A week passed rather uneventfully. Serafina was quick to notice Edwin would lock himself in his lab and it would be hours before he would reemerge only to have a cup of a coffee and return to the lab within just a few minutes. It had been a long time coming and his sanity was slowly starting to slip especially after losing the last fresh sample due to contamination.

It had been on the fourth night that Serafina heard him rummaging around the kitchen and walked in to find him with a half empty bottle of hard liquor. It was only after he passed out did she stow the bottle away and drape a blanket over his hunched over form before leaving a glass of water and some aspirin for him to take when he woke up. He hasn't been quite the same since. He had been open before. There was still a small glimmer of hope in his eyes. Now, however, it was as if the very meaning of his existence was torn from him.

Serafina spent hours mulling over the contents of her bag; two packed manila folders and stamped on the front of each in large, red lettering was the word 'Classified'. She found it funny that Edwin was indeed right about the subject of the meeting being secretive and she was quick to stash the folders away whenever he would leave his lab, as rare of an occasion as it was.

Within the first two days of her being at the CDC, she had wandered around all open areas of the building, familiarizing herself with it. After that, whenever her nose wasn't deep in her manila folders, she was in the large computer room, staring intently at the clock that was counting down. She did not ask Edwin about it as she already had a good idea what would happen when the clock reached zero which she had no intention of being here to witness.

It was on her eighth day there that she noticed something peculiar on the security monitors. "Edwin!" She called out, not knowing if he could hear her from his office. She kept her eyes trained on the screen as a group of people shot their way to the main entrance of the building she currently was residing in. "Edwin!" She yelled louder.

He seemed to have heard her the second time and poked his unkempt head out the office door. "What is it?" He asked.

"A group of people." She told him motioning to the screen.

Edwin crossed the room in long strides and Serafina stood from the chair allowing him to take a seat. He typed a few commands into the computer and the camera angle shifted slightly. "It moved!" Cried out one of the men, who donned a sheriff's uniform, but the others in his group ignored him, continuing to tell him that no one was there.

"Just leave." Edwin muttered under his breath. "Leave."

"Why are you not opening the doors?" Serafina asked and when she did not receive an answer she grasped his shoulder firmly. "There are women and children out there." She noted. "They will die if you do not let them in."

"You're killing us!" Shouted the man as he was dragged away from the door. "You're killing us!"

There was a long drawn out silence before he spoke. "You will meet them in the lobby." She nodded and bolted off to the entrance of the building, hearing Edwin commanding Vi to open the doors. Her gun was in hand in case these people turned out to be unfriendly as she had realized that many people did not keep their humanity once the world ended.

By the time she reached the lobby, the shutters were nearly open. Aiming her gun, she kicked the door open and directed her question at the man who had pleaded with them. "Are any of you infected?"

He paused as if confused by her appearance. "One of us was. He didn't make it."

His honesty would have been applauded but she figured now was not the right time as she ushered the group in, noting the untrusting glances she received from a few in the group, namely the stocky man with dark hair and even darker eyes. She chose to ignore it.

Edwin had reached the lobby by the time the entire group had safely made it into the building. He stood as he had when Serafina had met him; nervous and holding his gun awkwardly but still at the ready. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance." Was the response.

The blond doctor had to resist the urge to scoff at the man's request. "That's asking an awful lot these days."

"I know." Said the sheriff. His group stared at Edwin and Serafina unsteadily as if they were afraid to even breathe wrong. Edwin could feel his heart palpitate as he looked at these people who he had the opportunity to grant a second chance. He looked to Serafina for guidance only to find her staring down the group waiting for anyone to make a wrong move.

He stepped forward. "You all submit to a blood test." He told them. "That's the price of admission."

The sheriff, who seemed to be the leader, nodded. "We can do that." He said when there were no objections.

Lowering his weapon, Edwin said. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now." He pointed at the entrance. "Once this door closes, it stays closed." Serafina shot him a look, but otherwise said nothing about the statement, not knowing if it was some sort of veiled threat or if it was hinting towards what may come when the clock hit zero.

She provided cover for the few who ventured back outside to grab their bags from their vehicles. They were quick about it, something she was thankful for as the sun was already low in the sky and those things seemed to be all the more active at night.

