1Chapter 6: TS-19
It wasn't too difficult to avoid Daryl's gaze the next morning, seeing as how her hangover made it difficult to look anyone in the eyes. Jacqui brought her some juice and some Tylenol at breakfast, while she attempted to force some breakfast on her,
"Sweetheart, you really need to try and eat", Jacqui gently scolded. "You could stand to put on a few pounds..."
"I never thought I'd hear those words Jacqui?" Lylah softly laughed " to put on some weight?" "I don't know about you, but I was always trying to lose a few pounds?", she joked, until she realized it made her head hurt more and groaned.
Daryl glanced over at Lylah, then quickly back down, before she noticed him. Stupid woman. Worrying about losing weight, looking the way she does. He visualized Lylah with her curves filled out by some extra weight, remembering all her saw of her last night - not comprehending how she would want to lose weight. Daryl tried to catch himself before his thoughts got any further off track...
"Here Baby Girl, have some of my eggs. There powdered, but I do 'em good. Protein helps the hangover", T-Dogg served Lylah up a heaping helping of scrambled powdered eggs, which she dutifully attempted to eat.
Rick and Glenn showed up looking hungover as well, grateful for Jacqui's TLC and Tylenol as well.
"T-Dogg, how can you be so darn chipper. How come you aren't hungover, like the rest of us? You too Jacqui?", Lylah demanded to know their secret.
"I was tempted to lie and tell you it was an 'ethnic' thing, but we stopped drinking long before you fools did. We were having such a good time watching you - that was entertainment enough" Jacqui explained.
"And are we entertainment now?" Lylah asked, wryly.
"Honestly?" Jacqui wanted to know, "Yeah" and she chuckled.
"You - are an evil evil woman", Lylah jokingly glared at her, as the woman gently patted her shoulder.
The rest of the motley crew finally joined them, all looking worse for wear. Glenn swearing to never drink again. Even Shane was hurtin. He'd apparently got into a fight with himself during the night. He must not be a pleasant drunk at all.
After breakfast Dr. Jenner took them to the main room, where VI brought up an image of what looked like a brain - Jenner referred to it a Test Subject 19 - an enhanced internal view. It was amazing. It was able to show brain activity down to the synaptic level. The engineer in Lylah was fascinated; the human being in her was terrified.
Dr. Jenner proceeded to show them how this disease first invades the brain like meningitis, rapidly killing healthy brain tissue. Then a short while after death... Anywhere from minutes to hours, the brain stem restarts itself - he called in "resurrection". Lylah hated this term.
The rest of the brain didn't start though - the part of the brain the made you "you" - your memories, the part that knew right for wrong, the part that loved - that part remained dead.
Lylah watched in horror as the test subject "died" on screen only to come back to life in a manner of speaking. Then in horror again, as Andrea explained that the flash on the screen was a bullet shot into TS-19's brain.
Oh God, whether it was a hangover or what she was seeing, she she didn't feel so good. She normally wasn't so quesy, but she bent over at the waist to catch her breath.
Daryl rushed over to her, them stopped himself before putting his hands on her. What the hell? Hadn't he learned his lesson last night? He stopped himself a few feet away from her.
'You have no idea what it is do you?" Andrea accused Dr. Jenner.
"It could be microbial? Viral? Parasitic? Bacterial? Fungal?" Jenner suggested hopelessly.
"The wrath of God," Jacqui offered.
"There is that", Jenner ironically didn't rule that out, which didn't make Lylah feel better at all. This man had lost hope.
Sensing Jenner's hopelessness, Andrea asked, "Somebody must know something? Somebody else? Somewhere?"
"I've been in the dark, I lost contact", Jenner tried to explain.
"There's nothing anywhere. That's what you're really trying to say isn't it?", Andrea began to realize.
Even Daryl just rubbed his hands to his face and said, "I'm gonna get 'shit-faced drunk' - again" and leaned helplessly against the computer.
Dale, who seemed to be the only one to notice the lone clock counting down with only an hour or so to go, finally asked "What happens what that clock runs down?"
"The basement generators - they run out of fuel!", Jenner responded.
