Chapter 106 - It's Too Late
In a forest next to a road, a group of military vehicles and trucks remained parked in complete silence. Surrounding them were about ninety soldiers, all armed from head to toe and with serious expressions. Each one of them stayed alert, as if they were about to enter combat.
Mike, the one in charge of leading the invasion to Woodbury at the exact moment the Governor's group left the shelter, watched his wristwatch impatiently. He knew that every second counted.
Beside him was Karla, with a pale and absent expression, as if she had seen a ghost. She couldn't stop thinking that, if this group of soldiers had attacked the Woodbury shelter with all their might, there would have been no survivors. She was sure that these men were not just ordinary civilians with weapons; they were trained soldiers, professionals, and with a level of organization far superior to the Governor's.
"These are no amateurs," Karla thought as she looked at the soldiers. Each one of them could be worth three of the Governor's men... and not to mention the equipment they carried.
The plan that Jason had designed consisted of three fundamental phases, all aimed at avoiding as many unnecessary deaths as possible.
First, they had to make Karen believe that the prison base was almost empty. How did they do it? Simple. The prison had several newly opened areas where people could stay without needing to move around the main yard.
Once Karen fell into the trap and believed there were few people, the next step was for her to return to the Governor to inform him, as expected. Only then would Jason speak to her directly, and with evidence in hand, he would try to convince her that they were not the true enemies.
Jason remembered well what had happened in the original timeline. In it, Karen had been the one to help Rick evacuate the people of Woodbury when the Governor, consumed by madness, began massacring his own allies. That memory gave him hope: maybe there was still a chance to save the civilians of Woodbury without shedding too much blood.
In summary, the whole plan depended on one person: Karen. If she did the right thing, everything else would be much easier. The strategy then was to lure the enemies into the prison and subdue them little by little.
It was clear there would be deaths. But Jason felt it was the least he could do for those deceived lives. He knew that most of the attackers had been manipulated by the Governor, and for that reason, he didn't intend to exterminate them all without cause.
"Alright!" Tommy exclaimed coldly. "It's time to move toward the enemy refuge. Remember: they are enemies until they surrender completely. If they don't drop their weapons... Eliminate them."
"Understood, sir!" The soldiers responded in unison, firmly.
The engines roared to life, and within seconds, the convoy set off toward Woodbury, ready to execute the plan.
...
Back at the prison, Martínez peered over the wall and then signaled to the Governor that they had successfully climbed. Seeing this, the Governor showed a satisfied expression.
Now that everything was progressing according to plan, the Governor wasted no time and ordered the rest of the group to move toward the inner wall gate. Some even began pushing vehicles again to block the enemy's front access.
While the intruders in the front yard hurried toward the center of the prison, a group of people remained hidden on top of the wall they had entered. They crouched, hidden behind the railing of the structure.
The prison wall was sturdy, built to withstand severe impacts. At the top, it had reinforced walkways with high railings on both sides, making it easy to hide people. Since the usual security was concentrated in the watchtowers at the main entrance, no additional railings had been placed in that area.
Because everyone followed Jason's orders, the Governor's group had easily entered without facing much resistance. In other words, everything was under Jason's control.
At that moment, many people, including Martínez, were already stationed on top of the thick prison wall. Unknowingly, they were being surrounded by groups led by Jason. He trusted that the side walls would provide full cover for his men, and so it was: they went undetected by the enemy.
Although several of Martínez's men had reached the wall, none dared to advance further to explore what lay beyond. The place was too large, and they didn't have enough time to check all sections for ambushes. The only ones they had seen so far were the snipers in the towers, who had stopped firing a while ago.
And that was exactly what Jason had anticipated since the Governor started spying around the prison. Knowing how much information the enemy had, Jason strategically distributed his people and guards at key points, where they were most likely to remain undetected.
One of the places where the most people were concentrated was the gymnasium, which had been almost completely rebuilt. It had turned into a large facility, similar to other internal structures of the prison. It had twelve large units, each connected to eighteen wings, organized from left to right, capable of housing two people per room. Taking advantage of the space, it was divided into three levels, allowing it to accommodate up to one thousand three hundred people in total.
This space had originally been prepared to evacuate the staff from the Atlanta base in the event of a catastrophe, but due to the current threat, it became the main refuge for all the prison's inhabitants.
Members of Jason's community cooperated without objections. Several even volunteered to defend the place, making it clear that they now considered this prison their home, and they were ready to fight anyone who tried to destroy it.
Jason only shared the details of the plan with class two authority members, but he made sure to tell everyone to stay calm, as he already had a strategy to face the invaders.
