Disclaimer: I do not own TWD. I do own Samantha.

A/N: Welcome to the FOURTH chapter of An Insane World where our group looks to the CDC in hopes that they have discovered a cure to the zombie apocalypse while Samantha continues to strive to bring out more of the kinder part of Daryl's personality that we all love. So without further ado, I turn it over to my redheaded, fiery survivor. Enjoy!

"I'm sorry about Ed," I said to Carol as we sat apart from the men who continued to clean up the mess from last night.

"Thank you," Carol murmured as she watched Sophia talk to Carl. "I knew what he was more than anyone else and yet I still feel a little sad."

"If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask," I told her.

She smiled at me. "You have a good heart, Samantha. You go out of your way to help others, making them feel they can be better than they are."

"Sometimes I'm not so sure," I admitted, glancing at Daryl.

"You two quarreling?" Carol guessed.

"He's so damn stubborn and seems to constantly want to play the role of the asshole when I've seen him be kind and compassionate," I muttered, shaking my head. "He drives me crazy."

"Give him some time. He'll come around," she assured me. "You just have to show him that there's a better way to live than the one he knew before all of this happened."

"That's what Rick said," I replied, lying back on my hands. "I just hope you're both right."

"We are, you'll see," Carol promised as there was a sudden commotion. "What's going on?"

"Don't know," I responded, standing up and walking over to the rest of our group who were surrounding Jim. "What's happening, guys?"

"A walker bit Jim," Jacqui informed me as Jim repeatedly attempted to reassure us he was fine.

"Show it to us," commanded Daryl while Shane tried to coax the frightened man to no avail. "Grab him."

Jim picked up a shovel.

"Jim, put it down," said Shane. "Put it down."

T-Dog caught Jim from behind and held him. Daryl lifted Jim's shirt to reveal a deep wound which was clearly a Walker bite.

"I'm okay," whimpered Jim. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

~ An Insane World ~

Later that day we gathered together to discuss what to do about Jim.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it," opined Daryl.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" demanded Shane.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it," replied Daryl.

"What if it was Merle or Samantha?" he shot back. "Would you be so gung-ho then?"

Daryl glanced at me for a few moments but was spared from having to answer as Dale spoke up.

"I hate to say it," began the old man. "I never thought I would…but maybe Daryl's right."

"Jim's not a monster, Dale," said Rick. "Or some rabid dog. He's a sick man. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"

"The line's pretty clear," grunted Daryl. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him help?" argued Rick. "I heard the CDC was working on a cure."

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell," muttered Shane.

"What if the CDC is still up and running?" the former sheriff deputy persisted.

"Man, that is a stretch right there," replied Shane.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they?" pointed out Rick. "I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection…"

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right?" said Shane. "I do too, okay? Now if they do exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning."

"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction," murmured Lori.

"That's right," nodded Shane. "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."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing," Rick reminded us. "They got overrun. We've all seen that. The CDC is our best choice and Jim's only chance."

"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" declared Daryl as he went for Jim with a pickaxe.

"Daryl, don't!" I yelled, moving in between them as Rick pointed his gun at the archer.

"We don't kill the living," the former sheriff deputy told him.

"That's funny coming from a man who has a gun pointed at my head," retorted Daryl.

"Daryl, enough," I told him as I tried to get him to look at me but the archer merely put the pickaxe down and walked away.

~ An Insane World ~

Later when everyone was making their preparations, I went down to the water where we had washed the clothes and stared at my reflection. I hardly recognized the woman who looked back at me. Her eyes had bags under them and her skin was taught making her seem frail and helpless. Her hair was tangled and dirty, covered in dried blood as were her hands.

I sighed and scrubbed my hands in the stream over and over again until my skin was pink and raw before hearing steps coming from behind me. I grabbed my blade and swung around to discover it was Daryl.

"Whoa, easy there," the archer said, raising his hands up. "It's just me."

"What do you want, Daryl?" I asked, lowering the knife. "If it's to be an ass then you might as well turn around because I'm not interested."

"Yer a fiery one, ya know that?" he told me, shaking his head. "Look, I just wanna talk about what happened earlier."

"Which part? The one where you were ready to kill a living man who isn't ready to die or is it when you couldn't answer Shane's question about what you would do if it was me who had been bitten?" I inquired, rising to my feet. "Seriously, I don't get you. One day you're consoling me in the woods after I killed my first walker and the next you're being callous about human lives and human emotions."

"It's not that I don't care about how people feel," argued Daryl.

I cocked a red eyebrow and crossed my arms against my chest. "Then what is it? Why are you so ready and willing to kill people who are bitten without a second thought?"

