season one, episode six
"ts-19"

009. there's nothing left anywhere.

THE NEXT morning, lydia goes down with eden to the cafeteria. lori, carl, carol, sophia, jacqui and glenn are already there. she sends them all smiles and sits down to eat with them.

"morning." carl smiles happily as she returns it.

"eggs. powdered, but...but i do them good." t dog says as he put eggs and bacon on everyone's plates as rick walks in, slightly hungover.

"protein helps the hangover." t dog says as glenn groans loudly, feeling sick making lydia laugh.

"don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again." he complains as lydia pats his back.

everyone soon joins them, including shane who has large scratch marks along the side of his neck. "the hell happened to you?" t dog frowns, and then everyone else notices it.

"your neck." carol looks shocked.

"must've done it in my sleep." shane mutters as he sits down. lydia can't help but notice the look he gives lori as she stares at shane in disgust.

sure, she isn't a fan of lori, but if he tried to do what she was thinking, she will most definitely take sides with lori. no woman should go through that.

"never seen you do that before." rick frowns as lori avoids his eyes. "me neither. not like me at all." shane agrees, looking at lori.

"good morning." edwin says as he walk in to see them, they all greet him as andrea shares a nod with dale.

"hey, doctor. i don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..." dale trails off as edwin chuckles.

"but you will anyway." he replies, turning to face him.

"we didn't come here for the eggs." andrea replies as they all share a look as edwin sighs and tells them all to follow him.

he leaves them to the room where vi was with all the computers. "give me a playback of ts-19." edwin calls out.

"playback of ts-19." vi replies.

"few people ever got a chance to see this. very few." he says as they all look up at the projector screen with a frown.

"is that a brain?" carl asks what they were all thinking.

"an extraordinary one. not that it matters in the end." edwin replies as he looks back at it. "take us in for eiv."

"enhanced internal view." vi replies as the screen zooms in on the brain. it looks healthy.

"what are those lights?" shane asked as the screen zoomed in further.

"it's a persons life. experiences, memories, it's everything." jenner explains, smirking. "somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light. is you. the thing that makes you unique, and human."

"you don't make sense ever?" daryl spoke up in annoyance and confusion as lydia attempted to cover her laugh with a cough.

"those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. they determine everything a person says, does it thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." edwin continues to explain.

"death? that's what this is? a vigil?" rick speaks up in concern.

"yes." edwin replies in amazement at the screen. "or rather the...playback of the vigil."

"this person died?" lydia asks, looking up at the brain. "who?"

"test subject nineteen." edwin replies, glancing at her as she frowns. "someone who was bitten and infected, and volunteered to have us record the process."

they all share a look as he turns back to the screen, "vi, scan forward to the first event." he calls out. vi did so, and they watch in shock as the brain turns a black colour, clear there is some kind of virus or infection.

"what is that?" glenn grimaces, covering eden's eyes dramatically.

"it invades the brain like meningitis. the adrenal glands haemorrhage. the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs...then death." edwin explains quietly.

"everything you ever were or ever will be...gone." edwin finishes as tears fill andrea's eyes as she recalls her sister going through it a few days prior.

"is that what happened to jim?" sophia asks softly, they all glance at her. "yes." carol told her.

edwin glances at andrea who has to look away, she pales as if she was about to throw up. "she lost somebody two days ago." lori speaks up, motioning to andrea. "her sister."

"i lost somebody too. i know how devastating it is." edwin tells andrea who doesn't reply. "scan to the second event." he told vi.

"the resurrection times vary wildly. we have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. the longest we heard of was eight hours. in the case of this patient, it was...two hours, one minute and seven seconds." he explains as they look up at the brain and how the patient turns into a walker.

red spots fill the brain as they all frown. "it restarts the brain?" lori asks in shock.

"no, just the brain stem. basically, it gets them up and moving." edwin replies as rick speaks up.

