Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.

Carl Sagan

Survival

Daryl was ushered into a large office. Rick was already seated and there was a guard standing behind him. The woman behind the desk was fortyish, attractive, but there was something about her that warned him that she didn't play games. Rick was looking sincere and giving her some eye fucks with his big blues.

Colonel Meitner motioned him to a chair that he saw was bolted to the floor and his handcuffs were removed and he was given a more comfortable wrist cuff. Rick had the same arrangement. The Colonel dismissed the guards and she waited until the door was shut before she spoke, "Let's not waste each other's time. You were picked up yesterday during a mission. One of our scouting parties had followed vermin back to their nest three days ago and yesterday a large contingent of soldiers went out to clear them out. There were only a few unimaginatively named Wolves lurking in their den and you two. So where are the Wolves?"

Rick favored her another round of his ingenious blue eyes, "The Wolves attacked our compound outside Richmond while we were on a run. They killed everyone. We tracked them into northern Virginia. We just got to the warehouse when the soldiers showed up." Damn good lie, Rick. Carol will be impressed. Little worried that you were going to go bat shit crazy, but you held it together.

Colonel Meitner gave a ladylike snort, "Rick, don't give up your day job. Your story sounds perfectly logical, but you showed no emotion. I don't believe that your group was hacked up by the Wolves. So I am going to open door number two. Daryl, where are the Wolves?"

Dr. Alston had warned him to keep his secrets, and Daryl never wanted to reveal Alexandria. "The Wolves attacked our compound outside Richmond but we managed to hold them off. We killed most of them and Rick and I tracked them to their warehouse. We were trying to figure out how many were in there when the army grabbed us." Closer to the truth, but doesn't give Alexandria away.

"Sounds more plausible. How did you take out the Wolves?" Colonel Meitner had picked up a pen and was writing something on paper. She held up the sheet of paper so that they both could see what she had written, "Bugs in office. Trust no one."

"We led them into a trap. They are dead except for however many were inside the warehouse. What is this place?" Rick was using his not crazy leader voice.

"I am under no obligation to discuss our mission with you, but I will anyway. Technically we aren't the American army at all. Our mission was and is still to try to keep humans from becoming extinct. Our targets were any chemical factories, nuclear power plants, hazard waste material sites ect. We were trained to clear the sites so that they wouldn't be dangerous to what was left of humanity. Society collapsed after the Turn so our mission now has been to locate and take out those that prey on other humans. DeadHeads too, of course, but they won't last forever." Meitner stopped abruptly and Daryl figured that she had some secrets she had to keep too.

Rick frowned, "What happens to those that you capture?" Good question, Rick.

"They never hurt anyone again. That's all I am going to say." Colonel Meitner gave a wry smile and Daryl decided that he liked her. She was like Carol. You don't have to like what I do, you just have to accept it.

"What about me and Rick?" Because I like you, but I love her and I want to go home.

"I have to hand you over to the other half of our mission. The science side. They will decide if you are good candidates for clinical trials. If you are, then you will be part of the resurgence of our species. They're testing a new treatment for this virus and they need more test subjects. You two look healthy enough. Good luck." Fuck my luck. Clinical trials? Shit, we're lab rats. She didn't ask for directions to our Richmond compound. Meitner doesn't have the power to save us, but she won't go after our people.

"I'm in charge of the prisoners and I am moving you two to the dormitory and away from the criminal element. I will check on you from time to time." She had been writing again and before she called the guards back in she held up another sign, "We have a cure. Just finishing up the trials". Guess the glass is half full. Just hope that it isn't filled with poison.

Later that day, Daryl and Rick were moved to a much larger room with four beds and a bathroom. Daryl had gathered up his book and his toiletries in the pillowcase. The high window in the room faced another direction but the sentries and the forest looked the same. The door was locked but the chance for escape was better here.

