TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 102: What the Hell Are You Doing?! (Patreon)

Wade's group continued trekking upstream along the river.

As they walked, Daryl casually swept his gaze across a nearby hillside, then gradually slowed to a stop.

Merle noticed and followed his line of sight.

"Holy shit."

The others had no idea what had caught their attention, but when they looked up the slope, they saw something bizarre.

There was a small patch of flat ground halfway up the hillside. It wasn't large, but walkers had been tied to the trees all around it.

Their hands were gone. Their lower jaws had been removed, and the flesh around their necks had been carved away, exposing bare white bone.

"Looks like we found the place," Wade murmured, watching the restrained walkers struggle and sway against their bindings.

The method wasn't especially sophisticated, but it was definitely effective.

If anyone needed proof, the Whisperers could provide a glowing customer review.

The group climbed the slope and moved past the ring of restrained walkers. Beyond them stood an army-green tent that looked surprisingly expensive.

Well, damn.

Whoever had built this place knew what they were doing.

The walkers outside masked human scent, while a crude fence inside the perimeter kept wild animals out.

The fence itself was simple. Nearby trees served as posts, with logs laid horizontally between them.

Dry branches had been arranged across the fencing, and the ground was covered in fallen leaves. It was obviously meant to function as camouflage.

A lot of effort had gone into the setup. At first glance, it looked like a long-term shelter.

That assumption fell apart as soon as they reached the tent.

Inside was a single camp cot, a few used everyday supplies, and a small stove.

That was it.

Crane ran a hand across the stove and came away with a layer of dust on his fingers.

"Whoever used this place hasn't been back in a long time. They may have left for good."

"It's an observation post," Ryan said suddenly. "Like a hunter's cabin in the woods. Somewhere you stay overnight when you need to, not somewhere you actually live."

As he spoke, he turned toward the entrance of the makeshift camp and looked out over the river valley below.

A suspicion began taking shape.

Ryan raised his M4 and, working from memory, aimed toward the area where they'd found the two Volatiles.

Through the 4x optic, he had a clear line of sight to the exact spot.

Had the shots come from here?

He lowered his gaze and began nudging aside weeds with his boot.

Before long, he found two spent shell casings.

Ryan frowned, crouched, and searched more carefully.

After several minutes, he still found only those two.

He picked up the brass casings, and an unpleasant possibility formed in his mind.

When he looked up, his gaze passed over Crane's face.

For just an instant, Ryan caught a trace of unease there.

Without showing any reaction, he walked over to Wade and held up what he'd found.

"Two bullets. Two Volatiles. One shot to the head each, and both fired from a rifle. Whoever did this is good."

He paused, his gaze drifting toward Crane.

"Or whoever did it knows a lot about mutated walkers. Maybe they were specifically observing the Volatiles."

Crane's pupils constricted.

His breathing grew slightly heavier, and he turned his head away almost without realizing it.

The movement looked natural enough, but Ryan caught every small change.

Crane was definitely hiding something.

Wade took the shell casings and looked around the carefully concealed post, his expression growing serious.

During the previous Volatile attack, he'd felt someone watching them from the darkness.

Daryl hadn't been able to find any trace of whoever it was.

Could the observer have been the person stationed here?

But what would their motive have been?

It wasn't as if they'd eaten too much for a midnight snack, gone out for a stroll, and somehow happened to stumble across Wade's camp.

That didn't make sense.

The two locations were simply too far apart.

Their camp had been attacked before dawn. From here, it would take at least three hours to make the return trip.

Ryan saw Wade thinking and didn't interrupt.

Instead, he looked toward Daryl.

The moment their eyes met, Ryan subtly shifted his gaze toward Crane.

Something was wrong with him.

Daryl understood immediately.

He gave the slightest nod, drifted two steps to the side, then quietly moved behind Crane.

Merle usually couldn't be bothered to think too hard about anything.

But when Daryl was involved, his brain had a habit of suddenly switching on.

The moment Daryl changed position, Merle realized something was wrong.

So he quietly began moving too.

Crane's instincts flared almost at the same moment.

He turned his head and found Ryan staring at him with a cold, assessing gaze.

At the same time, he could almost feel something sharp pressing against his back.

The silent hunter with the compound crossbow was no longer anywhere in front of him.

Crane's heart sank.

Oh, hell.

They thought he was a mole.

Wade squeezed the cold shell casing between his fingers, dismissed one possibility, and pulled his attention back to the present.

Then he looked up.

The moment he saw Merle and Daryl's positions and realized what they were doing, his eyes widened.

He hurriedly shouted, "Stop! What the hell are you two doing?!"

Merle and Daryl froze.

Neither lowered his weapon.

Ryan spoke calmly. "Wade, ever since we found those two bodies, Mr. Crane has been unusually quiet. He's been avoiding the subject. And when I said whoever used this post might have been observing the Volatiles, he got nervous."

As he spoke, Ryan's finger settled near the trigger.

Abraham, Marcus, and Jade had been standing around completely unaware that, in the span of a few minutes, Crane had somehow been promoted to suspected enemy infiltrator.

Crane immediately spoke up.

"Hold on. I can explain. I do know some things you don't, but I swear I have no intention of hurting anyone here."

Wade stared at him for a second.

Then something clicked.

"GRE?"

Crane froze. "How did you know?"

In an instant, every clue in Wade's mind connected.

The first Volatiles they'd encountered had been a small colony created after infection, located farther downstream.

At the time, they had only recently evolved and desperately needed food, so the corpses left behind by that gang of thugs had drawn them in.

Then Wade had found the nest and wiped them out.

The Volatile horde they'd encountered later had been the main group.

And this observation post had been set up by GRE to monitor them and collect data.

The reason the post had been abandoned was simple.

Wade's group had wiped out every Volatile inside that abandoned logging-camp warehouse, leaving GRE with nothing here to observe.

Which meant the night attack that followed hadn't been an accident.

It had been retaliation.

Whoever was behind it must have believed a single mature Volatile was more than enough to slaughter an entire camp at night.

That was why the observer had only watched briefly before disappearing.

And the military map in Wade's hands wasn't marking laboratories or weapons depots at all.

It showed the locations of Volatile colonies.

Which also explained the military unit that had come through earlier.

They had been evaluating the threat.

The emergency evacuation had probably happened after one of their reconnaissance teams ran straight into the Volatiles and got wiped out.

At that point, there was no reason to keep the position or continue scouting.

So they had pulled out.

Once Wade pieced everything together, a thin layer of cold sweat formed across his back.