I undressed and stepped into the shower. The warm water felt oddly foreign to me. I hadn't had a proper warm shower since before I left Virginia.

I used the soap they had made available and scrubbed away the dirt and grime on my body.

I saw the dirty water swirl down the drain, taking with it the horrid memories of this world.

I then glanced at my thighs. I could see several scars on each side. One read "fat", and another read "ugly".

Biting my lip, I placed my hand over the scars. I regretted doing it, for taking everything I had for granted. I'd do almost anything to get it all back, well almost all of it.

The water began cooling, so I finished washing my body, hair, and face.

Once I was done, I shut the water off and wrapped a towel around me. I didn't hear anyone else in the stalls so I secured the towel, making sure it covered everything, and ran for my room.

In my haste, I didn't pay attention to the person walking out of their room, and I bumped straight into them.

"Shit, I'm so sorry!" I told the person sincerely, beginning to pick up the stuff I'd dropped. Thank goodness the accident didn't make me lose my towel.

The man bent down and gave me a shirt. "You should watch where you're going."

I blushed, trying not to look him in the eye. "Sorry. Hay, you're the dude with the crossbow, right? You're name's Daryl."

He nodded, looking away.

"Well, I'm Lyla. Guess I'll be seeing ya." I told him, taking off to my room.

"Don't tell me you ran all the way from the stalls in just a towel." Autumn commented.

"Damn right I did." I told her, brushing my hair.

"Someone could have seen you. Who knows what they woulda done."

I rolled my eyes. "You done being a drama queen? Nothing happened."

"You sure?"

"Well, I did bump into Daryl, the dude with the crossbow. But nothing happened. He helped me pick my clothes up and that was it." I told her.

"I still say we should leave. I mean Jenner's not a government agent or anything like that. He's just a survivor like us." Autumn said, stating her opinion.

"I don't wanna leave. We had a good meal, and these people aren't bad. Maybe we can team up."

"They don't belong to our group. Their just people we met. We don't know them at all."

I looked at my best friend.

"Look at you Lyla. You're wasting away to nothing. If they see that, they'll try to take us with them, or take us out. That Jenner guy isn't right in the head, and we don't know a thing about Rick or the rest of them."

"Exactly, but if we're here, we can get good meals, proper sleep, and health care. I know your asthma is acting up. Maybe Jenner can help with that. But you can leave if you want. I'm staying. Sena says these people have been good to her, and I believe that. I believe their good people."

She just rolled her eyes and sipped on a bottle of wine the good doc had given her.

"Hay, ya got anything stronger?" I asked, smiling.

She laughed. "Nah, that redneck took most of the strong stuff."

"Ugh man, I wanna get shitfaced." I told her.

I then decided to go find Daryl and get some strong shit to drink.

As I walked down the hall, I heard the kids talking quietly with the short haired woman Carol…I didn't like remembering her name since my mom's name was Carol…

I found Daryl's room and knocked…and knocked…and knocked…and knocked again.

Finally he answered. He scowled at me with the door half open.

"What ya want? I'm fuckin' busy here." He slurred, half drunk. I noticed he was shirtless and in his boxers. I would be lying if I said he didn't look good.

"How much you got left?" I asked, talking about the drink.

"Another bottle or two in the, the room." He mumbled.

I darted past him and found a whole bottle of Jack sitting on the floor near his bed. I grabbed it up and scurried back out of his room. He started yelling, but he was too drunk to try and follow me.

"You'll thank me tomorrow." I said cheekily.

I heard his door shut and I popped open the bottle of whiskey, taking a good swig of it.

But the whiskey was soon forgotten when I saw someone sitting on the ground in the hallway.

"Hay, hay buddy you alright?" I asked, not quite sure who was sitting here.

The guy looked up and it was Shane. He had nice long gashes on his neck.

Immediately I dropped to my knees and checked them.

"Oh my gosh. Shane, right? What happened?" I asked. My hands started acquiring quite a bit of Shane's blood. I couldn't help it. I was a real sucker for helping people.

He looked at me, his eyes clouded from drinking, and mumbled.

