We were all on our way to the C.D.C. For a chance and to hopefully save Jim's life. We were all kinda sad to see Morales and his family go but it was what they thought was best. I decided to listen to some music while we drove. Sex on fire by kings of Leon came on and I was jamming out to the song till the RV honked and we all stopped on the side of the road. I hopped out of my truck and walked over by Rick.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale said as smoke poured out of the RV hood.

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asked him.

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape." Dale said as we all were now standing around the RV.

"I see something up ahead." Shane said, handing me his binoculars. I looked through them and saw a gas station.

"Looks kinda like a gas station." I said handing them back to Shane.

"Yeah, if we're lucky."

"Well lets hope we're lucky." I said patting him on his back. Then we heard Jacqui come out of the RV.

"Y'all, Jim. It's bad. I don't think he can take it anymore." She said running back into the RV.

"Hey Rick, you want to hold down the fort. Raven and I will drive ahead, see what we can bring back." I nodded in agreement.

"Y'all keep your eyes open now. We'll be right back" Shane said as we walked back to his Jeep.

"So why did you pick me?" I said when he started to drive away.

"I wanted to talk to you." I sighed

"About what Shane?"

"What happened in the tree back at the campsite." I crossed my arms and put one foot on the dashboard.

"I don't want to talk about that."

"Raven we need too."

"Why? Why do we need to talk about it Shane?" I said getting out of the now parked car.

"Because I love you Raven. And this isn't something we can just push to the side." He said jogging up to me. I walked into the gas station and there was a walker behind the counter. I shot it with my crossbow and walked around looking for anything we needed.

"Look Shane, I love you too. But as a brother. You are my brother Shane. Nothin' more nothin' less. Plus I know what happened between you and Lori. I ain't blind." I said now facing him.

"Raven."

"No Shane, You can't just bounce from person to person just because you feel like they owe you something. Shane that isn't love and this isn't how it works." I found some water bottles and put them in a bag.

"You don't know nothin'."

"Shane I've seen the way the two of you look at each other. I know something happened and I know you guys are still dealing with some shit. But I am your fucking sister." I got in his face.

"Nothing and I mean nothing will change the fact that we are siblings. It may not be by blood or by our parents getting married. But we are siblings and there is nothing that will change that fact." I was basically yelling at him at this point.

"The end of the fucking world changed that! No one knows we were ever considered siblings!" Shane grabbed me by my waist and pulled me closer to him.

"Raven you know there's always been something goin' on between us. You know it and I know it." Shane leaned down to kiss me. I tried to pull away from him but it wasn't working very well.

"Shane no. You got shit to deal with. Let me go." I kept pushing Shane off me and we heard a walker. Shane let go of me and shot the walker in the head.

I walked out of the store with Shane yelling my name. I just ignored him.

"Let's go. There's nothing here." I said getting into the Jeep. Shane nodded and got in. We drove back to the group and Rick told us that Jim wanted to be left here and that he couldn't take it anymore.

"It's what he says he wants." Rick said, leaning against the RV.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asked.

"He seems to be. I would say yes." Rick responded.

"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right, and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer." Dale said, looking at Rick and Shane. I was too pissed off to even bother going anywhere near him. So I stood over by Daryl and I was glaring at Shane.

"We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that." Shane said.

"It's not your call, Shane, either one of you. I say we do what Jim wants. It's his choice not a goddamn debate." I said crossing my arms and walking over to the car behind the RV leaning against the hood. They all nodded and grabbed Jim from the RV. We took him to a small clearing and sat him against a tree.

"Hey, another damn tree." Jim said looking up at the tree. I giggled at his comment.

"Hey, Jim...I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this." Shane said squatting in front of him.

"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice." Jim said, taking deep breaths of the summer air.

"Okay." Shane said, backing away from him. Jacqui walked up to Jim gently caressing his face.

"Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight." She said giving him a kiss on the cheek and then walked away crying. Rick walked up to Jim and got down to his eye level using the tree behind Jim as leverage.

"Jim, do you want this?" He said holding out a gun in front of Jim.

"No." Jim said, shaking his head. I stood at the back of the group. I couldn't believe we were losing another fucking person.

"You'll need it. I'm okay." Jim finished his sentence. I could tell he didn't have much strength left. Dale was next to walk up and talk to Jim.

"Hey. Thank you for, uh, fighting for us." He said with a grandpa smile on his face as he stepped back from him. The rest of the group just stood there with sadness in their eyes as they left towards their cars. Daryl and I stayed back for a moment longer looking at him. I gave him a I'm sorry smile. And Daryl just gave him a look. We knew we didn't need to exchange any words. Jim knew what we meant and he gave us a weak smile and nodded at us. We both walked back to our cars and drove off leaving Jim. It was like a broken heart for the loss of another family member.

