A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for your continued support of this story, I always love hearing from you. Please take a minute and review after you read, just to let me know what you think! Enjoy!
~A.S.D
I woke up with a splitting headache, one unlike I'd ever had. I groaned and sat up on the small cot, stretching. My foot hit something and there was a loud "Oomph" noise. I looked down and Shane was sprawled across the foot of my cot, now rubbing the back of his head where I'd accidentally kicked him.
"Shane? What are you doing in here?" I asked, rubbing my temples, trying to dissipate the throbbing in my skull.
"Don't remember. Think I got lost," he murmured, clearly suffering as much as I was.
I got out of bed, staggering slightly and he followed suite.
"I guess we probably shouldn't drink anymore during the zombie apocalypse," I joked and started digging through my bag for some clean clothes and hoping there may be some leftover Ibuprofen somewhere.
"I'd say that's a good idea. I'm going to go get dressed and head off to see what everyone else is up to," he said and opened the door. I nodded, even though it felt like my brain might explode. Once he was gone, I slipped on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I put my boots on and pulled my hair back before stepping out of the room. I heard talking down the hall so I followed it. As I got closer, it got louder, making my head throb even more.
"Adeline, are you hung over too?" Carl asked me the second I walked into the small kitchen. T-Dog was dishing out eggs to everyone and Glenn had his head in his hands moaning.
"Carl!" Lori chastised, but she looked up at me questioningly.
"Yeah kiddo, I am. Don't ever drink, okay," I said and flopped down in the chair beside Glenn. Carl and Lori laughed as Shane walked in. Lori glanced up, saw him, then buried her nose in her eggs.
"You feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked him as Shane poured some coffee into a cup.
"Worse," he said and walked over to the table.
"What the hell happened to your neck?" T-Dog asked and I saw the three fiery red lines running across his neck.
"Don't know. I musta done it in my sleep," he said, averting his gaze.
"I've never seen you do that before," Rick countered, eating hungrily as he spoke.
"Me neither. Not like me at all," Shane replied, looking at Lori. I made a mental note to question him later. Jenner walked in then and we all muttered our hellos.
"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing…" Dale trailed off and the doctor smiled.
"But you will anyway," he said.
"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea retorted and I smiled.
Jenner got up and walked out, gesturing for us to follow him and we did. We walked into the Big Room again and Jenner walked over to a computer.
"Give me playback of TS-19," he said.
"Playback of TS-19," the computer said and images started to appear on the large screen. We were all standing around the room, shifting uneasily, unsure of what we were about to see.
"Few people ever got the chance to see this. Very few," he said as the images began to shift.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked once the view of a human skull settled on the screen.
"An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us to E.I.V" Jenner said.
"Enhanced Internal View," Vi said and the picture moved to give an internal view of the brain. Little blue lights lit up the entire brain, dancing and sparkling across the surface.
"What are those lights?" Shane asked for all of us.
"It's a person's life, experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique. And human," Jenner said looking at the screen in wonder.
"Do you make sense, ever?" Daryl asked him and I chuckled.
"Those are synapses, electrical impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They control everything a person says, does, or thinks, from the moment of birth, to the moment of death," Jenner continued, although it still made no sense to me and by the look on everyone's faces, not to them either.
"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked, walking forward.
"Yes. Or rather, the playback of the vigil," Jenner said, looking back at us with sad eyes.
"This person died?" Andrea asked. "Who?"
"Test subject 19, someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. Scan to first event," Jenner called.
"Scanning to first event," VI responded and the clock on the screen sped up tremendously.
Black tendrils began to creep into the brain, killing the blue lights as it spread.
"What is that?" Glenn asked, all of us entranced by this.
"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be… gone," he was looking at the ground now and all of us wore solemn expressions.
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked her mother, looking very afraid.
"Yes," Carol answered, wrapping an arm around her daughter. Andrea was sniffling, fighting back tears and Jenner was looking at her.
"She lost someone two days ago. Her sister," Lori said and Jenner nodded.
"I lost someone too, I know how devastating it is," he looked genuinely sympathetic for a moment before turning back to the screen.
