For the trigger warnings summary, go to the bottom of the chapter!!

Andrea hadn't said a word since Amy was ripped apart by walkers. Who could blame her? Everyone was still in shock over what had happened. They all thought that they were safe there, just like with Atlanta. That was their mistake. All of the survivors were starting to realise just how unsafe the world they lived in is. They were in a secure little bubble in the Atlanta camp, but then Jim and everyone else died, then they thought the estate was safe, that cost Amy her life.

They finally arrived at the CDC when the sun was starting to set the same day Amy had died. Once they got to the CDC, it wasn't what they expected... Or was it?... They weren't really sure what to expect anymore. There were sand bag piles all over the place along with dead walkers scattered. Brooks stayed close to both of her brothers as she felt very uneasy. Being with her brothers had never brought her a sense of comfort in the past, but they could handle walkers. She couldn't.

Daryl had given her his red cloth to hold over her mouth so that she couldn't smell the death. The smell was rancid, almost as bad as the sight of walkers themselves. The way that a lot of their insides had turned into their outsides was a petrifying sight for most, Brooks didn't want to become numb to it, but she knew that she'd have to be. Walkers also came with flies and other bugs which were attracted to the death that they walked around with, so that just added insult to injury.

"Keep moving, stay together." Rick ordered everyone, holding a shot gun high.

"Keep moving." Shane copied, also armed and ready. Daryl held his crossbow up, Merle held up his shot gun, along with Shane, Rick, Glenn, T-dog and Dale. Andrea would've but she was walking through the death on the CDC's lawn without a care in the world. She didn't even cover her face. Watching Amy get ripped apart had broken her.

The shutters were down over the doors and windows. Rick tried pulling at it, but it didn't budge. "Damn." He let out, stepping back.

"Nothing?" Shane asked, attempting to lift the shutter to no avail. Shane then banged on the shutter to try and get somebody's attention. Anyone alive would work. Anyone.

"There's nobody here." T-dog pointed out.

Rick looked back to T-dog. "Then why are the shutters down?" His voice, raised.

Unlike everyone else, Merle and Daryl were focused on their surroundings to make sure nothing could get the drop on them. "Walkers!" Merle shouted when he noticed the dead coming their way like lions hunting deer. Lori held Carl closer as he cried into his mother's chest, Carol wrapped her arms tightly around terrified Sophia and Chris... Brooks had nobody to hold her. Cam and Glenn had gone to help Daryl and Merle, so, she was standing there. Just terrified and alone. It's little things like that which sticks with a kid.

"You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl shouted at Rick.

"He made a call!" Dale defended.

Daryl scoffed going towards Rick. "It was the wrong damn call!"

Shane shoved Daryl's chest back. "Just shut up. You hear me? Shut up!"

Brooks had to cover her ears, she hated all the yelling. And, she didn't want to be apart of the people yelling. She didn't want to join the problem, so she avoided the problem. Brooks stared at Rick who was trying to figure out an option to get them all out of there, but she couldn't hear a word of it. She didn't want too, either.

She didn't hear everyone ushering them to move, so she just stood there, still looking at Rick. Merle noticed Brooks not paying attention, so he wrapped his arm around her stomach and lifted her under his arm easily. Brooks didn't like being carried sideways, but she didn't fight Merle on it, he wouldn't care. She was gonna stay alive, that was his priority.

She could feel Merle starting to run back to the cars, but suddenly he stopped along with everyone else. Brooks still stared at Rick as he banged the shutters, she still used her small hands to cover her even smaller ears, she could tell by his body language and the fact she could nearly make out the words he was saying that he was shouting. Screaming. Desperate. She furrowed her eyebrows as she watched Rick nearly losing his mind over something. Brooks was too little, too naive to understand the acts of a desperate man.

Shane started dragging Rick away. However, as soon as Rick turned away, the shutters opened. Brooks had to look away as the light that came from the inside of the CDC was so bright, it was blinding.

/----------\

They all entered the CDC, guns held high... And crossbows in Daryl's case. Brooks removed her hands from her ears as Daryl and Merle covered the back to make sure no more walkers came close. Merle was using his gun one handed since his other was still carrying Brooks. He'd kind of forgotten that he was carrying her. Through her limited angle, Brooks looked around. The reception area was huge, the marble flooring and walls were glossy and pristine. She'd never seen anything quite this fancy.

"Hello?" Rick called out. "Hello?"

"Close those doors." Shane ordered the Dixon brothers.

"Watch for walkers." Jacqui added as Daryl and Merle closed the two doors. Merle wasn't a fan of taking orders from these people, but he was smart enough to know that he had too so that they could work as a team to survive. Survival was at the top of Merle's list.

"Hello?" T-dog shouted out.

Everyone aimed their guns at the one man that revealed himself to the group. He was holding a shot gun, pointing it at the group of people. "Anybody infected?" The man called to them. He was tall, strawberry blonde hair, pale, and wearing decent attire underneath his white lab coat.

"One of our group was." Rick answered. "He didn't make it."