"Shane, speak up. I couldn't understand you." I told him.

He mumbled some more then took another sip of alcohol.

"Alright, I think that's enough for you, Shane. Let's get you to your room." I said, taking the bottle away from him.

I struggled to get him to his feet since he probably weighed three times as much as me, but I managed to drag his drunken ass to his room. He plopped down on the bed and I shut the door.

When I finally made it back to my room, I was starting to stumble. Idly, I realized I'd drank half the bottle of whiskey. Oops.

Autumn just laughed when I walked in.

"Shhhuttt up you bitchhhhh." I slurred really bad.

That caused her to laugh even more.

"Are you drunk, Lyla?" My little cousin Sena asked.

"I—I—I'm fucking drunk as shit." I said, stumbling to my bed.

"What took you so long to get back?" Autumn questioned.

"That asshole Daryl took most of the boooozeee from everyone so I hadda take it back. Did—did you know he's really hottt under those clothes?"

I then proceeded to pour some of my booze into Kala's water dish. She lapped it up greedily.

Both girls laughed at the sight, and after that, I don't remember anything. Guess I just passed out.

The next morning, someone kept tugging on my arm. I opened my eyes and realized it was Sena. I relaxed and closed my eyes again.

"Five more minutes, sweetie."

"Come on Lyla. Autumn said you had to get up. We're going to breakfast." The kid told me in almost a demanding voice.

I sighed and started removing the covers. "A'ight, a'ight I'm up. I'm up."

And then the wave of nausea and a headache the size of freaking Texas hit me. I fumbled my way to the bathroom and emptied the contents of my stomach.

I groaned out and attempted to figure out why I felt this awful.

Then I remembered drinking a whole damn bottle of Jack and passing out here. That's why my head was hurting.

"Hay Autumn" I said raspily, still upchucking what was left of last night's meal. "You got any Ibuprofen?"

I heard her search her bag for the medicine. As quick as she could, she gave me two tablets. I dry-swallowed them and finally stopped puking.

"Are you hungover over?" Sena asked, peeking her head into the bathroom.

I held my head and attempted to stand. "You, my dear, are correct."

I finally made it to the bed and started rummaging through my clothes. I found a nice flannel shirt and some capris.

I noticed Kala wasn't by my side, which was unusual.

"Kala?" I called out softly.

I didn't see her so I started looking; starting at the end of the bed where I last remember her being.

And sure enough, the bitch was still sleeping; upside down with her tongue hanging out. I chuckled at the sight of my dog and started rubbing her awake.

"Was somebody a drunk puppy, huh?" I teased my dog.

She just licked my face, her breath smelling heavily of Jack.

Once she was up, I laced up my converses and put on my poker face. I felt like absolute shit, but as the old saying goes, "wake up, get up, dress up, show up, never give up". Yep, that's pretty much been my motto since this thing started.

"You coming?" Autumn called.

"I'll be there!" I called back.

We met Austin on the way to breakfast. Turns out he roomed with T-Dog last night.

"He's an alright guy, from what I can tell." He informed us.

I nodded as we made our way to the dining room. Not many people were in there.

T was cooking for everyone. Lori, Carl, Dale, Sophia, Carol, and Andrea were sitting around the table.

We found empty spots at the table, and just listened to the conversations.

Glenn then made an appearance. He groaned and looked like he'd be sick.

"Rough night there, buddy?" I asked, teasing him a little.

"Screw you." He muttered, leaning his head over his arms.

"Fuck you too." I said, still joking.

"Lyla, right?" Lori asked me.

I nodded, slightly confused. "Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you?"

I nodded and she led me off to a corner.

"What's up?"

"Please don't use that language around my son, or Carol's daughter. I don't know what kind of home you grew up in or what you're trying to give your cousin but—."

"No you don't know how I grew up, and you sure as hell cannot tell me how to bring up my cousin. That is my job, and my job alone. And those kids have a lot more to worry about than a few cuss words in this world. It's best they learn early." I told her harshly, cutting her off. I didn't know what got into me, but I snapped.

