Newly Revised
They stood frozen in the blinding light in surprise before moving in a state of utter disbelief towards the door, Daryl and Tea covering the back. The group spread put a little ways into CDC's lounge area while keeping their weapons at the ready and the women and children between them. Tea grabbed the door and shut it before any walkers that might have been attracted by the light tried to get in. Rick tried to call out and see if anybody answered while Shane kept barking out orders even though he didn't need to. He looked particularly idiotic in her eyes when he called for the door to be shut and she just cleared her throat while pointing behind her. At least the man had the decency to look a bit sheepish before turning his head and giving more orders to the others. The lights were on in the building but there was definitely something off as there wasn't a single person anywhere to be seen. It wasn't even until the sound of a gun being loaded got their attention and caused them all to quickly turn around and aim their own weapons on the single man standing close enough to duck in cover if they did fire. The one thing that kept them all at bay from firing was the AR-15 military grade automatic rifle in his hands that was trained toward their group. Even in an amateurs hands would only take one sweep and they would all be dead or on their way before they could retaliate with any kind of accuracy, most likely shooting one of their own in the process of going down. Aside from the gun, there was nothing about the man that stood out aside from his disheveled look and the fact that he looked like he had completely given up.
"Anybody infected?" he called out.
"One of our group was," Rick replied, being honest even while his voice betrayed how worried and desperate he really was. "He didn't make it."
"Why are you here? What do you want?"
"A chance."
"That's asking an awful lot these days," the man said in all seriousness.
"I know."
The man looked around at everyone, "You'll all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
Rick shook his head, "We can do that."
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it won't open again," the man said pointing at the door and moving towards Rick.
Daryl told Tea to stay inside while he went to the truck to grab whatever supplies they needed from it. He managed to get her to agree to stay closer to the CDC and making sure their way back was clear, telling her to use the crossbow instead of her knives or Glock much to her dismay. It was the right call, but she hadn't used Jewel on any walker yet, and she'd been hoping she wouldn't have to, in all honesty. She had enjoyed keeping it for hunting although she knew that she could run out of her knives eventually and without a guaranteed way of replacing them, she would have to use the weapon to kill walkers eventually. It just felt really odd now to have it ready to go as a form of protection rather than its intended use of hunting. Still, when it came to making sure the way was clear for the men that left by taking out two walkers, she'd fired her bolts to take them out. Daryl grabbed one of them that was on the path back through while Dale and T-Dog held the door open while she waited for the men to run past her so she could cover the rear before running through the doors herself.
As soon as they were all in, the man made sure the doors were locked using a key card before calling out, "Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here."
"Rick Grimes," Rick offered with a look of gratitude.
"Dr. Edwin Jenner," the man introduced himself.
Following the man to an elevator, they all packed in before the doctor boarded the contraption himself and pressed the down button, much to Tea's discomfort. Everyone was weary and cautious as they gave the man as wide a berth as they could in the jam-packed elevator. Tea was trying to keep her nerves calm, but being squished by Daryl and Glenn right in the corner behind everyone else literally had her feeling like she was suffocating. Claustrophobia and cleithrophobia were horrible afflictions of hers that she had never been able to shake, along with several others, and it was making her feel like she couldn't breath. She was literally in an elevator that was jam packed with sweaty, smelly, and frankly irritating individuals while she was trapped behind them all; she was literally trapped in a confined space. It wasn't her worst fears, which were things coming out of the dark or up under the water, but it was right up there with being afraid of spiders and drowning. She nearly jumped out of skin as the contraption began its descent causing Glenn to bump into her shoulder by accident while she was busy white-knuckling the handrail . Daryl glanced over his shoulder when he felt her knock into his back, leaning back just a little to offer support before turning to Jenner to point out that it was quite odd that a doctor would have an AR-15.
"Doctors always go around packin' heat like that?" he asked.
"Well, there were plenty of them left lying around, so I familiarized myself with it," the man replied. "But you look harmless enough," he said jokingly before pointing to Carl, "except you. I'm gonna have to keep my eye on you."
Some of the group chuckled as all too slowly the elevator stopped and opened its doors. Tea took a deep breath as the others began to spill out of the tight confines and into the corridor. Daryl waited until most of the others had left to look back at her with an eyebrow raised in question only gaining a small smile in return as she let go of the bar and followed him out, trying to take her bag from him. He just basically blocked her hand from grabbing it by adjusting the bags on his shoulder and switching the side he was on so she couldn't try again. Tea just snorted a quiet laugh while shaking her head and smiling before gently touching his back, walking past him to keep up with the group and get air after being in the elevator. She was only just getting over her own nerves when she noticed some of the others' worried faces as they ventured further down the corridor.
"Are we underground?" Carol asked as they marched along.
"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner asked.
"A little," the woman replied.
"Try not to think about it," he replied.
"If ya tell yaself it's an office buildin', it can lessen the effect a it," Tea offered the woman, who just scowled back. "I get it, I do. It's jus' that it's only one out a a many I got and bein' in that death trap back there is way worse than bein' in here. At least there's room ta spread out."
They finally entered an open area where Jenner called out, "VI, bring up the lights in the big room."
When they all entered the 'big room,' it ended up being a large work space with several computer consoles, a florescent circle of light hanging overhead and a rather large screen on the wall. Tea figured it must be some kind of control center for the larger experiments or for the review of said experiments when they were done in the labs. The one thing that stood out the most was the utter silence and stillness of the entire building. She expected that they would have suffered some losses, but it seemed like the entire building was made of ghosts. It was eerie and hollow, like the woods in the dead of night before a storm, and it made Tea all the more anxious even if she refused to show it. Instead, she went on high alert as they all walked into the room and began spreading out a little as they followed the doctor through the room.
"Welcome to zone 5," Jenner said before walking off.
"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asked, following him.
"I'm it. It's just me here," Jenner told them in a disheartened tone.
"What about the person you were speaking with? VI?" Lori asked.
Tea scoffed before saying, "I'm guessin' ya don' use anagrams much, do ya Lori? If ya did, ya'd know that VI, or V-I, means Virtual Intelligence. Its a voice operated computa system. I'd be more saprised if they didn' have one, 'cause a lot a the places like this have one in some form or anotha."
"She's right," Jenner said while Lori gave Tea a dirty look. "VI, say hello to our guests. Tell them, 'welcome.'"
"Hello guests, welcome," came the same computer automated voice.
