Hey everyone! So here it finally is! I had planned on posting it yesterday but life happens. I'm technically not done writing this but hopefully by the time I catch up, it'll be done. I had an inclination of doing a part four if there was a season 9 but now, even though there is, this will be the last full sized story. There might still be one shots but this will be the last Abby/Daryl story...unless inspiration smacks sometime in the future.
Abby stared out of the top floor balcony window of their townhouse, watching the daily activities of the Alexandrian residents below. It had been two weeks since they'd cleared out the walkers who'd breached their walls and things had been going well. With Reg's leadership, they'd managed to not only rebuild the portion of damaged wall but had also reinforced some of the more vulnerable sections. They were also working out ways to prevent people from climbing the outside of the wall and had strong catwalks around almost half of the wall.
Reg seemed grateful to be kept busy, probably to prevent him from wallowing in the grief of losing his wife. The whole community felt the loss of Deanna, the original residents seeming almost lost with out her. Reg seemed willing enough to let Rick take things over, not really comfortable with the leadership role, as was the same with most of the residents and Rick continued on as he always did. Daryl told Abby about his encounter with the people in the town, then in the woods and the story disconcerted Abby. Someone else was out there and they had people and they didn't sound like they played nice. He was also very irritated in losing his crossbow and the bike he had put together himself.
After the first week, Denise had let Carl go home to recover, much to his relief. Rick was still concerned for his son but for a different reason when he'd first been hurt. He was healing well and was on his feet, going to school and hanging out with most of his friends again but he'd become short tempered recently, frustrated with having to relearn basic things like feeding himself, drinking from a glass and even grabbing things. Abby had been trying to help him initially, but Rick eventually pulled her to the side and asked her to stop. He didn't have a problem with what or how she was doing things but Rick told her that Carl was embarrassed with not being able to do some basic things and her being there to watch him fail at those things, made things worse. Rick told her Carl needed to figure it out on his own. Abby would never admit it out loud, but she'd been slightly hurt but at the same time, Carl had a healthy dose of the Grimes DNA in him, which meant he had the Grimes family pride.
By the end of the first week, Tobin had finished one of the townhouses for Daryl and Abby, giving them a place of their own; much to both of their delight. It made Abby feel very happy to truly be alone with him, it made it feel like they were actually married, not to mention without other people around, Daryl was more himself in front of her. In the week since they'd gotten their own place, Daryl had started to display personality traits that she hadn't had the privilege of seeing in the past.
Sighing, Abby went back inside only to be greeted by the sound of someone knocking on the front door. Abby frowned as she walked towards it, she wasn't expecting anyone. When she opened the door, she was shocked to see Carl standing there but Abby smiled, always happy to see her nephew.
"Hey, kiddo! What're you doing here?" Abby asked as she stepped aside to let him in.
"First, could you stop calling me 'kiddo'? I'm not a kid anymore!" Carl complained as he walked in and sat on her sofa, putting his dirty boots up on the coffee table.
"Sorry, kiddo, but yer still a kid to me." Abby said as she walked over and shoved his feet off of the coffee table. "Would you rather me call you teenager, instead?"
"Yes, or I don't know, how about Carl?" Carl suggested sarcastically.
"Get used to it buddy! I hate it that yer dad calls me Abigail but you don't see me complaining!" Abby said as sat down on the couch beside him.
Carl frowned. "You don't like that? I thought you didn't mind since he always calls you that."
"Oh, I mind but I lost that battle that I started when I was 10, but I gave up fighting it when I was 16. He knows perfectly well that I don't like it but it's become a habit now and I since I gave up fightin' it, it's just how he addresses me." Abby said with a shrug. "Now what can I do for you, kiddo?"
Carl shook his head then, caught somewhere between annoyed and amused, then suddenly looked down awkwardly. "I'm supposed to get my wound clean today but I hate going to the clinic and I don't want to ask Dad or Michonne to do it. Then I remembered that you've got some medic training, you can handle it!"
Abby watched Carl carefully as she rubbed his shoulder. "Why don't you want to go to the clinic?"
