Angel With A Shotgun (Walking Dead Fanfic)

Chapter Nineteen: Never Have I Ever

Chapter Nineteen


Never Have I Ever


▬ First Person- Electra’s P.O.V ▬ 


     I could barely breathe, I was so happy it was unbelievable. Just when I had lost all hope I had gained it back again, I stared helplessly into a sort of lobby. Everyone had proceeded through the shutters and into the lobby but I was still glued to my spot, trying to gain back the feeling in my toes.

     “Hello?” I heard Rick’s voice call, echoing around the metal lobby as I felt a presence by my side. Turning my head ever so slightly I saw Daryl beside me facing the outdoors with his crossbow raised defensively, making sure no walkers came at us from behind.

     A cock of a gun caused me to look back into the lobby where everyone had now raised their own weapons defensively as they looked around in confusion.

     “Doctor Walsh?” a deep voice entered my ears causing me to inhale and take a small step forward, but my throat was too dry to speak.

     “She’s here.” Shane answered for me as everyone turned their heads in my direction to look at me. A blond forty year old man entered my line of sight with his M4A1 raised at me.

     “Hi.” I greeted him as I raised my hands, finally regaining my voice as I took a baby step forward into the lobby to ensure he could see me. “Nice to meet you…..” she said awkwardly before she trailed off, eyes darting around the room to see everyone still with their guns pointed at the man.

     “Anybody infected?!” the blonde man asked with a raised voice as well as his gun, clearly keeping his distance from the group. 

     “One of our group was,” Rick stated turning the man’s attention away from me for a brief second as Rick paused, breathing hard. “He didn’t make it.” He finished off.

     “Why are you here?!” the stranger demanded. “What do you want?” he interrogated us, leaving no time for us to answer his first question.

     “A chance,” I spoke up causing the man to return his gaze back to me. “If you’ll allow it, a chance for all of us.” I treaded carefully.

     “That’s asking for an awful lot these days.”

     “I know.”

     The man moves further into the lobby and I could now see that he was blond, blue-eyes, about forty years old and had his M4A1 now down by his side.

     “You all submit to a blood test,” the blond man stated after contemplating for a second and studying us all. “That’s the price for admission for all of you.” He stated, his eyes landing upon me once more.

     “We can do that.” Rick nodded, agreeing with the man.

     “You’ve got stuff to bring in? You do it now. Once this door closes it stays closed.” He told us how it was causing us to all flood inside of the building, we already have our stuff, of course we had are stuff we have and had every intention of staying here. “Vi. Seal the main entrance, send the power up here.” The man said into a little call box causing the shutters to slam down shut.

     “Rick Grimes.” Rick introduced himself sticking his hand out to the stranger who just briefly looked down at Rick’s hand before looking back into Rick’s eyes.

     “Doctor Edwin Jenner.”


▬ Third Person- No one’s P.O.V ▬ 


     The group had all filed into an elevator of some kind and the silence was truly deafening. Wedged in between Shane and Stacie, Electra looked up to see Glenn looking at her and shot him a small smile.

     “Doctors always go around packing heat like that?” Daryl asked Jenner breaking the silence as well as the eye contact shared between Glenn and Electra.

     “Oh.” Jenner exclaimed looking down at the automatic in his hands. “There were plenty left hanging around so I familiarised myself,” he deadpanned. “Much like you folks, but you look harmless enough.” he noted turning his head back to face forwards having turned it to look at Daryl. “Except you.” Jenner joked looking down at Carl. “I’ll have to keep my eye on you.” He stated causing Carl to grin mischievously.

     When the elevator came to a stop Jenner stepped out first leading them down some sort of metal empty corridor and Stacie hurried behind.

     “Are we underground?” Carol questioned Jenner as she held onto Sophia tightly causing Jenner to stop walking and turn around to face her.

     “You claustrophobic?”

     “A little.”

     “Try not to think about it.” Jenner advised before he walked into a wide and unlit room. “Vi! Bring up the lights in the big room.” He ordered and sure enough, nearly instantly the lights turned on.

     And a big room it was.  
 
