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🕑 Added 2025-06-25 18:54:46 +0000 UTCA New Beginning From the End of the World
Chapter 188 – Planning
After the soldiers arrived at the base, many—if not most—began setting up tents due to the limited number of houses available in Alexandria.
As planned, most of them wouldn't stay here, since they had to return to the central base along with the mutated infected. It was urgent to investigate what had caused the changes in that walker and send the footage of the encounter to the various bases located in Atlanta.
Jason knew everyone had to be prepared for these new walker variants, so they needed to leave immediately. Of the three hundred people who had arrived, twenty would return in two helicopters, and the rest would remain on-site.
With the soldiers who stayed, Jason planned to take Hilltop as an advanced base and the Kingdom as a future base for his community. Each outpost would receive forty soldiers, special weapons, and, most importantly, hard-to-find medicine.
During the ongoing meeting, many of the captains from small squads were being briefed, so Jason had personally invited many people, including some from the Alexandria community.
In one room, Jason’s people were waiting to hear him speak, and on the other side, members of Alexandria who wanted to know what would happen next at the shelter.
The arrival of armed soldiers had made Deanna somewhat uncomfortable. Why had Jason mobilized so many troops to this place? She didn’t understand, so she hoped someone would explain what Jason had in mind.
Deanna could only assume Jason wanted to reinforce Alexandria’s security, but that didn’t satisfy her. She had accepted Jason with the hope of changing the course of the community, so she wanted to know exactly what his next steps were.
After realizing—through Jason’s own words—that there were more bad people than good, Deanna figured that was one of the reasons behind his actions, in addition to the walker problem. Since his arrival, she had placed snipers in each of the towers, and the main tower was now guarded 24 hours a day without exception.
Many of the survivors in this place, though not openly saying it, were nervous. They weren’t used to seeing so many weapons, people monitoring every corner of the community, and especially a man like Merle insulting those who baked cookies.
Alongside the constant training being provided to hundreds of people, it became obvious that many of the survivors lacked essential knowledge. Every single one of them had seen the darkness of the real world—at least once.
At first, Deanna wanted to move forward slowly, but Jason didn’t give her that choice. In his words:
“Either you go slow and die later, or you move fast and avoid death.”
It’s hard to say now whether Deanna has lost control of the community. If her words still carry weight in Alexandria’s future, it’s only because Jason is a rational man with an eye on what lies ahead. Otherwise, she likely wouldn’t even be in this meeting.
Glenn and Maggie even pointed out that Merle was being too harsh with the training, but Jason refused to ease up and decided to stick to his original plan—at least for now.
As the only one who understood what could happen to more than half the people here, Jason knew that even if he was seen as a demon, he had to act to save their lives. Sooner or later, they would all understand.
Many had already begun to grasp the importance of becoming soldiers in Alexandria. After all, no one could guarantee that Alexandria would last forever. And it seemed that these skills could only be learned from the instructors teaching every day. Slowly, they realized that as long as they had those skills, they could survive—even if they had to flee Alexandria.
After seeing how the new people in Alexandria moved, acted, and thought, everyone began to enjoy learning things they hadn’t even tried since arriving. The power in the hands of men and women would grow to protect their loved ones. Though it would be a dangerous path, everyone understood that nothing in this world comes free. If you want something, you have to work together to get it!
Most importantly, Jason knew that learning to fight and use weapons wasn’t enough. Ever since he arrived in this world, he had valued all kinds of abilities, and he knew some people had better potential for certain tasks. Now, he had given members of the S.C.T. community the privilege to explore those paths.
"Deanna, Aaron, and all the residents of Alexandria here today—I know you're confused, and some of you may even be afraid. I understand. You don’t know the real world, and some of us are only beginning to grasp it. Truth is, you don’t know a damn thing about the global collapse."
Jason looked at Glenn, who was operating a computer. A projector lit up the wall with images that left the people of Alexandria frozen in place.
"This is the city of Atlanta. What you’re seeing are images of the bombing carried out in several cities. Since we can’t go too far from our territory for obvious reasons, this is Atlanta now."
The next image showed empty streets and hundreds of walkers in the distance. The footage revealed many of the horrors Jason’s group had witnessed.
"Don’t look away. Look closely at what happened in that room. Yes, they’re cannibals, and what they’re eating clearly isn’t vegetables." Jason pointed to a scene recorded by Shane. Clearly, those cannibals hadn’t met a good end.
"How is this possible?" Aaron couldn’t help but look away. The people behind him did the same. Deanna and her husband were speechless. They hadn’t thought things were that bad.
"You’d be surprised, sweetheart," Merle said, squinting at Aaron.
"Now you’re going to see our bases in Atlanta and Georgia. All of these people are survivors. They fight every day to stay alive in this world. They’ve learned that fighting—and aiming a gun at certain people—is necessary. Walkers aren’t our only enemies."
"These are just small hordes of walkers. Maybe there are ten thousand in this picture?" Jason asked, inviting participation.
"A little more than ten thousand... not much more," Daryl muttered as he looked at the photo.
Jason nodded, looked around, and said, "That doesn’t matter. What I want to say is—there’s no world to go back to unless we build it ourselves. I’m not asking for understanding, I’m asking for participation."
"Alright, you have the plans in your hands for what we’ll be doing in the coming months. We’re going to expand Alexandria’s territory to take more houses and secure enough land to grow vegetables. In the meantime, a squad will take some walker samples back to base."
"As for the two communities we’ve discovered—they’re harmless. So, I want to ask if you believe it’s right to send them aid and military support. Daryl, what’s your opinion?"
When Jason asked the question, everyone looked at Daryl, waiting for his response. Feeling uncomfortable, Daryl began to regret joining the meeting.
"Well, they have crops and are better prepared than we are in that area. If we give them medicine, weapons, and soldiers, they’ll support us with food until we can grow our own."
Maggie, standing beside Glenn, nodded and said, "I agree with Daryl. They seem like good people. Now that we’ve met King Ezekiel and his people, we should support them as the strong community we are."
"They’ve got a lion. I read somewhere it could rip your arm or head off with a single bite," Glenn said with a stifled laugh.
“Damn, kid…” Merle was the only one who joined in the joke.
"Well, let’s get some rest. It’s already nighttime," Aaron said, seeing that everything had been thoroughly explained.
"What are we going to do about the people at the military base?" Raúl Méndez asked suddenly.
"Ah, my dear Raúl, that’s exactly what I wanted to get to. What will we do about those people? You said they were mostly pilots and civilians, right?"
