In The End | Daryl Dixon

Chapter 7: TS-19

We all followed Jenner back to the big room after we ate, Jenner walking right up to one of the computers,

"Give me playback of TS-19."

The large screen in front of us started booting up, showing pictures of a brain, showcasing the data beside it.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this."

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked from beside Jenner.

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

The picture of the brain was now rotated to see a lateral view. Then the image zoomed into a portion of the brain, showcasing millions of small lights flashing.

"What are those lights?" Shane asked.

"It's a persons life- experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you-" Jenner said while pointing to us. "The thing that makes you unique and human."

"You don't make sense, ever?" Daryl said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Jenner points to the screen, "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."

"This person died?" I asked as I stared up at the monitor. "Who?"

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected...and volunteered to have us record the process." Jenner said with a hint of remorse. "Vi, scan forward to the first event."

The monitor fast forward and instead of the brain having the synapses flashing blue lights, it now was black.

"What is that?" Glenn asked.

"It invades the brain like meningitis." You could see the outline of the person struggling, like they were struggling to breathe. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs." The image of the brain finally turns black, and the person stopped moving, "Then death." Jenner said as he looked down.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" I heard Sophia ask Carol.

"Yes." Carol answered truthfully.

Everyone was stood in silence trying to take everything in. Jenner glanced over towards Andrea and noticed her trying to hold back her tears,

"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori said.

Jenner walked closer to Andrea, "I lost somebody too, I know how devastating it is." He took a moment before speaking again, "Scan to the second event."

The monitor started fast forwarding while Jenner spoke, "The resurrection times vary wildly. We have reports of it happening in as little as 3 minutes. The longest we heard of was 8 hours. In the case of this patient, it was 2 hours, 1 minute, 7 seconds."

The monitor showed the brain stem lighting up red, "It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.

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

"But they're not alive?" Rick followed up.

Jenner turned around and pointed to the screen, "You tell me."

Rick shook his head, "Its 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."