HOMESICK - 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥

𝟎𝟐𝟎 | DECONTAMINATION

Sophia didn't hesitate to latch onto her hands, "What happened?" She asked, a question Mya was still trying to get to the bottom of herself.

She had to stay calm though, she couldn't worry Sophia any more than she already was, "I don't know, let's go find out." She suggested, guiding her sister out of the dark room.

It seemed the rest of the group had shared their idea, flooding into the halls with perplexed looks on their faces. Jenner emerged from one of the doors just in time for Mya to notice him, far too distracted to pay the group or their valid concern's any mind.

"Why is the air off?" Lori asked him.

Carol chimed in, "And the lights in our room?"

He brushed right past them, not even making a point to look at either Carol or Lori as he answered them. "Energy use is being prioritized." He explained, snatching a bottle of alcohol out of Daryl's hand as he walked past.

Mya frowned, "Lights and air con aren't a priority?" She asked, following after Jenner as she didn't expect him to stop and turn around for her.

He took a sip of the drink that he'd taken from Daryl, "It's not up to me." He clarified, still walking ahead like Mya had expected, the lights in the hall now starting to flicker off too, "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

"Hey!" Daryl was the first to follow after him, "Hey! What the hell does that mean?"

Jenner didn't offer another response, only leading to the rest of the group following after him, back into the main room they'd been in earlier that morning, where he'd shown them one of his test subjects and revealed there was no cure.

Mya ushered for Sophia to go over to Carol, before catching up to Daryl and Jenner, "Does this mean other stuff's gonna get turned off?" She asked him, trying to be a little more polite than Daryl had been, not that Jenner seemed to care much.

Before Jenner could answer, although Mya had her doubts that he would've anyway, Rick and the others who'd gone down to investigate the generators came bursting into the main room. Lori called out to her husband, who held out a hand for her to wait.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked, walking towards the doctor.

In response, Jenner simply walked right by him, as he had everyone else, "The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power." He explained, more information than he'd given anyone else, "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second."

Something about his answer gave Mya chills, "What do you mean 'the last possible second'?" She stepped forward, a part of her not wanting to know what Jenner would say at all, "As in years from now, right? You can just turn everything back on with a switch now.. can't you?"

Jenner shook his head, stopping in the middle of the room, "Once the computer reaches the half hour mark, there's nothing I can do." He pointed towards the clock in the room, the red numbers now displaying that they have thirty one minutes left, Mya wasn't sure she wanted to know what happened at zero, certain Jenner had been lying the first time. 

He stopped in his tracks, passing the bottle back to Daryl after taking a final swig. The former snatched it back out of his hand, as though that was his main concern right now - it probably was, knowing him.

"It was the French." Jenner stated, "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."

Mya frowned, he hadn't mentioned this earlier, when he'd let them believe there was no hope left for the world, "But you don't know? There could be a cure out there and you just have no idea?" She questioned, somewhat annoyed he'd kept this from them.