Atlanta

There was a tense atmosphere at the table the following morning, and I wondered if I wasn't the only one that had gone through a bit of drama the night before. Glenn didn't remove his head from the table, groaning constantly and usually I would have laughed, but I couldn't manage it. I had just sat down next to Andrea when Shane and Lori shared a strained glance. I didn't want to get involved, I just wanted to sit this day through.

"Morning," Jenner's voice murmured, and he wandered in, helping himself to a bowl of cereal.

"Hey Doc." I looked up and he gave me a weak smile, which I returned. He may have advanced on me last night, but he hadn't done what Daryl did. I was just trying to decide on where I was with him, when he entered the room. His eyes met mine right away, and he stopped, before shaking his head and going to get something to eat.

"Listen Doc, we don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" Shane began.

"But you will anyway." He remarked.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea spoke suddenly, and I turned to her, an unsure expression on my face. I thought we were here for shelter, I didn't know answers were what we were looking for. Still, Jenners turned around and sighed.

"Follow me."

*
We followed him back to the big room we had first seen, and he began typing into one of the computers. I stood at the side next to Danielle and watched his actions.

"Gimme playback of TS-19." He spoke out loud, and the computerised 'Vi' responded.

"Playback of TS-19." The big screen flashed, and hordes of information appeared on the screen.

Next to it was the outline of a human being, and it gradually formed a brain. "Few people will ever get a chance to see this. Very few." He added, looking around at us.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked incredulously, and Jenners smiled at him.

"An extraordinary one." He turned back to the screen, clicking around at his computer. "Not that it matters. Take us in for an EIV." The screen showed the figure from the side, honing in on the brain." I immediately started having flashbacks of Higher biology and the central nervous system.

"What are all those lights?" Shane asked, and Jenners turned around, a fascinated smile on his face.

"A person's life. Experiences, memories, everything. Somewhere, in all that organic wire, in all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique, and human." Everyone glanced around at each other, both astonished by the sight, but somewhat unsure of what to make of it.

"Did it all make sense? Ever?" Daryl asked, but I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

"These 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 repeated, getting to his feet. "That's what this is? A vigil?"

"Yes. Or moreso, the playback of a vigil." A felt a knot in my stomach suddenly, as the truth ocurred to me.

"This person died?" Andrea spoke my thoughts aloud, stepping forward. "Who?"

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected, and volunteered to have us record the process." Jenners went quiet, as though he was remembering something, though he didn't want to. "Scan forward to the first event."

"Scanning to first event."

The events unfolding onscreen sped up, and finally stopped, as the synapses were suddenly coated in black, and the infection was spreading throughout the brain.

"What is that?" Glenn asked, dumbfounded, and everyone closed in, examining the screen carefully.

"It invades the brain, like meningitis. The adrenal glands haemorrage, the brain goes into shut down, and then the major organs fail." The person on screen tossed around violently as we watched the infection kill her slowly from the inside. I suddenly thought of Amy, and the knot in my stomach tightened. The combination of tears and nausea hit me, and I gripped Andrea's hand tightly to not only comfort myself, but her too. "Then death." He finished, and the room grew completely silent, nothing but the slow, shaky breaths of scattered individuals. "Everything you ever were, or ever will be, gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" A small voice asked from the back, and I felt my heart sink as I saw that the question came from Sophia. A young child, that wouldn't have even started high school yet - and here she was, watching a human being die from the inside. Carol nodded slowly, careful to not say anything and upset her further. Andrea let go of my hand and sunk away, trying to hide the tears. I bit my lip, holding them back and keeping a brave face, like I had taught myself for years.

"She lost someone two days ago." Lori explained. "Her sister." Jenners walked over to her, and leaned down to speak to her face.

"I lost somebody too. I know how it feels." Andrea nodded, clearly just wanting him to hurry up and get out of her face. Maybe not, but that would be my reaction. "Vi, scan to second event." We all watched in horror as the frozen image started to spur slightly, and inside the stem of the brain, there was a red spark. It spread, only slightly, but it got the brain moving slightly.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked in horror, fearing that all we knew about walkers was a lie.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically just gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked, moving closer to the screen. Jenners stepped back and gestured to the screen.

"You tell me."

"It's nothing like before - most of that brain is dark."

"Dark and lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neo cortex, the human part? That doesn't come back. The 'you' part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct." I flinched slightly when there was a flash, and something teared through the brain.

"God, what was that?" Carol asked, fearful. I tried to keep my breathing steady.

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea barely made out, but Jenners didn't reply.

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."

"Powering down the main screen and the workstations." Jenner began to walk away, but I stopped him. We still hadn't got our answers.

"You have no idea what this is, do you?" He turned to me, before looking away briefly.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

"The wrath of god?" Jacqui suggested. I wasn't a big believer in the big guy, but I was willing to consider any possibility for this.

"Somebody must know something, right? Someone, somewhere..." Andrea began pacing, the lack of answers clearly driving a hole into her brain.

"Surely there must be others? Other facilities?" Lori asked, the desperation loud in her voice.

"There may be some....like me..."

"But you don't know! How can you not know!" Rick begged, exasperatedly.

"Everything went down...communications...i've been in the dark for almost a month." The atmosphere was getting way too miserable for my liking, and I wished we would be out of here quicker than in.

"So there's nothing left. Anywhere? There's nothing at all, that's what you're saying, right?" Andrea asked, and I wanted to slap her to change her mindset. She was giving up. She couldn't give up.
My mind blanked out. What if I was giving up, too? I didn't care in the first place - I really only kept fighting for Dani. There was nothing left here for me. Except maybe Daryl, but then again, what were the chances? I had shared one of the most amazing kisses of my life with that man, and it ended, of course, with him telling me to leave, and slamming the door shut on my backside. Now that I had saw that happen in person, the anxiety just increased even more. Why couldn't I just end it quickly and peacefully, rather than being torn to shreds by a filthy creature like that?

Rick's calling to Vi stirred me out of me out of my thoughts, and I focused just in time to hear her reply.

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will ocurr."