Chapter 156: Cleared

Slowly pushing the glass door, Dominic led the crowd into the triangular building, which seemed to be the place where people from this refuge used to eat. They were greeted by the smell of food, with long tables on either side, chairs, and a cafeteria-like window filled with cooking supplies.

Ignoring this, Dominic kept moving forward, opening one of the double doors on the right side, as Stuart had mentioned earlier. Inside was a long corridor with many doors on either side. He opened one randomly to look inside and saw some beds and small tables where people from this place used to sleep.

Continuing further in, there was a large iron door at the end of the corridor. Judging by the door's joint, it seemed to have been replaced later by these people. There were torches on both sides of the door, giving it the appearance of a medieval dungeon at first glance.

Inside the iron door was a circular staircase going directly downward. Looking at the deep staircase, Dominic reached out and took down the torch hanging on the wall, opened the door, and descended first.

As they went down the stairs, an extremely bright basement illuminated by flames appeared before their eyes.

The spacious basement was divided by iron fences. The left and right sides turned into cells one after another. A large fire plate was placed in the middle to light up the entire basement. Inside each cell, a man crouched in the corner, looking at them with fear on their faces.

Each of them was dirty, wearing dusty clothes, and had deep or shallow scars on their faces and bodies.

At the innermost part, there was a cross with a person tied to it with chains. His body was covered in bruises. The blood had dried on his body, showing he had been tortured for a long time. Many torture instruments were hanging beside him, and the area had a bluish-white hue. The floor tiles were stained with blood that couldn't be washed off. It's unknown how many people have lost their lives here.

"Brother!"

As soon as he entered the basement and looked at the scene before him, a man named Santiago could no longer bear it. He emerged from the crowd, looked at everyone in the cell, and desperately called his brother's name.

But Kenny and the others clenched their fists tightly when they saw everything before them, their eyes filled with anger.

"These people are damn talented at torture; just look at how they've left these people!" Unlike the reactions of others, Dominic stroked the welded bars one by one, secretly thinking that these people were really good at interrogation and even making a prison cell!

"Ian!"

"Damn it, what did they do to you, brother?"

After searching several cells but finding no more familiar faces, Morgan ran to one side of the man named Santiago. Inside the cell, a person was crucified with nails in his hands. Santiago recognized that man as his brother at a glance.

After hearing this cry, Kenny and the others recovered from their anger and rushed forward.

Caressing Ian's cheeks inside that cell, Santiago felt the coldness of the other person's body, and his heart tightened. He reached out and touched the other person's pulse and breathing, which had completely stopped for a long time.

Santiago looked at Ian and the others running from behind and said with a very sad expression, "He's... dead!"

"I always knew they were looking for something. The place with the highest chance of finding the people they were looking for is the military base, but you didn't expect those people to be kidnapped by this damn cult. Well, you better search thoroughly. If there's anyone else you recognize, we might try to save them." Seeing this group of people grieving, Dominic didn't have the time or resources to take all these people out and heal them.

From what he had heard from Stuart, this outpost belonged to Teddy's cult, but what surprised him the most was discovering those wounds on the people in these cells, making it obvious they were looking for something from them.

After seeing them hurriedly searching the cell, he turned his head to Negan and said, "Go find the keys to lock the cell. They should be around here."

"Alright!" Negan nodded, picked up a torch from the brazier, and walked to the other side of the basement.

"Grishia!"

"Doug!"

"Christa!"

The basement was filled with the cries of various people, shouting in each cell. The echo was so shocking that even Dominic's eardrums hurt.

Dominic looked at everyone and felt nothing. He wasn't familiar with these people, after all, but the only reason he was helping them was to see if they knew anything about what happened here.

"I'm... here!"

Just as Dominic was thinking, he suddenly heard a faint cry in the cell next to him. He was a little surprised and turned his head to look, only to see a very weak person lying face down inside, in a pool of blood. It was impossible to see if it was a man or a woman, but it was impossible for anyone shouting to hear clearly.

Looking at the weak people inside, Dominic turned his head to a woman named Carley and the others and said, "Hey, see if this is the person you're looking for!"

Upon hearing this, several people searching there immediately rushed over, looked at the person lying inside through the iron door, their faces showing surprise and happiness, and shouted the name Dung in unison.

And Negan, who was looking for the key, also returned at that moment. Seeing their pain, he also understood what had happened. He quickly walked forward and opened the chain on the iron door.

"Dung, how are you?"

When the chain was opened, Carley opened the iron door, quickly entered, hugged Dung's body, and said, "Where are the others? Where did they go?"

"You finally came!"

Dung, whose face was covered in bruises, barely opened his swollen eyes and vaguely looked at the familiar people in front of him, tears sliding uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes. He raised his trembling hand and pointed to the cell beside him, saying with difficulty, "They're next to me. We didn't tell those lunatics anything. They want to destroy the world."

After hearing this, they immediately looked at the next cell and saw the same two motionless figures lying in those two cells. But the acrid smell of blood was clearly audible.

Carley trembled all over, quickly handed Dung to Kenny, got up, and walked to the next cell.

At that moment, Negan had already opened the chain. Seeing the other person approaching, he consciously stepped back and walked to Dominic's side.

"The plans have changed. It seems things aren't that simple, and we can't let that guy named Dung die. He knows something we don't." Dominic frowned and said, "Open all the cells. We need to take all these people outside to assess the situation."

Seeing the sadness and excitement of their teammates when they reunited, Dominic lost interest in watching. He patted Negan on the shoulder, looked at the surrounding cells, sighed, and said, "Oh, there are only eight cells. More than 30 people were imprisoned in a place of death. It's incredible that some are still alive."

"I'll send a team. I need that guy named Dung alive to know what the hell is going on with that cult!"

Upon leaving the building, Dominic felt a slight coolness in the summer, with a breeze blowing on his face. He saw Daryl walking from a distance, holding two beaten people with broken noses and swollen faces.

After throwing the two people into the crouching crowd, Negan said, "Dominic, four more people were caught trying to escape. The others had to kill two more who didn't stop."

Just as he was reporting, those two crawled back to the team. Dominic didn't know what they said, and the crouching crowd suddenly became very agitated.

Several middle-aged men and women suddenly stood up, and one of the middle-aged women ran directly towards Dominic, her eyes filled with tears as she screamed hysterically, "Damn you, kill me too! If you dared to kill my son, you'll definitely rot in hell, you son of a bitch! You'll definitely die in flames!"

With the middle-aged woman taking the lead, the rest of the people seemed to gain motivation, desperately shouting all kinds of curses. The soldiers around them raised their weapons, ready to fire if given the authorization.

Bang!

Seeing this situation, Dominic frowned and realized that these people really had no awareness of being prisoners. He pulled a gun from his waist and fired into the sky. Looking at the stunned people in front of him, he said coldly, "You'd better keep your mouths shut!"

When the shots rang out, the scene suddenly fell silent. Most of the people in the crowd looked into Dominic's cold eyes as if waking from a dream, immediately realizing their current situation. They silently thought about it and very consciously squatted down once more, ready to confess everything they would be asked.

Only a small group of people remained standing, glaring at Dominic with hatred, their faces drained of color.

"Stuart!"

"Yes!"

Dominic looked at the people who were still standing, thought about the information he had obtained from Dung, and then considered the basement torture scene. Many of the people killed by his men were possibly family members of these individuals.

A murderous intent flashed in his eyes. He narrowed them slightly and said slowly, "I want that man ready to talk; let the others go quietly."

"Understood!"

After receiving Dominic's order, Stuart also had a disdainful smirk at the corner of his mouth. He raised the gun in his hand without hesitation and said to the person still standing, "Then please, come with me!"

As he said this, he looked down at the horrified crowd and struck the most vicious middle-aged woman to the ground with the butt of his gun.

Seeing blood continuously dripping from the woman's forehead, Stuart showed no mercy. He grabbed the old woman's neck indifferently and dragged her forward.

"Ahhh!!!"

"Let's go!"

Stuart also raised the gun in his hand and looked at the few survivors standing hesitantly in the same place, his usual calm replaced by an extremely cold expression.

Seeing the guns pointed at them, those few people didn't dare to stay any longer. Quickly, they followed one by one. They also heard what the leader said a moment ago, simply letting them go without killing them, so those kneeling also stood up except for the person Dominic had said to keep.

"You killed my son; I will never forgive you; I curse you to hell! Go to hell!"

The middle-aged woman who was being dragged came out of her trance, her eyes shining with hatred. Her body struggled madly, and she cursed frantically. Even though she had been dragged away, her esoteric screams could still be heard.

"What a crazy old woman!"

Watching those people's backs and hearing the bitter curse of the middle-aged woman, Dominic shook his head sarcastically.

Now that the seeds of hatred have been planted in these people's hearts, even if the other party is just an insignificant person in his eyes, as long as they have the ability to move, he won't feel like letting such people live as before. It's better to kill all your enemies as soon as possible! Moreover, many of the people accompanying Morgan seemed very familiar to him, as if he remembered them from somewhere, but he didn't know exactly where.