𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇 || ᵈ.ᵈⁱˣᵒⁿ

VIII

—/<3/—

She decided to join the others once she was finished distributing the pastes into little plastic containers, not wanting to wallow in her worries whilst everyone had fun. She plodded into the main room in her socks with her hair half dry, wearing a t-shirt and her biker shorts, not bothering to put some shoes on or make herself look more presentable. If she was being honest, this was the most presentable she'd looked in the last two days and she looked better than half the people at the table who hadn't bothered to shower or change out of their grimy clothes.

"You want a drink sweet cheeks?" Niamh asked, her eyes already half lidded from the alcohol. Rory nodded and Niamh poured her a shot of tequila sliding it over to her as she took a seat in between Archie and Glenn.

Tequila was not her favourite liquor by a long shot, but you couldn't be picky in an apocalypse so she threw it back without complaining, sliding the shot glass back over to Niamh for another, to which her best friend gladly poured.

"Ain't you too young to be drinking?" Shane asked with raised eyebrows. Rory never liked Shane. He was bossy and thought he was more important than he actually was. She made eye contact with him as she threw back another shot, her face remaining straight and unbothered as she dared him to try pull his whole authoritative schtick on her. She was in a band for fucks sake, and before that, she was in college, of course she'd drank alcohol before.

He gave her a look but didn't say anything else. It wasn't his place to scold her when her brother was right next to her and Niamh, who was the same age as her, had been chugging drinks like there was no tomorrow for the past hour. No doubt he probably didn't know how old Niamh was.

"Where've you been you loner?" Archie asked her, picking at his food.

"Grinding yarrow paste," she answered, stealing a rehydrated green bean from his plate. It tasted like the cardboard box it had undoubtedly been stored in for years.

"Why?"

"I'll tell you in the morning." Rory eyed Jenner sceptically, rolling the ball of her tongue piercing over the backside of her teeth as she tried to figure out what he was thinking, but to no avail, his face was blank as her looked at each member of the group, lifting his glass of wine to his lips every couple of minutes almost robotically.

—/<3/—

Rory and Daryl were right to be suspicious. Edwin Jenner knew the generators were going to run out the day after he let them in, and he chose not to tell them until the countdown timer hit 30 minutes before the whole building would explode.

The men panicked, threatening the scientist and taking axes to the doors in a pathetic attempt to break through to the other side.

"That won't work, those doors are indestructible," Jenner said calmly.

"Well your head ain't!" Daryl yelled, swinging the axe towards him. Rick caught his arm to stop him from killing Jenner then and there.

"Let us out!" T-dog yelled.

"I told you yesterday, once we go down there's no going back up," Jenner replied.

"You didn't tell us it was because you were planning on roping us into your weird mass suicide plan!" Archer seethed. he jumped into one of the computer seats and began trying to break his way into the systems. He never finished his computer programming degree and those were government protected computers created by the best cybersecurity experts, but it was quite literally life or death, so he had to try.

Rory pulled the gun free from her bag and stormed over to the scientist, kicking his rolling chair back from the table so she could stand in front of him.

"Look, if you want to die, that's great go ahead, but we clearly don't. You have no right to decide whether or not we die with you just because you think one way is more honourable. Do you even know who you're killing? Children, parents, people who have fought so hard to survive already, and you see nothing wrong with that?" Rory grilled him, clicking the safety off her gun.

"It'll be quick and painle—"

"I don't give a fuck if it's painful or painless, Edwin," she hissed. "If you plan on killing us, I'll make sure your death isn't so painless after all." She pointed the gun at his balls, finger on the trigger. "Tell us how to get out or I'm going to shoot you everywhere except your vital organs. You'll bleed out slowly and painfully, never getting to enjoy the sweet relief of your little suicide plan."

"Rory you're taking it too far!" Rick yelled at her.

"He's planning to kill us all, she's just threatening him a bit. She can't kill him else no one can open the doors." Shane hissed at him, he agreed with what she was doing, even if her morals seemed to sway. But Rory saw it as utilitarianism, sacrifice one life to save many others is the greater good for the most amount of people.

"Jenner please," Rick came up beside Rory. "We've come too far to die now," he begged.

Jenner looked between Rory and Rick, and then to the countdown timer on the wall, "Fine, but once you get up to the top, I can't help you get out of the front doors. That's out of my control. Go." He stood up, clicked a few buttons and then the doors groaned open.

Rory holstered her gun and gathered her loved ones, ushering them out of the doors without looking back. She helped Archie transport Mikey up the endless amount of stairs whilst Niamh carried their backpacks just ahead of them. They made it up just in time to duck behind a wall as Rick pulled the pin from a grenade to try break open the bulletproof windows by the main door. Rory covered her ears as the explosion went off, successfully smashing the glass.

"Go!" Rick shouted as he cleared the glass from the window, ushering the children through first. Rory stumbled over with Mikey, helping him through the window before climbed through herself, grabbing the crutches Archie handed her and getting Mikey away from the building and the walkers that had inevitably heard the explosion. She checked behind her every so often to make sure Archie and Niamh were still following.

They got to the car and Rory threw open to back door, shoving Mikey down into the backseat and ordering him to shuffle over. Then she pushed Niamh in next to him as Archie jumped into the driver's seat. Rory slammed the back door and ran to the passengers side, closing the door and covering her ears just in time for the CDC to combust. The car shook with the aftermath of the explosion and Rory slumped back in her seat with a sigh.

"Everyone okay?" Archer asked, bracing his hands on the steering wheel. A chorus of 'Yeah's' answered and Archie nodded, starting the car and pulling away from the sidewalk after the RV.

—/<3/—