To Keep You Close to Me

I woke up before Daryl, who slept peacefully on the floor. Sleep was rare for him. He was often on lookout during the night and hunting during the day. I didn’t want to wake him, but I knew that everyone else was now getting up since I could hear footsteps outside of our door. I hovered over him, running my fingers gently down his face. His eyes began to flutter open at my touch.

“How you feelin’?” I asked him.

“Fine,” he replied groggily. “You?”

“Fine.” I mocked. “I can hear the others getting up, we should join them.”

I patted his chest and pushed myself to my feet. I grabbed a clean shirt from my bag and threw it on and searched for pants. Daryl threw on one of his many sleeveless shirts and an old pair of pants. Once we were both ready, we walked out to the group together. There was no longer tension between us and I was really happy about that.

Andrea, Dale, Glenn, Lori and Carl were already out at the table, eating eggs and drinking orange juice. Daryl and I were both offered some juice, which was gladly accepted. T-Dog was by the stove preparing more eggs. He walked over with the pan and scooped some on a plate for us. The rest of the group shortly arrived.

“How you feel this morning, Glenn?” I laughed. Glenn sat at the table with his head in his hands.

He groaned, “don’t ever, ever, ever let me drink again.”

When Shane walked into the room, I noticed Lori shift in her seat. T-Dog pointed out scars on Shane’s neck, causing us all to look at him. He claimed that he did it in his sleep, but there was obviously more to it than that. The tension that was once between Daryl and I was now focused on Lori and Shane.

Jenner joined the group shortly after and immediately after his entrance, Dale bombarded him with questions.

“Doc, I don’t mean to slam you with questions first thing,” Dale started.

“But you will anyway,” Jenner retorted.

“We didn’t come here for the eggs,” Andrea chimed in. “We want some answers.”

Jenner told us that he had some data that he could share with us. After we had all finished breakfast, Jenner led us back to the big room with all of the computers. He brought up a playback of TS19, which we were soon to learn the meaning of.

A large screen on the wall lit up and brought up an almost MRI like image.

“Few people ever got to see this,” Jenner told us. We all looked at the screen as a person was outlined.

“Is that a brain?” Carl asked.

“An extraordinary one,” Jenner answered. “Not that it matters in the end.”

Daryl and I stood side by side, both looking up at the screen. The inside of the brain was lit up, lights flashing here and there. It was interesting to see.

“What’re those lights?” Shane asked.

“It’s a person’s life. Experiences, memories, it’s everything,” Jenner explained. “Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all of those ripples of light is you. The thing that makes you unique and human.”

“You don’t make sense ever?” Daryl questioned.

“Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death.”

This was an actual person who died. This person was bitten and infected and they documented the brain activity. Jenner showed us how the infection takes over the brain, only keeping you moving. Then suddenly, a flash of light struck through the brain. They shot this person. The whole thing was interesting, but there was still so much more to know about the disease.

“You have no idea what this is, do you?” Andrea asked after Jenner shut down the screen and the lights.

“It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal,” Jenner replied.

“Somebody must know something,” Andrea persisted.

“There are others, right?” Carol asked.

“There may be some, people like me,” Jenner guessed.

“You don’t know? How could you not know?” Rick asked.

“Everything went down. Communications, all of it. I’ve been in the dark for almost a month,” Jenner said.

“So it’s not just here,” Andrea stated. “There’s nothing left anywhere. That’s what you’re really saying, right?” Jenner stared at us.

“Man, I’ma get shitfaced drunk, again,” Daryl stated, running his hands over his forehead.

“Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you, and I’d hate to ask one more question, but that clock is counting down. What happens at zero?” Dale asked. I hadn’t even noticed the clock until Dale pointed it out. We had just a few seconds under an hour until the clock hit zero.

“The basement generators run out of fuel,” Jenner said.

“And then?” Rick questioned. We learned then that facility decontamination will occur at zero. Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog decided to go down to the basement to check out the generator situation. The rest of us went back to our rooms. Daryl grabbed his bottle of whiskey, which we never actually finished last night and took a swig.

“You’re really drinking right now?” I asked him as I sat on the couch.

“What else am I supposed to do?”

“What do you think facility decontamination means?” I asked.

“I dunno, but I didn’t like the way Jenner acted back there,” Daryl answered. As we contemplated, I noticed the air conditioning turned off, leaving the room silent. The lights shortly went off after the air had gone. Daryl walked out to the hallway, sticking his head out. I followed behind him, holding onto his shoulder as I peaked out.

Jenner walked through the hallway, explaining that the energy use is being prioritized and the building was shutting itself down. Jenner walked past everyone as the lights in the hallway shut off. Daryl angrily followed after Jenner since he took his whiskey.

“Hey! What the hell’s that mean?” Daryl asked, running after Jenner. “Hey man, I’m talking to you.”
Panic spread among the group. Rick and the other men came up from the basement, furious as they noticed the darkness.

“Jenner, what’s happening?” Rick growled.

“The system is dropping any nonessential uses of power,” Jenner explained. “It’s designed to keep the computers running until the last possible second. It starts as we approach the half hour mark.”

The clock on the wall now read 31.28. The group looked to Jenner for further information and answers to what was going to happen. Jenner took a swig of the whiskey and handed it back to Daryl.

“It was the French,” Jenner said to Andrea. “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 ‘til the end. They thought they were close to a solution.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Same thing that’s happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice,” Jenner said. Shane ran after Jenner, but Rick held him back. Rick ordered the rest of us to go gather our things. Daryl pulled me along with the others. A loud alarm started beeping, telling us there was exactly half an hour until decontamination. We ran for the doors, but they closed before we could even get there.

“Did you just lock us in?” Glenn asked Jenner. “He just locked us in!”

The group really started to panic and we were looking for a way out. Daryl ran up behind Jenner, yelling and grabbing onto the back of his shirt. T-Dog and Shane ran after Daryl and pulled him away. Jenner explained that he couldn’t open the doors; it was up to the computers. I was scared. I didn’t like being locked in this building, especially since there was supposed to be some decontamination.

“What happens in 28 minutes?” Rick asked. “What happens?!”

“You know what this place is! We protected the public from very nasty stuff!” Jenner yelled. “Weaponized small pox! Ebola stands that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don’t want getting out, ever!”

Daryl glared at Jenner as he sat back down. We looked to him for more information. He wasn’t telling us what we wanted to know.

“In the case of a catastrophic event or terrorist attack, HIT’s are deployed to prevent any organisms to get out,” Jenner explained.

“HIT’s?” Rick questioned. Since I worked in the medical field, I came to learn what that meant.

“Explosives.”