RJ's POV
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I could feel the sweat as it trickled down my forehead. It was one of the few downsides to drinking; The nightmares.
My eyes snapped open but I didn't dare to move a muscle. My sore eyes looked around the dark room. The leather beneath me told me that I wasn't there. We didn't have a leather couch.
"Christ," I mumbled as I sat up, my eyes squeezing shut for the raging headache. It felt like a jackhammer repeatedly echoing painfully through my skull.
Although I didn't want to, I knew I had to get up. I couldn't tell what time it was, but my body was so used to waking up early that I figured it was maybe seven or eight in the morning if I was lucky.
I got up and stumbled over towards the light switch. How I made it back to my room, I had no idea, the last thing I could remember was walking to Dixon's room so I wouldn't drink alone.
A part of me hoped that drunk me didn't piss him off, she was notorious for being able to piss off even the Pope.
My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but once the light turned on, I immediately shut them and placed my hands over them as I let out a groan. I made a mental note along with all the other ones to never drink again.
I trudged over to my bag that was sitting on the desk chair and pulled out whatever clean clothes were closest. When I reached to pull down for my shorts, it seemed that I'd gone along with my plan to pass out in my underwear. No wonder there was a breeze.
I had struggled to get my legs into my jeans, but once I got them in it was smooth sailing from there. I wore black jeans, a half sleeve loose top, and my boots. Even though we were safe, I still didn't feel comfortable not wearing my weapons, so I didn't. My weapons belt was securely wrapped around my waist. I had no intentions of using my knife or my gun, but if I had to I most certainly would.
I didn't care about my hair. From the feel of it, it seemed to be just fine, so from there I left my room and headed for the cafeteria.
My hands rubbed my aching temples as I stomped towards my destination. I hated being loud, but my brain was struggling to function correctly with all of the pulsing pains.
I was surprised to see that I wasn't the first one awake. It was normally like that, so it made me wonder how long I drank and how much.
Glenn was sitting with his head in his hands, clearly in as much pain as I was in, or worse. Dale sat beside the poor kid. Andrea was at the end of the table, still having that same hopeless look like last night. T-dog was cooking—that Saint. Rick sat with Carl and Lori, all of them eating what looked to be bacon And eggs. I'd kill for some of those.
I plopped down beside Carl, my hands covering my eyes from the blinding lights. Oh, how I wished I was still asleep.
"Are you hungover too?" I heard Carl mumble from beside me. I peaked over at the grinning boy and simply snorted, glad that he was amused by my pain.
I felt a hand rub my back and immediately recognized it as Lori's. It was a comforting rub, but it did nothing to calm the pounding behind my eyes.
The sound of something sliding towards me caught my attention. My hand immediately clamped down around the bottle before bringing it up to look at it curiously.
"Eggs," T-dog called out. The sound of his voice normally didn't bother me, but I had a feeling he yelled on purpose for those of us who were suffering. He placed a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me, but I was too busy trying to get the pain to stop.
Glenn was moaning like a walker as he ate. The pain clearly not doing any of us any good.
"Courtesy of Jenner." I heard Rick's voice. He was talking to me, I knew it, but my focus was on trying to open up the pill bottle. It's crazy how pathetic a person can get when they're hungover.
I pushed the bottle in Lori's direction with my free hand covering my eyes in shame.
She giggled at my pain and took the bottle from me. I heard the magical 'pop' and immediately reached out for it again.
"Never drinking again?" The amusement in Jacqui's voice told me that someone had already said that, but I was too tired to indulge in the little joke. I swallowed two pills, praying that they'd work any minute now.
"Hey." Shane's voice called. Oh, how I hated talking people. Their talking only made the pounding worse, so I did what I do best; I tuned them out.
I tuned them out as best as I could with my eyes shut and my hand slowly giving my mouth bits of bacon. I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes to eat the eggs, because opening my eyes would mean acknowledging things, and acknowledging things meant pain.
Instead, I decided to try and piece together last night's events. I couldn't remember much after I entered Dixon's room, just that I was jealous because he had managed to snag the Crown before I could.
The harder I thought, and the more I walked myself through it, the angrier I got at myself. I knew I'd be kicking myself in the ass for it, but I still did it—I still said it. Drinking alone probably would've been the better option. Although I didn't see him doing it, I didn't want Daryl to treat me like some fragile doll, or a weak little flower.
Sympathy was the last thing I needed.
When I ran out of bacon to eat, an upset groan left my lips and when I opened my eyes everyone was looking at me. Jenner and Daryl had joined the party and I hadn't even noticed.
Carl snorted from beside me, earning a playful glare from me.
"I guess most of us didn't come for the eggs," Andrea said. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What had I missed?
I felt Lori's hand rub my back again but this time it felt more like a sympathy rub.
She knew that I'd been completely zoned out with my artificial bacon. I'm not exactly a fast eater, so it didn't surprise me that I missed an entire conversation.
"Uh—follow me," Jenner said before walking forward, away from the coffee pot. I would've stayed where I sat if I hadn't been so curious.
