Sorry about the wait guys! College and work both grilled me into a puddle and it's half term. Well, the middle of it but still doing both. But a lot less. I've got to say, season 11 of TWD was amazing! It was well written. Anyways, here we go!
Disclaimer I don't own The Walking Dead just my ocs and plotlines.
Callie's PoV
The group runs down the stairs, the lights automatically coming on as they enter the basement.
"Decontamination - what does that mean?" Glenn asks.
"No idea, but it doesn't sound good." Callie points out.
"Agreed. I don't like the way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that." Shane shakes his head.
"What's wrong with him? Seriously, man. Is he nuts, medicated, what?" T asks but none of them knew the answer to that.
"Too much time alone." Jeremy mutters.
Rick looks at a map on the wall. "In there."
The lights in the room come on as the door opens.
Rick looks to Jeremy, T-Dog and Glenn. "Check that way. Shane, Callie."
Callie and Shane follow Rick. They walk through the utility room to find the generator. Rick finds a barrel with a hose coming out of it. Rick tests the barrel.
"It's empty." He sighs.
Callie managers to pick up the barrel when she tests it. "He's right. This is way too light to keep going. Could we replace it?"
The lights flicker and go out, and different lighting comes on.
"Emergency lighting on."
"What the hell is this?" Shane mutters.
Glenn, Jeremy and T-Dog run to them. "Hey, you guys kill the lights?" Glenn asks them.
"Nah, it just went out." Shane answers.
"Anything?" Rick asks them.
T-Dog nods. "Yeah, a lot of people dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count."
They all look at each other.
"It can't be down to just that one." Shane says.
"If it is. We don't have long left." Callie tells them and they all look at her worried.
Tabby walks out of her room. Edwin Jenner walking past her.
"Why is the air off?" Carol asks him.
"And the lights in our room?" Lori pushes.
Daryl pokes his head out, with a bottle of liquor in his hand. "What's going on? Why is everything turned off?"
Jenner takes the bottle from his hand. "Energy use is being prioritised."
"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asks him.
Jenner drinks from the bottle. "It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl asks him. Jenner keeps walking and everyone follows. "Hey, man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"
The others join them.
"You'd be surprised." Edwin mutters.
"Rick?" Lori calls down.
He motions her to wait. Edwin walks past the group and up the steps to the big room.
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asks him.
"The system is dropping all the nonessential used of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approach the half-hour mark. Right on schedule."
Edwin takes another sip. The group is gathered in the main room. Except Josie who is still by the door with Maya. Connor is a little ways from them. Jenner hands the bottle to Daryl, who angrily snatches it out of Edwin's hand.
"It was the French." Jenner says.
"What?" Andrea mutters.
Jenner turns to her. "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?" Jacqui asks him.
Jenner chuckles. "The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"
Shane steps forward. "Let me tell you-
"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!"
"Oh, okay." Jacqui mutters.
An alarm blares.
Josie and Maya left the room.
"What's that?"
"30 minutes to decontamination."
"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl asks the man.
Jenner walks over to a computer and enters a code.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick."
"Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Rick shouts.
"Let's go!"
"Come on!" Glenn urges.
That's when the door closes.
"Mom!" Connor yells and bangs on the door.
"No. Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn yells.
Edwin puts on a computer and starts broadcasting. "We've hit the 30-minute window. I am recording."
"Carl."
"Mom!"
Daryl makes a run at Jenner. "You son of a bitch!"
"Shane! Shane!" Rick warns.
"No, stop! Don't!" T-Dog yells.
"You lying!"
"No no no!"
It took four people to hold Daryl back. Dale, T-Dog, Rick and Shane.
Connor is crying by the door, that's when Callie realises Maya and Josie are outside.
"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick orders.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." Jenner tells him.
"Well, open the damn things." Daryl snaps at 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."
"We didn't think you meant it like that." Callie interrupts him and he purses his lips.
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asks him but he stays silent. "What happens in 28 minutes?!"
"Come on!" Daryl yells.
Edwin gets up. "You know what this place is?!" He shouts. "We protected the pubic from very nasty stuff! Weaponised small pox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Edwin collects himself and sits back down. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure- in a terrorist attack, for example, H.I.Ts are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"H.I.T.s?" Rick asks, looking at him.
Tabby is covering her mouth in shock, clearly knowing what it is.
"Vi, define."
"H.I.Ts- high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignitionthat produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5,000 degrees and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
"It sets the air on fire. No pain." Jenner mutters.
"You asshole." Amy hisses at him.
Carol is holding a crying Sophia.
"An end to sorrow, grief... regret. Everything."
Josie's PoV
Josie couldn't hear anything from the other side, Maya is crying for Connor. Think.
