≻───── ⋆EIGHT⋆ ─────≺

𝐈 𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐔𝐏 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐅 against the couch. I stretched my legs, feeling the muscles tense and pull as I flexed my feet. There was a tightness in my calves and shoulders as I rolled over and sat up and although I was used to that feeling, it was something I had to ignore when living in the outside world. In this quiet empty place, I could sit back and feel every muscle ache, every bone that felt as if it'd been shattered through ruthless workouts, and even the soft throbbing in the palms of my hands from holding my ax. 

I didn't feel as sleep deprived as normal. By some miracle, I had slept through the night. I rubbed my eyes gently and felt the tenderness of pain in my cheek. Standing, I trotted into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I went to brush my teeth with what supplies I had leftover. My cheek was red and it was obviously discolored, a gentle bruise caressing my cheekbone where Nancy had struck me with the hand she wore her wedding rings on. It felt slightly swollen when I'd opened my mouth and touch it but this wasn't something I wasn't used to. This was just a normal I hadn't experienced in a while, a normal I would have to get used to again. 

After brushing my teeth, I dressed in one of the random shirts I had cleaned the night before and my jeans. It felt silly but I slipped my holster on through my belt loops and even slid my ax through one, it didn't feel right leaving them in here. I was always thinking of my next move and I was afraid if we had to leave in a hurry, I didn't want them left here for me to go running towards.

It's why I also repacked my backpack, leaving it by the door. It would be easier to grab this way.

I don't know what sparked my growing fear we would be leaving soon, but it was some horrible gut feeling that was growing and growing. Nothing was ever safe anymore, no matter how much it seemed to be. There was always something ticking away, something trying to gut you from the inside out. 

Leaving the room, I didn't wait for Nancy to wake. I didn't need to deal with her drunken hangover, I didn't need her looking me in the eyes knowing she had raised her hand to me. It shouldn't have felt normal, the sting and pressure in my face, but it did. It was just a touch of home.

As I walked into the cafeteria, I noticed Glenn first. He had his head in his hands and he was groaning softly to himself as he said with a whimper, "Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again."

"Aw," I pouted, clapping him hard on the shoulder with a grin, "did baby have too much last night?"

Glenn shrugged me off him with another moan. "If I ever ask for a second glass, you tell me no."

"But drunk Glenn is so fun!" cried Carl from down the table and Lori put her hand on his head, ruffling his hair as she laughed.

"Yeah, you hear that?" I said with another chuckle. "Even the kid liked you better that way."

"Well, you and the kid don't know shit," he muttered as T-Dog placed a plate of eggs in front of Glenn and the boy made an awful face. 

The other man pushed the plate closer and said, "Come on, Rhee, protein helps the hangover."

"I could seriously puke."

"Should've stopped at one bottle then, kid," laughed T-Dog as he pushed the plate down the table towards one of the empty spots. 

I moved to take my seat when a hand grabbed my arm and I instinctively pulled my arm in, tucking my elbow against my side to yank myself away when I finally saw who it was. 

Daryl took me by the chin, forcing my head to the side. "Where'd you get that mark?" he said with a scowl. His touch was warm, searing. 

I jerked myself away from him, slapping his hand down. I didn't need him, or anyone else, looking at me and asking questions. It was better to keep it hidden, to keep it to myself. But before I could brush away from him, he was touching my face, his finger prodding the bruise. Even with my scowl, he didn't scare easily.

We both didn't.

"Get too drunk and run into a wall or something?" joked Glenn, who groaned from the laugh escaping him.

"Unlike you," I murmured, "I didn't get drunk last night."  I swatted Daryl's hand away as I pulled out a seat for myself. I noticed a bottle of pills on the table, Ibuprofen, Advil, it seemed Jenner thought ahead. 

"You do it in your sleep like Shane?" asked Carl, spooning a bite of cereal into his mouth with a grin. A few seats down, Rick's head turned from his conversation with Lori. I could feel his gaze settle on me and even though we weren't close at the table, it felt like I could feel him against me. He was warm but contrasting from Daryl, his warmth was dangerous. It wasn't kind.

To avoid looking at him, I glanced towards where Shane sat, cup of coffee clutched tightly in one hand. Across the side of his neck, over his jaw, were scratch marks. They were red, slightly raised, and just as angry as he seemed to be. 

"Yeah," I muttered as T-Dog slid me a plate of food, "something like that." I motioned for Carl to pass me the ketchup on the table and he did so with a frown.

