The situation spiraled out of control.
The men were taking turns smashing fire axes into the shutters but not even T-dog, the most physically imposing survivor - could make a dent in the glass.
The women were either inconsolable as they clutched their children or desperately trying to hold it together and failing.
Victoria kept her distance from Jenner. She fought the urge to smash his stupid face into a monitor - her hand hurt but the bruise forming under Edwin's eye made the pain worth it.
"You should have left well enough alone." Edwin complained. "It would've been so much easier."
Lori glared at the scientist, clutching her crying son against her chest tightly as she spat, "Easier for who?"
"All of you. You know what's out there; a short, brutal life and an agonizing death." He shifted around, pointing at Andrea. "You. Your sister. What was her name?"
"Amy."
"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it-"
"Stop goading them into it, asshole." Victoria whipped around, looking at Jenner with a disgusted sneer. "They don't want this."
Jenner stood as Victoria approached, his eyes turning icy. "You just don't understand."
"Please, enlighten me."
"No one is coming for us." Edwin hissed. "No one is going to fix this. Everyone you've ever loved is dead! You're just too much of a coward to face the truth - we're all as good as dead anyways!"
"You know jackshit." Victoria stepped up to the scientist and straightened to her full height, which was unimpressive then his much taller stature, and curled her lips in distain. "These people are survivors. They want to outlast this bullshit apocalypse. No one is listening to you, man, because you're the coward here. Not me."
She backed up, returning to her place against the railing as her chest heaved with unrestrained ire.
As the Sheriff joined them on the platform, Jenner shifted his attention.
"You've seen it." Edwin said to Rick. "Is that what you want for your wife and son?"
"I don't want this."
Shane braced himself against the console by Rick and dropped the axe with a sharp breath. "Can't make a dent."
As if Shane said something funny, Jenner chucked. "Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."
"Well your head ain't!" With an axe raised above his head, Daryl flung himself at the scientist.
T-dog and Dale intercepted the hillbilly before he could reach the man, grabbing his arms and tugging him back.
"Just back up." Rick flanked the men from the front. "Back up!"
Without breaking a sweat, T-dog snatched the weapon from Daryl before shoving the hick further down the platform.
Daryl spat at Jenner before stalking off the platform.
Too calm for a man in his position, Jenner addressed Rick with a deep frown. "You do want this. Last night you said, you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."
Lori stared at her husband, slack-jawed. "What?"
"You really said that?" Shane scoffed. "After all your big talk?"
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick implored his wife.
"There is no hope." Jenner persisted. "There never was."
"There is 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 interrupted the Sheriff with a fiery glare.
"Listen to your friend." Jenner leaned against the terminal. "She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our..." He glanced up, searching for the right word, "extinction event."
"This isn't right." Carol openly wept against her daughter. "You can't keep us here!"
"One tiny moment, a millisecond, no pain."
She stood then, lifting the terrified child with her. "My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this!"
"Wouldn't it be kinder?" Jenner asked as she backed away. "More compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"
"You know what, man?" Victoria had just about enough of his prophetic bullshit. "Why don't you take your kindness and shove it up your-"
"Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way." Shane pumped his shotgun as he brushed passed the Sheriff. "Open the doors." He aimed at Jenner, forcing the man back into the chair. "Or I'm gonna blow your head off." Shane shoved the shotgun in Jenner's face until the barrel was practically on his mouth. "Do you hear me?"
"Brother. Brother." Without caution, Rick approached Shane from behind. "This is not the way you do things. We will never get out of here."
"Shane. You listen to him." Lori demanded.
"It's too late."
Rick shook his head. "He dies, we all-"
Shane screamed and pulled the trigger, again, and again, and again, the bucks firing off into the now destroyed console behind Jenner's head.
Rick seized the shotgun from his Deputy and smacked him in the face with the stock. Shane collapsed back with Rick standing over him, threatening him with his own weapon.
"Are you done now? Are you done?"
"Yeah." Shane turned his head and spat a glob of blood before glaring back up at Rick. "I guess we all are."
As Daryl returned to beating the shutters with another fire axe, Victoria could feel her time running out.
