The real life of an American police officer: Winning over others with virtue

Chapter 200 Road closure
Dusk, like a sponge soaked in ink, pressed heavily onto Lake Eden.

The sparse grove of trees at the edge of the lake has now transformed into a blurry and profound wall of shadows.

The clear outlines of the daytime have all melted away, leaving only distorted, swaying silhouettes.

But at the edge of this seemingly deserted treeline, faint, almost inaudible footsteps could be heard.

Behind the natural shelter formed by withered branches, fallen leaves, and low shrubs, several pairs of eyes, like lurking venomous snakes, coldly watched the empty lakeshore below.

However, the empty, deserted lakeshore eventually revealed a hint of doubt and surprise in those few pairs of cold eyes.

Finally, everyone looked at a middle-aged man in the center.

Theo Stuart.

He was the Holy Spirit's spokesperson for their Holy Spirit Cult, and as Eric profiled him, he had a high and broad forehead, making him look more like a disillusioned college professor or a down-on-his-luck philosopher.

His slender figure was wrapped in a slightly oversized old suit, and his back was habitually slightly hunched.

His face wore his usual kind smile.

No one would have imagined that such a person would be the powerful figure behind Yaxi Town.

"There was no sound at all."

"Holy Spirit...could it be that those guys have gone too far this time?"

Hearing his subordinate's words, Theo Stuart's eyes grew even more serious as he stepped out from the edge of the treeline.

There were at least four people behind him who looked at each other and then followed him out.

The lake shore was completely exposed. Apart from sand, watermarks, and the occasional dead branch, there were no signs of a struggle, bloodstains, fragments of clothing, or even extra footprints.

Apart from the tire tracks left by the car, everything was so clean it looked as if it had been deliberately wiped away.

Unlike before, there were no chaotic traces left behind to let them know that the group of 'cultivated' demons had made their move.

Looking at the empty, quiet lake, Theo Stuart stood on the lakeshore, frowning, a sense of foreboding creeping into his heart.

"Check separately for any suspicious traces. I suspect something happened to those children."

"Yes..." The four men behind him nodded and began to spread out on the lake shore to conduct a search.

Before long, everyone gathered on a path that stretched forward on the outer side of the lake shore.

On the ground of this path, vegetation has been trampled and lost, and some plants show signs of breakage and discoloration.

This means that a car once drove into this area.

Further exploration revealed tire tracks that stretched forward.

Everyone's expression, including Theo Stuart's, changed slightly.

The tire tracks left on this path point in the direction of the children's 'base'.

But it's not over yet.

One of the believers also discovered traces that were not completely covered up.

A pile of blood-stained sand contained fragments of unidentifiable organs, as well as the body of a Rottweiler that had been dumped on the edge of a nearby lakeshore.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

"This is a wound that only a gun could inflict."

Someone stared at the Rottweiler's corpse, at the grotesque dog head with a gaping hole in it, and said in a deep voice, "They've run into a tough opponent?"

Theo Stuart's previously kind smile instantly turned grim as he stared at the tire tracks ahead on the path.

“Send someone back to check if the children have returned.”

If you don't come back, tell your family in town that something has happened; someone is trying to destroy our peaceful paradise.

It wouldn't matter if it were just other people, but those children who were deliberately 'trained' knew too much, such as knowing that he had saved some people from their hands.

So once those kids reveal this, others will use that information to move on to the next question.

Where did all the people he saved go?

Why is there no news?

Although these people are now history and law enforcement agencies have no evidence to suggest he played any role in it, this is still a problem.

They didn't just do this one thing; if they're being watched, other things they did might also be exposed.

The four men around him all had grim expressions. Finally, one of them nodded and quickly left the spot.

-

Night had completely taken over the deep forest outside Yaxi Town.

In this seemingly frozen darkness and deathly silence, a sudden, tearing light pierced through.

Four blinding white beams of light emanating from two old Ford F-150s, like the eyes of a ferocious beast awakened in the darkness, brutally cleaved through the dense forest darkness.

