The Walking Dead Season 1:Charlotte's Story (ON HOLD)

Chapter 4: The CDC

Third person's POV
At the quarry, Rick stared at the sunrise over Atlanta as he tried to reach Morgan on the walkie-talkie.

"Morgan, I don't know if you're out there. I don't know if you can hear me. Maybe you're listening right now. I hope so. I found others ...a little girl named Charlotte my adopted daughter, my family, if you can believe it. My wife and son, they're alive. I wanted you to know that. Charlotte's mother and father ... we found them. They didn't make it. There's something else you need to know. Atlanta isn't what we thought. It's not what they promised. The city is ... Do not enter the city. It belongs to the dead now. We're camped a few miles northwest, up by a big abandoned rock quarry. You can see it on a map. I hope you come find us. But be careful. Last night walkers came out of the woods. We lost people. Watch yourself, Morgan. Take care of your boy. I'll try you again tomorrow at dawn." Charlotte ran up to Daryl who was putting a pick axe to the head of a dead body. "What awe you doing Mr. Dixie?" Daryl chuckles warmly. "It's not Dixie it's Dixon. Why ain't you with yer momma kid?" Charlotte plays with her fingers shyly, "She busy." Charlotte said. Daryl simply nods and gets back to work, he is about to put a pick axe to Ed's head when Carol stops him. "I'll do it. He's my husband." Daryl gives the pick axe to Carol, he gently grabs Charlotte's little hand and they walk away. "Come on lil' chick." "Otay." Daryl was angry since Amy got bit, that dead girl was a distraction. "Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb," Daryl said. "What do you suggest?" Rick asked. "Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey from this distance," Daryl said. "No." Lori said angrily picking up Charlotte and holding her close, "For God's sakes let her be." Later Daryl and Morales were dragging a body of someone from the camp to the fire. Glenn seeing what they were doing started yelling at them. "We don't burn them! We bury them! Our people go over there." Daryl grunted angrily while he and Morales dragged the body away from the fire. "Ya reap what ya sow." Morales glared heatedly at Daryl. "You know what, shut up man!" Daryl dropped the arm of the body and stormed off. "Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this coming!" Charlotte was talking to Jim. "Awe you otay?" Jim looks at Charlotte and sighs. "Yeah kid... I'm fine." Charlotte sees blood seeping through Jim's shirt and points at him. "You bweeding." Charlotte whispers softly. Jim sends her a pleading look, "Please don't tell them kid, please." Charlotte turns around and says out loud while pointing her little finger at Jim. "Jim is bweeding!" Jacqui looks up along with everyone at camp looks at Charlotte worriedly at what she just said. Jacqui looks at Jim's shirt and sees that he is indeed bleeding. She gets up and rushes to Charlotte and picks her up. "A walker got him! A walker bit Jim!" "I'm ok. I'm ok." Jim whimpered. Daryl pick axe in hand marched over to Jim. "Show it to us." Daryl ordered. Jim started to back away. Shane and Rick walked up to him. "Jim no one here is going to hurt you. Just show it to us Jim." Rick said. Jim quickly picked up a shovel. T-Dog grabbed Jim from behind, then Daryl lifts up Jim's shirt revealing a bite mark on Jim's stomach. "I'm ok. I'm ok." He repeats over and over. Jim sat on a crate near the RV while the group gathered around the campfire. "I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it," Daryl said. "Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane asked. "Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it," Daryl snapped. "I hate to say it- I never thought I would- but maybe Daryl's right," Dale said. "Jim's not a monster or some rabid dog." Rick said standing up for Jim. "I'm not suggesting we kill him." "If we go down that road where do we draw the line?" Rick said looking at Shane who nodded in agreement. "The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl said. "What if we can get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure." Shane shook his head. "I heard that too. I heard of things when the world went to hell." "What if the CDC is still up and running?" Rick asked. Daryl scoffed, "You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl lifts the pick axe about to hit Jim with it but Rick pulls out his gun and points it at Daryl's head. "We don't kill the living." Rick said threateningly. Daryl lowered the pick axe and scoffed, "That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." "We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down. Go on," Daryl puts down the pick axe and walks away. Rick walks over to Jim and grabs him by the arm leading him to the RV. "Come with me." He said. "Where are you taking me?" Jim asked Rick scared out of his mind. "Somewhere safe." Rick replied taking Jim into the RV. Charlotte looks up at Jacqui. "Is Jim otay?" Jacqui smiles warmly and kisses her on the forehead. "Yes sweetie he's fine." Later the group is standing in front of the truck getting ready to go to the CDC. Shane starts giving out instructions. "Everybody listen up," Shane calls out to get the group's