Chapter 18: Mindless Instinct
~ Shane's POV ~
I lay back on the beige couch in my dormitory, taking the final sips from the bottle of red wine that Zelda and I were "sharing". Zelda lay on top of me just a little further down, her head resting up high on my toned stomach. Her sea blue eyes were closed, making it hard to tell whether she was asleep by now or not, as the time according to the clocks around the CDC indicated that it was three minutes to midnight.
"You sleeping baby?" I asked her in hushed whispers, my voice occasionally slurring from the excessive amount of alcohol that not only I drank, but Zelda too.
"Mmmmm?" She moaned as I brought my hand up to her head and began to stroke it softly.
"Here, I'll drop you back off to your dorm and you can get some rest." I suggested, gently trying to move her into a sitting position, but she didn't want this and clung on to one side of my unbuttoned three quarter sleeved blue denim shirt, pulling me back down into our lying down position.
"Please, stay." She whispered, holding me down.
"Okay." I breathed, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead as my head began to spin from the alcohol. I decided that maybe it was better if neither of us went anywhere, as we'd probably just fall on top of each other if we even attempted to get up.
Just as Zelda began to drift off to sleep, rapid knocks on my door began to echo around the small room, the sound bouncing off the walls like a tennis ball impact on racquet and slithering into Zelda and I's ears.
"Fuck off." I slurred, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand.
"Shane, we need to talk." Said a voice now identifiable as being Lori's.
"Now is not the time, Lori." I groaned.
"When is it ever the time?" She hissed, cranking the handle of the door and swinging it open, revealing a sleeping Zelda curled up on me.
She gave me a stern look. I moaned as I nudged Zelda gently to tell her I needed to get up. I told her I'd be back, to which she simply nodded and went back off to sleep.
Lori lead me into the rec room where I had carried a concussed Zelda earlier today. She let me pass in through first, closing the door roughly behind her, a scowl painted across what I once saw as a beautiful face.
"It's about time we had a chat, don't you think?" She said, pursing her lips into a thin line.
"What about this time?" I asked, exasperated at having to face her, "is this about Rick? Is it about what we once were? Is it about us?"
"How can you treat me like this, Shane?"
"Please tell me you're joking." I huffed, "we had a fling for a bit, your husband came back from the dead and now I've found someone I think I love."
"So this is the end of the road for us? This is it?"
"Well what the fuck do you want Lori? We fucked a few times, then you got all pissy at me when Rick came back and fucked him, and now I'm with someone in a more serious relationship that you and I ever had."
"We don't have to end what we had, Shane," murmured Lori as she moved closer to me, pressing my back up against the wall next to the door, her breasts pushing up against my chest.
"I'm sorry, I can't." I whispered as I put my hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back a little away from me, "we're done."
"No we ain't, Shane, no we ain't." She hushed, lifting her face up to my neck and planting kisses along my jaw line, "Rick don't gotta know, Zelda don't gotta know either."
"No deal, Lori."
"You know you still want me, you know you still love me."
"I never loved you to begin with Lori!" I bellowed, losing my temper and shoving her roughly back, "I'm one of those guys that just wants to fuck and be done with it. I don't want love, I never wanted love from you Lori; I just wanted sex. It was the fucking apocalypse, you and I both needed comfort, that's how we got it!"
She looked up at me with a bewildered expression on her face, her big brown eyes bugging out at me, "fuck you." She spat, raising her hand and scratching me down the side of my neck, her nails gathering flakes of my skin underneath them.
"Gah!" I choked, raising my hand to my neck mad clutching it.
She clamped her hands over her mouth at realisation of what had just gone down.
"You bitch." I sneered, kicking the coffee table as hard as I could with my foot and grabbing the door handle, swinging the door roughly open and slamming it behind me in a fury of anger.
~ Zelda's POV ~
Here it came again.
"Ugh-ack-eughrgh!"
The vomit burned my throat on the way up and over.
"Eurgh-erhr-glurch!"
I held my hair back with one hand as I spewed over the toilet in Shane's dorm.
"Eurghhurrr!"
