"Are you hung over?" Carl smirked as his dad walked into the kitchen. "Mom said you would be."
Rick sighed, grabbing a plate of eggs from T-dog and joining his family at the table. "Mom is right."
"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori laughed lightly from beside him.
Rick was glad she seemed to be doing better this morning. She had been quite upset when she came to bed last night and he'd figured it had been all the stress of the current world.
"Hey Carl, go wake up Aunt Lauren?" Rick asked, noticing his sister wasn't at the table. His son nodded, running off down the hallway.
"Eggs?" T-dog offered the rest of the group. "They're powdered but- I do em good." He chuckled.
He was cut off by a loud groan from Glenn, who had obviously drank way more than he should've last night.
"Jesus," Lauren laughed as Carl returned to the kitchen with his Aunt. Lauren made a B-line for T-dog and his powdered eggs and nudged Glenn on her way. "You look like shit."
Glenn groaned louder this time. "Don't ever ever ever let me drink again."
The table chuckled. T-dog scooped some eggs onto Laurens plate and tossed Tank a piece of sausage. Tank happily took his food and placed himself underneath Carl's chair.
"Hey." Rick greeted as Shane walked in and made a beeline for the coffee maker.
"Hey."
"You feel as bad as I do?" Rick laughed, clearly not noticing the sudden silence from both his wife and sister.
Shane muttered back. "Worse."
"The hell happened to you?" T-dog asked, walking closer to Shane. "Your neck?" Noticing three bright red scratch marks.
Shane sat beside Lauren and shrugged. "Must've done it in my sleep."
"I've never seen you do that before." Rick observed. Lauren purposefully grabbed her plate and opted to eat her breakfast standing. She currently wanted to be as far away from Shane as possible.
"Me neither." Shane said, looking between Lauren and Lori. "Not like me at all."
Upon Dale and Andrea's questions, after breakfast, Jenner led the group into the computer room they had seen the night before.
"Give me a playback of TS-19." Jenner spoke into one of the computers. The screen at the front of the room suddenly lit up, showing some sort of brain scan.
"Take us in for EIV." He instructed.
"Now showing Enhanced Internal View." The computer voice spoke. Looking further inside the brain, lights could be seen running all throughout it.
"What are all those lights?" Shane asked.
"It's a person's life." The Dr. explained. "Experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in 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.
Jenner continued. "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?" Rick cut in. "That's what this is? A vigil?"
"Yes. Or rather a playback of the vigil."
"This person died?" Andrea stepped forward, looking both interested and sad. "Who?"
"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process." He said solemnly. "VI, scan forward to the first event."
The computer zoomed out to show the full brain scan, only the stems once bright lights were now replaced by darkness.
"It invades the brain like Meningitis." He explained while the subject on the screen began to convulse slightly. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down, then the major organs."
The subject continued convulsing until all the light in the brain was taken over by darkness. Then the subject was still.
"Then, death. Everything you ever were or ever will be, gone."
Jenner turned to look at Andrea who was struggling to hold back the horror on her face.
"She lost somebody two days ago." Lori explained. "Her sister."
"I lost somebody too." Jenner moved closer to Andrea. "I know how devastating it is."
"Scan to the second event." He turned his attention back to 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."
They all watched silently as the darkness of the brain began to be replaced with red.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori said in disbelief.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive?"
"You tell me."
"The lobes aren't active, most of it's dark," Lauren observed, not taking her eyes away from the screen. "All the memories are gone."
"Dark, lifeless, dead." Jenner agreed. "The frontal part, the neocortex, the human part -that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."
A sudden flash tore across the screen, leaving a line through the brain.
Carol gasped. "God, what was that?" Jenner didn't answer.
"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea asked.
Jenner simply ignored her, telling the computer to power down the main screen as well as the workstations.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" She pressed.
Jenner thought for a moment. "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal-"
"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui said with a tear-stained face.
"There is that."