As we followed Jenner I avoided looking at Daryl. I just hoped that he was drunker than I was and couldn't remember anything. It made it harder to avoid him when he walked beside me, but I focused on following the others.
Thankfully the medication was starting to kick in, and my headache wasn't as bad as before. I could still feel it, but it was easier to handle.
Jenner lead us back to the computer room, which only further confused me, but I knew that I'd find out soon enough.
Jenner stood before one of the many computers. "Give me playback of TS-19." He called out.
"Playback of TS-19." A robotic voice called back. My eyes looked around in search of speakers. Pre-Apocalypse RJ would've killed for a surround sound like that.
The front screen made beeping sounds as information began filling it. Different angles of a brain were shown to the left, immediately piquing my interest.
"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." Doc said as he turned to us. With how quickly things ended, I could only assume it was because of the events that took place in the CDC leading to Jenner being the last scientist standing.
The screen began to show more of the brain. My eyes were locked to the screen, watching as the large computer seemed to be putting together the visuals.
"Is that a brain?" Carl's voice asked from beside Lori.
"An extraordinary one," Doc answered, bending over slightly to be at Carl's level before standing back up straight. It was almost amusing to see how Doc interacted with the kids. I obviously wasn't mad at it, but I hadn't expected it at all.
"Not that it matters in the end." My eyes snapped over to Jenner. To me, that could only mean one thing—death.
I looked back to the screen in morbid curiosity. I'd never actually wondered what a brain looked like when someone died, but now that it was mentioned, I was more than curious to find out.
"Take us in for E.I.V." Jenner instructed.
"Enhanced Internal View," Vi called back.
The screen began zooming in on the brain, giving us a close-up view from the left side of it. There were beautiful, green, lively lights that spurred through the brain, shooting around in what almost seemed to be a dance routine. The brain stem was what really caught my eye. It was so beautiful, it all looked like a tree.
As the camera zoomed in more, we got a view of the actual lights. All of the pathways that the—now—light blue lights took, it all looked to be a big bundle of spiderwebs.
"What are those lights?" Shane asked. I was finally able to hear his voice without feeling like I wanted to break his already crooked nose.
"It's a person's life—experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, in all those ripples of light, is you—" Jenner turned and pointed towards me. My eyebrows raised slightly, confused as to why he'd point to me but decided it didn't matter. "The thing that makes you unique. And human."
"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked from a few feet away from me. I hadn't realized that he was so close. I was so focused on the brain that I just assumed that he'd walked further away from me. I could feel myself begin to dread the many gulps of Hennessy.
"Those are synapses," Jenner clarified in the more technical term. "Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth . . . to the moment of death."
"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked as he stepped closer. I was beginning to try to piece together the conversation that I missed, but the only thing I could come up with was that this was the true answer to Shane's question from last night. "What the hell happened."
"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil." Doc nodded.
"This person died?" Andrea's sad voice asked as she took a few steps closer to the screen. "Who?"
"Test subject 19." It was hard to notice, in fact, I don't think anyone else caught it, but there was a waver in his voice when Jenner said it. As if Test Subject 19 had actually meant something to him. Test Subject 19 had to of been someone he knew.
"Someone who was bitten and infected . . . and volunteered to have us record the process." He paused, but I didn't miss the way his hands fidgeted behind his back or the way he had faltered when he spoke about TS-19 being bitten and infected. "Vi, scan forward to the first event."
"Scanning to first event." On the screen, the brain changed. Instead of the beautiful blues and greens, we saw that the brain stem had turned a hauntingly dark red.
My eyebrows furrowed, my eyes dashing over the screen to not miss a thing. The last of the beautiful lights resided in the rest of the brain, but they weren't as vibrant and lively as before, in fact, they almost looked to be in a state of panic if it were possible.
"What is that?" Glenn voiced out the question in all of our heads. I figured it could be the infection, but I was too focused on the screen to even speak. My eyes flickered over to Carl, and I knew that I'd do anything to protect his little brain from whatever the hell this was. His eyes almost seemed to be in a trance as he watched the screen, but I saw the faint frown on his face due to the discolored brain stem.
"It invades the brain like meningitis." I noticed that the body of whoever it was had begun to open and close their mouth, moving their head around, almost like they were struggling to breathe.
"The adrenal glands hemorrhage, then the major organs." Suddenly, it all stopped. The person stopped moving, the brain had turned a menacing black, and the lights were gone—all of them.
"Then death." My heart nearly stopped. It was so quick, yet so slow. Their march towards death had been slow, but the actual death itself was so quick. In an instant, they were gone.
"Everything you ever were or ever will be . . . gone."
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia's little voice asked, reminding me of my mistake. My heart dropped, knowing that there was no way that Jim could've survived the night. I would've been surprised if he made it to nightfall. If I would've stayed behind, and helped protect the camp, Jim and Amy would still be here.
"Yes." Carol nodded solemnly. I could see the tears coming from Jacqui and a few sad faces from the others. Jim had been with us for a while, and even though I wasn't all that close to him, others were, and I had the chance to prevent the many casualties that occurred only a couple nights ago.
Andrea sucked in a breath and looked away from the screen. A few more tears spilled from her eyes for her baby sister.
