Thank you so much, once again for all of your kind words. It really encourages me to continue on with this story and puts a smile on my face every time I read a review or see how many follows and favorites my little story has gotten!
You're all so nice and I love that you seem to like Nikki so far, let me know if you think she is, in fact a suitable pairing for Daryl or if not, who would you pair her with?
I couldn't help but watch in awe as Jenner showed us the playback of TS-19. We watched with our mouths open as the x-ray video showed us the small lights flitting through the brain that made this person who they were.
Each light slowly seemed to dim as the life left the person in question. We waited with bated breath until suddenly a spark went off in the base of the brain, the x-ray skeleton began moving as more lights joined the first.
The movement of the persons snapping jaw was all too familiar to us now, we all knew by this movement alone that it was the indication that the person had turned into a walker.
There were lights floating up and down the persons brain, flowing down the spinal cord and through the nervous system, but there wasn't half as many lights as before.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked, folding her arms as Jenner commanded for the main screen and work stations to be shut off.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Jenner listed off.
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui spoke up, her voice quivering.
"There's that." The doctor sighed, nodding slightly.
"I can't believe that the whole entire world is going through this nightmare as well." I shook my head from my spot beside Daryl. "Someone, somewhere has to know something there has to be other people surviving outside of this hell."
"There may be some people like me." Jenner shrugged once more making me role my eyes and throw my hands up in frustration.
"You don't know?" Dad jumped in, desperation clear in his voice. "How can you not know?"
"Everything went down, communications, directives, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
"So there's nothing left anywhere?" Andrea asked incredulously.
The doctors lack of answer was all we needed to confirm our suspicions. I turned toward the desk behind me, placing my hands on it and leaning slightly on them. There's no way that we're all that's left. We can't be the only ones left to survive in this hell.
I watched my hands shaking for a few minutes on the table top before I shook my head slightly, pulling myself together and standing up straight. If this was really and truly a fight for survival there was no way we could break down.
"Man I'm gonna get shit faced drunk, again." Daryl muttered from beside me, rubbing his forehead.
I tried to distract myself in some way as everyone slowly came to terms with the information we were just given.
Looking around the room, my eyes fell on what looked like a massive digital clock. My heart reacted before my brain did, picking up speed quickly. It wasn't a digital clock on the wall, it was a timer that was counting down. The giant red numbers seeming sinister.
So far everything about this place seemed to be just like the movies so I dreaded the answer to my next question.
"What's that timer counting down to?"
I noticed the realization on my Dads face first as he turned to Jenner quickly.
"The basement generators, they run out of fuel." Jenner tried to say nonchalantly but he failed as he looked uncomfortable under everyones gaze.
"And then?" Dad asked only to be completely ignored by Jenner. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination will occur." The automated voice answered, my eyes were wide and my heart was beating faster than ever.
Dad looked to Shane, Glenn and T-Dog before filing out of the main room, no doubt leading them to the basement to have a look at the generators.
"You better hope this isn't anything bad." I warned Jenner, he just stared back at my glare, his face empty of emotion.
"What do you think it means?" Daryl muttered quietly as he turned his back to the others. I glanced over at Carl who was clinging to Mom, both of them looking scared.
"What happens when something is decontaminated?" I asked Daryl before answering my own question. "It's destroyed, I don't know what parts of this building comes under those terms but I don't like the sound of it."
I watched as Daryls jaw clenched, the nerve in his neck jumping as he started pacing, shooting daggers over to Jenner every now and then.
After Mom suggested that we all stay in our rooms as we waited for the others to return from looking at the basement I found myself sitting on the couch I had slept on the night before, head in hands.
A small knock on the door snapped me out of my reverie. I pulled the door open to see Daryl stood with his back against the far wall, chewing on his fingernails.
"That's a terrible habit." I smiled slightly before turning and sitting back down on the couch.
"If your Dad can't fix this then we just leave, the cars are still outside." I heard him growl from the doorway. Daryl had moved as far as that and decided to not come any farther into the room, I didn't push him on it either. He looked oddly uncomfortable anyway.
"One hour, that's what was left on that clock." I sighed, glancing up to him. "You think we're gonna be able to sort it all out in one hour?"
Daryl never answered me, I sighed deeply before noticing a certain dead silence in the room. Looking towards the vent I stood and made my way over to it, holding my hand up.
