The next morning, everyone gathered around a campfire.
Gray used the time to open up the upgrades tab and get the next one.
[New Upgrade]
(100000 Gold) 6000 Gold/Hour ✔
[New Hourly Rate]
16,201 Gold/Hour
Gold: 3361
"We have everything packed, so if anything happens down the road, honk once, and we'll stop," Rick said, looking around the camp. "Does anyone have any questions?"
"Yeah, not exactly a question..." Morales replied. "We're not going."
Rick's expression turned serious. "Are you sure? No one would have your back out there; you'd be all alone."
"Yes, we're sure. We have family in Birmingham," Miranda said. Before anyone could respond, Gray burst out laughing.
Everyone turned to stare at him until he finally calmed down.
"What's so funny?" Morales asked, scowling.
"You'll have to forgive me," Gray said, standing up straight. "But that's the stupidest decision you could make right now..."
"Oh yeah? And why is that?" Morales stepped closer to Gray, but Merle intervened.
Gray pulled Merle aside. "It's fine, Merle, I've got this."
"Look," Gray said, now facing Morales. "You saw what happened here two days ago. Even with all of us combined and all the guns we had, almost half the camp died. You saw how dangerous a simple supply run into the city turned out. You had to leave a man chained to the rooftop just to escape. So tell me, Morales, once things go south, which one of your kids are you going to leave on a rooftop? And which one will die when you encounter a bunch of walkers like we did two days ago?"
Before tensions could escalate further, Rick and Shane stepped between them. "I think you've said enough," Rick said to Gray, who shrugged and walked away.
"I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking," Gray said, his voice rising. "There's strength in numbers, and you're putting your kids at risk for a pipe dream. He knows how overrun Atlanta was; what do you think another city is going to look like?"
"I'm sorry to say this, but he's right," Shane added. "The bigger the group, the better our chances of survival. If you walk away now, you'll only put your family at risk."
Morales and his wife exchanged glances, and finally, he said, "Can you give us five minutes? We need to talk this over."
A few minutes later, they returned. "It seems we'll join you guys for a bit longer. Let's hope you're right about this..."
"We are," Rick said before walking over to his car and getting in. Merle and Daryl climbed into their truck, which had a motorcycle strapped to the back. Rick was in his car with his family, and Sophia and Carol joined him. The Morales family was in their own vehicle.
T-Dog, Jim, and Jacqui were in a church van, while Dale, Glenn, Amy, and Andrea were in the RV, spotting Shane alone in his jeep. Gray decided to join him.
"You don't mind, do you?" Gray asked, already fastening his seatbelt and not waiting for an answer.
"You didn't want to join your friend, Merle?" Shane replied. "You guys seem like the closest."
"Whoa there, you almost sound a little jealous... but nah, there's not enough space," Gray continued. "Besides, we need to discuss some serious matters, you and I."
Shane scoffed. "Oh, really? What's that?"
"Well, the first and most important issue is that people need training," Gray said, placing his gun on the dashboard. "Everyone needs to be able to protect themselves, whether they're kids or women, they can't always rely on us."
"Agreed, but what are we going to do about the ammo? Eventually, we will run out, and training more than a dozen people will deplete our supplies quickly." Shane paused for a moment before adding, "That's why I wanted to go to Fort Benning; the military could still be stationed there, which means guns and ammo..."
"I don't think ammo will be an issue down the line," Gray thought, recalling how he could already buy around 8,000 9mm rounds an hour. He continued, "I feel like the CDC is closer, so we won't make a wasted trip. Plus, we could learn about the infection if it's still operational."
"And what if it's overrun? We would just be wasting gas," Shane countered.
"I guess we'll find out soon enough..." Gray said, stopping the conversation and watching the scenery.
Fortunately, since no one had been bitten and the RV had a new hose, they didn't need to stop.
An hour later, they arrived at the CDC.
Upon arrival, the first thing they noticed was the dead bodies scattered on the floor alongside the abandoned military vehicles. "I told you all this was a bad idea! This is a dead end!" Shane exclaimed, clearly agitated.
Everyone's nerves were on edge.
"I don't know about that. Look around," Gray pointed toward the building. "I don't see any broken windows, and the metal shutters are closed, so there might still be people inside."
Everyone cautiously walked toward the building, making sure to avoid stepping on the dead bodies. "Be careful; some of those might not be completely dead..." Gray whispered to the group.
As if on cue, the first walker began to move, triggering a chain reaction. Within five seconds, more than five walkers stood up. Gray, Rick, Merle, Daryl, and Morales each took out one walker with their melee weapons, trying to avoid making too much noise since they were close to a city.
Seeing as the group started trying to open the metal shutters and yelling for help, Gray decided to walk around, collecting all the guns he found on the floor and searching every dead soldier's body, hoping to find magazines or the keys for some of the vehicles.
