In fact, Rick wanted to refuse at first, but when the words reached his lips, he suddenly thought of his wife. If Lori had been allowed to go out with him and realize the reality before she was infected, would she have still died the way she did, or would there have been another outcome?
Thinking of this, he hesitated for a moment and then changed his mind — it would be good to let them go out. But as soon as Carl opened his mouth, his expression changed.
He put his arm around his son's shoulders and looked at him seriously.
"No, Carl, you're too young."
"Father, I'm not young anymore. Besides, you can't protect me forever, right? Now that my mother has passed away, if one day…"
He didn't continue speaking, but everyone present understood the meaning behind his words and intentions. Although it was only an involuntary comment from a child, it also silenced all the adults for a moment.
Yes, if one day even Rick dies, who could he rely on? Then he has to grow up and be strong, doesn't he?
The two women looked at the boy with some anguish, while Rick hugged his son tightly and whispered softly in his ear.
"I'm not going to leave you, never!"
Carl didn't give up on his idea and asked,
"So you agreed to let me go with you?"
"No, not this time."
Jason, who had been silently watching from the side, finally let go of his anger and looked at Carl with different thoughts.
In the comic, Carl is humanity's future and the one who leads the entire community toward a better tomorrow. However, in the TV series, he unfortunately died in a rather controversial way that angered many people. Fans defended him by saying that Carl, as a child, had killed three walkers, but when he became an experienced, intelligent adult, he inexplicably died at the hands of a walker.
Thinking that this time Carl could have a better future and even become a great leader, he had to interfere.
"Listen, Carl, you'll have to undergo training for a long time — that includes all the kids with you. When you've mastered the skills to protect yourself, we'll agree to go out together. But for now, can you even shoot? Do you know how to use a knife?"
The boy shook his head in confusion.
"Then that means you're not ready yet. And if your father still doesn't want to let you go out, we'll go on missions together without him noticing, alright?"
In Carl's eyes, Jason was always an idol. And when his idol spoke, he immediately forgot his previous thoughts and began imagining how he would look when he finally went outside.
But before Jason could finish speaking, he stood up and looked at Amy, nodding again after thinking for a moment.
"You and anyone else who still wants to go outside can do it. You're aware of the world out there and of all my warnings to abandon those ridiculous ideas. This time, you'll lead the team!"
Seeing the smile on Amy's face, Jason immediately silenced her with his cold, harsh words.
"But I want you all to be very clear about this! If you cause any trouble, put the team or the operation at risk, you'll have to take responsibility. If you think you can't handle that, don't even bother getting out of the car."
"Alright, don't worry!"
"Good, then go talk to the others who want to join us. We'll leave early tomorrow morning."
Finally, Jason turned his attention to Michonne, who had been standing there.
"Michonne, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing, I just passed by the door and heard you're going out with Rick, and I want to go with you."
"You're always welcome, but you might end up being the babysitter for other desperate women!"
Jason couldn't help but say that when he saw Amy and the others walking away. Over the past few months, a strong bond had formed between the group that left the central base, so that joke was among friends.
"That's fine, at least I'll teach them the basics so they don't die too soon."
"That's your choice. I can't take care of everyone."
Smiling at Jason, Michonne left the office, leaving Rick and Carl alone with him.
"I know what worries you. Nothing too bad will happen since the place we're going isn't heavily populated."
"I hope so…" Rick said, and Jason nodded before saying goodbye to the father and son.
When the surroundings fell silent, Jason stared at the map quietly and closed his eyes wearily. Everything was much more complicated than he had imagined at first, but if Amy and the others wanted to go, he wouldn't stop them.
...
Early the next morning, at an electrical company far from the city and the central base.
There were many things to consider before trying something like what they were about to attempt, but in the end, everything depended on time — and, evidently, luck. It had taken Georgia a long time to redirect power to the most important places and cut off electricity to the areas they wouldn't be using for now.
