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SEPARATING HERSELF FROM THE children and their mothers, Aria pushes more towards the backside of the group, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Though, it's not a surprise she'd feel uncomfortable, it's like her second nature to feel it. In frantic situations, she always found herself to be cuddly and more outspoken but calm situations, she was always awkward and quiet. Maybe it's the leader coming out of her in the frantic situations but she always tries to hide the leader in her because she doesn't want everyone focused on her.
Her blue eyes look over the building from left to right and top to bottom. You can never be too sure, nowhere can be safe when there is people in it. Because you not only have to fear the dead people walking, you have to fear people. A gun cocking echoes through the building and Aria tenses, her eyes slightly widening.
"Anybody infected?" A male's voice calls and her eyes search the room for the owner of the voice. Landing on a man at the top of the stairs who's wielding a gun, she takes a small step back, bumping straight into someone. A hand lands on her back and pushes her forward. Looking behind her, her eyes meet Daryl's narrowed eyes and she gulps before turning back toward the man. "One of our group was—he didn't make it." Rick's answers, his voice shaking in nervousness.
"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man asks, walking forward, the gun still pointed at the group. His messy blonde hair now shines in the dull light and his face is full of exhaustion. "A chance."
Fiddling with the hem of her shirt, she chews on her bottom lip, nerves overwhelming her. "That's asking an awful lot these days." The man mutters, his eyes running over the group as he studies their appearances. As he battles with his heart and his mind, he does one more scan over the group, his hardened eyes softening. "You all submit a blood test. That's the price of admission." He concludes, his arms falling to his sides. With the loaded and cocked gun now aimed towards the ground, Aria's body relaxes but her mind and eyes stay on alert.
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." The man demands and Rick nods, the men running back out of the building and towards the vehicles. After a few agonizing minutes, the men run back in, their arms filled with bags. T-Dog and Dale close the double doors and the man presses a button, speaking into a device. "Vi, seal the main entrance and turn off the lights."
The shutters rattle and they clang close, the group now locked in with a man they barely know anything about.
♚ ♛
Taking a small sip of the red, bitter liquid, Aria looks around the table, her ears filled with laughs of delight. She chuckles lightly as Carl shakes his head in disgust after tasting the wine. "Not you, Glenn. Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get." Gently setting down the glass, Aria wipes her lips, her eyes suddenly catching a gloomy looking doctor.
A glass begins to clink and Aria stops herself from visibly cringing at the sound. "It seems to me as haven't thanked our host properly." Rick says, standing to his feet and looking towards Doctor Jenner. "He is more than just our host." T-Dog continues and Aria nods, a small smile on her pale face. "Here's to you, doc! Booyah!" Daryl shouts, holding up the bottle of wine.
After the excitement dies down, Shane looks around before speaking up, "So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the—the other doctors. That were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" Grasping her glass, Aria raises the glass to her stained lips and tilts her head back, downing the rest of the wine. Setting it on the table, she looks down at her plate, staring at it with a blank expression.
"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick tells his friend, sitting back down beside his family. Gently tapping her foot against the ground, Aria purses her lips, uneasy because of the awkwardness in the air. "Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move—supposed to find all the answers. Instead, we found him. Found one man, why?" Shane continues, jabbing his thumb in Jenner's direction. Raising her head, Aria narrows her eyes at Shane, his behavior pissing her off.
"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." Jenner answers, Aria able to see the sadness behind his mask. Lowering her hands to her lap, she clasps her hands together, fiddling her thumbs. "Many couldn't face walking out the door. They—opted out." He trails off and Aria furrows her eyebrows at the unknown word. "There was a rash of suicides."
Frowning, she lowers her head back down to the table, taking notice of the tension in the air.
Carrying her bag over her shoulder and books in her arms, she walks into a room, setting the bag on the ground and the books on top of it. Grabbing a book off the stack, she reads the back of it before cracking it open. "What are you doing?" A voice startles her and she jumps around, dropping the book in the process. The book hits the ground with a loud slap and she winces, the loud noise adding to the embarrassment.
Looking up with red cheeks and a small innocent smile, she coughs lightly, rubbing the back of her neck. "I—I didn't know this was anyone's room." She replies, lowering her eyes down to her old black converse. A scoff sounds through the room and she feels the redneck brush past her, picking up some stuff. Turning around, she watches in confusion as he begins to pick up his stuff. "What are you doing?" She asks, her face scrunching up.
"Leavin'." He utters and she quickly shakes her head, her arms out in front of her. "No—no! You can stay! We can, uh—share?" She states, her voice full of awkwardness and she mentally slaps herself for stuttering. She can't talk to no one without acting like an awkward schoolgirl. As Daryl sits there, staring at her with many emotions in his blue orbs, he grunts, setting his stuff back down. "Fine. I'm going to get a drink. You better be out of that shower and clothed before I get back." He grumbles, walking out of the room. Her eyes widen and she quickly rushes to the bathroom, groaning.
