*WARNING: Please be advised that this chapter contains mature content and strong language.*
Chapter 3
Quinn's POV
Daryl had his arm around my waist, pulling me backwards when a white sheet of light came over my eyes. We stood there; my face buried in his chest and his in my neck. Finally, the light dimmed down and we waited for something to happen, but nothing did so we walked cautiously inside.
"Daryl, cover the back," Shane ordered.
"Hello? Hello?" Rick called out.
"Close those doors," Shane said.
"Watch for walkers," Dale warned.
We all looked around the huge place. All of a sudden a gun cocked and instinctively, we all turned around, weapons raised toward the hallway.
"Anyone infected?" a male voice yelled out. His words echoed through the empty room.
"One of our group was," Rick started. "He didn't make it."
"Why are you here and what do you want?" he demmanded.
"A chance," Rick replied.
"That's asking an awful lot these days," the man answered.
Rick paused and thought for a moment. "I know."
The man was quiet. "You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
"We can do that."
The man stepped out into the light so we could actually see him. "If you have stuff, you bring it in and you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed."
We all scrambled outside to grab our belongings. Once we got back inside, the man eyed us all up and down, like he was assuming our life just by our appearance.
"Vi, seal the main entrance and kill the power up here," the man demmanded into a padlock. The door clicked and the lights went down.
"Rick Grimes," Rick greeted, offering his hand.
The man paused before taking Rick's hand. "Doctor Edwin Jenner."
Jenner lead us to an elevator and we all crammed inside.
"Doctors always go around packin' heat like that?" Daryl asked.
"There were plenty left lying around. I farmilarized myself, but you look harmless enough." Jenner paused and looked at Carl. "Except you, I'll have to keep my eye on you."
A grin appeared on Carl's face. We exited the elevator.
"Are we underground?" Carol asked.
"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner asked.
Carol shrugged. "A little."
"Try not to think about it."
Doc lead us down a hallway and into a dark room. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room," he ordered.
Lights flickered on in a circular wave and revealed an empty computer room.
"Welcome to zone five."
"Where is everybody?" Rick asked. "The doctors, the staff?"
"I'm it," Jenner answered. "It's just me here."
"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori asked.
"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them welcome," Jenner commanded.
A monotone voice sounded through speakers that were at every angle of the room, "Hello, guests. Welcome."
He gave us a sympathetic look. "I'm all that's left. I'm sorry."
___
We had all given blood and Andrea was the last one.
"What's the point?" she asked. "If we were all infected we'd be running a fever."
"I've already broken every rule in the book by letting you in here. At least let me be thorough," Jenner reasoned. "All done," he said, taking the needle out.
Andrea winced as she stood and almost fell over. Jacqui, being the closest to her, caught her.
"You okay?" Jenner asked.
"She hasn't eaten in days," Jacqui replied for Andrea. "None of us have."
Jenner paused for a moment before a smiled danced across his lips.
___
Mostly everyone sat around a circular table, but some of us were standing or sitting on the counters. We were laughing and happy.
"You know, in Italy, the children have a little bit of wine with dinner, and in France," Dale informed.
"Yeah, well when Carl is in France or Italy he can have some then," Lori notified, covering Carl's glass with her hand.
"What's it gonna hurt? Come on," Rick persuaded.
Lori took a sip of her wine and stared at him.
He laughed. "C'mon."
There was a moment of awkward silence before we all laughed and she shrugged, taking her hand away. Dale took the glass and poured a little bit of wine.
"Here you are, young lad," he said as he handed the glass to Carl.
The room got quiet while Carl took a sip.
"Eww," he said, making a disgusted face and setting the glass back down on the table.
We all laughed as Lori said, "That's my boy."
"Stick to soda pop, kid," Shane said quietly.
"Not you, Glenn," Daryl spoke up.
"What?" Glenn asked, smiling.
"Keep drinkin', little man. I wanna see how red your face can get."
I laughed, while the group 'oohed'.
Rick tapped his glass with a butter knife, gathering everyone's attention, and stood. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."
"He is more than just our host," T-dog said.
"Yeah, yeah," people added in with notes of joy and happiness.
"Booyah!" Daryl said, holding his bottle up.
"Booyah," I repeated, doing the same.
The group echoed.
"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane said, emotionless. "All the other doctors that were supposed to be figurin' out what happened...where are they?"
The group got quiet and Jenner looked really surprised at how neutral Shane's facial expressions were.
"We're celebrating, Shane...no need to do this now," Rick said, a note of annoyance in his voice.
"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move; supposed to find all the answers. Instead, we—we found him." Shane laughed stiffly. "Found one man. Why?"
"Well," Jenner started, "when things got bad, people just left. They went to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military corrden was overrun, the rest bolted."
