CHAPTER SIX
MOMENTARY PEACE

season one, episode six

CHARLOTTE WOULD BE LYING if she said she wasn't afraid as to what was on the other side of the door and as a direct response to that, the girl keeps herself hidden behind Rick. If anybody is going to be able to protect her from any oncoming attack it'll be one of the ones with a gun, and she has a little more trust in Rick than with Shane.

The teenager feels a light tug on her arm and looks down at Sophia, forcing a smile on her face as if to help portray that everything is okay. It's a small gesture but it seems to help, the girl relaxing slightly and watching the events unfold from around Charlotte's arm.

A man appears before them, cocking his gun and running his eyes over the group almost suspiciously. The girl takes a step back when he moves forward, unconsciously taking Sophia with her so that the both of them are out of harm's way. He doesn't aim the gun at any of them per se, the end of it more so pointing at the floor but it's hard to trust anybody with a weapon these days.

"Anybody infected?" The man holding the gun asks, asking the question that they probably should've expected.

"One of our group was. He didn't make it," Rick responds, referring to Jim who they'd left behind hours earlier. Charlotte can't help but think about him, surely by now he is roaming amongst the trees as a walker — the thought makes her shudder.

"Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance,"

"That's asking an awful lot these days,"

"I know,"

The stranger looks around at all of them once again, his mind obviously running at a million kilometres an hour. Trust is a two way street, as is safety and harmony in this instance, if he doesn't trust them then there is going to be some issues. Eventually he seems to give into whatever he is thinking about, nodding his head once.

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission," He says finally, his eyes back on Rick as if he's deduced that he is their 'leader'. Charlotte supposes he is in a way, somebody has to make the hard decisions.

"We can do that," Rick replies assuredly.

The man finally lowers the weapon entirely, gesturing for them to grab their stuff before following him to the elevator. It's rather cramped, Charlotte happy to retreat into the far corner to form her own pocket of safety in case anything goes wrong.

"VI, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here," The man speaks. 

Charlotte looks up as the elevator begins to start up, other loud clangs also echoing around them. A beeping noise follows quickly after and they're left in quiet until Rick decides to break the silence that had begun to occur amongst them.

"Rick Grimes,"  Rick introduces himself and holds his hand out to be shook which the man simply looks away from instead.

"Doctor Edwin Jenner,"

The elevator is practically humming now as they move down, taking them to what Charlotte assumes is underground. She has so many questions, a want to know exactly what this place does and more importantly, where everybody else is. For now it seems like it's only Jenner and this 'Vi' he has been speaking to since they'd come inside.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asks Jenner, eyes narrowed at the stranger.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough," Jenner answers before turning his gaze to Carl. "Except you, I'll have to keep my eye on you,"

Carl smiles at him, causing a chuckle to emit from the Doctor. Charlotte can just see the smile on the man's face fade away as he looks in the opposite direction, an uneasy feeling bubbling up within her. The elevator comes to a halt, clearly the group has reached their destination. They all follow the man, who actually knows where he is going, walking down a long hallway. This place is huge, that she can see even just from the limited parts they've been too.

"Are we underground?" Carol asks, holding Sophia to her as they walk.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner counters her question with one of his own, looking back at the woman for a moment before continuing forward.

"A little,"

"Try not to think about it,"

Easier said than done. Charlotte feels her hand unconsciously tightening around her bow as the space in front of them begins to darken, a somewhat deep fear of the unknown that lies ahead for all of them. It's probably a little silly because clearly this man has been in here for a long time, since the start of the whole 'dead people walking' event, which means he would know if there was anyone else here. However, weariness is merely a default emotion for Charlotte these days, it's hard to feel anything but.

It's like they're walking straight into some sort of abyss, a whole different world before them. Jenner looks over his shoulder. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room,"

Charlotte jumps slightly at the beeping noises before the space lightens up dramatically, her eyes straining a little at the sudden brightness.

"Welcome to Zone 5," Jenner gestures to the room in front of him.

"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick questions.

"I'm it. It's just me here,"

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?"

"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them welcome,"

Charlotte glances at him for a moment, almost suspiciously, but it quickly fades with the sound of a computerized voice.

"Hello, guests. Welcome,"

Jenner then shrugs. "I'm all that's left. I'm sorry,"

Charlotte can proudly say she doesn't even flinch as the needle pierces her skin, the girl having dealt with her fair share of injuries with her arrows. This was especially prominent when she was originally learning the craft, picking them up naively by the pointy end and acting as if it wouldn't do anything. It's a habit her coach broke her out of real quick, the woman making her practice every lesson.

Jenner takes some of her blood, the teenager fiddling with the hem of her shirt with her free hand, trying to not make eye contact with the stranger. Awkwardness isn't really something she wants to incite right now, so she's perfectly happy to simply keep her gaze away.

