Carol woke up first the next morning to a heavy weight across her legs; she looked down to see that Daryl had moved around in the night and was now sleeping with his head and arms wrapped around her legs; snuffling slightly against her knees.

"It's like having my own personal boa constrictor," Carol shifted her legs slightly to try and extract them from his grasp which only made him turn even further into her legs, rubbing his scruffy chin against her bare skin where her pant leg had ridden up in the night. A deeper snorting snuffle from the other side of the room had her looking over and smiling at the sight that greeted her eyes.

Sophia had moved in the night so that her head was on the couch seat and her legs were drawn up against the side cushions; it was a move that frequently had Carol amused as it was something that she had done since a baby and yet never woken from. Carol felt tears pricking behind her eyelids as she saw that despite being faced completely away from Merle; the little girl and the fierce red neck still clung onto each other's hands in their sleep, Merle's arm completely outstretched at an awkward angle as he tried to maintain the contact that Sophia had so desperately needed.

Carol needed someone to share the moment with and so she quietly untangled her legs from Daryl's grasp and placed pillow under his head to prevent him from wakening. She crept out of the room only to plow straight into an anxious looking Lori out in the hallway.

"Carol! I can't find Sophia! I checked on her and Carl around two and they were asleep, now she's nowhere to be seen!"

"Calm down, Lori – it's okay. She must have had a bad dream and came to find me; I was so tired I didn't even hear her." Carol placed a hand on Lori's shoulder and rubbed in small circles. "Usually she prods me awake after a nightmare and we're up for hours until she can get back to sleep."

"The poor baby! Is she okay now?" Lori put a hand against her mouth, feeling terrible that it was her turn to watch out for the children but a few too many glasses of wine had her sleeping deeper than she would have normally done.

"Take a peep inside and you'll see that she obviously found someone else to comfort her last night. She's got her own protection guard in there."

"Huh?" Lori wrinkled her brow in confusion, Carol simply smiled and pushed open the door a little so that Lori could see the other occupants of the room. Lori poked her head through the door and blinked in amazement; the sight of Sophia's hand wrapped around one of Merle's fingers had her sighing softly. Sophia stirred a little at the disturbance and in his sleep Merle angled his body a little closer to her; Sophia's grip tightened and they settled back down.

Lori withdrew her head, but not before she saw the other Dixon brother wrapped around a pillow on the other couch and a Carol size dent in the cushion next to him…

"So how come you ended up sharing a room with both of the Dixon boys, last night Carol?" Lori nudged her shoulder playfully and wanting all of the juicy details. Carol sighed and shook her head.

"It's a long story; lend me a change of clothes and I'll tell you everything."

"Now, that's a deal!" Lori scampered back to her room where a very drunk Rick had passed out on the floor, not making it to the couch when he had returned from his little chat with the Doctor. Lori grabbed a change of clothes for Carol and met her in the rec room. After Carol had taken a quick shower and pulled on the borrowed clothes she sat down next to Lori on the couch and rubbed her hair dry with a towel.

"Do you remember earlier when I remarked that Sophia had a protection guard in the room with her?"

"Yes, but what has that got to do with them sharing your room last night?"

"Morning, ladies. What's that I hear about you sharing your room? I thought that you were going to bunk in with Jacqui?" Dale came into the rec room to return the book that he had borrowed the previous evening and caught the tail end of Lori's remark. "They didn't give you any trouble did they? Carol, I told you to come find me! Do I need to get T-Dog or Rick to have a word with them?"

"Daaaale! Let Carol tell me the story first!" Lori whined as Dale barged in between them on the couch and took Carol's hand, looking at her with concern.

"Dale, honestly I'm fine – they were perfect gentlemen and nothing happened."

"C'mon Carol; dish the dirt!" Lori was nearly bouncing up and down on the seat in girlish excitement. Dale let go off Carol's hand and sat back in a chair opposite, wanting to hear how Carol had gone from setting off to share with Jacqui to sharing her room with two very drunk Dixon men.

"Okay, when I left you last night I was heading to my room when I found Daryl and Merle sprawled across the doorway of my room."

"Both were completely out of their heads, having found a stash of whiskey somewhere….happy drunk though, and a little sloppy." Dale interjected and was shushed by Lori, who flapped her hand at him in an effort for Carol to continue.

"They both insisted that they just had to guard Sophia and I during the night to make sure that nothing bad happened to us…."

"Awwww…that's so sweet! Who'd have thought it, coming from them?"