"but they're not alive?" he asks as edwin points to the screen with a shrug. "you tell me." he replies.

"it's nothing like before." rick explains, "most of that brain is dark."

"dark, lifeless, dead." edwin continues. "the frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back. the you part. just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

all of a sudden, the brain is slashed in two as they all grimace. "god, what was that?" carol asks.

"he shot his patient in the head. didn't you?" andrea speaks up, turning to jenner who nods.

"vi, power down the main screen and the work stations." he calls out as they all share a look.

"you have no idea what it is, do you?" lydia scoffs as edwin looks down.

"it could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." he lists as they all roll their eyes.

"or the wrath of god?" jacqui asks in anger as edwin nods slowly. "there is that."

"somebody must know something. somebody somewhere." andrea speaks up, anger laced in her tone.

"there are others, right?" carol asks, "other facilities?"

"there may be some...people like me." edwin replies, trying to answer all their questions.

"but you don't know. how can you not know?" rick asks in disbelief, walking over to the doctor.

"everything went down. communications, directives, all of it. i've been in the dark for almost a month." edwin replies calmly.

"so it's not just here?" andrea asks, "there's nothing left anywhere. that's what you're really saying, right?"

edwin doesn't reply as they all either sigh or shake their heads in disbelief. "jesus." jacqui mutters.

"man i'm gonna get shit faced drunk again." daryl puts his head in his hands.

"dr. jenner, i know this has been taxing for you and i hate to ask one more question, but...that clock. it's counting down. what happens at zero?" dale speaks up as they all look over at the digital clock on the wall. one hour.

edwin jenner looks at loss for words. "the...basement generators, they run out of fuel." he lies as lydia tilts her head at him.

"that's not it. what happens after?" lydia asks as they all glance at her and silently agree. edwin walks away.

"vi, what happens when the power runs out?" she calls out to the computer.

"when the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." vi speaks as they all share a look of horror.

a few of the group find themselves rushing down to where the basement generators are. the others go back to their rooms. she frowns seeing the air conditioning has stopped. lights turned out. something isn't right.

she finds herself along with the others coming out of their rooms to see jenner walking past. they all ask why everything has gone out and he simply leads them to the main room, ignoring them, saying zone five is shutting down.

daryl is trying to get answers, yelling at the man as rick, shane, glenn and t dog come back. "jenner, what is happening?" rick asks angrily.

"the system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. it's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. that started as we approached the half hour mark. right on schedule." he replies as they all look confused.

"it was the french." jenner speaks as they frown. "what?" daryl asks in annoyance.

"they were the last ones to hold out as far as i know. while our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs til the end. they thought they were close to a solution." jenner replies calmly.

"what happened?" jacqui asks.

"the same thing that's happening here. no power grid. ran out of juice. the world runs on fossil fuel. i mean, how stupid is that?" he continues.

"let me tell you something." shane spits as he runs towards jenner.

"to hell with it, shane!" rick drags him away.

"i don't even care. lori, grab our things. everyone get your stuff, we're getting out of here now!" rick yells, lydia waists no time in running as fast as she can to get her bags as an alarm starts to go off.

she can't fight the panicked tears that fill her eyes as she rushes back into the main room, eden begins to cry at the loud noise as she looks up at the others who comes back in shock.

"thirty minutes to decontamination." vi speaks.

"doc, what's going on in here?" daryl yells.

"everyone you heard rick! get your stuff and let's go! now!" shane yells as everyone except lydia begins to run, since she had already got her bag filled with hers and edens stuff.

"hey, we're gonna be alright." rick tells her, noticing the tears in her eyes. "we're the ones who live." he squeezes her arm.

suddenly, the doors close so they are definitely stuck. no one manages to leave to get their stuff as they all turn to jenner in a panic. "did you just lock us in?" glenn exclaims. "he just locked us in!"

"let us go! we have children!" dale calls out in despair as daryl cuts him off, "a fucking baby! there's a baby here!"