"Because! Just anyone can walk in there and see...it." Carl said bitterly, indicating his ruined eye.
"Honey, it don't matter what others see or think. You're still the same person you were before." Abby stressed.
"But I'm not!" Carl said angrily. "I can barely drink a cup of water without missing my mouth, let alone shooting something!"
"It just takes time to retrain yourself, to get your eye hand coordination back but I know it's frustrating. You'll be back to being normal in no time."
"I'll never be normal, auntie." Carl mumbled.
"You're right, you won't be but what's wrong that? Normal is overrated!" Abby said chuckling. "I mean, I'm so not normal, am I? And I'm okay with that. Daryl's far from normal too. And what's normal anyways? Especially now days."
Carl smiled for a moment then frowned again. "At least you don't have a hideous scar on your face." Carl said as he touched his eye.
Abby sighed. "You're not hideous! And just because my scars aren't all on the surface, it doesn't make them any less ugly. Trust me there's way more ugly in me, than there is with you." Carl looked off to the side, uncomfortable. Abby smiled as she reached over and pulled him over to her and hugged him tightly. "And obviously I ain't the only one who thinks you're handsome because you got two girls vying for your attention!"
"Auntie! That's not true!" Carl exclaimed as he turned beet red and pulled away from her.
Abby gave him a big sloppy kiss before letting him go and getting up, making Carl complain as he wiped the saliva from his face.
"Take that bandage off, I'll clean if for you." Abby said, grinning as she moved off.
Carl smiled at her sheepishly. "Thank you."
Abby walked into the bathroom where she kept first aid supplies in case either her or Daryl came home injured, which happened more than they'd admit to the others. She walked back to where Carl still sat as he unwrapped his eye and set out the supplies onto the coffee table. Once the last piece of gauze dropped away, Abby turned Carl's head so she could see the void where his eye used to be.
Carl fidgeted while she cleaned his wound and when Daryl suddenly came through the door, he turned away. Abby grabbed Carl's face and made him turn back as Daryl walked by, Daryl barely noticing them as he went to the kitchen and pulled out a beer from the fridge. Daryl leaned against the counter and watched what they were doing.
"Shouldn't that Denise lady be doin' that?" He asked, his tone casual, like he didn't really care.
"He wanted me to do it, so that's what I'm doin'." Abby said as she gave him a 'shut up' look.
Daryl just shrugged as he took a sip from his beer. "You plannin' on goin' with Rick an' I to check out that base we found before?"
"Of course. You two couldn't get in there without me." Abby said rolling her eyes, making Carl smirk as she started wrapping his wound up once more.
"Can I come?" Carl asked.
"You'll have to ask your dad 'bout that." Abby said as she finally sat back.
"I've never seen a base before, I'm kinda curious what it's like. Do you really think you'll find any thing useful?" Carl asked as he turned sideways so he could talk to Abby and Daryl both.
Abby shrugged. "I doubt any joe-shmoe would have cleaned it out, and it's almost impossible to accidently find the door from within the base and even if you did, it'd take high-powered explosives strategically placed, to get that door open. You'd have to be the same class of Marine as I was or higher, to even know it was there. It looked like it had been occupied at least back when the outbreak happened, so I don't know if anybody would've taken off with stuff, like those guys I found back in the early days at the prison."
"Could there be people inside?" Daryl asked. "You know, holed up?"
Abby pursed her lips as she thought then shook her head. "Unlikely. They could batten down the hatches for a month, two at most with the food supplies they had inside. If there were people in there, they've been gone a long time, and that hatch looked untouched for possibly years."
"I doubt dad will let me go." Carl groused.
Abby ruffled his hair. "Because he wants you to try and be a kid while you can. We don't know when things will go bad again, so we have to enjoy what we can, when we can."
"I guess." Carl finally conceded. "I should get going, I have school."
Abby nodded as he got to his feet, he stopped to bend over and kissed her on the cheek before turning and leaving. After Carl had gone, Daryl walked to the door and locked it.
"What was that 'bout?" Daryl asked, indicating his eye as he walked to the door.
