I woke up the next morning with my head on a pillow. I started to look around the room and then I looked over at Daryl who was passed out on his cot. That was when everything came back to me with what happened yesterday and I froze, I told him everything, he saw everything last night.
' He was drinking last night, so maybe he won't remember anything.' I thought as I got up out of bed and was about to leave the room but stopped and looked over at Daryl and smiled a little bit, I walked back over to him and grabbed my cover and placed it on top of him and after I was done with that I looked over at him and I wanted to get a better look at his face but it was a little hard to see his face with his hair in the way. I softly moved his hair away from his face, he looked so peaceful as he slept. I just stared at him for the longest time but then I stopped myself and shook my head and that was when I left the room to find the others.
As I walked towards the kitchen that was when I heard voices coming from the kitchen, I made my way towards the dining area, I opened the door and everyone looked towards me. Everybody smiled when they saw me and both Sophia and Carl ran up to me and gave me a hug, " Morning Sam!" Both Carl and Sophia said as they held me.
I smiled at them and I hugged them back, " Morning guys." I said as I realised them and then I looked at both of them, both Carl and Sophia smiled at me and then they both went back to their mother's. I looked over at Glenn and I noticed that his head was on the counter which told me that he had a hangover from all the drinking that he did, I felt so bad for him. Then after a while Daryl walks in then and not long after that Rick comes in as I started to drink some water.
" Are you hung over? Mom said you'd be." Carl asks his dad which makes me almost choke on my water.
" Sam are you alright?" Rick asked me as he looked over towards me and I gave him the thumbs up to let him know that I was ok while I was coughing.
" Mom was right." Rick said as he sat right next to me and that was when Lori came in hearing what Rick said.
" Well, mom has that annoying habit." Lori admitted quietly as she sat down right next to the others.
That was when T-Dog came over with a large pan that had some eggs in it, " I've got some eggs for y'all. They're powered but I do them good." He said as he placed some egg on a few plates and pushed them towards us and I took one of the plates and I started to eat the eggs. As I was finishing my eggs Shane walked in and after a while I looked up to see that Shane was looking right at me, which was making me uncomfortable and in that moment Shane winked at me and that made me look away from him.
" Ugh…" Glenn groans in pain thanks to the hangover and T-Dog goes over to Glenn with his plate of eggs.
" Bet you can't tell but protein helps the hangover." T-Dog said as he gave Glenn the plate and Glenn groaned again in pain as he started to eat his eggs.
" Where'd all this come from?" Risk asked as he picked up a bottle of pills.
" Jenner. He thought we could use it, well some of us at least." Lori said as she looked at him from her plate of eggs and took the bottle from Rick and opened it for him.
" Don't ever ever let me drink again." Glenn says as he looks over at us and I placed my hand on his back and started to rub his back in a caring way and I felt eyes on me again and it wasn't just one pair it was two. I looked over to see not only Shane's eyes were on me but Daryl's as well but he was looking over between me and Shane and he had a glare in his eyes when he looked at Shane and I was wondering why.
" The hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-Dog asks Shane as I look up and see what happened to his neck. Shane had long scratches marks all down his neck and I was wondering what happened to him since it looked fresh and I noticed the way that Lorri wasn't even looking at him.
' Did something happen between them?' I thought as I looked between them.
" Must've done it in my sleep." Shane said as he took a bit of his food while looking over at T-Dog.
" Never seen ya do that before." Rick says as he looks at Shane with concern in his eyes.
" Me neither. Not like me at all." Shane says as he looks from Rick to Lorri and confirms what I thought. Then everyone went silent once Jenner came in and took a seat at the table.
" Jenner, I don't mean to attack you with question first thing but-" Shane said as he looked over at him.
" But you will anyway." Jenner said with a sigh.
" We didn't come here for eggs." Shane said bluntly as he looked back at Jenner. I looked over at him wondering what he was going to do, which he just stared at us without saying a word.
