Andrea kept a vigil over the body of her dead sister as everyone else made sure the dead didn't rise again. The next morning I watched as Lori trite to talk to her and got nothing before I went back to my work. The group had welcomed Michael as well as they could in light of last night.
"She still won't move?" Rick asked as he walked up to Shane, Dale, Lori, Carol and I.
"She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?" Lori asked.
"We let her grieve. If Amy turns we're all here." I said.
"No, we can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it same as the others." Shane said.
"I'll tell her how it is." Rick said before walking up to her. "Andrea." She quickly pulled her gun on him as he lowered himself to her level.
"I know how the safety works." She reminded him.
"All right. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He said backing away from her. Once he was away from the sisters she slowly lowered her gun and turned back top look at Amy.
"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb." Daryl reminded us as Rick made it back to us, not that anyone needed the reminder.
"What do you suggest?" Rick asked him.
"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." He told us.
"No." Both Lori and I said firmly.
"For God's sakes, let her be." Lori told him. Daryl scoffed at us before turning and getting back to work.
"Wake up, Jimbo. We've got some work to do." Daryl said as he walked past him to Morales, who was trying to drag one of the campers bodies to Glenn and James. Both boys watched as they dragged them man to the fire instead of where they were hoping.
"What are you guys doing? This is for geeks. Our people go over there." Glenn said pointing to where some others had been.
Daryl: What's the difference? They're all infected.
"Our people go in that row over there. We don't burn them! We bury them." Glenn told Daryl who just stared at him. "Understand? Our people go in that row over there." Daryl and Morales drug the body towards the bury row on the other side of the RV.
"You reap what you sow." Daryl said getting everyone's attention.
"You know what? Shut up, man." Morales told him.
"Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this coming." Daryl shouted at us.
"Shouldn't the same be said of Merle?" I asked him.
"What you say to me?" He asked angrily.
"If we reap what we sow then fine, but why aren't we threw ones with holes in our heads now? These people didn't deserve this." I said pointing to our dead. "The only reason Merle was even handcuffed up there was so we could at least try to get out of Atlanta alive. Besides, as far as we're aware Merle is alive. That's more than we can say for these people."
"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim." Jacqui called out. Anyone able to hold a weapon surrounded Jim.
"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim told us.
"Show it to us. Show it to us." Daryl ordered. Jim turned and grabbed a shovel and tried to keep us back with it.
"Easy, Jim." Shane told him.
"Grab him." Daryl told th the people behind him.
"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Shane told him. While Jim was distracted, T-Dog caught him and held him as Daryl pulled up his shirt and revealed the bite.
"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." He kept repeating. "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." We sat Jim next to Andrea as we all gathered and talked about what to do.
"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl said.
"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane asked him.
"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." He told us.
"I hate to say it… I never thought I would… but maybe Daryl's right." Dale told us and I have him a strange look.
"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rock said.
"I'm not suggesting…" Dale started saying but Rick interrupted him.
"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick asked.
"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl said.
"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure." Rick said.
"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." Shane told him.
"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick asked us.
"Man, that is a stretch right there." Shane told him.
"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection…" Rock listed off.
"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane told us.
"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Lori said.
"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there." Shane said.
"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Rick said.
"There is no government anymore and Rick's right, military went down at the beginning." I told them. "Either way we go could have Walkers behind the doors and we not know it until it's too late and our families are ripped from us."
"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl said going for Him with his pickaxe raised.
"Hey hey hey!" Shane shouted at Daryl as Rick cocked his gun and pointed it at Daryl's head.
"We don't kill the living." Rick said slowly.
"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl said to Rick as Shane came between Him and him.
"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down. Go on." Shane told him. Daryl threw the pickaxe down and walked away.
"Come with me." Rick said grabbing Jim's arm.
"Where are you taking me?" Jim asked him.
"Somewhere safe." Rick said before taking him in the RV with Michael begins him. I was on the side of the RV with Daryl making sure our people didn't rise. He was about to put his pickaxe in Ed's head when Carol walked up to him.
"I'll do it. He's my husband." She told him. Daryl handed her the pickaxe and she looked down at her husband. She started crying before she picked up the pickaxe and swing it down in Ed's brain.
"She's going to be someone to look out for." Daryl told me quietly as we watched her.
"Why do you say that?" I asked him.
"Look at her. She's gone crazy." He told me.
"Nah. That ain't crazy. That's grief and anger all in one." I told him. After she was done she gave Daryl back the pickaxe and went to sit next to Dale as we left to get his truck. When we got back Amy was trying to bite Andrea who was holding her away. We watched as she shot Amy in the head before stocking her face once more before getting out and wrapping and loading up the dead.
After everyone wood died was loaded up, Amy included, Daryl and I made our way to Shane and Rick who'd been digging the graves Jim had started on the previous day.
"I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" Daryl asked the guys as the ready of the camp made their way over.
"At first." Shane agreed.
"The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are." Daryl said.
"There are no rules." Rick said.
"Well, that's a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Lori said. We staged a funeral for the dead and watched as friends and loved ones were laid to rest. The last one to be buried, and hardest to watch, was Amy. Dale kept trying to help the grieving sister but she wouldn't let him.
