Caterina awoke to the sound of the shower running. Instead of getting up like she knew that she should, she just turned over and buried her face in the sofa cushions. It had been too long since the last time that she got to sleep without worrying about getting attacked in the middle of the night. It had been the best night of sleep that she'd gotten in a while, and she didn't want to get up just yet.
She stayed on the couch for a few seconds before her eyes snapped open and she pushed herself up onto her knees. She braced herself on the back of the couch as she stared at the cushions beneath her in a sleepy haze. She was sure that she had fallen asleep on the floor last night…
She blinked slowly as she remembered the sound that had woken her up, and she looked over her shoulder at the bathroom, where she was sure that Daryl was. He must've woken up some time before her and put her on the couch. It was the only logical explanation for why she wasn't still lying on the floor.
Caterina could feel her face heating up at the thought of Daryl picking her up while she was asleep. She quickly shook the image out of her mind and climbed off the couch so that she could make her way to the door. It would probably be less awkward for both of them if she wasn't there when he got out of the shower, so she decided that she would go down to the dining hall instead. That way, when they saw each other, there would at least be a reason for them to ignore one another.
When Caterina reached the dining hall, she found that a majority of the group was already up.
"Good morning," Dale greeted cheerfully as soon as Caterina passed through the doorway.
She sent him a tired smile. "Morning." She looked over to where Glenn was sitting next to Dale. He was hunched over his plate, looking a bit worse for wear. She nodded to him. "Is he okay?"
Dale glanced at Glenn and chuckled. "He's fine. Just drank a little too much."
She laughed softly. "I guess Daryl's a little too good at talking people into things." As she passed by the table to get to the coffee machine, she glanced over at Lori where she was sitting next to her son. "How did you sleep?" she asked coolly.
Lori looked up at Caterina and gave a slightly forced smile. "Fine," she assured. "Thank you."
Caterina nodded, but she didn't quite believe it. There was no way that Lori was as fine as she said, not after what happened last night. Still, until Lori decided to take her up on her offer to talk, it was not any of her business. So she left it at that and turned to grab one of the cups that sat next to the coffee machine. Someone had already brewed the coffee, so she just grabbed the pot and filled her cup. She mixed in half a cup of cream and three spoonfuls of sugar in the hopes of lessening the naturally bitter taste. She hadn't ever been much of a coffee person, but she felt like she needed a bit of a pick-me-up, especially after everything that had happened yesterday.
Once she had gotten the coffee to her liking, she turned only to jump back when she almost ran into Jacqui. "Oh!" she breathed, placing a hand over her frantic heart. "Jesus…"
"Sorry," Jacqui laughed, along with the others. "I just wanted to give you this." She held out a plate of bacon.
Caterina took the plate. "Thanks," she muttered. She looked up at Carl, who was laughing silently from his place at the table. She stuck her tongue out at him, earning another bout of laughter from the kid. Lori looked up at her with an almost grateful look on her face, and Caterina winked at her.
As Caterina moved over to the counter space that she had eaten at last night, Rick came stumbling into the dining hall. He looked almost as bad as Glenn, though he looked more tired than he did ill.
"Morning," he greeted everyone groggily.
"Hey," Caterina replied with a slight nod.
"Are you hungover?" Carl asked curiously as Rick took a seat next to Lori. "Mom said you'd be."
Rick smiled. "Mom is right."
"Mom has that annoying habit," Lori joked.
T-Dog walked out from behind the counters, carrying a skillet. "Eggs," he announced to the room. "Powdered, but I do 'em good. Bet you can't tell." He leaned over next to Glenn and pilled some of the eggs onto his and Rick's plates. "Protein helps the hangover."
Glenn just groaned pitifully.
Rick held up a bottle of aspirin that someone had placed on the table. "Where did all of this come from?" he asked as he struggled to open the bottle. When he wasn't able to, he held it out to Lori. "Can you help me please?"
Lori took the bottle. "Jenner," she said in response to Rick's first question. "He thought we could use it." She looked up across the table at Glenn with an amused smile. "Some of us at least."
"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again," the young Asian whined.
T-Dog walked over to where Caterina was leaning against the counter. "You want some?" he asked.
"Sure." She reached behind her to grab the plate that Jacqui had given her and held it out, allowing T-Dog to shovel a spoonful of powdered, scrambled eggs onto it along with the untouched slices of bacon. "Thanks," she said once he'd finished.
"No problem."
