We walked in, Guns pointed. Daryl, Glenn, and I were in the back. I followed the lead of the two men, pointing a gun just in case any more walkers pulled up. Once we were inside the doors, I lowered the weapon and took a look around. The building was literally empty- the reception area looked like it hadn't been touched since the beginning of this thing. All we could do was look around, calling out for whoever opened the doors. We all feel pretty dumb I bet, for thinking Rick was crazy. Thank god he saw that camera move.

I hear a gun cocking and almost in unison, everyone with guns points towards the noise. It's one man holding a big ass gun that I had never even seen before. Well I don't know about any guns- I delivered pizzas for a living.

"Any infected!?" He shouts. He's a blonde older man, tall and stocky and didn't look anything like how you'd expect a doctor to look.

"One of our group was but he didn't make it," Rick explains. Desperation was laced all in his tone.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man says, coming closer now. I tucked myself closer into Glenn and leaned into side. He glanced down at me and placed a kiss onto my forehead.

"A chance." Rick pleaded, lowering his weapon.

"That's asking for a awful lot these days."

"I know."

It gets quiet as the man surveys our group. Finally he says, "You all submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission."

I squealed, getting ready to turn the hell around and walk out of the front doors. I have a terrible fear of needles and I just don't agree to giving my blood to the government for safety. Seems fishy. Before I could physically leave and without any indication that I wanted to, Glenn held onto me tightly and pushed me forward. Once Rick agreed, the group ran to grab their bags and bring them inside. Glenn was practically dragging me further into the building and into an elevator with the rest of our people. My anxiety literally was spiking through the roof at this point.

"Vi, seal the main entrance and kill the power down here." The doctor said into a system in the wall. Okay so there were more doctors than him nice.

There's tension in the elevator as we stand in silence. There were at least ten of us crammed into this elevator that was going straight down. Being underground in an apocalypse…. Never thought I'd see the day.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asks.

"Well there were plenty lying around and I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough. Except you, I'll have to keep my eye on you," he looks down and jokes with Carl.

We learn the doctor's name is Edwin Jenner, and he brings us down a cement hallway filled with rooms and then finally into a large room that reveals about twenty high tech computers when a large overhead light turns on. I was shocked to see an empty room, there weren't any other doctors let alone people here.

"Welcome to zone 5," the doctor announces after telling 'Vi' so turn up the lights.

"Where is everybody?" Rick asks. Glad I'm not the only one thinking about how suspicious this situation was.

"The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it. It's just me here." The doctor's answer definitely shocks us all; we all share a concerned look.

"What about 'vi'?" I ask. Now that my suspicions are confirmed and I know no one else is here.

"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them...welcome." He says, speaking to no one I can see.

"Hello guests, welcome," a robotic voice coming from some sort of intercom. The group stays silent as she speaks.

"I'm sorry. But I'm all that's left. I'm sorry." Nobody says anything. "Alright, let's start with these blood tests."

"No, no, no, no." I whisper to myself. Glenn grabs my hand and squeezes it for some reassurance.

I made sure to be the last to get their blood drawn. Daryl and Shane held me down into a chair while Glenn stood in front of me to block the view of the Doctor who literally insisted on drawing my blood even though he told us he wasn't going to let us back out from this point on. The whole time I saw someone come back from placing their Bandaid on, my heart rate increased.

"You tell me you see people getting eaten alive and you're still afraid of a tiny poke?" The doctor chuckled. I couldn't even see him, but I was ready to throw a punch for his comment.

"Don't you have a tattoo?" Shane asks from my left. He was glancing at my ankle where I had a small heart tattooed.

"She has more than one," Glenn answered, referencing the other tattoos I had on my thigh and spine. Tattoos were for pleasure, though. Large sterilized needles pulling my blood out were not.

Glenn caresses my face with one hand and rubs the top of my head with another. He actually was calming me down, keeping his big brown eyes trained on mine and whispering sweet nothing to me. I feel the prick, shouting at the top of my lungs, my body jerking involuntarily. The grip Shane and Daryl have on me tightens for one second and then they let go, everyone moving away from me.