"The air conditioning has stopped." I muttered just loud enough for Daryl to hear. When the lights went out we both looked at each other in panic before making our way out of the room.
Everyone else was currently doing the same, looking to each other for an answer.
"Why is the air off?" Mom asked as Jenner walked down the hallway.
"And the lights in our room?" Carol chimed in.
"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner answered calmly, walking through us without making eye contact.
"Air isn't a priority?" Dale asked. "And lights?"
"It's not up to me," Jenner explained. "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
I turned to stay in stride with Mom and Carl as we followed Jenner down the hallway.
"What the hell does that mean?" Daryl called after him. Every light around us was going off one by one. "Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down?"
"Rick?" Mom called over the banister at the sound of the others footsteps running to meet us. I quickly ran down the rest of the flight of stairs to make it over to my Dad.
"What's going on?" I asked him pleadingly, fearing that I already knew. Dad simply put a hand on my shoulder before starting over to Jenner. I turned to Shane, desperate for information but he too was glaring at the doctor.
We came to a stop behind Jenner, each one of us wordlessly pleading for an answer.
Daryl walked up and grabbed the bottle of alcohol the doctor was currently drinking from, staring him down as he walked forwards.
"It was the French." Jenner began to explain as he made his way to the platform with the desks and computers. "They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. A lot of people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs until the end. They thought they were close to a solution."
"Everyone grab your stuff we're getting out of here, now!" Dad called to us. Just as we started bolting for the doors an ear splitting alarm started sounding from all areas.
I watched as Jenner walked over to a key pad, pressing his key to the scanner and pushing some buttons on it. My stomach flipped as shutters came down on the doors and windows surrounding us.
"He just locked us in!" Glenn shouted, his eyes wide.
I watched as Daryl raced over to where the doctor was sitting calmly in front of a computer, Dad called for Shane as Daryl was tackled to the side by him and T-Dog.
"Jenner, open that door now." Dad ordered, making his way over to him. I followed close behind, ignoring Moms pleas to stay with her and Carl.
"There's no point." Jenner shrugged. "Everything is locked down the emergency exits are sealed. I told you once that front door was closed it wouldn't open again, you heard me say that."
I rolled my eyes before walking towards Jenner, my first pulled back getting ready to snap forward. Before I could make contact, however, I felt Dads arms circling my waist and pulling me back.
"This absolute dick tricked us into our own deaths." I shouted, turning on my heel to face Dad.
"And how is hitting him gonna solve anything?" He asked, glaring back at me. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"
"In the event of a catastrophic power failure or a terrorist attack," Jenner recited almost robot-like. "HIT's are deployed to prevent anything from getting out. Vi, define."
"HIT's, high impulse thermobaric fuel air explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition."
I stopped listening as the automated voice continued to define the thing that was going to kill us.
None of us could look at the other but I felt Dads hand tugging on the hem of my shirt, pulling me towards him as I lifted my hands to my face. I felt him leading me towards where Carl and Mom stood, I threw my arms around my family, trying to memorize every scent and every feel of each of them.
The sound of a glass smashing made me look towards the shutter covering the main door. Daryl had thrown the liquor bottle at it.
"Open the damn door!" He shouted towards Jenner.
I watched in desperation as he and Shane continued to beat the shutter with whatever they could find, the sound of Carl and Sophia crying in the background.
"There are kids here." I muttered, shaking my head at Jenner.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." He called to Shane and Daryl. I jumped to the side as Daryl ran at Jenner once more, an axe raised over his head as he aimed for the doctor. Before he could get too close Dad, Shane and T-Dog had grabbed him, forcing him to lower his weapon.
"You do want this." Jenner sighed, looking to Dad. "You said so yourself last night, you said it was only a matter of time before everyone you knew was dead."
I felt my body freeze up at this, my head turning to Dad in disbelief as he failed to deny the doctors comment.
"Did you really say that?" Shane asked angrily. "After all your big talk."
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Dad groaned desperately, looking between me and Mom. I shook my head, turning away and sighing deeply. My head hurt from trying to think of ways to get out of this situation.
I felt Glenn hugging me to his chest as I fought back tears, I turned at the sound of a gun cocking. Shane had pushed everyone aside and now had a gun held to Jenners head.
