Everyone is in high spirits, their laughter echoing throughout the room. Mellody smiles, She looks at Archie, who is sitting next to her, not smiling but she can see the happiness in his eyes.
Lori takes the glass of wine from Dale's hand, "Fine."
"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." Dale says,
Lori replies, her tone teasing, "Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then."
She covers Carl's drink with her hand.
Rick looks at Lori, a smile on his face, "What's it gonna hurt? Come on, come on."
Dale is enjoying the conversation and starts to laugh.
Lori smiles and shrugs her shoulders.
Dale hands Carl a glass with half an inch of wine in it. He then grabs two more glasses, pouring half an inch of wine into each one.
Dale pushes the glass towards Archie, looking at him, "Have you had any of this before?"
Dale looks at the group with a bright smile on his face, "There you are, young lads."
Archie whispers to Mellody, "You ain't gonna like it." She smiles, lifts her glass up, and takes the sip. Archie shrugs and looks on, watching.
Everyone watches as Carl lifts the glass and drinks the small amount of wine in it. The group cheers and laughs.
Carl makes a face, saying, "Eww." Everyone laughs as Carl makes the face.
Mellody tries a small sip, but can't even finish the small amount in her glass. She shakes her head and makes the rest of the group laugh.
Archie grabs Mellody's glass and pours the bit that was left into his own glass. He downs the entire thing in one go, making the rest of the group cheer and laugh again.
"That's my boy! That's my boy! Good boy," Lori says, pouring the rest of carls wine into her own glass.
Carl says, "Yuck, that tastes nasty."
Archie leans back, crossing his arms, and replies, "Well then you gotta get used to it lil man," making the group laugh again.
The sound of laughter fills the room as Shane says, "Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud," looking slightly uncomfortable or unhappy.
Daryl steps in, "Not you, Glenn," he says with a smile on his face, making everyone laugh again.
Glen is clearly confused, "What?" he asks, looking around, his smile becoming even wider.
Daryl leans forward, "Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get," he says with a grin on his face.
Everyone laughs even harder at the comment, and even Archie lets out a small smile.
Rick takes his fork and taps his glass, catching everyone's attention. Mellody looks over at Rick, who stands up, Rick clinks his glass, and everyone follows stops, laughing and talking. They all turn to Rick to see what he is going to say next.
Rick looks at Jenner and continues, "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."
T-Dog adds, "He's more than just our host," holding his glass up.
Dale says, "Hear, hear!" and everyone raises their glasses.
Daryl cheers loudly, holding up an interesting bottle of wine, "Here's to you, Doc, booyah!”
"Booyah!" Dale says with a smile, lifting his glass and clinking it against the others.
Archie says, "Cheers," lifting his own glass and taking a sip.
"You ain't gonna drink that whole thing, are you?" Archie asks Daryl, watching as he holds up the bottle and takes a long, deep sip.
Daryl responds with a grin, "Hell yeah, I am," and continues to drink as everyone around him cheers and laughs.
Shane speaks up, disrupting the laughter, "So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc? All the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"
Everyone stops laughing and turns to look at Shane, waiting for Jenner's reply.
Rick tries to defuse the tension by saying, "We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now," and sits back down, hoping that everyone will let it go.
Shane speaks up and says, "Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move- supposed to find all the answers. Instead we-” he chuckles, "we found him. Found one man, why?" Shane holds up his hands, looking confused.
Jenner takes his drink and sets it down. "Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted," Jenner says matter-of-factly, his eyes gazing into the distance, remembering the chaos of the early days.
Shane asks, "Every last one?"
Jenner replies, "No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They... opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time." Jenner's voice drops a bit as he speaks of the grim events.
Mellody puts her hands in her lap, feeling sympathy for Jenner and all he has seen. She is no longer interested in eating, but still wants to hear more of his story.
"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asks.
"I just kept working, hoping to do some good," Jenner replies, his voice low and somber.
Glen takes a sip of his drink and shakes his head, "Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man."
The room goes quiet, and nobody really wants to say anything more.
Jenner leads them through the living area, gesturing to the surrounding. "Most of the facility is powered down, including housing, so you'll have to make do here," he says, indicating the couches in the room. "The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like," he adds, heading down the hall. Mellody looks into each room as they pass by. Each room seems to be empty, and the silence in the facility is deafening.
Jenner turns to address the kids directly, "There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy," he says. "Just don't plug in the video games or anything that draws power. The same applies- if you shower, go easy on the hot water," he adds, looking at Sofia, Carl, and Mellody specifically. Sofia nods and Jenner turns to continue walking.
"Hot water?" Glen says, his eyes lighting up as he reacts to the idea of a shower.
"That's what the man said," T-Dog responds, chuckling along with the rest.
Mellody looks up at Archie, expecting him to be just as excited as she is about the possibility of a shower, but he seems indifferent. She asks, "Did you hear that?" and can't help but smile at the thought of being clean again.
"Obviously I did, I'm not stupid," Archie says, his tone agitated, as he rolls his eyes at Mellody. He seems more annoyed with her than usual, which takes the joy out of the moment.
As Archie turns on the shower, he discovers that the water is warm and enjoys the feeling of it on his skin. However, he doesn't like the clear doors, which leave him feeling self-conscious and exposed.