Caterina placed the plate back on the counter and looked up as Shane came into the room. Her mind instantly went back to the rec room incident, and she could practically feel the bitterness bubbling up in her stomach. She understood that Shane must have been smashed last night when it happened, but it didn't lessen the anger.
"Hey," Shane called to the room as he walked over to the coffee machine. He glanced at Caterina as he passed her, but looked away as soon as their eyes met. Caterina couldn't help but feel a bit of satisfaction at that.
"Hey," Rick replied. "Feel as bad as I do?"
Shane scoffed. "Worse."
T-Dog looked up at Shane as he turned back to the table. "The hell happened to you?" he asked as his eyes caught the scratch marks on Shane's neck. When Shane didn't say anything, he clarified, "Your neck."
"Yeah, what happened to your neck?" Caterina asked with an underlying tone of mockery. She had to raise her cup to her lips to hide the smirk on her face when he just stared up at her. She raised an eyebrow for the others to see, silently encouraging him to answer.
Shane shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I, uh…must've done it in my sleep," he answered lamely.
"Never seen you do that before," Rick said.
"Me neither," he muttered. He looked up across the table at Lori. "Not like me at all."
Lori returned Shane's gaze before turning back to her plate indignantly.
Caterina settled back further on the counter and took another sip of her coffee, still not taking her eyes off Shane. She knew he could feel her gaze, because his shoulders were tensed up. The corners of her lips turned up into a smug smirk. She was well aware that she was being a bit cynical about this, but she felt that she was justified. After all, drunk or not, Shane had tried to essentially rape Lori last night. It was obvious that his obsession with her was borderline crazy, and she was worried what he would try to do next.
She would have to keep an eye on him from now on…
"Morning," Dr. Jenner called as he entered the dining hall.
While everyone else was greeting him, Caterina saw Andrea and Dale exchange looks. Andrea sat up in her chair expectantly, and Dale gave her a slight nod before turning his gaze on Jenner. "Doc, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing…" Dale started.
"But you will anyway," Jenner muttered.
"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea said frankly.
There was an uncomfortable silence as Jenner turned away from the coffee machine to look around at the group. He stared at them all contemplatively for a moment before nodding. "Follow me," he said.
With that, he started to walk back out of the dining hall. Everyone glanced around at each other as they stood up to follow him.
Caterina noticed Daryl come in just as everyone was standing up. She pushed off the counter and grabbed her plate of breakfast, which she hadn't touched. Just as Daryl was about to pass, she held the plate out in front of him, forcing him to a stop. Daryl stared at the plate dumbly before following Caterina's arm up to her face. Caterina met his questioning gaze straight-on, but she didn't say anything (mostly because she was too embarrassed). She was only doing this as thanks for moving her to the couch. At least, that was what she told herself.
She thrust the plate into Daryl's hand before brushing past him to follow the others.
Jenner led everyone back into the control room, to the front row of computers. He placed his cup of coffee on the desk space around one of the computers and started typing away at one of the keyboards. "Give me a playback of TS-19," he said, assumingly talking to VI.
"Playback of TS-19," VI parroted.
While VI got everything prepared on the large screen, Jenner turned to everyone as they gathered around. Caterina and Daryl were at the back of the group, as they were the last to leave the dining hall. Once everyone had settled in, Caterina went to stand by the next line of computers, away from the others. She glanced over as Daryl went to stand next to her. They locked eyes as he came up at her side, and she looked away quickly before he could see how uncomfortable she was becoming around him.
"Few people ever got a chance to see this," Jenner explained. "Very few."
Everyone watched as the video of an internal imaging scan played on the screen. It went through the frames fairly quickly, showing them the transition as the scanning highlighted the brain and the brain stem of TS-19.
"Is that a brain?" Carol asked.
"An extraordinary one," Jenner replied. "Not that it matters in the end." He turned back to look up at the screen. "Take us in for EIV."
"Enhanced internal view," VI acknowledged.
The video on the screen changed perspective until it showed the subject lying down, allowing them a sideways view of their brain. It then zoomed into brain until all they could see were the electrical impulses in the brain.
"What are those lights?" Shane wondered.
"It's a person's life," Jenner answered. "Experiences, memories… It's everything." He nodded up to the screen. "Somewhere, in all that organic wiring, all the ripples of light, is you—the thing that makes you unique, and human."
"You don't make sense?" Daryl asked. "Ever?"
