The three rejoined the rest of the group who were all exiting their rooms wondering why the lights and other electrical things were shutting off.
"Why is the air off? And the lights in our room?" Carol exclaimed looking at Jenner who was walking down the hall chugging a bottle of whiskey.
"What's going on? Why is everything turned off?" Rick huffed getting annoyed with Jenner's silence.
"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner shrugged.
"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Daryl scoffed.
"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Shane shouted following Jenner down the hallway. "Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"
"You'd be surprised."
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked seriously as Jenner led the group back into the main room and took a seat at his desk.
"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. Right on schedule. It was the French."
"What?"
"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?" Andrea wondered.
"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"
"To hell with it. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick yelled motioning for the group to head out the main doors and back to their rooms.
Before anyone could even make it towards the large doors a metal barrier came down from the ceiling locking them in.
"No." Cali gasped gripping onto her brother as they stopped in front of the blockade.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked looking around with wide eyes. "He just locked us in!"
"We've hit the 30-minute window. I am recording." Jenner mumbled to himself messing around with one of the computers.
"Carl." Lori cried pulling her now crying son into her arms. She also placed a comforting hand on Cali's back as they watched Shane storm over to Jenner.
"You son of a bitch!" The man hissed gripping onto Jenner's lab coat, pulling him closer. "You let us out of here!"
"Shane!" Rick exclaimed pushing his best friend away from Jenner. "Hey, Jenner, open that door now."
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Well, open the damn things." Daryl shouted from his place by the door where he was inspecting how sturdy it is.
"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." The doctor explained with a tired sigh. "It's better this way."
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Dale asked looking at the clock that was still counting down.
The group received no answer from Jenner as he typed away at the computer.
"What happens in 28 minutes?!" Rick demanded.
"You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff!" Jenner stared absent mindedly at the monitors. "Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever! In the event of a catastrophic power failure... in a terrorist attack, for example... H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"H.I.T.s?" Rick repeated to himself, knowing he wasn't going to get much more out of Jenner he turned to the automatic voice connected to the whole facility. "Vi, define."
"Hits... high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists 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 ignites the oxygen between 5,000° and 6,000° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
The robotic voice explained causing everyone in the room to frown.
"It sets the air on fire. No pain." Jenner softly spoke brushing a tear from his eye. "An end to sorrow, grief... Regret. Everything."
The men were quickly at the door trying to use anything to break through it. Daryl had an axe while Shane and Glenn threw chairs at it. Nothing they tried even made a dent in the metal.
The rest of the group stood by listening to Jenner try and convince them how dying was the best option. His attention was especially focused on Andrea, who he knew had recently experienced a loss.
"Can't make a dent." T-Dog huffed out of breathe as he handed Shane another chair.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner spoke up.
"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl snapped rushing towards the man with the axe only to be stopped by Rick.
"Whoa! Whoa! Daryl! Daryl! Just back up! Back up!" The Grimes man breathed out trying to remain calm.
"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner cut in looking directly at Rick.
"What?" Cali questioned from her spot next to her mother and brother. Both Lori and Cali looked extremely pissed to hear the way Rick felt.
"You really said that?" Shane scoffed shaking his head. "After all your big talk?"
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?"
"There is no hope. There never was." The doctor sighed sitting down.
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere..." Carol spoke up for the first time with tears in her eyes as she held onto Sophia.
"What part of "everything is gone" do you not understand?" Andrea snapped sinking to the floor. Cali wasn't shocked that the blonde was the first one of their group to give up. As much as she disliked Andrea she knew how she felt. If Cali had no one left she'd have nothing to live for either.
"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner nodded smiling down at the blonde.
"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol cried shaking her head.
"One tiny moment... a millisecond. No pain. My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this. Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"
Shane shook his head thinking to himself before looking over to Cali, who looked utterly terrified. "Open the damn door!" Shane snapped pulling his gun out of his belt and beginning to storm towards Jenner. Rick of course immediately stepped in front of his friend knowing he was about to do something stupid. "Out of my way!"
"Shane, no!" Rick sighed but Shane pushed past him marching straight to Jenner.
"Rick! Stay out of my way!" He hissed as the Grimes man followed closely behind him. "Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?"
"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here." Rick pleaded watching the way Shane's hand shook as he held the gun up to Jenner's head.
"Shane, you listen to him." Lori spoke up from where she was holding onto Carl and Cali.
The look on Cali's face had him sighing in frustration, he knew Rick was right but he wanted to kill the doctor for scaring Cali.
"He dies, we all die!" Rick stated looking him in the eye hoping he'd understand. The Walsh man sharply twisted his body and began firing off shot after shot at the rows of computers.
"Shane!" Cali exclaimed not liking how aggressive he was acting.
"Are you done now? Are you done?" Rick spat after the shots finally ceased.
"Yeah, I guess we all are."
•
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
here's chapter fifty
please let me know what you guys think
vote/comment
•
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
•