Safe and Sound.
"Do you have any three's?"
I stare at the cards I'm holding in my hands. Carl looks at me expectedly. "Go fish," I murmur.
He frowns and grabs a card from a pile. I yawn and look out the window of the RV. I feel like we've been driving for hours. Maybe we have. I'm not sure. I force my attention back to the game and see it's Sophia's turn, and she naturally turns to Caroline and asks in her soft voice, "Do you have any six's?"
Caroline reluctantly hands over a card and then slumps back into her seat. "Aubrey, do you have any eight's?"
"Go fish."
"You're cheating," she accuses, sitting up again.
"Am not."
"Are too!"
"How am I cheating?"
She tears my stack from my hands and flips through. "A three and an eight!" she says, throwing them face-up on the table.
"Sorry."
It's not like I'm meaning to cheat, I seriously didn't even realize I had the cards. My mind is jumping from place to place, I don't have the focus to concentrate on a game of Go Fish. I set my cards on the table and quietly dismiss myself, sitting beside Glenn who offered to tag along with me in the older vehicle.
"I'm surprised Carol and Lori actually agreed to let us ride in the RV without them," he says.
"Yeah, I know." I look around. There's Caroline, Carl, and Sophia at the table. Andrea, staring off into space on the opposite side of Glenn and I, and good ol' Dale, steering the truck with no complaints.
"They've been getting along really well," he notes, looking at the kids who were giggling amongst themselves.
"I'm glad," I say. "Caroline hasn't laughed like this in a long time."
"Yeah, it's pretty nice what we have going here. Kind of makes the whole thing somewhat normal."
"Somewhat," I agree half-heartedly.
"Were you in college?" he asks suddenly, changing the subject.
"Yeah. Sophomore year," I smile.
"What were you studying?" he asks.
"Veterinary science. Mostly horses, and other farm animals."
"Oh wow. That's awesome."
"What about you?"
"Yeah. Kind of undecided about what I wanted to study though. I worked second-hand as a pizza delivery boy," he laughs.
Before I can help myself, I realize that I'm laughing too. And not just a calm chuckle, but a full-blown laugh. Before long, I'm clutching my stomach and wiping tears from my eyes. "You? A delivery boy?"
"Believe it or not," he chuckles, and rolls his eyes. "I know, I know. You're probably just shocked that I never got into the male modeling business, but I just didn't think they could handle this."
He strikes a pose, and I find myself almost keeling over in laughter. I'm not really sure why, but it feels good, and I need it. Like Caroline, I can't even remember the last time I truly laughed. I slowly calm myself down and lean back in my seat. "That's so funny."
He's about to reply when all of the sudden the RV starts slowing down. I hear Dale mutter a curse from the front seat and he pulls over. The other cars behind and in front of us follow our lead. I walk up to the driver's seat.
"What's going on?" I ask him.
"I don't know. The engine just stopped working. We'll have to check under the hood," he sighs and turns the truck off. I wonder if this happens often.
We exit the vehicle, and Rick and Shane are already looking at the mechanics, rubbing their temples frustratingly. I take this moment to stretch. I look around the area. Abandoned highway. Of course. I squint in the burning sun and see that one person is detached from the group. Daryl. He has his head buried in a car, and he's obviously looking for something. Against my better judgment, I walk towards him.
"What are you looking for?" I ask.
He jumps up, startled and mutters a curse. "Shit! Can' go sneakin' up on people like tha'."
Don't sneak up on people. Reese's rule. I frown. "Sorry."
"Ya wan' somethin'?" he asks, wiping his forehead with his arm.
"Just wondering if you could use some help."
He eyes me for a moment, and then nods. "Jus' lookin' for anythin' useful."
"Okay." Without waiting for further instruction, I open the car door nearest to me. I look past the stains of blood on the passenger seat and reach into the glove box. Just some old car records and a packet of tissues. I close it and open the back door. Nothing.
