Heading north, the days passed smoothly. They never needed to scavenge for fuel or supplies—Selene could simply retrieve what they needed from her spatial storage. That fact alone further cemented Merle and Daryl's trust in following her.
"Merle, how much longer? You said we were close," Daryl's impatient voice sounded from the passenger seat.
Merle scowled. "Damn it, stop rushing me! If you're so smart, you drive!"
"I've been to prison, not on a sightseeing tour! I'm going off what I remember and this map, alright?"
Their bickering continued as the car rumbled down the road.
Suddenly—
Daryl, who'd been carefully watching their surroundings, stiffened. "Hm? Merle, look at that."
Merle followed his gaze. "What the hell...?"
In the distance, smoke was rising from a small rural village.
He glanced at Selene, seeking direction.
"Let's take a look," Selene said calmly. It was the first time she had encountered people outside the show's original plot, and curiosity stirred in her.
Merle parked the car, and the three of them moved stealthily toward the source of the smoke.
Unlike Rick's group's fortified camp, this small settlement was practically defenseless. The streets were empty—no people, not even zombies.
As they approached the inner part of the village, a savory smell wafted through the air.
"Meat," all three muttered at once.
Getting closer, flickers of firelight came into view. Selene crouched behind a wall and peered around the corner.
About twenty meters away, in a livestock pen, a group of eight people sat around a fire.
They were all adult men—no women or children. The oldest appeared to be in his seventies, with a wrinkled face and thinning gray hair.
They looked half-starved, their clothes filthy, hair matted, faces gaunt. They had the look of desperate refugees. Some were urinating by the wall, while others crouched by a makeshift stove, boiling water in an iron pot—the source of the mouthwatering aroma.
"Survivors," Merle muttered. He and Daryl both raised binoculars for a better look.
In the apocalypse, production had stopped, and supplies were scarce. It was normal for people to steal, rob, or even kill for food—but what they saw next made all three freeze in shock.
Beside the fire, in a pile of bones, some clearly belonged to animals... but others—others were unmistakably human.
A bad feeling hit Selene hard. Her eyes shifted toward the side of the cooking area—and her pupils shrank to pinpoints.
It wasn't an animal slaughter site. It was human.
A middle-aged woman, naked and armless, was tied to a tree nearby. A rag stuffed into her mouth, her head rested lifelessly against the trunk, eyes wide open. The fatal wound was a gunshot to the temple.
Selene's breath caught. Cannibalism—already, in such a short time since the fall of civilization.
The men around the fire were laughing, chatting casually, utterly without remorse.
"Tch, seriously, why'd you have to kill her? Her husband was still good for storage meat."
"Ha! Serves her right for fighting back," another spat, licking his cracked lips. "We can always send him down after her—they can reunite as a family. What's wrong, can't wait your turn?"
"Shame, though... she was quite the piece. Wonder if we'll find another like that again."
"Don't worry. Next time we lure another bunch of idiots here, I'll save you a woman."
"That's getting harder. People ain't so easy to trick anymore..."
Selene's expression darkened. The bones—they belonged to that dead woman's husband. The couple had been lured here by these monsters.
Beside her, Merle and Daryl were breathing hard, fury burning in their eyes. They might've been rough men, but even they had limits—and cannibalism crossed them.
Both turned to Selene, silently begging for permission to act.
"Kill them."
At Selene's cold command, Merle roared and charged forward. Without hesitation, he raised his submachine gun and unleashed a barrage of bullets.
The men by the fire, laughing just moments ago, were torn apart instantly. The rest froze in horror—then, during Merle's reload, a few grabbed bats and pipes, rushing in a desperate counterattack.
The oldest among them, however, tried to slip away. When he spotted Selene stepping out from behind the wall, hatred flared in his eyes. He drew a pistol and lunged toward her, intent on taking her hostage.
He didn't make it far.
Thwip! A crossbow bolt pierced his chest, knocking him to the ground with a strangled scream.
Moments later, more screams followed. The men who had rushed Merle never stood a chance. Enhanced and fully armed, he mowed them down with brutal efficiency. In less than a minute, the fight was over. Broken bodies sprawled across the ground, gasping their last breaths.
"Wait... I'm a citizen... you have no right to kill me!" the old man wheezed as Selene approached, gun raised.
"You don't deserve that title."
Bang!
His words ended there, his skull bursting open.
Without a word, Selene methodically executed the remaining survivors—one shot each—to ensure none would reanimate.
To her, they had long since forfeited the right to live. They weren't human anymore—just beasts wearing human skin.
Selene knelt beside the lifeless woman tied to the tree. Her expression was unreadable—not pity, not outrage. Simply solemn acceptance.
She dug a shallow grave, burying the woman, the contents of the pot, and the scattered bones together beneath a mound of earth.
"So this... is the true face of the apocalypse?" she murmured quietly.
In the original story, the narrative had always followed Rick's group—guided by his compassion and by Dale's moral compass. They had preserved their humanity. But what of the countless others who didn't appear on screen? How did they survive?
The scene before her left a deep mark on Selene. It was unlike anything she'd experienced before—not in her previous life, nor in the scientific confines of Academy City.
Merle's low voice pulled her from her thoughts. Turning around, she saw both brothers standing grim-faced, haunted by what they'd just witnessed. Even hardened men like them couldn't shrug it off.
"Let's go," Selene said quietly as she passed them. "That noise will draw the horde soon."
"How could people do something like that?" Daryl muttered bitterly.
Unlike Merle, who had seen the horrors of war, Daryl's heart was kinder—and the sight had shaken him deeply. In a world where production had ceased and food would only grow scarcer, he could already imagine the future. Cannibalism would become common.
"This is what the collapse of order looks like," Selene replied softly.
As she stepped out of the yard, she tossed several incendiary grenades behind her.
Boom!
The fire roared to life, consuming the shack, the corpses, the filth—their sins. Yet Selene knew she would not forget this sight for a long time.
...
Back in the car, the atmosphere was heavy. Through the rearview mirror, they could still see flames rising into the sky.
No one spoke for a long while.
Eventually, shapes began to appear on the road—wandering corpses, drawn by the noise.
Selene sighed softly. "Let's move. We keep going."