Chapter 79

When Lina and Daryl returned to their makeshift hideout, Rick had already been talking to the three policemen for a while, though it didn't seem like they were having a very good conversation.

But nobody cared; all they cared about was getting Carroll back in exchange for those three.

“We need to scout the location. The car they were driving just now might be useful,” Rick said as he saw Daryl and Lena beckon them aside. The group stood at a distance and discussed their plan, while the police officers were tied to a pillar.

“Let’s go,” Sasha and Tersey said.

“No, Daryl and I will go, and come back quickly. You didn’t go over there just now,” Lina said, and Daryl nodded.

“Okay,” Rick nodded, then looked at Sasha, “I need you to stay and keep an eye on these guys. I’ll take the rest of the group to scout out the area.”

“Okay,” Sasha nodded, though she was still in a bad mood, but she knew what was important.

“Be careful,” Rick glanced at Bob Ramson, who was tied to the post. He was the one with influence among the three cops. According to them, Dawn, the current head of the hospital, wasn’t doing a good job, and many people wanted her to step down. Ramson was the next leader they wanted to put in charge.

Rick wasn't interested in their internal affairs; he was just a little worried about the weight of those three policemen. He didn't want to start a war unless absolutely necessary, as the other side seemed to have far more resources than they did.

“Let’s go,” Daryl glanced at Rick, nodded to him, patted Lina on the shoulder, and the two returned to that disgusting place.

"Honestly, I was so angry with you that I forgot!" Lina complained, otherwise they wouldn't have had to make this trip.

“…It was my fault,” Daryl said.

"I feel like you're being a bit perfunctory," Lina muttered, staring at Daryl suspiciously.

“We’ve arrived,” Daryl quickly changed the subject; if he continued to dwell on this, it would truly be his fault.

The two searched the vicinity but didn't find anything of value, though they did find a bag of food and some rope and other things.

“I found half a box of bullets,” Lina said, picking up a box from under the seat in front of her, opening it and counting the bullets. “Great, all our expenses for today’s transactions were found by me, rounded up, no expenses!”

That makes sense. Daryl checked the back of the truck again, but there was nothing there. "Let's go back," Daryl said to Lina as he stuffed his things into his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

Lena skipped over, shoved the bullet into Daryl's chest, and leered at him, "Here you go, my beauty, take it and play with it."

Daryl looked helplessly at Lina, took the bullet out of his collar, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Stop messing around."

Tsk, Lina couldn't help but think of certain scenes she shouldn't have. Feeling her face burning, Lina awkwardly looked away. "Let's go, let's go."

Daryl chuckled softly, took Lina's hand, and started walking back.

Lina glanced at his left hand. Well, at least he didn't grab the wrong hand.

As she approached the outpost, Lina heard Rick's voice—or rather, his voice from the police car, giving her a warning over the radio. To be honest, it gave Lina a glimpse into the demeanor of Officer Rick before the catastrophe.

Anyway, she's not Black, so she should be able to appreciate it without hesitation.

Daryl glanced at Ramson running towards him, impatiently released his grip on Lina's hand, and shot an arrow into Ramson's leg. Ramson cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

Lina walked over and pulled Daryl's arrow out. "Looks like you don't know the meaning of 'honest'? What did you do to Sasha?"

“No, I didn’t do anything to her, I just knocked her out,” Ramson knew that these women were always soft-hearted, especially the woman named Sasha. She seemed very depressed, and he understood the grief of losing someone important. At this moment, he could gain a woman’s sympathy with just a simple lie.

Women, a species with an excessively strong sense of compassion, often have an uncontrollable and foolish emotion: the desire to gain some kind of spiritual satisfaction by helping others.

For thousands of years, this is what they have done: to shape them and to exploit them.

Lena dragged Ramson toward Rick's car, and Daryl merely glanced at her without trying to stop her.

Ramson's clothes were torn as Lina dragged him along, and his skin left a trail of blood as it rubbed against the ground.

