*Edited*
I was the first to run in. For all, I know it could have been into a whole horde of walkers. But when echoes of my feet hitting the concrete floor sounded in my ears, I knew there was a different story. Rick and the others followed right behind me, fanning out. I ran my gun raised as I turned the corner to come face to face with a man who had a shotgun. I backed up towards the group.
"Anyone infected?" The man asked in a dull tone.
"One of our group was, he didn't make it," Rick told.
"Why are you here, and what do you want?" He advanced towards the group while pushing me back to them.
"A chance." Rick and I say together.
"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man said.
"We know," I told him. It was deadly quiet for a few minutes; it was so silent it hurt my ears. The man was looking around at all of us, considering.
"You'll all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." He hurriedly said. "We can do that." Rick nodded.
"You have anything to bring in. You do it now. Once those doors close, it stays closed!" And with that, Rick, Daryl, and Shane all turned around to grab the much-needed bags out of everyone's vehicles. I stayed back and watched the door for walkers, occasionally stabbing one in the head. When they came back, Daryl handed me my bag with a nod and walked off. Wait, he only had my bag. Did he not grab anyone else's? That's a dick move.
"I'm Dr. Edwin Jenner. Follow me." He leads us to an elevator that we all had to ride in. I stayed next to Carl, who was by Andrea, Lori, and Jenner. A few moments into the ride, Daryl spoke up.
"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Referring to Edwin's shotgun.
"Plenty were lying around, so I thought I'd familiarize myself. But you look harmless enough. Except you." He said to Carl. "I'm gonna have to keep my eye on you." He said, pointing at him. I pulled Carl into my chest and glared at Edwin. "Sorry, is he yours? I didn't mean to offend you." He raised both his hands.
"He's not mine; I can't have any. I am very protective of him." The ding saying we reached our floor pulled us away from the conversation.
We all walked out into a large hallway with a layout of an apartment complex. "Are we underground?" "Mom," questioned.
"Are you claustrophobic?" He asked, looking back. "A little," Carol said in an upset tone.
"Try not to think about it." He said as we went into a room with multiple needles. I sat down first before anyone else could just get it over. I'd never had a fear of needles. I had gotten tattoos before, so I was okay. So when Jenner pulled the needle out, I was no different.
After a while, the last person was up, Andrea. After she finished, she almost fell out of the chair. "Are you okay?"
"She's just a little tired. None of us have eaten in days." Jacqui told him.
"Come with me." Jenner walked out the door towards a big open room. "Vi, turn on the lights in the big room." The lights came on.
"Thought you said you were the only one in here," Rick questioned.
"Vi, say hello to our guests." A loud computerized voice went over the speakers. Hello, guests, welcome.
"I'm all that's left." He said, turning around leading us deeper into the building.
The next thing I know, it's about an hour later, and half our group is shitfaced drunk -me not included. I'm not against it; I've drunk before. But why drink something that only takes the pain away for a little while.
"You know in Italy the children can drink a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." Dale said, reaching for Carl's cup.
"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, then he can have some." Lori covered his cup with her hand.
"What's it going to hurt? Come on? Come on?" Rick said, looking at me for approval while questioning his wife. I shrugged my shoulders. Wine is only powerful when you drink a lot. Everyone here had about four glasses. Besides me, I had just eaten my food and asked for bottled water.
Dale poured not even an inch of the purple liquid into Carl's cup after Lori let up. Carl lifted the cup and drank a tiny bit. "Blagh, that's taste bad!" We chuckled, and I stood up and grabbed his cup, and put the rest of the wine in my mouth while walking with my dishes to the sink.
"That's my boy." I heard Lori say as I passed by. I stayed in there for a while. While hearing everyone else laugh and drink, I only went back out when I heard about places to sleep after Shane had killed the moment.
We grabbed bags and followed Jenner once again through the facility. "Some people will have to share a room, but each room has a bathroom with a shower with hot water so fight it over between yourselves. I'll see you all in the morning." He said and walked away.
"Did he say hot water?!" Glenn asks, excitement in his voice.
"You bet he did," I replied, just as equally excited. I turned to my left, taking the closest room towards me at the beginning of the hall, so all I would have to do in the morning was turn right, and I was right back in the kitchen.
