Genesis.
[Season 1—episode 6]
Ts-19.
MELISSA WOKE UP TO an empty room. Andrea was nowhere in sight and she grew a bit worried but was quickly reminded that they were underground now, safe and away from the dangers of the—now—real world.
The blonde sat on her bed to stretch her arms when a stabbing pain appeared in her brain. Hangover. Oh, how she hated hangover. She woke up feeling more tired than yesterday even, that's how the consequences of drinking alcohol felt. Like if a bus run you three times over.
She pulled herself up from the bed through the pain running over her body and washed her face, pulling on new clothes and walking out of the room. She really hoped Jenner would have some coffee and more painkillers.
As she walked to the cafeteria, she came across her older brother, the same tired expression was presented on his face but he laughed it off once he caught sight of her little sister's pained expression, he slung an arm around her shoulders, "Hangover, Melrose?"
Melissa simply rolled her eyes at him and shrugged his arm off, "Like you aren't." she said before the smell of coffee and eggs reached her nose.
The two walked into the room side by side, ready to drink at least five coffee cups and eat the hangover away. Melissa smiled brightly as she glanced around the group of survivors already gathered around a table.
"Morning."
Everyone turned around to give the siblings a warm smile and a small reply back, she went and kissed the top of Carl's head before she sat next to the little boy who smiled in return. Melissa felt like this could be the start of something, like this moment would bring them together as a family and not just simply 'End of the world mates.'
Carl looked between his aunt and his dad with a big teasing grin, "Are you hungover?" he asked, pulling a frown between the siblings eyes, "Mom said you'd be."
Melissa glanced around the group to notice the slumped positions and the bare talk, everyone was so tired they couldn't muster a word. Glenn was the one with the worst hungover of them, his eyes were closed over his breakfast and he was groaning in pain like a walker. He looked like one.
Rick took a seat next to his wife and glanced at her, he had barely any energy left to argue or move right his chair, "Mom is right." he stated as Melissa nodded in agreement.
Lori shrugged smugly, sniggering into her bacon, "Mom has that annoying habit."
"Eggs," T-Dog announced as he approached the table with a frypan in hand, "Powdered, but I do 'em good."
Glenn moaned in utter pain which prompted Melissa to chuckle. He had his face pressed against the flat surface of the table and he was holding his stomach,
"I bet you can't tell," T teased him.
"Come on Glenn, don't be a baby," Melissa said as she passed the plate to T-Dog, begging for him to put a good extra amount, "Eat. Protein helps the hangover." she informed then, waving her fork in his direction as Lori nudged her arm, passing her a bottle of aspirin, she frowned but grabbed it anyways, things were odd between the two, they didn't even talk about all that happened and Melissa found herself wanting to mend that relationship too.
The only response Glenn could muster up was a groan from the back of his throat, he only raised his head a bit and looked through his tired eyes at Melissa, "Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again."
The blonde could only laugh in response, he had said the same thing the last time this happened.
A few weeks back before Rick and all this, she and Glenn went on a run to town. They were low on supplies and gas so the two were sent down to get some of that. The thing is, they were supposed to reach Atlanta but instead they found a little town near their stay and decided to go around it and check every house and store— and they were plenty of stores.
They found a local bar that was completely deserted so they chose to make camp there, besides they had the drinks and one or two potato chips bag. Melissa was the one to choose the drink and it had to be none other than Tequila, it was fun, there were limes and salt, so they played a little game. Neither of the two knew how it ended up that night of whom fall asleep first but once they woke up, their car was gone and along that few of their weapons.
They promised to never drink on runs again.
"Hey," Shane's voice echoed through the room as he walked into the room, he had the same tired face as the others but his hid something Melissa couldn't quite pinpoint.
"Hey, feel as bad as I do?" Rick greeted him, turning to give him a teasing smile.
Shane smiled in amusement as he poured himself a cup of orange juice, "Worse." he responded with a raspy voice, then drowned a painkiller with the same juice.
T-Dog stopped by his side, putting a plate with the eggs and bacon in front of him, "What the hell happened to you?" he asked, calling the attention of the group as he pointed to the side of his neck, "Your neck?"
Shane turned slightly, three red scratches could be seen there, marked brightly, he pulled on a puzzled look, as if he didn't know what had happened. Oh, but Melissa always knew. Something happened. "I must have done it in my sleep."