I heard hurried and fast paced footsteps making their way through the door of the dorm. The bathroom door swung open at lighting fast speed, slamming into the tiled wall.
Shane stood in the door frame, his brown eyes burning.
"Zel!" He exclaimed, running through the door and sliding down onto his knees beside me, getting himself into a kneeling position behind me and clamping his hands over my own which were currently busy holding back my hair.
"It's alright baby, get it all out." He whispered, rubbing my back with one hand and holding my hair with the other, "it's okay, go right ahead."
"Gurghl-bleurgh-eurghgl!" I vomited, "ack."
I brought my head back from the toilet bowl and wiped my mouth with the back of my arm, getting up and away from Shane to the sink and washing my face with cold water.
"I think that's all of it." I said, my voice weak and shaky as my hands shook when shutting the taps off, "what did Lori want? She looked pissed."
"Nothing." He replied quickly, "don't worry about a thing, I love you."
I nodded as he caressed my cheek with his thumb, stroking it before planting a kiss on the top of my head, "I love you too." I whispered.
~
I woke up the next morning draped over the couch in Shane's dorm, whilst Shane's body was strewn across the floor next to the couch. Our hands were touching through the night as mine hung down from the couch and his lay limp on the floor. We must have fallen asleep holding hands as this normally didn't occur as a coincidence.
I hastily opened one eye and took a peek at Shane's sleeping body on the floor next to me, three empty bottles of red wine lying down by the couch. I got up into a seated position and swung my legs over the side of the couch, gently nudging Shane in the side with my foot.
"Oi, ladder-boy, rise and motherfucking shine princess." I smiled, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes with my hands.
"It's been over a month already and you still haven't dropped that nickname, have ya?" He chuckled sweetly.
"I'll never." I grinned proudly, puffing my chest out.
He got up from the floor and stretched his back out before speaking, "let's get to breakfast."
Shane and I were the first ones into the cafeteria, the deserted area creeping me out a little. I grabbed a packet of of cereal from the shelf and popped it open, grabbing a carton of long life milk and pouring it into a bowl, emptying the cereal into it right after.
I took a seat beside Shane who munched away on some scrambled eggs which he put together out of powdered eggs. Not long after, the rest of our group began to pile into the canteen. Lori and Carl sat on the opposite side of the table to Shane and I, Lola and Jacqui sitting on either side of us.
"Morning." Grinned Rick who was the last to come into the cafeteria.
"Are you hungover?" Asked Carl, a cheeky smile appearing onto his face, "mom said you'd be."
"Mom is right." Snickered Rick, cocking his head playfully to the side.
"Mom has that annoying habit." Chuckled Lori, tucking her chocolate brown hair behind her ear.
Rick wasn't the only one to be seemingly hungover, for Shane and I spent most of last night drinking cheap wine to our hearts content. We had been out of beer at the campsite back on the outskirts of Atlanta for a while now, meaning we were deprived of alcohol. Last night, we got all of it back. Daryl didn't seem fazed by hangover, but it was a different story all together for Glenn, the poor Asian boy that was new to drinking so much alcohol in one sitting. He groaned and moaned as Jacqui and Andrea rubbed his back, T-Dog cooking up some protein rich eggs for Glenn.
"Don't ever, ever, let me drink again." He moaned as crammed a fork full of scrambled eggs into his mouth.
"It's okay, you'll get used to it." I winked.
"Dude, you burn alcohol and caffeine like there's no tomorrow, I'm jealous at how much you can drink!" Giggled Lola, her pale blue eyes lined in a cheap Rimmel London eyeliner which I had picked up from the gas station Shane and I looted yesterday. I had my own with me too. Fuck the fact that this was indeed a zombie apocalypse, there were two cops in this group and I didn't fancy being arrested on multiple accounts of ugliness.
Shane's head was rested on the brown wooden table, his eyes open and staring out into the distance. He seemed different this morning, but I brushed it off as it being simply the alcohol from last night talking.
"Humph," scoffed Rick, taking a look at his best friend beside me, "you feel as bad as I do?"
"Worse." Complained Shane, closing his eyes.
