Hey readers I'm so sorry this is a few days late, but it's a little longer than my other ones so that's always good I really hope you enjoy this and please review.
Warning: There are sexual situations in this. Yeah I know what you're thinking. Finally! Some sex!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters.
Chapter 5:
They group stood before the door, with its bright white light shining out onto the darkening street, in awe. That was until the light went out and the group slowly moved through the entrance.
"Daryl, Jennifer, cover the back," Shane said as they surrounded the defenseless members of their party in a circle.
"Hello?" Rick asked as his voice echoed through the stone building, "Hello?"
"Close the doors. Watch for walkers," A voice said, the group looked around trying to pinpoint the source.
"Hello?" Rick said once more as they heard a gun cock. Standing before them was a man with rifle in his hands. Jennifer couldn't see him too well because he was hidden in the shadows, but that didn't stop her from aiming at the man's silhouette.
"Anybody infected?" He yelled to them and Jennifer couldn't help but think that his voice sounded somewhat familiar.
"One of our group was," Rick spoke, "He didn't make it."
"Why are you here? What do you want?" He asked as he descended the small staircase and came from the shadows. He was a blond man with worn, tired features. Judging from the bags under his eyes, he seemed to not have gotten a good night sleep in a while but who did in the world they lived in now?
Jennifer knew she recognized this man from somewhere but couldn't remember.
"A chance," Rick said letting out a shaky breath.
"That's asking an awful lot these days," He said slowly moving closer to the group with his gun still raised.
"I know," Rick said turning his head from side to side as his breaths continued to shake. The group was looking to the man with pleading eyes, as his eyes roamed over each person's face.
"Jennifer?" he asked when his eyes met the woman's. Something in the way he said her name triggered something in her and she remembered who the man was.
"Jenner?" She asked stepping forward through the group. The man eyed the younger woman surprised to see someone he actually recognized.
He took a moment of consideration before saying, "You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
"We can do that," Rick said nodding his head.
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now," Jenner said lowering his gun and pointing towards the glass doors, "Once this door closes, it stays closed."
Jennifer turned to go get her stuff but was stopped when Shane put his arm in front of her and said, "I'll go get it."
Glenn, Daryl, Shane, T-Dog, and Rick rushed out to get the supplies. When they came back, Dale and Jennifer quickly pulled the doors shut. Jenner swiped a card on a box on the wall and told it, "VI, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here."
The metal doors lowered and the group began to make their way to the elevators with Jenner's lead. They all piled into the elevator and remained quiet as the elevator took them down.
"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked. He was in the far corner while Jennifer was closer to the front next to Jenner.
"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself," Jenner said looking back at Daryl. He nodded his head to the group, "But you look harmless enough."
"Except you," he added looking down at Carl, "I'll have to keep my eye on you."
Jenner chuckled to himself and turned back to the front watching the numbers on the wall descended as they went deeper into the Earth.
When they got to the floor needed they followed Jenner through white hallways lined with doors.
"Are we underground?" Carol asked making to doctor look back.
"Are you claustrophobic?" he asked. Jennifer was walking in the front with Rick and Shane but turned to the woman when she spoke. She noticed Daryl lingering in the back looking around curiously.
"A little," she said.
"Try not to think about it," Jenner said turning back to the front.
They entered a darkened room with a ramp that led down to a circular area with many white computers. "VI, bring up the lights in the big room," Jenner's voice echoed through the large room as the harsh, bright lights flickered on, "Welcome to zone 5."
"Just how I remember," Jennifer said chuckling to no one in particular as she descended the ramp with Jenner, the others were close behind. She stopped smiling when she asked, "Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?"
"I'm it," Jenner said from the center of the circle, "It's just me here."
"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori asked, "VI?"
"VI, say hello to our guests. Tell them… welcome," Jenner said.
"Hello, guests. Welcome," the computer said.
"I'm all that's left," the group remained quiet as if this piece of news had just crushed them. As for Jennifer, she hadn't expected all of them to make it but she did at least expect to see a few of them, "I'm sorry."
"What's the point? If we were infected we would all be running a fever," Andrea asked as the doctor took her blood.
"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in her, let me at least be thorough," Jenner said as he removed the rubber from her arm and pulled the needle out. Everyone else had their blood drawn except for Jennifer and Sam. As Andrea walked to the others by the door, Jenner motioned for Sam to take her turn.
