Love & survival (Daryl Dixon x oc)

Twelve

After my amazing shower I sat on the small bed in the room Daryl and I decided to share. I had picked a book from the Rec room. Daryl came walking in with a bottle of wine and two glasses. "Want sum more? They've got plenty."

"Sure." I said. I wasn't drunk enough for the celebration of this evening. He poured the two glasses all the way to the top of the glass. "That's to much. It's supposed to go to like half." I told him a bit tipsy. "I know. But it's handy to do it like this 'cause then ye won't have to fill it all the time." He replied. He was way more drunk than me. I took the glass he offerd me and drunk it all at once. "Not if I drink like this." I joked. He refilled my glass annoyed. 

We chatted way to much that evening and got way to drunk until somehow our lips met eachother. He pulled himself closer to me and our clothes dissapeared.

*

I woke up the next morning very hangover. Daryl laid next to me, naked. Shit, I was naked. It didn't take long before my brain completed the puzzle. I quickly changed into my clothes and went back to the kitchen. A couple people were already there. Glenn was so hungover. Jacqui was massaging his shoulders when Daryl came walking in. Our eyes met but quickly looked away and we tried to act as normal as usual. People probably saw the akwarness between us but I tried to ingnore that thought. 

Rick came walking in. "Are you hungover? Mom said you'd be." Carl asked his father. "Mom was right." He replied. "Mom has that annoying habit." Lori mumbled.

"Eggs! Powderd, but.. But I do 'em good." T-Dog came out of the kitchen, "Bet you can't tell. Protein helps the hangover." He gesured towards Glenn who was clearly suffering. "Don't ever, ever, ever let me dink again." I softly chuckled at him. 

Shane walked in. He had a scratch on his neck. "The hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-Dog asked him. 

"I dunno, must've done it in my sleep." He said. Daryl sneakly gave me some of his eggs. I gave him a smile in return of his action.

"I've never seen you do that." Rick reacted to Shane.

"Me either." He said back, "Not like me at all." He looked over to Lori suspiciously. They must've had a fight or something.

Jenner walked in and we greeted him. "Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing.." Dale started.

"but you will anyway." Jenner completed.

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

He led us to the 'Zone 5' room and asked Vi to show us a playback of TS-19. I had no idea what that meant but the big screen turned on. "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." The screen was zooming in on something. "Is that a brain?" Carl asked. 

"An extaordinary one." Jenner replied, "Not that it matters in the end."

The screen turned to the side of the brain and zoomed in. "What are those lights?" Shane asked him.

"Its a person's life," Jenner started, "Experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. the thing that makes you unique. And human."

"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked him.

"Those are synapses," Jenner explained, "elecrtic impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." 

"Death?" Rick asked him, "That's what this is, a vigil?"

"Yes. Or rather, the playback of the vigil."

"This person died?" Andrea asked while keeping her eyes on the screen, "Who?"

"Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected, and voulenteerd to have us record the procces." He told us before he commanded Vi to scan to the first event. There was dark red stuff in the brain, taking over. "What is that?" Glenn asked.

"It invades the brain like meningitis." Jenner explained, "The adrenal glands hemorrage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Eveything you ever were or will be, gone."

"Woah." I said softly when I realised this is what we had seen on Jim. Everyone did.

Jenner told Vi to scan to the second event and said something about the speed of it spreading or something. The now dark brain had a little red light in the stem wich was growing a little bit bigger. "It restarts the brain?" I asked Jenner.

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

"But they ain't alive?" I questioned.

"You tell me."

"It ain't anything like it used to be. Most of it is still dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell, driven by mindless instinct."

A flash went though the brain. It now had a sort of tunnel in it. "God, what was that?" Carol asked.

"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea answerd her. 

Jenner told Vi to power down the main screen and workstations. "You have no idea what it is do you?" Andrea interrogated Jenner.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asked.

"There's that"

"Somebody must know something, right?" I asked, "Someone, somewhere."

"There are others right? Other facilities?" Carol joined.

"There may be some." Jenner responded, "People like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick asked him.

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

"So it's not just here?" Andrea wonderd, "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" When no answer came from Dr. Jenner she scoffed.

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again." Daryl announced while walking around.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but.. that clock.. It's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asked

"The basement generator.. They run out of fuel." Jenner answerd quickly while walking out. Something was off.

"Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked.

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