"Because it's the most guaranteed way to keep us safe!" he replied. "If we give them the chance to become one of those dead bastards then we might be next and I don't want that to happen."

"When you say us," I murmured, taken a little aback by the intensity of his response. "Do you mean the group or…"

Daryl sighed and took a couple of steps closer to me. He reached out a hand and caught a strand of my hair, twirling it almost thoughtfully. "I mean you and me. Look the reason why I didn't answer Shane is because I want to do everything in my power to make sure you never get bit."

I shivered at his touch and took a deep breath. "Daryl, what you're talking about is surviving just for survival's sake. We have to live which means being considerate towards others."

"I get what yer saying," he said. "But I wasn't raised that way. All I was taught was to survive, plain and simple, regardless of the people around me and yet now, after finding you in those woods, I realized there is something worth more than saving my own hide."

"Now you just need to feel that way towards the others," I informed him, locking his eyes with mine. "After all, how much time do any of us have in this world really?"

"Alright, I'll try," Daryl conceded. He was so close I could feel his breath on my skin. "You're relentless, you know that? Stubborn as hell too."

I snorted. "Look who's talking. You have got to be the most stubborn…"

The archer suddenly leaned forward and kissed me, cutting me off and erasing all coherent thought from my head as I found myself kissing him back. A cough caused us to break apart as we stared to see Rick looking at us.

"We're ready to move out," he told us.

"We'll be right there," I promised him. The former sheriff deputy raised an eyebrow but nodded and headed back to camp. I started to head after him before realizing Daryl wasn't following me. I turned to face him with a smile on my lips. "You better hurry up or I'll be the one driving this time, tough guy."

Daryl smirked. "Keep dreaming, Savanna."

Yeah, he was a hothead and clearly had a hard childhood but there was gentleness to Daryl he seemed to only show around me but hopefully with some time he'll be more open and caring towards others too.

~ An Insane World ~

The journey to the CDC was long and full of hard goodbyes as Morales and his family decided to go their own way while Jim told us to leave him because it was already too late for him. Then when we finally reached the compound, we discovered it was surrounded by dead bodies.

"All right, everybody," said Shane as we got out of our vehicles. "Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go. Okay, keep moving. Stay together."

"My God," I breathed, staying close to Daryl as we reached the building which was locked and shuttered. "Now what?"

Shane pounded on the door but there was no answer.

"There's nobody here," said T-Dog.

"Then why are these shutters down?" inquired Rick as we were suddenly surrounded by Walkers.

"Walkers!" shouted Daryl, shooting one in the head before rounding on Rick. "You led us into a graveyard!"

"He made a call," said Shane.

"It was the wrong damn call!" he replied.

They continued to bicker back and forth between themselves while I stared up at the security camera. "Guys, wait! The security camera…it moved."

"You probably imagined it," Shane told me.

I glared at him. "It moved, I swear."

"Samantha, it's dead. It's an automated device," Shane insisted. "It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on."

I shook my head. "You're not listening. It moved. There's someone in there."

"If Savanna said she saw it moved then it moved," said Daryl. "She wouldn't lie."

Rick glanced at me and nodded before slamming on the shutters. "Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left."

"Rick. There's nobody here," murmured Lori.

"Please, we have nowhere else to go," I pleaded, staring up at the camera.

"Keep your eyes open," Rick advised. "You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!"

Shane moved to pull Rick away as the door finally opened, drowning us in light.

"Daryl, you cover the back," ordered Shane. "Watch those doors. Watch for walkers."

"Hello?" I called as we heard the sound of a gun being cocked. We turned to see a blond middle-aged man with a gun trained on us.

"Anybody infected?" he demanded.

"One of our group was," responded Rick. "He didn't make it."

"Why are you here?" the man asked. "What do you want?"

"A chance," replied Rick.

"That's asking an awful lot these days," he noted.

"I know," agreed Rick.

"You all submit to a blood test," the man declared. "That's the price of admission. You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed. Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here. I'm Dr. Edwin Jenner. Follow me."

He led us into an elevator which sent us underground. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room. Welcome to zone 5."

"Where is everybody?" I inquired. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm sorry," apologized Dr. Jenner. "But it's just me here. I'm all that's left."

~ An Insane World ~

"I always hated needles," I admitted, rubbing my arm ruefully as I sat down next to Daryl and enjoyed the luxuries the facility had since it was self-powered. I had gotten to take a hot shower and was now about to eat real food and drink wine. "I never thought I'd get to have any of this again."

"There is something nice about having a meal with you," agreed Daryl. "That and maybe I'll get to see what kind of drunk you are."

