I sat in my room, gathering my stuff when I realized that the ventilation is not working and the lights began to flicker. I left the room and saw that everyone get out of their room too with their stuff. "What's going on?" I asked as Jenner walked down the hall in front of me and took a bottle of whiskey from Daryl's hand.
I followed Jenner and everyone followed behind me. "Energy use is being prioritized," Jenner said. "Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asked. "It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down," Jenner said.
As soon as he said that, the lights went out. "Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl shouted behind me. But, Jenner didn't say a word as enter Zone 5. "Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Daryl asked, angrily. "You'd be surprised," Jenner said just as Rick, Shane, T-Dog and Glenn run up the stairs.
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked. "The system is dropping all the 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, pointing at the digtal clock. 31:28, 31:27.
Jenner took a sip of the whisky and handed back to Daryl. "It was the French," He said. "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," He said.
"What happened?" Jacqui asked. "The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice," He replied. He pointed around at the place. "The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"
Shane ran up the stairs, over to Jenner. "Let me tell you-" But Rick cut him off and grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care," Rick said and then turned, looking at us. "Everybody, we're getting out of here now!" He ordered.
All of us were going to run, when the sound of an alarm going off stopped us. "30 minutes to decontamination," Vi's voice rang out and the screen where Jenner showed us that video of TS-19, was replace by a countdown.
"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl asked. Jenner said nothing, he just walked over to a computer and was doing something. "Everybody, y'all heard Rick, let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane shouted at us. We all took off, trying to get out, when all of a sudden the doorway that lead to the outside of Zone 5, was blocked by a metal door.
"He just locked us in!" Glenn shouted. Jenner sat down at one of the computer and started taking to it. "You son of a bitch!" Daryl shouted. He ran up to Jenner and tackled him. Shane and T-Dog got a hold of him and pulled him off of Jenner. "Hey, Jenner, open that door now," Rick ordered.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed," Jenner said calmly. "Well, open the damn things," Daryl said. "That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that," Jenner said. "It's better this way."
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" I asked Jenner as I approached him, but he didn't give me an answer. "What happens in 28 minutes?!" Rick yelled at him and kicked his chair, causing Jenner look at Rick and me. "You know what this place is?!" Jenner yelled, looking at both of us.
"We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox!" He turns to Shane and Rick motioned me to go to Lori and Carl. Lori grabbed my hand and pulled me to her and her son.
"Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Jenner screamed, before sitting back down in the chair. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure... in a terrorist attack, for example... H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"H.I.T.s?" Rick asked. "Vi, define," Jenner ordered. "Hits- high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear-"
The building will be destroyed and we with him. Vi kept talking as Rick walked over to Lori and Carl and hugged them as Andrea hugged me. I saw Carol hugging Sophia and crying. "It sets the air on fire," Jenner spoke out. "No pain ... An end to sorrow, grief ... Regret."
"Everything."