"I can do it. I can do it. I can do it! I can do it." She told him as he tried to help lower her into the grave. Once Amy was in the grave Dale helped Andrea out and we covered everyone up.
After the funeral Michael and I went into the RV to check on Jim. I changed the bandage only to find it still bleeding. Michael looked at me with the silent question in his eyes and I nodded my head. His fever had risen. As I wiped Jim's forehead I looked outside top see Daryl watching me.
"That's the redneck right?" Michael asked me and I nodded. "I'd be careful around him from now on." Michael told me.
"And why's that?" I asked him turning back to my work.
"He just seems unstable. Besides you two don't get along anyway. Makes camp life easier if there are less arguments." He told me and I rolled my eyes.
"If you ask me makes things interesting. Keeps people on their toes." I told him with a smile.
"You're not going to be able to change what halogens between them." Jim told him. "Trust me. They'll be thicker than thieves." I looked outside again to see Daryl gone.
"You a psychic Jim?" I asked him.
"No. I just saw it in a dream." He told me. I smiled at him as we heard Lori and Rick come in.
"How's he doing?" Rick asked.
"His fever is worse." I told him.
"You need anything?" Lori asked him.
"Uh… Water. Could use more water." Jim told her.
"I'll get some." She told him.
"Okay." Jim said.
"We'll get out of here so you two can talk." I told Rick and Michael and I left the RV to help around camp.
"What do you think they'll decide? Michael asked me.
"Either way we better pack up now. Never know when they decide to move on." I told him.
In the forest, Dale and Jack did a sweep for Walkers on one side as Rick and Shane did the other.
Think we'll really be safe at either the CDC or the base?" Jack asked him.
"I don't think that's up to us." Dale said.
"But if we get a say, what do you think?" Jack asked him.
"I think your daughter's right. Either way we go is a 50/50 shot in the dark." Dale told him.
"If you got a day in the final decision, where would you go?" Jack asked.
"CDC." Dale said. "Even if it's empty we can clear it out and have strong sturdy walls between us and the city." Dale said and Jack nodded in agreement. "This side's clear. Let's get back to the others." They made it back to the other two in time to see Shane pointing his gun at Rick. He dropped the gun and turned top see the two older men watching him."Jesus." Dale said and Shane chuckled.
"I know. Gonna have to start wearing reflective vests out here. Seriously. Come on, man. Come on, man, let's go. Nothing out here." Shane called to Rick before leaving with both men watching him worried for the people back at camp.
Back at camp, Andrea was finally asleep in a chair and we were all gathered around where the camp fires would be as the guys came in from the forest.
"I've been, uh… I've been thinking about Rick's plan." Shane told us. "Now look, there are no… There are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"
The next morning after everyone was packed up and ready to leave we all stood in a semicircle next to the cars as Rick and Shane explained what was going to happen.
"Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Shane asked.
"We're, uh… We're… we're not going." Morales said.
"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." His wife explained.
"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane reminded him.
"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family." Morales said looking directly to Rick.
"You sure?" Rick asked him.
"We talked about it. We're sure." Morales said.
"All right. Shane." Rick and Shane pulled something out of the bag of guns and walked to Morales. We watched as Rick handed Morales a gun and Shane handed him a box of ammo.
"The box is half full." Shane told him and I heard Daryl scoff.
"Thank you all… For everything." Morales wife said as she and Lori hugged each other tightly. The group except Daryl said their goodbyes to Morales and his family.
"Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?" Rick asked Morales.
"Yeah." The family went to their car as the group got into their vehicles.
"What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane asked Rick as I got into the RV. "Come on. Let's go. Let's move out." Morales and his family went one way as the caravan went another once we hit the road. Dale and Glenn were in the front of the RV with Michael in the living area while Jacqui and I were in the back with Jim who cried out in pain while squeezing someone's hand every time we passed over a bump. Behind the RV was Rick driving his car with Lori in the passenger seat and Carl, Carol and Sophia in the back. Next was T-Dog and Andrea. Then Shane in his jeep. Followed by Jack and James in the two seater truck with Daryl bringing up the rear in his truck with Merle's motorcycle loaded up in back.
En route to the CDC, the RV's radiator hose burst drawing everyone except Jacqui and Jim out of the vehicles.
"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale told Rick.
"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asked him.
"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."
"I see something up ahead. A gas station if we're lucky" Shane said looking through the binoculars.
"Y'all, Jim… It's bad." Jacqui said as she ran out of the RV. "I don't think he can take anymore." She then went back into the RV and Jim.
"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Shane asked Rick and he agreed.
"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up." T-Dog said.
"Y'all keep your eyes open now. We'll be right back." Shane instructed as he and T-Dog climbed into a vehicle and left. I followed Rick as he went to check on Jim.
"We'll be back on the road soon." Rick told him.
"Oh no. Christ… My bones… My bones are like glass. Every little bump… God, this ride is killing me. Leave me here. I'm done. Just leave me. I want to be with my family." He told us. Rick looked back at me before sitting down next to Rick.