I give up on that car, and look up. Daryl's already made his way down the line of cars. I purse my lips and swiftly walk to catch up. He looks up at the sound of my footsteps, but ignores me and continues his search for whatever he's looking for. He slams the car door shut and goes to the next car. I walk up to it and lean against the dark blue Acura.
"Is that your motorcycle?" I ask him, seeing the vehicle set in the back of his pickup truck.
"Merle's," he answers without looking up.
"Do you know how to ride it?"
He looks up at me like I'm stupid. "Yah." He goes back to his search between seat cushions and under the floor boards. "Why? You ride 'em?"
"No," I giggle. If I tried to ride a motorcycle on my own, there's about a ninety-nine percent chance I'd crash and burn before I even turned the engine on. "I had an old boyfriend who used to own one."
"Good taste," he grunts from his position in the car.
I make a noise. Not so sure about that. The bastard cheated on me with some slut I had the decency to call my best friend. But I decide not to tell Daryl this. Not like he would care anyway.
"Do you think the CDC will still be there?" He pulls himself out of the car and gives me a look before deciding to search elsewhere.
"Dunno. I thin' we shoul' just stick to ourselves. We were doin' fine back at the other camp."
"Other camp?"
"Yah."
"What happened to it?"
"Geeks foun' us."
"I see."
"Wha?"
"You can't really say that you were doing fine if the infected found you," I tell him a little too matter-of-factly than intended.
"'T was their damn faults! Made a huge fire n' expected nothin' bad to come of it. Geeks coulda seen it for miles."
Before I can reply, we both turn to the sound of Rick and Shane calling our names. Must of fixed the engine. We make our way back in silence, and he jumps into his pickup truck without saying another word. I make my way to the RV and step inside. Glenn's already there, a washcloth pressed to his forehead.
"You okay?" I ask him before sitting down beside him.
"It's so hot out there," he moans. "I think I'm getting heatstroke."
"Oh God," I roll my eyes but crack a smile. "Okay grandma."
"Hey, it's hard having black hair," he says shutting his eyes and placing the drenched washcloth over them.
"Shane looks fine," I tell him, looking out the window to see the man walking back to his Jeep with his longer pitch-dark hair. Glenn opens one eye and glares at me. I smile and take my seat next to him.
"Where were you?" he asks, sitting up and grabbing a water bottle he had at his side and taking a sip of it.
"Looking around. Checking things out."
"By yourself?" he asks.
"No. With Daryl."
"Daryl?" he raises his eyebrows in shock. "Did he like," he trails off and narrows his eyes at me. "Threaten you?"
"Threaten me? What are you talking about?"
He looks at me questionably for a moment. And he opens his mouth to speak, but someone beats him to the punch.
"Daryl isn't the friendliest person in the world." The voice comes from Andrea. It's the first thing she's spoken to me the whole time, besides her accusing question back when I first arrived. Maybe she's decided she wants to be friends.
"He seems okay to me," I say.
"I'm pretty sure he's tried to kill every one of us on some occasion," Glenn pipes in again.
"He hasn't tried to kill me," I retort.
"Probably because you can hunt," Andrea says, tearing her eyes away from the window. "I think he gets annoyed that he's the only one attempting to put food on the table."
"He's the only one?"
"Yeah, but no one else grew up in the boondocks and knows how," Glenn murmurs.
"Wow, that's harsh. No wonder he wants to kill you." I laugh. Glenn glares.
"Daryl seems alright. Just angry about his brother, but wouldn't you be?" Andrea's glower at Glenn is almost deadly. I turn to the Asian and see his eyes are filled with sympathy. I don't understand the look, but I decide to brush it off.
"You're right," Glenn says. "Better than Merle, I guess."
"Merle was bad?" I ask, feeling completely out of the conversation.
"Yeah, made a lot of people nervous. Plus, I'm pretty sure he was always on drugs. He was just extremely rude. And racist."
