Status: active

To Keep You Close to Me

Moving On

Tears formed as the group held on to one another. Lori and Rick pulled Carl close to them and Carol held Sophia close to her. This was the end. There was no way getting out of here. I didn’t want to live this life anymore, but it didn’t mean I wanted to end my life right here. We could have a chance out there. Maybe something will happen and it’ll all be over. We needed a chance.

“It sets the air on fire, no pain,” Jenner stated.

Daryl, Rick and Glenn went over to the door to try and pry it open. Once they realized it wouldn’t budge, Daryl threw his bottle out of frustration and it smashed into a million pieces. He then demanded that Jenner open the door. Shane ran towards the door with an axe and slammed it against the metal. T-Dog tossed another axe to Daryl, who joined in on the slamming.

Tears started rolling down my cheeks. This wasn’t how I would have wanted my life to end. Even though I had Daryl with me, this isn’t how I wanted it to happen. We just made up, and now it’s over? It wasn’t fair.

“You should’ve left well enough alone. It would’ve been so much easier,” Jenner said.

“For who?” I asked.

“All of you. You know what’s out there. A short, brutal life, an agonizing death.”

“This isn’t what I wanted!” Rick said.

“We can’t make a dent,” Shane sighed.

“Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher,” Jenner said.

“Well your head ain’t!” Daryl yelled as he ran towards Jenner with the axe.

“Daryl!” I yelled, grabbing at this shirt. Rick, Dale and T-Dog joined together to hold him back. I yanked the axe out of his hand and tossed it on the ground.

“You do want this,” Jenner said to Rick. “You said last night it was just a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead.” We all looked at Rick, except for Lori, who glared at him.

“You really said that?” Shane questioned.

“I had to keep hope alive, didn’t I?”

“There is no hope,” Jenner stated. “There never was.”

“There’s always hope. Maybe it won’t be you, not here, but somebody, somewhere!”

“What part of everything’s gone don’t you understand?” Andrea spat.

“Just because France was the last one still standing, doesn’t mean that everything’s gone,” I spat back at her.

“Listen to your friend, she gets it. This is what takes us down,” Jenner said. “This is our extinction.”

“This isn’t right, you can’t just keep us here,” Carol cried.

“One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain,” Jenner said.

“My daughter doesn’t deserve to die like this,” she cried.

“Wouldn’t it be kinder, more compassionate to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?” Though Jenner had a point, I still couldn’t agree. We got so far on our own before, we could do it again.

I heard the cocking of a shotgun as Shane pointed it at Jenner. Others tried to convince Shane to put his gun down. Shane’s breathing was heavy as he kept his gun pointed at Jenner’s head. He then fired four shots into the surrounding computers. Rick took the gun and pushed Shane to the ground. Rick then handed the gun to T-Dog and turned around.

“I think you’re lyin’,” Rick said to Jenner. “About no hope. If that were true, you would’ve bolted with the rest, taken the easy way out. You didn’t. You chose the hard path. Why?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jenner shook his head.

“It does matter, it always matters. You stayed, when others ran. Why?”

“It’s not because I wanted to. I made a promise…to her,” Jenner said as he pointed towards the blank screen. “My wife.”

“Test subject 19 was your wife?” I asked.

“She begged me to keep going as long as I could.” The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed through the room as Daryl tried to axe once more.

“Your wife didn’t have a choice, we do. That’s all we want. A choice, a chance,” Rick said.

“Let us keep trying as long as we can,” Lori pleaded.

“I told you, top sides locked down, I can’t open those,” Jenner said as he walked over to a key pad. He swiped his card and typed something. The doors opened and Daryl yelled for us. I sprinted across the room, catching up with Daryl as he ran to our room. We started packing our stuff and throwing it over our shoulders.

The group came out to the lobby with all of our stuff. They were trying to smash the windows with the axes, but the glass was too thick. T-Dog grabbed a chair and slammed it against, but it did nothing. Shane grabbed his shotgun and fired a round into the glass, but it failed. The glass wouldn’t shatter.

“Rick, I have something that might help,” Carol said and pulled a grenade from a bag.

“Val!” Daryl called as Rick set up the grenade by the window. Daryl pulled me away from the window and down to the ground. He covered my body with his own as we heard the explosion. The window had shattered from the blast. We grabbed our bags and ran out the window.

Walkers crowded the grass in front of us, but we cleared a path and ran to the cars. Daryl and I quickly jumped into the truck. He pushed me down into the seat and laid over me. Dale and Andrea were the last two to emerge from the building, leaving Jenner and Jacqui inside. They ran towards us, not making it to the cars in time. They hid behind a tank as the CDC blew up.

We watched as the building was in flames. Anything around it had also caught on fire. I looked at Daryl in relief, grabbing and squeezing his hand. Once it was safe, the RV drove off and the cars followed. We didn’t know where we were going, but we had to move on.
♠ ♠ ♠
Sorry it's taken so long to update this! If you guys comment more, I'll be more motivated to write. So please comment!

Thanks to those who did comment! You guys are amazing!
Sarahlamppost
RoadieEm
EmillyX213
ninaluvsathena
Serah-Elizabeth