Cowboy

8) TS-19

Alicia walked into the large room from the night before, Daryl still trailing after. He walked up to stand by her side.

"Give me a playback of TS-19." Jenner said to the robot voice.

"Playback of TS-19"

"Few people ever got a chance to see this." His voice got dark. "Very few."

Alicia looked up at Daryl. He nodded, silently agreeing with her. Neither one of them trusted this man.

"Is that a brain?" Andrea asked, looking up at the screen.

"An extraordinary one." He breathed. "Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V."

Alicia watched as lights danced around inside the brain. "What are those lights?" She wondered out loud.

"It's a persons life... experiences, memories... it's everything." Jenner answered. "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?"

"They determine everything a person says does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." He said irritably.

"Death?" Andrea scoffed. "That's what this is a vigil?"

"Yes." Jenner nodded. "Or rather the playback of the vigil."

"The person died?" Alicia stepped forward, looking closer at the lights and the brain. "Who?"

"Test subject 19." He said shakily. "Someone who was bitten and infected... And volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event."

"What is that?" Rick asked, watching as some weird, dark matter spilled into the brain.

"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."

Alicia stepped back as Jenner said this, taking comfort in Daryl who stood beside her.

They continued to watch the video, Jenner explaining everything that happened until the last second.

Alicia flinched as she recognized a bullet going right into the test subjects head.

Jenner began to argue about what it could be, why he had to do this.

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

"There are others right? Other facilities?" Carol asked, holding her daughter close to her.

"There may be some. People like me." He sighed.

"But you don't know? How can you not know?"

They continued to argue, Jenner explained how communications had went down and he was left in the dark.

Alicia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm gonna need a lot more wine."

Daryl chuckled, looking down at her. "Yeah."

"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 generators... they run out of fuel." He sighed.

"And then?" Glenn asked.