Dr. Jenner was stunned by Jim's words, which sounded like comfort but were also a bit mystical; for a moment, he didn't know how to respond.
But the others reacted quickly. Rick immediately took over the conversation, looking at Jenner with a sincere gaze.
"Doctor, I can understand your despair."
"In fact, when the apocalypse broke out, I was still in a coma on a hospital bed." He slowly began to recount the world full of Walkers he saw upon waking up.
"I thought I had lost everything. I was also very desperate. If it weren't for..."
He paused, his gaze subconsciously drifting toward Louis, but he didn't finish the sentence. "...If someone hadn't told me that my family was still alive, I might not have been able to keep going."
"I didn't give up." Rick raised his wine glass. "I persevered, and in the end, we were reunited. So, Jim is right, you should never give up."
"That's right!" Amy also spoke up, her voice still trembling slightly as she subconsciously touched her arm.
"When the apocalypse first started, every day I thought I wouldn't live to see tomorrow."
"On the very day of my birthday, I was almost bitten to death by a Walker." She recalled that rotting face, a flash of lingering fear in her eyes. "I thought I was finished. I thought that fear of impending death would haunt me forever..."
She took a deep breath and turned to look at her sister, Andrea, a smile of survival appearing on her face.
"But I survived, and I'm still in this world with my family."
"Looking back now, it was just a crazy birthday nightmare."
Andrea reached out and squeezed her sister's hand hard, her eyes also full of gratitude.
"Heh, yeah." Merle suddenly spoke up with emotion, taking a swig of wine.
"Just like when you bastards left me on that roof to die, and then this blonde kid suddenly popped out to save me."
"In this shitty world, who can say for sure?"
Seeing that the atmosphere was about to be derailed by Merle and everyone's attention would focus on him again, Louis quickly stepped forward.
"Doctor."
"I think every single person who is still alive," he looked around at his teammates and finally looked sincerely at Dr. Jenner, "has experienced similar despair."
"There were several times when we thought we were the last ones left, that everything was over."
"But we're still here."
Louis's voice carried a steadying calm. "We're still breathing, still trying, still looking for tomorrow."
"Just like today." He looked Jenner straight in the eye. "When we drove here, it was the time of day when the sun was most blinding."
"We saw the tragedy outside, the closed doors, and the dense piles of corpses."
"We thought this place had fallen too."
"But you appeared. You opened the doors for us." Louis took a slight breath.
"Maybe you're right, Doctor." His tone became somber. "Living on in a world like this is very hard, very painful."
"I think I can understand those who chose to leave."
"But I am even more grateful for those like you, who chose to stay."
"Thank you, Dr. Jenner. I don't know if you can find a cure, or even if this world has a tomorrow."
"No one can say for sure what will happen in the future. Maybe this world is destined to end."
Louis raised his glass high, a relieved smile appearing on his face.
"But I think if we are destined to turn to ash under tomorrow's scorching sun, then we should cherish the peace in the shade right now even more."
"Today, at this noon, you gave us homeless people a hearty lunch, a safe roof, and a moment of peace."
"For this peace, and for you, Doctor. I toast you!"
Louis tilted his head back and drained the 'juice' in his glass.
The adults, who had just been sharing their cruel experiences, all fell quiet. The suffocating weight and despair that had been hovering over the dining table were instantly swept away by these few words.
Indeed, so what if it's the end of the world?
Even though they had lost everything from their past, they were still sitting here, gathered around a table, eating hot food with companions they had faced death with.
Rick gripped his wine glass, a light called 'will' reigniting in his eyes. Andrea no longer wallowed in sadness but turned to tightly hold her sister Amy's hand. Even Shane, who had been tense, saw the lines on his face soften.
He was right. They didn't need to hope for a distant 'rebuilding of home,' nor did they need to be terrified of an unknown tomorrow.
They only needed to grasp what was in front of them, as Louis said, this peace.
Just as everyone was raising their glasses, ready to respond to this heavy and sincere toast—
The next second—
"Pfft... cough cough cough!"
Louis suddenly distorted his head, spraying a mouthful of purple-red liquid all over the floor.
"Who swapped my grape juice for red wine!?" he glared around while coughing.
