Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter: Chapter 7; Season 1 Finale
Sunny woke up the next morning curled up on her dad's chest where she remembered falling asleep the night before while he'd been soothing her. She'd been terrified the entire time she was locked in the bathroom. Wondering what would happen to Shane, to her dad. It wasn't until she heard his voice through the door that her panic ceased and relief swept through her like a tidal wave.
Now that her head was clear, she wondered what had happened to Shane. Her dad didn't look hurt at all, at least from what she could remember, and she'd heard shouting, though she hadn't been able to make out the words.
"You awake?" She looked up to see her dad tiredly blinking his eyes open. He yawned and sat up, setting her on the couch beside him as he stretched, "C'mon let's get some breakfast." He stood up and started walking towards the door when he realized she wasn't following him. Glancing back he saw her still sitting on the couch with wide eyes. It was enough to make him remember what happened the previous night. Slowly he walked back over to her and knelt on the ground in front of her, resting his hands on her knees and looking into her eyes. "He ain't gonna hurt you, thought I told you that last night." He explained softly.
Sunny took a deep breath, and nodded her head before slowly slipping off the couch. Her dad stood up beside her and led the way over to the door. He pushed the piece of furniture that he'd put in front of the door the night before out of the way before leading her down the hall way towards the kitchen where they'd all eaten dinner the night before. Everyone was gathered around the table eating what looked like eggs. She glanced wearily over in Shane's direction but he wouldn't even look their way. She was glad about that, she didn't want to look at him, didn't want to remember how scary he'd been. Not when he'd used to be nice. Yeah he'd never really liked her family, cause of her Uncle, but he'd never been mean either. Thanked 'em for the meat they caught for camp, and gave them their space. However, since Rick had returned from the city with the others he acted different, and Sunny just didn't like it.
Her dad refused to be anywhere near the other man, finding them a spot at the opposite end of the table he sat in the remaining chair and pulled Sunny onto his lap, grunting in thanks when T-Dog and Jacqui brought them over a plate of eggs with toast and some juice for each of them.
Everyone ate in silence, with the exception of Glenn who groaned every once in a while, or mumbling about never drinking again. Besides that, everyone seemed tense, Jenner sat at the table just staring off into space ignoring the looks some of the group sent his way, apparently she and her dad had missed something before they'd come in.
Once everyone finished eating Jenner stood up, "Come, I'll try to explain as best as I can." He told them before leading them back to the room where he'd told them he was the only one left. She followed her dad into the room and off to the side as they watched Jenner type on his computer, "Give me a playback of TS-19" He asked VI.
The big screen in front of them lit up as VI's mechanical voice replied, "Play back of TS-19"
"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." Jenner explained as he turned away from the computer towards the rest of them. Sunny watched in fascination as the screen showed a human, and then into the human, to its brain. "Take us in for IV." Jenner commanded again.
"Enhanced internal view." VI replied. The screen shifted turning to look at the human brain from the side before zooming in.
Everyone was silent as they watched the screen change until finally they were watching little lights move along what looked like little cords. Sunny knew they were still looking at a brain, she just didn't know what was happening. "What are those lights?" Shane asked. Sunny was glad she wasn't the only one who didn't know what they were, but couldn't help but cringe at the sound of his voice.
A smile seemed to grow on Jenner's face as he looked at the screen, "It's a person's life. Experiences, memories, it's everything. Somewhere in that organic wiring, in those little balls of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique, and human." Sunny smiled at that, those pretty lights were in her head. She sort of understood what Jenner was saying, but not really at the same time. That was how her brain worked.
"You don't make sense ever?" Her dad asked, not really understanding Jenner like she did.
"Those are synapses." Jenner elaborated. "Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from birth until death." Sunny preferred his first explanation compared to this one. It sounded much more pleasant.
"Death?" Rick asked walking forward, "That what this is? A vigil?"
"Yes." Jenner told him, never taking his eyes off the screen. He looked so sad despite the smile, as if he were remembering something that made him happy that couldn't anymore. "Or rather the play back of the vigil."
"This person died? Who?" Andrea asked sadly, she too keeping her eyes on the screen. It seemed like everyone was entranced by it.
"Test Subject Nineteen." Jenner told her. "Someone who was bitten, infected, and volunteered to have us record the process." He paused for a moment, his smile fading away. "VI, scan forward to the first event." He commanded.
"Scanning to first event."
Sunny's small smile faded as she watched the pretty lights fade, the brain turning black. It made her sad. In the place of the pretty lights was this dark mass that slowly pushed the lights out until it went dark. "It's like meningitis, it invades the brain." Jenner explained for them all. Sunny didn't really know what meningitis was, but obviously not good if it made the lights go away. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, and then the major organs, then death. Everything you ever were or will be, gone." Sunny tucked her head into her dad's side as she tried to stop her tears, his arm came up around her shoulders and gently rubbed her back. "Scan to second event." Jenner called out.
