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mysticaloricalmandi123
Majestic butterfly
EastDenise
LyricalWisdom
jeanf
DixonGirl
You rock! All my love to you all!
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Her Angel, His Strength
6 TS-19
They entered the room warily; no one was around to receive them. At the sound of a gun cocking, all heads looked at the stranger up the stairs.
"Anybody infected?"
Daryl went to get their things; Lily still could not believe they were inside the walls, safe from the outside world. The group submitted to a blood test for precaution, the doctor had said. She could understand his point of view, even if she hated those needles.
When Jacqui mentioned no one had eaten in days, Jenner leaded them to another room, a kitchen from what she could tell. Pasta was prepared, and Jenner even brought wine for them. Lily smiled sadly at that, remembering how her father would drink a glass of red wine at least once a day.
"There you are, young lad." Lily watched as Dale poured Carl a glass. The boy took a sip and grimaced.
"Eww." Lily watched with a smile with the rest of their party, while Lori praised her son. "Yuck. That tastes nasty."
"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane said.
"Not you, Glenn." Daryl said from across the table.
"What?" Glenn asked with a smile.
"Keep drinking, little man. I want ta see how red your face can get." Everyone laughed at that. Lily shook her head at them, her own smile on her face. It had been a long time since she felt this happy. "Ya too, baby." He whispered in her ear.
Her face got beet red at that. Biting her lip, she looked down at her lap, feeling Glenn's eyes on her. She could only imagine his expression. Taking a sip of the wine Daryl poured on her glass, she tried to pretend Glenn was being the absurd one looking at her like that.
When the laugher and "booya's" started by Daryl died down, Shane asked seriously:
"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the— the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" The mood sobered quickly after that and Lily frowned at Shane. She agreed with Rick when the police officer stated that now wasn't the right time for that.
"Many couldn't face walking out the door. They… Opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time." Lily could only imagine the horror that Jenner must had felt, watching all his friends and colleagues die like that.
"Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man." Glenn said, plopping down next to her chair. She sighed and took another sip. It had been a while since she last ate, she wouldn't let Shane spoil this fancy dinner for her.
The news of hot water put back the smile on their faces. Lily hadn't know what that was for such a long time; she could hardly wait. Choosing a room at random, she left her bag and weapon at the sofa, and picking an outfit to sleep on, she went to shower.
It was just after she finished that she noticed the body length mirror. Her eyes fixated on that. Lily hadn't know that her time captive had left so many marks on her body. She never looked at it, but now it would seem she couldn't stop. She had no idea how long for she stayed transfixed on what had become of her when the door opened. Looking up she saw Daryl move slowly towards her.
"They made a monster out of me." It came in a whisper with a tear sliding down her face, but his frown told her he heard it.
"Ya no monster. Ya're ridiculously hot." He said and a small sad smile crept in her face, which was hot in embarrassment. She didn't believe him for a second, especially after seeing just how drunk he was.
He helped her get dressed, something she could have done herself, but she didn't mind. Besides, Daryl had saw all of her on the first day they met. There wasn't much to hide from him anymore.
He still had a bottle of alcohol on his grip, taking a sip every now and again before the two of them settled down for bed. Lily pondered absently minded that they had been sleeping together for a few nights now. Thinking nothing of it, she smiled at him and whispered goodnight. She was asleep before finishing the word.
Lily woke up with her head on Daryl's chest, her left arm holding his body and her right hand griping his at her waist. Smiling sleepily, she raised her head to look down on him. He seemed so peaceful asleep, no frown or scowl marking his face. Carefully tracing his features with her fingers, she noted how much younger he seemed.
Daryl moved so suddenly a gasp left her lips when he got her up him in one single move. Startled, she looked down at him who was gazing seriously at her. His blue eyes transfixed her and Lily couldn't look away even if she wanted. She hadn't even realised her head was dipping down when their lips touched.
It was an experimental kiss. Both of them testing the other. Sweet, gentle and a little clumsy, she now understood what Lori had said the morning they left the quarry, the smile on Carol's face and Glenn's shocked expression; Lily understood just why she was okay with sleeping with his body next to her. Raising her head slowly, she smiled at him.