"There are other facilities right?" Carol asked
"There may be some. People like me."
Rick was growing more frustrated. "You don't know? How can you not know?"
Jenner sighed. "Everything went down, communications too. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
Lauren sucked in a deep breath the same feeling of dread she had the previous night washing over her body again. "So there's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?"
Jenner didn't respond.
"Man Imma get shitfaced drunk. Again." Daryl muttered. Lauren would normally scoff or tell him to do something more productive, but at this moment, she agreed.
"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," Dale said pointing to the digital timer on the wall. The time was now counting down to an hour. "What happens at zero."
It was silent once again until Jenner sighed. "The basement generators run out of fuel."
"And then?" Rick prompted. But Jenner simply walked away.
"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Lauren spoke loudly into the room, not even sure she wanted the answer to her own question.
The computer-generated voice responded. "When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."
Rick and the rest of the men had hurried off towards the basement to check the generators, but Daryl didn't care anymore. All he wanted was to get shitfaced. He flopped down on the rec room couch, with a bottle of booze in his hand and closed his eyes.
"The hell do ya want?" He said dryly upon hearing someone enter the room. He opened his eyes when he felt the couch sink down beside him. Lauren sat across from him with her arm out, asking for the liquor, just like she had the night before.
"Seriously?" He snorted.
"Well, I didn't exactly come in here for your stellar conversation skills." She said, attempting to grab the bottle from his hands.
He sat up straighter, suddenly defensive. "The hell's that s'pose ta mean?"
Lauren sighed, clearly frustrated. "Nothing. Can I please have the booze?"
He looked at her warily for a second before shoving the bottle into her lap.
"Thought you didn't drink." He grunted.
Lauren let out a small laugh, getting major deja vu from the previous night but she quickly shook that thought. She was right, he didn't remember anything from their conversation. He was back to his usual self; short-tempered, rude, and stand-off ish. Albeit he was a little tipsy, or at least he was getting there, but he was nowhere near as intoxicated as before.
"I don't usually, but I don't really see a point in staying sober after hearing all that shit Jenner said." Lauren raised the bottle, taking a swig. Her face scrunched up as the liquor burned its way down her throat, it was worse than she remembered. "Oh, that shit is so bad."
Daryl let out a laugh, a real laugh. Lauren looked at him a bit surprised. She had never heard him genuinely laugh before, only mocking scoffs or the occasional snort from his nostrils.
He stopped laughing immediately when he noticed her expression and retreated back to his usual scowl.
"What?"
"Nothing I just- I don't think I've actually heard your laugh before," Lauren said, a slight smile playing on your lips. "I like it."
The lights went out. Not all of them, just the ones in the rooms. The small hallway was still illuminated with lamps on the walls.
Lauren shot Daryl a puzzled look, which he returned before standing and making his way towards the hall.
"Hey, what's going on?" He leaned his upper body into the hall. "Why's everything turning off?" Lauren joined him to find most of their people also in the hall, asking similar questions.
"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner said simply, grabbing the alcohol from Daryl and continuing down the hallway.
Dale's brow furrowed. "Air isn't a priority? And lights?"
"It's not up to me." Jenner continued. "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."
Lauren felt a pit of nerves bundle up in her stomach. Something was wrong, and she knew it wasn't just her anxiety talking.
"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl raised his voice, pushing his way up beside Jenner.
The doctor ignored him, walking into the room where he had shown the brain scan previously.
"Hey man I'm talkin' ta you!" Daryl said, clearly irritated. "Whaddya mean it's shuttin itself down? How can a building do anything?"
As they followed Jenner down the stairs to the main level of the room, Rick and the other men ran in from the entrance on the other side. Lauren watched her brother run over to Jenner's side, keeping his pace as the Doctor continued walking.
"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick tried to speak quietly but everyone could clearly hear.
"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power." He said calmly. "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark."
Jenner stopped when they reached the center platform filled with computer desks. He finished off the bottle that Lauren and Daryl had previously had, before holding it out to Daryl who promptly snatched it from him.