Finally, he organized four teams with special missions. The first group, led by Tommy, was heading to Woodbury. The second, led by Elías, was hidden among the trees, about one hundred meters behind the Governor. The other two groups scattered at different shooting points within the prison and waited silently for the attack signal.
In total, about one hundred fifty people were hidden on the prison wall, another fifty spread out across all the watchtowers, and two hundred more were ambushed behind the Governor's lines. The two groups stationed on the walls were led by Rick and Merle, while the third was in charge of Shane and Daryl.
High up in a large tree, Jason remained silent, covered in camouflage, while holding a light machine gun aimed at the gate of the base, where the Governor and a small group of people were waiting.
He lifted the radio in his hand, glanced around again, and began a countdown, indicating the moment to attack.
When the countdown reached zero, from three different directions, everyone prepared, waiting for Jason to give the signal. Rick and Shane aimed toward Martínez's group, and everyone started taking their positions.
Jason, who was at the top of a tree behind the Governor, pulled the trigger on his weapon. A series of bullets shot out at high speed from the long barrel of his machine gun.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of the bursts from the forest echoed in everyone's ears. Rick and Shane, on either side of the walls, also opened fire. More than a dozen people who had been hiding in the walls started shooting.
The Governor's men realized the attack had begun, and everyone joined the battle. The outer group of the Governor suffered several casualties due to the sudden gunfire coming from the forest, and within seconds, the bursts of shots were heard all across the prison.
Jason and his team hadn't planned on being friendly. It was evident that many of those now attacking his people wouldn't survive. The lucky ones would have a chance to escape, but the rest only had one fate: death.
Chaos grew as gunfire came from all directions, and at that moment, no one realized that several unique rifle cannons had been set up in the watchtowers.
Rick and the others in the rear had already attracted the attention of more than thirty people, who were tasked with suppressing the attacks coming toward their direction. Rick and Shane began to move forward slowly.
The original plan had been that, taking advantage of the enemies' disorientation from the gunfire, a small group would move to flank them. However, this strategy could change, as the base wall wasn't very wide, and the inner diameter didn't exceed two meters. Under the watchful eyes of more than thirty people, it wouldn't be easy to flank them without being noticed. If one of them turned their head, they would find a group approaching from the side, and at that moment, they could only face them hand to hand.
So, a solution was devised. The plan was to start from the edges and control the enemies one by one, advancing toward the center in a short amount of time.
To carry out this plan quietly and without being detected, the help of the snipers and the Dixon brothers was enlisted. Daryl and Merle, experts in hunting and survival, had extensive knowledge of using special weapons, so Jason, Guillermo, and the Dixon brothers devised a joint strategy.
Jason had anticipated the possibility of facing special circumstances from the early days of the world's end, so he prepared around thirty tranquilizer weapons. The advantage of these pistols was that they were silent and extremely effective against targets that were not to be killed.
Daryl, already familiar with this type of weapon, quickly adjusted the correct amount of anesthesia when Jason handed him the gear.
Rick's team, pressed against the small wall, began firing at the intruders. Meanwhile, several snipers with tranquilizer guns started suppressing the enemies.
The anesthesia took effect quickly, and half of the people on both sides of the opponent fell to the ground almost immediately. Then, several members of Jason's team moved in immediately, taking the enemy positions and securing the area.
While the rest of the team continued firing to keep attention, Martínez was the only one who noticed something wasn't right. However, seeing that those around him didn't seem to notice anything strange, he continued firing. It was then that, seconds later, he saw men falling around him and felt something cold pressing against the back of his head.
"Don't move! Lower your weapon and place your hands on your head! Slowly!"
Martínez slowly lowered his weapon, raised his hands, and placed them behind his head. When he turned, he found himself face to face with a tall, white man, holding a weapon in his hand. The massive barrel of the weapon pressed against his forehead.
The man leaned slightly to the side, raised his head, and looked at him with a murderous look, causing Martínez's heart to constrict.
Looking around, Martínez realized that he didn't know when the enemy group had surrounded him. Everyone else was lying on the ground, and soon they began to be secured by Jason's men.
Daryl was also pointing his crossbow at Crowley's head, whose weapon had already fallen to the ground. He exchanged a glance with Martínez and sighed. They'd been caught again!
More than a dozen people were still under the door, led by the Governor, with at least forty heavily armed men.
However, when the groups on both sides advanced, another group quickly took their place, continuing the gunfire and simulating that the fight was still ongoing.
This created an illusion for the Governor, who kept firing toward the forest. The gunfire didn't stop, and he didn't realize at all that most of his people had been neutralized.
Soon, however, he noticed that the people around him were starting to fall to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something attached to one of his men's backs, and that's when he realized something was wrong. Nervously, he quickly turned his head.