"a baby won't survive in this world anyway." jenner calls out as lydia lets the tears fall.

"you fucking piece of shit! let us go!" lydia yells, attempting to run after him but rick is quick to hold her back.

"jenner. open that door now." rick says in a dangerously calm tone.

"there's no point. everything topside is locked down. the emergency exists are sealed." edwin replies as he sits down at his computer.

"well, open the damn things!" daryl exclaims.

"that's not something i can control. the computers do." edwin replies, shaking his head. "i told you, once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. you heard me say that."

a few of them begin to cry as glenn notices eden was still crying and rushes to help lydia to calm her down. "i can't get her to stop." lydia says between small cries.

"it's better this way." jenner says, as glenn gently takes eden from lydia.he holds her and wraps a comforting arm around lydia.

"what is?" rick asks in disbelief. "what happens in twenty eight minutes?"

jenner ignores him as shane grabs the doctor and shoves him up, "what happens in twenty eight minutes?" rick yells again.

"you know what this place is?" jenner yells back, "we protected the public from very nasty stuff! weaponised smallpox! ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! stuff you don't want getting out! ever!" he yells as they all stare at him in horror.

"in the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorise attack for example, h.i.t's are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out." he continues camly.

"h.i.t's?" rick asks in confusion.

"vi, define." jenner calls out.

"h.i.t's, high impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power—" vi begins as tears fill everyone's eyes as they look at each other in shock and horror. everyone embraces their loved ones, however the children are confused, which makes lydia's heart break.

lydia brings glenn into a hug as he wraps his arms around her and eden, tears in their eyes as vi continues.

"—and duration that any other known explosive except nuclear. the vaccum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between five thousand and six thousand degrees and it is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." vi finished.

everyone is either crying, hugging their loved ones or standing frozen in shock as jenner looks at them all.

"it sets the air on fire." he whispers. "no pain. an end to sorrow, grief...regret. everything."

daryl lunges his bottle of bear at the walls as everyone seems to have unfrozen and begins to panic. lori and carol has to explain to carl and sophia what is happening, and the children has instantly burst into tears.

"open the damn doors!" daryl yells in anger.

"out of my way." shane yells as he runs to the door with an axe, attempting to break it. the others help, but nothing worked.

lydia sits down with eden and glenn, both have silent tears falling down their cheeks. "you know what's out there. a short, brutal life and an agonising death." jenner speaks up quietly.

"your sister...what was her name?" he asks andrea, who whispers, "amy."

"amy. you know what this does. you've seen it. i'd that really what you want for your wife and son?...for your baby daughter?" he turns to rick, and then to lydia.

"i don't want this!" lydia exclaims.

"i can't make a dent." shane breaths, coming back from trying to break the door down.

"those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." jenner says as if it was obvious.

"well, your head ain't!" daryl runs at jenner with an axe as everyone widens their eyes and drags the man back.

"daryl!" they exclaim as the man scoffs.

"you do want this. last night you said it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." jenner tells rick as everyone frowns at him.

"you really said that?" shane asks in disbelief. "after all your big talk?"

"i had to keep hope alive, didn't i?" rick replies.

"there is no hope." jenner says calmly. "never was."

"there's always hope." lydia replies firmly. "maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere." rick agrees.

"what part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" andrea asks with a scoff.

"listen to your friend. she gets it." edwin says with a small smile. "this is what takes us down. this is it. the apocalypse. our extinction event."

the group continues to complain and beg for jenner to let them go. jenner continues to say it would take a millisecond, and would be no pain.

shane gets out a shotgun and points it at jenner, "open that door. or i'm gonna blow your head off, you hear me?"

rick tries to get him to stop, saying if he does this they will never get out of there. out of anger, shane begins to shoot areas of the room making eden scream even louder as lydia covers her ears, holding her close.

