On the afternoon of the third day, the convoy entered the outskirts of Clayton County.
This place was even more ruined than the areas before it. The abandoned towns and farms showed signs that the chaos here had been even worse.
Near a fork in the road, the convoy found a relatively intact gas station and decided to stop briefly to see if they could find anything useful.
The gas station was quiet. Several rusted cars sat crookedly beside the pumps, and the convenience store's doors and windows were shattered, its interior pitch-black.
Calista gave a hand signal, and the convoy slowly stopped without turning off the engines.
She, Leah, Bossie, Merle, and Daryl approached the gas station in a fan formation.
The others stayed in the vehicles, ready to provide support or pull out at any moment.
Michonne's pickup stopped behind the convoy. She did not get out, only watched silently through the window.
Just as Calista and the others were about to reach the convenience store entrance,
"Bang!"
A rough gunshot shattered the silence.
The bullet struck the ground in front of Calista's feet, kicking up sparks and dust.
"Hey! Stop right there! Drop your weapons!" a harsh voice shouted from the repair garage behind the gas station.
A moment later, more than twenty figures appeared behind the broken windows of the convenience store and on top of an abandoned tanker truck.
They wore mismatched clothes. Some even had ill-fitting police vests or bulletproof vests thrown on, but the weapons in their hands looked decent.
Most carried handguns, and two or three had shotguns.
There were more of them than Calista's group. Their faces had the sickly yellow look of long-term malnutrition, but their eyes were full of reckless cruelty.
Shane's hands tightened around the steering wheel. Looks like this group had looted a police station. Their gear was not bad.
The leader was a burly bald man with a scar on his face, holding a shotgun.
He grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth. His lecherous gaze swept over Leah and Calista. "Damn, finally got us some fat sheep! The vehicles, the supplies, and those two women. Leave 'em all here!"
Raiders.
And from the look of it, they were sure they had this group trapped.
"Now!" Calista snapped, raising her hand and firing without the slightest hesitation.
Almost the instant her voice fell, the fight broke out.
Calista did not have time to aim for the head. Her shot hit the bald man in the abdomen with a dull thud.
The impact of the bullet hit him like a sledgehammer. He screamed, the shotgun slipping from his hands as he staggered back several steps and crashed heavily to the ground. Winded, he struggled but could not get back up for the moment.
The other raiders had not expected them to be so decisive. They froze for half a second before howling and rushing forward. Relying on their numbers and familiarity with the terrain, they tried to overwhelm Calista's squad in one push.
But the Rock Fortress team reacted even faster.
After dropping the leader with one shot, Calista immediately rolled sideways behind an abandoned sedan and fired her pistol in controlled shots.
"Bang! Bang!"
She hit a raider leaning out of the convenience store window to shoot, the bullets striking him square in the face. He dropped without even a grunt.
The moment the gunfire started, Leah lowered herself and surged forward. A raider had just taken aim at Bossie when she closed the distance, her dagger flashing into his throat.
Bossie dove behind a gas pump, set up his assault rifle, and fired a short burst.
"Rat-tat-tat!"
The burst pinned a shotgun-wielding raider trying to circle in from the side behind a car, bullets clanging against the metal body.
Merle and Daryl were behind the abandoned vehicles.
A raider had just rushed out of the convenience store with his gun raised when Merle lunged in from the side like a mad dog, swinging the axe blade on his right arm hard into the barrel.
With a clang, the gun was knocked aside. The raider froze, and Merle had already slammed into him, driving the axe blade into his face and taking him out.
A raider standing on top of the tanker spat, his rifle already aimed at Calista. The next moment, a crossbow bolt shot out from the shadows and sank straight into his thigh.
The man screamed and rolled off the roof of the tanker. Daryl did not even look at him, quickly reloading and putting another bolt into him.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The team members in the vehicles behind them also opened fire. A few controlled shots later, the fight was already nearing its end.
The gunfight was fierce, but the raiders were still just a mob. Under Calista's squad's counterattack, their numbers dropped fast.
In the blink of an eye, only seven or eight raiders were left, and the team members in the vehicles had not even gotten out yet.
"Fuck! Fight 'em!"
Seeing that they could not win the shootout, the remaining raiders went red-eyed. Howling, they drew machetes and iron rods and charged in, trying to force a close fight.
The other team members got out and rushed over as well.
Carver dodged a bullet. In the same motion, his machete swept upward and cleanly cut open the raider's wrist. With a scream, the raider's weapon fell from his hand.
Carver did not stop. He rolled toward another raider with a pistol, and before the man could pull the trigger, a throwing knife buried itself deep through his neck.
Mike roared, his axe sweeping out with a terrifying rush of air. A raider trying to ambush from the side was smashed away with his weapon, crashing into a gas pump with a heavy thud. He clearly was not getting up.
Shane used an abandoned car as cover, exchanging fire with two armed raiders.
As a former instructor, he fired faster and more accurately. "Bang! Bang!" Two shots struck one raider in the chest and another in the arm, effectively suppressing their ranged fire.
Just then, Michonne, who had been watching quietly the whole time, moved.
No one saw how she appeared.
A raider howled and charged in from the side toward Calista, who was locked in close combat with the bald leader, trying to ambush her.
But he had only taken two steps when his neck went cold, and his vision spun violently.
He did not even see who had struck before his head rolled to the ground.
Another raider was hiding behind the tanker, preparing to aim a pistol at Mike's back.
The instant he poked his head out, a cold flash of steel passed by, and his gun arm was severed cleanly at the elbow.
The raider let out a shrill scream, but the sound cut off abruptly.
The katana had already curved back and sliced open his throat.
Soon, only the bald leader was still standing.
Seeing that his men were either dead or down and unable to fight, he knew his end had come. He rolled aside to avoid Calista's attack and struggled to grab the shotgun lying not far away.
The bald man's hand had just touched the shotgun's stock when a cold flash of steel cut through the air.
"Pshh!"
The katana swept precisely across his neck, bringing up a spray of warm blood.
The burly bald man froze, his eyes full of disbelief and terror. Then the light in them faded, and he went completely still.
Michonne stood there with her sword drawn, flicking the blade once. Not a single drop of blood clung to it.
She swept a cold look over the bodies on the ground, as if she had only done something insignificant.
...
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