"Open the door or so help me I will blow your head off." His voice was dangerous.
"Shane he wants to die, you're gonna have to do it slower than that." I said matter-of-factly as I stood watching the scene, one of Glenns arms still hugging me to his chest.
"Shane if he dies we will never get out of here." Dad tried to reason. I felt Glenn pulling me to the ground as Shane took aim at the computers and began firing, one by one.
We stood up slowly as the shooting ceased, Dad had managed to wrestle the gun from Shane. He was now pleading with Jenner for what seemed like the last time for our only possible chance of getting out of here.
My heart dropped to my stomach as Jenner revealed that Test Subject 19 was in fact his wife.
"Give us a chance, that's all we want." Dad reasoned with him.
"Let us keep fighting for as long as we can." Mom also pleaded, grabbing my hand as she looked to the doctor.
I watched as Jenner sighed deeply before walking to the keypad and pressing his card to it, pushing more buttons I heard the door behind us open.
I tugged on my Moms hand, pulling her and Carl backwards, towards the exit.
"Dad come on!" I shouted, running up the bridge as quickly as I could.
"No no, I'm staying." I heard Jacqui telling T-Dog as he tried to pull her to safety.
I watched on in desperation as Jacqui walked back to the platform with the computers, Andrea also hadn't moved.
"Just go!" Dale called back to us as he attempted to reason with the women. I took a moment to nod towards Andrea, understanding what she was doing before following Mom and Carl out of the main room and through the narrow hallways.
"We have four minutes left." Glenn called from somewhere behind me as we sprinted through the halls.
I got the edge of my rifle, hitting the window as hard as I could with the edge of it as the others attempted to do the same at each pane.
I watched as Shane shot at the window panes, the bullets reflecting from each one.
"Rick, I have something that might help." Carol called rushing forwards.
"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna help." Shane sighed but Carol carried on as if she hadn't heard him.
"Your first day at camp when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." My eyes widened at the sight of the grenade lying in the middle of Carols palm.
We rushed over to the steps, lying as low as we could as Dad pulled the pin from the grenade and left it by the nearest window pane.
He ran towards us, the sudden blast throwing him forward. I looked up to see that the plan had succeeded and there was now a section of the window missing its glass.
We rushed out, one by one, making sure the kids were both in front of us as we ran from the CDC.
Walkers began limping towards us, the sound of the grenade exploding drawing them in this direction. All of us with guns and weapons began killing the nearest ones to us. We just needed enough room to make it to the vehicles okay.
Just as the vehicles were in sight I felt my foot bend in the wrong direction as I ran over a step, I cried out as I came down hard to the ground, feeling something in my leg tearing.
I rolled over as quickly as I could to see a Walker limping much too close to me. The animated corpse was on top of me before I knew it, I could hear the others shouting behind me.
My gun had flown out of my hand as I fell and all I could do was grope around on the ground for it as panic started to flood my body.
The Walkers teeth were snapping inches from my face, I let out a scream as it slumped forward, its head landing in the crook of my neck.
I hadn't realized I had closed my eyes until I opened them again, wondering when the pain of being bitten was gonna take over.
The walker was pulled off me and it was then that I saw the arrow protruding from its skull.
"I've got her." I heard Daryl shouting as he lifted me up and began dragging me towards the cars.
"Daryl, I can't weight bare on my ankle, I'm slowing you down too much."
"Shut up, Grimes." He growled at me, continuing to pull me along beside him.
I winced as he shoved me into a jeep beside Shane, the pain from my ankle spreading up my leg.
"Get down!" Shane shouting, pulling me until I was lying flat down on the seat, Daryl diving in over me as we threw our hands over our heads.
I felt the explosion before I heard it. The wave of power that came off of it rocked the jeep and made my hair blow from my face.
After the rolls of power from the explosion began to cease I lifted my head slowly, watching in amazement as the enormous government building turned to rubble before us.
I quickly spun around in my seat, looking to the car behind us I saw Mom, Dad and Carl staring back at me. The relief brought a smile to my face as I panted, my heart attempting to slow down.
"Think she tore ligaments or something." Daryl was saying to Shane, looking at my ankle.
"I don't care." I sighed, laughing slightly at the fact that we had made it out alive.
