This small town on the mountainside is really very small. There are more than 20 houses built on the mountain, and not to mention that buildings are scarce. From the entrance of the town, the distance to the highest house can be vaguely seen. The entrance to the town is several hundred meters away.
"I can't believe that seeing how the world is, no one lives in this incredible place. Isn't it a perfect place to survive and avoid the walkers?"
Hanna walked beside Merle and looked strangely at the intact houses around them, and she couldn't help but express her question.
Merle did not feel comfortable in this place, so he did not respond to Hanna's question immediately, but after seeing that there was nothing out of the ordinary, he replied, "This is obvious. There really are no fields on the mountain... How do you expect them to survive if they don't have experience in the wilderness?"
Hanna secretly made a face, then as always began to ignore Merle's sarcastic words and turned her attention back to the surroundings.
The few walkers that had just calmed down were relatively close to the entrance of the town. Since the two entered the town, they encountered a few scattered walkers every ten meters.
Many more walkers could also be seen in the distance. Seeing this, Merle said, "Come here, girl. We have to do the usual thing, understand?"
Boom!
The simple and violent way of opening the door saved a lot of trouble in the following minutes, so after entering the house, a walker immediately approached from the inside.
"For fuck's sake, what the hell? Are the people in this town cowards or why are there walkers in every house we enter?"
Hanna couldn't help but give him a complicated look and said, "Do you think everyone can survive like you?"
Merle looked at her and said, "What did you say?"
"I didn't say anything, I just mentioned that there are all kinds of people, and the strangest ones are like you, the ones who face walkers without any fear."
"Everyone should be like me..."
"Aren't you being a little inconsiderate? If everyone were like you, then do you think we would be in this situation?"
Hanna knew that the end of the world was something that couldn't be controlled, so in some way the walkers at the beginning of all this were stronger and the situation much more desperate. Merle agreed; he had heard Jason say that the walkers were faster and more aggressive depending on how long it took for someone to change from human to walker.
But Hanna was surprised to see that Merle agreed with her on something. She was nervous that he would suddenly change his words. However, Merle mentioned, "Girl, do you think I don't think about the things that ended this world?"
"No..."
The two chatted without saying many interesting things, but their movements were not slow. In a short time, several houses were looted by the two of them one by one, and time finally led them to nightfall.
"The last house. We'll rest once we finish with this last house..."
At that moment, the two were standing in front of the last residential house in the town. It was a three-story villa with a large area.
"Bah, damn wealth..."
A mouthful of thick yellowish phlegm was spat onto the face of a statue of an angel in the fountain in the center of the courtyard. Looking at his masterpiece, Merle showed a mischievous smile on his face.
Hanna beside him wrinkled her nose in disgust, looked away from that repulsive scene, and focused her attention on this house that looked more like a mansion.
The main entrance was a dark red door, with a sense of luxury in the details. The camera above the door told them how strict the security system had been before the end of the world in this place, but it had lost all meaning at this moment since even the electricity had disappeared.
Walking toward the door, Merle stretched out his large hand and knocked hard several times as usual. The deafening sound spread through the villa, and the two waited silently at the door. As the villa returned to silence, they waited but heard nothing.
Crack!
With a creak, the villa's door was not locked. Perhaps the electric lock had lost its effectiveness after the power outage. In any case, the two entered the house without any effort.
A damp smell flooded their nostrils. No one had taken care of this place for a little more than a year and a half, leaving the house full of decay and ruin.
Merle looked at the floor twice, and in the thick dust, several rows of crooked footprints were extremely eye-catching.
At first, Hanna didn't understand any of the observations Merle was making. However, now she knew that this was an obvious sign that there had been walkers or people. The two looked at each other, nodded, and Merle led the way into the room.
"Hello, sunshine teddy bear, is anyone home? Hehehe!"
"You're really scary..." Hanna muttered in a low voice.
But Merle didn't care and continued, "Come on, baby, what's the point of not coming to welcome the guests? Are you just waiting to die or did the walkers screw you over?"
The two walked down the hallway close to the wall while looking at the smallest detail that might be in this house.
But there was nothing...
In the last room on the first floor, Merle cursed when he discovered there was no one there and then went up the stairs.
No walkers were found on the first floor, which made Merle a little alert, and then he discovered that there were no walkers on the second floor either.
The eyes of the two couldn't help but turn toward the third floor, and they climbed the stairs on full alert. Merle stood on the stairs and probed a little. After quickly scanning around, he found four or five walkers standing silently at the door of a room.
"Hiss..."
Merle made a sound and slowly stepped back, hitting the wall several times with his long machete and instantly attracting the attention of several walkers.
Ahhhh!
Rrrr!
Puff! Bam, bam!
There was a series of sounds, and several walkers coming down had no ability to defend themselves when facing Merle and were all eliminated as soon as they came down.
"Let's see who these rotten meatballs were chasing!"
Taking his pistol, Merle carefully placed his hand on the doorknob.
Crack!
Pushing the door open with one hand, Merle looked inside the room with his head slightly tilted and scanned the room twice with the barrel of his gun, quietly placed toward the innermost part of the room.
Merle's eyes lit up and a smile appeared on his face.
"Hahaha, it seems it wasn't a waste of time coming all the way here..."
Hanna also approached, looked into the room from behind Merle, and saw a large radio station sitting silently there.
Hanna didn't understand Merle's behavior upon seeing this. The old man had been looking for this thing the whole time, but since she met Merle, he had been alone and had never contacted anyone. Now it seemed that he had a place to return to, but until now she knew nothing about it.
Merle couldn't wait to walk to the front of the radio. He grabbed the microphone and pressed the button to transmit sound.
"Krrrrr...."
After trying to use the radio several times, there was no response at all, so Merle cursed and slammed his fist hard on the table.
"Shit! This thing is broken!"
"It should be the power, if my perception of reality isn't failing me..."
Hanna was standing to the side with a cable in her hand, occasionally looking at the battery that supplied power to the equipment, and she remembered that this place had no electricity.
Only then did Merle understand. He hurried to take a look and searched the house again, but he couldn't find a spare battery or a power generator.
"There should be photovoltaic power generation panels somewhere... I just saw them when I was outside. You can wait until tomorrow to look at the roof more carefully." Hanna said, and Merle then calmed down since nothing could be done today. It would be better to try tomorrow, so now he took Hanna to look for a clean room with the intention of sleeping.
...
"Merle?"
"Speak if you have something to say..."
"You have a place to return to, right?"
"Yes, a huge home where everyone loves me..."
"Can you tell me about it?"