After giving Dr. Jenner a vial of blood each, the survivors stumbled into the cafeteria where Victoria was preparing dinner - spaghetti, the only meal she could cook pre-apocalypse.
Despite Victoria's protest, the women were eager to help. They introduced themselves as Lori, Carol, Jacqui and Andrea.
Lori was Sheriff Grimes' wife and their son was the young boy, Carl.
The shy girl belonged to the timid Carol, her name was Sophia.
Jacqui seemed like a sweet woman and Andrea didn't say much but the sour pull of her lips said enough.
Then, while she helped push tables together, Victoria learned the names of the remaining men; Daryl, Glenn, T-Dog and Dale.
Daryl was a hick with a crossbow and Glenn was the young Asian man, quiet but eager to please.
T-Dog towered over Victoria but he never stopped cracking jokes long enough for her to notice and Dale was the eldest survivor, with kind eyes and a sharp tongue.
A whole new atmosphere encompassed the room once dinner was served alongside an endless supply of wine.
Victoria closed her eyes, pretending everything was normal for a moment.
Dale took it upon himself to refill everybody's glass. He even topped Victoria before anyone else.
"You know in Italy, children have a little wine with dinner."
Lori shook her head as she took her glass back from Dale. "Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then."
"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick looked up from his own heaping portion of pasta with a carefree laugh - he looked younger when he was smiling - and met Lori's eyes over Carl's head. "Come on! Come on!"
With a shrug, Lori gave in and nodded to Dale with a giggle.
Everyone watched with amusement as the boy took a sip of red wine before shoving the cup away like it insulted his mother.
"Ew! That tastes nasty."
Lori nodded, pouring the finger of wine into her already full glass. "That's my boy."
From the other side of the bench, Shane muttered, "Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud."
Deputy Walsh had yet to join the festivities. Victoria couldn't help but notice how his eyes always found their way back to the Sheriff's family but almost always Lori - who bent over backwards to avoid his gaze.
Victoria wondered what their story was - star crossed lovers, jilted ex's, unrequited feelings? Whatever it was, she hoped Rick didn't notice too.
"Not you, Glenn!" Daryl suddenly shouted, pointing at the younger man.
"What?" Glenn giggled at him, clutching a bottle of wine to his chest.
"Keep drinking, little man. I wanna see how red your face can get."
Over another round of carefree laughter, Rick turned his attention to Victoria across the room. She was sitting on a bench behind them, her dinner untouched while she picked the label off a wine bottle.
The Sheriff stood, gently tapping his knife against the wine glass until the group silenced. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."
Victoria started to shake her head but T-dog lifted his bottle with a loud slur, "She's more than just our host!"
"Here, here!" "Here's to you, Doc!" "Booyah!" "Booyah!"
"So, when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here?" Shane shot over the drunken cheering. "All the, the doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?"
Rick sat back down with a glare. "We're celebrating, Shane, don't need to do this now."
"Whoa." Shane held up a hand. "Wait a second. This is why we're here right? This was your move - supposed to find all the answers." He chuckled, thrusting a thumb in Victoria's direction. "Instead, we find them. Why? What the hell is going on here, Detective?"
Everyone silenced at his accusing tone, turning to Victoria as she shifted with a tired sigh.
"Nothing you don't already know, dude" She told them. "I wasn't here to like, help figure out what was causing this shit-storm. I was just... lucky," Victoria winced, it wasn't quite the word she was looking for. "I guess, to know the right people."
"The right people?" Andrea repeated.
Victoria licked her lips, "That's..." - people were dying around her, the screaming of fallen soldiers mixing with the undead howling that never seemed to stop, the gun in Victoria's hand was hot and shaking as she stared down at Sargent Harris - "... none of your business." She blinked, willing away the scene from behind her eyelids. "It's not important either."
"Where is everyone?" Shane sat back, fixating her with a glare.
Not one to back down, Victoria glared back. "Well, dude, after people started to realize things weren't getting better, people started leaving. They went off to be with their families and shit, which I'm sure you can understand."
"Every last one?"
"No." Victoria took a sip of wine before dryly continuing. "What was left couldn't face walking out the front door." She looked away from the horrified survivors as she murmured to herself. "We lost a lot of good people then."
Andrea didn't miss a beat. "You and Jenner didn't leave."
Victoria took a gulp of wine from the bottle and turned her back on the survivors.
"Dude," Glenn whined at Shane, "You are such a buzzkill, man"
Dinner was clearly over after that. Once the mess hall was cleaned, and after Victoria regained her composure, she offered to show them where they would stay.
"Most of the shithole is powered down, including what used to be housing so you'll have to set up camp here. The couches are comfortable but I think there are still cots in storage. My room is the last door on the right." She glanced down at the kids, "The rec room has lots of games and puzzles but don't plug in the video games, okay? I know it's tempting but we need to keep the power usage down."
