บท 159: More Information

"As for the cult, it's located in a shopping mall in The Galleria."

Upon hearing the name of this place, Dominic muttered it softly, unable to avoid being in a trance. Such a large place should house the people this man mentioned, and once he thought about what these people were trying to do, he couldn't take it lightly.

Since arriving in Texas, everything has escalated into increasingly darker and harder-to-solve problems. Now that he had discovered the nuclear warheads, he thought it was a stroke of luck, amidst all the bad, to come across people who wanted to completely destroy the world.

If he hadn't come to Texas and encountered these people, what would have happened in this place and the rest of the country? He, his people, friends, and community would have been destroyed without realizing it.

At this moment, when Dominic heard all this information, he really wanted to go now with helicopters and destroy the entire place. But he had to be smart; obtaining that second key and knowing the location of those nuclear warheads was paramount to having nuclear weapons in his hands. With that power, there would be nothing to fear from other organizations or to defend against them if they also had such weapons.

Unexpectedly, this major problem could be a good opportunity to eliminate some troublesome enemies and, in turn, obtain a weapon of mass destruction.

When he thought about this, Dominic said, "So, since your task is to find that stupid key, where is it, and why were you torturing those people in the basement of your shelter?"

"We haven't found it yet..."

Dario nodded, smiled ironically, and said, "However, even though we've been searching this small town for almost half a month, we haven't found an important clue. Those people in the basement were related to a government official who had the second key. Even now, I suspect the key is hidden somewhere we didn't search."

"Those people? It seems that even so, you could never have found it. Why do you follow Teddy's orders?"

"Because he has some of our relatives. When he recruits a community, he doesn't kill anyone; he just takes some important members who can't defend themselves and threatens to kill them if we don't obey."

Dario didn't hide anything and responded sincerely, "There are very few supplies in this small town. We all know we can't find food like we used to, so we had to divide the town. Some groups handle food, others weapons, and the rest eliminate walkers."

Speaking of this, Dario looked at Dominic and said, "I didn't expect you to attack us first. We heard the vampires were killed and couldn't find out anything about their background... But that same day, you came after our shelter."

"Even if we hadn't discovered that you were the ones who destroyed the vultures, after approaching the damned church, we ran into you. I'm telling you seriously: not everyone in Teddy's shelter is part of the cult. My daughter is in that place, and I hope you don't attack without getting them out first."

"How do you want me to get them out without my men dying in the attempt?"

Hearing this, Dario didn't know what to say. These things were really planned, and he didn't know how to logically force these people to be reasonable with Teddy's cult.

"Heh, heh, heh..."

Seeing the other party stop talking, Dominic chuckled and didn't continue with the topic. Instead, he asked, "I heard Teddy was a rational man. Maybe I'll try, but that should be thought out. Now tell me, where are the warheads?"

"I don't know much. When I told you we found a submarine, I said it in general terms. But what I do know is that it's stranded off a beach, and Teddy's people are guarding it, but there aren't many."

As he said this, Dario slowly shared what little he knew: "Teddy is a very rational leader. Although we don't know exactly where the submarine is, no one really cares. As long as we have food and aren't mistreated, no one is eager to betray him. But even if you kill me, you should be careful when you go north of Texas."

"North?"

Hearing what Dario said, Dominic curled his lips and thought, "What the hell is that about having a city? I'm waiting for your words since I can't decipher them."

However, although Dominic spoke normally with Dario, he still had no expression on his face, and he watched him closely while being judged by Negan's sharp eyes.

"Long before we met Teddy, we were a bit ignorant about what was really happening in the world. Just getting weapons from abandoned houses, we thought life was easy."

"It's really a stupid way of thinking."

Dominic sneered and continued to ask, "So, is something really terrifying happening in the north of Texas?"

"Yes."

Dario said with a bit of bewilderment, his gaze pale and seeming to tremble, "We've searched everywhere for food, weapons, and medicine. But the rumors from the survivors we met say something bad is happening in the north of Texas. They say other types of infected and undead people are hiding in that place. Many of my people went there, but they never returned."

"Oh, no wonder this is also a damned hell. I guess someone hid the walkers in the buildings and did it very well."

After hearing this, Dominic understood why the walkers appeared so quickly when those soldiers' helicopter crashed and also knew why there weren't many more walkers in other places.

Speaking here, it can be considered that he understood the general situation of Teddy's cult. From what he has learned so far, except for the cult and the submarine, there aren't enough threats to endanger the success of his goal.

Slightly relieved, Dominic no longer asked too much about the survivors here. Instead, he became interested in the two groups of survivors who were fighting when he escaped the tunnel with Alicia.

"Are there survivors not linked to the cult? I heard two groups of survivors were fighting a few days ago; do you know anything about that?"

Dario didn't expect the other party to still be interested in this and was a bit surprised, but the other party wanted to listen, so he also said, "I don't know why they fought. And no, they're not linked to the cult."

"But I heard that shelter was attacked because they helped a man and a girl escape, who are being sought by that group of survivors."

"A man and a girl..."

Hearing these words, Dominic felt a bit familiar, but said nothing concrete.

Dario continued, "As for other places, there is a relatively large survivor organization in Coleman, on the outskirts of downtown. It's a powerful shelter, and they call themselves 'wolves.' It's said there are many other bases with the same name, but it's not known."

"Wolves?"

Learning about another survivor organization, Dominic was very surprised.

He really didn't expect there to be so many survivor organizations in Texas.

"Tell me about them."

"They... are a very... crazy organization..."

As soon as the "Wolves" were mentioned, Dario's expression suddenly became more lively, with fear, dread, and even a bit of admiration.

Seeing such an obvious change in the other party's eyes, Dominic couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, showing some interest in this survivor organization.

"The Wolves are a revolutionary militia group. They rebelled against supposed military oppression in numerous quarantine zones around special areas to reestablish government control. However, they failed in their war against the army. Meanwhile, the Wolves were looking for their own vaccine for the virus. It's said they've spread to many places across the country, but nothing more is known about them right now."

After a pause, he said, "The Wolves are a paramilitary group that crushed the army shortly after the epidemic outbreak and now dominate some parts of Seattle. The Scars are a fanatical religious cult as suspicious as they are deadly."

"So, why don't you join them?"

"Join them?" Hearing this, Dario shook his head in dismay and said in a despondent tone, "There are numerous survivors who want to join them. But since we attacked a group of Wolves survivors, I'm content with being alive so far."

Having said that, Dario seemed to have thought of something, and a smug expression suddenly appeared on his face. He said, "However, before I left, I heard from other survivors that something happened to them."

"Oh, what do you mean?"

Dominic didn't mind the other party's tone, as if telling a story, and asked curiously.

"There were internal conflicts in the Wolves, and some of the bases were invaded by numerous walkers. I think their current situation isn't very good."

Dario recalled for a moment and said, "It's said it was caused by a group of people who had just joined. One of them is the younger brother of the same man who escaped with the girl and caused them many problems. I don't really know what happened to them; I heard all this from numerous survivors I took in my group."

"Eh..."

Seeing this situation, Dominic raised his hand to look at the time, and before he realized it, half an hour had passed.

He shrugged, got up from the chair, smiled at Daryl in the seat, and said, "It's a pleasure talking to you, but this is the end of our conversation, and I'm going to talk to the next man."

As he spoke, Dominic walked behind Dario.

Seeing the other party's movement, Dario immediately realized what was happening and quickly shouted, "No, I still have information."

"Sleep!"

But before he finished speaking, he heard a gust of wind coming from his ear. The words in his mouth abruptly stopped, and he lost consciousness again.