"Scanning to second event."
Sunny turned her head back to face the screen, she was sad, but she wanted to know what happened next. "The resurrection times vary wildly, we have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes, the longest we heard of was eight hours, in the case of this patient it was, two hours, one minute, and seven seconds." Slowly the dark brain on the screen started to light up again, not like the first time however. No this time it wasn't as pretty. Before the lights had been white, the little tubes were a pretty blue color, now the tubes were still dark, and the lights were a reddish color. They didn't extend to the rest of the brain, mainly keeping to the back and bottom parts.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked in disbelief.
Jenner shook his head, "No, only the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive?" Rick clarified.
"You tell me." Jenner told him pointing at the screen. The lights weren't bright anymore, nor did they go all throughout the brain. No, Sunny decided, they're not alive.
"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick's words echoed Sunny's thoughts.
"Dark, lifeless, dead." Jenner agreed. "The frontal lobe, the neocoretex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."
Something suddenly flew through the head causing Sunny to jump as it created what looked like a tunnel in the head. The dimmer lights stopped much like before and TS-19 stopped moving. "Oh god!" Andrea gasped.
"What was that?" Carol asked.
"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea explained in realization. "Didn't you?"
"VI power down the main screen and the work stations." Jenner instructed, ignoring Andrea's question.
"Powering down main screen and work stations."
"You have no idea what it is do you?" Andrea accused.
Jenner glanced over at her, "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal…"
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asked with a straight face.
"There's that." Jenner agreed.
"Somebody must know something." Andrea insisted. "Somebody, somewhere."
"There are others right?" Carol pleaded. "Other facilities?"
"There may be some. People like me." Jenner agreed though he didn't sound too confident in that statement.
"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick demanded.
"Everything went down, communications, directive, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month." Jenner explained.
"So it's not just here?" Andrea asked wanting to understand the situation they were in. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing. That's what you're really saying right?" Jenner seemed to be clamming up. Not really wanting to answer their questions.
Everyone took his silence for confirmation, Sunny felt another tear slip down her cheek. Her dad let out a heavy sigh and reached down to pick her up. "Jesus Christ…" He muttered angrily.
"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you, and I hate to ask one more question, but that clock is counting down," Dale explained drawing everyone's attention to the red numbers counting down in the corner, "What happens at zero?" Sunny lifted her head off her dad's shoulder to look at the clock Dale was talking about. He was right it was counting down, currently reading one hour.
Jenner paused, staring at the clock while everyone looked to him for answers, "The…basement generators they run out of fuel." He told them quickly, too quickly. It was the fastest Sunny had heard him say anything.
"And then?" Rick asked. But Jenner wouldn't answer, instead he walked off leaving them in the main room wondering about what would happen. "VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick demanded, hoping to get answers for the computer.
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." Came the computerized voice. Sunny looked to the others, she didn't understand. Was that bad? Good? What? The others however, looked just as confused as she.
Rick, Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn decided they would go down to the basement to investigate how much fuel was left, and perhaps if they could find more, while the rest of them were instructed to go back to their rooms, and wait for the verdict.
"Pack your shit Sunny, I have a feelin' we're gon need to get outta here fast." Her dad explained as they walked into their room.
"'Kay!" She agreed and ran over to her bag and began reorganizing it. There wasn't much, the group that had gone out to get bags the other night had only been able to grab what they could in one trip while still having to keep an extra hand free to hold their weapons in case of walkers. Most of what they had used while being here had come from the building and those who'd previously been in the rooms.
They both looked up startled when the air kicked off. Before it had been pretty steady since they were underground and there was no way they could get air from the outside without it. Next the lights went out leaving them in the dark room.
She followed her dad to their door, peeking her head out to see the others looking out too. The lights in the hallway still worked, not the big overhead ones, but a few along the walls, they were much dimmer than the others. "What's going on?" Someone asked down the hall. She turned her head to see Jenner walking towards them in his lab coat.
"What happened to the lights?" Another asked.
"And the air?"
"What's going on?" Her dad demanded as Jenner walked by.
"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner explained briskly.
"Air isn't a priority?" Dale asked incredulously. "And lights?"
"It isn't up to me. Zone five is shutting itself down." Jenner shrugged, taking a big gulp of the drink he was holding.
"Oi! What the hell does that mean?" Her dad demanded as he took off after Jenner, his long legs able to keep in stride with him while Sunny hung towards the back of the group with Carol and Sophia as they headed back out towards the main screen where they'd just come from. "Hey man I'm talking to you!" Her dad growled as he caught up with the doctor. "How the hell does a building shut itself down!?"
"You'd be surprised." Jenner told him indifferently.
As they reached the main room, Rick, Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn came in to meet them. "Jenner!" Rick called out as he ran over to the doctor. "What's happening?" He demanded.
