So here it is the last chapter, It starts out with a flashback. The next story will be called (End of the world).. yeah I know original. Anyway I thank you so much for following and reviewing this story and I hope to see you with the new one. P.S guys this was a lot longer than I expected it to be, I mean It passed the 4,000 words mark. So please bare with me. I promise future chapters will never be this long again.
Co-Written by Cj1815
*Eli*
I'm sitting in one of those uncomfortable plastic chairs watching Rose draw in her coloring book.
Something bad is happening, I know because Dad pulled me out of school.. Somethings wrong with Mom, I think its something to do with her heart, Daryl tried to explain but it ain't sticking with me. Mom's been sick a long time, since Rosie was a newborn, she's four now. I still don't understand most of whats happening but I know it's bad.
Rose must have finished her picture because before I know it she's crawling up into my lap, playing with my wrist band. I watch Daryl pace up and down the hallway, Merle went to get coffee an hour ago and hasn't come back yet so I assume he's gone.
I hate hospitals, the smell, the colors. They mean something bad is happening. Dad comes out the door, running a hand down his face, his eyes are red and puffy. But I've never seen Dad cry before.
"Hey Eli, Mom wants to talk to ya a second," He says. his voice is weak, and he sounds so tired. I stand up, still holding Rose, I move to hand her to Dad but he just shakes his head and walked away. I frown at his back, but Daryl moves in, taking Rose out of my hands.
Stepping into the hospital room my eyes are drawn to her, She's pale, and her hairs a lot shorter than before, but still blond like Rosie's. There's wires all over her running to the machines that are keeping her alive. The bed dips as I sit beside her, and she opens her eyes. The pretty green in her eyes stands out against the paleness, it makes me sick to my stomach.
"Hey baby," She says, her voice is strained and rough. It makes my stomach hurt. I miss it when it was soft and she sang alot.
"Hey Mom." Her smile fades a little as she starts tracing my hand with hers, her eyes are all watery, this is really bad.
"I need to talk to you, ask you something OK, something really important," She says, the tears collecting in her eyes falls, sending them down her cheeks.
I nod , my throat tightening ,paying extra attention.
"You know that I'm really sick." she begins softly.. "The doctors can't help any more and pretty soon, I'll be going to heaven." She pauses for a minute as if letting her words sink in, "Your Daddy's gonna be a little messed up for awhile.. It will be hard for you too, but Rosie needs you now. She needs somebody to look after her," I nod, tears streaming down my face, Rose is only four, still a baby and needs somebody to take care of her.
I wipe my eyes roughly, gulping as my breath catches.
"She's your responsibility now OK, You have to take care of her promise," She asks.
"I promise," I say firmly, only for more tears to collect in my eyes.
"I love you Eli, I love you and your sister so much," She cries as her voice breaks.
"I love you to," I say through the knot in my throat.
"Be good OK, Be good for Dad and Daryl, and don't be mad at your Daddy if he's not the same for a little while, He's not as strong as you Eli, He won't be able to be without me as good as you can," She warns me. I nod, wiping my eyes again.
"I don't wanna be without you," I cry.
"Promise me," She says again, more desperate than before.
"I will," Then I lean down and bury my head in her shoulder, and cry harder when she starts shaking. It isn't fair, Its not fair why does she have to go. Why do people have to die if there not ready yet.
Rose. She sinks to the floor shaking and I wake up, I bend down grabbing her shoulders.
"Rosie its OK," I murmur brushing her hair out of her eyes. She moves her hands and stares up at me, blue eyes full of fear.
"We're gonna die," She mumbles.
"No no where not OK, Decontamination doesn't mean die. Just means Jenner's got some explaining to do," I assure her, wincing at how hopeless she sounds.
I lift her up off the floor, then meet Lori's eyes. "Is she OK," She asks with wide eyes. I look down at my sister, her eyes are glazed over, she's somewhere else.
While T-dog and Glenn, and Shane and Rick go down to the basement to check on the generators, I take Rose back to our room, along with the others.
"Are we gonna die," She asks as I sit her on the couch. It scared me how numb her voice sounded.
"No," I say bluntly, grabbing our bag off the bed, packing everything up.
