Decontamination

My head was pounding. Trying to keep up with Daryl Dixon's whisky intake had broken me. I was no lightweight, but that was something else.

I tried to remember the previous night clearly. I know we'd chatted in the rec room, polished off the second bottle of Jack Daniels, then walked together down the hallway to the offices and slid into our separate rooms. But did I imagine it, or had his eyes lingered on me for a second as I closed my door?

I shook my head, which I immediately regretted, alcohol-induced pain splintering through my fragile brain. Even if Daryl had been watching me, it didn't mean anything.

Despite my desire to crawl back under my covers and feel sorry for my hungover self, I climbed out of bed. I desperately needed coffee.

On entering the same cafeteria we'd eaten in last night, it was blatantly obvious that I wasn't the only one with a hangover. Glenn looked like he'd been awake all night puking, and Dale had a tinge of gray to him. Rick's head rested on the table, Lori beside him, looking only slighter healthier than her husband.

"Are you hungover?" Carl smirked at his dad. "Mom said you would be."

"Mom is right," Rick admitted, giving Lori an irritated glance.

"I think all of the grown-ups are feeling a little worse for wear." I sighed to Carl as I slumped down into a chair with my coffee. Andrea sat opposite me, her eyes red raw. She'd seemed alright last night with a bottle or three of wine in her, but losing her younger sister was clearly weighing heavy on her this morning.

Grief was weird like that.

"Eggs!" T-Dog announces, emerging from the kitchen with a frying pan. "Powdered, but I do 'em good."

As much as I'd been desperate for food yesterday, the thought of powdered eggs made my stomach turn. My post-alcohol state wasn't allowing me to think about sustaining myself. Glenn clearly agreed with me, his head meeting the table with a groan.

My eyes had scanned for Daryl when I entered the room, but he wasn't here. I thought back to our time in the rec room last night, the moment of connection we shared. I was around fifty percent convinced it wasn't just in my head.

Shane rolled in next, making a beeline straight for the coffee machine, then sitting as far away from everyone else as he could. I stared directly at him, hoping to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible. After the way that I saw Daryl glaring at him in the doorway of the rec room last night. I was sort of hoping he might accidentally-on-purpose let one of his bolts slip in Shane's direction overnight, but no such luck.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, let me drink again." Rick groaned. He looked like he'd aged ten years overnight, his eyes clouded over in between his short brown hair and stubbly face. I watched as he popped open a bottle of aspirin that had been left for us by Jenner, I needed to get in on that.

Jenner himself waltzed into the room next, also heading straight for the coffee. There was definitely a theme this morning. My eyes lit up when I saw that a very dishevelled redneck was trailing in after him. Daryl looked like he hadn't slept a wink, still unshowered and reeking of whisky.

I waited for him to meet my eye, but he never did, instead skulking over to the tray of eggs and loading up a plate, sitting down at the other side of the room. I couldn't help but feel a little salty about it.

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

"But you will anyway," Jenner interrupted knowingly.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea snapped at him.

Jenner looked irked by Andrea's sass, getting up and walking out of room, almost in unison, we all stood and followed him through to the room with the computers from last night.

"Give me playback of TS-19" Jenner directs at his computer friend Vi. Before addressing us, "Very few people ever got a chance to see this." A video appeared on a larger screen showing a human brain in the process of a CT scan.

"Enhanced Internal View, please Vi" Jenner commanded next. His imaginary friend obliged, the image on the monitor showing hundreds of little lights travelling through the neural pathways of the subject's brain.

"What are those lights?" Shane asked, intrigued.

"It's a person's life." Jenner explained. "Experiences, memories. It's everything. The thing that makes you unique. Human."

"Ya don't make sense. Ever." Daryl told the doctor huffing, confusion written all over his face. My heart started beating a little faster when I heard his voice. I tried to catch his eye, but he seemed hell bent on not acknowledging my existence this morning. What was up with that?

"Electric impulses in the brain." Jenner clarified. "They carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

We watched silently as the video continued, the tiny lights that originally swarmed the brain fading, as a dark mass bloomed in the center and began to spread.

"This person was bit and infected." Jenner spoke to the room. "It invades like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs."

We keep watching the footage, eyes glued to the screen as the brain succumbs to the dark mass, no more little lights can be seen, nothing.

"Then death," Jenner says softly, "Everything you ever were or ever will be, gone." He paused for a moment, appearing to be calming himself.

This was depressing.

"Vi, scan to the second event."

The screen stayed dark for a moment before dull red lights began to appear in the brain, and the test subject started to reanimate.

"The resurrection times vary wildly," Jenner informed us. "In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked, tearfully.

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

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.

"You tell me." Jenner countered, pointing to the screen.

"It's nothing like before," Rick replied, shaking his head. "Most of that brain is dark."