"Are you done?" I ask, pulling my arm back slowly and observing it. A tiny hole of blood is above the crook of my arm was the only thing left there. I stand up an almost tip right over into Glenn.

"Are you ok?" Edwin jokes, now beginning to pack up my stuff.

"We haven't eaten in what feels like days," Amy announces. The group murmurs their agreements. We were all pretty weak too from getting our blood taken I bet.

After a second he goes, "Well let's eat!"

Jenner gives us a quick tour, showing us individual places where we could sleep with our own families. Glenn and I get this tiny room with a single bed and a desk. We drop our bags onto the desk and I sit down on the bed.

"It wasn't that bad, right?" Glenn asks me with a smile. I could see in his eyes he was happy and it definitely made me happy as well. I liked knowing he was at peace and that I didn't have to worry about any imminent threats right away.

"I don't care how bad it was. I feel sick and my arm hurts." I didn't mean to be such a Debby downer but I couldn't believe that I just forcefully became a part of a government science experiment.

"Baby, stop, look where we are. Where we're going to sleep." He got down on his knees so he was at my eye level. We stared at each other before he leaned in and kissed me. "You're so beautiful."

My cheeks flushed and a smile creeped onto my lips. He was so good at making me forget things and brightening my mood. "And I'm all yours."

"Forever?"

"Forever."

"Promise?"

I leaned back in and rubbed my nose against his. "I promise."

Glenn tackles me and gives me kisses all over my face and neck, tickling me at the same time. I break out in laughter as I squirm beneath him, wanting the kisses but fighting off the tickles. I plead for him to stop through my giggles and he finally does, leaning back onto the bed next to me.

Once I'm calm I get up and dig into my bag, pulling out the small baggie of weed that I had found from earlier. "Do you think we can smoke here?"

"I'd put it off right now," he answered. He came up to me and grabbed the drugs, surveying it. "Is this the bag you argued with me about losing?"

My eyes widened. Oh yeah. Glenn studied my face with his brows raised. Oh god he was trying to guilt me into an apology. "Just because I found it doesn't mean you didn't lose it."

"Oh yeah, sure." He rolled his eyes and slipped the bag into the pocket of his plaid shirt. "Well let's see if I lost it this time."

"I wish we had some weeds. We could get a potted plant and then just carry it around like a little baby. Permanent stash."

Glenn opens his mouth to respond but someone pushes our door open. It's Amy with a wide smile. "He's made spaghetti and garlic bread, there's wine and sweets as well," she announces, "come eat."

Our trio walked down to the dining hall where everyone was gathering around a table. Edwin was making plates and passing them around and Dale was pouring glasses of wine. Because there was no room at the table, we took a space in the back of the room on some empty counters. The doctor hands us two bowls of spaghetti, I hand one to Glenn and we dig in like ravishes. The light mood almost makes me forget about the losses we just took. If only everyone could be here right now.

"Are you guys drinking?" Dale asks.

"Of course!" I nod with a brow raised in disbelief. No way he just asked that to the two youngest adults in the room. We get our own glasses of wine but the doctor gets up and reaches into a fridge, grabbing a beer for Glenn. Glenn takes it and hands me the wine so I combine them to give myself my own large glass.

"You know," Dale starts, "in France and Italy it's tradition for children to have a little wine with their dinner."

Lori rubs Carl's head and says sarcastically, "well when Carl is in France or Italy then he can have some wine with his dinner.

Rick smirks, "awe c'mon what's the harm. He can have a little taste."

Lori lets Carl taste some wine and he scrunches his face up, shuddering at the bitter taste of the red wine. We all erupt in laughter at his cute little reaction.

"Stick to soda pop, bud," Shane jokes. I start feeling the effects of the wine almost immediately. It had been long since I drank and had a full stomach, so the alcohol was probably hitting us all much faster.

"Not you, Glenn," Daryl said between his drunken laughs. He has his own damn bottle of wine that he was sipping on. Glenn turns to him with a smile. "Keep drinking little man, I wanna see how red your face can get."