Caterina smiled slightly at the confusion in his voice. "They're synapses," she explained. "Electric impulses in the brain that carry messages throughout our bodies. They pretty much determine who and what you are."
Jenner nodded. "That's right. These synapses determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."
"Death?" Rick echoed. "That's what this is? A vigil?"
"Yes… Or rather the playback of the vigil."
"This person died?" Andrea asked. "Who?"
"Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected…and volunteered to have us record the process." He turned his attention back on the screen. "VI, scan forward to the first event."
"Scanning to first event," VI granted.
Caterina watched, almost enthralled, as the video fast-forwarded to what Jenner had called the first event. She frowned slightly as the video started to play again and she saw that the brain had started to go dark. The lights were dimming, and a darkness was creeping in from the base of the brain.
"What is that?" Glenn asked.
"It invades the brain like meningitis," Jenner explained, not quite answering Glenn's question. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs…" He paused as TS-19 shifted erratically before becoming still, and their brain went completely dark. "Then death." He looked down. "Everything you ever were or ever will be…gone."
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia wondered.
"Yes," Carol replied honestly.
Caterina looked over at Andrea. She appeared to be the most distressed, which was understandable. She had just lost her sister to this disease, whatever it was. And now, to have watched what exactly had happened to Amy when she died, and to have it explained to her…it was no wonder that she was so upset.
Jenner watched at Andrea with a curious understanding.
"She lost somebody two days ago," Lori said. "Her sister."
He looked back at Andrea and took a few steps forward. "I lost somebody too," he said soothingly. "I know how devastating it is." He gave a sad smile before turning back to the screen. "Scan to the second event."
"Scanning to second event," VI reiterated.
"The resurrection times vary wildly," he said as the video scanned forward. "We had 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."
Everyone watched the screen in anticipation. For a moment, everything was still. Then a few sparks of red light started to appear at the base of brain stem. Caterina stepped forward to place her hands on the desk in front of her and leaned on them as she watched fascinatedly as the red lights grew in number.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori said in surprise.
"No, just the brain stem," Jenner said. "Basically, it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.
Jenner waved his hand to the screen invitingly. "You tell me."
Rick gazed up at the screen for a moment and shook his head. "It's nothin' like before. Most of that brain is dark."
He nodded. "Dark, lifeless, dead… The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn't comeback; the you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."
What appeared to be the barrel of a gun appeared on the screen, and a line of light shot through the subject's brain, destroying the brain stem as well as a small portion of the brain.
"God!" Carol cried. "What was that?"
"A gunshot," Caterina replied.
"He shot his patient in the head," Andrea breathed. "Didn't you?"
Jenner didn't say anything. Instead, he turned away from the screen and said, "VI, power down the main screen and the work stations."
"Powering down main screen and workstations," VI said as the computers and screen shut off.
Andrea turned to Dr. Jenner, who had moved so that he was standing in the center of the stadium. "You have no idea what it is, do you?" she almost scoffed.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal…"
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui added.
Jenner nodded. "There is that."
"Somebody must know something," Andrea tried. "Somebody, somewhere."
"There are others, right?" Carol asked hopefully. "Other facilities?"
"There may be some," Dr. Jenner answered. "People like me."
"But you don't know?" Rick asked. "How can you not know?"
"Everything went down. Communication, directives—all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
"So i''s not just here," Andrea said. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" Jenner chose again not to say anything, and Andrea breathed out an almost despondent sigh. "Jesus…"
"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk, again," Daryl muttered as he ran his hands over his face.
Dale stepped forward, staring at the wall behind Caterina and Daryl. "Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you, and I hate to ask one more question, but…" He walked forward until he was standing across from Daryl and motioned to the wall, where there was a large timer counting down from one hour. "That clock—it's counting down," he pointed out. "What happens at zero?"
Caterina looked at Jenner, curious about this as well.
Dr. Jenner seemed to hesitate. "The…basement generators—they run out of fuel," he said quickly.
"And then?" Rick asked.
Jenner once again refused to answer, and they watched as he just walked out of the stadium.
Rick turned to speak to the room. "VI, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur," VI answered.
Caterina exchanged worried looks with Daryl. She knew what that meant, but she doubted that the others did. This was the CDC. They kept a lot of nasty stuff in there, and to let any of it out would mean the death of the entire human population—or at least what was left of it. So when VI said "facility-wide decontamination," she meant an explosion, and a big one. She meant an explosion powerful enough to incinerate everything. And that meant them too if they stayed.
