Beauty and Her Beast (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

9

"What are those lights?" Shane asked.

"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.

"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." Jenner explained.

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked, walking forward.

Jenner nodded, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil."

Andrea stood up from her seat. "This person died? Who?" She asked, sadness evident in her voice.

"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' Vi said. We all watched as the picture changed. Now there was a thick black line going up the spinal chord and spreading into the brain like a tree. "What is that?" I asked.

"It invades the brain like meningitis." The black started spreading out more and the person started coughing. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs." The brain went dark and the person stopped coughing. "Then death." Jenner said quietly, looking down. "Everything you ever were or ever will be...gone." I looked down, choking back tears. That's what happened to Luke. To Liz.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked Carol.

"Yes." Carol replied. The room was silent for a moment.

Andrea turned away letting out a short, shaky breath. "She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori said to Jenner, who had noticed Andrea crying.

Jenner walked over to Andrea. "I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is."

Andrea looked up at him for only a moment. He faced the screen again. "Scan to the second event." 'Scanning to second event.' Vi said. We all looked back up at the screen. "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."

I furrowed my brows, noticing a small flicker of red light that very slowly got bigger, rippling across the brain. "It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.

Jenner shook his head. "No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving." He corrected.

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.

Jenner looked at Rick and backed up to stand next to him. "You tell me."

Rick shook his head. "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."

Jenner nodded. "Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part- that doesn't come back. The you part. Just the shell." Their mouth started moving. I could almost hear the growls. Something came into view on top. A sudden stream going through the person's head, stopping their movement. He shot the patient.

"God. What was that?" Carol asked.

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea asked, her voice now a mix of anger and sadness.

Jenner didn't answer her. "Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations." The screen turned black, along with the computers.

Andrea crossed her arms. "You have no idea what it is, do you?" She asked, walking over to Jenner.