Disclaimer: I do not own TWD
The lights were flashing red and an obnoxious beeping sound went off. The steel door to the computer lab went down, trapping everyone inside.
Glenn began to panic. "Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!"
Jenner sat down and began to record a message, ignoring everyone's yelling. He knew this wasn't the way they wanted to go, but it was for the best. He was helping them, they would see.
"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 he had. Dr. Jenner fixed his coat, but looked shaken up.
"Open the door now!" Rick demanded.
"No point." Dr. Jenner calmly replied. "Everything is locked down, the emergency exit is sealed."
"Just unseal it then!" Deena yelled, grasping onto the back on Glenn's shirt. "It's can't be that hard Jenner!"
"I'm sorry, 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 die here if we stayed!" she shouted.
"I know you don't see it now Deena, but it's better this way. You'll see." He attempted to assure.
"What way?!" Rick yelled. "What happens in 28 minutes? What happens in-"
"Do you know what this place is?!" Dr. Jenner yelled, silencing everyone. He sprang up from his seat. "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 lowered his voice. "a terrorist attack for example, HIT is employed to prevent any organism from getting out."
Shane shook his head and ran over to the door. He began to swing at it with the butt of his rifle.
"What's HIT?" Deena asked.
"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've 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. 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!" Lori 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 doctors 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.
"Don't be stupid Shane! If you kill him, we ain't getting out of here!" Deena 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!"
Deena finally understood. "She was Test Subject 19, wasn't she?" She understood that he would have gladly opted out a long time ago, but he didn't because of his wife. She almost admired him for keeping the promise even though everyone was hell outside.
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 here. 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.
"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." Deena grabbed the older man's arm.
"Go, I'll meet you there." She gave a hesitant nod before running up the dark flight of stairs.
"This is just great. He lets us out from the lab, now we're feet's away from the cars and still can't get out." Deena ranted, watching Shane shoot at the indestructible glass of the CDC. "We're fucked." She didn't want to die, not yet anyway. It would suck to have survived the world ending just to die because glass wouldn't break. It would be just their luck it seemed.
"Rick, I think I have something that can help." Carol suddenly spoke.
Shane rolled his eyes. "Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna cut it."
Carol ignored Shane and reached into her purse. She pulled out an unused grenade. "I found it when I was washing your clothes."
Rick's face lit up as he grabbed it from the older woman. "You're a life saver! I hope this works." He took a moment to look back at everyone before speaking again. "Everyone get down." He pulled the stick out and threw it, jumping for cover himself. The floor shook from the impact. Deena had ducked behind Glenn, using him as a human shield, though she would never admit that to him. Slowly, she looked up and started to laugh. The glass wasn't unbreakable as everyone had assumed.
"That shit actually worked!" Deena stood up.
"Come on, we don't have that much time."
"What about Dale and Andrea?" Deena asked Rick. His lips tightened for a moment.
"If they come, they come." Was all he said as he grabbed his wife and son. She would have loved to wait to see if Dale came, but she knew the building would be engulfed in flames soon and she couldn't survive that. Halfway out of the window, she hesitated. If Andrea wanted to stay, it was her call, but she was worried about Dale. What if he tried to get out, but didn't make it in time?
"The fuck is wrong with you? Move!" Deena jumped at the sound of the familiar southern drawl.
"But Dale-"
"Stop being stupid. This place is gonna blow and you're gonna go with it."
"Daryl," it was the first time she said his first name. "What if-" he rolled his eyes and suddenly threw her over his shoulder. She inhaled sharply. "Put me down!"
"You wanna die?!" he yelled, running to his truck effortlessly. He was stronger than she gave him credit for. "Cause I'll drop your ass right now." He offered. He took her silence as a 'no'.
Just as he threw her into his pick up truck and jumped in on top of her, the CDC exploded. The blast had been so strong that it slammed the trucks door closed and shook it. For a moment, Deena was almost sure it would tip over, but it just rocked dangerously back and forth. Though she kept her eyes closed tightly, she could feel Daryl's arm over her head.
For a moment, there was no movement. Daryl slowly looked up. He looked outside and smirked. "Well I'll be damned. The old man and blonde made it out." He didn't miss the relieved smile Deena flashed as she sat up. Daryl watched Dale and Andrea jump into the RV. "Get out my damn seat so I can drive."
Deena frowned. It seemed like things were going back to normal. She managed to maneuver across his lap and to her side. He quickly started the truck and followed behind the RV. He didn't say anything to her, he just focused on the road.
She watched the CDC in the side view mirror as they drove away. It was in engulfed in flames and walkers were starting to stagger over, drawn to the ruckus. Her eyes drifted over to Daryl. He was concentrated on the road as usual. His hair was crazy and his shirt damp with sweat. She shifted a little in her seat, resting her head against the window. For the first time ever, they drove in a comfortable silence.
"Thanks." She suddenly spoke, not looking away from the rode.
Daryl glanced at her. "For what?"
"Saving me."
"I ain't save you."
She smiled, but stayed quiet. She glanced at him again, but this time something was different. She didn't see a nasty, annoying, smelly hick. She saw a man. A good looking man. A good looking man that had nice arms and who knows what else. She was still curious about what had transpired between them the night before. Whatever it was had changed something in him and whatever changed in him made Daryl seem more human.
He was still trailer trash, that would never change in her eyes. Maybe she was suffering through a momentary bout of insanity, but for the moment, Daryl Dixon was alright with her.
A/N: Seriously guys... I really hated writing the scene in the computer lab. Second time I've had to do it in a story and couldn't really put a spin on it or omit it.