The Walking Dead Season 1: The Start of Something New

Chapter 16: TS-19 (Part 2)

My POV
The next day, I woke up with a massive headache. I have never felt like this before. Is this what a hangover feels like? My head felt like it was about to burst and when I got out of bed I got dizzy. What makes it worse is knowing what Shane did last night. How could he? Seline said he was drunk, I guess it wasn't all his fault. She just found out about Lori's relationship with Shane and felt we have to tell Rick. I knew about it but I didn't tell her because it would lead to me why I kept it a secret. So I told her that telling him now is not a good time because we just got here and the last thing we need is trouble in here.
After I got dressed and brush my teeth, I smelled something cooking. Omg is that eggs?
I enter the room where we had dinner last night. Everyone is up already except Shane, Doc, and Rick.
"Morning Gabe." Seline said from the table.
"Morning." I smiled.
She patted a seat next to her. Oh, she saved me a seat.
"Good morning Nene!" Angie shouted smiling, which made made the headache worse.
Seline tried to hide her laugh. "You put her up to this?"
Seline giggled. "Yeah."
I sat down. "Good one. How come you are not hungover?"
I noticed she wasn't in pain. She told me. "I know my limits." She grinned.
Rick entered the room. "Hello." He looked as bad as me.
"Good mornin." Dale said.
"Dad, are you hungover? Mom said you'd be." Carl asked. Lori gave Carl the look.
"Mom is right. She has that annoying habit." Rick joked. He kissed his wife before he sit.
Tdog come over with a frying pan. "Eggs powdered but I do em good." He said as he served the eggs on my plate before Rick.
I took a bite. "You got that right."
Then I heard sizzling which I know what that means. "Gabe, want some Bacon?" Kenny asked.
I nodded. I was too hung over to be excited. "Thanks Ken."
As T and Ken pass out the food to the rest, I noticed Glenn across the table, having his head down. "You too Glenn?"
Glenn groaned. Yup him too.
"Don't worry kid, the protein helps the hangover." Ken teased.
"Good." Glenn groan again.
Rick took out a bottle of aspirin. "Here." He said before he tossed it to Glenn.
"Where you get it?" I asked.
"Jenner. He thought we could use it." He answered.
Glenn swallowed two pills and took a gulp of water. "Some of us at least." Lori grinned.
"Thanks." I said.
Glenn pass the pills to me. "Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." He moaned.
After I took two and drank some water, I gave it back to Rick. "Me too." I grunt.
Shane came to the room and grab some coffee. "Hey." He said to Rick.
"Hey. Feel bad as I do?" He asked.
"Worse."
I secretly keep my eye on him as he ate with us. I can't believe he actually did that to Lori. And what makes me more angry is Rick doesn't know what is going on.
I looked at Seline and I can tell she's thinking the same. We gotta tell Rick. He has the right to know.
When T served Shane some eggs, he noticed something on his neck. "What the hell happen to you? Your neck?" T pointed it out.
Shane touched the marks, puzzled. "It must've happen in my sleep."
"Never seen you do that before." Rick said.
"Me neither." Shane looked at Lori and she doesn't look up just continue eating her food. "Not like me at all."
Seline whispered in my ear. "He's lying."
I whispered. "I can tell."
Doctor Jenner came into the room. "Morning." He said.
"Hey doc." Everyone greeted.
Dale stood up. "Doctor. I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..." Everyone turn their attention to them.
"But you will anyway." Doc said.
"We didn't come here for the eggs." Dale stated.
(Twd theme plays)
After Dale asked him what's going on out there and how those things work, Doc said follow me.
He lead us to the giant room with rows of computers and a big screen on one side of the room. Jenner typed on the computer and says. "Give me a playback of TS-19."
"Playback of TS-19." VI said.
He turn to us. "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."
The giant screen turned on and it shows 3D views of the human skull.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked.
"Yes. An extraordinary one. Not that it matters." He answered.
He commanded the computer. "Take us in EIV."
"Enhanced internal view." VI said.
On the screen, it magnified to show the inside of the brain. It shows many little blue thread lights. Some parts are denser of light than others but there are lightened threads throughout the brain. It zooms in and now the lights can be distinguished.