The little girl had never given blood before and was scared; she looked up to Jennifer for confirmation before grabbing the older woman's hand and walking to sit with the doctor. The doctor tied the band around her small arms and got ready to stick the needle in, before he was even able to touch her skin the girl turned her head and scrunched up her face as she squeezed Jen's hand. The last drop of blood entered the container and the doctor put a band-aid on the girl's arm. The girl let go of Jennifer's hand and ran back to Carl and Sophia who were sitting in the chairs near the exit with their parents.
Jennifer rolled up the sleeve of her plaid shirt before sitting down in the chair before her. She extended her arm to the doctor and he tied the rubber band around her arm right where her sleeve ended. Jennifer felt the small ache when the needle went into her arm but it quickly went away.
"Your sister?" Jenner asked looking from the needle to the woman trying to catch her eye.
"I don't want to talk about it," Jennifer said intensely staring at the needle in her arm.
"Did you have to put her down?" Jenner pressed pulling the rubber band off as the last of the blood filled the cylinder.
"I said, I don't want to talk about it," Jennifer hissed looking the older man in the eye. She quickly stood from her chair and turned to walk away but nearly collapsed.
"Are you okay?" Jenner asked as Jacqui came up and helped Jen steady herself.
"Yeah," Jennifer said as her eyes lifted from the ground. The first thing that caught her gaze was Daryl with a concerned gaze over his features. Jennifer walked away from Jacqui and began to grab her belongings. She didn't need anyone taking pity on her.
"She hasn't eaten in days," Jacqui said to him, "None of us have."
"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner," Dale said as he filled a wine glass and handed it to Lori, "And in France."
"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then," Lori said as she took a sip of her wine. Jennifer just watched the scene play out as she drank from her third glass of wine.
"What's it gonna hurt? Come on," Rick said looking to his wife, "Come on."
It was quiet until Rick asked, "What?" to his wife as she stared at him, then everyone broke out into laughter. Lori shrugged her shoulders and T-Dog rose his glass laughing.
"There you are, young lad," Dale said passing Carl a cup with a small amount of wine in the bottom. All was quiet as Carl sipped the wine and the group awaited his reactions.
"Eww," he said making a distorted face and setting the wine back down. The group broke out in to laughter and Jennifer downed the rest of her wine.
"Mind filling this up?" She asked waving her glass at Daryl, who was behind them steadily sipping from one of the wine bottle.
"Sure ya can handle it, princess?" He asked as he began filling up her glass.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure," she said smirking at him.
"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud," Shane said with a small smile on his face.
"Not you, Glenn," Daryl said making his way around the table.
"What?" the boy asked innocently as he looked up from the wine bottle he had been staring at. He wasn't sitting at the table, but rather on a counter a few feet away.
"Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get," Daryl sneered at him as everyone, once again, broke into laughter. As they did so, Rick looked to Jenner who was sitting in a small table next to the ones the group had pulled together. The doctor had a sullen look on his face as he looked to the group members enjoying themselves.
Rick clinked his knife against the wine glass as Dale filled his glass emptying another wine bottle. Rick stood scooting his chair back with his legs and said, "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."
"He is more than just our host," T-Dog slurred as he raised his wine glass that only contained a fourth of the wine it had.
"Hear hear!" someone yelled as everyone raised their glass.
"Booyah!" Daryl yelled holding up the wine bottle. Everyone began repeating what Daryl said as they continued to eat, drink, and have a good time. That was until Shane spoke, he was still on his first glass of wine so his words were clear and even.
"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?" Everyone had been smiling but after Shane's question everyone's face lost their happy appearance. He looked expectantly at the doctor as he continued, "All the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"
"We're celebrating, Shane," Rick said in a stern voice to his friend, "Don't need to do this now."
"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here right?" Shane said to Rick as he held up his hand, "This was your move supposed to find all the answers. Instead we-"Shane chuckled before continuing, "We found him," Shane pointed to Jenner, "Found one man. Why?"
By now everyone was quiet as they listened and Jennifer sent a cold look at Shane. Jenner might be intolerable at times but at one point they had been friends and they kind of still were.
8 years earlier
Jennifer entered the CDC as people bustled about, some wearing lab coats, other in regular clothes. She had been assigned patrol the CDC for a few months while they worked on some top-secret experiment Jennifer couldn't care less about. She really didn't want to be here but she knew it was her job, or as her commanding officer put it "her responsibility to the nation". Jennifer rolled her eyes at the thought of her commanding officer. Ever since she had been transferred squads she had to put up with Jeffery, her new commander.
Jennifer made her way through the people looking for someone named Dr. Jenner when she heard someone shriek, "She has a gun!"