"Good morning!" He didn't answer, just brought his hand on her head and pushed her face towards his again, running his lips gently against hers.
"Breakfast, y'all!" Dale's cheerful voice announced in the hall. Daryl and Lily separated quickly after that. Daryl left the room without a look back at her and she sighed.
She took a sit at the table next to Glenn, who looked a little green. Laughing she poked him on his side and he smiled weakly at her.
"How come you not hungover?"
"I know when to stop!" He only grunted at her. Taking two pills from Lori, she helped Glenn wash them down with water.
"What the hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-Dog asked Shane and Lily looked over to see three red lines on his face and neck.
"I must have done it in my sleep."
"Never seen you do that before." Rick commented.
"Me neither. Not like me at all." Frowning, Lily looked at him and at Lori, who had her head down. Lily couldn't help but feel that something was going on between the two of them. Before Rick came to camp, they were always together, happy. Now, Lori went out of her way to stay clear of him, making sure that Carl did so too.
"Morning." Jenner said walking into the room.
"I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing—" Dale started.
"But you will anyway." Jenner interrupted with a sigh.
"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea said.
They finished their breakfast soon after that and followed Jenner to the big room.
"Give me a playback of TS-19." Jenner commanded and they all watched with interest as the computer responded. "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."
The main screen showed a head of what they learned was Test Subject 19. To Lily, it was beautiful, knowing that inside her own head, those bright lights were working on her brain, keeping her alive and unique.
"Those are synapses. 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." Jenner explained. "VI, scan forward to the first event."
The screen changed, with the lights still flickering in the outer areas, but the centre of the brain had become dark.
"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands haemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be… Gone.
"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."
It started with a red glow at the base of the brain. A few sparks followed it, but the larger area, the synapses Jenner had talked about, were gone.
"They're not alive?" Risk asked, as if wanting to be sure they were not all murderers.
"You tell me."
"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick shook his head.
"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part— that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."
They watched as a bullet entered the brain, which got completely dark, its movements ceasing.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea rounded on the doctor.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Lily bit her lip; it could be anything then.
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui said.
"There is that."
"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." Andrea said, getting desperate.
"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol looked at the doctor, trying to find hope.
"There may be some. People like me."
"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick frowned.
"Everything went down. Communications, directives— all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month." With a sigh, Lily closed her eyes. Almost a month and they were no closer to finding a cure then when it all began.
"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" Lily asked, thinking about her family. She had no way of knowing how they were, if they were alive. She thought that not knowing was even worse than if she had seen them as one of the walkers.
"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but… That clock— it's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asked and Lily noted for the first time the big red numbers.
"The basement generators— they run out of fuel."
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." Lily watched as most of the men left to check on the basement. She followed Carol and Sophia, wanting to go back to her own room and rest. The news that this infection had gone worldwide had took off her fight. Her only hope was that her family was okay. That they were alive, probably worried about her, but alive. Now, she was not so sure.
When the air went down, she got up to check it up. It was hot down there, why would someone stop it? Walking out her room, she saw that a few of the group were standing in front of their doors too, looking confused.
"What's going on? Why is everything turned off?" Daryl asked Jenner who took his whiskey bottle.
"Energy use is being prioritized."
"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asked surprised.
"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down." They all followed Jenner down the hall.
"What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Rick, T-Dog, Glenn and Shane joined them.
"You'd be surprised." Jenner muttered. "The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule.
"It was the French." He said looking at Lily.
"What?"
"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."
"What happened?"
"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"
Rick commanded everyone to grab their things. They needed to leave, their safe heaven just an illusion. Just as Lily got close to the door, an alarm started to blare.
"What's that?" Carl asked.
"30 minutes to decontamination." The computer answered. Jenner scanned his badge and entered a code password into a security pad; Lily's apprehension skyrocketing.
"Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!"
The door banged closed.
"No. Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn shouted in anger by her side.
"We've hit the 30-minute window. I'm recording." Lily glared at the man in disbelief. What was he doing?
