Ch.14

I walk back to my room to quickly gather up my stuff. Daryl follows me to my room. "Mae, what are you doing?" he stops me in my tracks. "We need to gather our stuff. I don't wanna be in here when and if it blows." I cry out at him.

Daryl gives me a worried look, and he grabs my hands to stop me from packing. I stop what I'm doing to stare at our joined hands. He raises my chin up to meet his eyes. "If it's true, we'll find a way out. I'm not going to let you die here." he tries to calm me down.

Then the air coditioning and lights turn off. We both look up at the ceiling. "What was that?" I stare at the vent. "Don't know. If it has something to do with the generators..." Daryl trails off staring at step outside the hallway with everyone else.

"Uh, guys, something's wrong." Trevor pops his broken face out of his room. I cringe at the sight. He gets in step behind me, and Daryl glares at him to go away. Daryl tries to ignore Trevor as much as possible.

Daryl's not about to put up a fight, especially when he's more concerned with getting answers. "Why is the air conditioning off?" Lori asks Jenner as he turns the corner. "And the lights in our room." Andrea adds.

"What's going on? Why is everything turned off?" Daryl questions Jenner. "Section five is shutting itself down." Jenner continues walking through the halls. We follow and Daryl runs up behind him.

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean? Hey, man, I'm talking to you!" Daryl tries to stop Jenner in his tracks. I follow Daryl down the hallway as he continues throwing question after question.

"Daryl, it's starting. What do we do?" I reach out to him. I can sense Trevor getting closer to me as we bound down a set of stairs. I start to tense up as I feel his breath on my neck. "Daryl." I call out to him scared. He notices Trevor closing in on me and grabs my arm pushing me in front of him sending Trevor another glare. I ease up a bit knowing Daryl's loking out for me.

Rick and the others fall in line behind us as they tell us what they found out about the generators."Jenner, what's happening?" Rick follows us. "The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second." Jenner explains.

I can't believe this is about to happen. We all look at Jenner scared. Daryl just looks pissed now. Jenner offers Daryl the bottle of alcohol he had, and he jerks the bottle out of his hands. He takes a swig from the bottle.

"Daryl, easy. I need you not drunk for this." I stand in front of him with a hand on his chest. He looks at me apologetically and notices Trevor coming closer. They both glare at each other.

I'm surprised those two haven't started fighting yet. On the other hand, this situation is more dire - our safety is more important. I try to keep Daryl in check every time he tries to jump Trevor.

Jenner explains that the French were the last ones that fought against the virus. They were almost to a solution until the same thing happened that's happening now - generators ran out of juice.

"Lori, get our things. Everybody grab your things. We're getting out of here now!" Rick commands at everyone. I grab onto Daryl's arm who stares at me with fear in his eyes. "Come on." he grabs my hand dragging me towards the hall.

Before any of us can reach our rooms, a wall shuts us in the room. "Doc, what's going on?" Daryl yells over his shoulder. I grasp his hand tighter. "He locked us in!" Glenn yells over everyone's panic.

I can see the cogs in Daryl's brain churning. "You son of a bitch! You locked us in here!" Daryl lets go of my hand as he storms up to Jenner. I follow him the whole way. Trevor runs up, too. "What the hell, man! You're putting us all in danger!" he screams while Jenner ignores him.

Daryl raises his fist to punch Jenner. "Daryl, please!" I yank his fist away. Shane and T-dog jump on Daryl. "Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick tries to persuade him.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." Jenner smooths out his lab coat as he explains why he can't open the doors.

"Well, open the damn things." Dale comments. "That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that door closed, It wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way." Jenner reaponds.

We all look towards Jenner scared. "What are we gonna do?" I stare at Daryl with panic written all over my face. He doesn't answer, just glares at Jenner before turning to me. "We'll find a way out." he reassures me.

Trevor runs over to me. "Mae, we need to get out of here! I can't lose you again!" he reaches out to grab my hand. "Leave me alone! I'm not going with you! I stay with my group!" I yell at him.

Daryl looks over and shoves Trevor away. "What did I tell you, asshole?" he growls. "She's my girlfriend! You're just her standing bodyguard! I should be the one protecting her now!" Trevor pokes Daryl in the chest.

Daryl narrows his eyes at him. "She stays with me! When we get out of this hellhole, we're leaving your ass! Trust me!" Daryl pulls me into his chest still glaring at Trevor.

I begin to tear up. We're losing time. "We don't have time for this. We need to get out of here now." I look up at Daryl with tears in my eyes. "She's right." Trevor sighs and I let out a sob. Carol holds Sophia tight, and Rick runs over to his family.

"I told you the building's gonna blow up." I sob into Daryl's chest. He pulls me away to stare into my face. "I will get us out of here, okay?" he stares deep into my eyes. He rubs my unbruised cheek, and I let out a sigh.

Trevor folds his arms and lets out a huff at our interaction. I had almost forgotten that he was standing beside us. Daryl tells me to go stand with Lori and Carol as the men find a way out.

Daryl picks up the alcohol he sat down on a table and takes another swig. "Open the damn door!" Daryl yells after throwing the bottle against the wall. The glass shatters and its contents seep into the floor. The men try to break down the door Jenner locked us behind. He doesn't seem to care about life anymore. He's given up.

"It won't open!" Trevor announces. "Those doors are made to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner comments. Daryl runs up to him with an axe and I put my hands over my mouth. "Well, you're head ain't!" Daryl yells swinging the axe at him. I let out a scream.

"Whoa! Whoa! Daryl! Just back up!" Rick and Shane yell trying to stop Daryl from cutting off Jenner's head. Daryl paces around trying to calm down. I run up to him holding his face in my hands and he calms down a bit. I smile at him and rub his cheek. "Don't fight. Get us out." I whisper.