Broken Sundown

The sun was beginning to set when we finally pulled up as close as we could to a large building in the city surrounded by barricades covered in dead bodies of civilians and soldiers. There were flies everywhere, and the stench was near unbearable.

Lori covered Carl's mouth and nose with a cloth and told him to hold it there, she ushered Carl out of the vehicle as we gathered into a huddle. Carol made Sophia do the same.

"All right, everybody. Keep moving, stay quiet and stay together. Keep moving until we get there." Shane said.

"Keep moving, come on." Rick ushered people along.

When we got within touching distance of the building, we discovered that all of the windows were covered from the inside with metal shutters and all of the steel doors were locked as well.

Shane pounded on the door several times, murmurs fell within the group of what to do.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog sighed heavily.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asked, continuing to pound on the door.

"Walkers!" Daryl yelled in a whisper.

Lori and Carol ushered the children over to a clean barricade to hide behind.

"You led us to a graveyard!" Daryl yelled towards Rick.

"He made a call." Shane backed him up.

"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl persisted.

"Daryl!" I shouted. "Shut. Up."

"Rick, this is a dead end." Shane murmured.

"Where are we gonna go?" Jacqui asked in a panic.

"She's right, we can't be here, not after dark."

"Fort Benning is still an option, Rick." Shane proposed.

"On what? What have no food and no fuel." Andrea reminded them.

"It's 125 miles." Glenn added in quietly.

"Forget Fort Benning. We wouldn't make it there tonight."

"We'll think of something." Rick said, determined.

"Come on, let's go. Let's get out of here, please." Shane begged Rick.

Rick stood quietly in thought as I looked up at the security cameras, my gun gripped tightly in my hand. Suddenly, I caught the camera move, adjusting to get a better view of all of us.

"Rick..." I whispered.

"No, I saw it too." He whispered back.

"All right, everybody let's get back to the cars."

"The camera moved." Rick spoke up.

"You imagined it." Shane said, still trying to get people to turn around.

"It moved." He said again.

"I saw it too." I confirmed.

"Rick...Delilah.. it is dead. It's an automated device, okay? Now come on."

Rick slammed his fists against the doors again.

"Just listen to me, man! Look around, there's no one here!"

Rick slammed again and I followed behind him.

"Rick! There's nobody here!" Lori yelled.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me!" Rick yelled.

Shane grabbed my arm but I pulled it away. He moved to grab Rick and tried to pull him away.

"Everybody get back to the cars now!" Shane yelled

Rick continued to pound on the doors. "If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!"

Shane tried again to pull him away "Come on, guys. Please, let's go."

"Please help us!" I yelled.

"You're killing us!" Rick yelled after him.

Rick turned away in disappointment and anger, for everyone had already begun to abandon us. But I stood still and stared straight into the camera, hoping that whoever was leaving us for death could feel the pain.

Just as I went to turn after Rick, the doors opened and light flooded us all.

---

"Quick, inside!" Rick yelled.

"Daryl, cover the back!" Shane yelled.

We all rushed into the CDC but not without caution. Daryl pulled up the rear while the rest of us with guns lead the way, checking for clearance before giving the rest of the group the okay.

"Hello?" Rick yelled, his voice echoing in the vast empty building.

"Cover the doors." I murmured to Shane.

I looked around at everyone else and saw they had the same wide-eyed look that Rick and I had. Taking in the cleanliness of the building and the pristine condition of the floors and walls. The inside of this building was virtually untouched by the chaos among it's walls.

The sound of a gun being cocked caused the boys to do the same to their own guns and swiftly bring them up, ready to shoot if necessary.

A man stood alone at the end of the hallway. He was in sweat pants and plain white shirt, a gun, loaded, in his hands. But his hands were shaking and he was just as wary of us as we were of him.

"Any body infected?" He yelled, holding his stance.

"No, no, we're all clean." I yelled back.

The man slowly approached us. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance." Rick answered.

"That's asking an awful lot these days. "The man answered, lowering his weapon but still approaching the group.

"I know." Rick responded.

The man looked around at all of us, and I could tell he was deep within thought. "You'll all submit a blood test. That's the price of admission."

"We can do that." Rick answered, nodding his head.

"If you've got stuff to bring in, you'd better do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed."

We all rushed back to our vehicles to gather our bags and supplies and what other little belongings we had left that we felt we needed still. The kids stayed in the building with Carol and once we all returned, the man ushered us back through the doors and down several long hallways.

The man slid a card down a machine on the wall and whoever was on the other end to shut the doors and shut down the power in that portion of the building again.

"Rick Grimes." He introduced himself once the doors were closed again.

"Dr. Edwin Jenner." He said, still obviously cautious.

All of us crowded into a big steel elevator which brought us down to wherever Jenner intended to keep us.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked as we stood together.

I gave him a look that said to shut up, to not be disrespectful and he rolled his eyes back.

Jenner answered, and joked with Carl a bit, trying to lighten the mood at least for the children. Rick squeezed my hand quickly and then pulled away, and I avoided looking at him for the time being. His gesture was as if to say, our positivity worked.

