Conflict erupted

The air in the camp froze completely, and the crackling of the campfire sounded unusually harsh.

Every eye focused on the confrontation between Shane and Lynn.

With nowhere to vent, Shane set his sights on the unfamiliar arrivals.

Shane, blinded by rage, directed his aggression at Lynn, only for Davis to intercept him first.

Glenn gripped Andrea's arm, keeping her from getting involved.

T-Dog's hand rested on the machete handle at his waist.

The mockery vanished from Merle's face, his gaze turning focused and dangerous.

Dale supported a deathly pale Lori, unable to speak.

Carl was held tightly in her mother's arms, her little face buried in Lori's clothes.

"Shane! Don't do this! For God's sake!"

Lori screamed through tears, trying to pull free of Dale.

"Daddy!" Carl cried.

Rick snapped out of the daze of their reunion, pulled free of Min-seon's support, and dragged his injured leg toward them, his face anxious and pained.

"Shane! Stop! They saved my life!"

But Shane turned a deaf ear to the voices behind him. In his world, only Davis and Lynn remained.

Davis's silence poured oil on the fire in his heart. His gun hand trembled from gripping too hard, his knuckles white, the muzzle pressing an indentation into Davis's chest.

"I fucking told you to get out of the way! Are you deaf? You think I won't blow you away?"

Shane roared, spraying spit onto Davis's face. His index finger rested on the trigger. All it needed was a little more pressure.

Lynn's voice rang out, calm yet piercing the deathly silence, carrying a chill. "Deputy Shane."

He stood behind Davis, tilting his head slightly, looking over Davis's shoulder to meet Shane's burning eyes. "Save your strength. Shooting now will only get you killed faster."

He paused for half a second, the coldness deepening. "Still, that ruthless streak of yours... really does suit this world better than Sheriff Rick's."

Those words struck precisely at the most hidden corner of Shane's heart.

Better suited than Rick? Better suited to this camp? To Lori? To this apocalypse?

The shame and rage of being exposed in public drove him even crazier than Rick's "resurrection."

"You're fucking dead!"

Shane's reason snapped. His eyes bloodshot, he jerked his finger against the trigger. He needed blood to quell his fury.

Just then, a pained, desperate roar erupted:

"Shane! Stop-!"

It was Rick's voice.

With strength from who knew where, he shoved Min-seon away and, dragging an injured leg that could barely support him, staggered toward the gap between Shane and Davis as though prepared to die with them. He intended to block the bullet with his own body.

The roar and the sight of Rick lunging toward him caused the slightest hesitation in Shane's trigger finger.

Davis's body had tensed the moment Lynn spoke, his thick right arm gathering strength, ready to knock the barrel aside the instant Shane acted while shielding Lynn.

Merle's fingers slipped into his pocket and closed around the cold coin.

Andrea raised her muzzle half an inch.

T-Dog's machete slid from its sheath.

Everyone stopped breathing.

The campfire illuminated the quarry's cold, gray-white rock walls.

Rick was in midair, Shane's trigger about to be pulled, Davis's iron arm poised to strike. 5

At that very instant-

"What the fuck is going on?!"

A rough roar crashed into the deathly silence.

At the edge of camp, the bushes were shoved roughly apart.

Daryl Dixon strode in, a bleeding rabbit slung over his shoulder, sweat and grime smeared across his face, his brows drawn into a fierce scowl.

He spotted the confrontation in the middle of camp at once: Shane's gun pressed against a hulking man's chest, while a stranger (Rick) lunged toward the muzzle.

And his brother Merle was staring venomously at Lynn, who stood leaning against the jeep behind the hulking man.

The instinct to protect his own put Daryl on alert instantly. The rabbit hit the ground with a thud, and the crossbow on his back slid into his hands. He cocked it in a blur, his rough finger settling on the trigger, the sharp bolt aimed steadily at the center of Davis's back.

"Let Shane go. Hands up. Move, and I'll put a bolt through you."

Daryl's voice was hoarse and savage, steeped in menace.

His arrival shattered the fragile balance.

Merle's eyes lit up. The chaos he had been waiting for had arrived.

The instant Daryl finished speaking, Merle moved, his body bursting into swift action. His right hand whipped out of the pocket where he had kept it-not holding a coin, but a razor honed to a gleaming edge.

Shielded by his body, the blade slashed viciously toward the side of Lynn's neck. He had long since had fucking enough of Lynn's high-and-mighty attitude.

All of Davis's attention was locked on Shane's index finger, while the threat of the bolt behind him felt like a spike of ice.

Merle's razor came at a tricky angle. In an instant, Davis was threatened from front and rear. His body instinctively wanted to respond to the threat behind him, but the muzzle in front was the lethal one.

Inevitably, a slight hesitation crept into his movements.

Shane caught the conflict in Davis's eyes, and wild delight flooded him.

An opening!

He grinned savagely and pressed his index finger hard against the trigger. Die.

The muzzle was reflected in Rick's despairing eyes.

Lynn remained where he stood, not even glancing at Merle's blade. His face was utterly expressionless.

Just as Shane's finger tightened, Merle's blade was about to touch skin, and Daryl held his bolt ready without firing-

Lynn casually raised his right hand and lightly pointed his index finger toward the sparse grove of low trees at the edge of camp.

Bang-!!!

A sharp, brief report erupted without warning, its source over a hundred meters away.

Thwack!

A harder impact sounded.

It struck less than ten centimeters in front of Shane's feet, behind Davis's heels, directly ahead of where Rick was falling, beside the path of Merle's slashing razor, and below and to the side of Daryl's point of aim.

Gray-white rock dust exploded from the quarry's hard ground.

A smoking crater the size of a bowl's rim abruptly appeared before everyone's eyes.

Several scorching fragments of stone clattered onto Shane's shoes.

Every movement froze.

At the last instant, the point-blank impact and flying stones stopped Shane's arm cold. His trigger finger twitched uncontrollably, and the muzzle rose half an inch, brushing past Davis's shoulder to point at the sky.

Davis's blocking motion abruptly halted at the tremor beneath his feet and the threat of death.

Merle's razor stopped less than a centimeter from Lynn's neck, the viciousness on his face instantly replaced by shock.

Startled, Daryl loosened his finger. The crossbow string gave a soft twang, and its aim ceased to pose a threat.

Rick fell heavily onto the gravel from midair. Pain tore through his knees and elbows, but he felt none of it, his eyes fixed on the smoking crater.

Andrea's finger stiffened, T-Dog's machete stopped, Glenn's mouth fell open, and Dale tightened his hold on Lori.

Lori clamped her hands over Carl's ears and eyes, trembling violently herself.

Min-seon and Davis seemed to have anticipated it. They knew their boss concealed his abilities and must have a trump card of his own.

The entire camp was deathly silent.

Only the smoking crater remained, with the smell of gunpowder and scorching hanging in the air.

Every gaze shifted in horror from the crater to the person responsible-Lynn.

He remained where he stood, casually lowering his raised right index finger as though he had merely brushed away some dust.

His calm gaze swept over the frozen Shane, the rigid Merle, Daryl with his crossbow lowered, and Rick on the ground, before finally settling on the frightened faces of every survivor.

"It seems," Lynn's voice broke the deathly silence, quiet yet reaching everyone's ears clearly, carrying an icy calm, "we can now talk by my rules."

When he finished speaking, the camp remained deathly silent.

Only the sparse grove of low trees a hundred meters away swayed gently in the breeze.

The person who had fired was like a ghost.

But the deterrent power of that single shot had already branded itself deep into everyone's heart.