"Oh, I see."
"Do you have any siblings besides Caroline?" Glenn asks, clearing changing the subject again. A card I've found him to be good at.
My mind instantly jumps to Reese. "No. Just me and her." I smile at her as she continues to play cards with Carl and Sophia.
"And you two were together when the outbreak occurred?" Andrea asks.
"Yeah. We were both born down here, in Georgia, but as soon as I turned eighteen I left and went up to Baltimore. Caroline came to live with me up there." Reese had also followed in my footsteps, but I don't mention that.
"And you're parents were okay with that?" Glenn asks.
"Nah. They didn't care all too much. Probably a relief."
"Seriously? Sending both their children off a relief?"
"They both worked full time, seven days a week. They didn't really have spare time for anything else."
"Even for their kids? I can see why you left at eighteen."
"One of the best decisions of my life."
We stop a little while later for a lunch break, and so the driver's could stretch their legs. Daryl and I had hunted enough to last us until tonight, so there was no need to go off into the woods again. We all sit around in our individual circles this time. I'm next to Glenn, Caroline, Lori, Carl, Rick, Carol and Sophia. The others ate in their own little groups. I assume the only reason they'd eaten together earlier is because I had come.
After we spend about twenty minutes resting, it's time to get back on the road. Rick thinks we're close to the CDC, and we all seem to get anxious, because no one in the RV speaks at all as we drive. Glenn shares glances with me every so often, but no words are spoken. We all sit in a trance, kind of like Andrea had been in for so long.
"Hey Aubrey." Glenn's voice is barely above a whisper and I have to lean closer to him to make sure I hear him correctly. "What if it's not there?"
"It'll be there," I reassure him. He glances out the window, his eyebrows furrowed so close together I had to blink to remember he didn't have a unibrow.
"But what if it's not?" his gaze is directed towards me again and I give him my best reassurance smile. The one I usually give to Caroline.
"Then we go somewhere else. You guys seem like a strong group of people. I'm not worried."
"Yeah, I know. But people do do crazy things when their lives are in danger."
My mind flicks to Marks. "We'll be okay," I smile again and place my hand on his, which is resting on his light jeans. His hand tenses under my touch, but he gives me a natural smile and returns his vacant glare out the window.
I could tell that Carl, Sophia, and Caroline we're growing restless. I, too, begin to feel jitters in my legs, and it takes everything not to get up and start pacing. If Caroline sees my nerves, she'll panic too, which will most likely have a domino effect. So I bite my lip like I usually do in time of anxiety, and keep my eyes focused on the rapidly passing trees.
And then it happens. We arrive. Dale lets out a small relief-laugh from the front seat, and we sit up in our seats and see the building a little ways ahead. Glenn and I race up to the front window, looking at it. There are a lot of military trucks, and to our dismay, it seems the sound of our cars have triggered some of the dead to rise, but I don't feel scared because of it. We made it. We're safe.
We park the cars and follow as Rick leads the group to the main doors. The smell is toxic as it makes it's way into my nose, and I softly tell Caroline to pull her shirt up to block the wretched stench. I find that most of the group is doing this now. We walk quickly, which Rick uttering small lines of encouragement from the front. I find myself just a few steps ahead of Daryl, and I share a glance with him and he re-grips his crossbow firmly, giving me a nod of what I took to be support.
I try not to look at the dead and mutilated bodies scattered all around the area, and I silently pray that they all truly are dead, and not going to jump up at anytime and rip our throats out. Rick and Shane reach the doors first, and Shane tugs on the bottom of one frantically. It doesn't open.
"It's locked!" Rick mutters in panic after he's tried pulling on the handles. Shane bangs on them now, yelling. But nothing happens. It's then that I realize more dead are reanimating. I feel an intense urge in my chest. Why weren't the doors opening? I feel Caroline grip my arm and I see she's terrified. I can't breathe.