The two pickup trucks were clearly very familiar with this secluded path, and stopped at the edge of a relatively open clearing in the woods about thirty meters away from the dilapidated wooden house.

Theo Stuart and his eleven-person group got off the car.

After confirming that the children had not returned home, they concluded that something was wrong, so the current task was to find the missing troublemakers and uninvited guests.

If possible, they could also become replacements for the "bad kids".

However, Eric was a decisive person, and once the idea of ​​running away came to mind, he didn't hesitate any longer.

Without hesitation, he took Tifa, Jenny, and Steve and left the cabin, heading towards the exit, hoping to get as far away from Ravenbrook as possible before the FBI arrived with their team.

So Theo Stuart and his men, who had just arrived, naturally found nothing.

But they still found more traces.

That's the evidence of when the car briefly stopped here and which direction it drove in.

No cars have ever come here, which means that the outpost here has been discovered.

“Holy Spirit, they took that shortcut.” A voice spoke in the darkness, illuminated only by car headlights.

Theo Stuart frowned, looking in that direction, and said, "Start blocking the road. Also, tell Ralph to stop these people and wait for us to get there."

Their Holy Spirit Cult has been operating here for so long, so naturally they have considerable power, and thus they have naturally infiltrated law enforcement agencies with their own people.

Ralph was one of them; he was a state trooper whose jurisdiction covered this area.

He was a very devout believer and helped a lot.

Those mischievous children weren't infallible, but the reason none of them escaped was because this place was essentially a trap.

"Yes"

As soon as he finished speaking, two old Ford F-150s sped off in the direction Eric had just left.

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at the same time.

Deep within a narrow, barely healed scar on the forest's body, nestled among dense, suffocating trees, lies a narrow forest path, its width tightly bound by wildly growing trunks and tangled roots on either side.

The two vehicles were bumping and jolting as they sped forward.

Inside a Mercedes-Benz long-wheelbase luxury Class B motorhome leading the way, Eric quickly glanced through the rearview window to make sure Jenny and Steve's car was following closely. Then, he looked at the rearview mirror to observe the situation inside the rear compartment.

The demons were already tightly bound, their mouths taped shut with disposable towels and tape, so they couldn't cause any trouble at all.

After habitually confirming this, Eric heard the voice stop and looked at Tifa, who was in the co-pilot's seat making contact with the FBI field office.

Seeing that she had hung up the phone, he asked, "What did they say?"

Tifa took a deep breath and said, "They said they've contacted a state trooper near Dover, Delaware, who will come over to meet with us and provide us with protection."

Eric narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Just him alone?"

Tifa nodded, a hint of helplessness on her face.

Eric smiled, understanding Tifa's concerns; she was simply worried about a shortage of manpower.

This place is too remote. If something happens, we'll have to rely on him to handle things. Who knows what the real situation of this cult is?

If we're talking about places that are the cradle and breeding ground for cults, then the Free Country is definitely among the top of the list.

Moreover, the cult entrenched in Yaxi Town is clearly not a benevolent group, and its style of doing things must be quite extreme.

They're probably being hunted down now, since there are no forks in the road here, just one straight road.

Eric comforted him gently:
"Don't worry, that's enough. With the police involved, the situation is in our favor. Our safety level has improved. As long as we get to the main road ahead, we'll have achieved our goal."

Upon hearing this, Tifa looked up at the increasingly sparse woods ahead, knowing that they were about to reach the road they had come from, and her tense nerves relaxed.

Although he had calmed Tifa down, Eric felt the situation was not very optimistic.

As far as he was concerned, he didn't really trust the state police here.

So many people have died here, yet there's been no news at all. This situation is just too bizarre.

Just to be on the safe side, he still felt it best to avoid contact with that state trooper and to follow his own judgment.

Since this state trooper came from near Dover, Delaware, he went the opposite way.

Before the situation became clear, he only trusted himself. In other words, regardless of whether the state troopers were trustworthy or not, he had to find a safe place to settle Tifa first.

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Led by the RV, the two vehicles finally drove back to I-95.

I-95 is one of the busiest highways in the United States, so there are still many vehicles traveling at night.

