Leo had woke up with a pounding headache and stumbled his way out to the kitchen. He was sat at the table with his head resting on the table, "Morning" he heard Rick say.
"Are you hung over? Mom said you'd be" Carl asked as his dad ruffled his hair, smiled on both of their faces.
"Mom is right"
T-dog came from behind the counter that he'd been working on cooking something at, "Eggs, powered but... but I do 'em good. I bet you can't tell. Protein helps the hangover"
Leo felt a plate getting placed down near him and then someone patting his shoulder, he looked to the side at Daryl, "Hmm?"
"Eat up, you gon' need it to get rid of that headache" Leo squinted at the man through his head pain and slowly looked down to the egg-filled plate with a small nod.
"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again" Glenn complained in a similar position as Leo, the blond nodded strong with agreement.
"Same goes for me"
"Hey" Shane came walking over from the hall and went to grab a drink of water.
"Feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked
Shane huffed, "Worse" he turned around and T-dog got a look at him.
"What the hell happened to you? Your neck"
Leo opened his eyes to see it but had to squint from the bright light, there were three red scratches across the side of Shane's neck. The man shrugged, "Must have done it in my sleep"
"Never seen you do that before" Rick commented with a raised brown.
"Me neither. Not like me at all" Leo caught a tense glance between Lori and Shane which confused him but Jenner came through before he could question them.
"Morning" he greeted cheerily, everyone greeting him back.
Dale sighed, "Doc, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..."
"But you will anyway"
"We didn't come here for the eggs" Andrea told him. Jenner looked at them all who were looking back at him curiously.
The doctor walked them back into the large computer room and stopped at one right in the middle, "Give me a playback of TS-19" he spoke into the machine.
"Playback of TS-19"
As the large screen on the far wall loaded up the group filed in and gathered around Jenner, "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few"
Leo went to sit on the edge of one of the tables and watched as an image of a brain appeared on screen, "Is that a brain?" Carl asked.
Jenner looked down to him, "An Extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for an EIV" he instructed Vi.
"Enhanced internal view"
It zoomed in on the brain which showed a multitude of small blue flashing lights, they reminded Leo of lighting, "What are those lights?"
"It's a persons 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.
Leo glanced to the man with a smirk, "Nah, you've just got the brain capacity of a 10 year old" Daryl gave him a challenging look and clipped the crown of his head, "Ow!" Leo brought his hand up to soothe the spot with a glare set on the unbothered redneck.
Jenner ignored the two, "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"
"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked as he walked over to Jenner
"Yes. Or rather the- the... playback of the vigil"
Andrea stepped forward, really intrigued now, "This person died? Who?"
"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"
The camera zoomed back out to show the person brain fully. It now had black veins spreading through the brain.
"What is that?"
"It invaded the brain like meningitis" Jenner said as Leo continued to watch the black start to take over the full brain, "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs" the brain went completely black, "Then death... everything you ever were or ever will be... gone"
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sofia's soft voice asked, her mom squeezing her hand softly and confirming quietly.
The room was filled with a very stiff atmosphere, Andrea was starting to cry so Lori informed Jenner that she had lost someone, the man letting them in on how he had lost someone too. He looked back up to the screw, "Scan to the second event"
"Scanning to second event"
"The resurrection times vary wildly, we have 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"
Leo looked back to the video that showed a small red ball of light starting to reappear in the persons brain.
"It restarts the brain?"
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving"
"But they're not alive?"
Jenner turned around to Rick and gestured to the screen, "You tell me"
The man shook his head, "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark"
"Dark, lifeless... dead" Jenner listed off, "The frontal lobe, the neocortex; the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct"
A large white flash when right through the brain, killing the dead person and making everyone jump, "God. What was that?" Carol asked
Leo kept his eyes on the image, "He shot it it the head" he looked over to the man with a questioning gaze.
Andrea also looked at the doctor, "Didn't you?"
