A/N: Thank you for the follows and the favorites and for continuing to read.

Chapter 5

The bright light abruptly turned off making Marianne wonder what the point of it was. Once they had all entered the building lobby and closed the doors they were greeted by a tall man with messy white-blonde hair pointing an automatic at them. Marianne kept a tight grip on her own gun.

"Anybody infected?"

"One of our group was," Rick answered. "He didn't make it."

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man asked in quick succession.

"A chance," Rick said.

"That's asking an awful lot these days."

"I know."

The price of admission was a blood test that they readily agreed to it. The man told them to bring all the stuff they needed inside because the doors were going to stay closed. Marianne helped cover the men that retrieved their bags and they only had to put a knife through a couple of walker heads.

The metal shutters closed with a startling finality. Marianne wasn't sure how safe she felt with them down again. Yes, they were keeping the undead out but what if something went terribly wrong and they needed to leave? She didn't like feeling trapped.

Marianne always had at least one escape route figured out. It was how she had survived as a little girl who couldn't hold up her own in a fight yet. There was nothing wrong with admitting defeat and saving your ass by running away. Live to fight another day. That's what Daryl had told her when she was very young, with her mother recently dead and having just moved into her dad's place.

All fourteen of them crammed into a double-sided elevator.

"Doctor's always go around packing heat like that?" asked Daryl, who was himself holding a crossbow and a rifle.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself," Jenner answered without missing a beat. "But you look harmless enough." He looked at Carl with a faint smile. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." Carl smiled and Jenner gave a short quiet laugh.

Marianne wondered, when was the last time Jenner had seen a kid and had he believed he'd see one again?

They walked down a hallway after Dr. Jenner, following him on blind faith that he'd lead them somewhere they'd want to be. He entered a large, dark room ahead of them.

"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." There was humming and beeping before the lights came on. They appeared to be standing on a walkway that led to the center of the aptly named 'big room' where there were computers grouped on a circular raised platform.

Rick asked where everybody else was and Lori asked about Vi, which turned out to just be a very smart computer program.

"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry." After this not-so-happy revelation Dr. Jenner led them to a room that looked like a small lecture hall, where he'd draw their blood.

She hated needles and looked away before she could watch it slip into her vein. She could feel Jenner studying her face as her blood filled the vial.

"It's not polite to stare. Aren't you goin' to ask what happened?"

"I was thinking about it."

"We had a little misunderstanding with some other survivors."

"I should see the other guy, right?"

"She held her own," Rick said after it was obvious Marianne wasn't going to answer Jenner.

"I believe it."

Andrea was next and was a little slow when standing back up. Jenner found out the group was more than a little hungry.

Their next stop was a small cafeteria, where food and wine were pulled out for them. Marianne nursed her own glass as she watched the people around her cheerily partake in their impromptu feast. She laughed along with the others when Carl tried a sip of wine and pulled a face, finding the adult drink disgusting.

Jenner sat a little bit away from the group at a separate table. Marianne noted that he looked outright depressed and Rick must have too because he stood up and called a toast to thank their host.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?" Shane decided to ruin the good mood. "All the, uh, the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick sat back down.

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move, supposed to find all the answers. Instead we—" Shane chuckled in discontent. "We found him." He pointed his thumb at Jenner. "Found one man. Why?"

"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." Marianne wasn't surprised to hear this, especially after seeing the devastation outside.

"Every last one?" Shane asked.

"No. People…opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man," Glenn told Shane and Marianne wholeheartedly agreed with him.

With their late dinner wrapped up on a low, Jenner led them to an area where they could find their own rooms to sleep in. He explained how housing and most of the rest of the facility was powered down but that the couches were comfortable. When Jenner mentioned hot water T-Dog and Glenn hurried to the showers.

After setting her stuff down in one of the rooms she found Daryl in the one next to her, still holding onto a bottle of wine.

"So what do you think about all this?" Marianne leaned against the door frame.

"I think that I'm goin' to drink some more and enjoy sleepin' without one eye open." He offered the bottle but she shook her head.

"I've had enough."

"You sure? You barely touched the stuff earlier."

"I'm not in a drinkin' mood."

"What's wrong? Is it your head?"

"Nothing's wrong. I'm still processing." Daryl nodded in understanding. "I'm gonna go process some more under some hot water."

It was one of the best showers she had taken in her entire life. The hot water cascaded over her body, relaxing her taut muscles. The steam rose around her and she closed her eyes and relished the heat. Her worries were washing away with all the dirt and gore caked on her skin.