"Why are you here? What do you want?" He quickly interrogated.

Rick took a breath. "A chance."

The strange man moved closer. "That's asking an awful lot these days."

Rick nodded. "I know."

The new guy took a while in answering, but he moved closer, looking between everyone. He looked to Brooks who was being strangely carried by a man he assumed was her father, then to Sophia and Chris who were clinging onto their mother, to Dale, and Jacqui, T-dog to Glenn, and slowly everyone. "You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."

"We can do that." Rick answered for the group.

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now." The casually dressed doctor lowered his gun. "Once this door closes, it stays closed."

Merle and Daryl started leaving, leading. "Put the kid down, man." Daryl reminded Merle.

The older Dixon looked down to the youngest. "Oh, sorry, Bambi. I forgot you were there." He admitted, small chuckles leaving his lips, he moved his hand forward so she could lower her feet to the floor before she straightened out. He patted her neatly done back hair before he, Daryl, Lori, Jacqui, Cam, Carol, Rick, Andrea and Glenn went to get the stuff. Dale and Shane stayed with the children and the doctor.

/----------\

Dale and T-dog shut the doors, and the doctor talked into a keypad. "Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here."

"Rick Grimes." Rick offered the doctor his hand to shake.

The doctor looked down to Rick's hand, but didn't shake it. "Doctor Edwin Jenner."

The doctor had lead them all to a rather large lift, but it was still a bit cramped. Sophia and Brooks stood next to each other at the front. "This is weird." Brooks whispered to Sophia, pushing her glasses further up her nose.

Sophia nodded. "Tell me about it." Brooks grinned at Sophia's response.

Merle decided to start conversation. "Doctors always go around packin' heat like that?"

Edwin looked back to Merle. "There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." Edwin looked around the group of people. "But you look harmless enough." Then he looked down to Chris. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." The comment made Chris grin.

Unfortunately, nobody in that small lift realised the supervision Chris really required.

After the lift ride, the group started walking through hallways, being lead by Edwin. "Are we underground?" Carol asked.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Edwin responded, slight teasing in his tone.

Carol nodded. "A little." Daryl glanced to the woman, silently retaining the information. He did that a lot, learned what he could about the people around him. He knew T-dog hated jazz music, Jacqui used to be a baker, Sophia once ran off stage during a Christmas play out of fright, Glenn slept in bathtubs a lot during college and he also knew pretty much every thing there was to know about Brooks.

Edwin shrugged. "Try not to think about it."

"Woah." Brooks let out once they entered a large room.

"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." As the lights turned on, they were presented with a massive room, filled with hundreds of computers and other technology that most of them hadn't even realised had been developed yet. "Welcome to Zone Five."

"Where is everybody?" Rick asked as they walked further into the room. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it." Edwin admitted. "It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori questioned.

"Vi, say hello to our guests." Edwin stated, a proud grin and straightened posture revealed themselves on him. "Tell them... Welcome."

"Hello, guests. Welcome." A robotic voice echoed around from the pre-programmed system. One of the only things to have survived it seemed.

"I'm all that's left." Edwin reminded us. "I'm sorry."

Brooks looked to Sophia. "I've never seen X-Men, but I imagine this is what it looks like."

Sophia grinned. "Same."

"Girls are idiots." Chris rolled his eyes, hearing their conversation.

/----------\

After all of the blood tests, Edwin had showed them to the canteen. Lori, Carol, Jacqui, Cam and Dale helped Edwin set up what was pretty much a feast of food and wine that everyone was digging into. Brooks sat with Sophia on her left, and Cam on her right. Daryl and Merle weren't around the table, they each had their own bottles of wine and were leaning against the kitchen counter about six feet away from the table.

Neither Sophia nor Brooks listened to the main flow of conversation as they enjoyed their own little world. "If you could be any My Little Pony, which would you be?"

Brooks took a deep breath. "Well there are approximately eighty different breeds of ponies, but I am rather fond of the classic Shetland Pony." Brooks admitted, drinking some of her water.

Sophia furrowed her eyebrows. "You never watched My Little Pony?"

"What's that?"

Sophia nodded, pursing her lips slightly. "Care Bears, then?"

"Bears aren't really caring to anyone who aren't their cubs. Even then, bears have been known to eat their own cubs or small females when extremely hungry." Brooks responded.

Sophia pushed out a small breath. "Okay, what tv shows did you watch?"

"Dad didn't let me watch no tv shows." Brooks answered.

"Oh." Sophia felt a pang of pity in her chest. "So, what did you do for fun?"

"I read a lot." Brooks admitted. "Still do, but I only got three books now."

Sophia didn't get a chance to respond as Rick started tapping his fork against his glass to get everyone's attention. He stood up to speak. "It seems to me that we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just our host." T-dog agreed, raising his glass.

"Hear, hear!" Dale started, many people copied. Sophia and Brooks felt compelled to raise their glasses of water.

"Here's to you, doc." Merle agreed.

"Booyah!" Daryl's drunk self called. For some unknown reason. Everyone else called 'Booyah' as well, the alcohol allowing them to do so without embarrassment.

