Somewhere in South Carolina.
Minutes after Reginald's group arrived at the outskirts of the house where Jack and his team were.
"You! What the hell are you doing?!"
Seeing their captain suddenly pushed to the ground, the two men who were accompanying Julio were frightened and didn't understand why this was happening.
"Damn noisy bastards…!"
With his hands behind his back, Reginald ignored those people, slowly walked toward Julio, and said indifferently, "It seems power went to your head. You don't understand even a small part of what we're going through, so I expect you to shut your mouth."
Hearing Reginald's words, Julio suddenly felt an ominous premonition in his heart. He secretly regretted coming here today and quickly opened his mouth to explain, "Sir, I'm not— wuh—"
One of the armed men standing beside Julio, who was holding him down, saw that this guy was about to speak, so he quickly covered his mouth to prevent him from saying a single word.
"Enough, I don't have time to waste here with your trash…"
Looking impatiently at Julio, who was about to struggle, Reginald signaled to the two soldiers and said, "Send him back to the community. I want to know what's really going on with this idiot. If I see him again trying to do stupid things in my presence, his death will be more than deserved…"
"Also…" While speaking, Reginald pointed at Julio's followers and continued, "Take these guys away too!"
"Yes, sir!"
After receiving the order, the two armed men nodded. One of them dragged Julio outside, and both raised their rifles, threatening death.
After all these people left, the scene returned to calm once again.
Only then did Reginald walk back toward Jack and say with a smile, "What just happened was only a small dramatic episode. Let's continue with what we were talking about…"
"They look like soldiers. Their suits look far more advanced than the conventional ones the military used before this fucking catastrophe hit us hard… Fine, I don't want to avoid what I know. I know your people killed many of ours in this place…"
"What?"
Hearing this, Jack immediately showed a look of shock on his face.
"It seems you don't know about it, or you weren't the ones who committed those murders…"
Looking closely at Jack's face, Reginald continued observing the subtle expressions on this man's face, chuckled softly, and said, "In that case, I don't really mind, since I can say it was self-defense… Still, I really want to know what your purpose is in this place, and before that, we need to search the surroundings for rats…"
Then he looked at the armed men—who were in fact soldiers standing not far away in full armor—pointed at the surrounding buildings, and said, "Search the area centimeter by centimeter. I want you to bring everyone alive to this place."
"Of course!"
After receiving the order, the few people present quickly moved toward the buildings and, with their weapons raised, began searching for survivors.
"Are there people?" Jack asked with a strange feeling.
"Oh, of course there are. Who do you think told us there were soldiers here?"
Within a few seconds, several screams were heard in the distance, and then some soldiers began dragging survivors out of the buildings.
Reginald could see the doubt on Jack's face, so he immediately said, "Well, we're in a silent struggle with a malicious group of survivors. Some of ours want to join them, and that really doesn't benefit us…"
"Don't misunderstand me. It's not about power or some shit like that. To be honest, I'd rather live growing potatoes than be a fucking leader in my last years of life…" Reginald smiled and said, "I know you're not just passing through, and I also know you're not our enemies, so I really want to make sure we don't become enemies in the future…"
"What's the name of that group?" Jack asked, interested.
"I don't know why you want to know, but they call themselves the Fireflies…"
When Jack heard this, he looked at Emma beside him, and their eyes met for a brief moment. "My name is Jack. I'm just a captain of an assault group from the S.C.T. organization, and we're investigating this place…"
When Jack finished saying these words, several people who were being lined up on the dirty road were suddenly aimed at with weapons, and the shouting stopped.
"Tell me, Jack, does that organization belong to the government?"
The soldiers in the distance ignored the reactions of these people and focused on pulling each of them out one by one. Although some soldiers were somewhat hesitant to hurt survivors they had protected not long ago, it was necessary to preserve their own peace.
Watching all this, Jack couldn't help but be secretly shocked, not understanding how these people had managed to hide in the surroundings.
"The army no longer exists, but we are trying to recover what we have lost so far," Jack replied with a calm expression.
As the soldiers began their search, the expressions of several men and women in the crowd suddenly changed. They clenched their fists slightly and slowly moved toward the back of the crowd.
"In all this time, I've learned many things. The first is that the Fireflies don't accept just any piece of shit into their ranks, only selected ones, and they always try to harm those they don't fucking like. And the second is that those who are part of the Fireflies always have a tattoo on their forearm."
Reginald's eyes rested on those survivors.
But as the soldiers searched more and more people within the gathered group, there was no way for them to retreat. If they moved backward, they would definitely be noticed by the soldiers scanning the area.