"I'm all that's left," Jenner reiterated. "I'm sorry."
They followed him into another room where he prepared a small table and asked them to wait as he left to get the necessary equipment to draw blood. As Rick had been the one to agree to the blood test he was more than willing to go first, but not before looking back at the group. Not too many people had an issue with having their blood drawn, although Glenn complained about not liking needles and Tea had shown him a small scar in the crook of her elbow he could use to get blood from. She was used to having her blood drawn from when she had been on various medications when her parents had tried to medicate her behavior away and only caused her to gain more problems with anxiety and depression, leading to an even worse time dealing with her family. Everyone took turns getting their blood drawn, most of the group simply staying quiet throughout the process until the last person left was Andrea.
"What's the point? If we were all infected, we'd all be running a fever," she complained as he finished up taking her blood.
"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough. All done," Jenner told her, watching her stand only to sway and almost lose her balance. "Are you okay?"
Jacqui stabilized her before answering the doctor's question, "She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have."
It didn't take very long for Jenner to lead them to a kitchenette that had a lot of canned and powdered food. T-Dog and Carol immediately started cooking, which surprised Tea as she expected it to be the women who were told to cook, but when the scent of the food began to fill the room, she really didn't care who was cooking it. Sure, she, Daryl, and Glenn had been able to bring in a lot of food, but squirrel and the foraged plants that most of them didn't even know were edible got old as time had gone on, and none of them had had a proper meal since the first few nights after the first run. Admittedly, Tea and the kids had been looking for plants and things that were more nutritious than tasty or filling, but that was what they needed when surviving on the bare minimum if they didn't want anyone to die of malnutrition. The entire meal was made better when Jenner told them they could open the liquor and wine he had if they wanted to which lead to there being several bottles on the table while Daryl and Tea were just passing a bottle back and forth between the two. Dale was pouring wine for several of the others as he joyful tried to persuade Lori into letting Carl try a bit of wine, Carol not taking any for herself and not letting Sophia have any either.
That didn't stop Dale from trying to persuade Lori, making an argument against her refusal, "You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with their dinner. And in France."
"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France," she said, putting her hand over her son's glass and remaining steadfast in her choice, "he can have some then."
"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick asked her, enjoying himself, the wine, and the meal. "Come on." She gave him a look as he smiled at her and playfully repeated, "Come on. What?"
Lori finally relented with a wave of her hand, allowing Dale to put a small amount of wine in the boy's cup before placing it down in front of him while saying, "There you are, young lad."
Carl was all too eager to take a sip, but as soon as the liquid met his lips obviously disgusted as the others laughed at his reaction, which was to loudly proclaim, "Eww!"
"That's my boy," Lori told him, patting his back before taking and pouring the rest of the wine into her own glass. "Good boy."
"Yuck. That tastes nasty."
"That's 'cause it's wine," Tea said as she took the bottle of liquor from Daryl and took a swig.
"Just stick to soda pop there, bud," Shane said.
"Not you, Glenn," Daryl said walking up to the Korean.
"What?" the man in question asked.
"Keep drinkin', little man. I wanna see how red your face can get."
Everyone kept laughing and joking with each other over their plates of spaghetti before the clinking of silverware on glass could be heard. Tea and Daryl stood side by side with plates in their hands leaning against a counter while the others sat around the table. It actually felt good enough that she didn't even mind the sound of the silverware on the plates, let alone the sound of the others slurping or gulping or talking with food in their mouths. She mostly just stared at her plate or glanced up so that she could attempt to ignore everything that was happening around her; if she didn't see it, she could pretend it didn't bother her as much as it was. Daryl handed her the bottle again, smirking sneakily at her with a knowing look before tilting his chin up in a way that she knew he was telling her to drink up, too. Tea had to admit that she was happy they were drinking or else she wouldn't be able to explain the fact that her cheeks were stained red as the others quieted down before Rick stood in front of the others
"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly," Rick said as he raised his glass to the man who sat a little way off by himself.
"He is more than just our host," T-Dog said amidst a chorus of 'hear hears'.
"Here's to you, Doc," Daryl added. "Booyah."
Once again the better part of the group toasted the doctor before returning to the jovial atmosphere until Shane made everyone quiet again when he spoke over everyone to ask Jenner, "So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the uh, the other doctors who're supposed to be trying to figure out what happened? Where are they?"
"We're celebrating, Shane," Rick said. "We don't need to do this now."
"Woah, wait a second," he started. "This is why we're here, right? This was your move; supposed to find all the answers. Instead," he looked down and scoffed before jutting his thumb towards the doctor, "we found him. Found one man. Why?"
"Well, when things got bad," Jenner began to explain, many of the others going from smiling to shock as he continued, "a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got over run, the rest bolted."
"Every last one?" Shane pressed.
"No. Many couldn't face walking out the door. They...opted out," he told them while looking at them all with a grim look. "There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."
"You didn't leave," Andrea stated. "Why?"
"I just kept working," the man said, "hoping to do some good."
"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man," Glenn said to Shane.
"He's an asshole is what 'e is," Tea agreed. "It could a waited 'til we were done eatin'. Didn' have ta be asked right in the middle a dinna."
Several of the women lost their appetites after Shane's line of questioning and the doctor's depressing answers, the rest finishing their dinners in silence. Tea didn't lose her appetite, per say, but she definitely didn't eat as much as she would have if the others had kept the friendly atmosphere going instead of having it ruined by Shane. Daryl drank quite a bit of the bottle they were passing back and forth and now half of it was already gone by the time some of the others began cleaning up after dinner. Of course, he grabbed another one and attempted to pass it to her sneakily, but the sloppy smile on his face as he tried to give her the bottle behind her back combined with the fact that he practically tripped into made her laugh out loud, Glenn and T-Dog looking behind them to see the pair and smiling at them themselves. They had sobered up enough to have their straight faces on as they followed the doctor out of the kitchen area and into a different hallway, a lot of doors lining the hall as the doctor explained why he'd brought them there.
"Most of the facility is powered down, including housing, so you'll have to make do here," he told them. "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," he said as he bent to the children's level before standing back up and addressing the whole group. "The same applies if you shower, go easy on the hot water."
"Hot water?" Glenn said as a shit-eating grin spread across his face.
"That's what the man said," T-Dog responded just as thrilled.