"Every last one?" Shane asked.
"No, many couldn't face walkin' out the door...they 'opted out'. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time," Doc concluded.
"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asked.
"I just kept working, hoping to do some good," Jenner replied.
Glenn shook his head at Shane. "Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man."
___
"Most of the facility is powered down, including the housing, so you'll have to make do here. Couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you'd like," Jenner explained while leading us down the hall. The lights lit up as we walked by. "There is a rec. room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games or anything that draws power. Same applies; if you shower, go easy on the hot water." And with that, he walked away.
Glenn smiled. "Hot water?"
"That's what the man said," T-dog replied, a huge grin on his face.
Everybody parted and went their separate ways, leaving me standing alone in the empty hallway.
"This room's open."
I turned to the voice and saw Daryl standing in the door way, his arms crossed and eyes pointed to the floor.
"Thanks," I said. "You gonna shower?"
"Yeah, but you can go ahead."
"Alright. I'll be quick," I said, grabbing clothes out of my bag.
I hurried into the bathroom and closed the door. I slipped off my dirty clothes. I started the shower and stepped inside. I never thought I'd get this feeling ever again. I let the water run over my body.
I shampooed and conditioned my hair and washed my body with the soaps in the shower already. I stepped out of the tub and got dressed. I walked out of the bathroom to find a shirtless Daryl lying on the cot.
"All yours," I said, tucking the dirty clothes into my bag.
He unfolded his hands and stood up, going into the bathroom. I headed out the door and for the rec. room. Books were the only thing to keep you occupied nowadays. As I approached the door, I heard calls for help. I opened the door.
Now, I'm not sure what I expected, but it definitely was not this. Shane looked up and climbed off of Lori. Lori was fighting back tears as he stomped off. I closed the door and made my way to her.
"Are you okay?" I asked, eyes wide. She started crying and I pulled her into a hug. "He didn't do anything, did he?" I asked, afraid to hear the answer.
"No."
"What was that all about?"
We sat in the rec. room and talked about what happened before Rick found the group. She explained how Shane told her Rick was dead and then they had a thing going on. When she found out Rick was alive and Shane had lied to her, she wanted nothing to do with Shane.
I walked her to her room and headed back for mine.
___
Daryl's POV
I wandered out of the bathroom in my plaid pajama bottoms and no shirt. Quinn had left. As I threw my dirty clothes onto the cot, she walked through the door.
"Hey," she greeted.
I grunted, my typical response.
She neatened a few things up in her bag. There was a knock on the door. Quinn stood and followed me to it. It was Shane and he looked drunk.
"I need to talk to Quinn," he slurred.
I glanced at her, but she didn't even look at me as she walked out the door, closing it behind her. I was antsy while I waited for her. I'm not sure why I was worried about her, but I was. It had been at least five minutes before she walked through the door. She was quiet and sat down on the cot next to me. Darkness and silence settled around us.
"What did he want?" I asked, making her jump slightly.
"Just to talk," she said vaguely, staring at the ground.
I laid down and pulled the covers over my bottom half. I grabbed her waist and pulled her down with me. Her eyes connected with mine and then our lips crashed together. They moved in sync, creating a feeling I couldn't describe.
I was addicted to her. She was like a drug.
___
Quinn's POV
"Morning," Rick said sleepily as he walked into the kitchen.
"Are you hungover?" Carl asked, trying to hide a smile. "Mom said you'd be."
Rick smirked. "Mom is right."
"Mom has that annoying habit," Lori said, biting into a piece of bacon.
"Eggs!" T-dog called out, moving from behind the counter. "Powdered, but I do 'em good. You can't even tell."
Glenn groaned as he held his head.
"Protein helps the hangover," T-dog said as he plopped a scoop of eggs on Glenn's plate.
"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again."
Shane entered the room, three scratches from Lori's nails on his neck.
"Hey," Rick said. "Feel as bad as I do?"
"Worse."
"The hell happened to you?" T-dog asked. "Your neck."
Shane brushed his fingers over the scratches. "Must've done it in my sleep."
"Never seen you do that before," Rick notified.
"Me neither. Not like me at all." Shane glared at Lori.
Jenner walked in. "Morning."
"Morning, Jenner," I replied as T-dog handed me a cup of steaming coffee.
"Hey, doc," Dale started. "I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing—"
"But you will anyway," Jenner interrupted.
"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea piped in.
___
"Give me a playback of TS–19," Jenner ordered as we walked into the computer room.
"Playback of TS–19," Vi repeated.
An X-ray of a body came onto the screen.
"Few people ever got to see this, very few," Jenner informed.
Shades of enhancement came over the head, showing a brain in better detail.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked.
"An extraordinary one...not that it matters in the end." Jenner looked down at his feet. "Take us in for EIV."