Once everyone had filed back into the building, she and the older man closed the doors. Edwin did as he had done when she had arrived and swiped his keycard through the keypad. "Vi, seal the main entrance and kill the power up here." The lights dimmed and the shutter doors closed for the final time.

"Rick Grimes." The sheriff introduced himself to Edwin whose eyes shifted unsteadily. "Dr. Edwin Jenner."

Rick Grimes looked to Serafina who had remained near the good doctor. "You are?"

After hesitating a moment she said. "Serafina Dauksza."

"Are you a doctor as well?" A dark haired woman asked and then introduced herself as Lori Grimes, Rick's wife.

The Russian shook her head. "Soldier." She corrected. "Ground Forces of the Russian Federation."

"A Russian soldier?" The dark haired man questioned looking on at her with distrust and speculation.

Serafina did not answer him, not liking the way his dark eyes raked over her form as if she were a threat to him and his group instead she looked to Edwin. "The blood test, then?"

Edwin nodded as though he had forgotten about it. "Yes." He looked to the group. "If you'll follow me." They trailed behind him as he led them to the elevator with Serafina following behind them, not trusting any of them enough to have her backs to them.

Once they had all piled into the large elevator, an uncomfortable and awkward quiet erupted and the only thing that filled the void of nothingness was the humming of the elevator.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" A scruffy looking man in the corner asked.

Edwin did not miss a beat. "There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." He shot a look to Serafina who had a smirk on her face; the pair knew that it had been Serafina who showed him the ins and outs of firearms when she first came after seeing how pathetically he was holding his gun. His gaze shifted around to the group, glancing over at each of them. "But, you look harmless enough." His eyes settled on the small boy who it could only be assumed was the Grimes' son as he was nestled against Lori. "Except you." Edwin said to him. "I'll have to keep my eye on you." The boy tried to hold back a smile and Edwin chuckled softly to himself.

The elevator lurched to a stop and they filed out. As they were walking through the halls, the woman with short hair asked. "Are we underground?"

Edwin turned his head. "Are you claustrophobic?" He asked.

The woman shrugged. "A little."

"Try not to think about it." Serafina told her. "It is not so bad."

They came to the large computer room and once they entered Edwin called out. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." The lights flicked on. "Welcome to Zone 5."

Rick looked confused. "Where is everybody?" He asked as he and his group followed Edwin into the room. "The doctors, the staff?" He looked between Edwin and Serafina who had once again opted to stand closer to Edwin than a group of strangers. "Is it just you two?"

Edwin was the one to answer. "Yes." He confirmed. "Just us."

Lori spoke up from the back of the crowd. "What about the person you were speaking with?" She asked. "Vi?"

Edwin bit back a smile. "Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them ... welcome."

An automated computer voice echoed around the room. "Hello, guests. Welcome." Everyone looked around, confused and even a bit frightened at the sound of the disembodied voice.

It was obvious to the two inhabitants of the CDC that the newcomers were less than pleased with the news that all that was left of the CDC was one doctor and a soldier who wasn't even American. "I'm sorry." Edwin lamented.

Edwin had ushered the group into one of the lecture rooms located around the big computer room and had begun to take blood from each of the survivors tasking Serafina with writing the names of each on the vials which gave her the chance to learn everyone's name.

"What's the point?" Andrea asked as Edwin took her blood. "If we were infected we'd all be running a fever."

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here." He told her. "Let me just at least be thorough." He took the syringe out and handed the vial to Serafina. "All done." He told Andrea. As she went to get up, she stumbled a bit as if dizziness had suddenly hit her. "Are you all right?" Edwin asked.

Andrea hummed a yes, but Jacqui told him differently. "She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have."

Serafina gave Edwin an expectant look as she slid the vial into one of the holding slots after she had labeled it, Andrea being the last to have her blood taken. "Serafina will show you to the kitchen." Edwin informed them. "Help yourselves."

Everyone seemed to light up at the prospect of food and eagerly followed Serafina to the kitchen. It wasn't long before they had something cooking and it took even less time for them to find the stash of wine and liquor which Serafina had tried to keep hidden from Edwin. Dale, who was pouring the wine, offered her a glass.

"No, thank you." She declined as she spotted a bottle of vodka hidden away behind all the wine. "I'll stick to vodka." She said grabbing the bottle, not bothering with a glass.

"Typical Russian." The dirty redneck by the name of Daryl muttered as he himself claimed a bottle of tequila.