I hear Daryl growl, "walkers!" from the back of the group, and then a shot rings out. A geek, much too close for my comfort, falls to the ground. I winced at the lingering ring the gun had made. More walkers would come now, and there was no where for them to go. I shudder.
"Come on Rick! There's no one there we have to go back!" Shane's yelling now.
Rick hesitates, but starts to move back, as we all follow Shane. But Rick suddenly stops and looks up. "The camera!" he shouts. "It moved!"
"Rick it's automatic!" Shane yells, focusing his gun at some approaching walkers.
"Please open the doors!"
I shake my head and begin to feel a pain in my chest. This is it. The walkers have us surrounded, and either the person in the CDC is ignoring us, or there really isn't anyone there. I'm so sorry Diana. I'm sorry Reese. I'm sorry Caroline. I've failed you all. I feel the tears creep up behind my eyes and I struggle to keep them back.
And then, as if the gates of Heaven are opening before us, the CDC doors begin to slide upward. We all stare in disbelief for a moment, but after a few moments of heavy blinking, and another encouraging shout from Rick, we all stampede through the doors, watching as they close quickly behind us.
All of the eyes in the room move rapidly, from wall to wall, waiting for our savior to show their face. The men still have their weapons drawn, and I keep my hand wrapped tightly around my bow, searching for any signs of danger.
"Hello?" Rick calls, his voice echoing throughout the large lobby I finally take the moment to scan over. It's clean, I note. Very clean. Almost like the lobby of a doctors office.
We hear a gun cock, which is repeated by every gun in the room, and the figure of a man comes into focus from just ahead. "Any of you infected?" he asks in a deep voice.
"One of our group was," Rick keeps his eyes on the man. "He didn't make it."
One of their group was infected? Glenn failed to give me that information. I reposition my hand on my bow and wait for his next words. Will he take us in? I can feel beads of sweat break out from my hairline. Wonderful.
"Why are you here? What do you want?" his voice is almost distressed.
"A chance," Rick answers, his blue eyes defiant and piercing in the dim light.
"That's asking an awful lot these days."
Rick takes a moment to think. He knows it's true. We all do. "I know," he answers simply.
The man relaxes a little and steps forward slightly. He has blonde hair, short but not too short. Overall, an average looking guy. I loosen my grip on the weapon. My fingers cramp from the strong hold I'd had on it, and I flex them, feeling a few bones pop.
"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
"We can do that."
The man releases his weapon to his side and takes deep breaths, seemingly relaxing. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once these doors close, they stay closed."
The men immediately spring into action. They grab all of our things, insisting that the women and children stay in the lobby. I smile gratefully as Glenn hands me my prey-bag still full of items Caroline and I couldn't spare.
"Thank you."
"No problem," he replies, smiling. Once the rest of the bags are dragged inside, the man walks over to a security control pad looking thing, and speaks to it. "Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here." The woman, I presume, complies and the doors are fastened, cutting us off finally from the Hell that lies outside.
I turn away from Glenn and watch as Rick walks up to our redeemer and offers his hand. "Rick Grimes."
The man stares awkwardly in another direction and simply replies, "Dr. Edwin Jenner."
Rick slowly puts his hand down as Jenner walks away from him and in another direction, and eventually leads us to an elevator. We all pile inside, and I find myself a little too close between Daryl and Glenn. I keep my eyes focused on the doctor though, and Daryl speaks all of our thoughts.
"Doctors always go around packin' heat like tha'?" it's more of a demand than a question, but Jenner doesn't seem fazed by Daryl's intimidation-filled stare.
"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself," he tells us. "But you all look harmless enough." He pauses for a moment and then leans down a little towards Carl and smiles. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." He jokes, a smile growing on both Carl and Jenner.
The next thing I know, we're being hoarded out of the elevator and into a narrow hallway. I find myself beside Glenn again, but Daryl is trailing the back.
