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🕑 Added 2025-05-09 08:33:27 +0000 UTCStay Alive
Chapter 11 - Catching Up
Alan spoke with the brothers for a while, telling them everything he knew about the virus and the various ways people became infected.
"I thought you'd go back to the army as soon as you knew about this disaster. What happened to you?" Tommy asked more seriously, looking for answers.
"I couldn’t go back. I’m afraid that if I had witnessed what you guys did, my hands would be stained with blood. Maybe right now I’d be leading a rebellion against the system that forces the military to kill those who aren’t infected."
After saying this, Alan fell silent, reflecting on that future. "I can’t confuse the army any further. If I do, humanity will lose."
"Is it really that bad?" Joel couldn’t believe that the military, with all their top-tier equipment, was losing.
"I’ve studied the infected and discovered that they evolve. They adapt." Alan pulled out his notebook and said, "At the rate things are going, in a few years the infected would be monsters that even a tank would have trouble facing."
This was one of the realities they needed to accept as quickly as possible if they wanted a better future.
"Anyway, we need to make a move." Joel insisted he wanted to leave.
Alan, of course, advised him: "We killed most of the infected with that explosion. The best thing we can do now is split up and start looking for supplies."
"Since when are we working together?" Joel was still hostile towards Alan, whom he barely knew.
"What’s your problem?" Alan was annoyed by Joel’s bad attitude. His gaze turned cold as he said, "Like it or not, your chances of survival in the future would increase if we team up. Wait, don’t tell me you’re planning to wander the country alone with things the way they are?"
"That’s much better than staying in one place where supplies dwindle over time."
Alan smirked and asked, "And then what? I don’t want to be a hero, hell, I hate the idea of being one... But it's in our hands to create a place to belong."
"Only to get stabbed in the back later?"
"We'll kill them before they do it." Tommy supported Alan’s idea of staying here a little longer. After all, they had already wiped out sixty percent of the nearby infected.
Joel paced back and forth in the middle of the room, thinking it over. The truth was, there wasn’t a better scenario than this, and though he hated the idea of listening to someone else, he had no choice but to listen to his brother.
"Are you going back to the army?"
"Not for now, I don’t trust the military." Alan honestly wanted to move at his own pace, helping any survivors still alive and then thinking about bigger things.
If he couldn’t survive on his own, creating a stable force here and finding a safe path to a military base was their only chance. Without that, they would die.
Tommy, looking at the map of the city, asked, "What’s your plan?"
"We need to go to Midland. The situation should be more sustainable there than here in Austin. Plus, we’d be less exposed to bombers." Alan had analyzed areas where bombs were unlikely to fall.
In Midland, they’d have military bases near the US-Mexico border. If they could establish themselves there, Alan could use his influence to lead one of the bases.
He had contacts, knew many high-ranking military officers, and most of the sergeants in Texas had once trained under him.
If any of them were still alive, they could do something to improve their chances of survival.
"We’ll do that."
Joel, thinking of something, asked, "What if the military wants to kill us?"
Alan, wrapping bandages on some not-so-serious burns, said, "We kill them first. But believe me, they’re still following orders."
