Several people inexplicably looked at the rough, strong-looking man in front of them, not knowing what he was so happy about. Rick even moved his finger closer to the trigger of his AK while everyone else kept their weapons steady.
But the burly man didn't care about these small movements and directly fixed his eyes on what interested him: "Listen, I am Sergeant Abraham Ford of the Army. These are my companions, Dr. Eugene Burt, Rosita Espinosa, and the other three are Finn, Jamie, and Nancy, whom I met a few days ago."
Ignoring the man called Abraham, Rick looked at the five or so people behind him without expression, constantly thinking about what their real goal was.
But Abraham was not a slow person. After waiting for a few breaths, he grew a little impatient when he saw that these people didn't speak.
"Doesn't anyone in your group talk? Introduce yourselves with confidence, isn't that the only basic etiquette we have left as civilization?"
Finn, on one side, followed the conversation and said: "Uh… We don't have malicious intentions, otherwise…"
Before he could finish speaking, Rick's expression turned a bit cold and he interrupted Finn.
"Otherwise what? Do you want to take our supplies? Or are you planning to kill us?"
Abraham suddenly burst out laughing, turned his head to look at his companions, and the others also smiled.
"Hehehe, my friend, I think running into shitty people for so long makes you misunderstand. Nobody wants to steal your stuff or kill you, but I need you to come with me."
After finishing speaking, Abraham paused, as if organizing his words, and then spoke again soon after.
"Only because I'm desperate. I have a mission to escort Eugene to Washington D.C. He knows what caused everything to go down the drain, and if I can take him to that place, he can solve all this shit with the walking dead. Do you understand that?"
As soon as they heard those words, Rick's original trio, who were still serious while holding their weapons at that moment, felt strange, and even Guillermo smiled slightly.
On the contrary, Elen looked at the other side with wide eyes at that moment and asked with some surprise: "Really? This is incredible!"
Abraham thought Rick and the others didn't believe him, so to strengthen his conviction, he turned around and shouted behind him.
"Eugene, explain yourself."
The man with the unique hairstyle standing at the back originally seemed like he had nothing to do with saving the world, but when he heard his name mentioned, he didn't panic and spoke directly.
"I'm sorry, the specific situation is confidential and I don't have the right to disclose it."
"I know Eugene has been using a satellite phone to communicate with a group of people in Washington some time ago, but nobody has answered the phone in the last few weeks. I need help, the more people who join this mission, the better."
It was then that Rick had a reaction. He was about to speak, but he heard a slight muffled exclamation from Katia in the back, sparking curiosity, so he turned around—and what he saw were about six walkers less than twenty meters away.
"We have to take them out!"
After saying this, Rick walked to the back of his group, and together with Morgan, the two moved toward the walkers.
Guillermo was the only one who didn't move to help; he stayed watching Abraham's group while holding his automatic rifle ready to fire at any moment.
Opening his hands indifferently, Abraham simply gave up the idea of helping, stepped back, and stayed where he was, looking ahead.
Rick didn't draw his gun; instead, he pulled the machete from his waist. Five or six walking corpses were nothing to him, and if Morgan was going along with him, it was just to make sure nothing went wrong.
Two minutes later, watching Rick walking back without even needing Morgan's help, Abraham gave Rosita behind him a meaningful look and saw her nodding in the same way, all of them sharing the same thought.
Rick patted Elen on the shoulder, signaled her to pay attention to the situation behind her, and then returned to the front again.
"I'm sorry, I understand your situation now, but I can't go to Washington D.C. with you."
Abraham's once confident expression instantly grew serious. He couldn't believe he would get such an answer and continued asking in disbelief. "Do you have any concerns? Family or kids? We can go together, we can all join this mission to save the world."
"No, none of that. The reason I don't want to go with you is because I know Washington D.C. is not the answer to finding a cure."
Without giving the other side a chance to speak, he continued explaining.
"Is Eugene a scientist? I know several experts in virology, great scientists and experienced professors. They can't find a solution immediately, and with those virus variants roaming the country now? Even if you come up with a cure, there's no way it can reverse our situation. How can you be so sure of that?"
"By chance I've been able to meet with government personnel, brilliant people analyzing the situation we're living through right now, and even if we're immune, how are we going to face the variants? If right now there is a person who understands the current crisis, I'll only believe him. And right now he's in Washington. A few days ago I was able to contact him, but by his words, Washington is hell, so if he really is a true scientist, I choose to believe my friend."
Eugene sharply caught the point and pretended to ask casually.
"You said you know many experts in virology. Judging by the clothes you wear and the weapons, you seem very well organized. Can I understand that you have your own settlements and even a laboratory with full research and development capabilities?"
"You can understand it that way."
Eugene got an affirmative answer, so he lowered his head as if thinking about something, but no one noticed the struggle in his eyes at that moment.
Rosita, beside him, deeply felt that something was wrong with Eugene. She patted him on the shoulder, looked him in the face, and said: "Don't you think you should say something?"
"Rosita! Don't pressure him!"
Abraham's reaction to any question involving Eugene was quite strong. He called out to Rosita with a low growl, but nobody noticed, and Eugene silently took a few steps back, standing a few meters away.
Rosita looked at him angrily, then stood there with her arms around her waist and didn't speak.
"Friend, maybe what you say is true, but I still believe what I see, so I'm sorry you can't come with me. Then I won't waste time since we don't have much."
Just when he was about to signal some people to leave, he heard a sudden burst of gunfire behind him.
Several people's eyes snapped shut. At that moment, Eugene was holding a rifle and firing bullets wildly. Miraculously, many walkers were coming toward him from behind Abraham's group that nobody had noticed.
Like a cat with its tail stepped on, Abraham rushed forward with a buzz, snatched the weapon from Eugene's hand, grabbed the neck of the walking corpse in front of him with one hand, threw it against the side of the truck, and then smashed its head with the butt of the weapon.
With a crack, its head instantly deflated like a watermelon crushed with a hammer.
Turning his head angrily, Abraham shouted loudly: "What were you thinking? Why didn't you call us immediately when you saw the danger?"
With a roar, he quickly turned his attention to the truck. At that moment, the bottom of the truck's fuel tank had been pierced by bullets, and gasoline flowed along the bullet holes, soon spreading all over the ground.
Eugene was so nervous that he knew he had caused a catastrophe, but still quickly explained.
"The lack of concentration, combined with the lack of knowledge of high-caliber firearms, has contributed to the development of this undesired situation."
"Damn it!"