The New World

The group was on their way to the CDC minus the Morales family they decided to venture out on their own. Lori, Rick, Carl, Sophia, and Carol were in the station wagon. T-Dog, Glenn, Jacqui and Andrea were in Dale's RV. Ana rode with Shane because she wanted to, even though Sabrina didn't like the idea of her daughter in a Jeep without a hood, which also meant Sabrina was with moody Daryl. She started tapping her fingers in rhythm on the interior of truck door and Daryl grunted with annoyance.

"Will ya stop!" Daryl snapped.

"It's not my fault. If the radio stations would work I wouldn't be tapping my fingers."

He snorted and said, "No, ya'd be singin'."

"I don't sing much. I hum."

"Same damn thing. It's still noise." He muttered.

Dale started honking and his RV came to a stop. Everyone else stopped and got out to see what happened, turns out it was the radiator hose...again. Daryl was standing close to Sabrina and Shane was across from them glaring daggers into Daryl. Jacqui came out of the RV and said, "You all, it's bad. I don't think he can take anymore."

"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Shane suggested.

"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up." T-Dog said while looking through the binoculars.

Sabrina noticed Daryl going to the RV and followed him with her arms crossed. "You're not trying to kill Jim again are you?"

"If I wanted ta kill 'em I woulda done it by now." He said backing away from the RV when Rick came over.

Ana went to Sabrina and she picker her daughter up. "How's your ride with Shane?"

"Fun. We were saying what the clouds looked like."

"Sabrina? I was hoping I could talk to you alone for a minute." She turned around and saw Dale.

"Sure." She said as she put Ana down. "Can you go to Carl and Sophia for a minute?"

Ana went to Carl and Sophia and Sabrina turned back to Dale and said, "Everything ok?"

"Not really, I'm concerned about Shane. It seems like he's becoming unstable."

"What do you mean?" She asked confused, sure Shane had his moments but he always snapped back out of it.

"Well when you were gone looking for Merle, he beat the crap out of Ed."

"Dale you and I both know that Ed deserved a beating."

"Yeah I know but it wasn't out of protection for Carol, it was anger. And a few hours ago before we hit the road him and Rick went to scout the woods one last time and he was about to shoot Rick."

"He probably thought Rick was a walker."

"I could tell it was Rick, even with my vision going bad. I'll I'm saying is be careful. I don't want you, Ana or any others getting hurt by him."

Soon Shane and T-Dog pulled back up and got out.

"Just remember what I said ok?"

"I will."

Sabrina went over to Ana and picked her up again. "Ana when I was gone with Rick what did Shane do?"

"He beat Sophia's dad up, it kinda scared me."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know."

Soon Rick and Shane got Jim out of the RV and everyone said their goodbyes to him. Everyone got back into the designated vehicles. Sabrina made Ana go in the station wagon where she could talk to Carl and Sophia. Sabrina got in Shane's Jeep, she had a bone to pick with him.

"What's going on with you Shane?" She asked cutting to the chase.

He looked at her confused for a second then back to the road. "Nothing. Why are ya asking Rina?"

"You've been acting strange ever since Rick came to camp. What's going on?"

"Nothing's wrong. Rick's just being ungrateful. I'm the one that saved and took care of his family."

"I'm sure he is grateful and you also scared my daughter."

"I didn't-"

"Don't give me that Shane. Ana told me that she saw you beat the shit out of Ed and it scared her. And I'm sure it wasn't just to help Carol either. I saw you glaring towards me and Daryl. I can tell you now that nothing's going on between me and him. So you better calm your Alpha male self down before you hurt someone again or get someone hurt."

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet, only thing you could hear were the vehicles behind Sabrina and Shane and the wind. The sun was setting when they finally pulled up to the CDC.

Oh my God. She thought not believing what she was seeing.

The road and sidewalk to the CDC were covered with rotting bodies.

"Mommy." Ana whimpered.

"I'm right here baby, just close your eye." Sabrina said as she picked Ana up and carried her to the CDC carefully avoiding the bodies.

Rick and Shane started trying to lift the protective shutter doors to get in. Shane smacked it a few times.

"Yeah way to go Shane, make some noise to attracted unwanted attention." She said sarcastically.

"Why don't you go to your redneck boyfriend?" Shane snapped.

"Shane if the world was back to the way that it was and if Ana wasn't here to see I'd beat the living daylights out of you right about now."

"Now's not the time for arguing." Rick said.

"Walkers!" Daryl yelled getting into attack mode.

"Baby, come on." Lori said to Rick.