She had to do something, no matter what Jenner babbled, the survivors didn't deserve to die with a madman holding them hostage.
"Edwin, man, c'mon, you can't seriously believe this is the right thing to do."
"It is the right thing to do."
"Christ, listen to yourself for a minute. What are you trying to accomplish?"
"I'm doing what you couldn't do - I'm putting you out of your misery, Victoria. No more waiting, no more wondering. It's the humane thing to do."
Victoria tilted her head. He was reaching, she realized, grasping at straws to not only convince them but himself too.
"No. The humane thing was dedicating yourself to finding a cure-"
"Not because I wanted to." Jenner snapped.
"Why now? What was it all for then?"
Jenner lifted himself off the chair with the most passionate expression Victoria had witnessed from him. "I made a promise to her." He pointed at the big screen. "To my wife."
"Test subject nineteen was your wife?" Lori breathed over shocked murmuring.
With a defeated sigh, Jenner nodded. "She begged me to stay as long as I could. How could I say no?"
Victoria barely remembered the day his wife died. Other people were fleeing or shooting themselves in the hallways and by the end of the night, it was just Edwin and herself left. She couldn't recall meeting Candace in all the chaos but Jenner used to speak about her often - usually in a drunken stupor.
"She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody." Jenner gestured to the screen, becoming agitated as he ranted. "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."
"You can do something, Jenner." Victoria insisted. "Look around you, all we want is a choice. How could you take it away from us like it was taken away from your wife?"
Jenner regarded Victoria as if he was seeing her for the first time. The shadow clouding his face lightened for a brief moment as he grumbled. "I told you, topsides locked down. I can't open those." He stepped around Victoria and typed something into the untouched computer.
Daryl yelped as the shutters lifted mid-swing. He stumbled through the doorway, shouting, "Come on!"
As everybody scrambled for the door, Edwin turned to Rick with a smile.
"There's your chance. Take it."
"I'm grateful."
"The day will come when you won't be."
Victoria could hear what Jenner whispered to Rick as they shook hands but whatever is was, by the look of Rick's dumbfounded stare, she didn't want to know.
"Hey!" Glenn screamed from the doorway. "We got four minutes left! Come on!"
Lori grabbed a handful of Rick's shirt and dragged him away. Together, the couple fled up the ramp, passed Jacqui and T-dog who where arguing near the exit.
"You're staying." Jenner commented from his station.
"You're right. I'm a coward. But I'm a coward making the choice for myself." She stared hard at Jenner, proud of the big bruise he would die with before turning away. She was perfectly happy to spend her last moments ignoring the asshole.
On the other side of the platform, Andrea and Dale were locked in a heated argument about leaving. By the looks of it, Andrea was running with a glare that could melt ice.
By the destroyed console, Jacqui sat next to Jenner and finally looked at peace as they watched the timer together.
"This is it." Victoria whispered to herself. "This is how you die"
Before she could think too hard about her final moments, Rick suddenly shouted from the doorway.
"Shane!"
Victoria spun around as the Deputy darted down the ramp with his duffel bag and shotgun slung over his shoulders.
"What the hell are you doing?" She cried out.
"Shane!" Rick lingered in the doorway until his frantic wife and son dragged him away. He spared one final look at his best friend before following the others.
"Go with them." Victoria demanded as the survivors finally disappeared down the hallway. "Go with them!"
Shane stood at the bottom of the platform. "Not without you."
"Yes! Without me." Victoria argued as Shane climbed up to her. "Christ. I'm a stranger! You're risking your life for a stranger."
"A stranger who wanted a chance just like the rest of us."
Victoria frantically shook her head. "This is my choice. There is nothing left for me out there. I can't." She took a step back from Shane, annoyed as he took a step forward. "I won't. Call me a coward but-"
"You ain't a coward. Lemme tell you something, I get it. Out there, it ain't easy but it's a hell of a lot better then dying here without a fight." Shane offered his hand to her with an encouraging nod. "There's gonna be something out there for you, even if it's just proving Jenner wrong. Please come with me. I got your back.