Fear the Dead, Fight the Living
"Phoebe, is it wrong of me to not feel sad about daddy's death?" My little sister asked as I sat with her and Carl while we colored, I told Lori and my mom I would keep them distracted while they handled the bodies.
"No sweetie, it's ok to feel however you want to about it."
"Is mom sad?" She asked and I looked over at my mom
"I'm sure she is in some way." I tell her with a small smile
"Are you?"
"Can you keep a secret?" I asked her and she nodded her head, "I'm not" I said to her and she nodded her head, "So..what did you draw?" I asked her and she showed me her picture, "Is that an monkey?"
She giggled, "No, it's a dog."
"Looks like a monkey, maybe a monkey dog" I tell her and made the face of a dog but did a monkey noise and both her and Carl laughed
"What did you draw?" Carl asked me and I showed him
"I drew the three of us laying on grass looking at the sky" I said and they both smiled, then I looked over at Daryl, "I'll be right back" I tell them and walked over to him, "Hey" I said and he looked at me, "Thanks, for last night."
"It was nothin'," He tells me and swung his pick axe into the skull of a dead body
"You saved me, just take the compliment" I tell him and he looked at me
"You're welcome" He says and I lightly pushed him, we looked at each other for a moment and he looked like he was gonna say something else but Jaqui cut him off talking to the others
"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim."
All the guys gather around Jim, "I'm okay. I'm okay."
"Show it to us. Show it to us." Daryl demanded and Jim grabs a shovel, what's with this dude and shovels?
"Easy, Jim." Shane says trying to calm him down, "Jim, put it down. Put it down."
T-Dog catches Jim back and holds him, "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim says over and over, Daryl lifts Jim's shirt, revealing a deep wound and they all move away from him, "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay."
"I say we put a pick axe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl tells us as we gathered around to talk about Jim
"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane asked him
"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."
"I hate to say it… I never thought I would… but maybe Daryl's right." Dale pointed out
"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick starts to tell him
"I'm not suggesting…"
"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick asked cutting him off
"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl says
"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure." Rick mentioned
"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." I point out
"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick asked
"Man, that is a stretch right there." Shane tells him
"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection…"
"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane brought up
"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Lori says to him
"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."
"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Rick said
"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl yelled rushing over to Jim raising his pick axe but Rick followed and pointed his gun at Daryl
"We don't kill the living."
Daryl turned and faced him, "That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."
"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down." Shane says to Daryl and he puts the pick axe down and walks away.
Daryl continues to swing the pick axe into the skulls of the dead people in our camp as me and my mom walked over when he gets to my dad and my mom stops him, "I'll do it. He's my husband." She tells him and he looked at me, I nodded and he handed her the pick axe. She swings the pick axe down on my dads skull repeatedly and all of her anger against him is let loose. After she's done she stands there sobbing and I slowly walked over to her and reached for the pick axe while putting my other hand on her shoulder, I took it away and handed it back to Daryl pulling her into a hug
"It's okay mom, it's ok" I reassured her then looked at Daryl, I meant what I said to Sophia, I wasn't sad about his death, I was happy because now we didn't have to fear him anymore.
I sat in the passenger seat of Daryl's truck as he drove up the hill with the people we were burying in the back of it, "How are you doing?" He asked and I looked at him
"I don't miss him if that's what mean, I'm glad he's gone. I feel sad though that my little sister isn't quite sure how to feel. I mean, he...did things to me and hurt my mom and did the same things he did to me that he did to Sophia and all I've ever wanted to do was put a bullet in his head. I guess I feel, I don't know, relieved"
"Your lip, did he do that?" He asked and I touched my lip
"Yeah, down at the water when I was trying to protect my mom, I drew my gun on him after he hit her but he moved my hands away and slapped me."
"He's lucky I wasn't there" He mumbled and I looked at him again
"Why?"
"Cause Shane stopped, I wouldn't have" He says and backed up to the graves and got out, I shook myself from the shock of what he said and followed. There's no way that it meant what I thought it meant, "I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" Daryl asked Shane and Rick as the rest of the group walk over
"At first." Shane tells him
"The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are."
