5 What a Difference a Day Makes

Walking into an empty, open space I expected to be swarmed by government security, or those with army credentials, ready to interrogate the newcomers at gunpoint, but there was no one. Venturing further we all looked around, guns held at the ready, the ceilings to this place were held high and nearly everything was covered in metal.

"Hello," A man called out, causing us all to point our guns in the direction his voice tailed from. We all breathed heavily, scared of what laid ahead for us. "Anybody infected?" He yelled as he held a machine gun pointed towards us. By the way he was holding it he looked to be inexperienced with guns.

"One in our group was," Rick spoke up, "he didn't make it."

"Why are you here? What do you want?" He approached us.

"A chance," I stepped forward. My legs shook from exhaustion, sweat dripped down from my forehead, and I was still out of breath from my screaming match with the camera.

"That's askin' an awful lot these days," he stepped into the light, his tainted white hair stuck out at all angles, he looked tired but still more put together than us.

"I know," Rick responded. All of us stared at this man, hoping, praying he would help us.

"You all submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission," he finally said, and barely after he finished speaking Rick answered.

"We can do that."

"You got stuff, bring it in now." He dropped his gun, walking towards us. "Once this door closes, it stays closed."

Abiding by his orders we all picked up our bags as quickly as possible before any walkers approached the doors. The man went to a keypad, clicking a few buttons and placing his thumb on a screen, scanning it. Seconds later the shutter door screeched down, closing us in. A wave of relief washed over me.

We introduced ourselves to this man, he presented himself as Dr. Edwin Jenner. He led us through hallways, everything was close quarters and the place seemed to be a maze. Leading us into an elevator, we all squished in, going downwards, underground.

"Doctors always goin' around packin' heat like that?" Daryl spoke up from the corner of the elevator, referring to the machine gun Jenner held. He was skeptical of this guy, but then again who wasn't.

"Oh there were plenty left lying around, I familiarized myself," he responded, turning around to look at Daryl. He scanned over the rest of us, "but you look harmless enough… except you." He made a joke, looking down at Carl who stood fairly close to me. He grabbed my hand at first scared before he looked up at the man. "I'll have to keep my eye on you," Jenner said which caused a small smile to form on Carl's face. Jenner smiled back.

Stepping out of the elevator, he brought us down a hallway, passing multiple doorways on the way. I trailed behind everyone along with Daryl, looking around at the new space we entered. The walls were now cement and with the number of rooms we passed there should have been more people here, but there wasn't a soul that I could see. That worried me slightly, not knowing what went down here.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked, her voice shook.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner asked.

"A little," she responded.

"Try not to think about it." We walked a little bit further. "Vi!" He called out, "bring up the lights in the main area!" Seconds later all the lights flashed on, revealing a platform in which held multiple high tech devices and a computer system. "Welcome to R-5."

"Where is everybody? The other doctors? The staff?" I asked the question everyone was thinking, dying to know.

"It's just me here," he responded, standing in the middle of the platform, a large clock counting down behind him.

"What about the women you were speaking to? Vi?" Lori asked.

"Vi! Say hello to our guests… tell them… welcome," he called out again.

"Hello guests, welcome," the computer voice answered over the P.A systems.

"I'm all that's left," he sighed, all of our faces dropped. Hope in some sort of cure completely gone. There was nothing left. "I'm sorry," he looked to the floor, taking notice of our disappointment.

-----

I sat there with a needle in my arm as Jenner drew my blood, I was the last of the group to go. Everyone else stood and sat around us, waiting, which I was grateful for.

"What's the point?" I asked looking up at the tired man, "If we were infected we would already be running a fever," I shook my head and it spun from the loss of blood.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here, let me at least be thorough," he explained as he took the needle out of my arm, placing a small bandaid over it. "All done," he said, which allowed me to get up from the metal chair he had me seated on. Standing up slowly my legs wobbled and my ears rang. Getting blood drawn was a hard enough thing to do for me when I was healthy and well-fed, and now it was just that much worse with the state I was in. "You okay?" Dr. Jenner asked, taking notice of my unsteadiness. I nodded my head yes before my knees buckled from under me. Before I hit the ground a body quickly collided with mine, catching me. "What's wrong with her?" Jenner asked.

"She hasn't eaten in days," Daryl responded, putting me back up on my feet.

Once Jenner ensured us that none of us had been infected he showed us to our rooms, informing us that there was hot running water and queen-sized beds in every room. We were all pretty excited to hear about that.

"Alright, if you guys want to get settled in, I can start on dinner and y'all can come out and join when you're ready," he explained and I smiled at the thought of real food, a shower, and a warm bed.

I shared my room with Glenn. I had the choice to have my own room, but I honestly didn't want to be on my own in this new space, and Glenn and I had grown closer over the short amount of time that I knew him.

"I'm gonna shower now, before dinner if you don't mind," I said as I threw my bag down on the ground beside the bed. The room wasn't huge, but it was big enough to fit a queen-sized bed and a small nightstand with a lamp in it.

"Yeah that's fine, I'll shower afterward," he smiled, jumping onto the bed making himself comfortable.