"Right, Maya. I want you to go back to our room. Grab our bags. I'll go to the cafeteria, grab some cans."
"What about Connor?" Maya asks weakly, sniffling as she gets up.
"Connor is not going anywhere. Everyone is stuck there. We need to grab everything when these doors open back up. I believe that Rick and Callie will get these doors open." Josie explains to her daughter.
She nods and runs quickly to their room.
"I hope I'm right." Josie mutters before walking as fast as she could. It's damn hard when you're 7 months pregnant.
Callie's PoV
Daryl throws the bottle at the door. "Open the damn door!"
Shane runs at the door with an axe. "Out of my way!"
T-Dog tosses an axe to Daryl, and the two work together to try to bring down the door.
"You should've left well enough alone it would have been so much easier." Jenner mutters.
Lori narrows her eyes at him. "Easier for who?" She snaps.
"All of you. You know what's out there.A short brutal lifeand an agonising death." Jenner says and turns to Andrea. "Your- your friend- what was their name?"
"Aubrey." She murmurs.
"Aubrey." Jenner repeats. "You know what this does. You've seen it."
"Andrea, don't listen to him." Amy tells her sister but Callie could tell that the woman was listening to Jenner.
"Is that what you really want for your wife and son?" Jenner asks Rick.
"I don't want this!" Rick says emphatically.
Shane clutters his axe to the ground. "Can't make a dent."
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Edwin informs them.
Daryl swings his axe. "Well, your head ain't!"
Dale, Rick and Shane hold him back again. T-Dog takes the axe away.
"Just back up! Back up!"
"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 and everyone falls silent, looking at the always hopeful man.
"What?" T-Dog mutters.
Shane narrows his eyes at his best friend. "What? You really said that? After all your big talk?"
"Oh shut up. You can't talk much." Jeremy snaps at him.
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick says, clearly annoyed how everyone was turning against him.
"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner argues.
Rick clenches his jaw. "There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybenot here but somebody somewhere-
Andrea interrupts him. "What part of 'everything is gone' don't you understand?"
"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 keep us here." Carol cries.
Jenner turns to her. "One tiny moment- a millisecond. No pain."
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."
Shane gets frustrated and walks away.
"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate just to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner tells Carol.
Shane arrives back with a shotgun and Callie stands straighter.
"Shane, no!" Rick shouts, and tries to get in the way but Shane pushes him out of the way.
"Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way! Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?" Shane presses the shotgun in Jenner's face.
"Shane, step away from him. He could be our only way out." Callie tries to defuse the situation.
"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. Callie's right, we will never get out of here." Rick adds.
"Shane, you listen to him." Lori sobs.
Shane shakes his head. "It's too late."
"He dies, we all-
Shane screams then shifts his aim to the computers and shoots again and again.
"We all die! Shane! Shane!" Rick struggles to get the gun away from Shane. He hits Shane across the head with the butt and throws an elbow into Shane's shoulder, causing him to fall over. "Are you done now? Are you done?"
"Yeah, I guess we all are."
"I think you're lying." Rick voices and looks to Jenner, who looks at him confused. "You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have booted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter. It always matters." Rick presses. "You stayed when others ran. Why?"
"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise." Jenner explains briefly.
"To your wife?" Callie guesses, looking at Jenner's reaction who looked at her wide eyed.
"Yes." He breathes out. Like a weight was lifted off of the man's shoulders.
"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori breathes out in shock.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?" The Doctor explains and Callie just stares at him. Waiting for him to explain more.
Daryl uses the axe on the door.
"She was dying. It should have been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just... Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."
"Please. Our hope is right outside those doors. Josie. The pregnant woman. Also in here." Callie says and points at the kids. "Those kids, they're our future. Now, your wife gave you a chance to keep going. Now, please. Give us that chance. For them."
"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's- that's all we want- a choice, a chance." Rick adds.
"Let us keep trying for as long as we can." Lori begs him, holding Carl.
Jenner looks at Callie. "Please. Your wife would want you to do this." It was a bold move she made, by making that comment. But she was desperate. It could go either way. He could let them all burn and die or let them live by opening those doors.
That's what makes him move. "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." He unlocks the door. Revealing Josie and Maya on the other side with everyone's bags.
"Come on!" Daryl urges.
"Mom!" Connor cries and collided with his mother.
"Let's go!" Glenn shouts.
"We're gonna get out of here!" Carol tells Sophia and they get up and run to the door, grabbing their bags.
"There's your chance. Take it." Jenner looks at the girl. Rick was behind her.
"Thank you. I'm grateful." Callie tells him.
"The day will come when you won't be." Jenner tells her and she blinks at him.
Maybe he was right? Will we be grateful for him to open these doors in the future?
