I sit in the jeep at the bottom of the hill watching as the others say their farewells to Jim. I had tried to say my own goodbyes but all that came out was a sob so Shane led me back down to the jeep and told me to wait.
Daryl's the last one to start heading back toward the vehicles. Looking back up at Jim I see him turn his head and give me a weak smile. I return it with my own teary one.
"I thought we were gonna save Jim?" I say to Shane, once he gets in the Jeep. My eyes are once again teary.
Shane sounds remorseful as he says, "There wasn't enough time kid."
Everyone gets back into their respective vehicles and we head off again.
Time seems to pass slowly as we drive down the abandoned highway.
I watch a small group of walkers stumbling around in the parking lot of some old laundromat. The windows are all shattered and a car is rolled on its side at the entrance. A woman's body is limply hanging against the seatbelt keeping her from being smashed up against the window. I notice streaks of dried blood on her face, bite marks littering her arms, I wince and quickly look away.
"Charlie?" Shane asks.
"Yeah?"
Would you mind grabbing my bag from the back seat?"
Unbuckling my seat I carefully lean over and pull Shanes's bag up to the front seat. It takes more effort than I thought it would, his bag is heavy.
"Are you carrying around rocks or something? Your bag weighs a ton," I tell him.
He laughs and glances at me with a smile. "Open it."
I unzip it and look inside. A couple of guns are safely tucked to the side, and boxes of bullets, tools, and other miscellaneous items are scattered throughout. Right on top though was a can of soda.
I look back at Shane with excitement.
"Found that at the gas station. Figured you could drink it on the way."
"Really? Thank you, Shane!" Grabbing the soda I tap the lid a couple of times before popping it open and taking a sip.
"There was only one left, so don't go telling the other kids about it, okay?"
"I won't," I promise. I take another sip and wonder why he gave it to me and not Carl. He probably hates soda or something.
"Shane?"
"Yeah, Charlie?"
"Shouldn't you give this to Carl?" I ask hesitantly.
His eyes harden and his voice deepens. "Carl's got his own dad to take care of him."
After that, I keep quiet, content with just sipping my soda and watching the sun as it crosses the sky. It's hot and without a roof over the jeep to keep the sunlight out I'm beginning to melt. Shane's hat helps keep it out of my eyes but that's it. Whenever we'd get to an open road we'd speed up and the wind would help. Hopefully, we're almost there.
We'd been on the highway for a while when we finally take an exit and drive through a few streets. This area is more built up than where'd we been earlier. It's much closer to the city, bigger buildings and apartment complexes were scattered throughout the roads.
Passing a few lone walkers we drive up to a huge building. The front is mostly large glass windows except for the entrance. As the cars roll to a stop I notice the hundreds of bodies littered about. Military weapons and barricades were set up along the pathway leading up to the CDC. The closer we got the more I could smell the rotting corpses.
"Shit," Shane mutters as he parks the jeep.
We're right behind Daryl's truck as we get out, he stares out across the lawn covered in dead bodies.
"Charlie, stay with Jacqui," Shane said, keeping his voice low.
Weaving my way through our small group I head toward Jacqui.
"Hi sweetie," She says as I get close.
I give her a small wave and stand to the right of her.
The smell is even worse than before. Even Shane has a hard time not gagging. I use my hands to cover my nose, hoping to block out just a little of the smell. As we make our way through the bodies I try not to throw up.
A bullet hole is through the head of every single walker. Flies swarm over every corpse, causing a buzzing sound so loud it makes me want to scream.
With every step I take Shane's hat falls into my eyesight causing me to continuously lift it back up. I'd almost prefer it to be blocking my line of vision if I wasn't worried that I'd trip over one of the bodies.
Rick guides everyone toward the CDC doors, Shane keeps to the side keeping an eye out for any walkers.
"Stay quiet. Keep moving," Shane says.
Jacqui holds me close, keeping me from wandering away. Not that I'd want to. Carol is holding on to Sophia and Lori keeps a firm hold on Carl's hand.
I just want to get inside and get away from all these bodies. I'm trying my best not to throw up but I've never had the strongest stomach and the closer we get to the entrance, the more bodies there are. Swallowing some of the rising bile and keeping my eyes fixed on Shane I continue walking forward.
The doors to the CDC are blocked by large metal shutters. Shane pounds on the door and tries to lift it. Nothing happens though.
T-dog steps forward. "There's nobody here."
Rick bangs on the door. "Then why are the shutters down?"
"Walkers!" Daryl shouts.
I jump and spin around just in time to see an arrow fly through its head. Jacqui turns me away before I see it hit the ground.
Daryl starts yelling and heads toward Rick. "You led us into a graveyard!"
"He made a call," Shane shouts back.
"It was the wrong damn call!"
Shane intercepts Daryl before he gets to Rick. "Just shut up. You hear? Shut up!" He pushes Daryl back and turns to Rick. "Rick, this is a dead end."
Carol lets out a cry. "Where are we gonna go?" She wraps her arms tighter around Sophia.
"She's right, we can't be this close to the city after dark," Lori adds.
More walkers head toward us and Daryl begins shooting at them. I start crying. It's the only thing I can seem to do. There's nowhere to go and we have to run through a field of walkers to get back to the cars.
"Shh, shh we'll be alright," Jacqui whispers in my ear.
"Fort Benning, still an option Rick," Shane tells him.
Andrea speaks up now, "On what? No food, no fuel. That's a hundred miles."
"125, I checked the map," Glenn steps forward to add.
Carl has tears running down his face now too. He holds onto his mom's arm tight.
"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers now, tonight!"
"We'll think of something," Rick answers.
"Come on, let's go. Everybody back to the cars," Shane instructs. He turns toward me. "C'mon Charlie." I walk up to him and stand by his side. He pauses and then we start moving toward the cars, but I notice Rick stays.
"The camera, it moved!"
Everyone stops and looks back.
"You imagined it," Dale says.
Rick wouldn't lie about something like that. My eyes are now fixed on the camera, watching to see if it moves again.
"It moved," Rick insists.
Shane leaves my side, much to my dismay, and grabs Rick's arm to pull him away. "Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on."
Rick shakes off Shane's hold on him and bangs on the shutter doors.
"Rick there's no one in there!" His wife shouts.
He ignores her and continues pounding on the door. "I know you're in there. I know you can hear me."
I stop crying now and start panicking. I don't want the last thing I do to be crying. I try taking deep breaths to calm myself but it's not working. Someone comes up beside me and puts a hand on my shoulder. Looking up I see it's Daryl.
"Kid, stay with Glenn." He leads me up beside him.
"Hey. Hey, Charlie. Just stay right behind me, got it?" Glenn instructs. He fixes his grip on his gun. Walkers get closer and closer, Glenn aims at the closest ones, prepared to fire.
I stay behind him listening to Rick's yelling.
"Please, we're desperate! Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left!"
Lori runs up to him. "Rick, Rick please, come on."
He still ignores her and keeps yelling at the camera. "We have nowhere else to go!" He pounds on the door again. "If you don't let us in you're killing us! Please!" He pleads.
Shane finally manages to pull him away from the door but it does nothing to stop his shouting.
"You're killing us! You're killing us!"
We begin leaving, taking a final glance at the closed shutters and our last hope of a cure.
A loud grating noise erupts from the building and before I can even turn around we're all encased in a blinding white light.
The doors are open.