"The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part - That doesn't come back. This is just a shell, driven by mindless instinct".

A flash of light exploded across the screen, going right through the brain The test subject became motionless again and the brain returned to darkness. It was unmistakably a bullet.

"You don't know what it is, do you?" Carol asked nervously, pulling Sophia to her side. Jenner simply shook his head, looking defeated.

"Does anybody!?" T-Dog asked next.

"Everything went down." Jenner stated. Communications, directives, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere?" Andrea questioned, fearfully. "That's what you're really saying, right?"

Jenner doesn't respond, his silence betraying his answer. Part of me had wanted to believe that there was still some way to salvage this crap storm, that there were people working on it, but it was now evident that this was a pipe dream.

"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again." Daryl announced, looking around the room as if more Jack Daniels would appear.

"I'll get in on that." I tried Daryl, who completely ignored me. What was his fucking problem this morning? I thought about throwing the empty coffee cup I was still holding at his head.

We all sat, dumbfounded and trying to take it the news that there was no cure, nobody working on finding one, nothing, until Dale pointed to a large red clock on the wall. "Doctor Jenner, that clock. It's counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators run out of fuel," Jenner responded evasively.

"And then?" Rick questioned, I could tell he was becoming suspicious of Jenner's answers, or lack thereof.

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

That definitely didn't sound like it involved more of Jenner's high-tech friends armed with bleach and antibacterial wipes...

Fuck.

~

The scene after Jenner's revelation became pure chaos. Aside from the kids, we all understood what it meant. In whatever form, this building was going to destroy itself, and we were currently still inside.

"We have to get out of here!" I proclaimed to the group, running toward the door to the offices to retrieve my backpack. It seemed stupid, but those things were all I had left in the world and I wasn't leaving them.

Rick obviously had the same idea, "Everybody get your things. We're going!" he instructed.

For the next few minutes, we scrambled to grab our belongings, before heading back through the room with the clock on route to the exit. As we moved, lights began to turn off, as did the AC.

"What's goin' on!?" T-Dog yelled, flustered.

"Fifteen minutes to decontamination," Vi announced loudly, as if responding to him. A huge, red timer replacing the original clock now. Without warning, huge metal doors closed over the exit to the room... Had this wank stain seriously just locked us in!?

Daryl looked to Jenner in disbelief, before ripping a fireman's axe from a box on the wall and clanging it repeatedly against the doors, desperately trying to make them budge. Shane grabbed another axe and joined him, but it was futile.

"Those doors are built to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner said coolly.

"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl roared at Jenner, bounding toward him with the axe but being intercepted by Rick, who was no match for the redneck, T-Dog and Glenn joining his effort to restrain the furious man. "Ya locked us in here! I'll kill ya!"

I meanwhile was trying to resist the urge to bash Jenner's head against his fancy doors.

While Daryl was struggling against the three men, I snuck around the rear of Jenner, wrapping my arm around his neck and pressing my Glock hard into the back of his head.

He didn't even flinch as the cold metal touched him. This man was so defeated - he seemed like he was already dead. The irony of me pointing a gun at a man planning on taking the next train out of existence town in about ten minutes time anyway wasn't lost on me, but ya know, shock value. I'd try anything right about now.

"Open the fucking door." I snarled in his ear as calmly as I could manage. It wasn't exactly an easy situation to remain cool in, but we desperately needed to regain control."

"Wouldn't it be kinder?" Jenner said softly. "A quick death, one where you wouldn't feel a thing?"

"Shut up!" I rejected, the others starting to notice now that I'd apprehended the doctor.

"Athena." Rick tried to reason with me but I ignored him. I'd be the bad cop to his good cop right now seeing as Shane currently looked like a rabbit caught in headlights. He and the other men released Daryl now, who grabbed his axe again and continued swinging it at the metal obstruction. I'd wager he knew it wasn't going to work, but he had to do something. Daryl Dixon was not a man that gave up.

I understood why they'd restrained Daryl, he would have chopped Jenner into pieces with that axe, no fucks given. Whereas I knew that we needed him to override the system if we had any chance of getting out of here. Rick edged closer to Jenner and I cautiously. I had myself under control, but Rick couldn't be sure of that. I was the new girl after all.

I dropped my voice low, aware that every eye and ear in the room was on me now, except for Daryl, who continued his unrelenting war with the barrier. "Look at those kids." I snarled in his ear, pulling his head so he was facing a terrified Carl and Sophia. What makes you think you have the right to kill them?" I grasped his hair between my fingers and wrenched his gaze over to Lori and Carol next. "Look at their mothers; how frightened they are. Do they deserve to watch their children be murdered by the person they came in the hope of safety?" Jenner gulped audibly.

Come on Rick, receive my telepathic message that you're meant to be in good cop mode!

