"This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper."
- T.S. Eliot

"We are not going," Morales announced.

After burying the dead, everyone had agreed to go to the CDC. Glenn was the only one that told me at dinner. We packed everything last night so we could leave first thing today.

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people," his wife said.
"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Rick warned him.
"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family."
"You sure?"

"We talked about it. We're sure."
"All right."
Rick then knelt and looked inside his bag and got out a gun and gave it to Morales, who thanked him. Daryl didn't seem so happy about that.

Everyone then said their good-byes to the family. Most people had tears in their eyes, especially the kids. I shook hands with Morales and his wife and hugged the two kids.

"Take care, alright?" I told them. The two of them nodded sadly.

The girl moved past me and bear-hugged Sophia, both of them were on the verge of tears, when they pulled away the girl gave Sophia her doll, and that made her shed the first tear. I moved next to Sophia and wrapped my arms around her.

"Everything will be fine," I muttered even when I had no idea if it was true or not.
"Channel 40 if you change your minds," Shane told Morales just before we all got into the cars.

I was driving with Teresa and Oliver in Oliver's car. My mother's Cherokee was full, Rick, Lori, Carl, Sophia and my mum were in it and besides, it's more fun to be with my friends. I asked Glenn if he wanted to come with us but he loved being around Dale and learning stuff, so he said he would come with me next time.

There were seven vehicles in total, Morales' car, my mother's Cherokee, Shane's Jeep, Daryl's blue truck, T-Dog's van, Dale's RV and Oliver's red Mini Cooper. Most people said we should leave one car behind, someone of us could go with Daryl and the other two with Shane but Oliver didn't want to leave his car behind. T-Dog, Daryl and Shane refused as well.

"I actually liked it there," Teresa told us, she was in the passenger seat. "So different from New York."

"I thought you were a city girl," I said, taking a quick glance at her because I was driving. Oliver was in the back seat, he said he was going to try to take a nap, he couldn't sleep last night.

"Me too but for a change, it was nice."

After that most of the drive was quiet. We watched sadly at the world and what it had become, a very unfriendly place with dangers in every corner. We saw a few walkers on the road, some blood stains on the pavement as well. It was pretty sad and scary as well.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed since we left the mountain but Dale stopped his RV, he was in the front so everyone stopped their cars and got out as well to see what the problem was.

Teresa and I got out of the car, Oliver was sleeping so we just left him there, in the back seat while we went to see what was wrong.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose." We heard Dale saying.
"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asked.

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."
"I see something up ahead," Shane said."Maybe a gas station."
"Y'all," Jacqui exclaimed, running out of the RV. "Jim It's bad. I don't think he can take anymore."
"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back," Shane said.
"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up," T-Dog told him.
"We'll be right back."
Shane and T-Dog got on Shane's jeep while Rick walked into the RV to check on Jim, while the rest of us just stayed outside. Daryl had his crossbow ready, just in case.

A few minutes later Rick walked out of the RV with a sorrow expression and informed us Jim wanted to be left right here. We argued about it for a while and while it hurt us, we had to respect his wishes. Shane and T-Dog were back by now. Rick and Shane carried Jim outside and set him against a tree.

"Another damn tree," he muttered.

One by one we said our good-byes, some people said lots of words to him, Jacqui kissed his cheek and some just waved. I was one of those people. I didn't have anything against the man, I just didn't like to touch people or people touching me, I've never been that kind of person.

Daryl was the last person there, he gave Jim a nod before walking back to his truck. The RV was fixed for now so we were ready to go. This time I got into the passenger seat and Teresa drove.

This time the silence wasn't that comfortable, we were all affected by leaving Jim behind. He was a nice man and didn't deserve to die alone.

We finally got to the city, Oliver hadn't said a word during the whole ride, not even after he woke up. He just stretched, yawned and got out of the car. The street was blocked so we had to leave the cars quite far from the CDC.

As soon as I stepped out, an intoxicating, awful smell filled my nose, making me gag. I put my shirt over my nose to stop it but it was still really bad.

As we walked into the streets we saw dozens and dozens of corpses, lying on the floor. There were flies all over the place and for a moment I lost hope, thinking we had come this far for nothing.

We stopped right outside the building, knocking, pounding, hitting shutters but nothing.

"There's nobody here!" T-Dog said.