"Scan to the second event." VI responded again and the picture changed again. "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," the doctor looked resolved as orange sparks began to light the brain.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked, shock coloring her voice. I shivered and Shane moved behind me, putting his arms on my shoulders.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive?" Rick asked. We were all afraid of the answer to the question. If they had recollection of their old life, then we had been killing innocent people who happened to be sick. If not, we were killing monsters that had taken on the form of our loved ones.
"You tell me," he said, looking at the dark brain with the one orange flicker right at the base.
"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark," Rick said with conviction and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
"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," Jenner wouldn't look at us as a flash tore across the screen into the brain, causing the person to stop moving. We all jumped at the suddenness of it.
"God! What was that?" Carol asked.
"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea looked slightly disgusted as she spoke.
"VI, power down the main screen and workstations," Jenner dodged the question and the lights in the room went out.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea accused, a pleading look on her face.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal," Jenner started listing off things one by one.
"Or the wrath of God?" Jaqui asked.
"There is that," Jenner said, joking although none of us found it to be amusing. I glared at Rick, he had led us here and now we were back where we started, no answers.
"Somebody must know something," Andrea said, continuing to grasp at straws.
"There are others right? Other facilities?" Carol asked.
"There could be. Others like me."
"You don't know? How can you not know?" Rick was panicking now.
"It all went down. Communications, directives, all of it," Jenner said, looking at us all in turn. "I've been in the dark for almost a month."
"So it's not just here? There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?" Andrea asked him, a look of hopelessness on her face now.
"I'm going to get drunk again," Daryl said, rubbing his face with his hands as we all processed the information.
"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, pointing to the clock behind the workstations that had just reached the one-hour mark.
"The basement generators, they run out of fuel," he looked away and started pacing the floor.
"And then?" Rick asked. Jenner didn't acknowledge him, just walked around the room.
"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick called, taking advantage of the responsive computer.
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur," the computer's voice rang out clear in the quiet room. Jenner had left the room and we knew we'd have to get answers on our own. Rick, Shane, Glenn, and T-Dog took off to the basement to look at the generators. Daryl and I led everyone else back to their rooms.
"Something's definitely up here. We need to be ready to leave in case somethin' goes down," Daryl whispered to me and I nodded. He had a beer in his hand and took a sip before heading down the hall to his room. I went into mine and started packing the few possessions I had into my bag. Then, I went to Shane's room and packed his too. In the middle of shoving his clothes in the bag, the lights went out. I walked out of my room to see everyone else peaking their heads out and Jenner coming around the corner.
"What's going on?" Carol asked.
"Energy is being prioritized," Jenner said, walking by Daryl and taking his beer.
"Air isn't a priority? Or lights?" Lori asked as we all started to follow him.
"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down," he took a swig from the bottle and kept walking.
"Hey! Hey! What does that mean?" Daryl yelled, chasing after Jenner who wouldn't answer him.
"Hey, man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How can a buildin' do anything?" He asked, still in pursuit of the doctor. The guys came running through a door downstairs and Lori called to Rick.
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked him as the man walked down to them.
"The system is dropping all 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," Jenner said, walking back into the Big Room and pointing at the clock that had a little of thirty minutes left on it. Jenner nearly drained the bottle, then handed it back to Daryl.
"It was the French."
"What?" Andrea asked.
"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," Jenner said and we all looked at him, the last of our hope riding on the words he was saying now.
"What happened?" I dared to ask.
"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?" he asked, laughing shakily.
Shane, angered by his amusement, leapt forward and Rick went after him
"Everyone, get your stuff, we're getting our of here," Rick called and we all headed towards the doors that led to our rooms. As we were leaving, red lights filled the room and an alarm started blaring.
"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl asked as Jenner was fiddling with a keypad on the desk.
"Come on, let's get out stuff!" I called and we started running. Just as I approached the door, a metal wall rose from the ground, sealing the door shut. I yelped and stepped back.
"Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn shrieked, full panic setting in now. Jenner was at a computer, talking about the thirty-minute mark.
Daryl ran forward, the bottle poised over his head.
"You locked us in!" He screamed and Shane and T-Dog grabbed him, pulling him away from the doctor before he could do any more than shove him. He fought against them but they held him in place.
"Open the door!" I yelled, marching up to Jenner and getting in his face, though posing no real threat.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are all sealed."
"Then open the damn things!" Rick called.
"That's not something I control. The computers do," Jenner said, what marbles he had left quickly spilling from his head.
"It's better this way," Jenner said.