" Follow me." Was all Jenner said as he got up from the table and we all exchanged glances and we got up and followed him down the hallways. He pushed open the double doors and we came into the same room when we first came here and he pulled out a card and walked over to the center of the room to where all the computers were, " VI, bring up the main screen. Test Subject 19 please. I'm about to show you what's been going on." Jenner said as he turned to us.
I walked over to get a closer look at the screen as it lit up and that was when I saw a body that was focused on the head. Carl was standing right next to me as he was looking at the screen, " Is that a brain?" He asked as he looked over at Jenner.
" An extraordinary one too." Jenner said as he nodded his head to Carl. I just stared up at the screen when I felt someone's breath going down my neck and I turned my head slightly to see that it was Daryl and I stepped closer to Carl so that Daryl could stand right next to me if he wanted to. Jenner started to type again on the keypad.
" VI take us in for an EIV." Jenner ordered once he was done.
The screen zoomed in on the brain to get a closer look. The brain looked so alive and active with blue swirls moving throughout the brain, " What are those?" I asked as I turned to look at Jenner.
" It's the person's life. Experiences, memories, everything. And somewhere in all that organic wiring is you. The thing that makes you unique and human." Jenner said as he noticed how confused we were.
" They're electric impulses. They determine everything a person says, does, or think's from the moment of birth….. To the moment of death." Jenner said which made more sense with his explanation. Jenner pressed another button that showed the brain going dark. I gasped a little and Jenner looked towards me.
" The body dies and the brain goes dark. Everything you were or will be is gone." Jenner said as he looked at everyone. I wrapped my arms around me after hearing what would after we die sent shivers down my spin.
" Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked looking up at her mother.
And both me and Carol nodded our heads to answer her question. Jenner then fast forwarded the video and that was when I noticed small red lights coming from the brainstem, " The human part, the part that makes you, you don't come back." Jenner said as he looked back at the screen.
" There's nothing left at all?" I asked as I slowly looked back at Jenner.
" It's all gone." Jenner said as I looked back at the screen to see the person on the video get shot in the head and the video ended and the screen went black. Jenner turns off the computer after typing something in, and then shuts it down.
" Jesus." Jacqui whispers after hearing what was going to happen to all of us as she leaned on the counters of the computers.
" Man, I'm going to get shit-faced drunk. Again." Daryl said as he walked away towards our room. I looked over at the clock that was on a wall for me to notice that it was counting backwards and I looked over back at Jenner.
" Hey, I don't mean to interrupt anything that you're doing right now but this clock that is counting down. What will happen when it reaches zero?" I asked as I was pointing at the clock waiting for an answer from him.
" I was wondering that as well." Dale said as he agreed with me and looked over at Jenner like everyone else.
" It's the basement generators. At zero they will run out of fuel." Jenner said as swallowed loudly.
" What happens then?" Rick asked him as he looked at Jenner. I looked behind and noticed that Carl wasn't beside me anymore and he was with Lorri and she was holding him very close to her.
" VI, what happens when the generators run out?" Rick asked as he walked away from Jenner back to us.
" When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination process begins." VI answered Rick.
Everything was silent around us about what we just heard and I even knew what that meant and I looked over at Rick and he had the same look on his face as mine and he looks over at the others, " Shane, Glenn, T-Dog, come with me to see if we can find those generators. Maybe we can fix it!" Rick yells as they took off to go find them.
As everyone was heading back to their rooms I was the last one to stay around and I started to head towards my room. As I opened the door Daryl had another alcohol bottle and he was sitting on the bed. I walked over to the other bed and I laid down and closed my eyes for just a little bit til the power cut off which made me sit up to realize that it was dark and Daryl opens the door to bring in light into the room and that was everyone along with Jenner was walking down the hallway and I got up and followed them.
" What's going on!? Why is everything turning off?!" I yelled as I followed the others.
" Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner said as I was able to get to close to him, but all he was doing was avoiding my question.
" Air isn't a priority and lights?" Dale questions Jenner and I nodded my head in agreement with what he asked.
" It's not up to me, zone 5 is shutting itself down." Jenner said as he walked down faster down the hallway.
" Hey! Hey what the hell does tha mean?" Daryl asked as more power shuts off and Jenner just ignores him.
