AT WORLDS END || Daryl Dixon [1]

eleven.

Connie sat on the floor between a crying Carol and a teary eyed Lori, their kids held tightly in their arms while Rick had spend nearly five minutes trying to convince Jenner to let them all leave before the building blew up.

Having gotten sick of waiting, Daryl flung his now empty bottle of Jack Daniels at the steel that now filled the doorframes. "Open the damn door!" He screamed.

Holly flinched visibly, curling further into her mothers side, and Connie simply moved her head so her face was hidden in her shoulder. Carl and Sophia were both holding onto their mothers with one hand, and one of Holly's hands in the other.

"Out of my way!" Shane yelled as he ran up the ramp, large fire axe in hand. Connie watched sadly as he swung the axe at the thick metal door, only for it to barely leave a dent. T-Dog threw one up to Daryl as well, who took to angrily swinging it at every part of the surface as he could.

"You should've left well enough alone," Jenner shook his head miserably. "It would have been so much easier."

"Easier for who?" Lori snapped, clearly astonished at the words coming out of his mouth.

"All of you," Jenner scoffed, his voice taking a much softer tone. "You know what's out there; a short, brutal life and an agonizing death." Holly whimpered again, and Connie fixed Jenner with a steely glare. "Your sister," he continued on anyway, locking eyes with Andrea. "What was her name?"

"Amy," Andrea whispered.

"Amy," Jenner repeated softly. "You know what this does, Andrea. You've seen it." He turned his attention on Rick. "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"

"I don't want this," Rick hissed. He gestured over to Connie. "Look at Holly; she's barely even eight years old. She doesn't deserve this; none of us do."

Shane approached them, slouching against the wall behind the small wall enclosing the computers from the rest of the room. "Can't make a dent," he muttered when Rick looked over at him.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner shook his head calmly.

Daryl stormed over, axe in hand. "Yeah, well, your head ain't!" Connie closed her eyes and pressed Holly's face further into her chest. It took Rick, Dale and T-Dog to Daryl from swinging that axe and imbedding it in Jenner's head. He walked away and took a break.

"You do want this," Jenner shook his head, brows furrowed at Rick's previous comment. "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before every body you loved was dead."

"What?" Glenn breathed out, his brows pulled together in confusion.

"What, you said that?" Shane scoffed, anger flickering in his eyes. "After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep hope alive," Rick choked out.

Connie stared up at Rick, her lips pursed as she rubbed a crying Hollys back. "When you get drunk, you tend to say whatever's on your mind, we've all had that thought, I'm sure that's all it was," she cut in, her steel blue eyes locked on his. He nodded discretely, a thankful look on his face.

"There is no hope," Jenner scoffed in response to Ricks statement, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "There never was."

"There's always hope," Rick snapped, his voice dangerously low as he stalked forwards. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere—"

"—What part of everything's gone don't you understand," Andrea cut in from where she was sitting curled up on the floor.

"Listen to your friend, she gets it," Jenner nodded calmly. "This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."