As soon as the doctor continued down the hall, many of the others quickly began to scurry to the rooms, wanting to be able to take a shower as quickly as they could. No one seemed to notice Daryl grabbing Tea by the bicep and all but pulled her into a room before shutting the door and locking it. He walked over to the couches and set the bags he'd grabbed next to it before carefully putting his crossbow down before taking hers off her shoulder and setting it next to his. Tea sat down on the couch with a gleeful smile on her face as she began to take her boots off before throwing them across the room with her socks quick to follow. Daryl sat down next to her and took another drink from the bottle before handing her the bottle and leaning down to untie his boots and kick them off.
"Didn't need to chuck 'em," he told her as she handed him back the bottle.
"I've been wearin' shoes foreva, it seems," she said. "I hate my feet bein' confined all the damn time."
"Ain't all the time," Daryl said, taking another swig of the liquor, leaving only a little left.
"I haven' been able ta take my damn socks off since this all started 'cept for changin' the damn things or washin' up," she countered as she snatched the bottle back and finished it off. "Might as well've been every fuckin' day, all damn day long."
He just snorted before slapping her thigh and getting up, turning to her and pulling her up too, "C'mon, lets get you clean."
"I will if ya will. I mean, I don' mind sharin' a showa," she told him, wrapping her arms around him as she pressed her chest to his and smiled up at him.
Daryl scoffed at her as he moved one arm under hers to lift her up, making her wrap her legs around him as he moved around the room in order to press her back into the wall, his hands buried deep in her hair as she wrapped hers around his shoulders. When they broke away to take a breath, Tea took the opportunity to grab his shirt close to the bottom, pulling it up until he was forced to press against her harder as she forced him to raise his arms over his head to take it off. As soon as it was, his arms were back around her, one returning to her hair while the other wrapped around her and under her shirt. The moan that escaped her as he ground into her only spurred him on to start trailing kisses down her jaw until he reached the sweet spot between her clavicle and the base of her neck. He bit down before he started sucking the spot, Tea tilting her head back and to the side to give him more access to the spot as she met every buck of his hips with her own. Her hands found their way into his short hair and pulled his lips back to hers and started their battle for dominance again. It didn't take Daryl long to win the battle and pull her hair back, making enough space for him to literally rip her shirt off, making her cry out in annoyance.
"Hey! That's the second shirt ya ripped!"
"Don't care," he told her as he tore the comfort bra she had on over her head before he slammed his lips back against hers, pushing her as hard into the wall as he could.
Their arms were wrapped tightly around each other as they kissed before Daryl slowly set her down, trailing his hands down her spine and around her hips. Tea tried not to part as he moved backwards but readily jutted her hips out as he undid her pants and began pulling them down, standing up and taking his own off. He immediately picked her up and pressed her back into the wall as she wrapped her legs around him as he captured her mouth again. They both groaned at the feeling of his shaft rubbing along her folds before Daryl raised her just a little further before lining up with her opening and slamming into her. Tea couldn't help the sounds that came from her throat as he set a destructive pace that her at Daryl's mercy. She had to pull back from his bruising lips just to catch her breath as she clung to him for dear life. He attached his lips to the spot he had before, making sure there was a darkening mark on her skin before needing breath himself and leaning his forehead against her shoulder. Grunting as he quickened his pace, he felt her walls begin to flutter around him, urging him to pull her hips away from the wall to thrust deeper into her core.
"Come on, baby girl," he grunted out. "Come on. Fuck."
Tea tried to cover her mouth with a hand as she lost control of her voice, but it didn't last very long as Daryl kept up his relentless pace and she was forced to grab hold of his shoulders just to keep from sliding off the wall any more than she already was. Daryl had already ripped one orgasm from her with how rough he was being with her and he was trying to do it all over again. From what she knew about sex, it took far longer for a woman to orgasm than men, but she was either extremely sensitive or Daryl was just that good. He didn't even let her mind wander down that train of thought as he slapped her ass and snapped her back into the feeling of what he was doing to her. Daryl stopped long enough to pull out and spin her around, pressing her chest to the wall as he slammed back into her, one arm wrapped around her front and between her breasts. He pressed his hand into her throat hard enough to keep her from getting too loud while attacking the same spot he'd already darkened. Tea couldn't help but press her hands to the wall and gave herself a little leverage to keep her chest from pressing further into the wall even as Daryl smacked her ass again and moved her hair to the other side to attack her other clavicle. As he raced further towards his own release, he pressed his forehead back into her shoulder, breathing down her back against her heated skin. The sound of his quiet grunts her ear as he moved his other hand between her legs made her even more sensitive than she had already been with the way he was bruising her insides. They both reached their climax, Tea's walls clenching tightly around Daryl as he pushed as far inside of her as he could.
He kissed the hickey he had given her as he moved his hands gently down and up her sensitive skin, kissing along her jaw and pulled out while turning her around. Their lips met slowly this time as their bodies moved against each other in slow and gentle movements. Their breathing began to steady before they pulled away from each other, Daryl smirking as he raked his eyes down her body and making her blush once again. The way he could make her flush that gorgeous red while still having blown pupils, slick skin, and swollen lips made him want her again, but instead he let her go as she tried to move to put her clothes back on. He reached down and put his pants back on while watching her wiggle into her own before going over to her back to find a new shirt.
"We should really go take that showa now," she told him when she couldn't find a suitable shirt.
"Still think you should go alone. Might be awkward if you're seen with me headin' to the showers," he tried to reason.
"I don' really care," Tea told him, pressing her bare chest up against his back as she walked up to him, raking her fingernails gently down his ribs and kissing his shoulder blade. "Jus' nice havin' ya ta myself while I can for now. 'Sides, is there a reason why ya don' want ta showa with me?"
"Never said I didn't want to," he told her before sighing and turning around, seeing her raised eyebrow and cocky smile. He scoffed and shook his head at her, telling her, "Alright, get yourself some clothes on and we'll head over."
Daryl went back to the wall to pick up his discarded shirt only to start bending down and have it snatched away. Tea just barked out a laugh as she threw it on, tying a knot at the bottom to keep it from showing off anything it shouldn't. He couldn't help reaching out and grabbing her as she turned her back and press her against his chest again, groping her through his shirt while she turned her head to give him another searing kiss. When they broke apart, he smacked her ass again before heading to his bag and grabbing another shirt to put on while she tried to get the knots he'd put in her hair out. They left the room to head to the shower only to find the door locked and from what they could hear, currently in use like Tea had been planning to use it. She dragged Daryl back down the hall and into the rec room where was almost an entire wall full of reading material that she started browsing through. Tea pulled out a few books that she'd already read and a couple she'd heard of and wanted to read. She hadn't bothered to look for any books while at the quarry minus the ones she'd already had packed away at the bottom of her large duffle bag, although there was one in her smaller bug-out bag. Her favorite of which was a well-worn hand-me-down from her grandmother, The Entire Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. That little book had seen her through many a hard nights since her grandmother had passed.