Caterina followed Rick downstairs to the basement where the generators were kept. She and a few of the other men had decided to check to see if what time they truly had until what VI said came to pass. They needed to know how long they had to get everyone out.
"Decontamination—what does that mean?" Glenn wondered.
"I don't think you wanna know," Caterina muttered, softly enough for the others didn't hear her.
"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up," Shane said. "The way he just wandered off like that."
"What's wrong with him?" T-Dog asked. "Seriously, man, is he nuts? Medicated? What?"
Rick stopped to look at a map on the wall at the bottom of the staircase. "In there," he said, nodding to a door at the end of the stairwell.
Everyone pulled out their flashlights as they passed into a small, dark area. Rick turned to another door and opened it, revealing that it was the entrance to the room that housed the generators. Rick stepped through and flipped the light switch on the wall next to the door. The others followed him into the basement, turning off their flashlights.
Rick motioned to the right. "Check that way," he instructed Glenn. "Shane. Cat," he said, nodding for them to follow him as he went forward.
Caterina followed the two men further into the basement. They separated from one another as they went to check the fuel drums scattered throughout the area. Caterina paused as she heard one of the generators still running. She walked towards the sound and found another fuel drum hidden around a corner. She glanced at the fuel dial on the wall and saw that it was just about on E. She lifted the drum slightly, but she didn't hear any sloshing.
She looked over her shoulder as Rick and Shane came up behind her. "It's empty," she informed them.
Rick sighed and ran an agitated hand through his hair. At the same moment, the generator clicked and the lights in the basement shut off. "Emergency lighting on," VI's computerized voice echoed as a dimmer light came on to filter out the darkness.
"What the hell is this?" Shane asked.
"Hey!" Glenn called as he came around the corner to join them. "You guys kill the lights?"
"Nah, it just went out."
"Anything?" Rick inquired.
"Yeah," T-Dog replied, "a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count."
Shane moved up beside Caterina to shine his flashlight on the fuel dial. He sighed when he saw that it was almost on empty. He looked up at Caterina and Rick. "It can't be down to just that one," he said.
Caterina turned to Rick. "We need to talk to Dr. Jenner," she said.
Rick nodded in agreement.
Caterina and the others followed Rick back up to the main floor. She could hear footsteps up above them on the landing just above the entrance to the foyer and guessed that everyone had come out to inquire about what was going on. If the lights had shut off down in the basement, surely they had shut off everywhere else as well.
"What do you mean it's shuttin''itself down?" she heard Daryl ask. "How can a buildin' do anything?"
Lori heard footsteps underneath them, and she hurried over to the railing. "Rick?" she called down as her husband and the others came into view.
Rick motioned for Lori to stay quiet for now as everyone followed Dr. Jenner to the bottom of the stairs. Rick quickly fell into step with the doctor, with Caterina and Daryl close behind. "Jenner, what's happenin'?" he demanded.
"The system is dropping all nonessential uses of power," Jenner answered. "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That starts as we approach the half-hour mark." They passed through the entrance to the control room, and Jenner nodded to the timer, which was now counting down from forty minutes. "Right on schedule."
Everyone moved to follow Jenner up onto the stadium, but he paused at the stairs and took a long swig of the whiskey in his hand. He stayed there for a moment, obviously anxious, and handed the bottle to Daryl, who took it from him irritably.
"It was the French," Dr. Jenner told Andrea.
"What?" the blonde asked.
"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 labs still the end. They thought that they were close to a solution."
"What happened?" Jacqui asked.
"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice." Jenner stepped up onto the stadium and turned back to the others. "The world runs on fossil fuel," he said. "I mean, how stupid is that?"
"Let me tell you sumthin'—" Shane started as he hurried up onto the stadium after Jenner.
Rick followed and grabbed Shane's arm before he could get any closer to Jenner. "To hell with it, Shane! I don't even care." He turned to his wife. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're gettin' out of here. Now!"
"Oh, okay," Jacqui muttered uneasily.
Caterina didn't bother to move, somehow knowing that it would do no good.
Just as the others were about to pass back into the foyer, sirens started blaring above them, signaling the approach of the decontamination process. Caterina's heart jumped into her throat as she realized that they might possibly die there. She wasn't really worried for herself. After all, she had learned a long time ago not to fear death. No, she was afraid for the others.
"What's that?" Carl asked his mother frightfully.
"Thirty minutes to decontamination," VI announced as the timer popped up on the main screen.
