When the door opened, everyone froze, staring into the bright light. It took a few moments before everyone snapped back into reality. They raised their weapons forward, aside from Daryl who was covering the back.
The room they walked into was like a huge lobby. The floors were shiny and had strange geometric patterns.
"Hello?" Rick called out. His voice echoed in the seemingly empty building. They all scanned over the room with their eyes, searching for whoever opened the door when they heard the sound of a gun being cocked.
A tall man in a gray shirt emerged from behind a wall. He looked like a mess. Rosie furrowed her eyebrows at the way he was holding his gun. It was very wrong. He clearly had no idea what he was doing with the weapon. She thought that would ease her anxiety, but it only made it worse. If someone doesn't know how to use a gun, they shouldn't have it. That's what her dad always said when he was teaching her.
"Anybody infected?" the man yelled out. He sounded more scared than everyone else, which was funny because he was the one safe in a big huge building with zero walkers.
"One of our group was. He didn't make it," Rick told him, undoubtedly referring to Jim. Rosie didn't understand why he felt the need to mention Jim. He wasn't there anymore.
"Why are you here and what do you want?" the man asked quickly.
"A chance," Rick breathed out. He could only pray that this man had any answers.
"That's asking an awful lot these days," the man replied, stepping closer with his gun. With every step the man took closer, Rosie took a small step back. She didn't even notice she was doing it, she just did it.
Rick cocked his head to the side for a moment. "I know," he sighed.
No one said anything for a few moments, the only sound being everyone's panicked breathing as the man's eyes scanned over the group. They were worried he wouldn't let them stay- or that he'd kill them.
He didn't.
"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission," the man finally spoke.
"We can do that," Rick told the man.
The man lowered his weapon and everyone seemed to ease up. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed," he said.
Some of the adults went back and grabbed bags while Rosie stayed inside with the other people who didn't go out.
Once they came back in, Daryl nudged Rosie with his elbow. She looked up at him, thinking he was going to ask her to do something or maybe tell her she was doing something wrong, but instead he held his hand out. In it was her small, plastic velociraptor toy. She had left in on the seat of the truck. She nodded a thank you and Daryl nodded back before following the man.
The man started talking to the wall- at least that's what Rosie thought he was doing. "Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here," he said. The big metal door closed over the glass ones.
"Rick Grimes," Rick said, introducing himself.
Pussy ass cop.
The man looked at him strangely for a second before replying. "Dr. Edwin Jenner."
After that, Dr. Jenner led them to a big metal elevator. It didn't seem that big when they were all in it, though. It was very crowded. Rosie leaned up against the back wall, staring at her boots. This was all very strange to her. Something felt off, but she tried to ignore it because everything always felt off to her.
Rosie was spaced out for a minute, listening to the sounds the elevator made. It was annoyingly loud, but it was better than the constant buzzing of flies.
She jumped a bit when Daryl suddenly spoke up from beside her. "Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" he asked.
"Ah, there were plenty lying around. I familiarized myself," Dr. Jenner answered.
Clearly not very well. You weren't even holding it right, Rosie wanted to say, but she didn't. She thought it was best not to insult the strange doctor man who was holding a giant gun.
"But you look harmless enough," the doctor continued. He turned and looked down at Carl. "Except you," he said. Carl looked up, a little confused, before trying to hold back a smile. "I'll have to keep my eye on you."
The elevator stopped with a thud and opened up to a long, bright hallway. Rosie thought they ought to turn down the lights, it was making her head throb again. Everything in this place was so bright. She stayed towards the back of the group as the doctor led them down the bright hallway.
"Are we underground?" Carol spoke up.
"Are you claustrophobic?" Dr. Jenner asked her.
"A little," she said.
"Try not to think about it," Dr. Jenner said.
The dead are walking and you're scared of being underground? Rosie wanted to say, but, again, she didn't.
The doctor led them to a large room with a lot of chairs and desks. Rosie thought it looked kind of like a Star Wars ship.