Carol was in the room with Carl and Sophia playing a game and invited the two of them to sit for a while and maybe even play a game. Tea thanked her for the offer after grabbing two books in particular she'd wanted to read before heading back the way she'd entered from. Daryl had stayed leaning against the doorframe and as soon as he saw her start heading towards him, he was gone. She couldn't help but smirk at his back as he walked ahead of her and headed right back to their room. He was already opening the bottle he'd almost made her drop when he tried and failed to be sneaky, making her laugh as she flopped on the couch next to him. They passed the bottle back and forth a few times as they settled into doing their own things. Daryl and Tea spent about an hour and a half passing the bottle between them while him cleaning their crossbows with her feet on his lap and listening to her read one of the books she'd picked up out loud before heading to the showers again.
This time they found it empty which had Tea smiling brightly at Daryl. She pulled him into the room and shut the door, locking everyone else out of the showers so that they could have time to wash and do whatever else they wanted to. Smirking to herself and licking her lips, she slowly turned around to watch Daryl as he looked around the room. There were at least four shower stalls and every single one of them was only a small cube. He wasn't too thrilled about the small size of the shower, nor the fact that three of them had obviously already been used. The last one he wasn't sure if it had, but at least it was dryer than the others. He moved inside and turned on the water, leaving his hand under the stream until it started warming up and he pulled back to look at her.
"You like it hot or...?" he asked her.
"Jus' set it up how ya like it. I'll adjust it if I need ta," she told him, grabbing a couple towels from the cupboard on the wall.
"I like mine scorchin'. Might be too hot for you."
"I actually like mine scorchin', too. It's the best ta relax the muscles, ya know?" Tea said with a chuckle before walking up to his back and leaned against it as the shower started.
"Never knew a gal to like it as hot as I do," Daryl told her, turning around, trying to wrap his arms around her only for her to drop hers and step back.
"Oh? Ya really gonna talk 'bout otha women showarin' with ya? Now?" she asked as she folded her arms over her chest, one eyebrow raised.
Daryl started fumbling for an excuse as he realized his mistake, attempting to backtrack while stumbling over his words. "It ain't like I've been with a lot. Never stayed the night with any of 'em or even had a thing like this goin' on with any of 'em. Only showered with a couple 'cause the-"
"Jus' stop. I was teasin'. And I really don' wanna hear 'bout the othas ya been with," Tea sighed, unfolding her arms and turning around, grabbing the towels she'd discarded and putting them by the door to the shower, even if she was a bit disheartened at his words. "I know I ain' the first, but I don' wanna know about the othas. I don' wanna be or feel like I'm bein' compared ta anyone. Don' wanna feel like I have ta compare myself ta othas, eitha."
"Nothin' can compare to ya, not anyone, eitha," he assured her, bringing his arms around her and kissing her temple. "Nothin'."
Tea scoffed but turned in his arms anyway, looking up at him and bringing her hands up his chest to wrap around his neck. Daryl leaned down and captured her lips as she stood on her tiptoes while steam from the shower began to surround them. The kiss was slow and sweet, allowing them to keep their breathing steady until they broke apart and looked at each other. The glint in his eye had her reignite the kiss, pressing his back into the glass of the shower door this time as one hand went into his hair and the other to his neck. He let her hold him there as he began hiking her shirt up again, undoing the knot she'd put in it to keep it from showing anything before sticking one hand up her shirt and pawing at her breast, the other held her hips firmly against his. Tea moaned at the sensation while moving her own hands to the bottom of his shirt, spreading her fingers along his stomach and up his ribs, enjoying the feeling of his physique before she pulled away. Tea pulled her shirt off slowly as he watched her, the hair he loved so well falling down around her while she worked it out of her shirt. She started kissing along his neck and jaw as she worked her hands up his shirt again until she had it as far as she could without breaking their connection. He finished pulling it off as she made quick work of getting out of her pants once again. Daryl moved away from the shower door after taking his own pants off, opening it for Tea to get in the shower first. She couldn't help the hiss followed by the moan that escaped her as the hot water hit her skin, turning it red and giving her goosebumps after having gone so long without hot water. Relishing in the feeling of it, she turned around and pulled Daryl in, his hand on the shower door the only thing that stopped the water from getting everything outside wet. Even though the shower head rained straight down, there was only just enough room under the spray for both of them to get wet when they stood right under it. Daryl bent his neck and captured her lips as she pressed herself against him, both enjoying the feel of the other slick and warmer than they'd ever been.
Tea pulled away again only to kiss, suck, and lick a trail down his neck to his clavicle, moving even further downward and teasing one of his nipples with her teeth. She flicked it with her tongue before slowly trailing kisses his body as Daryl gathered her wet hair in order to watch her. He leaned back against the wall of the shower as he realized exactly what she was planning on doing. Tea kissed her way down until she reached his Apollo's belt, licking from one end to the other as she lowered herself to her knees. Coming back to his length, she took it in her hand while looking up at him. She licked the length from hilt to tip before wrapping her lips around him and sucking. He wasn't quite placid, but he had yet to fully come alive, and Tea took her time in swallowing him down. Twirling her tongue around the head before slowly sucking his manhood back down to the hilt, she kept her eyes fixed on his as best she could in the shower. One hand wrapped around the base of his dick as he hardened and became too much to take all the way. Her other hand held firmly to his hip as she worked away at his pleasure and Daryl began bucking into her mouth. She moaned at the feeling and the taste of it, causing him to grunt above her and pull at her hair hard enough to make her stop. Tea stood back up as Daryl turned her around and positioned her to face the wall. Bending her over and putting her hands against the tiles, he brought one hand down between her legs, letting his fingers slide through her water-slicked folds, teasing her clit until she was begging him to take her.