"You eat your eggs with ketchup?" There was disgust in his tone and for good show, he scrunched up his nose and shook his head as I unscrewed the cap on the bottle.

"Your parents have kept you sheltered," I purred with a wink as I dunked a piece of my scrambled egg into the ketchup with my fingers. When I popped it into my mouth, I grinned and said, "You're missing out but maybe if you tried it, you'd like it."

"I'm done with trying new things," he said, shaking his head some more. It seemed the wine he'd had a sip of last night had settled well with him. It made me wonder if he'd ever drink, if he'd ever make it to twenty-one.

Would Conner? 

I ate silently, my eyes kept down to avoid anyone, especially Daryl, catching a good glimpse of the mark on my face. I didn't need anymore eyes on me, I didn't need the attention and I was glad when Nancy trudged into the room, rubbing her eyes and groaning just like Glenn.

"Rough night?" chuckled Dale as Nancy took a seat by him and Andrea.

She barely nodded, giving his plate of food a wince.

"Get some protein in you," said T-Dog as he passed her a plate. "It'll do you both some good." He put emphasis on both and glared towards Glenn who had both hands on his head.

I reached across the table for one of the bottles of pills, feeling hatred spin its favored wheel inside my gut. "Don't want the hangover to chase you through the day," I said as I made Nancy look at me. Her eyes widened at the sight of my face and I kept my frown as I held out the bottle for her to take. "Gotta stay sharp or that headache you're facin' will be unforgiving."

She took the bottle wordlessly and it felt like a subtle win. Anything to get her nervous felt like a victory. If she felt guilty, just for once, things would be different.

I pushed my eggs around on my plate, a face finding its way through the ketchup. For a moment, I saw Jim staring back at me. Pale face, sunken eyes, sweat glistening off of his nose. Just for a second, it was him, mouth chomping down on air, his eyes vacant and empty. 

It's what could've been.

I shoveled some eggs into my mouth and glanced up as Dr. Jenner entered the cafeteria. Although I hadn't seen him drink more than he did at dinner, he looked exhausted. Something was gnawing at him and as he grabbed a cup for coffee, I could notice the tension straining in his shoulders. 

"Morning doc," I drawled as he turned, coffee in hand.

He gave me a curt nod of his head in greeting and I narrowed my eyes. The bags under his eyes were more prominent than the day before and it clearly wasn't from the festivities the night before. 

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing but–" said Dale, scratching his neck as Jenner interrupted him.

"But you will anyway."

"We didn't come here for the eggs," snapped Andrea, her face pale. There was worry etched into her brows and forehead, her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail that didn't quite suit her. Something was off with her, with everyone in the room.

Jenner watched us, rubbing his nose. "How about you finish up eating and...and we can discuss more."

"What's there to discuss?" Shane asked with a frown. 

"It's better if I just show it to you," explained Jenner, forcing an awkward smile as Shane watched the man drink his coffee. His posture was stiff, even as he leaned back against the table behind him. "It'll be easier that way."

Walking into the control room, I noted things I hadn't truly seen the night we'd rushed in here half delirious from hunger and wild from the adrenalin. It was an empty room, save for the desks and control panels grouped together before large screens that took up majority of the walls. 

Jenner reached the main controls, bending down and typing slowly as he spoke aloud to Vi, "Give me a playback of TS-19."

Vi spoke and I ignored the shiver under my skin at the sound of her voice. "Playback of TS-19," she repeated, the screen lighting up. 

I stepped forward, leaning my hip against the desk closet to me as I crossed my arms. The screen worked slowly, pulling a video up for us all to see. I never expected myself to see such technology again, especially since the cities fell. I didn't even think we'd get a chance at living with warm water or electricity, thus, the experience was overwhelming.

I rubbed my arm, tightening my grip around my bicep and digging my nails into the skin. It was the only thing to keep me calm, to realize that this place was for the privileged, a safe haven we would never get again.

Pictures of the human brain loaded as Vi worked on the other data. The scans were blue and electric compared to the black and white around us. As more of our group shuffled into the room with awe in their eyes, Jenner said, "Only two people ever got to see this. Very few."

The half of the screen still loading finally clipped together the scans of someones head. Layers began to be applied, we saw the outline of the head, then the bones, the nerves, and finally the beautiful brain lit up in different shades of aqua. 

"Is that a brain?" asked Carl as he came to stand beside me. 

Jenner nodded. "An extraordinary one." He smiled at the boy as he leaned his small frame against mine as he sat on the desk. "Not that is matters in the end," said the doctor in a soft voice, his hands in his back pockets. "Take us in for E.I.V."

