TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 271: This Batch of Survivors Is Terrible. Negan Should Straighten Them Out (Patreon)

"Are you really the leader of the [Ark]?" Alicia still looked unconvinced.

Wasn't a leader supposed to be compassionate? How could someone like this be in charge?

Luke couldn't be bothered to answer her.

Under normal procedure, someone at Alicia's level wouldn't even qualify to meet him.

He was a busy man. Every day, he had to keep in close contact with Ada so he wouldn't miss any important intelligence.

Or personally supervise Rebecca's physical condition... no, the progress of the vaccine research.

Did he look like he had nothing better to do?

"All right. Back to business."

Luke ordered, "Leon, take another team and sweep the surrounding area. The Whisperers shouldn't have come all the way to Virginia. Something must have driven them here."

"They've been herding walker hordes everywhere, so they should've produced mutants by now, though it's possible they killed them in advance."

"These people are too dangerous. I won't allow a threat like that anywhere near the outpost."

"If you find them, wipe them out. No prisoners and no negotiations."

"The Commonwealth doesn't care whether that trash lives or dies."

"Understood!" Leon replied. He immediately gathered a group of white-armored soldiers and headed out to track them down.

"Mutants?"

Madison, standing nearby, caught the unfamiliar term.

She frowned. "What do you mean by mutants? We've fought our way here from the Southwest and seen all kinds of strange walkers, but... we've never heard of mutants."

"A walker is just a walker, isn't it?"

Nick and the others behind her immediately started listening more closely, their expressions turning serious.

The word "mutant" seemed to hint at some darker truth about the apocalypse.

They had never encountered a mutant?

Luke raised an eyebrow.

Not bad. They were even luckier than Aaron.

"Do I look like an encyclopedia to you?" Luke said. "If Miss Virgin Mary over there is done trying to guilt-trip everyone, then go through the screening like you're supposed to."

"If you pass, the Commonwealth will accept your application."

"If you fail... we'll reimburse your fuel and send you straight back where you came from."

...

The [Ark] even had a screening process.

Madison and the others looked even less pleased.

They had risked their lives getting here, and now they still had to be evaluated?

If they failed, they would actually be turned away?

Wasn't that treating human lives like they meant nothing?

"An assessment?" Alicia protested.

"We were trapped in that horde for so long and barely survived. What else could you possibly need to assess?"

Luke chambered a round, aimed at a water bottle in the distance, and fired.

The shot punched clean through it.

The gunshot made Alicia flinch.

Nick and Strand immediately became wary, while Madison looked ready to push back.

"Let me repeat the rules. I'm the only one asking questions here. This batch of survivors is seriously lacking. You people should be handed over to Negan so he can straighten you out properly."

Luke looked thoroughly impatient.

Madison immediately spoke up. "She won't say anything else. Please continue. We'll cooperate."

Against a man who couldn't be swayed by either pleading or pressure, her usual stubbornness wasn't getting her anywhere.

Neither was her daughter's.

"Good." Luke placed the gun on the table. "I like dealing with smart people, not people who think they're smarter than everyone else. Understand?"

"The Commonwealth's screening isn't particularly strict. As long as you aren't infected and don't have any particularly disturbing habits, you'll usually pass."

"But plenty of people still fail."

"Why? Because there are too few normal people left."

"That woman is your daughter, right? If you can't keep her under control, your entire family could be affected. Understand?"

Luke tapped the table.

Once everyone across from him had finally settled down, he moved on.

"The Commonwealth assessment has only two parts: a background check and a skills evaluation."

"If you want citizenship, you have to provide your background, history, and skills truthfully and in full. If you impersonate someone, fabricate information, or waste our limited public resources..."

"Our punishments are harsher than you can imagine. There's never a shortage of good fertilizer in the apocalypse. I know how to plant crops, and I know how to plant people in the ground too. Understand?"

Madison obediently nodded.

No one here was going to indulge her. If they really caused trouble, hundreds of guns could reduce them to scraps of flesh.

"As for the skills evaluation, let me make something clear first. The Commonwealth isn't recruiting people out of charity. We're looking for useful parts to keep this massive machine running."

"If you know how to farm, you go to agriculture. If you have medical skills, you join the medical team. If you can repair machinery, you go to the engineering battalion. If you can fight, you join the troopers or Special Forces."

"Even if all you can do is cook, wash clothes, mend things, and handle basic chores, you can still find steady work in logistics."

"At the very least, it's much better than surviving out there."

"And don't even think about lying about your abilities just to climb higher..."

Luke gave Strand an extra glance.

In the original series, this guy had once pretended to be a doctor, only to freeze when faced with a woman giving birth.

A con man should stick to pouring concrete at a construction site.

...

Nick was first.

He wanted to join the troopers. For someone like him, being trapped in a routine job would be almost as bad as killing him.

The kid had decent skills.

He could pick up a rifle and use it without trouble. Moving targets weren't a problem either, and his aim was respectable.

His close combat might have been a little weak, but his physical condition was decent.

At least he wasn't the junkie he'd been at the start of the apocalypse.

Luke nodded. "Good enough. Welcome to the Commonwealth family. You can wait outside now."

Nick hadn't even hidden his history of drug use, which showed that he at least knew better than to lie.

Luke planned to hand Nick over to Leon.

He was sure the Steelback Beast's warm welcome would make Nick feel like part of the family.

Yumiko was second.

Yumiko was also Asian and skilled with a bow, but before the apocalypse she had been a high-level lawyer.

Luke asked her a few basic questions, then quietly assigned her to Deanna.

Tara, who was with her, was also assigned to the troopers.

Whether she could make it into Special Forces would depend on whether Tara gained weight later.

Then came Princess.

"Hi! Do you have a boyfriend?" Princess opened with a question that caught Luke completely off guard.

"No, but I can help you find one."

"Never mind. I'd rather choose for myself. Someone like you wouldn't be bad." Princess gently placed her hand on the back of Luke's.

Princess:

[Testing] [Evaluating] [Curious] [Awe]

"Then you might have quite a few rivals. If you don't want to end up chopped into mincemeat, watch what you say and do after you join."

Luke kept his head down as he wrote.

Princess's face lit up. "You mean I've already passed?"

Luke nodded. "The assessment isn't meant to make life difficult for people like you. Welcome to the Commonwealth family. Together, we can build something that will stand as a monument in this apocalypse."

He solemnly held out his hand.

Princess studied Luke for a long moment before taking it with equal seriousness, as though they were performing some solemn, mysterious ritual.

Princess had always been unpredictable in the original series, but she was genuinely a good person.

She had also been one of the key people who convinced Mercer to stand against Milton.