[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 619 - The Plan Takes Shape

Could one person alone scour the entire world for recruits? That would take until hell froze over.

Simon's breathing went ragged.

He looked at Kaya, and something ignited behind his eyes.

"You just said — a beacon for the soul." Simon set the wooden cup on the stool beside the bed. "But what if that beacon were more than just some vague, intangible broadcast?"

Simon held her gaze.

"What if I got on the air and told everyone that a truly safe base actually exists in this world?"

"A place with high walls. An endless supply of clean water. A heavy-weapons defense grid that can hold off any Walker Horde."

"A place that even has medicine stockpiled to treat the virus."

Kaya blinked.

"Are you serious?" She swallowed. "Does a place like that actually exist? Or are you just spinning a story to give people something to hold onto?"

"God, it's real." Simon spread his hands. "I'm Citizen Z. I don't lie."

"The man I work for is the leader of that base."

His voice swelled with pride.

"He's one tough son of a bitch. He's built an impregnable fortress, and he's constantly pushing out to clear every threat in the surrounding area. I've been running satellite surveillance on the entire state for him." Simon slapped his thigh. "But I shut down the public broadcast a while back — figured it wasn't necessary anymore."

"Turns out I was dead wrong."

Simon clenched his fist.

"They need a safe place to go. And my boss needs them just as much."

"If I use the Citizen Z name, if I build that prison into the promised land of the apocalypse —"

His mind was already spinning. The smile at the corner of his mouth was impossible to keep down.

"Loop a recruitment message every single day. Tell every survivor out there with skills and guts: make it there alive, and you get a new life."

This was, without question, the fastest way to help the boss build his workforce.

Let survivors from all across America pack their own supplies, punch through Walker blockade line after blockade line, and show up at the door ready to work.

The ones who survived the journey? All premium stock.

Natural selection. Automatic screening.

Though Simon was still decent enough at heart that he'd find ways to help some of them make it through alive.

Kaya listened to the whole thing, and her entire body came alight.

"This is an absolutely insane plan!" She shot to her feet and started pacing the length of the log cabin. "You're pointing every living soul on the wasteland toward a way out!"

She spun around.

"This is what Citizen Z is supposed to do." Her voice had gone fervent, almost feverish. "You can't just sit out here rotting away, we should do something massive. Together."

Simon raised an eyebrow.

"We?"

"Yes, we!" Kaya crossed to the bed and pressed both hands down on the edge of it. "You can't run this alone."

She lifted her chin.

"You focus entirely on the satellite broadcast. Go be the prophet who guides humanity's comeback." She met his eyes. "I'll handle your logistics. Keep you alive and functioning out here in this frozen hellhole."

Completely blunt. No dressing it up. The most straightforward alliance proposal the wasteland had to offer.

Simon looked at this wild girl from the polar north, and the thought of refusing never even surfaced.

In a godforsaken place like the Arctic, having a knowledgeable local at his side would cut out an enormous amount of trouble.

And besides, he really was lonely.

And if he was being honest with himself, she was exactly his type.

That completely unaffected wildness. Nothing like the city girls he'd known before the apocalypse. A different species entirely.

"Deal."

Simon extended his right hand without hesitation.

Kaya grabbed it and shook it twice, hard.

Two survivors of a polar blizzard, inside a ramshackle log cabin, sealed a plan that was about to redraw the map of the entire North American wasteland.

Only then did Simon understand what Leon had intended all along.

It clicked. The coordinates Leon gave him had led straight here, which meant Leon had basically shipped him a wife. Simon's chest filled with genuine gratitude for the man's careful scheming.

He really did know him too well.

The old man and old woman sat at the table, watching the two young people buzz with energy.

The old man picked up the vodka bottle, poured a little into his wooden cup, and took a long, contented sip.

They didn't understand any of the high technology.

But they knew.

The outsiders who had come in from the cold were carrying something. Some kind of extraordinary mission.

Outside, the blizzard kept howling.

The wind clawed at every gap in the log walls, drawing out a thin, piercing whistle.

Simon lay back on the bed, his mind already drafting the opening lines for the broadcast.

He was going to shape Leon into an absolutely reliable leader. He was going to package that grim, ugly prison as the Eden of the apocalypse.

All he had to do was wait for the storm to break.

Then he'd go straight back to the radar station and bring those enormous antenna arrays back online. Full power. Blanketing the entire United States with a signal of hope.

"Once the wind stops, I'll take you to those coordinates you're after," Kaya said.

"Though that leg of yours will probably need a few days first."

"It's fine." Simon shook his head. "Strap on a splint and we go."

"The sooner we get this done, the more people survive."

➤ Next: Reopening the Public Channel Broadcast