Haha...ha...ha...
Soooo I'm not dead? I guess that's good news? I cannot believe I've been away from updating for this fucking long I'm legit disappointed with myself. Had a bit of a rough patch but hopefully things will start to go back to normal. Hopefully y'all don't hate me ;-;
Thank you to AltairMercer95, , FIREPHOENIXXD, Ice and Fire dragon, mamabrew, BrittneyBluebird, Cece12, DancingYoko, Short But Deadly, TheFangirlingNerd, Trixxi13 and TsukiBop for Favouriting/following the story. Hopefully you guys are still here for the journey lmao. I truly appreciate the support! (I apologize if I forgot to list any new readers!)
For reviews,
devoncarman: Shane is a prick and I literally feel my blood boil as the chapters go on lmao. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the last chapter! Wasn't exactly sure how it turned out, but I'm happy you liked it. Like you said, this chapter here will be the last of season one, but I'm going to keep the series going on this same book. I feel like dividing it up will make things more complicated so the updates will continue to be here!
I hope you all enjoy this chapter, not sure how it turned out but I feel like it was decent enough to post. Since I've been away for way too long since I've been on, I made this chapter pretty long compared to the last two updates. I pray that it was up to all of your standards!
As always, I hope you guys are doing well. Ever since I wrote this chapter I came to realize how much I missed it. The moment my hands began typing I was like 'yep this is right' and hopefully I'll be able to pump out another update soon.
Enjoy!
Daryl's Perspective
Even though he was expecting it, the pounding in his head was as bad as it could be when the younger Dixon came to the following morning. He hadn't even opened his eyes when he felt the pain wrapped around his skull. There was an uncomfortable weight in his stomach that made the man groan softly and roll over carefully onto his back, only to see a white ceiling instead of the fabric of his tent.
Right. They were at the C.D.C.
The events of the previous night were still blurry, though a few things managed to be present in his memory. Daryl recalled drinking with everyone, hearing Jenner's story about the other doctors, having a broken shower and unexpectedly showing up at Scarlett's door. He even remembered Shane pretty much threatening the redhead to clean up the cuts on his neck, only for him to run away when Daryl stepped in.
Besides that dumbass saying some pretty stupid things, it had been a good night overall. A part of Daryl wished he could pin his content on the alcohol, but once again, he was starting to almost enjoy the company of the others in the group. Especially last night, when nobody gave two shits about anything and just drank to have a good time. Even those amongst the group who he believed had sticks shoved up their asses were somewhat pleasant to be around. As much as the thoughts irritated him, he couldn't deny that they held some truth.
Getting up proved damn difficult, all the signs of a horrid hangover were evidently running through his system. Daryl could always hold his alcohol, even when he'd had his first drink when he'd barely hit double digits. He recalled all the times he'd gone out drinking with Merle and his dumb-as-shit friends, always being the one to make sure that his brother didn't get into too much trouble.
The thought of his brother made him feel even worse as the man rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He needed to get some food into his system if he planned on actually making himself useful.
The walk to the dining area seemed a lot further than he'd thought the night before, but it didn't bother him much. It gave him an opportunity to wake up and clear his thoughts before he needed to deal with anyone today. Rounding one more corner, Daryl's eyes landed on the group all sitting around the same table as last night, eating away at eggs or bacon that T-Dog was giving out. Everyone looked like garbage, especially Glenn, who was hunched over his food and moaning in pain. Both Jacqui and Scarlett were by his side, trying to get him to eat his food. The red head looked to be in pretty rough shape as well, but looked up at Daryl and gave him a small smile. He nodded his head at her in return as he silently placed himself against the opposite wall.
"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again." Glenn groaned out, barely managing to shove some eggs in his mouth. Scarlett laughed softly at his request, only replying with a few pats on his back.
"'Morning." A gruff voice called, causing everyone to look up and spot an extremely hung-over Shane. Daryl could only feel his irritation rise the longer he looked at the man.
"'Morning," Rick replied. "Feel as bad as I do?"
"Worse."
The younger Dixon looked over at Scarlett to see the woman glaring at Shane's back with the heat of a thousand suns, only to look away when the man turned back around. Apparently Daryl was the only one to notice.
"What the hell happened to you?" T-Dog questioned, eyeing the marks on Shane's neck. The same ones he'd demanded Scarlett to look at the night before.
"Must have done it in my sleep." Shane stated as he sat down at the table.
"Never seen you do that before." Rick pointed out, giving his best friend an odd look.
"Me neither," the man replied, looking up at Rick and Lori. "Not like me at all."
Daryl understood what Scarlett was getting at last night. Now that she'd pointed it out to him, it was almost obvious that something had happened between Shane and Lori. He'd known that both Rick and Shane argued regularly with each other, which Daryl had thought to be normal, but hearing that it was most certainly not normal from Scarlett changed things. The tension between the two men and the woman was almost painfully easy to see now, causing Daryl to let out a quiet sigh. He couldn't afford to put up with much more bullshit, especially in his hung-over state.
