{ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪᴠᴇ: ᴛꜱ-19}
word count:
3616
warnings ⚠️: explicit language, fainting
With hesitant steps, the group slowly entered the building.
"Daryl, you cover the back." Shane told the bowman, causing the man to set the small girl down, as Ezra came up behind her, a gun in his hand.
Silas walked into the building behind Rick, her bag on her back, as they looked around.
"Hello?" Rick called out. The sound of gun being cocked wa shears and the group turned pointing their own weapons at a man who stood in the entry with a rifle.
"Anyone infected?" He questioned.
"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick informed.
"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man prodded as he sizes up the group.
"A chance," Silas answered for them, eliciting a look from them all. "That's asking an awful lot these days."
"We know." Rick said. The doctor looks at everyone as he mulls over the idea. "You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." He informs.
"We can do that." Rick said.
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes it stays closed." The men run out to grab their belongings before following Jenner into an elevator.
"VI, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here."
"Rick Grimes. This is my partner, Silas." Rick introduced, winking at the girl with hazel eyes. He puts his hand out for the man to shake, he only looks away, his hand still on his gun.
"Dr. Edwin Jenner" he introduced.
"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked rhetorically.
"There was plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you all look harmless enough."
Jenner looked down to Carl, "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." Carl smiles back at the doctor, and Jenner chuckles.
When he looks towards Silas' grim expression the smile on his face as one of emotion and sorrow crosses his own features.
Once the elevator opened up on a floor, Jenner leads the group down a corridor, before he could even think to ask her.
"Are we uhm... Underground?" Carol gulped, nervously. "Are you claustrophobic?" The doctor raised an eyebrow at the the older woman in question.
"A little." She admitted with an anxious expression on her face.
"Try not to think about it." He suggested as they entered the large darkened space.
"VI, bring up the lights in the big room."
"Welcome to Zone 5."
"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick questioned. "I'm it. It's just me here." He informed, which made Silas sigh pinching the bridge of her nose.
She was beginning to run out of hope, and she could feel her anxiety flare up.
Anxiety's a trip. Silas Peletier knew a lot about that.
"What about the person you were speaking with? VI?" Lori asked. "VI, say hello to our guests. Tell them... Welcome." An automated voice system spoke in a monotonous tone.
"Hello, guests. Welcome." The voice obeyed.
"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry," Jenner apologized. And with that, he led them down to a room where he would begin to take the group's blood.
One-by-one, the group had blood drawn and before she knew it, it was Silas' turn.
"Alright, sweetheart. Last but not least." Jenners words were meant to be taken as a joke but Silas didn't laugh. Her usual tan colored skin was now a sickly white color, and her hazel eyes were darkening.
Jenner had her sit down, and the group watched the interaction unfold.
"Mommy, Silas doesn't—"
"Shane!" Carol shot up form her seat and rushed over to Silas, who's body began to sway.
"Hey, it's okay. Look at me, you'll be fine." Silas looked past Ezra as Jenner began to search for a vein in her arm.
Ezra put their foreheads together as he held her face in his hands, whispering sweet nothings to her.
Her face grew cold, and right as Jenner went to stick the needle in, her body folded, right into Ezra's arms and she was out like a light.
"Silas!"
——
"She just needed a little fluid in her, see? All better." Jenner lifted the IV needle from her arm, discarding it before wrapping some gauze around her lightly bleeding arm.
Silas sat up groggily holding her head.
"Let's get you guys fed."
The remainder of the group, and Jenner, sat around a table in the dining hall of the CDC— eating supper and drinking wine.
"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner." Dale spoke in a suggestive tone, wriggling his eyebrows in Lori's direction.
"And in France." Silas piped in, the group chuckling. "Well, when Carl and Ezra are in Italy or France, they can have some then."
"What's it gonna hurt? Come on. Come on." Rick persuaded his wife, who caved and allowed it. Dale laughed as he handed Carl a glass with a sip of wine in it, offering Ezra his own cup. The older boy shook his head, picking up his cup of soda. "I don't do alcohol, Dale. Thanks for the offer though."
Silas watched from her chair, obviously next to Ezra.
