The Warrior Within

The Explosion and the Wreckage After

Chapter 9

~Charlotte~

We all left our food and followed Jenner, which I didn't want to do as the food was delicious. I did not want it to go cold, but questions had to be answered. Jenner lead us to a huge room that had many work desks and computers. A huge screen was in the room, my jaw dropped slightly from the size of it. 

"Vi, turn on the video." Jenner commanded to one of the computers in the room. 

Then, the huge screen flashed and a picture of a human skull showed on the screen, showing the persons brain. 

"This is a representation of what happens during the transformation. Test-subject 19, or TS-19." Jenner explained to us. Small balls of light started to travel through the brain. Transformation? This is a representation of someone who got bit and is in the process of turning. My stomach started to feel odd at the sight of the brain.

"What are those?" Dale asked, curious about the balls of light that are travelling around the brain.

"They are everything that make you who you are." He tells us. My eyes follow the white lights that are travelling through the brain. Then, the twinkling lights faded.

"What happened?" Andrea asks him.

"They died." Jenner muttered. "This brain recording is of a person who got bitten and they said that they would help us see what would happened."

Then in the centre of the brain, tendrils of red started to fill the brain, flowing through it like ink.

"What's that?" Lori asked.

"That's the infection. It acts like meningitis, invading the brain." Jenner explained.

"It brings them back?" questioned Carol.

"Yes, but the 'you' part, is gone. There is nothing human left. It can take from a few minutes to eight hours." The dead human was reanimated, it started to move about, moving its jaw.

I looked at Andrea, tears started to form in her sad eyes. Jenner also looked at her. 

"She lost her sister." Dale explained.

"I'm sorry." Jenner said. "I too lost someone I loved."

My attention was drawn back to the screen as suddenly, something showed at the edge of the screen, pointing at the head that was moving. No longer human. It was a walker. Then, there was a flash and the skull was split in two. The walker stopped moving.

"What was that?" Andrea asked.

"He killed his patient." Lori exclaimed. 

The screen cut to black. Dale started to make his way over to Jenner. "Hate to ask one more question, but that clock is counting down. What happens when it reaches zero." I look at the red numbers on a small screen. Counting down. I never noticed that, due to my obliviousness.

Jenner shuffled on his feet, staring at the countdown. After a moment of hesitation he gives a long sigh and then answers.

"The...the generators run out of fuel." He states.

"And then?" Rick waits for him to answer, but he doesn't respond. "Vi, what will happen in the event of power shortages?"

"In case of power shortages, the decontamination of the entire building will be executed." The computer said.

In that moment, everyone stops. Not a breath can be heard. We all take in the words, proceeding them, not sure of what they mean.

Everyone went into their rooms to gather all their belongings. I drag my suitcase out from under my bed and my rucksack, swinging it on my back. Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog went into the basements to check out the generators.