The next day, Calista called a meeting of the inner circle. She was ready to make a move against Terminus.
Leah was the first to arrive. She nodded to Calista, who was already seated at the head of the table, then sat down and casually poured a glass of water for both herself and Calista. Her expression was perfectly calm, showing no trace of the secret discussion she and Rickson had held the night before.
Rickson came in next and took a seat across from Leah.
Maya and Lieutenant Welles followed soon after.
Danny arrived last with the communications equipment, with Carver helping him carry it in.
Both were dressed in their usual duty gear and sat near the door. Danny needed to make sure the radio connection with the prison outpost remained clear.
There were no online meetings in the apocalypse, so this was the best they could do.
Danny adjusted the channel and speaker. After a brief burst of static, Rick's slightly distorted voice came through.
"Rock Fortress, this is the prison outpost. Rick speaking. Do you read me?"
"Loud and clear, Rick," Calista replied into the microphone on the table. "Everyone's here. Let's begin."
Calista skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point.
"The hospital situation has mostly been brought under control, and the new arrivals are being integrated.
"What happened there was a reminder that Rock Fortress can't just sit around waiting for trouble to come to us.
"It's time to focus more of our attention outward, actively eliminate nearby threats, and expand our security perimeter.
"The prison outpost is our forward reach and defensive barrier to the southeast.
"Rick, you've done well. You've not only secured the outpost, but also kept up regular reconnaissance beyond it."
Her tone shifted.
"I've put together some of the intelligence we've gathered recently. Somewhere near the edge of the prison's reconnaissance range, perhaps a little farther out, there may be a 'neighbor' we need to take very seriously."
Calista paused and looked around at everyone present before finally resting her gaze on the blinking indicator light of the communications equipment, as though looking directly at Rick from miles away.
"This 'neighbor,' or potential threat, has a name.
"Terminus."
Leah frowned slightly. She clearly had no idea who they were.
After a two-second pause, Rick's voice came through the radio.
"Terminus... I don't remember seeing any obvious signs around here. What exactly is it?"
"That's what I want to find out."
Calista stood and placed both hands on the edge of the table.
"We don't have much intelligence on them."
She began delivering the story she had prepared in advance, inventing a source that no one could verify.
"While we were dealing with the aftermath at the hospital, one of the survivors mentioned something.
"He said that while fleeing, he had traveled north along the old Interstate 85 route. Near one of the junctions, he saw a large billboard.
"The writing on it pointed toward a place called 'Terminus.' The slogans were..."
Calista paused as if trying to remember.
"Something along the lines of 'A Safe Haven,' 'A True Community,' and 'Reach the End, Start Again,' along with a rough directional arrow."
Leah immediately caught the important point.
"A billboard beside the interstate? After all this time, someone is still putting up signs directing people to a specific location?"
"Exactly." Calista nodded. "That's what makes it suspicious.
"Either Terminus really exists and has enough manpower and resources to maintain signs guiding people toward it, which is unusual by itself, or those billboards are bait."
Rickson asked cautiously, "Calista, did that survivor say whether he ever got close to the place or saw anyone from Terminus?"
"No." Calista shook her head. "He said he was running for his life and only saw it from a distance. Advertising a 'safe community' so openly in the middle of nowhere struck him as strange, so he didn't risk going any closer and kept heading north.
"He said the arrow pointed roughly northeast. Based on where he saw it, Terminus may be outside the prison outpost's usual reconnaissance radius."
Maya and Lieutenant Welles exchanged a glance.
Maya asked, "Is that man in the newcomer quarantine area? Maybe we can get more out of him."
"That's the problem." Calista spread her hands regretfully. "He never came to Rock Fortress. He chose to leave on his own because he wanted to search for his family."
She paused, seemingly organizing her thoughts, when in reality she was trying to make the story sound more natural.
"I don't think we can dismiss the possibility that Terminus is real.
"And if it is, there are basically two possibilities.
"First, it's a survivor community with relatively abundant resources, but its leadership is overly idealistic and still thinks in terms of old-world publicity. A place like that usually doesn't last long in the apocalypse, but it could attract trouble or become a tempting target for predators we'd rather not deal with.
"Second..."
Calista's voice turned colder.
"It's a carefully constructed trap.
"They use 'hope' and 'safety' as bait to lure survivors in, then rob them, enslave them, or do something even worse."
The reasoning was plausible enough that Leah's expression immediately turned grave.
"If it's the second possibility, then they have to be armed and organized. They may even have a fixed 'hunting' area. If the prison is nearby, that could put the outpost in serious danger."
Rickson also looked concerned.
"If they survive by preying on others, then food, medicine, weapons, and even people are all potential targets. And the prison isn't invulnerable."
The discussion quickly became heated.
Carver, who had been listening from the side, had watched Calista seriously when she first brought up Terminus.
But the more she talked, the stranger it sounded.
Carver was the only person in the room who had been with Calista throughout the hospital operation. He had participated in clearing the hospital and in the initial screening and questioning of the survivors afterward.
He knew very well that none of those survivors had ever mentioned a man who saw a billboard and then left.
His surprise lasted only a moment.
Carver almost immediately realized that something else was going on. He shifted slightly in his chair and cast an awkward glance at Danny beside him.
Danny didn't notice. He was resting his head on one hand, listening to the others argue over the implications.
Carver knew Calista far too well to think she had simply remembered something wrong.
If she was saying this, she had a reason.
Maybe she had another intelligence source she hadn't disclosed.
When Calista's gaze happened to sweep past him, Carver met it and nodded naturally, wearing an expression that said, yes, that's exactly how it happened.
"Now that you mention it, Calista, I remember him!"
Everyone looked toward him.
"There was someone like that. Things were pretty chaotic during the questioning. He was nervous and kept stumbling over his words. He mentioned a billboard and something about 'the End,' but we never got the chance to ask him much more."
Carver sounded genuinely annoyed with himself as he added, "I think he also said... uh... that the markings on the billboard looked pretty... strange."
Calista's thoughts stirred.
She gave Carver a subtle, approving wink.
She hadn't expected him to catch on so quickly.
With Carver, someone who had actually been there, backing up her story, the last doubts the others might have had about the source of the information disappeared.
Leah looked at Carver.
"Anything else? Where did this guy come from?"
Carver shook his head without changing expression.
"There were too many people around and everything was a mess. He had one of those faces that doesn't really stand out, so I don't remember what he looked like.
"He had a bit of a Southern accent. Said he came from... from..."
Carver hesitated, searching desperately for something.
Then inspiration struck.
"He said he escaped from the direction of Macon. Everyone traveling with him died along the way, and then the hospital police picked him up. That was about all the useful information he gave us."
"That's enough. Either way, we can't verify the source anymore."
Seeing that Rickson was about to ask another question and Carver was beginning to struggle, Calista stepped in and brought the discussion back on track.
"But if the information is true, then Terminus is a potential threat, and it's close to the prison.
"We need to prepare for the worst."
...
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