"Good morning." Jenner's familiar voice reached their ears as he walked by the table.
A few courses of 'good morning' were said back to the doctor, though it didn't take long for Dale to speak up about the situation at hand. While the old man talked a lot, Daryl was glad that they had him to question things for the group.
"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing…"
"But you will anyway."
"We didn't come here for the eggs."
Not much else was said before Jenner was leading them back into the circular room he'd shown the group yesterday. Daryl had managed to eat up what little he could before they'd left for the larger room, trailing behind the others to watch from a safe distance away. When they did reach the room, Jenner was quick to pull up stuff on the computer.
"Give me a playback of TS-19."
The large screen at the front of the room began to light up, loading what Daryl could only assume to be a projection of some sort. The lights dimmed slightly as scans of what looked like a human brain showed up on the screen.
"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." Jenner explained as more information loaded onto the large screen. Currently, a virtual construct of someone's face was being shown to the group, which then revealed the brain within.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked, looking up at the screen in question.
"An extraordinary one. Not that it matters, in the end," Jenner replied before bringing his attention back to the screen instead of the young boy. "Take us in for E.I.V."
"Enhanced internal view." The robotic voice answered back as the image on the screen changed again. They were now seeing the person from the side, getting a clearer look at the brain as a whole. Daryl glanced around the room, seeing everyone's somewhat bewildered faces as they watched the screen. It was only when his eyes fell on Scarlett that he spotted a more serious composition on her face.
"What are those lights?" Daryl heard Shane ask, turning his attention back to the screen to watch as lights flashed along what looked like circuits of some sort.
"It's a person's life," Jenner replied simply. "Experiences, memories. It's everything. 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, giving the doctor a confused look.
"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages." Scarlett spoke up, eyes still locked on the screen.
"Correct," Jenner replied. "They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."
"Death? That's what this is? A vigil?" Rick asked as he approached the doctor.
"Yes, or rather the playback of the vigil." He answered.
"This person died?" Andrea questioned, looking between the doctor and the screen. "Who?"
"Test Subject 19," Jenner clarified. "Someone who was bitten and infected…and volunteered to have us record the process."
Daryl, once again, looked over at Scarlett to see the redhead carefully writing down notes on that small notepad she always carried with her. He recalled that she was trying to understand as much of the process of the bite as she could, and Jenner was giving her the answers to many of her questions and then some.
"Vi, scan forward to the first event." Jenner spoke up, calling out to the A.I.
Of course, Vi did as the doctor wished and the group watched as the screen changed back to the view of the person's head. Something about it this time appeared much different. A lot of the light within the brain was now black, those 'synapses' Jenner told them about were now beginning to drain of light.
"What is that?" Glenn asked, eyebrow's furrowed as he glanced at the doctor.
"It invades the brain like meningitis," Jenner answered, giving Glenn a quick look. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death."
The entire brain was now black, no flow of light circling everywhere like it had before. Someone's life had ended, and they'd just watched everything they were turn into nothing.
"Everything you were or ever will be…gone."
"Is that what happened to Jim?" The little girl Sophia asked, looking up at her mom.
"Yes." She managed to say calmly.
Daryl could see the sadness on many people's faces. Three in particular, actually. The first was Jacqui, who was silently letting a few tears slip down her cheeks. The second was Scarlett, who stared at the screen with almost a pained look on her face. And the final, most expected of them all, was Andrea.
"She lost someone two days ago," Lori spoke up, referring to the blonde. "Her sister."
"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is," Jenner said as he reached out to Andrea. However, the man quickly evaded any further questions and returned his attention to the screen. "Scan to the second event."
Once again, the screen began to change but only by a small bit this time. The footage on screen began to fast forward.
"The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes," Jenner continued. "The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."
Watching the screen carefully, Daryl saw what he could only describe as sparks flaring up at the base of the brain.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked, clearly shocked like everyone else in the room.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving." Jenner answered.
"But they're not alive?" Rick stepped up to stand beside Jenner, eyes still on the screen.
"You tell me."
"It's not like before. Most of that brain is dark."
"Dark, lifeless, dead."
"The frontal lobe, the neocortex, everything that makes us human doesn't come back," Scarlett spoke up once again, this time her notepad gone as she approached the front as well. "They're just a shell of what they were before."
Daryl was shocked. He'd had a feeling that Scarlett was bright even from their first interaction, but he hadn't processed it until now. The girl knew her shit, and he could see by everyone's surprised faces that the group was realizing the same.
"Exactly. The 'you' part is gone. A body driven by mindless instinct." Jenner stated.
Eyes back on the screen, everyone watched as something shot right through the brain and the brain stem, killing the walker indefinitely.
"God, what was that?" Carol asked, eyes wide.
