In the Shallows

I looked up from the edge of the bed, giving Daryl a confused look, "What happened to the lights?" We heard murmurs and commotion out in the hallway, popping our heads out, Daryl asked a question with Jenner coming from behind and grabbing the whiskey bottle from his hand.

"Energy use is being prioritized." We both exchanged looks and followed him with the rest of the group. Dale questioned about air and light not being a priorty. He took a long swig of the booze and shook his head, "It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

Daryl growled, "Hey!" He gripped my wrist and tugged me along with him, "Hey, what the hell does that mean?" I groaned as I was dragged faster to catch up with Jenner's footsteps, "Hey, man. I'm talkin' to you." I looked around as the power started to wind down, "What do you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How can a buildin' do anythin'?"

"You'd be surprised."

I exchanged looks with him, sprinting down the stairs, I caught up to his side, giving him a dirty look, "What the hell is happening?"

Jenner sighed, "The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half hour mark. Right on schedule." He pointed towards the clock as he took one last swig of the whiskey and handed it back to Daryl. "It was the French who held out. While our people were bolting out and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the lab till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

Jacqui rose an eyebrow, "What happened?"

"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean, how stupid is that?" I watched in horror as Shane, Rick, and Jenner argued. What the fuck was going on?

Rick ran a hand through his hair, getting angrier by the second, "Lori, grab our stuff. Everybody grab your things, we're getting out of here now." He yelled which sent all of us into a frenzy of trying to keep our heads on straight. We all started for the doors before a loud ringing erupted out of nowhere, loud sirens and red lights going off.

I stumbled into Daryl as we both look around, his arms shielding me for a split second before we both pulled away the second Shane repeated Rick's demands again. We all started to run to the doors, Daryl's hand pressed firmly on the middle of my back. We all stopped dead in our tracks as the doors came crashing down to seal us in the room. I spun around, my eyes meeting my same exact expression, "Did he just lock us in?"

Daryl ripped away from me, his temper getting the best of him, "You son of bitch!"

I stumbled over onto my knees from him pulling away from me, yelling out, "Shane! Get him!" I scrambled from my knees as quickly as I could and tried to rush over towards the fight that broke out. Everyone's yelling and screaming had blended into one gigantic blur, my ears ringing from the sirens that echoed against the walls. I almost couldn't focus, my mind was running wildly with questions and anxiety. I placed my palms on Daryl's chest, looking him in the eyes, "Stop! Calm down, this isn't going to fix anything." I turned sharply around when I heard Rick's voice.

"Jenner, you open that door now."

Jenner cleared his throat, looking away, "There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." Daryl took a step forward but I prevented him from getting any farther, shoving him back hard, I gave him a look. I didn't have to explain it, he knew me better enough to question it. "I couldn't even if I tried. That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." I ran a hand over my face, all of our expressions read either angry or terrified and somewhere in the middle. I couldn't even tell if my heart was beating at this point, the feeling had started to become numb after the first few minutes. Dr. Jenner gave everyone a look of sympathy, "It's better this way."

"What is?" Rick snapped, "What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick and Shane looked at each other before Shane pushed Jenner up from the chair, "What happens in 28 minutes?!" He yelled.

Dr. Jenner shot up, his voice matching Rick's volume, "You know what this place is?!" He started to pace around us, "We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country!" The more he started to speak the louder his voice had gotten. My eyes glanced towards Sophia and Carl who were more than terrified. We all stood in shock and silence, exchanging glances with everyone. He took a seat and took a few deep breaths.

My eyes started to water, the word decontamination suddenly making sense with the situation. I swallowed hard, taking a gentle step forward, my mouth twitching and my voice barely a whisper, "In 28 minutes we're going to die."

Jenner swallowed too, avoiding my stare, "In the event of a catastrophic power failure or in a terrorist attack, for example. H.I.T.'s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

Rick raised an eyebrow, his tone nonetheless still pissed off, "H.I.T.'s?"

