Just a quick note: This chappie is a little short, and heads up for the next chapter, i'll be changing to a third person POV :)
Nightmares. Fears. There is always a time in some point in your life when you are haunted by them. Fear of death or fear of something worse. Fear of being eaten by the people you thought were dead comes close to worse.
I am scared. Scared purely because it was my dad that killed me in my dream. He was the one who woke me from my dream, not Amy or Jim, my dad. Sometimes people think dreams are a bad omen, some say that dreams can come true. Jim's dream did. Could it come true? Could my dad come from Alaska in his state, in death, and kill me? Maybe it's possible… Hopefully it's not.
I drag myself up from the floor and fold my sleeping bag. The knock at the door sounds again. "There's breakfast ready… If you want it." I'm surprised Daryl hadn't left yet… I pull my jumper over my head, change my jeans and pull on my chucks. Upon opening the door I was even more surprised to see Daryl leaning up against the opposite wall.
I smile softly and he slings the crossbow over his shoulder, heading down the hall. "Hey!" I say jogging down the hall after him. "I just… Thank you."
"What for?" He asked gruffly, turning to face me.
"For the other day… when you-" He raised his eyebrows, and I exhaled through my nose. "Thank you… for saving my life."
"Don't mention it…" And he took off down the hall again.
Powdered eggs. Powdered eggs and bacon. I couldn't remember the last time I had bacon. The salty meat was welcome in my stomach, although I doubt it did much for Glenn who was severely hung-over.
After breakfast Jenner took us back down to the big room. Everybody wanted answers, we all wanted the answers that Rick promised us we would get if we came here. TS-19 that was our answers. It's what the virus did to us after the fever set in.
It shut down your organs first, slowly working its way to the heart and brain. Then death. The regeneration period varied between people. I watched as the brain stems on the big screen darkened to black. It scanned to the second event… Flashes of red started to appear on the brain. It spread out, it was nothing like before. There was no electric impulses, no blue, no life. It was as if the mind had been ripped away and replaced with an empty shell. The memories were gone, the feelings were gone all that was there was the intense hunger for flesh. I jumped as the bullet pierced its skull.
In truth nobody knew what this was. Not even Jenner who had been studying this, who had seen this. He had no idea if it was microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal or even just the wrath of God. Nobody knew what this was, and if nobody knew what this was, we can never stop it.
I sat down, my back up against the wall. I pushed my head into my hands… we can do nothing to stop this. There is nobody else, there is only here. It was the last place on earth that we could find something to stop this and there was nothing. Not even a microbe of evidence that could lead to a cure.
"That clock, Dr Jenner," Spoke up Dale. "It's counting down… what happens at zero?"
My eyes snapped up to the red digital clock that hung on the wall. One hour… One hour till what?
"Basement generators… they run out of fuel…" He paused… he wasn't telling us anything.
"But that's not all… is it?" I say, "You're not telling us everything." Jenner ignored me, but Rick didn't. He called up to Vi.
"Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination will occur." There was a flurry of movement. Rick, Shane, T-Dog and Glenn hurried down to the basement generators.
Facility wide decontamination. That sounds promising… Jenner had left the room. I have a feeling that guys brain is a box of frogs. The emergency lighting came on after that. Everyone else had gone back to their rooms; I stayed in the big room. I couldn't be bothered to move. I had my rifle slung over my shoulder and that's all that I really needed. I bent my head back, the metal was cool. It reminded me of home.
"Mom! Mom! Look at me, Mom!" I waved over at my parents even though I should have been concentrating on my game. The soccer final, our team had never been in the soccer final before, and so far it was a one all draw. I was goalkeeper… I'd saved a few this game, but now with only two minutes left their strikers were on the attack and my defence weren't quick enough. I dived. I tried my best I really did but I missed. The ball went sprawling into the back of the net… we lost.
Dad took us out for milkshakes after that. I remember because he brought me a banana split to cheer me up. Banana splits always cheered me up. I ate the whole thing that day, I could never usually finish eating the whole thing, but that day I managed to.
The sound of footsteps and loud voices brought me out of my thoughts. I could faintly taste ice cream on my tongue. The group followed Jenner in. They looked worried… It made me worry. Daryl snatched the bottle of whiskey from Jenner's hand. I heard the liquid slosh as it came into contact with the floor.
"It was the French, while our people were running out and committing suicide, they stayed in till the end. Thought they were close to a solution… The world runs on fossil fuel I mean, how stupid is that?" Said Jenner as he headed to the control panel.
"That's it, I don't wanna hear it!" Yelled Rick, "Lori, everybody get your things, we're getting out of here now!"
Everyone was a flurry of movement, they ran towards the doors just as an alarm sounded throughout the room.
"Ya'll heard Rick, everybody get your stuff and go!" Shane was yelling. I sucked in a breath. I knew what was happening. He wasn't going to let us leave. That thought was proven when the doors slid shut, blocking the exits.
"Did he just lock us in?" Glenn mumbled "He just locked us in!"
Everybody was yelling, screaming, Carl was crying. He never planned to let us out when we came in. Once that door closes it won't open again. There was a double meaning to that… we never saw it. Rick was pleading with him, Daryl was going nuts. I slammed my hands over my ears, it hurt to listen. There was too much yelling, too much noise. I scrunched my eyes shut, trying to block out everything. It was no use though, I could still hear them. They're too loud.
"H. ," Vi's electronic voice rang through my ears. "High Impulse Thermobaric fuel air explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition and produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other explosive except nuclear. A vacuum pressure effect ignites the oxygen between five thousand and six thousand degrees, is useful for the greatest loss of life and when structural damage is desired."
