Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

-6-

JINX

It took a couple of attempts and Carl's help, but eventually she was victorious in grabbing hold of the painkillers away from Rick, just before Shane could lean over and take them. She was almost surprised by her own laughter as she chatted to the young boy beside her.

On T-Dog's third attempt to give her some food, she finally relented and accepted a small plate of eggs. She wasn't hungry and she'd never been one of those people who could eat a giant plate of greasy food when drunk or hungover, but the memory of her gaunt face in the mirror reminded her that she needed to build her strength back up and she wasn't going to do that living on coffee alone.

Someone commented on some scratch marks on Shane's neck and Jinx couldn't help but notice the look he gave Lori when he spoke, obviously lying about having done it to himself in his sleep. The sense of distrust she felt for the man deepened, and she could sense the unease coming from Lori. There was something going on there, but Jinx wasn't sure what, all she knew was that she wanted to keep as far from Shane as she could.

The atmosphere of the room changed instantaneously as Jenner walked in and Dale apologised for slamming him with questions first thing. Andrea pointed out "we didn't come here for the eggs". She wasn't wrong, but Jinx felt like she could've used a little longer in their little bubble of safety before being reminded of how the outside world had gone to shit. She rubbed her temples before following the rest of the group back to the room with the computers.

The doctor used a huge screen to show them an MRI recording of test subject 19, someone who had allowed them to record the process of what happened when they were infected. The girl didn't need to listen to Jenner's explanation, she had enough medical experience to get all of the information she needed just by watching and she felt her guilt lift a little as the clip proved to her that the monster she'd beaten to death a few days prior had already been dead. She hadn't killed a person, she'd killed a reanimated corpse.

Despite the depressing nature of the recording, Jinx partly enjoyed watching the clip, she found the lights produced by the neurons beautiful and even when they were replaced as the person turned, she could still see the beauty in them.

She flinched along with everyone else as a bullet ripped through the subject's brain. She hated how comfortable people here were with guns. She understood the necessity given the current state of the world, but they were a foreign concept to her having grown up in a country where even most of the police didn't carry.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea stated as much as asked.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal-", Jacqui interrupted with a suggestion of the wrath of god, "there is that." The doctor acquiesced.

Jenner continued to explain that everything had gone down, he'd been in the dark for almost a month and Jinx realised there was no way to know if anyone knew how to fight this thing. If the CDC hadn't found a way, it was unlikely anywhere else had.

She felt the colour drain from her face as the realisation set in and she had to sit down. She'd known it before, but it wasn't until she heard it said out loud that it really sunk in and she truly realised that there was no way she would ever make it home again.

She stared unseeing into the distance, but Daryl's voice broke through "Man, Imma get shitfaced drunk again", her stomach lurched at the thought, but her brain welcomed the idea of the oblivion the drink could give her.

Dale drew everyone's attention to a clock counting down, just as it reached the one-hour mark. Jenner elaborated that the power would run out when the countdown did and walked away. At Rick's request, Vi informed them that system-wide decontamination would occur when the power ran out. Those words made the girl's blood run cold, she knew what this place was, knew that there was no way the government would risk the things stored here getting out, no matter what the world outside looked like. She didn't know how it would work, but she knew there was no way a living organism would be able to survive that decontamination.