"Ooh pretty." Angie said.
"What are those lights?" Lee asked.
"It's a person's life... memories, experiences. It's everything. In all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light.... Is you. Unique and human." He explained.
"You don't make sense." Daryl said.
"Those are synapses. Electrical impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything the person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." He explained further.
"Death? That's what it is? A vigil?" Rick questioned.
"Yes. Or rather a playback of a vigil." Doc said looking down. He seemed upset.
"This person died? Who?" I asked.
"Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten, and infected... and volunteered to have us record the process." He told us.
Well his death isn't for nothing.
"VI scan forward to the first event." He commanded.
"Scanning to the first event."
The screen changed to the full side view of the skull. Now the lights are still flickering on the outer parts of the brain but at the core it's dark and black. The dark part grows outward, spreading to other parts of the brain until it's all dark.
"What is that? Glenn asked.
"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands, hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown then the major organs. Then death..." He said. "Everything you ever were or ever will be... gone." He finished.
Clementine tugged at Lee's shirt. "Is that what happened to Duck?"
Lee bring her closer and hugged her. "Yes sweet pea."
Andrea, Kenny, and Xavier begin to tear up and Doc noticed it.
"We lost our people recently. Her sister, his girlfriend, and his wife and son." I told him.
"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is." He said. He turned back to the computer. "VI scan to the second event."
"Scanning to the second event."
"The resurrection times vary wildly. We have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of it is eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, four minutes... and seven seconds." He said.
In the brain, a red glow flickers at the base of it but the rest is still dark. Then sparks glowed to other parts but most of the brain is still dark.
"It restarts the brain?" Seline asked.
"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving." Doc explained.
"But they're not alive?" Rick questioned.
Jenner gesture to the monitor. "You tell me."
Rick shook his head. "It's nothing like before. Most of it is dark."
"Dark, lifeless, and dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part... that doesn't come back. The "you" part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct." He sighed.
"Which is to feed right?" I suggest.
"Correct."
Then the subject began to move. It shook it's head wildly, and its shoulders move as if her arms were lifted. Suddenly, a barrel of a gun come into view above the skull pointing down. The bullet enters through the brain demolishing the red sparks within. Finally the brain went dark again.
Seline covered her mouth. "Oh my God!"
"God, what happened?" Carol asked.
"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea pointed out.
Jenner sighed. "VI power down the main screen and work stations." He ordered.
"Powering down."
"You still don't have no idea what it is. Do you?" Kenny questioned.
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." He said.
"Or the wrath of God." Jacqui said.
"Well there's that." Jenner said.
"Somebody must know something God d*** it." Kenny claimed.
"Yeah there must be someone out there." Andrea said tearing up.
"There may be some. People like me." He guessed.
Rick stepped forward, putting his finger down. "But you don't know? How could you not know?"
"Everything went down. Communications, directives ... all of it. I've been in a dark for almost a month." He told us.
"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying right?" Andrea said, her eyes become glassy from tears building up.
From the look on Doc's face, it's a yes.
I took a step back and try to take this all in.
"Jesus." Jacqui said.
Daryl put his hands on his head. "Man, I'm gonna be s*** faced drunk again."
"Gabriel, I'm scared." Angie said.
"Come here." I picked her up and hold her.
"It's going to be ok. No matter what, I'll never let anything hurt you. Not even those monsters outside." I told her.
"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but" Dale pointed at the screen adjacent to the main screen. Dale continued. "That clock... it's counting down. What happens at zero?"
Oh s*** that looked like a bomb timer to me. I hold Angie tighter.
"The basement generators... they run out of fuel." He said.
"And then?" Rick questioned.
Jenner suddenly left the room, ignoring his question.
"VI what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked out loud.
"When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination will occur." VI explained coldly.
"I don't like the sound of that." Kenny remarked.
"He said the generators are at the basement. We could find fuel there." Lee suggested.
"Ok let's go!" Rick called.
Rick, Shane, Lee, Kenny, and I went downstairs to the basement. "What did it mean decontamination?" I thought aloud.
"What ever it is, I don't want to be here when it starts." Kenny stated.