I walked into the room, and it was a decent size, a king-size bed on the back wall, a couch to the right, and a closet and a door on the left. I closed the door behind me and dropped my bag on the bed. I lay out everything in it clothes, weapons, food, water, and other necessities (memory items). I pick up all my underwear, some lace other solid, bras, and a large oversized shirt to sleep in and head to the bathroom. I fill the sink up with hot water to clean my clothes while I'm in the shower.
I step into the hot water of the shower, letting it run down my body and through my hair; it felt so lovely. I felt very clean now, having all the sweat, dirt, and bloodstains off my body. After about 30 minutes, I got out, put on a black pair of bikini underwear, and my oversized white shirt will small word on the front. I unplugged the sink and hung everything to dry. When I stepped out of the bathroom, I drew my eyes to a figure on my couch. There lay a sleepy drunk off his ass Dixon.
I walked over, lean over him to grab a blanket for him when arms went around my waist, pulling me closer. He snuggled into my neck while holding me close, but I knew he would regret it in the morning, so I slowly moved his hands off and put the blanket in my place. I shook my head and plopped down on the bed, turning out the light and falling asleep.
***
When I woke up in the morning, the Dixon was still sleeping, so I grabbed the black pants I wore yesterday and slipped a bra on underneath the white shirt. I pick up all of my now clean clothes from the bathroom and put them all in my bag with everything else. I laced up my boots and went to the kitchen.
"Are you hungover?" Carl immediately asked me.
"Not with what little was in your cup last night, sir. That was as much as I drank. " T-dog scooped a pile of powdered eggs onto my plate, and I quickly ate it.
The others started gathering in and making small talk. I made no effort to listen fully. It was something about marks on Shanes' neck and Glenn never drinking again. Andrea said that we wanted answers, and to be honest, I wanted them too.
I got up and followed Jenner to the big room. "Give me playback of TS-19." He said to the computer. A video popped up on the screen in front of us. It was blue but looked like it was monitoring a human's brain. It lit up like a Christmas tree. Blues, greens, and yellows throughout it. It must be the memories, I thought.
"The lights are experiences, memories, things you know. They are what make you, you. From birth to death." Jenner said, confirming my theory.
"This is death. This person died?" Andrea asked.
"Yes, Test Subject 19 was bitten; infected. Someone who volunteered to let us film the process. Vi scans forward to the first event." The video jumped ahead. All of a sudden, the brainstem and brain were blackening.
"What is that?" Glenn asks.
"It's invading the brain," I responded, speaking for the first time to everyone today.
"Indeed, like meningitis. The brain goes into shutdown mode. Then major organs. Then death." He said while looking at the ground. "Everything you ever were or will be.....gone. Scan to the second event." The video sped up again, the brain growing darker faster.
"The resurrection times vary. We've had reports of it happening in little as 3 minutes. The longest one we heard of was 8 hours. In the case of this patient, it was.. 2 hours..1 minute..7 seconds." The brainstem started to light up red, but in this case, it didn't go anywhere else.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori said.
"No, look, it's not expanding. It's just the stem." I said, answering before Jenner already connecting the pieces. I understand that we don't come back now. Not even a little bit.
"It gets them up and moving," Jenner said, looking around.
"But they're not alive..." Rick questioned, walking towards me to put his hand on the small of my back.
"You tell me." He said, walking towards us, his hand pointed at the screen. "The you part doesn't come back. They are just shells of the person." Movement caught my eye and the very top of the screen. Something placed to the head of the lifeless person on the net. A bright light flashed, and an extensive line went through the brainstem. A mix of 'oh my god's and 'what was that' went through the room.
Andrea spoke up, "He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you." Jenner didn't respond. He just shut everything down, so nothing was on but the lights above us. I started to get a bad feeling in my chest.
"You don't know what it is, do you?" Andrea questioned further. Jenner listed off possibilities but not what it was specifically. We begin talking about contacting other facilities, but he said everything went down.
"So it's not just here. It's everywhere. There's nothing left anywhere." Scuffs and 'Jesus ' left people's mouths.
"Man, I'm getting shitfaced drunk...again," Daryl said, putting his hands over his eyes leaning his elbows on a railing.
"Dr. Jenner. I don't mean to ask one more question, but that clock it's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale points to the big clock behind me that I hadn't seen before.
1:00:00.....59:59..59:58..59:57..
"The....the basement generators, they run out of fuel." He paused.
"And then?" Rick left my side while Jenner walked away.
"Vi, what happens at Zero?" Rick asked. When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur. No, immediately it hit me.