"Enhanced Internal View," Vi clarifed.
The body moved to a sideways positon and it zoomed into the brain, revealing a wiring of lights.
"What are those lights?" Shane asked.
"It's a person's life," Jenner started. "Experiences, memories, it's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring is you; the thing that makes you unique and human."
"Do you make sense ever?" Daryl budded in.
"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," Jenner explained.
Rick stepped forward. "Death? That's what this is? A vigil?"
"Yes," Jenner answered, "or rather the playback of the vigil."
"This person died...who?" Andrea asked.
"Test Subject–Nineteen; someone who was bitten and infected...and volunteered to have us record the process." Jenner paused. "Vi, scan forward to the first event."
"Scanning to first event."
The brain was many different colors, emphasizing where the different sections started and ended. Beginning at the main stem, the brain slowly got dark.
"What is that?" Glenn asked.
"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down, then the major organs...then death." As Jenner said this, the brain went completely dark. "Everything you ever were or will be; gone," Jenner concluded.
"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked.
"Yes," Carol replied softly.
It was just now that I realized Andrea was crying.
"She lost her sister two days ago," Lori said.
"I lost someone, too. I know how devistating it is," Jenner said, apologetically, to Andrea. "Scan to second event."
"Scanning to second event."
"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. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds." As Jenner finished his sentence, the brain slowly lit up.
"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving," Jenner explained.
"But they're not alive," Rick clarifed.
Jenner gestured to the screen. "You tell me."
"It's nothing like before," Rick said. "Most of that brain is dark."
"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobes and neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back, the you part," Jenner explained.
Something slashed through the brain.
"God, what was that?" Carol exclaimed.
Andrea turned to Jenner. "He shot his patient in the head...didn't you?"
"Vi, power down the main screen and the work stations."
"Powering down main screen and work stations," Vi repeated.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea pushed.
"It could be microbial, viral, heuristic, fungal—"
"Or the rath of God," Jacqui interjected.
Jenner hung his head. "There is that."
"Somebody must know something. Somebody, somewhere," Andrea reasoned.
"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked.
"There may be some people like me—" Jenner started.
"But you don't know?" Rick exclaimed. "How can you not know?"
"Everything went down; communications, directives, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month now."
"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere, nothing. That's what you're really saying, right?" Andrea cried.
"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced-drunk...again," Daryl said, rubbing his head.
"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?" Dale asked.
He was right, there was a clock counting downwards on the far wall.
"The basement generators, they run outta fuel," Jenner said hesitantly, walking away.
"And then?" Rick asked.
Jenner continued to walk away.
"Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" I asked.
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur," Vi sounded.
We gotta get out of this building.
___
"Decontamination; what does that mean?" Glenn asked as we hopped down the stairs.
"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up like that, they way he just wandered off," Shane added.
"In there," Rick directed as we reached the bottom of the stairs. "Check that way."
He gestured for Shane to follow him. Glenn and I walked down the hallway and took a look at all the dead generators. Suddenly, the lights turned off, making it pitch black.
"What's that?" Glenn asked frantically.
"Emergency lighting; ON," Vi said.
Only a few lights flickered on this time, making it just light enough to see.
"The fuel is getting lower. We gotta get out of here," I said nervously.
Glenn and I ran back to Rick and Shane.
"You guys kill the lights?" Rick asked.
"No, they just went out," I replied.
"Did you find anything?" he asked.
"Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty cans than I can count," I answered.
"It can't be down to just this one," Shane said.
"Oh I think it is," I said uneasily. "Let's go find Jenner and get to the bottom of this."
___
"Rick?" Lori asked, looking over the railing.
Rick held his hand up to tell her everything was okay, which was a lie.
"Jenner, what is happening?" Rick asked, falling in sync with his footsteps.
"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power," Jenner explained. "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That starts as we approach the half hour mark — right on schedule."
The clock read: 31:27.
Jenner handed Daryl a wine glass. "It was the French," he started.
"What?" Andrea asked.
"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 until the end. They thought they were close to a solution."
"What happened?" Jacqui asked.
"Same thing that's happening here — no power grid, it ran outta juice. The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean how stupid is that?" Jenner had the slightest smirk on his face.
This pissed Shane off. He stomped up the stairs.
"To hell with it Shane!" Rick yelled. "Lori grab our things, everybody get your stuff. We're getting out of here, now!" Rick ordered.
Alarms started screeching throughout the room and lights along the walls were flashing. People yelled out questions that weren't being answered. Through all this commotion, Jenner just sat at his desk, not moving.
"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Now!" Shane ordered.
Daryl approached my side holding one bag, with both of our things inside. As we tried to leave, Jenner closed the door. It got real quiet.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked. "He just locked us in!"
