Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Lost Hope: The Beginning

Chapter Ten

The next morning I had my things packed and ready to go. We were going to be heading out to the CDC in hopes that it was a safer place. Shane was giving instructions to everyone. I walked over and stood between Carl and Sophia.

"Any questions?" Shane asked when he was done.

"We are not going." Morales told the group.

Rick and Shane looked at them confused to why they would want to leave the group.

"We have family in Framingham." Morales wife said. "We want to be with our people."

"If you go on your own you won't have people watching your back." Shane warned.

"We will take that chance." Morales told them. "I have to do what is best for my family."

"You sure?" Rick asked them.

"We talked about it; we're sure." He replied.

"Alright." Rick walked over and handed Morales a revolver.

Carl looked sad. The Morales family had the only other boy who was his age. Lori got up and hugged Morales wife and kissed their two children. Sophia started crying and ran over and hugged Morales daughter. I never got the chance to really know her, unfortunately, but apparently the two had gotten close. The girl handed Sophia her doll for her to keep. The others said their goodbyes to them as well.

"Channel forty; if you change your minds." Rick told Morales.

Morales nodded and their family began to leave.

"Alright let's go. Let's move out." Shane instructed everyone else. I put my back pack in the back of the truck and got in with Carl, and his family, and Sophia and her mother. Carl sat between his parents in the front and Sophia, Carol, and I sat in the back and we began the long quiet journey to the CDC. About an hour later we had to stop because Dale's R.V. was having problems. We all stepped out of the car and stretched out legs. The men were deciding whether or not to go searching for tools for the R.V.

I walked along the road a ways and looked around. I was careful not to go too far from the group. Carl came along with me as I continued down the road a little ways.

"Hey are you thirsty?" he asked me, holding out a water bottle.

I nodded and accepted the water bottle. I took a few sips and handed back to him. "Thanks."

"No problem." He replied. "Jacqui says Jim has gotten worse. She doesn't think that he will make it much farther." He told me sadly.

"What are they planning on doing with him?" I asked.

"I don't know yet. My dad is talking to him now." Carl told me.

We began to walk back towards the group realizing that we have gone a bit far.

"What do you think the CDC will be like?" I asked Carl looking into the sky.

"Safe from walkers, I hope." Carl told me. "Maybe they will even have beds for us to sleep on."

"That would be nice." I said chuckling.

We walked in silence for a few moments before Carl asked, "What do you miss the most about your old life?"

I took a few minutes to think about it before replying. "I miss my uncle, I miss the movie nights we use to have together every Friday, I miss my bed, and I miss hot water." I told him smiling. "What about you?"

"I miss playing video games, my bed, hot water, and my friends. Don't you miss your friends?" Carl asked me.

"I wasn't ever really good at fitting in." I told him thinking back to what my life was like before. "I mean I had a few, but they were all guys. The girls at my school didn't really like me that much and weren't very nice."

"Maybe because they were just jealous." Carl said smirking.

"Jealous?" I asked laughing. "Of what?"

"Of how awesome and fun you are." Carl told me. We both laughed. "And also they were probably jealous about how pretty you are." Carl said quietly blushing.

I looked over and smiled at him. "You think I'm pretty?" Carl nodded still blushing. "Thanks." I told him. "I think you're pretty good looking yourself." I said tagging him on the shoulder. I then took off running towards the group with Carl chasing me. I stopped suddenly when I saw Jim being led out of the R.V. causing Carl to run into me knocking us both down.

"Sorry." Carl said helping me up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but what are they doing with Jim?" I asked pointing at them.

"Come on, let's go find out." Carl said grabbing my arm and walking over to his mom. "What are they doing with Jim." He asked her.

"Sweet heart, Jim has asked us to leave him behind." His mom told him. "You see he is in a lot of pain. It's hurting him to go on like this."

I felt myself start to cry and I began to run away from the two, but Carl reached out and grabbed my hand stopping me. "It's going to be okay, Erin." he told me starting to cry himself. "It's what he wants." His mom pulled us two into a hug to comfort us. They brought Jim over and leaned him against a tree. One by one people went up to him and said their goodbyes and then it came to be my turn. I walked up to him and kneeled down in front of him.

"I know that I didn't know you very well, but I knew you enough to know that you are a good person." I told him with tears falling down my face. "You didn't deserve any of this, but now you can be with your family and live a better life; a life without fear." I leaned over and hugged him. When I was done, I walked back to the rest of the group. I continued to cry as we drove away from him. Sophia held my hand in hers as we began back on our journey to the CDC.

During the ride I had fallen asleep. I felt myself being shaken awake. I opened my eyes to see Carl.

"We're here, but we got to be quiet." He whispered. I stepped outside the vehicle and realized that the sun had gone down. I grabbed my stuff from the back and pulled my gun out from my bag because I could see dead people lying all over the ground. They could wake up at any minute as a walker.

Carl and I stood close to Rick and Shane as well as the rest of the group as we began walking carefully over to the CDC. The smell was horrible and flies were everywhere, eating away at the dead flesh. We reached some steal drop doors and Rick began knocking on them, hoping that someone will hear them.