"Guys, go back your bags; Rick, T-dog, Glenn, and Shane, go check the basement generators." I spit out. Everyone stayed put. "GO!" I yelled, and they all did. I ran to help pack bags. After a while, things started turning off. The AC, water, and lights. (Emergency Lights came on, though)
"Come on, guys, grab your bags. Back to the big room." I said hurriedly.
"Why are the light in our rooms off?"
"Things are being prioritized. Zone 5 is shutting itself down." Jenner said.
"Hey, what's that mean?" Yelled Daryl. Rick and the other burst through the door, starting to question. Jenner says that the building's designed to keep the computers running till the last second. I look back up at the clock. 31:27..31:26
Jenner turns to Andrea, saying the French were the last people to hold out, trying to figure out this. While people here were killing themselves, the French were trying. He explained that the cure never happened because the same thing happening now happened over there. The building shut down because they didn't have fuel.
A loud alarm blares, and a timer comes up on the board, 30 minutes until decontamination. Vi says. Jenner runs over to a keypad and starts pressing buttons. A whirl comes from behind me, and I see the door closing. Rick and I start to run, but we don't make it. We were trapped.
"He locked us in!" Glenn shouts. I turn and start running and screaming at Jenner, who was talking to a computer.
''HIJO DE PERRA. YOU CAN'T JUST LOCK US IN HERE!" I run at him. I heard Rick shouting for Shane and Daryl to grab me, and as I am a foot away from Jenner, I feel arms wrap around my waist. Securing my arms too. I twist and turn, trying to break free, but the grip just tightens each time. I throw my head back, hitting the person in the face, and they let go. I turn to see it was Daryl who was holding me.
"Jenner, open that door now!" Rick said.
"I don't control that the computers do. Even if I did, everything topside is locked down. I told you, "once those doors close, they stay closed." It's better this way." He says.
"Why, what happens in 28 minutes?" Rick steps closer. Jenner doesn't answer.
"WHAT HAPPENS!" I yell, getting super close to his face.
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS PLACE IS!? 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!" Jenner yelled right in my face. It was silent. Dead silent. Everyone looked at Jenner, and I was concerned.
Jenner sat down. "In the event of a catastrophic failure or a terrorist attack. HITS deploy to prevent any organisms from getting out." That's what I was waiting to hear. At that moment, all of my hope broke. It snapped like a twig.
"HITS?" Rick asks, confused.
"high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives," I told, turning around. "Consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of the significantly great power of any other known explosion except nuclear. The vacuum pressure effects ignite the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and are useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." I roar with the Vi while looking at the ground. I feel everyone's eyes on me, all asking how I knew that. I remember my dad explained it to me once, and then someone else did at his funeral. That's how he died. The memory of the man explaining it to me has stuck ever since.
"It sets the air on fire," Jenner said. "No pain, an end to sorrow, grief, regret, everything." Minutes passed, and the only thing happening was Daryl, and I hit the door with axes. I was making no progress. I sit down tired and out of breath. I close my eyes, still trying to catch my breath while listening closely. Carol was crying, and Shane was shooting at computers. Daryl came back over and sat down by me. We started to hit the door again, and again, and again.
All of a sudden, the door opened. I grab my bag and run. Everyone is following after me. Then I pushed myself faster and faster. I was running up the stairs taking three at a time. When we reached the top floor, the door didn't open. Windows wouldn't break. We tried the axes, a chair, even shooting it with a shotgun.
We stopped, and I looked around and saw Jacqui wasn't there. She stayed down there. Carol's tiny voice was breaking the silence.
"Rick, I think I might have something. I found this in the pocket of your jeans the first night at camp." She handed him a grenade. Rick took it while I got everyone down. It was about 10 seconds before I heard Rick yell, "oh Shit." And four before it went off. But it worked. The crack of glass was music to my ears. I got up and helped people jump down from the window. Then I jumped out myself. We sprinted towards the cars, killing any Walker along the way that was up. I hopped over the bushes and ran to my jeep at the end. I opened the car and got down, covering my head.
The heat scorched my back, but it only lasted for a few seconds. The next time I looked up. It was like the CDC was never there. As the last day had been a lie, but it wasn't—just a pile of flaming rubble. The sight of the RV pulling away towards the way we first came from made me start my jeep.
We were off again, but this time there was no destination in sight.