Jenner turned around, seemingly concerned.
"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori answered Doc's questioning eyes.
Jenner stepped up to Andrea saying, "I lost somebody too, I know how devastating it is." My eyes shifted from them to the screen. The more he spoke, the more I believed that TS-19 was somebody that he had lost.
He backed up a bit, looking towards the ceiling as he spoke loudly and said, "Scan to the second event."
Once again our ears were filled by that robotic voice. "Scanning to second event."
"The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute . . . seven seconds." Jenner's voice faltered as he stared up at the screen. This time his own eyes seemed to be in a trance just as ours were.
My curiosity was peaked. What did the resurrection process look like? Did he know why it was happening? How many other countries were fully affected like ours were?
So many questions, but only so many answers.
There was a spark of red that lit up in the stem, and after that one, it was followed by another. Small red lights began lighting up the stem. Although they too were beautiful, they weren't as lively as the blue and green lights. Even the way the red lights pulsed they still looked dead.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked sounding shocked. But the only part of the brain that was lit up, was the brain stem.
Before, the entire brain looked like an amazing light show, but now it was only a small part that'd been dimly lit up.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving." I knew it. The rest of the brain had been so dark, so empty, but the entire brain still seemed to be void of all life.
"But they're not alive?" Rick stepped closer to Jenner. I could feel eyes on me, and when I looked over, Daryl and I locked eyes. He turned his head back towards the screen as if he hadn't been looking at me, and my eyebrows furrowed before turning back towards Jenner.
"You tell me." The doctor said, pointing towards the large screen.
Rick shook his head. "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."
"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn't come back. The you part." We all paused for a moment to take a moment to observe the brain once again.
"They're just walking shells." A few heads turned towards me, but my eyes were on Jenner, waiting for him to confirm my hypothesis.
Doc nodded his head. "Exactly. Shells driven by mindless instinct."
A big zap of light seemed to have shot through the brain, stopping all movement from the body, sending the brain back into its state of complete and utter darkness. There seemed to be a giant tear that ripped through the brain.
"God. What was that?" Carol asked in shock. It seemed pretty obvious to me—he shot TS-19. Then again I'd dealt with killing other human beings for years, so it wasn't that hard to understand the difference between our thought processes.
"He shot his patient in the head," Andrea answered as she continued to stare at the screen. It was almost as if we were watching what had happened with her and Amy.
"Didn't you?"
Instead of an answer, he gave the big computer a command. "Vi, power down the main screen and the work stations," Vi repeated back the command as everything began to turn off.
There was a silence that followed and I realized, Jenner had yet to explain anything else—hell, he didn't even explain what we had just watched. My eyes turned to him curiously. He still hadn't figured out what happened, what went wrong—what was still happening, what was still going wrong.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea seemed to be almost annoyed. She was being snappy because she was upset, not necessarily with Jenner, but with the world. I understood her entirely. I too wondered; "Why me?" when I thought that Rick had died. I was fortunate enough to somehow get my brother back, but Andrea would never get the same.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Andrea hummed, knowing that Jenner's rambling was the answer to her question. He really didn't know what this was.
I crossed my arms over my chest, taking a step further.
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui cut in. To me . . . that was a bit of a stretch, but then again the dead had risen so I wasn't entirely sure what to believe in and what not to believe in anymore.
"There is that," Jenner mumbled.
"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." I could hear the panic in Andrea's voice. Panic can cause mistakes, so I took a few steps closer to the blonde woman. I didn't think she'd actually do anything, but taking chances wasn't something I liked to do—they're mistakes.
"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol's timid voice asked.
Jenner shook his head a little as if he didn't even believe in what he was about to say. "There may be some . . . people like me."
"You don't know? How can you not know?" Rick took a step closer to Jenner.
I walked around a bit. The thought of the entire world being in this state was more than alarming. I did my best to keep my cool for the others as I slowly made my way up and down a section. They continued to talk but I bit on my thumbnail anxiously as I realized that the world truly was gone. I mean we figured the world had ended...but we just received actual confirmation that it was over.
I noticed movement from the corner of my eye, and I saw Daryl moving from where he stood, covering his eyes as he walked.
"Man imma get shitfaced drunk—again."
"Yeah . . . count me in." I scoffed as I turned my attention back to the floor. I clenched and unclenches my fists as I tried to get ahold of myself. How long had the world truly been gone? Who was the last of the countries to go?
"Doctor Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but . . ." my eyes carefully followed Dale as he made his way towards the other side of the computer area.
"That clock—it's counting down" he pointed towards a large clock that was indeed counting down in big, bold, red numbers, And we had just seen it hit one hour. "What happens at zero?"
I took a few steps closer to Jenner—daring him to not answer or lie. It wasn't threatening, more like promisingly, but based on the look in Jenner's eyes, that was how he took it. He shifted uncomfortably before turning back to Dale.
"The basement generators—they run out of fuel." He gave us one last nod before he began to take his leave. My eyebrows furrowed and my head snapped over to my brother worriedly. His eyes met mine briefly before turning back towards Jenner and taking a step forward.
