Author's note!: Ya'll just love watching Cali squirm, dontcha :]

And as for the whole separate story idea, it seems to be popular, so I wanna know, should it start right after the CDC, and continue off of this, or create a whole new story line? Let me know please!

Oh, and you are all the greatest human beings out there. Oh my gosh, your reviews had be in stitches people! I love you all!

Disclaimer!: I don't own. I sure wish I did!

Chapter 14! I'd Wish Upon A Satellite That Wrong Could Turn To Right

*Cali*

I was nursing a rare breed of hangover. It was the infamous 'You so fucked up' hangover, the one that started to hurt before you even opened your eyes. The sucky thing was, I wasn't exactly comfortable in the position I was in. These CDC couches weren't as comfy as Jenner had gone on about.

I ventured a squinty gaze and realized why. I was sleeping on an arm. A very tan arm.

"Oh fuck!" I cried, and shot up. "Oh fuck." I whispered, and grabbed my pounding head. "Ow. Ow. Ow."

"Shuddup." Glenn mumbled from where he was still sleeping.

"Get up Glenn." I told him in singsong. He only growled. "Glenny, I think this might be important."

"Need sleep. Very drunk. Very tried. Very sore."

"Yeah me too, and I think we should discuss it."

"What?" he yawned, and eyed me critically. "What the hell are you doing on my couch? And why is…OH MY GOD!" He flew up the same way I had, staring at me horrified. "Oh my God. Oh my God! Did we…?" He stared with his big puppy eyes. Sniggering, I grabbed my shirt and pulled it back on, so that I would be decent when I stood up.

"Yes, judging by the smell, and the complete exhaustion I'm feeling, I'm going to say we did."

"…Daryl's going to kill me."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, looking for a towel. Looks like I was going to have a round two with the shower.

"He's going to murder me! Where am I supposed to hide? We're trapped, in a building! I'm not safe in here! I'm going to get hunted and shot down like a damn squirrel!" Glenn dropped his head in his hands.

"He's not going to lay a finger on you."

"Are you kidding! You're like his!"

Whatever kid. Not like yer my problem anyways

"No, actually, I'm not. And he knows it. So really, what I do is none of his business."

"Yeah, and when he drags me to the dinner table with an arrow in my ass, what happens then!"

"I tell him we were drunk. Truth. And I was feeling like shit. Truth. And that I needed something good. Truth. And that you were a good enough person to give me that. Truth again." I smiled at Glenn from the bathroom. He snorted.

"We are the best friends out there…aren't we?"

Relief instantly flooded my body, good. He didn't want anything else now. Thank God. "We are. The best left in the world."

"Hey Cali?"

"Yeah?"

"I refuse to take an arrow to the ass for you."

Throwing my head back, I laughed into the shower. "See you at breakfast alright? And if Daryl shows up, just bow your head and act really hung-over!"

"There won't be much pretending!"

I turned the knob on the shower again, and hopped back in. My head rested against the cool tile as I caught my breath.

Let's see here…on a scale of 1-100, how fucked was I?

I was definitely in the seventies, without a doubt. I suppose the rest of it mattered on the rest of the day, after all, breakfast hadn't even started yet.

.:.

Walking out of me and Glenn's room, I was met with a rather crowed hallway. T-Dog and Shane were talking about something, and I had just let them pass. Twisting my hair up into the knot, I accidentally knocked right into Lori.

"Oh sorry!" I smiled.

"No prob-huh."

"What?" I asked, tugging on my bangs.

"Nothing dear, you just look, different."

"Different?"

"Yeah, different, and a little cheerful, for someone who should be as hung-over as my dear husband."

I snickered. "The Lawman hit the alcohol a little hard?"

"No harder then you!"

"I'm young. I'm supposed to hit the alcohol hard. It's the path of the kids my age."

"Is it also the path of the kids your age to submit to drunken hookups?"

Lori and I both turned to Jacqui, who winked at me. My face lost all color, I'm sure. "W-what?"

"You've got a lovely little glow to you there sweetpea. The same glow I saw on a certain pizza boy. Along with the hangover to boot."

"You and Glenn!" Lori cried.

"Shut up! Shut up!" I begged quietly, the two women laughed.