She just looked at me before finally speaking. "And like you said, raising your cousin is your responsibility, but raising my son is mine. If you're gonna be with us, then you really should think about what I said."

I rolled my eyes and walked away, a bit angry.

"You don't know nothing." I muttered.

Lori and I went back to the table like nothing had happened. Rick then came out, looking as bad as I felt.

He got Lori to open a bottle of Aspirin and Carl asked him if he was hungover.

It was a similar conversation to the one I had with Sena earlier.

T-Dog announced the eggs he'd been cooking were done and he served them to us. My belly growled, reminding me I had no food in my system.

I dug into my breakfast, savoring every bite. Slowly I could feel my hangover leaving me. And I noticed poor Glenn was feeling better too. He'd drank quite a bit last night.

Shane appeared, fixing himself a cup of coffee. He didn't say much, or even thank me for helping him last night. I didn't expect he would since he was piss drunk. He probably didn't even remember.

But something bothered me. How on earth did he get those scratches? There weren't any animals here, aside from Kala and she passed out in my room from drinking that bit of whiskey.

"Must've done it in my sleep man." He told his friend.

I kept my mouth shut, but I knew he was lying. He had those before he went to bed.

Jenner walked in and Dale and Andrea both started in on the guy, asking loads of questions.

His answers were so vague though. I felt like he was lying to us.

"When you're finished, meet me in the main room. I have something I want to show you." He said mysteriously before walking away.

After breakfast, everyone met Jenner in the big room. Sena was holding my hand.

"I'm happy you came here. We found each other." She said, smiling.

I smiled too and wrapped an arm around her. "And I promise you nothing's gonna happen to you as long as I've got a say in it."

She rested her head against my side, comforted by my words. "I don't want you to leave again."

"I won't baby. I promise; and neither will Kala." I told her.

She stroked the dog's fur lovingly.

Just then Jenner talked to the computer thing named Vi. He had her, it, whatever it was bring up a thing called "TS-19".

It was a death vigil of someone who'd been bitten.

Apparently this…walker virus attacked the brain like Meningitis, but Jenner had no clue how to cure it or how this epidemic happened.

"This person died?" Andrea asked, highly interested.

He ignored her question and continued with the playback.

It was all very sobering.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Little Sophia asked.

"Yes." Carol told her.

Jenner went on about the resurrection times, then out of nowhere, a flash passed across the screen.

"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea said, knowing what happened.

I listened to the whole conversation, growing more and more fearful. The world had really gone to hell.

"Man, I wanna get shitfaced drunk, again." Daryl said, rubbing his head.

"Tell me about it." I mumbled.

Dale then brought up the clock that was counting down. Jenner clammed up and only told us that the generators would power down by then…but the way he said it, and the way he walked away made me fearful that he was hiding something.

The men went to the basement and started searching for an answer I guess. All the guys went except for Daryl and Dale. They stayed upstairs with everyone. I had a feeling Daryl was drinking, keeping true to what he'd said in the big room.

"Lyla, Autumn what are you guys doing?" Sena asked us.

"We're packing." Autumn told her.

"And you should be doing the same thing." I added.

"Why?" The kid questioned.

"Because something doesn't seem right here. I dunno it could be nothing, but remember what I told you when this thing started." I told her.

"Expect the best, prepare for the worst." She recited.

I smiled. "Get packing okay?"

"Okay." She said.

Her and Kala went to the other side of the room to grab her few possessions.

"Hay Autumn, are you getting really hot?" I asked, wiping a bit of sweat off my brow.

She nodded, looking weak. "It's suffocating."

Sena then bound over to me. "Lyla, the air stopped working."

I went to the vent and sure enough it wasn't blowing at all.

"Dammit! Ya think the generators already gave out?" I asked out loud.

Just then the light on the table went out.

"Shit. This isn't good." Autumn commented.

Just then we heard people talking outside the rooms. We peaked our heads out and Jenner was casually strolling down the hall like he was going to church.

"What's going on?" Daryl asked him. "Why is everything being turned off?"