"You son of a bitch!" Daryl shouted. "You locked us in here!" Shane and Rick managed to pull him off the doctor, who was the only chance they had to get out of there alive.
"Hey, Jenner, open that door now."
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Well, open the damn things." Dale and Lily demanded together. Both with matching glares on their faces.
"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's better this way."
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked and that finally got a reaction from the doctor.
"You know what this place is?! 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!" His angry voice resonated across the room, everyone watching him in fear. "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."
"H.I.T.s?"
"VI, define."
"H.I.T.s— high-impulse thermo baric 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 ignites the oxygen at between 5,000 degrees and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
"It sets the air on fire. No pain." Jenner resumed his voice soft. "An end to sorrow, grief… Regret. Everything." Daryl, though, was not having any of that, throwing his liquor bottle at the door, he demanded:
"Open the damn door!" He and Shane started banging the door with axes, with no success.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner said. Turning to Rick, he continued, "you do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Everyone in the room looked at Rick when the blond man talked to him. Lily was surprised; Rick always seemed so calm and collected, always reassuring them that there was hope still, that they could all make it. He made all of them believe when he himself could not.
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" She watched him sadly, collapsing on the floor. They were all going to die now.
"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate just to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Lily nodded her head when she heard Jenner talk to Carol softly. Yeah, kinder than dying at the teeth of the dead that is for sure… Or kinder than dying at the hands of sick men. Perhaps he was right, after all.
She watched as Shane put his shotgun at Jenner's face. She could not see the point in that, the man was already conformed to his own death; Shane would just be accelerating the process.
"I think you're lying." Rick said calmly, after taking Shane off Jenner. "You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"
"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise." He pointed at the screen. "To her. My wife.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just… Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's— that's all we want— a choice, a chance."
"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori begged.
"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those". He sighed and unlocked the door Daryl had been beating. Everyone started to rush towards it, Lily a little slower than the rest, still not entirely sure it was the best option.
"Move it! Move it!" Apparently, Daryl thought the best for her was to go, as he gripped her arm and shoved her out of the way towards the hall. She walked a few steps when she heard T-Dog yelling, and, looking over her shoulder, she saw he was yelling at Jacqui. Shaking her head, she started to make her way back at the woman who had helped her since day one.
Daryl glared at her, grabbing her by the elbow and running down towards his room, where he got his bag and weapon. Never letting her go, they made their way towards her room next, where he haphazardly threw her stuff in her bag.
They hurried out following after T-Dog, and the two men instantly started banging against the doors. The others close behind.
"Jesus." Shane said in disbelief after shooting at the doors.
"Rick, I have something that might help." Carol said, rummaging into her bag. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She pulled out a grenade while Rick stared at it in shock.
Daryl ran at Lily, getting her down and laying his body on top of hers. His hands went to her ears, pressing tightly against them, and she tried to do the same for him.
After the explosion, Daryl helped her up and pushed her at the whole in the window, and they made a mad dash towards the vehicles. Lily and Daryl had just made it to the truck when they saw Andrea and Dale coming out.
Daryl pushed her down towards the seat and took cover over her shaking body. She felt the heat before hearing the explosion, sweat running down her face, mixing with the tears she did not know she had shed. Getting up, they looked at the remains of the building.
They started to move out, back the way they came, a black smoke covering their backs.
jeanf, while I already have Lily's entire history and how she came to be in the hands of those men in my head, I won't write it until season 4, I'm afraid! However, bits and pieces will be told in the meantime! I hope you'll wait and see until then! What she did before will be revelled in season 2, though I warn you now it's nothing really exiting. Thank you for the reviews, they were lovely.
DixonGirl, no, when Lori made that comment, it was just in jest, I don't believe her to be a malicious woman. Moreover, for Carol's smile, I think she'd found the comment and Lily's expression funny, also, it could be because Lily was clueless on Daryl's feelings, you can decide her reaction by yourself, though to me, it was a mix of the three. Thank you for the reviews!
If there's no reviews, there will be no update.
English is not my mother tongue, if you find a mistake, please let me know.
Thank you,
Mel.