Marianne put on the cleanest clothes she had and wondered around; poking into places Jenner probably wouldn't want her to until she finally returned to hallway where they were staying. Her eyes widened as she walked into the rec room and then her temper flared. When the time came it could hold its own against Daryl's.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Shane skittered away from Lori, where he had her backed against a pinball machine, looking extremely guilty. He left the room in a real hurry, quickly looking at Marianne as he walked past her. She didn't like the look on his face. It was almost as if he was warning her, but he was the one that needed to watch out.

She closed the door behind Shane and walked over to Lori. "Are you okay?"

Lori was shaken and she took quick unsteady breaths. Tears were welling up in her eyes.

"I'm fine."

"You're not."

"Just don't tell Rick." The woman was trying her hardest not to sob. Marianne nodded reluctantly and Lori looked relieved, like it was one less thing for her to worry about.

But Marianne didn't stop with just a nod. "It's none of my business. But I'll make it be if I see this happen again." She wasn't exactly sure what she would do but she'd make sure it was unpleasant for Shane.

Lori left the rec room and Marianne quickly browsed the books before deciding she didn't want to read. Why read when you could sleep walker free?

Having had only a couple of drinks last night Marianne was in good form when she woke up. Her head had recently stopped aching and she had wanted to avoid getting a hangover. She was the earliest one awake and in the kitchen, eager to make the coffee her way before somebody beat her to it.

Jenner was the first person she saw. He showed her where everything was and what there all was for breakfast food and handed her a bottle of aspirin in case anyone needed it. She gave him a smile when he pointed out the bacon.

After Jenner left, the women, children and Dale trickled in. All of the women seemed to be having a happy morning, not having overdone it the night before. Glenn miserably stumbled into the room groaning and Marianne grinned. Daryl really did do a number on him last night, encouraging the younger man to drink more than he had in his entire life.

When T-Dog arrived he appreciatively took the cup of coffee she offered and with it in hand went rummaging through the pantry and fridge, exclaiming victory when he found powdered eggs. Having finished the bacon, she vacated the stove for T-Dog who was excited about making scrambled eggs.

Rick eventually walked into the room and sat in the empty chair between Marianne and Lori.

"Are you hungover?" His son asked with a smirk. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right."

"Mom has that annoying habit," Lori said, amusedly eyeing her husband.

"Eggs. Powdered, but I do 'em good." T-Dog approached the table with a pan. Glenn groaned some more. "I betchya can't tell. Protein helps the hangover," he told Glenn as he spooned some onto the man's plate.

Shane arrived looking like he'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

"Feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked.

"Worse," Shane answered.

Marianne watched Lori. No one else noticed anything was wrong with her even though she wasn't doing the best job hiding it. Marianne glared at Shane as he sat down. Jenner walked in and she moved her focus back to her last piece of bacon.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing—"

"But you will anyway." Jenner interrupted Dale while pouring himself some coffee.

"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea said.

"I did," Marianne said to herself, making T-Dog grin at her. A few others found it amusing but Andrea didn't appreciate her comment.

Dr. Jenner turned around and looked like he was debating something. He nodded. "I'll show you after breakfast."

With the knowledge that they were going to find out what the hell was going on in the world they ate quickly and Jenner didn't have time to finish his coffee before he was leading them to the big room.

He walked up to one of the computers on the circular platform and they all followed him. He typed something and said, "Give me playback of TS-19." Images came up on a very large screen in front of them. Most of them were of inside a person's head.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this."

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked.

"An extraordinary one. Take us in for E.I.V."

"Enhanced Internal View," Vi responded. One of the images was zoomed into so you could see the brain more closely and then it kept zooming until it stopped at what Marianne knew were synapses and neurons from advanced biology in high school. It had been her favorite class.

Shane asked what the flashing lights were.

"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages," Jenner explained. "They determine everything a person says, does or things from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked, walking closer to the screen.

"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil." He paused. "This is Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process."

Jenner asked Vi to scan to the first event and the image on the screen changed. It was still the same head but it was different, the brain was darker. Jenner explained how the infection invaded the brain like meningitis and how the infection progressed, how it killed. The person on the screen looked to be in pain, until all the flashing lights in the brain abruptly stopped and the person no longer moved.

