Chapter Twenty Six: Impending
Impending: about to happen; imminent
Day 64
Daisy narrowed her eyes towards Amy who sat quietly to her right, daintily shovelling spoonful after spoonful of powdered eggs into her mouth, she was quietly happy to see her at least eating in the wake of her devastation. She glanced down at her own plate and scooped up a bite, following suit without much embarrassment—days of starvation would do that to a person. Another glance around the table, Merle was gnashing on a rasher of bacon, it crunched harshly in the otherwise quiet room. This all feels strangely domestic, Daisy mused happily to herself as she ate, I've only ever known these people post-apocalypse, but it feels like I'm right back at home with my family eating breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning.
"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again." Glenn groaned, Daisy smirked at him, grateful that she hadn't drank as much as the rest of the sorry souls around the table.
"Okay there, Darylina?" Merle asked his brother loudly, Daryl raised his head fractionally off the table and shot Merle a dirty glare, Daisy huffed a laugh and returned to her eggs, grateful for the lack of pounding headache.
"Leave 'im alone and eat your bacon, dipshit." She nudged Merle in his side, he chuckled throatily and did so, happy enough to be plied with food. Daisy slurped a mouthful of orange juice, internally narrowing her eyes at Jenner's saying that they had none the day before.
"The hell happened to you? You neck?" Daisy looked up at T-Dog's question, everyone's eyes were fixed to Shane, who Daisy could see had a nasty scratch on his neck.
"Musta done it in my sleep." Shane said dismissively, Daisy narrowed her eyes at the obviously bullshit answer.
"Never seen you do that before." Rick shared her doubts.
"Me neither." Shane conceded, "Not like me at all." Daisy saw him staring at Lori, and widened her eyes. She quickly buried her face in her cup, remaining averse to the drama that ran deep within the group.
"Mornin'." Jenner greeted as he entered the room.
"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing—" Dale started.
"But you will anyway."
"The eggs are great, but not exactly the reason we came here." Rick smiled pliantly at the doctor, Daisy hummed in agreement, setting her fork down on her finished plate. And...lazy Sunday is over, Daisy thought to herself, disgruntled—not that she was sure it even was a Sunday, but a gut feeling was as close as one was likely to come in this new world.
"Give me playback of TS-19." Jenner commanded the computer as the group entered what Daisy supposed was the control room, or equivalent. The room darkened and images of bright blue scans filled the wall, one of a person and others of a brain, "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked Jenner incredulously as the image flickered on the screen.
"An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end." He tapered off, staring at the image in disquiet. "Take us in for E.I.V."
They all stared silently at the brain as the image enhanced and twisted to show the brain, lighter blue lights seemed to flicker within; the picture got closer and closer until it was an unrecognisable map of intertwining ropes and flashes.
"What are those lights?" Shane voiced what they all were thinking.
"It's a person's life. Experiences. Memories. It's everything." Jenner said simply. "Somewhere, in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you...the thing that makes you, unique, and human."
"You don't make sense, ever?" Daryl snarked, arms crossed.
"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person say, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."
"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked in concern.
"Yes. Or r-rather the playback of the vigil."
"They died?" Glenn nodded towards the screen, "Who were they?"
"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected, and volunteered to have us...record the process."
Jenner told the computer to show them the 'first event,' all stood looking at the screen in rapture as the picture changed—what was once a brilliant map of electric blue lights was being overtaken by a web of darkness stemming from the neck.
"What is that?"
"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands haemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs." The image of the person on screen began to shake, its mouth opening then closing finally, the lights extinguished and the brain was an empty space of black. Daisy's heart clenched at having to watch the literal light of a person's life extinguish before them—it seemed so final. "Then death. Everything you ever were, or ever will be...gone."
Daisy turned as she heard Amy's breath hitch, her hand was cupped over her mouth and her face was screwed up as she tried to hold in her tears. Lori came up behind her to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. Daisy looked back at the brain, remembering Jess, remembering Kat, this is what happened to them, her own breath hitched in her throat which suddenly felt like it was closing in.
"Scan to the second event." The screen fast-forwarded once 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." Jenner said stoically.
Daisy's eyes widened as muted red flashes began at the base of the patient's brain which had been so dark before.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked incredulously.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive?" Rick clarified.
"You tell me."
"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."
"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." The patient began moving again in death, mouth snapping. Daisy startled as a bright flash struck through the brain, digging a trench through the image.
"God. What was that?"
"Shot him in the head." Merle smirked, Jenner ignored him. Daisy leant heavily against a nearby desk, tapping her fingers nervously on the surface as Jenner walked away. The lights around them flickered out as Jenner ordered them turned off.
"You don't know what it is." Rick said certainly, voice drained of any hope.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal—"
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui added stonily.