"So when you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane asked.

'Damn buzz kill', Brooks thought to herself. Cam would be proud that she bit her tongue.

"Here we go." Cam muttered under his breath, sick of Shane being... Shane.

Shane nodded, continuing. "All the- all the other doctors. The ones who were supposed to be figuring out what the hell happened. Where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane." Rick subtly tried to get Shane to stop. "Don't need to do this now."

"Woah, wait a second." Shane furrowed his eyebrows. "This is why we're here, right? This was your move, Rick. We're supposed to find all the answers. Instead... We found... We found him." Shane pointed at Edwin with his thumb, before dropping his hand again. "Found one man. Why?"

Edwin shuffled in his seat. "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."

"Every last one?" Merle presumed.

Edwin shook his head. "No. Many couldn't face walking out the front doors. They... Opted out."

"Please tell me that means they left through the back doors." Brooks muttered.

"There was a rash of suicides." Edwin continued.

Brooks sighed. "It's never the back door." She said under her breath.

"That was a very bad time." Edwin looked to his hands, thinking about all of his dead friends. "One of the diseased in the lab? They got free, many were bit. This was before we knew that damage to the brain is what puts down the infected. People were hanging themselves in the hallways to not become one of them."

"You didn't leave." Andrea said the first words she had since Amy died, taking everyone apart from Edwin by surprise. "Why?"

"I just kept working." Edwin admitted. "Hoping to do some good."

Glenn looked to Shane. "Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man."

/----------\

"Most of the facility is powered down." Edwin informed everyone as he lead them all down hallways to where they could sleep. "Luckily, the dorm rooms for the interns are still up and running. There's beds. And, there's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy." Edwin stopped to turn to Sophia, Chris, Carl and Brooks who were at the front. "Just, don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power." Then he turned his attention back to the adults. "The same applies to everything. If you shower, go easy on the hot water."

Glenn turned to T-dog, smiling. "Hot water?"

"That's what the man said." T-dog grinned, nodding. Everyone shared smiles and laughs as they separated to find their rooms.

"I'll catch up with you later." Sophia said to Brooks before going with Chris and her mother into a room.

Brooks ran down to Merle and Daryl who were at the back and playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. Daryl groaned when he lost. "Brooks, you're sharin' with me."

Merle clapped his hands together. "Guess who gets a bed to himself. Oh, yea." He grinned, walking into a room and shutting the door behind him with a victorious laugh. Brooks looked up to Daryl with a frown, she thought it was because neither of them wanted to be around her, however, it was simply about bed space.

Daryl led them both into a room and shut the door behind them. "I'll shower first." He said, chucking their bags down and pulling off his shirt, throwing it with their stuff, before he walked into the bathroom. The room was small, but had a double bed made up with white bedding opposite the door. There was a blue rug on the ground on top of the polished oak wood planks which matched the blue painting of where the ocean and sky meet on the right wall, above the new, red leather sofa. On the left wall, beside the door to the bathroom, was a white wardrobe. 

/----------\

Daryl was in the shower for about ten minutes before he came out, dripping wet and with a towel hanging low on his waist. "Took ya long enough." Brooks complained, putting her glasses on the bedside table before grabbing her pyjamas and walking into the bathroom, ignoring Daryl's chuckle.

Before she could close the door, Daryl's hand stopped her. "I won't be here when you come out. I'm gonna go drink more. I'll see you tonigh'."

Brooks simply nodded, forcing the door shut. She didn't bother to lock it, if she had known what would happen next, then she would've.

Brooks quickly stripped out of her clothing which had become uncomfortable because she'd been wearing them for so long, before entering the shower and turning on the water. She couldn't help the bright smile that pulled on her lips as she let the water soak her. Brooks was quick to grab the shampoo to lather in her hair. The smile never once left her lips. She hadn't felt this happy since she found out Sophia wanted to be her friend. She considered Cam a friend, but since he hadn't asked, she wasn't sure if he counted as a friend. She wasn't too sure how it was supposed to work.

Brooks started washing the shampoo out of her hair when she heard the door to the bathroom click open. Her eyebrows furrowed, she couldn't see who it was because the steamed up glass of the shower separated them. "Daryl, did you forget something?" She asked, still washing the shampoo out of her hair.

Who stepped to be beside the glass of the shower wasn't who she was expecting. 

Chris just stood there.
Staring at her.
Brooks froze.

Her arms were stuck up by her hair, she couldn't move them. She just stared into his eyes, but his eyes weren't on hers. He didn't say anything, just let a smile pull on his twisted face. To Brooks, it felt like Chris stood there for ten years. She wanted to scream, shove him away, shout for Daryl and Merle, but she didn't. She couldn't. She just stared back at him. He was there for the longest ten seconds of Brooks' life, before he just turned and walked away; he shut the door behind him, and left as if nothing had happened.

-Trigger warnings!
Peeping on someone in the shower - Idk if that counts as sexual assault or sexual harassment, but it's Chris being a little pervy dickhead