"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wander off like that." Shane shared.
"Something's off about Doc alright." Lee said.
"Yeah seriously, what's wrong with him? Is he nuts, medicated, or what?" I said.
No one answer when we reach a junction. Rick saw a map on the wall. "In there!" He said, pointing at the door to the left. It leads another flight of stairs going down.
When we got to the basement, the lights automatically turned on.
"Ken and Lee check over there, and Gabe come with us." Rick ordered.
I obeyed and followed Rick and Shane to another room.
Inside was I think it's a generator and a few barrels behind it. One of the barrels has a hose sticking out of it. I checked it. "S***! It's empty."
Rick and Shane found a gauge for the fuel and it's very close to empty. After we tested the rest of the barrels but every single one is empty too. Oh f*** we're sc*****!
I jumped a little when lights began to flicker and then it went out. The next second red lights took place of the lights before.
"Hey, you guys kill the lights?" Lee's voice asked.
VI voice announced. "Emergency lighting on."
"What is this?" Shane said, confused.
We met up with Lee and Kenny. "Anything?" Shane asked.
"No. Just dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count." Kenny reported.
"It can't be to come down to just one."
"Looks like it is." Rick said.
Yeah we're f*****.
We ran back up stairs to our living quarters and found our group following Jenner.
Daryl shout at him as he keeps walking. "Hey man! I'm talking to you! What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How could a building do anything?"
"You'd be surprised." He retorted.
We joined them. "Rick?" Lori called.
Her husband motioned her to wait.
We come back to the big room. "Gabriel?" I heard Angie called. I turned and she's in Seline's arms. She gave her to me. "What is going on? The air vents turned off and the lights."
"I don't know yet. And I think we are about to found out."
Rick grabbed Doc by the arm. "Jenner what's happening?"
"The system is dropping nonessential use of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we hit the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." He explained.
He took a drink of wine and hand it to Daryl and he snatches it. Jenner stopped and we grouped around him.
He sighed. "It was the French." He said to Andrea.
"What?" Andrea was confused. What is he talking about?
"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people bolted out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs til the end. They thought they're close to the solution." He told us.
"What happened?" Glenn asked.
"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean how stupid is that?" He chuckled. Ok I think he lost it but he has a point there.
Shane stood up to Jenner, getting in his face. "Let me tell you..."
"To hell with it, Shane! I don't care." Rick said.
Rick turned to us. "Lori grab our things. Everybody get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!"
Everybody run back to the living quarters and grab our weapons, food, anything we need. We got back to the big room and then a alarm went off. "What the hell?" Seline said.
"30 minutes to decontamination." VI announced.
"Ok let's get moving! Vamos!" I shouted.
Holding Angie in one arm, a gun in my other hand I ran for the exit but a wall appeared sliding up. Locking us in.
"Hey!" We shouted.
"No. Do you just lock us in? He locked us in!" Glenn said.
Doc ignored us and sat on a chair, then began recording. "We've hit a 30 minute window. I'm recording..." He said calmly to the camera but got interrupted when Daryl took him by his shirt. "You son of a b****! You locked us in here!"
"Hey! Hey! Daryl!" Shane called him as he, Rick, and Kenny try to pry Daryl off of the doctor.
When they did, Lee and T hold him. Rick speak to Doc politely. "Jenner open the door now."
"There's no point. Everything topside is lockdown. The emergency exits are sealed." He told us.
"Well open the d*** things." Dale told him.
"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way." He said.
"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick questioned him.
"Oh come on! Just open the d*** door p***!" I yelled.
"Let us out!" Kenny shouted.
Then Jenner erupts. "Do you know what this place is!? We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!"
He collects himself together and sit back down. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure... a terrorist attack for example... HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"HITs?" I asked myself.
"VI define." Doc said.
VI replied. "HITs- High Impulse thermo baric fuel-air explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any known explosives except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5000 degrees and 6000 degrees and is useful when the greatest lost of life and damage to structures is desired."
"It sets the air on fire. No pain." He said what VI said in simplified version. Among the group I can hear the kids crying.
"An end to sorrow, grief,... regret. Everything." He said.