"Energy is being prioritized." Jenner said, taking the bottle of liquor from him.

We ran out of our rooms and followed Jenner to the big room.

Daryl made some big fuss, then the rest of the guys showed up.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running till the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark." Jenner told us. "Right on schedule."

Daryl took his booze back and Jenner looked to Andrea.

"It was the French." He told her.

"What?"

Apparently they were the last ones to hold out and attempt to figure out what was happening. But like this place, they failed. That knowledge sank into my stomach, making my blood boil. There had to be SOMETHING out there that could give us the right answers.

But then it hit me…this place…somewhere in it, there were nasty diseases and other harmful viruses, kept from the public. If terrorists wanted to hurt the US they'd do it by destroying the CDC and making sure all those harmful pathogens got out into the public. There you go, bio terrorism. But the government would have thought of that, and would have taken measures to make sure nothing harmful got out of this place…that could only mean that whatever happened when the clock ran out, was bad; very bad.

"Austin, are you packed?" I asked him in a hurry.

He nodded.

"Autumn, you think you're up to coming with me and Sena to the rooms to get our stuff? We need to be ready to get out of here ASAP. Something bad's gonna happen." I told my best friend.

She nodded and we whispered to Austin what we were gonna do.

He was okay with it and we started for the door. Kala went with us

"Sena slow down!" I yelled. She stopped just on the other side of the door, waiting for us to catch up with her.

Just before Autumn and I got to the door, some alarm went off. Vi announced that decontamination was happening in thirty minutes, and the last thing I saw before the door went up was Sena's horrified face. I heard Kala bark fiercely. They were trapped on the other side while I was in the other room.

"No!" I screamed, freaking out. "Open this door! Open it!" I began beating on the door but it wouldn't budge.

"Lyla!" someone yelled. It sounded like Sena.

"Sena! Baby stay with me, okay! Are you guys alright?"

"I'm scared." She said just loud enough for me to hear.

Jenner started screaming, but Vi silenced him.

"HITS: high-impulse thermobaric fuel air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blas wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." She told everyone.

Tears came to my eyes and I screamed till my lungs burned. I was angry! I was fucking furious! I would NOT die here! And neither would my friends or cousin!

"EDWIN JENNER YOU SON OF A BITCH YOU OPEN THIS DAMN DOOR RIGHT FUCKING NOW BEFORE I RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND FEED YOU TO THE WALKERS!" I yelled, knowing full well my words meant nothing to him.

Most of Rick's group looked at me like I went psycho. Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. The point was that this man who'd given up, wasn't going to dictate how me and my family would die.

I charged forward, murder in my eyes if this prick didn't open the door and let us leave.

As I ran to Jenner, I heard glass shatter and an angry voice yell.

"Open this damn door!" Daryl screamed.

Just then Shane screamed too. "Out of my way!"

He had an axe. T-Dog threw the other axe to Daryl.

I changed my course and ran to the door.

"Sena! Baby it's okay! We're just hitting the door trying to open it!" I yelled over the noise.

"Don't leave me Lyla!" I heard her small response.

"I'm not going anywhere!" I assured her. "You're gonna be okay. You've got Kala. We're getting out of here."

"If you don't want your head cut off, then I suggest you get out of the way!" Daryl yelled to me.

"I'm not fucking going anywhere! Now keep hitting the door!" I yelled back, not intimidated.

I heard my baby girl crying on the other side of the door.

"Hay, hay, no crying." I told her. "We're going to get out of here! Just hold onto Kala and wait for us, okay?"

Daryl gave up on the doors and charged towards Jenner with the axe. He clearly wasn't afraid to kill the man.

But I couldn't let Daryl do that. As much as I wanted to do the same thing to Jenner, we couldn't let anything happen to him. Without him, we'd never get out of here.

I took off running. Most of the men were trying to restrain Daryl, but were failing. The redneck was slowly inching his way to the doctor.

I put myself in between Daryl and Jenner.

"You best get out of the way girl!" Daryl yelled at me.

"Shut the fuck up you lunatic! If you kill him, we'll be locked in here for sure!" I yelled back.