"And then?" He asked, but Jenner only continued to walk away, ignoring our worried and confused stares.
I immediately turned towards the ceiling. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked loudly.
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." Her cold, monotonous voice answered.
Decontamination?
My mind went through the three ways that decontamination is traditionally done. The entire building couldn't be sterilized with no power, the entire building couldn't be removed—unless it could. My mind raced as the third and second way combined in my mind. "Remove contaminants by a combination of both physical and chemical means."
I knew my mind was onto something, I just wasn't sure what it was onto.
"Glenn, Shane, T-dog—come with me," Rick called before they all began to try to walk away. My eyebrows furrowed and I immediately went to follow.
"No, RJ, I need you to be here." His eyes moved to where Carl and Lori sat briefly, and I sighed. My brother gave me a nod that I did not return before the four of them set off on their little terrifying adventure.
I turned on my heels to face the others. Almost all of them seemed to be panicking, confused, in a state of shock, or all of the above.
I walked over and took Carl by the hand. No matter what happened, my job was to protect and keep Carl happy. As his aunt, it was my purpose. The others followed as we began to walk back towards the room.
"What are we supposed to do? Just sit around and wait for the clock to run out?" Andrea asked as we walked. My eyes met hers and I realized her question had been directed towards me. I turned my head back to face forward again.
"Rick and Shane will come up with something," I replied shortly, "But in the meantime, yeah, that's all we can do."
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I sat in front of Carl, both of us focused on the game in front of us. Speed had been a game that Carl had been trying to beat me at for a while, but I was pretty fast.
Carl found the cards in the rec room and was ecstatic the second he saw them. There was no way I could've ever wanted to tell him no.
"Ready?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and a lopsided grin on my lips. Carl sent me a challenging smile, and I knew he was ready. "Go!" I said quickly before I began setting cards down and picking them up.
"Wait wait!" Carl giggled in a panicked voice as his eyes watched the cards, trying his best to find a card to put down from his deck.
There was movement behind me and I turned curiously. Lori stood with her hand in the air, waving below the vent. My eyebrows furrowed.
"You okay, Lori?" I asked with a bit of concern. She stared at the vent for a beat.
"Mom, is there something wrong?" Her distracted silence had made us both nervous. It wasn't often that she ignored someone, especially not us.
"Uh—nothin'." She turned towards us, her eyes meeting mine. "It's just . . . the air conditioning stopped."
My stomach did a little flip. Was someone trying to conserve power? It'd be smart, but at the same time, we only had an hour left anyway. The smartest play would be to leave, find supplies, and maybe head to Fort Benning if we could.
"I'll be right back," I mumbled before getting up to my feet and making a beeline for my room. I needed to make some sort of go-bag just in case. It would be smart to leave, but until we found out what was truly going to happen, making rash decisions wasn't a good idea.
I began to look through the office. There wasn't anything in the desk drawers except a few small snack packs of trail mix. So I moved onto the closet and found a small bag lying at the bottom of it. It was one of those smaller bags that you could wrap the strap over your chest and the bag itself will hang at your side. I quickly stuffed the snacks inside and began to ruffle through my bag.
There was a box of rounds, a few bandages, and my uniform from the marines. That was all I could fit inside my go-bag, considering it was meant for traveling light. Since I was wearing my boots, I instinctively traded them for my combat boots.
Out of the two, they'd be the best shoes to get me and whoever else out of here quickly and efficiently—plus they were what I was used to. Comfort for the soul you might say.
I had just placed the small bag by the door, about to head back to Carl when the lights shut off. My eyebrows furrowed as they scanned the room along with the dimly lit hall which was my only source of light. My hand gripped around the strap again and threw it across my chest before I walked outside of the hall, only to see everyone else was out of their rooms too.
Jenner walked through the halls looking well dressed and ready. Ready for what? I didn't know, but something told me that it had something to do with the "decontamination" that was to be coming.
Questions were being thrown his way, but Doc only snatched the bottle that was in Daryl's hand and he continued walking down the hallway, taking a drink from the bottle.
The others began trailing behind him, not allowing him to flake this time. As they reached my room I was already out and following, I too needed answers. I needed to know how much time I had left to get my family out of here, and if I even needed to.
"Energy use is being prioritized," Doc answered before the hallway lights shut off. There were a couple of dim lights that seemed to be emergency lights that kept us from being completely in the dark, but my focus was on Jenner.
"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asked as we neared him.
Doc shook his head as he swallowed a quick sip from the bottle in his hand. "It's not up to me. Zone five is shutting itself down."
My heart dropped. If zone five was shutting itself down, that couldn't be good. I wasn't completely educated on everything the CDC had handled, but I knew their importance and what they did. I'd had plenty of friends in the past handle security for the CDC, and we were the marines, not some random security company.
My eyes immediately watched ahead of us as I searched for Rick. If we wanted to get out of here before the power ran out, we needed to leave soon before the elevator was next to shut off, or we'd be wasting time running upstairs.
"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl called as he too trailed Jenner. When he didn't answer, Daryl got visibly annoyed—which wasn't rare, but that didn't mean it was smart to fish out.
