The morning sun quietly flooded the surroundings, and a ray of light passed through the window on the third floor of the residential house where Merle and Hanna were staying. Feeling the dazzling light, Hanna began to stir, but it was still difficult for her to come out of her sleep.
Slowly opening her eyes, her vision was instantly blinded by the strong light coming through the window.
Stretching out her hands to cover her eyes, Hanna sat up with her eyes closed, and after a while she finally opened them to look at the situation in the room. A mattress was lying on the floor not far from her bed, but now the mattress was empty.
"Where is the old man?"
Hanna couldn't help but wonder since she couldn't see Merle like the other times, and she began to panic. She quickly got up and looked around the house, and finally she could see the car they had been traveling in parked in the yard of the house.
Since the car was there, it meant that Merle had probably not gone far, but the question here was, where did he go?
Crack!
At that moment, a crisp sound outside the window startled Hanna. She looked up and saw a broom lying in the yard that had not been there before, and then another sound of something heavy falling on the floor above alerted her even more.
Hanna hurried to check, and it was Merle who came down.
He had gone to see if he could make the electricity reach the communication room!
Dusting off his body a few times, Merle walked without raising his head. At that moment, the light from the window illuminated his body. Hanna, who knew what was happening, ran toward the communication room and began to listen to see if anyone would respond.
"Kgrrr."
...
After a few attempts, Merle felt disappointed when he discovered that the radio still could not be turned on. Angry, he kicked the chair and was about to throw the radio when Hanna stopped him.
"Don't get aggressive. It will take some time for the energy to be stored in the battery. Why are you in such a hurry?"
The corner of Merle's mouth twitched, and he went downstairs with the weapon in his hand.
"I'm going to check the supplies we found yesterday, and make sure to call me when this thing turns on."
Hanna remained sitting in front of the table and waited bored for it to turn on, unconsciously thinking about the organization Merle had told her about.
A base with a large number of people, abundant supplies, and most importantly, a very secure base. It should be a force that all survivors would want to be part of nowadays, but does such a beautiful place really exist?
She couldn't believe that in this world, where the virus had wiped out almost the entire population, there could be a place where people lived together and survived for so long. Except for her parents and a few neighbors, she had never seen other survivors before.
"Merle doesn't know what is happening at his base now... Is it possible that they died, or that they now have even more people? If it really is like the old man said, there should be children like me in that place. Are their parents alive, or are they like me?"
A bunch of random thoughts appeared in her mind, and time passed without her noticing. Hanna kept playing with the radio switch absentmindedly and did not notice that the indicator light showing that the battery had electrical current was on.
Her slender fingers slid over the switch again, and with a crisp click, the indicator light of the radio instrument turned on and the crackling sound rang out, waking Hanna from her deep thoughts.
She looked at the various buttons on the instrument in surprise and discovered that all the indicator lights were on.
Tap, tap, tap...
"Old man, there's electricity!"
...
"Zz... Central Base, Central Base, this is Merle speaking. Respond if you receive my voice, over."
"Zz..."
"Zz... Central Base, Central Base..."
After several calls, Merle hung the microphone back and waited silently for a response. Without making him wait much longer, a man's voice soon came from the speaker.
"Zz... This is the S.C.T. Central Base. Confirm your identity and state your code number, over."
Merle was confused for a moment, but after remembering which code the person on the microphone was referring to, he signaled Hanna to leave before pressing the button.
"Zz... I am Merle Dixon, captain with class-three authority. I am on a mission directly assigned by the commander of the S.C.T., identification code 1340-0067-1280 with the undercover name Mouse."
"Zz..."
At the same time Merle said all that, Hanna's laughter could be heard from outside the door, and Merle's expression turned gloomy.
"Close the damn door. Didn't you hear that this was private? Get out now or I'll feed you to the walking dead."
...
On the radio.
"Zz... Received, Captain Merle. Your mission is classified and your identity confirmed. I'm glad to hear your voice, Captain."
"Go to hell."
"Zz... Haha, I can hear your enthusiasm from here."
"Tyler, boy, just wait. When I get back, I'm going to kick your ass so hard you'll beg for mercy."
"Then you have to come back alive. I wasn't joking with you. I called the commander. You two should talk about it."
After a brief silence, the speaker sounded again, and this time it was Jason's voice.
"Zz... Merle, how is it that you can communicate with us? Is something unusual happening?"
After a conversation, Merle explained in detail what had happened during the last month. Jason simply listened in silence and then sighed. Merle had not been able to enter the Commonwealth. Fortunately, Alicia, Jon, and Deanna along with her husband had entered, so they would be the key to the slow and gradual development of that place.
"Boss, what should I do now? Return to the base?"
Jason reflected for a moment, and when he was about to speak, he heard a knock on the door and the voice of Captain Welles came from outside.
Tyler opened the door and left the room. Welles entered with his head lowered, holding a piece of paper in his hand as if he were thinking about something.
"Jason, do you want to check this?"
"Wait a moment."
"No, this can't wait. I'm curious about your opinion."
Welles simply raised his head and looked up. He had just chased Jason all the way here, so he was very interested. He had not realized that he had arrived at the communications room until now, and Jason simply set down the microphone and walked toward him.
"Eh, are you talking to South Carolina?"
"No, Merle sent a message saying he's in a part of Oak Ridge in the north. I'll talk to him later. You can tell me what's bothering you."
Welles was stunned for a moment, as if remembering something. He placed the paper he was holding on the table and walked straight toward the map next to the wall.
"Oak Ridge... Oak Ridge... In the largest mansion in that place."
Jason walked behind him in confusion. He watched as Welles' fingers kept moving across the map and finally stopped at a place north of Knoxville, then he struck the map firmly.
"Jason, you mean Merle is here right now, right?"
The name Oak Ridge could be seen along his fingers. Jason nodded uncertainly and then pressed the call button again.
"Merle, the place where you're staying is Oak Ridge on the west or north side of Knoxville, right?"
"Zz... Yes, we were on a hill near Oak Ridge, a small town here, and luckily we found a radio station."
"Wait a minute. I'll let Welles talk to you."
As soon as Welles took the microphone, he couldn't wait to press the talk button.
"This is Welles."
"Zz... Go ahead, I'm listening."
"Merle, there are two war-preparation warehouses in the place where you are. To be precise, there are a large number of war-preparation warehouses at many points across the country. Coincidentally, I know that there are two warehouses in Oak Ridge and another one in North Carolina."
"Zz... Are you kidding me? Are you asking me to find the warehouse by myself?"
Only then did Jason understand what he meant. He took the microphone and thought for a moment before speaking.
"Do you have enough supplies?"
"Zz... We won't have any problems for some time."
"Alright, then wait. Let's have a meeting to discuss what we will do now."
"Zz... Understood."