"He shot his patient in the head," Andrea spoke up in quite a monotone voice. "Didn't you?"
"Vi, power down the main screen and the work stations." Jenner called to the A.I., not answering the question just asked of him.
"You don't have a clue as to what it is, do you?" Scarlett asked, bringing her attention to the doctor like everyone else had.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal-"
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui spoke up, clearly distressed.
"There is that."
There was a long pause for a moment as everyone let the information sink in. Daryl was trying to wrap his head around everything, and he could tell the others were trying to do the same.
"Somebody must know something," Andrea spoke up. "Somebody, somewhere."
"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked.
"There may be some," Jenner replied, his voice lacking any hope. "People like me."
"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick demanded.
"Everything went down. Communications, directives – all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month now."
"So it's not just here," Andrea spoke once again. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"
When the doctor didn't answer, Daryl found it hard to swallow. He couldn't believe that there was truly nothing out there that everywhere was just as bad as it was here. That meant the chances of being rescued were close to zero.
"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again." Daryl said, rubbing the palms of his hands against his eyes. Might as well drink if there was nothing else to do, considering they all might die soon anyways.
"I have a question," Scarlett spoke up, eyes locked on something else other than the doctor. "Ever since we've been here, that clock over there has been counting down to something. What happens at zero?"
"I was gonna ask the same thing." Dale stated, looking between the doctor and the red clock.
Daryl hadn't noticed it until that moment, the giant red numbers counting down to something unknown to them all. The clock read only an hour, which meant that whatever was going to happen at zero was going to happen very soon.
"The basement generators, they run out of fuel." Jenner answered quickly before turning around and bringing his attention somewhere else.
"And then?" Rick asked, eyeing the doctor carefully. When the man didn't answer, Rick turned his question elsewhere. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." The robotic voice belonging to Vi answered back.
She wouldn't stop pacing, no matter who told her to sit down or to take a breather, Scarlett would not stop. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her eyes were wild with worry, Daryl could practically see the storm of thoughts rumbling around in her head. Everyone was anxious about Jenner's odd behavior and even weirder response to their questions regarding the clock. Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog had gone down to the basement to have a look at the generators while everyone else had returned to the rooms for the time being. Daryl was currently leaning against the door watching as the redhead paced up and down the hall. Lori was also watching from her door, attempting to calm the other woman down.
"Scarlett, just stop for a minute, okay?" Lori asked, managing to grab ahold of one of the paramedic's arms.
"I can't, I need to think. Pacing helps me think." She muttered back.
"Think? About what?" Daryl questioned from his own doorway.
"Facility-wide decontamination happens when the power runs out. We don't know what the 'decontamination' part pertains to," Scarlett began rambling. "This is the C.D.C., which means that this sort of thing should not be taken lightly. What would you do with something that you would consider 'contaminated'?"
"Get rid of it?" Daryl questioned.
"Exactly, but I don't know to what extent this facility is going to get 'decontaminated'. Are we talking spraying the facility down with a cleaner or something much worse?"
"What do you mean worse?" Lori asked, but before Scarlett could give her an answer, the doors to multiple rooms opened and interrupted their conversation.
"Why is the air off? And the lights?" Carol questioned.
Everyone watched as Jenner emerged from his own office and began walking down the hall, paying the group no mind as he passed.
"What's going on?" Daryl questioned, looking around at everyone
"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner replied simply.
"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asked, genuinely confused.
"It's not up to me," the doctor answered. "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
As everyone began following the man to wherever he was headed, Daryl needed answers and they all needed them now. Everything was beginning to power down, only to fuel their worries.
"Hey! What the hell does that mean?" He yelled after the doctor. "Hey, man. I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"
"You'd be surprised."
Once again, they'd all entered the central room where the main computers were. It appeared as though everything was offline except for that current room. Descending the stairs that lead down into the circle of computers, their group met up with Rick and the others.
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick demanded in a curt voice.
"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power," the doctor explained. "It's designed to keep the computers running until the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule."
The doctor pointed at the large clock, and like he said, there was only a half-hour left until decontamination of the whole building. Everyone was glaring daggers at the man's head as they all came to a stop behind him. Daryl quickly looked over at Scarlett to see her anxiously scratching at her hands, her stare blank as she was lost in thought.
The younger Dixon ripped the bottle of booze out of Jenner's hand as he gave him the most hateful look he could muster up.
"It was the French." The doctor said after the pause in conversation.
"What?" Andrea questioned, confusion written all over her face as well as with the others.
"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know," Jenner clarified. "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.
"Same thing that's happening here," he answered. "No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuels. I mean, how stupid is that?"
"We need to get out of here." Scarlett hissed over at Rick.
"Let me tell you-" Shane began going after the man, only for Rick to push him away.
"To hell with it, Shane," Rick said before turning back to address everyone. "Lori, grab our things. Everyone, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!"