"Vi, define."

Vi's voice rang loud and clear through our ears, making me shudder, "H.I.T.'s-high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosive. Consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between five thousand and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."

I felt like I had been hit in the chest with a wrecking ball, the air was knocked clean out of my lungs. My anxiety was pulsing through every which way inside of me, my mind unable to comprehend what I just heard. I couldn't even focus on the frightened murmurs that erupted almost simultaneously. My eyes were glued to the clock that was counting down, my face frozen and stricken with fear. I hardly even noticed it counting down though, I was just trapped inside my brain. Memories of better times flooding my memory, watching my life pass before my eyes. This was it. I was going to die and apart of me was borderline accepting. I didn't have fight or be scared anymore.

I broke away from my trance the second I heard Daryl's voice echo in the room, his tone snapping me awake, "Open the damn door!" My eyes followed him towards the entrance that was sealed shut, Shane running to it with an axe and Daryl doing the same. I sunk down to the ground, falling on my knees, my eyes watering with acceptance. I looked up as Shane came back towards the rest of us, his breathing heavy, "Can't make a dent."

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." He said matter of factly. Giving Daryl enough drive to want to send the axe in his skull.

"Well, ya head aint!"

I whimpered as the men tried to prevent Daryl from chopping off his head, I scrambled up just in time and grabbed the axe from his hands. Throwing it across the way, I glared at him. Sinking back down to the ground as the doctor tried to press the matter that we did want this. I covered my ears, I just wanted this all to be over. I wanted to hurry up and get it over with so I didn't have to feel so afraid. I didn't like knowing that I couldn't control the next stages of the situation, I had no idea what was to really happen beyond this point. I shrieked as Shane came at Jenner with a rifle, my heart pounding against my rib cage, I quickly got up and backed my way into Daryl. Spinning around, I buried my head against his chest the second he started firing off shots.

I pulled away once Rick apprehended him, taking a deep breath, I tried to even out my racing heart. I listened along with the rest of them as Rick tried to talk our way out of this place. If only he wasn't so damn stubborn, all he had to do was unlock that entrance and let us fend for own lives. I didn't want to accept it, but I kind of already had. I watched as he made his way over towards the keypad, pressing a few buttons, he unlocked the entrance.

Daryl yelled out, "Come on! Lex!"

With less than four minutes to go, any hope of us getting out alive was dwindling down to nothing. I couldn't begin to describe the amount of anxiety and fear I had pulsing through my body as the men tried their hardest to break open the damn window. This place was heavy duty and my hope was slowly diminishing just like the time we had left. I flinched as Shane started to shoot off rounds at the window, my heart was racing. I felt someone little latch onto my side, looking down, I pulled Sophia close to my body as Carol walked over towards Rick in a panic.

“Rick, I might have something that might help.” She dug around in her bag, ignoring Shane’s remark about a nail file, “Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket.” She pulled out a grenade, which caused everyone to stop what they were doing and stare. Rick studied her face and then down at her hand that held the green bomb, he took it from her hands and ran towards the window. He turned around, “Look out!” I ushered Sophia to run to Carol. I squealed slightly as I felt a strong and heavy grip around my waist. Daryl gently threw me down to the ground and in seconds the sound of the grenade going off exploded into my ears. I looked up, my chest heaving with relief as the window had shattered open.

We all scrambled out the window, running for the vehicles, shooting and dodging the geeks that started coming out of nowhere. In seconds we had made it to the cars, climbing in, we started them up. My hand smacked Daryl in the chest as my eyes saw Andrea and Dale making their way out of the C.D.C. My attention was pulled in a different direction when I heard Rick and everyone screaming to get down. I gave Daryl a panicked look as we both sunk down and tried to shield ourselves from the blast. I jumped at the sound it made, shaking from the heat that emanated off. We both locked eyes as we sat up, exhaling and checking to make sure Andrea and Dale had made it safely inside in the RV.