"Hey, I'm talkin' to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"
"You'd be surprised," Jenner mumbled as we continued to walk in the direction of the big room. I saw Rick and the others run in, and my mind relaxed knowing that he was near.
Carl was trying to keep up with me while fumbling with the card deck we were playing with. He clearly wasn't sure what to do with them. He didn't want to be left behind, but he also wasn't wanting to hold the cards forever.
So, being the considerate aunt I am, I grabbed the cards and stuff them in the outer pocket of my go-bag and then continued to head straight forward for my brother.
"Rick," I called as I jogged over with Lori and Carl not far behind. He held his hand in the air as a sort of calming gesture, but with zone five losing power, Lori looked like she was under the most stress she'd had since Carl's "Terrible Two's."
Jenner explained to Rick that the building would use the last of its power to keep the computers running while we headed towards them. All 13 of us followed Jenner like a bunch of ducklings. We had no idea what to do.
He stopped at the stairs before handing Daryl the bottle of alcohol that was nearly gone already. The redneck snatched it from Doc's hand with a bewildered look on his face.
Jenner had basically just told us that everything was completely shut off due to the building's need to keep the computers running till the last possible second.
I ran a stressed hand through my hair, wondering how we were gonna get those shutters up if everything was shut down. We needed to get out of here before it was too late and we'd be stuck there without any more food than there already was which would last us a few weeks at most if we rationed.
Not to mention the whole decontamination thing that'd been stuck on my mind. I was really hoping that I was wrong.
Jenner looked over to Andrea. "It was the French." He took the steps up the platform immediately after speaking.
"What?" Andrea asked, her face scrunched up in confusion.
"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." Of course, we'd be shitting our pants and going crazy while other countries tried to keep their shit together. Doc turned to head towards the computer again but stopped when one of our soft-spoken women spoke.
"What happened?" Jacqui asked.
"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice." He shrugged.
"The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" And once again he was off towards a computer.
From the corner of my eye, I saw movement, and when I looked I saw Shane begin to scale the steps.
"Let me tell you—" Rick ran up and grabbed onto him, knowing that angry Shane would just waste our precious time.
"To hell with it, Shane," Rick growled as he pulled him back. My brother turned towards us, pointing towards his wife.
"Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're gettin' out of here now!" Rick's harsh and authoritative tone had everyone moving, including Daryl. I made sure Rick had Carl before I began to head back towards the room to make sure everyone got their things and themselves out of here safely.
Suddenly, a red light began to flash and an ear-piercing alarm began to go off. My entire body stopped moving as my eyes searched for the source.
"What's that?" Shane panicked as he and Rick tried to figure out what was going on.
Rick had his hand at Carl's back almost soothingly, but everyone could see how nervous Rick looked, and my nephew wasn't stupid.
"Thirty minutes to decontamination." Vi's voice seemed to fill the entire building. I could feel my hands begin to shake with the need to get my family out of here. My mind mulled over the thoughts I'd had before—the ones that knew what decontamination meant. My heart began to race as I hoped that I was wrong.
I grabbed onto Lori's shoulder as a way to comfort the both of us. This was a high-stress situation, and the last thing we needed was for people to be running around like headless chickens.
"Doc, what's goin' on here?" Daryl yelled angrily as he began to walk over to him. With that redneck's temper, the last thing we needed was for him to kill the man that had the answers to our question. I gave Lori's shoulder a quick reassuring squeeze before I began making my way towards Daryl.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane yelled from the platform.
I grabbed ahold of the redneck's arm and pushed him ahead of me despite his glare. It wasn't anything I wasn't used to.
We all began to run for the exit and I made sure that I had Lori in my sights. Rick had Carl, and if Rick had Carl then I knew my nephew was safe. My job now was to make sure that my sister-in-law got through this safely. My brother often put everything on himself, but that was why I was here, to make sure he didn't do that, to make sure he knew that I was here so that he didn't have to put everything on himself.
A big door began to rise from the floor, and I immediately ran ahead of everyone to try to somehow stop it. Rick was right beside me as we ran up to it, but both of us were too late. The big blockade had sealed the entrance, giving us no hope of escape.
Rick stopped but I kept going. I banged furiously on what looked to be some sort of very thick glass. It was almost see-through, but with each connecting moment that my fist had with the surface, I knew that there was no beating our way out of this.
I felt the skin on my knuckles break, and I let out a string of frustrated curses. I turned around and my hands tangled in my hair.
"Fuck!" I yelled angrily.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn's scared and shaky voice asked.
"He just locked us in!" He screamed.
"Carl," Lori called as the group went running back.
"Mom!" My nephew's terrified voice seemed to play on repeat as my mind began to race. I couldn't think of a way out of this one.
"You son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled as he ran for Jenner with the bottle in his hands.
For the first time in a long time, my anger took over. I didn't even think about stopping him as I made a beeline for Jenner.
"Shane!" Rick's voice called. He was warning him of me, but Shane thought he was talking about the seething redneck that was headed for Jenner.
