"Daryl, cover the back." Shane ordered as we started to walk toward the doors.
"Hello? Hello?"
We were all looking around until we heard a gun cock. Rick, Glenn and Shane pointed towards a man who held a big gun.
"Anybody infected?" The man asked.
"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick answered.
"Why are you here? What do you want?" He asked, walking towards us.
"A chance." Rick answered.
"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man said.
"I know."
The man looked around at all of us before speaking, "You will all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
"We can do that." Rick replied.
He lowered his gun, "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed."
Glenn, Rick, Daryl, and Shane went out to grab the bags that everyone needed. Once they were in, Dale and T-Dog closed the doors and the man went over to a security system, "Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here."
The shutters closed and we looked over to the man,
"Rick Grimes." Rick said, holding out his hand.
"Dr. Edwin Jenner." Jenner replied, not taking the hand.
Jenner led us over to a elevator, the fifteen of us and Jenner squeezing into the small space. Since I was still holding Jamie, Daryl had to hold onto my bag. Glenn, thankfully, grabbed Jamie's.
"Doctor's always go around packin' heat like that?" Daryl asked from my left.
"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." Jenner answered before looking at us again, "But you look harmless enough." He looked at Carl, "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you."
"Are we underground?" Carol asked as we walked down a hallway.
"Are you claustrophobic?"
"A little." She answered.
"Try not to think about it." Jenner responded.
"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner ordered as we walked into a room.
The lights turned on, revealing all of the computers that were in the room, but no people.
"Welcome to Zone 5."
"Where is everybody?" Rick asked as we followed him onto a platform. "The other doctors, the staff?"
"I'm it." Jenner answered. "It's just me here."
"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?"
"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them... welcome." Jenner said.
"Hello, guests. Welcome."
Vi was just a computer. That man was really the only doctor left in the CDC.
"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry."
Jenner then led us to another room where he took our blood.
"What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever." Andrea asked while Jenner took her blood.
"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough." Jenner answered before taking the needle out of her arm, "All done."
Andrea stood up, but stumbled before Jacqui caught her.
"Are you okay?"
"She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have." Jacqui answered before helping her sit down by her bag.
Jenner led us to a kitchen and some of us helped cook spaghetti while the others found some wine and other alcoholic drinks. When the food was done, we sat down and ate, drank, and laughed.
"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." Dale said to Lori as he handed her a glass of wine.
"Well, when Carl is in Italy, or in France, he can have some then." Lori replied, looking down at her son.
"What's it gonna hurt? Come on." Rick said and Lori gave him a look, "Come on. What?"
Lori laughed and let Dale take Carl's cup, pouring some wine in before giving it to the boy, "There you are, young lad."
We were all silent as Carl took a sip. Carl jerked back, "Ewww."
We all laughed at the reaction, "That's my boy. That's my boy."
"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane said.
"Not you, Glenn." Daryl said from behind me.
"What?"
"Keep drinkin', little man. I want to see how red your face can get." Daryl said before we laughed.
We got quite when Rick tapped his fork on his glass and stood up, "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."
"He is more than just our host." T-Dog said as we raised out glasses.
"Hear hear!"
"Here's to you, Doc."
"Booyah!" Daryl exclaimed, holding up his bottle.
"Booyah!" Jamie repeated from my lap, he turned to high-five Daryl.
"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?" Shane asked, looking at Jenner. "All the, uh, other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"
"We're celebrating, Shane." Rick said. "Don't need to do this now."
"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move, supposed to find all the answers. Instead we found him. Found one man. Why?" Shane questioned.
"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." Jenner answered.
"Every last one?"
"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They... opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time." Jenner finished.
"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asked.
"I just kept working, hoping to do some good." Jenner answered.
"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn said, sitting down at the table.
"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." Jenner told us after dinner as we walked down a hallway, doors to our left. "There's a rec room down the hall that the kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video, okay?" Jenner said, turning to Carl and Sophia and they nodded, "Or anything that draws power. The same applies. If you shower, go easy on the hot water."
"Hot water?" Glenn questioned.
"That's what the man said." T-Dog smiled.
Everyone went to go find a room and Daryl grabbed my arm, making me face him, "You're roomin' with me."
"Why?" I questioned as Jamie and I followed him to a room.
"'Cause I'm not stupid. That dickhead beats ya and I don't think it's safe for you to be in a room alone with a kid, especially when he's drunk." Daryl answered, setting his bag on the ground.
"Alright." I know I probably shouldn't be alone either. Tyler's been drunk before and it wasn't pretty.
I set my bag next to the couch, along with Jamie's. I went to the bathroom and found what I needed. A comb, scissors, and a towel. I walked back into the room and I had Jamie sit on the ground in front of me while I trimmed his hair. Once I cut it short enough so it wasn't in his eyes, I grabbed him some pajamas and had him take a shower. I cleaned up the hair and threw in in the waste basket. Daryl left the room earlier, saying he was gonna get some more booze.
"Can I go play in the rec room?" Jamie asked after he came out of the bathroom dressed in his clothes.
"Sure thing. I'll be there in a little bit." I answered before I grabbed a change of clothes and went to take a shower.
The hot water felt nice on my skin. After washing my hair, shaving, and scrubbing my skin raw to get the dirt and blood off, I reluctantly got out. I got dressed in pajama shorts and my dad's old sweatshirt that was too big for me, I walked out of the bathroom.
I was greeted with the sight of Daryl on the couch cleaning his crossbow. Jamie wasn't there, so I assumed he was still in the rec room.
"Hey." I said, putting my dirty clothes in my bag.
"Hey." He replied, not looking up from his weapon.
On the coffee table in front of him, there was a bottle of wine and a few glasses. I poured myself one and sat down.
"Was it that easy to notice? That, uh, Tyler," I stopped and motioned to my bruised cheek.
"Yeah, sort of. I'm not sure the others noticed, though." Daryl answered.
"Thanks for letting us stay with you." I said after an awkward moment of silence
"You seem to be thanking me a lot lately." He commented before putting his crossbow down.
"Well, you've done a lot for me that I'm thankful for." I replied before taking a sip of the alcohol.
He snorted, "It's true! You let Jamie and I sleep in your tent, you let me come hunting with you, you saved Jamie from that walker during the attack, you're letting us stay in here. I don't know what I would do without you."
I didn't notice we were leaning towards each other until we were only centimeters apart from each other's face.
"You don't have to thank me for anythin'. I did nothing another person wouldn't do." Daryl said.
"Tyler wouldn't do half of the things you did for me." I replied, staring into his light blue eyes, "He doesn't care about anyone else but himself."
"Tell me somethin' I don't know." He responded before closing the gap and his lips lightly brushed mine hesitantly.
I put more pressure and he grabbed my hips and I put my arms around his neck. We kissed for a few more seconds before I pulled away.
"I, uh, better check on Jamie." I said breathlessly.
"Yeah." Daryl replied.
I quickly got up and exited the room and headed towards the Rec Room. After getting Jamie we went back into our room and Daryl was in the shower. I grabbed a few blankets before Jamie and I laid on the couch and went to sleep.
The next morning I woke up. After getting dressed with Jamie, we headed towards the kitchen. Daryl was asleep on the cot, so I decided to let him get some rest. Just about everyone was eating when we got there, so Jamie and I got a seat and we pile our plates with bacon and eggs with orange juice, ignoring the glares from Tyler.
"Morning." Rick greeted us.
"Are you hungover?" Carl asked with a smile, "Mom said you'd be."
"Mom is right." Rick answered.
"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori replied.
"Eggs. Powdered, but I do 'em good." T-Dog said, walking over to the table.
Glenn moaned and I put an arm over his shoulder.
"I bet you can't tell. Protein helps the hangover." T-Dog finished, putting eggs on Glenn's plate and he moaned again.
"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked, holding up a bottle of pain killers.
"Jenner." Lori answered. "He thought we could use it."
"Some of us, at least." I corrected.
"Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." Glenn said.
"Hey." Shane said as he passed by the table.
"Feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked him.
"Worse." Shane answered.
"The hell happened to you?" T-Dog asked Shane, "Your neck?"
"I must have done it in my sleep." Shane replied.
"Never seen you do that before." Rick said.
"Me neither." Shane looked over at Lori, "Not like me at all."
Well, that certainly wasn't suspicious.
"Morning." Jenner greeted as he walked into the room.
"Hey." We all greeted back.
"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" Dale began.
"But you will anyway." Jenner said with a smile as he got coffee.
"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea replied.
After eating, we all followed Jenner back to the room with ll of the computers. Jenner went to one computer and started typing, "Give me playback of TS-19."
"Playback of TS-19."
We watched on the big screen in front of us, "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."
I balance Jamie on my hip as we saw a brain come on the screen.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked.
"An extraordinary one." Jenner relied. "Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for EIV."
"Enhanced internal view."
The zoomed in on the brain and we saw these bright blue lights flashing inside the brain.
"What are those lights?" Shane asked.
"It's a person's life. 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." Jenner answered.
"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked from next to me and I jumped,
When did he get here?
"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 the moment of death." Jenner explained.
"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick questioned.
"Yes." Jenner answered, "Or rather a playback of the vigil."
"This person died?" Andrea asked. "Who?"
"Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected... and volunteered to have us record the process." Jenner told us, "Vi, scan forward to the first event."
"Scanning to first event."
There was the scan of the head with the brain and there was dark red, blue, and purple lined spreading throughout the brain.
"What is that?" Glenn asked.
"It invades the brain like meningitis." Jenner explained and on the screen, Test Subject 19's throat constricted like they were having a hard time breathing, "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down, then the major organs." All of the sudden, the brain went dark and the person stopped moving. "Then death. Everything you ever were or will be... gone."
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked her mom.
"Yes." Carol answered.
Jenner looked over at Andrea. She was breathing hard and her hand gripped the railing.
"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." I explained.
"I lost somebody, too. I know how devastating it is." He told her before turning back to the screen, "Scan to the second event."
"Scanning to second event."
"The resurrection times vary widely. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."
We watched as red light sparked up inside the brain.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori questioned.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving." Jenner answered.
"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.
Jenner motioned to the screen, "You tell me.
"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick said.
"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a by mindless instinct." Jenner continued.
A gun showed up on screen and a bullet went through the head.
"God. What was that?" Carol asked.
"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea answered before looking at the doctor, "Didn't you?"
"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations." Jenner ordered.
"Powering down main screen and workstations."
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea questioned.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Jenner replied.
"The wrath of God." Jacqui said.
"There is that.
"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." Andrea said.
"There are others, right?" Carol asked, "Other facilities?"
"There may be some." Jenner answered. "People like me."
"But you don't know?" Rick asked, "How do you not know?"
"Everything went down. Communications, directives, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month." Jenner explained.
"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"
Jenner didn't reply but we knew the answer. There was nothing out there.
"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again." Daryl moaned, rubbing his face with his hands.
"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but... that clock." Dale pointed to a clock on the wall and it was counting down, "It's counting down. What happens at zero?"
"The basement generators, they run out of fuel." He answered quickly. Too quickly. It was definitely suspicious.
"And then?" Rick asked.
He didn't answer Rick, "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked the computer.
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."
While Glenn, Rick, T-Dog, and Shane went to go find the generators, the rest of us went back to our rooms. I decided to take another shower and Daryl offered to watch Jamie. Halfway through the shower the water went ice cold and I let out a scream of surprise. I turned the shower off right away and Daryl pounded on the door,
"Violet! You okay?!" He asked.
I was about to answer but the light shut off and I was in a very dark bathroom. Its like a horror movie.
"Vi!" Daryl yelled again.
"I'm fine!" I replied before searching or a towel.
"What happened?" He asked.
"The water went cold." I said, feeling kinda embarrassed, "What happened to the lights?"
"I don't know. They just turned off." Daryl answered.
I found my clothes and blindly put them on and opened the door. I groaned when I noticed my sweatpants were on backwards. Daryl noticed to and he chuckled. I glared at him before pulling my pants down. After switching them, I looked up at Daryl who was blushing.