Jennifer quickly pulled her gun from the holster and searched for the threat. As people scrabbled around the area in panic Jennifer felt two hard hands force her to the ground and shove the barrel of a gun into her cheek.
"Get Off!" she yelled as she squirmed under the firm grasp holding her to the ground. The panic was beginning to settle and soon all eyes were on Jennifer.
"What are doing here?" A strong voice yelled as the gun dug deeper into her cheek.
And, of course, being the person she was Jennifer ignored their questions and yelled, "How about you get the fuck off me!"
There was then a mass confusion as Jennifer tried to yell over the two men and the doctors began screaming things about getting the insane woman out. Then out of the mass there was a strong voice, "Let her go."
Everyone froze and looked to the blond man descending the stairs, even Jennifer tried to look up.
"Are you sure sir?" One of the guards asked with his hands still on Jennifer's body.
"Yes," he said. Jennifer could now see his polished, black shoes as he stood in front of her. The guards that had held her down quickly removed themselves without even offering her a hand up. She looked up at the man who had saved her and just stared at his outstretched hand. She knocked his hand away and picked herself up off the ground.
She searched the ground and found her pistol had slid a few feet away near some doctors. She made her way to it and with each step forward the doctors before her took one back. She just smirked as she picked her gun off of the floor and put it in its hostler.
When she turned around she immediately met Jenner's blue eyes. He was a few feet from her with a smile on his face and his hand outstretched for her to shake it. She hesitantly took his hand and shook it as he said, "I'm Dr. Edwin Jenner."
"Jennifer Sullivan," she said withdrawing her hand.
"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted," Jenner said snapping Jennifer back into reality and out of the past.
"Every last one?" Shane asked settling back into his seat.
"No, many couldn't face walking out the door," Jenner said looking Shane straight in the eye. Jennifer had noticed that he had always done that and somehow it seemed to get the point across better, "They… opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time," This time Jenner held his gaze down as he remembered what had happened to his colleagues.
"You didn't leave," Andrea spoke up, "Why?"
"I just kept working, hoping to do some good," Jenner said to the woman. This made Jennifer smile a little as she remembered the time she had spent with her friend Jenner and how even in the apocalypse he still holds aspects of his personality. Even when the world had gone to hell, he was the one to believe it could still be restored.
"Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man," Glenn spoke what was on everyone's mine to Shane. Shane just ran his tongue over his lips and looked at the group.
"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here," Jenner said as the group walked down a narrow white hallway with all of their belongings in tote. The lights on the walls were flickering, but no one really cared. They were just pleased that they would finally be able to get a full night's sleep without worrying about walkers, "The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like."
"There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug-in the video games, okay?" Jenner told as he bent over the three small kids in the front of their line, "or anything that draws power," he rose up and was now talking to the adults of the group when he said, " The same applies if you shower, go easy on the hot water."
"Hot water?" Glenn asked as he turned around with a huge smile on his face.
"That's what the man said," T-Dog said smiling back at the boy as they both started laughing.
Everyone then dispersed to pick their own room. Jennifer immediately felt a tug on her hand and she looked down to see that Sam had grabbed her hand and was now looking at her with wide eyes, "Can I sleep with you?"
"Uh… Yeah," She said. She assumed Sam was going to want to sleep with Sophia in her and Carol's room, but she hadn't expected the girl to want to room with her. She couldn't turn the girl away not only because it would be rude, but without Jennifer realizing it… Sam was filling the hole in her heart that her sister had left.
"Does this one look good?" Jennifer asked as she set Sam's stuff on the couch.
"Mhm," she said nodding her head.
"If you want you can go play with Carl and Sophia in the rec room," Jennifer said and before she could get an answer the little girl was already running out of the room to go find her friends.
The first thing Jennifer did when the small girl left was strip naked and hop into the shower. The warm water felt so good as it washed the dirt and grime from her tan skin. She let the warm water embrace her warm body for a few minutes before she actually started bathing her body.
When she got out she wrapped herself in a white fluffy towel and laid sprawled out on the cot someone had brought in while she was in the shower. It took some time, but Jennifer finally willed herself to get up and put her clothes on. She threw on dark purple tank tops and some tight black shorts then made her way to the kitchen.
When she got there she searched the cabinets until she found what she was looking for. Finally, in the cabinet under the sink, behind some cleaning supplies, Jennifer found over half a bottle of whiskey. She knew it was in there somewhere. She quickly unscrewed the top and began drinking.
