big explosion.
I may be in pain, but I am not weak

OCTAVIA walked into the cafeteria which was filled with a dull silence. She eyed the table and at the small amount of people that sat around it already. Most were awake, but, a good amount was badly hungover, like Glenn.

Lowering herself down onto the chair beside a hungover Glenn, he groaned loudly at the screech of the chair scraping on the hard ground.

Octavia groaned slightly, too. "It sucks, doesn't it, Glenn?" She asked him, patting his back with a small smile. She's used to getting drunk and having hungover, it comes with the life of a hunter.

T-Dog then walked towards the table with a large pan, "I've got some eggs for ya'll. They're powdered, but I do them good," He said grinning. He then went around the room scooping out little handfuls for each of us, "Eat them. It'll help."

Octavia smiled at him in thanks and dug into the eggs, and they quickly began to help ease the ache in her head.

"Are you hungover?" Carl asked his father who groaned in pain as he walked into the room, sitting beside his wife and son. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right," Rick told his son with a light chuckle.

"Mom has that annoying habit," Lori said, glancing at Rick with a look of disapproval.

Octavia leaned back in her seat and thought what life would be like if her mother wasn't killed. She has wondered that her whole life. Would they still be hunters? Would all those people her and her brothers saved, die? Would they even know about the supernatural? There is tons of questions that popped into her head, but none of them can be answered. Quite frankly, she was glad that she lives this life. They get to save people. It's a hard job to do and sometimes she wants to quite at the end of the day, but she loves doing it because it gives her life a purpose.

"These are really good, T," Octavia spoke up, sending the man a smile in gratitude.

Glenn groaned loudly at the sound of her voice and everyone began laughing.

Octavia reached over and rubbed his shoulder soothingly. "If you eat some bread, it'll help a little. Just make sure to get hydrated."

Everyone suddenly fell silent as Jenner entered the room and took a seat at the head of the table.

Dale took the opportunity to strike up a conversation. "Jenner, I don't mean to attack you with questions first thing but-"

"But you will anyways," Jenner interrupted with a small smirk on his face as he crossed his arms.

Andrea put her fork down and pushed her plate away. "You should know we didn't come here for the eggs," She said calmly.

AFTER they had finally finished our meals, they followed Jenner back into the hallways. He pushed open double doors and they came into a very large room with computers and other kinds of technology. He pulled out a small card and walked towards the center of the room where all the computers were, "Vi bring up the main screen. Test Subject 19 please," He hollered and then turned to the group. "I'm about to show you what has been going on."

Octavia's mouth opened slightly as a black screen lit up and showed a body that was focused mainly on the head.

Carl stared in wonder. "Is that a brain?" He asked.

Jenner nodded at him. "An extraordinary one too," He answered.

Octavia cleated her throat and crossed her arms over her chest.

Jenner typed something onto a keypad and spoke to the computer system, "Vi, take us in for a EIV," He ordered.

The screen suddenly zoomed in to get an even closer view of the brain. It looked alive and active with several blue swirls moving throughout the brain.

"What're those?" Octavia asked, furrowing her dark eyebrows.

"It's the person's life. Experiences, memories, everything. And then somewhere in all that organic wiring is you. The thing that makes you unique and human," He explained and glanced back, sighing in frustration at their confused faces. "They're electric impulses. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth... to the moment of death."

"Death?" Rick mumbled, shaking his head and scratching his shaved face.

Jenner then pressed another button and the brain went dark. "The body dies and the brain goes dark. Everything you ever were or will be is gone."

"This person died? Who?" Andrea asked, probably thinking back to her little sister who died the night Octavia met them.

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected... And volunteered to have us record the process," he informed her, glancing at everyone. "Vi, scan forward to the first event," He demanded.

The brain's blue lights started to be replaced by dark red and black ones. The dark transformation formed at the brain stem spreading upward. It looked like an enemy invading someone's territory.

Octavia knew it was a virus, that it was in fact invading. It invaded your mind - compelling you to feast on the living.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked with big puppy-dog eyes.

"Yes," Octavia told the twelve year old girl who was standing beside her.

Jenner looked at Sophia then Andrea, and saw her face which was completely devastated.

"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister," Lori told Jenner who looked at Andrea in understanding.

"I lost someone, too," he told her and then fast forwarded the video to show a small red light, running up and down in the brain.

"It restarts the brain?"

"It restarts the brainstem and only that," He explained.

"So, there's nothing left here?" Octavia asked as she let out a breath. She knew the answer, but it didn't make it any less heartbreaking.

"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark," Rick said, looking up at the screen.

