Disclaimer: I do not own TWD or it's characters.
A/N: This is the last chapter, but the sequel is already up and ready to be read!
Alice and Andrea exited their rooms to see what was going on and saw everyone already in the hallway. The bright lights were now dim. Dr. Jenner made his way down the hall, ignoring all the questioning stares he had received.
"Why has the air gone out?" Lori asked.
"And the lights too." Alice added.
"What's going on?" Daryl asked, holding his bottle of Southern Comfort. Jenner strolled past him, grabbing the bottle.
"Energy is being prioritized."
Dale frowned, following behind Dr. Jenner. "Air isn't a priority?"
He took a swig of the whisky before answering. "It isn't up to me. This place is shutting itself down." Everyone looked at each other before following behind Dr. Jenner.
"Hey!" Daryl called, trying to get the doctor to stop. "Hey, what does that mean?" he asked, even though Dr. Jenner still hadn't stopped. "Hey, man I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do that?"
"You'd be surprised." He cryptically spoke before entering the computer lab. Lori looked over the railing as Jenner went down the stairs and saw Rick.
"Rick?" she called. He looked up at her and signaled that he was alright.
"Jenner, what's going on?"
"The system is dropping all the non-essential uses of power. It is designed to keep the computers running until the last possible second. I believe we just passed the half hour mark." He pointed to the giant digital clock. "We're on schedule." He took another large gulp of whisky before handing it back to Daryl, who snatched the bottle. "It was the French."
Alice tilted her head slightly. "The French?"
"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. A lot of people were bolting out the door and committing suicide. They thought they were close to a solution."
"What happened to them?" Alice asked.
"The same thing that's happening here. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean how stupid is that?" he asked, spreading his arms out before walking to his computer.
Shane frowned deeply before lunging at the doctor. "Let me tell you something!"
Rick pulled him back. "To hell with it Shane!"
"He doesn't even care!"
"Lori, grab our things! Everyone get your things! We're getting out of here now!" Rick yelled, still holding a struggling Shane.
Everyone stopped moving when red lights started to flash and an obnoxious beeping sound began.
"Dad what's going on?" Carl ran from his mother and to his father, holding tightly to his midsection.
"30 minutes until decontamination." Vi informed everyone as the large screen turned on and showed numbers that were counting down.
"Doc, whats going on here?!" Shane demanded as Jenner calmly started to punch numbers in on a keypad. "Yall heard Rick! Hurry up and go get your stuff!"
T-dog nodded and started to lead the way. "Let's go!" before anyone could reach the exit, a steel door slammed down.
Glenn looked around wildly. "Did you just lock us in?" he started to panic. "He just locked us in!"
Jenner sat down and began to record a message, ignoring everyone running in panic.
"Carl!" Lori screamed.
"Son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled, springing at Dr. Jenner.
"Shane!" Rick yelled, signaling him to catch Daryl. Shane grabbed the man, but he already had a hold on the collar of his lab coat. T-dog ran over and broke the hold Daryl had. Dr. Jenner fixed his coat, but looked shaken up.
"Open the door now!" Rick ordered, watching Shane hit the door from the corner of his eyes.
"No point. Everything is locked down, the emergency exit is sealed."
"Then unseal it!" Alice plead. Tears of fear and frustration began to fall from her eyes. "Please doctor! Don't do this to us!"
"I'm sorry," he gave her a sympathetic look. "I can't control that. The computers do. I told you once that front door closes, it wouldn't be opened again. You heard me say that."
"We didn't think you meant we would never be able to leave!" she yelled, tugging at the roots of her hair.
"I know you don't see it now Alice, but it's better this way."
"What way?!" Rick yelled. "What happens in 28 minutes? What happens in-"
"Do you know what this place is?!" Dr. Jenner yelled, making Alice shrink back. He stood up from his seat, pushing it back. "We've protected the public from nasty stuff. Small pox, emboli strands that could take out half the country out! Stuff you don't ever want getting out!" he sat back down and composed himself. "In an event of a catastrophic power failure," he spoke more calmly. "a terrorist attack for example, HIT is employed to prevent any organism from getting out."
"What's HIT?" Alice asked, almost afraid to find out.
"Vi, define."
"HIT's an aerosol ignition that produces a blast way above significantly greater power and duration of any other known explosive except nuclear. It causes the greatest loss of life and damage to structures."
"It sets the air on fire." Dr. Jenner explained. "It brings an end to suffering and grief. It ends… Everything. It's better this way. You know what's out there, a short brutal life. An agonizing death." He looked at Andrea who had sat down, cradling her knees to her chest. "Your sister, what was her name?"
"Amy." She numbly answered.
"Amy. You seen what it does." He looked to Rick. "Is that what you want for your wife and son?"
"I don't want this!" he answered.
Shane smacked one of the desks. "Can't make a dent."
"Those doors are designed to stand a rocket launcher."
Daryl let out a frustrate grow before running at Jenner with an ax he found. T-dog, Shane, and Glenn held the raging man back.
Ignoring him, Dr. Jenner began to speak. "You do want this Rick. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead."
