Chapter 109
It was quite late when they returned to Alexandria. Dennis gave Jesus a quick check-up, and Rick and the others locked the unconscious Jesus in a small, dark room.
Daryl was worried about Jesus and decided to keep an eye on him. Although he knew Jesus wasn't a bad person, it was always better to be careful. Lina didn't stop him and went home to rest. Lately, she had been feeling easily tired and her head was foggy.
Rick had only slept for a short while when he found out that the night was quite lively. The next morning, Rick held a meeting with everyone to discuss the trip to the hilltop village.
That was Jesus' camp; they had food, and he wanted Alexandria and Hilltop to establish friendship and trade.
However, Alexander currently has nothing to offer for trade. They are running out of bullets and food is just about enough, not to mention that Hilltop has plenty of those things.
But in any case, this trip may bring different experiences, so everyone still wants to go and see that place.
Lena naturally chose to go along; she had to keep an eye on Rick and make sure he didn't mess with Negan's outpost.
The group that went this time included Abraham, Daryl, Lena, Maggie, Glenn, Michonne, and Rick.
Lena would call Abraham the brightest light bulb.
Oh, I forgot about Jesus, who was also there as a third wheel.
The brightest twin stars.
After quickly packing a few things, everyone boarded the RV. Lina didn't like the RV; it was too scary.
On the way, Daryl and Lena sat at the back of the RV, leaning against each other and gazing blankly at the scenery outside the window. "Do you think it will go smoothly?"
“It can’t get any worse,” Daryl said after a moment’s thought.
“Maybe,” the two fell silent again. The people sitting in the middle of the RV started talking amongst themselves, mainly about Abraham, his shock at Glenn getting Maggie pregnant, and how careful he was that he wore two layers of rubber shoes.
"Isn't it tight?" Lina looked up and asked sincerely.
Daryl was speechless for a moment. He had never tried wearing two, so how would he know?
"Do you know what he's planning?" Lina asked curiously.
“No,” Daryl breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully she didn’t press the matter.
“It’s really strange. Even though Sasha and he are nothing now, I still can’t understand why Abraham broke up with Rosita so easily.” Lina was very angry. “Rosita was so good!”
“Being good together doesn’t mean they can be together,” Daryl said.
“Sasha has started avoiding Abraham,” Lina grumbled. She knew Sasha was conflicted, but she couldn’t ignore Rosita’s feelings.
"It's all that scumbag's fault," Lina said angrily.
“And Amy,” Lina said, getting even angrier at the thought, “do you know that this morning I saw Moore sneaking out of Amy’s window!”
!
Daryl really didn't know that! He looked at Lina in shock.
"It must be him, he's shameless!" Lina was so angry she gritted her teeth, but before she could interrogate Amy, everyone had to go out again.
“Looks like Andrea is going to be in a bad mood again,” Daryl said.
“…Then you should learn more about cooking from Carol. I don’t want to eat Andrea’s cooking lately, I’m scared.” Lina paused before saying, she really couldn’t forget that bowl of hard, chewy pasta.
“Got it.” Daryl nodded. As they chatted, the car stopped. It turned out that Jesus had recognized his teammate’s car.
They may have encountered danger.
Daryl looked down at the marks. "Over here."
"Is this a trap?" Rick looked at Jesus warily.
“No,” Jesus said helplessly, his mind anxiously focused on the house before him. They had followed the trail all the way here, and Jesus’ teammates must have hidden inside.
“It’d better not be,” Rick said, tying Jesus up with rope and instructing Maggie to keep an eye on Jesus with a gun and to fire as soon as she heard a whistle.
“I’ll stay too,” Lina said, worried about leaving Maggie alone. Rick thought for a moment and nodded.
“Don’t worry, they’ll bring your people out,” Maggie said, if it really wasn’t a trap.
"What exactly do you want from us? You've been all over Alexandria, don't you know we have nothing to trade with you?" Lina couldn't help but ask.
“No, you do,” Jesus said, giving Lina a meaningful look. “I will explain it to you properly when we get to Hilltop.”
"...It's easy to guess: manpower, weapons, killing," Lina muttered. "Isn't that what's most attractive about us right now?"
Jesus raised an eyebrow. "It seems you're getting a little impatient."
“…” Maggie frowned. If it was just a matter of needing manpower, that would be fine, but if… did he want them to help kill people?
It didn't take long for Rick and his team to rescue several people, and they quickly returned to the RV and continued on their way.
Luckily, we were driving a motorhome, otherwise we wouldn't have had a place to accommodate so many people.
On the bus, Lina finally met the doctor from the mountain village, the obstetrician named Harlan.
"Can you do prenatal checkups there? Do you have prenatal vitamins? Is she too thin and needs supplements? Should she take medicine? Or eat meat?" Lina was even more eager than Glenn, and she rattled off a whole bunch of questions.
