Impregnable {A Walking Dead Fanfiction}

Twenty-Seven

    "What the hell would decontamination mean?" Daryl asked as we ran towards our rooms. "I don't know, but I don't like how Jenner clammed up about it," I said. Rick stopped in his tracks just before the entrance to our hallway, he spoke so quickly I could hardly keep up. "Glenn, Shane, Theo, we're going to the basement. We need to figure out what's wrong. Daryl, you get everyone back out to the main room with our things. If things go south, you don't hesitate to get our people out of here." He said, ducking in his room before reappearing with his rifle. Shane gave me a desperate look, quickly kissing mine and Mable's heads before sprinting off with Theo and Glenn. They disappeared into the stairwell, there was no time for sappy goodbyes. "Take any extra bags into the cafeteria and fill them with anything you can find!" I called out, holding the back of Mable's head and sprinting down the hallway and into our room. I closed the door and sat Mable down, rushing to pack our things. 

    "Emergency light on," VI said through the intercom as I'd just finished packing the first bag. Everything went black, the only light coming from the hallway through the crack in the door. Mable squealed and called out "What happen?" into the darkness. "Looks like nighttime came early," I said, trying to keep her calm while propping the door open with my bag. "Alright, babe, we're gonna play a game," I said, scooping her up and sitting her on the chair. "The floor's lava. If you stay here without touching it, you win." I said, turning from her and continuing to pack. "Why you get to touch the lava?" She asked, wiggling in the chair. "Because I um...have special lava boots," I said over my shoulder, throwing our belongings into bags. "I want lava boots!" She whined. "Only grownups have special lava boots, you can have a pair when you're older," I said. "Aw, no fair!" She whined as I zipped the last bag. "Tell me about it, kiddo," I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder and scooping her up, looking around for anything I'd left behind.

    We were one of the last people outside, only waiting on Lori and Carl. "Can I help you with anything?" I asked, stepping through Lori's open door. "No...we're coming, sorry." She said anxiously, zipping up her suitcase with shaky hands. "Come on, bud, we're gonna be alright," I said, taking Carl's hand and smiling at him before leading him toward the hall. "THIS PLACE IS ABOUT TO BLOW!" Rick yelled, barreling out of the stairwell as we entered the hallway and startling us. The other men following close behind. "Are we ready to go?" Rick yelled in my direction, stopping for a moment to catch his breath. "Yes, we're coming!" I replied, looking back at Lori who was rushing towards us. 

    We joined the others in the cafeteria, loading our bags and hauling everything we could carry into the main room. Jenner had returned, sitting casually with his feet propped on his desk, sipping from a glass of wine. "Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked, his voice intimidating. Jenner stared forward, taking a long sip from his glass. A loud alarm went off, making Mable scream. "Jenner, please!" I cried out before turning to calm Mable. He punched in a large code that simultaneously silenced the alarms and sealed all the exits. "Did you just lock us in?" I asked frantically, beginning to cry. "Jenner, open that door now!" Shane roared. "There's no point, every way leading outside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." "Well open the damn thing," Dale shouted. "That's not something I can control, the computers do. I told you... you heard me say 'Once those doors close, they don't open again'," Jenner said. Dale pulled over a rolling chair and sat down next to Jenner. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Dale asked calmly. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure or terrorist attack, for example, H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from escaping." He replied robotically. "What are H.I.T.s?" Dale asked. Jenner stared forward blankly, not responding. "Good God, Jenner, you can't just kill us without telling us what happens," Dale said, staring at him. "High-Impulse Thermobaric fuel-air explosive. It sets the air on fire...no pain." Jenner said quietly. Everyone around me began panicking. I walked over and rolled another chair next to Dale, sitting Mable on my lap and bouncing her as she continued to cry. He'd told me that she was the reason he'd opened the doors the first time, maybe she could do it again. 