"Vi, bring up the lights in the Big Room," Dr. Jenner said. Suddenly, a big circular light on the ceiling lit up. "Welcome to Zone 5."
"Where is everybody?" Rick asked. "The other doctors, the staff?"
Dr. Jenner stood by one of the desks and turned to look at them. He stood silently for a few moments before answering. "I'm it. It's just me here," he said. Rick stared at the ground.
"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori tried.
"Vi, say hello to our guests," Dr. Jenner said loudly. "Tell them... 'welcome'."
Suddenly, a feminine, robotic voice rang out throughout the room. "Hello, guests. Welcome."
"I'm all that's left," Dr. Jenner said with a slight shake of his head. Rosie felt her stomach clench at that information. She knew there wasn't gonna be anything, but she was disappointed anyway. "I'm sorry," the doctor said solemnly. Everyone went silent, sadly looking around at each other.
•
Everyone was gathered in another room, where the doctor was taking blood samples. Andrea was going first. As the doctor stuck the needle in her arm, she started questioning him. "What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever."
The doctor sighed. "I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough," he replied. Rosie thought that that was a stupid answer. The dead were walking and trying to eat every living person. The world ended. There were no more rules.
Rosie was sitting on the floor, leaning her back up against the wall. She thought about coloring again, but her hands were very shaky, for whatever reason, so she didn't. Instead, she sat there, watching the doctor do his thing as she held her velociraptor and tried to go unnoticed.
After a few minutes, it was Shane's turn to get his blood drawn. This caught Rosie's attention because she knew she was next. She watched as the doctor seemed to poke Shane with something.
A needle.
Rosie knew a lot about needles.
Her stomach started to hurt.
She tapped Daryl on the leg. He was standing beside where she was sitting against the wall. He looked down at her, waiting for her to say something. Rosie chewed her lip for a second, her eyebrows furrowed. "This is stupid. None of us are bit," she finally said.
"No shit," Daryl grumbled, "Ain't gonna stop him, though. Jus' do what he says."
Just as Rosie was gonna ask why, Shane walked over to the girl. "Alright, Rosie. You're up," he said, nodding down to her.
She shook her head adamantly. No way was she letting that man do that to her. And no way was Shane going to convince her to. She was no stranger to needles. She knew not to touch them.
"I'm not going to hurt you. It's just a little tickle," Dr. Jenner chimed in. This did not bring any comfort at all. This guy was the one trying to poke her, of course he'd say it wouldn't hurt.
"I ain't s'posed to, Daddy said," Rosie reasoned with them. That sentence grabbed everyone's attention, confusing them all. "It'll make me weird," she added quietly, staring angrily at her boots.
Shane furrowed his eyebrows. "What? It's not gonna make you weird. He's just testing your blood to make sure you're ok. You'll be just the same after," he tried to assure the girl, but she just shook her head, keeping her frustrated eyes focused on her shoes.
"Rosie," Lori decided to chime in, keeping her voice quiet, "you don't have a choice. It's just like going to the doctor. You have nothing to be scared of."
"I ain't scared. I jus' know I ain't s'posed ta touch needles," Rosie said, getting more and more annoyed with them. "Dad said."
"Jesus Christ," Daryl muttered to himself, realizing what was going through Rosie's head. He grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her to her feet. "Ain't the same thing," he told her.
"It's a needle. Daddy said don't do nothin' with the needles," Rosie growled out, pushing Daryl's arm away in frustration. "He said it's only for grown ups. I'm not s'posed ta touch 'em. He said."
"What's she talking about?" Carl asked. Lori shook her head at him, silently telling him to mind his own business.
"It's different," Daryl said exasperatedly. Rosie gave him an annoyed look, and he rolled his eyes and huffed. He lowered his voice as he talked to Rosie. No one needed to know her business. "Yer Dad was puttin' stuff in him. This guy's takin' stuff out," he told her.
Rosie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and still looked hesitant, so Daryl took her by the shirt again and walked them over to where the doctor was sitting.
