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a new place to be from

JIM HAD BEEN DIGGING GRAVES.

The sun had risen over the horizon at some point over the last few hours, but no one had slept through the night. Only a handful of words had collectively been uttered since the gunshots had died down, and everyone was rooted in their spots, as if moving or talking or even breathing would make it all the more real.

While they were embarking on their mission to save Merle and recover the guns, Jim had suffered from a form of heat stroke which had caused him to stand outside for hours, just digging holes. When Shane and the others had tried to intervene, he said that it was something he felt compelled to do. That he didn't understand it himself, at least not until they needed graves.

Amy was dead. Ed was dead. So many others were dead. There were dead walkers littered all over the floor. Dead, rotting carcasses. Monsters, but people all the same.

Iris was staring at the grass, one of the only patches of grass that didn't have something slowly rotting on top of it.

Some of the others had finally started to move. Lori had moved over to Andrea, who was still cradling Amy's dead body, stuck in the same position for hours. Iris could hear her softly trying to convince Andrea to let her go, so they could give her a nice send off before she became one of them. Daryl was swinging his axe into every single one of the walker's heads, killing their brains, and Glenn and T-Dog had started to throw their bodies into the fire they had started.

It wasn't until the grotesque smell of charred flesh reached her nose that Iris finally stood up to help.

She wipes her bloodshot eyes, throwing her hair up in a ponytail before walking over to Glenn and T-Dog. She watched the pair for a second, as they tossed body after body into the open flame. They were only burning the walkers. Any of the own people, some of whom Daryl had already gotten in the head, were in a separate pile.

Iris swallows the bile that rises in her throat.

"Let me help." She says, and she barely recognises the croak in her throat.

Glenn takes one look at her, and sighs. "Iris, you don't have to-"

"I need to help." Iris interjects. She looks up, staring at Glenn intensely. Glenn licks his lips and nods, pointing her towards another body. Iris moves closer, taking its feet while Glenn grips its arms. It was a woman with curly brown hair, a pretty dress and a hole in her face.

They throw her in the fire.

There were so many bodies to dump that they had to swap out people so that no one got too tired. When Iris, T-Dog and Glenn headed down to the tents, Andrea was still sitting on the floor, cradling Amy's body. She still wouldn't let anyone near her, but Amy's time was running out. No one wanted to be the person that took Amy away from her sister.

Daryl put his axe down, shaking his head. "Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."

Rick sighs in defeat. "What do you suggest?"

"Take the shot." Daryl says simply. "Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

Lori scoffs, staring at Daryl like he had two heads. "No. For God's sakes, let her be."

Iris couldn't listen to it any longer. It was too sad, too much. She remembers a time, when all of this originally happened, that she felt bitter and jealous that Andrea and Amy got to survive together, when she was mourning the loss of Rick and it felt like the very universe was stacked up against her. Now, watching Andrea shut down and cradle the body of her sister, sitting in a pool of her blood, Iris realises how lucky she truly was.

As she walks away, she hears two sets of footsteps behind her, following her as she got away from the pitiful sight of Andrea and Amy. She stops, sighs, and turns around. "What is it?"

Glenn and T-Dog share a look. T-Dog steps forward, holding a magazine clip's worth of bullets. "You should restock your gun."

"Oh. Right." Iris takes the bullets, reloading her gun slowly. It felt heavy in her hands, heavier than it did last night. "Thanks."

"Are you okay?" Glenn asks.

Iris hesitates. No. But none of them were okay. Iris hadn't experienced a personal loss last night, not like Andrea, not like Carol, not like Sophia. "I'm fine."

"Just because it was the first time in a while you've had to do that, the first with a gun." Glenn explains. Both Glenn and T-Dog had the same expressions on their faces, like they were walking on eggshells.

Except Iris didn't feel fragile.

