"Is that it?" I asked Daryl.
"Yup," he answered, grabbing his crossbow.
The building was large with a lot of windows. Dead, decaying bodies surrounded the entire area. Flies surrounded the bodies. The smell was the worst. It was hard to even breathe.
Both of us exited the truck and followed Rick. This was his plan and he was quickly taking the role as leader.
I walked close to Daryl. He was as disgusted with the amount of filth as I was. I grabbed my gun from the back of my shorts and raised it. In this hell hole I was prepared for anything.
Shane stood on the side of the group, silently giving instructions. "All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go."
Once we were closer, Rick started telling us the same thing. "Keep moving. Stay together. Keep moving. Come on."
We finally reached the sold metal doors of the CDC. Rick and Shane pushed, pulled, hit, and whatever else they could think of to try and get the door open. They were sealed shut.
"There's nobody here," T-Dog complained.
Rick wasn't prepared to admitt that he was wrong. "Then why are these shutters down?"
"Walkers," Daryl cried. Everyone prepared their guns, but they couldn't fire. The noise would bring more. Daryl fired his crossbow and killed the walker silently. He turned quickly to Rick in a rage. "You led us to a graveyard!"
Dale defended Rick. "He made a call."
"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl shouted back.
Shane stomped over to my brother. "Just shut up. You hear me? Shut up. Shut up." He then turned to Rick. "Rick, this is a dead end."
Carol was sobbing slightly. "Where are we gonna go?"
Rick stared at the metal doors infront of him as Shane tried to grab his attention. "Do you hear me? No blame."
And then Lori started her shit. "She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark."
"Fort Benning, Rick," Shane cried in desperation. "Still an option."
"On what? No food, no fuel. That's a hundred miles." Andrea was right. By the looks of it, we were fucked.
"A hundred twenty-five. I checked the map." Glenn, this is not the time to be exact with shit.
"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now." Oh my God, Lori shut the fuck up. All you're doing is causing a panic.
Rick finally spoke. "We'll think of something."
"Let's get outta here," Glenn begged. "Let's go. Please."
Everyone began running back to their cars. We had no other option then to leave. This place was a bust.
"The camera," Rick called, "it moved." Everyone stopped and looked at the camera on the wall.
"You imagined it," Dale claimed.
"It moved. It moved." Rick stepped forward to the wall.
Shane wasn't convinced. "Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." He grabbed Rick by the arm and started pulling him back. "Man, just listen to me. Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick."
Rick broke free of Shane's grasped and started banging on the metal door. "I know you're in there," he said to the camera. "I know you can hear me."
"Get back to the cars now!" Shane yelled as he tried to get Rick back with us.
Daryl grabbed my arm and pulled me with him. He was going to get me out of here if it was the last thing he would do.
Walkers heard the comotion and started to come our way. Some were a little faster than normally. One tried to grab at my arm, but Daryl saw it and hit it with his crossbow.
As the walker went down, a bright light shown from behind us. The two of us turned around and saw the door the CDC lift, revealing a white light. It was hard to believe that Rick was right. There was somene inside. Whoever this person was, they saved our life.
The group of us stood staring at the light for a second. Only just a second. That was all the time we were aloud to take due to the growing amount of walkers outside. Shane rushed us in and told Daryl and me to cover the back.
"Hello?" Rick called. "Hello?"
"Close those doors," Shane ordered. They wouldn't budge. They were being held open by something.
"Hello?" Rick repeated.
A gun cocked behind us causing the group to turn to see a man in a white t-shirt and jeans pointing a large shotgun in our direction. "Anyone infected?"
Rick chose to be honest. "One of our group was. He didn't make it."
The man stepped slowly towards us. "Why are you here? What do you want?"
"A chance."
"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man was correct. That was a big request.
"I know." The man moved his eyes from Rick to the rest of the group. It was easy to tell he felt for us and couldn't turn us away.
"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
Rick agreed to the man's request. "We can do that."
The man lowered his gun. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed."
Without hesitation, Daryl, Glenn, Rick, and Shane ran to the cars and grabbed our belongings. T-Dog and I held the glass doors open as they rushed in. We shut the doors behind them and the man shut the metal over them.
Rick introduced himself and the man did the same. "Dr. Edwin Jenner."
The place that we were staying was underground. We needed to take the elevator down. I thought we were done with these awkward rides when the world ended. I was wrong. The silence was killing everyone.
Daryl took it upon himself to break the silence. "Doctors always go around packing heat like that?"
Jenner turned slightly. "There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." Smart. "But you look harmless enough." He looked down at Carl jokingly. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you."
Once we exited the elevator, Jenner led us down a hall with many rooms on either side. This hallway led to a large room with computers facing a screen that took up the entire wall. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." At Jenner's command, the criclular light on above the computers flashed on. "Welcome to zone five."
One thing everyone seemed to notice was it was empty. "Where is everybody?" Rick questioned. He sounded extremely worried. "The other doctors, the staff?"
Jenner stood in the middle of the circle of computers. "I'm it." What? "It's just me here."
Lori stayed towards the back of the group. "What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?"
"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them welcome," Jenner ordered.
A computer voice came on overhead. "Hello, guests. Welcome."
"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry."