Raising Dead

Chapter Six: I Am the Highway

AN: First off I'd like to say I didn't like this chapter much. I was just going to skip over the CDC all together, but I figured I'd give Erin time to freak out. Enjoy.

"We're here." Those were the words that woke me up when the truck stopped moving. We had arrived at the CDC just before nightfall. I didn't like the circumstances already. We had very little time to convince someone to let us in and that we weren't infected. I didn't see this going well at all.

We made our way toward the front of the building. Most of us, including myself, were fighting hard not to gag at the smell of rotting flesh. Whatever had happened here didn't end well. It just added to the feeling we'd be leaving just as quickly as we'd come.

Rick's pleas for us to be let in scared me a bit. It also solidified my resolve to leave this place. If he was looking for a haven, he wouldn't find it. Not in this world and not at this time. Maybe I was being a little morbid, but I didn't see how anyone could be as naïve as the people in this group were. The kids had a reason to be. Hell, even Ayla had a reason, but the rest of us didn't have the right to hope like that. We should have known better. But that nagging little voice in the back of my head always had to ask, in the voice of a child, Why not?

Shut up, I told the voice as light flooded around us. The doors had been opened and everyone was running to get what they felt they needed to take in. I stood at the doors and watched everyone's backs as they ran back and through the doors. I followed quickly behind everyone and as soon as the doors closed I felt like it was finale. That feeling was ridiculous. Couldn't we just go back out the way we came?

The feeling came from being trapped in a building that housed thousands of viruses. Frozen, yes. But power failure could thaw them quickly. I knew I was just being paranoid. Something that's not uncommon for me.

We walked in further, looking for whoever had opened the security door. It was a bit disturbing when no one can forward. Again, something that threw me off. Once again I felt like I was just being paranoid.

"Anybody infected?" Someone shouted. It was an unfamiliar voice and I couldn't place where it came from. Tere was too much echo in the building.

"One of our group was." Rick answered. "He's not with us anymore."

The owner of the voice stepped out where we could see him before questioning us further. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

All I could think was Don't say it Rick. Please don't say it. It was a plea that went unanswered.

"A chance." He told the man.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man told him. I couldn't help but agree with him.

"I know." Was Rick's only answer. I could almost hear the desperation within the group. It told me just how far we'd fallen in such a short amount of time. We were starving, I'll admit that, but it wasn't cause for this. For coming here. I knew, right then, that I was just as desperate as everyone else. I'd have to swallow my pride and follow along.

…..break…..

Sometime later we found ourselves sitting around a table, drinking wine, and cracking up. I still wasn't comfortable enough, with the place or the people around me, to relax and enjoy myself. Instead I sat off to the side humming I Am the Highway by Audioslave.

"Erin!" I finally hear Ayla yell my name and my head snaps up.

"Huh?" I look at her confused.

"It's your turn." She tells me.

"My turn for what?" I ask her, still confused.

"Tell your story. I told them mine with little parts of yours thrown in." Ayla laughs.

"I'm scared to find out what you told them while I was lost in my own little world. Well, what does everyone want to know?" I sigh.

"How you were in school." Dale pipes up in the silence that follows my question. Then everyone has a request.

"Ok, well. My first few years of school I was that kid that everyone hated because they got lower scores on their report cards. Then I was the kid that everyone hated because I was white and went to an all black school. Then I was the weird country girl that got too high of scores on her tests but did horrible the rest of the time. Then, in high school, I was one of the slackers no one really wanted to mess with."

"You make yourself sound like an outcast Einstein." Dale said. He made it sound like he'd found a kindred spirit.

"Well, I read at a collage level in the fifth grade. It almost made me feel that way." I told him in answer.

"Did you play video games?" Glenn asked. I should have seen that coming from him.

"Yeah." I laughed. "I was in good with the Gamers. I was the only girl they knew that knew more about Halo than they did."

"Sweet!" Glenn cheered. He was a little drunk, so I simply laughed.

"Spend any time in the woods?" I should have known that if Daryl got in on the conversation he would ask something like that.

"A lot more time than you might think. It was my favorite place to play when I was a kid. I've always been more comfortable there than anywhere else. I was never a huge fan of being indoors all the time. Fishing, camping, canoeing. I loved it. I was just never introduced to hunting. My dad talked about it, but he never did any hunting in my lifetime." I answered.

"Shame." Was all he said.

"What song were you humming?" Ayla asked. I glared at her.

"Audioslave. I Am the Highway. You knew that already." I laughed.

"I know. It's just fun making you keep talking to people." She grinned.

"What made you come to Atlanta?" Rick asked. I stayed silent for a moment.

"It was part of a plan my brother came up with. Look for safety in numbers, then leave before they know you're there." I said.

"Why?" Lori asked. "That plan doesn't make any sense."

"It makes more sense than you think. Scout out where the treats could come from in the largest numbers and leave before it becomes a problem. " I huffed.

"Why join the group then? Wouldn't it just be pointless in the end?" Carol asked.

"No, not pointless. Hopeless maybe, but not pointless." I ended the questions there. I wasn't talking anymore.

A bit later I found myself still sitting in that chair, thinking about anything that crossed my mind. I really had no idea what I thought I was doing here with these people. I had followed my brother's plan and we should have just gone home. It would have been the sane thing to do, but for some reason I had decided we'd stay and follow these people. I was not going to sleep well tonight.

…..break…..

The next morning was far calmer and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Everyone seemed fairly cheerful as T-Dog made breakfast. Glenn looked like he was dying, but it was his first hangover. He wasn't too happy to see me crawl out of the hall and into a chair with no sign of a hangover, but in bad need of coffee.

"Witch." Glenn groaned at me. I started laughing after I took a sip of my coffee.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"You were drunker than me when you went to bed last night and you don't have a hangover. How?" He hissed.

"I drank maybe half what you did and started drinking water. It gets you drunker, but you don't wake up with a hangover in the morning. Your body is dehydrated after all that drinking." I laughed.

"Where'd you learn that?" Jake asked as he sat down at the table.

"My dad had polycythemia vera…"

"Whoa, that's a big word. What is that?" Rick asked.

"It's a blood disease. The bones make too many red blood cells and platelets." Jenner said as he walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah, that's it. He drank a lot after he found out he had it and an hour before he went to bed he'd drink nothing but water. His doctor told him it was saving his life, but my dad already knew that. He was thinning his blood so they wouldn't have to draw blood from him. My dad was a smart man." I said. I was trying not to show how much it really hurt to talk about him. I was pretty good at it after years of hiding emotions from people.

"Smart man indeed." Jenner agreed.

"How did he die?" Carl asked before anyone could stop him.

"Heart attack." I answered without hesitation. "We lost my mom to cancer not long after that. I'm just glad they never had to see this. It was a favorite topic of the family, but no one thought it'd really happen."

No one seemed to know what to say after that. It was almost funny to me, but some of these people couldn't even deal with deaths in their own families. I didn't want them to try to deal with mine as well.

…..break…..

"I hate to ask one more question, but that clock is counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators run out of fuel."

"And then? Vi what happens when the power runs out?"

Before the computer ever finished its explanation everyone was on the move. We had to either refuel the generators or get out. I was opting for the second option. Things were going to hell fast and I didn't want to be there anymore. Ayla was scared and Jake was staying with her while I went with some of the others to check for more fuel. Before long the power cut to emergency. Everything was shutting down.

"We have to get out of here."

Soon everyone was in a mad dash to get what they could and try to get out. I remember panic in the group. The screams to let us out. None of it really registered in my mind. Jake was standing just as still as I was. He was thinking of a way out, a way around the computer's protocol. It could be hacked, but that wasn't something I'd ever seen as a priority to learn. Considering what we'd learned, I doubted we'd make it out of here. I wanted to try. I wanted to escape. I didn't snap back into reality until I was being pushed. My legs refused to move of their own will and before long I realized I was being carried. By the time I fully came back I was being dumped on the ground near one of the ground level doors by Daryl.

I looked around a moment before I realized where we were. We were escaping. At least, we were trying to. Something seemed a bit off to my still slightly foggy mind. They had hit the windows with axes, chairs, and they even shot it.

"Bullet Proof. Hey! They glass is bullet proof! The only way to get it to break is with an explosion." That had to be the first intelligent thing I'd said since before I had locked up.

"That first day Rick was with us!" Carol shouted before digging through her purse.

"A nail file ain't gonna help us here." Shane quipped.

"Shut up, you ass monkey." I snapped as Carol pulled a grenade from her purse. "I'll be damned. Some real fire power."

I went to hide below the stairs, but I didn't get very far before the blast knocked me forward on to my hands and knees. "Ow."

We ran for the vehicles, killing walkers as we ran. I watched as someone ahead of me cut off a walker's head, but I didn't see where it went. I tried to avoid the area where the body fell, to stay away from the danger that waited on the ground, but it was no use. As my foot touched the ground next to a fallen head I felt something bite down on the toe of my boot and sharp pain followed along with the crunch of bone.

…..break…..

"Holy shit. Holy shit." I kept saying it over and over again as I sat in Jake's truck staring down at the blood on my boot. Jake cursed as he looked at my foot before looking back at the road. When Ayla figured out what was happening she started to cry.

When we were as far from the CDC as we could get in a short amount of time Jake signaled the others to stop. Jake got out and let the tailgate down as I limped my way to it and sat down. Soon enough everyone was around us trying to decide what to do. Jake unlaced my boot and started sliding it off. I had to wiggle my toes to dislodge them from under the bent metal.

"You weren't bit." Jake announced. I opened my eyes and looked down at my bruised toes. No blood. No bite.

"How the hell did it bend steel?" I asked suddenly. "That doesn't make sense. The human jaw isn't strong enough to do that. All the bones would have broken… oh." I stopped my little rant. "That's why I heard bone breaking."

"It only bent the edge. Go get your other pair out from under the front seat. You'll be ok. There's no broken skin." Jake laughed. The sigh that went through the group was audible. "Some damn good luck you got there girl."

"If that's all I've got then I don't have much to count on." I laughed. I could finally breath again. After everything that's happened. I can finally breath.