I was as calm as still water on the surface, but on the inside, it felt like I was going to explode.
"RJ?" Lori called worriedly as I passed her and Carl, but I kept moving. When I finally reached the platform, Shane and T-dog had grabbed ahold of Daryl—restraining him.
With their focus on Daryl, I was able to slip past and grab ahold of Jenner by the collar and slam his back against the desk. He let out a wince due to the pain from the desk digging into his spine.
"You let us out of here you asshole, or I'll make sure you won't get your quick and painless death," I growled lowly, making sure that no one heard me. I didn't want to cause more of a panic than there already was. Something in his eyes seemed to of shifted.
"You know what's gonna happen." He mumbled as he stared into my eyes. I glared and shoved him harder into the desk, successfully making him hit his head on the computer.
"I said you let us out!" I screamed. My grip on his collar was so tight that my knuckles were white. When he didn't move, I grabbed my Beretta from my belt and aligned it with the cervical spine. His eyes widened but before I could say anything, a pair of arms wrapped around my entire upper body. I tried to hang onto Jenner but T-dog forced my hands away from the doctor.
"RJ!" Shane's voice yelled as I fought against him to get back to Jenner. When I realized that they wouldn't let me get close again, I stopped fighting and shoved Shane away from me.
"Hey, Jenner, open that door now," Rick said as he walked at a fast pace towards us.
"There's no point." He panted, obviously still a little winded from our little encounter.
"Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Then open them!" I hissed.
"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 seemed to have dawned on me as I thought about yesterday. "This is why you wouldn't open the doors."
I leaned against one of the many desks and sank to the floor. I wasn't admitting defeat, I just needed to calm down before I did something I'd regret.
"It's better this way," Jenner spoke loudly, disturbing the scared silence.
"What is? What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Rick growled as he eyed both Jenner and the clock.
Jenner let out a humorless scoff. "Ask your sister." He turned back towards his computer, and Rick turned to me, but I was too busy trying not to kill Jenner. My brother saw that, and he knew that I didn't have enough sanity in me to answer anything.
Shane took a step towards Jenner and shoved his seat while Rick yelled, "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?!"
Jenner finally lost his cool. He stood from the desk and faced Rick. "You know what this place is?!" He screamed.
"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!" Everyone was silent. This was the first time that Jenner had blown up in front of us, but it was only a matter of time.
He sat down at his desk and collected himself. "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."
My breathing faltered as I realized that I was right. I'd only ever used H.I.T.'s once, and the thought of it happening to my family was something I couldn't fathom.
"H.I.T.'s?" Rick asked.
"Vi, define," Jenner said.
"H.I.T.'s—high-impulse thermobaric 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 ignited the oxygen at between five thousand and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired."
With a tear sliding down my face, I looked to my brother. He was already looking at me and I reluctantly answered his questioning eyes.
"It sets the air on fire."
From the corner of my eye, I could see Carol and Sophia crying—holding onto each other for dear life. The others stood there in shock.
"No pain. An end to sorrow, grief . . . regret." Jenner's seemingly broken voice was quiet, but the echoes of the large room allowed us to hear him. "Everything."
It was deathly silent in the room. Carol sat down with Sophia in her arms. I stood up, not being able to sit on my ass anymore. We only had so much time before the clock ran out.
Daryl and Rick followed as I walked towards the barricade. My eyes searched for anything that could help open it or even something that could convince Jenner to open it.
Glass shattered against the hard glass. It took me a moment to realize that it was the bottle that Daryl had been holding.
"Open the damn door!" Daryl roared from beside me.
"Out of my way!" Shane shouted as he ran up the ramp with an ax in hand. I pushed myself to the side as he charged at the door, knowing that it wouldn't do much, but it was worth a try.
Another ax was tossed and Daryl swiftly caught it before he too began to pound against the hard glass.
The kids were crying as we heard their grunts along with the sound of metal hitting against the surface. I paced at the end of the ramp, not knowing what to do. I hated feeling like my hands were tied, I hated not being able to do anything.
Shane came walking back, sweaty and tired. I swiftly grabbed the ax from his hand as he passed, and made my way to the door. Even if it wouldn't budge, I needed something to do, something to take my mind off of killing Jenner in the most agonizing way possible.
I brought back the ax and swung it forward with as much strength as I could muster. We should've gone. I should've knocked Rick out when I had the chance and left this place. My gut told me something was wrong, but I didn't listen. With each hit, my arms begged for me to stop, but I wouldn't.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." I hadn't even noticed that Daryl wasn't next to me hitting the door until I heard his southern twang a distance away screaming, "Well, yer head ain't!"
I continued pounding against the door despite Jenner's words. It was better than doing nothing. I had to try.
Shouts from the others reached my ears as they fought to restrain Daryl again. I could hear them, but it was almost as if they were muffled.
"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was only a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner's voice rang through my ears and the ax clattered to the floor.
Rick's eyes met mine, but I was already staring at him with shocked eyes. Did he think that we couldn't protect them? Did he believe that I'd let that happen? Rick was never the one to lose hope before anyone else.
