Dead End || Daryl Dixon

Chapter Eighteen

"He just locked us in?" Glenn said, looking panicked between the rest of the group. A lot of us doing the same. I stared wide eyed at Daryl.

"We've hit the 30-minute window. I am recording" Jenner said into one of the computers.

"You son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled charging towards Jenner. "You locked us in here!"

"No, stop. Don't!" Shane yelled grabbing ahold of him.

Daryl shoved Jenner over, being grabbed my Shane just in time before he did any real damage.

"Hey Jenner, open that door now!" Rick yelled.

"There's no point, everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed"

Well open the damn things!

I watched as the events unfolded in front of us, Rick, Daryl, and Shane argued with Jenner. Between daryl trying to break down the door and Rick yelling in Jenners ear I could barely think.

"You know what this place is!" Jenner yelled getting out of his chair, "we protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponied smallpox! Ebola strained that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting our! Ever!" He ranted looking at all of us.

We just watched him in shock at his outburst. He sat back down in his chair, avoiding eye contact with us.

"In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terroir attack for example. H.I.Ts are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

My eyes widened at the mention.

"H.I.Ts?"

"HITs, High-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explodes consist 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 ignited the oxygen between 5,000 degrees and 6,000 degrees. And is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." The computer explained.

I could feel my hands shake as tears came to my eyes.

"It sets the air on fire" Jenner spoke up, with an odd smile on his face. "No pain."

I could hear the sobs of the children as their mothers held them.

"An end to sorrow, grief... regret... everything"

"Open the damn door!" Daryl yelled after smashing the bottle of wine against the door. He was thrown an axe and him and Shane hit it over and over again. I watched with my arms crossed.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner said calmly.

Daryl charged after him with the axe, "well, yer head ain't!" He yelled swinging the axe but was stopped by Shane and Rick. They pushed him back.

"But you do want this, you said last night that it was only a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead."

The look of shock written all over our faces.

I completely zoned out watch daryl pace. I moved over towards him and placed my hand on his arm, wanting to stop him from pacing. When he ripped his arm from my grasp and I flinched back.

He relaxed slightly when he realized it was me. I frowned a little, putting the pieces together that we were about to die. This man was going to kill us, not like it mattered.

I felt daryl put his arm over my shoulder and pulled my into his chest, I gladly wrapped my arms around his waist. I slowed my breathing to match his although his heart was pounding out of his chest. He was scared, when I pulled away I looked up into his eyes, seeing exactly what I was thinking.

I took a deep breath before turning around to pay attention to what was going on in front of us. Shane held a shotgun to Jenners head while Rick tried to calm him down.

Shane went crazy, shooting the computers and trying to scare Jenner into letting us out.

Rick looked between all of us, I stood next to daryl with my arms crossed over my chest.

"I think you're lying, about no hope" Rick said, catching us all off guard. "If that we're true, you would have bolted with the rest. Or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path, why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does matter, it always matters. You stayed when other ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise. To her" he said pointed up at the screen. "My wife."

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori said, realization hitting all of us. That's why he seems so upset playing back the vigil.

"She begged me to keep going, as long as I could."

Daryl walked off, taking the axe towards the door. He swung and swung with no luck. I watched daryl intently as his muscles flexed against his shirt.

The doors opened and daryl yelled for us, I quickly followed him through the hallway but realized Dale, Jacquie and Amy stayed behind. There were only 4 minutes left.

All I could hear as we all left was Dale pleading for Amy to follow.

When we made it out to the lobby they tried to break the glass with no luck. Nothing broke the glass.

"Rick, I have something that might help" Carol said digging through her bag. "Carol I don't think a nail files gonna do it."Shane butted in and I rolled my eyes at him.

"That first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform. I found this in your pocket." Carol said pulling out a granade.

"Look out!" Shane called and we all backed away, getting on the floor.

I used my body to help cover the kids better. "Get down!" Rick called and the explosion was enough to shake the entire building. The glass shattered and I breathed in relief.

We booked it for the entrance, taking down a few walkers as we approached out vehicles.

I quickly got into Daryl's truck, sliding over to the driver seat as daryl dove in beside me.

"Get down" Daryl said to me, pushing my body under his as he laid over me. The blast was enough to shake everything.

I could feel the heat from the building and hear the crumbling of the structure. My eyes widened as I pushed daryl off of me and looked up at the mushroom cloud of flames and smoke.

"Holy shit" I said causing daryl to look up himself. I can not believe we were just stuck inside of there and would have died if it wasn't for Rick talking him into letting us out.