Sweet Potato Pie
Eventually, they become used to life at New Hope. They began talking to people and slowly becoming accustomed to living around the living. They had reliable electricity and enough food. They hardly ever looked at their weapons anymore and even left the apartment without them a few times. Carl had begun talking to boys his own age. Daryl stayed to himself mostly, but did join the book club and spent his Thursday afternoons there. Michonne and Rick had become closer and spent most of their time wandering the corridors talking.
Eight weeks later, Dr. Goodwin asks for the four of them to come back into his lab.
"Is something wrong?" Rick asked. He glanced at Carl who was looking down at his fingers. Carl studied his hands to prepare himself.
Dr. Goodwin looked surprised, "What? Oh, no no no no no. Everything is looking much, much better."
Rick sighed in relief.
"I wanted to talk to you about the infection. More specifically, you four's particular strain." Dr. Goodwin took an inch's worth of paper out of a file. "Now, while I gave you all the checkup, I remember you saying you're from Georgia."
"We aren't in Georgia anymore?" Daryl asked.
"The border's 10 miles that way. That's not the point. Most of the people in here are from the west side of the Mississippi, when the infection had first been introduced. We all came here to get away from it, we noticed there's a difference in the sick here."
"The walkers?"
"Yes! There seems to be two dominant strains of the virus. We've seen it in a few of our residents here and in you, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl. But Rick, you have a slightly altered strain."
"What does that mean?" Carl asked nervously. He looked at his dad looking for any sign of death.
"I means, your dad's strain is likely the newest mutated form of the virus. Which means, we can track its patterns. It's all on a sort of pattern. Rick, you probably got the virus much after everyone else did. Perhaps a month or two. Do you know what this means?"
Silence.
"I can find a cure. Me and my team have been trying to develop one for years, but I think we may have the last bit we needed. I think, we can not only prevent the virus from becoming active but also save the walkers!"
And so they did.