"There are no rules." Rick pointed out
"Well, that's a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Lori says and they proceed with burying the bodies then I see Andrea and Dale carry Amy's body, Andrea gets in the whole and tries to pull Amy in but struggles and I see Dale try to help her as she cries
"I can do it. I can do it. I can do it! I can do it." SHe tells him over and over but Dale helps her anyways then helped her out of the hole. We then stand there in silence, I put my hand on my sister's shoulders, I don't know what I would do if I lost her, or my mom.
"I've been, uh… I've been thinking about Rick's plan." Shane tells us as him and Rick walk over, "Now look, there are no…there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning." He finished and I looked at my mom, she nodded and I gave her a small smile
"Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Shane told us
"We're, uh… We're… we're not going." Morales says to him
"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." Miranda added
"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back."
"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family." Morales pointed out
"You sure?" Rick asked him
"We talked about it. We're sure."
"All right. Shane." Rick says to him and they bend down to the gun bag. Rick hands Morales a gun and Shane hands him ammo.
"The box is half full." Shane tells them
"Thank you all… For everything." Miranda tells us and Lori hugs her Lori, Eliza gives her doll to Sophia, who is crying
"Bye." Eliza tells her and I bent down to see if Sophia was okay, she sadly nodded her head and I gave her a hug
"Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?" Rick asked him handing him a radio
We all head to the vehicles and I look at my mom, "I'm gonna ride with Daryl," I tell her and she looked at me, "He doesn't have a CB, I do. Plus it'll be cramped in your Cherokee."
"Okay" She says and headed to her car, I walked over to Daryl's
"What are you doing?" He asked me and I held up my radio
"Made more sense" I said and he nodded then I got in the passenger seat and we all drove off.
"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale tells Rick after we stop on the road
"Can you jury-rig it?"
"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape." Dale pointed out
"I see something up ahead. A gas station if we're lucky." Shane tells us and Jacqui gets out of the RV.
"Y'all, Jim… It's bad. I don't think he can take anymore." She says and goes back to Jim
"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Shane tells him and Rick nodded heading to the RV
"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up." T-Dog tells Shane
"Y'all keep your eyes open now. We'll be right back."
I stood with my back leaning against Daryl's truck when he walked over to me, "What are ya doin'?"
"I'm trying to remember the last time I saw a movie" I tell him and he looked at me, "I know it's a weird thing to think about right now but I honestly can't remember the last time I saw one. I know it was when I just got out of the police academy but not sure when, or what movie it even was." I said and he continued to look at me, "What?" I asked with smile
"Nothin', you're right, weird thing to think about right now."
"Yeah but I'm a weird person." I said
"I've noticed" I lightly pushed him and he gave a small smile. That's one of the many things that made me like Daryl, he's such a hard ass to everyone else but never me, and what sucked even more is that my crush on him was getting stronger everyday
"It's what he says he wants." Rick tells us concerning Jim
"And he's lucid?" I asked him
"He seems to be. I would say yes."
"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer." Dale pointed out
"We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that." Shane mentioned
"It's not your call, either one of you." Lori says
Rick and Shane carry Jim to a nearby tree, "Hey, another damn tree." Jim chuckles.
"Hey, Jim… I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this." Shane tells him
"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice." Shane says and stands up then Jaqui knelt in front of him
"Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight." Jacqui kisses him on the cheek. Rick takes a gun and shows him.
"Jim, do you want this?"
"No. You'll need it. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim tells him, we all say our goodbyes and left, leaving Jim there.
"All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go." Shane tells us as we get out of the vehicles at the CDC and see dead bodies everywhere
"We're almost there, baby. Almost there." Lori says to Carl as I walked next to my mom and Sophia then we reach the doors
"Nothing?" Shane pounds on door.
"There's nobody here." T-Dog pointed out
"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asked
"Walkers!" Daryl says shooting one that was getting close to us, "You led us into a graveyard!" He shouted at Rick
"He made a call." Shane tells him
"It was the wrong damn call!"
"Just shut up. You hear?" Shane says and shoved him, "Shut up. Shut up! Rick, this is a dead end."
"Where are we gonna go?" Jaqui asked
"Do you hear me? No blame." Shane tells Rick
"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lori mentioned
"Fort Benning, Rick… Still an option." Shane suggested
"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles." Andrea says
"125. I checked the map." Glenn corrected
"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now." Lori told Rick
"We'll think of something."
