To Keep You Close to Me

I was woken up by the sound of Daryl rummaging around the tent. He was gathering all of our belongings and taking them to the truck. Even though I was still tired, I forced myself up and began folding the blankets. After I packed them all away, I carried the duffle bag to the truck and threw it in the back. Daryl stood outside the tent, starting to take it down.

“Need any help?” I asked, trying to make up with him.

“No.” Sighing, I started taking the stakes out of the ground. Daryl stopped what he was doing and stared at me.

“What?” I questioned.

“Said I didn’t need help,” Daryl stated. I tried to protest, but he stopped me and told me to go with the group.

“Fine,” I huffed and walked away. Shane stood in front of the group, giving everyone instructions on what to do. He told us that we would have to beep our horn once, and that would stop the RV. After he was done with his speech, Morales stepped forward to announce that he wouldn’t be joining us.

“You’re on your own, you won’t have anyone to watch your back,” Shane rudely told them.

“We’ll take the chance,” he said. The group said their goodbyes to the family, hugging them and wishing them luck. Rick gave Morales a handgun just in case. Daryl walked over, biting his thumb nail like he always did.

“Everything packed up?” I asked. Daryl nodded. He then saw Shane give Morales a box half filled with ammo. Daryl scoffed and walked to the truck, jumping in and starting the engine. I said my last goodbyes to the family and followed Daryl.

The RV drove out of the driveway and one by one the cars followed. We only drove for a half hour before the RV stopped. Everyone climbed out of their cars to see what was wrong. Some kind of hose went out or something. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about cars.

“I see something up ahead,” Shane announced. “Gas station if we’re lucky.”

“Y’all, Jim, it’s bad,” Jacqui told us as she ran out of the RV. “I don’t think he can take anymore.”

Jacqui ran back into the RV as Shane decided he was going to go check out the gas station. T-Dog went with him, too. I walked back to our truck and leaned against it. Lori saw me by myself and walked over.

“Everything alright?” she asked.

“Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“With Daryl?”

“Daryl’s Daryl. We just had a little fight, that’s all,” I told her.

“I’m worried about Jim. I hate to say this, but we have to do something before things get bad,” she said.

“I know. But what is there to do?” I questioned. Before she could respond, Rick climbed out of the RV and called everyone over.

“Jim wants out,” he told us.

“Out?” Lori questioned.

“He doesn’t want to go with us anymore, said he can’t take it. Wants to be left here,” Rick explained.

The group went back and forth on this, but Dale finally told us that it’s Jim’s choice, not ours. I was glad that he intervened because we’d go in circles for hours on what was the right thing to do. Rick and Shane went inside to get Jim. They carried him out and gently sat him by a tree. Rick offered him a gun, but Jim didn’t want it. He said he wanted to be with his family.

Everyone said goodbye to him and went back to their cars. We had to get back on the road soon. It’ll almost be dark by the time we get there.



When we arrived at the CDC, it looked like a scene from a movie. There were bodies everywhere. It smelled awful. There were several tanks and abandoned vehicles. It looked like the entire place was deserted. We got out of our cars anyway and walked towards the building. We had to cover our noses due to the retched smell. As we approached the building, Rick and Shane tried to open the gates to the main entrance, but they were unsuccessful. They tried knocking, but we all knew that it was a lost cause.

“There’s nobody here,” T-Dog stated.

“Then why are these shutters down?” Rick questioned.

“Walkers!” Daryl yelled as he cocked his gun. Panic spread through the group as we turned around to see a small group of walkers advancing towards us. Daryl’s crossbow released an arrow into the closest walker.

“Let’s go!” Daryl yelled angrily.

“He made a call,” Dale said.

“It was the wrong damn call!” Daryl angrily stepped towards Rick, but was stopped by Shane.

“Shut up, shut up!” Shane ordered, pushing Daryl away. “Rick, this is a dead end.”

“Where are we going to go?” I asked.

“She’s right, we can’t be this close to the city after dark,” Lori agreed.

“Fort Benning, Rick, still an option,” Shane said.

“On what? No food, no fuel. It’s a hundred miles!” Andrea stated.

Daryl and T-Dog pointed their guns at the walkers while the others argued about where to go. Both Carl and Sophia were crying and the adults were panicking. What were we going to do? We were screwed unless we found somewhere else to go.

Shane started pulling everyone away from the doors, but Rick stayed behind, looking for another way in. Rick yelled for us to stop, claiming that he saw the camera above the door move. Shane and Lori yelled at him to try and convince him to get away from the building, but Rick didn’t budge. He really believed that there was someone in there.

Shane and Lori were pulling Rick away and almost got him to move, but then the door opened.