“Attention, please have all vehicles line up in an orderly fashion.
Medical personnel will inspect you.
Any behavior that refuses to cooperate with the lawful execution of duties will be severely punished.” Night hung in the sky, and moonlight shone down on the interstate highway.
Cars on the road turned on their headlights one after another, while the Soldiers on the isolation wall turned on searchlights, shining them into the dark corners nearby to guard against anyone trying to sneak into the city under the cover of night.
“What are your plans once you get inside?” Osborn leaned lazily against the driver’s seat, yawned, and asked Brian what he intended to do next.
Interstate 35 was the fastest route from the southern region to Dallas.
Before they arrived, the road was already crowded with a massive number of vehicles, and the inspections at the entrance were agonizingly slow.
Even though they had been waiting since noon for nearly nine hours, they had only just barely reached the outside of the isolation wall.
Behind them, fleeing vehicles arrived from all directions, the traffic still stretching endlessly, as if nothing had changed at all.
Yet even so, the people in these cars were still willing to keep waiting, just to be able to enter the city.
It was hard to imagine that with so many crowded vehicles, not a single car honked its horn.
Brian looked at the night outside the car, thought for a moment, and said softly: “When we were in Austin, we met an old man named Arman.
He had invited us to come to Dallas with him, but at that time, we were looking for Sarah’s relatives, so we didn’t go with him…” As he spoke, he took a note out of his pocket and said: “However, he left us an address.
I’ll see if I can find him, learn about the situation inside from him, and then figure out a way to go to Washington to find my parents.” After explaining his plans, Brian asked in return: “What about you guys?
Do you have a place to go after getting inside?” “Not yet.” Osborn shook his head helplessly, sighed, and said: “I will first contact my former comrades and report what happened in Austin.
Don’t worry about me; at the very least, I still have this RV.” Brian nodded without saying anything more.
Seeing that the vehicle in front had finished its inspection and it was about to be their turn, he turned around, clapped his hands twice inside the car, and said: “Ladies, it’s almost our turn.
Get ready.” The RV slowly pulled up to the checkpoint.
A Soldier wearing a hazmat suit walked to the car window, knocked twice with a serious expression, and signaled for the people inside to roll down the window.
As the window slowly rolled down, the Soldier looked into the car and was taken aback.
Sitting inside were a middle-aged man and three children.
For some reason, this caused his expression to soften slightly, and he said kindly: “Sir, please get out of the vehicle.
We need to inspect you and the vehicle.” “Alright.” After the four of them stood by the side of the RV, Brian saw a Soldier holding a rectangular instrument walk up to him, with a cylindrical object on top.
He knew that must be the so-called “Infection Scanner.” Two other Soldiers boarded their vehicle and rummaged through it, searching for anyone who might still be hiding inside.
The Soldier with the scanner walked behind the four of them, placed the cylindrical end on the back of their necks, and pressed the detection button.
For every person checked, the scanner would emit two “beep” sounds, followed by the Soldier’s report that they were not infected.
After confirming that the people in front of him were not infected, another Soldier with a record book asked them in detail about their names, ages, and previous residential addresses, and also inquired about their relationships and whether they had any relatives in the city, among other questions.
After ten minutes of this hassle, the Soldier confirmed there were no issues and allowed them to pass.
He then used a walkie-talkie to notify the control console to open the isolation gate and let them enter Dallas.
The Military naturally would not let the Survivors who had just entered the city wander around freely.
When the RV drove to the designated area, a guiding Soldier driving a small vehicle moved in front of them, waving at them constantly to signal for the vehicle to follow him.
Inside Dallas, it was far from as good as it looked from the outside.
In an open area similar to a Park, densely packed tents were set up.
As the vehicle passed by them, even sitting inside the car, one could hear sad, sorrowful crying coming from within.
After driving for nearly half an hour, it was basically all the same situation.
It was evident that as the places in the city to house Survivors became fewer and fewer, and the number of accepted Survivors increased, Dallas would likely reach saturation in just a few days.
The guiding vehicle brought them to the outside of an abandoned Factory.
A large, open area was divided into two halves by a wire fence running across the middle.
The area on the left was entirely set up with tents, while the area on the right was entirely parked with RVs.
