It's Over When It's Over

Daryl turned his head and lowered the axe. “That’s funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head.” ‘Ohhhh’ I thought to myself. Daryl just burned Rick on that one.
“We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down. Go on.” Shane ordered Daryl. Daryl slammed the axe on the ground and walked off so I thought I’d go help Jack and Daniel get there things ready for whenever we leave.
“Need help with anything?”
“Nah we’re good.” Daniel said. Daniel was getting to the age where he’s like ‘I’m a man now. I can do everything on my own.’ He’s always been that way actually it just made me real sad to know he has to grow up in this world and that he can’t have a normal life like I had for the part of it. I stayed and helped Jack and Daniel anyways. A few minutes later T-Dog told us we should head up the hill now to bury our dead. I nodded and grabbed Daniels hand as Jack grabbed his other hand. We walked up there with the other half of the group. We all stood around the graves paying our respects. The last body left was Amy. Andrea wanted to get her in there on her own turning down Dale’s offer of help. I began to cry. I loved Amy like a little sister. She did nothing wrong to anybody and the fact that she had to pass this way wasn’t fair. When the whole thing was done everyone headed back to camp. The men went on and did their thing as Lori, Carol and I just sat around doing nothing as Andrea slept beside us. Soon most the group joined us.
“I’ve been thinking about Rick’s plan.” Shane announced. “Now look, there are no, there are no guarantees either way. I’ll be the first one to admit that. I’ve known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning to the CDC. Okay?” Everyone was fine with it. Including Daryl and I, so I went to go pack up Daryl and my things to get ready for tomorrow.
“Why the hell are you being nice to everyone all the sudden?” Daryl growled as he walked in the tent.
I stopped. I was surprised Daryl would come at me right away with a question like that. “Daryl, I’m doing what’s right. How would you feel if you put that axe through Jim’s head back there? Knowing you killed an incent man? I wouldn’t want that on you!” Daryl looked at me knowing I was right. I walked up to Daryl. “Let’s change and not walk around in bloody clothes.” I said changing the subject. Daryl took off his shirt and helped me take mine off, kissing me afterwards. I turned around and tossed Daryl a shirt, and took out another for me. All my clothes were in a bag outside so I might as well just wear one of Daryl’s flannels for the time being. “See, now we match.” I joked.
Daryl laughed, “You’re such a dork.”
___
We were just about to leave then Morales announced that him and his family wouldn’t be leaving with us. Shane and Rick asked them if they were sure, and they were. Rick gave them a gun and a box of ammo and Daryl huffed and walked away like he tends to do. At least he wasn't yelling his opinion. I liked Morales and his family and it was sad to see them go. So we all hugged and said our good byes. We had finally left this little camp we’ve been at. I really hope the CDC is what they said it would be.
Daniel and Jack were in the same car as Lori, Rick, and Carol, so it was just me and Daryl in his truck. We drove a few miles but then the RV stop working. So we pulled over. Because the cube van was taken back in Atlanta Dale never got the new hose.
“Y’all, Jim. It’s bad. I don’t think he can take anymore.” Jacqui ran out of the RV yelling.
“Lora, is there anything you can do to help him hold on a little longer?” Rick asked me.
“We don’t have any medication that would stabilize the virus for the time being. Even if we did I wouldn’t know if it’d work.” I said. “He’s been infected for too long now. Like Jacqui said, I don’t think he can take any longer.” Rick understood and went and checked on Jim as Shane, T-Dog and Jack drove off to take a look at some building Shane saw, hoping it was a gas station. So when they drove off I held on to Daniel’s hand. I didn’t want him wondering off anywhere.
A while later when Jack, Shane, and T-Dog got back Rick wanted to talk about what Jim wanted. It was a conversation they didn’t want the kids to hear so I took Sophia, Daniel, and Carl by Daryl’s truck with T-Dog. The boys played some game with some rocks and sticks as Sophia and I played patty cake. We then heard groaning coming from behind us and I turned and looked and saw Rick and Shane carrying Jim out the RV. He hadn’t turned yet. They carried him to a tree. Carl and Sophia ran back to their parents and Daniel stayed with me. Everyone went up to Jim to say our goodbyes.
“Hey now Lora. You help Dale with that RV for me alright?” Jim chucked, followed by a loud cough.
“Sure thing Jim.” I smiled, trying to hold back the tears. Daniel waved slightly and I took him to Jack who had already said his goodbyes. I didn’t want Daniel seeing me sad so I left them and went back into Daryl’s truck. When Daryl got back I whipped the tears off my face, and took deep breathes to help calm me down. Daryl wasn’t the type of man who would sit down with you and talk about your emotions, even though that’s something we need in this new world now, but everyone understood the pain and none of us really talked about our losses. So I manned up or womened up and tried to look past it, and remember the relaxed times with the group members we’ve lost.
We drove for hours, and it was almost night fall. I wasn’t sure how far the CDC was but after a while we saw a huge building so I assumed that was it. All the cars ahead of us stopped so we stopped and got out the truck with a weapon in hand. When we looked around we saw that the military was dead; gone. There were corpses everywhere. The smell of dead flesh filled the air. I held Daniels hand tightly, like Carol was with Sophia and Lori was with Carl. We all walked together, coughing. It was hard to breathe with the horrible smell. When we finally got to the front of the building, Rick and Shane started pounding on the doors, but they wouldn’t open.
“Walkers!” Daryl yelled. That’s when I picked up Daniel. We were out here exposed and the shutters weren’t opening. I was pretty sure T-Dog was right; nobody was here. Daryl cocked his gun, but used his crossbow to take out the closet walker. “You led us into a graveyard!” He yelled.
“He made a call.” Dale said.
“It was the wrong damn call!” Daryl spat. Daryl was making his was up to Rick but Shane told him to shut up and pushed him back. Everyone was yelling at Rick on what to do, but he just stood there trying to think. Daryl then turned around and came up me. “Come on Lora, we’re going.” Everyone else started shouting that we all leave now and get back to our cars. So we all started to run back, but then we stopped when Rick said the camera moved.
“You imagined it.” Dale said.
“It moved.” Rick started banging on the shutters yelling into the camera for help, and to let us in. The more yelling the more walkers emerged. As Shane pulled Rick away from the shutters they then opened. We all stopped and stared into a bright light. We all turned around and ran inside. “Hello?” Rick yelled.
“Anybody infected?” A voice asked from the dark.
“One of our group was. He didn’t make it.” Rick explained. The man came out where we could see him.
“Why are you here? What do you want?” The man asked.
“A chance.”
“That’s asking an awful lot these days.”
“I know.”
“You all submit to a blood test.” The man said. “That’s the price of admission.” Rick agreed to the offer. “You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed.” Rick, Daryl, Shane, Jack, and Glenn all went back out and got things as T-Dog, and Dale took guard on the door.
“I can help you.” I said. “With the blood test. I’m the closet thing they have to a doctor.” The man nodded.
“Thank you. That would be of great help.” He smiled.