Rick squinted his eyes at Shane, seemly observing his neck before saying, "hey, what the hell happened to you? Your neck...."
"Musta done it in my sleep." He replied, lifting his hand to cover his neck.
I grabbed Shane's hand and pulled it away, looking at two scratches that went from his jaw line down to his mid-neck. I gasped and put my cold hands on his sore, trying to cool it down. The marks were fresh.
"I've never seen you do that before." I frowned, taking away my now warm hands that had just been heated by Shane's skin. I leaned in and gave his cuts a gentle peck with the lips and rated my head on his broad shoulder.
"Me neither." He said with a sad smile.
"Not like you at all." said Lori, her poor attempt of concealing a scowl on her face shattering effortlessly.
Shane glared back at her without a word, then turning his attention to me and kissing me softly on my temple.
"Morning doc." Piped up Lola as Dr. Jenner strode into the room.
"Good morning." He replied with a slight smile, making his way over to the fruit bowl and pulled out a packet of sultanas.
"Hey doc, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" started Dale before Jenner cut him off.
"But you will anyway." He chuckled, popping a handful of sultanas straight into his mouth.
"We didn't come here for the eggs." Chimed in Andrea, her once playful face now dead serious.
Jenner took notice of this and set the packet down on the table, opening his arms to show that he was ready for whatever we were about to throw at him.
"What do you want from me then?" He asked.
"We came here for answers, for clues on whatever this infection thing may be." said Lola, folding her arms across her chest before standing up from her seat and walking over to him, "can we see what you've been working on?"
Dr. Jenner lead all of us into a big room, Lola up front with Jenner and guiding us along with him, the room was dome shaped, and screens littered the area, one giant screen in particular up ahead which appeared like those you'd find in a cinema, only more sturdy and stable. Dr. Jenner sat down at a computer whilst I walked up the back beside Andrea and Shane, the three of us amazed at the facility we were currently held up in.
"Give me a playback of TS-19." Said Jenner, pressing a few buttons on the computer in a hurried fashion.
"Playback of TS-19." replied a female automated robotic voice.
The giant screen flickered to life and a computer devised video began to load.
"Few people only ever got the chance to see this." Announced Jenner, "very few."
Shane strayed away from my side with a cup of coffee in hand, as Lola walked up to Andrea and I who stood next to one another.
The video began to play and an X-Ray of a humans head came up on the screen.
"Is that a brain?" Exclaimed Carl in a whirl of excitement.
"An extraordinary one." Smiled Jenner before his face went blank, "not that it matters in the end."
Jenner paused before continuing on with his speech, "Take us in for the EIV."
"Enhanced internal view." Replied the robotic voice.
The video zoomed in on the body of the patient who I assumed to be a human at this point in the video. The camera then continued to zoom in the patient's brain, bright little blue lights sparking in the mind of the now dead human being.
"What are those lights?" Asked Shane from across the room.
"It's a persons life." Replied Jenner "memories, experiences. Everything. Somewhere in all those organic wirings, in all those ripples of light... Is you. The thing that makes you.... unique and human."
"I know what they are." Chimed in Lola, "those are the synopsis, you know, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. Like when you stub your toe and it hurts, or you think something that gives you goose pimps."
"Clever girl." Praised Jenner, nodding his head over at Lola to tell her that she was correct, "they determine everything a person says, thinks and does from the moment of birth to the moment of death.
"Death?" Said Rick in an inquisitive voice, "that's what this is? A vigil?"
"Yeah." Replied Jenner, "or rather the playback of a vigil."
"This person died?" Asked Andrea, her blue eyes becoming like those of a bug as she stared at the screen, "who?"
"Test subject nineteen. They were bitten, infected.... They also volunteered to help us by.... Recording the process...." His eyes become cloudy, almost dreamlike as he stared out into the distance before coming back to his senses, "Scan forward to the first event."
"Scanning forward to the first event." Said the robotic female voice again.
The video of the brain in the vigil began to slowly darken, a black colour flooding the veins that were once a glowing blue. My eyes widened at the picture of the strange thing invading the brain.