"He feels self-conscious, doesn't want to go to the clinic because just anyone can walk in and see his wound." Abby said staring at the door sadly, worrying about Carl's mental state.
"Must suck losin' an eye as a kid but they adapt quicker than us old shits." Daryl said as he sat directly beside her, practically in her lap and put an arm casually on her shoulders.
Abby glared at him. "We ain't old!"
Daryl smiled at her mischievously as he leaned in, his nose just a hairs breadth from hers. "Prove it."
Abby rolled her eyes. "Yer just horny and using that challenge to goad me into complying. Don't think I didn't notice you lockin' the door."
Daryl planted a kiss on her lips. "Since when do I need to goad you into sleeping with me? I just do that for the hell of it." He said haltingly, in between kisses as he started from her mouth and moved his way down her jaw towards her neck.
Abby smiled as she let him push her on to her back. "Never, but I was thinking I might need to make you work harder for it." She said as he pushed her shirt up and ran his hands over the skin of her stomach.
"Oh?" Daryl asked as he planted kisses on her stomach.
Abby bit her lip and closed her eyes as she ran her fingers through his ever-growing hair. "But not today." She said with a sigh.
The next morning, Abby sat in the back of the car, knees pushed up against the back of Daryl's seat as she leaned on her hand that was propped against the window frame. Beside her, Michonne leaned forward as she talked with Daryl and Rick who sat in the front with Rick behind the wheel. Abby felt exhausted, in a good kind of way. Her and Daryl had been at it all night, a benefit of having their own place, they didn't have to worry about people hearing them. They had been going at it like a pair of rabbit's in spring, making love all over their little townhouse. Some places were odd but she'd been standing there and Daryl just decided he needed it right there at that moment and she let him.
"Abigail, is this the road?" Rick asked looking over his shoulder at her.
Abby straightened up and looked out windshield. "Yup, that's the one."
Rick nodded, then turned down the road. He flew down the dirt road until the gate came into view and then pulled over to the side, out of sight of anyone peering down the road. The four of them climbed out of the car, collected their gear then followed Abby as she trudged into the forest. After a ten minute walk, the three of them stood in front of the rock pile Abby and Daryl had found before and watched as Abby turned the power back on to the pin pad, lifted the fake concrete rock then entered the pin. Like last time, the lock clicked and, with Daryl's help, lifted the lid.
"Well I'll be damned." Rick mumbled as he looked down the hole.
"So, who's the walker bait?" Daryl asked as he too looked down the hole also.
Michonne pulled out three glow sticks, cracked them then dropped them down the hole. "I'll go, I've got the sword." She said as she sat on the edge then swung her legs inside.
"I'll be right behind you." Abby as she strung her assault rifle across her back.
Michonne put her foot on the first wrung and started down the ladder that was built into the wall. Once she was six feet down, Abby sat on the edge then started down the hole after her. By the time Abby had made it to the ground, Michonne was carefully surveying the narrow hall but there was nothing to see.
"Well, at least we'll see them coming." Michonne said quietly.
"It turns into a maze after this." Abby said. She'd tried to draw them a map as best as she could recall but that information was almost six years old and she'd only been in a part of the complex.
"Great." Michonne said with a sigh. "So how many people usually man a facility like this?"
Daryl stepped up beside Abby as he turned on his flashlight then pulled crossbow off of his back as Rick finished descending. Abby shrugged. "I'm not one hundred percent sure, fifty, maybe sixty?"
"So, there could be about that many walkers down here." Rick said sounding slightly annoyed.
"On the bright side, most of them would be paper pushers. Most of the armed and armoured people would be topside but it'll likely be like the CDC." Abby said smirking slightly.
"You're gonna have to clarify that for me." Michonne said as she kept her eye glued down the hall.
"Pretty much everyone jumped ship or ate a bullet." Daryl said. "There was only one doctor left."
"If it was underground like this, why'd you leave?" Michonne asked frowning as she finally turned back to them.
"Trust me, we wouldn't have." Rick said with a sigh. "It had an abundance of medical supplies, food, guns, ammunition but it had an expiry date."