Rick was pacing and scheming. Daryl decided to read his book. Hig was in deep shit and haunted by memories of his dead wife. Hig was a pilot and Daryl had always wanted to fly a plane. Not the big jets but a little plane like Hig. He imagined flying along the ocean and turning back to shore into the sunset. Carol beside him and just floating along toward home with the sun in their faces. Gonna make that happen. Never allowed myself to do what I wanted to do. Always thought riding my bike was as close as I was gonna get to flying.

"You ever been in a small plane?" Rick looked startled but smiled, "No, but Lori and I went parasailing on our honeymoon. They took us out in a boat in the ocean and they revved up the boat and we lifted into the air. Lori screamed her head off but she loved it. I don't know why we never did it again." Because you never let yourself do what you wanted to do. Like me. You waited too long to forgive Lori and now it's too late. Not too late for me and Carol.

Daryl goes back to his book. Hig has found a woman survivor and is flying with her. Daryl imagines Carol beside him wearing a leather jacket like Kelly McGinnis wore in Top Gun. She's wearing a light blue shirt that has the top three buttons unbuttoned underneath the jacket so when he glances over he sees lots of cleavage. She is giving him that flirty look that lets him know that she is ready to go to the naughty corner. She puts her hand on his thigh and finger walks up to the zipper on his pants, "Does this plane have an automatic pilot? Because I think I want to sit on the pilot's lap or maybe I'll just give you a blow job," Daryl wrenched his mind out of the sky or the gutter. Ain't going to make being away from her any easier by thinking about that. Man up and wait until you get in the shower tonight. Might as well imagine that you do have an automatic pilot and that she isn't wearing a bra under that blue shirt. Bad Daryl.

"Is that a good book? It seems to hold your interest," Rick commented.

"It's really good. It's one of those end of the world books that we used to think was just bull shit." The book is good, but not quite as good as Carol in the leather jacket with nothing on underneath it.

TWDTWDTWD

The next day they met with the man in charge of the science department. He was brusque and to the point, "We have a cure but we need to run clinical trials. You were captured with murderers. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but you are going to be part of these trials. Apparently your group wiped out the Wolves and your good deed won't go unpunished. You two are taking their place."

Daryl figured this guy was all about the cold hard science. They had a supposed cure and now they had to try it out. He and Rick had been treated well enough here. The end was going to justify the means. He was a lab rat now. Might as well accept it and try to make a better deal, "We want to go home after we do our part. We want to take some of the cure with us."

Dr. Koch favored him with a not very convincing smile, "You are in no position to make demands, but Colonel Meitner assures me that you two are part of the good guys. If this works I'll let you go and you can take the cure with you. Every person that we can cure adds to the probability that humanity can survive on Earth."

"Is the cure some sort of anti-viral?" Rick shifted in his seat, "Is it safe for babies and children?"

"We have a tested it on a toddler. One of our doctors here had a two year boy that was in a coma after a fall. It was an accident but the boy suffered major brain trauma and he was being kept alive by machines. The parents agreed to let us give the child the cure. Garin had tested positive for the virus at birth and he was retested when he was admitted to the hospital. He had the virus. We gave him a weak dose and he ran a fever, but two days later he tested clean. His parents let him go after that. That was one child and we don't know if that means it is safe for every baby or child. Parents will have to make that decision." Dr. Koch sighed. "The vaccine works in this way. We took the virus and rewrote its code so that it infects you with a weaker strain of the original virus and you will run a low grade fever. It also encourages your body to fight this invader with its own antibodies. Those antibodies kill both strains of the virus. It's complicated but it works. We believe that women who become pregnant after they have been given the vaccine will pass on a natural immunity."

Mothers could give birth to children who were naturally immune. Carol was still haunted not just by Sophia's death which brought a lifetime of sorrow with it, but also by seeing her as a walker lurching her way toward them with the intent to devour everyone in her path. Carol might have been bitten that day if he had not grabbed her and held tight. Rick had put Sophia down in front of Carol. Seeing Sophia as a walker had a profound effect on all of them. Andrea had asked for a pistol as she was dying so that she wouldn't come back. Daryl was more afraid of becoming a walker like Merle than dying.

"When do we start?" The sooner this started the sooner he could go home.