With that said I immediately walked into the bathroom, locking the door and turning on the water. Stripping myself of my blood-stained clothes, I gently placed my chain on the sink along with Glenn's red hat that I still wore, and got in the shower. It was scorching hot which made the cuts on my body burn, but it was nice, feeling the searing hot water wash away all of the bad. Looking down as the blood and dirt leaked down my arms, washing over the bruises that were scattered across my skin, my stomach dropped. All of a sudden started crying, everything from the past week hitting me like a ton of bricks, the good, the bad, the horrible.

Things had been changing so fast lately that I hadn't ever really had time to properly mourn the death of more than half of my family. I slid down the shower wall, clutching my knees close to me, gasping for air as I choked on my tears. I covered my mouth, silencing myself in case Glenn was still in the room. It wasn't so much that I was sad or crushed at the thought of it, but instead, angry. These were tears of frustration with the world, my blood boiled when thinking about my brother. How unfair it was, that if he just made it one more hour, he could have been alive and with me now. Then I thought about my parents, their selfishness, to end it all without a second thought about their children. I knew it was my mother's idea, she was always the weaker one and she would have talked my dad into it with no problem. He was brave, a fighter, a general, yet he was a sucker for my mother, he wouldn't be able to live without her… so they did it together.

"Hey, dinner will be ready in ten," Glenn knocked on the door while yelling at me which quickly snapped me out of my state.

"I'll be out soon," my voice trembled as I stuttered out the words.

From there I got myself up, turning the water off and stepping out into the steam-filled room that was a lot colder than the enclosed space of the shower. Wrapping myself in a towel, I wiped the fog off the mirror, being able to get a better look at myself. With all the dirt gone I could now prominently see the freckles under my eyes, although there weren't enough to distract myself from the large bags that were now permanently on my face from lack of sleep. My hazel eyes were dull and worn out, usually, my eyes were coated with mascara and liner, now they were just bare. Dropping my towel so I could put on the closest thing to pajamas Jenner could find I noticed just how skinny I had gotten. My collar bones were easily seen and my hip bones protrude out. Not wanting to look at the mess I had become any longer I slipped on the large t-shirt and boxer shorts I was given.

Walking out to where everyone sat around a table in the cafeteria I joined them, taking a seat beside Carol directly across from Rick. Glenn sat on a ledge behind me and Daryl sat on one across from me while Dale stood up, pouring everyone wine. I eagerly handed him my glass, trying to play catch up with everyone else. There were several bottles stationed by Daryl on the ledge, people were obviously going to enjoy themselves tonight, for the first time in a long time.

"You know, kids do get wine with dinner," Dale said as he looked over to Carl. Carl looked up at his mom seeing what she would say. She looked very skeptical of the idea before Rick budded in.

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on," he laughed and everyone began snickering. I could easily tell that a lot of them were already beginning to feel the effects of the wine as our lack of food and water made our tolerance levels next to nothing. She gave in, throwing her hands up in the air and laughing as Dale poured a very small amount into his cup. I sipped on my own as I watched him.

"Here you are young lad," Dale said, handing the glass over to Carl. Everyone watched him as he took the tiniest sip before making a disgusted face, gagging slightly.

"That's my boy," Lori cooed, "More for me," she poured his remaining gulp in her own glass. I looked around, watching everyone genuinely laugh along with one another, enjoying themselves.

"Glenn just turned twenty-one," I spoke up over everyone's laughter which made them all stop to look at him, "I say we drink to that," I raised my glass. They all smiled, following my actions and clinking their cups together.

Daryl then got up to pour himself another glass. "I say Red keeps drinkin'," he looked over to me, "I wanna see just how drunk you can really get," he joked which caused others to laugh, nodding their heads in agreement.

"I ain't no lightweight like you, Dixon," I rolled my eyes at him, joking around, which caused an uproar from the table. Daryl scoffed and retreated to his spot. That statement was partly true, I used to be quite the heavyweight, it was annoying actually. But now, for sure after two glasses, I'd be done for.

All of a sudden Rick began tapping on his glass with a knife, grabbing our attention. "I say we make a real toast… to our host, thank him properly."

"He is more than just our host," T-Dog yelled out, everyone raising their glasses again.

"Booyah!" Daryl yelled.

"Thank you," Rick looked at him like he was thanking him for each one of us. Jenner nodded his head, smiling before we all took a drink.

"When are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here doc?" Shane questioned, causing the room to fall silent. "All the other doctors?"

"We are celebrating Shane, we don't need to be doing this now," Rick reprimanded him as Jenner's face dropped at the question.

"Well this is why you brought us here wasn't it?" Shane fought back. "To figure out all the answers, but instead we find him," he pointed to Jenner, "One man… Why?"

I watched as they eyed each other, both clearly annoyed with the other. Jenner also watched them, clearing his throat before he interjected. "Well when things got bad a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families," he played with his glass, focusing harder on that than making eye contact with us. "And when things got worse… the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Shane scoffed.

"No. Many couldn't face walking out the door," he paused, "They opted out, there was a rash of suicides-"

"But you stayed?" Andrea cut him off.

"I just kept working… hoping to do some good."

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill," Glenn broke the intense conversation, chugging back the rest of his glass of wine.