"Ew!" Carl grimaced at the rate of the dark liquid, the group bursting into fits of laughter.
"That's my boy. That's my boy. Good boy." Lori pours the remainder of his wine into her own glass, sipping it. "Yuck. That tastes nasty."
"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane chuckled dryly at the young boy. "Not you, Glenn" Daryl joked, catching the Korean man off guard as he eyed the bottle in his hand. "What?"
"Keep drinking, lil' man. I want to see how red your face can get." The Archer teased, snorting.
"Hey, what about little Miss athlete, Silas?" She turned her head at the sound of Ezra saying her name, an eyebrow raised. "You wanna try some?" Dale said, holding the bottle in his hand. "Uhm, wine's not really my thing. I'm more of a Scotch or vodka kinda gal," she smiled awkwardly as her mom choked on her own drink, and everyone else laughed.
"Scotch and Vodka? Aren't you like 5?" Daryl said mockingly and she rolled her eyes. "15, and three quarters." She said back just as mockingly, her cheeks darkening in color.
"And when did you have the time to try these things, missy?" Carol questioned shockingly. "Soccer championship, gymnastics worlds, dads old 'not so secret' secret liquor stash, the family reunion back in 08', during the school year—" Silas listed off as the others laughed at Carol's shocked face.
They all gave the girl shocked looks as they looked between her and Carol. "You naughty girl. And here I thought you were an Angel."
"Well here. Drink this." The group watched intently as Silas eyed the cup that Shane handed to her before shooting it back and downing all of the alcohol in the glass, slamming the cup back into the table with a straight face. "What's that? Gin?"
"Whoo! That's what I'm— That's what I'm talking about!" Shane laughed, the rest of the group following. "Ahh. Just like Holland used to make." Silas reminisced, looking over to her right to see Ezra looking down at her astonished. She winked at him and he didn't take her eyes off her, even after she looked away.
"The girl knows her liquor! I like that." Daryl pointed at her, taking a swig form his own bottle.
As the cheers died down, Rick spoke up. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Tapping his fork against his glass, he stood to his feet. "He is more than just our host." T-Dog interjected, Shane pouring more gin into Silas' cup.
"Hear hear!"
"Here's to you, Doc, booyah!"
" Booyah!"
"Thank you. Thank you, Doctor." Rick gave thanks to the awkward doctor.
"Booyah!" T-Dog copied Daryl. Glasses clinked together, Silas downing the rest of hers straight.
"So when are you gonna tell us what the Hell happened here, Doc?" Silas choked on her drink at the straightforward question. Ezra patted her back as she sat the cup down and coughed. "All the—the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" Shane spoke, completely ruining the mood.
"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick attempted to dismiss the man's rude behavior. "Whoa, hold one. Wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This... was your move—supposed to—to find all the answers. Instead we—" He scoffed, "We found him. We found one man, why?"
"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families." Jenner began, "And when things got worse when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."
"Every last one?"
"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They... opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."
"Why didn't you leave, Doctor Jenner?what made you stay?" Silas asked, grabbing the cup with soda still in it. "I just kept working, hoping to do some good." He answered with a sad smile.
"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn scoffed at Shane.
——
"Most of 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." Jenner said as he guided the group around the facility.
"There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies—if you shower, go easy on the hot water." At the mention of hot water the group grew excited.
Excited to finally clean the blood off of herself, Silas went to follow Ezra when Carol gripped her arm. "Come sleep in here with us, tonight." She furrowed her eyebrows, pointing behind her towards the boy with curly hair. "But I was gonna bunk with, Ezra."
"No. You're 14, you do not need to be bunking with any boy. Now come on. She'll see you in a little bit. You can stop by before bed, Ezra." Silas rolled her eyes and groaned as her mom guided her into the room, Sophia shutting it behind them.
The room reminded Silas of her bedroom back home. It was small but spacious and it had a couch against the wall facing the door, a desk sat against the wall next to the couch. Across from the desk was a small linen closet, with towels and a few other toiletries inside.
The door to the bathroom was to the right of the door. Silas grabbed a towel from the closet and gathered an outfit to sleep in, before claiming the bathroom.