"Where's Jamie?" I asked, looking around the room.
"He's in Carl's room." Daryl answered.
I nodded before I noticed how warm the rooms was and I walked over to the air vent and raised my hand to it. There was no cold air coming out of it. We opened the door to see what was happening and I saw Jenner walking down the hallway,
"Why's the air off?" Carol asked.
"And the lights in our rooms?"
"What's going on?" Daryl asked. "Why is everythin' turnin' off?"
Jenner took Daryl's bottle of wine and took a swig before answering, "Energy is being prioritized."
"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale questioned.
"It's not up to me." Jenner said as he passed by Dale, "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
I picked up Jamie from Lori's room and followed everyone else down the hallway.
"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl asked.
When Jenner didn't answer, Daryl ran up behind the doctor, "Hey, man, I'm talkin' to you. What do you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How can a buildin' do anythin'?"
"You'd be surprised." Just as Jenner replied, the others ran into the room.
Rick walked up to Jenner, "Jenner, what is happening?"
"The system is dropping all the non essential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark." He answered as we walked into the room with all of the computers. "Right on schedule."
Thirty one minutes. Twenty eight seconds.
Jenner stopped at the two steps that led to the platform. He took one more sip of Daryl's bottle before handing it back to him.
"It was the French."
"What?" Andrea asked.
"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were closed to a solution." Jenner answered before walking up the steps.
"What happened?" Jacqui questioned.
"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Jenner replied before walking away.
"Let me tell you-" Shane started, following Jenner.
"To hell with it, Shane." Rick responded, pulling him back, "I don't even care." He turned to his wife, "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!"
Daryl put his hand on the small of my back and started leading up back to the hallway where our rooms were until alarms started blaring.
"What's that?" Shane questioned.
Jamie started whimpering and I had him cover his ears.
"Thirty minutes to decontamination."
"What's goin' on here, Doc?" Daryl yelled.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go! Now!" Shane told us.
We started heading towards the door but it closed in our faces.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked. "He just locked us in!"
"You son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled as he rushed towards Jenner, "You locked us in here!"
Shane and T-Dog chased after him and tried to keep him away from Jenner, "No, don't!"
"Jenner, open that door now." Rick commanded.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." He replied.
"Well, open the damn things."
"That's not something I control. The computers do." Jenner responded. "I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."
"What is?" Rick questioned. "What happens in 28 minutes?"
When Jenner didn't answer Shane hit the back of his chair.
"What happens in 28 minutes?!" Rick repeated.
"Do you know what this place is? We protected the public from some very nasty stuff! Weaponized small pox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out, ever!" Jenner shouted before he sat back down. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack, for example, HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"HITs?" Rick asked.
"Vi, define."
"H.I.T.s - high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosive consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition which produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
"It sets the air on fire. No pain. An end to sorrow, grief, regret. Everything." Jenner said.
I ran my hand through my hair before sitting down on a chair and hugging Jamie to my chest.
"Mommy, what does that mean?" He whispered.
I didn't answer as I kissed his hair and rested my chin on top of his head and made eye contact with Daryl. He stalked towards the door and threw his bottle at it before turning to Jenner, "Open the damn door!"
Shane grabbed an axe and ran towards the metal door. He started hitting it and T-Dog handed Daryl one and they both went at it together. Both pounding and grunting. Even Tyler grabbed a chair and started pounding on the door. Jamie sensed everyone's distress and he started crying along with Carl and Sophia.
"You should've left well enough alone." Jenner said. "It's would've been so much easier."
"Easier for who?" Lori asked harshly.
"All of you." He answered, "You know what's out there. A short, brutal life and an agonizing death." He looked over at Andrea, "You sister, what was her name?"
"Amy." She answered.
"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it." Jenner turned to Rick, "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"
"I don't want this." Rick answered.
"Can't make a dent." Shane said, panting, leaning against a computer.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner said.
"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl yelled, coming at the doctor with the axe.
Dale, T-Dog and Rick grabbed him, "Back up!" Rick yelled, pushing him back.
"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner replied.