Going back to Shane's truck, he picked up his backpack and started filling it with all the guns. He put the ones that were too big inside the RV.
Seeing what Gray was doing, Merle and Daryl started helping. 10 minutes later, Rick started begging towards the camera, saying that it had moved, thanks to the noise he kept making, yelling and banging the metal shutters. More and more walkers started getting attracted to it.
Looking around, Gray opened fire, realizing there was no point in staying quiet any longer. He dispatched walker after walker until the metal shutters finally opened up.
Everyone rushed inside, coming face to face with a man in a lab coat who was holding a rifle.
"Is anyone infected?" the doctor shouted.
"No, we're all okay," Rick replied.
"Okay, then you all need to submit to a blood test; that's the entry price."
Rick glanced around at the group. "Yeah, we can do that..."
Finally, the doctor lowered his weapon. "Grab whatever you need. Once those shutters close, they're not going to open again."
Hearing this, everyone dashed outside toward the vehicles to gather their supplies. Gray was one of the few who stayed behind since he already had his backpack on. Instead, he stood near the entrance, keeping an eye out for any approaching zombies.
Once everyone made it inside, the metal shutters closed.
"My name's Doctor Edwin Jenner." He introduced himself and walked over to a wall panel. "Vi, cut the power up here."
Since not everyone could fit in the elevator, some had to take the stairs. Finally, deep underground, Jenner led them to an open room, where he took blood samples from everyone.
Gray was feeling a bit nervous. 'What if my blood is different? Am I even infected? I should be, since I remember the infection was airborne. I might need to have a chat with him later,' he thought to himself.
As everyone was feeling hungry, Jenner invited them all to eat. After 30 minutes, they finished eating and started drinking. Shane, already a few drinks in, began asking the tough questions that everyone else was ignoring. "So when are you going to tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?"
Rick was the first to reply. "We're celebrating, Shane. We should save those kinds of questions for later."
"Nah, man. There were supposed to be a bunch of doctors here trying to figure out what's happening," Shane stood up. "Instead, it's just you, Doc...one lonesome person for this entire facility. Something ain't adding up."
"Well, when things started going sideways, a lot of people left to be with their families," Jenner sighed and took a sip from his cup. "When the military got overrun, even more people left. Those who stayed didn't last long. We had a rash of suicides after a few weeks. So now I'm all that's left...everyone else either left or died..."
"But you didn't leave... or take the easy way out," Andrea asked. "Why?"
Jenner looked melancholic. "I just kept working, trying to figure this thing out because I had a promise to keep..."
Glenn put down his glass and said, "Dude, you're such a buzzkill."
Once everybody calmed down, Jenner took them to the main stations and showed them the video of test subject 19, his dead wife. After explaining how they come back and how it works, he showed them all towards the housing facilities.
While the group was showering and getting comfortable, Gray walked to the stations where Jenner was. Before he spoke, he looked over at the countdown clock and saw they had a bit over 24 hours before the building would blow up. "I'm sorry if I'm taking a bit of your time, but you got a minute?"
"Sure, what's going on?"
"I just have a few questions. I don't expect you to have all the answers, but if you would indulge me." Gray took a seat opposite Jenner.
Jenner turned his chair facing Gray. "I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities."
"Perfect." Gray looked around, not seeing anyone from the group, and he finally started talking. "I know everybody is infected."
Jenner stood up, surprised, "How do you know that?"
"I just know, did you see anything different in my blood?"
"No...it looked just like everybody else's," Jenner continued, "What's your name again?"
"Gray, and I see I'm also infected..." he continued, "If I were to tell you I can get you anything you need to find a cure, hell, I can probably hand you one. Would you be willing to join us?"
"And how would you do that? What did you do before all this?" Jenner took a seat again, "I don't mean any disrespect, but you look kind of young to be saying all this."
"I used to be just a normal guy, but let's say that I have the ability to get anything you would need, ranging from samples to any lab equipment, and at one point, I could even get you the cure so you can reverse engineer it, or give you the written formula for it. I just need enough time to get it..." Gray looked over at the clock, "Time we don't have."
Jenner looked at the clock and sighed, "I see, you already know what that clock represents...Are you from the future or something?"
"The dead are walking among us, so it wouldn't be too far-fetched, would it? But to answer your question, no, you could say it's something similar..."
"Yeah, I think you're full of it."
"Maybe, but how else would I know you made a promise to your wife? What I'm offering you is a chance at keeping your promise, and maybe down the line, you do find the cure for this thing." Gray stood up and started walking towards the housing facilities. "Just let me know what you plan on doing," He turned over to the clock, "You have a bit more than a day to give me an answer, just don't take too long."
After Gray took a shower, he found an empty room and finally lay down on the bed, since he had stayed up all night keeping watch the previous day. It didn't take long for sleep to claim him.