Daryl was quick to comply, hissing at feeling the difference in the heat from the water and the heat from being inside Tea herself. Tea keened at the feel of him entering her from behind, the feeling of him moving so deeply in her already sensitive core almost too much. Every time Daryl took her like this, he was able to get deeper and was harsher than when he was on top of her or had her riding him. He didn't move immediately, instead adjusting his grip on her as he slowly moved out, watching the water fall on her bare ass before he smacked it hard enough to leave another handprint print. He smiled as he rammed himself all the way back in, the mewl coming from her having him repeat the action as he gripped her hips hard enough to cause bruises. Tea moved with him as much as he would let her, rolling her hips backward every time Daryl thrust forward, making him take her even deeper and harder. Daryl pressed his chest against her back and sucked at her shoulder again as he pressed her further into the wall and thrusting a few more times before pulling out of her completely.
He whipped her and around and crashed his lips to hers while lifting her off the ground and slamming back into home. The new position, with her knees caught in his elbows and her back against the wall, had him grunting as he hit her back wall with every thrust as her moans ticked higher and louder. Tea held on for dear life as Daryl set a brutal pace all over again to chase his second release. He was heavily panting, grunting in her ear every time he pushed into her, while she started practically screaming his name and begging him to cum. Her walls were latched tightly around him as he pummeled into her until he was practically roaring his release deep inside of her. He'd just set her down when a bang on the bathroom door made them both start while breathing heavily as the water washed away the traces of their activity, both looking toward the door in irritation.
"Hey! Some of us haven't showered yet! Mind hurrying it up!" Glenn's voice rang out, both Daryl and Tea groaning at what they considered to be an intrusion.
~x~
By the time they woke up in the morning and got themselves ready enough to go to the dining hall, T-Dog was already working on breakfast. Glenn was seriously hungover and Tea felt a little guilty for it because of how much she and Daryl had egged the man on before he finally got to stumble to bed. The two of them felt just fine, though truth be told they'd passed out shortly after they'd returned to their own. She highly doubted Glenn woke up half naked, laying on the floor, door unlocked so anyone could walk in and see what they had gotten up to and all the marks and bruises they'd put on each other's bodies the day before. She'd made sure to wear one of her more covering shirts to make sure no one saw most of the marks, but the ones in the crook of her neck were still visible.
"Eggs," T-Dog offered, showing the pan he held in his hands. "Powdered, but I do 'em good. Bet you can't tell. Protein helps the hangover," he told Glenn as he moaned in agony while holding his head in his hands.
"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked as he came into the room.
"Jenner," Lori simply replied.
He handed her a bottle of pain killers after trying and failing to open it himself, asking her for help. "Could you help me, please?"
"He thought we could use it," Lori continued as she opened the bottle and handed it back to him with a smile.
"Thank you."
"Some of us at least," Lori quipped as they all looked to Glenn as he groaned again.
"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again," the poor boy whined.
"Guess I should'a called it a night a little soona," Tea said. "Sorry, Glenn."
He just moaned his reply, Shane walking in and greeting Rick before he came to the table. Several of the others greeted Shane as well, though the man didn't really say anything to anyone else as he stormed through the room. Tea wasn't paying that much attention as Daryl grabbed her hand and pulled her to the table, pulling her down into the seat next to him before she gave him a small smile while he gave him a smug look. She couldn't help but shake her head as he let go of her hand and pulled his chair in a little closer to the table and calling for T-Dog to give them some of the eggs. The two of them were shot looks because of how Daryl had dragged her to the table, but neither bothered to act like they saw it. As far as Tea was concerned, it still wasn't any of anyone's business and even if they knew now, who cared? She had finally managed to find someone who made her happy and didn't judge her for the way her mind worked and if anyone had anything to say about that, well, they could go suck bricks.
"The hell happened to you?" T-Dog asked Shane as he sat down, bringing Tea's attention to the man. "Your neck."
"I must have done it in my sleep," he said although the tone in his voice had more to it.
Rick said in concern, "I've never seen you do that before."
"Me neither," the other cop replied.
No one noticed the fact that Tea was watching the man very closely and noticed how he was staring directly at Lori, who was adamantly paying attention to her plate. High up on Shane's neck, there were some very serious scratch marks, the kind Tea had seen on others when at the station, sometimes during evaluations, sometimes when she was brought in to watch an interrogation on the other side of the glass. She couldn't help the fact that her mind came to the conclusion it did by how Lori reacted to it. When confronted with someone's abuser, it was common to avoid eye contact and attempt to make themselves as small as possible. Anyone with eyes could see how Lori was behaving and the look on Shane's face as he stared at her, one looking terrified and the other looking somewhere between jealous, angry, and remorseful. Tea could tell just by watching them what Shane had done but at the same time knew that she couldn't just accuse him out of no where. Shane might have been a lover at the quarry, but that didn't give him the right to try to force her now. She would have to talk to Lori alone and ask the woman what happened and if she was alright from the attack she almost certainly had to deal with. The only issue was that Rick was adamantly ignoring what was right in front of him, Shane was pretending it wasn't an attack, and Lori just wanted it all to go away in what was most definitely an attempt at salvaging her marriage. Everyone was already sitting around the table eating breakfast when a disheveled looking Dr. Jenner walked through the door holding a coffee cup. Many greeted the man cheerfully only for him to give a half hearted smile before pouring himself some of the dark liquid and stayed at the counter. They were just finishing up breakfast when Dale stood up and brought everyone's attention to himself.
"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..." he said, leaving the rest to implication.
"But you will anyways," Jenner said before turning around and leaning against the counter.
"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea told him with an edge to her tone that bordered between irritation and exasperation.
Once again leading them to the 'big room' and calling for VI to turn on the big screen, he then commanded the computer program to bring up the file for 'TS19.' They all watched as a CT module showing the inside of a person came to life on the screen, specifically zooming in on the head and brain area. Jenner sent a few more quips towards Carl before calling for an enhanced internal view and causing the screen to zoom further into the brain. Tea couldn't help but stare in wonder as all the connections and wires in the brain came to life and showed all the electrical impulses that went through the test subject's brain. She'd seen these before when studying the inner workings of the brain for her PhD, but this was the first time she'd been able to see the activity this close up, nor quite as large as this. As she stared in awe, the others were rightfully confused considering they had never had any education involving the psyche or how the organ that controlled everything within the body worked.
"What are those lights?" Shane asked after a moment.
"It's a person's life, experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique and human," Jenner answered rather cryptically.
"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked in annoyance.
