You don't control me, Dixon

➊ 26: The Promise To Human Kind

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"Looks like you have your fathers temper."

I push off the table and shout "YOU DONT SPEAK OF MY FATHER!"

I hear the groups collective inhale from the group behind me as my face turned red with anger.

I step back and place my cool hands on my burning face. Shame courses through me like blood.

I swore not to snap like my father, yet here I am.

Jenner, not really caring of my outburst, turned to Rick and stated "You've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"

Rick looked at the group who's huddled and crying and whispers to Jenner "I don't want this."

The slamming of the doors made me look back as Ale and Daryl were slamming their axes still.

Jenner apparently noticed as well as he called back to them "Can't make a dent. Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."

Daryl turned, causing Alec to turn with him, and hissed "Well, your head ain't!"

Alec blocked Daryl from running to kill Jenner as Daryl's cat-like eyes burned with fury.

I lock my jaw and silently stalked up to Jenner and tapped on his shoulder causing him to turn right into my slap.

I hear gasps and heavy footsteps as I swear "You are an uncaring monster. You are willing to kill the only chance we have to save the world and you don't care. If you don't open those doors in five minutes I'm going to come right back and beat your ass. If you decide to spare us I'll make you a promise."

I'm tugged back by a rough hand and I twist out of it and jump on my desk, staring him down.

He shifts, uncomfortable with my sharp gaze on him, and turned to Rick once more saying "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead. Everyone else but Lucy but that's another story, now isn't it?"

I whip my head to Rick and gasp at his guts. How dare he? He was so upbeat about the future and now he just thinks everyone around us is going to die?

Apparently, Shane thought the same but vocalized it, complained at the obviously shameful Rick.

I zone out, lulled by the rhythmic banging of the axes against the metal. I watch, soundlessly, as children cry in their mother's arms.

I watch as the time slowly clicks down.

I watch as everyone wears their feelings on their sleeve, for everyone to see.

Why do they do that? Why do they express their feelings for everyone to judge? They are acting like sightless kittens, crawling around, depending on others to help. The men are the mothers, herding and protecting the kittens.

When will they grow and learn to protect themselves? Or will they die as kittens, unable to help themselves from their impending doom?

I sigh and crack my back as people shout, whisper, cry.

I scoff as I hear someone say that is our extinction event. The only extinction that is going to happen during this is the good people. It has already changed most of us. I've become less empathic and more apathetic, more violent and quick to anger.

Yet people still care, they will learn to care. We will grow to survive as we have done with everything else. We survived no bathing and illness. Wars and mass murder. We will survive this. Though this will only happen if we have hope and stay loyal to our morals.

I blink and look at Jenner "You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. I'm guessing that you stayed due to your wife."

He nodded sadly and whispered "My wife. She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody."

He stopped to compose himself before starting again "She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein."

He scoffed and finished "Me? I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

I jumped off the desk and walked towards him while running my hand through my hair, consoling " Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's that's all we want a choice, a chance. Let us keep trying as long as we can."

He looked down to his desk and pressed in a code, causing everyone to go into a frenzy, grabbing their bags and running.

I look at him as he turned to Rick this standing next to me and told him "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those."

I nod and turn to leave but he grabs me, causing shivers to go down my spine. I turn to him to curse at him but he quickly asks "What was the promise?"

I smile at the man and answer "That Ill do everything in my power to find the other half of the antidote and save the world."

He smiles and allows me to run out the door after scooping my bags onto my shoulder. And running out of the death trap that is called the CDC.

Once arriving at the top of the building I see that everyone is on the ground. I run forward only to be talked by a large mass.

I struggle against the mass only to be pinned by the mass while another mass is added into the pile.

I lay limp as a loud bang echoed around the room and just as sudden as the boom happened I was being pulled up by a guy. I look up and see Daryl and Alec, I smile and run over to the now broken bay window, hopping over the edge and towards Daryl's truck.

He quickly overtakes me and grabbed our bags before throwing them in the back, then opened the door closest to us and slid in with me following than a large Alec.

I get smushed in the middle as the two meatheads throw me on the ground and cover me just in time to feel the heat of all the deserts in the world combined, wash over me. Breaking me into a sweat.

They get off me and I lean against the seat as I gasp "Let's go before we turn into human barbecue."

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