CHAPTER 12

SARAH

"What if we go to the basement?" said Sarah feeling her heart beating faster as the red numbers on the clock were decreasing.

"And do what?" asked Shane. Sarah looked towards him with raised brows.

"The voice said 'decontamination'" she answered raising her voice feeling the anxiety raising up "Whatever it is, it's not good, I'm sure"

"We should go check" said Glenn nodding his head.

"Yeah" said Rick "We need to figure out what is happening" then he turned to the group.

"Ok, Shane, Glenn, T-Dog and Sarah" he said pointing at them. Sarah smiled as Rick said her name "You come with me. You all wait for us in your rooms. We'll be right back"

"Ya wan' to bring missy with ya?" asked Daryl chewing the side of his thumb. Sarah glared at him, remembering again all the nasty things he had said to her. Apparently now he didn't even need to drink anymore to be an ass at her.

"It was her idea" said Rick observing Daryl as Sarah just shook her head "If she wants to come, it's fine for me"

"I want to" she assured when Rick looked at her.

"Lori" she said turning to the woman "Can you take a look at Nicki, while I'm gone?"

"Sure" she answered pulling Nicki closer.

Feeling some gazes towards her, Sarah followed Rick and the others to try and find the basement. If the clock was right, they had less than an hour before the decontamination.

They run through the corridor trying to find the right door.

"This place is huge" said Shane as they ran.

"There must be some indication" Sara said "It's the law"

"Emergency signs!" exclaimed Glenn "There must be somewhere" they all started to look at the walls as they ran. It felt like losing a lot of time without being able to do anything useful, but after some moments T-Dog found the sign. Luckily, they weren't that far from the right door. When they opened it, they came across a stair going down. They didn't have to say anything as they ran down.

"Decontamination...What does that mean?" asked Glenn anxiously.

"Decontamination, sterilize, elimination. They all mean the same thing" said Sarah. As she heard that word the imagine of fire appeared in her mind. Decontamination meant the elimination of every type of contamination and it usually happened with high temperatures.

"I don't like it" said Shane "The way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that" the expression on Jenner's face; full of sorrow and fatigue...

"What's wrong with him?" asked T-Dog as they arrived at the bottom of the stairs "Seriously, man, is he nuts, medicated, what?"

I wonder for how long he had been closed here. No family, no friends... people can go insane.

What Nicki had said seemed a prediction now.

What had Jenner planned? What did he want to do?

The room where they had ended up was full of tubes and black barrels. They split in two groups: Rick and Shane went one way, while Sarah, Glenn and T-Dog went the other way. She wasn't really sure on what they were looking for. They were surrounded by empty barrels that surely once were filled with fuel. Why were they all empty? If that was the only way the building kept having electricity, they didn't have much time.

"Flammable" she muttered brushing her fingers on the red sign on the barrel.

Decontamination...

"What does he have in mind?" Sarah asked realizing another barrel was empty.

Suddenly the lights went out making her look around. Vi's voice echoed in the room announcing that the emergency lights were now on. Sarah let out an anxious breath. Nothing of that was good, nothing.

"Sarah!" she heard Glenn say as she noticed the light of the flashlight getting closer.

"I'm here" she said moving another barrel to find it empty.

"Have you touched anything?" asked Glenn as he ran towards her, but she shook her head.

"Nothing that could cause a black out" she said before following Glenn through the dark corridors. Soon T-Dog was following them as they arrived where Rick and Shane were.

"Hey, you guys kill the lights?" asked Glenn, but they shook their heads.

"Nah, it just went out" said Shane looking closely at a generator. It was almost empty too.

"Anything?" asked Rick as they got closer.

"Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count" said T-Dog making Sarah nod her head before turning to Rick.

"And nothing to fill them again" she said.

"It can't be down to just that one" said Shane in disbelief looking over to Rick.

She didn't like it. Sarah felt the anxiety raising in her. What could they do? They didn't have any fuel and if they had to go out, with the power running out, she wasn't sure that the elevator would have worked.

"No, it can't be" Sarah muttered. They weren't stuck in there, it couldn't be. And probably she was mistaken about the decontamination thing. Why letting them in if he didn't have good intentions? Why giving them food? Or help her with her hand?

"What do we do?" asked Glenn looking at Rick that was deep in thoughts.

"Do we leave?" asked T-Dog.

That was the safest place they had found... or at least they thought.