I rolled my eyes but smiled good-naturedly as I took a sip of wine. "Maybe you will."

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly," said Rick, raising his glass. "Thank you."

We clinked our glasses together

"So when are you gonna tell us what happened here, doc?" demanded Shane as he glanced at Jenner. "All the…the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane," Rick reminded him. "Don't need to do this now."

"Whoa, wait a second," replied Shane. "This is why we're here, right? This was your move…Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we…We found him. Found one man, why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left," Jenner informed us. "Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"All of them?" I murmured.

Jenner shook his head. "No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They…opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave," noted Rick. "Why?"

"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good," he said causing the mood to lighten once more. "Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like."

~ An Insane World ~

I woke up the next morning after having gotten the first full night of sleep I had had in months on one of the couches with Daryl lying on a cot on the floor next to me. I smiled down at him. "Morning, tough guy."

"Morning, Savanna," he murmured as we both sat up and went to join the others for breakfast to discover Shane was still being an asshole.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing," he was saying. "But we didn't come here for the eggs."

Jenner sighed and took us to a giant computer which he commanded to play TS-19. "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."

The monitor displayed a picture of what the doctor called an extraordinary brain. "Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V."

The machine took us inside the brain.

"What are those, lights?" inquired Rick.

"It's a person's life," explained Jenner. "Experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you…the thing that makes you unique and human. Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to moment of death."

I suddenly started to feel ill. "So this person is dead?"

Jenner nodded. "This was test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected…and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event. It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be…gone."

I glanced worriedly at Andrea who looked like she was about to throw up as Dr. Jenner moved on to the second event.

"The resurrection times vary wildly," he told us. "We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute…seven seconds."

"It restarts the brain?" I asked.

Jenner shook his head. "No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" replied Rick.

"You tell me," said Jenner. "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark. Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part…That doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct. Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" I realized.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal," he mused.

"Somebody must know something," said Andrea. "Somebody somewhere."

"There are others, right?" asked Carol. "Other facilities?"

"There may be some. People like me," Jenner agreed.

"But you don't know," I murmured.

"Everything went down. Communications, directives…all of it," said Jenner. "I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here," figured Rick. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"

I paled before noticing a clock on the wall that was counting down. "Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask you one more question but what happens when that clock hits zero?"

"The basement generators…they run out of fuel," he informed us. "And then a facility-wide decontamination will occur."

~ An Insane World ~

It wasn't long before the building began to lose power and shut down but as we made to leave an alarm went off.

"Get your stuff and let's go!" yelled Rick. "Go now! Go!"

We whirled to the doors but they were sealed shut.

"Did you just lock us in?" demanded Daryl.

"Don't do this," I begged him. "Let us out now!"

"That's not something I control. The computers do," he replied. "I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."

"What happens in 28 minutes?" asked Rick.

Apparently in a worst case scenario, the facility is programmed to decontaminate itself by deploying high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives which consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that will produce a blast wave of greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear.

"It sets the air on fire. No pain," he attempted to reassure us. "An end to sorrow, grief…regret. Everything."

"Open the damn door!" ordered Daryl.

"You should've left well enough alone," said Jenner. "It would've been so much easier."

"Easier for who?" demanded Rick.

"You know what this does. You've seen it," he reminded him. "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"

"I don't want this," said Rick as the guys tried to break down the door but they couldn't.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner told them.

"Well, your head ain't!" growled Daryl, aiming his bow at the doctor.

"Whoa, Daryl, stop!" I yelled, grabbing his arm as Rick stood in front of him. "If he dies, we all die! We all die, Daryl!"

"You do want this," the doctor assured us. "There is no hope. There never was. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere….what part of 'everything is gone', do you not understand? This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

"You can't just keep us here," I said. "You're not saving us. You're taking our right to choose away from us. Clearly you don't want to keep living in this world but we do."

"I think you're lying," Rick told Jenner. "You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't You chose the hard path. You stayed when the others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to," admitted Jenner. "To her. My wife. She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. She could've done something about this."

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do," Rick replied as the guys continued to try to break down the door. "That's…that's all we want…a choice, a chance. Let us keep trying as long as we can."

At the last possible moment, Jenner agreed to open the doors and we got out of there. We ran for our vehicles as the facility blew up behind us taking the doctor and Jacqui who had decided to stay behind with it.

A/N: And there you have it! We have reached the end of season 1! Next up season 2 and Herschel's farm! As I said before, this chapter and the third are in honor of the premiere of season 9 and the beginning of Rick's final episodes. Until next time, read review and show the love!