It's Over When It's Over

I woke up wrapped in Daryl’s arms on the cot. I don’t know how that happened. I must have rolled over. I gently patted Daryl on the arm to wake him up. He groaned and un-wrapped me from his arms. I got up putting on some jeans. I went to the cafeteria to get me something for breakfast and I saw T-Dog, Dale and Glenn. Glenn had his head on the table. The poor boy has a hangover.
“Wanna help me make breakfast?” T-Dog asked as he stood up.
“Sure.” I smiled. I walked with T-Dog to the refrigerator and grabbed some eggs and bacon. “I should warn you guys. I make some mean bacon.” I joked.
“Can you make bacon that will get rid of this headache?” Glenn moaned. We all laughed at him. T-Dog was making the eggs while I made the bacon, and a few minutes later T-Dog gently elbowed me in the arm.
“So, I heard you and Dixon last night.” He whispered with a laugh.
“Oh my god.” I said trying not to laugh. “We ain’t even gonna talk about this. I’m sorry, that’s all I’m going to say.” T-Dog laughed. I was so embarrassed. Can’t believe he heard us, but could he blame us? While later Carl and Lori came and the food was done so I survived them. Lori took a bite out the bacon and smiled.
“Did you make these?” She asked.
I smiled, “Yes I did.”
“Girl, we need you in the kitchen more often. I mean that in the nicest way.” She joked.
I laughed, “Aww well thank you.” I smiled and went back to the kitchen with T-Dog to make some more food. After a while everyone was up (expect Daryl) so T-Dog and I survived them all.
“Your sister makes some pretty good bacon!” Lori told Jack.
Jack laughed, “You should taste the rest of her cookin!” I was glad everyone liked the food. Once everyone had their food I sat down on the counter eating my breakfast. Shane passed T-Dog and I and T-Dog asked him what happen to him. Shane had these 3 scratch marks on his neck.
“Most have done it in my sleep.” He answered.
“Never seen you do that before.” Rick said.
“Me either.” Shane said looking at Lori. “Not like me at all.” I wondered what that was all about but it wasn’t my business. Daryl then walked in. I got off the counter and kiss Daryl. As I went to get him a plate of food, T-Dog looked back and forth between Daryl and I and smiled. I gently slapped him on the arm playfully and got Daryl his food. Daryl and I both sat on the counter as Dale and Andrea talk to Jenner about wanting to know what was really going on and why the outbreak happened.
After we were done eating we all followed Jenner into the same big room where he talked to VI. “Give me a playback of TS-19.” Jenner told VI. We all walked up to this huge screen showing a brain. “Few people ever got a chance to see this.”
“Is that a brain?” Daniel asked.
“An extraordinary one.” Jenner answered. “Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for EIV.” Jenner told VI. VI zoomed in on the brain.
“What are those lights?” Shane asked.
“It’s a person’s life, experiences, memories. It’s everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you; the thing that makes you unique. And human.” Jenner explained.
“You don’t make sense ever?” Daryl said.
“Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain.” I said.
“That’s right.” Jenner said, smiling at me. “They carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death.” Jenner then went on to explain that Test Subjected was a person who was bitten, and they volunteered for him and the other doctors to record the process. We all looked at the screen and saw that the brain stem turned black. The virus was invading the brain. We watched as the brain died. “VI, scan to seconded event.” Jenner ordered. The screen then showed a red light spark in the brain stem. The virus turns back on the one part of the brain to get the body up and moving. I knew that from what I learned but Jenner then explained it to everyone else.
“It’s nothing like before. That brain is dark.” Jack said.
“Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part, that doesn’t come back. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct.” Jenner explained. As we continued to look at the screen a tip of a gun came into frame and shot TS-19 in the head. Jenner then told VI to shut everything down.
“You have no idea what it is? Do you?” I asked.
“It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal.”
“Or the wrath of God?” Jacqui asked, tears slowly coming down her cheek. Everyone hammered Jenner with questions about if there were other people who’d know, but Jenner wasn’t sure. He said there wasn’t any way to communicate.