As she held the gun in her hands, she felt glad that she'd been strong enough to use it. That she'd helped protect the camp. Shane was wrong. You couldn't be shielded from the bad stuff, not anymore, not if you want to survive. It may have taken her hours of staring at the same patch of grass for her to realise it, but it was true. It was a survival of the fittest, and Iris was ready to adapt. She always knew it would come down to this, she'd have to be able to kill walkers eventually. And now she could. Next time, she would not hesitate, she would not apologise, she would not memorise their faces and imagine what their lives were like before all of this. They were nothing but predators, and Iris refused to let herself become prey.

So, she just gives a small, sad smile. "I'm okay. Really. I had to learn, especially now. There's gonna be a hell of a lot more walkers in our future."

"Where do you think we'll go next?" T-Dog asks in a quiet voice.

"I don't know." Iris looks down at the ground. "But Rick will figure it out. He'll find something."

T-Dog nods, and Iris looks back at him, the broken expression on his face mirroring her own. She looks to Glenn, expecting to see something similar, but instead, he is staring at Morales and Daryl moves one of the bodies towards the fire. In a heartbeat, he was walking over there, looking more angry than Iris had ever seen from him.

"What are you guys doing? This is for geeks. Our people go over there."

Daryl turns up his nose. "What's the difference? They're all infected."

Iris runs over as Glenn raises his voice louder, his face scrunching up in pain and grief and anger. "Our people go in that row over there. We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there."

Iris takes him by the shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance. The second she touched him, she could see just how tense he was, and just how much this was affecting him, despite his attempts to hide it. "Hey, it's okay. He will. Daryl, just... take them over there. Please."

Daryl stares at her for a moment, but eventually nods, pointing to Morales as they haul the body back to the row for their people, muttering something under his breath as he did.

Glenn let out a shuddering breath beside her, and Iris kept her hand on his shoulder until he finally looked up to meet her eyes. "Thanks."

"It's okay. You're right. There's a difference between us and them. There has to be." Iris' voice was soft, as soft as she could muster. "Hey, are you okay?"

Glenn hugs her.

Tight, differently than any hug they'd shared in the past. Iris could sense how much he needed it, and she let him bury his head in her shoulder. The events of last night was a devastating blow, the first time any of them had experienced such a mass casualty event since this whole thing had begun. Things had even started to feel normal for a while, until it had all come crumbling down. Iris felt the weight of her best friend in her arms and closed her eyes.

Iris pulls away after a couple of seconds, sniffling herself and needing her hands free to wipe her wet eyes.

Of course, it wasn't over. Iris wasn't sure if it would ever be over. It wasn't enough that their own people had died, and had been lost. There just had to be more.

"A walker got him." Jacqui shouts loudly, pointing accusingly at Jim. "A walker bit Jim."

Glenn breathes heavily beside her, and the others form a defensive circle around Jim, who raises his shaky hands. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Daryl points a guarded finger towards the man. "Show it to us. Show it to us."

"Easy, Jim." Shane advances forward,hands outstretched like he was dealing with a wounded animal.

"Grab him." Daryl grunts, just as Jim starts to panic, picking up a shovel and pointing it wildly around the circle.

"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Shane's voice took a sharper edge, and Glenn turned away beside her, as if he couldn't bear to look. T-Dog effortlessly grabs Jim from behind, holding him back and causing the man to drop the shovel.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim kept muttering, sounding more and more wounded and broken as Daryl lifted up his shirt. The bite was deep, bleeding sluggishly with every breath he took. It was one of the worst things Iris had ever seen. "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay."

Iris swallows.

They were about to lose someone else.

𖤓𖤓𖤓

There was a mass funeral arranged a couple of hours later.

Even after hours of sweet talking, Andrea refused to let anyone go near Amy who wished her harm. Everyone had tried. Lori. Dale. Rick. Even Daryl had threatened to shoot Amy from where he was standing, get it over with. After all, they had taken care of all of the others. Carol had taken care of Ed herself, which Iris thought was exceptionally strong of her to do.

Andrea cradled Amy's body until her eyes opened again, her vivid blue replaced with a dull, milky white.

And then she shot her in the head.

Iris thought Andrea was an exceptionally strong woman too. It required a massive amount of courage and grit to do what Andrea had done, and Iris knew she wouldn't have been able to go through with it if someone she loved had turned in such a brutal way. In the blink of an eye, really.

