My Fear, My Silence

Chapter Six: In Plain Sight

"You Know, in Italy, Children have a little bit of wine with Dinner." Dale said to Lori. "And in France.

"Well When carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." Lori said while petting Carl's head.

"What's it gonna hurt?" The group was getting on Lori's case. She gave in and poured some red liquid into Carl's cup. He took a sip and his face turned red as he spit it out.

"Ewww." He said and everyone started laughing.

"Can I try?" I ask Daryl, but everyone heard me. He hands me a cup of the re liquid. It smelt funny. I took a sip. It was bitter but really good. I drank the whole cup. I handed the cup to Daryl. "Can I have more?" I ask making everyone laugh again. Daryl goes to hand me another cup when Lori takes it from him.

"Let's not get the 5 year old drunk okay? Mason your cut off." Lori chuckles. Daryl then grabbed the bottle and pours it into Glenn's cup.

"Not you Glenn." Daryl Chuckles.

"What?" Glenn asks confused.

"Keep Drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get." Everyone started laughing. It was nice to see everyone smiling again. Rick stood up and made a noise with his glass, getting everyones attention.

"It seems to me we haven't properly thanked our host." Rick says looking at Mr. Jenner. He smiles and raises his glass.

"He more that just our host!" T-Dog yells.

"Here's to you Doc." Rick says

"Booyah!" Daryl yells while lifting his bottle in the air. Everyone copies him and drinks.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here doc? All the.....the other doctors. That were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?" Shane asked, bring the mood down. Everyone stopped smiling and looked at Mr. Jenner.

"We're celebrating Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick said sternly.

"Whoa, wait a second. that is why were here right? This was your move.....supposed to find all the awnsers. Instead we.....we found him. One man Why?" Shane says. He seems angry.

"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." Mr. Jenner said, and the sadness came back to his face. I moved closer to Daryl, who was still listening to him.

"Every last one?"

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They.....opted out." Mr. Jenner said and took a gulp of his drink.

"There was a rash of suicides."

"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asked.

"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good." Everyone got quiet. They all had guilt on their faces. Daryl just went back to the bottle.

"Dud you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn said to Shane. Shane rolled his eyes. I still didn't know how I felt about Shane. He could be really scary. Only person I trusted, was Daryl. He was my best friend.

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"Most og the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There is a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy, just don't plug in the video games okay?" Mr. Jenner said. He brought us to a hallway filled with doors. He goes to leave but stops. "If you shower, go easy on the hot water." And he left. Glenn turned to us with a smile on his face.