Michonne frowned. "That's incredibly vague."
"It blew up, nearly with us in it." Abby said. "Ran out of power and it being the Center for Disease Control, it had a backup plan to incinerate and destroy all diseases and make sure all those diseases never saw the light of day. Jenner never told us when we got there, that the place was about to capsize, we'd have probably tried to find more fuel, keep it going."
"I guess it makes sense to destroy the place but there could have been a cure in there!" Michonne said shaking her head.
"Yeah, I guess we'll never know." Rick said with a sigh. "Now let's get this done. Abigail, do you think there's a power generator?"
"Sure. Whether its got any juice, that's another story." Abby said nodding.
"Well, maybe we should turn on the lights, if we can. It'd make things easier." Rick suggested.
"Yeah you might be right." Abby said with a nod. "This way."
They finally started down the hall, moving slowly and quietly, trying to not attract any unnecessary attention if there was something down there. Abby twisted and turned down the hallway, leading them to where she thought she might find the power station. She didn't actually know for sure, where it was but she made an educated guess, and they were relying on her.
As they went, they encountered only two walkers, both in suits like Abby had predicted but what unsettled all of them, is the fact they hadn't encountered more. Abby wasn't entirely right about the location of the power station but she wasn't entirely wrong either. It was located down the same hall but at the other end. After Rick and Daryl had pried the door open, the four of them cautiously entered.
The room was a twenty by twenty square room with a bank of generators along the back wall and various technical machinery, that Abby wasn't sure what it did, dominated the centre of the room. Like the generator's in the CDC, they had a hose leading from the generators into huge barrels of fuel but unlike the CDC, these where all full.
"Weird." Abby mumbled as she stared at them. "Must've shipped most everyone outta here to deal with the problems in Washington and left a skeleton crew."
"That'd explain why there have been so few walkers in the halls." Daryl said with a shrug.
"It does make sense but we shouldn't let our guard down." Rick said as he started shining his light around the room. "Let's get this thing going."
They searched until they found the master switch, then, when the generator's roared to life, they shielded their faces from the bright lights. Once they'd gotten used to the bright lights, Daryl went to the door and carefully opened it. After opening it an inch, he finally opened the door fully and poked his head out of the door.
"Nothin' so far." He said turning back.
"I imagine a place like this has surveillance, do you know where that'd be?" Rick asked as he turned to his sister once more.
Abby shrugged. "No, I didn't need to know that. I was just the sword, I didn't need to know what the head was doing. This was just an educated guess, that would be somewhere hard to find."
"If we could find it, could you get us in?" Rick continued asking.
Abby frowned. "Not likely. I had fairly high clearance but like I said, I was the sword, I did what the head told me and didn't argue... usually."
"Why do you wanna know, anyways?" Daryl asked, also frowning.
"I figured it'd be easier to see where all the threats are, instead of running into them." Rick said with a shrug.
"We could use this place, you know. As a backup plan." Michonne suddenly pointed out. "If things go south on Alexandria, we could flee here."
"Certainly better than the options we had last time." Daryl muttered.
Abby nodded "It sure is but I think we keep it lookin' abandoned until we need it. If someone else finds it, we'd be hooped."
"Let's go find those guns." Daryl said impatiently, standing by the door.
"Does this place make you uncomfortable?" Abby asked, smiling as she walked to the door.
"As Abraham would say, 'it makes my ass itch'." Daryl said as he finally stepped out into the hall.
"Sounds like something you'd say too." Abby retorted, her eyes sharp as she followed after him. She understood what he meant though, it just felt like something was about to jump out and try to eat them.
"Which way, Sacagawea?" Daryl asked as he looked both ways.
"This way, Tonto." Abby said, earning her a snicker from him as him and the other two followed after her.
Abby twisted and turned down a couple of halls, passing laboratories and offices as they went. When they passed by the second lab, Rick stopped and stared into the room through the big glass window.
"This place is starting to look like a research facility instead of a military base." Rick said with a frown.
Abby shrugged. "It sometimes acted as both. This place dealt with some seriously classified stuff, some of it never left the base."