The bathroom was small, and clean, and the walls and tiles were white. There was a full roll of toilet paper on the holder, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the shower. Silas inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of clean, smiling softly to herself.
Silas locked the bathroom door, turning the shower on, stripping from her clothes.
When Silas finally got out of the shower her body was pruny and the hot water was long gone. She put on a pair of joggers and a crop top. The redhead had walked out of the bathroom just as Sophia and Carol walked in.
"We showered in the room next door. Didn't want you to rush." Silas nodded as she grabbed a pair of slippers from the floor of the closet.
"Dibs." She called, slipping them onto her feet. "We're gonna go to the rec room for a bit, if you wanted join us?" Carol suggested and Silas nodded.
"I'll meet you guys there." Carol and Sophia left, which gave teen girl the room to herself.
Silas pulled the bed from the couch, making it as comfy as possible before make a makeshift bed next to it on the floor. She laid her sleeping bag and some comforters over the two couch cushions on the floor, grabbing a pillow from the couch and setting it down.
A knock on the door caused her to stand to her full height, as yelled a come in.
A shirtless Ezra entered the room, eliciting a smile from the girl.
"Hi," she spoke softly, a small smile on her lips as she began brushing her hair.
"I uh... I wanted to talk to you about something."
——
Silas trudged into the cafeteria 45 minutes after everyone else, now in Jeans and her oversized jacket. Silas stumbled into quite a few things on her walk as her mind was racing 100 miles per hour.
The auburn haired girl sat at the table that had abandoned breakfast food on it, eating a little bit of whatever was left.
"Where the hell is everyone?" She said to herself after 15 minutes of silence, just as a loud alarm began going off.
Silas jumped up out of the chair, running back towards the front of the CDC, just as the metal door to the computers lab began to close.
"Guys!"
Everyone turned their heads towards her voice, Ezra racing toward the closing door. Silas had just made it towards the top of the steps when the door shut.
"Guys! What's going on?! Mom? Sophia? Ezra?!" She banged on the metal doors, as tears began clouding her vision.
"Mom!"
"Silas!"
Members of the group on the opposite side of the doors banged on the door, yelling out for Silas, while others were yelling at Jenner.
"Jenner! You open that door and let us out, right now! Silas is 14, she's got anxiety, she's gonna have a panic attack, you need to let us out there to her!" Lori pleaded, as Silas began to breathe heavily.
She was locked away from her sister in a foreign place and by the way everyone was freaking out she knew something horrible had to have been going south. She could just faintly hear the sobs of her little sister and mother, and that's when the black dots began.
Silas gripped the necklace form Miranda in her hand as she slid down the metal wall, her lowering in between her knees as she attempted to calm herself down.
She tried to think but it was to no avail.
"Silas. Silas! I hope you can hear me! The cdc is going to blowup, with all of us in here!" Ricks voice sounded over the announcement. Silas stood to her feet, wiping away her tears, looking up. Could they see her?
"We need your help! There's only 13 minutes left, you have to hurry!" Rick pleaded and she swallowed thickly, an idea popping up in her head.
She ran down the halls, stopping in each room and retrieving everyone's bags, taking them into the front. When she was finished with the last bags, she ran over to an instructions panel. Ripping it off the wall she skimmed through it quickly, flipping it over before finding something helpful.
'Facility Power Restart'
She ripped open the panel wall, yanking out a bunch of the proper wires, according to the manual.
Just like hot wiring a car.
Except she could screw the whole thing and end up blowing herself and the group up faster. But no pressure.
Silas took a deep breath, attaching the wires to new ones just as its screen turned on.
"I got it. I got it!" She dropped the book to the ground using the tape from the back of the books cd, taping the wires together.
The screen was passcode protected but this didn't deter her mission. She ran over to the front desk, jumping onto the top of it before sliding onto her feet. She tossed supplies and files about, opening drawers and impatiently rummaging through them.
She looked up for a second, doing a double take when she saw the lab coat draped across the back of a chair. She threw the folders in her hands down, yanking the ID card from it before throwing her legs and body back over the reception desk.
"She's a child. This is never gonna work," Shane snapped sharply, as he and Daryl began taking axes to the door again. "She's smart, she'll get us out of here." Lori countered as she held Sophia and Carl to her sides.