"Decontamination..." said Rick looking towards Sarah "Elimination?"

Sarah nodded her head.

"It's the same thing"

Before they knew they were all running up the stairs again. She wasn't sure of how much time had passed, but she hoped not too much. They all needed to figure out what to do, to reorganize. Possibly talk to Jenner. Maybe it was nothing, maybe just the power was running out. But as they ran up, not only the lights were off, but even the air conditioned had stopped.

When they arrived next to the Zone 5, they heard steps and voices getting closer. And looking up she noticed everyone following Jenner walking towards where they were.

"The hell is going on?" asked Shane as they ran closer to the group.

"Rick?" they heard Lori call.

"Sarah" said Nicki running to her "Everything is shutting down"

"Yeah, I know" she said eyeing Jenner "But we couldn't find anything useful"

They all followed Rick as he was asking for explanation from Jenner who started to rant about how the computers needed to work until the last second. Her blood ran cold.

Last second of what?

31.27

Half an hour?

"What the hell is going on?" she muttered before Daryl walked past her to snatch the bottle of alcohol from the doctor's hand.

"It was the French" Jenner said after endless moments of silence making them all frown.

"What?" asked Andrea.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know" Jenner said "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"

What was the point of all of this? What was the man doing?

Sarah looked over to Nicki that was just observing the doctor silently. She had always been good with her nerves, studying what was around her, even this time. Sarah was trying to not let the anxiety of her thoughts get the best of her. She couldn't right now. There must have been some kind of explanation and a way of getting out of that.

"What happened?" asked Jacqui.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice" Jenner answered "The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Sarah's eyes went wide, that man was getting delirious. Shane seemed so pissed and when he went to talk to the man Rick stopped him.

"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care" said Rick turning to them "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" everyone nodded in agitation as they started to run back. As they moved a red light and an alarm got off. Sarah pulled Nicki closed to her as her eyes went even wider.

"This can't be good" Nicki said looking around.

Everyone started to panic as the countdown of the last 30 minutes appeared on the screen. Shane and Rick started to yell at them to ran grabbing their things. As Sarah moved, she felt someone grab her arm and pulling her back.

"The hell ya doin'?!" Daryl yelled at her as she snapped her arms from his gasp.

"What do you want? Get off"!"

"Stay here" he said as he started to move towards the room, before the gate for the way out shut close. Sarah swore her heart stopped in her chest. What had Jenner done?

"Did you just lock us in?" she heard Glenn say in disbelief "He just locked us in!"

Air left her lungs.

They were trapped inside; they couldn't get out.

What would have happened when the timer would have come to 0?

What decontamination meant?

"We've hit the 30-minute window. I am recording" Sarah turned when she heard Jenner.

"What the hell is happening?" said Nicki observing the man.

As everyone ran back, Sarah saw Daryl glaring at Jenner before heading towards him.

"You son of a bitch!"

"Daryl!" she found herself yelling as she tried to grab his arm.

"Shane!" Rick said making Shane run to Daryl, trying to stop him.

"You let us out of here!" Daryl yelled grabbing Jenner for a moment before Shane managed to push him back helped by T-Dog.
"No, stop. Don't!"

Sarah covered her mouth with her hand seeing them so desperate. Daryl was trying to get to the Doctor as Shane kept holding him.

"Jenner, open that door now" exclaimed Rick getting closer to Jenner. He was trying to keep himself calm, but like everyone else he was probably terrorized.

"There's no point" said the Doctor, making the two sisters look at each other "Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed"

"Well, open the damn things" Daryl exclaimed.

"That's not something I control. The computers do" Jenner was calm as he talked and that only made her worry more "I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that"
He had trapped them inside. He had all figured out.

Why let them in then? Why he had been so cruel?

"Why?" Sarah asked with trembling hands "Why would you do such thing?"

"It's better this way" Sarah looked over to Daryl that was pacing next to her and Nicki.

"What's better?" asked Nicki with a frown.

"What happens in 28 minutes?" said Rick, but Jenner just turned away. Giving his attention to the computer. Sarah trembled again looking to everyone in the room. Carol and Sophia were hugging each other, as Lori was keeping Carl behind her. The others were looking at the scene with worry. No one knew what to do. How could they get out from there? How could they open that damned door?