"Did you deal with that sort of stuff?" Michonne asked, genuinely curious.
Abby smiled. "I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you."
"If this place has so many secrets, then why didn't it blow up like the CDC?" Daryl asked as he joined them in gazing through the window.
"Probably do have fail safes, jus' not the kind that destroy buildings." Abby said with a shrug. "Those labs didn't deal with deadly diseases, think 'crime lab'."
"So, they did their own forensics, why?" Michonne asked frowning.
Abby shrugged again. "Sometimes it was necessary to find the bad guys. Pursuing some of the world's worst people usually took years to catch them. The bigger the crime, the more clever the assholes seem to be. Come on, we should get back before dark."
Abby led them the rest of the way to the armory without further pause. When they arrived, it was obvious that she had led them to the right destination. The hall ended in a huge octagonal room with benches and lockers dominating the center of the room and big steel grated gates blocking the entrances into the eight pockets along the wall. Daryl walked over to one then whistled.
"We could fight a war with this shit." He said as he moved on to the second gate.
"Kinda what it was for." Abby said as she walked up to one gate, punched in a code and grinned when it buzzed and clicked open.
"Wait. Maybe we should leave this stuff here." Michonne said frowning. "We could clear out the walkers in the fence, take their stuff, that way if Alexandria ever falls, we'll have a place to go to."
Abby looked over at Rick. "It's not a bad idea, I could do most of the clearing myself or we could leave them for now. They have the bullets here to replace what I use and maybe I could give a couple people a more technical lesson on shooting. We could make sure it's clear down here today, and then maybe Beth and I or someone else, can come back and do an inventory."
Rick walked around the room as she talked and stopped to look back at her when she stopped. "You're both probably right, after what happened with the wolves, I feel like our weapons aren't particularly well protected. If they had gotten there, things would've become even more ugly."
"We should keep this knowledge to a select few, I mean even with needing Abby's code, some smart asshole might find a way in." Daryl added. "Maybe just keepin' it amongst ours for now."
"Daryl's right, if our enemy found this place, it could be dangerous. Limiting the knowledge will keep it safe." Abby agreed.
Rick nodded. "Fine, we'll just take some ammunition and a few toys. The rest will stay here. Let's gather what we need, then start mapping this place out. I don't want to waste more fuel than we have to."
Abby grabbed some ammunition for her rifle, another similar to hers, new camo pants, sniper camouflage and a modification for her scope that gave her night vision. Rick grabbed a couple of silencers that were compatible with the pistols they had, a couple suits of body armor, a pair of long range, closed channel radios and a pair of night vision goggle's.
Daryl sat on one of the benches, sketching out the paths they'd already taken on a notepad he'd found in a locker while Michonne continued to rummage through the lockers. When everyone was done, they continued wandering the halls, this time making their way to the mess hall but stopping and looking into rooms as they went, marking what they were on Daryl's map.
When they finally made it, they found a disturbing scene. In the center of the room, about a dozen corpses lay in a pile, all dressed in suits or lab coats, not one in fatigue's. As they got closer, they could see that each one on the top, had a bullet in the head, but the ones at the bottom had bullets riddling their bodies also.
"Looks like they figured out how to kill 'em properly half way through their execution." Daryl said from where he knelt by the pile. "But they don't look like walkers."
Abby shrugged. "Maybe they were infected but hadn't turned yet? Startin' to wanna know what happened here."
"They've been here a long time, probably since near the beginning." Rick said as he too inspected the bodies.
"Do know how to find out?" Michonne asked as she watched both men inspect the pile.
Abby looked off into the distance. "We could try the General's office or maybe the CIC?"
Daryl stood up. "What's the CIC?
"It's where intelligence is sent and operations are monitored." Abby answered simply.
"And you can get into there?" Michonne asked.
"Into the CIC, sure, but I know how much I'd have access to the data banks." Abby answered. "As for the General's office, it'd depends on whether he locked the door."
"We'll take a look in the kitchen, gather what we need. You two can go check those two locations, see if you can find out what happened." Rick said as he pulled out the radios, turned one on and handed it to Abby.