Therefore, Jason only wanted to test whether it could be done or not. This time, he went out with about thirteen people — his original group plus a few extras. Since there were so many people and it wasn't necessary to mobilize more personnel due to the extensive work at the central base, Jason only took his modified RV, which had been repaired after taking numerous bullet hits.
Getting to that place took about an hour. The company was in an open area where there wasn't much population.
Abraham looked at the entrance of the facility and said with some boredom, "When I was a kid, I wanted to be an electrician, but the path of strength won me over, and I became a soldier."
"Jason and I talked about going to the White House and taking it as a base, but that would be a bit problematic…" Glenn looked at Jason with a smile before Maggie elbowed him.
But Negan looked at him with a grin, not forgetting to tease, "Yeah, why didn't we think about going to the White House when we were in Alexandria?"
Abraham slapped his thigh suddenly, a hint of regret in his words. "Damn, what a shame."
Daryl, who was sitting there cleaning his bow and crossbow, suddenly scoffed and said without raising his head, "You wanna go there to play with corpses? Washington wasn't an exception when they bombed the city — same as Atlanta. Even the CDC blew up."
"..."
"Alright, let's get ready."
The search was quick, and indeed they found a large number of photovoltaic power generation devices as expected. They didn't find any employees, though they did find some that had turned into corpses trapped in the dormitory.
After cutting down the walker that came out of a door, Jason sighed — it was really hard to move through these places without knowing their layout well.
Even if there were many walkers now, there was little left for him to fear. He was ready to face them without hesitation.
Now his group was at its best — all members of his main team were well-fed, strong, intelligent, and experienced in fighting walkers or people.
Jason had seen many zombie movies before; those red-eyed walkers were similar to ones he knew quite well. He always asked himself, in an apocalypse, which type of walkers would he prefer to face?
The answer was always the same — the slow ones, because he would survive longer.
Slow and dumb walkers are the easiest to deal with.
Not to mention, it's impossible for walkers to be that organized — there'd have to be tens of thousands of them for someone to die surrounded.
He might just have a chance!
However, after reincarnating into a terrifying world, his experience as a soldier was filled with brutality, and he had lost many loved ones. After his honorable death, he thought it was the end.
But he awoke in another world, with no apparent memories of his past life. Yet, as time passed, the coldness in his emotions and his indifference to killing began to change — he slowly regained his feelings.
When the time came to resolve the knot in his heart, he was able to live this life to the fullest and slowly rediscover the beauty of this world in a direction where everyone could be equal.
His sacrifice was once again bringing hope to this cruel, dead world, and his desire for freedom drove him to create an entirely new world as he continued to thrive.
...
After clearing the entire place, Jason made a decision and contacted the base in Atlanta to send a squad to protect the site.
"We have to go to South Carolina!"
With that sentence, the group quickly moved toward South Carolina. This time, his people were taking Alabama, so moving toward Georgia or Alabama was useless for their progress. Now, his group was advancing to a new place that would one day be part of their territory.
With the next order, Lu Jiayi led a group of people and continued marching northwest of Atlanta.
Two and a half hours later, the RV gradually approached the place to scout it.
According to the experts from Atlanta, electricity couldn't be supplied to the central base since it wasn't directly connected to that part of the grid. Therefore, according to the records, there were similar facilities in South Carolina.
Their goal this time was simple — and if something took long, it would only be the mobilization. When they reached the outskirts of the city, they found facilities similar to an industrial area, all on the side of the road with logos from different companies.
The group wasn't idle. Everyone spread out, looking on both sides of the road, trying to find their target among the many buildings.
"There."
Everyone looked in the direction Daryl pointed. About a hundred meters away stood a ten-story building, silent. Behind it, there was an even taller one — at least twenty stories high. It wasn't the buildings themselves that drew everyone's attention, but the row of large capital letters on the roof.
Oxxen Electric Company!
That was the destination of their journey. It seemed no one had been there in a long time. There were many abandoned cars on the road, blocking their path forward. George had to slow down the RV and move forward carefully.
Jason knew very well there might be survivors in the building, but he couldn't say so with complete certainty — he could only remind his team to stay alert.