That makes me laugh so hard that I snort, starting another wave of laughter from the group. I didn't even know I could do that. Has to be the wine. To stop the commotion, Rick taps his glass with a knife, causing all to give him our attention. He announces, "It seems to me we haven't properly thanked our host."

"He's more than our host, he's our savior," T looks back at the doctor with his words, giving him a solemn look of appreciation. We shout and cheer some more for Dr.Jenner who tips his glass at us and takes a swig. He doesn't smile or even make any type of expression at all. We minus the first if not the only people he's seen in forever.

"So when you're gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane asks once everyone has quested down, "all the, the other doctors, they were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?"

"Shane, we're celebrating. Don't need to do this now," Rick tries to stop from ruining the mood but he fails because Shane goes on without even giving him a second glance.

"Woah wait a second, this is why we're here, right? This was your move. Came here to find all the answers but instead we found him. Found one man. Why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families," Edwin explains, "And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?"

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time." the doctor continues." His words left the group silently returning back to quietly eating until Andrea asks, "you didn't leave, why?"

"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good."

Glenn gets up and shuffles his feet. He has a frown on his lips now. He locks eyes with Shane, "dude, you are such a buzzkill, man."

I hated how easily we could lose laughter and hope in times like this. I jump up, hoping to inspire my friends with my own toast. "I know it's been a rough couple of days and we just had devastating things happen to our little group, but I just wanted y'all to remember that we're here and our stomachs are full. And just remember that now that we're here, we're safe, and we're happy and we're together that it is possible for us and how strong we are- for things to get better. This is a family now."

"I'd toast to that!" Dale raises his glass and a chorus of cheers rises among the group as they clink their wine and go back to the joyous mood from before.

After dinner was done, Dr. Jenner was back to showing us around. The group walked behind him in a single file like down a different corridor than he had shown where to stay. "There's a rec room right down here, otherwise this is pretty much just common areas. There's showers that have soaps and shampoos. Just be easy with the hot water, ok?"

T and Glenn stop in their tracks at his words. In disbelief Glenn says, "hot water?"

"That's what the man said!" T shouts excitedly, smiling from ear to ear. I mean we all were excited. Taking baths in sometimes boiled, sometimes just straight cold quarry water has gotten old really fast. Last time I took a hot shower was months ago.

We all raced to our respective rooms, no doubt everyone was ready to get in line and get clean. I picked out some comfortable clothing, and waited for Glenn to get his own. And we get to shower together? This was going to be so amazing.

"I'm so grateful right now," I said aloud, just thinking to myself.

Glenn faced me, his cheeks pulled back into a beaming smile. "As long as you're happy, I'm going to be happy."

I snuck over to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and leaning my head onto his shoulder. "I'm always happy when I'm with you."

"We are so cringey," he laughed out, but still hugged me back. Then, Glenn lifted me up and tossed me over his shoulder. I yelped in surprise but started laughing almost immediately after as my boyfriend sprinted towards the showers with me on his shoulder like I was a damn baby. I got a giggle spell from the wine and started cheering him on. The bathroom was huge with separate mini bathrooms that had stand up showers, toilets, and a sink on a wall crammed into a tight space behind a door. There was steam filling the room as many of the group were taking full advantage of that hot water.

We chose a vacant bathroom and took off our clothes in the tiny space we had. Glenn cheered the minute he felt the water hit his chest and he stood under the shower head, letting himself get drenched. I squeezed between him and the wall, a shudder running down my spine and the hot spray of water washed over my body. The water going down the drain was brown. As clean as we tried to be it could never compare to a shower.

Glenn and I used to take showers almost everyday in our old apartment, sometimes I would even run him bubble baths with bath salts and bath bombs- when we didn't have any money but needed a date night I hate the most casual but romantic date ideas. I closed my eyes, picturing the moments we spent before everything went to shit. Just saying I missed it would be a disservice to how bad I longed for those peaceful moments.

When I opened up, Glenn was studying me through the water, his face soft and eyes loving. I smiled at him before I whispered, "turn around. I'll wash your back."

