The group remained gathered around the dining room table, the lanterns casting a warm glow across their faces. The somber mood from Amelia's story lingered, but there was also a quiet resolve in the air. They had all endured, survived, and continued to fight. Kate, sitting at the head of the table, turned her attention to Daniels.
"Daniels," Kate prompted gently, "what about you? How did you end up at the station?"
Daniels leaned back in her chair, her expression contemplative. She glanced around the table, her gaze settling on Marcus briefly before she began speaking.
"When everything went to hell," Daniels started, her voice steady but tinged with weariness, "I was at the station. Alone. Everyone else had been called out to different locations—standard procedure. I thought it was going to be a quiet shift, just me and my paperwork." She let out a dry chuckle, shaking her head. "Guess I was wrong."
The others chuckled softly, though the humor quickly gave way to solemnity as Daniels continued.
"At first, I didn't know what was happening. I started seeing reports come in—disturbances, people attacking each other, streets going into chaos. I called for backup, but no one responded. Then I looked out the station's front windows, and that's when I saw it."
She paused, her expression darkening. "Chaos. People running, screaming, others shambling after them. I didn't know what to make of it at first, but then I saw someone get tackled... and torn apart. Right there in the street. That's when I knew I had to act."
Daniels' hands clenched into fists on the table as she spoke, her jaw tightening. "I decided to close the station doors, lock everything down, and wait for backup. I thought it was just a temporary thing, that someone would come and fix all of this. But before I could shut the doors, I heard shouting—someone calling for me to wait. A group of people was running toward the station, begging to be let in."
Her voice softened slightly, her gaze distant as she recalled the moment. "It was Morrison, Carla.. and five others. They made it inside just in time. I shut the doors after them, locked everything down, and that was it. No one else got in after that."
The mention of Morrison caused a ripple of unease through the group, but no one interrupted her. Daniels took a deep breath before continuing.
"For a while, it was just the seven of us," she said. "We stayed in the station, barricaded ourselves in, and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Food and water were limited, so we started making runs for supplies. At first, we were just scavenging the nearby buildings. Then we started going farther out. On those runs, we picked up people—stragglers, survivors. We brought them back to the station, gave them a place to stay. The group grew."
Daniels looked around the table, her expression conflicted. "But... it wasn't easy. A lot of the people we found weren't prepared for this new world. They had no idea how to fight, how to survive. When we sent out teams to scavenge, they froze at the first sign of danger. Walkers, hostile people—it didn't matter. They panicked. And because of that..."
Her voice faltered for a moment before she pressed on. "Every time we sent a team out, they never came back complete. We lost people. A lot of them. Every run felt like a gamble, and the odds were never in our favor."
The room was silent, the weight of her words sinking in. Daniels looked down at her hands, her voice quieter now. "Then Marcus showed up. He wasn't alone—he brought Lucas, Mia, Eve, and Matthew with him. When they walked through those station doors, it felt like... hope. Like maybe things could get better."
Marcus didn't say anything, but his expression softened slightly as he listened.
"Marcus had a plan," Daniels continued. "He trained people—taught them how to survive, how to fight, how to keep their heads on straight when things got bad. For the first time, we started to feel like we could handle this, like we could survive. The station became something more than just a shelter. It became a community."
Her gaze darkened slightly, and her tone turned bitter. "But then my senior officer showed up. He was one of the lucky ones who made it out of the city alive, and when he got to the station, he decided he was in charge. Said it was his 'duty' as the ranking officer."
Marcus let out a low grunt of disapproval, and Daniels shot him a knowing look. "You can imagine how well that went," she said. "He made bad decisions—reckless ones. Sent people out on runs without a plan, pushed everyone too hard, and didn't listen to anyone's advice. It was a disaster."
"What happened to him?" Victor asked, his voice breaking the heavy silence.
Daniels hesitated for a moment, then answered bluntly. "He got people killed. A lot of them. And eventually, his bad decisions caught up with him. He died on one of his own supply runs—killed by walkers because he refused to listen to the people who knew what they were doing."
She let out a long breath, her shoulders slumping slightly. "After that, Marcus stepped up and took over. And things started to get better again. Then Amelia and the others joined us, and... well, the rest is history."
The room fell silent again, the weight of Daniels' story settling over the group. Kate leaned forward, her expression thoughtful.
"Thank you for sharing that, Daniels," she said softly. "It helps to understand where we've all come from. And it makes me even more grateful for the people we have here."
Daniels nodded, her gaze steady. "We've all lost people," she said. "But we've also found each other. That's what matters."
The group murmured their agreement, the sense of camaraderie in the room growing stronger. One by one, they were piecing together the story of how they had become this unlikely family—a family bound not by blood, but by survival. And as they prepared to leave the office building behind and face whatever lay ahead, that bond would be their greatest strength.