"Look what you did!" Shane glared over towards Sabrina.

"Me!? You're the one that made all the damn noise!"

Ana, Carl, and Sophia started panicking. Ana nuzzled her head into her mother's neck and cried. "It's going to be ok baby. " She said soothingly rubbing her back.

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

"He made a call." Dale reasoned.

"It was the wrong damn call!"

Shane went to Daryl and pushed him back telling him to shut up.

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

"Where are we gonna go?" Carol asked while trying to stay calm for Sophia's sake.

"Do you hear me? No blame."

"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lori said.

"Fort Benning, Rick- still an option," Shane said.

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's one hundred miles." Andrea piped up.

"One hundred twenty-five. I checked the map." Glenn corrected.

Now's not the time Glenn.

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now." Lori said getting pissed.

"We'll think of something." Rick reasoned with her.

Everyone started going back to the vehicles when Rick said, "The camera- it moved."

"Rick c'mon, we need to go." Sabrina said.

"You imagined it." Dale said.

"It moved."

"Shane do something." Sabrina said looking pleadingly at him.

"Rick, it's dead man. It's an automated device. It's gears ok? They're just windin' down. Now come on." Shane reasoned with Rick.

Rick got out of Shane's grasp and beat the shutter doors. "I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Please, we're desperate. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left. We have no where else to go." Rick said having a meltdown.

"Rick. There's nobody here." Lori said going to him.

"If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!"

Shane went and grabbed Rick again and started hauling him off.

"Shorty, stay b'hind me."

"You're killing us! You're killing us!" Rick yelled as Shane pulled him back to the cars.

Shane pushed him forward to the cars and about the time the shutters opened, stopping everybody in their tracks.

It's not possible.

"Rina, let's go!" Shane said giving her a slight push to get her out of her thoughts.

Once the group and their things were inside the shutters shut again after everyone agreed to a blood test. The group followed Dr. Jenner into an elevator and Shane stood next to Sabrina to comfort her. She hated elevators especially ones that were crammed full of people.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked breaking the silence.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough. Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." Jenner said jokingly looking at Carl.

Once the elevator finally stopped they started walking down a long white hallway with doors on each side.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked Jenner.

"Are you claustrophobic?"

"A little."

"Try not to think about it."

They finally entered a big station room and Jenner said, "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room."

And the lights came on.

"Welcome to Zone five."

"Where is everybody? The doctors? The staff?" Rick asked Jenner.

"I'm it. It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori asked.

"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them...welcome."

Then an female automated voice started welcoming them.

"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry."

The group followed Jenner again to get blood drawn. Dale was first, then Glenn, Lori, Carl, Rick, T-Dog, Carol, Sophia, Daryl, Jacqui, Sabrina, Ana and Andrea. While Andrea was badgering Jenner with questions everyone was sitting and waiting. Once she was done Jenner directed them to the dining hall so they could finally eat. Dale was pouring all the adults some wine while the kids either drank soda, water or juice.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." Dale said.

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." Lori said sternly.

"Mommy can I have some of that wine kool-aid stuff?"

"No baby. This stuff isn't made for kids."

"But Dale just said-"

"Ana, are we in Italy or France?"

"No."

"Then you can't have any. That's the rules." Sabrina said sternly.

Lori finally let Carl have a drink and he didn't like it.

"See if Carl doesn't like it then you won't like it."

"Just stick ta soda pop kids." Shane said.

"Not you, Glenn."

"What?" Glenn asked Daryl.

"Keep drinkin', liddle man. I wan' ta see how red your face can get."

Rick clanked his wine glass with a fork and stood up saying, "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just a host." T-Dog said.

"Here's ta you, doc. Booyah!" Daryl said with a little buzz.

Glasses clanked then got silent when Shane said, "So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the...the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?"

"You just have to ruin the good time don't ya Shane." Sabrina muttered. She heard a snicker behind her and saw Daryl looking at her.

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick said.

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move, supposed to find all the answers. Instead we...we found him. Found one man. Why?"

"Well when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Shane asked not buying Jenner's story.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They...opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea spoke up.

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good."

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill man." Glenn said to Shane while coming to sit at the table.

After the awkward dinner Jenner started leading everyone to the rooms.

"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, ok? Or anything that draws power. The same applies...if you shower, go easy on the hot water."

"Did he just say..." Sabrina started.

"Hot water?" Glenn finished.

"That's what the man said." T-Dog chimed in.

"Ok, Kids and women first then the men." Rick said and with that everybody picked their rooms and either A. Took a shower or B. Waited.