Abby looked at him surprised, "Really? That's very unlike you."
"Sue me, I'm curious too and it seems secure enough in here." Rick replied as he clipped the other radio on to his belt.
Michonne grabbed Abby's arm. "Don't argue with the man, he might change his mind. Let's go!"
Abby and Michonne smiled at each other as Rick rolled his. Abby gave Daryl a quick kiss, then led Michonne out of the room. The General's office was nearest, so Abby headed straight for it. As they walked side by side, Michonne looked over at Abby.
"You said you'd only been here once but you seem to know your way around pretty well." Michonne commented.
"Eidetic memory, I don't usually forget things. Rick never got why I joined the military instead of doing something in the sciences, but I don't enjoy that kind of thing. I prefer action and adventure over staring into a telescope." Michonne snickered at her comment, making Abby sighed. "I see the irony but it's a completely different kind of scope."
Michonne grinned. "I know. So, you're as smart as Eugene, then."
"In a way." Abby said with a feeble shrug. "War tactics and calculating wind speeds are more my thing."
They continued down the hall in silence, looking in rooms and expanding Daryl's map as they went. When they came across a curving hall, Michonne frowned as she stopped and looked down the hall.
"What's down that way?" She asked.
"Many things. They call this hall the track because it's like a freeway, a faster way to get to most places. Also used to go for a jog." Abby said as she waited for Michonne to continue following her. "We crossed it in the dark before."
"Why haven't we used it?" Michonne asked.
"Because at that point it was quicker to go straight across than around." Abby replied, then turned down a different hall. "C'mon."
Michonne finally followed Abby once more. After another couple of minutes, they finally arrived at the office and luckily, it was open. When they turned on the office lights, they both stopped to stare at the corpse, sitting in a chair as it slumped forward on to the desk. A sheet had been draped over the body and you could see a knife wound in the center of the big dried blood stain.
Abby slowly walked forward, pulling her knife as she walked, then gave the corpse a good solid poke. When it didn't move, Abby sheathed her knife once more and pulled back the sheet. With help from Michonne, they carefully sat the body back so they could get a better look, revealing that it was in fact the man who the office belonged to, General Goodman. On his deteriorated hand you could still see a bite mark, probably from a walker and he was dressed in full Ceremonial garb, he probably knew he was dying.
"Did you know him?" Michonne asked as she pulled off the I.D. card still attached to his lapel.
"Know is a bit of a strong word but I met him once, a couple years ago. He was a good man, loved by his men. Probably too proud to shoot himself, so he probably had someone finish him when he passed." Abby said sadly.
"Will this get us into restricted areas?" Michonne asked, holding up the card.
Abby nodded sadly. "Some, but some areas still require a code."
Abby picked up the note that the General had been slumped over and read it.
To Command,
I hereby relinquish my command to whomever remains beneath me. As my last command I have ordered CPT. Finnegan to plunge his blade into my skull to prevent me from rising and further harming what remains of our once fine country.
General T.K. Goodman
Abby sighed, she was right on both fronts but how did he get bit and what happened to everyone else? Abby put the letter down and was about to turn away when an unusual mark on the letter made her stop. A small blwas written on the corner, small enough that she almost hadn't seen it.
Abby then noticed, clutched in the first of the general's good hand was what looked like a flashlight. Abby frowned, why would he need a flashlight when you had power? Intrigued, Abby pried the flashlight from the General's decaying hand as gently as possible.
Michonne frowned as she turned around to face Abby, as she had been investigating the big book case that lined two of the rooms, walls.
"What are you doing?" She asked as Abby clicked on the flashlight.
Abby looked at the beam that shined from the flashlight, a blue light. "Following a suspicion."
Michonne came over as Abby first shined the light onto the one side of the letter, then the other. When it revealed another message, Michonne looked at her in shock.
"What does it mean?" She asked.
It looked like gibberish, but Abby recognized it as a cypher that the Corp used during covert operations. Abby grabbed a pen and notepad that was sitting on the General's desk then asked Michonne to hold the light on the note as she worked on deciphering the message.