"Doc, what's goin' on here?" T-Dog called, but he got no reply.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick!" Shane shouted over the sirens. "Get your stuff and let's go! Go!"
Everyone hurried to do as Shane said, once again moving towards the doors that lead out of the control room. Caterina was the only one who didn't move. She had noticed that Jenner had moved down the computers directly beneath the main screen and was typing something into what looked like a keypad. Although she couldn't see exactly what he was doing, she had a sinking feeling that it wasn't anything good.
Daryl paused after taking one step after the others and turned to see that Caterina still hadn't moved. "Come on!" he called out to her.
Caterina looked over at him and met his harried gaze, but she still didn't move. He was about to go grab her and lead her out of the room when the metal doors leading out of the control room slide shut, cutting off their only exit.
"No," Glenn breathed. "Did you just lock us in?" He looked up at where Rick was with a terrified look in his eyes. "He just locked us in!"
The group all gathered back around the stadium and started to climb up onto it. Daryl was the first to go up, and Caterina could tell from the enraged look in his eye that he meant to start trouble. So she hurried up after him, sure to keep close on his heels.
"You son of a bitch!" Daryl shouted as he neared where Dr. Jenner had taken a seat at one of the computers. He held up his whiskey bottle as if to throw it at the man, and both Caterina and Shane hurried forward to hold him back, Shane grabbing his arm to keep him from being able to swing it forward. "You locked us in here!" he continued as he struggled against the hold on him.
T-Dog quickly stepped between Daryl and Dr. Jenner. "No, stop! Don't!"
Caterina helped Shane pull the angered hunter away from Jenner. "Daryl, stop it!" she yelled in an attempt to be heard by him, but he seemed to be focused solely on his desire to bash Jenner's head in with the whiskey bottle.
"You lyin'—!" Daryl growled.
She ducked under Daryl's arm so that she was standing in front of him and placed her hands on his chest. She shoved just hard enough to make him take a step back. "Daryl, calm down!" she shouted. "Daryl!"
Daryl turned his gaze away from Jenner and down to Caterina. His nostrils continued to flare in his anger, and he was still struggling against Shane's hold, but he seemed to calm down just a bit when he met Caterina's gaze.
"Just calm down," she urged him more calmly.
The two continued to stare at one another as Daryl's anger slowly subsided. He was still breathing heavily, but he'd stopped struggling and had lowered the bottle of whiskey. T-Dog took it from his hand and quickly moved back out of range, in case Daryl decided to snatch it back. Shane glanced between him and Caterina before releasing his hold on him. Then it was just Caterina, who still had her hands on his chest.
Caterina realized this at the same time that Daryl did, as they both glanced down at her hands. She quickly dropped her hands back down to her sides and stepped away from him. She could feel her face heating up now, as her mind had decided to remind her once again how well-muscled Daryl was, so she kept her face turned away from everyone—especially Daryl. She did not want anyone to see her blushing right now.
Once everything seemed to have calmed down, Rick hurried over to the doctor. "Jenner, open that door now," he demanded forcibly.
"There's no point," Jenner argued. "Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Well, open the damn things," Daryl snapped.
"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once the front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." He looked around at everyone as they exchanged fearful looks. "It's better this way," he tried to convince them.
"What is?" Rick asked. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"
Jenner didn't say anything. Instead, he turned back to continue working on his computer. Rick and Shane exchanged looks, and Shane stepped forward to kick Jenner's chair.
"What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Rick repeated loudly.
Jenner jumped to his feet as he snapped. "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!" He paused and sat back down in his chair. "In the event of some catastrophic power failure," he continued much more calmly, "in a terroristic attack, for example—HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
Caterina closed her eyes in dismay.
"HITs?" Rick parroted.
"VI, explain," Jenner ordered.
"HITs," VI said. "High impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other know explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between five thousand degrees and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired."
As VI explained, Rick went to try to console his family while Carol clung to her daughter, sobbing.
"It lights the air on fire," Jenner mumbled. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief…regret. Everything."
Caterina collapsed into one of the rolling chairs, her face in her hands. It was true they wouldn't feel it when the HITs were deployed, but it didn't make it any less terrifying for those who weren't ready to die, or for those who didn't want their loved ones to die. And a majority of the group was made up of families and close friends.
She listened as the men bustled around, trying to find a way out. She knew better than to join them. The CDC had one of the greatest security systems in the world. There was no way that they would be able to get out without someone opening the doors, and Jenner didn't seem willing to do that.