"Camp town ladies sing their song! Doo Dah! Doo Dah!" Jennifer sang as she continued drinking the whiskey. She had almost emptied the bottle and was now sitting on the floor of the kitchen unable to get up, "And Bingo was his name!"
"What the hell are ya doin?" Daryl asked as he made his way around the counter. He was on his way to grab something that had fallen out of his bag earlier when he heard someone start singing.
"Ah!" Jennifer yelled as she fell to her side. She picked herself up but kept on swaying from side to side as she gave Daryl a drunken smile and pointed at him, "Ya scared me there, D."
"Get yer ass up and go ta bed," Daryl ordered.
"Okay, but I don't think I can," she slurred. Unfortunately, she was right. She grabbed onto the counter for support and tried to pull herself up but she only fell to the ground laughing.
"Come 'ere," Daryl said walking over to the giggling girl. He took the bottle from her hand and placed it on the counter as he grabbed her arm and lifted her up. He began guiding the drunken woman back to her room, all the while trying not to let her fall over.
"You're so strong," she said as she buried her head into his neck and reached up under his shirt, "And you smell so good."
"Which one is yer room?" Daryl asked trying to get the woman to stop. Even though he enjoyed the way she touched him, but he knew that it was just the liquor making her do this and he didn't want to take advantage of her.
"This one," she said pointing to a door to their right. Daryl helped the woman to the door and opened it for her as she made her way inside she turned around one more time and kissed him on the cheek before stumbling inside.
Jennifer was able to make it to the cot before her legs completely gave out. The cot squeaked under her as she lay sprawled out on it. She was a bit cold and decided to search for a shirt in her bag, but as she looked around the room she couldn't find it. She decided that she was too drunk and it wasn't time for a game of hide-n-seek so she just sat on the cot.
"What are you doing in here?" Jennifer looked up and saw Shane standing before her he had his shirt unbuttoned and was holding a white towel to the side of his neck.
"What happened?" Jennifer stalked towards Shane, ignoring his question. Jennifer miraculously made her way over to Shane without falling and was now peeling the towel away from his stubbly neck. There were three red marks on the side of his neck.
She just smirked and walked away turning her back to the large man, "Did Lori do that to you?" Jennifer asked smirking back at Shane.
In the blink of an eye his expression went from confused to angry as he approached the woman. She had made her way to the wall now but still had her back to him. He quickly remedied this by grabbing her arm and turning her to face him.
"So how long have you been in love with your best friend's wife?" Jennifer asked giggling as she fueled the flames of Shane's anger.
"How do you know about that?" he asked getting closer to Jennifer, making her lean slightly over the dresser that was behind her.
"I can see it when you look at her. Longing, lust, passion, it's all there," Jennifer then pushed on his chest making him back off a bit as she snaked her arm around his head and brought her mouth up to his ear, "I've seen that look when you look at me too."
Jennifer then did something Shane didn't' expect she grabbed his groin with the hand that wasn't holding his head and began rubbing it. She then reached her mouth up to his and began kissing him. Her tongue snaked into her mouth and Shane took this as an invitation to fuck.
He lifted the girl up and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried them to the awaiting cot. He threw her on the cot and she stared at him with lustful eyes as they went back in for another passionate kiss. He grabbed the back of her and ran his hand through her hair as she began to take off her shirt. He made his way down to her next and started sucking as she basically ripped of his shirt and threw it to the ground. He removed her black shorts leaving her in nothing but her black lacy bra and underwear.
They then began fumbling with his belt trying to remove the stubborn thing. When they finally got it off Shane removed his pants and the two continued kissing. As they explored each other's mouth with their tongues, Shane unclasped the hooks on Jennifer's bra and threw it to the rest of the clothes. He kissed down her neck, over her collar-bone, and to her perky tan breasts. He took on in his mouth and sucked on the nipple as he teased the other one with his rough hands. Jennifer threw her head back as her nipples hardened in Shane's mouth. Jennifer couldn't take it anymore, she need release and she needed it now.
Jennifer yanked Shane's head up by the curls and said, "Let's get to the fucking."
He just grinned and began to remove her lacy panties. He took his time, teasing the woman, but it back fired on him when he viewed her fully naked and felt the urge to ram into her until she couldn't walk right.
As Shane removed his boxers his stiff, 9 inch long dick popped out. HE laid Jennifer on her back and positioned himself at her entrance. He looked at her for conformation and she just bit her lip and nodded vigorously at him.