Ten minutes later, Michonne picked up the pad and looked at what Abby had circled. "I still don't get it."
"It's his authorization code. He didn't want it to fall into enemy hands or some ignorant idiot who had no idea what they'd found." Abby said heading for the door.
"What have we found?" Michonne asked as she followed after her.
"Depends on what's left, maybe just guns, a couple RPG's and some armor but if he neglected his duty, then some other dangerous goods."
"Like nukes?"
Abby laughed. "Some bombs but nothing that big. There are some poisons, access to satellites if you know what you're doing and if they're still operational and some big-time secrets that were never supposed to see the light of day...but I doubt those matters much now."
"So now we're heading to the CIC?"
"Yup, we might be able to tap into security there, now that we have the General's I.D. and code."
They walked the rest of the way in silence. As they turned down the final corridor, four walkers dressed in full body armor, turned at the sound of their footsteps then lumbered towards them, moaning hungrily. Abby pulled her pistol, shot two before they got to close and Michonne stepped forward and quickly dispatch the remaining two.
After quickly checking the walkers over and relieving them of their guns, ammo and grenades, they finally approached the door. Abby entered her own code and watch in satisfaction as the door slid aside. Instead of following Abby inside, Michonne stopped and stared in disbelief. The room was large, with dozens of computers sprinkled all around the massive room. On the back wall, monitors dominated the whole wall, lit up but not displaying anything but the Marine Corps symbol. Abby walked down the center towards the front of the room, down three steps into the pit, then sat down at a computer.
By the time Michonne had finally joined her, Abby had gained access to the security footage. Most of the cameras outside had been disabled but you could still see the front gate, a couple of perimeter cameras and one that was attached to the only building that was still standing. Abby carefully inspected the live footage, looking for signs of life beyond Rick and Daryl. Upon not seeing anything, Abby bent the overhead mic towards her and clicked it on to the inside speakers.
"I see you!" Abby said smiling, earning a chuckle from Michonne as Daryl and Rick looked around them. "You might want to join us. Follow the yellow brick road." Abby sat back and snickered as Daryl and Rick looked at each other in confusion. "Look down." Abby supplied. They looked down, then Daryl pointed at the yellow line on the ground. "There you go. One of us will open the door for you."
Abby finally sat back and smiled over at Michonne as she leaned against the desk, chuckling. "Sometimes I think you're one of the most serious people I've ever met, then you pull out something like that." Michonne said smiling.
"I'm naturally fun loving and extremely sarcastic, but it's a shit-storm out there right now."
Michonne smirked. "Is that true about Rick too?"
Abby grinned, "He's the worst! Was always teasin' me! Said it was his brotherly duty to bug me, hence him callin' me Abigail!"
Michonne chuckled. "I didn't think you liked that, Hershel called you that too though."
"Because he was old and thought it suited me better." Abby replied, rolling her eyes as she turned back to the computer. "I'm gonna poke around in the system, do you mind waiting for them?"
"Sure. I was good with computers before but I wouldn't know what to look for. Maybe we shoulda brought Glenn, he seems the type to be good with that." Michonne commented as she straightened from where she leaned.
"I'll ask him when we get back." Abby mumbled, focused on what she was doing as Michonne patted her on the back and then walked back to the door.
Abby lost track of time as she poured over the security footage, so when Daryl placed his hands on her shoulders, she jumped. Abby put a hand on her heart as she tipped her head back to look up at him, he smirked slightly and kissed her on the forehead.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. I called yer name." Daryl said.
"Yeah I guess I got a little caught up." Abby said as she looked back to the screen.
"Did you find anything?" Rick asked as he came up on one side of her and Michonne stood on the other.
"I've only been through a little of the security feed, and I can only show you what happened but not necessarily why. If the time stamps are correct, this base fell the day before the outbreak hit us in Georgia." Abby said as she called up the feed.
First, she showed the laboratories, walkers where stumbling through the halls attacking the people trapped there. The General must have sealed off the section earlier, but Abby had yet to find the event that would have persuaded him to do so. Abby fast-forwarded it to an hour later when a strike team breached the area and killed anything that moved.
