murmured to one another, stepping back slightly as they began to talk among themselves.
Lori, who had been trying to listen in, grew frustrated when she realized they seemed to be speaking in Spanish—she couldn't understand a word.
So she looked back at Shane, and when their eyes met, Shane felt a chill run down his spine. He wanted to stop her, but it was already too late.
"Where's Rick?"
Derek, who had been speaking with his head slightly tilted, froze. His pupils constricted as he finally remembered who Rick was—wasn't he the one who had saved them?
Although the man hadn't given his name at the time, that was what his subordinates had called him. Which meant these people probably knew exactly who they were and what they had done. Otherwise, why wasn't Rick among them now?
"You stupid bitch," Derek snarled. "You almost got us caught in a damn trap."