The moment Jason's gunshot echoed, Rick burst out of the house without hesitation. The two men were still staring dumbly at their fallen companion and didn't react to Rick's sudden appearance.
"If you want to kill me, you better be ready to die first! "Rick roared, raising his revolver and firing without a second thought.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots rang out in quick succession, slamming into one of the men's back. He let out a strangled scream before crumpling to the ground, blood pooling around him.
The other attacker, jolted by the noise, instinctively turned to fight back—but Jason was already watching from above.
Bang!
Another sharp shot. Jason's bullet tore through the second man's skull, killing him instantly. The man stumbled forward a few steps before collapsing, stone dead.
Jason jumped down from the roof and quickly confiscated their weapons. It was almost amusing—despite all the trouble they caused, these thugs barely carried any ammo.
"It's their bad luck to run into us," Jason said coldly.
He didn't feel an ounce of sympathy. They had attacked first, and in this world, hesitation only got you killed. It was either shoot them down now or deal with them as zombies later.
The team gathered the bodies, made sure to sever the heads—just to be safe—and then loaded back into their car.
As Jason drove, he glanced sideways at Rick, who was nursing his shoulder. "There's probably more of them out there," Jason said thoughtfully. "I doubt we wiped out their whole group."
Rick gave a tired sigh and smiled bitterly. "Doesn't matter. We can't do anything about it now."
He patted Jason's shoulder. "Anyway, I earned an 'honorable' wound today. Seriously though, why did they attack us? There's still plenty of food left in the supermarket. Why pull guns over it?"
"Maybe they thought we were stealing their supplies," Glenn muttered from the back seat, staring out the window.
"They probably claimed this town as their turf," he continued. "And without laws anymore… people just do whatever they want. Killing others is easier than sharing."
Jason nodded grimly. Glenn was right. Without rules, human nature tended to show its darkest side.
Regardless, they had survived—and now, they were heading safely back to the farm.
When they arrived, Rick stepped out of the car—only for Lori to spot the blood on his clothes and rush over, her face filled with panic.
"Oh my God, what happened?!"
Others gathered around, alarmed.
"It's nothing serious," Rick reassured them quickly."We ran into a group of scavengers. We took care of them. My injury's already treated."
Meanwhile, Jason and Henry were unloading supplies from the car. Jason kicked a large box onto the ground and waved Dale over.
"All the tools we could find. Check if they're good enough."
Dale squatted down, opened the box, and began inspecting the contents. After a while, he nodded with a slight frown.
"Not bad. It'll do for now," Dale said. "But we'll need to grab more spare parts next time we hit a repair shop."
Jason smiled faintly. At least today's trip wasn't a total disaster.