"Come on, let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's go. Please." Shane tells us and started to move us back to head to the cars
"The camera… it moved." Rick says and we look back at him
"You imagined it." Shane told him
"It moved. It moved."
"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on. Man, just listen to me. Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick." Shane says and Rick slams on the shutters.
"Rick, there's nobody here!" Lori says moving in front of him
"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me." Shane tries to drag him away, with the help of Lori.
"Everybody get back to the cars now!" Shane ordered us and I kept my mom and Sophia close to me
"Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left." Rick begs to the camera, "We have nowhere else to go." Rick pounds on the door, "If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!"
"Come on, buddy, let's go. Let's go." Shane says trying to pull him away
"Please help us. You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!" We are just about to leave when the door to the CDC opens, drowning us in light
"Daryl, Phoebe you cover the back." Shane tells us and we cover everyone as they go inside
"Hello? Hello?" Rick called and we hear a gun cock, we all turn around and I raise mine up along with Daryl
"Anybody infected?" The man at the top of the stairs asked
"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick told him
"Why are you here? What do you want?"
"A chance." Rick says
"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man says to him
"I know."
"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." He told us lower his gun
"We can do that." Rick agreed
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." The man told us walking down the stairs
"Stay here" I told my mom and ran out with Daryl, T-Dog, Rick, Shane and Glenn grabbing our things then came back inside
"Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here." The man says out loud and the doors shut
"Rick Grimes." Rick introduced
"Dr. Edwin Jenner."
"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked him from next to me in the elevator
"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough. Except you." He says looking at Carl, "I'll have to keep my eye on you." HE tells him and Carl smiled and we reached the level getting off
"Are we underground?" My mom asked him
"Are you claustrophobic?"
"A little." she said
"Try not to think about it." He says and we enter a computer room, "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." He said and the lights came on, "Welcome to zone 5."
"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asked him
"I'm it. It's just me here."
"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" I asked
"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them...Welcome."
Hello, guests. Welcome.
"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry."
"What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever." Andrea tells him as he gets ready to take her blood
"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough" The syringe clicks, "All done." He tells her and she stands up but looked like she was gonna pass out, "Are you okay?"
"She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have." Jaqui told him moving over to help her
"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." Dale says to Lori as she held her hand over Carl's glass while we ate
"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then."
"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick asked her, "Come on." He says and she looked at him then lifted her hand up
"There you are, young lad." Dale says to him handing Carl his glass with only a little in it and Carl took a drink
"Eww." Carl says in disgust and we all laugh
"That's my boy. That's my boy. Good boy." Lori says to him and poured it into her glass
I feel someone sit down next to me and I look over to see Daryl straddling the back of the chair, he hands me a glass of wine with a small smirk on his face and I take the glass then he stood up again.
"Well, just stick to sour pop there, bud." Shane says to Carl
"Not you, Glenn." Daryl says to him
"What?"
"Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get." He says and I rolled my eyes smiling at him then took a drink of the wine glancing at Daryl who I caught looking over at me and I took another drink while everyone laughed
Rick stands up clinking his glass, "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."
"He is more than just our host." T-Dog adds and we all raise our glasses
Hear hear!"
"Booyah!" Daryl exclaimed and I shook my head
"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the... the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, - where are they?" Shane asked him
"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick says to him
"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move... Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we...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. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." Jenner answered
"Every last one?" Shane asked
"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They...opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."
"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asked him
"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good." Jenner finished and the room fell silent
"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn says to Shane
"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies... If you shower, go easy on the hot water." Jenner said leading us down the hall then walked away, we all looked at each other in shock
"Hot water?" Glenn asked
"That's what the man said." T-Dog replied and everyone hurried off to find a room, I found one that I was gonna have by myself and set my bag down. I opened my bag up grabbing some clothes and headed to the shower room, the hot water felt so great on my skin as I washed dirt and blood off of me. When I was done I headed back to my room and finished ringing out my hair when there was a knock at my door, I opened it and saw Daryl standing there.