"Well, I gotta say, I was expecting it to be Daryl, if anyone."

"Jacqui, please, for the love of God, please stop talking. Please."

"Why? Is this not a hallway conversation?"

"No…no it's really not…there were some…circumstances that were met last night…and well…things happened that weren't supposed too…and I would really rather that the entire camp didn't discuss me and Glenn over breakfast!"

"The entire camp, or just one part of the camp?" Lori asked. "A specific redneck for example."

"Please." I whispered. "It was one of those things, you know, and-"

"And you don't want Daryl to know. Meaning, we can't tell any of them. Because of that whole, 'bro-code' thing. Right?" Jacqui raised an eyebrow.

"As weird as that sounded, coming from you, yes. I want to avoid the bro-code issue." I pressed my fingers against my temple.

"Alright Cali, we'll keep your little secret. Let's just hope the boys are too hung over to notice the glow."

"Is there really a glow?"

"Yes, yes there is."

"Well, in that case, Lori, you got it too." I smirked, and made my way towards the room we ate dinner in last night. The two women followed me, Lori stammering, and Jacqui chuckling.

The table looked the same as last night, except everything was actually in focus now. Well, that was nice. I walked over, and took my seat next to Jacqui, and a bottle of Advil was passed right to me. I pulled out three, and knocked them back.

"Hung over?" Sophia asked me.

"Yeah."

"My mommy said that wine makes good people go crazy."

"Really?" I cut my eyes towards Carol, who only smiled at me apologetically.

"When it's true, it's true."

"Yeah, well, your mommy has a point Sophia. Wine makes sane people do stupid stupid things."

"If it makes sane people crazy, does it make you normal?" Carl sneered at me.

"Boy, if the very idea of moving didn't make me feel sick…I would chase your butt up and down these halls."

"Raincheck." Carl smiled.

Lawman walked in then, with a mumbled 'morning.'

"Are you hung over?" Carl asked. Lawman didn't answer. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom, is right." He smiled.

"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori snickered.

"Eggs!" T-Dog practically sang. I winced hardcore. The man was loud. There was no denying that. "Bet you didn't know, protein-" he gestured to Glenn. "Helps hangovers. Right there Cali?"

"A greasy cheeseburger always hit spot for me."

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked as I handed him the Advil.

"Jenner. He thought we would need it. Some of us more then others." Lori explained.

"Ugh." Glenn kept his head down. "Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever let me drink again."

Shane walked in then, with three wicked looking scratches on his neck. "I must have done it in my sleep."

"Must have been some bad dream." I mentioned, from where I was shoveling eggs onto my plate. Let's see if this protein thing was true.

"I've never seen you do that before."

"Wasn't like me at all."

Luckily for Shane, Jenner decided to walk in and save him further interrogation. Dale turned towards him. "Hello Doctor, the last thing I want to do is attack you with questions first thing…"

"But?" Jenner smiled.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea said, as Daryl finally walked in.

And not exactly looking happy.

"Yeah, of course." Jenner grabbed his coffee cup. "Come with me, I might be able to explain better with some visuals."

He headed off towards the big room from last night, and the camp slowly began to migrate with him. I thought about it, but I needed the rest of my protein first. I saw Daryl pop open another bottle of Southern Comfort, and pour some in his coffee, before following the crowd.

"Hey." I muttered. He only looked at me.

"Mornin'" He answered as he took a pull off the coffee. I scratched the back of my neck.

"I uh, I wanted to say I'm sorry. For the whole…bitch attack last night."

"Dun' worry 'bout it. Tha' whole 'angry state of shock' thing wit ya." he answered, not looking at me.

"Yeah, well, either or, I'm still sorry. I was just feeling crappy."

"Yeah, well, from the talk of th' biddies, sounds like you perked up real quick." I narrowed my eyes, and got up. "You coming?"

"After ya, Nia."

.:.

"What you're about to see, only few people got too." Jenner said as a visual came up to the screen. It showed a bunch of blue, but that was about the only thing I could gather from it.

The brain came into the screen, and I listened as Jenner explained the lights of the brain, that's where people, humanity, comes from. A bunch of wires in your head created who you are. Everything you are, and everything you ever will be, was on that screen.