"You said that?" My voice cracked, it almost didn't even sound like mine. "After everything else? After everything that you said?" I pointed an accusing finger his way, but he turned towards Lori and Carl.
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" His eyes flickered back to me but I simply shook my head in disbelief.
"There is no hope. There never was." Doc deadpanned.
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere—" Rick stressed as if he truly believed it.
"What part of "everything's gone" do you not understand?" I couldn't see her, but Andrea's hopeless and annoyed voice was one I'd gotten quite used to. I let out a scoff. Even when I was mad at my brother, I was still ready to fight at his side.
"Listen to your friend. She gets it." But I wouldn't. I refused to believe what they believed. My fists clenched and unclenched at my sides, the beads of sweat on my forehead beginning to fall.
"It doesn't matter that everything's gone. Hope isn't physical." I paused for a moment to make sure that they were all listening to me. We couldn't have anyone giving up, not like Andrea was. "Hope is passion for what is possible," I yelled the quote from where I stood. Even just hearing her give up made me angry. I couldn't understand it.
"Don't you get it? This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner shook his head, but I wouldn't listen. It was possible for us to rebuild. It was possible for us to thrive even through whatever this was. If the crocodiles could fight through their extinction event, so could we.
"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol sobbed on the ground, her arms wrapped around her daughter. I paced around, still trying to find some sort of plan to get us out of here.
"One tiny moment—a millisecond. No pain." Jenner tried to console in a calming voice, but it did nothing to soothe anyone.
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Her sobs were heartbreaking, and they were only proving to make Sophia panic more.
"Doc, you gotta let us out of here." I pleaded desperately. "She's right. None of us deserve to go like this, at least give us a fighting chance, that's what we asked for when we came."
"Wouldn't it be kinder? More compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" I shook my head at his words. It wasn't just compassionate, it was easy. Nothing in life worth fighting for is easy.
The sound of a shotgun cocking caught my attention. Shane came stomping over with his shotgun in hand. Rick was quick to turn and run at the man with the gun.
"Shane, no!" My brother and I yelled in unison. Rick was closer, but I was faster so we reached Shane at the same time.
"Out of my way!" Shane growled as he shoved the both of us back. He shoved us with an equal amount of force, sending Rick back a few steps, but sending me full-on into another desk.
My hip dug into the edge, my head slammed onto the hard top of the table protecting the top of the computer monitor. A grunt of pain escaped my lips as I almost immediately was sent to the floor after the impact of either the desk. The back of my head hit the floor, and the air was knocked out of my lungs from the force.
"Shane!" Lori yelled scoldingly as she ran to my aid, but I was seeing red. The asshole put his hands on me.
I heard a few people shout, "oh my god!" as they scurried away from Shane.
He was out of control, but now, so was I. Before Lori could help me, I was up on my feet and headed for the idiot.
"RJ!" I heard someone call, but I was too focused on kicking Shane's ass.
Rick was trying to get Shane to move the gun from Jenner's face, so he wasn't focused on me at all. I went to leap at Shane, but a pair of arms caught me by my waist.
"I'm gonna kick your ass!" I bellowed as I fought against the arms.
"RJ, RJ, sweetie this is not the time to lose control." Lori's disappointed voice rang through my ears, but she was next to me.
I shoved whoever was holding me away and was about to storm as far away as I could in the room but loud shots began to fire. I looked over to see Shane throwing a hissy fit, firing at every screen that he could with a roar.
Rick grabbed ahold of the shotgun and smacked Shane across the face with it, sending him to the floor.
So he could do it, but I couldn't?
"Are you done now? Are you done?" Rick panted above Shane with the butt of the gun ready to come down on Shane if it needed to.
"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane shot back accusingly.
I needed to take out my anger on something that wasn't living, so I pushed past the redneck behind me and made my way towards the barricade that still had the ax in front of it. I picked up the ax and once again began swinging at the hard surface.
Rick and Jenner's voices were just background noise. All I could do was continue to hit the ax in the same general area as hard as I possibly could. Even when my arms began to tire, I kept on. Despite the soreness, my will to find a way out was significantly stronger than any pain that could possibly get in my way.
Soon there was another body beside me. I didn't even have to look to know it was Daryl. His grunts were loud as he too was hitting the barricade with as much force that his muscles could muster.
Both of us stood there, continuing to slam into the hard unmoving object as hard as possible with an ax. The sweat on my forehead began to build up, not only from my "activities", but from the anxiety of the situation.
If I couldn't get my family out, it would be the end. Carl was only ten. Even if the world had ended, he still had his whole life ahead of him. So many firsts that he still had yet to experience.
I brought the ax back one last time with the hardest grip I could muster, but just as I was about to bring it down on the barricade, it slid back into the floor with a hiss.
"Come on!" Daryl shouted to the others. My body immediately turned towards my family. I had to get them out of here, and we only had so much time.
"Lori, Carl!" I yelled as I pushed myself to walk forward into the hallway. A part of me feared that my mind was playing tricks, that if I stepped forward I'd run into a barricade.
Both of them took off towards us, as did the others. I pushed them ahead of me but turned to make sure that Rick wasn't too far behind.