Rick asked Jenner, "What happens then", Jenner wouldn't answer - was acting evasive. So Rick asked VI.
"Facility Wide Decontamination Will Occur" the computer voice said simply.
With Lylah's knowledge of engineering, she understood intuitively what that meant almost at once.
She yelled, "Where's the engineering room?" and then ran in the direction Jenner pointed, with Rick and the guys following her.
"It won't matter" Jenner yelled behind them.
"Decontamination - what does that mean" Glenn asked, as they ran down the steps with Rick, T-Dogg, and Shane. Lylah didn't want to discuss it until she'd had a chance to see for herself.
At the bottom of the stairs, they found a rudimentary diagram on the wall of the generator room.
It only took Lylah a minute to grimly assess the situation. "Oh God - we've got to get some more fuel for these generators"as she ran to the 55-gal drums now empty of diesel. "Look for backup! They've got to have backup" they ran everywhere, checking each drum - all empty.
'Can you reprogram it Lylah? Maybe bypass it?' Rick asked her, only now realizing that she actually knows about this type of thing.
"Maybe - if I had more time - like days - but not in less than an hour" she shook her head, the hopelessness beginning to overtake her.
"Maybe there's a computer over-ride switch" she suggested. They ran back upstairs to find Jenner - see if he could over-ride the system.
When they ran upstairs, the others had realized the facility had begun shutting itself off and were panicking.
Jenner was explaining to Andrea it was the French - that they were the last to hold out for a cure - before he tossed Daryl his bottle of whiskey.
"What happened to the French?" Jacqui wanted to know?
"The same thing that happened here - we ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuels..." Jenner shook his head and the sheer ludicrousness of such folly, "I mean, how stupid is that?" as the next alarm sounded - "THIRTY MINUTES UNTIL DECONTAMINATION"
Rick told Lori to gather their things and she began to run back to their room, but Dr. Jenner pressed a button that suddenly sealed them all inside the interior.
"What happens in 30 minutes" Rick demanded, but Lylah already had a pretty good idea. She'd read about this - how they protected places like this.
As VI defined how the air would be ignited to destroy every living and breathing thing - the exact horror of what was going to happen hit them all.
Lylah's eyes filled with tears at the utter hopelessness of the situation. Tears began streaming down her face. She slid down the wall into her knees - crying now, giving up. She sat next to Amy and Andrea who were also having difficulty accepting this horror.
"I always thought I'd have a baby - I always figured there'd more be time..." She started babbling...
" I thought I'd make it home... see my family again...?" she was getting hysterical, Daryl could tell and it was killing him...
" There was supposed to be more time - dammit!... even with all this.. I wanted more time..." she looked at Jenner accusingly, tears running down her face...
Daryl couldn't stand seeing her cry, seeing her give up.
"Get up - we're gettin' outta here. Get your stuff, get my stuff and bring back it now!" Daryl ordered her.
She didn't move at first - just sat there stunned with tears in her eyes starin' at him.
"Go!" he yelled at her, as she saw him grab the axe and go to swing at Jenner.
She scrambled to her feet and ran like hell to grab his stuff, and then her few things.
She heard shots ring out, but kept moving, shoving the last few things into the backpack, and raced back to the control room.
Daryl was swinging at the door with an axe - not giving up. It broke her heart the way he kept going. Rick was continuing to negotiate with Jenner, begging him to give them a chance.
All of a sudden the door opened, and Daryl grabbed her and pulled her through. They still had to find a way out the front - through the reinforced glass.
Daryl swung at the plated glass windows with the axe and Shane shot it with his gun, with no success. It was actually Carol of all people that saved them. She pulled a hand grenade from her purse. She'd found it when she'd done' Rick's laundry his first night in camp. Lylah laughed with relief, wondering what the hell else Carol had in that purse of hers.
Daryl covered her as she ran in front of him. He nailed half a dozen walkers before they reached his truck. She jumped into the front seat of the truck, as he yelled "Go", with him right behind her. He covered her head with his hands and her body with his own, as they lay in the cab of the truck as the CDC exploded behind them.