FEAR ⇾ THE WALKING DEAD

viii. | cdc

Shane's muscles tensed seeing his daughter pressed up so close to the flustered boy. He looked away to force himself to relax and not go beserk on the young boy.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl suddenly questioned.

Jenner looked at him. "There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself, but you look harmless enough," Jenner joked as he looked down at Carl. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you."

Ella suddenly felt very uncomfortable around Jenner. She placed her hand on Carl's shoulder and moved him closer.

Then the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened, revealing a dark abyss. Ella squinted her eyes, trying to see into the darkness, but it was no use for she didn't have night vision.

"Are we underground?" Carol worriedly asked, playing with Sophia's hair locks.

Jenner chuckled. "Are you claustrophobic?" he asked her.

"A little." Carol admitted.

"Try not to think about it," Jenner told her. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room," Jenner turned to everyone. "Welcome to Zone 5."

The lights turned on and revealed a huge room with all sorts of desks and computers for people. This place was a huge lab. Impressive, Ella thought.

"Where is everybody?" Lori spoke up. Ella flickered her gaze around the room and realized her question was valid. It was a lab and nobody was here. "The staff? The doctors?"

"I'm it," Jenner shrugged his shoulders forward, sorrow overtaking him. "It's just me here."

Ella slowly lowered her head, feeling sorry for the doctor.

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori prompted, stringing her eyebrows together.

"Vi, say hello to our guests," he paused for a moment, deep in thought. "Tell them welcome."

"Hello, guests. Welcome."

Everyone staggered back when realization hit them that they may as well be all that was left of the world and of humanity.

Jenner sadly shook his head. "I'm all that's left." he whispered, he was obviously hurt, which made Ella's heart ache for the man. He probably hadn't seen other people in months, but they had thing in common: they were all that was left.

All that was left.

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ONCE EVERYONE WAS DONE WITH BLOOD TESTS, they all sat at the table to eat and drink wine. Ella sat beside her father who pushed his food around with his fork. Ella narrowed her eyes on her food, she wasn't feeling really hungry for some reason even though none of them had ate in a few days.

Shane looked at his daughter. The laughter of everyone else filling Ella's ear, her eyes not daring to move from the food in case she woke up the moment she looked up from the plate of food.

"You gotta eat, baby girl." Shane whispered, pushing her plate closer to her. "You're going to pass out if you don't."

"I'm fine," Ella told him. "Not hungry."

Glenn looked at Ella from across the table and away from Carl, frowning. He watched as Ella pushed the plate away again.

She decided to look up from her plate, only to find Carl taking a sip of wine from Lori's cup. A small grin crept on her face. Carl scrunched his nose up in disgust.

Carl gagged. "Ew."

Lori rubbed his back, smiling. "That's my boy, that's my boy."

Shane smiled at the young boy. "Let's just stick to soda pop there, bud." he chuckled.

Daryl jabbed a finger at Glenn, raising his eyebrows. "Not you though, Glenn."

Glenn sheepishly grinned. "What?"

Ella smiled at Glenn, leaning into the table. "You heard him, Glenn. We're going to get you shitfaced." she laughed, biting her lower lip.

Daryl smiled at Ella, nodding in agreement. Ella sent a wink to Glenn, causing his face to turn a bright pink. He slouched down in the chair, swallowing thickly.

Rick stood up, his glass held high in the air as Dale made his way over to Ella and filled her cup to the brim with the red alcohol.

Ella looked over to Rick. She wondered what he was doing. She picked up her cup and sipped on it, her eyes on the former sheriff.

"It seems we haven't properly thanked our host." Rick announced, gaze flickering between everyone.

T-Dog raised his glass. "He is more than just a host." he slurred. Everyone raised their glasses with T-Dog.

Daryl let out a whoop of appreciation. Ella smiled at him, she was loving this side of Daryl Dixon. He was always so mean, uptight and angry. The good side of Daryl Dixon was something she wanted to see more of.

"So, when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane spoke up, now in serious mode. "All the-the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?" he asked.

Ella sighed. "Dad-"

"Wait a second. This is why we're here, right?," Shane glared at his daughter, then to Rick. "You brought us here, man. We were supposed to find all the answers here instead we-" he paused. "We found him. Found one man. Why?"

Ella stared at her father, blinking a few times, before she turned to the doctor sitting near the Walsh family.

Jenner was silent for a long while, his eyes moving between each member of this group of survivors. He took a deep breath. "Well, when things got bad, people left to be with their family. . . and when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, they all bolted."

Shane narrowed his dark eyes. "Every last one of 'em?"

Jenner shook his head. "The ones who couldn't walk out the door opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

Andrea frowned, her eyes sparking with interest. "Why didn't you leave?" she asked.

"I kept working to do some good."

Glenn groaned in annoyance, his wine in hand. "Dude, you are such a buzzkill."

Ella looked at Glenn, then to her father. He really did kill the mood, she thought to herself.