The sound of glass breaking resounded through the room.
"Open the damn door!" Daryl screamed at Jenner.
Someone came running across the stadium towards the door that Daryl had apparently thrown his whiskey bottle at. "Out of my way!" she heard Shane yell as he ran up the ramp to the door. There was the sound of metal scraping against metal, along with Shane's grunts as he swung whatever it was that he was using.
Daryl's grunts soon joined his.
"You should've left well enough alone," Jenner muttered. "It would've been so much easier."
"Easier for who?" Lori snapped.
"All of you. You know what's out there—a short, brutal life, and an agonizing death. Your sister—what was her name?"
"Amy," Andrea replied softly.
"Amy," Dr. Jenner repeated. "You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really want you want for your wife and son?"
"I don't want this," Rick replied emphatically.
Shane and Daryl finally gave up on the door, and the two returned to the stadium.
"Can't make a dent," Shane muttered, out of breath.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner said.
"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl yelled.
Rick started to yell, and Caterina finally looked up from her hands to see that Daryl was going after Edwin with an axe. Admittedly, she was kind of surprised. She knew that Daryl was pissed at the situation, but enough to kill a man over it?
It took Dale, T-Dog, and Rick to Daryl back enough for him to give up on trying to kill Jenner. He lowered the axe and backed away from the others, but he never took his eyes off of Jenner.
Jenner stood up. "You do want this," he said to Rick. "Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."
Caterina looked at Rick. If she were honest, she wasn't very surprised that he would say that. She had thought the same during the first month or so, when all she'd been able to see was the carnage. But then she made friends and met other survivors, and started to think that there was hope—hope that, somehow, they would find a way out of this, that they would somehow make it through.
"You really said that?" Shane asked, obviously disappointed. "After all your big talk?"
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick said.
"There is no hope," Jenner tried again. "There never was."
"There's always hope," Rick argued. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody, somewhere."
"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" Andrea said.
"Listen to your friend," Jenner said, motioning to Andrea. "She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."
"This isn't right," Carol said tearfully. "You can't just keep us here."
"One tiny moment, a millisecond," he tried to assure her. "No pain."
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."
"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate, to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"
Caterina looked up at the sound of a gun cocking. She saw Shane standing near Dale, holding one of Rick's shotguns—a Mossberg 590.
Rick hurried forward to intercept him. "Shane!"
"Shane, no!" Dale added into the mix.
"Out of my way, Rick!" Shane snapped as he pushed past Rick. "Stay out of my way!"
Caterina shot to her feet and made to step towards Shane, but she stopped when Rick motioned for her to leave it to him. She nodded and stood off to the side, but her whole body remained tensed in preparation for a fight. She already knew that Shane was unstable. She wasn't about to let her guard down when his instability was coming into light.
"Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off," Shane ordered calmly, the barrel of the shotgun pressed to Dr. Jenner's jaw. "Do you hear me?"
"Brother?" Rick started in an attempt to soothe him. "Brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here."
"Shane, you listen to him," Lori tried to help, but Caterina had a feeling that the sound of her voice just made Shane more determined to kill Jenner.
"It's too late," Shane said almost tearfully.
"He dies, we all—we all die!" Rick said as Shane started to yell in frustration. "Shane!"
Caterina ducked down as Shane turned the gun in her direction, causing him to miss her and shoot the computer that she'd been sitting in front of.
"Shane!" Rick cried, his tone a mixture of fear and surprise.
Shane continued to fire at the computers, still yelling. Caterina shifted so that she was sitting down, freeing her legs, and she kicked Shane's knees. His legs gave out with the kick, and he fell to his knees. Caterina leapt onto her feet and wrenched the gun from Shane's hands before he was able to retaliate. She stood above him and pulled her arm back. Before Shane could even blink, she pulled through and whipped him across the face with the butt of the gun, not hard enough to knock him out but enough to bruise him. Shane fell onto his back with a pained grunt. Caterina stepped over him so that she was standing with her feet on either side of his waist and aimed the gun down at him.
"Cat!" Rick shouted.
Caterina ignored him, never taking her eyes off of Shane. "Are you done?" she asked, her face and tone deathly calm. When Shane didn't answer, she pumped the shotgun threateningly.
"Yeah, I guess we all are," Shane finally answered.
She continued to stare down at him for a moment before lowering the shotgun and stepped away from Shane. "Next time, I suggest you think about where you're aiming," she warned.