     Only a true scientist could truly appreciate the craftsmanship of the control room. It was circular, and held a shit load of computers that Electra was familiar with having creating several simulations in her old job back in England. But in England it wasn’t as sophisticated as this, but then again this was the CDC. It was bound to be more modern and sophisticated than her lab back in England.

     “Welcome to zone five."


►►►

     Electra had sunken down next to one of the metallic walls in zone five whilst Jenner took Carol’s blood, his words still swimming around her mind.
 




     “Where is everybody?” Rick spoke her thoughts before she could even open her mouth to ask the question herself. “The other doctors? The staff?” he enquired turning back to look at Jenner.

     “I’m it,” Jenner stated causing me to raise any eyebrow at him. “It’s just me here.” 

     “What about the person you were speaking with?” Lori interrogated him sceptically holding an arm around her son. “Vi?”

     “Vi!” Doctor Jenner caller loudly. “Say hello to our guests,” he commanded with authority. “Tell them….” His eyes flickered to Lori. “Welcome.” He finished.

     “Hello guests.” A robotic voice came from all around causing them all to analyse the room before looking to the ceiling. “Welcome.”

     “I’m all that’s left: I’m sorry.”

     ‘Well there’s me now’ Electra told him mentally. ‘Not saying that I’m a huge help or anything, I’m not saying that at all…. I’m just a zoologist’ “But you’re not alone.” Electra told him out loud causing everyone to glance at her. “You have us now.” She promised.

     “I think we should start the blood tests.”


►►►


     Electra had sunken down in front of one of the many metal walls that lined the room in which Jenner had taken them for their blood tests.  Whilst eyeing Jenner taking Carol’s blood from her wrist his earlier words swam around Electra’s brain.

     “I’m all that’s left: I’m sorry.”

     How do you even react to something like that? Hearing that of all the hundreds of scientists who worked in the Centre of Disease Control only one remained. What had happened to the others? Walkers hadn’t gotten inside, otherwise Jenner would have been dead too. Were the evacuated to safety like Rick was meant to have been whilst in his coma? No, they couldn’t have been, otherwise Jenner wouldn’t be here.

     Snapping herself out of her own thoughts, Electra picked up on the staggered breathing that was coming from beside her. Quickly darting her eyes in the direction she saw Sophia had sat down beside her with her knees tucked under her chin and seemed as if she were going to break out into tears at any moment.

     “Sophia?” Electra questioned causing Sophia to turn her head to the side to look at the woman. Electra could now see that Sophia’s eyes were blood shot and her nose was snotty. “Hey…what’s wrong?” she asked.

      ‘Okay, that is the dumbest question I have ever asked.’ Electra thought to herself as soon as the words had come out of her mouth. ‘What’s not wrong?’ would have been a more appropriate question. Everything was wrong: It was the walker apocalypse, their camp had just gotten attacked, Sophia’s dad had just died, they had to leave their camp, they had to leave Jim behind and they were now God knows how many feet underground.

     “Don’t tell my mommy…..” Sophia whispered causing Electra’s eyes to flicker over to Carol who Jenner had finally stuck the needle into. “I’m dying,” Sophia stated as a tear began to roll down her cheek.

     “Oh come on,” Electra said encouragingly as she threw her arm around Sophia. “What has gotten that idea into your head?” she enquired stroking Sophia’s blonde hair down.

     “There is blood when I go to the toilet,” Sophia whispered into Electra’s ear before breaking out into a sob which caused Electra to hold her tighter. “I went to pee and there was blood coming out.” Sophia elaborated causing Electra to give out a huge breath of relief and have to resist the urge to smile.

     “You’re not going to die Soph.”

     “But I overheard my daddy telling his friends how if you bleed when you go to the toilet you are a dead man walking.” Sophia objected, refusing to believe me.

     “Sophia, when a girl gets to a certain age….” Electra began, unsure of how to finish the sentence off. “She will bleed when she goes to the toilet sometimes….and……” Electra struggled to find the right words. “I think it’s better if you tell your mommy about this after she’s had her blood test.” She advised.

     “So I’m not going to die….?”

     “No Sophia, you aren’t going to die.” Electra confirmed. “You’re a survivor. We all are. We have survived through the worst of times and we are going to beat this world. You, your mommy, me and everyone else….alright?” Electra gave a little pep talk.

