Harrison Memorial Hospital, King County.
In the third-floor ward corridor, the fluorescent lights had long since gone out.
Only a few faint beams of light slipped in through the gaps in the curtains.
The entire building was as quiet as a grave.
No.
It was even quieter than a grave.
The door to Room 302 was half-open.
A man lay on the bed.
He was gaunt, his stubble overgrown, his cheeks sunken, his skin an unhealthy grayish white.
A bouquet of withered flowers sat on the bedside table.
Proof that a long time had passed since Rick had been hospitalized.
The man’s finger suddenly twitched.
The movement was so slight it was almost impossible to see.
Rick Grimes’ consciousness struggled upward, and before long, he opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was the ceiling.
“Lo…”
Rick couldn’t make a sound.
He turned his head toward the bedside table and quickly realized something was wrong.
“Is anyone there?”
Rick struggled to sit up, his bare feet touching the cold floor.
At the end of the hospital corridor was a door.
The words on the door were reddish brown, stark and chilling.
DON’T OPEN
DEAD INSIDE
Something behind the door was scratching at it, nails scraping against the metal panel.
Rick stared at the door and took a step back.
His instincts told him not to open it.
He turned and walked the other way.
The stairwell was pitch-black.
He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.
Rick struck a match, and the weak flame revealed the scene inside the stairwell.
The walls, handrails, and steps were all covered in dried blood.
He forced down the fear in his chest and walked down step by step.
When he pushed open the first-floor fire door, sunlight poured in all at once, stabbing at his eyes.
The parking lot came into view.
Rows of white body bags were lined up across the open lot.
There had to be at least a hundred.
Some of the bags had torn open, exposing blackened, swollen limbs.
Flies circled over them.
Rick bent over and vomited violently.
After finally pulling himself together, Rick began walking home, one step at a time.
He walked for about forty minutes.
There wasn’t a single person on the streets.
His hand was shaking as he pushed open the door.
“Lori?
Carl?”
The living room was empty.
The cushions were still on the sofa, but his family was gone.
The closet had been opened, and half the clothes inside were missing.
Someone had packed in a hurry and left.
It was most likely connected to whatever had happened at the hospital.
Rick returned to the bedroom, changed out of his hospital gown, and put his own gear back on.
But he noticed that his holster was empty.
His wife had probably taken the gun to protect herself.
He decided to head to Atlanta first.
…
At the same time.
The quarry camp.
Luke Li stood on the lookout platform, holding the hand-crank radio to his ear.
Someone was sending a broken call over the police frequency from the direction of King County.
The signal was too weak.
He could only make out a few fragmented words.
“…anyone…
there…
this is…
King County…”
Then the signal vanished.
Luke Li lowered the radio.
Good man.
Finally awake.
He jumped down from the lookout platform and walked toward Glenn.
Glenn was crouched in front of a tent, sorting his backpack.
A wooden stick was stuck in the ground beside him.
Over the past two days, even when he wasn’t training, he would still practice a few moves on his own.
“Glenn.”
“Hm?”
“Get ready.
You’re going into the city tomorrow.”
Glenn looked up but didn’t ask why.
“Okay!”
…
Early the next morning, Glenn set out.
This time, he wasn’t going into the city alone.
Andrea volunteered, saying the camp needed more daily supplies and that she knew a few pharmacies that hadn’t been fully looted.
T-Dog came along as the main muscle for carrying supplies.
Morales, a Mexican-American man who usually kept a low profile, also decided to contribute to the camp.
Four people in total, including Glenn, and one van.
Luke Li stood at the camp entrance, watching the van disappear down the forest road.
Before leaving, Glenn looked back at him.
Luke Li nodded.
After the van had gone, Luke Li climbed onto the lookout platform, turned on the radio, and tuned it to the emergency communications channel for downtown Atlanta.
Then he crouched near the edge of camp and began assembling the second blueprint: a rainwater collector.
It was green quality, with simple materials.
All it needed was waterproof cloth, PVC pipe, a filter screen, and a water storage barrel.
He finished it in half an hour.
The finished product was a two-meter-square collection panel, propped at an angle beside the lookout platform, with a pipe running from the bottom into a fifty-liter plastic barrel.
A triple-layer filter was fitted inside the pipe: coarse filtration for sand, fine filtration for suspended particles, and activated carbon to remove odor.
The collected water couldn’t be drunk directly, but after boiling, it would be perfectly safe.
