The rest of the group didn't rush to enter immediately, but they unconsciously directed their gazes toward Jason and went in after seeing him nod.
But Rick didn't decide to move. Instead, he stood at the door looking inside that place with a bit of doubt, and Jason, walking to his side, looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Rick looked at Jason, but he didn't know where to start. He decided to think it through before explaining his thoughts clearly:
"My trust in survivors is very low right now. I've experienced several incidents, which makes it difficult for me to trust strangers. In fact, those people who took you hostage—I saw them at a military base a long time ago, and because I trusted them, I decided to let them go. Because of that, you were in danger."
In truth, this type of reaction from Rick was very normal. It had something to do with his personality and the things he had lived through. Sometimes it was easy for a person to realize something, but sometimes it was hard to acknowledge it.
Our police officer Rick Grimes was not an easy person to persuade, so Jason didn't say much, he simply consoled him with a few words and then asked a question.
"Which organization do you think is more likely to continue civilization, a group of 30,000 or one with 100,000 people? Which do you think will give us a better chance of holding off foreign enemies if we don't open our gates?"
"Naturally, a team of thirty thousand people."
"Then which of these two groups do you think is more likely to have internal problems?"
"It's still a team of thirty thousand people."
"You're right, but even if we have internal problems, our enemies are still stronger. That's our current situation. We already have a gigantic number that keeps increasing day by day and we've never had problems, but several things happened in these last few days."
Rick was startled when he heard those words, looked at his friend, and asked a bit confused, "Since you know it better than I do, why do you accept strangers you don't know? Wouldn't that make the base even more unstable?"
Seeing Rick's confused look, Jason slowly shook his head, pushed Rick toward the window, and then whispered.
"I need to confess something to you about this matter."
"What?"
"Central base, growth base, and training base—those are the three bases in our organization. Sam has strict control over the training base and over all the soldiers who make up our base. Elias on his side is taking absolute control of the growth base after Shane abandoned that place."
"But even so, there are some curious people who are being killed silently, carefully, and precisely. Greed, after all, is too great, and envy grows with time. Many feel frustrated that some guy came and took control of the base."
"You mean…?"
"It's not something we have to worry about, but what you do need to know is that there's a small group of idiots planning something in the central base. They probably think they aren't fit enough to lead the base. But like the worms they are, I'm going to use them to achieve another purpose."
Rick looked at this friend he had known since the beginning of the end of the world. He was very smart and could save himself from danger at any moment. This made almost everyone get used to doing things according to the other's orders.
However, what happened to Lori a moment ago made the current Rick extremely sensitive, and he voiced his own doubts even though he normally wouldn't have questioned them.
"I wish you could tell me everything. I don't want to be kept in the dark again."
Jason looked at him in silence, finally sighed, and whispered something into Rick's ear.
But when he saw Rick's eyes gradually widen and an angry look appear on his face, he held him back immediately, took a few deep breaths, and then nodded.
"A while ago I told you I preferred to leave the base if someone wanted to replace me, but that only applies to close people."
"We have to eliminate them and erase that stupid idea from their immature minds, don't you think, my friend?"
Their two hands shook firmly. Feeling each other's strength, both smiled tacitly.
…
Looking back at Abraham, after rushing into the room, he saw several people lying on the floor at a glance. The flashlight's light shone on their faces, and they all seemed to be resting. If one of them hadn't heard the movement, it would have been impossible to believe they were several living people.
"Who are you?"
The man cautiously looked at the few people who rushed into the room. He couldn't open his eyes under the flashlight's beam and instinctively covered his eyes with his hands.
Abraham turned off the flashlight and picked up the weapon hanging to his side. Even though he wanted to save someone, he wasn't an idiot—he had to confirm the other side wasn't a danger before helping.
"Do you have weapons?"
The man suddenly smiled, took something from his side, and threw it, only for a metallic sound to be heard as a rusty kitchen knife landed at his feet.
And that crisp sound also woke up the rest of the people lying on the ground. They all sat up abruptly, looked around the room with panicked eyes, and saw some strong men with masks covering their faces and weapons in hand standing at the door.
One of the men with hair like a bird's nest shouted desperately, "We've given you everything! We have nothing else, and the only thing we're waiting for is death at the hands of that monster. What more do you want?"
His angry expression contrasted with the rest of the people who were burying their heads between their knees, but it also made Abraham understand what the other meant. They must have misunderstood.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but we're here to save lives, my love."
Hearing the words "save lives," the rest of the intimidated people lifted their heads.
Suddenly there was a gleam in the eyes looking at Abraham's group at the entrance, and one asked, "You're here to save people? Save us?"
The man who spoke earlier looked suspiciously at the muscular man before him. He didn't believe his words, but he soon saw the weapons in their hands, which surprised him, and he immediately became cowardly, quickly correcting his words.
"I fainted from hunger a while ago, is this real? Are you my hallucination?"
Looking at this guy with some amusement, Abraham said loudly, "Come out, we need to see you clearly, don't you think?"
Several people cautiously came out of the room, and only then did everyone in Jason's group see them clearly. To be honest, they couldn't bear to look at them directly—their appearance was too miserable.
A total of six people stood in a row. The six of them looked at the group of strangers who suddenly appeared. Even though the other side said they weren't bad people, according to their words, they didn't believe it at all. After all, no one points a gun at the people they want to save. What kind of impression did they have of their own people?
Jason stood behind them and carefully observed these people. Even though their clothes were extremely dirty, he could vaguely see that one of them had the logo of an electric company. He knew these people might help him restore electricity in the main base, so he watched in silence, waiting for Rick and the others to ask something.
After talking with Jason a moment ago, the knot in Rick's heart loosened, and his attitude toward these people also eased a lot at that moment. He gestured for everyone to lower their weapons and then began to ask questions.
The stories of several people were quickly explained by them.
Only then did everyone learn that not all six people were staff here, but three of them were from the company, and the one who said earlier that they had nothing more to offer was the head chef of this dining hall, who introduced himself as Charon.
The rest included a chef and a vegetable cutter, and two Dominican employees named Clancy and Marko.
As for the others, there was someone very special named Killa, who was a magician who had started his career doing tricks for people on the streets.
Following Charon's account, he also told the story of several people.