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked but Jenner just turned to the keyboard. Shane yelled the question again and smacked Jenner in the head who shot up.
"Do you know what this place is? We protect 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!" Jenner yelled, causing Sophia and Carl to cling to their mothers. Once he was done, he sat back down and talked in a normal voice.
"In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack for an example. H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"H. ?" Rick asked.
"VI, define."
"H. , high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produced 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 and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired," VI rattled off our death sentence like the weather. While it had been speaking, everyone moved to their loved ones, Shane hugging me tightly and the children crying.
"It sets the air on fire. No pain. An end to sorrow, grief, regret, everything," Jenner spoke in a calm voice now, resigned to die here. We were all looking around, like caged animals.
"Open the damn door!" Daryl yelled after throwing the bottle against it.
"Out of my way!" Shane yelled, carrying one of the axes from our arsenal and slamming it against the door.
"Daryl!" someone yelled and threw one to him and they both started beating on the door.
"You should've left it alone. It would've been so much easier," Jenner said in a near whisper.
"Easier for who?" Lori asked, sitting on the floor holding Carl. I grabbed another ax and went to help try and pry to door open.
"For everyone. You know what's out there! A short, brutal life and an agonizing death. You're sister, what was her name?" he asked Andrea.
"Amy."
"Amy. You know what this does. Is that what you want for your wife and son?" he asked Rick.
"I don't want this!" Rick cried.
"Can't make a dent!" I screeched and hit the door one more time.
"Those doors are built to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner looked amused at us.
"Well, your head a'int!" Daryl yelled and ran towards him with the ax. We all grabbed him to stop him.
"You do want this. You told me just last night. That you knew it was only a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead."
"You really said that?" I yelled, beyond pissed off.
"After all your big talk?" Shane asked.
"I had to keep hope alive," Rick said, trying to convey a message to us.
Jenner and Rick then started debating hope, but I went back to the door and stopped listening. That is, until I saw Shane start running at Jenner with a gun in his hand.
"Shane! No!" Rick yelled but Shane barreled past him.
"You kill him and we never get out of here!" Rick continued as Shane pointed the gun at Jenner's head.
Shane exploded, shooting the computers and walls, causing everyone to duck. Rick grabbed him, wrestled the gun out of his hand and knocked him to the ground.
"Hey!" I yelled and ran up to Rick, smacking him in the back of the head. He turned on me, gun pointed, but I didn't flinch.
"Back off!" I yelled and knelt next to my brother. There were tears in my eyes as Rick looked down and asked him if he was done.
"Yeah, I guess we all are," he said and I hugged him, letting the tears roll quietly. Everyone looked defeated, even Daryl was slumped over, staring at the floor. I helped Shane up and heard Rick questioning Jenner on why he stayed.
"I made a promise to her, my wife," he said, pointing up to the screen.
"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asked.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying? She ran this place, I just worked here. She could've done something about this."
"Your wife didn't have a choice, that's all we want, a choice. A chance to keep fighting."
"Let us keep going as long as we can," Lori cried.
"I told you everything topside is locked down." Jenner said and the door opened.
"Let's go!" Daryl yelled and we all started running. I fled to my room and grabbed my bag and Shane's too. When I met up with everyone else, Shane told me that Jaqui and Andrea had decided to stay, and Dale was still in there too. I was saddened, but didn't pause in my pursuit to leave. We got to the main entrance and started beating the windows with axes and chairs, but it wouldn't break. Even when Shane fired two bullets into it, not a scratch.
"Rick, I think I have something that may help!" Carol called and pulled a grenade out of her purse. "I found it in your uniform," she explained and Rick nodded, setting it in place in front of the window. Shane knelt next to me, covering me with his body. I covered my ears, but the explosion was still loud. We all jumped out the windows and started firing at the approaching walkers. I ran to Shane's jeep and as I climbed in, I saw Andrea and Dale climb out the windows and start running.
"Get down!" Rick yelled to them and we all got down in the cars. If I thought the explosion to open the window was loud, this one was the sonic boom. Fire flooded from the building, heating my entire face. My ears rang and Shane looked at me.
"Are you okay?" he asked me, my eyes unfocused.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, looking at the twisting fire on the horizon. The RV cranked and pulled off, with the rest of us following behind. Leaving our hopes burning with the building and Jenner.