He plunged into her and she threw her head back as he rammed into her entrance. The sound of skin slapping skin and moans filled the room as the two continued. Shane picked Jennifer up off of her back and brought her close to him. He ran his tongue over her soft skin, "You taste like strawberries," he whispered in her ear.
The two continued to fuck as the sweat built up and their skin became slick.
"Sha- Shane," Jennifer whispered, both were on the verge of their release as Shane increased his speed.
"Shane!" Jennifer moaned in ecstasy as they both came in unison. They rode out their orgasms then Shane removed himself from her and laid on the cot next to her. The only sound that could be heard was their heavy breathe as they began to come down from their high.
Shane turned his head to look at the girl he had just had sex with but she was already fast asleep.
"Morning!" Jennifer yelled as she entered the cafeteria. Rick and Glenn simultaneously groaned as they rubbed their aching heads. Jennifer just smirked as she sat down to get the powdered eggs T-Dog had made. They weren't as good as normal eggs but they were still pretty damn good.
"How are you not hung over?" Glenn asked as Jennifer scarfed down her eggs, "You drank more than all of us combined."
"I don't know. I don't really get hangovers even when I'm shitfaced," Jennifer said a crooked smile on her face as Glenn felt envy towards her. Jennifer lifted her eyes to the group and caught Shane staring at her she gave him a small smirk and continued eating her eggs.
When she had woken up that morning, he was not in bed with her so she didn't get the chance to talk to him that morning. But when Jennifer thought about it she didn't really want to talk about it, I mean what would she say? We fucked, you want to do it again sometime?
"Morning," Jenner said as he walked into the cafeteria. Everyone said something along the lines of, "Hey Doc," as Jenner began making himself a cup of coffee.
"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing," Dale began, finally starting a real conversation since Jennifer had entered the room.
"But you will anyway," Jenner said with his back turned to them.
"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea said making the doctor turn around as a serious air-filled the room. As she spoke, Daryl entered the room, as he did so he gave Jennifer a cold gaze, an even colder one than the ones she usually receives from the man.
Made he heard us last night, Jennifer thought, He doesn't need to take his anger out on me if he isn't getting any.
"Follow me," Jenner said as he sipped on his coffee. The group did as they were told and followed Jenner to the large computer room they had been in when they first arrived at this safe haven.
Jenner clicked on one of the computers and told it, "Give me playback of TS-19."
"Playback of TS-19," VI said as the screen before them brightened with life.
"Few people ever got a chance to see this," Jenner said as some of the group began to walk closer to the screen, "very few."
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked looking to the doctor for an answer.
"An extraordinary one," he said looking said looking to the boy with tender eyes and a small smile on his lips. Jenner turned back to the screen and said, in a low voice, "Not that it matters in the end."
"Take us in for E.I.V." he said as the computer zoomed in one the image and said, "Enhanced internal view."
The group watched as the image began to get larger and then the view was inside of the head. As they watched hundreds of lights flickered through it and Shane couldn't help but ask, "What are those lights?"
"It's a person's life experiences, memories. It's everything," As Jenner spoke Jennifer watched as Sam trotted up to her and laced her small fingers around Jennifer's thin ones, "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 asked folding his arm as he gazed at the doctor.
"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages," Jenner said as he paced in front of the screen, reminding Jennifer about her teachers in high school, only he couldn't give her detention for not paying attention or sleeping, "They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."
Jenner gazed up at the thing on the monitor as if after so many times seeing it he still couldn't believe the extent of the human brain and was amazed by it.
"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked stepping forward, breaking the hypnotizing hold the lights had on the group members.
"Yes," Rick's questioned didn't break Jenner's gaze as he watched the lights go back and forth, "or rather the playback of the vigil."
"This person died?" Andrea asked, "Who?"
"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected…" Jenner trailed off remembering the past, "And volunteered to have us record the process."
From the way Jenner watched the screen and the sadness in his voice when he spoke of the test subject Jennifer was able to infer who TS-19 was.
"Vi, scan to the first event," Jenner said as his computer repeated his instructions and something flashed on the screen. It was the same brain only now there was a growing darkness from the center that spread out at a rapid pace.
"What is that?" Glenn asked in confusion as the blackness consumed the image. It seemed that the boy had recovered from his hangover.
"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down, then the major organs," Jenner sated as the image on the screen began jerking, only ceasing when the brain went completely black with no light shining through, "Then death."
"Everything you ever were or ever will be…" Jenner paused a moment as his amazement left his face and he looked saddened, "Gone."