"stop it!" rick fights the gun off him, pointing to eden, sophia and carl who are all crying, eden still screaming as shane stops.

"if you believed there was no hope, you wouldn't bolted out with the rest. or taken the easy way out." rick speaks up to jenner who looks away. "you chose the hard path. why?"

"it doesn't matter." jenner replies.

"it does. it always matters. you stayed when others ran. why?" rick continues as jenner sighs.

"not because i wanted to. i made a promise. to her." he points to the screen with the test subject, "my wife."

"test subject nineteen was your wife?" lori asks in realisation.

"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. 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've done something about this. not me." he says.

"your wife didn't have a choice. you do. that's...that's all we want. a choice, a chance." rick says calmly.

"let us keep trying as long as we can." lori speaks up, holding onto carl.

dr. jenner sighs. "i told you topside is locked down. i can't open those." he walks away as they all glance at him, he presses something on a button as the door where daryl and shane tries to break open, opens.

"come on!" daryl yells.

"let's go!" they all yell as they run out together.

"there's your chance. take it." jenner says to lydia and rick who stays back to talk to him. "i'm grateful. we all are."

"the day will come when you won't be." he says, sending shivers down lydia's spine as she glances at him, before turning around to run away with the others, not noticing jenner whispering something to rick.

"four minutes left! come on!" glenn screams at them both as they run as fast as they can.

"no, no i'm staying." jacqui yells as they stare at her in shock. "i'm staying, sweetie." she says to t dog.

"that's insane!" t dog cries as jacqui shakes her head with a smile. "for the first time in a long time, i'm not ending up like jim and amy. there's no time to argue. y'all gotta go. just go." she says as the group stares at her in shock.

"c'mon." shane whispers to t dog who hesitantly run off, lydia wishes a goodbye as andrea also wants to stay.

"just go!" dale yells at the group who hesitantly does so as dale tries to convince andrea to come with him.

the group run as far away as they can, eden cries as the group begins to shoot at the door, hitting axe's on the windows as glenn leaves her side to help the others.

three minutes, ten seconds.

t dog manages to crack the window slightly with a chair, "dog, get down!" shane calls out as he gets out his shotgun.

he aims it at the window, but the glass doesn't break.

"i have something that might help." carol calls out, "carol, i don't think a nail files gonna do it." shane retorts.

"your first morning at camp, when i washed your uniform i found this in your pocket." she says to rick, pulling out the grenade he and lydia finds.

rick thanks her and everyone dives down as rick sets it off, before running away to get down. the window smashes loudly and they immediately scramble to get out.

they shoot at the walkers that come close and got to shelter in the r.v and the cars they had brought. rick, lydia, glenn, lori, carl and eden get into the r.v and rick goes to start it.

"wait! they're coming!" lori yells, seeing andrea and dale climb out, andrea has tears in her eyes as they make their way to the r.v.

twenty seconds.

ten seconds.

five seconds.

"dale get down!" lori screams as the two did so, everyone runs back to the back of the r.v or the cars and gets down as the whole place lights up in a huge explosion. the ground shakes and fire fills the whole place as eden begins to cry.

relieved sighs can be heard around where their cars are. andrea and dale gets into the r.v as they all look at each other in shock.

they have made it.

long chapter so i split it into two
that whole scene was so nerve racking 😭 rip jacqui queen.

i just wanna say as we get further into the show,
i am making lori an even more unlikable character for the plot with the lydia/rick/lori saga and yes lydia wasn't happy when she learnt about lori and shane sleeping together and she made a few comments—but she won't actively slut shame her because me personally as an author i do not think that is okay, especially now she had realised shane had try to SA her.

i want to say now that in season 3 ish maybe even 2 lori is an extremely unlikable character, she's quite out of character too with something she does in this book and i just wanted to say it is all for the plot and so lydia's character can develop it's all confusing but yeah i have big plans 🤞🏽🤞🏽

anyway!!
season two next, which means a new gif too!!