However, Maggie's expression showed no sign of panic.
Meeting the leader's gaze, she replied calmly, "The old man driving the RV is the one who pleaded for the the Observer before."
"Although he didn't persist, he still has a bit of a conscience." Maggie's voice was cold. "So I believe his fate can be left for God to decide."
Hearing this, the leader seemed satisfied with the explanation and nodded slowly.
"But there must be supplies in there!" The tall, thin man named Ben countered eagerly, unwilling to give up.
"Supplies?" Maggie finally turned her head and glanced at him. "Never mind how much is left inside. It's about to get dark. Do you want our people to risk being surrounded by Walkers just to run down that damn slope and carry things back and forth?"
She pointed to the smoking wreckage of the RV: "Not to mention that thing was just blasted. Who knows if it'll explode again?"
"If you're not afraid of dying, go yourself."
"I..." Ben was left speechless and closed his mouth resentfully.
"In that case, don't go." The man leading them waved his hand dismissively.
Only at this moment did Rick's tensed nerves dare to relax for a second.
He gritted his teeth, letting the sharp pain from his back wash over him, with only one thought roaring frantically in his mind:
"Louis... you must stay alive! I swear, I will escape and come back for you!"
"Very well." The leader waved his hand. "Take the captives and clear out all their supplies. We're heading back to prepare for the trial."
The militants immediately swarmed the remaining vehicles of Rick's convoy like locusts.
They roughly shoved the captives into the trucks and began to loot frantically.
"Boss! Look! These people are loaded!"
"Damn, so many medical supplies! And so much food!"
A militant dragged a crate full of canned goods out of the truck, the very ones they had just brought from the CDC.
He walked up to the bound T-Dog and intentionally kicked the crate over, sending cans rolling everywhere.
"Look at you greedy sinners!" He spat. "Hoarding so many supplies yet unwilling to share with a desperate mother!"
"Your souls have rotted!"
"Shameless!"
Rick, Shane, Daryl, and the others watched with bloodshot eyes as these people took all the supplies they had worked so hard and risked their lives to collect—
The medicine and food from the CDC, as well as various firearms and weapons... everything was loaded onto their trucks.
For the supplies they couldn't finish moving right away, they found ways to put new tires on the vehicles and drove them away, cargo and all.
"Move!"
The leader gave the order.
The roar of the convoy's engines sounded again, taking away all of Ricks Team's combat power and supplies as they drove toward an unknown direction.
After an unknown amount of time, only dead silence remained on the highway, along with the roars of Walkers beginning to gather in the distance.
Inside the car that had been deemed "all dead," Glenn opened his eyes tremulously.
He gasped for air, drenched in cold sweat.
Glenn's heart pounded.
When that woman looked down to check earlier, she clearly discovered he was still alive!
But why didn't she report it?
"Are they... gone?" A trembling voice came from the back seat; it was Miranda, Morales's wife.
Seeing things go south, she had pulled back Glenn, who wanted to rush forward and fight, and quickly smeared blood from a nearby Walker's corpse on them to play dead, narrowly escaping.
"They're gone," Glenn replied hoarsely. Without time to think, he immediately pushed open the car door. "We have to get out of here quickly too!"
Just as he got out of the car, he heard a muffled, low sobbing nearby.
Glenn immediately became alert. He gripped his pistol and followed the sound. Next to an SUV lay a Walker killed by a stray bullet.
That sound was coming from beneath the Walker's corpse.
Glenn shoved the rotting corpse aside—Sophia was curled up underneath, covered in black blood and mud, her small face pale, nearly speechless with terror.
"Oh god..." Glenn gasped.
"Sophia!" Miranda's two children also ran over. The little girl handed over the doll she had been holding, trying to comfort her.
"It was Mom..." Sophia finally burst into tears. "She hid me here... she told me not to make a sound..."
Glenn's heart sank. He held Sophia tightly and looked at Miranda and her two terrified children.
"Glenn, Louis and the others..." Miranda looked down toward the roadbed.
Glenn's gaze turned toward the woods where black smoke was rising.
Dale, Amy, Andrea... and Louis. They were all in that RV!
He had to go down!
Glenn told Miranda to hide with the children first, while he slid down the steep slope toward the RV wreckage.
Inside the woods, the overturned RV was a mess. The smell of gasoline and burning was pungent and unpleasant.
"Ugh..." Dale clutched his bleeding forehead, struggling to regain consciousness from the deformed driver's seat.
"Amy?" Andrea also slowly woke up. She shook her groggy head and then her eyes widened in horror. "Amy!!"
She searched frantically through the cluttered cabin and soon saw her younger sister collapsed under a seat. Amy's abdomen was a bloody mess, her clothes soaked in blood, and she had passed out.
"No... no! Amy!!" Andrea let out a broken sob and reached out to hold her.
"Don't move her!"
An unusually calm voice stopped her.
Louis was leaning against the opposite wall of the vehicle, his face pale, currently in a dazed state as well.
However, he was likely the one in the best condition right now.
When the vehicle overturned, Amy had used her own body to shield him from most of the impact of the flip and fall, sustaining serious injuries herself as a result.
Andrea turned her head sharply, sobbing uncontrollably. "Louis! She..."
"Calm down! She's still alive!" Louis immediately stopped her from lunging forward.
"A piece of rebar pierced her side during the crash, and she lost a lot of blood. But while you were unconscious, I already performed emergency first aid on her."
Louis explained quickly; of course, he wouldn't mention that he had already used a Healing Charm to stop the bleeding amidst the chaos.
He pointed to the wound, which looked gruesome but was no longer bleeding heavily. "I've stopped the bleeding. It looks bad, but no vital organs were hit."
"She just lost too much blood and hit her head, so she passed out."
"Louis? Andrea? Dale!"
Just then, Glenn's voice came from outside the shattered windshield.
"Glenn!" Dale was overjoyed, struggling to crawl over. "Oh god! How are the others?"
"They've all been taken," Glenn said, laboriously squeezing through the opening into the RV.
This news made the world go dark for Dale, and he nearly collapsed.
"Ed and a few others ran into the woods, status unknown." Glenn's voice carried a hint of a sob. "Now it's just me, Sophia, Miranda, and her two children."
"Now is not the time for this."
Louis interrupted everyone's despair, propping himself up to stand while looking around.
"It's almost dark. The gunshots and explosions from earlier will draw all the nearby Walkers. We can't stay here."
"But where do we go?" Dale's voice was full of anxiety. "Amy needs treatment! Glenn, are you familiar with this area?"
"Oh god, I was just a pizza delivery guy in the city. Why would you think I know my way around the woods?" Glenn said with difficulty.
"However..."
He tried hard to remember. "I saw a map on the way. If I recall correctly, there should be a church nearby... but I have no damn clue how to find it!"