We kept on towards the C.D.C. We weren't quite sure what to expect when we got there but we knew that there was still a chance for hope. I started out of the windshield as we kept driving letting my mind wonder. I didn't know if I could take this anymore. Losing people. Losing parts of myself. It was nice though to drive through the countryside listening to the music that I had been playing either. It took me back to a simpler time.

That was till we drove into the city. Broken down cars. Dead corpus lined the streets. And if it wasn't actually dead it was walking around and watching us drive by. It was like night and day. This new world we lived in, it was a place with no hope, a place where it was killed or be killed and we just wanted a chance. We pulled up to the C.D.C. And there was nothing but bodies decaying. Some civilians but mostly military. It broke me to see my fellow man who was shoved out here to protect now laying dead before me. I've lost people before soldiers. Good soldiers but, it doesn't make it any easier. Looking at the amount of bodies sent me right back to my second tour in Iraq. We were sent out to protect a small village. But when we got there we were ambushed. I was dragged away by a bunch of men and when I looked back. Bodies, kids, mothers, fathers, soldiers. Innocent people killed in cold blood. I was snapped back to reality by Daryl grabbing my arm.

"Raven? You good?" I looked up at him and nodded and followed him toward the building. The smell was something else. Almost enough to make you puke if you weren't used to it.

"All right, everybody. Keep moving, go on." Shane whispered at everyone and we snuck towards the C.D.C.

"Stay quiet." Rick said. Most of everyone was covering their mouth and noses with something to help block out the smell. It didn't seem to bother me as much though. Rick and Shane kept telling everyone to keep quiet and to keep moving. Once we reached the door we noticed the shutters were still down. I knew that meant someone would be there. Rick and Shane tried opening the doors.

"Nothing?" Shane asked Rick. They started to pound on the door to let whoever was there know that we were out here and we needed help.

"There's nobody here." T-dog said what everyone was thinking.

"Then why are these shutters down?" I said looking at T-dog. That's when Daryl noticed something.

"Walkers!" He yelled. It was almost nightfall and we wouldn't survive. I got up to the front with Rick and started to pound on the door.

"Baby, come on." Lori said Daryl shot a walker that was walking towards us.

"You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl said going to attack Rick.

"He made a call." I yelled at Daryl. "It was the wrong damn call!" He yelled back at Rick and I. Shane got in Daryl's face.

"Just shut up. You hear me? Shut up, shut up!" Shane yelled at Daryl trying to keep everyone quiet, then he walked over to Rick and I.

"Rick this is a dead end." Shane said to him.

"Where are we gonna go?" Carol said, almost crying. "Do you hear me? No blame." Shane said.

"She's right we can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lorie said.

"Look, Lori, Carl. I get that. But these shutters wouldn't be down if no one was in there. Someone is in there." I looked at Rick and Shane.

"Come one guys back me up on this." I said. Shane shook his head.

"Fort Benning, Rick. Still an option." Shane said, looking at Rick.

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles." Lori said as more walkers came out.

"125. I checked the map." Glenn butted in.

"Forget Fort Benning, we need answers tonight. Now." Lori yelled at Shane and Rick.

"Well, think of something." Rick said to Lori trying to calm her down. All this time I was trying to figure out a way to get inside. I was banging on the door. Waving my hand in front of the camera that was there yelling for someone to let us in. The whole group starts telling Rick that we need to leave and find somewhere else to go. Rick turned back to the door with me but the group started to drag him away.

"Alright everyone back to the cars." Shane yelled.

"Wait, the camera!" I yelled as Daryl was dragging me away.

"It moved!" Rick yelled.

"You imagined it." Dale said,

"It did. I saw it." I said defending him and we both broke loose and headed back for the doors.

"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." Shane said to Rick.

"Gears my ass, Shane, It fucking moved!" I yelled at him bashing my hands on the door.

"Raven, Rick we need to leave now!" Shane yelled at us.

"I'm corporal Raven Walker. I'm a United States Marine. Let us in!" I yelled at the camera.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me!" I yelled again hitting the door. I could hear everyone behind me freaking the fuck out, especially Shane.

"Please, we're desperate!" Rick yelled now standing next to me.

"Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left." Rick was now begging for our lives.

"Rick, There's nobody here." Lori was now trying to talk sense into Rick.

"Please We have nowhere else to go!" I said tears brimming my eyes. I needed my family to be safe. I didn't care if I made it out alive or anything I needed to know they were safe. I need to know Daryl was safe, he had been through enough he deserved this place more than anyone else.

"Rick we need to leave." Lori yelled at him.

"If you don't let us in you're killing us!" Rick yelled at the camera.

"Please!" Shane grabbed Rick and pulled him away.

"You're going to let innocent children die!" I yelled as Daryl started to drag me away also.

"Daryl let me go. We can get in damnit!" I was fighting against his hold.

"No Raven there's nothin' left for us here." Daryl said.

"You're killing us!" Rick kept yelling as Shane threw him in front and Daryl still dragged me away. That was till a bright white light shined through the gate. Daryl let me go and we all stood there in awe. Someone was there and they were giving us a chance.