“When we get back to the mountaintop village, you can come to my trailer for a quick check-up,” Harlan said with a smile.
There was no use in rushing. Lina pouted and pulled Daryl back to sit in the back, wondering how much longer it would take to get there.
Harlan stared at Lina thoughtfully for a while, "She looks kind of familiar."
Maggie looked at Harlan curiously, "Are you a local?"
“Yes,” Harlan said, “I worked at a nearby hospital before the cataclysm, and I know all the hospitals in this area very well.”
“But you’re an OB-GYN,” Lina poked her head out again, “How’s your head?”
"Huh? Sorry?" Harlan was a little confused. Looking at a head? What head? Was it the head he was thinking of?
"For example, if someone has a head injury, like a split or something, can you take a look?" Lina asked.
“The brain…” Harlan smiled helplessly. That wasn't something you could just casually look at. He quickly seemed to realize something, looking up at Lina carefully. “Um, I think…”
The car shook violently and came to a complete stop.
“It must be because a storm just passed,” Rick complained.
“It’s alright, we’ve arrived,” Jesus said.
As everyone got off the vehicle, they found themselves surrounded by a steel plate, just like Alexander.
"Welcome to the mountaintop village."
To Lina, this meant, "Welcome to the Brain Defense mission!"
Having seen Lena's house, the Hilltop Village living museum didn't surprise anyone too much. On the contrary, the boss here, Gregory, seemed really annoying.
His attitude was extremely arrogant, which made Lina very unhappy. However, since she was under his roof, she didn't want to offend the mountain stronghold, as this old man currently held considerable prestige here.
After a quick wash, Lina saw good news – she was incredibly lucky!
Gregory was stabbed and lay on the ground, seemingly lifeless, while Rick strangled another man to death with his bare hands.
Blood stained his face.
Tsk tsk tsk, all that cleaning up was for nothing.
The chaos quickly subsided thanks to Jesus' mediation, and everyone moved back inside the house to continue their conversation.
Negan, that name appeared again.
“…Negan led a group he called the Salvation Army,” Jesus said.
Lena didn't want to hear him say that and interrupted him directly, "How many 'groups' are you? How many Salvation Army members have you seen? Is he only threatening you? Or are there many more communities threatened?"
Jesus chuckled. “Looks like you’re quite impatient, huh?” He quickly straightened his expression. “I know where the group we always trade with is. They’re nearby. As far as I know, there’s another camp not far from us called the Kingdom of God, and the people there are also threatened by Negan.”
“You encountered the Salvation Army on the road, right?” Lina asked Daryl.
“Yes, but they are few in number and very weak,” Daryl said.
“The Hilltop camp has just as many people as Alexandria, and I’m assuming the Kingdom of God has quite a few as well,” Lina said, looking at Rick. “Do you think that if we were fully armed, we could be confident of threatening two large camps at the same time, or even more?”
“That depends on how complete they are,” Abraham said meaningfully. If they had a warehouse full of RPGs, they could easily feed not just these few camps, but many more.
“I understand what you mean,” Rick said after a moment of thought, “but…”
“No, Rick, we don’t need a deal,” Lina said impatiently. “We can survive. You don’t need to risk your life for those guys. You’re not a mercenary. If resources aren’t enough, let’s redefine the allocation criteria. As long as we don’t starve, that’s enough. They’re useless. Keeping them around is already…”
“No, Lina, no,” Rick interrupted Lina, “stop talking,” he looked at Lina sternly, as if she had said something outrageous.
"...You have no idea what kind of trouble you'll get into because of those guys. I don't want you to die for them!" Lina shouted angrily.
“Uh, calm down, calm down…” Jesus looked at Lina nervously.
“They’re not a burden, Lena,” Rick said, rubbing his temples with a headache. “They’re on our side: Olivia, Dennis, Aaron, Eric…”
"You're not a mercenary, and you shouldn't risk your life for food. I don't agree," Lina said angrily. "Anyone who dares to go, I'll tear Alexander down when we get back!"
"Lina!" Maggie and Michonne, seeing the situation was not right, quickly pulled her outside. "We understand you. We're still discussing this, aren't we? Calm down, calm down."
Lina glared at Rick fiercely, then turned to Daryl and said, "If you dare to support Rick, then you can give him this damn ring."
Daryl sighed. Lina was half-dragged, half-pulled out by Maggie and Michonne. The room fell silent again, but...
“So…” Jesus looked at them awkwardly.
"Sigh, let's continue talking about the Salvation Army," Rick sighed, a headache forming in his eyes. Lina really was going to go back and tear down Alexander.
She would lock valuable people in her house, then dismantle Alexander, watch the burden in her mouth die, and rebuild Alexander. She was absolutely capable of doing it.
However, Rick looked at Daryl, who remained silent for a moment, then shook his head helplessly at him. Sorry, he didn't want a divorce.
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