Just as the group was about to make a break for their rooms to grab everything, alarms began blaring all around them. The lights turned red and Vi's voice rang out through the facility as the clock began running down on the large screen in front of them as well.
"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl yelled at the man in the white coat.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick," Shane began giving out orders. "Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!"
The sound of metal doors closing rang out with a sharp clang, shutting off their access to anywhere in the facility, which also meant that their access of an escape route was now closed off as well.
"Did he just lock us in?" Daryl heard Glenn call out to the others, his rage skyrocketing. "He just locked us in!"
"You son of a bitch!" The younger Dixon yelled out, making a beeline for the doctor. The amount of anger he was feeling was almost nothing compared to anything else he had ever felt. This was supposed to be a safe haven for them, and the doctor had let them in only to keep them locked in. Daryl managed to only grab onto Jenner's collar before Shane and T-Dog pulled him away.
"Hey, Jenner. Open that door now." Rick demanded as the younger Dixon continued to struggle.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Well, open the damn things!" Daryl yelled back.
"That's not something I can control. The computers do," Jenner stated. "I told you, once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that."
"We didn't think we'd be paying entry with our lives!" Scarlett shouted, speaking up for the first time in a while. "We asked for a chance. This isn't a chance, this is suicide and homicide!"
"W-what do you mean?" Glenn asked the redhead, as everyone turned their attention to her.
"Something bad is going to happen, I just don't know what," Scarlett replied in a calmer voice. "We need to be out of here before the decontamination or we're as good as dead. What happens in 28 minutes, doctor?"
"How would you-?"
"What happens in 28 minutes!?"
"Do you know what this place is!?" Jenner finally broke down and yelled right back in the redhead's face. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!"
Everyone had gone quiet at the outburst from the doctor, nobody knowing how to continue forward. Scarlett continued to glare horribly at the man in front of her. Daryl was a little shocked by how firm she was being, not that it bothered him at all. She wanted to get out as much as anyone else did.
"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." Jenner said in a much calmer voice.
"What are H.I.T.'s?" Rick questioned, drawing closer to the doctor as well.
"Vi, define."
"H.I.T.'s are high-impulse thermo baric fuel air explosives that consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration of any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
Daryl had only registered the explosives part and was trying his hardest not to lose his mind. They were trapped and were going to die in less than thirty minutes with no way out. He wouldn't get to see another day after this.
The younger Dixon looked around the room. Every face was either full of dread or covered in tears, the knowledge that their fate had been sealed weighing too heavy for some to understand. They were going to die and they couldn't do a single thing about it.
"It sets the air on fire," Jenner was mumbling. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief, regret. Everything."
Scarlett's Perspective
She should've known from the moment they'd walked into the C.D.C. and come across Jenner that something was off. The redhead had assumed that the man was simply antisocial and didn't know how to communicate with others after being all alone for over a month. Instead, he'd known that things would turn out this way. She'd played off the dread in his eyes as something to do with seeing so many suicides take place, rather than the approaching explosion that was going to wipe them out in less than a day. She should've turned them around and gone with another plan.
Except, they didn't have another plan. This had been their only one, and if they hadn't entered the C.D.C., they all could have died just the same. However, if they'd fended for themselves and not gotten in, at least there could have been a chance that some of the group would live on.
But instead now they were here, all fated to die in a fiery explosion that would kill them in an instant with no way out.
It made Scarlett so angry that she was surprised that there wasn't smoke coming out of her nostrils. While her only goal was to find her sister, Scarlett's concern was for the rest of the group. Every single one of the people here deserved to live on and get a chance to survive rather than opting out in an explosion. Hell, there were children here with their whole lives ahead of them and they were doomed just the same. The worst of it was that this had been her plan, and while Rick might have made the ultimate call, this had been her idea. Maybe if they'd gone to Fort Benning they would've had a chance.
The smashing of glass could be heard from across the room, causing Scarlett to glance over at the locked doors. Alcohol dripped down the metal doors and pieces of the bottle remained on the floor, to which she could only assume to be Daryl's handiwork. People were either sat with their loved ones or pounding away at the door in an attempt to break through. Scarlett sat near Andrea and Jenner, across from Lori, Carl, Carol and Sophia, staring off into space in the hopes of not hating herself anymore than she already did.
"Open the damn door!" She heard Daryl yelling to the doctor.
"Out of my way!" Shane called out, an axe in hand as he started pounding away at the door. It barely left any marks on it. Daryl joined in not a second later with his own axe, hacking at the door like their lives depended on it, which it really did.
The sobs coming from Carl, Carol and Sophia only seemed to get louder as the minutes went by. Scarlett couldn't bring herself to look at Lori, feeling the older woman's gaze on her every now and then. She wasn't sure if she was angry or afraid, but Scarlett was too scared to look up and find out.
"You should've left well enough alone," Jenner began again, speaking in a mindless ramble at this point. "It would've been so much easier."