Shane went to the doctor pushing him a few times before the man got up yelling angrily:

"You know what this place is?!" he yelled "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!" they got silent listening to him, but quite frankly Sarah really didn't care about it. They had to get out. She had to get Nicki out of there.

"What does decontamination mean?" she asked with a stronger voice than she thought she had. Jenner took a breath not looking at her.
"In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack, for example..." the man said "H.I.T.S are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.S?" asked Rick.

Jenner took another breath.

"Vi, define"

"High-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear" Sarah felt paralyzed, they were all going to die. She felt Nicki took her hand as they both kept looking Jenner in disbelief.
"The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000° and 6,000° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired" Vi kept explaining as a tear rolled down Sarah's eyes.

"It's set the air on fire" Jenner explained "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief. Regret. Everything"

She turned her gaze in desperation, trying to find something, anything to get everyone out from that situation. But what could she do? What could anyone do?

Her eyes fixed on the timing. They were all going to die in few minutes. Where those really her last moment on earth? Will she really wait twenty minutes before getting herself, her sister and her friends blown up?

Suddenly a loud crash made her turn to see that Daryl had thrown the bottle in his hand towards the door. Glass shattered in pieces as he turned angrily.

"Open the damned door!" Daryl shouted. He was still trying to find a way out.

"Out of the way!" yelled Shane running towards Daryl with two axes. As he was close enough, he threw the weapon for Daryl to catch before they started to hit the door. They were trying.

She wasn't going to die like that, frightened and without doing anything. She would never let her sister die without fighting.

"Stay next to Lori" she said letting go of Nicki's hand.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Try something" but before she could move Nicki stopped her.

"I want to help"

Nicki was looking at her with such a strong gaze that the only thing that Sarah could do was nodding her head, before walking towards the computers.

"What are you doing?" asked Dale as they walked pass them.

"These are computers" she said "There must be a system to open it"

"You know how to do it?"

"Nope" Sarah said trying to turn on a computer "But I'm not going to die like this" she looked at Daryl and Shane that were keep hitting the door.

"There's nothing you can do" said Jenner making Sarah glare a him.

"Seriously, shut up, man" said Nicki sa she ran to another computer.

"It would've been so much easier" Jenner kept saying.

"Easier for who?" asked Lori with wide eyes.

Sarah didn't even want to hear that man. If she kept listening the time would have passed without her even doing anything. She didn't know how those computers worked, but if that was a system, she had to understand how it worked. If she knew that, maybe there was a way to bypass. She looked over to Jenner. What had he done to close the door?

"The computer doesn't switch on" said Nicki running towards Sarah who looked at Jenner.

"Right, then"

Sarah walked closer the doctor who looked at her with a frown. His was the only computer working. It was still recording as she walked there; it was the only thing she could see on the screen. Then she looked at the desk; there was little keyboard with numbers and a blue scan. Then she looked over to Jenner to see his badge; on it there was his photo and a barcode.

"Bastard" she muttered moving her head to take the badge, but before she could he pushed her hand away.

"Hey!" she heard Lori exclaim.

"You've got all of this planned out. You trapped us here" Sarah said to the doctor "And you're just staying there patronizing us"

"You know what this does. You've seen it" Jenner said again making her shake her head. Then he turned to Rick "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"
"I don't want this!" exclaimed Rick before Shane walked closer to regain some breaths.

"Can't make a dent" he said with laboured breaths.

That didn't open, the computers weren't working and they were running out of time. Less than fifteen minutes. They couldn't die like that.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launched" said Jenner just before Daryl arrived behind him with the hatchet raised.

"Well, your head ain't!" he was about to hit him, when Rick, Dale, T-Dog and Sarah ran to stop him. T-Dog managed to snatch the hatchet from his hands, as the other three pushed him away.

"Take him away" Rick said to Sarah who kept pushing Daryl a few metres from Jenner.

"I'm gonna kill him" Daryl growled.

"You're not going to do anything" she said trembling "He is our only chance of getting out" her eyes went again on the timing. Ten minutes.

"Please, Daryl" she said "We have to get out of here"

He observed her taking deep breaths. He seemed like he was trying to restrain himself before looking again towards the Doctor.

"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead" Jenner's words made Lori's eyes went wide as she turned to her husband.

"You really said that? After all your big talk?" asked Shane as he too looked at Rick in disbelief.

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick said as Sarah put her hands on her hips taking a breath. Her eyes again on the timing. They were all about to die, who cared about what had been said?