Carl and Sophia obediently nodded.
"That goes for everyone." Victoria added to the adults. "By all means, settle down for the night and take a shower but don't like, go too crazy on the hot water."
Encouraged by hot water, the survivors eagerly claimed their rooms while Victoria wandered back to the control room.
She spent most of her time there. Her room was used for the occasional shower after one too many days of sitting in front of the monitors - these days, all she did was wait for someone to answer the emergency radio.
Edwin was already there, sitting at her station with his nose in a pile of papers.
"What the hell were you thinking?"
With a sigh, Jenner looked up at Victoria stomped up the platform.
"These people, dude, they don't deserve that." She pointed at the timer with a scowl.
"I couldn't leave them out there, Victoria. You heard them"
"So what? They'll die with us instead?"
A dark expression crossed Edwin's face that left Victoria unsettled - he was being weirder then usual and she didn't like it, whatever it was.
"Christ, Jenner, what the hell are you playing at?"
Edwin opened his mouth but nothing came out, instead, he tapped on the keyboard until the monitor in front of him blinked on.
"I have the check the rest of these blood labs."
Victoria scoffed at the obvious dismissal, barely restraining herself from punching him in the nose. "Dude, not everyone wants to live in the dark. You better hope those people are as friendly as they look tomorrow." With that, she turned and hurried back to her room.
Whatever happened tomorrow his problem now.
By the time Victoria returned to her room, an imposing figure was leaning against her door.
"Christ, what the hell?"
It was Shane, she realized, stepping deeper into the hallway. The Deputy was holding one side of his face, his shirt buttoned all the way down, exposing his very muscular chest.
As Victoria approached, she could smell the bitter scent of alcohol and blood in the air.
"Jesus Christ. Are you bleeding?" She threw caution to the window and tugged at the hand holding his face.
Shane resisted her with a strangled grin.
"Dude, c'mon, I don't care what happened. I just want to make sure you're okay." She wrapped both her hands around his much larger hand. "Let me help."
As Victoria pried his hand away, it became clear what was wrong.
Shane had three, fresh scratches down the side of his jaw and neck. He wasn't bleeding too badly and Victoria had half a mind to send him away but the pained, but furious glint behind his half-lidded eyes stopped her - who knows what would happen if she sent him back to whoever did this?
Making up her mind, Victoria half dragged Shane into her room and let him unceremoniously drop onto her bed.
He immediately closed his eyes with a content sigh.
Victoria raked her eyes over the drunk. The first thing she noticed, despite him being built like a quarterback, was the Lil Bird tattoo on his upper left peck. He was also wearing a delicate golden necklace with a 22 hanging from it.
Despite his ruggedness, and the drunken sneer, Shane was an attractive dude.
Victoria felt weird just staring at him and finally went to grab the first aid kit from the bathroom. When she returned, Shane was lying on his back with his face scrunched into a grimace.
"You wanna tell me what happened?"
"I ain't."
Victoria sat next to him and started disinfecting the cuts.
It was better to let it go but the detective inside her couldn't let the mystery go unsolved.
"I don't really care about your drama - this is gonna sting - but a blind man would see the tension between you and Rick."
Shane clenched his jaw. "He was dead."
Victoria stilled over his stubble. "What?"
"He was shot on duty and was in a coma before everything went to shit."
Victoria hummed along, continuing to patch him up as he ranted.
"Lemma tell ya' somethin', he was dead. I put my ear to his chest - dead. What was I supposed to do? I took care of Lori and Carl. I got them out of the city. I made sure they were taken care of and safe. Now Rick stumbles back from the dead and suddenly he's Sheriff Grimes again. He makes the decisions and we're expected to blindly follow him - all of them, they don't even question it.
He's put Lori and Carl, all of us in danger since he came back. They were safe with me - dammit, we were happy without him." Shane watched the woman's lip curl into a disbelieving frown. "We were. Then he came back and ruined it." With wide, sad eyes that reminded Victoria of a wounded puppy, Shane surmised, "I ain't the bad guy here. I ain't."
He wasn't telling her everything. It sounded like he was taking care of Lori in a way her husband wouldn't appreciate. But she didn't want to press him for more answers, especially when he wasn't sober.
That wasn't right by the books, or morally right either.
"All done." She told him, adhering the last butterfly bandage. "You got some balls, dude. That's like, his family he returned to against all odds."
"I know. I know."
"But," Victoria tried to appease him with a cheek pat. "it sounds like they don't appreciate you. You kept them alive and shit, but they're following a stranger blindly 'cause of his badge." She closed the first aid kid and stood. "You too drunk to find your own room?"
He grunted but otherwise didn't move.
"You better be on the couch by the time I get out of the shower, man."