𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍, rick grimes

TWELVE

EVERYONE HEADED BACK TO THEIR ROOMS, JOSIE WAS PACKING her and Parker's things back into their bags. She did not like how Jenner shut down after Rick asked that last question.

"Mom, what're you doing?" Parker asked, looking up from her schoolwork.

"Packing up our things," Josie replied bluntly.

All of a sudden, the air conditioning that Josie was standing under had turned off. The brunette looked up as she furrowed her brows, then she reached up.

"What is it?" Parker asked.

"The air conditioning turned off," Josie replied.

Just then, the lights turned off and they both headed towards the door and opened it, peeking out to see theirs friends looking out too.

"Why is the air off?" Lori asked.

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

"Yeah, what's going on?" Josie asked, crossing her arms as Jenner walked down the hallway.

"Why is everything turned off?" Daryl asked.

"Energy use is being prioritized," Jenner replied, taking the bottle of whiskey from Daryl's hand.

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

"It's not up to me," Jenner replied. "Zone five is shutting itself down."

"Hey!" Daryl yelled. "Hey, what the hell does that mean? 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," Jenner replied.

"Rick?" Lori called when she saw her husband come through a doorway.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked as he stood next to Josie.

"The system is dropping all nonessential uses of power," Jenner explained. "It's designed to keep the computers running as long as possible. It starts as we approach the half hour mark," he gestured to the clock, which was approaching thirty minutes. "Right on schedule."

Jenner turned around and handed Daryl his bottle and Daryl grabbed it with enough force that the drink spilled all over the floor.

"It was the French," Jenner sighed.

"What?" Josie asked.

"They were the last ones to hold out, as far as I know," Jenner explained. "While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jacqui asked.

"The same thing that's happening here," Jenner replied. "No power grid, ran out of juice. The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid it that?"

"Let me tell you..." Shane began as he walked closer to Jenner.

Rick caught his arm. "To hell with it, Shane, I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody get your stuff, we're getting out of here!"

All of a sudden, an alarm started blaring and Shane tensed up. "What's that?"

A timer appeared on screen as Vi spoke. "Thirty minutes to decontamination."

"Doc, what's going on here?" T-Dog asked.

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick," Shane said. "Get your stuff and let's go! Go, now! Go! Let's go!"