"That's exactly what he wants" said Nicki sitting down next to Carl "Making all of us get desperate. To not let us see any hope" Sarah was surprised at her sister, even if she could see her trembling, she was still able to keep her nerves.

"There is no hope" said Jenner.

"There's always hope" said Rick "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere..."

"What part of "everything is gone" do you not understand?" said Andrea.

He had convinced her. She had been so desperate after Amy's death; he was just getting it worse. It wasn't his call to decide how they had to die. Sarah knew that the world was terrible, that it was bad and scary, but they had the right to choose their destiny.

Carol was thinking the same. She screamed at the doctor that Sophia didn't deserved to die like this.

Nicolette, Carl and Sophia... they were so young. How could he look at them and wanted to kill them?

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asked just before the sound of a loaded riffle made them turn to see Shane walking towards the man with a furious expression, pointing the weapon towards Jenner.

"Nicolette!" she exclaimed ready to run towards her sister, when she felt Daryl grabbed her.

"Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!" Shane exclaimed. She had never seen him like that. Furious, not thinking straight.

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this" tried Rick "We will never get out of here."

"Shane, you listen to him" said Lori keeping both Carl and Nicki behind her back.

"He dies, we all...We all die! Shane!" Rick cried before Shane let out a desperate yell before starting to shoot at the computers behind Jenner's back.

Sarah had never been afraid of Shane. But in that moment, she couldn't stop trembling as Daryl pushed her back where she covered her ears yelping. When finally, the shoots had stopped she looked up to see Shane on the ground with Rick over him. She scanned the room to see where Nicki was and she noticed her still next to Carl knelt behind a row of computers to stay away from the bullets.

"We need to get out of here" Sarah muttered. They were all starting to get crazy. If it wasn't the fire, something else might have happened between them.

"Yeah..." said Daryl walking towards the door with his hatchet. Sarah looked at the doctor once more before walking towards Daryl.

"Whatcha doin'?" he asked with a frown as she got closer.

"I'm trying here" she said "Like you are" she observed the door. Hermetically sealed. That code was the only thing that could have opened it.

"I don't want to die" she said looking over her sister "I don't want Nicolette to die"

"Yar not" Daryl grunted after hitting the door "We'r getting' ou'"

"It sounds like a promise" she said still looking for a weak spot as he hit the door.

"Whatever"

He was trying so hard. There wasn't much they could do, but she felt slightly better seeing him not giving up. Even if there were just few minutes left.

Suddenly the door opened making Daryl and Sarah looked at each other. Jenner had opened the door? She had heard nothing of what they had been saying.

"Come on. Let's go!" said Daryl.

"Nicolette!" Sarah yelled then searching for Glenn gesturing to him to follow. Carl helped Nicki getting up, before they started to run towards the door. Carol and Sophia were next to Lori as T-Dog and Jacqui were behind her, when the woman stopped.

"No, no, I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie" Sarah turned her full attention to Jacqui.

"But that's insane!" T-Dog exclaimed but she just shook her head crying.

"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time" she said "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 said pushing T-Dog towards the exit.

"Jacqui..." Sarah said with tears in her eyes.

"Just go, sweetie" Jacqui smiled sadly at her before turning to stay next to Jenner.

"Jacqui!" Sarah tried again when Daryl grabbed her by the arm pulling her toward the exit.

"Come on, go!" he exclaimed "Come on!"

Nicki was behind her as they started to run towards the stairs. Sarah turned to see if everyone was following and she saw Lori, Carl and Glenn start running, then Rick. Shane, T-Dog, Carol and Sophia were ahead. But she didn't get a glimpse of Andrea and Dale. Where were they?

"We gotta move, come on!" exclaimed Shane as the ran up the stairs.

They got less than four minutes to get out from there. Sarah was feeling her lungs burning for how fast she was running. But when they arrived in front of the exit her heart almost stopped.

"Shit..." the doors were still locked.

"Can we open them, mom?" she heard Carl say as T-Dog and Glenn went to try pushing the doors open, but there was no use.

"Daryl!" she heard Shane yell as they ran towards the windows, starting to hitting it with the hatchets.

"That's not possible" scoffed Nicki with laboured breaths.

She was right.

They had finally managed to convince Jenner to let them go, only to find the exit locked. They surely had less than three minutes now.