The stream beside the quarry still had a decent flow for now, but the water source could be contaminated by passing walkers.
If that happened, this setup would be a lifesaver.
“Our little Einstein inventing something again?”
Dale leaned over with a light joke, curious to see what useful thing Luke Li had made this time.
“It’s a rainwater collector.
If we make a few more, we won’t have to fetch water from the stream anymore.”
Dale rubbed the stubble on his chin, his eyes full of approval.
“You know, Luke, you make me feel like this world hasn’t completely gone to hell yet.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
After noon, the radio kept giving him nothing but white noise and looping recordings.
There were no new signals.
Until 3:27 p.m.
The white noise on the radio was suddenly interrupted by a burst of static.
“Bzz…
bzz…
can…
can anyone hear me…
bzz…”
Luke Li’s hand stopped.
That wasn’t Rick’s voice.
“Bzz…
this is Glenn…
bzz bzz…
downtown Atlanta…
we’re in trouble…”
The signal kept cutting in and out.
The repeater was doing its best to amplify it, but the buildings in the city were blocking the radio waves too badly.
Luke Li grabbed the walkie-talkie.
“Glenn, this is Luke Li.
Tell me what’s happening.”
“Bzz…
department store…
bzz…
surrounded by a horde of walkers…
front and back doors are both blocked…
bzz…
Andrea and T-Dog are with me…
and there’s someone new…
bzz bzz…”
“Who’s the new guy?”
“A cop…
bzz…
says his name is Rick…
when he was surrounded, he managed to climb into a tank…
I got him out…”
Glenn sounded tense, but he was still keeping his head.
“Glenn, does the department store have any passages to other buildings?
Rooftop, basement, sewers?”
“There’s a sewer entrance in the basement, but I don’t know where it leads.”
“It should lead out of the city.
Atlanta’s sewer system has three exits south of Peachtree Street.
The nearest one is under the railroad bridge.
Go in from the basement, keep heading south, stay near the main pipe on the right, and you should get out after about eight hundred meters.”
This was information he had studied while scouting earlier.
It had originally been for his own use, but now it was coming in handy.
Glenn was silent for two seconds.
“How do you know that?”
“Don’t ask.
Move.
Where’s the van parked?”
“In an alley on North Third Street.”
“Once you’re out of the sewer, circle north, avoid the main streets, and take the alleys back to the van.
Glenn…”
“Hm?”
“That cop.
Don’t lose him.
He’s important.”
“Bzz…
copy that…”
The signal cut out.
Luke Li set down the walkie-talkie and leaned against a post of the lookout platform.
Everything was following the plot.
He trusted Glenn’s abilities.
That kid had run through the city countless times.
Navigating the sewers wouldn’t be a serious problem for him.
More importantly, Rick was with him.
That man was a natural leader.
The more dangerous things became, the calmer he got.
Luke Li took the Colt Python .357 revolver out of his backpack.
The silver body of the gun reflected a soft light under the afternoon sun.
This gun had been in his hands for several days.
He had been thinking about whether to keep it for himself.
The stopping power of .357 Magnum was far stronger than 9mm.
One shot was enough for one walker, and it could even punch through light cover.
Still, this thing could be used as an investment.
Luke Li put the gun and bullets into a cloth bag, then tucked it into the toolbox in the pickup bed.
At six in the evening, the sun was about to set.
Dale suddenly shouted from the lookout platform.
“There’s a car coming!”
Luke Li stood up.
On the distant forest road, a red Dodge Challenger came out from between the trees, followed by a van.
A Dodge Challenger?
That kid really hadn’t forgotten to get himself a nice car.
The sports car’s anti-theft alarm kept blaring, the piercing sound carrying for miles.
Luke Li frowned.
That noise would attract walkers.
“I got a car!”
Glenn had barely stepped out before shouting excitedly.
“Turn off that damn alarm!” Shane rushed over, nearly ready to shove the Asian kid’s head into the engine.
Glenn froze, then scrambled back inside to find the switch.
The others got out one after another.
Finally, a stranger stepped out.
He was wearing a police uniform and a cowboy hat.
A man walked out.
It was Rick Grimes.
He stood at the entrance to the quarry camp with hope written across his face.
Then he saw Lori stand up beside the RV.
“Dad?”
Carl looked as if he couldn’t believe his eyes, then rushed toward Rick.
The family of three was finally reunited.
Luke Li stood beside the pickup, hands in his pockets, quietly watching the scene unfold.