"They're synapses," Tea answered for the doctor while still staring at the screen. "It's how we speak, feel, or do. It's what controls everythin' from breathin' ta feelin' ta thinkin'. That's what the inna workin's a the brain look like from the moment we become cognitive in our momma's bellies 'til about seven minutes afta we die, when the brain finally catches up with the body and stops functionin'. It's literally how we are who we are."
"That's right," Jenner said, looking at her curiously. "How did you know?"
"Had ta get up close and personal with CT scans a the brain, though they only showed the areas that lit up, not goin' so far in as this is, but it showed the areas a activity. The seven minutes bit I learned and rememba'd from Freddy Krueger," she stated simply. "Don' know all the intricacies a it like ya prolly do, but I know enough ta know what this is."
"Wait, death?" Rick backpedaled. "That's what this is, a vigil?"
"Yes," Jenner said. "Or rather the playback of the vigil."
"This person died?" Andrea asked looking sad and confused. "Who?"
"Test subject 19," the doctor said sadly. "Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, scan forward to the first event." As the computer complied, the playback raced until it reached a point where the brain activity was actively darkening as the person getting scanned moved in obvious pain.
"What is that?" Glenn asked
"The killin' strike," Tea offered.
"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown and then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or will be, gone," Jenner more or less agreed.
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked her mother.
"Yes," was the only answer the woman gave as she continued to look at the screen.
Andrea lowered herself to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest as everyone else stood quiet and Jenner looked over at her in question. Almost all of them were either shocked or horrified to learn how the virus worked and what actually happened when a person got bit. When they didn't know what they did now, it was easier to pretend it was just some kind of sickness. Now they knew that wasn't the case and that a person didn't just suffer due to the bite alone. It changed their perspective on the whole affair greatly while Tea began thinking about a few things that she wanted to ask the doctor only for Lori to cut in when the doctor's attention fell to Andrea.
"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister," Lori clarified.
"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is," Jenner told Andrea as he walked up to her, his face still blank as ever, before he turned back to the screen. "Scan to the second event. The resurrection times vary wildly. We have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked after a moment or two of silence while everyone watched activity begin in the brain again, the activity almost red in color and staying closer to the base of the brain.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving," the doctor countered.
"But they're not alive?" Rick asked curiously.
"Does that look like the same brain from earlia? There ain' enough activity ta be 'alive,'" Tea interjected.
"The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part," Jenner further explained, having been about to ask the same thing Tea had. "That doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell. Driven by mindless instinct."
"God," Carol cried out, as he finished explaining and flash shot on the screen and something quickly made its way through the subject's head. "What was that?"
"He shot his patient in the head," Andrea said without emotion. "Didn't you?"
"VI, power down the main screen and the work stations," Jenner said, the room going dark again.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked, slightly irritated.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal," the man listed.
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui offered.
"There is that."
"Which god, though?" Tea asked in all seriousness, earning a scoff from Daryl and several dirty looks from those around her before she shrugged her shoulders. "What? There's a lot a religions that have some sort a god that spreads pestilence, not jus' one."
"Somebody must know something. Somebody. Somewhere," Andrea pressed, ignoring Tea's input as the girl seemed to be making a joke of the entire situation.
"There are others, right?" Carol questioned. "Other facilities?"
"There may be some," Jenner offered. "People like me."
Rick stalked up, "But you don't know? How can you not know?"
"Everything went down. Communications, directives. All of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
"So it's not just here," Andrea stated. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"
Jenner didn't answer and after a pregnant pause, it was clear he wasn't going to. The releases of breaths and looks of hopelessness on some of the survivors' faces said it all. Lori and Carol fell to the floor next to their kids who looked shell-shocked, holding the children close to them. Rick, T-Dog, and Glenn shared looks of disbelief as Shane's anger began to boil. If what the doctor said was true, there very well may be no where in the entire country, if not world, that was safe from the dead. It left Tea with more questions than answers though, because what if they could treat the bite as soon as the wound was inflicted and draw the infection out? What if they could burn it out? Was there any way that they could somehow prevent one from dying such an ugly and painful death or was it an inevitable outcome for them all?
"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again," Daryl said, rubbing his eyes and turning in a circle before walking up to Tea and dropping his forehead to her shoulder. "This is fuckin' ridiculous."
"Dr. Jenner," Dale spoke up somewhat bitterly, "I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but. That clock. It's counting down. What happens at zero?"
"The basement generators, they, uh, they run out of fuel," the man said quickly before clamming up and walking away.
"And then?" Rick asked, Jenner simply ignoring the question without so much as looking back. "VI. What happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur," came the automated response.
Everyone but Rick, Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn went back into the rooms they had been in to wait for what the four men had to say when they got back up. Tea walked into her and Daryl's room and made sure their packs were ready, putting all her weapons back on as Daryl double checked their bows again. They both wanted to make sure they were ready to go after she told him that if it was decontamination, there was a chance they'd need to book it as fast as they could. It was better to be safe than it was to be sorry if a situation was unknown, and she went around to the other rooms and told them to be ready and keep as much of their things on them as possible. She knew it was the smartest thing for all of them that they be ready to leave at a moment's notice depending on what the men found by the generators. Daryl was sharing the last bottle of liquor they'd pilfered when the sound of the air stopped, followed by the lights going off not ten minutes later. Confused, they grabbed their bags and bows before Daryl opened the door, hanging out the doorway as several others left their rooms and ventured into the hallway too. Jenner was walking by dressed in an actual suit with a white lab coat and looking more clean than he had in the last twelve or so hours they had been there. He grabbed the bottle of liquor Daryl still had in his hand and took a long drink from it before he answered the questions of what was happening to the facility's functions.
"Energy use is being prioritized," the man offered.
"Air isn't a priority?" Dale asked, "and lights?"
Daryl was pulling Tea by the wrist behind him as he followed the doctor back to the big room with the others trailing behind. She managed to break his hold on her wrist and instead grab his hand, squeezing it as the doctor remained silent and simply went to one of the work stations and sat down. The others were obviously running back into the room at the loud sound of footfalls coming from below. Lori leaned over the edge and called for Rick, a couple of the others asking what was happening. They found out that there was hardly even a barrel of oil left in the basement to power the entire facility. It was only a matter of time before the barrel was empty and the facility would lose all electrical functions.
"It's not up to me," Jenner told the older man. "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
"Hey!" Daryl said, moving away from Tea and storming after the man. "Hey, what the hell does that mean? Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean, shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"
"You'd be surprised," was his only answer.