"Then why are these shutters down?"

"Walkers!" Daryl shouted, a few seconds later he shot an arrow at it. "You brought us to a graveyard!"

"Rick, this is a dead end," Shane told him, trying to keep calmed. "Do you hear me? No blame."
"We can't be here, this close to the city after dark," Lori said.

"Fort Benning, Rick. Still an option," Shane told him.
"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles," Andrea spoke.

"One hundred twenty-five, I checked the map," Glenn said.

"Not helping Glenn!" I exclaimed, he only shrugged at me.
Everyone started arguing then, everyone raised their voices. That would probably attract walkers.

"We should go!" I said, it was getting dark and more dangerous with every second passing by.
"Let's go!" some people exclaimed and most of us hurried away, except for Rick.
"The camera, it moved!" he shouted.
"You imagined it," Dale told him.
"It moved. I saw it too," Oliver exclaimed, staring at it as well.
"It's an automated device, Rick. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on!" Shane said trying to get some sense into Rick.
"You need to let it go, Rick!" Lori desperately shouted at him, who was pounding on the shutters.
"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Please, we're desperate!" Rick spoke to the camera, pleading. "Please help us! We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left. We have nowhere else to go!"

Lori ran to him, leaving Carl next to Dale so he could protect him, while she tried to drag Rick back to the cars. I was going right after Lori when someone grabbed my wrist and stopped me from going, I turned around and expected to see Teresa since she was next to me, but instead my eyes landed on a pair of piercing blue eyes, Daryl. I frowned at him and he just shook his head.
"If you don't let us in, you're killing us!" Rick screamed, finally losing his patience. He started pounding on the shutters again and raising his voice even more. "Please!"

"Come on, buddy, let's go!" Shane shouted at Rick as he wrapped an arm around him and pulled him with him, while he kept struggling and shouting at the camera.
"You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!"

Rick had finally given up and started to run with us when we heard a metal noise behind us and we saw a very light white light. We turned around in surprise and saw one of the shutters going up. I gasped. Rick was right!

As cautious as we could be, we walked into the CDC. I was in between Teresa and Oliver while my mum wasn't far behind us with Sophia. A few feet from us there was a man holding a big gun, he was pointing it at us.

"Anyone infected?" he yelled.

"One of our was," Rick informed him. "He didn't make it."

"Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance," Rick told him.
"That's asking an awful lot these days."
"I know."
"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." I didn't mind that but I could see Sophia shuddering, she had stood next to me, taking Oliver's place.
"We can do that."
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." I really didn't like how that sounded but hey, we're going to be safe here, right?

Part of our group stayed by the entrance to make sure no walkers were going to get in while some of the men of the group ran back to the cars to bring everyone's bags, Oliver went for mine and Teresa's. As soon as they were back, the man order 'VI' to close the doors.

"Rick Grimes."

"Doctor Edwin Jenner."

We followed Jenner into a lift, there were sixteen of us and somehow we all fitted inside the lift. I ended up in between Sophia and Daryl, our bodies were squashed inside and I was feeling a bit uncomfortable to be so close to this man.

When I was about five I was inside a lift that got stuck, I was trapped for about two hours then it fell about three floors before it got stuck again, since then I had been terrified of lifts. If I can avoid them I'll do that.

"You okay?" Daryl asked me. I just nodded at him. I could feel my hands getting sweaty and I was hyperventilating and all that plus being claustrophobic didn't help in this situation. "You look a bit pale."

"She's scared of lifts," Sophia told him.

Daryl looked interested in the story but I wasn't going to tell him now, if he wanted to know he had to wait until we were out of this thing.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl spoke, probably taking the hint that I wasn't going to tell him.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough, except you," he said to Carl, who grinned. "I'll have to keep my eye on you."
Finally we reached our destination, I wanted to be the first to get out but I was in the very back so I had to wait for almost everybody to walk out before I could. Jenner lead us through a white hall once we were all out.

"Are we underground?" my mum asked him, she was claustrophobic just like me, I probably got it from her.

"Are you claustrophobic?"

"A little," she admitted.
"Try not to think about it."

"Oh great," I muttered, knowing we were indeed underground. I had no idea how much time we were going to be here but I had no idea how I was going to manage to keep calm in a place like this, this wasn't good for me.

