~Charlotte~
We walked though the empty and quiet CDC. When I first stepped in here I expected scientists to be walking round, someone giving us a warm welcome and introducing us to each scientist.
"I don't understand…" I say out loud. "Where is everyone?"
I look up at Glenn and he shrugs his shoulders. Everyone was looking round, taking in everything in the building, but we still managed to stay close to each other. I stopped dead in my tracks when I hear the sound of a rifle being pumped.
"What do you want?" We heard the voice of a stern man. Rick, Shane and Daryl point their weapons in the direction the sound came from.
Rick slowly put his gun down, a sign that we are friendly. "A chance." Rick tells the unknown man. I stare at the man who hold the gun. He looked like he was in his mid forties and short greyish, blonde hair.
"That's asking for a lot these days."
"I know that. But please, you can trust our people. We are good people." Rick tells him, the tone in his voice is pleading.
"Anybody infected?" He asks and I immediately think of Jim and us leaving him at the tree.
"One of our group was." Rick states. "He didn't make it."
"You all submit a blood test." My first thought was, 'Nope, no way. I can't do that. Needles and me don't get on well together.' I always end up fainting. But if it is to stay here, then I guess I am gonna have to deal with it. "That's the price of admission."
"We can do that." Rick tells him, but I know I can't. My legs feel like they are about to collapse.
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed."
I don't like needles, but I am okay in cramped spaces, like the one we are in now. We are in a small box elevator. Glenn is pushed up really close to me, his hand on my shoulder. My heart is beating fast, because never has a boy been so close to me.
Rick introduces himself to the scientist.
"Dr. Edwin Jenner."
I listen to the gentle hum of the elevator.
"Doctors always go packing heat like that?" Daryl asks. I give a quiet chuckle.
"You all look harmless enough…except for you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." Dr Jenner says, looking down at a beaming Carl.
The elevator doors opened and we walk down a long narrow hallway.
"Are we underground?" Carol asks, he a hit off fear in her voice.
"Why? Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner asks her.
"A little." Carol replied.
I walk down the hallway next to Glenn, are arms rubbing against each other as we walk down.
"There are dorms where you can sleep in, the food hall is close by and there is a games room that the kids can play in, but just don't put in any video games."
I sigh when he says this as I miss my video games. They are something I used to play with all the time.
"And when you shower…" he begins and my heart skips a beat when he said the 's' word. "go easy on the hot water."
"Hot water?" Glenn asked, a smile creeping on his face.
"That's what the man said." T-Dog exclaimed, with a smile bigger then Glenn and mines put together.
Hot water? I could stay in this place forever.
Dr Edwin Jenner has been here all by himself. There is a ton of food here, so we have been stuffing our faces with food. I've never been out, drinking alcohol. I never really had many friends. I'm not a big fan of alcohol, but I haven't had any in a long time. Today was the first time I had booze in a very long time.
It tasted better than the last time I had it, which was at my best friend's sixteenth birthday party. I remember people getting wasted, kissing going on behind closed doors and a lot of pink balloons.
"You know, kids in France and Italy have some wine." Dale said, looking down at a grinning Carl. He was curious with what the taste of wine would be.
Lori hands the young boy her glass that contains red wine and he takes a sip.
"Ew."
Everyone started to burst into laughter, filling the room with joy. This is a place we may actually be able to stay. A place for us to survive.
"So, Jenner. What happened here?" Shane asks him. "Aren't there more of you?"
"No. When things started to go down, people started to leave to be with their families. The ones who stayed…opted out. They could not stand what was going on outside."
"Why'd you stay?" Rick asks him.
"I made a promise."
There was quiet, everyone taking in the words of Dr Jenner.
"Dud, you are such a buzz kill." Glenn tells Shane.
It was incredible to feel hot water splashing itself on me in the shower. I could relax in the water, washing myself with soap and shampoo. I let the water rain on my face. I almost slipped in the shower and was close to hitting my head.
I stared at the bruise on my arm that was forming. It was in the middle of my arm, where the needle went in. The bandages that I had on from when I fell were gone, but I still had grazes on my arms and legs that stung from the waters touch, but I didn't mind. I wasn't that bad with the needle. My knees were shaking and I didn't watch the withdrawal of my blood. I had to force myself to look away. It's funny, living in a world were we now have to kill to survive, but I still get the feeling I am about to faint when I see the red liquid.
Dr Jenner said to go easy on the hot water, but I can't help myself.