Shane just continued to stare up at her.
Caterina turned and held the shotgun out to Rick, who was staring at her with a hint of pride mixed amongst his initial surprise at what had just happened. He took the shotgun slowly and gave a grateful nod, which she returned with a nod of her own.
She glanced past Rick at where Daryl was standing, staring at her. As soon as she met his gaze, she turned away, turning back to Rick. He'd had a peculiar look in his eye, one that she couldn't remember ever seeing from him. She wasn't sure how to describe it exactly, but the closest thing would be…hunger.
"I think you're lyin'," Rick accused of Jenner after a moment of silence.
"What?" the doctor asked, confused.
"You're lyin'," he repeated. "About no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"
"Not because I wanted to," Jenner replied as he stood to meet Rick's challenge. "I made a promise—to her." He pointed to the main screen. "My wife."
"Test Subject 19 was your wife?" Lori stated more than asked.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying."
Caterina picked up the sound of metal scraping against metal again, and she looked at the door to see that Daryl was hacking away at the doors again. He'd apparently had enough of listening to the others talk.
"It should've been me on that table," Jenner continued. "I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a lost to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just…Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice," Rick said. "You do. That's all we want—a choice, a chance."
"Let us keep trying as long as we can," Lori begged him.
Jenner sighed to himself as he thought over what they had said. "I told you, topside's locked down," he muttered after a moment. "I can't open those." He walked back down to the computers beneath the main screen and swiped his ID card over the keypad that Caterina had seen him messing with before. He typed in a pass code, and the metal doors opened again.
"Come on! Let's go!" Daryl called out to the others.
Everyone was quick to run up the ramp towards the door. Caterina noticed that Rick was still talking to Jenner, and she hesitated, unsure of whether or not she should stop and wait for him. But it was decided for her when she heard Daryl's voice.
"Hey!" he shouted out to her. "Come on!"
Caterina looked between Rick and Daryl uncertainly before she hurried after the others. "Shane!" she called out as she neared the doors. "Help me grab everything!"
She ran into the first room that she came to and set about gathering up all of the bags in that room before moving on to the next. Once she had grabbed as much as she could carry, she hurried back to the labs where the others were still waiting. She could see Rick still talking with Jenner in the stadium, but the others didn't seem to be paying them any attention.
Caterina dropped all of the bags to the floor so that everyone could grab what was theirs.
Lori ran down to where Rick was still standing with Jenner and grabbed him, silently ushering him away from the doctor.
"Hey!" Glenn shouted from where he stood with Carl. "We've got four minutes left! Come on!"
Shane came jogging up behind Caterina. "Here," he said, holding her bag out to her.
"Thanks." She took her pack from him and slid one strap over her shoulder. She noticed that Shane was also holding her and Daryl's crossbows. She nodded to Daryl's. "I'll take that," she said. She figured that Daryl wouldn't mind. At any rate, he was still wielding that fire axe.
Shane didn't even question it as he over handed Daryl's crossbow before giving Caterina her own.
"Let's go!" T-Dog said as he ushered Jacqui up the ramp. "Let's go!"
"No," Jacqui said as she pulled out of T-Dog's grasp. "No, I'm stayin'! I'm stayin', sweetie."
"But that's insane!"
"No, it's completely sane! For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy," she said. She glanced at the others. "There's no time to argue, and no point, not if you wanna get out." She pushed on T-Dog's shoulders gently. "Just get out. Get out."
Shane walked down to the two of them. "T-Dog. Come on, man," he said as he gently pulled him away from Jacqui. "Come on! Let's go! Let's go!"
Dale stepped down to where Jacqui was, silently asking why she would do such a thing. Jacqui just shook her head and turned away. Dale then turned his gaze on Andrea, who hadn't moved from her spot by the computers.
"I'm staying too," Andrea answered Dale's questioning gaze.
"Andrea, no," Dale pleaded.
Andrea just turned away from him and sunk down behind the computers.
Dale turned and waved the others off. "Just go! Go!"
Caterina nodded in understand and turned to usher everyone out of the lab. "Come on, move!" she urged them. She took one step after them as they started down the hall before pausing to throw one last glance back at the four still in the lab. She gazed around at all of them for a moment before she hurried after the others.
As soon as they made it to the main foyer, T-Dog bolted over to the doors. He tried pushing on the doors to open them, but the metal shutters prevented them from opening. So, in his desperation, he started to kick at them.