"It was me!"
Duane raised his hand with a bright smile on his face. "I just tasted some of Dad's and thought it was pretty good, so I poured some for you too!"
Louis stared dumbfounded at this big-eyed 'traitor'.
If you're going to pour it, why didn't you tell me in advance?!
Thinking back to his previous life as a college student, he couldn't say he was a heavy drinker, but drinking a little red wine wouldn't have caused this.
But this eleven-year-old body was clearly not fully developed, and its reaction to alcohol was quite intense.
"Hahahaha!"
"Oh my god, Louis, are you okay?"
The surrounding crowd was stunned at first, then burst into deafening laughter.
"Don't mind them," Lori said, very satisfied as she refilled Louis's glass with juice. "It's best not to drink things like alcohol."
Even Dr. Jenner, who had been tense, couldn't help but shake his head now, a long-lost smile appearing at the corners of his mouth.
Heavy matters were no longer mentioned; the echoes of hope scattered through the air.
Everyone enjoyed a full meal in this rare, pleasant atmosphere.
After the meal, Dr. Jenner stood up. "Follow me. I'll take you to the resting area."
"Power is out in most parts of this place, including the dormitory area, so you'll just have to make do," Dr. Jenner said calmly.
But when he led everyone to a rest area still lit by emergency lights and opened up spacious, bright offices, everyone was stunned.
Soft sofas, clean bedding, tidy rooms... "This..."
Morales almost couldn't believe his eyes. "This is what you call making do?"
Andrea was so moved she was almost in tears. "My god, I feel like I haven't slept on a bed this soft since my last life."
What were their previous days of being exposed to the elements and rolling in the mud? Was that hell??
"There's a recreation room over there," Dr. Jenner pointed to the end of the hallway for the children. "You can play whatever you want, as long as you don't touch anything that needs electricity."
Hearing this, Louis's heart stirred, and he asked, "Doctor, is there a library or somewhere similar here?"
Dr. Jenner paused. "There should be some books in the recreation room. I'm not sure about other places; most areas have no power, and I haven't been to them in a long time."
"Okay, thank you." Louis nodded and didn't ask further.
He actually wanted to see if the original Harry Potter novels were here.
Although he had extracurricular books and first-year textbooks on hand, the spells recorded in them were quite proper and did not include content related to the Dark Arts.
And among all the Dark Arts, there was one spell he desired to learn most at this stage: Imperio.
He vaguely remembered that in the fourth book of the original novels, the fake Professor Moody had once described the methods of casting and resisting the Imperio in detail during class.
If he could find that book, he might be able to try and master the spell himself based on those descriptions.
Or with even better luck, if he could find an HP setting collection or something similar, it would be even more helpful to him.
The group talked as they walked and soon assigned their respective rooms for rest.
"Oh, right," Dr. Jenner had intended to leave, but suddenly remembering something, he turned back and added, "For bathing, just use the hot water."
"Hot water?!" Glenn shouted in surprise. "Did I hear that right?!"
"It's absolutely true." T-Dog rubbed his hands excitedly and nodded with a smile.
At this, even Merle couldn't help but whistle.
The group fell into a complete frenzy, rushing toward the bathrooms to enjoy the most luxurious treatment in the apocalypse.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jenner quietly left amidst the noise and returned alone to the cold laboratory.
The long-lost interaction with living people had relaxed his tense nerves quite a bit, but his duty as a scientist still prompted him to return and finish his final work.
He looked at the blood report on the computer that had already finished analyzing and sighed wearily.
Was there really a need to look? In fact, he already knew the result in his heart.
Everyone in this world was infected. Once they died, they would immediately turn into Walkers; and even while alive, if bitten by a Walker, the virus would accelerate their assimilation.
Since this group of people could stand here lively and well, it meant no one had been bitten. Whether he looked or not, the result was the same.
But in the end, Dr. Jenner still began to browse through the reports one by one, out of a sense of rigorous duty.
Rick: Infected.
Shane: Infected... The results of the reports were no different from what he thought. No one had mutated, and no one... Hmm?
An analysis report flashed before his eyes, and Dr. Jenner's hand suddenly froze.