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia innocently asked her mother. This made Jennifer remember that Sam was still clinging to her and when she looked down the child's eyes had a mixture of emotion. There was confusion, tiredness, awe, but through all of those emotions, Jennifer saw the sadness that hid beneath it. It was much like Jennifer's sadness that she tried to hide behind her other emotions. The sadness that she would never show anyone, the sadness that would break her.
Jennifer didn't realize she was still staring at the girl until the blond looked up at her with her pale blue eyes. Jennifer offered a small smile and the girl buried her face into Jennifer's side, wiping her small tears on Jennifer's pants. Jennifer realized Sam wasn't the only on crying when she looked over to Andrea and saw that she red eyes and was sniffling.
"They lost someone two days ago," Lori said to the doctor who looked from Andrea to the small girl clutching Jennifer, "Andrea's sister and Sam's dad."
"I lost somebody, too. I know how devastating it is,"' Jenner told the two blonds. That remark made Jennifer positive that TS-19 was Jenner's significant other and she could only feel pity for him. She found it ironic that she went through the same thing and she was now showing the one emotion she hated for people to show her.
"Scan to the second event," Jenner said after attempting to comfort Andrea, "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."
Four hours, eighteen minutes, and twenty-nine seconds… the numbers flashed in Jennifer's head as she recalled her past. She knew that time was spot on because after her sister stopped breathing, the woman held her sister's limp body as the tears silently fell from her eyes. She then watched the clock until she heard the soft rasps of her sister's breath starting up again.
Something changed on the screen, the now darkened brain began lighting up with small red lights that slowly began to spread out just as the blackness had.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked approaching the doctor.
"No, just the brain stem," Jenner said looking back at the woman before putting his focus on the image before them, "Basically, it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive," Jennifer stated in a low voice as she her eyes darted across the monitor making unwanted memories resurface. It wasn't a question but Jenner took it as one and answered it for her.
"You tell me," Jenner said motioning to the monitor as he backed into the group by Rick's side.
Rick just bit his lip and pointed out the obvious, "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."
"Dark, lifeless, dead," Each word that left Jenner's mouth slashed Jennifer, opening the already healed wounds in her heart. But being who he was Jenner continued, "The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell, driven by mindless instinct."
The figure on the screen began moving and opening its mouth until a beam shot through its head and the barrel of a gun could be seen in the top right corner. The figure's mouth opened before it ceased all movement.
"God. What was that?" Carol asked.
"He shot her in the head," Jennifer mindlessly spoke before Jenner could answer.
"VI, power down the main screen and the workstations," Jenner spoke clearly as he folded his arms and walked away from the screen. Jennifer watched the screen go black.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Now Jennifer had turned around as Andrea asked the doctor with a worried tone. All eyes were now on the doctor expecting an answer and hoping what Andrea said was untrue.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal," Jenner said slowly lowering the hope the group had held onto until now.
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui said as she rested her arm one on of the computers and put the other on her hip.
"There is that," Jenner said shrugging his shoulders.
"Somebody must know something," Andrea said desperately, "somebody somewhere."
"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked her voice cracking a little.
Jenner took a moment nodding his head and choosing his words carefully, "There may be some. People like me."
"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick asked the doctor forcefully.
"Everything went down," Jenner said in defense, "Communications, directives all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?" Andrea asked shaking her head in disbelief, "That's what you're really saying, right?"
Jenner looked down and swallowed hard as the people looked to him for an answer he didn't have.
"So in other words, we're fucked," Jennifer said, "Looks like it's time to get the booze."
"Man, I'm going to get shitfaced drunk again," Daryl said through Andrea's heavy breathing as he walked to a computer and rested his head on it.
"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…" Dale began as he made his over to the left side of the room, "That clock it's counting down. What happens at zero?"
"The basement generators they run out of fuel," he said quickly walking away trying to dodge the question.
"And then?" Rick asked, but the doctor ignored his question and continued walking, "VI, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur," the monotone voice echoed through the room. Jennifer's palms got sweaty as she listened. She knew exactly what would happen when the power would run out.
Jenner stalked through the halls as many of the group members followed closely behind questioning him. The men that had gone to check on the generators came running in as the group entered and Lori called out to her husband. Jennifer had remained with Lori trying to reason out what was going on.
"Jenner what's happening?" Rick asked as he met the doctors pace.
"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," Jenner said as the group rounded a corner into the large computer room and the clock came into view. 31:28 that's what the clock read.