"Then why are you packing," She asks.
"Just in case we have to leave in a hurry," I sigh.
"Eli I don't want to leave," She says sadly. "I don't want to be out there."
I toss the bag on the bed, sitting down beside her on the couch. "Were gonna be fine, alright. Your gonna be fine I promise," I assure her.
"Don't make promises you can't keep," She replies..her eyes never leaving mine.
"I can keep it." I said
Then the lights start to flicker. "See! I told you," She says loudly.
"Doesn't mean anything," I say getting aggravated. I turn to her, and she's glaring at me. "We're gonna be fine. Alright I promised and I don't break promises."
"You promised you'd bring Dad back but you broke that one!" She snapped.
"That wasn't my fault, I wasn't there to stop whatever happened!" I said raising my voice. "That was all Meryl's fault, If he hadn't been such a jerk, they might have come back."
"You promised just the same!" She yelled.
"Grow up Rose, sometimes thing don't work out! But this time I mean it, were going to be fine," I stood there breathing hard trying to make her understand, that's when I noticed the other raised voices coming from outside.
Opening up the door I watch Jenner walk fast down the hallway, the others behind him.
"Whats going on?" I ask.
"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down," Jenner says calmly, taking a bottle of whiskey out of Daryl's hand.
"Hey, hey, what the heck does that mean," Daryl says loudly. Jenner says nothing, just takes a swig from the bottle.
"Rosie come on," I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her up off the couch.
"See!" She says.
"Aright OK, something bad is happening but were gonna be OK," I admit through gritted teeth. She says nothing, just stares at Jenner as we head to the big room again.
The lights get dimmer, then new duller ones flicker up. "Hey Man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Daryl yells again.
I feel Rose squeeze my hand, I watch as her eyes dart around to each member of the group, pausing on Daryl and Sophia. We enter the big room the same time as Rick and the others join us, coming from a door on the other side of the stairs.
"You'd be surprised," Jenner says answering Daryl's question. We all walk down the stairs, going to join them, before Lori calls down to Rick. He motions for her to wait before he goes up to Jenner, getting beside him.
"Jenner what happening," He says angrily.
"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule," Jenner replies calmly, handing the bottle of Whiskey back to Daryl.
"What do you mean last possible second," Rose mumbles to herself, knowing its probably not the best time to speak up.
He pauses at the steps, leading to the big circle in the room with all the computers. He turns to Andrea, "It was the French."
"What?" Andrea asks.
"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 till the end. They thought they were close to a solution," He said matter factually.
"What happened?" Jackie asks. I wonder to, because it's been what, four months since it all started.
"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" He laughs mockingly. What does that mean, whats going to happen here.
"Let me tell you what-" Shane starts, before being cut off by Rick.
"Screw it, Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" He yells turning to all of us.
"Got it," I yelled, pulling my sister back up the stairs to get our stuff.
An alarm sounds, bouncing off the walls in every direction. The younger kids cover there ears while the rest of us turn to Jenner.
"Whats that," Shane and Carl both ask.
Then Vi speaks again, "30 minutes to decontamination."
*Rose*
I hold on to my brothers hand tightly, listening to the alarms.
"Doc, whats going on here," Dale demands.
Jenner walks over to one of the computers, and starts typing into a key pad.
"Everybody y'all heard Rick," Shane says. Eli starts pulling on my hands again, leading us back to our room to grab our stuff.
"Get your stuff! Lets go now!" Rick yells.
Glenn and T-dog yell for us to go to, and we all run for the door, until it slides shut with clang, sealing us in.
"No! Did he just lock us in, he locked us in," Glenn yells panicked.
"Eli!" I managed to say. I stare up at him and he looks panicked, searching for a way out.
"We've hit the thirty minute window, I'm broadcasting," Jenner says into the web cam on a computer.
"Carl!" Lori yells, holding her arms out for him.
"Mom!"
"Yousonofa**tch," Daryl yells, running at Jenner. I grab onto Eli's whole arm, hiding my eyes in his flannel shirt sleeve.
"Daryl No!," Eli yells.
"Shane Shane!" That's Rick, and then I hear fighting. I turn to see Rick and Shane both pulling my uncle away from Jenner, a whiskey bottle being held like a weapon.