"The system is dropping the nonessential usages of power." Jenner explained yet again while being vague. He seemed to be dodging all the real answers. "It's designed to keep the computers running until the last possible second. It starts as we reach the half an hour mark. Right on schedule." He pointed over to where the clock Dale had asked about earlier was. Everyone stopped, waiting for him to explain further. He sighed and turned to face them. "It was the French, they were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways they stayed in the lab till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."
"What happened?" Jacqui asked wanting clarification.
"Same thing that's happening here." Jenner shrugged, "No power grid. Ran out of juice." He continued on explaining since no one seemed to be understanding him, "The world runs on fossil fuel. How stupid is that?" He turned away from them all and went to sit at his desk to turn on the computer. Shane and Rick and the rest following after him. Sunny stayed back though, she didn't want to go up there, she wanted to go back to her room, get her things and just leave.
"Lori grab our things, everyone get your stuff we're getting out of here, now!" Rick told them. Happy to finally have permission to do just what she wanted Sunny bolted out the doors, ignoring the sounds of the blaring alarms, and the flashing lights as she made her way back to her and her dad's room. She didn't pay attention to the sound of the mechanical whoosh, nor the yells of everyone else. She only concentrated on where she was running in the dim lighted hallway so that she wouldn't trip over anything.
Bursting into her room she was quick to pick up her bag and turn around to see her dad come in through the door after her, only… he wasn't behind her. In fact, besides the sounds of the alarms, and the flashing lights she saw nothing, heard no one, nor their footsteps like she should have.
Her eyes widened as she rushed to the open door and stuck her head out. No one was around, a loud, blaring alarm was going off, some of the lights flashing red, it was scary to say the least. Blinking back tears she ran back to the room with the main screen, but let out an anguished cry as she saw the doors closed before her. How could she not realized the others weren't behind her!? How!?
She let out a scream as she dropped her bag on the ground and began pounding on the door, praying it would open, "Daddy!" She screamed out. "Daddy! Open the door! Daddy! Please!" She could feel the hot tears run down her face blurring her vision. What did she do!? Everyone she knew and loved was on the other side of that door! Why was it even closed in the first place? She gave one last cry before she fell to the floor in front of the steel door and sobbed.
Daryl watched in horror as a steel door came down and blocked them all off from the hallway that lead to the rest of the facility. Alarms were going off all around him, lights were flashing, and everyone was panicking. "No…" He whispered. "No!" He screamed as he ran to the sealed doors. The doors that were trapping them here. The doors that had separated him from his daughter. "No!" He turned back around to see Jenner in front of one of the computers, "Son of a bitch!" He screamed at the man as he rushed towards him, "You locked us in here! You locked her out! My daughter! Give me back my daughter!" He managed to grab the doctor by the shoulder and yank him back before he felt someone else come up behind him and haul him away. "Give her back! Give me back my Sunny Rae!" He continued to scream. He felt another push him back, continuous cries of 'no!' and 'don't do it!' came from all around him, but he didn't care. His daughter was on the other side of that door without him. All alone and probably scared as hell. He tore away from the others grip and rushed over to the doors. He started punching them, kicking them, anything he could do to get them to open. "Sunny!" He screamed out, "Sunny! I'm here! Daddy's here! Ain't gonna let nothin' hurt you, ya hear me!? Sunny!"
In the background he could here Jenner yelling at them all, about how this place was protecting the public. Well there wasn't no public now was there? So why couldn't he just open the damn door and let him get to his daughter!?
He stopped as VI's mechanic voice came out on the speaker, "H.I.T.'s. High Impulse Thermobaric fuel-air explosives are released which produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear."
"It sets the air on fire." Jenner simplified.
Daryl felt his face pale. They were about to be fucking blown up and he couldn't even hold his daughter in his arms, hell he couldn't even see her, comfort her. She was alone, and had no idea what was about to happen. No…He lashed out at the door once more, he wouldn't let it end like this! "Open the damn door!" He screamed at the doctor. He ignored him.
"Out of the way!" Shane yelled as he ran at the door with an axe. Sparks flew as the two metals collided.
"Daryl!" He caught the axe T-Dog tossed him and began hacking at the door along with Shane. The two kept hacking away yet nothing changed, not even a dent.
Shane told Rick as much. "Those door are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner explained as if it were common knowledge.
"Well your head ain't!" Daryl yelled as he ran up the stairs towards Jenner, axe ready to swing down on the man.
However before he could three different pairs of arms reached out to stop him, T-Dog coming up behind him to try and wrestle the axe away. "Back off!" Rick yelled at him.
"You do want this!" Jenner insisted. "Last night you said."