When the man is finished, she gets to her feet slowly after having just seen Andrea struggle to stay upright. There is a slight pain in her stomach due to the lack of food she's had today, her body crying out for something it can convert to energy. Her limbs are also beginning to feel weaker, quivering slightly as she follows behind everybody else towards a large dining like room — although it's also kind of similar to the America cafeterias she's seen in movies except they all sit around a long table.

Charlotte slides into the seat beside Sophia and across from Lori, happily eating the pasta in the bowl in front of her. It's been a while since she's had something that wasn't squirrel or berries they'd managed to find, it's a nice change of pace.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France," Dale directs this at Lori who shakes her head.

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then," The mother replies, a smile on her face though.

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on. Come on," The boy's dad interjects, smiling just as much.

Dale laughs and slips Carl a glass of wine, even though it barely has any in it. "There you are, young lad,"

The group watches as Carl looks at it for a few moments before bringing it to his lips, allowing the alcohol to hit his tongue. The look on his face says it all, disgust washing over him as everybody begins to laugh.

"Eww!" Carl exclaims, putting the glass away from him as if it even being within centimeters of him is a bad thing. Lori grins and puts her arm over his shoulder, praising his distaste of the drink. "I'm never drinking again,"

"I'm sure you'll change your mind about that, Carl. Pretty sure it's supposed to be more fun when you're older," Charlotte giggles, putting some more pasta in her mouth afterwards.

"Why don't you have some then? It's nasty, Charlie," Carl scrunches his nose again and looks to his mum, who shrugs and pours the girl a glass. "You're old enough right?"

Charlotte scoffs playfully. "Pretty sure the age to drink here is 21, kid. I'm a few years off that yet,"

Lori offers her the glass and she happily accepts it, taking small sips so that the flavour doesn't overwhelm her. To tell the truth, she's drank before numerous times. Wine most certainly isn't her drink of choice but she doesn't detest it as much as she once thought she would. It's an acquired taste, one that her mother was incredibly fond of for as long as Charlotte can remember. Her dad, on the other hand, has always been more of a beer drinker.

"See? It's not too bad," Charlotte smiles as the boy who sticks his tongue out playfully in response.

Charlotte's attention strays when Rick gently taps the side of his glass with a fork, eyeing the man with raised brows. It's then she notices where his gaze is, Jenner sitting glumly at the end of the table and clearly not enjoying his time as much as the rest of them. A bunch of strangers intruding on your living space isn't ideal, she gets that, but she's under the impression this is literally part of his job — he's here to save lives.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly," Rick comments, raising his glass towards the man.

"He is more than just our host," T-Dog interjects.

"Here's to you, Doc, booyah!" Drunk Daryl is like an entirely different person.

"Thank you. Thank you, Doctor," Rick adds on.

People clink their glasses together, the mood high and smiles on almost everybody's faces. There's one who isn't as happy as the rest, his entire world he'd managed to make crumbling down within seconds and boy does he make it known. Shane interrupts the feel good atmosphere as soon as he finds the opportunity.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the Hell happened here, Doc? All the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" Shane throws several questions at the doctor.

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now," Rick says quietly, raising his brows at his best friend.

"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?"

"Maybe he doesn't want to share the story, Shane. We've all seen things we don't want to talk about," Charlotte finds herself saying, taking another sip of her wine as his eyes find her's. She'd seen him that day, when they were sat around the fire, that look he had when he was staring at Rick. It certainly wasn't good.

"No, it's okay. 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 explains calmly.

"Every last one?" Shane pushes, eyes narrowed his in his direction now.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time,"

Charlotte looks down with a frown, swirling the remaining wine about in her glass.

"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asks softly, the poor woman still beaten down from what had taken place back at the old camp.

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good," Jenner speaks.

"Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man," Glenn says to Shane.

Not even an hour later, Charlotte has had a long shower with actual hot water and is changed into some clothes she'd had in her bag. There had even been some shampoo meaning that her hair finally feels like it's free from being oily, it's usual softness returning even if it will only be for a little while.

She hopes they can stay here for some time, at least long enough so that they can get back to full strength before going back out on the road.

The girl sits down on the single bed, pulling her bag up onto the surface with her. Opening the front pocket, she sticks her hand in and gently grabs the Polaroid photo she always carried with her. Leaning against the wall, Charlotte swallows harshly as her emotions begin to slowly bubble to the surface — the smiling faces of her parents stare back at her, the two of them holding her as she holds up her fingers in an exaggerated peace sign. The silly sunglasses on her face have the number sixteen painted on the lenses, the joy on her face so genuine that it brings a pang to her heart.

A tear slides down the side of her cheeks as she runs her fingers over the two adult's faces, a rather glum looking smile forcing its way onto her face. "I'm okay. I'm going to be okay. I hope you are too,"

She sinks down into the bed, laying her head on the pillow and pulling the blanket up. Charlotte places the photo bedside her head and closes her eyes, allowing happy memories to fill her head as she drifts off to sleep.