This is not happening! I don't want it to end like this! I held Angie close. I saw Seline right by me, shocked by all this as much as I do. I put my gun down and reach for her hand. She looked at me when I hold it. Then she hold mine.
We heard Daryl threw a liquor bottle at the door and shouted at the doctor. "Open the d*** door!"
Tdog, Glenn, Kenny, Shane, and Lee joined Daryl armed with fire axes we collected earlier and began to bang on the stainless steel door.
"You should've left well enough alone it would have been so much easier." Jenner said.
"Easier for who?" Jacqui wondered.
"All of you. You know what's out there. A short brutal life and agonizing death. Your sister, what was her name?" Jenner asked.
"Amy." Andrea answered.
"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that what you really want for your wife and son?" He said to Rick.
"I don't want this." Rick replied emphatically.
"Can't make a dent!" Shane said as he swing his axe again.
"Those doors can withstand a rocket launcher." Doc informed them.
Daryl had enough of him when he swung his axe at him. "Well your head ain't!"
The guys hold back Daryl from killing Jenner.
"Whoa whoa!" Shane yelled.
"Just back up! Back up!" Rick told Daryl.
"You do want this. Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everyone you love is dead." Jenner said to Rick.
Everyone was shocked including me. "Wait what?" I said. I couldn't believe what I just heard.
"You really said that? After all you're big talk?" Shane questioned.
Rick caught Lori's eye and she effect him the most. "I had to keep hope alive. Didn't I?" He said to her.
"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner intrude.
I stood up to Jenner. I have enough of his bulls***. "There always be hope. Maybe not for you maybe not here, but somebody, somewhere out there..."
I got interrupted when Xavier pushed me. "Hey what the hell?"
"What part of nothing left don't you understand? It's over Gabe!" Xavier said.
"Listen to your friend there kid. He gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner state.
"No it can't be. Because we're still here." I scoffed. "After the outbreak hit, I lost my sister, I can't find her but I didn't give up. And look, I found her safe and sound. We will survive this." I told him and Xavier.
"This is wrong. You can't just lock us in here." Carol cried holding her daughter.
"One tiny moment... a millisecond. No pain." He told her. He still wants to go down that road. He made his decision but not mine. I ran up to the door and grab a fire axe and start swinging. Then others join me. I'm not gonna die today. Angie will not die today. Seline won't die today. No one wants to.
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Carol continues to cry.
"Would it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold on to your love ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner said.
Compassionate? You forced us to be here you b******! How is that compassionate?
When I hear a gun cocks, we stop what we're doing and see what's happening.
It was Shane's shotgun.
"Shane no!" Rick told him but he ignored him when he aimed his gun at Jenner's head.
Wide eyed, he stares down at the doctor. "Open that door or I'll blow your brains out! Do you hear me!?"
Great idea, let's threaten a guy who wants to kill himself to shoot him. Bad idea.
"Hey! Brother this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here." Rick tries to calm him down.
"Shane you listen to him." Lori told him.
"It's too late." He croaked.
Rick spoke to him. "If he dies, we all..."
He let out a scream and shoot the computers nearby instead.
"We all die! Shane!" Rick finished but Shane keep on shooting again and again.
"Shane! Snap out of it!" Kenny shouted.
Rick had enough and tried to take his gun. He struggled but he managed to get his hands off of it and then hits him with the butt of the shotgun.
"Are you done now?! Are you done?" Rick said. He showed he could hit him again when he raise the gun.
Shane took a deep breath and calms himself. "Yeah we all are."
Rick hand over the shotgun to Tdog and then help Shane up.
Everyone looks at Rick as he looked around.
"I think you're lying." He said to Jenner.
"What?" Jenner said confused.
"You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted or take the easy way out like the rest. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?" Rick asked.
He got a point there.
"It doesn't matter." Jenner pouted.
"It does matter. Everything matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" He asked again.
"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise." He points to the big screen, the TS 19 is still up. "To her. My wife."
"TS 19 is your wife?" Lee said.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?" He croaked and took a shaky breath. "She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She's a lost to the world. Hell she ran this place. I just work here. In our field, she was the Einstein. Me? I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's... That's what we all want. A choice. A chance." Rick told him.