"Get them doors open!" Shane shouted as everyone filed into the foyer.
Glenn ran over to help T-Dog. "It doesn't work!" he said when the doors still wouldn't open.
T-Dog hurried over to the security pad next to the doors. "Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" He tried punching in a few buttons and turned back to Glenn. "Try it! Try it now!"
Glenn tried to open the doors again, but it still wouldn't work.
"That isn't going to work!" Caterina called to T-Dog as he tried typing in a random pass code. "Our only chance is to break the glass."
"I'm on it!" Shane said. He took off towards the other side of the room. "Daryl!" he said, motioning for the hunter to follow. They ran over to a staircase on the side of the room. Shane dropped the duffle bag that he'd been carrying, and he and Daryl started trying to hack away at the windows.
"Stay close, sweetheart," Carol said as she pulled her daughter to her side.
T-Dog came running up behind Daryl and Shane, holding a metal-framed chair. "Daryl, look out!" he cried. Daryl and Shane both dove to the side as T-Dog came up the stairs. He reared back and swung the chair at the glass, but all it did was scrape against it.
"That's not going to work either!" Caterina said as T-Dog continued to try and break the glass with the chair. "The glass is too strong!"
"Dog, get down!" Shane shouted as he took the Mossberg 590 from Rick. "Get down!" he shouted again, and T-Dog dropped the chair as he hurried away from the glass. While the others all ducked to the ground, Shane stepped out so that he was standing in front of the window, and he fired. The bullet just bounced off the glass. "Jesus…" he muttered in disbelief.
"The glass won't break?" Sophia squeaked fearfully.
"We need something stronger," Caterina said as she climbed back onto her feet.
"Cat?" Carol called, pulling Caterina's attention to her. She came up beside her, digging through her purse. "I have something that might help."
"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna do it," Shane scoffed.
Carol ignored him. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your clothes, I found this in one of your pockets," she said as she pulled something from her purse.
Caterina looked down at Carol's outstretched hand and grinned when she saw the grenade that she had lifted off that soldier back in Atlanta. "Carol, I absolutely love you," she expressed. She took the grenade and headed over to the window. "Everyone get down!" she shouted over her shoulder. She stepped up onto the window frame and knelt down, pressing the lever. She glanced around the room to make sure that everyone was covered before pulling the pin. She set it down by the window and hauled ass towards the stairs. She jumped over the stairs just as the grenade detonated, and the blast sent her flying forward. She hit the ground on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and slid across the floor a little ways.
Rick and Daryl were quick to go to her side. Rick knelt down and rolled her over onto her side as she groaned. "You okay?" he asked worriedly.
"Yeah," she grunted. "I've always loved flying."
Rick chuckled while Daryl gave a small smile.
"Come on," Rick said as he held out his hand to her. Caterina grabbed, and he pulled her onto her feet. "Let's go!" he shouted to the others. "Now!"
Caterina followed everyone through the window but to knock an arrow when she saw the walkers in the yard. She leapt down after Daryl and ran with him across the lawn. She fired the arrow into a walker's head as it took a step towards Daryl. He glanced back to nod at her in thanks before he turned back around and chopped the head off another walker with his axe.
She continued to follow the others to where their caravan was parked, killing whatever walker stood in their way. While everyone gathered into their respective cars, Caterina followed Daryl to his truck at the back of the caravan.
"Get in!" she shouted as she wrenched the passenger side door open. She threw her backpack and Daryl's crossbow inside before glancing back at the CDC building. She paused when she saw Dale and Andrea climbing out of the window. She didn't get a chance to be relieved, however, as someone in the RV started honking the horn. She climbed into the truck quickly.
"Get down!" Daryl said.
Caterina ducked down over the console obediently without a second thought. She felt Daryl cover her head with his torso, just before an explosion rocked the truck. Once the tremor stopped, she felt the weight above her disappear, and she sat up to look out of the window at the large fire where the building had once stood.
"Jesus," she panted. Her breathing was a bit heavy from the adrenaline pumping through her veins.
"You can say that again," Daryl mumbled.
Caterina and Daryl looked at each other. Almost instantly, the air between them became awkward.
"Thanks…" Caterina said, but her voice trailed off before she could say what she meant.
But Daryl understood. "Yeah…" he grunted with a nod.
Caterina looked through the rear window at Shane's Jeep to check if he was all right, and she gave a breathy sigh of relief when she saw him safely in his car. She turned back around in her seat and dropped her head back on the headrest.