"What is that?" asked Glenn, squinting his eyes at the screen, trying to figure out what on earth the black stuff was.
"That's it: the sickness." Replied Jenner, "it invades the brain like meningitis."
Lola's jaw dropped as she witnessed the turn, "what the- it's haemorrhaging the adrenal glands!"
"Correct," said Dr.Jenner with a nod of his head, "it causes the brain to go into shutdown... Followed by the major organs."
"And then death...." Trailed Lola, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Everything you ever were or every will be.... Gone." Whispered Jenner.
Andrea and Lola began to tear up whilst innocent Sophia had all the questions, "is that what happened to Jim?"
"Yes honey." Nodded Carol, giving her young daughter a squeeze on the arm out of pure comfort.
Tears began to stream down Lola's face, Andrea's sadness over her sisters recent death overpowering her too. Dr.Jenner simply looked at them strangely, lighting cocking his head to one side.
"They lost somebody a few days ago." I piped up, taking the two crying girls into a group hug with me. Lola's slender hand clutched onto the material of my shirt of the back as Andrea's arm hugged my neck closely. "It was Andrea's sister.... And... Lola's best friend."
Dr.Jenner walked slowly up to the girls without saying a word, until finally he reached them and began to speak, "I lost somebody too, I know how devastating it is." He then began to back off back to the big screen, "scan to the second event!"
"Scanning to the second event." Said the robotic voice.
"The resurrection times vary wildly, we have reports of it happening in as little as two minutes and our longest report of eight hours."
"We've seen the process stretch out over twenty four hours." I chimed in, releasing the two sobbing girls from my tight hug.
"Well, in the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."
As the video played, I noticed a strange red electronic pulse occurring amongst brain of the ex-patient, the brain now completely black except for this red glow emitting from the stem. The red light travelled up the veins of the brain and spread out a little, but didn't stray too far from the brain stem.
"It restarts the brain?!" Exclaimed Lori.
"No, just the brain stem." Replied Jenner casually, "basically it just gets them up and moving."
"But.... They're dead...." Said Rick.
"You tell me!" Scoffed Jenner.
Rick bit his lip, "it's nothing like before."
"Most of that brain is dark... And dead and useless." Frowned Lola.
"The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the YOU part, that doesn't come back." Added Jenner, "just a shell driven by mindless instinct."
The picture now changed and the body of the patient began to move. It started to cough, most likely growl and gasp for air. Suddenly, a bright white light ripped through the patients head and split the brain in two.
"Woah, what was that?!" Said Carol.
"He shot his patient in the head..." Murmured Andrea.
Jenner stared solemnly at the ground, not wanting to say a word. He took a deep breath and then spoke again, "power down the main screen and work stations."
"Powering down." Came the robotic voice yet again.
"You have no idea what the hell this thing is, do you doctor?!" Said Lola, slightly angered by the video that we had all just watched.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal...." Trailed off Jenner, listing endless possibilities.
"Or the wrath of god?" Said Jacqui, her eyes burning.
"Somebody must know something." Frowned Andrea, pursing her lips and brushing the blonde hair out of her eyes.
"Aren't there any other facilities?" Asked Lola, sticking by her friend.
"There might be some.... People like me..." Wondered Jenner.
"But you don't know?!" Yelled Rick, "how can you not know?!"
"Everything went down... All the communications. Look, I've been in the dark. For almost a month."
"So there's nothing left?" Sniffed Lola, her pretty pale face becoming almost transparent with fear and sadness. Her once rosy cheeks were now white with dismay as tears threatened to spill over her dark eyeliner painted eyes. "There's nothing. That's what you're really trying to say, isn't it?"
Jenner didn't reply to Lola, but merely looked sadly down at the ground without a word to be said. His gloomy eyes met with Lola's and he nodded to confirm her worst fears.
This was our extinction event.
A/N I know this chapter was boring, but I just needed to introduce you as readers to the underlying problems within this group, such as the issues between Shane and Lori's relationship and exactly what the hell the CDC actually is, so I apologise if this chapter wasn't exactly to your liking, but hopefully the next chapter will be better.
Thank you anyways for reading,
Xx