Suddenly driving here from that narrow, uninhabited stretch of forest feels like stepping from a desolate wilderness into a civilized society.

Not only Tifa, but Jenny and Steve in the SUV behind also breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the couple suddenly realized that the lead RV was not moving forward, but instead switched to the opposite lane and headed back the way it came.

Although they were completely confused, they obediently followed along.

As a result of this series of events, Jenny and Steve have become extremely dependent on Eric and Tifa.

"Honey?"

Only Tifa, watching Eric's series of actions, understood something and subconsciously said:
"You don't trust that state trooper?"

According to the plan, they were supposed to continue driving forward and then meet up with the arriving state police.

Eric shrugged and said, "My gut feeling tells me that even contacting the state police wouldn't help; one person's strength is ultimately too small."

Tifa pursed her lips, offering no opinion and simply letting Eric make the arrangements.

“We need to get as far as we can,” Eric grinned. “If we can get back to Quantico tonight, that would be best.”

It's very close to Quantico; it only took about half a day to get here from Quantico.

Even so, this was done while dragging things out and enjoying the scenery along the way.

Therefore, Eric still felt that running back to Quantico overnight was the best and safest option.

Hearing this, Tifa smiled. As expected of her man, his sense of security was off the charts.

Driving at high speed without slowing down, Eric and his group quickly arrived near Fredericksburg, close to the coffee shop and gas station they had visited earlier that day.

They didn't stop; they kept driving.

But as Eric drove, he suddenly noticed that there were more and more vehicles in front of him, as if he had suddenly crashed into a puddle of sticky glue, and his speed slowed down irreversibly.

At first, only a few brake lights flashed in the distance, but soon, as far as the eye could see, the red taillights formed a long, slow-moving dragon that stretched as far as the eye could see.

This discovery immediately darkened Eric's expression.

In this situation, there's only one possibility: something has happened ahead, causing a traffic jam.

The traffic in front remained completely still, and the car slowed down considerably, eventually coming to a stop.

Several cars ahead had stalled, lying in the middle of the road like deflated balloons. Some people opened their car doors, leaned out to look around, their faces filled with confusion and dissatisfaction.

“Darling?” Tifa also noticed something was wrong and frowned. “Something’s not right.”

Eric nodded and said, "This is too much of a coincidence. I'll go out and take a look." With that, he pushed open the door and got out of the car.

The SUV that had been following behind also stopped, and Steve got out of the car after seeing Eric get out.

"What's going on?" He glanced at the car behind him, and the cars behind him also slowed down and stopped one after another.

Eric shook his head, then climbed straight onto the roof of the RV, his gaze sweeping over the vehicles in front of him, his superhuman vision allowing him to see much further.

About two hundred meters away, a heavy truck was blocking the middle of the road.

By the light of the streetlights, Eric saw one huge oak tree after another lying on the road.

The thick tree trunk, which would require at least two or three people to encircle, now lay heavily across the two-lane road like a severed giant python, clearly having just fallen recently.

One point Eric should note is...

The traffic jam at the front consisted of heavy trucks, and there were eight or nine drivers who seemed to be spreading upwards, explaining the situation to one driver after another, without letting any vehicle pass by.

“Interesting.” Eric narrowed his eyes slightly, recalling the events of the day.

That is, the information that the two truck drivers in the coffee shop came from Crowbrook.

Therefore, it's hard to say that what happened here has nothing to do with Yaxi Town.

Moreover, the group of burly men explaining the situation to the drivers also seemed to be investigating something in this way.

The cult really does have some power; they even have people guarding the outside, with one net after another. No wonder none of the innocent victims who came in managed to escape.

Thinking of this, Eric jumped out of the car and looked at Steve, who looked puzzled, and said:

"Keep up with my car, don't fall behind."

Steve paused, looking at Eric's calm expression, and nervously licked his dry lips.

"Ok."

"Get in!" Eric said, quickly climbing back into the driver's seat of the RV.

Seeing this, Steve quickly ran back to his off-road vehicle.

(End of this chapter)