After Professor Amrin left, Amy came to Leon with a smile.
"Boss, I saw you talking with Professor Amrin for quite a while. Did you gain a lot from it?"
Leon glanced at Amy's beautiful, radiant smile. Suppressing his restless emotions, he placed a finger against her red lips and gently traced them.
"Amrin is a talented man. He brought a lot of good news. I'm planning to promote him to C-Class Technician next week."
Amy was slightly taken aback. After a few seconds, she said:
"He should be a good person. Annie and Aurelio told me that their father, Amrin, loved them very much. He would rather go hungry himself than leave them without the last of the food."
"Those two children are really sensible. They're smart and adorable, too."
Leon lifted Amy's chin and said teasingly:
"What? Do you want a child now?"
After lunch, and a little post-meal exercise, Leon was preparing to go see Shane and Carl.
The Walkie-Talkie on his belt suddenly received a transmission request.
"Beep!"
Merle's voice, rough as a drake's quack, came through.
"Boss, we've been ambushed!"
"Eight bastards rushed out of hiding and attacked us. Bright took two bullets. We killed one and captured another, but the rest got away."
Leon was silent for several seconds before asking in a voice that suppressed his anger:
"How is Bright doing? Where was he shot?"
Merle sounded somewhat dejected as well. Something had gone wrong with the mission his boss had given him, which would lower his standing in his boss's eyes.
"Bright's condition is fine. The Black Bear Armor blocked part of the damage. He took one shot in the shoulder and one in the arm, but nothing hit the bone. We've already stopped the bleeding."
Fortunately, he was only injured. They hadn't lost a Combat Squad member.
Leon quietly let out a sigh of relief and said in a low voice:
"Bring the prisoner back. Remember to put another bullet in the corpse's head."
"I'll wait for you at the base."
"Damn it. Anyone who dares ambush us will pay the price."
Ten minutes later, the Combat Squad returned. Everyone else was fine. Only Bright was holding his injured arm, grimacing in pain as he glared hatefully at the male prisoner by Merle's feet.
He was a survivor from Nursing Home Camp who had come to Atlanta to visit his grandmother. Before the disaster, he had been an ordinary assembly-line worker. In all his years, this was the first time he had suffered a gunshot wound.
Leon had the injured Bright sent to the Medical Room. Umbrella Corporation had two professional C-Class Medics, and they could handle an ordinary gunshot wound very well.
He looked over the prisoner. The man was around forty, African-American, with short curly hair and an ordinary appearance. His face was covered in scars, and he had tattoos on his arms and forehead. He looked like the sort of thug who had spent years roaming the streets.
Leon swept his gaze over the Combat Squad, then pointed at the prisoner, whose hands and feet were bound, mouth sealed, clothes disheveled, and eyes filled with terror.
"Everyone else, go back and rest."
"Merle, bring this guy with me to the Underground Parking Lot."
The three of them arrived at the Underground Parking Lot. Leon did not bother being polite. He kicked the prisoner to the ground, drew his dagger, and, under the prisoner's terrified gaze, stabbed him once in the shoulder and once in the arm.
Damn it. He had dared hurt my laborers and nearly cost me a worker.
The intense pain made the prisoner lie on the ground, sweating coldly and trembling all over.
Leon pulled out the dagger and let the blood gush from the prisoner's wounds. In a sinister tone, he said:
"These two stabs are only interest for hurting our people."
"Now I'll give you a chance. Answer my questions honestly, without a single lie. Otherwise, next time it'll be four stabs."
He planted a foot on the prisoner's chest and ripped the tape from his mouth.
The prisoner instinctively tried to cry out in pain, but Leon immediately kicked him hard in the face.
"Make another sound and I'll use the knife on you."
The African-American prisoner clenched his teeth, trembling all over, his face twisted as he nodded repeatedly, cold sweat covering his forehead.
"Where's your camp? How many people are there in total?"
"Don't kill me! We only wanted to get some supplies."
Seeing that the African-American prisoner had not answered his question and was still trying to make excuses, Leon planted his foot on the wound in the prisoner's arm and ground it down hard, shouting:
"Don't play dumb. Answer my question, or you'll get another knife."
The prisoner screamed in agony and twisted his body, trying to push Leon's foot away. Leon kicked him in the face again, knocking out several teeth.
"Stop wasting time. Answer me!"
"Emden urged us to attack. The food at our camp is almost gone. Without food, we'll starve to death."
"He said that if we ambushed you first and killed one or two people, everyone else would be scared away."
"We only wanted food."
Seeing the prisoner still spouting nonsense, Leon slashed at his head and cut off one of his ears.
He pressed his knee against the prisoner's face, aimed the tip of his knife at his eye, and said viciously:
"Keep spouting nonsense and I'll kill you outright."
The repeated injuries finally made the street thug understand what ruthless cruelty meant. When faced with someone who was merciless and didn't waste words, he no longer dared to say anything reckless.
"There were twelve of us together. We were all members of the Fire Bull Gang from nearby. Emden was our junior leader."
"After the disaster, we fled outside and wandered for a while. Four people died. Later, we found a small camp in a Chemical Plant outside Shaxi Town, thirty kilometers away. There were more than ten people there, including old people and children."
"We all had guns, so we quickly took over the camp. We took their food, stole their vehicles, and imprisoned them."
"But we didn't kill anyone. We only locked them up in the Chemical Plant."
"Later, the food ran out, so we had to come out and look for supplies."
"Emden said there were fewer Zombies in this area, making it easier to find food, so we came here."
"Then we ran into you."
As he spoke, the thug felt his body heat and blood rapidly draining away. With tears and mucus streaming down his face, he begged:
"Please save me! Spare me! I may be a bastard, but I haven't killed anyone. I only wanted some food. I just want to live."
"Go kill Emden. He's the real bad guy. He's done plenty of terrible things. We were forced into this."
"Spare me. I'll do anything."
"I don't want to die!"
Leon did not believe a word of his nonsense. No one ever thought they were an irredeemably evil person. He kicked the prisoner in the face, making him shut his mouth.
Then he turned to Merle and said:
"Take him to the Medical Room and stop the bleeding first. Then lock him up with an iron chain."
"Once you're done, go gather everyone from the Combat Squad."
"Wait for me on Basement Level One."
"I'm going to get some equipment. Today, we're going to wipe out those bastards."
Merle nodded excitedly and replied with enthusiasm:
"All right, Boss. They're nothing but a bunch of scum. Old Merle can take on three of them alone."
As he watched Merle leave, Leon's thoughts turned to something else.
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