"No, no. Daryl, Daddy said! " Rosie said again as Daryl pushed her towards the chair.
"He was a dumbass and he ain't here anymore, so you listen ta me. Sit down," Daryl hissed, pushing her down into the chair. Rosie gave him a very, very angry look, but he didn't seem to care.
"I'm gonna get in trouble!" Rosie said, nearly yelling at him.
Daryl scoffed. "How the hell are ya gonna get in trouble with your dad when he ain't here?!" he spat.
That seemed to shut her up.
Daddy's dead.
You're not gonna get in trouble because Daddy's dead.
Rosie stared straight forward, stuck in her own mind as the doctor wiped a spot on the inside of her arm with a wet wipe. When Dr. Jenner put the needle in her arm, she didn't even flinch or anything, being completely out of it.
Daddy's dead.
Daddy is dead.
"Look," Daryl said, tapping Rosie's arm and nodding his head towards the tube that was filling with blood. "He's takin' out blood." Rosie's eyes were wide, but she nodded.
Once Dr. Jenner got enough blood, he pulled the needle out and put on a small cotton cloth and a bandage. "See? You're just fine," Dr. Jenner said.
Still sort of out of it, Rosie hopped down out of the chair. She held her velociraptor tight in her right hand and gripped onto the hem of her shirt with her left. She had already been feeling dizzy from being hit in the head so many times, but now she felt even more dizzy.
Was this even dizzy?
It felt different.
She felt like she wasn't really there.
Daddy is dead.
Did I forget that Daddy is dead?
How could I forget?
"Hey," Daryl said in his gruff voice, tapping her on the arm. She looked up at him quickly, her eyes still wide. "C'mon," he said, his eyebrows pinched together when he looked at her expression. He brushed it off, lightly pushing her forward to follow the doctor.
Dr. Jenner led the group to a room with a bunch of tables and even more chairs. They pushed some of the tables together to make one really big one. Dr. Jenner made a frozen pizza and even brought out wine for the adults.
Rosie sat at the end of the table, next to Carl. She had her head in her arms. The light burned her eyes. She was drinking soda. She hadn't had soda in a long time. Her dad sometimes got it for her as a treat after she won a baseball or hockey game, but it was rare that he'd even go to the games, let alone be in a good enough mood to get her a treat after.
Dale poured a glass of whine. "You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France," he said, handing the glass over to Lori. Carl looked up at his mom, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some," Lori said, sipping her wine with one hand and covering Carl's empty cup with the other.
Rosie remembered seeing wine at the store once. She had asked her dad if it was some sort of fancy juice. He smacked her in the back of the head and called her a dumbass before explaining to her that it was wine. He said that he didn't drink it because it was expensive and gave you a bad hangover. He always stuck to beer.
"What's it gonna hurt? Come on," Rick said, encouraging it with a smile. Lori looked at him with wide eyes and a repressed smirk. "Come on!" Rick said again. Lori raised her eyebrows and moved her hand away from Carl's cup, shrugging.
Everyone cheered as Dale began pouring some of the red liquid into Carl's glass. It wasn't a lot, just enough to cover the first inch at bottom of the cup. Carl lifted the cup to his lips and took a small sip.
Everyone watched silently, smiles wide on their faces- except for Rosie, she was too busy covering her face with her hands trying to ease the throbbing pain behind her eyes.
Carl scrunched his face up in disgust. "Eww!" he said. All of the adults started laughing.
"That's my boy. That's my boy," Lori said, patting him on the back as she poured his wine into her own glass.
"That tastes nasty," Carl said.
"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud," Shane said with a small smile. Something was off about him, Rosie had noticed. He wasn't being as cheerful as he usually was around her and other kids. Even though he put on a smile, his voice still sounded a little bit angry.
"Not you, Glenn," Daryl spoke up.
Glenn looked up, confused. "What?"
"Keep drinkin', little man. I wanna see how red your face can get!" Daryl said, scrunching his face up with a smile.
