Impregnable {A Walking Dead Fanfiction}

Twenty-Six

    "Good morning, beautiful," Shane said, kissing my forehead while he sat Mable down on the bed. "Good morning!" She squealed, jumping and landing on the pillows next to me. My head throbbed and my stomach churned, I shouldn't have drank so much last night. "Good morning," I breathed, kissing Mable's forehead before leaning up to kiss Shane. "Looks like someone had a long night," Shane said. I groaned, pulling the covers over my head to block out the bright fluorescent light coming from the bathroom. "Here." He said, chucking and shaking a pill bottle before sitting it on the nightstand. "Come on, Mabes, let's go get breakfast and let Hollie sleep." 

    "Right this way." Dr. Jenner said, guiding us down the main hallway towards the control room after we'd finished eating. "Give me a playback of TS-19," He said after entering a long sequence of numbers into the large computer in the center of the room. VI responded after a moment, "Playback of Test Subject Nineteen." The huge screen lit up with a video of some kind of brain scan. It began to zoom until it came to a picture of something molecular. "What are those lights?" Rick asked. "It's a person's life, experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in that organic wiring, in all those ripples of light, it's you. The thing that makes you unique, and human. Those are synapses, electric pulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything that a person says, thinks, or does from the moment of birth to the moment of death," Dr. Jenner replied. "Death, that's what this is?" Rick asked. "Yes," Dr. Jenner replied, "...or rather, the playback of death." "This person died? Who?" I asked. "Test Subject Nineteen. Someone who was bitten, infected, and volunteered to have us record the process," He said solemnly. 

    "VI, scan to the first event." "Scanning to event one," VI responded. After a moment of loading, it zoomed out to the original scan. Small dark veins slowly began to grow in the brain. "What is that?" Glenn asked. "It invades the brain like meningitis. The veins grow larger and it spreads across the brain, engulfing it. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown." The body began to twitch and writhe in pain, I'd forgotten for a moment that we were watching a video of a real person. I shifted uncomfortably, turning Mable's head away from the screen. Shane looked over at me, reaching over and putting his arm over my shoulder. "Then the major organs shut down." Black splotches began to overtake the brain, the subject convulsed and then fell still. "Then death. Everything you ever were, or ever will be, gone." Amy's smiling face flashed in my mind, I glanced over at Andrea who stood completely still. I then thought of Cameron, I bit my lip and kept my eyes on the screen. "Scan to the second event." Dr. Jenner said, pulling me away from my thoughts. The screen buffered for a moment, "The resurrection time differs. I've had reports of it happening in less than three minutes, and we've had patients take over twenty-four hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, and seven seconds." A small red vein sprouted from the person's brain stem, growing slowly. "It restarts the brain?" Lori asked, covering her mouth with her hands. "No, just the brain stem. Basically, it just gets them up and moving." "But...they're not alive?" Shane asked. "You tell me," Dr. Jenner said. I couldn't take my eyes off the red vein as it spread and crept its way into the brain. "The frontal lobes, the neocortex, the you, the human part...that doesn't come back. It's basically just a shell driven by mindless instinct." The body slowly reanimated and began to jerk around, reaching its hands up towards something out of sight. Suddenly, another object came down into view and there was a flash. The person stopped moving, a bullet lodged in their skull. "What was that?" Lori asked. "He shot his patient in the head," Shane said flatly, turning to Dr. Jenner, "Didn't you?" "VI, power down the main screen and workstations," Jenner said, walking away. "Powering off." 

   "You have no idea what it is, do you?" Rick asked. "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal..." "Or the wrath of God," Jacqui said coldly. "That too," Jenner said. "Someone must know something. There are other facilities, right?" Shane asked. "There may be some people out there like me," Jenner said, sounding unsure. "But you don't know...how do you not know?" Rick said, emotion brewing in his voice. "Everything went down, communications, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month," He said. "So it's not just here. There's nothing, that's what you're saying, right?" Shane asked. Jenner glanced at us anxiously at us, saying nothing. God, if you're going to show up, please show up soon. "Doctor, I know this has all been taxing for you. I hate to ask one more question, but that clock...it's counting down, what happens at zero?" Dale asked. I turned my attention to the large digital clock that had covered the screen, just passing the one-hour mark. Jenner took a deep breath before speaking. "The basement generators run out of fuel," He said bluntly, turning and walking for the exit. "And then?" Rick asked, following behind him. Jenner ignored us, continuing out the exit. "VI, what happens when the generators run out?" Shane called out. "When the power runs out facility-wide, decontamination will occur," VI said. "Decontamination?" Lori asked, looking at her husband in shock. I gripped the back of Mable's head, holding her tightly to my chest. "Everybody, go get your stuff," Rick said calmly before we sprinted for the door.