attention. "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. "We're, uh ... We're ... we're not going," He said. Charlotte's eyes watered she didn't want them to leave. Charlotte grew to love them just like she loves everyone in the group. "We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people," Morales' wife Eliza said her arms wrapped around her daughter and son Eliza and Louis. "You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Shane warned Morales. "We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family," Morales said. "You Sure?" Rick asked. "We talked about it. We're sure," Morales said. Rick reached into the gun bag and pulled out a 357. He handed Morales the gun and Shane gave him a box of ammo. "The box is half full." Shane told him. Lori and Sophia say goodbye to Morales and his family. Charlotte who was in Dale's arms sadly waved goodbye to Morales and his family. "Goodbye bye." Morales chuckled and sent her a sad smile. "Goodbye sweetheart." Charlotte buried her head in Dale's shoulder and cried, he rubbed her back soothingly. "There there darling, it's alright, it's alright." Charlotte sniffled. "I wuv you gwandpa." Dale smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you too." They start packing up the cars all set to leave the campsite. Charlotte toddled over to Daryl and tugged on his shirt. Daryl's POV: I felt a tug on my shirt, I looked down and saw two big green eyes staring up at me. "Whewe awe we going Mr. Dixie?" I chuckled as I knelt down to see eye to eye with her. "We're going to the CDC." Charlotte looked confused. "What's dat mean?" I chuckled again, "It means Center for Disease Control." "Ohh... What's dat?" I laughed heartily as I picked her up. "It means you have ta be ready ta go." "Otay Mr. Dixie!" I laughed once more and walked off to camp with Charlotte in my arms. Next thing Charlotte knew, she's sitting on Lori's lap on their way to the CDC. Jim's condition was getting worse. "Will Mr. Jim be otay mommy?" Lori smiles softly and nods, "He'll be fine sweetheart. Don't worry." Shane suddenly stops the car. Lori noticed that the caravan has stopped. "What happened?" Shane shrugged. "Must be Dale's RV." Charlotte has a worried expression on her face. "Is gwandpa otay?" "Yes sweetheart he's fine. Don't worry." Charlotte and Lori and the rest of the group surrounded the RV, the radiator hose stopped working. "What's wong gwandpa?" Dale smiled softly at Charlotte. "There's something wrong with the RV honey." "Ohh." After they patch up the RV they decide to go along with Jim's final wish. Shane and Rick sit him down under a tree. "Hey, another damn tree." Shane and Rick talk to Jim for a second and than walk down the hill. Charlotte toddles up to Jim and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Bye bye Mr. Jim." Jim chuckled warmly and said. "Goodbye sweetheart." Charlotte toddles back to Lori and into her waiting arms. Lori walks off to Carol's Cherokee. The caravan starts driving away again sadly leaving Jim behind. When they finally reach the CDC it's safe to say it looks pretty bad. Dead bodies scattered everywhere. Flies are swarming around the dead bodies and some of the bodies among them are soldiers. Charlotte scrunched up her nose in disgust and pointed at a dead body and said, "Yucky!" Lori nodded her head in agreement. "Yes it is yucky, especially the smell." Charlotte nodded her head in agreement and plugged her nose and said. "Smells yucky!" Lori chuckled warmly and kissed her on the forehead. "Yes sweetheart I know." The group gets closer to the doors. Rick and Shane pound on the doors, "There's nobody here." T-Dog said. "Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asks. All of a sudden Daryl shouts "Walkers!" Charlotte whimpered in fear and clung to Lori tightly. Daryl storms over to Rick, "You led us into a graveyard!" Dale tried to reason with him. "He made a call!" Daryl shouted back angrily, "It was the wrong damn call!" Shane gets in Daryl's face and yells. "Shut up! You hear me?" Shane pushes Daryl back. "Shut up! Shut up!" Shane walks away from Daryl who is shocked and tries to talk some sense into Rick. "Rick, this is a dead end," Carol asks desperately, "Where are we gonna go?" Charlotte plugs her ears so she can't hear all the yelling. Suddenly the group was engulfed by a bright light. The metal doors had opened. The group entered the building slowly, there weapons raised. Charlotte was being carried by Lori, suddenly they heard a click of a gun and aimed at a man holding a big black gun. "Is anyone infected?" Rick with his gun still raised said, "One of are men was... He didn't make it." Charlotte smiled shyly at the man with the gun and waved her little hand. "Hi man." Everyone in the group including the man chuckled. "Hi." Then he turned his attention to Rick, "What do you want?" "A chance." "That's asking an awful lot these days." "I know." "You'll submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission." "We can do that." "If you have stuff outside you should get it now, once those doors close they stay closed." Rick, Shane, Daryl, and T-Dog went outside to get there stuff while Glenn and Dale manned the doors. They rushed back inside the building with their stuff while Glenn and Dale shut the doors behind them.