Rosie also noticed that Daryl was acting weird. His weirdness, though, she attributed to the wine he was drinking. She never liked the way people acted when they drank- especially her dad.
She'd get used to people acting one way, but then they'd drink alcohol and act completely differently.
It was late at night- maybe around 11:30 PM- when Rosie got up to go to the bathroom. When she was done, she tiptoed back into the hallway, careful not to make enough noise to alert her dad. He would get mad if he knew she was still awake.
As she was tiptoeing down the hall, she heard a noise come from Fraser's room. He wasn't home yet when she went to bed. She knew he was gone, hanging out at his friend's house, so when he didn't come home, she assumed he was spending the night. She knew he hadn't come home because she would have heard his footsteps passing her room. She never did.
Who was in Fraser's room, then? And how did they get in?
Rosie passed her bedroom and walked up to Fraser's bedroom door. She pressed her ear against the wood and didn't hear anything. So, she turned the handle and cracked the door open. Peering in, she saw none other than Fraser himself, laying on his bed with a bottle in one hand and the other over his face.
"When'd ya get home?" Rosie asked quietly as she stepped into the room. "Didn't hear ya come in."
"Rosie!" Fraser said loudly with a strange smile on his face. He held his arms out and hugged her tight. That was weird. Sometimes he would give her a slight hug before he left to go somewhere, but never like that.
Rosie pulled away quickly, widening her eyes. "Shh! Why're ya bein' so loud? Daddy's gonna hear you," she whisper-yelled.
"Y'know, you're a real good kid. You know that?" Fraser said, still not whispering, but not speaking as loud as he was before. Rosie just stared at him blankly. What was wrong with him? "Dad's a real asshole. You oughta get outta here, really," Fraser said.
Shaking her head and furrowing her eyebrows, Rosie backed up a step. "What d'ya mean?" she asked. Boy, was he confusing her.
"I mean, you oughta have a real dad, is all," Fraser said. His words were kind of slipping together, Rosie noticed. His eyes widened suddenly. "Hey, maybe I'll ask Mr. Smith to adopt ya. He really likes ya, y'know. Sometimes in gym class he asks me about ya. About baseball, and all," he continued. Why the hell would Coach Smith adopt her?
"What's wrong with ya?" Rosie asked him. Fraser always seemed real smart to her, but now he was seeming real stupid.
Fraser laughed and took another sip from his bottle. "Nothin's wrong with me," he said, as if it were the funniest thing in the world.
Rosie didn't even know what to say. She had figured it out then, though. He was shit-faced drunk. Rosie never thought that she would see Fraser, of all people, shit-faced drunk. He was always the one complaining about how stupid alcohol was. He hated that their father drank it so much.
Suddenly, Fraser's face fell. He frowned as he placed his hands on Rosie's shoulders. "You're real smart, kid. You're real good. Perfect, really. Wish I was more like ya sometimes," he said. Rosie thought that was weird. She wasn't, by any means, perfect. She was smart, yeah, but she got into trouble lots.
Then the strangest thing happened. As Fraser stared at Rosie, he started crying. Like, really crying. Sobbing and everything.
Rosie scrunched her eyebrows together, looking back and forth between Fraser and the door to his bedroom. If he didn't quiet down, their dad was gonna hear them and they were both gonna be in deep shit.
"Fraser, what's wrong? Why're ya cryin'? What's wrong with ya?" Rosie asked quickly, feeling a bit panicked. This was so strange. Fraser never cried, and neither did Rosie. They weren't supposed to, so they never did. But now Fraser was all out bawling for no reason.
"I'm a real shit brother, ya know that?" he answered in between sobs. He reached one hand up and pressed his thumb and pointer finger into his closed eyes. "Dad beats ya and I don't do nothin' 'bout it. Ya shouldn't be gettin' hit. It ain't right. I'm s'posed ta protect ya, but I'm real shit at it."
