Destruction ||| Glenn Rhee x Reader (TWD X Reader)

Chapter 19) All alone

The next morning, Y/N walks to the table they ate at last night. She has a pounding headache. She slides into a seat.

"Y/N." She looks up to see T-Dog handing her a plate of eggs. "Eat something."

She smiles at him. "Thank you."

He returns the smile when Glenn walks in, looking even worse than Y/N had. He collapses in a chair and puts his head on the table.

T-Dog hands Glenn a plate who just groans in response. T laughs. "Protein helps the hangover."

He lifts his head up. "Don't ever let me drink again."

Y/N rubs her eyes. "Me either." There are a few chuckles at that.

Jenner walks in the room. "Morning."

"Morning, doc." Shane says, rubbing his neck that has some scratches on it.

Dale looks to the man. "Doctor... I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing—"

Jenner interrupts him. "But you will anyway."

Andrea speaks. "We didn't come here for the eggs."
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After breakfast, Jenner leads the group into a large room with computers and screens.

"Give me a playback of TS-19."

VI, the computer voice responds. "Playback of TS-19."

Jenner looks to the group. "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."

The screen lights up with various skulls and brains.

Carl looks to Rick. "Is that a brain?"

Jenner responds, not taking his eyes away from the screen. "An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V."

VI speaks aloud. "Enhanced internal view."

The screen zooms in to a side view of the skull, and inside the brain there are several shiny lights all throughout that swirl around.

Y/N stands off to the side. "What are those lights?"

"It's a person's life—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."

Daryl rolls his eyes. "You don't make sense ever?"

Jenner sighs and rewords it. "Those are synapses. Electric 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? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asks.

"This person died? Who?" Andrea asks.

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected... and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, Scan forward to the first event."

"Scanning to first event."

The screen changes and so do the lights. The outer lights still flash but everything inside turns dark.

"What's that?" Glenn asks.

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

Sophia looks to her mom sadly. "Is that what happened to Jim?"

Carol nods. "Yes."

A tear slides down Andreas face, which catches Jenners eye.

Lori looks to him. "She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister."

Jenner nods. "I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is." There's a pause before he speaks to the computer. "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 of this patient, it was two hours, one minute... seven seconds." Jenner says.

All the remaining lights turn dark. Suddenly, flashes of red spark through the brain.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asks.

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

Archer scratches his head. "But they're not alive?"

Jenner points at the screen. "You tell me."

Archer goes to speak but Glenn cuts him off. "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is 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." Jenner says sitting in a chair.

The screen changes once more, and the skull starts to move. Jaw snapping. The test subject turned. Suddenly there's a slice shot through the middle of the skull and the screen stops moving.

"God. What was that?" Carol asks.

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea says.

Jenner doesn't respond. "VI, Power down the main screen and the workstations."

"Powering down main screen and workstations."

Shane shakes his head. "You have no idea what it is, do you?"

Jenner taps his hand on the desk. "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

Jacqui scoffs. "Or the wrath of God?"

Jenner sighs. "There is that."

"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." Andrea states.

"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asks hopefully.

Jenner shrugs. "There may be some. People like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick asks starting to pace.

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

Andreas voice cracks. "So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"

"Jesus." Jacqui says sitting down on the floor.

Daryl cracks his neck. "Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again."

Dale looks at one of the walls. "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?"

Y/N looks over and sees a red lit digital clock on the wall, going backwards.

"The basement generators—they run out of fuel."

"And then?" Archer asks walking closer.

Jenner ignores him and stands, walking to the other side of the room.

"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asks loudly.

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