" Hey man, I'm talking to you! What do you mean that it's shutting down? How can a building do anything?" Daryl yelled as he got closer to Jenner.
" You'd be surprised." Jenner mumbled as he was starting to the ground.
I looked over at Rick and the others, " You guys went down to where the generators were, what's going on right now." I asked Rick as I looked at him.
" The generators are running on fumes. There's nothing that we can't do." Rick said as he shook his head to me.
" You just don't get it. It was the French." Jenner said as he was looking at the ground then looked back at us with his card in his hands.
" What do you mean?" I asked as I was wondering what was going on.
" They were the last ones to hold out, while all our people were abandoning the building and committing suicide in the halls, they stayed in the labs until the end." Jenner said as he turned to the computer.
" What happened then?" I asked as I looked back at the others and then back at him.
" They ran out of power, same thing that's happening here." Jenner said as the alarm started to blar.
" What the hell." I whispered to myself as I looked around til my eyes landed on the clock that was counting down and my eyes widened.
" 30 minutes until decontamination." VI says which starts to make everyone freak out.
I started to back away from Jenner and back to Rick and grabbed his arm tightly, " We need to get out of here right now." I whispered to Rick and he looked at me and nodded his head to agree with me.
" Everybody get your things! We're getting out of here now!" Rick yelled to everyone.
" Y'all heard Rick, get your stuff and let's go!" Shane yelled as everyone started to move towards the door, but before we could even get to the door it closed and locked itself along with us on the wrong side.
" Did he just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn yelled as he looked between the door and at Jenner.
I rammed my arm into the door and started to look around trying to find another way out, but there wasn't a way out. I turned towards Jenner, " Why did you lock us in here!" I yelled at Jenner with tears starting to build up in my eyes.
" I'll kill him!" Daryl yelled as he sprinted towards Jenner. As he got a hold of Jenner I knew that I had to stop him, I ran over to him and got right between them, Rick pulled Jenner away from us while I had Daryl at bay.
Daryl was still breathing heavily and was glaring at Jenner, so I placed both of my hands on the sides of his face and made him look at me, " Daryl, Daryl look at me. Calm down, if you kill him now then we will never get out of here, alive. He's our only chance." I whispered to him which calmed him down a little bit but he shoved me off him and he walked away.
" Open the door!" Rick yelled at Jenner.
" I can't, everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." Jenner said as he looked at us so calmly.
" Well, open the damn things!" Dale yells.
" That's not something I control, the computer's do. I told you, once those doors close, they're not opening again! You heard me say that." Jenner said as we all went silent as we looked at him.
" What is...What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Rick asked Jenner who ignores him as he turns back to the computer and starts to type something.
I walked back over to Jenner, " What happens in 28 minutes, Jenner?" I asked him and then he turned towards me sharply.
" You know what this place is?! 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!" Jenner yells at me and I backed away a little bit away from him.
" In the event of a catastrophic event, in a terrorist attack for example, H.I.T.'s are deployed to keep any organism from getting out." Jenner said as he calmed down as he sat back down in his chair.
" H.I.T.'s?" Rick asked as he came over to me and looked at Jenner.
" VI, define." Jenner says to VI.
" HIT's, High Impulse Thermobaric Fuel-Air Explosives. 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 5000 and 6000 degrees when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." VI said as I looked down to the ground with tears going to my face at what I just heard.
" It sets the air on fire. No pain, it's an end of sorrow, grief, regret….Everything." Jenner said as I looked up and looked at everyone. I saw Carol holding Sophia close to her and was crying and I noticed that Carl and Lori were doing the same thing. I looked over at Daryl and noticed that he was staring at the door and then threw the bottle of alcohol at the door.
" Open the damn door!" Daryl yells at Jenner while pointing at the door.
" Out of my way!" Shane yells as he runs over to the door with an ax and h behind to hit it.
" Daryl!" T-Dog yelled and gave him an ax and both him and Shane was hitting at the door.
" You locked us in here against our will! That is the same thing as murder!" I yelled at Jenner as I started to get made.