"There's that..."
"Somebody must know something...there are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked shakily.
"There may be some," Jenner admitted, though he sounded doubtful, "Everything went down...communications, directives, all of it. I've been dark for almost a month."
"So this...shit, it's everywhere?" Merle asked incredulously, Daisy sighed a panicked breath, she thought that she must have held on to some hope that they could return from all of the destruction.
There was a silence for a few minutes, before Daryl faithfully broke it, "Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk...again."
"Doctor 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. Daisy swivelled her head to see the bright red counter, the seconds turned into zeros and an hour was left, she hadn't noticed it before.
"The...basement generators, they run out of fuel."
"And then?" Rick asked with incredulity, at Jenner's silence her raised his voice to address the computer, "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." The computer's detached, mechanical voice caused a nervous shiver to run up Daisy's spine. Her eyes darted around to look at the similarly afraid faces of the others.
"Decontamination...meaning, we need to be eradicated." Daisy said flatly, raising her eyebrows at Rick, as no one else, especially Jenner who had wandered off, seemed to want to answer questions. Rick just stared back at her, fearful look in his eyes. Daisy dropped her gaze to the floor and stood up straight, pacing forward. "We gotta get out, right?" Her voice was high with panic.
The group dispersed, some investigating the power situation, some huddling up in the living quarters and others, like Daisy, packing up their belongings. No one save Daisy seemed to be absolutely sure that they did not want to be here when that clock ticked down to zero. I suppose being referred to in terms of a disease that needs eradicating just rubs me the wrong way, Daisy thought derisively as she shoved her dirty clothes into her backpack.
"Th'hell are we gonna do?" Daisy flicked her gaze over to Daryl who had spoken, his fingers gripping tightly over the bed frame beneath him.
"I say we pack." Daisy gestured her hands towards the almost fully packed bag by her knees, "I mean...what the fuck? This Jenner guy, he seems totally depressed!" She grimaced at her oversimplification, "Shit, I don't want to die." Daisy huffed with a wry smile. She zipped up her backpack sharply, sitting back on her feet as she breathed harshly, her heart was thumping loudly in her chest.
Daisy froze as the room seemed suddenly so silent; she glanced up to the air conditioner in the ceiling, it was still and quiet with no air hissing through. No air isn't good when you're underground, she grimaced again. Daisy stood and threw her backpack on her shoulders, nodding her head towards the door for Merle and Daryl to join her.
"This is so fucked." Merle murmured, walking out of the room after her with Daryl close behind him.
"Why is the air off? A-and the lights in the room?" Lori's voice sounded in the hall, Daisy stopped in the doorway as Jenner passed by.
"Energy use is being prioritised." Jenner said shortly, not stopping to assuage their panic.
"Air isn't a priority?" Dale asked dubiously, Daisy shared his unease, "And lights?" Jenner took a swig from a bottle of amber-coloured alcohol, not exactly comforting. Daisy joined the others as they walked after Jenner.
"S'not up to me. Zone five is shuttin' itself down." Jenner's voice wavered, the lights in the hall mimicked him as they began to shut off and douse the room in darkness.
"What the hell's that s'posed ta mean?" Merle rasped with concern, "Doctor, gonna answer my question?" Merle shoved his hand at the doctor's shoulder as they rounded the corner. Jenner just shrugged off his hand and walked faster.
"Rick?" They came upon a balcony, raced down the stairs to join the others who had gone to check on the power situation. Their expression did not look promising.
"Jenner, what's happening?"
"System is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That starts as we approached the half-hour mark."
The group walked hurriedly into the control room, following the ambivalent doctor like a herd of terrified sheep. Daisy noticed the clock was almost at thirty minutes left. Jenner took another swig, Daisy felt like joining him. She scoffed quietly to herself as he started his depressing monologue, she really didn't think he deserved her attention.
When she tuned back in, the others were scrambling to get their things in time, a blaring siren began to buzz, Daisy threw her hands over her ears.
"Thirty minutes to decontamination." That cold computer voice sounded, Daisy wanted to smash its monitor in spite. Bright red light flashed in her eyes and she held her uneasy stomach in by hugging her arms around her chest.
"I goddamn knew it, psycho doctor." Daisy screwed her face up and tightened her backpack straps. Jenner pressed some buttons and the door to the outside slid up, Daisy stared in disbelief.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked with fear clouding his voice, "He just locked us in!" Everybody began shouting and Daisy just collapsed into a nearby desk chair, rolling a few feet back into a half-wall. She cringed as Daryl charged at Jenner, T-Dog barely stopping him from smashing a glass bottle over the man's head. Daisy stared blankly at the scuffle, cuddled her backpack to her chest, and glanced at the closed door. Fuck.