Lori looked at her husband, horrified by the new information. Shane frowned.
"You really said that?" Shane questioned. "After all you been talking?"
Rick looked at Lori. "I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?"
"There is no hope. There never was." Dr. Jenner spoke.
"There is hope. Maybe it won't be with you, maybe not here, but there has to be. Somebody, somewhere."
Andrea rolled her eyes. "What part of everything is gone don't you understand?"
"Listen to your friend. This is it, this is what takes us down. Out extinction event."
"Damn." Shane muttered.
"This isn't right!" Carol cried, holding her daughter to her chest. "You can't keep us here!"
"It's just one tiny millisecond. No pain." Dr. Jenner assured.
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this!"
"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to hold your love ones and wait for the clock to count down?"
Shane grabbed a shot gun that Dr. Jenner had laying around and cocked it.
"Shane, no!" Alice yelled as he pointed it at the doctor. Rick ran in front of him.
"Get out of my way!" he pushed past Rick roughly and aimed the gun directly in the mans face. "I will blow your head off, do you hear me?!"
"Brother, this is not the way you do this, we'll never get out of here."
"Shane, you listen to Rick!" Lori yelled.
"Please Shane! If you kill him, we're gonna die in here!" Alice tried to reason. Shane let out a scream and fired his gun at a computer. Rick managed to wrestle it away and knocked him to the ground. Everyone froze, looking at Rick.
"Are you done now?" he asked.
"I'm done." Shane mumbled, laying on the floor still.
"I know you're pissed brother, we all are. And I think you're lying Jenner."
"What?"
"I think you're lying about there being no hope. It you really believed that, you would have bolted out of here with everyone else. But you didn't, you stayed. You chose the hard path, why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter, it will always matter. You stayed when others ran, why?"
"It's not because I wanted to. I made a promise to her." He pointed to the large screen. "My wife!"
It suddenly clicked in Alice's head. "She was Test Subject 19, wasn't she?"
He nodded. "She begged me to keep going for as long as I could. How could I tell her no when she was dying?" Daryl ran to the door and began hitting it with his ax. "I should have been the one on that table dying, not her. She ran this place, I just worked here. In our field, she was Einstein. She could have done something about this, not me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice, but you do. That's all we want, a chance."
"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori pleaded.
Dr. Jenner sighed. "I told you, once the outside locks down, I can't open it." He walked over to the keypad and pushed in a few numbers. The door opened.
"Come on!" Daryl yelled. Everyone started to run out.
Dr. Jenner looked at Rick. "There's your chance. Take it."
"I'm grateful."
He stood up from his seat. "There will come a day when you won't be." Dr. Jenner leaned forward and whispered in Rick's ear. His face dropped as he moved away. Alice eyed him curiously, but remained silent.
"Come on!" Glenn yelled. "We got four minutes left!"
Jacque looked back and pulled away from T-dog. "I'm staying sweety."
"What? That's insane. Let's go!" he tried to grab her.
"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue. Not if you wanna get out. Just get out." She pushed T-dog away. "Get out!"
"I'm staying too." Andrea spoke.
"Andrea no." Dale reached out, but she pulled back.
"Dale, times running out." Alice informed him.
"Go, I'll meet you there." She gave a hesitant nod before running up the dark flight of stairs.
Once they got upstairs, the men started to hit the windows with whatever they could find, but not a dent was made. T-dog even hit it with a chair.
"Dog, get down!" Shane warned as he fired his gun at the window, but the bullet just bounced off.
"Mommy, the glass won't break?" Sofia asked, her voice shaking.
Alice grabbed onto Glenn's arm tightly. He wanted to reassure her they would get out, but he wasn't so sure himself. Rick ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He had no idea how he was going to worm everyone out of this. He glanced back at his son. He had to figure something, he couldn't let his son die like this.
Carol's suddenly lit up as she remembered something that was in her bag. How could she forget it was there? "Rick, I think I have something that could help."
Shane rolled his eyes. What could she have that would be of assistance. "Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna cut it."
"Will this help?" she asked as she dug out a hand grenade, ignore Shane's rudeness. Rick ran over and grabbed it. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. There was only one way to find out.
"Where did you get this?"
"I found it in your pant pocket when I was washing your clothes."
"Thank you." Rick walked back over to the window and took a deep breath. He was never much of a prayer, he left that to Alice, but now he silently prayed this worked. For the sake of his son. "Get down!" he yelled as he pulled the latch from the grenade and threw it. Everyone dropped to the ground. Alice felt Glenns arm over her back, pressing her to the floor as if it would protect her more. It took a second for it to register in Ricks head that he probably should find cover.
The grenade exploded, shaking the ground. Alice felt fallen chips from the ceiling land in her hair. She slowly looked up, almost scared to find the windows still intact. She let out a strange sound as she jumped to her feet, pulling Glenn up. It was something between a relieved laugh and a struggled sob.