I felt a hand on my shoulder in a comforting way, the person probably noticed that I was a bit jumpy and restless about this. I turned around, expecting to see Glenn or Oliver, since the hand was too big to be from a female, but I didn't expect to see Daryl. He instantly dropped his hand to his side, he coughed and looked extremely uncomfortable about it. I offered him a small smile before looking in front of me again.

"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room," Jenner said and suddenly white lights went on, revealing a room full of computers. "Welcome to zone 5."
"Where is everybody?" I asked him. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it. It's just me here," he replied.

"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori asked. "Vi?"

"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them welcome."
"Hello, guests. Welcome!" a computerized voice said. Great.
"I'm all that's left," Jenner told us. "I'm sorry."

"It's going to be okay, Sophia," I told her as I rubbed her back. "It doesn't hurt that much, I promise."

I let the girl grabbed my hand as Jenner took a blood sample from her, I was the first followed by Rick and Shane, I just wanted to get it over with.

Sophia grabbed my hand a bit more tightly as the needle went in, she bit her lip and waited for it to be done. Sophia got a nice aid-band for her courage.

"You are so brave, Sophia" I told her as we stepped aside, waiting for a few more people to get their samples done. Sophia wrapped her arms around me and rested her head against my chest. I couldn't believe how tall she had gotten lately, if she keeps growing she will be taller than me.

Andrea was the last one, she almost fainted when she stood up. Jacqui told Jenner we hadn't eaten in days and thanks to her we went straight to eat after that.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner," Dale told Lori as he handed her a cup of wine. "And in France."
"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France he can have some then."
"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick asked her. "Come on!"
Lori just made a face at him but allowed it. Dale handed the little boy a glass with a bit of wine, Carl looked extremely excited about it.

"There you are, young lad."

We all watched Carl as he took a sip, waiting for his reaction.

"Ewww!" he exclaimed as he crunched his nose in disgust, we all laughed at him.

"That's my boy!" Lori said proudly. "That's my boy. Good boy!"
"That tastes nasty," he said while Lori poured the wine in her cup.
"Well, just stick to sour pop there, bud," Shane said to him.
"Not you, Glenn, neither do you, Cici," Daryl said to the both of us, we were sat together. Glenn only smiled really big at him and laughed.

"Want to get me drunk, Daryl?" I teased him in a seductive tone, with a wink and a smirk, making almost everyone else uhhh-ing at us.

"Don't be silly," he said to me as he took another sip of his wine, but he didn't look at me when he said that, or at anyone really.

I wasn't a wine type of girl. I preferred other kind of drinks like vodka or tequila, I didn't like the flavour of wine that much but that's all we got here and it's been a while since I last drank so I'm not complaining.

"Don't worry, I was planning to get drunk anyway," I said with a shrug.

"Annika Cecilia!" my mother squealed.

"What?" I asked. "It's not like I haven't done it before and the world has gone to hell, so, no big deal."
My mother said nothing after that, the environment turned a bit awkward so Rick quickly stood up and spoke.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just our host," T-Dog said, raising his cup, followed by some others.
"Booyah!" Daryl exclaimed.

"Booyah!" some other repeated, raising their cups again.

"Thank you!" Rick told Jenner.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane asked. "All the... the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane," Rick told him but the damage had already been done. "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, uh, we found him. Found one man. Why?"

"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."

"Every last one?" Shane asked.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door," Jenner answered. "They opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."
" But you didn't leave, why?" Teresa asked him.

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good."
"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man," Glenn said to Shane, it was the truth. We were celebrating, what was his problem?
The rest of the dinner was silent and a bit awkward, I just kept drinking, Daryl was kind enough to refill my cup when he noticed it was empty, I smirked at him, making him remember my comment minutes ago, he decided to ignore me and instead filled his own cup.

Not long after that, we all finished our food. We put the dishes in the sink and then Jenner asked us to follow him so he could show us where we were going to sleep.

"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make it down here," Jenner told us as he led us through another hallway, but this one was nicer. "The couches are comfortable, But there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power." Carl and Sophia nodded at him. "The same applies," he said now looking at us, the grown-ups. "If you shower, go easy on the hot water.

"Hot water?" I muttered in a dreamy way, was this real?
"That's what he said," Glenn said to me, he had the same dreamy expression on his face and then rushed inside a room.