Shane then walked back to take the riffle and yelling at every one to get back he started to shoot at the glass. It just cracked but it didn't break.

"This is a government building" Sarah said shaking her head, as she looked at Daryl and T-Dog hitting again the glass "This place has to make it through wars"

"War, yeah!" exclaimed Carol as she started to look through her bag, making all of them frown.

"Rick, I have something that might help" Carol said running to Rick.

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it" Shane said looking at the glass.

"Funny, man" said Nicki still taking deep breaths.

"Your first morning at camp" kept say Carol "When I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket"

She was holding a freaking grenade!

That could work. They would have to be really careful, but it could actually work.

Sarah observed Rick and Shane shared a look, before nodding.

"Everyone, stay back!" Rick exclaimed.

"Dog!"

"Daryl!" Shane and Sarah called at the same time, making the two men turning to run towards them.

Rick walked to get close to the glass, pulling the safety and igniting the grenade.

It happened fast. Sarah pulled Nicki on the ground trying to shield her as much as possible, as everyone tried to stay far away from the glass. When the grenade exploded, Sarah had never heard a louder noise in all her life. It ringed in her ears and made the floor trembled.

"Come on! Come on!" Rick said as Lori helped Carl to get up. Carol and Sophia were running to the shattered window with T-Dog. Sarah turned to Nicki that was shaking her head probably to get read of the noise.

"Let's go, Nicki" she said helping her sister to get up. They ran towards the window where Glenn helped Nicolette getting out as Daryl helped Sarah jump out.

"Run, run!" yelled Shane.

But when she turned, Sarah's eyes went wide seeing walkers coming their way.

"We have to go" said Glenn with a worried tone. He was right. If the H.I.T.S. got the air on fire they couldn't know what its range would be.

They didn't have even a moment to think as they started to run again. Walkers were coming their way before Shane and Rick shoot some right in the head, making them fall limp on the ground.

"Get in the cars!" Rick exclaimed as Daryl chopped another walker's head off.

It was less than two minutes.

"Come on!" Daryl said pulling Sarah and Nicki in his pick-up, while T-Dog, Carol and Sophia went in Rick's car and the others got in the RV.

"Stay down!" he exclaimed as they all tried to cover their heads.

Sarah's heart was beating fast, it was the only sound that she could hear before the earth shook under them and a loud explosion could be heard. It was far louder than the one they head heard before. The earth shook for some time as the temperature got hotter and hotter. When she didn't hear anything else she started to raise her head, before she felt Daryl's hand push her back.

"What the hell?!" she exclaimed.

"Stay down" he scoffed "Always wond'ring aroun'"

Sarah frowned, shaking her head as he looked up first. When she heard him take a breath, she set down too. In front of them the CDC was disappeared, its ruins were on fire and the smoky air was so dense that she felt like having trouble breathing.

"Nicolette!" she called looking at the back of the car as Nicki was coughing with her thumb up. Sarah smiled weakly before turning to Daryl who was looking at her, breathing heavy too. She observed him for a moment before he nodded his head a little, making her do the same.

"Look" Nicki said making them both turning where she was pointing. Sarah let out a light laugh as she noticed Dale and Andrea running towards the RV, where Glenn was gesturing to enter in.

"We're alive" Sarah said leaning her back on the seat.

"Yeah..." Daryl said leaning back too taking a breath.

She still couldn't believe they had survived.

"Are you all alright? Copy" Rick's voice came from the radio. Daryl and Sarah looked at each other, before the girl took the microphone in her hand, bringing it closer to her mouth before pressing the button.

"Nicolette, Daryl and I are fine. Copy" she said releasing the button.

"Same here with Carol, Sophia and I. Copy" T-Dog's voice came from the radio.

"Me too. Copy" Shane said too.

"We gotta move. Copy" Rick announced as Daryl gestured to her to give him the mike. She observed him as he pressed the button.

"Where?" there was a moment of silence before Rick's voice came through.

"Don't know" he said "But we can't stay here" they were in the city; it was not safe to be there and few walkers already started to show up.

"Let's go. Over" Rick said as Daryl took a breath turning on the car. The caravan started moving to get out of the city. The buildings ran pass them as they stood quietly. She felt relaxing, maybe it had been the hell of a day they had, or the tiredness she was feeling, but she was happy. Happy to be alive and have survived. No one knew what to do, but at least they were together and that was enough for now.