Andrea was rapidly becoming more upset. Lori told Jenner how she lost her sister recently. He commiserated with Andrea and then he had Vi scan to the second event, which was the resurrection of the corpse.

A red glow appeared at the bottom of the brain and spread outward a little.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked apprehensively.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.

Jenner confirmed this and told them how what makes a person themselves stays dead.

Marianne watched the reanimated corpse and suddenly a bullet went through the brain, killing the person for a second time.

Jenner ignored Andrea's question of whether he shot his patient. "Vi, power down the main screen and the work stations."

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked undeterred.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asked, her voice betraying how upset she was.

"There is that," Jenner said. Marianne was getting angry. What had these people been doing all of this time? Why did they know so little?

"But I don't understand. How can you not at least know what it is? Can't you tell its basic structure from your samples? Didn't you run a DNA analysis?" Marianne asked.

Before he could answer Andrea butted in. "Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere."

"There are other facilities, right?" asked Carol.

"There may be some. People like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" There were undercurrents of frustration in Rick's voice.

"Everything went down. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here," Andrea said. "There's nothing left anywhere? That's what you're really saying, right?"

Dr. Jenner didn't say anything and it didn't look like he would.

"Jesus," Jacqui said, closing her eyes and leaning back against a monitor.

"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk, again." Daryl said rubbing his face. He rested his elbows on top of a computer and put his head in his hands.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…" One more? He'd barely answered any of the ones they had asked. "That clock." Dale pointed at the object in question. "It's counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators, they run out of fuel."

"And then?" Rick asked but once again Jenner didn't answer. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." Marianne felt the blood drain from her face. Decontamination in a place like this meant death.

She rushed up to Rick. "We need to pack our things and go."

"Now hold on a second. We should check the generators first. See what we can do."

"What we can do? We can leave. That's what we can do."

But Rick wouldn't listen to her. He, along with T-Dog, Glenn, and Shane headed to the basement to look at the generators.

Next, she went up to Daryl. "We need to pack our things and head out."

"Rick hasn't said anything."

"Oh trust me, he'll be leaving soon. Do you know what decontamination is? It usually means fire. A big explosion that I don't want to be anywhere near, let alone inside of the damn building."

"Did you tell Rick?"

"I tried. Since when does a man like that listen to somebody like me?"

The rest of them went back to their rooms. Marianne told them that if they were smart they'd start packing but of course no one paid her any attention.

She didn't have much to pack, not really having had the chance to settle in. It took her less than a minute to put everything away so she headed towards the cafeteria intent on raiding it, dragging Daryl along with her and making him leave the alcohol behind.

"Grab everything you can," she said, quickly stuffing nonperishable food items until her bag would barely close. Daryl did the same. By the time they were back in the hallway where the rooms were, people were coming out of their own wondering why the air conditioning had stopped despite the fact that Jenner had just told them the generators would run out of fuel soon.

"The power's shutting down. What do you think?" Marianne couldn't believe how deep in denial these people were.

Jenner walked into the hallway and they asked him, meaning once again she was ignored.

"Energy use is being prioritized."

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asked.

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down." Jenner continued to walk and everyone followed.

"Now will you people listen to me? We need to go."

Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Shane came running up from the basement.

"Rick?" Lori called down from the walkway they were on to her husband below them. The group went down the stairs to the main floor.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked heatedly, striding to meet the man.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second." They were all heading to the big room. "That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." He pointed to the digital clock.

Jenner stopped walking and they waited expectantly for him to speak. There was a brief pause. "It was the French."

"What?" Andrea asked.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" asked Jacqui.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice."

Shane started off towards Jenner. "Let me tell you something—"

"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care." Rick slowed Shane down and then turned around. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!"

"Finally," Marianne said. She and Daryl were already carrying their belongings. The rest of them started running to their rooms when a loud alarm went off and red lights started to flash.

"Thirty minutes to decontamination," Vi announced. Marianne watched suspiciously as Jenner ran over to something.

Large metal doors shot up from the floor and blocked the exit.

"He just locked us in!" Glenn yelled.

They had wanted so badly to get into the building but now all they could think about was getting out.

A/N: So, there you have it. I tried to cut down and cut out as much dialogue from the show as I could without losing the story. Sorry for the blah ending. If you're familiar with the show you know what happens at the end of the episode. I felt like Marianne wouldn't contribute enough difference to the scene for it to be worth writing it all out so there's going to be a very short time skip at the beginning of the next chapter, which will definitely be better than this one.