"Are we underground?" I hear the ever-so-cautious Carol ask.
The doctor nods. "You claustrophobic?"
"A little," she admits, keeping a firm grip on her daughter's hand.
"Just try not to think about it."
I try to keep my own breathing calm, and realize that my father had told me I most likely had claustrophobia too. We were driving through a long tunnel, probably one that lead into New York City. I remember my breath shortening and my dad informing me to breathe slowly and concentrate on other things. That was probably the only thing he'd said to me the entire trip.
Even though the memory was unintentional and not one of my favorites, it did it's job to keep my mind off of the narrow space. We finally reach our destination. It's a huge room, crowded by desks with computers and a lot of other electronics I can't even begin to name. Everything's so shiny. I quickly shut my mouth when I realize it's gaped open slightly.
"Vi, bring on the lights in the big room," Jenner declares to the invisible woman. The lights go on and I realize it's even more fantastic than I realized before. It looks like it belongs in some sort of Star Trek movie. "Welcome to Zone Five."
Where is everyone?" Rick asks as we trail along behind Jenner.
"I'm it." He looks at us. "It's just me here."
"What about the person you were speaking to?" Lori asks. "Vi?"
"Vi, tell our guests welcome," Jenner booms to no one.
"Welcome, guests."
I mentally kick myself. It was a machine. How could I have not put that together?
"I'm all that's left." His eyes are looking at us, but they appear vacant and solemn. "I'm sorry."
I swallow hard and feel the anxiety creep upon me once again. I expected military support, doctors and scientists working on cures, and what did we get? A lonely doctor who appears to have a trust issue. I grind my teeth. I wouldn't find help for Reese here. I am wrong. Again.
"You okay?"
I snap back to reality when I realize almost everyone was on their way walking behind Jenner again. Except for me and Glenn. Even Caroline sticks to Sophia and Carl. Glenn looks concerned and I slowly shake my head. "Yeah, sorry. Just spaced out for a second."
"Oh, I gotcha. Happens to me sometimes too."
I smile at him and we quickly slow-job to catch up with the group.
We pack into another small area, that holds a few hospital beds and medical items. I guess this is where Jenner will be performing our blood tests. Andrea's first up, I see, and Jenner wastes no time in taking out the needle and swiftly shoving it into her vein. I try not to lose my calm again.
"What's the point?" she asks with spite in her voice. "If we were infected, we'd all be running fevers by now."
"I'm already breaking a ton of rules by letting you in here, I should at least be thorough," he counters, finishing filling her needle, and releases her arm from his grasp. "All done."
She slowly starts to stand, and Jacqui helps her up as she almost falls back down. Jenner straightens his back and stares suspiciously at the weak woman.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
"She hasn't eaten a decent meal in days," the woman replies protectively. "None of us have."
Jenner looks with an expression I can't quite comprehend but continues to perform his tests, none the less. Almost everyone has volunteered until it gets down to me, Carl, and Caroline. Everyone turns to us expectedly and I straighten my back. Carl's eyes narrow with a look that says I need to volunteer. I snort.
"I won Go Fish like four times in a row," I tell him. "Winners get first pick."
"You only won because you cheated!" Carl retorts.
I feign surprise and place my hand over my heart. "How could you even say that? I would never cheat." I smirk at the boy and he sticks his tongue out at me. I smile.
"I'll go," Caroline whispers from beside me. I know she's also afraid of needles. I grab her hand and follow her over to the seat. She sits down nervously and I give her a squeeze.
"It'll be over so quickly, you won't even realize," I tell her.
"If you think it'll be that simple, why didn't you want to go?"
"I'm not as strong as you are."
She smiles softly at that, and her hand clutches mine harder as Jenenr sticks the needle into her arm next. Her face twists in mild pain, but when it's over, she smiles and stands up, motioning to the seat. "Your turn." She smirks.
"Alright, alright,." I say, sitting down and feeling Jenner's gloved hand gently massage the skin on my arm for a moment before sanitizing it.