"Let's go!" Glenn shouts.
Edwin holds out a hand and she shakes it and pulls her in close. "We're all infected. It doesn't matter how you die, you come back. That's what I found out." He whispered in her ear and she peels away from him in shock. She just couldn't form words, so she just stared at him, wide eyed.
Rick grabs her arm and she couldn't tear her eyes away from Jenner.
The day will come when you won't be. It echoed in her head. Did she really feel like it already? Will this secret make it worse? Could she keep it a secret? No. She needs to tell Rick. He needs to know, deserves to know. He's the leader. Why would Jenner tell her and not Rick? Why? Was she a leader to him? She can barely look after herself, no matter an entire group of people that blame everyone else but themselves for mistakes.
"Hey! We've got four minutes left, come on!" Glenn yells.
That breaks Callie out of her thoughts, they were waiting by the doors. Waiting for everyone.
"Let's go! Let's go!" T-Dog urges, grabbing Jacqui's arm and practically drags her up the ramp.
Jacqui shakes out of his grip. "No no. I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie."
"But that's insane." He hisses.
"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim, Elijah and Aubrey. There's no time to argue. And no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out." Jacqui pushes T-Dog back.
Shane takes T-Dog by the arm and leads him up the ramp. Dale just stares in shock at Jacqui. He looks over to Edwin and sees Andrea.
"Andrea?" Amy quietly whispers.
"I'm staying too." She informs everyone and Amy bursts into tears.
Dale turns around to the rest. "Just go! Go!"
Tabby grabs Amy and takes her. And Andrea and Callie meet each other's eyes. Look after her. She gives her a determined nod. I will.
"My sister-" Amy protests.
"She's staying. Come on!" Tabby urges and pushes her up the stairs.
We're all infected.
They run into the lobby.
"Get them doors open!" Shane roars.
Glenn is pressing buttons on the door. "Come on!" He cries out in frustration. "It doesn't work!"
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" T-Dog tries the pad but no code was working.
"Dammit!" Tabby curses.
"Daryl!" Shane calls and Daryl throws him an axe and they start hitting thewindows.
They were trying everything. The doors, chairs hitting the windows, guns. Nothing.
"The glass won't break?" Sophia cries.
Carol reached into her bag. "Rick, I have something that might help."
"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane insults.
Jeremy glares at him. "Shut up."
Which surprisingly made Shane quiet down. Callie needed to ask Jeremy what this fighting is about.
Carol just ignores him. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket."
Carol pulls out a grenade and Jeremy's jaw drops, gawking at the explosive.
"How long has that been in there?" He squeaks.
"Come on."
"Look out!" T-Dog yells and everyone ducks to cover.
Rick pulls the pin and runs back to the group.
"Get down!" Shane and Daryl yell.
Boom!
Daryl covers Callie.
They all look up and see one window that broke. But it's enough.
"Okay! Go!" Callie urges and everyone gets up. Callie helps Josie up and runs to the window.
"Shane, Daryl, you both at the front. Take out any walkers. Jeremy, Rick, cover the back." Callie orders and they nod.
"Callie- Callie! My sister's back there. I need to go get here." Amy cries, tugging on Callie.
T-Dog is helping the kids out of the window.
Callie looks at her sadly. "I know. Okay? I promised Andrea to look after you, so that's what I'm gonna do. Dale will get her out. So we need to go, okay?" Callie urges and Amy shakily nods her head.
Callie made sure that Amy got out before her before following, and they run to the vehicles.
Callie hops into the RV with her.
"Wait wait wait. Wait wait. They're coming!" Lori points out the window. Callie sees Dale and Andrea making their way out of the building.
"Andrea!" Amy sobs and Callie keeps her still.
Rick check's his watch and honks his horn.
"Dale! Get down!" Lori calls out.
"Get back! Everybody down! Down!" Rick yells and everyone cowers on the floor.
Dale and Andrea take cover behind the sack bags.
That's when they feel heat and the whole RV shakes from the blast. They all get up from the RV floor and see the remains of the CDC. It's gone. That's another gone.
Glenn quickly opens the door.
"Get in, get in, get in!" Glenn ushers, and both Dale and Andrea hop in.
Amy holds tight onto Andrea, and Callie sees Andrea giving Dale dirty looks, over Amy's shoulder. What did he do?
Rick drives the RV away.
"Where do we go from here?" Lori asks.
Rick and Callie share a look.
"We know a place."
Time to see some old friends.
But one thing Callie couldn't get off her mind. We're all infected.
That's season 1 wrapped! What do you think of Jenner telling Callie about them all being infected? Don't worry, you'll see what she'll do with the information. Please leave a review! I'd like to know what you guys think :D