"You gonn' make sense? Ever?" Daryl asked, staring at the screen.

Jenner went off again, explaining that the impulses were in control of everything. That was who this TS-19 was. That was who we all were. Right there, summed up in the simplest way possible.

We really were creatures of impulse.

"This is the playback of the visual." Jenner explained.

"This person died? Who?"

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten, infected an allowed us to observe the process." Jenner sighed, and turned back towards the screen. "VI, scan foreword to the next first even."

"Scanning."

The visual changed, and the bright blue brain from before was spider webbed with a darkness, that made my body shiver just looking at it. It looked sinister, and somehow, managed to sum up the only way this thing could look.

"What is that?" Glenn asked.

"It attacks the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands shut down, the brain hemorrhages, and then, the major organs. Then, death." Jenner bowed his head. "Anything you ever were, or ever will be, gone."

Could it really happen that quick?

Did Amy stop being Amy the moment her heart stopped beating?

Did my parents forget the layout of the land that they had worked so hard for as soon as the lights went out?

Did Wade stop loving me the moment the Walker's disease shut down his brain?

Was our humanity really that fragile? That one millisecond could take it away? One wrong move and we're done for?

That was the most poor planning I had ever heard of. Humans are creatures of impulse, yet we're that fragile? The very basis of humanity was being allowed to make mistakes. That was what all of us had been told from day one, wasn't it?

You're allowed to make mistakes. You have too. After all, no one is perfect.

Yet, here in this new existence, perfection was demanded. We were trapped.

The only way any of us would be able to survive, would be to not be human. How are we supposed to do this? How could we possibly survive?

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked, her voice drowning in innocence. Carol could only manage a choked yes in reply.

The world was crashing down on Camp Clueless, and tears threatened my eyes. As powerful as these people who had become my family had seemed to me when the had run into the camp, hell bent on saving their loved ones, they all seemed just, so breakable now.

Andrea sniffed. "She lost someone. Two days ago. Her sister." Lori explained to Jenner.

"I lost somebody too, I know how devastating it is." It had been the first time that he had sounded actually sincere about anything he said. "Scan foreword to the second event."

The visual changed again, and the emptiness and darkness of the brain, was lit up, near the center. Blood red lights.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.

"That's not possible." I whispered.

"It's not. It just restarts the brain stem." Jenner turned to look at us. "Basically, it's enough to get them up and moving."

"But they're dead?" Rick asked.

"Look, you tell me!"

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

"Dark, lifeless, dead. Everything else, the human part, the you part. That doesn't come back. Just a shell, driven by mindless impulses."

Then, a flash raced across the screen, right through the head of TS-19.

But as soon as I pass, Coach's putting a bullet in my brain, and throwing me in the Kiln.

"Oh God," I moaned, and leaned harder against a row of computers. I brought my hands up to my face and covered it.

I couldn't see anymore of this. What before had been theories, and ideas and even long shots about what was happening to the people we loved had just become fact. It was so much easier to deal with when it had been an idea. Now it was a tangible thing.

Because the first one was a lie. Second one's th' truth. Truth always hurts more.

It was too real. Everything was too real now.

Death was replacing life. How did we just accept that? How could we?

That idea went against everything that had we had been raised to believe. That we had the instinct to believe.

"So it's not just here. There's nothing, anywhere. Is that what you're telling me?" Andrea asked, Jenner didn't respond.

"Jesus." Jacqui whispered.

"Man, I wann' git shit faced drunk." Daryl moaned, leaning against a counter and covering his eyes. "Again."

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you, and I hate to ask you one more question, but that clock, it keeps counting down. What happens when it reaches zero?"

"The basement generators run out of fuel."

"And then?"

Jenner left, and Lawman looked up. "VI, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, then it's cause for system wide decontamination."

Well, that just sounded bad.

.:.

I shuffled down the hall, looking for something that could distract myself long enough to get what I could only imagine were Wade, and my parent's deaths out of my head. I wanted an out, but an out that wouldn't kill me.

No matter how strong the desire to die was, the desire to live was so much stronger.

"Nia."

I winced, and stopped walking. I couldn't turn around though, I was too afraid. "Yeah?"

