Hearing the other party's words, Jason's heart suddenly skipped a beat in surprise. Could it be that the Salvation Army had appeared?
"Against who?" This time Alex was more interested, waiting for the other party's answer.
"A group of people in our base."
Then Stevens explained, as if he had initiated a conversation.
After listening to the explanation, Jason realized he had misunderstood. It turned out they weren't The Saviors, but rather some people who were with that group's side.
The Oceanside community is now controlled by a man named Vicenzo. This man uses hostages to threaten Stevens and the others into working for him. If they don't obey, he'll kill them—but more commonly, they get beaten or kicked. Right now, everyone is suffering because of them.
Today it was Stevens' turn on watch duty. When he saw this group of outsiders, his instinctive reaction was to drive them away—then suddenly he thought, why not rely on this group to launch a counterattack against their enemies?
It's been over a year since the end of the world, and this is the first time other survivors have appeared here. He believed Vicenzo had never considered such a thing, otherwise he wouldn't have left only two people on the bridge.
So Stevens realized this was an opportunity—one that might never come again if he let it slip.
After hearing the cause and effect of the incident, Jason began to consider whether it was worth it. The other man couldn't stand the silence when he saw Jason had been quiet for so long.
"We have plenty of supplies. We've got all kinds of dried fish and sea salt. We don't need to worry about food, so we could offer you many goods."
Jason ignored him, silently calculating the gains and losses of this matter, analyzing every small detail. After a while, he asked: "How do I know you're the good guy and the so-called invaders are the bad guys? What about my people if this is a trap?"
Stevens seemed to understand something and became increasingly anxious. When he heard the question, he replied without hesitation: "I can bring over some of Stevens' people first. There aren't many of them. When your people are in hiding, you can ask them personally anything you want."
"How do I know the people you call over aren't your accomplices? A lot could go wrong here. I don't know the truth—you could say whatever you like."
Stevens was already sweating cold. The more he thought about it, the more he felt this was a chance, but the other man still didn't believe him. Over time, his attitude shifted, becoming more and more irritable.
"Then how can I make you believe me? Everything I said is true!"
"You said there aren't more than ten people on the enemy side? If that's the case, why didn't you resist? From your words, I can guess there are dozens in your group…"
"Those bastards never gave us any chance to resist. They found high ground next to our settlement and send two people into our camp every day to watch our work. If we make any change that threatens their leadership, they threaten to kill our families. That's why I can help you—right now they don't know you exist. This is a chance to catch them off guard, when they're not paying attention."
"Aren't you afraid we're the bad guys? If we take over your shelter and keep threatening you with hostages, what will happen then?"
Stevens' expression grew uneasy—he truly hadn't considered that before—but then he showed a helpless look. "What can I do? I can only hope and pray you're not that kind of people. If you aren't, maybe we can live a little better in this rotten, dead life."
Looking at the expression on his face, he didn't seem to be lying. Jason also analyzed Stevens' words in his mind. Judging by the women of Oceanside, it didn't seem like they had been the type to physically abuse other survivors before The Saviors' attack.
But Negan still chose to kill all the other men. A thought gradually arose—maybe Oceanside had been ruled by a group of bad men at first, maybe they were overthrown by others, and when the survivors' distrust flared up, they resisted The Saviors, but failed.
In the end, it didn't matter who had killed that group. Their existence had made the rest of Oceanside extremely xenophobic, which is why, when Rick came later after Tara had arrived at the refuge, they refused to fight against Negan.
This explanation was entirely plausible. Thinking about this, Jason decided to let Stevens call those supposed enemies, but before accepting, he still had to ask about their situation.
"Tell me about your situation first. How many people are there? What kind of firepower do you have? Tell me everything clearly."
Seeing that this person showed signs of wanting to help, Stevens didn't dare delay and briefly presented his situation. Jason also asked for more critical information.
The conversation lasted more than ten minutes.
Then Jason called the team members over to start discussing the matter. After hearing the other party's request, the team felt it was outrageous. Many voiced objections, and Merle's thoughts were basically the same as at the start.
"If you ask me, I feel like this guy doesn't have good intentions. At first, he didn't want to know anything about us, and suddenly he wants us to help him? No matter how you look at it, it smells rotten."
"No matter their number, if we position ourselves well there's no force that can beat us. We've taken down bigger groups, plus this would be experience for the new recruits."
"If you think that way, then we'll kill anyone who tries to hurt us. Once the battle plan's set, our group is more than enough."
Glenn, for his part, was quite optimistic. It had to be said—the group from Atlanta were all optimistic. In their eyes, if the captain felt this was doable, then there would be no problem. As for how to organize the next steps, they instinctively trusted Jason.
"Then I have no objection. That's it."
"Me neither."
"It's been a while since I've tasted fish…"
Feeling the leaders' confidence, everyone believed they could handle it without much trouble.
…
Stevens waited nervously nearby for the patrol shift change.
He began checking the time frequently. Now there was only half an hour left before the guard change. If Jason's people hesitated, he would have to give up on the idea. After all, this was just a spur-of-the-moment plan—if anything went wrong, they'd be discovered.
Just when he couldn't help but want to remind the other party, Jason finally stepped out from the back of the car.
"How do we call them?"
Seeing that Jason had agreed, Stevens' tone grew a little excited. It seemed the next move was crucial, and he said nervously: "First, I'll send two of my companions back to call someone. After they arrive, we have at most half an hour to return and give our report—otherwise they'll notice something's wrong."