"No, don't do this—" Ramson screamed, amidst the shattering stones and glass... He felt his lower body was almost completely numb.

“I think we were too friendly, which made you a little unaware of the situation,” Lina said casually. “We have three hostages, and you’ve taken one of us. I don’t mind losing one or two people in this deal, who knows?”

Ramson flinched. Having dealt with life and death for so long, he could certainly sense Lina's murderous intent.

Rick got out of the car and walked toward Lina and the others. Daryl immediately noticed that his hand was on his holster.

Perhaps Rick was already getting impatient. Keeping someone so ungrateful might only cause more trouble, so it was better to...

“Three is better than two,” Daryl said, grabbing Rick’s arm and staring into his eyes.

Rick was silent for a moment, took a deep breath, and grabbed Ramson. "Don't push my limits anymore. It doesn't matter to us whether you're here or not."

Ramson nodded. "I promise, I promise."

Rick threw him into the car and locked the doors. "We need to go back and discuss this further," he said, wanting to make sure these people were really worth the deal.

The two policemen were shocked to see Ramson brought back alive; they were shocked that he hadn't managed to escape and that he was still alive.

“I know what a good person is,” the policewoman said nervously. “Let us help you, and the deal will go smoothly, I promise.”

“I just believed you,” Rick said, getting closer to her, “and then your men knocked out my men and ran away.”

“What if it were you? I don’t believe you wouldn’t run away,” the policewoman said calmly. “What’s past is past. What’s important is the next deal, isn’t it?”

Rick stared at her for a long time, but her gaze remained firm and unwavering. After a while, Rick straightened up and said, "It's a pleasure doing business with you."

Using the contact information they provided, Rick arranged to meet with the hospital staff at the location Rick had scouted out.

Rick is always like that; he never chooses to hide in the back, and he always puts himself in the most dangerous situations first.

For example, in this transaction, they were all on the roof, except for Rick who was down there facing the two policemen on the other side.

Rick didn't want to expose their manpower, and having been a policeman, he knew better how to negotiate with the police.

Although he seemed to have considered everything very thoroughly, in Lina's heart, it was still the same old story: double standards, all of them double standards!

She couldn't do anything they deemed dangerous, but they, one by one, were rushing headlong down the road to their deaths.

From the rooftop, Lina couldn't hear what they were saying or see their movements clearly. She could only make out that Rick had disarmed himself and the other person was pointing a gun at him.

This made Lina very worried; she always felt that the people on the other side were a bunch of bad guys.

She couldn't quite remember the hospital scene, but she knew that Beth was suffering a lot there, both mentally and physically, and that some perverts were harassing her! So they must all be bad people!

With the sniper rifles in Daryl's and Sasha's hands, Lina could only peer longingly over the wall, straining her eyes as if that would allow her to see them.

Of course, it's purely for psychological comfort.

Daryl watched with bated breath, his and Sasha's guns aimed at the other's heads, ready to fire in support of Rick should they make any move.

Before that, Daryl spotted a walker through his scope, probably attracted by the arrival of the police car. He shot and killed the walker that was walking behind the police with a silenced sniper rifle, preventing them from spotting Daryl and his team. They looked around in panic.

Rick seemed to have finished speaking. He took two steps back, and Lena looked at Daryl. "Shall we go down?"

“No, wait for Rick’s message,” Daryl said. Rick simply put his hands behind his back and gestured for them to keep waiting.

Lena was anxious. She remembered Beth dying at the negotiation scene. She was worried. Although Beth was safe in the church, what about Carol? Would the people at the hospital disagree with the deal? Would they kill Carol?

A moment later, Daryl saw Rickby's gesture, lowered his gun, and said, "Let's go." Abraham, Tyrese, and Glenn led the three hostages down.

It seemed the other party had agreed to the deal. Lina glanced at Noah, then pulled a box of bullets from Daryl's backpack. "I've given you the gun, here are the bullets," Lina solemnly handed him the bullets.