"You locked us in here," he yelled, I don't think I've seen him the angry since they left Merle and Mark in Atlanta.
"No! Stop don't," T-dog says getting between Jenner and the bottle Daryl was threatening to throw at his head.
"You lying-," He starts.
"No no no no no," Shane says finally tossing him away towards the door.
"Hey Jenner, Open that door now!," Rick says angrily stepping away from my uncle and toward the Doctor.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed," Jenner explains.
"Well open the dang things," Daryl yells again, pacing back and forth.
"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way," Jenner says with a hint of anger in his voice.
"What is it! What happens in 28 minuets," Rick demands.
Jenner turns away from Rick and starts to type something into the computer. "Come on!," Eli yells.
Then Jenner stands up, very angry, "You know what this place is?! 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 screams. He breaths heavily a few minuets before collecting himself and sitting back down.
The group stands there stunned a few minuets before he speaks again, "In the event of a catastrophic power failure—in a terrorist attack, for example—H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out," He stats calmly.
"H.I.T.s?"Rick questions slowly.
"Vi define," Jenner says into nothing.
"H.I.T.s—high-impulse thermo baric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5,000 degrees and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
I wonder, how a voice with so little emotion can make somebody feel so many things. Fear, that sits in your chest like a rock, and then slowly fills your entire body. Anger, that someone can just take away our lives and react so calmly about it. Confusion, what would it be like out there in the future if we made it out. Then right back to fear. All these thing make me stand there emotionless, next to Eli who's breath has been knocked out of him. I look around the group, Carl is crying and Sophia too. I look up at Eli and he looks pretty close. Then the others, the women are all crying, except Andrea who's strangely calm. The men look angry, some like Glenn and Eli are close to breaking. Then it hits, we are all going to die, right here in this building in the next 25 minutes. Something close to a sob tears through my chest painfully, and it makes me lose my breath. I thought I didn't want to live in this world, but now I just want a chance.
"It sets fire to the air, no pain," Jenner says almost in a trance.
Eli's pulling me over to Carol and Sophia, who are both sitting on the ground crying. He pushes me down into Carols arms, Sophia grabbing my hand. I sit there and I shake and I watch my brother. Who's pacing back and forth running his hands through his hair and his lips are moving but I can't hear what he's saying.
"An end to sorrow, grief…regret. Everything," Grief for my Dad, but maybe he's not dead. Regret for being mad at him when he left camp, leaving me with Lori. Everything, no more Rose Marie or Elisha James Dixon. Gone.
Glass breaking, followed by my uncle yelling for Jenner to open the door. I just curl into my self, sobbing, trying to block everything that's happening.
Then I hear pounding, I turn to see Shane, T and my uncle hitting the doors over and over with axes, I caught myself wondering where they found the axes...like it really mattered..
"You should've left well enough alone, it would have been so much easier," Jenner says trying to calm us.
"For who," Lori asks him, she's sitting beside us, Carl held in her arms.
"All of you. You know what's out there. A short brutal life and an agonizing death," Jenner starts, then turn to Andrea, " Your—your sister—what was her name?" He asks.
"Amy," Andrea answers calmly. Her eyes seem almost glazed over.
"Amy"..he paused then continued. "You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that what you really want for your wife and son?" He asks Rick.
"I don't want this," Rick spats at him, backing up a bit.
"Can't make a dent," Shane grunts, still trying to open the door.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner said simply. A rocket launcher.
"Well your head ain't!" Daryl yells in a frenzy, running at Jenner with the axe. I cover my eyes again, encase Rick can't get him off this time. I hear struggling, Rick and Shane trying to calm him down, I open my eyes to see T-dog taking the axe away from him.
"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner replied in a calm voice.
Rick said that, Rick said that? I don't believe that, not Rick
Lori's eyes widen in shock, she stares at Rick as if he's a stranger.
"I had to keep hope alive didn't I," Rick says pleading, begging her to understand.
"There is no hope. There never was," Jenner says... But there is, I think to myself, there has to be, this surely isn't the end.
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here but somebody somewhere—," He tried before being cut off.
