"'ey, you okay?"
I looked at Daryl, who was staring at me.
I realized then, I was almost hyperventilating. My palms were sweating, and my mouth was bone dry.
"Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked the disembodied computer.
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." It may have just been my imagination but her tone when she said that sounded like someone talking down to an idiot.
Rick looked around at everyone before he motioned to me, "Eve, Glenn, T-Dog, Shane you come with me. Everyone else, go back to your rooms."
"What're you doing?" Lori asked as I moved around her.
"We're gonna find out what's going on" Rick answered as we went past them, towards the door with a 'stairwell' sign above it.
I pushed the door open and slid down the railing, while they all took the steps, until I reached the bottom flight and waited for them to catch up.
"Decontamination. What does that mean?" Glenn's question echoed off the walls with everyone's footsteps as they reached me.
"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that" Shane walked past me to look at the map on the wall with Rick.
"What's wrong with him? Seriously. Is he nuts, medicated, what?" T-Dog glanced between me and Glenn.
I'mma go with mentally unstable. He should be medicated.
Depression is a serious thing, and if Jenner's not depressed I don't know what could qualify.
"In there" Rick pointed behind me and I turned as he walked past me, to open a door I hadn't seen.
I followed behind Glenn into what looks like a giant boiler room, but I'm gonna take a leap here and assume they're generators.
"Check that way" Rick instructed. He and Shane went to the left and I motioned for Glenn and T to go right, while I took the center aisle.
I know this place is "safe" I have this nagging feeling something's gonna jump out at me.
I hope -for their own sake- the others don't get too close at the moment.
I went down my section, checking every drum I went past and after the first 6 were empty my stomach dropped. The further I went, the faster I went. Not even bothering to stop anymore, I just pushed the drums as I went passed and every single one of them gave little to no resistance.
There's an alarming number of flammable warnings in here.
I jumped out of my skin when the lights suddenly turned off.
I don't like this. Underground in the dark.
I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand and leaned against a fuel drum; Trying to steady my breathing. I don't like this, I can't— calm down, just breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth. These buildings are designed to withstand tanks, not even a jumbo-jet crashing into the roof could bring this building down. I gripped the fuel drum tighter, focusing on the pressure in my fingers.
"Eve?!" Glenn's voice startled me and I whacked my wrist on the drum, making a loud echo. Pain spiked through my nerves, all the way up to my elbow as if I'd hit my funny bone.
Son of a— I clutched my wrist, looking around. It's too dark to see much but it's not pitch black, at least.
I turned and whistled to let them know I heard, while I felt my way back down the aisle.
"Emergency lighting, on" lights near the floor turned on and the second I could see again, I bolted to find them and get the Hell out of here. I should've known this wasn't a good idea. Why did I come down here? What did I think was gonna happen? —I wasn't thinking. That's the problem. You don't need 5 people to check a generator room. They would've been perfectly fine if I'd stayed up top.
Glenn and T-Dog came up next to me, jogging/running at my pace until we reached Rick and Shane.
"You guys kill the lights?" Glenn asked the two who were hunched over a fuel drum.
"Nah, it just went out" Shane answered
"Anything?" Rick asked
"Yeah, lot a dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count" T-Dog answered. I shook my head when Rick looked at me, hoping no one had noticed my fidgeting in the dark.
"It can't be down to just that one" Shane stared incredulously at the dial stuck at the E, on the final generator in front of us.
I can't— I've gotta get outta here before I have a full blown panic attack. My anxious tapping foot sent me towards the the door and racing up the stairs before anyone could stop me.
The guys were on my heels all the way to the top. I guess I'm not the only one with issues about the creepy basement after all.
We reached the top of the stairs and not ten seconds after we got out of the stairwell, Lori called for her husband.
We linked up with everyone who was following Jenner back to the big room while Rick was at the front, confronting Jenner for some answers.
"What'd you find down there?" Daryl fell into step next to me, looking over me with his eyebrows knit together.
"Time running out" I shook my head, in an attempt to distract from my current...state.
We reached the platform with all the computers and Jenner stopped at the steps to take a drink from a bottle before he handed it to Daryl.
Daryl took it spitefully, spilling most of what little was left, in the reckless gesture.
"It was the French." Jenner looked at Andrea.
"What?" she stepped forward.
"They were the last 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." Jenner climbed the 4 steps.
"What happened?" Jacqui asked and Jenner stopped, turning.