As the group filed in to pay their respects, Iris could see Andrea and Dale carrying Amy's body, wrapped in a white sheet that had red blood stains spilling from its head. It was early, so early for a funeral, so soon after the deaths, but they had to bury their losses so they could move on. Andrea was adamant on burying her sister herself, which Iris thought was incredibly noble.

She stood on the edge of the ceremony, feeling a little out of place among the mourners. She was very lucky that none of her family or closest friends had been lost in this brutal attack, but she still felt the incredible crush on her chest as she watched Andrea numbly pile dirt on her sister's body, as she watched little Sophia Peletier bury her head in her mother's arms. Rick and Lori were speaking in hushed tones beside her, but Iris couldn't hear them through the thumping of her own beating heart.

Carl moves up beside her, wrapping his arms around her midsection. Iris sniffs and holds onto his head in a protective manner.

After the small ceremony, Iris found herself taking laps around the camp, watching as everyone prepared to leave, to go... somewhere. Anywhere but here. Everything over the past few days had happened so fast, Iris felt like she hadn't even had the chance to talk to Rick properly since he had returned to them.

She found him leaning against one of the cars, fiddling with the radio in his hands.

"You trying to call Morgan?" She asks, sliding over next to him and leaning back on the car.

"He's not answering." Rick says, with a sigh. "I'm going to leave him a note. When we go."

Rick tails off slightly, shaking his head and putting the radio on top of the car.

Iris tucks a stray piece of hair over her ears. Her buns had fallen out from both the struggle in Atlanta and the fight last night. "You're right, by the way. We should go to the CDC."

There was a debate among the camp members as to where they would end up next. Rick had come up with the idea to head to the CDC. He thought that if anything was going to be protected by the government, that if anything would have supplies and medicine, it would be the CDC. There was even chatter over the radios that the CDC was working on a cure for this disease, which meant that the government probably tried to protect it even more. However, Shane disagreed. He thought that they should try Fort Benning, which was 100 miles in the opposite direction, because it was an army base that was potentially still heavily armed.

However, Shane's plan failed to account for one crucial detail: Jim.

"You think so?" Rick asks, and for the first time, Iris can see a hint of doubt in his voice.

"I do." Iris says. "We're fighting a disease, aren't we? The CDC is trying to find a cure. We can't just leave Jim to die without trying."

"Shane thinks we'll be better off at Benning."

"Shane is wrong." Iris implores, letting out an amused scoff. "He-"

"He blames me for all of this." Rick exhales heavily. "Because I went back for Merle and brought four other people with me."

Iris stares at him for a moment. She knew that Shane had his doubts about Rick taking that mission, but this was too damn far, even for Shane. He had always been hotheaded, and Iris loved him like a brother, but she also fought with him like a brother. In the last few months, in her grief, she had let Shane control her, shield her from any harm like she was still a child. But now Rick was back, and Iris had to be the adult she was.

"We brought back more guns." She says, her voice soft. She looks away from Rick, spotting Shane and Lori talking by the RV. She frowns, studying them for a moment. Shane was talking at her, and Lori was staring at him with some level of shock or maybe even anger. She tilts her head. "We probably wouldn't of been able to take out as many as we did without them."

"Yeah, you're right." Rick answers, giving her a sad smile. He'd caught sight of Shane and Lori too, and he pushes off the car and walks towards the. Iris follows.

Shane was still talking to Lori, his voice dragging across to Rick and Iris. "I guess I'll just add it to the list of habits that I'm breaking whether I like it or not."

"What habits?" Rick asks, and Shane abruptly stops talking. Lori bites her lip and turns her head. Iris peers at her for a moment.

"Just talking about my need for a plan, man. So what is it? Are we leaving or not? Maybe y'all just want to stay here. We could hang some more tin cans." Shane says, raising his eyebrows with passive aggression.

"We're leaving." Iris replies, just as curtly, with a sarcastic smile.

"We can't stay here. We both know that." Rick says to him.

"I was just telling Shane I think we should trust your gut." Lori says, sounding a little panicked, her voice raising just slightly.