"Sophia come," my mother said as she chose a room. ""You too, Cecilia."

"Uh, I already have a room," I lied, I just didn't want to share with her, I was still upset at her. I smiled at Sophia before turning around and going inside an empty room.

I smiled at the little room with a single couch inside, but I couldn't appreciate it enough because someone grabbed my wrist and turned me around quite aggressively.

"What do you think you are doing?" None other than Daryl said to me. "This is my room!"

"I got here first!" I said simply. "It's mine!"

"I saw it first, girl! Now go with your mother and leave me alone!"

"I don't think so! You either will have to leave or share it with me!"

"You are so ungrateful! I let you use my tent and now..."

"It won't be such a big change then, will it?" I said smirking.

Daryl sighed, he dropped his things in the room but walked out of the room. I didn't get mad at Daryl's behaviour because I was already a little bit drunk and I'm a happy drunk, well most of the time.

A minute later Daryl walked inside again and muttered to me that there weren't any other available rooms, so we were stuck together.

"I'll shower first!" he told me and almost ran into the bathroom, I just muttered an "okay" and walked out of the room, I needed to find another bottle of wine and drink some more.

I was lucky enough to find Teresa, Oliver and Sean in the rec room. They already had two bottles of wine. I smiled when I saw them and Teresa waved at me to join them.

"Starting a party without me?" I asked her.

"Never!" she exclaimed with a grin. "I got you a cup!"

There hadn't been such a nice and calm time in about a month. We were talking, laughing and drinking together, we weren't afraid something was going to attack us from behind and eat our flesh, we were good here.

I hadn't had the chance to know Sean that well but he was quite nice. He was three years older than me, he was one three years younger than Oliver and he was the same age as Teresa. He told us he was with his uncle Shane because he got into a really deep problem and as a punishment he was sent with him, the cop of the family.

"He's really strict," Sean told us. "I hated every moment of it but thanks to what I did and my parents' punishment I'm alive now, cheers to that!"

"Cheers!" we all said and raised our cups.

Minutes later the kids and their mothers walked into the rec room but stayed apart from us. My mother only looked at me in a disappointed way, I shrugged it off and drank a bit more.

Oliver then proceeded to tell us a really funny story, I had heard it thousand of times. When he was done the four of us burst out laughing like maniacs, exactly at that moment Daryl walked into the room, wearing sweatpants and a washed-coloured shirt and his hair was wet.

"Fucking teenagers," he muttered rolling his eyes.

I looked at him and noticed he was walking towards us and almost immediately I understood why. He wanted our wine. Only a second before him, I grabbed the full bottle. He grunted and I stuck out my tongue at him.

"Come on!" he whined.

"You can have this," I told him, grabbing the almost empty bottle and handed it to him. "Or you can look for your own bottle."

"Whatever," he muttered and took the bottle. He lied on a couch really close to us and started to drink from the bottle.

A few minutes later my mother took Sophia and Carl away to their rooms. Both of them gave me a hug before following my mum. Lori, just walked into another room, said she wanted to check the books or something like that.

"If there were more people here we could play spin the bottle," Teresa said as she pecked Oliver.

"Want to call Dale?" Oliver mockingly asked. "I'm sure he would be up for it."

"And with your luck you would have to be the one to kiss him," I told him, making the three of us laugh, Oliver just glared at me but it was gone soon.

"Don't you see how perfect this is?" Teresa told me, I only shook my head at her. "We are two girls and two boys, perfect."

"Wha...?"

"Kiss Sean, Cici!" Teresa interrupted me. "I dare you."

Every time someone says those three words I feel like they are challenging me and that I have to do whatever they are daring me to do, it was like my weakness and Teresa knew that. Besides, I'm drunk so I just shrugged at her and smiled at Sean.

"If he wants..." I chanted but I did know he wanted, I could see it in his eyes.

Sean wasn't bad looking. He had a body to die for, it was obvious he spent a good quantity of time in the gym before all of this. He had wavy, brown hair that reached his shoulder and beautiful green eyes.

Sean didn't answer. He just smirked at me and leaned in, we were sat next to each other so we were relatively close. I winked at Teresa before closing my eyes and leaning as well. I felt his hot lips against my own and smiled. We didn't pull away that quickly but the kiss wasn't that... passionate. I actually didn't feel anything.

