Atlanta

It was into the early hours of the night when the RV finally stopped, and I stole a glance out the window.

"Are we here?" Glenn gave me a simple nod and I got to my feet, waking up Dani and following Andrea outside. The first thing that hit me was the horrendous smell, and then it was the cruel sight of hundreds of corpses, lying spread across the car park. What the hell happened here?

Everyone advanced toward the entrance, their guns at the ready. I only had my pole, but I wasn't complaining. I wasn't the best at shooting a gun, but this, I could use. I kept within the group, but the smell was overwhelming. I kept a hand over my mouth while I moved along, speeding up a little to get away from here as fast as possible. We got to the gates quickly, but there was nothing waiting for us at the end. I stood at the back of the group, glancing around us to make sure nothing was sneaking up around us. I glanced to the left, and then to a right, and jumped when a geek came sauntering up.

"Walker!" I called, to warn the group. Everyone turned around, but the fatal blow came from an arrow.

"Lets move!" Daryl shouted to the group, but there were a few protests. There were shouts from the front of the group, but I didn't get involved this time. I just kept a fresh eye.

"We're trapped." I heard Andrea say, but I grabbed her shoulder.

"We're not trapped, we're not trapped until we're surrounded. We'll get through this, okay?" She gave me a doubtful glance, before turning back to the argument ensuing at the front. I turned to my side to see Daryl and T-Dog, locked and loaded. "What the hell is going on?" I asked them, still scanning the area.

"The shutters are down, and no one's responding." T-Dog called over, and I cursed under my breath.

"We best just getting as far away from here as possible." Daryl muttered.

"And go where?" I asked him, and he said nothing.

"Back to the cars!" Shane called out, and everyone sprinted back to safety, but I didn't hurry - we had to keep hope. I ran over to join Rick, when I saw the camera move.

"The camera!" Rick called out, warning everyone to stop. "It moved!"

"You imagined it." Dale said, unsure.

"He's not! I saw it!" I called in Rick's defense, and everyone stopped. Rick moved closer, not taking his eyes off it.

"Even if it did move it's an online device, it's just automatic, just come on!" Shane tugged on his arm trying to drag him over, but he stayed. Instead, he ran toward the shutter, and banged on it as hard as he could.

"I know you're in there!" He yelled, ignoring the shouts of protest coming from the whole group. "I know you can hear me! Please! We're desperate! Please help us! We have women and children! We have no gas, nowhere else to go!" Lori tried to drag him away, but I kept her off him. For some reason, I believed him.

"Michelle! Get off me!" Lori yelled at me, but I didn't.

"What if there's someone here and you're denying us somewhere to stay!?" I screamed back, and added another kick to the shutter.

"Michelle don't you start too!" Shane yelled, and kept encouraging everyone to get back to their cars.

"If you don't let us in-"

"Please help us! You can't-" I felt heavy arms around me pulling me away, but I struggled, still yelling directly at the camera. "LET US IN FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"

"YOU'RE KILLING US!" Shane threw Rick backwards, and the arms released me. I swung around, ready to clock whoever it was, but the sight of Daryl's face stopped me. I just glared at him, and ran back over to the shutter, only for it to open fully, blinding us with light. It took a few moments to sink in, but once it did, I felt my heart wheeze with relief. Everyone began to pile in through the doors, and we spent the first few minutes looking around for walkers, but when it was clear, we had time to gather our thoughts. For now, we were safe.

"Anybody infected?" My gaze swung over to the door on the right, where an exhausted looking man had a terrifying looking machine gun pointed at us. I tried to convince myself that I didn't have to worry, knowing that none of us was infected, but I couldn't help but hide at the back once more.

"One of our group was. He didn't make it," Rick informed him, taking the lead as usual. Not that I was complaining, we wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Rick.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man asked, nearing us a little. Rick stepped forward.

"A chance." The man lowered his gun slightly.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." I stared at him, absoloutely clueless what to do or say.

"I know," was all he could get out. The man scanned over all of us, obviously seeing what he was dealing with. There was five women, two kids and an elderly, it would be hard to refuse us.

"You will all submit to a blood test, that's the price of entry." I didn't have a problem with that, and neither did anyone, but the looks of it.

"We can do that," Rick said, speaking for the group. The man lowered his gun completely and pointed to the door.

"If theres anything you need to get, get it now. When these doors shut they stay shut." Glenn, T-Dog, Shane, Daryl and Rick all sprinted out right away, so I handed my pole to Carol, and Andrea accompanied me out. We sprinted down to the RV, collecting everyones bags. Once we had stepped out of the RV, Daryl appeared.

"Anything I can carry for ya?" I shook my head, trying to be as quick as possible.
"We got it." I ran forward, before turning to see what was happening with the food. "Don't take the food, there's no point. There'll be food in here, right? Keep it so there's some when we get back."

Glenn nodded in agreement, and we continued back up to the CDC. We rushed in through the door as T-Dog and Dale closed it over, locking us in here. The shutters closed over once more, and we all pushed into a massive lift. I ended up at the back, next to Daryl. Of course. He said nothing, but continously glanced down at me. I don't know if he was doing it just because I was there, to see if alright or just because he wanted to. I preferred the latter but hey, we can't always get what we want.

"You doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked finally, to end the silence, and the man - Dr Jenners as he had introduced himself - turned to face us.

"There were plenty lying around, so I familiarised myself. But you look harmless enough." He flashed a cheeky smile, which no one seemed to find very amusing, but I couldn't stop a sly smile coming through. He caught my eye in particular and gave an innocent wink, bringing heat to my cheeks, as much as I didn't....really want it. I mean hey, I liked Daryl right? Not some guy that threatened us with a machine gun? Then again, my chances with Daryl...? Talking about Daryl, I could practically feel his eyes on me, I didn't have to turn around. "Except you, i'll have to keep my eye on you," he said to Carl, who smiled shyly. I loosened up slightly, liking this guy. Edwin Jenners, huh?

Once the lift stopped, we began walking through a corridor, nothing but white everywhere.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked, and Jenners turned around momentarily.

"Are you claustrophobic?"

"A little." Jenner turned around as Carol's paces became slightly smaller.

"Try not to think about it." Ideas of what was to come became clearer all of a sudden. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." The massive room in front of us suddenly lit up, showing hundreds of desks and chairs, and a massive screen at the back. "Welcome to Zone 5." Everyone moved on ahead, following Dr Jenners. I was compeletely dumbfounded, and at awe at the same time. There was so much room, why hadn't this guy taken people in?

"Where is everybody?" Rick asked, and I realised that I hadn't even noticed the fact that Dr Jenners was the only one here. "The doctors? The staff?"

"I'm it. I'm all there is." He said, stopping in the middle of a large circular area above everything else.

"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori asked, obviously referring to "Vi". Jeez, doesn't anyone watch sci-fi movies anymore? Wasn't it obvious? Jenners raised his voice again.

"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them, 'welcome'." A computerised voice echoed throughout the room.

"Hello guests. Welcome." Jenners merely nodded.

"See? I'm the only one here." I looked at my feet, both pitiful that this guy has had to live in solitude for so long, and that we didn't exactly have a lot here. "I'm sorry." We walked forward, preparing for the blood tests. "Who's first?" Rick stepped forward, setting the example for the others. The test was quick and obviously painless, but Andrea had a point to make.

"What's the point in these tests? We'd clearly have a fever if we were infected."

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here," Jenners explained as Shane sat in front of him. "The least I can do is be thorough."

"So what's going to happen to us then?" I asked, but all he did was flash me a charming smile.