     “Promise?”

     “I promise.”

     “Electra?” Electra’s head turned in the direction of the voice to see Jenner still sitting at the table but Carol had stood up and was walking toward Sophia. “Your turn.”

     Reluctantly, Electra got on to her feet and sat down on the chair opposite Doctor Jenner, rolled up the sleeve of her loose t-shirt and offered up her arm. Breathing in Electra turned her head as Jenner inserted the needle into her arm, hissing when she felt the prick.

     “What’s the point?” Electra questioned him once the needle was inside her arm. “If we were all infected we’d all be running a fever.” She stated.

     “I’ve already broken every rule in the book by letting the rest of your group in here,” Doctor Jenner told her. “Let me just be thorough.” He took out the needle from her skin. “All done.” “You okay?” Jenner enquired as he looked at Electra’s expression.

     Ignoring his question Electra shot up to her feet realising it was a bad mistake as the blood rushed out of the brain making her incredibly dizzy and causing her to stumble slightly.

     “Woah.” Shane exclaimed as he held Electra’s arm to avoid her from crashing back down into the chair, instead slowly allowed her to sit back down slowly.

     “She hasn’t slept or eaten in days,” Jacqui explained causing Jenner’s eyes to land on her rather than Electra who was now under her brothers arm. “None of us have.”

     “Let me fix that.”

     Jenner disappeared out of the room whilst receiving confused looks from all the Atlanta survivors. Electra breathed softly, her head now burrowed into Shane’s shoulder as he rested his head on top of hers, stroking her head with his left hand.

     “You alright there, Ellie?” Rick asked concerned for his best friends wellbeing as he advanced on Electra and Shane. Lori’s eyes narrowed the second Rick crouched down in front of them both rubbed Electra’s arm in an attempt of comfort. “Ellie?”

     “I’m….” Electra trailed off as she maneuvered her head on Shane’s shoulder so that she could see Rick. “I’m fine, it’s just like Jacqui said: Lack of food.” She stated.

     “El-”

     “I’ll be fine Rick,” Electra assured him with a small smile, his big heart was always what she had admired the most about him and brought on her feelings for him. “Just give me a minute, okay?” she asked him placing her left hand on top of his own.

     “Okay,” Rick nodded before removing his hand from her arm and straightening up again. “What do y’all think?” he enquired the group as he moved so that he could see all of them.

     “Of Jenner?” Daryl questioned from him spot in the corner, his crossbow still in his hands. “Something off about him…” he hypothesized.

     “Ya think?”

     “I know.”

     “Of course there’s something off with him,” Andrea rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms against his chest. “He’s been cooped up inside of here with no human contact for God knows how long. He’s hardly going to be right as rain.” She stressed.

     “You’re sayin’ there’s nothing else off with him?”       
    
     “Not getting any vibes, no.”

     “Vibes.” Daryl scoffed, shaking his head as he looked to the metallic floor beneath the floor, causing Andrea to turn in his direction with her annoyance written on her face.

     “You got something to say Dixon?!”

     “Yeah.” Daryl nodded as he looked up to meet Andrea’s fierce blue eyes. “I do actually,” he confirmed, still nodding causing her to place a hand on her hip.

     “Guys-”

     “Go on then!”

     “Guys-”

     “Well blondie, you aren’t exactly-”

     “Aren’t exactly what?”

     “Guys!” Electra yelled from her spot next to Shane, their argument had caused her to sit up straight in her seat and stare at them both. “Lay off it.” She commanded. “We’re safe now and you’re finding absolutely nothing to argue about!” she exclaimed. “It’s been a long day and I think I can speak for everyone when I say: Please shut the hell up.” She said in a polite tone.

     Just then the sound of clonking footsteps came from one of the never ending corridors in zone five and Jenner popped his head around the doorway.

     “Follow me.”


►►►


▬ First Person- Electra’s P.O.V ▬ 


     Turned out that whilst we were talking about how odd Jenner had been he had been preparing us a mini feast in the CDC cafeteria. We were now all seated around one table jovially drinking wine and liquor from the fully stocked fridge, triumphant in finally finding a safe place and a good meal.