CDC

I didn't know Jim much past the fact that he was a mechanic and dug those graves. I didn't know if I should feel something for him as I stared out the window at him. The caravan leaving him behind, propped against a tree. Honestly the only thing that crossed my mind was that we should kill him so that he didn't turn into a walker and roam around as the dead. But I guess the group just a didn't have the heart for it.

There was a little more chatter in the van after we dropped Jim off. Amy saying she would rather someone just put a bullet in her head rather than let her turn into one of those things. Andrea assured her she wouldn't let that happen, T-Dog agreeing as well. I tried to not make promises, especially when it came to something so uncertain.

I could feel their gazes on me, but I just kept looking out the window. Obviously I didn't want to become a walker, but I couldn't see it happening. Not in an arrogant sort of way, I just had confidence in my abilities.

As we passed all these houses on our way to the CDC I couldn't help but frown internally at the fact that we weren't going to loot them. Regardless of whether the CDC is a bust or not, surely any amount of procured provisions would be helpful. If not for personal use than at least for trade and bartering.

When we finally rolled up on the CDC the roads were blocked by barricades for the last 100 yards. I was starting to get used to my sense of smell constantly being assaulted by the never ending smell of death. Bodies upon bodies littered the surroundings and the buzzing of flies over the corpses rang in my ears.

Everyone grouped up as we made our way through the corpses. There were plenty of guns on the ground, but I wasn't seeing a lot bullets. Not to mention I didn't have a gun cleaning kit to repair these rifles that had been left out in the elements for at least several weeks.

Regardless of that, the fact that there were so many guns left out around the perimeter, lowered the odds that the CDC was operational. At least not by more than a handful of people.

When we reached the front doors the shutters were down, but I could definitely hear the faint humming of generators deep within.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog said

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asked in return.

"Walkers!" Daryl called out and I turned and took aim. It would be best if we didn't shoot since the shots would call in more walkers, but I wanted to be prepared.

"The shutters are probably down because they locked themselves inside! They're likely dead already." I said to Rick as I kept scanning around. Daryl dropped the closest walker and I ran out to retrieve his arrow. The more of the walkers he could take down the better for us.

You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl shouted at Rick. They all began arguing with each other and I could hear a small whirring sound like the turn of something mechanical. I just managed to turn in time to see the security camera turn towards us.

"The camera, it moved." Rick said, and I could see him looking at the same camera as me.

"Ya it did, but that doesn't mean there is someone inside. It could be motion activated." I tried to reason with him but it fell on deaf ears.

Shane began trying to pull him back as Rick shouted at the camera. I looked around and could see more and more walkers starting to rise from the commotion.

"Rick, listen to Shane. It's not worth the risk. Even if there is somebody in there why would they open the doors for people they don't know?" Once again my words didn't get through.

"You're killing us! You're killing us!" Rick yelled while being pulled away by Shane. Everyone shouting for him to move so that we could make it back to vehicles. Before today I never would have thought that Rick would react like this. He had always kept a fairly level head when it came to things we came across. As much as could be expected at least.

Now he was willing to beg for his life rather than fight for it himself. I thought I had had a good read on him and maybe I had when he was fighting to get his family back. But this Rick was unstable. A leader can't be too emotional when making decisions they have to find a balance.

I looked at Shane,who was pulling him back, and to the rest of the survivors. He had kept this many people alive for over a month. Me and Rick come along and now they've lost half their people. Sure we have more guns, but what use is that without the people to use them.

I had taken aim at the closest Walker to my side, warring with whether it was time to cut ties. It wouldn't be living if we're just scraping by, begging to be saved. We needed to be able to save ourselves and for the first time I was wondering if Rick was the right person for that. Then the shutters opened.

Well, I'll be damned." I muttered and began pushing people forward.

"Go!" I shouted and people finally started to get into motion.

I shut the doors behind us as Rick and Shane led the way forward. I heard the click of a rifle right before a new voice entered my ears.

"Anybody infected?" He called out.

"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick responded.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man asked.

"A chance." Rick said

"That's asking an awful lot these days."

"I know." Rick replied and a tense silence followed as the man stepped closer, holding a rifle at us. Though he held it near his hip and I highly doubted this guy was trained for shooting guns. It was more likely he was a scientist.

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." He said while looking at our group. I was trying to think of why he needed a blood test though. Couldn't he just check us for bite marks to see if we're infected? My mind went back to that first day when me and Rick went to his family's house and I entered one of the neighbors. The man that was swinging from a noose, but he had turned into walker. We're all infected… death is just the trigger and getting bit or scratched is an accelerant.

Thats the only thing that makes sense for him to want a blood test. He's hoping to find someone that isn't already infected.

Soon we were all shuffled into an elevator and based on the pull we were going down.

"VI, bring up the lights in the big room." The doctor, Edwin Jenner said as we entered an open room with rows of computers facing a giant screen.

"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asked as we all followed the doctor.

"I'm it. It's just me here." He responded and I held back my sigh. It was like I figured except somehow even worse. Instead of a people it was only 1 guy left in here by himself. Well him and a computer.

With a quick blood draw from the group he brought us to a kitchen where we were able to eat more than seasonless fish. Daryl was a little put out that he had to leave the deer outside on his truck, but he chowed down with the rest of us.

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

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." Lori responded, and I saw a glass of wine slide in front of me courtesy of Andrea. I looked at her and she just smiled.

"C'mon who knows if you'll ever get to try it." She said encouragingly. I just shook my head.

"I've had wine. I don't want any." I said as I pushed it back towards her. She and Amy looked at me confused, so I continued.

"Mother would make me do things after drinking wine. Something about needing to be able to perform while drunk. Wasn't always wine, that's just what she preferred." I said, digging back in to the food. They were silent for a moment but soon fell back into their conversations.

"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?" Shane asked and I could feel the tension that had left the room slowly come back. Everyone got antsy in their chairs. All of them annoyed at Shane, but I could tell they wanted to know the answer as well. I'd pretty much guessed had happened. It wasn't difficult to guess.

"We're celebrating, Shane. We 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?" Shane said while scoffing, seemingly annoyed. Truthfully I couldn't blame him. I hadn't had any expectations of this place, but to everyone here this is the place they thought would be the answer. But it's obvious it's just another dead end.

If I had to take another guess with him running everything on reserve power. Keeping lights dim, shutting off power to nonessential rooms and even cutting the power to all but one computer in the previous room? It seems to me like there isn't much fuel left to keep this place running.

"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." Jenner replied.

"Every last one?" Shane asked back.

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

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

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

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn directed toward Shane and I couldn't agree more. There was a time and place for such things. As much as people needed the truth and information they also needed joy and hope. Even if only for a night, and now they only got that for a couple hours.