"Easier for who?" Lori demanded harshly.
"All of you. You know what's out there; a short, brutal life and an agonizing death," the doctor answered, gazing over at Andrea for a moment. "Your sister, what was her name?"
"Amy."
"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it," the man then looked over at Rick. "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"
"I don't want this." Rick hissed back at the doctor.
Yet another pause in conversation followed, the air filled with anxiety and dread as Scarlett focused her eyes and glared at Jenner. He was trying to play the empathy card and she wasn't buying it. The more the man tried to persuade them into thinking mass suicide was a good idea, the more she wanted to break his nose. This wasn't the man's decision; he couldn't expect them to hand over their lives that easily, could he?
"Can't make a dent." The sound of one of the axes banging against one of the computer stations brought everyone's eyes to Shane's worn-out figure. It appeared that both him and Daryl had ceased their attacks on the door.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner stated calmly.
"Well your head ain't!" Daryl yelled as he charged at the doctor once again, axe high above his head ready to take the man's life. Both Rick and Shane shot forward, managing to stop the younger Dixon before he could get any closer to the doctor. T-Dog was the one to finally pry the axe from Daryl's hands before things went quiet again.
Scarlett couldn't even bring herself to get up to calm him down. She was trying hard to keep her own panic under control, her eyes flickering over to the clock every once in a while only to feel her stomach drop even lower each time.
"You do want this," Jenner stood up from his chair, continuing the conversation from before. "Last night you said you knew it was only a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."
While that brought Scarlett out of her daze, it only sent her into shock. She looked up in confusion at her good friend, ready to see him deny the accusation made by the doctor. It was only when she saw the stony look on Rick's face that she felt her breath pause momentarily.
He'd actually said that?
"What? You really said that?" Shane was the first one to question, which didn't surprise Scarlett much. "After all your big talk?"
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick replied harshly, attempting to explain his actions to a horrified Lori and the rest of the group.
"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner spoke up again.
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere-"
"What part of 'everything is gone' don't you understand?" Andrea argued, giving Rick a cold look.
"Listen to your friend, she gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event-"
"Okay, enough."
Scarlett stood up quietly from her seat and stretched her limbs, trying to keep her temper in place as she looked at the doctor. Her thoughts had finally been organized.
"I don't give a damn if 'everything is gone', what do you think the term 'rebuilding' means? We pick our asses up off the floor and push on," Scarlett stated firmly. "I also don't appreciate the fact that you're going after everyone's weak points just to convince us all to partake in a mass suicide. That's low, even for you."
"How are we supposed to rebuild with nothing?" Jenner questioned.
"We are not nothing," she countered. "And if this really is 'our extinction event', I want to live on in spite of all that. I want to laugh in the face of whoever is pulling the strings. I want to find my baby sister and spend some more time with these people, even if it's only for a little while longer."
All of her words were true. She wanted to continue on no matter how much the future would hurt, no matter the consequences. They all still had more time to spend in this world. Whether it be another day or another month, there was time, and Scarlett needed to get out of here with everyone by her side, but it all came down to Jenner.
And this group, she needed to spend more time with them. Scarlett wanted to know all their quirks and what makes them all tick, know about what their lives were like before the outbreak, and ultimately, she wanted to grow close enough to call them family.
Scarlett couldn't tear her eyes off of the doctor, watching every small emotion that ran across his face. There was something there, behind the dead look in his eyes that told her that a part of the person he used to be remained before them. That would be the key to getting them out of here.
"This isn't right," a shaky sob escaped from Carol. "You can't just keep us here."
Jenner's gaze fell on the crying woman, his eyes returning to that emotionless state.
"One tiny moment – a millisecond, no pain." He tried to explain, but Carol continued to shake her head vigorously.
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." She cried out, holding Sophia close to her body.
Scarlett felt her jaw clench as her eyes flew over to the clock once again. They had just over ten minutes to make it out of the building, and she didn't know how much of that time could be spend to convince Jenner to let them go.
They needed to get through to him now.
"Wouldn't it be kinder? More compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" The doctor questioned, seeming genuinely confused.
"Jenner, please-"
The cocking of a gun caused Scarlett to stop mid sentence, turning quickly to watch as Shane approached the group with an extremely angry expression ingrained on his face and a shotgun placed firmly in his hands.
"Shane, no!" Rick demanded, attempting to push his friend back with little effort.
"Out of the way, Rick!" He yelled back, vicious eyes fixed on Jenner as he pushed the other officer out of the way and pointed the barrel of the gun down at the doctor. "Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!"
Scarlett quickly approached, placing herself in between Shane and the doctor, a deep frown on her face. While there was a good chance that he would shoot Jenner regardless of her body blocking his, she wasn't going to let him fuck things up. Shane was an even bigger idiot than she had previously thought.