    Rule number one of stressful situations is to never let the panic show on your face. Once you allow your eyebrows to furrow and your lips to frown, you've already lost control of everything. Pandemonium was erupting behind me. Daryl had taken a bottle of wine out of his bag and thrown it at the door, the red liquid and broken glass spraying everywhere. There was screaming, crying, and begging. I kept my face still, counting the seconds between my breaths. Jenner watched Dale and me curiously, obviously surprised that we weren't acting like the others. "Let me ask you one thing, okay?" I asked he didn't respond, so I continued. "Why are you keeping us here?" I asked, my voice breaking. My eyes welled with tears. "There's no hope, there's no use. You die in here, or you die out there." He said, I took in a shaky breath. "You say there's no hope, then why did you stay here and work when the others left? Why did you keep breathing when everyone else was dropping like flies? Explain that to me, Jenner." I asked calmly. "It doesn't matter." He said. "It does matter, it always matters. You stayed when the others ran...why?" Dale asked. "Not because I wanted to. I made a promise to her, my wife." "Test subject nineteen was your wife," Dale said as the realization hit me. "She begged me to keep going as long as I could. Explain to me how I could just say no and bite a bullet. She was bit and dying, it should of been me on that table. It wouldn't of mattered to anyone. She was a loss to the world, she ran this place, I just worked here! In our field, she was an Einstein. Me, I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could of done something about this, not me!" He cried out, his voice booming in the big room. Everyone had fallen silent around us, I felt eyes burning into my back. "Your wife didn't have a choice, but Edwin, you do. That's what we want, a choice, a chance. I want to see my baby grow up and become a strong, beautiful woman. I want to die old and happy. For all I know, I could walk out of this building and get bit and die right then and there. If I die here, I'll never get the chance to know if I had what it takes to survive this. You might not have any hope left, but we do. Doctor Jenner, please let Mable see the sunlight again. Please...let us try." I said, my voice shaking while tears trailed down my cheeks. He stared at Mable, tears welling in his eyes. "I told you...those doors leading outside are closed, I have no way to open them," Jenner said, turning to his computer and punching in a long sequence of numbers. The doors opened. "Thank you." I breathed, reaching out and taking his hand. "Get her out of here." He said, not taking his eyes off Mable. 

    I looked at the clock behind us, seeing we only had five minutes before the 'decontamination.' I took Dale's hand and ran with him towards the exit, trying to catch up with the group. "Go..." Dale said, pulling away from me, "I'm not leaving until the others make it out!" I looked back at Jacqui, who was sitting at a desk sipping from a bottle of wine, then to Andrea who was staring at the ticking timer. I wanted to protest, to pull him to safety, but I let go and continued on. Jenner was right, I had to save Mable. Shane waited at the door for us, taking Mable from me before we sprinted towards the others. I felt a wave of panic rush through me, sucking the air out of my lungs. The halls grew dark as we ran further from the main room, the only light coming from a few flashlights up the hall. We poured out of the hallway into the pitch-black lobby. The doors were sealed tight, but the wall was covered in floor-to-ceiling windows. Daryl ran forward, hitting a window with the butt of his crossbow, it bounced off. "Even bulletproof glass has to break somehow," Daryl said, backing up and running at the window again, kicking it full force. "Come on..." Rick said beside me, looking around desperately. I searched with him, my eyes darting around the room before they focused of Matt's corpse. "Rick!" Carol said, taking her backpack off and digging through it. "The first day you got here, I washed your uniform and I found this in your pocket," She said, handing him a grenade. "Everyone get back!" Rick yelled as we turned and ran back into the hallway. "If this works you jump out and run until you hear that timer end, and then you hit the ground!" Rick yelled, removing the pin and chucking the grenade at the window before running back to us. There was a second of silence before the explosion erupted, glass and debris flying towards us. Something whirled past me, cutting deep into my arm. I cried out, adrenaline rushing through my body as I sprinted towards the broken glass. Beep...beep...beep... I jumped through the window and landed rough in the bushes below. Beep...beep...beep... My lungs burned as I struggled to keep up with Shane's pace. The blast had attracted walkers that we frantically tried to dodge as we ran. Beep...beep...beep... "Preparation for decontamination complete." VI's voice called over the speaker. Shane reached back and yanked me forward. I fell hard onto the concrete, catching Mable and shielding her as he scrambled to cover us. The air went from ninety-degree Georgia summer to the feeling of standing too close to a campfire. The explosion was deafening. It was over as soon as it had started, leaving us on the ground in a pile of rubble.