There was silence for a moment; I could feel the tears coming down my cheeks again. We are all going to die and there is nothing we could do to stop it. The scraping of metal met my covered ears then they were smashing at the door. But it would do nothing, they were designed to keep things in, they weren't going to break under axes.
I felt hands on mine pulling them away from my ears. I opened my eyes; Jacqui was staring right at me. I tried to smile but it only made the tears fall quicker. She was crying too, the tears were making slow tracks down her dark skin. She pulled me close, my head resting on her shoulder.
"It's going to be ok, sweetie." She soothed, running her hand through my hair in a comforting manner. "You're going to be ok."
"But we're not, are we?" I say to her, lifting my head from her shoulder. "We're gonna die, either way, be it slow or quick we're all gonna die."
Everybody was begging Jenner now. Carol for Sofia's life, Rick because there was still hope. The others just purely because they didn't want to die this way, they didn't come all this way for nothing. I pulled away from Jacqui and stood up.
"Look," I say to him brushing the tears from my eyes. "Who are you to tell us when we should die? When we should just lie down and say 'you know what I give up?' We didn't come all this way for you to tell us that we aren't allowed to leave, that we are to die here with you because you've given up! We haven't given up! Do you see us giving up now? No! We're still here; we're still fighting because at the end of this there has always got to be something worth living for. There's got to be something left for us, we have each other, and we have small snippets of happiness. Who are you to deny us our life? Never mind how much time we have left… You might have twenty minutes to live Jenner, but we haven't, because we haven't given up."
Jacqui was staring at me; they all were, all except Jenner who didn't make a move to open the door. Shane was like a man possessed; he pulled his shotgun inches from Jenner's face. We would never get out if he shot him.
"Shane! Put the fucking gun down!" There was a growl, somewhat feral echoing the back of his throat. He yelled out pulling the gun to the side and shooting. Jacqui gripped my arms and turned me away from the blast as shot after shot echoed around the room.
Daryl had started on the door again. I glanced back, he swung with all the effort he could, but in the end it didn't make a scratch. Rick was speaking, I had blocked him out though. All I could hear was the sound of metal on metal. Would it be quick? Would we feel the explosion when it ripped through us? Then I heard it, the door sliding and Daryl's yell for us to go. He was letting us go, he really was letting us go. I moved away from the computers, Jacqui followed me slowly. Glenn pulled on my arm and dragged me forwards.
The clock was counting down, four minutes, that's all we had left. I turned just as Jacqui pulled away from T-Dog.
"No! I'm staying…" She said, tears in her eyes. She was defiant, she meant it. I turned back around my eyes searching hers. "I'm staying, sweetie."
"That's insane!" Said T-Dog stepping forwards to grab her, I stepped forwards too. She couldn't stay. She can't stay. She'll die.
"No, it's completely sane! For the first time in a long time…" I walked forwards, flanking T-Dog. "I'm not ending up like Jim or Amy…"
"Jacqui, no… please don't" I stepped forwards again. She shook her head.
"There's no time to argue and no point… not if you wanna get out. Just get out!" She pushed T-Dog backwards, "Get out!"
Shane pulled T-Dog, but I stayed. "Jacqui, you can't please… don't do this." She cupped my face in her hands and brushed the tears away. There were feet coming up behind us. "Please, come with us…"
"I can't… I'm sorry, honey." She nodded, and I turned just as Daryl pulled my arm, dragging me away.
"No! Jacqui! Please!" My voice was choked. Tears were falling down her face. Daryl spun me round and pushed me ahead of him.
"Just go will ya! It's what she wants."
We ran, all of us, up the flights of stairs up to the first floor. I was on autopilot; Daryl kept pushing me ahead of him. I stumbled a few times but kept upright. The sun was bright as we hit the top floor, the tension could be cut with a knife, nobody knew how long we had left. The doors wouldn't open, the glass wouldn't break. We're gonna be trapped in here anyway. The tiniest bit of hope that we had was now flickering into nothing. That is, until Carol pulled the grenade from her bag.
Rick didn't hesitate he ran to the glass and pulled the pin, in the next moment everybody was on the ground as the explosion split the glass. I pulled my rifle, brushing the tears from my eyes. Tears were never good, you couldn't shoot with tears in your eyes, it clouded your sight. I stood, running again as we all escaped through the smashed window.
There was no point in being quiet now. The walkers would have already heard the explosion and they would definitely hear the one that was going to happen. The guns went off quickly; I shot one walker dead in the middle of the head. That's for Jacqui. I was still ahead of Daryl, I don't know why but he shoved me towards his jeep. I opened the door quickly, and climbed in, he on the other side. My breathing was ragged. I glanced ahead at the others, why weren't the cars moving? Why weren't we going?
I then saw why, two people climbed out of the window that we had not long exited out of. Dale and Andrea. That meant Jacqui was still inside with Jenner, she wouldn't change her mind. They ran, a wall of sandbags lay in front of them. I glanced back at the CDC, the bright flicker of flames could be seen in the windows.
"Oh shit…" I mumbled as they dived behind the sandbags.
"Down!" Yelled Daryl, my hands instinctively flew over my head as I ducked down below the windows.
The whole road shuddered as the building ignited. The explosion was tremendous, the shattering of glass and crumbling of brick could be heard over the bangs. The fireball was huge, even with my head tucked under my arms I could see the flames through the window. Daryl moved first, his head came up above the wheel. I sucked in a breath before looking out, the flames were still spiralling towards the sky, a dark black cloud was spreading into the air. Jacqui is gone.
The RV rumbled into life in front of us. Daryl turned the key in the ignition of his truck. I kept my eyes trained on the burned remains of the CDC. Only one thing bounced around in my head. Why did Daryl pull me away?