Jenner took a swig of the alcohol he had snatched from Daryl then halted at the stairs and handing the bottle back to Daryl. The redneck snatched the bottle from his hands, spilling some of the alcohol on the ground in the process.
"It was the French," Jenner said looking back at Andrea before he continued up the stairs.
"What?" she asked confused.
"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know," he said to her, "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."
"What happened?" Jacqui asked concerned.
"The same thing that's happening here," Jenner said as sweat formed on his skin, "No power grid. Ran out of juice."
"The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Jenner said as he moved towards his computer.
"Let me tell you-"Shane said as he jumped up the stairs and ran for Jenner.
"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care," Rick said stepping up to grab his friend.
"Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get you stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick the sweat visible on his face. Everyone began to scramble back to the hallways when a loud alarm began to go off. The group stopped and looked around questioning the noise.
"30 minutes to decontamination," VI answered their questions. The screen they had watched the vigil on now lit up with a countdown clock. Red lights blinked as Jenner scanned a card on a control pad and Daryl yelled.
"Doc, what's going on here?"
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick," Shane said to the group, "Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!"
"Everyone began rushing to get their belongings when Jenner entered a code into the keypad and the door to the room was sealed. Rick tried to run for the door but wasn't fast enough. They stared at the door not believing that this was happening.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked in a scared tone. Until the panic set in and he began yelling, "He just locked us in!"
Jenner moved towards one of the computers and quickly started it up, "We've hit the 30-minute window. I am recording," Jenner spoke to the monitor.
"You son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled. Everyone began rushing back into the room and Jennifer just remained where she was. She hadn't said anything or done anything she just stood there with an emotionless face, there were no emotions for her to display. Watching that vigil had made Jennifer remember too much and that left her as a shell of a woman.
She watched as Daryl ran for Jenner and actually grabbed him before Shane and T-Dog held him back. The way he kicked his legs and waved his arms with the bottle e in hand reminded Jennifer of a child.
"Hey, Jenner, open that door now," Rick tried to say in a nice voice but with death looming over him he couldn't help be a little forceful.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed," Jenner said as he fixed his lab coat and tried to go back to doing his work.
"Well, open the damn things," Jennifer couldn't tell the voice from all the commotion going on, she could only tell it was a man.
"That's not something I control. The computers do," Jenner said matter-of-factly, "I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that."
Rick paced around and all eyes focused on him awaiting instructions. Carol grabbed her daughter and Sam who had been holding Sophia's hand. Sam looked up at Jennifer with scared eyes and Jennifer could only stare into the familiar pale blue eyes before looking away. She couldn't take the sadness in the young girl's eyes it was too much to handle in a situation, like this.
"It's better this way," Jenner said.
"What is?" Rick questioned as he took a step towards the doctor, "What happens in 28 minutes?"
Jenner ignored the man's question and went back to his work, his fingers rapidly clacking the buttons on the keyboard. This annoyed Rick and he yelled, "What happens in 28 minutes?!"
"You know what this place is?!" Jenner finally responded as he rose from his seat and faced Rick head on, "We protected the public from very nasty stuff!" He began to move to Shane and yelled in his face as he had done to Rick. He then backed off and continued his rant, "Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!"
Jenner calmed himself, adjusted his lab coat, and said, "In the event of a catastrophic power failure in a terrorist attack, for example H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organism from getting out."
"H.I.T.s?"
"VI, define H.I.T.s," Jenner said.
"H.I.T.S, high-impulse thermo baric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between five thousand degrees and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure us desired."
As VI spoke, Carol held onto the two girls in her grasp and began crying. Rick hugged his wife and son as tears began to fall from Lori's eyes. Glenn rubbed his hands through his hair. As for Jennifer, she began to breathe heavily as she was reminded of what was going to happen. Her wide eyes lifted from the ground to Jenner's and she spoke, "It sets the air on fire."
And this is what broke Jennifer. This is what brought her from the past back into the present. This is what filled her with emotions once more, but she could only feel a single emotion. Anger.
The woman rushed for the doctor and was almost stopped by Rick but she was too fast. She was able to get Jenner and land a punch across his cheek and was about to get a second one, but Shane swooped in and pulled the girl from the doctor.
This wasn't going to stop her though. She frantically tried to get out of the man's hold yelling, "Get off of me!" She squirmed pout of Shane's grasp and removed the hair from her face as she breathed heavily.
"Don't you want to be with your sister again?" Jenner asked as Jennifer turned her back to him and made her way to the door.
