Chapter 48: Downpour
Day 2, sunny.
Shawn's group drove for about 180 kilometers and spent the night in an undeveloped wasteland. When a walker knocked on their door at night, Daryl, lying on the roof of the truck, silently pierced its brain with a bolt.
***
Day 3, cloudy.
The convoy only covered less than 100 kilometers. Even so, by the time they stopped, it was already 9 PM. The reason was that they had found a family farm along a side road, not much different from Hershel's.
However, this family was not so lucky. When Shawn snuck in, their bodies were lying in the living room. Faced with the apocalypse, they had ultimately chosen to kill each other. But in this bullshit environment, who could laugh at them for being cowards? They had simply made a different choice, just like at the CDC.
Because there were no living people to tend to them, the crops in the fields were almost all dead. The real surprise, however, was that Maggie found two pigs, a male and a female, wandering in the barn. They had broken out of their pen and eaten all the spare food in the barn, not even sparing the hay used for bedding. Even so, when Maggie found them, they were weak from hunger. If the convoy had arrived two days later, they would have followed their masters in escaping the apocalypse.
They loaded the two pigs onto the truck, dug up some deeply buried sweet potatoes from the farm, and packed some seeds to take with them. That was why on the third day, the convoy only traveled less than 100 kilometers.
***
Day 4, light rain.
The sky was gloomy all day, like the eve of a storm. Fortunately, although the light rain never stopped, it didn't get any heavier. To make up for yesterday's lost progress, the convoy started early today, driving an extra 60 kilometers before stopping to eat and rest.
The worries of the second day were gone. Seeing the forest where the Prison was located getting closer and closer, a hint of a smile appeared on everyone's faces. The stable life that Shawn had described was not far away.
***
Day 5, continuous light rain.
Shawn frowned, his leg twitching slightly. There was a hint of irritability and impatience in his expression. If you looked closely, you would see that the whites of his eyes were streaked with a few blood vessels, as if his entire eyeball was about to turn red. He looked up at the sky; the frequency of the raindrops was increasing.
"It's been raining all day, and it looks like it's only going to get worse."
"Rick, ask Daryl if he can find a place to shelter from the rain up ahead. It's getting dark soon."
Rick nodded. He would have done so even if Shawn hadn't said anything. He picked up the radio and called Daryl. It was true that they had the vehicles for shelter, but they would still be affected to some extent. Sleeping in the cars at night would be noisy and affect everyone's sleep. The sound of the heavy rain would also obscure their vision, and even the Red Tyrant's camera system wouldn't be able to see clearly. If a horde approached, they wouldn't know...
About half an hour passed. The sky had started to darken, but there was still no sound from Daryl on the radio. He and Merle seemed to have vanished.
Another half an hour passed. The sky was as dark as thick ink, the darkness greedily encroaching from all sides, and still no response from the two brothers.
'Tap, tap, tap—'
Carol knocked on the back of the truck. "I think something's wrong. Daryl and the others have been gone for too long."
Rick turned to comfort her, and when he turned back, his eyes met Shawn's. Both their hearts sank. They had sensed something was wrong after the first half an hour. Daryl had a radio. Even if he hadn't found a place to shelter from the rain, he should have at least stayed within radio range and contacted Rick at the scheduled time. But that wasn't what was happening.
There was no news from Daryl and Merle. The radio was on the team channel, so even if Rick deliberately didn't ask to avoid alarming everyone, the others in the cars had probably already noticed.
"Should we stop first and wait for them to find us?" Rick suggested. With both parties' locations now unfixed, the worst thing to do was to search blindly. Plus, the rain was getting heavier at night. It was better to let them find their way back along the road.
After some thought, Shawn slowed down, about to stop. But then he saw the RV up ahead suddenly slam on its brakes.
'SCREECH—!'
The brake pads locked up, the sound so loud it was clearly audible even in the downpour.
"...*kzzzzt*...*kzzzzt*..."
And just then, the radio crackled to life.
"Calling... Ri...ck, the RV... *shhhh*... can't... go on, tonight... have to stay... here... *kzzzzt*..."
But the voice that followed was Old Dale's. The transmission was intermittent, but it wasn't hard to hear that after 5 days of continuous driving, the RV had finally given up.
"Can you hear me?"
"Dale?" Rick held the radio close to his mouth and shouted. But after that, all that came from the other side was strong static.
Rick's hand fell. He lowered his head, scratched his forehead, then rubbed his chin, twisting his beard. Although he said nothing, these small, uncharacteristic movements revealed the frustration in his heart.
Daryl and Merle were out of contact, the RV had broken down, and now even the radio was being affected by the heavy rain.
"Shawn, we can't go on tonight. But we can solve these problems. And we need to wait for Daryl and the others to come back anyway," Rick said, giving up after slapping the radio a few more times.
Shawn's breathing grew heavier. He gripped the steering wheel and said nothing.
"Shawn?"
"Hey, listen to me. It's not a big deal, okay?"
"We're all still here. Daryl will be fine on his own, I trust him."
"We just need to make sure the convoy is safe for now."
Seeing Shawn's abnormal state, Rick knew this was bad. He quickly softened his voice to calm him down. Many members of the camp trusted Shawn. If he fell apart first, they would surely panic.
"...No, no."
Shawn spoke. Although he tried to control himself, his voice still sounded like the low growl of an angry beast.
"I have to go find them," Shawn said, gritting his teeth. He tried to keep his gaze low, so as not to draw attention. He could even feel a faint, blood-red glow emanating from his own eyes.
Shawn turned his head and looked up. A huge Blood Moon hung quietly in the sky. It made no sound, made no move. But just by staring at it, the Blood Moon seemed to suddenly be right in front of him, exerting a heavy pressure on him. It pressed down on his chest, making his heart beat faster and faster... faster and faster...
Shawn's face was slightly flushed. He could even feel his own blood surging like a fountain.
*****
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