Broken Sundown

Rick dried off his hair and body and quickly dressed back into his clothes he came in here in. He kissed me softly and smiled down at me before he took his leave. He peeked down the hallway cautiously before he left, shutting the door behind him. I understood his caution, he didn't want to deal with the confrontation with Lori, but it hurt to see him go.

My heart hadn't slowed down at all since the moment he entered my room, and I was still so nervous and surprised that it was difficult to breathe. I couldn't think clearly either.

I got dressed in one of my clean, button down shirts, neglecting to put anything beneath it. It didn't seem necessary. Who were these people to judge my comfort? I also wore a pair of pajama shorts I had taken from home, hoping that I would find a nice enough place to wear them comfortably. It felt nice to be clean again and to sleep on a couch, which was so much better than sleeping on the hard ground with only a sleeping bag for comfort.

I left my room and headed down the hall back to where we had ate to get some water. I passed the kids who were playing in the rec. room while Carol watch over them and Lori stood in the door way. I was amazed to see all of the games that Carl and Sofia had already pulled out, but it made me happy because it had been a long time since they felt safe and could have fun.

Lori still had a pretty much full glass of wine in her hand, and with how much she drank at dinner, I honestly wasn't surprised that she hadn't noticed Rick was missing.

"Hey y'all." I smiled and entered the room after Lori. "Having fun?"

"Yeah." Carl smiled.

"Did you have a nice shower?" Carol asked.

I nodded and smiled at her.

"Come on kids, it's bed time." Carol said, setting her book down on the couch and getting the kids up.

"Baby, go say your prayers, I'm gonna browse a bit."

"This is the first night we might actually get some real sleep." Carol smiled at me and the kids as they left the room.

"I hear ya." I smiled and picked up a book, heading back to my room to leave Lori alone.

The book I had grabbed was the Count of Monte Cristo, which I grabbed because I recalled having to read it in school. I opened my door and shut it behind me quietly.

"You're back."

I jumped slightly at the voice. "Jesus Christ."

"I'm sorry." Rick laughed. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's alright." I laughed and turned the light on to find him laying on the bed, slightly more drunk than he was when he last left me.

"What are you doing in here, anyway?" I asked and sat beside him on the edge of the couch.

"I talked to Jenner." He said took the book from my hands. "The Count of Monte Cristo." He read out slowly. "I remember this from high school." He said as he flipped through the pages.

"I found it in the rec room." I responded and took the book back as he passed it along. "What did you talk to Jenner about?"

"I talked to him...about out there, about life out there."

"What did he have to say?"

"He said that it would be okay."

"He obviously hasn't been outside then." I murmured.

Rick took my hand in his and kissed it gently and held on tightly to it. "He told me something else."

"What?"

"You can't tell anyone else." He said with a pause. "He told me that we're all infected."

I looked at him wide-eyed and confused. "How?"

He shrugged and looked at me with sadness in his eyes. "Everyone is infected, all of us, everyone that's left."

"What are we going to do?" I whispered after we sat in silence.

"Come here." He whispered and pulled me to lay down on top of him. He ran his hands through my hair.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered again.

---

When I woke up the next morning, I found myself alone on the coach wrapped up in blankets. I guess I was so tired that I don't even remember him getting up to leave.

I pulled on a pair of jeans and took my shirt off to put a bra on and then replaced it. I pulled my boots on and left the room, heading to the kitchen where I'm sure everyone was.

Everyone was gathered around the table eating breakfast, there was an empty plate waiting for me at the table that T-Dog quickly filled up with bacon and dehydrated eggs. Glenn was very clearly hungover, and it wasn't hard to tell that his head was bothering him. Rick also looked exhausted, and I wondered how much sleep he had actually gotten last night. But he smiled at me and I smiled back and quietly listened to the discussion as I ate.

A bottle of asprin was passed around the table which Glenn gladly welcomed as he groaned in pain. Rick took some too and I slid a few into my pocket in case Glenn needed more later on.

Shane walked into the room and headed straight for the coffee and Rick greeted him. "Do you feel as bad as I do?"

"Worse." Shane mumbled.

T-Dog walked up beside him and looked at Shane's face. "What the hell happened to you?"

Shane paused for a few seconds. "I must have done it in my sleep."

"I've never seen you do that before." Rick said worried.

"Me neither... It ain't like me at all." Shane answered.

I glanced at Lori and must have been the only one to notice her discomfort with Shane in the room. The cuts on Shane's neck looked exactly like someone clawed him. I must have been the only one to put two and two together.

"Morning." Jenner said as he entered the room.

"Hey doc."

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing." Dale said.

"But you will anyway." Jenner sighed.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea spoke up.

After breakfast Jenner led us back into the main computer room where he first introduced us to the computer system.

Jenner started up the main computer screen and told Vi to open up and play a file for us. The filed showed us a scan of a human brain and Jenner explained to us what exactly the synapses in the brain were doing and what the scan was showing us.

"This person died?" Andrea asked solemnly as we all stared up at the screen. "Who?"

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bit and infected." Jenner answered.

The first event Jenner showed us was the brain shutting down and the person dying. The synapses were dying and turning black until the whole brain went dark.

Then Jenner showed us the second event. "The resurrection times vary. We have seen this 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.

The brain on the screen started to show colors of red as parts of the brain stem lit back up.

All of us were confused and had several questions to ask Jenner about what was happening in what we were seeing. Then suddenly a beam of light flashed through the image and the brain went dark again.

"What was that?" Carol asked.

"He shot his patient." I whispered.

Jenner ordered Vi to power down all of the computer systems.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked Jenner desperately.

Jenner named off all of the possibilities, but clearly he did not have on true answer. Andrea asked frantically about the other stations, other people like him that would have an answer. But no one else was left. The world had gone dark.

"Doctor 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 are zero?"

"The basement generators run out of fuel." Jenner answered, seeming to avoid the topic.

"And then?" Rick asked, but Jenner just walked away.

"Vi... what happens when the power runs out?" I asked softly.

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

I looked at Rick in panic. Just when we thought we were safe.