Daryl walked away and I stared at Jenner.

"You're welcome." I told him sullenly.

He nodded to me, then went on about how dying here was the best choice.

"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." He said almost happily.

"No, you listen here you piece of shit!" I exclaimed, getting his attention. "My 9 year old little cousin is out there, alone; and so is my dog. If you don't let us out, you're basically murdering that little girl and everyone else in this room who doesn't want to die! Do you really want that on your conscience?" I asked, walking away, back to the door. If we were gonna die here, I was gonna die as close to my cousin as possible.

"How you holding up kid?" I asked, stifling the tears. I could hear Carol pleading with the man to let us go.

"When are they gonna open the door?"

"Soon okay? Just hang tight. We'll be out of here in no time." I lied, trying to stay strong.

Just then Shane started a riot, shooting off a gun near the doctor's head.

"Fucking hell!" I mumbled.

"What was that?! Lyla what's happened?!" I heard Sena cry.

"It's okay we're okay, baby. They just shot a gun. No one's hurt." I informed her.

Kala barked twice. "I know Kala, I know. We're getting you guys out of here." I muttered, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"Hand me that axe." I heard a rough voice ask.

I looked up and it was Daryl. Quickly I handed it to him.

He started beating on the door.

"Hay kid! Make sure you and that dog are out of the way when we get this door open!" Daryl yelled to Sena.

I guess she heard him, but she didn't answer.

And as if by a miracle, Dr. Jenner opened the door.

"Come on!" Daryl yelled to everyone.

He grabbed my arm and got me up. I grabbed Sena and hugged her before taking off to our room to get our things.

Autumn caught up with us there.

"Come on! We gotta go!" I said, leading us out of the room.

It was a long run to the front of the building. Already I was thinking of ways to get out of here.

"Get them doors open!" Glenn yelled.

Jenner said the doors would be locked, but he never said anything about the windows.

"Try the windows!" I screamed, holding Sena's hand.

Daryl and Shane both went at a window with the same axes they'd used earlier.

I bit my lip. Only three minutes left.

The axes weren't doing anything so T-Dog charged the window with a chair. It did nothing but bounce right off it.

Shane thought to shoot the damned thing, and it STILL wouldn't break.

"The glass won't break?" Little Sophia asked. She looked like she was ready to cry.

"Don't worry sweetie, we'll all make it out of here alive." I promised her. I don't know why, but I did.

Carol then left her daughter's side and spoke to Rick. She handed him a…a grenade!

"Shit! Sophia! Sena!" I yelled, taking them behind a pillar.

The grenade went off and the window shattered. I pulled the girls to their feet and made sure everyone was whole.

"Let's go!" I heard someone yell.

I grabbed Sena's hand, unsure of where to go. I didn't belong with this group, but we had nowhere else to go.

I saw Rick, Daryl, and Shane clear a path for their group.

"Lyla! Come on!" Autumn yelled. You could tell even she was unsure of where to go.

"Ya'll! This way!" I heard someone scream. I looked towards a beat up old Chevy pickup.

Daryl was standing there, yelling for us to run to him.

Sena instantly took off towards the truck and reached it before the rest of us did.

Daryl grabbed her up and put her in the bed and lowered the tailgate for us before climbing into the driver's seat.

Austin climbed into the bed and he raised the tailgate up.

Daryl poked his head out the window and yelled for us to get down.

I covered Sena's body, fearful that one of my group might die.

And in a flash, a large explosion occurred. I swear I went deaf from it.

"Lyla! Look!" Autumn told me once the initial explosion occurred.

I looked to the building, or what was a building, and suddenly felt overwhelmed. Where would we go? There was no hope for us, no government, no civilization, so where could we go?

I looked through the back window of the truck and saw Daryl looking at us. I nodded, signaling we were okay.

I couldn't believe he'd saved us.

I took notice of Sena crying beside me.

"Shh baby, it's okay." I told the girl, holding her and Kala close. The dog licked Sena's face affectionately and I held them tight.

Daryl started the truck up and started following the rest of his group.