"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori added.
Jenner seemed moved by Rick and Lori. And then he turn back to the computers and we heard a beep.
Then something whirs behind us, the door opened.
"I already made up my mind." Jenner said, saying he's staying.
"Thank you." Rick said.
"Come on!" Daryl shouted, then left and others followed.
"Let's go!" Glenn yelled.
"Stay right behind me." Carol told Sophia.
Seline and I gather our things and I picked up Angie. "Come on Xavier. Let's get out of here!"
"No dude. I'm staying." He said.
I turned to face him. "What?"
"I want to be with my girl." He said.
"Um that's sweet and all but we have to get out of here. You don't want to die." Seline said.
"No I do.... I love you guys." He said, tearing up then sat on the floor.
"He made his decision let's go!" Tdog said, grabbing Jacquie's hand but she let go.
"No no. I'm staying. I'm staying. Sweetie." She said.
"That's insane!" Tdog cried.
"No. It's completely sane. For the first time in the long time. I'm not ending up like Jim or Amy. There's no time argue and no point. Not if you want to get out. Just get out." She told him.
Shane grabbed Tdog by the arm and Lee grab mine. "Dog! Come on man! Let's go!" Shane shouted.
I took Seline's hand and saw her sobbing. "We can't do nothing about it Seline! I'm sorry!"
As we walk up the stairs Andrea announced. "I'm staying too."
"Andrea no!" Dale said. Then turn to us. "Just go! Go!"
We did. All of us dashed through the hallway and up the stairs to the lobby.
"Gabriel. Where's Xavier?" Angie asked. I didn't say anything.
Glenn and Daryl tried to smash through the front doors with axes. Nothing, not a dent.
Then Lee tried the electronic keypad on the side. "Come on!"
"Daryl!" Shane called over from the tall window. Daryl hands him a axe and start swinging at the window, but not even that won't break.
Tdog grabbed a chair. "Daryl! Look out!" With all his strength tried to smash it open.
"Stay with Seline ok?" I told Angie before I put her down. I grabbed another chair and join Tdog. It won't budge.
I heard a gun clocks. "Dog get down! Everyone get down!" Shane yelled wielding his shotgun.
He fired but the fragments bounced off the glass. Then a shear pain strike my left leg. A few of those pellets hit me and I fell to the ground.
"Jesus!" Shane swore.
"Gabriel!" I heard Seline scream. Someone dragged me back away from the window.
"Oh my God!" She cried over me.
"Nene!" Angie cried too.
"It hurts like hell!"
"Rick! I have something that might help!" Carol hollered.
"I don't think a nail file's gonna cut it." Kenny doubted.
"Your first morning at camp. I washed your clothes and found this." She said giving him something shaped like a small ball. Wait is that a grenade?
Everyone saw it. "Get down!" Shane yelled out.
Everybody take cover, Seline help me up and took Angie, and we take cover behind the columns.
Rick pulled the pin and dropped it next to the window then dash for cover.
It went off and one window shatters but it's big enough for all of us to escape.
We all jump out, and start racing to our cars across the parking lot. Seline has my arm over her shoulders as we ran. Walkers came, so I brought out my glock pistol and took them out as we ran. In front Kenny has Angie, heading for my car.
We're falling behind.
The others are already got to their vehicles. Kenny yelled from my car. "Hurry! Hurry!"
"Look!" Lori shouted pointing at the building.
I look back and Dale and Andrea come out of the CDC but Xavier wasn't with them.
When we got over the sandbag barrier, Glenn and everyone else shouted. "Get down!"
We did what we're told and quickly Seline pulled me down behind the barrier. From the reflection of a broken side mirror I can see a growing fire ball building up in the CDC. I closed my eyes and hope for the best.
The explosion shook the earth beneath us and the blast rang my ears.
When I think it's ok to get up I opened my eyes and look over the sand bags. The entire building was gone. Andrea and Dale made it as they got up. I felt something warm and smooth squeezing my hand. I look down and it was Seline's hand intertwine with mine. We gazed into each other's eyes and then we hugged. "We're going to be alright." I told her.
"I know."
We look back at the burning piles of rubble. Xavier was just there.