Rosie stared at him, completely confused and unsure of what to do as Fraser kept sobbing. "Fraser, it ain't your fault. I been bad. He beats me 'cause I get inta trouble lots. It's my fault. Ain't no reason ta cry 'bout it. Now quiet down, will ya?" she whispered quickly, still checking back at the door every couple of seconds.
Fraser sobbed even more after she said that. Rosie raised her hands to her head in panic as his cries got louder. "Dad shouldn't be beatin' on ya in the first place. Dads aren't s'posed ta beat their kids bloody," he said, his voice loud. He sounded angry and sad all at the same time.
"Ya gotta stop bein' so loud!" Rosie whisper-shouted. She really had no idea what to do. She had no idea how to comfort people and she had no idea how to make Fraser stop being loud.
No matter what Rosie said or did, Fraser would not stop crying and he would not quiet down.
Then she heard it. Their dad's loud footsteps approaching down the hall.
"Rosie," Shane said, tapping his finger on the table in front of the girl. She looked up at him, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment to get rid of the burning sensation in her eyes from forgetting to blink before. He gestured to the uneaten slice of pizza on her plate. "Eat your food. You need it."
As Rosie took a bite of her pizza, Rick stood up, clinking a fork against his glass. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly," he said, standing up out of his chair.
"He is more than just our host," T-Dog said, raising his glass of wine.
"Hear hear!" Dale said enthusiastically. The adults all raised their glasses and repeated it.
"Here's to you, Doc! Booyah!" Daryl said, raising his bottle of wine. Everyone repeated that, too. Rosie didn't like how fast they warmed up to the doctor. First of all, he pointed a gun at them. Second of all, he took all of their blood.
Another thing Rosie didn't like was Daryl when he was drunk. She thought she didn't like him very much when he was sober and grumpy all the time, but she liked that better than whatever this was.
"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane asked. Everyone looked at him oddly and there was an awkward silence. "All the, uh, the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened? Where are they?" he asked. He stared straight forward, holding his wine glass close to his face. The alcohol seemed to have the opposite effect on him as it had on Daryl, Rosie noticed. That is, if it was the alcohol affecting him in the first place.
"We're celebrating, Shane," Rick said. "Don't need to do this now."
"Woah, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move. We were s'posed to find all the answers. Instead we-" Shane stopped and chuckled, then stuck his thumb in the direction of Dr. Jenner, "we found him. Found one man. Why?"
"Well, when things got bad a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families," Dr. Jenner started to explain.
Rosie thought that if their number one job was to protect the world from dangerous diseases, that should have been their priority. Maybe if they didn't leave, they could have figured this out. Maybe they could have ended it.
"And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted," Dr. Jenner said.
"Every last one?" Shane asked. He had a strange look on his face. He sounded annoyed, but he had a small smirk on his face. Did he think this was funny? Maybe he was being facetious.
"No," the doctor said. He voice got darker. "Many couldn't face walking out the door."
As the doctor's words registered, Rosie's heart started to pound against her chest. She wasn't hungry anymore. She didn't want the rest of her pizza or her drink. She didn't want to be there anymore.
"They... opted out."
Opted out? Was that what he called it?
Rosie felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. Her face scrunched up for a reason she didn't understand. She felt like she could no longer control her body as her teeth started pressing so hard into her bottom lip that she was bleeding. Her eyes burned. Why did she feel like crying? This didn't matter. This wasn't worth crying for. The doctor was just telling them what happened. This didn't matter. His words shouldn't have mattered to her.
But they did.
"There was a rash of suicides," Dr. Jenner said.
The word made Rosie's mind go dark. She felt like hitting something or someone. So she did the only thing she knew to do to prevent that. She stood up, causing her chair to screech on the floor, and quickly left the room. She didn't have a clue where she was going, but she kept walking anyway. Once she turned down a hallway that made it so she couldn't see the others and they couldn't see her, she sat down on the ground, leaning her back up against the wall. She squeezed her velociraptor tight in her right hand and her left hand lifted to rub her thumb along the lapis necklace that hung just past her collarbones.