"Let's go do our sweep." Shane sighs, taking hold of Rick and pulling him away. Iris watches them go, feeling even more weight crash down on her chest.

Iris doesn't know how Rick and Shane resolved their difference in opinion, but within hours, the small group was preparing to leave. For the CDC. Iris had carefully packed up her very small pile of belongings. Her gun was safely planted on her belt, her grandmother's flower wreath pin, and her scissors all went into her backpack.

She met up with all of the others as they gathered around the cars. Everyone was packed and ready to leave, it was just a matter of making sure everyone knew the plan.

Shane stands in front of them all. "Everybody listen up." He looks over at everyone's faces, taking a moment of pause before continuing. "Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

Morales steps forward, hand in hand with his wife. "We're, uh. We're- we're not going."

Iris' eyes widen. She looks around, and everyone looks just as shocked as her. Before anyone can get in a word of protest, Miranda speaks up. "We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people."

Shane nods, but he still took a step closer to Morales, lowering his voice. "You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back."

Morales hums in agreement. "We'll take the chance. I gotta do what's best for my family."

"You sure?" Rick asks. Iris bites the inside of her cheek. She didn't want to say goodbye. Not when they'd lost so many people already.

"We talked about it. We're sure." Morales' voice had a confident edge, nodding at Rick like he had been thinking about this for a long time.

Once Morales had made up his mind, there was nothing that could change it. He was going, taking his family with him, and it was likely he'd never see the rest of the group ever again. In a way, Iris understood. He wanted to be with family, but Iris' family was standing right here.

Rick and Shane set Morales up with a gun and ammo to keep them going. Shane hands the box over. "The box is half full."

Miranda smiles warmly. "Thank you all. For everything."

Before leaving, they took a moment to say their goodbyes. Miranda hugged Lori, Jacqui and Iris in turn, while Eliza hugged Sophia, giving her the little doll that she always carried around. Iris could've started crying right then and there, the moment was so tender.

Rick gave Morales one final goodbye. "Channel 40 if you change your mind. All right?"

"Yeah." Morales shakes his hand, giving him a nod of solidarity. Then, the Morales family packed into their cars, and headed out.

As Rick watches them drive off, people start to get into their own cars. Shane slaps his shoulder. "What makes you think our odds are any better? Come on. Let's go. Let's move out."

Rick nods, and as he heads to his car, which was stocked full with Lori, Carl, Carol and Sophia, he stops by Iris. "You gonna be okay in that RV?"

"Yeah." Iris nods. She was going to take the journey in the RV, with Dale, Glenn, Jacqui and Jim, in the makeshift bed. "I started all this in this RV. I'd like to finish with it, too."

Iris found Glenn holding the map to the CDC just next to the RV. Dale, Jacqui and Jim had already gotten inside, just waiting on the two of them. The RV was going to be leading the march to their next destination, which meant that Glenn was in charge of getting them there.

"You do know the way, right?" Iris asks, raising her eyebrow,

"Yeah, of course I do." Glenn replies, straightening the map. "I'm just giving this place one last look."

Iris looks out at the Quarry. She would miss it here. Before the attack, the Quarry always felt peaceful, an escape from the new reality they were living in. Truthfully, she was living in a mirage. "Yeah, it feels weird that we're leaving."

Glenn opens the passenger door, climbing in beside Dale. It is weird. But we're gonna be fine. This RV runs like a horse."

Iris snorts, swinging around to climb in the back. "Sure."

𖤓𖤓𖤓

The RV broke down.

It was something to do with the radiator hose, as Dale had explained, but none of the technical stuff made any sense to Iris.

They were only out on the road for a while when the RV had spluttered to a slow stop. The group gathered around the smoke filled vehicle, with crossed arms and tired sighs. They were only halfway to the CDC, and no one wanted to experience bumps in the road.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale shut the bonnet, wiping his brow.

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asks

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape." Dale responds, his voice as calm and level as always.

"I see something up ahead." Shane holds a hand to his forehead, shielding his eyes. "A gas station if we're lucky."

