In The End | Daryl Dixon

Chapter 24

"Some say I'm losing my faith."

Erica

Jenner was gone by the time I finished comforting Lori and escorting her back to her room to ensure no prowling Shanes attacked her in the wild. A shame the good doctor had to flee, really. I moseyed around a bit after that, eyed the extremely suspicious clock that was counting down to zero, and then eventually went off to bed. Not after grabbing a shit ton of chocolate from the kitchen to stash for when we inevitably have to blow this joint, naturally, but that's off topic entirely. I ended up putting half of it in Daryl's bag when I realized it wasn't all going to fit with my stuff. 

The redneck in question had miraculously already fallen into an alcohol-induced coma on the floor with a pillow under his head. Rather than try to force him to move onto the couch or bed for the sake of his back, I just draped a blanket over him and called it good. Am I amazingly kind? It's looking like a real possibility. 

That was all well and good and I slept like the dead. Not the like, zombie kind, but the kind that actually dies. You get it. Anyway, that's all pretty much worthless because now we're all standing here watching a brain die. Sort of awkward, I'm not gonna lie. Jenner looks like he just sucked on a lemon thinking it was an orange. Which is... not ideal. I eyed the intimidating clock that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie once again, wondering just what it meant. Nothing good if Jenner's solemn expression is anything to go off of. Not to mention he's staring at me again. Love that for us. It's really cute. Such a nice dynamic we have going. 

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked, astonished. I shook my head solemnly. That red color we see in comparison to the previous blue is not normal. The synapses have all been sucked away, and now all I see is a brain stem flickering. Definitely something else at work here. The bodies would've eventually starved out and stopped walking, unable to sustain themselves if this were purely scientific. But it's not. Some sort of hella bad disease has escaped... I don't know. Crowley probably fucked with Pandora's box and screwed us all over! Because now there's a whole ass person stuck in every dumbass zombie, and they can't get out! Or stop themselves!

Fuck! At least I can definitely say this one is not on me this time. And probably not on my brothers either, but I'm not going to place any bets on that for personal reasons. Not that I have any doubts in them. I just... have like, a million doubts in them.

"No, that's just the stem." I shook my head, grimacing. "It gets them up and moving, but..."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked, walking forward. Everyone had astonished looks on their faces, trying to process what they were seeing and understand it. Even I wasn't really getting it. Probably because Jenner's explanation isn't completely jiggy with it. Not all the way, anyway. He's missing the supernatural component and doesn't even realize. He may've recognized the word 'Croatoan', but he has no idea what it really means. That's less than ideal considering that the world has ended. Rip in the chat for humanity. I'm not sure even myself and my brothers can pull these nerds out of this one.

"You tell me." Jenner sighed, gesturing to the screen. I grimaced, sharing a look with Daryl. He shook his head, no doubt thinking of his asshole brother. I'm sure Merle is still out there. Hunters are resourceful little shits. I would know. If anyone was going to survive, it was going to be him. 

"It's nothing like before," Rick said, voice quiet and grim. "Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead." Jenner agreed. Wow, way to absolutely rub it in. Andrea looks like she's about to take a gun to her head in two seconds flat, and even Jacqui is struggling. I know she and Jim had a little thing going on. She must be more upset than she's been letting on. I've been a horrible ride or die. I haven't checked on her once since we left Jim on the side of the road to bite the dust. If Lady Gaga were here, she'd have words for me. "The frontal lobe, the Neocortex; The human part-- that doesn't come back. The 'you' part."