The woman was ignored as Jenner started to walk back out of the room, "Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations"
"Powering down main screen and workstations"
Andrea still wanted answers from the man, she was starting to tear up now, "You have no idea what it is, do you?"
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal"
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui added on
"There is that"
The group continued to go on at Jenner but he wasn't able to help them, he didn't know anything about what was happening. Dale was the one to point out a large red clock on the wall, "Dr Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but... that clock. It's counting down. What happens at zero?"
"The... basement generators, they run out of fuel"
He walked away, "And then?" Rick prompted an answer but Jenner kept his back turned, "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur"
☆彡💫----🪐ミ☆
Rick, Shane, Daryl and Glenn all went further down to check out the generators. Leo and Daryl were hanging out in the room when Daryl was looking puzzled up to the air-con, Leo followed his gaze, "What's up?"
"I think the air just went off" he stood up and felt around for and air, nothing. Everything else turned off as well, "What the hell?"
Leo watched Daryl go out of the room but chose to stay and wait to see what was up, he looked at the coffee table and see a half full bottle of wine. The teen smirked and picked it up, "No too much this time" he warned himself jokingly and took a drink.
Not too long after a loud alarm went off, "What the..." he stood up and looked around. The alarm stopped so Leo walked out into the corridor slowly, "Guys? Hello? Anybody there?!"
No one answered so he quickly walked down the corridor, as he walked Vi came over the speakers.
"HIT's, high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum pressure effect ignited the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired"
Leo's eyes widened as he looked around himself. This place was going to explode?!
There was silence so the teen ran towards the computer room. When he got there, a large door was blocking his way. He pounded his fist against it, "Guys! Guys, you there? What the hell is going on, man?!" his voice wavered as he shouted, fear very evident.
Someone shouted from the other side and hit against the door, "Leo, that you?"
"Yeah. Yeah it's me, what was she saying about- about blowing us up!?"
"Hey, it's Daryl. Don't worry 'bout that, kid. I want you to stay calm, we're all getting outta here, okay?"
He could see the man through the fogged door slightly, he nodded, "Yeah, okay. I can- I can stay clam. I can stay calm" the teen sunk down to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest with his head resting on them. People kept on trying to break through the door but it would budge.
Shouting could be heard through the very thick door and Leo didn't want to wait around, it seemed like the others couldn't get out. Leo stood up and searched through some nearby rooms, finally finding a crowbar in a storage closet.
Without much logical thought, Leo started whacking the door with all his strength, yet nothing was happening, he was really going to die down here all alone. He panted as he continued, "Someone gonna help me or what?" he shouted as more of a demand through to the rest of the group. Daryl ran over again, now wielding an axe and the two continued to try and make a dent.
They were both unsuccessful but eventually, the door slid open, "Come on!"
"What's going on?" Leo asked hurriedly over the rushed shouts and cries of everyone.
The man held his shoulder tightly, grounding him, "That don't matter right now. We gotta get everybody out, fast as possible"
Everyone came running out of the room. Jacqui made her decision to stay, Andrea and Dale hung back too.
Leo was after Daryl, leading them out of the building. The front doors were locked when they tired so Shane and Daryl immediately went to hacking through the glass, "Rick, I have something that might help" they all turned to Carol who dug out a grenade from her bag. Rick took it from her and stood just away from the window.
"Look out!"
Leo jumped the staircase and hid behind a wall. The grenade went off, "Holy shit!" he brought his hands up to block the debris from hitting his face when someone pulled him up by his forearm.
"Come on, kid" t-dog ran him up the steps and through the new hole in the window.
Walkers were still lurking outside, the adults quickly took care of as many as they could.
The group all rushed back into their vehicles and watched as Dale and Andrea came running out and the pair jumped behind a wall of sandbags. Daryl pulled Leo's head down to hide behind the dashboard just in time for the large explosion.
Slowly they looked up, panting and watching the fire catch of hurriedly, "Holy shit" Leo said under his breath.
After a long pause, no one moving other than Dale and Andrea running back to the rv, Rick slowly pulled away in the so everyone else followed and turned back the way, heading far away.
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