Fight The Dead, Fear The Living (Rick Grimes)

Chapter 5

 "The basement generators, they run out of fuel." Jenner explained.

"And then?" Rick asked, Jenner ignored the question and walked out of the room.

"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked again.

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." VI explained, I looked around confused, checking if anybody else knew what 'decontamination' was. I saw Glenn looking around confused too.

"Decontamination, what does that mean?" Glenn asked, because nobody else dared to ask. Nobody answered him, but Rick was looking at a map on the wall.

"In there." He said, he was pointing at something, we followed him to a room where you could see generators.

"It's empty," He sighs, I looked around the rest of the group to see that they looked disappointed. The lights start to flicker and eventually go out, I feel someone grab a hold of my leg.

"Emergency lighting is on." Said VI as a different colour light comes on, I look down and see Carl clinging to my leg. We all go back to the main room to see Jenner sat there with a picture of a woman in his hand.

"I did the best I could in the time that I had. I hope you'd be proud of that."Jenner said. He started tearing up as he put the photo down. Then, he picks up his work badge and walks to the windows of his office.

"We always think there's going to be more time," Jenner sighed, then the power started to whir down.

"Then it runs out." Jenner said to himself.

"What's going on? Why is everything turned off?" Daryl asked with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Jenner took the whiskey bottle from Daryl.

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner told Daryl, Dale spoke up. 

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Jenner takes a swig from the bottle.

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down." Jenner continued to explain.

"Hey! What the Hell does that mean?" Daryl asked, frustrated. As Jenner keeps walking, the group follows.

"Hey, man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Daryl asked. All of us were confused and Daryl was getting us answers.

"You'd be surprised." Jenner said walking into a different room with Rick following him. Me ad Shane followed too.

"Rick?" Lori asked, Rick motioned for her to wait.

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

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." Jenner said, he didn't seem to care that he was going to die. Jenner takes another drink from the bottle. By now, everyone followed and is grouped around Jenner. Jenner hands the bottle to Daryl who angrily snatches it out of his hand.

"Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick said.

"Okay." Everyone said. Then, an alarm started going off.

"What's that?" Shane and Carl asked.

"30 minutes to decontamination." VI said in the monotone voice that was chosen for her.

"What's going on here?" Daryl asked, as Jenner scanned his badge and enters code into a security pad. 

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick." Shane said.