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked as soon as he was back to the work stations, trying to keep his voice gentle as he moved closer to the man.
"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule," the man told them standing up and turning to hand Daryl back the bottle, who snatched it away, before walking over to Andrea to answer her previous question. "It was the French."
"What?" she asked confused.
"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs until the end. They thought they were close to a solution."
"What happened?" Jacqui asked.
"The same thing that's happening here," Jenner said, heading back over to the work stations and sitting down. "No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel! I mean, how stupid is that?"
Shane followed him up, "Let me tell you-"
"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care," Rick said, turning to Lori. "Lori, grab our things, everybody get your stuff. We're getting out of here. NOW!"
They all began trying to get their things on, already having their packs ready at Tea's insistence, but in the anxiety of the situation left many moving haphazardly in an attempt to move as quickly as possible. The second the clock said there was thirty minutes left, an alarm began to sound, making Tea snap her hands to her ears and close her eyes while wincing. Daryl turned around and saw her as she had ripped her wrist from her grip when the alarm first sounded. Many of the others were obviously scared by the alarm as well, but Tea was just overwhelmed by the loud noise coming from every direction, not necessarily scared. Daryl and Shane both were getting pissed off the longer the cacophony of the alarm and the others shouting and crying grew even louder. Seeing Tea in such a vulnerable state put Daryl on the offensive before he began stalking towards the doctor.
"Doc, what's goin' on here now?" Daryl yelled.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick," Shane said. "Now, everybody! Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!"
They'd barely been able to make it to the ramp when metal doors banged closed and prevented them from leaving. "Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked in shock as they all came to a halt. "He just locked us in!"
"You son of a bitch!" Daryl exclaimed, pushing his way through the group and heading straight for the doctor with the bottle of liquor in his hand.
"Shane!" Rick shouted, pointing at Daryl, seeing as he was closer to the man.
"You locked us in here!" Daryl shouted, some of the other men trying to go after him and stop him from attacking the doctor.
"No, stop! Don't" Glenn tried.
"You lyin'-" Daryl started as Shane and T-Dog reached him and pushed him back until he wasn't trying to bash the man's skull in with it.
"Hey, Jenner, open that door now," Rick said as he walked up to him and tried to reason with the man.
"There's no point," Jenner replied. "Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exists are sealed."
"Well open the damn things," Daryl growled out.
"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you, once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."
"What is?" Rick asked. "What happens in 28 minutes?"
When the doctor just turned back to the work station, Shane yelled the question at him again while pulling him away from it. "Come on," Jenner started before getting worked up. "You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! EVER!" he roared while rounding on Rick, Shane, and Daryl. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack, for example, H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out," he said as he composed himself and sat back down.
"H.I.T.s?" Rick asked.
"VI, define."
"H.I.T.s – high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear," the computer automated voice replied as many of the women broke down while the men were in shock. "The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5000 and 6000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
"Holy fuckin' shite in a motha fuckin' handbasket! This place is goin' up in flames!" Tea yelled, full Irish brogue on display as she lunged toward the doctor herself, only for Rick and Glenn to get in her way and try to hold her back while she fought as hard as she could without hurting the men who didn't deserve it. "He's gonna fuckin' kill us! The damn things set the air on fire! They're known as the best thermobaric fuckin' bombs in the whole damn world! They'll fuckin' tear this place apart along with everythin' in it and 'e's fuckin' locked us in 'ere! The bastard fuckin' locked us in 'ere ta die!"
"No pain. An end to sorrow, grief, regret," Jenner tried to reason. "Everything."
The clock continued its countdown, Daryl, T-Dog, and Shane began trying to find a way to open the doors. Nothing worked even as the women began crying and just sitting on the floor holding their children once again while Tea was still being blocked from trying to get at the doctor by Glenn and Dale. Since she didn't want to hurt the only two people who had actively kept an opinion of her based on her deeds and not her attitude towards certain people, she simply paced back and forth while stewing in anger. Jenner simply kept sitting in the same spot staring at the others as they worked desperately to try to open the door.
"You should of just left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier," he told them.
"Easier for who?" Lori spat.
"All of you," Jenner reasoned. "You know what's out there. A short brutal life and an agonizing death. Your, your sister," he said turning to Andrea. "What was her name?"
"Don' ya fuckin' bring 'er up in this!" Tea yelled at him, her accent still present, as Andrea answered him.
"Amy."
"You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and kids?" he asked Rick.
"I don't want this," Rick said as Shane walked up out of breath, letting him know they couldn't do anything.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner said.
"Well your head ain't!" Daryl yelled as he approached the man with the ax raised.
Rick and Dale had to grab a hold of Daryl as he tried to attack Jenner with the ax in his hand, but Tea stepped in front of him to reason, "We need 'im ta keep 'is head long enough ta get those doors open," she told him as T-Dog ripped the ax from his grip. "We don' know the fuckin' code ta get us out a here and top-side."
Jenner stood up to face Rick, trying to make him understand by throwing his own words back at him. "You do want this," he told him. "Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."
The gasps of surprise and Lori's "What?" did not go unnoticed.
"What? You really say that?" Shane asked. "After all your big talk?"
"No' really that saprisin', is it? Even before the world wen' ta shite, people died. Everyone dies, eventually," Tea spat back.
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick told him in irritation.
"There is no hope," Jenner countered. "There never was."
"There's always hope," Rick started. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody, somewhere..."
"What part of 'everything's gone' do you not understand?" Andrea asked.
"Listen to your friend," Jenner said. "She gets it."
"Nah," Tea said, "She's grievin'. And ya playin' on that grief and makin' 'er see the darka side 'stead a movin' forward."
"Don't talk for me, Tea," Andrea said. "You don't know me."
"I don' have ta know ya ta know whah ya thinkin' righ' now, Andrea," Tea shot back, her accent still on display. "But ya know damn well ya sista wouldn' fuckin' want ya thinkin' what ya thinkin' jus' 'cause it was offa'd ta ya."
"This is what takes us out," Jenner told her in an attempt to make her see it his way. "This is our extinction event."
"Ya don' fuckin' know that!" she yelled back.
"This isn't right," Carol choked out through tears as she sat with Sophia on the floor. "You can't just keep us here."
"One tiny moment. A millisecond. A tiny pain," he tried to reason again.
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this!"
"Wouldn't it be kinder? More compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"
"I think you're lying," Rick said.