"It was the French." Jenner turned to Andrea after a moment.
"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, the French stayed in the labs till the end." Jenner paused, looking at the ground. "They thought they were close to a solution."
Jaqui asked, "What happened?"
"The same thing that's happening here," Jenner said matter of factly. "No power grid. They ran out of juice."
Lauren shot Rick a look and he nodded in understanding. They all needed to leave. Immediately.
"Lori, grab our things." Rick turned to face the group. "Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting outta here now!"
Everyone started to move but froze in their tracks when an alarm began blaring.
"Oh my god. What is that?" Lauren shouted, clamping her hands over her ears.
Suddenly the computer voice, Vi, announced, "30 minutes to decontamination."
"Alright everybody, you heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now!" Shane ordered, trying to hide the panic rising in his voice.
"She keeps saying 'decontamination', what the fuck does that mean?" Lauren shouted as she hurried towards the hallway. She quickly stopped when a steel door slid closed, sealing the exit.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn's voice shook as he made the terrifying realization. "He just locked us in!"
"What the fuck!" Lauren pounded on the metal door. "Open the door! My dog is out there!"
Jenner ignored the panic and opened a video diary on one of the computers. "We've hit the 30-minute window. I am recording."
Carl cried out for his mother. Lauren noticed Daryl's grip tightening on the bottle in his hand. He was going to do something stupid.
"You son of a bitch!" He lunged forward towards Jenner with the bottle raised. "You locked us in here!"
Shane nearly tackled Daryl to the ground. Rick and T-Dog joined him in trying to restrain Daryl. Normally, Lauren would've jumped in to try and stop the outburst as well, but this time she didn't. Not only because she couldn't force her body to move, but because if she could, she would've done the same thing.
Rick tried to sound calm and threatening. "Jenner, open that door now."
Jenner shook his head. "There's no point. Everything on the top side is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Well open the damn things."
"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."
Lauren felt like throwing up. All she could imagine was Tank's scared little face. Tank hated loud noises, Lauren had skipped out on New Year's parties to stay home and try and comfort him. She couldn't even imagine how terrified he probably was right now.
She suddenly couldn't control herself, she lunged at the Doctor. Rick was on her before she even made it five feet, holding her arms back so she couldn't attack.
"Let me out! Let me out! He's out there!" Lauren turned to face her brother, her angered screams morphing into sobs. "Tank is out there and he's scared and alone!"
Rick simply held his sister as she cried, what could he do?
"What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Glenn asked shakily, staring up at the large red countdown clock.
Jenner gave no answer. He simply focused on the ground once again.
"What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Shane repeated the question, slamming his palms on the desk beside the doctor.
"Do you know what this place is?" Jenner finally snapped, jumping up from his seat and shouting. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!"
All eyes were on Jenner as he sat once again and adjusted his lab coat, collecting himself.
"In the event of a catastrophic power failure- in a terrorist attack, for example- " He said in a much calmer tone. "H.I.Ts are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"Vi, define."
The computer voice proceeded to recite a definition that was barely understandable. The only thing Lauren caught was that it was some type of explosive used when "The greatest loss of life is desired" which she definitely didn't like the sound of. Once the definition was finished, they were all significantly more terrified but still confused.
"It sets the air on fire."
Lauren could feel the pressure building in her eyes, hot tears welling in her eyes. She couldn't tell if they were from anger, fear, or pre-mortem grief. Carol clutched her daughter as they both cried.
"No pain." Jenner said almost wistfully. "An end to suffering. To sorrow, grief, regret. Everything."
"Open the damn door!" Daryl screamed as the now empty liquor bottle smashed against the steel blocking their exit.
14 minutes remained on the clock. The men had been trying to open the door for the past 14 to no avail. Carol and Lori sat with the children, curled up against one of the desks beside Jenner. Lauren sat atop a desk glaring daggers into the doctor, and Jaquai and Andrea stood nearby.
