Life or Death

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The next morning I woke up still wrapped in a loose hug from a sleeping Daryl, I carefully pulled his arms off me careful not to wake him and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I heard a knock on the bedroom door and answered it to find Rick.
'Whats up?' I asked in a hushed voice looking back to the bed making sure Daryl hadn't be disturbed.
'Jenner wants us in the cafeteria, wake Daryl up and meet us down there in 20 minutes' he said before walking away. I sighed and walked to the bed where Daryl was sleeping peacefully. His facial features soft and not tense like they always were when he was awake. I smiled not wanting to wake him up but knowing that I had to.
'Daryl' I whispered quietly shaking him gently 'Daryl' I said again in a slightly louder voice. He stirred in his sleep and I shook him gently once more until he opened his eyes. 'Morning sleeping beauty' I joked 'get ready Jenner wants us all in the cafeteria in 20 minutes'
Daryl grunted at me in a sleepy voice, rubbing his eyes making him look quite cute.

20 minutes later after I fed Starstruck, gave her water and a quick wash from the mud on her I walked to the cafeteria to find everyone but the kids gathered there, Jenner had told us that he wanted to show us something then used a voice controlled system to turn on a very large computer screen which showed a human brain called TS-19, meaning Test Subject 19. He told us the human was infected and that the blackness on the screen was when the human was alive. The black parts on the screen slowly faded and Jenner told us the patient had died. A few minutes later the black started to come back but only on the stem of the brain and the head started to move. Suddenly something shot through the screen and the head became lifeless again.

'What was that?' Carol asked
'He shot the patient in the head' Andrea told her
'You see when a corpse become reanimated into the walking dead only the stem of the brain is brought back to life, meaning they have no recollection of any memories they had, they only have the single thought of feeding on living flesh' Jenner told us.
'English please?' Shane said sarcastically
'It restarts the brain' Lori said
'Just the brain stem' Jenner corrected her 'the human part, the part that makes us who we are... That doesn't come back, I don't know the cure, I don't know the origin, I don't know anything'
'Whats that clock counting down for?' Dale asked cutting Jenner off and pointing to a large digital clock on the wall counting down from 1 hour.
'Thats when the basement generators run out of fuel' Jenner stated.
'Meaning?' Rick said slowly
'The building is shutting itself down, it will self destruct when it reaches zero it's a decontamination process to stop diseases from spreading'

Everyone panicked looking for a way out, but Jenner had locked us in the control room.
'Theres no point struggling' Jenner told us 'everything is automatically locked down'
'Let us out' Rick yelled at him
'Last night, you said it was just a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead, you said you knew that, except your fate' Jenner pleaded 'wouldn't you rather die here than out there'
'Why did you stay?' Rick demands 'why stay if you think there's no hope?'
'I made a promise, to my wife, TS-19, I told her I'd keep going as long as I could' Jenner told him sadly 'she was the greatest scientist in the world if anyone could have done something about this it was her, me?' He shrugged 'I'm just Edwin Jenner'
'You have to give us that chance' Lori begged 'we need the choice to keep going for as long as we can'
Jenner nodded reluctantly and agreed to open the control room door and let us out but insisted we wouldn't be able to get past the front doors during lockdown. Rick went over to him to shake his hand and Jenner pulled him close to whisper in his ear. Wonder what that was about.
'I'm staying with Jenner' Jacqui stated tearfully 'I don't want to end up like Amy and Ed' she hugged T-Dog telling us to leave while we could.
'Im staying too' Andrea said sliding to the floor.
Dale looked at her wide eyed 'please Andrea don't do this' he pleaded with her but Andrea just shook her head. 'If your staying I'm staying too then' he told her sitting next to her. Andrea started to get angry but Dale cut her off before she even spoke 'no, you don't get to do that, come into someone's life, make them care, then just check out'

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