Pulse➵Glenn Rhee

04

Edited.

I swear the world came to a halt when the metal door slid open. For a moment I couldn't move, my eyes transfixed at the blinding white light.

Then reality kicked in.

"Daryl, you cover the back," Shane ordered as we hurried inside. The light switched off, leaving a dimmer light in its place.

"Hello?" Rick called. "Hello?"

No one answered.

"Close the doors. Watch for walkers," Dale warned as we moved a bit further into the building.

"Hello?" Rick tried again.

This time the sound of a gun cocking answered.

A man stood in a doorway, clutching an automatic. "Anybody infected?" he called.

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

The man came closer, still aiming his weapon at us. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance," Rick said.

"That's asking an awful lot there days," the man countered, still edging closer to us. He was a middle-aged man with bloodshot eyes and a five o'clock shadow, dressed in baggy clothes.

Rick lowered his gun. "I know."

Silence descended over the lobby of the CDC. I wondered if we were about to die or if we were about to be given a chance on this godforsaken earth. I hoped for the latter.

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission," the man said.

"We can do that," Rick said, nodding.

The man lowered his gun. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." Immediately Glenn, Shane, Daryl, and Rick set out to grab bags from the cars.

It took a while for them to get back inside and once they did, Dale and T-Dog closed the door behind them. "Vi, seal the main entrance," the man said into an alarm system in the wall. "Kill the power up here."

The metal shutters closed and sealed us safely inside the CDC building.

Rick turns to the man and holds out his hand. "Rick Grimes."

The man looks down at Rick's extended hand, but he doesn't shake it. "Dr. Edwin Jenner," he said, glancing away from Rick. He leads away from the lobby and to the entrance of an elevator.

We all piled in and I was squished between Glenn and T-Dog.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl questions Jenner, who held his gun by his side.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough," Jenner joked, glancing at the group. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you," he said to Carl, who cracked a smile.

I let out a breath of relief when we stepped out of the elevator and into a wide hallways. Carol asked, "Are we underground?"

Jenner looked at Carol. "Are you claustrophobic?"

"A little."

"Try not to think about it," Jenner said, leading us into a large entrance. It was hard to see much of the room beyond; vague impressions of a metal ramp and gleaming computer screens. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room."

With a whirring nose, light flooded into the room from an almost painfully bright halogen ring suspended from the ceiling. "Welcome to Zone Five," Jenner said.