"What? You really said that? After all your big talk?" Shane questioned.
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick responded.
"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner stated.
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't you, maybe not be here. But somebody somewhere..." Rick began.
"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" Andrea replied.
"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner said.
"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol spoke up.
"One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain." Jenner replied.
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die." She sobbed.
"Wouldn't it be kinder, to be more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asked.
I heard the cock of a gun and looked over and saw Shane heading towards Jenner with a gun.
"Shane, no!" Rick yelled, trying to hold his friend back.
"Out of my way, Rick!" Shane yelled back and pushed him away before walking over, his gun aimed at Jenner, "Open that door. Or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!"
I held Jamie closer as I stood up and walked away from Shane with Lori and Carol and their kids.
"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this." Rick told Shane.
"We will never get out of here."
"Shane, you listen to him." Lori begged.
"It's too late."
"He dies, we all die." Rick said.
Shane screamed and instead of shooting the doctor, he shot the computers behind him. Jamie screamed into my neck and wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me back. Rick snatched the gun away from him and knocked him to the ground.
"Are you done now? Are you done?" Rick asked him.
"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane answered.
Rick gave the gun to T-Dog and looked around at all of us. He was silent for a moment before looking at Jenner, "I think you're lying."
"What?" Jenner questioned.
"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. Why?" Rick asked.
"It doesn't matter." Jenner replied.
"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" Rick asked.
"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise..." Jenner said as he stood up and pointed to the big screen, "To her. My wife."
"Test Subject 19 was your wife?" I questioned as I felt Daryl's hand leave my waist and I saw him go back to the door with the axe.
"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. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just... Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Now me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's all we want." Rick replied. "A choice. A chance."
"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori begged.
"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." Jenner said as he moved around Rick and swiped his badge and punched in a few numbers before the door opened.
"Come on!" Daryl yelled.
The others and I ran up the slope and to the hallway and waited for Rick.
"Hey! We've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn yelled.
"No. I'm staying, sweetie." I turned to look at Jacqui.
"But that's insane!" T-Dog told her.
"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time." Jacqui replied. "I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out."
Daryl ran over and handed me Jamie and I's bag. I set him to the ground and Jamie put his back pack straps around his shoulders. Daryl had an axe and his bag, so I took his crossbow. Jamie clung to my shirt as we ran up the stairs and to the front doors. T-Dog and Glenn tried to get the doors open, but it didn't work. Shane and Daryl tried to use the axes on the window, but it didn't work, either.
"Look out!" T-Dog grabbed a chair and threw it at the glass, but just like the axes, it didn't work.
"Dog, get down!" Shane yelled at the man and tried to shoot the window.
Didn't work.
"The glass won't break?" Sophia questioned.
Carol reached into her bag, "Rick, I have something that might help."
"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane commented.
"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." Carol said, holding out a grenade.
Rick took it and rushed to the window, "Look out!"
I grabbed Jamie and covered him on the ground and their was a small explosion and the glass shattered. After Daryl helped us up, we were out the window and heading toward the cars. Rick and Shane shot at a few walkers that were heading towards us while Daryl cut the head off of one. Jamie clutched my hand as we ran to Daryl's truck and I put him in his seat, not buckling it, before I sat on my seat and Daryl got in his. The RV honked and I looked out the window and saw Dale and Andrea heading towards it.
"Get down!"
I covered Jamie with my body and I felt Daryl on top of me. The CDC exploded with a loud boom and a wave of heat blew past us. My ears rang as I sat up, looking at what was left of the building.
"Vi?" Daryl asked, waving a hand in front of my face.
"I'm fine." I whispered before looking down at Jamie.
"Are you okay?" I asked the kid.
"Is Jacqui in heaven now?" Jamie asked.
Tears blurred my vision as I nodded, "Yeah, baby, she's in heaven now."
I kissed the top of his head and saw that Daryl was looking at me with worry in his eyes before he turned back to the road and we drove behind T-Dog's van. I felt bad for T-Dog. His wife is now gone, our group smaller by one person. Luckily Dale was able to get Andrea out of the building before it exploded. But, the real question is...
Where are we going now?