" I'm doing you guys a favor. By sparing you the suffering and the hurt from this world." Jenner says trying to calm us down, but all that did for me was piss me off.
" You think that trapping us here was going to help, even though we are about to die in here instead!" I yelled at him.
" You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier." Jenner said as he looked at me.
" Easier for who?" Lori asked, snapping back at him.
" All of you! You know what's out there, a short brutal life and agonizing death. You sister, what was her name?" Jenner asked as he looked over at Andrea.
" Amy." Andrea whispered as she looked at him.
" Amy, you know what this does, you've seen it." Jenner says to Andrea who was listening closely to him.
" Is that really what you want for your wife, son and daughter?" Jenner asked Rick as he turned to him and looked at him.
I looked over at Rick after I heard what Jenner said to Rick, " What does he mean Rick. what did you say?" I asked him with a shocked look on my face.
" I didn't want this!" Rick yells at him as he looks at him.
" Can't make a dent." Shane says he turned to Rick panting really hard after him hit that door for a while.
" Stop that! Those doors are made to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner said.
" Well your head ain't!" Daryl snapped as he took another charger to Jenner but before I could stop him both Rick and Glenn stopped him. T-Dog took the ax away from him and threw it to the ground.
" Just back up! Back up." Rick said as he pushed Daryl away from Jenner.
" How could you do this?" Lori asks Jenner in fear.
" Wouldn't this be easier? More compassionate to just hold your loved ones close and wait for the clock to run down? You'd all be with your families again." Jenner said as he looked at each one of us.
I sided down a wall and looked down to the floor and I closed my eyes as more tears came down my face. I could hear my heart pounding in my eyes and I looked up at Jenner, " How? How will this be faster?" I asked him as I looked at him with my glossy eyes.
Jenner came over to me and kneeled down in front of me, " Merely a millisecond. There isn't even enough time to feel pain. It'll be quick and you'll be reunited with any family that you have lost." Jenner said as he grabbed a hold of my hands and gave me the most gentle smile.
' W….Will everything be over fine I just ended it? Will I be able to see what family I had waiting for me?' I thought as I was staring off in the distance til I felt Jenner's hands ripped away from me and I looked over to see Daryl yelling at Jenner. As I was looking at Daryl the thoughts that I had about dying left and I shook my head and I got up and I ran over to Daryl and grabbed his shoulders tightly.
" Daryl, please stop, I'm not going to do anything stuipd, I promise you." I said as I looked at him. He looked at me for a while til he looked back at Jenner and then let's go of Jenner and walked away.
The next thing I knew I heard a gun cock and I looked over and I saw Shane pointing his shotgun at Jenner's head and Rick goes over to Shane, " Enough! Brother, this is not the way to do things! If he dies, there's no point and we all die just like Sam said before! Put the gun down!" Rick yells at Shane as Shane looks back at him.
I noticed Shane's finger was still enclosed around the trigger, preparing to fire the gun but then he started to scream in frustration and turned towards the computers that I was standing right by and he started to shoot them down one by one. Sparks were filling in the air and everyone ducks down and that was when I felt Daryl's arms going around me and pulled me to the ground while Rick slammed Shane to the ground, ripping the gun from his hands.
I looked at Daryl as he got up to his feet and then offered his hand to me and I took it and he helped me up off the ground, " Th…..Thank you." I said to him, still shaken with what just happened.
Daryl nodded his head to me and looked over at Rick and Shane as Rick got up from the ground while looking at Shane, " I said enough! Are you done now?! Are you done?!" Rick yells at Shane.
" Yeah man, I guess we all are." Shane said as he did a sickly chuckle.
I felt Daryl's eyes on me again and I looked back at him, " Don't worry. I'm not." I said to him and he nodded his head again to me and I looked back at Rick as he went over to Jenner.
" I think you're lying." Rick said to Jenner as there was a shock look on his face.
" What?" Jenner asked confused at what Rick had just said.
" You're lying. About no hope. If that were true, you would've bolted with the rest. Or taken the easy way out. But you didn't, you chose the hard path. Why?" Rick asks Jenner as he looks him right in the eyes.