"Enhanced internal view," said Vi and the screen changed. 

The angle of the body shifted, showing us it lying on its back as the brain became more detailed. It was showing us exactly where the neurons were firing, where the brain was still alive. Slowly, the scan shifted again, this time zooming in through the brain. In seconds, we had the brain in perfect high-definition. Something I hadn't seen other than in textbooks, never like this.

I watched Shane move cautiously closer to the front out of the corner of my eye. "What are those lights?"

"It's a person's life," said Jenner, his eyes shifting over the screen in a blissful moment. "Experiences. Memories. It's everything." He sighed, happily. "Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of life, is you." He pointed to us. "The thing that makes you unique and human."

"You don't make sense," said Daryl with his arms crossed, "ever."

My lips pulled back into a smile as I rested a hand on Carl's head to ruffle his hair. "They're synapses," I told the room, meeting Daryl's eyes. I wasn't sure, but I thought I could sense a source of pride from the way I addressed the truth. Like he was fascinated in the way I spoke. Jenner waved a hand at me to continue and I let my eyes drift back to the screen as I spoke. "They're electric impasses that carry the messages in the brain. They connect nerves to other nerve cells. They basically control everything we say, do, or think the moment we're born to when we die."

"Death?" asked Rick, looking at Jenner as he stalked forward. "This is what this is? A vigil?"

Jenner, staring at the screen, nodded. "Yes." He blinked and tore his eyes from the screen to say, "Well, more like a playback of the vigil."

Andrea shifted uncomfortably behind me. "This person died? Who?"

"Test subject 19," said Jenner, "was someone who was bitten and infected...and volunteered to have us record the process." Something twitched in his face as he looked at us before he glanced back towards the screens. "Vi, scan forward to the first event."

There was a loud beeping noise and Vi responded. "Scanning to first event."

The video froze before it glitched, the brain shimmering back into place but instead of the the beautiful lights dancing around in their head, the brain stem was blackened. It was like tree branches spreading throughout the brain, working its way slowly like poison.

"What is that?" asked Glenn, frowning.

"It's–it's–" I frowned too, crossing my arms tightly. "It looks almost like meningitis."

Jenner nodded. "It invades the brain similarly." Test Subject 19 coughed, their mouth opening and head shifting. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down, then the major organs." The subject moved and suddenly all the lights vanished in a sweep of black and Jenner, very quietly whispered, "Then death."

The room grew near silent before he spoke again.

"Everything you ever were or ever will be...gone."

Andrea made a soft choking noise as Sophia asked, "Is that what happened to Jim?"

I shook my head but Carol was already speaking with a gentle, "It's what would've happened." I felt eyes burning into the back of my head and I glanced over my shoulder to see Rick, his brows furrowed with irritation.

He didn't get it.

"She lost somebody two days ago," said Lori, addressing Andrea as Jenner looked on curiously. "Her sister."

Jenner leaned forward towards the other woman who was clutching at her face. "I lost somebody too," he told her. "I know how devastating it is." He turned from her as his grief washed clearly from his face to say, "Scan to second event."

Vi repeated him and the screen changed. A pop-up flashed across the screen, indicating a fast forward through the clip as Jenner explained to us what we would soon be seeing.

"The resurrection period vary wildly," he told us. How many of them have you tested to know this? How many people have been trapped here, forced to be subjects? "We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes."

The body in front of me twitched. Its fingers curling and tapping against the pavement. I watched in wonder, leaning closer as I crouched. There was chaos screaming down the road but the body was shifting. 

I had seen him get killed just moments before I'd arrived to watch. I knew what was going to happen. I'd seen it in the city. The bite marks across his arms and shoulder were indicators enough.

The fearful country man had seen the marks and shot wildly, killing the man with a single bullet to the gut.

But now, just five minutes later, he was moving and shifting. His eyes were the last thing to move before I slammed my knife into his skull like a viper waiting on its prey, lurking under leaves and in branches. I didn't stop stabbing until his blood was crawling through the gravel and his body was as still as the dead should be.

I would never stop stabbing. You had to kill, properly. You had to kill and never stop.

"The longest we heard was eight hours," Jenner continued once the screen finally stopped on the image of the brain. It was dark, still dead, probably just moments before reanimation. "In the case of this patient," Lori stepped forward to get a closer look, "it was two hours, one minute...seven seconds."