Ezra nodded at his mothers words, rubbing a hand over his chest. His mind racing 100 miles an hour. His life couldn't end before it even got to start. Carl and Sophia's either. They deserved to live out as long as possible. Jenner had no right to lock them in there like he did, and then have the audacity to forget the code.
He had faith that Silas would get them out, but just in case he was making peace in his heart and in his mind.
Carol watched next to Rick, as her eldest daughter ran about the entire cdc as fast as she could. Which obviously was pretty fast.
"She might actually open it. I believe in her." Jenner said from his position on the floor, also watching the girl work.
"Come on, Silas. Come on." Mumbled Rick under his breath, as he watched her from the monitor.
Silas took the iridescent chip form the back of the keycard attaching it to the untouched and exposed wire while swilling the card.
A yellow light lit up as it made a beeping noise. She tried again and the same result occurred.
"Come on." Silas wiped the chip against her shirt and spark shocked her hand just as the sound of the door moving sounded behind her. "Ow." She shook the pain in her fingers away as she watched almost everyone run out of the room.
"Silas, you did it!" Sophia was the first to run to the girl, who eagerly hugged her sister back just as tightly, the girls' mother joining in as well.
Rick came up to the girl, shaking her hand and pulling her into a hug whispering a thank you into her ear. She nodded as everyone else either nodded in her direction or ruffled her hair. The men in the group began using objects to break the glass but it obviously wasn't working.
Silas ran back over to the power panel looking at the rest of the wires. It said nothing about how to break glass in the manual.
"Get down, T!" Shane yelled just as he began to shoot his shotgun at the window, which didn't even crack.
"Wait! I have something." Silas dropped the wires, running over to her mom and Sophia, sliding to her knees and picking up her bag. As soon as it was in her hand she stood up, rubbing over towards the men near the window. "Silas honey, I don't think combat boot laces are gonna do it," Shane said sarcastically as the girl went through her backpack.
She pulled out the grenade she stole from his pocket.
"My mom was doing your laundry, back at the quarry and I swiped it from your pocket. I'm glad I didn't use it." The man looked at the much shorter girl with wide eyes, as he reluctantly grabbed the grenade nodding his head. He ran over to the window and kneeled, holding the deadly weapon in his hand.
Ezra pulled the girl back with everyone else, covering her, Carl and Lori.
"Shit. Shit! Everybody down—"
He ran over just in time as the grenade went off, blowing out the glass.
The group made quick of exiting the building. Rick hanging back to make sure no one was left.
"Come on, we gotta go!" He yelled as people began to hop down and run off towards their vehicles. Silas and Ezra were last, the girl sitting down to slide. Rick grabbed her hand and she nodded in thanks as he guided her down, followed by Ezra who jumped. He ushered the teens in front of him, running with them to Ezra's truck before making his way to the RV.
Just as everyone was about to leave, Glenn yelled wait and that's when everyone noticed Andrea and Dale were still behind.
"You don't have time! Get down!" Silas yelled from the sunroof on Ezra's jeep. She looked at the digital watch on her wrist as the last 7 seconds ticked down.
"Ezra, the horn!"
The boy pressed the horn and the two adults took her advice, ducking under some sandbags.
"Silas, get down." Ezra pulled the girl down until she was holding her legs on the passenger seat floor. He turned his back to his door, hovering over head, covering them with his flannel.
And then it happened.
The explosion. Ezra could feel the heat on his back, and Silas could feel the tears on her face. They made it. Everyone was alive... well, almost everyone. Silas learned that Jacqui had decided to stay with Doctor Jenner.
When it was over, Ezra had reluctantly sat up, looking back to the now blown up building. Dale and Andrea were making their way to the RV. They were okay.
Ezra lifted her head by her chin, looking into her eyes. "It's okay. We're safe now. Because of you." He sent her a soft smile, kissing her forehead as she climbed into her seat, resting her head onto her window.
The two teens followed behind the group in the jeep, holding hands as Silas watched the cdc from the side-view mirrors. Silas had just woken up, about an hour ago but she was already exhausted.