" It doesn't matter." Jenner says grimly as he shakes his head.
" Yes it does. It always matters, you stayed when everyone else ran off. Why?" I said as I looked at Jenner.
" Not because I wanted to, I made a promise. I made a promise to Test Subject 19." Jenner said as he looked down to the ground.
It took me away for me to think about what he just said til it hit me, " Subject 19 was your wife am I right?" I asked and everyone just looked at him in shock.
" Yea, her. I made a promise to my wife that I would stay in these labs as long as it took to figure out this happened. She volunteered to have us videotape her death and resurrection to see what we could find but there was nothing. She could have figured it out though. She was the smartest scientist in our field of work, hell she could have been one of the smartest scientists in the world. But me? I'm just Edwin Jenner, I can't figure any of this out and now it's too late. I promised I would stay down here until the very end and that is what I'll do." Jenner said and Daryl rolls his eyes and he goes back to the metal door and continues to hit the door with the ax.
" I'm sorry, But there has to be something out there for us. We just have to find it, come with us." Rick says to Jenner.
" I'm staying here, I have too." Jenner said as he looked at him.
Lori looked over at Jenner again while she was holding Carl, " I know what you're going through Jenner. I lost my loved ones too but we can't just give up. I understand that you have to stay but we don't. Please let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori begged Jenner.
" My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this! Let us go!" Carol pleaded to Jenner as she held Sophia.
" Jenner please let us go, We all have a right to live like you have a right to die. You know that deep down in your heart that you want us to leave this place and stay alive, am I right?" I asked him as I looked at him with pleading eyes.
I noticed that Jenner was chewing on his bottom lip slowly but then he stood up and crossed over to a keypad, " I told you everything topside is locked down. I can't those doors open." Jenner informed us. Jenner then began typing something into the keypad and then he swiped his card and that was when the steel doors opened.
" Now go." Jenner said as he looked at us.
" We're grateful." Rick says to Jenner.
" The day will come when you won't be." Jenner said as he took a seat in his chair again.
" Thank you." I said to Jenner as he looked over to me and nodded his head to me.
" Come on! Let's go!" Daryl yelled as he grabbed my hand and we followed the others out, both me and the others headed towards to get our stuff and head towards the elevator. Once the elevator stopped we got out and went towards where the front door was still locked and Daryl and Shane started to hit the windows with their axes and T-Dog even tried to break it with a chair but to no avail.
" We need to get out of here right now!" I yelled as I was starting to freak out about not getting out in time.
" Rick, I have something that may help." Carol says as she pulls out her purse and starts to look through it for something.
" I don't think a nail filer is going to help Carol." Shane says in a snarky tone.
" Ok Shane! Right now is not the time for your smartass comments, got it!" I said as I turned to glare at him as he glared at me back.
That was when I turned to see Carol pull out a grenade and shakily held it out to Rick. Rick takes it and goes over to the window and pulls the grenade pin and that was when he turned to look at us and ran to take cover. I hid behind a table and I felt someone put their arm's around me and ducked me lower down to the ground and that was when the grenade exploded, the window shattered. I felt someone pick me up to my feet and it was Daryl again and we all rushed out of CDC to the cars. Daryl had my hand as we passed a few walkers while Rick was shooting them and we got to his truck and he opened the door and I jumped in and he jumped in after me, " Get down." Daryl said as he pushed me down into the seat before covering me with his body. It was only seconds later that the CDC exploded with everything around it.
All got up to see the flames all around the CDC, and I looked over at Daryl as he was looking towards the area, ' I just noticed that he has gotten very close to me even though he doesn't show it. But why does he act like this towards me but everyone else he's mean too? Pulse not only that I noticed that he was being protective of me. Why? Why would he only show me that side? Was it because of what he saw?' I thought as I looked at him for a moment but then I looked back at the CDC and all of us just watched it burn.
End of chapter 10
Sorry for taking forever on this chapter. I had a writer's block and I was stuck and I hated it so much. But here it is please let me know what you think of this chapter and I'm working on the other chapter right now. So once that is done, I will post it. Thanks again and I hope you like this story.