Push and Pull || Maggie Greene

One Man

We all stood there, our gazes locked onto the bright light that was emitting from the building. No one uttered a single word for a few moments but we soon remembered that we were basically in the middle of a graveyard.

Shane was the first to act, telling Daryl to cover behind us as we made our way Inside, weapons drawn and ready to shoot any potential threats.

We entered what looked to be a lobby of some sort, it was empty as far as I could tell. "Hello?" I called out but I didn't get a response.

The sound of a gun cocking caught my attention and I was quick to aim my gun in the direction that I heard it, the others having similar reactions.

It was a single person, a man to be more specific, he was holding an assault rifle though by the way he was holding the gun it was clear he was no soldier. "Anybody infected?" The stranger asked us and I shook my head. "No...one of our group was, but he's no longer with us," I Said, referring to Jim.

The man continued to hurl questions at us, you know the typical ' who were we?' and ' what did we want?' type deal.

"A chance," Rick said to him and the man made his way closer, gun still aimed at us, by now our gun's had lowered slightly but I was still on guard.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." He had a point there, with the way things were most people didn't have a chance, so to be asking for one was a lot to give.

"We know." Was how I responded to that, and the silence that followed was tense, the only sound was of people's nervous breathing.

Finally, the man broke the silence with probably the best news we've heard in a while...well sort of.

"You all submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission." I frowned at that, not because I didn't like that he was allowing us to stay but because I absolutely hated needles. I could face Walker's, people, you name it, but not needles, definitely not needles...and come to think of it spiders too, but hey, if it means the group will be safe then I'll suck it up.

"We can do that." Rick agreed and at that, the man lowered his gun, "You got stuff to bring in, do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." He told us pointing at the door.

Once he told us that we were quick to run to the vehicles and grab our things, being watchful for any Walker's. Thankfully there were none and it didn't take us long to get our things back in the building.

Once the doors were securely shut the man finally introduced himself as Dr. Edwin Jenner, maybe since he was a doctor he maybe had some sort of idea of what in the hell made the dead start to walk, though right now that didn't entirely matter, I was just thankful we were in a secure building and out of harm's way for the time being.

"Follow me." He ordered and lead us down a hallway off to the side and into an elevator. We all packed inside the small space. We were so cramped in there that I was literally forced against Glenn's side. "You smell." He muttered playfully and I glanced up at him, "So do you asshole." We both laughed quietly at this. We hadn't had a chance to shower since...well I don't even know when, hopefully, this place had running water.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked Jenner and the doctor turned to him, "There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." He explained before a small smile made its way into his face. "But you look harmless enough." He then nodded towards my nephew, "Except you, I'll have to keep my eye on you." He told him and Carl shyly grinned.