Red lights flashed dully in the center of the brain, near the base of the skull. They were soft, just barely there before the color got brighter, sending waves through the branches. It mirrored little rubies, glinting and reflecting in the sunlight.

"It restarts the brain?" asked Lori, horrified.

Jenner shook his head. "No, just the brain stem." He glanced back at her, his eyes filtering over all of us as he said, "Basically, it gets them up and moving."

Rick frowned, stepping forward towards the doctor. "But they're not alive?"

Jenner waved his hand, motioning to the screen. "You tell me."

Rick shook his head, muttering, "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead." He looked a Rick as I gnawed on my bottom lip. "The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part–that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell." The subject on the screen began to open its mouth, its neck bulging as it began to stir. 

"It's mindless," I said, digging my nails into my skin. "Nothing more than an empty vessel driven by instinct." To kill and kill and never stop.

Light flashed on the screen and I watched as something cut through the skull and into the brain in a dangerously sharp and jagged line. 

Carol gasped with the sound from the screen and the flash. "God. What was that?!"

Andrea cleared her throat. "He shot his patient in the head." She turned her head, just barely, towards the doctor. "Didn't you?"

"He had too," I told her, meeting her dangerously empty eyes. "It was the only thing he could do."

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations," said Jenner, arms crossed as he walked through the station. As he leaned back to rest against one of the desks, an awful silence settled over the room as Vi turned the screens off and everything grew dark.

We were the brain, waiting to lit on fire.

"You don't know what this thing is, do you?" snapped Andrea, glaring at the doctor. "You have no idea."

Jenner looked at his hands. "It could be microbial," he muttered, his tone lacking confidence, "viral, parasitic, fungal."

"The wrath of God?" said Jacqui and Jenner almost laugh.

"There is that."

I looked back at that dark screen. I had my own theories about the infection but it didn't cross into biblical senses. Not because I didn't want to think that way but because, in a way, it was something I didn't want to imagine. That, somehow, if we appealed to our gods, things could've been avoided. That human nature could've come back from their sins and repented but I anted to base my thoughts in science.

I'd studied science, I'd studied the body, the brain. It was possible it was viral but there had to be a patient zero. How did their body mutate such awful genes to create these unfathomable monsters?  It seemed likely it could be parasitic, contracting it from an animal and then festering and killing patient zero, but surely we would've been able to see such damages with Jenner's technology.

It could be airborne. It could've been somehow released into our environment and we've contracted it, but I hadn't heard of someone dying and reanimating like this before. It would've had to been created this year when the first news of the outbreak began but even then, no one was dying and coming back from natural causes.

"Somebody must know something," said Andrea, still begging the doctor for answers he did not know or have. "Somebody somewhere."

Carol nodded, hopeful. "There are others, right? Other facilities?"

Jenner's jaw clenched. "There may be some. People like me..."

Rick stepped forward in a predatory stance. "But you don't know?" He was narrowing his eyes. "How can you not know?"

"It's not like there's any communication systems still up and running," I said with a scowl, Carl shifting by my side with a strange and fearful look in his eyes. It seemed the end of humanity was dawning on him, just like the others. "Everything went down with the cities, with our governments."

"All of it," said Jenner. "Communications, directives...I've been in the dark for almost a month."

Andrea cocked her head to the side. "So, it's not just here." An awful smile came to her face. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" She let out a laugh of disbelief as Jacqui had to support herself against the desks, breathing deeply.

Rick staggered back, blinking. The dawn of the new age was erupting in all their brains. They were finally seeing what I had been all this time. Nothing was going to save us, nothing would bring us back to redemption and salvation. 

"Man," groaned Daryl, rubbing his eyes. "I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again."

Dale stepped forward as Daryl rested his elbows on one of the nearby desks to lean into his face. "Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing on you and I hate to ask one more question, but..." he stepped forward and pointed towards the opposite wall, "...that clock! It's counting down." Our heads turned. "What happens at zero?"

Sure enough, the clock was slowly ticking away the seconds. The red numbers glared at us from the wall and I got a sickening feeling go off in my stomach.

Jenner shifted from foot to foot, a nervous tell. "The basement generators," he said, "they run out of fuel." He turned away and Rick was barking out, "And then?" as the man went to look through the desks, finding anything to put his hands on. Another nervous tick, a tell, a liar's motive. 

I began to shake my head, that awful feeling creeping up my throat and coating my skin. Surprisingly, tears found their way to my eyes and I stared at the doctor in true horror. Nothing was safe here, nothing good would ever come from a place like this, not right now–

Rick glanced around as Jenner stopped shuffling old papers to stalk off towards the exit. "Vi," snapped Rick, "what happens when the power runs out?"

