The battle was fast, and only a couple of minutes have passed since then. He approached the sniper:

Sam - Can you tell the helicopter to land at a specific location?

Sniper - Only the general had a radio, I can give a command, but I'm not sure if he will fulfill it.

Sam - Okay, try it, tell him to fly towards the mansion and land on the field right behind the forest.

Sam still has time to chat with him, collecting everything useful in rings, he hung the sniper on his shoulder and ran towards the mansion.

Sam - What's your name?

- Russell.

Sam chuckled, remembering another Russell.

Sam - I will make myself clear here, I do not want to damage either the helicopter or the pilot, you know my strength, besides, you will be at the sight of an RPG.

- So just go out to him, go inside and make sure that the doors open to me. Do you understand?

Russel - I understood.

Without leaving the forest, Sam freed the sniper, gave him his weapon and sent him on his way. Everything went well and soon Sam was sitting in the helicopter. For now, he said to turn off the engine and told the pilot to wait on the sidelines.

Sam - So Russell, what interesting can you tell us about the general?

Russell - The General was one of the strongest people, besides, he had a prestige class, he could enter a crowd of zombies and burn them all at once at a distance of 10 meters.

- He had enormous prestige as he killed tens of thousands of zombies on his own. It was thanks to him that a worthy zombie resistance was organized in our country. He was not a bad person and saved many lives.

- Without him, it would be much more difficult for us to capture key objects, and indeed to survive, this is a huge loss for humanity ...

Oh yeah, fuck humanity! Of course Sam couldn't say that, as he was thinking how to use Russell.

Sam - Okay, what did the savior of humanity do to Ashley's children? You know about this, right?

Russell - There are two children in the general's care, and they are fine. They live in the main camp and are supervised.

Sam - Okay, the general was indeed a good guy I feel sorry for your loss. Is all the power of government in the hands of the general?

Russell - Of course not, no matter how strong he is, there are other strong people, over time, many factions appeared, and not everyone looked at him with awe. But he was just a zombie nemesis, so it didn't go to extremes yet.

Sam - Why are you cooperating so willingly?

Russell - I respected the general, and believed that we would get out of this shit thanks to him. But now he is dead, you are even stronger, so I am ready to follow you.

Sam laughed to himself, he didn't know if Russell was telling the truth, but he certainly wasn't going to be a replacement for the general, sooner or later people would understand that he was gone and all his enemies would rush at Sam.

And Sam was sure that if a person who is unable to remember his phone number becomes at the helm of humanity, then it will be a disaster no worse than a zombie apocalypse.

Even if he ruled a village on the outskirts, it would quickly bend over. And he was not going to act as a guard either for humanity or for the village.

Russell could not take over the general's faction, except that he could try to lead a small part.

He also said that although scientists tried to research spirituality and skills, there were no particular results.

With plants, things were only slightly better, a drug was developed that increased all characteristics except spirit by 1, but this was not much different from eating fruits and for Sam no longer made sense.

Russell also knew about a fetus that improves vision in the dark, he himself received one from the general. But he did not know about other types of similar ones.

The entire air defense of the city was under the control of the general, the operation was secret and the general's personal helicopter was used.

Overall, in theory, there should be no problems with picking up and returning the children to Ashley.

But even so, Sam was not going to climb into the city with a bunch of weapons, hoping that everything would be all right. He still did not care about those children, so if Ashley will want to save them, she will have to go herself.

He did not really care about that helicopter, it was not fast enough comparing to a plane, and he had no idea where to hide it for himself as well as the pilot. Plus he was hoping he will be able to use Russel in future, so it would be better for him to return him back faster, so he would be able to take over some of generals influence and resources.

From the look of things, Russel was willing to cooperate. Well you never know what is in people heads. But even if he is lying, the Ashley gonna be the one who get hurt instead of him.

Russell was one of the general's trusted subordinates. Sam sent him to pick Ashley out of the mansion, and at the same time instruct the observers to return to the base.

Soon he brought Ashley, Sam explained the situation to her, and of course she agreed to go after her children.

He took all the weapons from Russell and the pilot, accordingly equipped Ashley and sent them on their way.

At the same time, he told Russell that, upon arrival, he should cancel the general's commands about his capture, so it would be better for those who want to deal with him.

Well, Sam did not really care what Russel will do next anyway, let him fight with others for influence and fight for humanity, the flag is in his hands. He wanted the sword and he got it, the rest is not that important.

Having sent them, he returned to the mansion and after making sure that the observers were no longer there, beheaded two women who, according to Russell, had collaborated with the government earlier. He was almost sure he got the right ones.

Then he took a fishing rod and sat down on the river bank to fish, the cat ran around and cut flies and other creatures in the area with his paws protecting Sam from those insolent creatures.

Only in the late afternoon the helicopter was returning back, Sam made a bonfire and began to cook meat of the second type for Ashley. Ashley took the children to the house and came back after.

That evening she cried for a long time and apologized, Sam just hugged her and offered to try the meat, it was really delicious.

Sam had no intention of harming or punishing Ashley in any way.

Sam didn't believe that he could truly love anyone. This means that neither Ashley, nor anyone else from those who are next to him will never be a threat to him.

Ashley had no choice anyway, if Sam wanted her to live and be with him, then it will be so.