"They're all dead. I don't think you know what you're asking. The fever… You've been delirious more often than not." Rick told him.
"I know. Don't you think I know?" Jim asked him. Jim groaned as he tried to sit up. "I'm clear now. In five minutes I may not be. Rick, I know what I'm asking. I want this. Leave me here. Now that's on me. Okay? My decision. Not your failure." Jim told him. Rick just looked at him before walking out of the RV. "Jackie." I sat where Rick had been. "They're going to need you more than ever soon. Take care on who you trust." I nodded before leaving the RV.
We waited until Shane and T-Dog came back before telling them what Jim told us. I left out what he'd told me personally. It had nothing to do with this.
"It's what he says he wants." Rick said.
"And he's lucid?" Carol asked looking to me.
"Yeah, he's lucid. This is him talking not a delusion." I said.
"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer." Dale told Rick.
"We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that." Shane told Rick.
"It's not your call, either one of you." Lori told them. After it was decided, Rick and Shane carried Jim to a nearby tree.
"Yeah. That's it." Rick said and Jim groaned as they lowered him to the ground.
"Hey, another damn tree." Jim chuckled as the group came up to him.
"Hey, Jim… I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this." Shane told him.
"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice." Jim told him.
"Okay. All right." Shane sighed moving away from the man. Jacqui came up and say next to him.
"Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight." She told him before kissing his cheek and moving away from him. Rick walked up to him and pulled out a gun.
"Jim, do you want this?" He asked showing him the weapon.
"No. You'll need it. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim said and Rick moved away.
"Oh. Hey." Dale said kneeling down next to the dying man. Thanks for, uh, for fighting for us."
"Okay." The group dispersed and made their way back to the vehicles.
"Mind if I ride with you?" I asked Daryl before he got to his truck.
"Why me?" He asked.
"Cause I don't wanna be in the RV and Mt dad's truck's full and out of everyone who is sitting in a vehicle that I can get in I'd rather be in your's." I explained and he nodded.
The caravan arrived outside the CDC building and everyone stepped outside of the vehicles. It had taken us a few days to reach our destination and we'd run out of food and water some time ago. We looked around the building to see the dead lying everywhere surrounded by flies.
"All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go. Okay, keep moving. Stay together." Shane whispered. We made our way quietly through the dead and the smell.
"Keep moving. Come on." Rick told us.
"Shh." Jacqui said as the chattering began to get louder.
"Carol." Lori whispered to keep her and her daughter close to her, Jack and Rick.
"Shh." Shane told her.
"Keep it together. Come on." Rick said.
"We're almost there, baby. Almost there." Lori told her son. When we got to where the doors should have been where just shutters.
"Nothing?" Shane asked as he pounded on the shutters creating an echo.
"There's nobody here." T-Dog said.
"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asked.
"Walkers!" Daryl shouted and we all turned to see a Walker in military uniform make its way to us. Daryl quickly took it down before it could come to close but now we were all on red alert to anything else moving. "You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl shouted at Rick.
"He made a call." Shane reminded Daryl.
"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl shouted as the children whimpered into their mother's sides.
"Just shut up. You hear? Shut up. Shut up!" Shane told Daryl.
"Daryl." I pulled his arm away from the former cops and he looked down at my face and I knew he could see my own fear at us being where we were. Daryl moved away from them and kept an eye out for anymore Walkers. "Rick, this is a dead end."
"Where are we gonna go?" Carol asked.
"Do you hear me? No blame." Shane said and I gave him a look.
"You might as well be saying it's his fault this happened." I said quietly so only Daryl and I could hear it.
"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lori said to the men.
"Fort Benning, Rick… Still an option." Shane told Rick as the man checked the shutters again.
"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles." Andrea reminded him as the Walker groans could be heard coming to us.
"125. I checked the map." Glenn told her.
"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now." Lori told them.
"We'll think of something." Rick told us.
"Come on, let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's go. Please." Shane begged him. "All right, everybody back to the cars. Let's go. Move."
"The camera… it moved." Rick said pointing to one of the cameras on the wall.
"You imagined it." Dale told him.
"It moved. It moved." Rick insisted.
"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." Shane begged him as Rick slammed on the shutters. "Man, just listen to me. Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick."
"Rick, there's nobody here!" Lori shouted at him.
"Rick we gotta move!" I shouted at him as the Walkers started moving in on us.
"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me." Rick called to the camera as Shane
"Everybody get back to the cars now!" Shane ordered as Rick continued to beg the camera.
"Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left." Rick explained.
"Rick. There's nobody here" Lori said getting between her and the building.
"We have nowhere else to go." Rick said before pounding on the doors again.
"There's too many of them." I said as we all got ready to kill the Walkers coming closer to us. I stood between Daryl and Michael and knew this was it.
"Keep your eyes open." Shane told us.
"If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!" Rick continued to beg.
"Come on, buddy, let's go. Let's go." Shane said pulling his friend away.
"Please help us. You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!" Rick shouted at the camera. We were just about fight our way back to the cars when the doors to the CDC opened, drowning us in a white light.