"Scarlett, what the fuck are you doing?!" She heard Glenn yell from her left, but didn't have a chance to look over at him.
"Holloway, move." He snarled at her.
"If you want any chance of getting out of here, we're going to need him to open the doors," she hissed back at him. "So I suggest you put that thing down before something bad happens."
Shane's glare seemed to only get more malicious after her words, the gun raising slightly almost to get a reaction out of her. All Scarlett could do was swallow harshly.
"Brother, this is not the way you do this," Rick attempted to calmly talk Shane down from his angry high. "Listen to her, or we will never get out of here."
"Shane, you put that gun down." Lori demanded in agreement.
"It's too late." Shane mumbled back.
"If he dies, we all-"
A violent and furious yell erupted from Shane's mouth, startling Scarlett horribly to the point where she let it be known on her face. In that moment, she wasn't so sure that Shane cared that she was in the way and would shoot regardless. Eyes locked on the barrel of the gun, Scarlett managed to let in a ragged breath before she saw it twitch in Shane's hands.
As a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her harshly out of the crossfire, Scarlett watched as Shane turned to begin firing at the computers and electronics, and thankfully, not the doctor. Heavy breaths escaped her lips as Rick battled with Shane for the shotgun, which was still spray bullets, every other second. Scarlett looked over to see whom the mysterious hand was attached to, not exactly surprised to see Daryl with a deep frown on his face.
She couldn't tell if the look was reserved for her or for the commotion in front of them.
By the time she turned around, her eyes fell on Shane's form lying flat on the ground while Rick stood over him, shotgun in hand.
"Are you done now?" Rick demanded through heavy breaths.
"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane spat back.
Scarlett watched as Rick took a few steps back and handed over the shotgun to T-Dog, his attention falling on the group soon after. She knew that each terrified face was imprinting itself into the man's brain, and for a slit second she thought he was going to give up hope as well.
But then again, she knew Rick to be better than that.
"I think you're lying."
Rick's words sent confusion through everyone in the room, especially Jenner.
"What?" The doctor asked.
"You're lying," Rick continued. "About no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"
"Not because I wanted to," Jenner replied, standing up from his chair to face Rick. "I made a promise…to her. My wife."
Scarlett blinked a few times, lips parting slightly at the new information.
"Test subject 19 was your wife?" She questioned, an eyebrow raised.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying," the doctor answered. "It should have been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just…Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice…" Rick began. "But you do."
"All we want is a choice, a chance." Scarlett continued, eyeing the doctor in an attempt to ignore the clock running farther down into the single digits.
"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori pleaded.
Scarlett could practically see the doctor's demeanor change slightly, though it was extremely subtle. The man gazed around at all the terrified faces and finally let out a sigh.
"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those."
Jenner quickly walked past both Rick and Scarlett, watching as the man approached one of the few machines that Shane hadn't blown to pieces earlier. A small keypad remained on the side, to which he hit a few buttons before hesitantly pressing the large red one in the middle.
Instantly, the large door that had locked them in the room opened, revealing the long white hallway behind it.
"Come on!" Daryl yelled as everyone began gathering their things and rushing towards the exit.
"Let's go!"
"Move it!"
Everyone was rushing towards the doors while both Scarlett and Rick turned towards the doctor.
"There's your chance, take it." Jenner said calmly.
"Thank you." Scarlett let out a sigh. He'd actually given them a chance.
"I'm grateful." Rick said after a moment.
"The day will come when you won't be."
Scarlett frowned at the man's words, only to be brought into a small circle with the two men as the doctor whispered to them. As she listened to Jenner, she forgot how to breathe. She couldn't hear a thing, only the Jenner's words and the faint yells from the other's that were only a few feet away. Bile was rising in her throat and the urge to be sick was incredibly strong. She wanted to push the man away, but the information was too important to miss, no matter how traumatizing it was.
"Hey! We've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn's voice broke Scarlett out of her trance, feeling her friend yanking her away from the doctor towards the door. She quickly gave Jenner a dazed look before turning around and making her way to the exit with both Rick and Glenn by her side.
"No, no, I'm staying!" Jacqui's voice broke through the calamity amongst the group, only to render everyone silent. T-Dog, who had been ushering her towards the door, looked baffled by her words. "I'm staying, sweetie."
"But that's insane!" He told her, attempting to grab her arm again.
"No, it's completely sane! For the first time in a long time," she stated firmly. "I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy."
"Jacqui-" Scarlett tried to start, only to be cut off by the woman.
"There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out."
Scarlett could feel even more dread sinking into her bones as she could only stare at the woman who had been nothing but kind to everyone. Jacqui was bright, and had been extremely helpful when the two women had been looking after Jim. Scarlett owed her a lot, and now she wanted to go up in flames with the doctor.
"Dog. Come on, man." Shane began pulling a very startled and distressed T-Dog away from Jacqui, who quickly turned around and went to go sit with the doctor amongst the computers.
