It's the End of the World

We finally arrived at the CDC, we pulled up outside the compound and I grimaced at all the dead bodies littering the ground, swarms of flies picking away at the dead carcasses. I climbed out of the truck, placing my katana over my head before slinging my bow and quiver over my shoulder.

"Alright, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go. Okay, keep moving. Stay together." Shane directed as we all crouched low and made our way towards the the big building. I moved around the fallen bodies, my eyes and ears trained on the the ones closest to me to make sure they didn't come alive.

"Keep moving. Come on!" Rick exclaimed now from beside Shane. I was at the back of the group, making sure no one got hurt. Daryl was in front of me, but he kept checking back to make sure I was still there. We soon got to the front door where locks and shutters boarded off all the windows and doors. Everyone was getting pretty freaked out at this point, apart from Shane who was rather pissed. He started banging on the metal shutters and I groaned as I turned around to see a few walkers lift their heads at the sound.

"There's nobody here!" T-dog exclaimed and everyone soon voiced their panic. I turned around to hear snarls coming from not too far away. The walkers were a few feet in front of me now, and it wouldn't take long for them to swarm.

"Walkers!" I exclaimed as I unattached the sword from my back. Daryl turned with me and started shooting any walkers that got too close. I walked forward slightly and started hacking into anything I could. I had a fairly large circle of dead walkers littering the ground around me, so I tried stepping as carefully as I could so I wouldn't fall over. I swung my arms in a downward movement at the walker in front of me and grimaced as blood splattered all over my arms and face. I kicked the body away from my blade and it landed with a heavy thud on the ground. I felt a hand latch onto my ankle and I cried out slightly as I was pulled to the ground. I looked down at my leg to see a walker gripped tightly to my ankle, his jaws clenched together hungrily as it tried to pull me towards its mouth. I kicked and thrashed as much as I could, but it wouldn't let go. I was just about to raise my free leg to kick it when it's grip went slack, I looked at its head to see an arrow protruding from its skull. I felt a pull on my arm and looked up to see Daryl stood above me looking pissed off. I climbed to my feet and nodded slightly in thanks before starting on the walkers again, Daryl now stood beside me in case I had another fall.

"Ya lead us into a graveyard!" Daryl exclaimed towards Rick as he shot another walker in the head with an arrow. We had a formation, Daryl took out the ones further away and I hacked into the ones that got too close for comfort.

"He made a call!" Shane shouted back and Daryl growled.

"It wa' the wrong damn call!" He exclaimed back and by this point I'd had enough, shouting at each other wasn't going to do anything.

"Just shut up, ya hear? Shut up! Rick, this is a dead end!" I exclaimed without looking at him, I could hear them still banging on the shutters, trying to get someone's attention but failing miserably. The only thing it was doing was drawing more walkers to us.

"The camera.. It moved!" Rick exclaimed as he continued banging on the shutters, only this time with more force. "I know you're in there, I know you can hear me!" He exclaimed and the walkers continued coming.

"Rick, there's nobody there!" Lori exclaimed, but he still carried on.

"Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left." He explained to the possibly none functional camera. "We have nowhere else to go!" He was practically screaming now, the tears evident even though I wasn't looking at him. "Keep your eyes open. If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!"

"Come on! We have to go!" I exclaimed as I lashed out at another walker, kicking it off my blade as it got stuck in its skull. "We have to get back to the cars, now!" The herd wasn't getting any smaller, it seemed we'd kill one and another five started advancing on us.

"Please help us! You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!" Rick exclaimed one last time. He was just about to walk away when the shutters started moving up and we were blanketed in bright light.

"Daryl, Alice, you cover the back." Shane stated and we both nodded. Rick and Shane made their way in first, we fell behind and slowly followed after them, still keeping our eye on the walkers and taking them out when we could. We quickly closed the doors behind us and walked into the large entrance area.

"Hello?" Rick exclaimed and suddenly a gun was being cocked and everyone pointed their weapons towards the area it came from. Apart from me of course, a katana wasn't really going to do anything in this situation.

"Anybody infected?" The random man ahead of us asked, a rifle pointed in our direction.

"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick said, and instantly my eyes dropped down to the floor as I remembered the poor man we had to leave on the side of the road. I felt my eyes watering involuntarily but I shook them away and held my head high.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" He asked and Rick looked at him, his breathing uneven with nerves.