"Outta my way." Shane yelled, barreling towards the door with an ax in hand. Daryl had been tossed one as well and they both swung. Unfortunately, the axs did nothing but make a few sparks against the metal.
Shane eventually made his way over to join the others, followed by Daryl
"It won't make a dent." Shane informed Rick, nodding to the ax.
Jenner shook his head, almost amused. "Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."
"Well yer head ain't!" Daryl retorted, lunging once again towards the doctor.
As expected, he barely made it a few feet before Rick, Shane, and T-dog were on him. They held him back while Lauren hurried over to pry the ax from his hands, before returning to her spot on the desk with it.
"You do want this." Jenner rose from his chair, speaking directly to Rick. "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."
"You what? " Lauren's head spun towards her brother, the betrayal in her voice poorly covered by anger.
Shane was more mocking. "You really said that? After all your big talk."
"I had to keep hope alive didn't I?" Rick snapped back.
"There is no hope." Jenner said. "There never was."
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody, somewhere-"
"What part of "everythings gone" do you not understand?" Andrea cut him off.
"Listen to your friend, she gets it." Jenner compelled. "This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."
Quiet sobs filled the room.
"This isn't right." Carol sniffled. "You can't just keep us here."
Jenner leaned forward, attempting to comfort the woman. "One tiny moment- a millisecond. No pain."
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."
"Wouldn't it be kinder?" He reasoned. "Just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"
The more he spoke the angrier Lauren got, only the anger wasn't directed at the Doctor, it was at herself. Because the more he explained it, the more she found herself understanding his point. Everything was gone. There was no hope anywhere. There was nothing beyond those doors but a world of pain.
Lauren heard the sound of a gun cocking from behind her.
"Shane no!"
"Get outta my way, Rick!" Shane yelled, marching towards the doctor with a rifle in hand and shoving his friend out of the way.
"Open that door, or I'm gonna blow your head off." He growled, the barrel of his gun only inches from Jenner's face. "Do you hear me?"
Rick spoke lowly, pleading with his friend. "Brother, this is not the way. You do this, we'll never get outta here."
"Shane, you listen to him." Lori said sternly.
Rick continued as Shane's manic eyes stayed on the doctor. "Shane, you do this, we die. We all die!"
Shane suddenly let out a rage-filled scream before redirecting his gun at one of the computer desks and firing several times.
Rick managed to wrestle the gun away from Shane after a bit of a struggle and Lauren quickly jumped from her perch on the desk. She kicked the back of Shane's knee, causing him to drop to his knees. When he went to reach for Rick again, she shoved him once again.
Looking down at him, now fully on the ground, she gave him a challenging look. "You done now?" Lauren asked as if she were scolding a child. "Are you done?"
Shane scoffed. "Yeah, I guess we all are."
It was quiet. The only sound filling the room was heavy breathing as everyone cooled down from Shane's outburst. Lauren joined Glenn beside the small staircase, leaving Shane to sulk.
"If you really believe what you're saying," Rick said, breaking the silence. "About there being no hope, then why didn't you bolt with the others? Take the easy way out? Why'd you stay?"
"It wasn't because I wanted to." Jenner said angrily.
"He promised his wife." Lauren said numbly.
Jenner looked at her, a look of shock on his face. "How did you-"
"I found your video logs." Lauren explained before he finished the question. She looked up at the screen that still showed the brain scan. "I'm assuming that's her?"
"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori said in disbelief.
Jenner looked sad and confused, but not angry like Lauren assumed he would be. Maybe he just didn't see any reason to be mad with her now. They were all going to die anyway. Jenner simply sighed solemnly. "She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?"
While Jenner continued to explain, Daryl headed back over to the metal doors, ax in hand. He knew it wouldn't work, but it was better than sitting around listening to this shit.
Lauren had no clue what Rick had said to Jenner, but it had worked. After a few minutes of Daryl swinging, the metal door suddenly retracted.