"You son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled, dropping the duffel bag. "You let us out of here!"
"Jenner, open that door now," Rick said while T-dog and Shane held Daryl back.
"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down and the emergency exits are sealed."
"Well open the damn things," Dale spat.
"That's not something I control, the computers do. I told you, once that door closed it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."
"What is?" I asked. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"
When Jenner didn't answer, I kicked the back of his chair, making him jump.
"What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Rick yelled.
Jenner stood. "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 sat back down. The room was quiet and in shock. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure — in a terrorist attack, for example — H.I.Ts are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out," Jenner informed, more calmly.
"H.I.Ts?" Rick asked.
"Vi, define," the Doctor ordered.
"H.I.Ts — high impulse thermobaricfuel. Air explosives consist of a two-stage areosal ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly great power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."
"It sets the air on fire," Jenner clarified. "No pain, an end to sorrow, grief, regret, everything."
___
Daryl threw a vase at the door, making the vase shatter to pieces. "Open the damn door!"
"Outta my way," Shane said as he came up the ramp with an axe.
T-dog tossed Daryl an axe as well. The three of them beat on the door, but nothing changed.
"Can't make a dent," Shane confessed to Rick.
"Those doors are made to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner piped in like it was a good thing.
"Well your head ain't!" Daryl said running towards Jenner, axe raised.
"Daryl! Daryl! Just back up!" Rick yelled.
"You do want this," Jenner said to Rick. "Last night, you said it was only a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead."
"What, you really said that? After all your big talk?" Shane asked.
"I had to keep hope alive," Rick defended.
"There is no hope, there never was," Jenner opposed.
"There's always hope," Rick rejected.
I walked away. I wandered through the hallways, my hand massaging my temples. After a couple of minutes, I heard gunshots and yelling. I ran back through the dark halls and over to Shane who was blowing the computers up. Rick fought him with the gun and he fell to the ground.
I bent down. "Are you done?" He didn't answer. "Are you done?"
"Yeah, I guess we all are," Shane spat.
Rick let Shane get up and then looked at each one of our faces. He turned to Jenner. "I think you're lyin'."
"What?" Jenner asked, looking up.
"You're lyin' about no hope. If that were true, you would of bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out, but you didn't. You chose the hard path, why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter, it always matters. You stayed when others ran, why?"
"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise, to her...my wife." Jenner pointed to the screen.
"TS–19 was your wife," Lori stated.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on the table. I wouldn't of mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place, I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this, not me."
"You're wife didn't have a choice, you do," Rick started. "That's all we want; a choice, a chance."
"Let us keep goin' as long as we can," Lori reasoned.
"I told you topside is locked down, I can't open those."
Jenner wandered over to his desk and punched in a passcode. The door opened.
"C'mon!" Daryl yelled.
I pulled the duffel bag onto my shoulder. I looked at the clock as I ran towards the door. Four minutes.
T-dog grabbed Jacqui's arm. "Let's go."
"No, I'm stayin'. I'm stayin', sweetie."
"But that's insane!" T-dog yelled.
"No, it's completely sane, for the first time in a long time. I'm not endin' up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you wanna get out. Just get out, get out!" Jacqui said as she pushed T-dog, tears welling in her eyes.
"Hey, T! C'mon," I said, grabbing his arm.
"I'm staying, too," Andrea said.
"Andrea, no," Dale cried. "Just go!" he yelled to me, taking notice that I was waiting for him.
We ran up the hallway and into the room where we first came in.
"Get them doors open!" Shane ordered.
T-dog typed on the padlock. "Try it now!"
I pulled on the door handle, nothing.
"It's red, it's red!" T-dog yelled.
Daryl and Shane beat on the glass with the axes, not making a dent.
"Watch out!" T-dog said as he came over with a chair. He beat the window with it, not even making a scratch.
"Look out! Dog get down!" Shane said. He cocked his gun and shot at the glass, but it only ricocheted off the window.
"The glass won't break?" Sophia's little voice sounded from behind me.
"Rick, I have something that might help," Carol spoke up, reaching inside her purse.
"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna do it," Shane remarked.
"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket," she said as she handed Rick a grenade.
"Get down!" Rick ordered.
I ran down the stairs and ducked behind the steps as a loud boom filled the lobby. Glass shattered to the ground and relief washed over me.
We all climbed out the window and made our way through the lot to the vehicles. Daryl and I ran to his truck and climbed inside.
"Get down," Daryl instructed.
I laid on the seat and I felt him rest his body over mine.
A loud round of explosions filled the air. After we were sure it was over we sat up. The whole building was in flames, smoke radiating off of it. We were far enough away to not get burnt, but close enough that I was sweating. Daryl started the truck and we followed the line of vehicles.
"Where the hell are we gonna go?"