"Never seen you do that before." Rick noted, not fully believing his words.
"Me neither," Shane retorted , a hint of bitterness in his voice, his eyes were set on Lori and a tension was filling in the air, "Not like me at all."
Melissa stood from her seat, walking over to the coffee pot and pouring some more into her cup. Her suspicious eyes following Shane and Lori's movements, mannerisms, the guilty eyes and the way Lori couldn't pull her eyes from the plate since Shane walked into the room. Something had happened between the two and Melissa would eventually find out.
"Morning," Jenner announced as he entered the room with a mug in his hands, he broke the tension, catching their attention as they follow his movements through the room.
Everyone greeted him gladly before Dale spoke up in a cautious way, turning to look at the man, "Doctor; I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-"
"But you will anyway." Jenner interrupted him as he poured himself some coffee, he didn't seem like a morning person.
"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea stated directly, her eyes meeting the scientist.
Jenner sighed to himself. He turned around and told them that whoever wanted to follow him was more than welcome. And so, they followed.
Jenner led them into—what he called— "the big room", that place with computers and the ring light. He tipped some words into one of the computers as Melissa made herself comfortable leaning against one of the many desks.
"Give me a playback of TS-19." the doctor asked the robot that had been keeping him company since he was left alone.
The wall facing them suddenly turned on, the lights dimming so they could see better. The image of a person's skull filled half of the screen in a blue colour, to the side there was three more images with different views of the brain.
"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few," Jenner informed the group as they closed in, staring in amazement at the screens, Melissa had never seen pictures of a brain.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked in amazement.
Jenner leaned over, a small smile falling on his lips, "An extraordinary one," he said, wiping away his smile and turning towards the screen once again, "Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V."
"Enhanced internal view."
The desk Melissa was leaning in shifted its weight as Glenn jumped in to take a seat quietly. The two watched as the screen zoomed in the image in the middle, the camera showed the brain by the side and then zoomed in once again so the synapses of the brain were visible, things were pretty detailed even though Melissa barely understood about science.
"What are those lights?" Shane asked, confused.
"It's a person's life—experiences, memories." Jenner explained the green, red and yellow lights covering the brain, "It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you—the thing that makes you unique and human."
Jenner sounded— for the first time since they met— joyful, like if he loved what he was doing. His eyes shined and a smile played in his lips, that until Daryl spoke.
"You don't make sense ever?" he questioned this time, eyes glued to the blue screen.
Jenner sighed and walked to the screen to point at it like a teacher, "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."
Rick stepped forward, "Death? That's what this is, a vigil?"
"Yes." Jenner said simply, he turned to the screen once again, "Or rather the playback of the vigil."
"This person died?" Andrea asked as she moved to stand by Melissa, she was still not alright from last night's meltdown, "Who?"
"Test subject 19," the scientist informed, his voice wasn't cold, it was lovely, like if he knew this person, like if it wasn't just a subject he could get his hands on, "Someone who was bitten and infected... and volunteered to have us record the process." he said while looking at Andrea, seeming to relate to her, he then turned around and spoke to the AI, "VI, Scan forward to the first event."
"Scanning to first event."
The computer relayed and then sped forward. The brain was no longer full of bright lights, now it was a dark grey full of black veins, as if putrid roots were growing inside it.
"What's that?" Glenn cried out in disgust. The sight was not a pretty one.
Jenner pointed at the brain with a pool stick, "It invades the brain like meningitis." he explained, "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be...gone."
A frown was settled between Melissa's eyes as she stared at the screen in a mix of horror and amazement. It looked so damn extraordinary and maybe not in a good way but, this is what happened to Amy when she was bitten.
Everything she ever knew, everyone she ever knew, it became nothing in seconds, like life didn't really matter.
It disappointed her. What was even the point of living? of having a good life with great memories if she will eventually die and become that. Everything she made, every person she loved, every memory will be gone.
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia's voice echoed through the room after the silence, she was looking up her mother with a worried look.
"Yes." Carol replied, no hesitation, she glanced down at her daughter with some kind of commotion.
A silence more quiet than before followed after that, making them think. It seemed that from now on, trying to keep the horrors of this new life from the children was not gonna succeed. Their attention turned onto Andrea, whose breath became heavy as tears poured from her eyes, Melissa watched her in concern and placed one comforting hand on her back, they were all concerned for the woman.