She snorted. "Typical American. Drinking that piss poor excuse for liquor."

Daryl looked as though he was debating retaliating with a smart aleck comeback, but instead he laughed and took a swig. "Ya ain't bad for a communist!"

With a roll of her eyes she threw back the bottle, not caring as the contents stung her throat on the way down. It had been a long while since she last had a chance to enjoy herself and she'd be damned if being in a room full of strangers was going to prevent her from that opportunity. Though, it seemed that the rest of the room had the same idea as they drank and ate, talking to each other merrily as if there wasn't a care in the world. Edwin had joined the group a little after the spirits had started being passed around and he sat idly next to Serafina as Dale tried to persuade Lori to let Carl have some wine.

"Are you well?" Serafina asked Edwin in a low voice.

Edwin waved her off. "I'm fine." He reassured though she did not believe him. When he had opened up the door for her a week ago, he had been a different person. It was strange how in the matter of a week a person's disposition could change so much, but hope was a rare thing to come by nowadays and it seemed that Edwin had learned that lesson the hard way.

Rick glanced on at his two hosts, noting the way they spoke quietly to each other; Edwin with a somber expression and Serafina had a light smile as if she were trying to coax him out of his dilapidated mood.

With a clinking of his glass, Rick gained the attention of everyone in the room. He stood up and held his glass in the air. "It seems we have not thanked our hosts properly."

"They're more than just our hosts." T-Dog slurred, the wine already having taken its affect.

There was a round of agreement as everyone raised their glasses and in the case of Daryl, his entire bottle. "Booyah!"

Rick looked to the pair. "Thank you." He told them.

Serafina gave them an easy smile and Edwin still looked unsure as he took a swig from his wine glass and he could tell that Serafina was monitoring his alcohol intake from the corner of her eye.

The cheerful atmosphere was broken as Shane asked. "So, when are ya gonna tell us what happened here, Doc?" He looked over at Edwin expectedly. "All the — the other doctors that were supposed to be figurin' out what happened. Where are they?"

Rick looked at his friend with disappointment. "We're supposed to be celebratin', Shane. Don't need to do this now."

Shane, however, did not let the conversation end easily. "Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move. We were supposed to find all the answers, instead—" He let out an indignant chuckle and gestured to Edwin and Serafina who were sitting in silence. "...we find them." Another chuckle. "Two people." He looked as though he was getting angry now. "Why?"

Edwin did not seem as affronted by Shane's hostility as Serafina did. "Well, when things got bad people just ... left; went off to be with their families." Edwin explained. "And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Shane asked with disbelieving smirk on his face.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door." Edwin told him. "They ... opted out." That seemed to make a reasonable amount of the group uncomfortable. "There was a rash of suicides." He looked down. "That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave." Andrea spoke. "Why?"

Serafina looked to him anticipating his answer as she had wondered why when there was no one left, he had stayed. "I just kept working. Hoping to do some good." That seemed to satisfy Andrea, but Serafina had a feeling that there was something more that kept Edwin here, though she would not push the discussion.

Glenn hopped down from the counter to take a seat in one of the empty chairs around the table. "Man, you are such a buzzkill." He grumbled to Shane.

"You..." Dale spoke and directed his question at Serafina. "Where do you come into all of this?" He asked although unlike Shane there was no malice in his voice.

She set her glass down on the table and leaned back into the chair. "I had been in New York when this outbreak started."

"New York?" Lori asked. "You made it all the way here from New York?"

Serafina nodded. "Yes, it was not easy. It took me nearly two months to get here." She said. "I had tried to go to Washington at first thinking that the capitol would be the safest area, but it was overrun by the time I got there. This was my next destination."

"What's a Russian soldier doin' in New York in the first place?" Shane asked.

Serafina ignored his question and instead pointed out. "You do not like soldiers." Then she asked. "Why?"

Shane furrowed his brow. "The military is supposed to protect the people." He said. "What I saw when this whole thing started — they weren't doin' no protectin', I can tell ya that."

Her mouth set in a line and her eyes narrowed. "Things had gotten out of hand extraordinarily fast." She said. "I had no part in whatever it is that you saw. Do not look at me as though I am the enemy."

"You didn't answer my question."

She stared him down. "And I have no intention to."

Here's a bit longer second chapter for you guys! Please review and let me know what you think!