Hushed ➳ Daryl Dixon

Chapter 14

           "She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister" Lori spoke up after noticing the look Jenner was giving Andrea.

"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is. " He said moving closer to the girl and trying his best to comfort a stranger.

"Scan to the second even" he said straightening himself up and moving closer to the screens. His moment of thoughtfulness gone.

I glanced around the group again, moving from Carl and Loris side over to Daryl. "This is some fucked up shit" he said once I was close enough and crossed my arms over my chest.

I nodded, turning back to the screen as it was still playing the vigil.

"The resurrection times very wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. I'm the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute and seven seconds"
Jenners everything changed, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

He cared about whoever was on that screen and we made him open a wound he probably didn't want to.

The brain on the screen started to light up red. "It restarts the brain?" Lori asked shocked. "No, just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."

"But they aren't alive?" Rick questions. "You tell me"

I huffed, looking down at my feet. How the hell could something like this happen? If the CDC only had this one man left, that means the world is gone. There's no coming back from this dead eating the living thing.

"It's nothing like before." Rick commented. "Most of that brain is dark"

"Dark, lifeless, dead."

Shivers ran up my spine at the thought. This could happened to every single one of us. The through of me coming back as one of those things was honestly terrifying.

"The frontal love, the neocortex, the human part- that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct"

As he finished his words the screen flashed, a burrow whole implanted itself into the brain on the screen. He shot the patient.

"Got what was that?" Carol asked

"He shot his patient in the head" Andrea said still looking up at the screen.

Why the hell would he show is this? Not only do we have a grief stricken sister but two children in the room.

"Vi, power down the main screen and the work stations"

"You have no idea what is is, do you?" Andrea asked. "It could be microbial, viral, par-acidic, fungal"

"Or the wrath of god?" Jaqui added, she had a point. "There's that" 

I rubbed my forehead with irritation. As they continue to argue with Jenner. How could there not be anything left? Isnt the government supposed to help with this? Shit the government don't help with anything.

They failed me and every other kid in the system, now that can't even protect us against this? They should have had it handled before things got too bad. So bad to the point where there's no going back. Our new normal will be running from the dead as the chomp their jaws trying to eat us.

"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again" Daryl said rubbing his face. I nodded in agreement.

"Dr. Jenner I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask you one more questions, but that's clock it's counting down. What happened at zero?" Dale asked catching my attention and I glanced at the clock on the wall, it read fifty nine minutes.

"The baseman generators- they run out of fuel." He stammered making me scrunch my eyebrows in confusion.

Jenner started to walk away from us, clearly he was lying about the generators. What really happens at zero.

"Vi, what happnes when the power runs out?" Rick asked loudly. "When the power runs out facility-wide decontamination will occur."

My eyes widened looking around the room. Putting two and two together would mean this building was either going to get sprayed in some heavy chemical. Or the building would be gone for good.

I stalked off back to my room nearly throwing myself on the couch. Daryl came back a couple minutes later with another bottle of wine in his hands. "Paws off, I'm drinking this whole damn thing" Daryl said lifting my legs and sitting on the couch, allowing my legs to spread across his lap.

"Something bad is happening" I finally said looking up at Daryl as he nearly chugged the bottle of win. "What do ya mean?" He asked.

I shook my head shrugging my shoulders and stared at him. The more I stared at the man the more my cheeks became red. It's been years since I have ever even found a man attractive or ever been close with a guy.

Daryl was breathtaking, his arms were toned. Right now he was clean but when when he was covered in dirt and blood I found the man extremely attractive. Carol basically gives the man googly eyes which is a little strange.

"What ya staring at girl" he said looking over at me, usually if anyone was caught staring Daryl would snap at them, tell them to keep their eyes to themselves.

He was sweet, even if he didn't admit it. He cared about most of the people here, Shane being the only one we could leave behind and I think we both would be happy about that.

"Hello?" Daryl said again.

I continued to stare at him. My mom would have loved him, she always liked when I dated the non popular kids in school. Which I wasn't popular myself so it was hard to even get the attention of anyone popular.

I know for a fact she would have adored Daryl. She would have seen right through his act just like I had.

"Brienley" Daryl said smacking my leg making me jump slightly and look up at him. "Sorry, I was thinking" I chuckled to myself.

"Why do you only talk to me?" He asked leaning his head on the back of the couch but he was still looking at me. "You don't try to force me to talk, you found a way to communicate with me without forcing me to use my words" I shrugged, stretching the truth a little bit.

I wasn't going to tell him that I trusted him with my life and I found him so attractive my heart races any time he looks at me. Which is true, but I wouldn't admit that to anyone. The man didn't even like anyone in the group what makes me think I'll be any different?