"A chance." Was all he said and the man walked closer to us.

"That's askin' an awful lot these days." He stated and Rick turned slightly to look at Lori.

"I know." Rick stated. The man with the rifle then looked around at us all individually. He sighed deeply, as though having an inner battle with himself.

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." He said, Rick nodded his head. The man looked around at us all one last time before dropping his rifle to his side.

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now." He stated as he walked towards us. He points towards the door. "Once this door closes it stays closed." He explained and with that everyone was running around like wild animals.

Once everyone was back inside after grabbing their belongings, we followed the man into an elevator. Once we were inside, he spoke into a machine on the wall. "VI, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here." He stated and the shutters closed down on us, the elevator started moving slowly and the area was filled with a very awkward silence.

"Rick Grimes." Rick said and placed his hand out for the man to shake. He simply looked away.

"Dr. Edwin Jenner." He said and it was once again thrown into total silence. The only noise to be heard was the elevator humming as it took us to our destination.

"Doctors always go round packin' heat like that?" Daryl asked from his place to my left and I rolled my eyes at him. Was he really being sarcastic at a time like this?

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough." He said before looking down at Carl, a small smile on his face. "Except you, I'll have to keep my eye on you." He joked and Carl smiled lightly at the doctor. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Jenner looked away and the smile on his face instantly fell as the doors opened. The doctor lead us down a large hallway before we entered a large dark space. "VI, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner said and instantly the lights came on and we could finally see our surroundings. It seemed to be some sort of office. "Welcome to zone 5." He stated and we all continued following him. Rick was at the front with Lori and Shane and I took up the rear with Daryl, who was just a few steps behind me. I looked around at all the random equipment around us as the others talked to Dr. Jenner.

We eventually had to go down for our blood tests, and I was terrified. Put me in a room with walkers, fine. Try to take my blood, and I may just end up murdering you. I sat down in the chair when it was eventually my turn, my arm held out in front of me on the table. He brought out the syringe that would take my blood and my mouth instantly went dry.

"Why are you doing this? You'd know by now if we'd been bit. An' hell, I'm sure we'd know if we had!" I exclaimed, my mouth tended to run when I was nervous. He stuck the needle in me without warning and I cried out quietly from the shock.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough." He said and I closed my eyes as he took the needle from my skin. I chose not to reply to him at this point as my head was spinning. "All done." He stated and I stood up quickly. Maybe a little too quickly, as I instantly started swaying, black spots rushing in front of my eyes. I felt arms around me and instantly leaned into their comfort. I felt myself being removed from the room and being set down, I guessed I was against the wall as my back touched a cold bumpy surface. When I eventually came round, I looked beside me to see Daryl, all the others a few feet away.

"Thanks." I said as he held a bottle of water towards me. I took the water and gulped it down greedily. I placed my hand against the wall and attempted to pull myself up from my position, but I was far too weak from almost passing out not too long ago. Daryl grunted before standing up and holding a hand out to me. I took it, and was pulled up to my feet instantly. I swayed slightly but managed to keep myself upright.

"Come on, I've had enough of babysittin' your ass." Daryl growled as he dragged me towards the others who seemed to be setting the table.

"Well, fuck you mister. I don't want your scrawny ass babysittin' me anyway. I can take care of myself." I said before plopping down on one of the chairs around the big table. I felt slightly better, but my head was still pounding something fierce so I placed my elbows on the table and put my head I'm my hands. Jenner had gone off somewhere, I'm guessing to make food since everyone else was setting the table. Carol plopped down beside me and handed me two pills. I took them in my hand and inspected them carefully.

"Advil, thought you could use some." She smiled and I smiled back as I popped the pills in my mouth and took a sip of the water bottle she held out to me. "Jenner gave them to me, he has a lot of medication here. This place turned out to be a gold mine." She explained and I sighed as I waited for the pills to take effect.

"I'm glad we found this place. We could really be safe here." I said and Carol nodded with a smile before standing up. She squeezed my shoulder lightly before walking off towards the others.

