When it came time to dig the trenches, every man in camp joined in.
Shane led the work.
T-Dog, Danny, Marcus, Glenn, and even Dale came down to haul dirt.
Merle did not show up.
He sat in front of his tent sharpening his knife.
No one could get him to move.
He only said, “I’m not your damn slave,” and that was the end of it.
Nobody paid him any attention.
Daryl came, though.
He picked up a shovel and got to work without saying a word.
The trench did not need to be complicated.
Three feet deep, two feet wide.
Once a walker stepped in, it would not be able to get out.
Twelve men worked the whole day, and by evening, they had finished the northern and eastern sections, roughly 120 meters in total.
The western side backed onto the rock wall.
Any walker that came down from there would be smashed to pieces, making it a natural defensive line.
The south side was the route for vehicles to enter and exit, so they left a four-meter-wide gap and blocked it with two scrapped cars.
When they needed to pass through, they could simply push them aside.
The quarry’s defensive system was basically complete.
Outer layer: tripwire alarm, fifty meters out.
Second layer: slowing barriers and stake trench, thirty meters out.
Third layer: trench, fifteen meters out.
Inner layer: a circular barrier formed by vehicles.
Observation point: lookout platform.
Four defensive lines.
Compared to the quarry camp in the original show, this was practically luxury.
At the very least, it was far more reliable than a barricade made out of wishful thinking.
Of course, if a large-scale horde of several hundred walkers came, no defensive line would matter.
They would have to run.
But for now, at least, the quarry was the safest place within ten miles.
The day after the trench was finished, Luke Li went hunting.
Not because he needed food.
The supplies in his backpack slots were enough to keep him alive for a long time.
Luke Li was trying to get closer to Crossbow Guy.
Early in the morning, he walked over to Daryl’s tent with a crossbow on his back.
Daryl was waxing his hunting crossbow.
Luke Li did not say anything.
He just lifted the crossbow in his hand.
Daryl looked up at him, stayed silent for three seconds, then stood and walked out.
Just like that, the two of them left camp.
No words needed.
Daryl walked ahead, and Luke Li followed slightly behind and to the side, keeping a distance of five steps.
That was the unspoken formation hunters used.
The lead tracked, while the person on the flank covered.
Luke Li had never been trained in that formation, but Perception 7 made him instinctively choose the right position.
After about twenty minutes, Daryl suddenly crouched down.
He tapped a mark on the ground with his finger.
A shallow hoofprint sat in the dirt, its edges still wet.
White-tailed deer.
Adult.
Passed through about half an hour ago.
Luke Li’s eyes lit up.
Crossbow Guy was more useful than a dog.
Anyone who had played Call of the Wild knew how nice it was to have a tracking hound on a hunt.
Daryl raised his hand and pointed southeast with two fingers.
Luke Li nodded.
The two split apart, forming a forty-degree angle as they advanced parallel to the deer’s trail.
Tracking in the woods was a skill.
Daryl was a natural hunter.
Where he stepped, where he looked, when he stopped to listen to the wind.
It was all instinct.
Luke Li kept up steadily.
With Perception 7, he could catch details even Daryl might miss.
A low branch rubbed and snapped by something passing through.
A faint rustle in the bushes thirty meters away.
The barely noticeable scent of an animal in the air.
Fifteen minutes later, they found their prey.
An adult white-tailed buck with four-point antlers was drinking by a small stream.
Daryl crouched behind a bush thirty meters away and slowly raised his crossbow.
Luke Li was twenty meters to his right.
He raised his crossbow too, but did not fire first.
He waited for Daryl’s move.
Daryl held his breath.
Thrum.
The crossbow string vibrated.
The bolt struck the deer cleanly in the neck, tearing through the artery.
Blood sprayed out.
The deer sprang up and staggered east for a dozen steps.
Luke Li’s bolt followed immediately.
The second bolt lodged behind the deer’s shoulder blade and pierced its lung.
The deer collapsed.
Two bolts.
A clean kill.
When Daryl walked over to inspect the game, the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
“You picked a good spot for the follow-up shot.
Went through the lung.
Killed it quick, and didn’t ruin the meat.”
“Learned a little.”
“From whom?”
“Taught myself.”
Daryl glanced at him.
If he did not want to talk about it, fine.
Then came the basic field dressing.
Daryl bled and skinned the deer, while Luke Li helped hold the limbs and clean out the organs.
Once they were done, Daryl tied the deer with rope and hoisted it over his shoulder.
The deer weighed around 160 pounds, but on his shoulder, it looked no heavier than a sack of rice.
The guy only looked skinny.
His physical strength was far better than it seemed.
On the way back, Daryl suddenly spoke.
“You’re not a firefighter.”
Luke Li did not stop walking.
“What do you mean?”
“Firefighters don’t use crossbows.
Don’t track deer.
Don’t kill twelve walkers by themselves in front of a pack of twenty.”
Daryl was only stating the facts.
Based on what he had seen, Luke Li was definitely not as simple as he looked.