"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori explained to Jenner's concerned face, he didn't have to worry but he did, that meant some kind of understanding, Melissa wasn't wrong about it.
The doctor approached her and leaned over to speak to her, only to her, in a low tone, "I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is," he said, trying to bring her some comfort but Andrea simply stared back at him through her blurry vision.
In this moments she was a woman who didn't believe anyone could understand what she was going through. Maybe they all did, it hit very close. Melissa damn surely understood how hard it is to watch your sibling die. And then watch them raise from the death. The only difference is only one of them was alive.
Jenner's shoulders slumped back and he turned to the screen, "Scan to the second event."
"Scanning to second event."
"The resurrection times vary wildly." Jenner continued on, "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."
Red flickers began to appear in the base of the brain while he spoke. The rest remained black. A dark tone mixing alongside the red. It seemed odd that he remembered exactly the time of this patient's last seconds alive. Maybe it did mean something for him.
Melissa pulled her eyes from the man and turned to the screen, brows furrowed curiously, "It restarts the brain?"
"No, just the brain stem." Jenner explained, turning to the confused faces facing him, "Basically it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive?" Rick asked, confused as the rest.
"You tell me." Edwin proposed as he pointed towards the on going screen.
The older Grimes looked at the brain for a moment before he shook his head, "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."
"Dark, lifeless, dead." Jenner nodded, turning to face him, "The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."
Movement on the screen caught Melissa's attention. The tip of what looked like a gun entered the frame, it pressed atop the head and then, a line shot straight through the brain in the image. The body moved before it went completely limp, the brain a shade of dark grey.
"God!" Carol gasped as she held her daughter closer, "What was that?"
Melissa looked at it for a moment. This patient was shot in the head, in the head, how is supposed to be if you want to end a walker's life. It was so clear for them now, it wasn't a simple thing. This life they intended to live.
Andrea had that more than clear. "He shot his patient in the head," she spoke, "Didn't you?"
Jenner choose to not answer her, it was pretty obvious, "VI, Power down the main screen and the workstations."
They were all going through this piece of information. Reeling over it over and over again. What did it meant? He showed it to them so they could know the process but for what?
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Melissa asked, she wanted to know if anyone really knew what was going on with the world.
Jenner looked down and then up at them again, "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." he listed off.
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asked, putting one more thing to the list. Fearful like everyone else that nobody knew about this disease.
"There is that," Jenner agreed and that's when Melissa realized that he had actually no idea. He was just going down a list.
All the hope she came in with fading away by the minutes.
"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere!" Andrea stressed out.
Carol rubbed Sophia's back. They were all panicking, "There are others, right? Other facilities?" she asked in pure hope.
Jenner turned to Carol, but he didn't seem to be sure, "There may be some. People like me."
Rick's brows knitted, worry written all over his face, "But you don't know? How can you not know?"
Jenner sighed, "Everything went down," he explained, unbothered by this strangers putting the blame on him. They had to put it somewhere. "Communications, directives—all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
"So it's not just here." Andrea muttered, her voice shook and her body followed, "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"
Andrea was grieving, hearing that there was nothing left wasn't exactly what she needed to hear right now.
"Jesus," Melissa muttered when Jenner stood silent. Realization hit them all in sync. Scoffs of disbelief left their mouths. There was nothing left, there was no cure, no way out of this world.
And the worst part is that, it was everywhere. The whole damn world is infected, rotten, growing closely to its death and ending. Her stomach turned and she felt sick. What was the point now?
"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again." Daryl exclaimed as he passed by her, breaking the small silence. Everyone needed to cope one way or the other.
"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but..." Dale spoke suddenly, his hands were held together over himself before he pointed ahead of the man, there was a deep worry over his face but that's how they all felt. "That clock...it's counting down. What happens at zero?"
Melissa looked ahead, for the first time since arrival she noticed the big red watch on the wall. Jenner didn't need to look to know what he was asking, he sighed once more and answered as the clock turned to less than an hour, "The basement generators—they run out of fuel."
"And then?" Rick asked. Jenner ignored the question and walked out of the room without a single glance back. The sheriff rolled his eyes and looked up, "VI, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."
What does that even mean?
author's note:
so close to ben and the end of act one!!!!