"Found the good stuff" He says holding up some whiskey
"Well don't be selfish" I tell him with a smile and he walked in, I shut the door and we sat down on the couch, "Pretty crazy day huh?" I asked then took a drink, I wasn't much of a whiskey person but I'd drink it.
"Could say that" Daryl says taking the bottle then took a drink, "Doin' ok?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked him
"Because of what happened a the quarry"
"You mean my dad?" I asked and he nodded, I sighed and took a big swig, I was started to feel a little tipsy and I looked at him, "Everyone thinks I should be grieving but I'm not. Honestly I've never felt better and I know that it's a bad thing to say because most kids would do anything for a dad but mine...mine was...the things he did to my sister...to me, then hurt my mom I just..." I took another drink and stood up handing him the bottle, "I feel free, free of his abuse, free of his shadow, free of everything. I can finally be who I want to be, my mom doesn't have to cower anymore and my sister doesn't have to be afraid to be in the same room as him." I tell him and he looked at me, "I'm sorry"
"Don't be, I know what you mean" He says and I gave a small smile
"You know he would always give me dirty looks too whenever I would talk to you"
"Why?" He asked me
"Because he thought, " I paused and chuckled, "He thought you were a low life redneck" I tell him and he scoffed, "I never thought of you that way though, not ever" I said and he tried to hide a smile, "Truth is I..." I started to say but stopped
"You what?" He asked and I walked over taking the bottle from him again and took a drink
"Nothing" I told him looking down and he walked over to me
"Pheebs.."
I glanced at him then back at the floor, "I like you" I whispered under my breath
"Hmm?"
I sighed and looked at him, "I like you, a lot, more then just a friend."
"What like a brother of somethin'?"
"No," I chuckled, "Like...I have very strong feelings for you, I've had a crush on you for a while now. God I sound juvenile" I said putting my hands over my eyes, "But the point is you wouldn't like a girl like me, complete mess of a person and it's okay if you don't I'm just drunk and blurting things out I don't even..." I started to ramble then before I knew it he crashed his lips against mine and I stiffened in shock then relaxed into it kissing him back. My whole body was tingling, and my stomach wouldn't stop flipping but then he pulled away leaving me to miss the contact and I looked at him in shock, "Umm...what?" I asked in a daze and he chuckled
"You talk to much" He says with his face still somewhat close to mine
"Uh..." I couldn't speak, I was feeling so many things when suddenly there was a knock at my door and my mom walked in with Sophia, Daryl moved away from me and headed to the door
"Night" He says and left, I see my mom look at me confused and I shrugged, the hell did that just mean? Did it...mean...there's no way it did. I said goodnight to my mom and sister then laid on the couch staring at the ceiling lost in thought until I fell asleep
"Eggs. Powdered, but... but I do 'em good." I hear T-Dog say as I walked into the cafeteria sitting down next to Glenn who moaned, "Protein helps the hangover." He tells him putting eggs on his plate
"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked holding up a bottle of aspirin
"Jenner." Lori told him
"Could you help me, please?"
"He thought we could use it." Lori adds opening the bottle for him
"Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." Glenn groaned and I rubbed his back and smiled at Jaqui then I see Daryl walk in, I looked at him as he glanced at me, I half expected him to sit away from me but to my surprise he sat down next to me.
"Morning" I tell him not looking at him, suddenly I feel his hand on my knee and I glanced at him then looked back forward.
"Hey." Shane greeted walking in
"Hey. Feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked him
"Worse."
"The hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-Dog asked
"I must have done it in my sleep."
"Never seen you do that before." Rick pointed out
"Me neither. Not like me at all." Shane says and I see Lori shift
"Morning." Jenner says walking in
"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..." Dale starts to say
"But you will anyway."
"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea told him
"Give me playback of TS-19." Jenner says to the computer as we walk into the computer room
Playback of TS-19.
"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." He tells us and we look at the screen to see a brain
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked him
"An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V."
Enhanced internal view.
"What are those lights?" Shane asked him
"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."
"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked him from next to me and I looked at him then back at the screen
"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."
"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asks
"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil."
"This person died? Who?" Andrea asked him
"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected...and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event.
Scanning to first event.
"What is that?" Glenn asked as we see part of the brain start to darken
"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."
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked our mom
"Yes."