“What’s your story?”
Luke Li was silent for a few seconds.
A person like Daryl could not be fooled.
His instincts were sharper than a lie detector.
“I really was a firefighter,” Luke Li said.
“But before that, I served in the military for two years.
After I got out, I went to grad school.
Firefighting came after that, though I didn’t do it for long.”
Daryl snorted.
“That makes more sense.
No ordinary firefighter throws an axe that well.”
He did not ask which unit, what branch, or how long Luke Li had served.
But the buff above his head changed again.
[Recognition – Combat Level] upgraded to [Recognition – Comprehensive].
[Kindred Awareness] grew brighter.
A new marker appeared beside it.
[Trust – Budding]
Trust.
Daryl Dixon was starting to trust someone he had known for less than three days.
In the original show’s timeline, that was basically skipping half a season of relationship-building.
It was almost noon when they returned to camp.
Daryl threw the deer into the processing area and started cutting it apart.
When Luke Li went to wash his hands, Merle strolled over.
“Well, look at that.
My brother took you hunting?” Merle had a cigar between his teeth, eyes narrowed as he looked Luke Li up and down.
“That’s rare.
Daryl doesn’t take outsiders.”
Luke Li dried his hands and looked at Merle.
Merle’s buff, [Hostility: Low], was still there, but [Wariness] was even more obvious than it had been last night.
There was also a new marker beside it.
[Testing]
He was testing Luke Li’s limits.
“You don’t look like the hunting type, and you know how to use a crossbow?”
“A little.”
“A little?” Merle snorted.
“Didn’t look like just a little last night.
Learned it in the army?”
News traveled fast.
Daryl was not talkative, but the brothers had clearly said something to each other.
“Yeah,” Luke Li said simply.
“Which unit?”
“Does that matter?”
Merle narrowed his eyes, and the curve of his mouth turned a little more dangerous.
“In this camp, anything I want to know matters.”
Luke Li met his gaze.
He did not back down, but he did not provoke him either.
“Merle, I respect you as Daryl’s brother, and I respect that you can fight.
But if you think everything in this camp has to go through you first, you might be overestimating your position.”
Merle’s expression changed.
His buffs fluctuated sharply.
[Hostility: Low] jumped and almost rose to [Hostility: Medium], but [Wariness] brightened at the same time.
The two forces pulled against each other for a moment.
In the end, [Wariness] held [Hostility] down.
Merle stared at Luke Li for three seconds, then grinned.
“You’ve got balls, kid.”
He turned and walked away, the smoke from his cigar trailing behind him.
Luke Li watched his back.
Merle’s buffs slowly stabilized.
[Hostility: Low] remained unchanged, but a faint new marker appeared beside [Wariness].
[Interest]
Interesting.
Merle had a twisted kind of interest in people who were not afraid of him.
It was not friendliness, but at least it was not pure hostility.
That could be used.
That afternoon, Luke Li did two things.
Using the materials brought back from the hardware store, he made three spike-board traps and deployed them at key positions in front of the trench.
With blueprint knowledge and his Carpentry Lv.3 skill, the spike boards he made were sturdy and well-hidden.
Anyone who stepped on one would have their foot pierced straight through.
Then he found an empty corner and opened the system panel.
Four Walker Essences lay quietly in his backpack slots.
He still needed six more to exchange for one attribute point.
He needed more kills.
But he could not just wait for walkers to come to him.
He had to go out and find them.
The second scavenging run needed to be put on the schedule.
This time, he could not just head to a supermarket and pick up easy supplies.
He had to go deep into walker-dense areas and scavenge high-value targets.
Military facilities, police stations, National Guard armories.
In the apocalypse, guns and bullets were power.
Whoever had the strongest firepower had the loudest voice.
Once Rick arrived, the camp’s power structure would change drastically.
Luke Li needed to become strong enough to lead this elite group.
He closed the panel and stood up.
On the distant horizon, the black smoke over Atlanta was thicker than it had been two days ago.
The city was dying faster.
He still needed a partner who could go into the city with him.
Glenn knew the city routes, but he lacked combat power.
Taking him into a dense area was too dangerous.
Danny could fight, but he did not know the city.
Once stressed, he was too likely to fire his gun and bring unnecessary trouble.
The best candidate was Crossbow Guy, who had just hunted a deer with him that afternoon.
Luke Li walked toward Daryl.
Crossbow Guy was crouched in front of his tent, stringing his crossbow.
When he heard footsteps, he lifted his head.
“Got a big job,” Luke Li said, crouching down.
“Come into the city with me.
Deeper in.
We’ll scavenge weapons and ammo.
We might run into a lot of walkers, so I need someone who can fight watching my back.”
Daryl’s fingers paused on the crossbow string for a second.
“When?”
“The plan is the day after tomorrow.
Tomorrow, I’ll take Glenn to scout the route first.
Once the route is confirmed, we go in the day after.”
Daryl lowered his head and continued stringing the crossbow.
After a moment of silence, he said, “Fine.”
…