Buried Alongside Him!

After no more than a night at the CDC and another two hours the following morning, Isaac and the others gathered once Jenner had given them his answer.

"What do we do now?" Rick asked, looking around the group. It was the question they could no longer avoid.

There was no vaccine, and the facility was not a permanent home. Its fuel reserves were nearly exhausted. Without power, the underground levels would become a lightless tomb. No one could live there.

"Isn't it obvious?" Isaac glanced at Rick, then surveyed the others and gave them an unequivocal answer. "We leave."

Rick nodded. Isaac's answer matched his own, but he still looked around the room. "Does anyone disagree?"

It was a pointless question.

Isaac shook his head. Leaving to search for another place to live and staying here to wait for death were opposite choices with no middle ground.

Anyone who left still wanted to live. Anyone who chose to remain had already lost that desire.

Perhaps encouragement could rekindle the will to survive in someone who had given up.

Isaac preferred companions who already knew they wanted to live. At least they understood the necessity of survival, possessed some maturity, and had enough will to keep moving.

Still, Rick had every right to ask. Isaac had no reason to stop him and simply let the question stand.

No one offered another opinion. Isaac's certainty may have pushed the group toward agreement.

Before Rick could speak again, Isaac said, "Then pack your belongings. We'll say goodbye to Dr. Jenner in fifteen minutes. If he wants to leave, we can take him with us."

Jenner was a medical researcher rather than a practicing physician, but he still knew more about treating wounds and preventing disease than anyone else in the group.

Rick felt a flicker of conflict. He was accustomed to giving orders. He had held authority at the sheriff's department, and even Shane, his closest friend, had usually followed his lead.

Now Isaac had casually assumed the role Rick believed belonged to him. The shift felt wrong, and resentment toward Isaac stirred inside him.

He would get used to it.

Isaac's altered senses caught the change in Rick's mood and the hostility rising behind it. He looked back and smiled.

Whatever Rick felt, he would not let it show. When Isaac smiled at him, Rick could only return the expression.

Lori glanced at Isaac, took Rick's arm, and said, "Come on, Rick."

Merle looked at Daryl. "We don't have much gear. You really need that long?"

"I'm getting my things," Daryl said.

Daryl only felt settled with his crossbow on his back, especially now.

Half an hour later, everyone assembled in the lobby.

Isaac stepped ahead of Rick and addressed Jenner. "Doctor, we've decided to leave."

"The things outside have been abandoned by God," Jenner said, raising his brows. "It is dangerous out there."

"Come with us, Doctor," Rick said.

Carl smiled at him. "Will you come with us?"

The others looked at Jenner expectantly. He had fed them and offered shelter, and they had come to think well of him.

Most people repaid kindness. Aside from the few whose nature was irredeemably ugly, they remembered those who had helped them.

As they prepared to leave, they naturally hoped Jenner would come too. Remaining here alone had to be unbearably lonely.

"No." Jenner looked at them. "I'm not leaving."

Isaac approached him. "What can you accomplish by staying here?"

Boom!

The exit doors slammed shut as soon as Isaac finished speaking.

"You're not leaving either," Jenner said.

One word flashed through Isaac's mind, raising the hair on his arms: detonation.

"Detonation countdown initiated."

A mechanical voice began counting down as red numbers appeared on the monitor. Every heart in the room seemed to turn to ice.