"I'm staying too."
Andrea's voice echoed through the room as well, and all Scarlett could do was stare at the woman as Dale called for her to come with them.
"Just go! Go!" Dale yelled to the rest of the group.
"Come on." Rick said to everyone as they ran through the hallways.
Scarlett lost count of how many flights of stairs they'd ran up and couldn't find it in herself to worry about the ache in her tired legs. Her brain was trying to register everything that had happened in the last ten minutes and was struggling to focus on the task at hand. She couldn't exactly remember how they'd gotten up to the main floor, wincing slightly at the sun that was coming in through the windows. All she remembered were the stairs and someone thrusting her things into her hands.
"Get those doors open!" Rick yelled out to the others.
While a few of the men went hacking away at the last set of doors and windows, Scarlett knew they wouldn't leave a scratch. Similar to the door that had kept them locked in downstairs, they would need something more powerful if they wanted to break them open.
And this time they didn't have a magical button to open them up.
She couldn't continue to watch the others helplessly bang against the windows, quickly turning to face Rick to voice her concerns.
"We need something more powerful, this won't do." Scarlett said to him after watching Shane send shotgun shells into the glass, only to do nothing.
"Rick, I have something that might help." Carol spoke up, approaching them with her hand rustling around in her pack.
"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane replied dryly, which made Scarlett want to curse him out but bit down on her tongue instead.
"The first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket." She continued, pulling out a grenade. The same one that Rick had taken from inside the tank back in Atlanta was probably going to save their asses from a fiery explosion.
"Carol, you are a gift," Scarlett gave the woman a grateful look before bringing her attention to the others. "Everyone back away from the windows! Now!
Everyone in the group took cover and hit the ground as Rick made his way over the window with the grenade in hand. Scarlett took cover beside Glenn and Carol, covering her head as they waited for the grenade to go off.
"Oh shi-" The sound of Rick's rushed footsteps was cut off by the close proximity explosion. Scarlett could feel the heat radiating from behind them, but the sound of glass shattering and clattering to the ground had her looking towards the new hole in one of the large windows.
"Holy shit." She mumbled, eyes wide as everyone scattered to their feet and began rushing the hole.
"Come on!"
Scarlett didn't need to be told twice before she got up and made her way towards their new exit. She helped get the kids and Carol down considering that there was a bit of a drop, being one of the last ones to leave the building. Thankfully, it was Daryl who helped her down when everyone started running towards the vehicles.
"Thanks." Was all she could mutter before they took off after the others, watching as some walkers began coming their way due to the sound of the grenade. Gunshots rang out as some of the group began firing at the walkers in their path. Scarlett kept an iron grip on Stella as she swung at any undead that came her way, Daryl beside her swinging one of the axes that he'd become so familiar with now.
Once they'd reached the cars, Scarlett gave Daryl a nod before disappearing into the RV with Rick, Lori, Carl, and Glenn. Rick slid into the drivers seat and worked on getting the car started as Scarlett collapsed beside Glenn.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! They're coming." Lori breathed out, pointing out the front window of the RV.
Scarlett peered over Rick's shoulder to get a look at what the woman was pointing at, only to see both Andrea and Dale jumping out of the shattered window. Her anxiety remained high however, worried that the explosion would go off any minute now. She sent Lori a panicked look, which automatically had her opening the window to yell at them as Rick leaned on the horn.
"Dale, get down! Down!" Lori screamed at them before Scarlett pulled everyone to the back of the RV for cover. She didn't know how much it would do to keep them from the explosion, but she prayed it was enough.
And then she felt it. The ground was shaking before the feeling of heat wafting through the RV overtook the sound of the windows of the C.D.C. blowing out, an explosion so loud that it rocked the vehicle and everything around it. It sounded and felt like absolute chaos outside, seeing the orange hue of the flames through the windows caused Scarlett to go slack jawed in awe. What Jenner said had been true; it had set the air on fire.
The loud roar eventually died down, and Scarlett was the first one to venture forward to the front of the RV to get a look at the destruction. Where the C.D.C. once stood remained a pile of flaming rubble, dark smoke circling above and becoming one with the sky. All the walker corpses and army vehicles were charred black, the smell of hot concrete and burning flesh filling everyone's nostrils.
When she spotted that both Dale and Andrea were okay, Scarlett almost fell over.
"Glenn, get the door open." She muttered, to which her friend complied and threw up the door to the RV for both Dale and Andrea.
The two were covered in soot as they both collapsed in their seats by the side table, absolutely exhausted. Scarlett swore she saw some tension between the two, a heated glare directed at Dale by Andrea's tired eyes, but she didn't have the energy to pry. In fact, she gave Rick a soft pat on the shoulder and retreated to the back before collapsing onto the cushions across from where Jim once remained.