"Who was that?" he asked the doctor, gesturing to the image of the brain on the screen. Like me, he'd noticed the doctor's emotional reaction as the bullet pierced the brain on the video earlier. That person wasn't a stranger. They meant something to him.

"My wife." Jenner stated, his voice cracking.

"Test Subject Nineteen was your wife?" Lori asked, shocked. The room fell even quieter now except for Daryl's repeated hits to the metal. Everyone else was focused on Jenner. I lowered my gun slowly and released my hold on his neck. This had to work.

"She begged me to keep going. How could I say no?" tears dripped down his face now, "She ran this place, I just worked here. It should have been me on that table, not her, she could probably have saved us all."

Rick looked at Jenner with a sympathy I didn't quite share. We'd all lost people to this madness, none of us were locking people in buildings that were about to incinerate themselves.

Come on Rick. Convince him. You have to.

"Your wife didn't have a choice," he said gently. "You do. That's all we want. A choice, a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori pleads desperately. Carl crying in her arms now.

Jenner rubbed his face with his hands, contemplating. "The main entrance is locked down. I can't open those."

"Just do what you can. Give us that chance." Rick plead.

He relents, keying a code into his computer. The room collectively held their breath.

The great metal doors swung open, as relieved gasps sounded. But it wasn't over yet.

"Let's go!" hollered Daryl, who was taken by surprise at the development, about to swing the axe again before realising there was nothing to hit.

We ran as fast as our legs would carry us to the front of the building. I had no clue how we were going to make it out when we got there, but we had to try.

Those of us with guns started shooting at the glass, the bullets bouncing off like they were made of rubber.

"We're not all here." Carl shouted. I looked around. He was right. Andrea, Dale and Jacqui hadn't made it up yet, but we had to focus on carving our escape route. If we didn't find a way through, it really didn't matter where anyone was in the building.

Daryl utilised the butt of his crossbow in an attempt to damage the glass, but it was as useless as the guns. Shane and T-Dog lifted a wooden bench and tried to use it as a battering ram. Lori and Glenn were hammering on the windows with their hands. We must only be minutes away now from being snuffed out by this hellhole and we're well and truly stuck.

"Wait!" Carol screeched, pulling out the last thing I could ever have expected the ex-housewife to have in her bag.

A mother-fucking grenade.

"I found it in your pocket when I washed your clothes." She tells Rick matter-of-factly. "I forgot."

Carol. We are now best friends.

"Take cover!" Shane bellowed as Rick detonated Carol's little surprise, no time to spare, the problem being that I was still reeling from Carol's revelation and clearly didn't move quickly enough.

Something that felt like a bus slammed into my back with such force that it sent me flying, face first, onto the concrete floor, my thigh erupting in pain once again.

As I fought to regain the air that had been knocked out of me, I became distinctly aware of a pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind and a heavy weight covering my back.

Despite the manic situation we were in, time slowed down when I felt his hot, gruff breath just centimetres from the back of my neck.

Daryl.

I could feel the heat radiating from him as he lay over me, using his own body to shield me from the oncoming blast. His heart pounded rhythmically as he pressed his broad chest against me, his arms still embracing my waist.

The explosion ripped through the atrium, the huge glass windows shattering and sending shards of glass in every direction. The ringing in my ears was deafening as I felt myself being pulled up from the ground and dragged toward our escape route. I could barely see through the smoke, but it didn't matter. A warm, rough hand was wrapped tightly around my wrist, guiding me toward the fresh air.

Daryl dropped my arm as walkers surrounded us, drawn in by the explosion that still ricocheted across the area. We made for the cars we'd left parked on the road, taking down only the walkers that marred our path. The journey wasn't far, but we didn't know how much time we had left to find cover; those that weren't within biting distance had to be ignored.

We piled into vehicles, no concern for who's was which. As engines revved to life, I realised we were still missing Andrea, Dale and Jacqui. I couldn't take my eyes from the front of the building, willing the three of them to appear.

A horn beeped loudly and I could hear the frighten yells of Carl, "Come on guys! Run!" I looked to see Dale and Andrea, sans Jacqui, hot-footing it toward us. Then there was an almighty roar, flames coursing through the structure we'd been trapped inside of just minutes ago and out of its huge, shattered windows.

Smoke filled the air once more as we all searched frantically for Dale and Andrea. Had they made it far enough from the blaze?

Figures stumbled towards us, obscured by the smoke. It was impossible to tell if they were of walkers or of our latecomer friends.

As I strained my eyes, I saw a swish of blond hair approaching us, next to the top of a very stupid-looking hat...

Lots going on in this chapter. I hope you didn't lose interest in it with all the speech. I cut out so much of the original scene at The CDC, but it still feels wordy.

What do we think of Daryl shielding Athena from the grenade?

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