The window shattered. Had the CDC building not been ready to explode, everyone would have appreciated how well the grenade worked. Rick led the way, speeding out of the building. He wasn't sure how much time was left, but he knew it wasn't much. He ran into the RV, swinging the door open so hard that it slammed against the side of the vehicle. Luckily the fear of getting car jacked was the last thing anyone had to worry about, so keys were always left in the ignition. Rick jumped into the driver's seat and was relieved to see Lori and Carl were right behind him.
Alice ran as fast as she could, her calf's beginning to burn. For a moment, she thought of how much it would suck to survive walkers, but die halfway to the RV by an explosions impact. Actually, it would be kind of funny, but she didn't want that to be the way she died. Reaching the RV, Alice threw herself in. Forgetting for a moment there were stairs, she tripped, but quickly scampered inside. Still on her hands and knees, she crawled to the table and pulled herself up. Looking out the window, she saw Dale and Andrea. Relief washed over her in a large wave. Dale was fine.
The pair had made it halfway across the lawn when the building exploded. The RV rocked dangerously back and forth. Alice flew into the wall, her back hitting it hard enough to knock the air out of her. She let out a hiss of pain when the vehicle jerked back onto all four wheels and forced her thin body into the table. The unexpected impact caused the table to dig into her stomach. There was going to be a bruise on her stomach.
Andrea stormed into the RV, looking less than happy to be alive. Dale stumbled in behind the blonde at a slower pace. No one spoke, unsure of what to say and trying to process what happened. They were so close to death and yet they made it through.
Alice leaned her head against the window, her eyes glued on what was the CDC. The building was engulfed in flames and walkers were stumbling over to the noise in large hordes. The reality of what was going on started to hit her. Nowhere was safe and no one knew the answers to how this all would end. Glenn sat across from her silently, his face giving away that he was in deep thought. He too was trying to make sense of things.
For a moment, Alice wondered if it would have been better to stay with the doctor and Jacqui. Maybe they had it right all along, it was better to opt out then fight to live in a world that promised nothing. Her blue eyes drifted to the sky. It was a clear day, the sun was shining bright and not a cloud was in sight. It was deceitful and gave no insinuations of what was going on below the sky.
Was it worth it? Was there really any point to keep trying to survive? Many thoughts crowded Alice's mind. She glanced behind her to the drivers seat, looking at the back of Rick's head. He had voiced his doubts to her and while she had assured him that there was a way, she began to question her own words. Amy. Jim. Jacqui. They were gone now and while their deaths were tragic, it seemed like a blessing could be found in it.
They didn't have to wake up worrying if today was the day they died. They didn't have to lay in bed at night, praying to sleep without an attack from walkers or humans with ill intent. All the worries the living still had they no longer suffered.
So much had changed and long gone were the days of 'Nurse Walsh, the unhappy wife of Shane, friend of the Grimes, woman with a miserable life'. Problems from those times seemed distant and trivial now. It was all about surviving. But could she do it? Could she be strong enough to fight to live, or would she lay down and accept that her days were numbered as were everyone else's.
She shook her head. Life was hard in general and while she didn't blame Jacqui for what she did, it was the easy way out. It would be easy to give up and let death have her, but she had taken the easy way in life for years. Being afraid of confrontation, she never voiced her opinions. Being afraid of displeasing her parents (not that they ever really seemed pleased), she did what they always told her even when she strongly disagreed. In fear of losing Shane, she let him walk all over her. He had dishonored their marriage vows and she stayed because it was easier that way. She didn't argue with him even when he was beyond wrong because it was easier. Every major decision she made was due to the ease it provided her.
This situation was difficult. Fucked up in every way really, but opting out wasn't the answer. For Alice, it wasn't even an option anymore.
There was no guarantee that Alice would live to see the outcome of things. Jessica didn't and she was stronger than Alice ever could be. She wanted to honor her late sister and was ashamed that the thought of giving up had crossed her mind again. She made the right decision in leaving. Life was a challenge and she was ready to accept it. She would rely on herself and her gun to push her through as far as she could go. Nothing would be easy anymore, but now she had an option she had refused many times before. She had the option of living for herself the way she saw fit. She would take it, no questions asked any more. There were no parents, sister, or husband to hide behind.
Alice reached down to the waistband of her jeans, caressing the cool steel of her gun. This weapon represented a new outlook on things. It was the only thing that would never fail her, it was the only thing she knew she could count on to always have her back. With a rather large exhale, she let go of all the remaining fears and cowardliness of the old Alice.
Those parts of her were better off dead.
'Only God knows where the story ends for me, but I know where the story begins.'
A/N: And so ends 'World Without Words'. The last line is from the song 'No More Drama' by Mary J. Blige which is what inspired this story in the first place. There wasn't any Rick and Alice action in the last two parts, but I don't think them thinking about their feelings at that moment would have been appropriate. But fear not! The sequel will be more centered on them.
'World Without Words' was really just to establish things between them so things would flow more naturally in the sequel. Things finally take off in the second part to this.
Thank you for reading my story and I appreciated the reviews, follows and favorites. It's good to know people like my work =)
The sequel is up already and is titled 'I Lost My Manual on How to Survive an Apocalypse'.
I hope you like that one as much as World Without Words!