"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice." Jenner went to walk but did a double take.
"The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Jenner walked to a computer on the far side of the platform.
"Let me tell you somethin'—" Shane went to go after him but Rick stopped him.
"To Hell with this Shane, I don't even care. Lori" Rick looked back at us, "Grab our things, everybody get your stuff, we're getting out of here NOW!" Rick shouted, making most everyone flinch and head for the door.
An alarm began to blare before anyone got 10 feet and a big clock appeared on the giant screen.
"30 minutes to decontamination"
"Doc what's goin' on here, doc?" T-Dog yelled over the alarm.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick, get your stuff. Let's go now!" Shane got everyone back on task.
"Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn shouted. Daryl barrelled past me back towards Jenner and I jolted forward out of reflex, trying to stop him before he got there but damn this man can move when he's motivated.
"Shane! SHANE!" Rick shouted
Shane caught Daryl, just before I did and T-Dog jumped in to help as soon as we had hold of him.
I pryed Daryl's grip from the back of Jenner's lab coat while Shane pulled Daryl back, and T-Dog helped keep him there.
It wasn't easy to stop Daryl from smashing that empty bottle over Jenner's head but as soon as I got the bottle from him, he calmed considerably.
How blitzed is he? He wasn't even like this back at camp when we found out Jim—...
Rick stalked towards Jenner, "Jenner, open that door now."
"There's no point. Everything top side is locked down, the emergency exits are sealed" Jenner refused
"Well open the damn things" Dale argued
"That's not something I control; the computers do" Jenner shook his head. "I told you, once that front door closed it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that."
Everyone fell silent but it wasn't a good, or tolerable, silence. The panic was tangible. Pants mingling with fear and adrenaline in the tense atmosphere was almost suffocating.
"It's better this way." Jenner stated, with a twinge of unease.
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick demanded.
Jenner shied away from his gaze, turning his attention to the computer in front of him instead.
Shane slammed his hand on the desk, making Jenner jump and Rick yelled, "What happens in 28 minutes!?"
"You know what this place is!?" Jenner shouted in Rick's face before I could even register his standing.
"We protected the public from very, nasty STUFF!" he yelled in Shane's face.
"Weaponized smallpox!" he turned, looking at the rest of us.
"Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! EVER!" Jenner yelled.
Jenner sat down, composing himself again.
"In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack for example. HIT's are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
I covered my mouth with my hand, trying to wrap my head around what he was saying.
"HIT's?" Rick asked
"Vi, define" Jenner commanded.
"HIT fuel air explosives consist of a two stage arousal ignition that produces a blast way of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum pressure affected ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees where the greatest damage to structures and loss of life is desired"
Oh God
"Sets the air on fire" Jenner clarified grimly
I looked around at everyone's faces. Carol and the kids crying, everyone in a state of shock. I didn't notice I had grabbed Daryl's shirt until he looked at me.
My hands were shaking so bad I couldn't stop them, even if I wanted to.
"No pain" Jenner muttered. "An end to sorrow, grief…regret"
Jenner looked at Rick, "Everything"
I took a rushed breath and forced my hand to let go of Daryl's shirt and not seconds after I did, Daryl took the bottle from my hand and threw it as hard as he could at the titanium door, keeping us trapped.
I walked down the platform, gripping the metal railing until my knuckles were well past white; Trying to pull my head together but failing.
My worst nightmares coming true. I knew my life wouldn't end well and I've known my entire life, life is one cruel twist of fate after another but I never imagined it would be like this.
Burned and buried alive…
Daryl and Shane started hacking at the door with fire axes but it was barely even making sparks.
There's gotta be a way out— there's always a way out. Always...
Everything around me started fading. The edges of my vision going black, and I couldn't hear anything anymore. I was going numb. All the voices, the arguments, the struggling, the mania, all of it was drowning in the sound of my own heartbeat in my ears.
I was jolted from shut down when Daryl shouted, "Well your head ain't!" and I looked up just in time to see him ready to bring that axe down on Jenner's skull and 4 others were struggling to stop him.
They managed to push Daryl away and he backed off, circling like a shark at the back, when he looked at me and stopped mid-step for a second.
He's giving me that 'u good?' look.
I grit my teeth and let go of the railing, squeezing my fists at my sides and nodded; moving closer to the group.
I don't know how or why that of all things worked but it was the wake up call I needed, and I'm not about to question it right now.