»Play: Borgov I by Carlos Rafael Rivera«
Alexa had been laying awake on the ground for the past couple of hours. Only her brothers even breathing filled the space. She adjusted her head on her backpack before sighing exasperatedly and standing up. Swiftly slipping Ont of the small bedroom.
Outside it was dark and quiet. The girl stealthily crept along the hallway till she made it to her destination. The 'big room' as Jenner called it, was much like the hallways. Silent and dark. The girl sighed in relief seeing as the good doctor wasn't in the room. Meaning he must have been asleep or off somewhere else.
Clicking on her flashlight, she quickly pivoted around the room. It was the same room, lined with desks and chairs, the same out-of-place-looking desk Alexa had assumed to be Jenners also still sat the same way it had been before. The girl glanced around, making sure she was alone before she started over to the desk.
Sitting down she examined the various papers that lay scattered around the desk. The majority of them meant nothing to her, just various sloppily written scribbles and letters and numbers she didn't understand. But a certain file, with other papers inside, containing her name did. She whipped around, making sure she was still alone before setting her flashlight behind her ear as she scanned over the document.
Alexandra Mason.........24.........0 Positive.........
Infected.
The girl's eyes widened. She was... Infected? But she couldn't be. She hadn't been bitten.
"Infected?" She whispered to herself as she flipped through the other documents in the folder.
Chase Mason.........9.........0 Positive.........
Infected.
Her brother was infected too?
"No..." The girl whispered as she continued through the papers.
Rick Grimes.........37.........A Positive.........
Infected.
Lori Grimes.........37.........A Positive.........
Infected.
Carl Grimes.........10.........A Positive.........
Infected.
Glenn Rhee.........22.........Type B.........
Infected.
Daryl Dixon.........43.........Type A.........
Infected.
Shane Walsh.........35.........Type AB.........
Infected.
"We're all infected..." Alexa whispered as she finished reading through the list. "Everyone turns." The reality hit the girl across the face like a slap. Everybody young, old, man, woman, child, everyone is infected. They all turn. Bitten or not.
Alexa slammed the file down, just as the monitor in front of her flickered to life. Green lettering appearing to spell out the phrase.
WILDFIRE MSB3417 ACTIVE
Review Transmission
Yes No
Without thinking, Alexa pressed yes, watching as the screen flickered to black, then flickered to the face of doctor Jenner.
"Jenner here." He introduced himself to the camera. "It's day one hundred ninety-four since Wildfire was declared and sixty-three days since the disease abruptly went global." He continued. "There's no clinical process to report." Jenner picked up a notepad, flipping through it before he continued.
"Item. I finally got the scrubbers in the east sector shut down to save power. Wish I could have done it a month ago, but it took me that long to figure it out. Too bad I never studied engineering. Could have saved a lot of amps." He commented before picking up a mug and taking a sip.
"Item. I'm still not sleeping well. Can't seem to keep regular hours. Living underground doesn't help, not knowing if it's day or night. I'm just feeling very off-kilter these days." Jenner looked to the camera before it clicked off. The same green words Alexa had seen before flickering across the computer screen.
WILDFIRE MSB3417 ACTIVE
End of Transmission
Review Next Transmission
Yes No
Alexa quickly clicked on yes as the computer flickered to black, then back to Jenner.
"The TS nineteen samples are gone." He started bluntly, setting down a glass of red wine. "The tragedy of their loss cannot be overstated. They were our freshest samples by far. None of the other samples we gathered even came close. Those are necrotic, useless dead flesh." Computer Jenner sighed as he drained his glass of wine.
"I don't even know why I'm still talking to you." Jenner continued. "I bet there isn't a single son of a bitch out there still listening. Is there?"
Not wanting to hear any more of Jenner's useless bullshit, Alexa clicked off the monitor. That was it. There was no more C.D.C.. No cure. No anything. There was nothing left. This was it. The world was dead, with no hope of saving it.
Alexa leaned back in the office chair, running her cold hands down her face. In a way, she felt cheated. For so long she had been protecting her baby brother in the hope that the world would get better. Start a new age, an age without the undead. But somewhere deep, deep, down she already knew something like this would happen. Something like the end of the world, that was never going to truly end.
The girl stood, she didn't care anymore. Right now all she needed was a drink. And that's what she did. Alexa stumbled down the hall she had come from earlier, walking until she found the C.D.C.'s small cafeteria. Stumbling inside she immediately spotted the leftover alcohol from the night's dinner.
She carelessly nicked a bottle of whiskey, drinking straight from the bottle as she sunk to the floor. Her back pressed against the counter as she let all of her troubles get washed away with the drink. It tickled her throat, making her cringe slightly. It had been so long since she had had any of the substance, but the effects started to kick in as the girl finished a quarter of the bottle.
"I thought you didn't drink."
A familiar voice asked. Alexa shrugged. At this point, the girl didn't care.
"I needed one." She spoke quietly as she took another swig from the glass bottle.
"Still, I didn't take you for a drinker." He replied, drunkenly walking over to the girl.
She shrugged again, looking up as the man towered over her.
"I ain't."
Alexa took another drink from the bottle before offering it to the man. Daryl took it greedily, sitting down next to the girl as he drained half the bottle in one gulp.
"What made you start?" He questioned, handing the whisky back to the girl.
"The world went to shit, didn't you get the memo." She answered, seizing the bottle and taking a sip.
Daryl nodded in agreement, taking the bottle back from Alexa.
The two sat in comfortable silence for a while, just passing the bottle of whiskey back and forth till it was empty. The duo sighed in sync. Alexa was merely tipsy, but Daryl was completely drunk. It wasn't until Alexa almost drifted off to sleep, that she finally moved. She stood, dusting her hands off on her black jeans before heading for the exit.
"Where you goin'?" Daryl slurred, watching as the girl tried to leave.
"Bed." She responded simply, turning to look at the man who still sat on the floor. He nodded, watching as she turned to leave again before he spoke up.
"Alexa."
The girl turned curiously, eying the man suspiciously for what he might say next.
"Y-you clean up nicely."
"You too, redneck."
YOU ARE READING
What Lies Ahead • the walking dead ¹
FanfictionWhen the dead started walking she was alone. Alone with her baby brother. Alone with her thoughts. Alone with the dead... Alone. A word Alexa grew quite acquainted with... Until she wasn't alone.