"What?"
"You're lying," he reiterated, "about there bein' no hope. If that were true you would have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. But you didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"
"It doesn't matter," Jenner said.
"It does matter!" Rick pushed. "It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"
"Not because I wanted to," Jenner shouted back as he stood up. "I made a promise. To her. My wife," he said pointing at the screen, his voice quieting down and starting to break the longer he spoke.
"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asked.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying," he said, Daryl going back to try to open the door with the ax. "It should have been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anyone. She was a loss to the world! Hell, she ran this place while I just worked here! In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just...I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could have done something about this. Not me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice," Rick added. "You do. That's, that's all we want. A choice, and a chance."
"Let us keep trying as long as we can," came Lori's weak and shaky voice.
"Ya makin' yaself a murdara," Tea told him. "Are ya really okay wit' leavin' this world with the blood of lidle kids on ya hands? Are ya okay with goin' ou' forcin' others ta go ou' wit' ya? 'Cause if ya are, ya no betta than the pricks ovaseas with their suicide bombs. Only difference is they think they're dyin' for somethin' wort' believin' in, a cause they are willin' ta sacrifice everythin' for. What's ya conviction for keepin' us 'ere?" Tea saw the moment he cracked. Jenner looked down and shook his head. He was on the verge of tears, so she calmly added, "Ya chose ta keep ya promise. Let us keep ttat promise ta 'er, too. Let us honor 'er memory and keep goin', as long as we can."
He sighed as he walked around Rick and Tea, "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." He released the door.
"Come on!" Daryl shouted. "Ania, come on! Let's go!"
She didn't wait for him to call her a second time. Running at top speed, Tea ran right past him and into the corridor. She listened as Jacqui fought against T-Dog and decided to stay, turning her head just enough to see the confrontation before concentrating on getting to the elevator. They had four minutes left to get topside and find a way to get out of the building before it exploded with them still trapped. Even as they packed into the elevator, Tea didn't have time to freak out as she clung to Daryl around his back just in case it was the last time she'd be able to hold him. He had one of his hands covering hers in front of them as he watched impatiently as the floors ticked by. As soon as they were on the top floor and the doors opened, the two let go of each other as everyone began to run towards the glass doors that barred their escape. Daryl and Shane threw the axes at the doors and then the windows. They weren't even able to make a scratch, not even when T-Dog threw a chair at them. Shane grabbed a shotgun and loaded it, aiming towards the glass while telling everyone to take cover before pulling the trigger.
"Don'!" Tea yelled just as he did so, the bullet hitting the glass and ricocheting off of it to who knew where. "Don' ya eva use ya fuckin' head?! This place is built ta savive a terrorist attack! It's got bulletproof glass, ya fuckin' numbskull!"
"We can't break the glass?" Sophia asked her as Rick caught up to the group by far carrying the heaviest load in the form of the bag of guns and bullets they had.
"Rick," Carol said, walking up to the man while digging in her bag. "I think I might have something that might help."
"Carol, I don't think a nail file's going to help right now," Shane said condescendingly.
"That first night at camp," she continued, completely ignoring Shane and earning a smirk from Tea as the woman stood up to herself for the first time, "when I did your laundry? I found this in your pocket."
In her outstretched palm was an old grenade that would definitely be able to blow the glass out, but to do it would risk endangering the group or even one member if it wasn't used right. Whoever placed it would only have 6 seconds to get the hell out of dodge and under cover or they'd be covered in shrapnel and debris while the rest of them would need to make sure they were far enough away to be out of range of the blast. Rick seemed to be carefully thinking about it to before he told everybody to get down. Tea pulled Carol and Sophia with her as Daryl ushered her to the stairwell, Shane pulling Lori and Carl while Glenn and T-Dog raced to the stairwell on their own and threw themselves down the first few steps. Tea covered Sophia from the side that Carol wasn't holding, not wanting the little girl to be hurt just in case they weren't far enough away from the glass. Daryl put his body over Tea, but spread his arms wide enough to make sure the little girl was safe too after seeing how Tea was trying to protect her, too. It didn't take long for Rick to place the grenade with a cuss before running and jumping towards the stairwell just in time to avoid the explosion. Only one panel of the glass broke, but it was more than enough for everyone to get out. Shane and Rick were shouting at the others, stopping to wait for the kids and remaining women down, aside from Tea who simply jumped down and took off towards the vehicles with Daryl right behind, each taking out a walker along the way.
Daryl grabbed a hold of her elbow right as they got to the truck and pulled her in front of him before pushing her forward towards the driver's side. Opening the door, she dived into the truck and moved off the seat and onto the floor. It would give him more space to duck in cover on the seat and she was small enough to curl in the small area next to the seat with her side pressed towards Daryl. As soon as he got in, he laid down on the seat and wrapped his arms around her head, his legs next to her back, as she wrapped her arms up behind his as they both buried their faces in the other's neck. They sat like that with baited breath, counting down the seconds until the RV's horn started sounding off in urgency seconds before the deafening sound of the explosion shook the truck. Wave after wave seemed to rock it until it just stopped and all that was left was the sound of a roaring fire. Daryl carefully extracted himself from around Tea and glanced over the dashboard as she started climbing back on the seat. What had once been the CDC was now a blazing ruin with a few other small fires beginning to take root in other areas around, especially the tank that had been in front of the building.
As the vehicles began to pull out, Tea sat in the middle seat with her hand on Daryl's thigh as her body began to shake. Her nerves were absolutely shot as she began processing the fact that they really did almost die just a few minutes ago and there would have been nothing she could have done about it. The thought of that alone was more terrifying than a walker attack; at least she could fight back against the walkers. How was she supposed to fight an explosion that set all the air in a targeted vicinity on fire. She was happy to see Dale and Andrea climbing into the RV after taking refuge behind the sandbags just as the explosion began. With how badly the truck had been rocking, she couldn't imagine being outside of the safety of the vehicles as it went off. Their convoy quickly began moving in order to turn around and find someplace else to stay for the night. They needed to get away from the city or at least into the confines of safety before the walkers got too bad or they became too noticeable and began attracting attention. Daryl grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss against the back, his own nerves wrecked at the thought of what had happened, before putting it back in his lap and holding it there. The group moved away from the burning building and back to the relative safety of the outskirts while Tea watched the fire from CDC growing smaller in the rearview mirror until all it was was a billow of smoke on the horizon.
*SEASON ONE END*
