Deanna's special interrogation finally ca to an end after another half day, and the first thing she did upon leaving the room was pour herself a glass of water.
In the last few hours, she felt like her throat was about to give out, but then she was drawn by an unusual noise outside and went to take a look.
At that mont, on the street in front of several houses, a group of Alexandria residents surrounded Jason. When Deanna stepped out of the house, she saw her two sons, Aiden and Spencer, along with a few others, confronting Jason.
"Since you want to live here, you must obey the rules imposed in this place. Weapons are not allowed in our community, Alexandria. Your weapons and those of your people must be handed over and stored together."
rle, standing beside Jason, had his arm around Aiden's neck at that mont and said with so displeasure, "Listen to , mama's boy…"
"Don't talk to like that!"
Jason raised his hand to stop rle's next move. He had already seen out of the corner of his eye Deanna coming out of the house across the street, but since she said nothing, he decided to ignore her. He looked at the people in front of him with a smile and said, "The first thing you should know is that I am the leader of several shelters in Atlanta. You're lucky I'm a reasonable man. I'll talk to Deanna about this matter."
"Secondly, take it as a lesson from soone experienced: our people don't formally belong to Alexandria, we co with a unique purpose, so you could consider our relationship like that between two different countries before the end of the world. I will not give up my defensive power."
"Don't get wrong—I will agree if you propose sothing reasonable. If my words still don't convince you after that, we will leave this place."
Jason said this very politely, but as long as the people before him were not foolish, they could understand the aning of what he had just said. He knew these people were special; they needed a lot of experience to truly grasp his thoughts.
Aiden and Spencer were angry but couldn't find a reason to refute his words. Without a clear answer, Spencer seed ready to fight with his fists.
"Stop!"
Seeing the situation about to spiral out of control, Deanna quickly called her sons to stop. She had heard much about Jason and understood what his people had gone through since the beginning of the apocalypse. He was cold with his enemies and warm toward those he protected.
Deanna approached her two sons, looked at Jason, and apologized with her eyes before saying, "Jason, I hope you forgive my sons for their behavior. This ti it's my fault—I didn't have ti to inform them about this."
Jason hastily waved his hands and said very politely, "No need. I know you haven't suffered enough, and we don't share the sa level of information."
Aiden looked at Jason, feeling sowhat regretful. Was he really wrong?
Turning his head and looking at his two sons who had not t his expectations, Deanna whispered sharply, "Hurry up and go back ho!"
Deanna was truly very angry at her sons' rash behavior, so she had no choice but to send them away. Spencer even looked directly at Auron, aning his words were not finished.
After calming down, Deanna apologized again to Jason. Then she pretended to rember sothing and said, "Jason, do you have so ti? I would like to talk to you again."
"Of course! But this ti you have to co with to my ho. After all, I want to share what I know with you."
"Of course, I agree."
Deanna approached the modified RV parked in a secluded spot. Aaron followed closely and also looked at the RV. This large armored vehicle amazed them both.
Jason invited them both inside, where they saw a small operating room, beds, armchairs, a radio station, and a kitchen. This made them feel that these people were now prepared for whatever might co.
Deanna, alongside Aaron, walked toward the center of the motorho. She noticed several people lying in the two extended bedrooms on both sides of the back of the truck. So were sleeping, others talking.
Counting secretly, she realized that none of these people had gone to rest at the house. Even so won from the group were busy cooking outside the RV.
"Jason, will none of your original group live inside the house prepared for you?" Deanna couldn't help but ask aloud.
At that mont, so people nearby noticed her arrival and nodded. Among them, Tyreese was more active and took the initiative to say, "Jason told us that even in a safe environnt, we can't form the habit of laziness. Each of us has gotten used to this place, so there's no need to worry about the living environnt."
Deanna nodded thoughtfully and looked at Jason with a touch of admiration.
"Please, take a seat. This place is relatively simple and can't compare to a house, but it ets all needs." Jason placed a glass of water in front of Deanna and Aaron, then sat opposite them.
