After Gene left, Calista dug Margaret's assistant's business card out from a pile of documents and used the hospital phone to call her. Before long, a brand-new cellphone and iPad were delivered.
Her own devices had already been crushed in the car accident.
Calista spent the entire afternoon searching through the official websites of police departments across Atlanta. By the time she stopped, her neck was stiff from sitting too long.
It had been so long since she watched the show that she couldn't remember which town Rick served as a police officer in.
Finally, on the officer roster of the Gwinnett County Police Department, Calista found Rick Grimes's photo and badge number: GA-7743.
Hmm. The blue-eyed officer looked about seventy percent like Andrew Lincoln.
She stretched a little and scrolled down.
Shane Walsh's name appeared clearly on the list.
He looked far more handsome than the actor—every bit the charming playboy.
Great. The last bit of hope in her heart was finally gone.
She had been reborn as a rich girl… but in the world of The Walking Dead.
Worse yet, she had become the biological sister of the Reaper Leah—a sister who never appeared in the original storyline.
Throughout the entire series, Leah only showed up for a single season. As for this sister, she was completely nonexistent.
Maybe the two of them never met.
Or maybe the original owner of this body had already died long ago.
Calista couldn't tell which possibility was more likely.
Judging by how the people around her talked about the original owner, she had been a spoiled and selfish heiress—a perfect example of refined self-interest.
Even if she had known she had a sister, she would never have acknowledged her, let alone give someone else a chance to claim the inheritance that belonged to her.
For a pampered and arrogant rich girl like that, failing to survive the apocalypse would be perfectly normal.
The only thing worth being thankful for was that the virus hadn't erupted on a large scale yet.
She still had a little time to prepare.
Calista rubbed her aching eyes and continued typing on the iPad.
Rick getting shot marked the beginning of the story. Since he was still working as his diligent police officer self, it meant the virus hadn't spread widely yet.
When the apocalypse arrived, major cities would fall one after another. The only tiny advantage she had was remembering the rough outline of the plot.
The safest known route was to follow the main group's path.
If Calista hadn't seen those documents, she would most likely have used her wealth to stockpile supplies in advance, then run to Atlanta to attach herself to the main group instead of hiring a team of bodyguards.
After the apocalypse, money would become worthless paper. And human nature was unpredictable.
A young, beautiful, physically weak rich girl like her surrounded by a group of strong, unfamiliar bodyguards… the outcome was easy to imagine.
The main group, however, had proven character. With her knowledge of the storyline, she might even be able to save some of them and increase the team's survival rate.
But there was one problem.
At the beginning of Rick's group, all the women were stuck doing chores like laundry and cooking. Even Andrea was mocked when she tried to do the men's work.
That wasn't right.
But no one in the camp realized it—or rather, the men simply didn't care.
Even though Jacqui and Andrea took on the same dangerous supply runs into Atlanta as the men, once they returned they still had to wash clothes and cook alongside the other women.
Meanwhile, men like Carol's husband spent their days lounging around the camp doing nothing—good for nothing but bragging and beating their wives.
Even if Calista joined with her own funds as a wealthy heiress, she'd still end up starting the same way as the other women: laundry and cooking.
But now she had another option.
Calista closed the iPad, a sly smile curling at the corner of her lips.
...
Early the next morning, her assistant Emily—who had been notified in advance—was already waiting in the hospital room with the private investigator she had hired.
Having stayed up all night, dark circles hung heavily under Calista's eyes, making her look even more frail and delicate.
She sent Emily away and handed the private investigator a stack of documents.
After reading them, the investigator calmly looked up. A cold, ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.
"So, Miss Norton, you want her silenced—so she can't appear and cause trouble with your inheritance?"
Calista paused for a moment before asking hesitantly,
"Is your business scope really that wide?"
"Ahem. We simply use various legal methods to obstruct other heirs, delaying things until our client has legally inherited the estate."
He tapped the documents and said confidently,
"This kind of case isn't a problem for us. We have plenty of experience."
Calista: ...
She immediately put on an innocent expression, lowering her eyes as she wiped at a nonexistent tear in the corner.
"You misunderstand! I've actually already inherited all of my mother's estate."
"I just heard that she left behind a sister I've never met, and I wanted to meet her. I'm just wondering… what kind of experiences she's had over the years, and what her personality might be like. Would she hate me?"
The private investigator looked slightly stunned and gave the naive young lady a sympathetic glance.
"In one week, I guarantee you'll have all her information."
One week?
By then the daylilies would be cold.
Calista frowned slightly, picked up the coat Emily had brought her, and pulled a platinum card from the pocket, casually flicking it between her fingers.
The private investigator immediately changed his tone.
"Tomorrow. By tomorrow, all her life experiences will be delivered to Miss Norton."
Calista couldn't help but marvel a little at the power of money.
Satisfied, she watched as the private investigator practically rushed out of the hospital room before reopening her iPad and pulling up a spreadsheet on the desktop.
Calista twirled the stylus between her fingers, thought for a moment, then made several phone calls.
She checked off items under the food and equipment columns in the spreadsheet and marked delivery dates beside them.
Compressed biscuits, dried vegetables, water, canned food, various medicines, and gasoline were all easy to acquire. She bought several truckloads of each and had them delivered to a remote building inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.
That was a base she had already chosen.
Thanks to the freedom of America, even regulated weapons like firearms, ammunition, knives, and daggers could be obtained. Even a well-connected rich girl with no real channels like her could buy an entire truckload.
Cars and helicopters would take a bit more time. Once she sold the luxury apartments she owned in other city centers and gathered the funds, those could be secured immediately.
The denser the population, the more violently the virus would erupt.
Those luxury apartments in the CBDs of major cities would soon become a nightmare for the rich.
The supplies she had purchased were more than enough for her alone.
But if she wanted to arm the team she had in mind for the long years of the apocalypse, it was far from enough.
Calista thoughtfully added several location notes.
These were places she vaguely remembered from the plot—locations that had weapon stockpiles. Once the apocalypse began, she could raid them.
The final item in the spreadsheet was the team.
Several large circles were drawn there: the main group, the nursing home, Woodbury, the hospital, Terminus, the Saviors, the Hilltop, the Kingdom, Alexandria, the Oceanside community, the Whisperers, the Scavengers, the Highwaymen Gang, and so on.
Among them, Woodbury, the hospital, Terminus, the Saviors, and the Whisperers were decisively marked with ✗.
Those groups were either extremely inhumane or outright twisted.
The Commonwealth and the Civic Republic Military weren't even considered. There were too many powerful figures from the military and political world there. A naive rich girl with nothing but money and no foundation like her could never enter those circles.
Trash Girl's position was also questionable, considering her close ties with the CRM that eventually took Rick away.
The remaining communities were fairly average in strength, and they all had connections with the main group.
The main group was someone she definitely had to build a good relationship with.
After all, no matter how powerful someone was, no one could beat the protagonist's plot armor.
The final large circle had a line drawn beneath it.
Inside, there was only one team.
The smallest team among all the communities.
Yet they possessed the highest individual combat capability in the entire The Walking Dead series.