A/N: Thank you guys so much for favorite/alert/whatever, but I have to ask, if you're going to favorite/alert, please leave a review! What am I doing well with? What do I need to improve on? Also, what do you want to see happen in this story? If it fits with my general story line, I can probably work it in somewhere! Remember, I'm writing this for you and reviews help me so much.
The CDC was a mess of people, bags, and crying children as everyone struggled to get everything packed. It hadn't taken much convincing, especially when a loud alarm rang out through the building, terrifying everyone. The main screen had turned on again and began counting down from thirty minutes.
"Thirty minutes to decontamination," warned VI. Jenner had stepped away from the main computer to another. Leigh couldn't see just what he was up to, but a moment later the big metal doors went up, locking them all inside.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked, his voice shaking with fear. Jenner ignored him. "He just locked us in!"
Everything went chaotic; Daryl made a move for Jenner, who sat in front of the computer with a live feed of what was happening on screen.
"Jenner, open that door now," Rick ordered, his jaw clenched.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down." Jenner spoke so casually that Leigh considered making a dive for him herself. "The emergency exits are sealed."
"What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" When Jenner didn't answer, Rick kicked the chair he was sitting in and repeated his question, angrier this time. Jenner shot from his seat.
"Do you know what this place is?" he yelled. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox, Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out, ever!" Jenner was hysterical as he pointed to each survivor in turn. His voice echoed off the walls as he expressed his frustration, and after a few paces back and forth he seemed to calm down.
"In the event of a catastrophic power failure and a terrorist attack, for example, HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"Oh Christ," cursed Leigh.
"HITs?" asked Rick.
VI spoke a moment later, "HITs, high-impulse thermobaric fuel air explosives, consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is useful where the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
"Sets the air on fire," Jenner reiterated, a dream-like expression on his face. "An end to everything."
Shane and Daryl had taken to the door with fire axes and were banging at them angrily, trying to tear them open. Meanwhile, Leigh and the others sat on the floor, Carol, Lori, and their children were crying, and Leigh herself felt on the brink of tears.
"You should have left well enough alone. It would have been so much easier," Jenner said, as if it were some comfort to them all.
"Easier for who?" Leigh snapped. Her patience had just about run thin with Jenner.
"All of you. You know what's out there: a short, brutal life and an agonizing death." Suddenly he pointed at Andrea and Leigh's eyes grew cold. "Your sister, what was her name?"
"Amy."
"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really what you want? Is that what you want for your wife and kids?"
"I don't want this," Rick spoke firmly, gesturing angrily. Just then Shane came up to the platform.
"Can't make a dent," he said dejectedly, though there was still a hard edge of anger in his tone.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Leigh ground her teeth at Jenner's tone and stood up just as Daryl headed for Jenner with the axe.
"Well your head ain't!" She helped to restrain the angry man along with Rick, Dale, and T-Dog, and the four of them finally got him to back up. Jenner rose from his chair.
"You do want this," he suddenly said to Rick. "Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Everyone's eyes snapped to Rick, who seemed to have gotten himself into a jam. The group looked at him in awe, and Lori's heart just about broke.
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" he tried to reason.
"There is no hope." Leigh's fist twitched at her side. "There never was."
"There's always hope," she spoke firmly, watching Jenner as he stared her down. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody, somewhere."
"What part of 'everything's gone' do you not understand?" Andrea snapped at Leigh. The young student simply stared blankly at Andrea, and she knew already that Andrea had lost hope like Jenner.
"I'm not giving up," she replied, her teeth ground together. She looked back at Jenner and tried a different approach, and her angry expression fell. "Please, don't keep us here, not when we still believe there's hope left. That's all we're asking for—a chance. Please don't take that away from us."
Jenner eyed her for a moment before he sighed, turned, and suddenly the door came down. Everyone moved fast to get their things together. The clock had wound down to ten minutes. Leigh didn't look behind her as she took the hand Glenn held out to her and ran as if her life depended on it. Daryl and Shane ran ahead with the axes as they reached the lobby, but again, the glass wouldn't break.
"I think I have something that might work," Carol said. Shane scoffed.
"I don't think a nail file's gonna do us any good, Carol." Leigh glared fiercely at him as Carol pulled a grenade out of her bag.
"I found it in your pocket when we were doing laundry." Rick grabbed the grenade and ordered everyone to get down. Leigh ducked behind the stairs as Rick pulled the pin.
The ground shook with the force of the explosion, and the heat was almost unbearable as they ran through the shattered window. Leigh wasn't sure exactly how much time had been left on the clock. Ten minutes? Had it been that long already? She felt a pain in her side as she ran, but it was sheer fear that kept her moving. Shane and Daryl were taking down walkers in front of them, clearing a path to the vehicles. As one, once again, set its sights on Leigh, she froze, rooted to the spot behind a stack of sandbags the army had set up.
She watched the walker as it closed in on her, its bottom jaw missing and its tongue dangling and flapping wildly. She couldn't move, even as her brain willed her legs to start running again. And again, Daryl appeared behind the walker, bringing the axe down on its skull. He ripped the weapon from the decayed flesh with an unattractive squelching sound before he ran at her, fury in his eyes.
Everything happened so quickly. As she was pulled to the ground, she watched the sky turn orange as the CDC was finally blown to smithereens. Daryl's body shielded hers, though she still felt like her skin was on fire. Frightened tears pooled in her eyes as she lay perfectly still. She felt Daryl lift his head to check their surroundings before he flew off of her, glaring down at her.
"Can't you fuckin' do anything?" he bellowed at her as he started running for his truck. She sat up slowly, but once she caught sight of the nearing walkers, she was on her feet and breaking for the RV. Dale and Andrea were right behind her, and the caravan peeled away from the burning building.
It took Leigh a few minutes to settle down from the shock, and when she did, she looked around the RV. Glenn was in the passenger seat again, with Dale driving, and Andrea sat on the floor with a haunted look in her eyes. Jacqui was the only one missing in their group.
"Where's Jacqui?" she asked unthinkingly. Glenn met her eyes sadly and shook his head once; Leigh brought a hand to her mouth and bit down on a knuckle as the tears finally broke loose.