"This is great. It's hard to imagine this is your living environnt out here in nature."
Smiling, Jason did not answer, just looked at Deanna.
Knowing the other party wanted to get straight to the point, Deanna set aside her conversational thoughts, sat up a little, and said seriously, "Jason, may I ask what the real purpose of your visit to Alexandria is? You and I, the people in this vehicle, know that your original settlent should be much better than this place. Why give up that comfort and co all the way to Washington D.C.?"
Jason raised the glass of water in front of him, took a sip, and said calmly, "Deanna, I can see you're an intelligent person, so I don't want to lie to you with inexplicable reasons. The main purpose of coming here this ti is to gather a group of survivors and bring them back to the base."
"Developnt in Atlanta requires a lot of manpower. We have enough supplies and three secure bases, so I plan to spend so ti exploring the surroundings here to see if there are other survivors nearby. There's sothing even more important, but we're not familiar enough yet to tell you clearly at this mont."
"Aren't the survivors in Virginia enough for your eventual developnt? There should be many survivors there, right?"
Jason understood the other's doubts. No one would just abandon their base affairs and rush out to save more people. Jason didn't want to say directly that the main purpose of coming this ti was to bring people from several nearby settlents and create a strong base, so he could only offer an excuse.
"I decided to co here after Mr. Gregor Helmont told about this place. Although there are many survivors near Atlanta and Georgia, it's our territory after all, and it's only a matter of ti before we take over the entire city."
"It's much easier to gather survivors, but here it's different. Besides, didn't I tell you? There's still sothing very important to do and sothing you don't know yet. Now is not the ti to worry so much. Sorry, you have to wait a while before I tell you everything, but by then you will understand the main purpose of my coming here."
Nodding, Deanna had no doubt about Jason's statent. After all, if the other party had malicious intent, they could have easily eliminated her people the first ti they arrived in Alexandria.
"All right, then I'll wait until you can tell … Actually, I have another reason for talking to you. You are a team that has traveled outside, so I want to hear your opinions about the Alexandria community."
"I know we are very fortunate. We managed to escape the chaos in the early days of the end of the world, but this has also beco one of our weaknesses. We know nothing about the outside world now, so can you tell us? What needs improvent in our community?"
After she finished speaking, she looked at Jason expectantly, waiting for him to say what the main problem with this place was.
After hesitating for a mont, Jason didn't speak directly but greeted Daryl, who was standing to the side.
Daryl had been silently listening to the conversation since it began. Although Aaron and Deanna noticed him, they thought he was not soone who would speak next.
But Daryl didn't care and said, "Your community's defenses are diocre, your individual combat power is even more diocre, your way of thinking is very stupid, the environnt is unfavorable, and the security is so bad I'd rather not ntion it—not to ntion your way of living."
When Deanna heard this man's evaluations, she didn't understand why the base she was so proud of seed so useless in the other party's eyes.
"Jason, isn't that a bit exaggerated?"
Feeling powerless, Jason nodded toward Daryl, and Daryl left the modified RV. "This is the assessnt Daryl made. He has survived since the early days and has learned a lot about what's needed."
"There are no special scouts in your community, no well-trained fighters, no systematic defense system, and no natural food chain circulation. The security you believe you have is based only on the absence of a tiny number of walker attacks."
"Suppose a group of walkers cos and you have no way to know in advance. When you discover the crisis, you'll basically be surrounded with no escape."
"How will you handle food during that ti? Do you have your own farmland and reserves to satisfy your community? And if a group of survivors plans to invade this place, like Noah's old shelter, what would you do?"
"You don't have to be an expert or live here long to notice these flaws. That person will find you have no security asures at all. Whether they capture this place by force during the day or co at night, I can only say you have no capacity to resist at all, right?"
"Besides, walkers seem to be evolving, and no one here knows that, right?"
Hearing each of these hypotheses, even if these things hadn't actually happened, a cold sweat gradually broke out on Deanna's forehead. And when she heard his last words, she felt Jason knew sothing they didn't.
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