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part... That doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct," Jenner explained, frowning, taking in everyone's reactions.

Octavia didn't take her eyes off of the screen, even when the screen showed a bullet going through the head.

"God. What was that?" Carol asked, shaking a bit, and holding on to her daughter tightly.

"He shot his patient in the head," Andrea stated. Didn't you?" She looked to Jenner, an emotionless expression on her face.

He didn't answer and powered down the screen, standing in front of everyone with a look that said he didn't know much else. "That's it. It's over."

"What do you mean, "it's over"? It can't just be over like that. There has to be some sort of explanation on to what this is or how it happened. A damn apocalypse just doesn't happen out of nowhere," Octavia ranted, throwing her hands up through her raven black hair. "I-I mean... could it be fungal?"

Jenner shrugged. "Or it could be microbial, viral, parasitic, etcetera."

Octavia groaned and threw her head back in annoyance. It was a waste of time to ben come here. It was just going to blow up in their faces.

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asked.

Octavia let out a humorless laugh. "God." She shook her head and closed her eyes. "Yeah, sure. I bet he's just up there in heaven sipping a margarita while watching his perfect world destroy itself. Sure." She scoffed before facing Jacqui. "He's not real."

"There are others, right? Other facilities?"

"There may be some," Jenner said, nodding. "People like me," He added after a beat, but he didn't look to actually believe his own words.

"But you don't know? How can you not know?!"

"Everything went down. Communications, directives... all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month," Jenner explained, his voice soft, and he seemed too calm to be in this type of situation. It was like he didn't care.

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?!"

"I'm sorry if you were expecting more," Jenner said to no one in particular. He then turned around in his seat and began writing something down in a journal.

"Jesus..." Jacqui whispered, leaning against a table.

"Man," Daryl muttered from behind Octavia and the girl turned around to stare at him as he ran his hands down his face. "I'm gonna go get shit-faced drunk. Again."

Dale was the next person to speak up, but his attention wasn't on anyone in the room, instead, it was on something across the room. "Doc, I hate to ask another question and maybe there is no point to this, but what is that clock counting down to?" He asked curiously and he raised a finger towards a clock and everyone's heads snapped in that direction.

Sure enough, there was a huge clock with bright red numbers on a countdown that was just under an hour.

Octavia let out a breath and stood up straight as her gut told her something terrible was going to happen.

Jenner swallowed loudly and turned towards the clock in his chair, and then back to the group. "It's the basement generators. At zero they run out of fuel," He answered.

"What happens then?" Rick asked from behind Octavia. And she glanced behind him to see him holding Lori and Carl close to him. Shane stood close to them, looking ready to attack.

Jenner refused to answer so Rick took matters into his own hands, "Vi, what happens when the generators run out?" He asked.

"When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination process begins."

Everyone fell silent trying to process the news and Octavia was the first to understand what was going on, so she yelled out to everyone, "Everyone pack your things now!"

OCTAVIA found herself in the center of the computer room again in the semi darkness with the group, excluding Rick, T-dog, Glenn, and Shane who went to search for a way to stop this. She had her bag over her shoulder, as did everyone else just in case they were to have to leave.

"Why is everything turned off?" The young Winchester pestered Jenner as he took a swig of the alcohol he took from Daryl.

He took a deep breath and finally answered after a moment of silence, "Energy use is being prioritized."

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?"

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down," He told them, not looking up from his alcohol bottle.

Octavia growled in annoyance. "What the hell does that mean?!" She shouted, about to grip his shoulder and force him to look at her.

"Hey, man, she's talking to you!" Daryl shouted at the scientist. "What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Daryl kept pestering.

"You'd be surprised," Jenner said, glancing back at them.

"Rick?" Lori asked, looking to her left as Rick and his group submerged from the dark.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked, looking at the man in question with narrowed eyes.

"The system is dropping all non-essential usages of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second," the man in question, admitted. "It starts as we approach the half hour mark. Right on schedule." Jenner pointed towards the red clock that displayed numbers.

Taking a last swing of the alcohol, he handed it over to Daryl who ripped it out of Jenner's hands in anger and frustrations

"It was the French." Jenner spoke after a beat.

"What?" Andres asked, glancing at the rest of the group who was also confused. No one knew what he was talking about.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know." He paused, breathing in deeply. "While our people were bolting out the doors and commuting suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?"

"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran outta juice." Jenner explained, turning his back to them. "The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

"Let me tell you-" Shane started, only to be stopped by Rick who grabbed him, stopping him from attacking Jenner.

A loud beeping sound filled the room quickly.

"What is that?" Octavia shouted over the blaring noise which made everyone cover their ears.

