digging graves// rick grimes x OC//

TS-19 Part 3

    The next morning, Glenn and Winona both wake up with terrible hangovers. Winona went to the bathroom to brush her teeth while Glenn laid on the couch, not wanting to get up. She gasped when she saw her reflection, a bruise in the shape of Shane's hand had formed on her neck and her cheek was swollen from where he hit her. She couldn't go to breakfast like that. "Hey, Glenn..."
    He groaned, "...Yeah?"
    "Can you bring me my backpack?" She remembered that she had kept some makeup in the bag. She didn't hear him reply, but the sound of movement was a good enough answer for her.
    He approaches the door, backpack in hand, "Here ya go..." he looks up at her, eyes widening, "Holy shit! Does it hurt?!"
    "Only a little, I'll be okay, I need to cover it though," she says as she rummages through her bag, finding the travel sized tube of concealer, "Perfect." She begins to apply it on the bruise, it starts to blend in.
    "Crazy how makeup can do that."
    Winona nods in agreement. She finishes getting ready and Glenn goes into the bathroom so he can also get ready for the day.
    Glenn made her promise that she wouldn't go anywhere alone after last night, so when he finished up, they headed towards the smell of breakfast.
——
   The two walk into the dining area, sitting across from Lori and Carl. Winona's stomach grumbles at the aroma of fresh food. She hears footsteps coming from the hall, at first she tenses— worried it's Shane, but immediately relaxes at the sight of Rick. "Morning," he greets as he reaches the table.
   As soon as the words leave his lips, Carl begins to question him, "Are you hungover? Mom said you'd be."
   "Mom is right," Rick says sitting down.
   Lori chuckles and speaks up, "Mom has that annoying habit."
   T-Dog cuts in from behind the counter, "Eggs. Powered, but— but I do 'em good." Glenn and Winona groan, still hungover from last night. "I bet you can't tell," he continues, scooping more onto their plates, "Protein helps the hangover."
   Glenn groans again. "Where'd all this come from?" Rick asks, Winona looks over to see him holding a pill bottle.
   "Jenner," Lori responds.
   "Could you help me, please?" he asks, handing his wife the bottle.
   "He thought we could use it," Lori states, looking up at Winona and Glenn, "Some of us, at least."
   "Don't ever ever let me drink again," Glenn cries.
   "God, same here," Winona mumbles, massaging her head.
   "Hey," the voice, she definitely didn't want to hear yet, says.
  Winona immediately goes on edge, now that Shane's in the room, Glenn notices and rubs her shoulder, whispering, "You're safe, okay? He can't do anything." She nods a thank you and continues to eat.
   Rick greets Shane back, "Hey. Feel as bad as I do?"
   "Worse," he says shortly, Winona lets out a scoff, rolling her eyes at the man.
   T-Dog looks him over, noticing the scratches, "The hell happened to you? Your neck?"
   Shane sits down, making eye contact with Winona, "I must have done it in my sleep."
   "Never seen you do that before," Rick states. Winona gets nervous that Glenn may have told him, but when she looks to him he just shakes his head.
   "Me neither. Not like me at all," Shane says looking at Winona again, she looks away quickly and goes back to eating.
   Jenner walks in, breaking the tension between the two, "Morning."
   "Hey, Doc," the group says.
   Dale looks at Andrea who nods, he begins to speak, "Doctor, I don't mean to slap you with questions first thing—"
   "But you will anyway," Jenner finishes exhausted, pouring coffee into his cup.
   "We didn't come her for the eggs," Andrea voices.
——
   The group follows Jenner back to the room with all the computers. "Give me playback of TS-19," he tells Vi.
   "Playback of TS-19."
They watch as the screen turns on, and it begins to display images of a brain.
   "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few," Jenner says.
   "Is that a brain?" Carl asks.
   "An extraordinary one," Jenner answers. He frowns as he looks back at the screen, "Not that it matter in the end." He continues to speak to Vi, "Take us in for E.I.V."
   "Enhanced internal view."
   The screen begins to show a close up on the brain. Rick, who was standing next to an amazed Winona, leans over, "If you keep your mouth open for too long, bugs will soon fly in."
   She flinches at first, still scared from the night before, "Oh," she laughs and relaxes, "Sorry, it's just incredible to see something so complex in such detail. Like one signal from your brain can cause a response like fight or flight so quickly, it's just so fascinating."
   He chuckles and shakes his head, "Only you, Graves."
   "What are those lights?" Shane inquires.
   "It's a person's life—" Jenner turns around to the group, "Experiences, memories. It's everything." He turns back to the screen, "Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you— the thing that makes you unique. And human."
   "Wow..." Winona whispers.
   "You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asks confused.
   "Those are synapses," Winona speaks up, "Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages."
   Jenner nods, "They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."
   "Death?" Rick steps forward, "That's what this is, a vigil?"
   "Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil."
   "This person died?" Andrea also steps forward, "Who?"
   "Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected... and volunteered to have us record the process," Jenner responds, "Vi, scan forward to the first event."
   "Scanning to first event."
   What appears to be dark red vines, begin to appear throughout the brain. "What is that?" Glenn asks in confusion.
   "It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown then the major organs," the brain goes dark and Jenner continues, "Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be... gone."
   Sophia looks to Carol, "Is that what happened to Jim?"
   "Yes," Carol answers.
   Andrea begins to cry, Lori speaking up when Jenner looks puzzled, "She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister."
   Jenner walks over to the blonde, "I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is." He turns back to the screen once again, "Scan to the second event."
   "Scanning to second event."
   "The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case if this patient, it was two hours, one minute... seven seconds."
   Suddenly red lights begin to spark at the base of the brain stem, Winona stares in shock. "It restarts the brain?" Lori asks in disbelief.
   "No, just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."
   "But they're not alive?" Rick questions.
   Jenner points to the screen, "You tell me."
   "It's nothing like before," Rick states, "Most of that brain is dark."
   "Dark, lifeless, dead," Jenner adds, "The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part— that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell. Driven by mindless instinct."
   A beam of light goes through the skull, raising a question from Carol, "God. What was that?
   "He shot his patient in the head," Andrea says, "Didn't you?"
   "Vi, power down the main screen and the work stations."
   "Powering down main screen and workstations."
   "You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea interrogates.
   "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."
   "Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui speaks up.
   "There is that," Jenner says.
   "Somebody must know something," Andrea continues, "Somebody somewhere."
   Carol starts to voice her questions, "There are others, right? Other facilities?"
   "There may be some. People like me."
   "But you don't know?" Rick steps in, "How can you not know?"
   "Everything went down. Communications, directives— all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."
   "So it's not just here," Winona says shocked.
   "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?" Andrea couldn't believe it, "That's what you're really saying, right?" After getting no response she scoffs at the man.
   "Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again," Daryl says rubbing his head.
   "Yeah, count me in," Winona grumbles.
   "Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but..." Dale starts, "that clock— it's counting down. What happens at zero?"
   "The basement generators— they run out of fuel," he answers quickly.
   "And then?" asks Rick. Getting no response he speaks to Vi, "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"
   "When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."
——
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