Sheriff's Lover ||| Rick Grimes

16 ~ Choice

___

'Cause if you're gonna leave

Better leave, better do it fast

Can't live another minute bleeding from my back

'Cause I don't have another one

For you to stab

___

Daryl throws his body against the large plastic cover. "Open this damn door!"

Jenner shakes his head. "You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier."

Elaina scoffs. "Easier for who, asshole?"

"All of you. You know what's out there... A short, brutal life and an agonizing death."

Daryl and T-Dog grab axes and start hitting the door, in any attempts to open it.

Jenner rolls his eyes. "Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."

Daryl turns around and starts running at the doctor. "But your head ain't!"

Elaina grabs his arm as he passes. "Daryl!"

Shane shouts. "Woah, woah!" He pulls Daryl back and Elaina backs up, still holding onto Carl.

Jenner turns to Rick. "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

Elaina gasps softly. "What?"

Shane scoffs. "Really? After all your big talk?"

Rick glances at Elaina before turning to the others. "I had to keep hope alive. Didn't I?"

"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner says. "This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

Carol cries softly as she hugs Sophia. "This isn't right. You can't just keep us here. My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."

"One tiny moment... a millisecond. No pain. Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asks them.

A gun cocks and Shane walks up to Jenner, holding a large weapon. "Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!"

Rick pushes his hands against Shane's chest. "Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here. He dies, we all die."

Elaina lets go of Carl and walks toward Jenner. "I think you're lying."

"What?"

"About there being no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

Rick shakes his head. "It always matters."

Elaina takes another step. "You stayed when others ran. Why?"

Jenner sighs. "Not because I wanted to. I made a promise... To her. My wife."

He points at the darkened screen.

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asks.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just... Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."