The door to the RV opens and Jaqui steps out, the only one in charge of Jim's care. She looks crestfallen. "Y'all, Jim. It's bad. I don't think he can take anymore." She warns, sighing heavily before walking back into the RV.

Everyone knew that Jim was running out of time, including Jim himself. He was in extraordinary pain, in agony even. Everyone knew what what happened after someone got bit by a walker, it wasn't survivable. The thought of getting to the CDC before he succumbed to his bite suddenly became very far fetched as Jim continued to whine and groan in pain.

Jim was the only one strong enough to suggest what they were all thinking.

Dale had managed to get the RV running again, hopefully enough to get them to the CDC without any further trouble. However, before they could set off again, there was a conversation to be had. Iris leans against the RV, listening to the words in silence.

"It's what he says he wants." Rick sighs.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asks, holding onto her daughter's shoulders.

Rick nods. "He seems to be. I would say yes."

"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man." Dale sounds defeated, shaking his head. "I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer."

Jim wanted to be left behind.

Shane sighs, bringing his hand over his hair. "We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that."

"It's not your call, either one of you." Lori cuts in, looking between Shane and her husband. She was right. The only person who had the right to make the decision about his life was Jim himself.

And he wanted to be left to die.

Iris prepared her words of goodbye as Rick and Shane carry the wounded, struggling man to a tree on the edge of the road. They softly lower him down, leaning him against the tree and stepping back.

Jim groans. "Hey, another damn tree." He chuckles.

The group gathered around Jim, each giving him a sad smile and trying not to show their grief and sadness on their faces.

Shane kneels down. "Hey, Jim. I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this."

Jim looks up at him and shakes his head. "No. It's good. The breeze feels nice."

"Okay. All right." Shane stands up, allowing room for Jacqui to kneel down next to Jim. Jacqui was an incredibly sweet woman who took care of them all the best she could, and Iris knew just how hard this would hit her.

She kisses Jim on the cheek. "Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight."

Rick takes one of the guns from his belt and offers it to Jim, his face straight. "Jim, do you want this?"

Jim looks at it for a moment, and shakes his head. "No. You'll need it. I'm okay. I'm okay."

Iris sniffles. It was an incredibly noble thing to do, to give up the easy way out for the sake of all of them, for their survival. She kneels down and pats his shoulder, biting the inside of her cheek hard enough that it could've drawn blood. "I'll miss you, Jim. You're so brave."

Jim gives her a smile, and it was a geniune, glad smile. "Keep fighting, Iris."

"I will." Iris replies, bouncing on her legs as she kneeled. "I promise."

𖤓𖤓𖤓

The CDC was a graveyard.

The building was a large compound, standing tall and invincible, like a God amongst mortals. It was completely undamaged, which was a massive anomoly in the world today. There was an air of silence wrapped around the building, like it had a shield of protection wrapped around it, preventing it from any harm. It stood despite everything, like some kind of moral message beaming down on them, giving way for even the tinest flicker of hope. It was built around a large piece of land, which was littered with bodies. Some were moving with new life, and some were so destroyed that they didn't even get the chance to become walkers.

Hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies.

Iris doesn't think she'd ever see this many bodies in one place. She covers her nose, the smell was overbearing and horrific. Worse than it was when she escaped Atlanta. Worse than anything she could imagine.

As they walk, Lori holds onto Carl just as tight as Carol grips Sophia, both mothers trying to shield their children from the horrors of the bodies, piled up and butchered.

"Keep moving. Come on." Rick implores, leading the way towards the building.

As they walk past the dead people, there was a small chatter of noise, snarling and growling as they smelled fresh prey. Most of them were too mangled to move, which was damn lucky for them. It made her feel so alone, so small in this world.

She reaches out and grabs Glenn's hand. He squeezes back, giving her a moment to collect herself before they moved off again.

"Oh, God." Glenn gasps, as they step over a mangled leg in the middle of the pathway. Iris fights the urge to close her eyes.

When they finally reach the doors to the building, they were faced with a bolted down, shuttered door. The silence suddenly went from something Iris could draw some comfort from, to something much more sinister.