At the exact time we pulled away, Shane came into the room. He looked a little bit agitated and upset.

"You," he said pointing at Sean. "If you don't come with me to the room, you will have to sleep outside!"

"I can sleep with Cecilia."

"Actually I'm..." I was going to tell him I was sharing a room with Daryl, using him as an excuse to not have him there but Shane interrupted me.

"Oh no, you won't! Come here now!" Shane exclaimed, "I'm serious Sean."

Shane doesn't like to be disturbed when he's sleeping, Rick told us that. And at these times you don't have the chance to sleep so often, and if you do sleep, you wake up from every little noise you hear.

Sean sighed and got up, drinking until the last drop that was in his cup was gone. He shook Oliver's hand and waved at Teresa, who was a bit far from here then he looked at me and started to lean down, I tried to turn my face but he was too quick. He gave me a peck on the corner of my lips and then smiled at me, I just awkwardly smiled back at him.

I was drunk now, so I enjoyed it but I sincerely hope this doesn't become a habit. I don't like Sean like that and I wasn't interested in boys right now, not with everything that has happened. A boyfriend is the least thing I need right now.

"We should go as well," Teresa said, standing up but stumbled a bit in the process.

"Yeah, I still need to shower."

"You guys go, there's still a little bit of wine here, can't just leave it."

"Suit yourself," Teresa told me knowing it's better not to argue with me. She gave me a kiss on the top of the head while Oliver ruffled my hair.

I just wanted some time alone, trying to process everything that had happened lately. My father is gone for good, and a part of me is sad and kind of mourning him and the other part is beaten up the other part for being stupid because he doesn't deserve any kind of mourning.

My thoughts were interrupted by a person grabbing the bottle that was in front of me, I turned to see Daryl taking a big sip from it.

"Hey, that's mine, you know?" I slurred.

"Too bad," he exclaimed, for some reason his voice didn't sound that friendly anymore. "I'm sharing the room with you, I need to get drunk to get through the night."

"It's me who has to get drunk, you're so irritable."

"Then get out of my room!" he exclaimed angrily.

"It's my room, I got to it first!" I whined, feeling like a five-year old girl.

"You can sleep with your friends, with Sean or with your mother! Why don't you just leave me alone!?"

"I don't want to. I can't. I need some time away from her, I mean, you heard she chose him instead of her unconscious daughter," I exclaimed, getting frustrated. "Besides, why do you always want to be alone? You could use some company."

It seemed like what I said about my mother softened him or something, the anger was barely still present in his eyes and he didn't look annoyed by me anymore, he looked at me differently, but wasn't sure in what way exactly, pity perhaps? What else could it be?

"Let's go," Daryl told me, the anger was indeed gone.

"I want to stay here, I wan..."

"Let's go," Daryl said and grabbed my upper arm, pulling me up. I stumbled a bit but with Daryl grabbing me, I didn't fall back into the couch.

I probably underestimated how much I had drunk tonight, I was so dizzy and I couldn't walk very well, I will feel so ashamed about this tomorrow. Daryl handed me the bottle and I heard him muttering something but I couldn't tell what exactly.

Then the next thing I know is that I'm off of my feet and Daryl is carrying me bridal style. I could feel myself blushing but I wrapped my arms around his neck nevertheless, after all, he was drunk as well and I didn't want him to drop me or something.

He took us to our room, it's so weird saying something is Daryl's and mine. He pushed the door with his foot and let himself in. Gently, he set me on the couch and took the bottle of wine from me, taking a sip. We couldn't just leave that behind.

"What about you?" I asked him, noticing there was nothing else where he could sleep on.

"I'll go get a cot," he slurred.

He handed me the almost empty bottle and walked out of the room, I drank the last bit and let it drop to the ground. I took off my shoes and lied down on the couch, pulling the blankets over me.

I was sleeping before Daryl came back.

Hello guys! I'm sorry for the late update, I've been so busy and tired this week, I'm back to training twice a week, so I've even had time or the energy to use my computer but I hope you like the chapter.
What do you think of Sean, Shane's nephew? I know there hasn't been so much info about him but so far, what's your impression of him?
And guys, did you watch Morgan's episode? What did you guys think? I thought it was a bit boring but still good, I hate when there are animals, though. It's so sad to watch them die because they are so innocent. RIP Tabitha :'(