Chapter 17: A Life Altering Choice

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Her response sounded grim even for an AI. We all were extremely concerned. Rick sent us all back to our rooms while he, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog went down to the basement level to investigate. Charlotte and I went with Daryl back to his room.

    "Mom, I'm scared." She whispered to me as we sat in the room.

Daryl was pacing with a bottle of whisky in his hand.

    "Hey." Daryl said softly and he bent down in front of her as we sat on the bed. "There's no need to be scared, alright. I ain't never gonna let something bad happen to you or to your mom. But remember being scared is human. We all get a little scared sometimes." He assured her and it made my heart swell.

    "Daryl, I'm a little worried myself." I said with a frown. Charlotte looked up at me surprised.

    "Are you scared too?" She asked.

    "Yea, sweet pea. I am. Vi said facility wide decontamination. I don't know about you, but that doesn't exactly sounds so great to me." I said looking at Daryl.

    "I'm sure Rick will get to the bottom of it." Daryl replied confidently.

Suddenly the slight air that was coming from the ceiling blowing down on us disappeared. I stood up and put my hand over the vent definitely feeling no air.

    "Mom?" Charlotte said confused.

    "The air conditioning stopped." I said with a sigh. Whatever was happening was starting.

The lights suddenly shut off next. Daryl held us close and ushered us to the door where the lights in the hallways were still on. We weren't the only ones. Jenner suddenly came walking up through the hall with a very nice set of clothing on as well as his lab coat.

    "Why is the air off?" Lori asked.

    "And the lights in our rooms?" Carol asked next.

    "What's going on, Jenner?" I said in a demanding tone.

    "Why is everythin' turnin' off?" Daryl demanded next.

Jenner scooped up the bottle of whisky from out of his hand continuing to move up the hallway. I quickly stepped out behind him with Charlotte and Daryl in tow. The lights in the hall beginning to turn off one after another behind us.

    "Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner replied.

    "Air isn't a priority?" Dad asked concerned. "And lights?"

    "It's not up to me." Jenner said taking a swig from the whisky bottle. "Zone five is shutting itself down."

    "Hey, hey! What the hell's that mean?" Daryl scoffed. He moved in front of us to be right behind Jenner. "Hey, man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"

    "You'd be surprised."

Suddenly Rick, and the others came running into the room.

    "Rick?" Lori called out to him.

Seeing them come running back made us all uneasy.

    "Jenner, what's happening?" Rick demanded.

    "The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That starts just as we approach the half hour mark. Which is right on schedule." Jenner pointed up at the large counting down clock reading 30 minutes left. He handed the now mostly empty whisky bottle back to Daryl who took it back with a frown.

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