“Man, I’m gonna get shit-faced drunk again.” Daryl said rubbing his head.
“I’m with you on that one, bud.” Jack said.
“Dr. 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.
“The basement generators, they run out of fuel.” Jenner said. Rick asked him what happens after that but he didn’t answer, so Rick asked VI the same question.
“When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur.” VI explained. Jenner walked off so some of the men went off to figure out what was going on so the rest of us just went back to our rooms. Jack was with the men so Daniel was with Daryl and I. After a while the lights went off and then came back on, but the AC stayed off. Daryl and I looked at each other wondering what had happen.
“Whats wrong you guys?” Daniel asked.
“Damn AC stopped working.” Daryl said as he stood up taking a drink from the whiskey bottle. Daryl stuck his head out the door to see if anyone else knew what was going on. “What’s going on? Why is everything turned off?” When Daryl walked out the room Daniel and I followed. Jenner explained that Zone 5 was shutting itself down. We all followed Jenner to the main room where the computers were. He said the whole building was going to shut down in 30 minutes. Rick yelled at everyone to go get our things and that we were all leaving now. So I grabbed Daniel and started running to the opening we all stopped as the alarms started going off.
“You all heard Rick, now go get your things!” Shane yelled. So as we all went to go get our things a shield blocked the opening.
“Did you just lock us in?” Glenn asked Jenner. “He just locked us in!” We all ran back to the men trying to figure out what to do. I kept telling Daniel that it’d be alright, and we’d get throw whatever was going on.
Daryl started running towards Jenner grabbing him by the shirt wanting to beat him up, clearly. Shane, T-Dog, and Jack all had to hold Daryl back. Rick yelled at Jenner to open the doors but Jenner explained that he couldn’t do that, and it was better this way. “HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out.”
“HITs?”
“VI, define.” Jenner said.
“HITs, high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives—“ VI continued to explain but I stopped listening when I heard explosives. This building was going to explode. I began crying hugging Daniel as he cried as well. Daryl ran to the door and threw the bottle of whiskey at it yelling at Jenner to open it. The men got axes and started to hit the metal door but I knew it wasn’t going to do anything. Lori, Carol, and I all sat together crying while holding our kids. Shane came back breathing heavily saying they can’t make a dent.
“Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher.” Jenner explained.
“Well, you head ain’t!” Daryl yelled, charging towards Jenner about to swing the axe. All the men grabbed Daryl pulling him back as Jack took the axe from him.
“This isn’t right. You can’t just keep us here.” I cried.
“One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain.” Jenner said. Jack then ran up to Jenner putting his hands on his collar.
“My son, my sister ain’t gonna die like this!” Jack yelled. “You better open those god damn doors right now.” Jenner ignored Jack so he let him go, but then Shane came up and put his shot gun to Jenner’s head. I covered Daniels eye’s and cried into his ears that we’ll be okay. He was crying so hard he couldn’t respond. Shane started yelling and shooting the computers so I carried Daniel away from that. Rick begged Jenner to give us a chance and to let us go, and he soon opened the door. Daniel and I got up and ran to our rooms grabbing some of our things as fast as we could, like the rest of the group.
Once we had our things we ran to the front where we saw the men trying to break the glass but it wasn’t working. Carol was talking to Rick and then she pulled out a grenade. We all basically knew what was about to happen next so Rick ran by the window to set it off. So I covered Daniel with my body to protect him, as Daryl did the same for me. When the grenade went off glass flew everywhere, but we all got up and ran outside. There were a few walkers and the men took them out as we ran to our cars. I rushed Daniel into the RV as Jack followed him and I ran back to Daryl’s truck. As Daryl started the truck I saw Andrea and Dale run out of the building, but I knew we only had a few seconds left until the building blew up, so I laid my body down as Daryl put his body on top of mine and then we heard the explosion. Once it the explosion stopped going off we looked up and saw the mess, and that’s when I realized Jacqui and Jenner were gone, but at least Dale and Andrea came back, safe; alive.