He moved without hesitation, showing me his toned back and broad shoulders. I planted a couple kisses between his shoulder blades and took some of the liquid soap and massaged it into my boyfriend's back. A moan of approval poured out of his mouth, giving me fuel to continue working my fingers in his tight muscles. All the running, carrying while running, shooting while running- it was all giving him a defined figure.

My hands traveled around his shoulders and to his chest where I slid them down his and back up. He moaned again, this time a bit louder as I reached the bottom of his stomach. Standing on my tip toes, I repeated the action while kissing his ear, earning myself another satisfied groan.

"Aye!" T-dogs voice boomed from another shower. "I can hear y'all freaky asses!"

Glenn and I crack up at his protests. Alright. I can keep my hands to myself.

I knew tonight was going to be the best sleep in the past three months. A real bed, actually clean and warm, full stomach, AND wine? Of course I was going to add weed to the mix. I was going to be in a coma tonight. I didn't care for any protests from Glenn, I took an empty water bottle and got creative, using a knife to poke some holes. I needed some aluminum foil or something.

"I'll be back. I'm gonna go check the kitchen, okay?" Glenn didn't pay no mind really to what I said. I guess he trusted I would be safe which was true. It felt good.

I passed by Sophia, Carl, and Carol as I walked down the hall. She sent a smile my way and kept it pushing without much to say to me. I wonder if I looked as drunk as I felt. I ruffled Carl's hair and walked right on past them to get to that damn kitchen- if I could even remember where it was.

I heard a door slam around a corner from me that made me jump. Of course I followed the noise, tip toeing down the rest of the hall and around that corner where the muffled sound of Shane shouting filled my ears. I couldn't make out every single thing he was saying as the walls here were pretty thick. His voice was worn out, his screams were desperate and he was hitting the door as he spoke to get his point across. There's no way he was in there talking to Lori like that. But who else would be yelling at unless it was himself.

I thought maybe that he heard me with how quiet it got in the room so I pushed up off the door gently and was in the middle of placing a hand on the doorknob when the sound of a little scuffle rang out. Now I really wanted to know what was going on in there. Finally I heard another voice - that was definitely Lori then. Was she saying… get your hands off me?

She shouted, giving me the fuel to swing open the door- the sight was insane to say the least. Shane was literally about to fuck Lori; pinning her down on a pinball machine and shoving himself between her legs. Shane spun, looking at me with eyes wide as saucers, his face turning a beet red.

Lori looked terrified and disheveled, she was frozen in the position of one hand on her crotch and the other Shane's shoulder. The woman could barely catch her breath, her eyes just as wide and just as shocked.

"Don't tell me y'all are doing this now…" I said in a furious whisper. I felt nothing but disgust towards the two. And to be so careless… Carl was just in the hallway with Carol.

Lori stands, shimmying away from Shane and still hyperventilating, "it's not what you think." She sends me a pleading look, looking between me and Shane while he stares at the ground, his head in his hands. My mind easily puts two and two together when I finally notice that Lori was legit shaking.

"We were just talking that's all," Shane states firmly, finally looking up from the floor to give me a killer stare directly in my eyes. His eyes never leave mine until he storms past me and out of the door. As soon as he's gone Lori grabs at her hair and gasps, refusing to make eye contact with me now.

I didn't know what to say, I barely wanted to comfort her. The situation wasn't my business or for me to understand either. I grabbed the knob to close the door behind me and leave but Lori spoke up. "Thank you for showing up when you did."

I gave her one more glance this time with pursed lips. "Rick is a good man," was my response. And I walked away. I could try to understand moving as a married woman and fucking your husbands parter because - I don't know. But now that he is back? Just hiding it when the other man still has feelings…. I don't know - something just didn't seem right about the situation. All I knew was I needed my damn tin foil- especially after that.

"Wake up, baby. Wake up" the soft coo of my partners voice breaks me out of the deep slumber I was in. My eyes flutter and immediately I am met with both a pounding headache and nausea. I groan and turn away from him, shoving my head back into a pillow. Glenn kept calling for me, "T is making eggs, they even have aspirin."

"Glenn, I just want to sleep peacefully." I snuggle back into the bed and immediately start blacking out. Imagine it being one of the first times you ever get a good rest- especially when you smoked some weed and had some wine- and someone tries to wake you up early. It was already hard enough for me to get up on regular days.