Shane attempts to pound on the doors, yelling for them to open. Nothing.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog exclaims.

Rick shakes his head, moving around erratically. "Then why are these shutters down?"

"Walkers!" Daryl yells. Iris looks around. Behind them, a group of walkers had gathered, ones who could move and were advancing on them rapidly.

"We've gotta move." Iris whispers, watching Rick as he kept banging on the doors, begging someone who probaby didn't exist to open them.

"Baby, come on." Lori tries to persuade him, to no avail.

Daryl turns around and shoots a walker in the head, letting out a grunt. "You led us into a graveyard!"

"He made a call." Shane defends.

"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl yells.

"Just shut up. You hear? Shut up. Shut up!" Shane's voice grated on Iris' brain, her breathing quickening as everything happened all at once. Rick pounding on th doors, Shane and Daryl fighting, the walker's snarling. "Rick, this is a dead end."

"Where are we gonna go?" Jacqui asks, a hand over her mouth.

Shane ignores her, still glaring at Daryl. "Do you hear me? No blame."

"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lori says. All of the voices were blending together in her mind, and she couldn't think. She couldn't think. She couldn't think.

"Fort Benning, Rick. Still an option." Shane says.

Andrea scoffs. "On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles."

"125." Glenn spoke next to her. He was still squeezing her hand, and the repeative motion was the only thing calming her down. "I checked the map."

Even Lori's voice sounded distressed now. "Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now."

Iris rips away from Glenn's hold, her hands cradling her head as she covers her ears. They needed this. They had fought so hard, they had come so far. it couldn't be for nothing. It couldn't. There had to be someone inside because they had fought and lost and suffered and they needed a goddamn win. She grunts. "Shut up! Shut up! Everyone stop! Stop this!"

Her outburst was so surprising that everyone did shut up, staring at er like she had three heads, but Iris paid them no mind. She removes her hands from her head so roughly she almost rips her own hair out, stumbling over to the doors and pounding, again and again, hot tears streaming down her face as she screams right frm her very soul.

"Iris, it's not worth it." Shane steps forward, trying to grab at her arm, but Iris pushes him off.

"No! This has to work! It has to work! Let us in. Let us in."

Shane shakes his head. "Come on, let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's go. Please."

Iris was about to let up, to collapse against the doors and let Shane drag her away, but Rick's voice suddenly rings out, like an angel frm the heavens.

"The camera... it moved."

Iris' eyes widen. She stares at the camera above them, her heart racing and her mind screaming. It moved. It moved, it moved, it moved.

"You imagined it." Shane says.

"No." Iris breathes. "No, he didn't."

"It moved. It moved." Rick refuses to rip his gaze away from the camera above them.

"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." Shane says assertively. "Iris, you can't be serious. "Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick."

Rick slams on the shutters.

Iris wipes her tears, stumbling back as she watches. Glenn grabs ahold of her, not to pull her back, but to steady her as she shook.

"Rick, there's nobody here!" Lori yells.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me." Rick says, looking between the camera and the doors.

Shane and Lori move forward in an insant, both grabbing one of Rick's arms, pulling him back. Iris protests, watching the camera with an unwavering glare. Damn you, she thought to herself. Damn you for knowing we're here and not letting us in.

Even as Rick was dragged away, he was still pleading. "Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left."

"Rick. There's nobody here." Lori repeats.

Rick ignores her. He escapes their grips, running forward once more to slam his fists on the doors. "We have nowhere else to go. Keep your eyes open. If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please! Please help us. You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!

Nothing.

Then, a brilliant, blinding light.

AUTHORS NOTE

❥ Welcome back to Doomsday!
❥ Yesterday, I watched 7x01 for the very first time, and then cried for hours and hours, and then wrote half of this chapter in one sitting. I will never recover.
❥ This chapter was just 5000 words of finally getting this group to the CDC. I'm so excited that I'm finally here, and soon enough I'll be on season two.
❥ I also spent a long time last night planning the arc for Negan's introduction for this fic, and oh lord it's gonna be... something.
❥ If you liked, please vote and comment <3