There was a brief moment of silence before Vi began to speak. "When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."

My brows furrowed into rage, the feeling boiling underneath my skin. I pushed myself away from the desk violently as Rick motioned for some of the men to follow him through the opposite wings of the building but I could barely stand to even breathe, much less think of what they were going to do when they got to the generators. 

"Jenner!" I snarled, slamming a hand down on a desk to help maneuver myself quicker through the station and after him. My heart was beating rapidly, banging its raging fists against my ribs and lungs. 

When he didn't turn around, I felt that awful feeling surge out of me as I screamed his name like it was the only word I ever knew.

"Jenner!"

He slowed to a stop and I realized I had chased him all the way up to his main office, overlooking the stations below from the top of the stairs. 

"You're going to kill us," I whispered, his shoulders tensing with my words. "The decontamination, I'm not a fucking idiot. I know what that means. I know what all of this means!"

"I'm no longer in control of what happens here," he responded, taking a step to enter his office and I pulled my gun from its holster and pressed the weapon to his back, stalling him completely.

"Fix it," I snarled, fear eating and nipping at me. "Reverse it, do something."

"There's nothing I can do," he whispered, shaking his head. "No one can do anything to stop it." His body shuddered and he had to brace himself against the wall. I pressed the gun further into him, hoping he understood that he wouldn't get the end he truly wanted. I would give him blood and guts and a fucking world of suffering. 

"The French were the last ones to hold out," he told me, shaking his head softly with internal agony. "While my people, my friends, were bolting out the door and committing suicide in the hallways, they...they were sticking it out in the labs until the very end." He let out an awful laugh, wet and croaking. "They thought they were close to a solution but just like this place...they ran out of juice. They had no power grid, nothing to fuel their computers and labs, nothing to keep our samples from going bad."

"Why not just stick it out here?" I asked, easing up the pressure of my weapon. "You could survive here, you could be safe even without the power grid."

"I just want to go," he whispered. Inside his office, I could see a picture of a woman. It was too dark for me to make out exactly what she looked like, but he had a life outside of this job, perhaps even within it and as I squinted my eyes, I realized it was the latter. "If I can no longer do my work...I want to go home."

My eyes widened, my lips parting in a gasp. "TS-19...they–they were your wife?"

He let out an awful sound, like choking or gasping, as he nodded. 

I released my weapon, sliding it back into my holster before turning on my heel to leave him in his sorrow. I couldn't waste anymore time badgering him with questions, not while the clock counted down our last possible hour on this earth. 

What would you do if you only had an hour?

Run. Run and never stop.

I grabbed my backpack just as the air conditioning system powered off. I made sure I had everything I needed as I heard Nancy yell in the hallway about the air and I ignored her. I even ignored Jenner as he came down the corridor moments later to explain the situation but his voice was low, monotone. 

Was he realizing his reality now, too? That death was upon us and readying her eager jaws?

I secured my bag over my shoulder, tightening the straps so it wouldn't be yanked off if I needed to take off running through the building. The lights above my head flickered then shut off entirely and I let out a shaky breath. I needed to keep my cool, I couldn't let myself crumble and cry even though the nerves were punching me all over.

There had been a moment when we first came here that I knew something wasn't right. Something had been so horribly off and I'd ignored it (the best I could) for booze, good food, and warm water. I would never have allowed myself to succumb to such fantasies but here I was, rushing to grab my things and praying the mad doctor would set us free.

I'd rather risk my life with the walkers than die before I was ready.

I let instincts take over as I snatched Nancy's bag from her makeshift bed, stuffing her belongings inside and stealing the little travel bottles of soap from the bathroom before racing out into the hall, going off in the direction the group had gone following Jenner.

When I reached the control room, alarms began to blare and I flinched down. They reminded me of the fire alarms in my old high school and from my dorm room in college. Red lights flashed overhead and I heard people yelling before the alarms stopped and a loud metal grinding shot through the air. Behind me, the doors shut just as they did in the lobby and I felt my stomach recoil. 

Just like a horror film come to life, we were trapped inside. Awful fear swelled up inside my chest, tightening and restricting, bubbling its way to my throat.

"Did he just lock us in?" cried Glenn from somewhere behind me as a ringing filled my ears. "Did he just lock us in?!"

That agonizing fear spilled up out of my throat and before I could stop myself, a scream erupted free from me. The true sound of a wail, loud and shrieking, bouncing off the metal and back into my face like some sick joke.