"We are making a large batch of the vaccine but it will take another three weeks before it will be ready. If it works then we want enough to inoculate a large group. The process takes months and we'll start immediately to make more. We'll also send the vaccine to other facilities around the country and into Canada. Eventually it will go worldwide. In the meantime, you two can be useful. We'll give you jobs, give you clothes, and you'll eat in the cafeteria. Some parts of the facility will be off limits, but you will have access to the gym, the library, and the recreation room." Dr. Koch rose signaling that their interview was over.

Their guards were waiting outside to take off the cuffs and escort them to the clothing department. The cheerful woman who worked there made sure that they had everything they needed. Daryl and Rick were assigned to work on the farm which consisted of greenhouses, vegetable gardens, chicken coops, rabbit hutches, and herds of goats. There were also large fish tanks inside a large steel building.

Rick hated the dirt and muck of farming, but Daryl was so happy to be outside that he wasn't going to complain. He still longed to escape but there were always armed guards patrolling and the hope that they could return home with a cure.

They ate dinner in the large cafeteria. Mostly vegetables but a little chicken was mixed in. People wandered by and thanked them for their service. Dr. Alston came in with Colonel Meitner and they sat down with them asking to be called by their first names.

"How did you know that we weren't part of the Wolves?" Daryl had been curious about that from the beginning.

Christine Alston smiled at him, "Both of you had short hair. You were wearing reasonably clean clothes. You fingernails were clean. You both had shaved and showered recently. Rick had a distinct smell of baby powder and you had a faint odor of some sort of fruity shampoo. That adds up to two men living in a settled community in the company of women. The Wolves smelled like the wild beasts that they are. I was the attending physician when that evening."

Elise Meitner agreed, "Christine asked that we move you two away from the Wolves. They woke up and tore their cells apart. Your rooms were not damaged. I should have pushed you to reveal your settlement so that I could add it to our list, but I figured if your group could take out the Wolves you must be strong enough to make it on your own."

"Are there other settlements?" Rick asked.

"The army evacuated most of northern Virginia and put them into large camps. That was a cluster fuck as you could imagine, but some survived and are living in settlements guarded by soldiers. There are other groups that avoided evacuation and keep to themselves. We know where some of them are and will take the vaccine to them when it's finished. Virginia and West Virginia have most of their settlements in the piedmont or in the mountains. All away from cities and with enough farmland to have subsistence farming. They have built defenses against the deadies but the biggest threat is from other humans." Elise Meitner moved her food around aimlessly. "That's the shittiest part of this world. So few left and they devour each other."

Daryl noticed that an African-American man who had headed toward them with a noticeable limp. "So who are these two guys trying to bogart my women?"

"Sit down, Jesse and meet Daryl Dixon and Rick Grimes." Christie introduced them to Jesse Graham. He worked in the library, but he looked more like a soldier than a librarian. Jesse was funny guy and Daryl found that his new smile seemed more natural after a few Jesse stories. Even Rick and Elise eased up a bit after Jesse talked about the dangers of being a librarian, "Paper cuts and dust. More deadly than a swarm of Deadheads."

Jesse offered to take them on a tour of the library. Rick looked surprised when Daryl agreed. He was going to finish "The Dog Star" this evening and he wanted to find another book.

There wasn't a trace of dust in the library, and there were thousands of books. Daryl didn't have a clue where to start. "Got any books on airplanes?"

Jesse looked startled, "Sure do, follow me."

Daryl found two books about small aircraft and a novel that Jesse recommended about a boy who crash landed a small plane in the Canadian wilderness. Rick grabbed a book about Vietnam and he remembered Rick telling him that his dad had served over there.

Daryl took his book outside. There were benches along the pathways and he settled on one and read. It ended on a positive note and he walked around the grounds enjoying the fading sun. I've met some go

od people today, but both Christine and Elise are worried about something. Rick and I are gonna have to keep our eyes and ears open, but we can survive this and take the cure with us when we go back to Alexandria. I'll be home soon, Carol.

AN

Daryl and Rick as lab rats?

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