Deadland

Chapter 9- Boom

"Why's everything being shut off?" Carol asks. 

"Yo' why'd the lights shut off?" Daryl asks, holding a bottle of alcohol. 

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner answers, grabbing Daryl's bottle of alcohol. 

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?"

Dr. Jenner takes a swig of the alcohol. "It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down." 

"The fuck does that mean?" I ask, motioning for Alyssa to follow me and I follow Jenner as he walks down the hallway. I stuff the drawing into my back pocket. 

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl asks, looking at me and following Jenner, as is everyone else. 

Dr. Jenner doesn't answer, "Hey, man, I'm talkin' to you. What do you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How can a building do anything?" 

Rick, Glenn, Shane, and T-dog all come running out of a doorway, under us. 

"You'd be surprised." Jenner responds, walking down the steps.

"Rick?" Lori looks over the railing. Rick holds up his hand.

"Jenner, what's happening?" He walks up to Jenner. 

"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." Jenner points to the timer. "Right on schedule." The clock reads oo:31:28. 

Everyone looks around at each other. 

Dr. Jenner hands Daryl his bottle and Daryl grabs it, glaring at Jenner. 

"It was the French." Jenner says. "What?" Andrea asks. "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?" Jaqui asks as Jenner turns and walks up the steps to the computers in the main room.

"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice." He responds, looking around. "The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean how stupid is that?" 

"Let me tell you-" Shane starts, starting to run after Jenner. "Dad!" I yell. Rick grabs Shane's shirt, "To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things, everybody get your stuff. We're gettin' out of here, now!" Rick screams. Alyssa jumps at the sudden sternness in his voice. 

"C'mon 'Lyss, let's go grab our shit." Everybody starts to run to grab their stuff when an alarm starts blaring. Alyssa whimpers and covers her ears, leaning into my body and hiding her face.

"What's that?" Shane asks. Carl repeats the question. 

"30 minutes to decontamination." Vi says, showing the timer on the main screen.

"Doc, what's goin' on here?!" Daryl yells. 

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane yells. 

Everybody begins to run to the door when a metal door slides up from the floor and locks us in the room. 

"Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn yells. 

"Open this fucking door!" I scream, banging on the door. 

"Adrian..." Alyssa's eyes fill with tears and she stares up at me, fear in her eyes. "Hey," I put my hands on her shoulders. "We're getting out of here. Remember what I promised. I said we were gonna grow old. And we will." I stand up straight and run at Dr. Jenner. "But not if this baby dick locks us in a ticking time bomb!" Daryl runs with me and Shane grabs both of us.