"Well, actually they've always been pretty good to be and Sophia since they came into camp; they even offered us their tent when Ed kicked us out…"
"Ed kicked you out? When? Why didn't you say something? I'd have let you girls have the RV." Dale leant forward in the chair again, his eyes shining with remorse. Carol patted his hand and smiled softly.

"It was the night after Daryl beat him up at the quarry; Ed told me that we had no place with him after that and threw our stuff out. Daryl and Merle overheard him and immediately gave us one of their tents – it probably saved our lives; if Ed hadn't have done what he did, we might have all been taken by the Walkers."

"Oh Sweetheart, I'm sorry that we never knew just how bad things were between the two of you, we could've done something way before." Lori leant her head against Carol's shoulder and stroked her back gently in compassion.

"It doesn't matter; it's over now. Anyway Dale managed to get Merle to the couch as I helped Daryl over to the other one; I was going to try and beg a couch from Jacqui but it was getting late and it all seemed like too much effort. I'm glad I didn't after all that, otherwise Sophia wouldn't have known where to look."

"Oh, yeah Dale you need to go and sneak a peek in Carol's room. Merle got woken by Sophia having a bad dream last night and you would never guess how he got her back to sleep…." Lori dragged Dale out of the chair and down the corridor to Carol's room. He slipped his head around the door and scratched his balding head in amazement.

"Well Glory be! Ain't that a pretty picture!" He whipped his head back as both of the brother's started to come around at his exclamation and shut the door softly. He nodded over to Carol and pointed at the door.

"You might want to go in there and rescue your little girl, a Dixon with a hangover is likely to be like a grizzly bear with a sore head!"

Strangely enough, neither brother seemed to suffer any ill effects from the night before and were full of apologies for any untoward behaviour.

"Honestly, Merle it's me who should be thanking you," Carol said quietly as the four of them walked down the hall toward the commissary. She looked over at the burly man and gave his arm a slight squeeze, "Sophia told me how kind you were in the night, and how that if she ever has a nightmare again 'Mr. Merle' has told her that he would protect her from all of the monsters. So thank you, Merle; you managed to give a very frightened little girl her first good night's sleep in a long time." Merle hung his head, tips of his ears turning pink with embarrassment; something that amused Carol, for it seemed to be a family trait. She didn't want to cause him any further embarrassment so took Sophia off to sit where the Grimes family had gathered at the end of the long table.

Breakfast was powdered eggs prepared by T-Dog; before all of this had happened none of them would have been too keen on the stuff but after weeks of living off squirrel stew and dried beef jerky; the breakfast tasted like pure ambrosia. To everyone that is, except for Glenn.

"Protein helps the hangover." T-Dog slapped another large helping on Glenn's plate and watched as the young Asian man's face turned even paler.

"Morning." Rick entered the commissary and sat gingerly down at the table.

"Are you hung over?" Carl looked over at his Dad with a grin. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right."

"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori looked down to pick up a piece of bacon off her plate, hiding her grin from her very pasty looking husband. Rick picked up a screw top bottle of aspirin that Doctor Jenner had thoughtfully left out on the table and passed it over to Lori and begged her to put him out of his misery. A sick headache pounded between his eyes and he couldn't focus enough to struggle with the safety cap.

"Don't ever, ever let me drink again…" Glenn leant his head on the hand holding his fork and closed his eyes, Jacqui rubbed his back sympathetically.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing," Dale looked up as Edwin strode into the room offering greetings as he headed for the coffee pot. He turned cup in hand and remarked; "But you will anyway."

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea looked over and Edwin knew that it was time to show them the truth. He asked them all to gather in the main lab; the same room that he had first ushered them into the previous evening.

"I'd like to show you something. Vi, give me a playback of 'TS-19' for our guests."

"Playback of TS-19 in progress." The computer generated voice responded and the main screen was filled with static for a moment before the screen filled with medical scans and scrolling information.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this; very few."

"Is that a brain?" Carl's nose screwed up as the screen filled MRI images showing a human brain.

"An extraordinary one…" Edwin leant down to reply and then turned back to the screen and muttered, "not that it matters in the end. Take us in for EIV." Edwin requested.

"Enhanced Internal View." The computer stated and the view enhanced the brain showing synapses firing and lit up from within.

"What are those lights?" Daryl asked, fascinated by the way they looked like little fireworks on the screen.

"That's a person's life; experiences, memories, it's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, in all those little ripples of light…is you. The thing that makes you unique and human."

"You don't make sense, ever?" Daryl looked over at Edwin in confusion; all this mumbo jumbo was just scrambling his tired brain and he struggled to make sense of what Edwin was getting at.

"Those are synapses, electrical impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death? That's what this is? A vigil?" Rick snorted derisively and walked across to stand next to Edwin.
"Yes. Or rather the…playback of the vigil."