Jenner lead us all down a long corridor that had several doors on either side. At the end of the hallway was a dark, circular room that had several empty computer stations.

"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." He called out and suddenly the lights came on. "Welcome to Zone 5." Jenner said, continuing into the room.

"Where is everybody?" Rick asked. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it." Jenner said simply.

Jenner answered some questions, introduced us to Vi, the building's main computer system. Jenner seemed to be a very pessimistic guy, but he felt truly sorry that we hadn't found exactly what we came looking for.

Jenner brought us into a separate room and one by one, he received a blood sample from each of us. I remember days when I used to be extremely squeamish at the sight of blood. But it had become such a common part of my daily routine, that I wasn't at all phased watching Jenner take a vile of my blood.

Andrea just about fainted at the end of her turn. Jacqui made it clear to Jenner that we all hadn't eaten in several days. Jenner had an astonished look on his face, perhaps a bit angry with himself that he hadn't thought to ask if any of us were okay.

Jenner prepared a lot of food for us, and he cracked out several bottles of wine and liquor as well. Stuff that had been tucked away in case something like this had ever happened. And with Jenner being the only one left, he had hardly touched the bulk of the supplies.

Dinner was great, the mood was light for once and all of us were actually beginning to feel relatively safe. But I couldn't help feeling like there was something more to the story. Things couldn't be perfect right now, they could never be perfect again.

I sipped my wine and kept to myself through the after dinner conversation. I smiled at Rick a couple of times, and I could tell he felt guilty for neglecting me throughout the evening, but all was forgiven. It was really his fault, after all. Shane got a little too close for comfort a few times, but everyone with the exception of the children was drunk, and who was I to spoil their good time. They deserved it after the hell that had become our lives.

Rick noticed at one point that Jenner too was tucked away from the great party. He was quiet, reserved. He seemed drunk when we had gotten there anyway, so at this point I assumed he truly was.

Rick tapped his glass to silence the group and stood up. "It seems to me that we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog saluted.

"Thank you." Rick said directly to Jenner as the rest of the group continued to rejoice.

Jenner gave a small explanation of what happened to the CDC when the world went up in flames. He didn't go into specifics, but he shared enough information for Shane at least to be satisfied. Jenner got a little dark in his explanation, but was stopped by another question from Andrea.

---

"Most of the facilities powered down, including housing. So I'm afraid you'll have to make do here." Jenner said as he lead us back down the hallway.

When he left us, we all went our separate ways, claiming rooms.

I picked a room at the end of the hall and shut the door behind me. I could hear cheering a few rooms down, and that was probably due to the fact that for the first time in a long time, these people were showering.

I was now thankful that I had in fact kept some of my soaps from home. I didn't think that another shower would come this quickly, but I was so blessed that it had.

I stripped down to nothing and climbed in. Jenner said to go easy on the hot water, but I knew no one would do that considering our desperate wishes to shower. I immediately turned the hot water on and stood underneath if for a great deal of time, letting my hair and sore muscle soak.

I heard someone open the door to my room and I tensed. Of course, it had to be one of our people, but I didn't expect any visitors.

"Hello?" A male voice called.

"I'm in the shower." I responded.

I heard the bathroom door slowly open, but I was hidden by the sliding shower door.

"It's me." Rick answered.

I relaxed a little and poured shampoo into my hand. "What can I do for you?" I asked and massaged my raw scalp.

"I wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"For believing in me, for staying positive." He said, sitting down somewhere in the bathroom.

"Of course, Rick. You don't need to thank me."

"But I have to... I think you're the only one who actually had any faith in me."

"Well... You're welcome." I said quietly, rinsing out my hair.

"Can I join you?" He asked.

I could feel the heat immediately rise to my cheeks, and I thought maybe I had heard him wrong. "What?" I whispered.

"I asked if I could join you."

"Rick, do you really think that's a good idea?" I answered.

"Did I ask if it were a good idea?"

I took a deep breath and there was a pause of silence between us. "Yes." I answered. "Yes, you can join."

Rick didn't say anything as he slid off his jeans, he must have come in without a shirt on, because he was in the shower behind me quicker than I had expected him to be.

I was facing the wall, the shower head, not sure of what to say or do. I had always dreamt of something like this happening with Rick. But never had I ever thought it would be a possibility.

He placed his hands on my shoulder and kissed the back of my head. "You smell good."

I smiled and turned around slowly to face him. I kept my eyes on his and he did the same to me, he cupped my cheek with one of his hands and held our gaze.

"What if Lori finds out." I whispered and looked away.

"She won't." He said and made me look at him. "She's probably with Shane."

I was somewhat astonished to hear these words coming from his mouth. Had he known about what happened between him and Lori?

Before I knew it, Rick's lips were on mine. I brought my arms up and wrapped them around his neck and he wrapped his around me tightly, as if I were going to slip away from him.

It was then, that I actually felt safe.