My brother stood there, still next to Jenner, and I cursed impatiently. "Rick, c'mon!" I screamed.
Rick and Jenner shook hands, but before Rick could pull away, Jenner pulled him in. I could see him whispering something, but I didn't have time to be curious. My feet shifted anxiously as I waited for my brother. I wasn't leaving without him.
A hand touched my shoulder, and when I turned I saw Lori pushing Carl towards me.
I grabbed ahold of his shoulders and Lori ran towards Rick to bring him back.
"Hey, we've got four minutes left! C'mon!" Glenn screamed from beside us. Once I saw that Rick and Lori were running our way, I quickly scooped up Carl and began to book it down the hallway. My main focus was now on getting my nephew to safety, and away from the giant air bomb.
My feet pounded against the tile. Carl's arms were wrapped as tightly around me as they could be. For a moment I didn't hear any footsteps behind me, but I didn't have time to worry about the others. Lori would get Rick out, she wouldn't leave us.
Running up the stairs would've been hell had it not been for the adrenaline. Everything had me on edge. I was most paranoid about the H.I.T.'s being activated earlier than predicted. My legs scaled up the steps as fast as I could with Carl holding onto me like a monkey.
I could feel the sweat trickling down my forehead, but I continued to push until we reached a large metal door. I quickly set Carl down before shoving the door open with my shoulder and holding it open for the others while instructing Carl to go ahead and run ahead.
T-dog ran through, and the others were right behind him. They ran for the doors but they wouldn't open, only furthering everyone's anxiety.
Once everyone was out, I ran towards them, trying to find a way to break glass or something. My eyes searched the giant room before they landed on a chair. It wasn't likely to work, but it was worth a shot.
Shane and Daryl had begun to bang on the windows with the axes. I hadn't even realized that I completely let go of mine when the barricade opened.
As they pounded against the glass, it looked to be almost as sturdy as the barricade. The chair definitely wouldn't work, but I still had to try.
I ran over and grabbed ahold of the chair. The frame and legs were metal, but it wasn't heavy, which was the opposite of what we needed.
My arms lifted the chair into the air, yelling at Shane and Daryl to move as I neared. Once they were out of the way I began to slam the chair against the window, hoping to at least make a dent. My heart dropped upon seeing that I only scratched the damn window, but I continued to slam against the window in stressful anger.
"RJ, get down!" Shane's voice yelled. My head snapped over to see him headed over with his shotgun. I threw the chair to the side before shoving myself to the side and out of his way.
The loud bang from the shotgun had given me hope until I saw that there were only dents made from the gun. The shell fell to the floor with a clatter and it seemed that instead of the glass, our hearts had shattered.
"The glass won't break?" Sophia asked in a frightened voice from the floor.
Carol went walking up with her hand digging in her purse. My eyebrows furrowed, hoping that the silent woman had something up her sleeve.
"Rick, I have something that might help." She ran up with her entire forearm digging into her purse.
"Carol I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." My eyes sent daggers towards Shane. He'd been on a roll lately. I knew him to be an asshole, but as of late, It seemed as if it was his default setting.
Carol ignore his words. "Your first morning at camp—when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket." In her hand was a small frag. My eyes widened at the sight. Why had Rick been carrying that around?
Rick grabbed the grenade from her hand and everyone immediately went to take cover from below the small staircase.
"Look out!" Rick yelled as he ran for the window. I jumped down, immediately laying my body flat against the ground.
There was a few seconds before the sound of my brother's fast footsteps came barreling towards us. Not soon after, the glass shattered and the ground rumbled. The familiar feeling triggered something, but I pushed away any thoughts as best as I could.
We all climbed to our feet and quickly left through the blown-out window. Once again I took it upon myself to carry Carl towards the car. His little legs couldn't run as fast as we could, and I'd carried soldiers twice his weight to safety before.
Rick, Shane, and Daryl were up ahead, clearing a path as we ran. Lori was right beside me, and even though my focus was on getting Carl away from the building that was about to explode, I still made sure that Lori stayed in my line of sight.
Lori, Rick, Carl, Glenn, and I all piled into the RV. Rick was about to start the engine when Lori quickly stuck out her hand, pointing towards the blown-out window.
"Wait, Wait, Wait, they're coming!"
Dale and Andrea could be seen climbing out of the building, avoiding the glass shards, and running towards us.
Honestly, I hadn't even noticed that we were missing them, but it was mainly because I was so focused on getting out.
Rick looked towards his watch, and a look of panic crossed over his features. Lori stuck her head out, yelling at them to get down while Rick began to honk.
"Get back! Everybody back!" Rick ushered us all further into the RV. I ran to the very back to get out of the way before dropping as quickly as I could, covering my head and waiting for the blow.
The ground shook almost immediately. The sound of the building collapsing was so loud, you would've thought we were two feet away from the building when in reality we were probably about a yard away.
The temperature had risen even in the safety of the RV. The explosion seemed to go on forever, and all I wanted was for it to stop.
We lifted our heads only to be met with the sight of a larger, flaming pile of rubble.
The CDC was officially gone, as was everything else.