Another Apocalypse? // Daryl Dixon

12. TS-19

I let out a groan as I felt Sam nudging my side, trying to wake me up.

"Come on, Abby. You gotta get up." Sam said to me.

"Go away." I said, pushing my face back into the pillow.

"T Dog is making breakfast." Sam tried.

I just laid there, thinking over my options. Before I had the chance to say anything back to Sam, Dean had walked over and ripped the blanket off of me.

"Ugh! Why would you do that?" I yelled at him. The boys knew I was not a morning person at all.

"Get up." Dean said before turning and heading out of the room.

I pushed myself off of the couch I was on and grabbed some clothes for myself. I went to the bathroom to change and get ready. Once I looked decent, I headed to the dining room to see what was being made for breakfast.

As I entered the room, I seen everyone was already sitting at the table, except for Jenner. I quickly said to good morning to everyone and took the empty seat next to Daryl, across from Sam.

I wasted no time in eating the eggs T Dog gave me, not really being interested in being in the conversation the others were having.

"Now, I don't know about you two..." Dale started, looking at Sam and Cas before turning his attention to Dean and I. "But I definitely seen you two drink more than anyone else here last night. And you don't look the least bit hungover." Dale finished, pointing out the very hungover Glenn and Rick.

"Yeah, well, we can definitely handle our alcohol." Dean said, smirking across the table at me. I knew he was thinking about the many drinking games we played before the world went to shit.

Before anyone could answer, Jenner was walking through the door and greeting us.

"Doctor. I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..." Dale started.

"But you will anyway." Jenner said.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea butted in.

Jenner just motioned for us to follow him and we all made our way into the big room.

"Give me a playback of TS-19." Jenner said to Vi. "Few people ever got the chance to see this. Very few." Jenner said to us.

We all looked over to the wall as a giant display of someone's skull came up. I watched in amazement as blue lights flashed from inside the brain.

"What are those lights?" Shane questioned.

"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 explained.

"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl questioned.

"Those are synapses. Electrical 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 said.

"This person died. Who?" Andrea asked.

"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 said.

We all watch as the lights start going out and become replaced with dark, black roots growing in the brain.

"What is that?" Glenn asked him.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or will be... gone." Jenner explained to us.

"The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, and seven seconds." Jenner said.

We all look to the screen to see a red glow flickering in the center of the brain. Random, little sparks shoot out of the center but the rest remains black.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori questioned.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically gets them up and moving." Jenner answered.

"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick said.

"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 said.

We all watch as the subject starts moving and opening its mouth. I watched as a bullet went straight into the brain. All of it going dark and the body laying still.

"God, what was that?" Carol asked.

"You shot your patient in the head." I said to Jenner, it wasn't even a question.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Dean asked, an irritated look on his face.

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

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui questioned.

"There is that." Jenner agreed.

"Somebody must know something. There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked.

"There may be some. People like me." Jenner said.

"But you don't know, how can you not know?" Rick questioned.

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

I sighed and looked around the room, noticing a clock on the wall. It was counting down to zero.

"Jenner!" I said loud enough to shut everyone up and get his attention.

"Why do you have a clock counting down to zero?" I asked him, everyone then noticing the clock.

"The basement generators, they run out of fuel." He said, before getting up and leaving the room.

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

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

A couple of the guys decided to head down to find the generators. The rest of us went back to our rooms. The boys and I quickly grabbed our bags, making sure all of our stuff was together, just in case.