"C'mon let's go!" Daryl shouted, waving for their group to hurry. They gathered on the ramp, turning to wait when Jenner said something quietly to Rick.
"We've got four minutes left, let's go!" Glenn shouted.
"C'mon c'mon." T-dog muttered, leading Jacqui up the ramp.
"No, I'm staying." She suddenly pulled back. "I'm staying, Sweetie."
"But that's insane!"
"No, it's completely sane! For the first time in a long time." She said tearfully. "I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy."
The group stared at her in shock. Jacqui was the most comforting, loving person they had. They couldn't lose her.
"There's no time to argue. And no point. Not if you wanna get out. Just get out." She pleaded. "Get out!"
The group started off down the hallway, with Daryl in the back. He saw Lauren hesitate, looking back at Jacqui.
"Lauren!" He called. "C'mon woman we ain't got all day."
She gave Jacqui one last sad glance before running down the hall as well. Lauren ran behind Daryl until they reached the second hallway.
"The hell are you doin'?" Daryl shouted as he saw her make a right instead of a left towards the exit.
"Tank is still in here!" Lauren shouted as she continued running. "I can't leave him!"
Daryl hesitated, he glanced down the hall to see the group heading towards the exit and then looked back at Lauren.
"Goddamnit, Woman." He growled, taking off after her.
Bursting into the room they had entered from, Glenn and T-dog headed straight for the doors, but they wouldn't open. Daryl and Rick made a beeline for the giant glass windows. They wouldn't so much as crack. Shane's bullets barely even made a dent.
"Rick," Carol said nervously. "I have something that might help."
"Carol, I don't think a nail-file's gonna do it." Shane mocked.
"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform- I found this in the pocket." She explained, carefully pulling out a grenade from her bag.
Lauren reached the rec room to find Tank cowering underneath the coffee table. Her heart broke as he looked up at her, absolutely terrified. Crouching down, Lauren pulled Tank out by his collar, she felt a bit guilty handling him so roughly but she really didn't have time to dwell on it.
The group in the lobby quickly dispersed and found cover. Rick carefully pulled the pin and made a dash for cover.
"Get down!" Someone yelled. The window shattered and everyone stumbled over, ears ringing and adrenaline rushing. Running through the CDC courtyard and avoiding a few scattered walkers, they made a dash for the cars.
Lauren pulled Tank out into the hallway to find Daryl.
"What the hell are you doing?" She shouted, expecting him to be with the rest of the group.
"Makin sure your stupid ass gets outta here alive!" He shouts back. The building shakes and Lauren stumbles a bit in the hallway. Tank, who is still terrified, cowers behind Lauren's leg. Daryl quickly scooped up the dog like he weighed nothing and continued down the corridor. They made it to the area where Lauren had initially split off to find Andrea and Dale running towards the exit as well.
"How long we got?" Daryl shouts over the blaring alarm. The group continues running.
"Less than a minute!" Dale shouts back. They burst into the lobby and head for the shattered glass wall. Daryl jumps down and sets Tank on the grass, Lauren, Andrea, and Dale follow closely behind. Tank bolts for the RV door towards Glenn who is shouting at them to hurry.
The four of them hopped onto the grass and they made a dead sprint for the cars, Daryl and Lauren a bit ahead of the other two.
"Get down!" Lori shouted.
They had just enough time to duck down behind a pile of sandbags before the building blew. Daryl grabbed Lauren as the explosion rang out, shielding her from it. He basically bear-hugged her crouched down body with his back facing the building.
"Y'aight?" He asked once the impact was finished.
She nodded trying to steady her breathing. She managed to stand up and stumble over to Daryl's pickup truck. She sank into the passenger seat and Daryl got in on the driver's side. The group quickly peeled off, knowing that an explosion like that was bound to draw every walker in the city. As they drove off, Lauren glanced at the rearview mirror, taking one last look at what once was their safe haven.