A Broken World

Fifteen

Everyone got into the vehicle they would be riding in and we left. While the rest of us turned left, Morales turned right. Dale was in the lead in the rv, Rick was behind him in Carol's Cherokee. Lori, Carol, and the kids were with him. T-Dog and Andrea were in the church van behind them, then it was Daryl and I with Shane behind us. “This is such a stupid idea,” I mumbled. Daryl grunted beside me, he had one hand on the wheel and was leaning on the window with his other arm. I'm surprised he responded at all. “Better than going off alone,” he said. I shrugged, “I don't know, Daryl, I think Morales was smart not to come with us.”

“O'course you'd run off. You're good at runnin’ off,'' Daryl mumbled. I rolled and scoffed. “I left because I had nothing in that town to keep me there. My family didn't want me. Hell, they didn't even notice when I moved out of the house. I left so you wouldn't have to look at me every time you came to the bar or saw me on the streets. I had no family and no friends in that town, there wasn't anything or anyone, for that matter, holding me back.” He scoffed again and mumbled something under his breath. I wasn't in the mood to even have this conversation with him.

“I didn't do anything to ya to make ya leave.” My head snapped to look over at Daryl. “You called me a fucking pig, Daryl! I was doing my job. Your brother knew the victim, he was seen with him the night he was killed. I don't know why you idolize him so damn much. He's a drug addict, he's racist and sexist. He does nothing but put you down. You're a better man than that Daryl.” He scoffed at me, “You don't know a damn thing about me or my brother. So keep your damn mouth shut!” I just shook my head and looked out the window. “Why the hell did you want me to even ride with you? I should have just gone with Shane.” I didn't get an answer for that question. Dale honked his horn and we all pulled off onto the side of the road.

Jim wasn't doing so well; he wanted us to leave him there. He was coughing up more blood, his fever was insanely high, and he was having delusions, but he was clear headed enough at the time to know what he was talking about. Rick didn't think it was right to just leave him there. He was so set on the CDC still being up and running. He had way too much faith in them having a cure. In his mind all we had to do was get there and they could help Jim. But that's not the case. Jim would die before we got there and he would turn. It was the best decision for the group and Jim knew that. Rick and Shane helped him up the hill and sat him against a tree. Everyone said their goodbyes and we got back into our vehicles to continue our trip to the CDC.

“Had your chance to go with Shane,” Daryl mumbled as we slowly pulled back onto the road. “Yeah, well, although I don't like you at this very moment, I still feel safer with you. Shane gives me the fucking creeps with the way he watching Lori and Rick.” Daryl hummed in agreement. The rest of the ride was in awkward silence. The sun was starting to go down by the time we got to the CDC. Just like I had told Rick, the parking lot and the road in front of the build was littered with dead bodies. The smell of rotting was intense and flies swarmed around them. “Like I said, this place is a bust,” I mumbled.

I reluctantly walked with everyone towards the front doors. We zig-zagged through the dead laying on the ground, taking care of any walkers that got too close. The smell was so intense my stomach churned. I didn't like being this close to the city at night. I always tried to avoid going out into the city when it got back. I kept my light to a minimum while inside and stayed in the breakroom with the door shut and barricade. It wasn't the walkers I worried about getting it, there weren't any on my floor. I was more worried about people finding me. I got lucky with Glenn, but there were a lot of bad people out there roaming free, and the good people would turn bad. You'll do anything when it comes to surviving.

When we reached the front doors, the building was locked down tight. The metal gates were pulled down over the doors and there was no opening them from the outside. Night had started to settle in and more walkers were starting to slowly creep towards us. The children whimpered and held onto their mothers. “Rick, there is nobody here. We need to go now!” I hissed at him. “This place wouldn't be locked down if there weren't people inside.”

“Those people could be fucking dead for all we know. They work with very deadly shit, Rick! We need to go now! We can not be this close to the city at night,” I told him. Shane grabbed ahold of him and started to drag him away. Daryl, Glenn, and T-dog were taking out any walkers that got too close. “The camera…it moved! The camera moved!” Rick said, breaking free from Shane and started to pound on the door. “You're seeing this, man,” Shane told him, trying to drag Rick away from the door.

Rick was begging for whoever he thought was in there to let you in. “We have children, hardly any gas or food!” Shane was able to pull him away. “You're killing us! You're killing us!” Rick yelled. Walkers were getting closer, more showing up from all the noise that had been created by Rick banging and yelling. Shane tugged on Rick, pulling him away from the doors. We started to make our way back to the vehicles, taking out any walkers close by. The kids wrapped themselves around their mothers, soft cries and sniffles could be heard from them. Then the doors opened, halting us in our tracks and a bright blinding white light streamed out.