"Are you all family?" he asks me quietly.
"No. Pretty much came upon each other by chance. Caroline's my sister, but that's about it."
"I see." His eyes are still vacant as he plunges the needle into my blood. I stifle a gasp of surprise, and clutch my fist. "Just relax your hand," he orders, and I slowly comply.
When it's over, I realize I've made a big deal out of nothing, and that getting a yearly tetanus booster shot hurt almost ten times worse than this. I see Carl make a face at me as his mother drags him towards the stool, and we all wait patiently for them to finish.
"Wasn't too bad, huh?" Dale asks from the wall he's leaning on.
"She almost cried," Caroline laughs before I can reply.
"That's a lie," I narrow my eyes at her.
She mocks me from before, and places a hand over her heart. "I would never!"
Everyone chuckles and I glare at the little who suddenly looks ten times her age standing before me. I roll my eyes and scuff her hair, ignoring her protest. A few moments after, Carl is back at the group, somewhat beaming at how great he'd handled the whole situation.
We're now following Jenner to who knows where, and this time, I fall into step beside the redneck hunter. He still carries the crossbow around his shoulder, which makes me feel a little safer than I already do.
"Still carrying that thing?" I question as his gaze lifts off the ground to look towards me. I feel the weight of my bow and arrow on my back, but Daryl's got his all ready for battle, if it came to that.
"Jus' in case," he replies.
"Jenner seems nice enough."
"Ya never know," he says.
I reposition the bags on my back, and feel a surge of pain shoot through my arm, coming from the wound I'd just received from that nasty little needle.
"Ow," I mutter, placing my hand on the bandage.
"Did tha' needle really bother ya?" he asks, his eyebrows rising with disbelief.
I narrow my eyes. "Needle wounds always hurt worse after a while. That's," I lift up my finger pointedly, "a fact."
"Whatever ya say," he shakes his head but his lips are pulled into a small smirk.
"Okay, macho man," I scoff playfully. "But when your arm starts to hurt, don't look at me."
"Dun plan on it."
"Good."
"Yup."
I roll my eyes and check once more, and see that the smile is still plastered slightly on his face. Feeling somewhat accomplished, I speed up my pace and fall into step beside Glenn. "Do you know where were going?"
"Nope. Rick and Shane are walking up there with Jenner, but I can't make out what they're saying."
"Hmm." I look at the three men leading the group, then look back towards Glenn, who's smiling like he'd just won the lottery. "What?" I ask him, questioning his ecstatic stare.
"Aubrey," he glances towards me and if it's possible, his smile grows even wider.
"We found the CDC. We're here. We're safe!" he exclaims, adjusting his hat.
"I know," I smile back.
But my smile quickly fades. Sure, I'm safe. But what about everyone back at camp? I decide that it's urgent I speak with Rick, but I find that he's always with someone else, discussing important things. I shake my head. I have to do this, or else I might be too late. I might already be too late anyway. If Marks did punish the entire camp for my act of rebellion, over half the group would probably be dead, and they'd probably be the ones I loved. Diana. Alice. Robert. Betty's children. Reese. My heart pounds when his name flies through my brain.
I need to tell someone. Now, before it's too late. I take a deep breath and turn to the only person I'm one hundred percent positive I trust.
"Hey Glenn?" I ask, clearing my voice after realizing how shaky it's become. "Can I tell you something?"
Dun dun dun! Hey guys! So sorry this is so late! I usually try to update every week, but I was on a cruise last week so I didn't get the chance to work on it… Not that I'm complaining ;D
So anyway, for this chapter, since it was pretty much the sixth episode, I tried to match up dialogue that I could but also made some of it my own so it's not like I completely copied everything ahaha.
So I hope you liked it, and thank you so much for the feedback! I've already started working on the fourth chapter so that should be out soon enough! Thanks again so much for reading!