"What part of 'Everything Gone' don't you understand," Andrea asks him.
"But we're still here," I cried out. She looks at me, with what I think is surprise and pity.
"Do you really want your brother to have to feel what I feel when he loses you," Andrea asks. The tears won't stop they just come harder.
"Shut up! I'm not going to lose her," Eli yells, he's no longer pacing now but standing strong and determined, staring at Jenner with the hardest look I've ever seen. Even harder than when Dad came home drunk and started yelling stuff about Mom, Eli's glare shut him right up.
"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event," Jenner says, its almost like he's glad all this is happening.
I can't stop crying, I can't believe it's all going down like this Trapped inside the CDC with a mad man. Carols voice comes through the panic in my mind "This isn't right. You can't just keep us here," She sobs.
"One tiny moment—a millisecond. No pain," Jenner says trying to sooth her.
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this," Carol begs him. Sophia, she's my friend, my best friend because she's the only one I have.
"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate just to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner tries again.
"This isn't fair! We should get a chance to choose," Eli yells at him.
A gun cocks, I snap my head around to see Shane with his gun, heading for Jenner.
"Shane No!" Rick yells,trying to stop him but Shane pushes past him, heading strait for Jenner. He holds his shot gun right up to Jenner's face, Rick coming up beside him grabbing his shoulder.
"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here."
"Shane you listen to him!" Lori begs.
"Its to late," Shane says, keeping his finger on the trigger.
"He dies-," But Rick doesn't get to finish before Shane yells, turning the gun on the computer, shooting out every one. I cover my head with my hands as glass and smoke fly. Carol pulls me up and and I'm grabbed by Daryl and lifted up, he moves all the way to the back of the room, in front of the big door, before setting me down. I stand and watch in numb shock as Eli rushes to help Rick grab Shane.
"— we all die! Shane! Shane!" Rick begs.
Rick wrestles the gun away from Shane before bring the butt of the gun up and hitting him in the face with it, knocking him to the ground. Rick stood there over Shane with the gun raised getting ready to hit him again, we all stood there shocked watching him.
"Are you done now? Are you done?" He asks, showing him he'll hit him again if needed.
"Yeah, I guess we all are," Shane says quietly. I guess he's right.
He helps Shane up, handing the gun to T-Dog. He looks around the group before turning back to Jenner.
"I think your lying," he says calmly to Jenner.
"What?" Jenner asks confused.
"You're lying 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?" He asks again.
"It doesn't matter," Jenner says quietly.
"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" He pushes.
""Not because I wanted to," Jenner grit out. "I made a promise. To her. My wife," He admits, pointing to the computer screen with the image of the brain again.
I listen to Eli scoff as he comes closer, "Talking big about promises, yet you keep someone else from fulfilling there's," He says to himself, loud enough for Jenner to hear.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could how could I have said no," Jenner says aggravatingly.
"Go with your brother," Daryl's says pushing me toward Eli. I frown before I see him pick up the axe again, then I do what he said.
I wince each time his axe hit the door, but it wasn't going to make a dent. I run over to Eli, wrapping my arms around his waist and burying my face in his shirt. I don't want him to die, I don't want to die.
"She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss 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," Jenner snapped.
"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's—that's all we want—a choice, a chance," Rick begs, getting more and more desperate. I pull away from Eli to look up at the clock, ten minuets. Ten minuets before I die.
"Let us keep trying as long as we can," Lori begs. Eli reaches down and grabs my hand, leading me over to Glenn.
Jenner stops to think a moment,"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those," Jenner says calmly, typing on his key pad again. My heart lurches in my chest as the door my uncle had been beating on slides open, hope explodes inside me. Were gonna make it.
"Come on!" Daryl yells, keeping the axe in hand. Eli and Glenn, who's with Carl, and me run up the stairs, pausing to look back at the others.
"I'm grateful," Rick tells Jenner, Lori beside him.
"A day will come when you won't be," Jenner warns. I gulp before looking over at Eli.
"Lets go!" They both yell, to Jackie T-Dog and Rick and Lori. Jenner grabs Ricks hand and shakes it, before pulling him close and whispering something in Ricks ear.
