David's body tensed even more. He pressed his lips together, and after a long while, he said quietly, "I know... you showed restraint."
"It wasn't out of kindness," Calista corrected him. "It was because you didn't pose a threat at the time.
Rock Fortress's rules are simple. Follow them, and you survive, maybe even live better. Break them, and you'll be removed."
She stared into David's eyes. "Handing over all your weapons means that from now on, your life, and the lives of your former companions, depend entirely on our rules and judgment.
Tell me, David. Deep down, can you really accept handing yourself over without reservation? Or is your resentment only being held down for now?"
David suddenly looked up. His lips moved as if he wanted to argue, but when he met Calista's eyes, which seemed to see through everything, and remembered the hopeless gap in force outside the warehouse, his shoulders sagged.
He spoke hoarsely. "I... I don't want to die, and I don't want everyone else to die. I... accept it."
Those two words, "accept it," came out with extraordinary difficulty.
Calista did not keep pressing him.
It seemed David was not truly convinced yet. Later, she could have Carver and Mike teach him the rules.
She said calmly, "I hope you really understand, David. Your behavior will remain under close observation. You can go."
When it was Knox's turn, the atmosphere was a little different.
Calista looked at the haggard older man. "Knox, you spent decades doing maintenance at the dam?"
Knox nodded. Once the topic turned to his field, a little life returned to his eyes. "That's right. I've worked on all kinds of machinery, pipes, and valves."
"Experience is valuable," Calista said, then changed direction. "I heard you're one of the old-timers in the Norris community, usually the one making decisions.
But in Rock Fortress, you may have to follow orders from people much younger than you, even people who may not have as much experience as you.
Maybe a water resources engineering student in their early twenties, or maybe someone my age.
Can you put aside seniority and obey completely?"
The lines around Knox's mouth deepened. He sighed. "At my age, after everything we've been through... what's left to cling to?
As long as I can still be useful and give the children a way to survive, it doesn't matter whose orders I follow. I'll accept the arrangements."
Anna was fairly calm when she walked in.
Calista looked at her. "Your knowledge of hydrology may be very useful to us. But Rock Fortress isn't a research institute. Practicality and safety come first in everything.
You may have to do physical labor or carry out tasks unrelated to your profession. Can you adapt to a system where assignments must be obeyed absolutely?"
Anna answered quickly. "I understand. In the apocalypse, you have to survive before you can talk about profession. I'm willing to start from the basics and learn the rules here. I learn very quickly."
"Anna, you said you're sensitive to data," Calista continued. "Then how do you view the collapse of that safe zone the military established before?
Based on the first round of questioning, more than half of you fled from the official safe zone in Knoxville, right?"
Anna froze for a moment, not expecting the question to suddenly shift there.
She worked to organize her thoughts. "It was mainly chaos... Order still existed at first, but resource consumption far exceeded replenishment, and the military's management orders began contradicting each other and suffering delays in execution.
It was like a hydrological system. If upstream inflow decreases while the midstream keeps drawing water without order, collapse is only a matter of time."
"So you believe it was a systemic failure, not an accident?"
"...Yes. Later, someone hid a walker bite and mixed into the safe zone, which caused the final collapse.
The remaining military took the government officials and the wealthy and ran first. Most of us were left behind."
"Do you know where they fled?" Calista sat up straight, suddenly interested in this question.
Among the people Rickson had questioned, none of them knew anything about where the authorities had gone. They only knew they had been abandoned. Anna was the only one with clear logic who could explain things in more detail.
Calista was genuinely curious. Where had all the state governments and military forces in The Walking Dead gone?
It was like they had vanished into thin air.
Surely they had not all ended up feeding the walkers.
Anna got a little stuck, trying hard to recall what she remembered. "Uh, when I was still in the safe zone, I once overheard patrolling soldiers talking in secret. They said they were heading west."
"West?" Calista rubbed her chin.
In The Walking Dead, the major named factions were all concentrated in the eastern United States.
West of Tennessee were Arkansas and Missouri, and even farther west, there were even more states. But she had not really heard of any factions there.
Even Tennessee itself had never appeared in the main series.
"Alright." Calista did not dwell on it and returned to the main topic.
"Anna, in your view, how is Rock Fortress operating right now? What are your initial observations?" Calista's questions pressed closer step by step.
Cold sweat began to seep down Anna's back. She answered cautiously, "It's very efficient here, and the rules are well established. Much better than where we were."
Calista gave no comment. On the evaluation form, she wrote, "rational, systematic thinking, observant, loyalty needs guidance."
After Anna left, Calista casually flipped through the files, quite interested in the next person.
The next person soon came in.
"Gwendolyn." Calista's gaze fell on the woman who had just entered. "You said you're good at identifying extreme emotions and potential crises.
Then tell me. In your view, what is the most common emotion among the new residents outside right now? And what is the greatest potential crisis?"
Gwendolyn met her gaze without backing down. "I think the most common emotions are survivor's guilt and deep anxiety about the future. They survived, but they lost too much, and they're afraid of this new environment.
The potential crisis may be a sense of relative deprivation caused by the difference between those who arrived earlier and those who came later. Some people may also project their resentment over being abandoned by the authorities onto the new authority...
Meaning you and Rock Fortress's management.
Because, forgive me for being blunt, this place feels very much like a small regime on the rise."
Her analysis was precise, and she made no attempt to cover for the people from her own community.
"Oh? So you think this place has potential?"
Gwendolyn nodded. "More than potential. It's already rising, and at least for now, I don't see any major weakness in its development."
She really did have something.
There was not the slightest hint of fawning in her words, yet it was genuine praise, and flattering in exactly the right way.
Calista smiled and accepted the overture from this intelligent woman.
She leaned forward slightly and asked the most important question. "Then what about you? How do you view being 'abandoned'? And how do you view... the new authority you now need to be loyal to?"
Gwendolyn was silent for a moment before finally answering frankly, "At the time, I was angry, and I was desperate.
I had some reputation in the field, and many of my patients were officials or powerful people.
There was a senator in the safe zone who was also my client. He promised he would arrange things for me.
But when the military withdrew in a hurry, they only took the truly powerful or the very rich. No one came to get me. No one even warned me.
I was abandoned just like everyone else.
But now, I understand more clearly what a strong, orderly community means.
I think this place is our best choice.
As for loyalty... I'll use my professional abilities to serve the base in exchange for survival and protection. That itself is a form of contractual loyalty."
Calista looked at her deeply and wrote, "strong insight, emotionally stable, loyalty requires ongoing observation."
Good. It seemed she had found a suitable survivor examiner.
From now on, when they took in new people, she and Rickson would not have to personally handle the questioning themselves.