Daryl looked between Rick and the crazy doctor before shaking his head. He didn't give a shit what these two were talking about, all he wanted was his daughter and he wasn't going to waste precious time yappin'. He picked up Shane's forgotten axe and began hacking at the door again. Nothing would keep him from his daughter. Nothing. Not this steal door, and not that fucking crazy doctor. He began hacking at the door once more, ignoring everything around him.
It felt like ages as had gone by as he hacked at the door until finally, the mechanical hiss sounded, stopping his heart as he watched the door slide open. "Sunny!" He yelled. She was right there in front of the door all curled up in a ball as she sobbed, her backpack he'd brought in laying discarded beside her along with her bow and arrows.
She looked up at the call of her name, her eyes red and puffy, tears running down her cheeks, "Daddy?" Her voice quivered, she half thought she imagined his call, but there he was standing before her. "Daddy!" She cried out as she scrambled to push herself up. She didn't know who got to who first, all she knew that one second she was on the ground and the next in his arms.
"Let's move!" Rick shouted from behind them, others echoing his words as they all scrambled to escape their impending doom. Daryl reached down and snatched Sunny's things off the ground, refusing to allow her out of his arms. Once he had her things he sprinted after the others towards their rooms. Grabbing what they could, Daryl only taking the time to grab his crossbow and re position Sunny and her belongings in his arms, they rushed back up the stairs, they only had minutes before this place exploded and they'd already had to leave Jacqui, Andrea, and Dale behind.
Sprinting into the main lobby they tried to force the doors they had come in through open but they wouldn't budge, "The window!" Someone shouted. Daryl carefully set Sunny down and began hacking at the window with the axe much like he'd done with the metal door before. T-Dog tried to use a metal chair, while Shane tried to blast it open with his gun, but the only result they got was little cracks in the glass.
"Rick!" Carol called out as she ran up to him pulling her bag open, "I have something that might help."
"Carol I don't think a nail file is gonna do it." Shane bit sarcastically.
She ignored him and rooted through the bag, pulling out a little black ball she held it out to Rick. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket."
Rick stared at for a moment in complete shock before he took it from here, "Look out!" He shouted as he ran towards the window.
Daryl seeing what was in his hand immediately rushed over to Sunny and pulled her further back and covered her body with his own. It took only moments to detonate after Rick pulled the pin, sending glass everywhere with a loud bang. But it worked. It fucking worked.
"Let's go Sunny Rae." He mumbled as he picked her up and ran towards the window and jumped out. There were a few walkers lingering around, drawn towards their direction due to the small explosion. He'd need both his hands to take care of them. Gently he set Sunny on her feet, "Stay right behind me, you hear? Right behind me!" Sunny nodded her head and did as he told her as he, Rick, and Shane cleared a path back to the vehicles.
The moment they reached the truck Daryl practically tossed her in, her bag and the rest of their belongings falling to the floor as he scrambled in after her. He pulled the keys out from where he had left them and raced to start the car, they had to get as far from the blast as possible.
He looked up when he heard the sound of the RV's horn honking and saw Dale and Andrea there running as fast as they could towards the caravan, the C.D.C behind them beginning the process of 'decontamination'. Without thinking he grabbed Sunny and pulled her down on the seat and put himself between her, and where the explosion would be coming from. They could still be too close, the shock-wave could shatter the windshield, hundreds of possibilities went through his head as the sound of the explosion went off. The boom was deafening, the shock wave shaking their truck, and the heat of the explosion caused a trickle of sweat to drip down his forehead. And just like that, it was over. Their once beacon of hope, now a burning pile of rubble.
Slowly Daryl sat up, allowing Sunny to do the same as he stared at the C.D.C in a sort of daze. They had almost been in there, but by some miracle they'd escaped, they'd survived. He glanced down at his daughter, seeing her stare at the burning rubble with the same expression, he realized just how close he was to losing her today. The guilt and fear was so overwhelming he had to close his eyes for a moment and take a deep breath. Exhaling he reached out and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her he leaned down and kissed her head. "I love you." He murmured. "I love you so much, don't you ever forget that Sunny Rae. Not a second goes by where I don't love you." He kissed her head once more and pressed his head against her own. Comforting himself with her presence. She was alive, still in his arms. Safe.
"I love you too daddy." She mumbled.
They stayed like that for a moment before the other cars started up signaling it was time to move on. Time to put this fucking nightmare behind them. Time to find another place, somewhere they could be safe, somewhere they could call home.
Ok so yay finale! I'm gonna take a break from posting because I'm having trouble with season two right now, like so much happens just right off the bat and I'm having trouble writing it, so I'm just going to take my time with that try to write a little bit everyday. Once I've got most of season 2 written I'll probably start posting again, but until then, just a little break.
Thanks for reading though, or leaving reviews, they really do encourage me to write! Give me your thoughts and ideas for season 2! I have a lot of the story mapped out, but I love hearing other people's ideas so don't be afraid to share them!