I see Andrea look down, "She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori tells Jenner
"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is. Scan to the second event."
Scanning to second event.
"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."
"It restarts the brain?" I asked seeing red electricity going through the now completely darkened brain
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive?" Rick asked
"You tell me."
"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick points out
"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part... That doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct." Jenner says and we see a light streak go through the brain
"God. What was that?" My mom asked
"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea asked
"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."
Powering down main screen and workstations.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asks
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."
"Or the wrath of God?" Jaqui says
"There is that."
"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." Andrea says
"There are others, right? Other facilities?" My mom asked
"There may be some. People like me."
"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick asked him
"Everything went down. Communications, directives... all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" I asked and my mom put her hand on my shoulder but I stepped away putting my hands on my face
"Jesus. Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk...again." Daryl says
"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?" Dale asked him
"The basement generators...they run out of fuel."
"And then?" Rick asked him but he walked away, "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur.
I was in my room when there was a knock on my door, "Come in"
"Hey" I hear Daryl say and I looked at him and saw a bottle in his hand
"I'm not really in the drinking mood right now" I told him looking back down at my old cop badge.
"What's up?" He asked sitting down across from me
"Just thinking about the day this all started. Shane was visiting Rick and I was heading to my mom's house, we had heard things on the news but I never thought anything of it until I saw walkers eating someone 2 houses away from my family so I speed up, rushed into the house telling them to gather anything of importance that they good, and of course my dad being a survival nut had tons of things prepared. We loaded up into my mom's Cherokee and headed out hearing the emergency broadcast. I kept thinking to myself that this was the last thing I expected to happen in this world and now here we are." I said and looked at him, "Sorry I'm rambling"
"It's ok, better then what I was doing"
"Well now I'm curious" I told him
"Me and Merle were just sitting at home when we heard everything go on, then did the same as you, packed up and left. I had to pull his leg to get him to agree with going to the refugee center then again to join this group."
"I can imagine," I said with a smile, "So Daryl about.." I started to say but got cut off when the lights went off, "What the?" I asked and Daryl stood up and offered me his hand helping me up as well, we walked to the door opening it and seeing Jenner walk by
"Why is the air off?" Lori asked
"And the lights in our room?" My mom asks
"What's going on? Why is everything turned off?" Daryl asked as well and Jenner grabbed his bottle
"Energy use is being prioritized."
"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asked him and we started to follow him
"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl asked him but he kept silent so Daryl caught up to him, "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."
"Rick?" Lori asked looking over the railing of the stairs Jenner walked down and we followed
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked him
"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." He tells us and took a drink of the whiskey handing it back to Daryl who snatched it out of Jenner's hand, "It was the French."
"What?" I asked him
"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?"
"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Jenner asked and moved to the computer
"Let me tell you..." Shane started to tell him but Rick pulled him back
"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick tells us, Daryl grabbed my hand and as we start to move an alarm goes off
"What's that?" Shane asked
30 minutes to decontamination.
"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl asked him
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane says to us and we started to move again but the door shut
"Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn yelled
I moved over to my mom and put my hand on Sophia's shoulder looking at Daryl who turned and looked at Jenner
"You son of a bitch." He yelled running over to Jenner grabbing him, "You let us out of here!"
"No, stop. Don't!" Shane says as him and T-Dog hold Daryl back
"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick demanded
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Well, open the damn things." Dale tells him
"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked as I stood by my mom who was holding my sister, Jenner doesn't answer and Shane kicked his chair, "What happens in 28 minutes?!"
"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! 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."
"H.I.T.s?" Rick asked him
"Vi, define."
H.I.T.s... high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000° and 6,000° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired.
"It sets the air on fire." Jenner says and I put my hand over my mouth as my mom pulled me and Sophia into a hug and I try to hold back tears as they cry, "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief... Regret. Everything."
"Open the damn door!" Daryl yelled at him after throwing the bottle of whiskey at it, I stood next to the computer that my mom and sister were sitting down in front of
"Out of my way!" Shane yelled running over the doors with an axe
"Daryl!" T-Dog yelled throwing him one as well and both him and Shane continued hitting the door
"You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier." Jenner told us
"Easier for who?" Lori asked him holding Carl
"All of you. You know what's out there... A short, brutal life and an agonizing death. Your... your sister... what was her name?" He asked Andrea
"Amy."
