Running out of time

Chapter 5: TS-19 part 1

I woke up and Owen was already getting dressed. I yawned and got up and got dressed. We walked to the dining room and sat down Glenn was hungover and it was really funny. Rick walked into the room obviously hungover too. "Hello, Morning." he said. "Are you hungover? Mom said you'd be." Carl asked Rick "Mom is right." Rick told Carl I let out a small chuckle at Carl's remark. "Mom has that annoying habit." Lori said "Eggs, powdered but-but I do 'em good." T-dog says giving Glenn eggs. Glenn groans "I bet you can't tell, protein helps the hangover." T-dog continues. Glenn continues groaning "Where'd all this come from?" Rick asks gesturing to a bottle of pills. "Jenner." Lori tells him. "Could you help me, please?" Ricks said handing Lori the pill bottle. "He thought we could use it." Lori explained. "Thank you." Rick tells Lori as she hands him some pills. "Some of us at least." Lori says probably talking about me. "Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." Glenn says making me laugh. Shane walks in I notice he has scratches on his neck I don't say anything but I'm guessing someone else did it. "Hey" Shane says "Hey fell as bad as I do?" Rick asks Shane "Worse" is all he says telling me that he did something. "The hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-dog asks Shane. "I must've done it in my sleep." Shane explained obviously lying. "Never seen you do that before." Rick told Shane. "Me neither, not like me at all." Shane said shooting Lori a look, Lori avoided eye contact with him and I wondered what happened. Jenner walks in "Morning" he says. "Hey doc" Shane says. "Doctor I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" Dale began "But you will anyway." Jenner says annoyed. "We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea explained. "Yeah" I agreed. Jenner takes us into the room with all the computer. "Give me a playback of TS-19." Jenner tells the computer. "Playback of TS-19." Vi says as the computer pulls up an MRI of a brain. "Few people ever got a chance to see this, very few." Jenner says looking at the screen. "Is that a brain?" Carl asks "An extraordinary one, not that it matters in the end. Take us in for EVI." Jenner says. "Enhanced internal view" Vi says as the screen zooms in on the brain, Thousands of little lights zooming through paths. Everyone gets quiet. "What are those lights?" Shane asks "It's a persons life-experiences, memories. It's everything somewhere in all that organic wiring all those ripples of light, is you, the thing that makes you unique and human." Jenner explains. "You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asks "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." Jenner explains. receiving some confused looks. "Death? That's what this is a vigil?" Rick asks "Yes,or rather the playback of the vigil." Jenner tells him. "This person died? Who?" Andrea asks. "Test subject 19, someone who was bitten and infected...and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi scan forward to the first event." Jenner says. "Scanning to first event." Vi says as the screen fast forwarded. A reddish black thing starts making its way into the brain. "What is that?" Glenn asks "It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down then the major organs. Then death everything you ever were or will be...gone." Jenner explains. "Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asks "Yes" Carol tells her. Andrea starts to tear up Jenner notices "She lost somebody two days ago, her sister." Lori explained. "I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is. Scan to the second event. " Jenner said "Scanning to second event." Vi said as the computer fast forwarded. "The resurrection times vary wildly, we had 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 Sparks start running through the the brain again but only a small part not the whole brain. "It restarts the brain?" Lori asks. "No just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving." Jenner tells her. "But they're not alive Rick asks "You tell me." Jenner says. "It's nothing like before most of that brain is dark." Rick says trying to comprehend. "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." Jenner explains. A flash comes on the screen and something tears the brain, startling us all. "God what was that?" Carol asked "He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea says "Vi power down the main screen and workstations." Jenner tells Vi "Powering down main screen and work stations." Vi says. "You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asks "It could be microbial, viral, fungal." Jenner explains. "Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui suggests. "There is that." Jenner says. "Somebody must know something. Somebody, Somewhere." Andrea says. "There are others right? other facilities?" Carol asked "There may be some people like me." Jenner told her. "But you don't know, how can you not know?" Rick asked him "Everything went down, communications, directives all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month now." Jenner explained. So it's not just here? There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying right?" Andrea asks "Jesus" I heard Jacqui mumble. "Man I'm gonna get shit faced drunk again." Daryl says "Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question but...that clock its counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asked pointing to a clock on the wall that that was counting down. "The basement generators...they run out of fuel." Jenner tells him as if he were lying. "And then? Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asks Vi. "Facility wide decontamination will occur." Vi explains.