"We've got four minuets left! Come on Come on!" Glenn yells, getting ready to grab Carl and run. Knowing me and Eli will follow him. T-Dog runs over, pulling Jackie beside him, until she pulls her arms away and he turn to look at her.
"No! I'm staying, I'm staying sweetie.," She tells T, putting a hand on his face.
"But that's insane!" T exclaims, tugging on her arm.
"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in the long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue. And no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out," She yells, starting to cry.
"T man come on, come on!" Shane yells, grabbing T's shoulder and dragging him away from Jackie. I bite my lip to keep from crying, Survive now and cry later.
Then Dale goes to get Andrea before she backs away. "I'm staying to," She says.
"Andrea no!" Pain fills his eyes as Dale begs her to come on. I feel Eli getting frustrated, shifting from foot to foot.
"Just Go! Go," Dale waves to the rest of us.
"No! Dale Come on," I scream, before Eli grabs my wrist pulling me along with the others. "Eli! Stop we can't leave him," I yell, trying to tug away from his grip. He stops though, and picks me up. "Dale! Please don't," I scream at him, before he disappearing from sight.
We run until were back in the lobby, T and Daryl start pounding on the window with the axe. Jenner said the doors won't work.
There's yelling and confusion as they try to figure out how to escape. I stand next to Eli, my chest heaving. Dale. We left Dale. Just like we left Jim.
"It won't break, Shane," T yells, tossing his axe to the floor and running off into another direction. "Daryl! Look out," he yells coming back into sight with a chair. My uncle moves just in time before T rams the chair into the glass, only for it to stand just as strong and mock us like the RV did.
"Move!" Shane yells, cocking his shot gun. He fires round after round into the window, each time making me jump, biting my lip so I won't yelp each time. I don't think I like guns very much.
"Jesus," Shane mutters angrily, finally giving up.
"The glass won't break?" Sophia squeaks, still holding her mom's hand.
I watch Carol as she digs into her bag, raising an eye brow as she runs up to Rick, still digging. "Rick I have something that might help!" She says nervelessly.
"Carol I don't think a nail files gonna cut it," Shane says sarcastically.
"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket," She says shakily pulling out of her bag a small hand grenade. I gaped and watched Ricks eyes widen.
"You've been carrying that thing around in your bag for a week!" I exclaimed. Rick grabs the grenade, pulling off the tab, the hesitating a second before running.
"Look out," That's what people yell, because a bombs about to go off.
"Get Down!" My uncle yells, before Eli pushes me to the floor. I press my hands over my ears. I'm guessing he does the same.
Then the bomb went off. I could feel the building vibrate, listened to the muffles explosion. I felt little shards of glass hit my face.
Then I'm being jerked up again, and we're jumping out the giant hole where the window used to be. We're running toward our cars, walkers heading right for us. We either dodge them or Shane shoots them.
Eli opens up his truck door, and I climb inside, him running around to the other side, slamming the door.
I look out the window and feel my heart skip a beat, Dale... Dale and Andrea, both of them come climbing out the window and they're running toward us.
"Get Down!" Someone yells, and someone slams me into the floor board, but not before I see yellow and orange flames come up out of the CDC.
I hit the floor of the truck, my chin hitting the hard, pain radiates up my jaw and I taste blood. I look up to see Eli staring out the front window, wide eyes, with fire reflecting in them. I raise up to look, gasping at what I see. The CDC is gone. Jackie and Jenner are gone.
"We're alive," I said breathlessly.
Eli turned and gave me a faint smile "Told ya," He replied, breathlessly. We sit there a minute, talking in the damage, the building just gone. Red flames and black smoke, reaching up to the sky. Then I hear cars start to crank up, and Rick pulls out in the lead. We all follow him away from the fire, away from what almost killed us.
I'm glad Jim didn't come with us, I'm glad he didn't have to see. Because him and Amy are in heaven with there families, happy. While were down here surviving.
"If we can survive that! We can survive anything," I exclaim.
"O yeah," Eli agrees. But still, I wonder whats next. Because I know its not going to get better anymore. I know the old world is gone. But Jenner is wrong, there's hope.
DONE AT LAST. Next story should actually be posted pretty soon but I've been having trouble with WiFi.