O'Donnell subtly edged back behind Dawn while continuing to urge her on.
"Dawn, I think they're bluffing!
"If they really had the strength to take us, they would've stormed the hospital already. Why bother negotiating? We've still got plenty of survivors inside. They won't dare bomb the place!"
With her subordinates talking over one another and egging her on, Dawn's expression shifted several times.
A faint spark of hope returned to her eyes as she looked at Calista.
That was right.
The other side's biggest threat seemed to be the helicopter.
But if they withdrew into the hospital, they would have the building and their numbers on their side. With so many survivors inside, the enemy might hesitate to launch a full assault.
Maybe...
Maybe they could bargain for better terms.
They might even force Calista to back down.
Calista gave a speechless laugh.
Unbelievable.
Dawn really was hopeless as a leader.
She tilted her head slightly and casually glanced toward both sides.
Nothing happened.
O'Donnell's sneer deepened.
"Trying to scare us with theatrics..."
Before he could finish.
"Whoosh!"
The mocking expression was still frozen on O'Donnell's face when a burst of blood suddenly erupted from the center of his forehead.
His head snapped backward as though struck by an invisible hammer.
Most of the top of his skull was blown away, destroying what remained of his expression in an instant.
His body toppled stiffly backward and hit the scorching concrete with a heavy thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Blood rapidly pooled beneath him and seeped into the cracks in the pavement.
It all happened too quickly.
Too brutally.
Dawn and the remaining officers froze.
Every trace of color drained from their faces.
Jeffries had been standing closest to O'Donnell. Warm droplets of blood spattered across half his face.
His mouth fell open, but no sound came out.
His legs began trembling uncontrollably.
And the nightmare wasn't over.
A crimson dot appeared squarely in the middle of Dawn's forehead, just above the space between her eyebrows.
Three more red dots immediately settled on Jeffries and the two officers standing nearest the front.
Snipers.
At least four.
And one of them had just silenced the loudest man among them in the most direct way possible.
Dawn stood completely rigid.
The tiny red point of light on her forehead seemed to freeze the blood in her veins.
She knew that if the other side wanted, her head could burst like an overripe watermelon in the next second.
Every shred of composure she'd been forcing herself to maintain, every trace of confidence her subordinates had talked her into, shattered at once.
The officers behind her fell into chaos.
Several instinctively wanted to dive for cover, but they were terrified that any sudden movement might make the snipers fire.
They remained frozen in place, unsure what to do, fear written plainly across their faces.
"It seems," Calista said calmly, one eyebrow lifting slightly, "that now we can redefine what 'fair' and 'good faith' actually mean."
She took one slow step forward.
Her gaze passed over O'Donnell's body on the ground, then over the sweat-covered faces of Jeffries and the others, before finally settling on Dawn, whose courage had been completely pinned in place by the red dot on her forehead.
"My good faith is that I didn't turn all of you into him from the start."
Her voice was flat, but chilling.
"What happens next is simple. You surrender immediately and unconditionally. Everyone inside the hospital lays down their weapons and submits to our control.
"No bargaining.
"No stalling.
"The only things you're relying on are the hospital walls and the survivors inside.
"Those walls won't stop my snipers' bullets, and they won't stop rockets either.
"As for the hostages..."
She paused.
Dawn's body visibly trembled.
"To be perfectly clear, if they're not my people, I don't care."
Calista's gaze flicked toward O'Donnell's corpse.
"Sheriff Dawn, this is your last chance.
"Order your people to surrender.
"Or become the next one."
As though responding to her words, the crimson sniper dot moved.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
It slid down from the center of Dawn's forehead, traced across her throat, and finally settled over her heart.
The sheer menace of that slow movement nearly made Dawn collapse.
Her body swayed.
Her lips trembled.
Her face had gone gray, and she no longer even had the courage to look at the frightened, pleading faces of her subordinates.
At last, her shoulders slumped.
The hand resting near her holster fell weakly away.
"I... I need guarantees. For my people... and for the survivors..."
"You don't get to demand guarantees," Calista cut her off coldly.
"Dawn, all you can do now is trust my word.
"The rules at Rock Fortress are far more just than your hypocritical system of forcing people into debt and making them work it off.
"Now give the order.
"Everyone in the hospital lays down their weapons and assembles in the central area.
"My helicopter and my people will supervise the entire process."
She turned her head slightly and spoke into her earpiece.
"Franklin, lower altitude and hold above the hospital roof.
"Everyone else, remain in sniper positions and maintain pressure. Watch for any unusual movement inside the hospital."
"Understood!"
The last of Dawn's strength seemed to leave her.
"Surrender... everyone... lay down your weapons... assemble..."
Her voice faltered.
"We surrender..."
The final word was barely audible, yet with it went the last of her authority as leader of the Police Gang.
Above them, the Black Hawk began to descend.
Its enormous shadow spread across Grady Memorial Hospital.
The red dot remained on Dawn's forehead until she had fully issued the surrender order.
Only then did it vanish without a trace, as though it had never been there.
Under Rock Fortress's overwhelming firepower, the surrender of Grady Memorial Hospital went far more smoothly than expected.
Jonathan and the others Calista sent in quickly secured the hospital's main entrances and key high ground.
The disarmed members of the Police Gang were separated from the nervous civilian survivors and placed under guard.
In the open area in front of the hospital's main building, two clearly divided groups stood apart.
On one side were more than thirty ordinary survivors.
Men, women, children, and elderly people were all among them.
Most looked thin and underfed, with little about them suggesting any threat.
Their faces showed confusion over the sudden collapse of the Police Gang and fear over what would happen next.
They clustered together uneasily, stealing nervous glances at Calista and the heavily armed fighters around her, while occasionally looking toward the other group.
On the other side were nine members of the Police Gang.
No.
Eight now.
They had also been disarmed and were crouching on the ground with their hands on their heads.
Without their weapons and the authority their uniforms had given them, they looked like nothing more than frightened, defeated prisoners waiting to learn their fate.
Dawn crouched at the front, her face gray and her eyes vacant.
Jeffries was behind her and off to one side, still trembling slightly.
Gorman kept his head lowered, his expression impossible to read.
Calista stood in the open space between the two groups.
Carver, Jonathan, Abraham, and Rosita stood behind her.
Daryl and Merle led the outer perimeter security.
Maggie supported the weakened Glenn closely while Eugene followed them off to the side.
Calista dealt with the ordinary survivors first.
Hegseth and Leslie began registering each person's basic information, skills, and health condition one by one.
They also handed out small amounts of water and food, all of it taken from the Police Gang's own stockpile inside the hospital.
The process remained fairly orderly.
Once most of the survivors realized they weren't about to be executed and might actually be offered protection instead, they gradually began to calm down.
One thin Black teenager caught Calista's attention.
He looked only sixteen or seventeen.
He stood alone at the edge of the crowd, unlike the others who were eager to register or collect food.
Instead, he simply watched everything in silence.
Calista walked over to him.
"What's your name?"
The teenager looked up at her without avoiding her gaze.
"My name is Noah."
"How old are you? Do you have any family here? What were you doing before this?"
Noah shook his head.
"I'm seventeen. I don't have any family here.
"My father and I came from Virginia. The Police Gang didn't save him because he... he looked a lot stronger than I did."
He paused, his voice dropping.
"My home is in northern Virginia.
"I have a twin brother there, waiting for us to come back."