"I'm telling you this because my community has been infected by the Fireflies. I find it difficult to trust anyone, and I believe that wherever you come from, you must be very careful."
When Reginald finished saying this, his eyes locked onto a group of people. That group looked at each other and then very slowly moved toward the back of the crowd, slipping their hands into their pockets.
"These people belonged to our community, but they were cast out because they openly insinuated that they wanted to join the Fireflies, and they were suspected of killing several of our leaders."
"Hands up!" a soldier shouted loudly.
After checking most of the people in the front, one of the soldiers looked at the last six men and women standing in the back. He had felt something was wrong with these people for a while now and continued advancing toward the rear of the crowd.
At first, he thought it was just fear, but now, seeing that their expressions were calm and that their hands were in their pockets, he didn't know what to think. His vigilance immediately went on high alert, and he was about to issue a warning order.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
But before the soldiers could take a step forward to check, those people rushed forward at the same time, all with pistols in their hands, raising them to fire while running.
Before the soldier could react, he was shot in the head by a bullet. Blood burst from the wound, and he fell to the ground instantly.
The rest of the soldiers who were inspecting the area saw this, but they did not panic at all. They didn't even think about drawing their weapons—instead, they all dropped to the ground, with no intention of resisting the attack.
"Ah!"
At the same time, the sudden gunfire rang out like tolling bells. Everyone saw those survivors display expressions of horror. Afraid of being hit by bullets, they screamed in terror and ran in all directions.
The chaotic crowd immediately overwhelmed the armed rebels. From the outside, it became impossible to discern their positions for a while.
"Just look at those pieces of shit. I didn't expect some of the soldiers in my convoy to be traitors!"
Looking at the chaotic crowd in front of him, Reginald sneered at the corner of his mouth and ordered loudly, "Open fire, they're all enemies!"
Although he was facing the crowd, his peripheral vision kept watching Jack's expression, as if trying to discern something from him.
Feeling those faint prying looks, Jack didn't change his expression, but his heart was already in complete chaos. All this new information overwhelmed him.
Of course, this was truly the purpose of his mission, but things had progressed in an extremely forced direction—and too easily. Why were they obtaining information so smoothly, and why was Reginald telling them everything as if they were allies?
What was even more terrifying was that South Carolina was being led by a united group of multiple communities, and right now they were in conflict with the group called the Fireflies.
If it was revealed now that he was part of the organization that destroyed one of Reginald's community groups, they would be in deep trouble—trouble that wouldn't be resolved unless one of the two sides survived.
While Jack was thinking of countermeasures in his mind, at Reginald's command, the surrounding soldiers who had been pointing their weapons at the residents decisively raised the semi-automatic rifles in their hands.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
In just a few seconds, the roar of gunfire erupted. Countless shell casings flew from the barrels of the long guns, mercilessly striking both the traitors and those who knew nothing, and of course, killing the Fireflies.
Regardless of whether they were rebels or not, as long as the people in front of them were enemies, Reginald's soldiers fired without mercy.
Suddenly, the scene became extremely bloody. Blood splattered across the ground, and the residents of this place who were shot fell one by one, screaming in pain, as if they were emerging from purgatory on earth.
"Fight them, you damn idiots!"
The rebels, who originally wanted to use the crowd to fight indirectly, never expected the soldiers of the Beaver Community to fire so ruthlessly. One of them, hiding among the crowd, roared and raised his weapon to counterattack desperately.
But before he could fire more than a few shots, the soldiers turned their weapons and shot him, killing him instantly.
At that moment, other rebels were also killed by bullets from all directions when they tried to defend themselves, and as a result, all the innocent people were either killed or wounded.
"Shit!"
Seeing this situation, Jack's eyes widened, filled with disbelief. He truly didn't expect the armed forces of this group to disregard innocent lives to this extent. They could be said to be extremely cold-blooded.
"Surprised?"
Seeing the shock in Jack's eyes, Reginald chuckled and said, "There's nothing surprising about it. There are fewer than thirty survivors here. If we give ourselves the freedom to protect them now, our enemies will use them to kill us all, and there would be no survivors."
As he spoke, he slowly clenched his fist behind his back. The ferocity in his eyes was evident as he said, "Compared to the loss of a soldier who can fight, it's better to sacrifice some lives to save others."
"We must understand that we have to prioritize some people over others. I don't know where you come from, but in this place, things are done this way… Food is scarce, there's no medicine, and the fucking bullets are a problem, and now there's an organization that wants us as its soldiers."
"I understand perfectly, sir."
Looking at the fallen survivors scattered across the ground, Reginald said to the soldiers, "Secure the bodies and put the wounded survivors out of their misery."
"Yes, sir!"