"There is nobody here." T-Dog told them.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asked.

"Walkers!" Daryl said pointing his crossbow and shooting at one that had woken up. The others began to get nervous as more began to come. I aimed my gun at the walkers ready to shoot if I needed to.

"Rick, this is a dead end." Shane told him.

"Where are we going to go?" Carol asked.

"She's right; we can't be this close to the city after dark." Lori told them.

The others started arguing on where they were going to go. They started to turn away and run back towards the vehicles.

"Dad!" Carl called for Rick.

"The camera; it moved." Rick said pointing at a camera that was above the drop doors.

Shane tried to talk him into leaving and began pulling him away with the group, but Rick refused and started calling towards the camera. He pulled away from Shane's grip and banged on the door.

"I know you're in there." Rick said. "I know you can hear me. Please, we're desperate. Please help us, we have woman and children and no food, hardly any gas left; we have nowhere else to go.

"Guys." I yelled nervously. More walkers were waking up and heading are way. I didn't want to shoot because I knew that would attract even more walkers. Rick continued to yell towards the camera and people started to panic more. Shane grabbed him and began pulling him away with the rest of the group and we began to run for it, but before we got to far the drop door lifted and we ran inside thankfully. The door closed just in time before the walkers were able to enter. I dropped down on my knees with my adrenalin rushing. That was close.

I looked around and saw no one around but our group. I expected that there would be more people, but I guess not. Then I saw a man standing there holding a rifle and aiming it at us.

"Anybody infected?" the man called out.

"One of the members of our group was." Rick told him. "He didn't make it.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" the man asked. I felt uneasy about this place.

"A chance." Rick told him.

"That's asking for a lot, these days." The man told him

"I know." Rick replied.

The man looked at each of us. When he got to me he stopped and stared at my gun.

"They giving little girls guns now?" he asked.

I looked towards the ground and slowly put my gun in my bag.

"That's her own gun. She's had it from the start and so far hasn't used it in any way that would threaten the group." Rick told him.

"These doors won't open again." The man told us.

Rick nodded. "That's fine with us."

The man nodded back. "You all will each have to summit to a blood test; that's the price of admission. The man led us down an elevator and to a room where he began sitting people down and drawing blood from them. They each introduced themselves when their turn came. I stood behind Carl as I waited my turn. I hated needles. I was terrified of them.

"Erin, you okay." Carl asked me noticing me tense up as we got closer. "You're looking a little pale."

"I don't like needles." I told him. Carl chuckled a little. "What?" I asked him.

You're not too scared of walkers, yet you're terrified of needles?" he asked me.

I looked down embarrassed and nodded.

"Well don't worry about it. It will only last for a few seconds." Carl assured me. "Um…..if you want….I could….hold your hand..." Carl quietly looking down embarrassed that he had just said that.

"Okay." I told him smiling a little. He held out his hand and I took it. It felt warm against my cold hand.

"Okay, your turn, young man." The man told him. Carl sat down in a chair in front of him like the people before him did. "My name is Dr. Jenner."

"Carl." Carl told Jenner his name.

"Okay, Carl, you're going to feel a slight prick, but it will be done with soon." Jenner told him. Carl continued to hold my hand as he had blood drawn from his arm. "There, you're done." The man said smiling slightly. "Okay your turn." Then man told me. I sat down in the seat nervously as the man started talking to me, but I didn't hear anything he said because I was too busy staring at the needle.

"Her name is Erin." Carl told the man for me. "She's a little afraid of needles."

"Don't worry, Erin, I will try to do the whole thing as quick as possible." Jenner told me.

I squeezed Carl's hand hard when the needle punctured my skin and began drawing blood.

"Sorry." I told Carl, lightening my grip on his hand.

"It's fine." He told me smiling.

"Okay, you're all done." Jenner told me smiling.

"Wow that, actually, wasn't that bad." I told Carl. "Thanks." I told him pulling my hand away.

"Anytime." Carl replied.

"Where are all the people?" Rick asked Jenner.

The man looked down sadly. "I'm all that's left."

He then led us all to a cafeteria with a big round table in the middle. He got some food out and some wine and I began to eat while the adults ate and drank wine. They even offered Carl some wine.

Carl took a sip and cringed. "Eww, it tastes nasty."

All the adults laughed at his reaction and continued eating and drinking. The food was the best I've had in a long time. He gave us a good steak dinner with mash potatoes and green beans.

"You should try some of that stuff, Erin, and see how bad it tastes." Carl said holding up the cup that he had tried some in.

I took the cup and took a small sip and gagged right away. "Eww."

Everyone laughed and then Rick stood up and gave a toast to Jenner for helping them. The happiness didn't last long though. Shane started questioning Jenner about the lack of people and Jenner told him a sad story about what had happened. He told us that many of the people had committed suicide before they even made it out the door.

After that he led us to the rooms we would be sleeping in.

"Housing has been shut down to save power, so you guys will have to make due here." He told us pointing to the rooms. "There is a game room that you kids might like, but don't plug in the video games or anything that draws power." He told us and we nodded smiling. "And also go easy on the hot water when you take a shower."

"Hot water?"