Truth in the Stones |The Walking Dead - Daryl Dixon|

No Pain

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked after watching the simulation. He had explained pretty much everything to us except for how the infection started and it didn't look like he knew the answer. Dr. Jenner stood silent for a moment before answering. 

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." 

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui added. 

"There's is that." Jenner agreed. 

"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." Andrea stated, her tone of voice desperate, desperate for answers. 

"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Jeremy questioned. 

Jenner looked to Jeremy. "There may be some. People like me."

Rick stepped in. "But you don't know? How can you not know?"

"Everything went down. Communications, directives - all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month." Jenner explained. 

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?" Andrea realized. "That's what you're really saying, right?" 

Jenner's silence was the only answer we needed. Andrea scoffed in disappointment and surprisement, realizing that nothing was left. No other facilities, no other people trying to figure this out, nothing. The world would most likely stay like this forever. "Jesus." I mumbled, running my hand through my hair. 

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again." Daryl sighed, the new-found information sinking into him as well. 

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but...that clock - it's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asked. 

"The basement generators - they run out of fuel."

"And then?" Rick questioned worriedly. Dr. Jenner didn't answer but instead ignored Rick's question and kept walking towards his destination. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."

----

"Something wrong, Jer?" I asked as he waved his hand over the air vent. 

"Nah, it's just the air conditioning - it stopped." He muttered. 

I crossed my arms over my chest. "You think something's wrong then?"

He turned to look at me. "Don't you?" 

The lights suddenly turned off in our room and we both went out into the hallway, meeting with everyone else who had the same situations. 

"Why is the air off?" I heard Lori ask. 

"And the lights in our room?" Carol added. 

"What's going on? Why's everything turning off?" He leaned against the door frame with a bottle of wine in his hands which Jenner took out of his hands. 

"Energy use is being prioritized."

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale questioned. We all began to follow Jenner down the hallway. 

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down." Dr. Jenner answered, taking a swig from the wine bottle.

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl yelled to Jenner but he just ignored and kept walking until Daryl caught up to him. "Hey man, I'm talkin' to you. What do ya mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anythin?" 

"You'd be surprised."

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked as he met with Jenner down the stairs. 

"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." He stopped in front of the circle lab where the computers were at and handed the bottle of wine to Daryl to swiped it out of his hands roughly. "It was the French."

Andrea furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. 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. No power grid. Ran out of juice." Jenner shrugged his shoulders. "The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" He walked back to his computers but Shane wasn't gonna let him go without an earful. "Let me tell you-"

"To hell with it Shane. I don't even care." Rick said as he grabbed Shane by the shoulder. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We are getting out of here now!"

Everyone began running/walking to the gates and go back to our rooms to get our things but an alarm sounded, stopping us in our tracks. "What the hell is that?"

"Thirty seconds to decontamination." The robotic voice sounded. A countdown from thirty started on the plasma monitor. 

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane commanded after seeing everyone standing there and waiting for the explanation Jenner clearly wasn't going to give. But before we could make it to the doors, they shut closed. 

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn panicked. "He just locked us in!"

"You son of a bitch! You locked us in here!" Daryl exclaimed, stalking towards Dr. Jenner. Daryl couldn't get his hands on him though since T-Dog and Shane held him back. Jenner just straightened his jacket and sighed. 

"Jenner, open that door now." Rick commanded. 

Jenner shook his head. "There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well open the damn things." Dale said sternly. 

"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."

"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked exasperatedly. "What happens in 28 minutes?!"

"Do you know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized small pox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" He yelled as we stayed quiet, some surprised by his sudden outburst, some actually letting his words sink in, and others were just too angry to say anything. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure - in a terrorist attack, for example - HIT's are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"HIT's?"

"Vi, define."

"HIT's - high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5000 and 6000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage the structures is desired." I could see Lori hugging Rick and Carl while Carol and Sophia cried together. 

"It sets the air on fire. No pain." Jenner mumbled. "An end to sorrow, grief...regret. Everything."