"Are you sure you want me to leave you here?"

I didn't give him much of a response. I didn't even want him to be awake, I'd much rather have him lying right behind me and cuddling into my back. Footsteps fade away and the door closes shut behind me, it only takes a few seconds before I doze off again.

I don't know exactly how long I give into sleep for, when I open my eyes back up I still feel like I could fall right back to sleep if I didn't move. The only thing keeping me up was the constant thumping I was feeling in the back of my head. I let out a long, loud groan and grab my temples, rubbing them in circular motion.

I was ass naked so the first thing I had to do was grab some clothes of course. Digging in our bags, I pulled out a shirt of Glenn's and a pair of my shorts, slipping them on slowly. It took one night of proper sleeping to get the kink out of my back that had been bothering me for days, I barely had to stretch or even get some yoga poses out this morning.

Hallways were empty, not a peep coming from any room including the dining room. My anxiety started to creep up on me as I noticed the dining room which had nothing but the evidence of people. Leftover eggs, cups out and a couple dirty plates. I almost thought that maybe the doctor was a fake and was going to be performing some crazy experiments on everybody. No. Daryl, Shane, and Rick would not let that happen.

A bottle of aspirin sits at the end of the table, the label looks nothing like the things you get out of the stores- it was actually kind of intimidating but I still poured two capsules onto my hand and dry swallowed them. There was a pan with leftover eggs on the stove that I made work with, using the sink water and cupping it into my hand to drink from that. After a quick yawn and stretch, I started shuffling out so I could get back to the main room. Those pain meds kicked in faster than anything I'd ever had before. I need to see if he has some shit for anxiety since at least.

After shuffling into the main room I'm relieved to see the group standing around in there, their eyes glued to a big screen playing an image of what I can make out to be a brain. I found my spot buried into Glenn's side as I tuned into the Doctor's speech.

"Those lights- It's a person's life—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." The image on the screen continues to magnify as it displays a series of lights and flashes traveling across nerves across the brain. "Those are synapses. Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Wait, what is this?" I called out, "sorry I was late."

"This is Ts-19. Test subject nineteen. A person who was bitten and volunteered for us to record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event."

At his words, the robot beeped and the playback began scanning forward until it showed us the brain now almost completely dark. There were the same lights flickering on the outside of the brain but the center had become dark like a black tree was planted and growing in that person's head. The doctor was deadpanned as he explained, "It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be…gone."

The person on screen convulses and writhes until they just stop and stay still. The group is quiet, everyone no doubt thinking of the people they have lost. There really was no coming back from this. Then again, once you were decaying and dead, how could you ever possibly come back?

"Scan to the second event."

As a red glow flickers at the base of the brain, the rest remains dark. Random sparks shoot out into the larger area of the brain but no further lights grow. Jenner is quick to explain, "The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute… seven seconds."

I stare intently at the screen as red glow begins to flicker at the base of the brain. The rest of the nerves remain dark and sparks shoot out into the larger area of the brain but no further lights grow. I furrow my brow in confusion, "it restarts the brain?"

"No just the brain stem. Whatever gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?"

The Dr. gestures towards the monitor. "You tell me. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

The subject moves, its mouth opens and closes. The head moves side to side, the shoulders move as if the arms were being lifted. It was reanimating. Then something rips through the brain and I recognize it as a bullet obviously and the subject stops moving bad the brain goes completely dark. He tells the robot to shut everything down and begins to turn like he is going to walk off.

"Do you even know what it is?" Rick questions, taking a step closer to Jenner to stop him from leaving.

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

"Or the wrath of God," Amy suggests and I raise my eyebrows and shake my head. My mother always told me how great God was but how he would come for all the sinners one day. If this was the case, why are all these innocent children dead? And some of the worst people alive?

Andrea crosses her arms and presses the doctor too. "Somebody must know something, somebody, somewhere."

"There are other facilities, right?" I ask next. I need to know if I'll ever be able to go back to my apartment with my boyfriend and watch movies while eating pizza.