"This person died? Who?" Andrea slipped off the desk she was perched on and walked closer to the screen, she wasn't sure that she wanted to see what was playing, but felt an almost morbid sense of curiousity. Was this what Amy would have looked like?

"Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected. And volunteered to have us…record the process." Edwin looked over at Andrea, sorrow shadowing his eyes and then turned back to the screen. "Vi, fast forward to the first event."

"Scanning to first event."

"What is that?" Glenn asked, looking at the darker patches that appeared within the MRI scan of the brain.

"It invades the brain like meningitis," Edwin explained, pointing at the visuals. "The adrenal glands haemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown; then the major organs. Then death."

Sophie shook with fright at the images on screen, Carol held out a hand to beckon her daughter to move closer but Sophia practically launched herself into Merle's lap and his arms instinctively closed around her. He crooned softly in her ear as he stroked her hair. "Don't you worry, Sweet Pea, didn't I tell you that I weren't going to let the monsters get you? Hush now, angel." He nodded over to Carol, indicating that Sophia was fine where she was and carried her out of the sight of the monitors.

"Everything you were or ever will be…gone." Edwin choked slightly on the last words and turned his face away to regain his composure.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia whispered to Merle, and he nodded slightly. Andrea overheard Sophia's remark and the thought of her baby sister suffering the same fate had her fighting back the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.

"She lost somebody two days ago; her sister." Lori stated to Edwin as he noticed Andrea's shining eyes and trembling lips.

"I lost somebody too," Edwin leant closer to Andrea, "I know how devastating it is." He turned back to the screen. "Scan to the second event."
"Scanning to second event."

"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…seven seconds." Edwin stared at the screen thinking of the countless number of times he had watched this particular playback.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked in amazement, as they watched the darkened brain slowly start flickering with specks of light.

"No," Edwin corrected, "Just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive." Rick stated as he edged closer to the large screen.

"You tell me." Edwin gestured towards the image on the screen and told Rick to take a closer look. Rick stared for a moment and stepped back, shaking his head slowly.

"It's nothing like before, most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobes - the neocortex, the human part; that doesn't come back. The you part," Edwin said, "It's just a shell driven by mindless instinct." They watched as

Merle looked over his shoulder as the replay concluded with the grainy x-ray image of a bullet ploughing through the subjects' brain stem, ceasing all neuro activity.

"God! What was that?" Carol gasped. Andrea recognised the image immediately and stated.

"He shot his patient in the head; didn't you?"

"Vi, power down the main screen."

"Powering down main screen and workstations."

Sophia flinched in his arms as the room was suddenly filled with silence and the monitors went dark. He crooned gently to the little girl and walked back over to where Carol was sitting next to Daryl on the cold concrete floor. He set Sophia down next to her mother and she scrambled into Carol's lap; Daryl reached over to stroke her cheek gently and she gave him a slight, trembling attempt at a smile.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea folded her arms across her body and faced the Doctor.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui's quiet voice came from behind and Edwin nodded in acknowledgment.

"There is that."

"Somebody must know something! Somebody, somewhere." Andrea paced in between the workstations; they were at the CDC for pete's sake, how could they not know?

"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol questioned, desperate for Edwin to say something positive.

"There may be some…people like me."

"You don't know? How can you not know?" Rick paced anxiously, hoping against all hope.

"Everything went down. Communications, directives – all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here? There's nothing left anywhere. Nothing. That's what you're really saying, right?" Andrea smiled bitterly at the prospect of spending the rest of her miserable life always looking over her shoulder and sleeping with one eye open.

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again." Daryl pressed his palms to his eyes in an effort to keep from crying. He wasn't crying for himself though; no his tears were for Carol and Sophia. They had finally thought that this could be a place to bring them hope and it turned out to be yet another black hole of despair. He shifted his legs closer to touch Carol's and felt Sophia's small hand creeping into his own. He looked across to see Sophia's other hand twisting around Merle's arm and thought about the way all four of them were connected.

Dale looked over to the large digital clock on the wall and noticed that rather than displaying a time the clock appeared to be counting down the minutes.

"Doctor Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…that clock. It's counting down, what happens at zero?" He hitched a thumb over at the timer and cocked a brow at Edwin.

"The… basement generators, they run out of fuel." Edwin searched for the right words, and finally settled on an approximation of what would happen.

"And then?" Rick questioned, he had seen the Doctor's hesitation and knew that wasn't what Edwin had been going to say. Edwin remained silent and walked away. Rick turned his question to the computer system. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."