"Thirty minutes to decontamination."

"Let's get out of here!" Rick shouted to the group over the alarm.

But, before anyone could make a move to the open door, Jenner walked towards a computer, and all of a sudden, a large metal door raised from the ground and closed their only exit.

"Do you just lock us in?" Glenn questioned, his voice quivering with panic. "He just locked us in!"

"Son of a bitch!" Octavia practically screeched ad she was fuming in anger and panic. She flung her bag to the floor and marched up to Jenner, her hands clenching at her side.

"Octavia!" Rick shouted as he grabbed the small girl, but, even though she was a smaller build, she was stronger. She shoved him away just as Daryl ran up to Jenner.

"You let us out of here!" Daryl pushed Jenner who was seated at a computer.

"I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that," Jenner spoke out to the group. "It's better this way."

"How is this any better?" Octavia asked him with narrowed eyes. Her eyes then flickered up to the clock and she started visibly shaking in anger. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

"You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Jenner paused to breathe and everyone was looking at him with wide eyes. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure- in a terrorist attack, for example- H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out." He finished.

"H.I.T.s?"

"Vi define." Jenner spoke, his gaze going to the floor.

"HITs- high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."

Everyone looked like their hearts were shattered into a million little pieces, and the kids started to sob loudly.

"It sets the air on fire. No pain. An end to sorrow, grief regret." Jenner spoke quietly, though everyone could hear him. "Everything."

"That's it!?" Octavia yelled out. "You're going to kill us!?" She threw her arms in the air. "You're going to kill these children." She pointed to Carl and Sophia who were crying their eyes out. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Her hands went into fists. "I have met terrible people, monsters, but I think you're the worst one out there," she said. "You're worst than those flesh eating monsters that are outside this building,"

She turned around and punched the wall.

How could someone take away someone else's life? Especially children? Oh right, monsters.

Jenner then turned to Rick, "You said each and every one of these members was going to die right? Don't you want them to end painlessly?" He asked him.

The group all turned towards Rick in shock.

He figured they were all going to die?

Rick swallowed thickly, looking horrified. "This is not what I meant!" He hissed. "You let us go right now!"

"This is so much easier," Jenner said.

"Nope, no way! Let us out!" Octavia screamed at him, her glare so harsh that it looked like it could literally kill.

Suddenly, T-Dog, Daryl, and Shane ran up towards the steel doors and with all their strength, they began pounding on the doors but sadly, they didn't even make the smallest dent. Daryl even had an axe in his hand, and it still wasn't doing any damage.

"Stop that!" Jenner yelled at the three of them. "Those doors are made to withstand a rocket launcher!"

"Bet your head ain't!" Daryl snapped back and took another charge at Jenner, but Rick and Glenn stopped him. T-Dog grabbed the axe from Daryl - he had to literally pry it out of the Dixon's hands - and threw it to the ground. I winced as I listened to it clatter on the ground.

"How could you do this?" Lori asked Jenner in horror.

"Wouldn't this be easier?" Jenner asked again. "More compassionate to just hold your loved ones close and wait for the clock to run down? You'd all be with your families again."

"I think you're lying." Rick said out of nowhere. "Earlier. 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. Why?"

"It doesn't matter," Jenner mumbled.

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" Rick asked. His voice rough and loud.

"Not because I wanted to." Jenner admitted, sighing. "I made a promise to her. My wife." Jenner finished, glancing at the big screen.

"Test subject 19 was your wife." Lori confirmed.

Octavia huffed in annoyance, and instead of standing there and waiting for their deaths, she ran towards the door that blocked them from their freedom, and grabbed an axe, and began helping the others try to pry it open.

After a few good minutes, she was sweating profusely, and grunting loudly when suddenly, the door opened.

"Come on!"

"Let's go!"

When they got to the top floor, Rick and Daryl began to hit against the glass harshly with the axes while Octavia looked around to make sure everyone was accounted for. She frowned when she saw Jacqui, Andrea, and Dale missing from the group, but didn't get to say anything about it when Carol held out a grenade to Rick.

Rick ran next to the glass, pulling the pin from the green ball and letting the clip release from his grip.

As he ran and hide, the grenade exploded, sending glass everywhere.

Octavia looked up as she felt a body cover her own, and she looked up to see Daryl leaning over her.

They didn't wait a second longer when the grenade went off to jump out of the building and run off to the cars.

She jumped into Daryl's truck and she quickly cowered down by the dashboard, and Daryl leaned over her, so they didn't see Andrea and Dale come running out of the building just before it blew up in smoke.

Soon, the CDC crumbled into nothing, and they were off towards the highway, trying to find their next stop.