Half an hour later, everyone, including Jenner, was sat around the large table, a large bowl of pasta placed in front of us. This was also accompanied by a lot of red wine. I hungrily dug into the food in front of me as everyone else seemed to want to savour it. Glenn looked at me with a raised eyebrow from across the table and and I couldn't help but open my mouth widely, showing him the pasta inside my mouth. He shook his head with a chuckle before going back to his meal.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit if wine with dinner. And in France." I stated with a small smirk and Rick chuckled as Lori tried desperately not to smile.

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." She smirked at me, I raised my eyebrow as Rick chuckled lightly.

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on."He said with a smile, and I could see Lori thinking about it. "Come on." He said with a grin and Lori sighed before rolling her eyes, a small smile on her face. I knew she'd admitted defeat by this point, so I grabbed a spare glass and filled it with a little of the red liquid.

"There ya go, little man." I said with a smirk as I passed him the wine glass. He looked at it in confusion for a moment before taking a sip. We all laughed loudly at the pure look of disgust on his face. He said a small 'eww' and everyone started laughing harder, if that was possible.

"That's my boy. Good boy." Lori said with a chuckle as the laughter died down. By this point I'd finished my second glass and was starting a new one. Because we hadn't had alcohol in such a long time, it was hitting us all harder than usual.

"Just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane laughed and Daryl snorted.

"Not you, Glenn." Daryl stated and Glenn looked at him, puzzled by his statement. "Keep drinkin', little man. I wanna see how red your face can get." He added and everyone laughed apart from a few of the women who rolled their eyes. I looked over at Jenner to see he wasn't the happiest so I stood up and brought my now empty wine glass up with me, taking my fork and hitting it against the side to make a noise that would gather the groups attention.

"It seems to me, we haven't thanked our host properly yet. Even if he did stick god awful needles in us." I smirked lightly and Jenner chuckled. "He's more than just our host, he saved our lives. He's our hero." I smiled and everyone raised their glasses in cheers.

"Here's to you, Doc, booyah!" Daryl exclaimed and I smiled before laughing and raising my glass above my head.

"Booyah!" I exclaimed and touched my glass to everyone else's. Well, the people I could reach. We spent the next hour in a depressing conversation about what happened to all the people in the facility, along with a conversation about the walking corpses outside so I zoned out of that conversation and drank myself stupid. We eventually moved and Jenner showed us the rooms we could use to sleep in.

"Most of the facility is powered down including housing so you'll have to make do here. 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, okay? Or anything that draws power." He asked, Carl and Sophia nodded in excitement. "The same applies - if you use the shower, go easy on the hot water." He said and everyone instantly got excited, including me.

"Hot water?!" I exclaimed in my drunken state and everyone smiled or laughed. With that said, I was off towards the showers. I'd figure my room out later, I don't care who I roomed with as long as I could sleep. I quickly stripped off my clothing and walked into the hot spray. I giggled lightly as I scrubbed the blood and dirt from my my arms, face and hair. I didn't stay in too long, as to preserve the water, but even the short amount of time I did have felt amazing. I grabbed my bag and pulled out my spare set of clothes the girls washed back at the camp when I arrived. I put them on quickly. I decided against wearing my jeans as I was only going to sleep, and my long tee covered everything up anyway.

I walked back towards the rooms and saw Rick and Daryl stood outside one room at the end, seemingly in a deep discussion. I walked over quietly.

"I ain't sharin' a room wi' no damn girl. Hell, put her wi' one of the other women." He exclaimed and I rolled my eyes as I dropped a hand down on his shoulder, startling him.

"This ain't gonna be no picnic for me either, sunshine. But don't worry, I won't jump ya, your not my type." I stated with a smirk and Daryl grunted. Rick scowled slightly before running a hand through his hair.

"Just get along for once, it's just for tonight, well sort something else tomorrow." Rick stated before walking off and I shrugged, opening the door and walking straight in. Daryl followed after me, grimacing slightly at the thought of sharing a room with me.

"Look bud, I don't like this either, but we gotta sucks it up. Plus," I stated before pulling two bottles of wine and a bottle of whiskey from my overflowing bag. "I got this to make the experience slightly less awkward." I smirked and Daryl rolled his eyes as he snatched the bottle of whiskey from my hands. Luckily there was two couches in the room, because I wasn't really up for sleeping on the floor. I sat down on the comfortable surface before unscrewing the lid and taking a big gulp of the liquid. Well, this should be fun. I thought to myself, obviously with sarcasm lacing the words in my head.