"There may be some. People like me."

"How do you not know? Can't all of you Communicate somehow?"

"I've been in the dark for almost a month, the communications, directives- everything- it all went down."

"What about everywhere else? You're telling me that there's nothing, anywhere?" Jenner says nothing, which means I'm right and the whole world has gone to shit. "Oh my god." I stretch out the God as I put my face in my hands. My whole family could be dead for all I know and I'll probably never know. The whole world could be gone, we could be the only survivors here.

"I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk, again," Daryl announces in his gruff accent. He was the only one who could say something as the rest of us stood speechless.

Dale paces around the computers, stopping underneath a large red clock that was… counting down. I had noticed it but thought it was just telling the time in military time. Now I see the numbers going down. Dale asks, "Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…that clock—it's counting down. What happens at zero?"

"Oh, the basement generators shut down," he says so nonchalantly and simply walks away

Rick notices too and he asks Jenner what else and ignores us. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility decontamination will occur." The robot answers. What the fuck does that mean.

Shane, Glenn, T, and Rick run off to find the basement and the rest of us stay in the main room with the doctor. Dale tries to get him to keep talking but he just ignores us, being even more suspicious now. He was truly pissing me off and it takes a lot to get me angry. When Daryl storms off I follow him to the kitchen where he grabs another bottle of wine.

"You drinkin?" He asks without even looking at me.

"Hell yes," I sigh out, slumping down in a chair. He cracks open the bottle and takes a long chug directly into his mouth. He hands it to me and I follow suit. Fuck. This is so fucked.

I notice his face, unreadable like usual, but he is staring off into space at the plain walls behind me. "What's on your mind?"

He's silent at first until he finally looks back at me. "Ain't nothin out there. This is just what it's gon be."

"Yeah." I hand him back the bottle and study him while he takes a couple more shots of it. "I thought about it, but didn't want to believe it. Shit happened so fast."

"I was out huntin with my uncle, my pops. Things just came out of nowhere, ripped right into him. Bit my uncle, too. Went through hell and back with Merle to get out the country. I ain't know what I was expecting."

"Bet you didn't expect to end up with us."

Daryl scoffed, taking another swig and shaking his head. His voice got lower and lower as he spoke. "Damn straight. I had a chance to get out of this shit. My brother saved my life. Only mother fucker I could trust to watch my back. Always."

That made me sad. I definitely cared for Daryl but I didn't know if I could ever convince him that the people here were for him. "You can trust us. Me at least. I do care for you, I'm sure we all do. I hope you can let go of that."

"Of what?"

"Thinking you aren't one of us. We're in this shit together now. I meant what I said. This shit is a family. You're valuable, not just a meat shield. Not just manpower."

I wasn't sure if he was going to respond at all, he had stopped looking at me and was just hanging his head while gripping that bottle. I was scared he was going to cry or something. I stood off the chair and cautiously sauntered over to him, dropping a hand on his back. As I got closer I noticed his shoulder shake just a slight bit. Awe this was hard for me to even see. I hugged him gently and my embrace made him pull back and turn. I didn't miss him rubbing his forearm against his face, wiping tears probably.

Just as I was about to speak, the sound of things powering down stopped me. We both looked up and stared at the ceiling. The air was off… and then the lights turned down. Without another word Daryl and I scrambled towards the hall where we saw the rest of the group standing out of their room with the same distress as us.

Jenner now had his lab coat on as he took long strides back to that main computer room. Daryl was the first to address him, "What's going on? Why is everything turned off?"

Without slowing down, Jenner takes the bottle out of Daryl's hands. "Energy use is being prioritized."

"Air isn't a priority? And the lights?" Dale questioned, now following the Dr in tow. I fell in line behind him as well, the rest of the group coming as well.

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

He was really pissing me off with all the vague shit now. I took it steps so I could be beside him as I shouted, "you needs to tell us what the fuck is going on. Now!"

He kept ignoring us all, even as Daryl started getting closer and shouting in the side of his face. Thankfully the rest of the men show up and Rick gets right in the Dr's face, demanding to know what was going on.