The woman stopped dead in her tracks as she looked over her shoulder, "What did you just say?"
"Don't you want to be reunited with your little sister and not have to worry about what's out there?" Jenner said to the woman who was slowly turning to the man with sharp eyes, "You could say sorry for what you had to do to her."
Jennifer marched over to Jenner and grabbed the man by the shirt slamming him into the computers, "What the fuck do you want me to say?" Jennifer screamed, "You want me to tell you about how I had to put a bullet into my baby sister's head. Do you want me to tell you how I held her body for hours, unable to move. Or maybe you want me to describe what I was thinking when a stranger took a bite out of my sister's leg! Is that what you want?!"
"The only reason I'm living now is because I promised that I would survive. I promised my sister that I would survive this thing for her," Jennifer said. Her voice was still panicked but she had stopped yelling on now tears welled up in her eyes as she relived the day her life turned to shit.
Jennifer slowly let go of the doctor's shirt and straightened up. She swallowed the lump in her as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She ran her hand through her hair and gazed at the people surrounding her. All of them were wide-eyed from, her sudden outburst. They all had witnessed her outburst with Lori but this time it was different.
When Jennifer's eyes fell on Sam she saw the wide scared eyes before but the small girl quickly hid her face. Jennifer saw the scared look in her eye and she could only think that she had been the cause of that fear.
Jenner searched Jennifer's distressed face and sighed, "I told you, topside is locked I can't open those."
The people looked to the doctor as he scanned a key card, typed in a code, and the doors that Daryl had been hitting now opened.
As the others rushed out, Jennifer watched Jenner shake Rick's hand before pulling him in and whispering something into his ear.
"I assume you already know?" Jenner said to Jennifer when he was finished. She nodded her head just as Lori came to pull the two away to safety.
"We got four minutes left come on!" Glenn yelled. They were about to leave when Jacqui proclaimed that she was staying.
"There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out," she told T-Dog who tried desperately to get her to come with them, "Just get out. Get out."
With that, the group ran down the halls as quickly as they could, trying to get out in time. They climbed stairs in the dark with only flashlights to guide them and the rapid sounds of footsteps filling the air. Jennifer was leading the group because she knew the area best.
When the group made it to the place they entered, they urgently banged against the doors, trying to open them. Daryl and Shane ran to windows where they banged against them with the axe they had taken from the computer room.
"Stay close, sweetie," Carol said holing her daughter close, just as Lori did with her child and the blond orphan. The men continued chopping at the doors without even putting a scratch on it.
"Daryl, look out!" T-Dog yelled as he ran up to the window with a door and slammed the chair into it. Jennifer heard the cock of a gun and then heard Shane yell.
"Dog, get down! Get down!" He fired a single round at the window and nothing happened, "Jesus."
"The glass won't break?" Sophia's high voice said from the spot on the ground her mother had told her to duck.
"Wait a minute!" Jennifer yelled as she dug something out of her backpack.
"Jennifer, I don't think a nail files gonna do it," Shane said to the woman as she continued to search. When she brought her hand back out, resting in it was a grenade.
"Everyone get down!" Jennifer yelled as she tossed her back pack down and ran over to the window. Everyone ran to the stairs and ducked down so their back was facing the window. Jennifer pulled the cord on the grenade and the latch was thrown up. She dropped the grenade and began running.
"Get down! Get down!" the others yelled as she ran. There was the sound of an explosion and Jennifer was thrown to her side sliding across the floor. The glass shattered and the group quickly regained their feet moving towards the now window. Jennifer slung her backpack over her shoulder and jumped through the window as she followed the others.
The sound of the explosion must have attracted walkers because a number of them were now swarming around them. They easily took them out as they ran for the vehicles. She ended up in Shane's Jeep waiting for him to start it when she saw two figures exiting the CDC.
"Look!" She yelled pointing at them when she realized it was Dale and Andrea. Before Jennifer could see any more, she felt Shane's large hand wrap around the back of her neck and force her head downwards. She heard the loud explosion and was thankful that Shane was there to remind her about how powerful the explosion was. She heard the sound of an explosion and the building as it fell into itself.
Shane's hand slowly slid from her neck and they both looked up at the remains of the CDC. Nothing but fire and stone was left and Jennifer thought her last goodbyes to Dr. Edwin Jenner as Shane started the Jeep and the group pulled away from the destruction.
Haha not what you were expecting was it? Didn't think those two would hook up? And Jennifer with her total melt down. Please review and tell me if you like please please please! I'll try super hard not to be late with the next chapter.