Fuelling Forces || The Walking Dead

Part 3: Attempt On Our Lives Take One

The CDC was a ghost town.

I stayed nearby Daryl most of the time in the front lines taking out Walkers. My hands were up in offense position with Daryl at my back watching my six. We worked extremely well as a team, I had managed to get closer to him during the bike rides we had in between looting and traveling, trying to look for a new place to settle. I could now safely say that I was on Daryl Dixon's good side and that in itself was an accomplishment.

Rick was going nuts in front of the CDC's door making one hell of a noise. He was attracting a horde of Walkers and endangering the group with his screaming. I felt cold hard fear as the group started forming a small circle. I ran further into the front, taking out three runners with a slight wrist movement. I remeber at the training center our sensei made us master the strange art of flag dancing to get the moves with the swords right. I slid my blade out of a dead woman's head using my foot as leverage before noting that Shane was leading the group back our way. I jumped onto another Walkers back and decapitated its head, before realising that the rotary door had opened.

"Leah come on!" Daryl called running to the door.

Rick hadn't gone crazy it seemed. I let out a breathy laugh, sheathing the swords and running towards an awaiting Carl. I grabbed his sandy hand in my rotten blood-riddled one and walked him inside the heavily-guarded facility. It smelt clean, no-death was around. There was no dust, I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be clean, and in a clean place.

"You good?" T-Dog asked me.

"Yeah, I handled it quite well don't you think?" I asked him, letting Rick handle the negotiating.

"I think it was pretty awesome! You were like a ninja! Ain't no walkers getting a hold on you!" Carl giggled out like a little girl, Sophia nodding excitedly.

I chuckled. A child's innocence.

"Can you teach me how to use those?" He asked me pointing at my X-sheathed swords.

"Ask both your mom and dad first gunslinger. You can lose limbs with these things!" I told him, ruffling his hair and pushing him gently towards his mom who was smiling at me gratefully.

I chose to stick to the back with Andrea.

"You're awfully good with kids." She told me, nudging my elbow.

"I try. I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, but I landed up going into martial arts." I told her shrugging.

"I was a civil rights lawyer. Not much use nowadays. Amy was my best friend back then." She shrugged walking with the group.

I smiled somberly.

"I also had a best friend. Her name was Michonne Hawthorne. Fiesty, always trusted her gut, she had no time for nonsense. I wonder if she survived, I mean, she thieved one of first set of my swords." I wondered out loud. The first set my husband ever gave me.

Andrea looked at me curiously. Dr. Edwin Jenner, the resident of the locked down building was busy getting his blood samples as requested. I went right after Lori, sitting at the chair and looking at my scars from where the needles ripped out viciously. Dr. Jenner looked at me suspiciously, I just told him to hurry it up. I didn't want to explain myself to him, something about this place was too good to be true. Sophia was shaking so I winked at her before setting on my feet in a wobbly manner. He allowed us each a shower and a place to sleep.

It felt soothing to have warm water hitting my back as I scrubbed my whole body raw and red. I had a chance to chop my long claw-like nails down to a decent length before I cleaned off my swords in the cafeteria.

"I'm going to scout this place." I told Rick.

Sophia followed me. It felt good that Carol trusted me with her daughter. The fact that she trusted me was what mattered to me. I looted what I could as I gnawed on the apple I took from the fruit pile, handing another apple to Sophia. I found another pair of womens clothing for me. It was three quarter jeggings with a tank top and a body warmer. There was a nice pair of blue sneakers, that were coincidentally my size, so I put them in my bare feet. Sophia was looking underneath the bed. We were both comfortable being quiet around each other. It was the only solace we got nowadays.

I met Shane back in the cafeteria where he was interrogating Jenner foolishly. Sophia ran back to her mom where she showed her the pretty bracelet I had found for her. I tried to stop Shane from messing this up for us, but what Shane was asking Jenner made sense.

My gut instinct was true; it wasn't very long until Jenner locked us in here after showing us the TS-19 research, and practically planning a homicide by incineration. What Jenner was offering felt like too easy a way out. I still needed to find my one-of-a-kind husband. When I wanted to use my swords on him, Shane held me back signalling with his head that Rick was already there, threatening the man with a gun. I eyed the rafters carefully while the man was speaking.

"Oh my gosh." I whispered in shock.

There were torch blowers in the darkest corners of the room, I figured out before Jenner revealed that when the time finished we would all be incinerated. I looked at each member of our group uneasy. Daryl was trying to chop the indestructible door open with an axe. For a moment I wanted to help him.

Jenner eventually let us out after a long agonisingly angsty period. A few of our own stayed behind, but I was already sprinting with Carl and Sophia clinging on both my hands towards the exit. The glass was difficult to break, my sword only made a tiny dent. Carol revealed that she had a grenade in her bag, stolen from the sheriffs sack in which Rick used to blow the glass to bits. My breaths were coming out uneasy as I hauled ass to the RV with Carl and Sophia still hanging onto me. I let them both sit quietly in the RV as I eyed a shiny vehicle laying on its side. I ran to it to see that it was a motorcycle, silver in colour and absolutely beautiful. I swiftly checked the tank to see if it was full and alas it was.

I really wasn't counting the time, because the building exploded and I went sprawling near a snarling Walker. It was a very close-call, but I managed to leap onto my feet and smash its head in acknowledging my pained arm. The place around it was an angry red colour, probably bruised. Rick and Carl were screaming blue murder at me; I just rolled my eyes and walked casually back to the bike, readjusted my arm and set off next to Daryl. The white noise in my ears managed to distract me momentarily from my surroundings.

We would have to find another place to stay.