The ground was marked off with white lines into individual plots, with each plot able to accommodate one RV.
“Strange, why are there only RVs parked here?” Brian noticed the situation outside the car and felt a bit curious.
“There’s nothing strange about that, because ordinary cars are just cars, while our RV is a home.” Osborn didn’t find the surrounding environment strange, and seeing Brian was a bit confused, he explained to him: “After all, our country is a democratic and free country.” After reversing the RV into the designated spot, the guiding Soldier got out of his car, walked up to Osborn, handed him a booklet and four ID cards, and said: “These are the things you need to collect supplies.
Currently, Dallas is under martial law, and a curfew is in effect after 20:00.
There are also many other important notices on here.
Remember, don’t cause trouble.” After saying this, the Soldier didn’t say anything more, turned around, drove off in his small vehicle, and left.
“Whoa, I have new neighbors!” Just not long after the Soldier left, the owner of the neighboring RV got off his vehicle.
This was a ragged, drunk old man.
He was holding an empty wine bottle, found a chair nearby, sat down, and waved at Brian and the others to greet them.
Seeing the old man in front of him, Brian had an idea.
He turned, ran back to the RV, grabbed two bottles of wine from it, came back down, sat down next to the old man, and started to get chummy with him.
“What is he doing?” Kelly watched Brian, who had suddenly started chatting with a stranger, and asked her father with some confusion.
“Ah, he is gathering intelligence.” Patting his daughter’s head, Osborn took a deep look at Brian and said softly: “Alright, let’s go to sleep early.
We have other things to be busy with tomorrow.” Watching the father and daughter get into the RV, Sarah didn’t follow them up.
Instead, she sat on the step, tilted her head, and quietly watched the side of Brian’s face.
The drunk old man took big gulps of the wine Brian had given him.
Suddenly, no matter how he looked at the kid in front of him, he seemed so pleasing to the eye, so he answered every one of his questions.
“The Military distributes daily living supplies in the central district at 9 o’clock every day, but remember to keep your supply card safe.
Those Soldiers only recognize the card, not the person.
Also, when you go to collect things, you must carry a gun, otherwise, you will definitely be robbed…” “Of course there are protests here, but I advise you one thing: don’t join them.
That is a very stupid thing to do…” “Your place should be over in the North District.
It’s not too far from here.
Go out from here, turn right, and keep walking straight, and you’ll be able to find it…” “I don’t know how to leave here either, but I advise you to stop bothering with it.
Don’t believe what those people on TV tell you about the infection being under control; things outside have long since gone to chaos…
How do I know?
Heh heh, I ran over here from the west, what wouldn’t I know?
In the end, isn’t it all the same everywhere!” “…” The old man in front of him didn’t know a whole lot, but as long as it was something he could answer, he could speak clearly and in great detail.
Having obtained general information about Dallas, Brian sent the old man to his RV and also learned the other person’s name—Antoine.
“What’s wrong?
Sarah!” Turning around, intending to return to the RV, Brian suddenly saw Sarah sitting at the door staring straight at him and asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
“Ah?
Nothing!” Asked by Brian like that, Sarah instantly came back to her senses.
Her little face flushed red, and she hurriedly covered it up, saying: “How was it?
Did you get any key information?” “It’s not very clear yet.
I think we might not be able to leave here for the time being.” Brian pondered the information he had just obtained, his expression looking a bit grim.
It seemed his previous guess was correct; this epidemic had already started to spiral out of control, which meant that other places would no longer be safe.
This made him hesitate about whether there was still any need to risk leaving.
“Then what do we do next?” Hearing that they might not leave here, Sarah’s heart, for some unknown reason, felt a little bit of secret joy.
Her own relatives were already gone, and she didn’t want Brian to go out and take risks again.
But she knew that he also needed to find his own relatives, and no one had a reason to stop him, so she didn’t express it, simply burying these thoughts in her heart.
Anyway, wherever he went, she would go too.
“Let’s sleep first.
We’ll go find Arman tomorrow and ask him then.” With a sigh, Brian looked at the time, took Sarah’s hand, and went onto the RV.
Regardless, everything would have to wait until tomorrow to be decided.