"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and son?" He asked Rick
"I don't want this."
"Can't make a dent." Shane says coming over out of breath
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner told him
"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl yelled raising the axe then Shane, T-Dog and Rick pushed his back and he walked over to me huffing, I looked at him then back at Jenner
"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner says to Rick and we all look at him in shock
"What? You really said that? After all your big talk?" Shane asked him
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick asked looking at Lori
"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner tells him
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere."
"What part of "everything is gone" do you not understand?" Andrea asked him
"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."
"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." My mom cried
"One tiny moment... a millisecond. No pain."
"My daughters don't deserve to die like this." She says standing Sophia up who I pull into a hug and my mom followed then I hugged her as well
"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asked us and I hear a gun cock, I turned to see Shane point a rifle at Jenner
"Shane, no!" Rick yelled at him as I moved my mom and Sophia behind me
"Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way!" He yelled, "Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!"
"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here." Rick tells him
"Shane, you listen to him." Lori adds
"It's too late."
"He dies, we all...We all die!" Rick said and Shane yelled then started to shoot at the computers, I moved Sophia away and my mom followed
"Shane! Shane!" Rick yelled and Shane stopped, "Are you done now? Are you done?" He asked him
"Yeah, I guess we all are."
Shane walked away and Rick turned to Jenner, "I think you're lying."
"What?"
"You're lying 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?" Rick asked him
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" Risk asks
"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise...to her. My wife."
"Test subject 19 was your wife?" I asked him
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've 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. You do. That's... that's all we want... a choice, a chance." Rick pleaded and I looked over at Daryl who went back to hitting the door, "Let us keep trying as long as we can."
Jenner stood there in hesitation, "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." He says and the door opens
"Come on! Let's go!" Daryl yells at us and I grab Sophia's hand running with her up the ramp to the door and I stopped in front of Daryl looking back to see Jenner whisper something in Rick's ear.
"Hey, we've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn yelled at him as Lori went to get him
"No no, I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie." Jaqui said and I went to walk to her but Daryl held my arm stopping me
"But that's insane!" T-Dog told her
"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out."
"T-Dog. Come on." I say to him and I see Andrea still standing where she was
"I'm staying too." She says and walks away
"Andrea, no." Dale tells her then looked at us, "Just go! Go!" He yelled and Daryl's hand went from my arm to my waist pulling me, I grabbed my sisters hand again and we started to run making our way to the top level.
"Get them doors open!" Glenn yelled as T-Dog banged on them then they tried the keypad. I see Shane and Daryl run over to a window with the axes and started hitting them
"Stay close, sweetheart." My mom tells Sophia
"Daryl, look out!" T-Dog yelled running over to the window with a chair hitting it against the window but nothing
"Dog, get down! Get down!" Shane tells him and shot at the window with a rifle but it didn't do anything, "Jesus."
"The glass won't break?" Sophia asked and I wrapped my arm around her as my mom walked over to Rick
"Rick, I have something that might help." She tells him digging in her purse
"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane says to her
"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She held up a grenade and Rick looked at her then grabbed it
"Sophia come on" I tell my sister getting her down behind a pilar then my mom joined us and we both ducked covering her
"Get down! Get down!" Shane yelled
"Shit!" I hear Rick yell then there was a loud boom and the glass shattered
"Come on" I grabbed Sophia's hand and we made our way to the window, I lifted over up so she didn't cut herself and handed her to Daryl then he helped me out then my mom who grabbed my sisters hand. We make our way to the vehicles killing walkers along the way, I ran with Daryl to his truck and we get in.
"Dale get down!" I hear Lori yell then I feel Daryl cover my head as we ducked in the seat and there was a loud explosion which shook the truck a little as I clung to him. When we looked up we saw the CDC up in flames, my heart was pounding out of my chest as I watched, I look at Daryl then he grabbed my face and kissed me. Unexpected, yes, but we almost just died so I didn't blame him because he beat me to it. I stared at him catching my breath then he turned and started the truck and we followed the others as we left the place we thought was our safe haven.