"The building is designed to shut off all nonessential power and keep the computers running to the very last second. That starts at about the half hour mark". As we get near the computer area and see the clock Jenner says, "right on time."

Daryl snatches the bottle back out of the doctor's hand, now content that we got some answers. Glenn makes his way towards me and shakes his head with a grimace. That could mean a million things. I didn't think anything was looking good right now.

The doctor sits down at a desk and begins speaking. "It was the French. 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?"

"Same thing that is happening right now. They ran out of juice. Lost all power. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

Shane goes to yell in Jenner's face and to be honest I was ready to do the same thing. Thankfully we have the level headed Rick, "Everybody get your stuff, we're getting out of here now!" He screams.

Glenn and I start to sprint away with the rest of the groups. I definitely think it was time to get out of here as well and had no protests. Before we really get anywhere,

An extremely loud alarm starts blasting through the speakers. My anxiety spikes immediately and I have to press my hand to my chest to calm myself down before I have a full blown panic attack. Glenn noticed my stature in an instant and grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him.

The screen turns on by itself and the robot voice announces, "Decontamination process to start in thirty minutes."

Before anyone can really get out, a metal door rolls up from the floor, trapping us in the room. The sounds of screams and protests fill my ears combined with the sound of my own heart pounding. Glenn's stature changes, becoming even more panicked as tries to keep me consoles but also shouts, "he just locked us in here!"

Daryl in a drunken rage charges at Jenner, causing all the men to have to grab him and hold him down. The sight doesn't help my demeanor at all, my legs buckling underneath me. The emotions that were swimming through my head were hard to process, my breath hitched before I started full on hyperventilating.

"Majesty!" I opened my eyes to see Rick, Glenn, and Amy standing over me. Did I seriously just faint? "Are you okay?"

"What's going on?" I breathed out, accepting the help from the two boys to get me up. "Are we going to leave?"

"This summabitch won't open the doors!" Daryl shouted, taking another attempt at Jenner's life. He was quickly stopped by Shane and T. "Whole place is gon' explode and he's tryna keep us trapped in here."

Once his words resonate in my head, I get a burst of energy and charge at the doctor. "You do not get to decide that for us! It's our lives." Glenn snatches me up and sits me down. Tears start pouring out my eyes as soon as I'm sitting as another wave of panic starts to settle in my heart.

"She has panic attacks. She has really bad anxiety," Glenn explains to Rick as they stand over me. "She'll keep fainting."

"I can give her some medication. Will calm her right down." The doctor calmly offers Glenn. That pretty much enraged Daryl once more.

"How about you Open those fucking doors!" Daryl screams and Shane is with him this time. They go at the door, using axes against it. All the guys are trying their best, and I was trying to zone them out completely so I could calm myself down. This was seriously some sick shit.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." The men stopped at Jenner's words. Daryl was quick to make another attempt at the man's life, they finally disarmed him so that could stop and Rick went back to pleading.

"There is no hope. There never was. You said it yourself last night. It was only a matter of time before everyone you loved would be dead." We all snap our heads up at the confession. I was in shock that Rick could speak like that, he didn't even seem like the type to be so pessimistic about our futures.

"What you really said that? After your big talk?" Shane yelled at Rick who was sending pleading eyes towards Lori.

Carol was sobbing, "This isn't right. You can't just keep us here. My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate just to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner dismissed the cries of Carol and spun around to continue typing at his computer.

"Stop trying to justify this. We are trying to survive, we didn't come here to get blown up. We came here to try and live. Don't try to play God and decide how we die. If we all die painfully then that's on us, but you can't lock us in here and choose our fate! If I go out there right now and get torn apart then that's my choice!" I'm practically yelling at the top of my lungs, the only person trying to reason with him without threatening or crying. He stares at me with an unreadable expression and doesn't say a thing.

Next thing I know Shane is taking a page out of Daryl's book and is aiming that shotgun of his right in Jenner's face. With all that had been coming at him in the last twenty minutes, it was insane to think how he hadn't even flinched. Rick and Lori plead with Shane to put his gun down, the barrel now pressed right against the doctor's cheek. The craziest part was even if we killed him, we would still be trapped in there.