Closing her eyes, she heard the rubble of the engine and felt the RV begin to move once again. At this point, she didn't give a shit as to where they were going. All Scarlett wanted was to get away from the mistake that had been their visit to the C.D.C. The mistake that had been her very own idea.
Hearing soft footsteps approaching the back where she was resting, the sound of someone sitting down on the opposite cushions had Scarlett's eyes fluttering open softly. Sat there remained Glenn, one of the few people she'd ever had the pleasure to call a good friend, staring at her with a conflicted gaze. It was obvious that he wanted to speak with her, otherwise he would have let her be, but she was nonetheless worried about what her friend had to say.
"Why did you do it?" He asked, eyes fixed on her face.
Scarlett frowned slightly. What was he getting at?
"Do what?"
"Get in between Jenner and Shane when he had a damn shotgun pointed at you," he clarified, furrowing his eyebrows. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that if we wanted to get out of there, we would need Jenner alive and without his head blown off," she explained, slowly sitting up and facing Glenn properly. "Plus, I don't think Shane would have shot me."
"Okay, first of all," Glenn let out a huff of air, frustration riddled across his face. "There were so many other ways to go about protecting Jenner. Putting yourself in danger should have been a last result. Second, have you seen Shane lately? That guy is losing it!"
"It was the only thing I could think of doing!"
"Yeah? Well maybe next time think about what it would do to everyone if you died."
"What, cause I'm a paramedic?"
"No, because you're Scarlett."
The redhead froze, taken back by her friend's words. At first, she was a bit confused. Of course it would be difficult on anyone in the group to have one of their own pass away, but what was Glenn getting at? She wasn't anyone special, she never had been. If she bit the dust, the group would still continue on regardless of her presence. She was just another body in the fray, but it was if her friend was suggesting otherwise, as if she were respected and loved by the group just as much as she felt respect and love for them. While she wasn't foreign to feeling those emotions, it was definitely new to receive them in return. She couldn't even think of which actions had supposedly earned respect from the others, because she never thought of it as earning her way into the group. It was simply a matter of staying alive and protecting the people who still had a heartbeat.
Glenn was staring at her nervously, as if he was unsure of the emotions running through her mind.
"Look, just – the next time we're in danger? Try and think of yourself too." He sighed, slowly standing up from his seat and beginning to retreat back to the front of the RV. Almost as a reflex, Scarlett caught his wrist and stopped him from leaving.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, feeling like she owed her friend an explanation. "I'm just new to this."
"New to what? Having people care about you?" Glenn laughed softly, as if it were a joke. "I find that hard to believe."
Scarlett felt extremely vulnerable, as her eyes remained down casted on the floor, her pale fingers still wrapped around his wrist. It wasn't like she felt that Glenn would pity her over something that's so normal for most people, but she still felt vulnerable nonetheless, her pale fingers still locked around his wrist as if she were trying to find a way around her own tangle of thoughts.
"What about family?" He asked as Scarlett glanced up to see his eyebrows knit together in disbelief.
"Just my sister." She answered simply.
"Friends?"
"I only talked with Rick, Lori, and Shane."
"Coworkers?"
"I kept my distance."
Glenn's eyes had widened ever so slightly as the new information dawned on him when she released his wrist. She'd never really discussed her life when things were normal to anyone in the group, despite those who had been in it before shit hit the fan. Only the mention of her sister had been brought up a few times before, but the rest of her remained a mystery to the others.
"We'll, that stuff doesn't matter now," Glenn finally spoke up, causing Scarlett to blink in confusion. "You have all of us, not that you really need a hand with anything, but know that this group looks after each other. I'm sure you've already seen a lot of that."
All she could do was nod.
"Get some rest, okay? One of us will wake you if anything happens." He concluded, giving her a small smile.
With that, Glenn turned and left Scarlett to be alone with her thoughts at the back of the RV. Her rather bright mind was having a difficult time understanding all the things her friend had said to her. Human connection had evaded her for the longest time, with isolation and introversion being her two best friends. She was starting to think that she needed to be open with those around her, no matter how much it made her uncomfortable. If she planned on learning about the rest of the group, she would have to put something on the table as well.
Her goal had been to find her sister, and while that was still high on her list of priorities, Scarlett came to the conclusion that she needed to adjust things a bit, because if what Glenn said was true, she had a much larger family to look after now then before.
Season One is complete!
I honestly can't thank you guys enough for all the support you've given me over these past 13 chapters. I remember when I first posted a chapter on here I was terrified of how it would be received, because I honestly didn't know how good or bad my writing was (still don't know if it's that good or not lol). So thank you for all the kind words and support, I truly don't know how I got so lucky.
I will do my absolute best to have another update soon, cause I'm just as anxious to get onto season 2 as you guys probably are. I'll probably write up the beginning of the next chapter after I post this, which will hopefully kickstart everything and get my lazy ass working.
As always, thank you all so much for your time and I look forward to seeing you in the next update!
Take care,
- GuiltyCalamity