I start to think about everything in my life, before all this crap starting happening. My parents and the holidays that we went on, my parents getting married, first day of school. Now, we will never go on holidays again, no more marriages or weddings, children won't get their first day of school. These memories that some people won't get to experience.
I turn off the water and start to dry myself with a cream coloured towel. It was fluffy. I wrapped my hair up in the towel and started to get dressed. I put on black coloured leggings, and then wore denim shorts lover them. I put on my white shirt and a checked shirt over it, not doing any of the buttons. The over sized shirt was one of my favourites, because of the comfort.
I head over to the room that Dr Jenner said I could have. I sit on my single bed thinking. We can stay here. This place is perfect. Food, hot water clean sheets. I observe the sheets I sit on that cover my bed. Clean. There isn't a speck of dirt in this room.
Even though I think this is a place we can stay, I don't want to unpack my suitcase. I keep the small luggage under my bed as well as my rucksack. I lie on my front and hug the cool comfort of the bed, resting my head on the pillow. But then I realise I still have the towel wrapped on my head.
I take it off and toss it on the floor, immediately returning into my comfortable position. I want to drift off into sleep, but my head is buzzing, full of thoughts. My hair is wet, dampness sticking to my back and my clothes.
There was a soft knock at my door.
"Who is it?" I muffle, sound being restricted as my mouth is on my pillow. Somehow the person manages to hear it.
The door opens a crack, "It's Carl."
I get up and the wooden door opens wider.
"Hey, Carl. How are you?" I ask him, wondering why he is here.
"I'm about to go to bed. You haven't read to me in a while. Can you read me a chapter tonight?" He asks me in his quiet voice.
"Of course I can." My bare feet hit the ground and I bend down to get my purple suitcase. I unzip it quickly and the first thing I see is Chamber of Secrets.
"Where do you want to read it?" I ask him, taking the book out, zipping the suitcase and sliding it back under the bed.
"Can we go into the games room? Sophia wants to hear too."
I wasn't allowed to read to Sophia. Her dad wouldn't allow it, but he's dead now.
We walk down hallways and past the food hall. The games room was nice. It had a TV sitting on a table by a wall with game consoles set up under the TV, gathering dust. Shelves stacked with DVD's and video games were lined up on the walls, posters hung up on the walls.
A red beanbag, a purple one and a blue one were sitting in front of the TV, Sophia was sitting on the purple one and Carl ran up to the blue one and jumped onto it. That left me with the red one. I plonked my butt down and opened the book to were the bookmark was sticking out.
"Sophia, do you want me to start at the beginning or is it okay if we start from were Carl and I were last?" I ask her.
"You can start from were you two last were."
I smiled at her, they were both getting into a comfy position and I was waiting for them to stop fidgeting. I giggled at their shuffling and cleared my throat, preparing myself to read out loud.
I looked down at the page and opened my mouth to read.
"'The end of summer holidays came too quickly for Harry's liking…"
I finished the chapter, it took a while because Carl and I had to answer some of Sophia's questions. She was always polite in asking them, always waiting until I finished a sentence. She asked questions like, 'What is Hogwarts?' and 'Who are the Weasley's'.
Carl seemed to be fed up with her questions as he wanted to listen to me read. I would sometimes look up from the page to see them watching me. A month ago I would of stopped having to read because I would've been too shy to continue reading. But it felt nice to see two pairs of cute, innocent eyes looking up at me, showing interest in the words that were flowing from my mouth. It made me feel special in some sense.
The following morning I realised something. Everyone drunk a whole lot more than me. I had two glasses of wine and a beer. I felt fine this morning. Everyone came in with headaches, moaning about the pain in their heads.
"How are you, Glenn?" I ask him when he came into the cafeteria.
"Don't let me drink again." He groans and I laugh. He covers his ears and says how my laugh hurt his head even more.
A plate of eggs were set in front of me. I look up to see who brought them to me and I see T-Dog. I thank him and start to eat the eggs.
"These are really nice." I mumble, my mouth half full from the eggs I was chewing. I wasn't lying. They were really good.
Shane walked past the table.
"Shane, what happened to your neck?" Rick asks him. I look up from my eggs and see three red scratches on his neck.
"Must've done it when I was sleeping."
Everyone was sitting down, quietly eating as the majority of the group was suffering from a hangover.
"Excuse me, I hate to ask a question-" Dale starts.
"You're going to ask me anyway?" Jenner rudely interrupts Dale.
"We didn't come here for the eggs. We came for answers." Andrea told him
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