She then showed the cafeteria at approximately the same time as the attack in laborites, as the people they'd seen in the pile, were herded into the room. At first the people just sat around, annoyed with being detained but then one man suddenly collapsed while grabbing a coffee. They tried to resuscitate but ended up giving up. Five minutes later, the man sat up, startling the woman who still knelt beside him, and just watched as he bit into her shoulder. The woman screamed and the others rushed forward to pull the woman away, another man got bit in the process before men with guns came forward and started firing.
Finally, an accidently shot to the head, put the walker down. Once the commotion had died down, the c.o. went to the internal phone system and reported the incident. Abby recognized the moment when he was given the order to eliminate all of the other people they'd detained, his whole demeanor changed, Abby had seen that change many times before, had even experienced it herself but he was a soldier and he did his job.
"Do you think this is where the outbreak first happened?" Rick asked frowning as he watched.
Abby shook her head, "No, it couldn't have spread so quickly. It was likely an airborne weapon of some sort."
"But you said it started here a day earlier than back home." Rick reminded her.
"I'm not a scientist but it'd be logical to launch the first weapon in Washington. In all likelihood, a solider probably died in his room and they brought him to the labs to investigate the death, then he rose up bit the doctors and so on." Abby said shrugging. "There's thousand of hours of footage, it'd take a long time to sift through it all."
"Did you find out what happened to the General? How he got bit?" Michonne asked.
"No but…" Abby frowned as she concentrated once more.
She exited the security program and started looking through the General's email's. Finally, she found an email that had been sent to both High Command and the Pentagon labelled Incident report. The email read:
To Whom This May Concern,
As of 18:06, I, General T.K. Goodman, have given the order abandon base. After multiple cases of a mysterious outbreak that first kills its host then brings back its host as a flesh-eating creature, I have ordered all personnel to load up into the containment trucks and to be shipped to an undisclosed CDC location to sit in quarantine until they are deemed healthy. Myself and two dozen men have opted to remain behind, residing in the surface building's until otherwise ordered, and keep this base protected.
Soon after this message is sent, I will then order a complete purge of sensitive information then shut all systems down until ordered to bring back online.
God Bless these United States of America,
General T.K. Goodman
After everyone had read the email, Abby looked at each one of them. "I doubt we'll find what really happened here. Obviously, the system wasn't completely purged since we were able to see the security feed but I've hardly found anything else, I was lucky to find this."
"So, it was pointless." Rick said sounding annoyed.
"No, it wasn't." Abby said smiling as she held up the General's I.D. card. "This is an all-access pass to the entire base. So long as we have juice, this I.D. and the General's code, we can get into anywhere. If any of the bases defense systems are in tact, we could use them if we get attacked while here."
Rick quirked an eyebrow. "Defense system?"
"Think guns, big guns that will take out any tank, armoured vehicle or aircraft…if they still work." Abby said as she suddenly returned to the keyboard. After a couple more minutes, she pursed her lips. "They've been manually locked."
"What does that mean?" Daryl asked as his head came down beside hers to look at what she was looking at.
"It means that that hatches have been manually locked and disconnected from the system so that no ordinary joe shmoe can activate them. Considering that the General stayed here and eventually came back down here, tells me that he knew that civilization had fallen and he didn't want any Governor type figures getting their hands on this stuff."
"Why not destroy it?" Rick asked frowning.
Abby shrugged, "Maybe he hoped that the good guys would be able to use it to take Washington back from the dead? Or maybe he had but after he died the next in line vetoed the order, I don't know. They might've attempted to destroy the base, since the main entrance was destroyed but maybe there was a mutiny? It'd explain why there is so many dead soldiers on the surface."
Rick sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "Maybe we'll look into this more later but we've already been here way longer then I'd planned and we're wasting fuel. Let's shut everything down, and get out of here."
If this is the first time reading work, I suggest you read Life Goes On and When Shit Hits The Fan. They cover from Season one on til this point. If you've already read my work then continue! Haha. Anyways I hope you enjoyed it!
-Shockra