A monstrous scream erupts from Shane's throat and he shoots the computer screen behind the doctor, causing glass to shatter everywhere. The group takes cover as he continues screaming and lets off round after round into all of the computers, blowing them all to pieces. Eventually Rick grabs Shane, a struggle ensuing over the shotgun until Rick elbows Shane in the face, making him drop to the ground. He pointed the butt of the gun in Shane's face, threatening to knock him out with it. "Are you done now?"

"Yeah I guess we all are," Shane reminds him, his words creating a thick tension that settles in the room. Everyone falls silent, our ragged breathing filling the space. We were all feeling a little anxious now.

"I think you're lying," Rick starts, "I think you're lying when you say there's no hope. If that was the case you wouldn't be here, you would've Bolted with the rest of them. You chose the hard path. Why?"

"It doesn't matter," Jenner answers.

"It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" Rick leans forward and forces Jenner to look him in the eye. I watch their interaction intently. If anything I had faith in Rick to talk us out of this situation if he could've.

"Not because I wanted to," he stands up, finally showing a slither of emotion which he had been lacking for the past twenty minutes. He pointed at the screen. "I made a promise to her...my wife."

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asks in a strained tone. The idea clicks in my head and my heart aches for this man. Imagine being sentenced to find a cure for people, testing on your wife, having to put her down, and honoring her dying wish to find a cure- all alone. Just to get nothing.

"She begged me as long as I could to keep it going- how could I say no?" He lifts his arm and drops them at his side. His voice is drowned out by the sound of Daryl slamming the ax on the metal door. The banging made my headache but I tried to keep a focus on Jenner as he spoke, "she ran this place, I just worked here. She was a loss to the world. She was an Einstein in our field. She could've done something about this."

"All we want is a chance. Your wife had no choice, but you- you do. Let us keep trying, please." Rick was practically begging now.

After a moment of silence the doctor sighed, the lot of us giving him a hopeful eye as he walked across the tables. "I told you top sides locked, I can't open those."

The doors opens open, I glance at the clock and notice the 6 minute mark has just struck before Glenn grabs my arm and begins dragging me out of the room. I turn back to Jenner who had just finished whispering to Rick. I felt bad he would die alone here. "You're gonna find her!" I shouted, giving him a weak smile.

Glenn gathers the rest of our things in a hurry, I help but spend a couple seconds grabbing books and non perishables from the kitchen. Back on the road we go, we would need something. The stairs felt like they took forever to get up? I was sweating bullets by the time we got to the main lobby where we quickly discovered the doors were locked and the windows were indestructible.

The men tried axes, chairs, bullets- nothing. All of it was for nothing. I noticed Amy sobbing now, Andrea trying her best to keep her consoled but it wasn't working. "The glass won't break?" Sophia's little voice questioned- that was what broke me. There really was no hope.

I fall to the floor and allow myself to cry peacefully this time. To have something ripped away from us like that, the choice to live or not was cruel in its own way. Everyone looked defeated at this point and there was truthfully nothing we could do now.

"Rick, I have something that might help," I look up at Carol's voice and see her reaching into her backpack, pulling out a grenade. "At the camp when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket.

"Everybody, get back!" Rick shouts, practically shaking as he drops the grenade at the base of the window pane. Glenn covers my body with his own right as my ears pop from both the explosion and the eruption of glass that flies through the air. It was like we continued to have this God on our side. I didn't even have to think about it, I was up and running, following behind the men as they provided a cover fire for the walkers that were being attracted. Glenn and I piled into the RV with Andrea, Amy, and Dale. The three of us huddled together as I tried to calm my breathing.

The CDC explodes in an enormous eruption of flames and booms, the building collapsing under its own feet and leaving behind nothing but rubble and a large cloud of smoke. The moment was just bittersweet and felt unbelievable. The caravan we were driving in erupted to life as all five cars turned over and drove in the opposite direction.

--

I was gonna do no authors notes. But. This episode was hard to watch knowing the fate of all the characters and the way Jenner was talking. I felt so bad esp w Sophia. Crazy to think it was two days later.