"Com're." I turned, and saw Daryl leaning against a doorframe. A bottle in his hand. Well, looked like he was getting shit faced again. I walked over towards him, and stood opposite of him.

"Yeah?"

"Ya okay?"

"What?" I asked, sure my jaw was on the ground. He looked at me funny.

"Are ya okay? Ya were kinda a mess when I left."

"Oh…yeah. I got better. I'm good now. It was just, a very very long-I mean hard- I mean difficult. It was a difficult night."

Now he was looking for something. Damn it! I had been in the clear, now, it was just, confusion. He narrowed his eyes, looking for the weakness. "Whut happened after I left?"

"Nothing. I passed out."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So the chink passed out on top of you on accident?"

"What?"

"Ya think I wasn't gonn' check on ya? Ya were drunk off two asses! I show up 'round five and ya and yer fuckin' chink were all cuddled up on the couch. Room stank."

My face turned bright red, and I looked down. "Daryl-"

"Jesus Nia, whut the fuck is this? Ya that desperate, ye'll fuck the first thing tha' moves? Come on!"

"Shut up!" I hissed, not knowing who was around.

"Naw, I don't think I will. See, here's th' thing. Ya went and fucked somebody-"

"WHY DO YOU EVEN CARE?" I countered, fists clenched. "If I recall, your exact words were Whatever kid. Not like yer my problem anyways. Great to know you care. Glad that I'm nothing more then just a kid!"

"Ya are more then jus' a kid-"

"What am I then?" I asked, voice quieter this time. "Because whatever game we're playing here, it's really fucking with my head. We're friends, we're mad, we're against a tree, but we're not enough for anywhere else? What the hell are we?"

The hunter only looked away, and stared at the carpet. My heart broke a little.

"So there's nothing?"

"How could there be sumthin'?" he asked, finally. "Yer just goin' off wit whoever will take ya. Whatever, maybe Merle was right about ya! Just some spoiled little fuck who will use and abuse anyone she can! Fine, but I can't handle-"

"It was a mistake! Are you going to brand me with a fucking Scarlet A for this? But then again, that was for adultery, and you can't even put a name to what we are."

"Look here kid-"

"I. Am. Not. A. Kid!" I growled. Daryl opened his mouth to respond, when the lights cut out, and the air stopped blowing. We looked at each other, then he swung out of the door.

"Whut's goin' on? Why'd everything turn off?"

Viktorskrumpet: I'm glad you like Cali, and her flaws :] it's not fun if the human isn't human right? Hope you enjoyed!

TheSceneIsDead- Yes! I rather enjoy that you were in shock xD that's what I was going for! It was just a bonus that you happened to review too! I feel special!

Rickii101- Drunk Glenn kicks major ass. Hung over Glenn is adorable!

GingerGidget- Yes! The shock and awe was achieved! Huzzah!

Willoeshine- I know you've been hinting at Cali/Glenn since the beginning, and since you were such a loyal review, I felt like I owed you. :]] I love you.

TayaHearts- Oh, just wait until Daryl gets a hold of Glenn!

ShiveringTree- Can you say awkward bus ride? :]

WillowRavenBloodstone- Exactly! You gotta get some when you can! And don't worry about the next season thing, I heard that the creators signed him with a contract ;) amen!

Lucy Freebird- Don't worry, I do love my Reedus. He'll end up winning :]

Lydia- Yay for passion! And DUDE THAT BANNER WAS AMAZING! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT CALI'S SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE! Now all we need to do is get her that gun ;)

PeytonLane-He's just getting started! And yeah, as much a asshole as Daryl is, he didn't seem like the take advantage of type.

Constanlylost- OMG YOUR REVIEW MADE ME CRY FROM LAUGHING! "HE'S ASEXUAL TO ME!" OMG, THAT WAS THE GREATEST. So, for you, I didn't add any Glenn!smut :] didn't wanna scare you away!

Amanda- I'm just a romantic at heart :] and lol, your review made me cry! It was so funny! And a brilliant point, well, Daryl won't be able to hold out next time.

ScarletSometimes-Sorry about that! My spelling has problems sometimes.

CantCatchTomorrow- I'm honored that you like it :DDDD

Moonlight Drive- Thank you! Thank you for being happy for Glenn!

So review! :DDDD