“You can come with us. At least it’s safer if there are more of us. Although we haven’t decided where we’re going yet, we might be going the same way.”

Noah took the bullet and looked at Lina with some hesitation. He didn't know whether he should trust them or not, but they did seem like nice people... At least for now, Noah trusted them more.

"I...I haven't thought about it yet..." he said.

“No rush, you can wait for us here. This area is relatively safe,” Lina said. “Let us know when we’re back after we’ve finished the transaction.”

Noah nodded, holding the bullet. "You will definitely succeed."

Lina nodded and jogged to catch up with the others. She put away her knife and took out her pistol. Cold weapons were the way to deal with zombies, but guns were the way to deal with people.

The hospital entrance was filled with dilapidated tents, and every now and then one or two zombies would wander over. Following the directions given by the hostages, they walked up the stairs and came to a corridor, where there were quite a few people on the other side.

But Dawn was clearly wary of Rick's tall and imposing Abraham and Tyrsey.

Dawn glanced at Ramson and his group. Three of them were in the enemy's hands, and all that trouble they had gone through was for a frail middle-aged woman.

“How do you want to trade?” Dawn asked. With the score at 3:1, the initiative was not in her hands, and she had to lower her stance.

Rick glanced at Carol in the wheelchair; she still appeared to be unconscious. "How is she?"

Dawn pursed his lips. "We just gave her an adrenaline injection." They had devoted resources to treating this woman.

"No, I'm asking you, how is she now?" Rick shook his head slightly, somewhat impatiently.

“Edwards,” Dawn whispered.

“She was in a car accident, and I’m afraid she has internal injuries. We just gave her an adrenaline injection, which will lower her blood pressure. She won’t wake up immediately, but it will give her a chance to live,” Edwards said haltingly.

“There are three of us, and your man bumped into mine,” Rick said, tapping his holster repeatedly. “One man for one man. The rest, I need medication. You mean adrenaline? Give me two more, and antibiotics and stuff, fill it up.” Rick looked at Lina, who took off her backpack, which he kicked to the other side.

“…Our drug resources are also very strained,” Dawn said.

“This is all the resources we have,” Rick looked at the hostages behind him, “and there are only three of us. I’ve been very restrained, because there are many more ordinary people in your hospital who need medicine. Don’t anger me.”

Dawn gritted her teeth and handed the keys to Edwards. "Go," she said.

The waiting time seemed to stand still. Lina looked at Dawn across from her with some boredom. Dawn looked very dignified, but that dignified air, how should I put it, always felt like it was forced. Compared to Rick, it was even more obvious.

Perhaps it's because Rick's big beard makes him look more menacing.

Just as Lina was lost in thought, the doctor who had just left returned with her bag. To be honest, that bag was far from meeting Lina's standards.

“Let’s begin,” Dawn said, taking his bag. Rickla walked past Ramson first.

Rick took the bag, opened it, and glanced inside. There were quite a few antibiotics and some medicines he didn't recognize. He'd take them back to Herschel to look at.

The first exchange went smoothly, and the second one involved exchanging for Carol.

Dawn pushed the unconscious Carol, while Rick pulled the policewoman over.

Finally, Dawn had nothing left to trade with Rick, but Rick didn't intend to make things difficult for Dawn or try to raise the price.

“We’ll untie him at the hospital entrance when we leave,” Rick said.

“This is not what we agreed on,” Dawn frowned.

“You can choose not to,” Rick said with a sneer.

Dawn's chest heaved violently as she watched Rick and his group leave the hospital, almost gritting her teeth.

But Rick was a man of his word. Once he had taken the last hostage and moved away from a place where he could be easily sniped, Rick cut his rope, gave him a knife, and the group left.

The male police officer, who thought he was going to die, watched them leave with mixed feelings.

Everyone walked out of the hospital alive and well, which is wonderful.