My hands went to my mouth after dropped Nancy's bag at my feet and the screams kept coming. I didn't like being trapped, I didn't like being held against my will, I didn't like it–

There was nothing to get us out. No amount of pounding and carving at the metal would ever set us free. I stumbled back and away from the door, my screaming like some awful howl, the sound of an animal dying before it was coming out like a growl, like another creature entirely as I was pulling my ax free from my waistband and taking off running towards the doctor.

Rick, Shane, and T-Dog were holding back a fighting Daryl and they didn't care to look at me before I side tackled Jenner out of his chair and knocking him flat against the ground in a circus of limbs. I pressed the handle of my ax to his neck as he struggled underneath me, barely giving me a fight. Cutting off his air supply, forcing myself onto his windpipe, he did not deserve a painless death. He did not deserve what he truly wanted.

Hands wrapped around my waist but I locked my legs tightly on either side of Jenner's body. I wouldn't let go without a fight, not when I knew he could open those doors. We still had time, thirty minutes to be exact.

"Let–go–" grunted out T-Dog behind me, his hands tight around my waist and his fingers digging into my sides but I wouldn't let up. He needed to be taught a lesson, he needed to be taught–

"Open the doors!" I cried, jutting the handle against his jaw, forcing his head to the side but his eyes stayed on mine. "You have no fucking right! You have no right–!"

I was yanked free and away from the doctor. T-Dog had me in the air and against his chest, but I pumped and kicked my legs through the open space trying desperately to get back. I would kill that man. I would kill him before he ever got the chance to kill us.

"You're a murderer!" I hissed through clenched teeth. "You're a goddamn killer!"

"Samantha! Stop!" shrieked Nancy, absolutely no help whatsoever.

"Calm down!" snapped Rick, getting into my face as T-Dog secured his grip on me enough to allow my feet to touch the ground. "Take a deep breath, we can–" He shook his head and wiped his mouth. "–we can still get out of this." He turned to Jenner who was slowly rising to his feet, gripping the back of one of the chairs and rubbing his neck with his free hand. "Open those doors now, Jenner."

Jenner let out a little sigh, shaking his head. "There's–there's no point. Everything top–topside is locked down." I enjoyed hearing the croak in his voice, the struggle. "The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn things!" snarled out Daryl from behind us. 

Jenner's lips parted and he shook his head, slightly dazed and I could see the hidden tell. He was a liar. "That's not something I control. The computers do. I–I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that!"

I thrashed in T-Dog's arms. "And we don't care!" 

Jenner met my eyes. "It's better this way."

"What is?" asked Rick, his eyes darting to the clock. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

Jenner turned away from us, typing across his keyboard and Shane grunted, his face contorting. He snatched the back of Jenner's chair, forcing him to turn around as he snapped, "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?!"

Jenner lurched to his feet, turning on Rick. "You know what this place is?!" He got into the other man's face. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff!" He whirled on Shane, snarling. "Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!"

The room grew quiet but I didn't stop my aggressive jerks to loosen T-Dog incredible strength. I didn't care if there were strains of diseases here that could make me grow horns or burst into pus and mucus. I would not be here when the place finally went down.

Jenner took his seat again, fixing his coat and wiping his face before speaking again in a much calmer voice. "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."

"H.I.T.s?" asked Rick and I felt the fight drain from me. Horror, true horror.

I shook my head slowly, feeling those awful emotions come spilling back up my throat as I tried to retreat into T-Dog. "No," I breathed, shaking my head even more, "no, no, no–"

"Vi," said Jenner in a softer voice than ever before, "define."

Her voice came out loud and clear and I wanted to throw up. I wanted to crawl into a ball and never get back up. "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 and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear." There was a pause and horror crossed the faces of my friends. "The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen and between five thousand degrees and six thousand degrees, and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."

"It sets the air on fire," breathed Jenner.

T-Dog's grip on me left completely and I dropped to my knees, sagging on the floor. 

"No pain," he continued. "An end to sorrow, grief...regret." He looked up at the people around him. "Everything."

Nearly thirteen minutes passed, the countdown clock now winding down at eleven minutes and I could hardly get myself to stand. The terrifying reality that Jenner wouldn't let us out was dawning on us at every passing second.

I'd moved myself towards the steps, leaning against the side railing to keep myself from falling over. We were never getting out of here. Nothing could survive a blast like that, it would tear us flesh from bone before we even got the chance to realize the damage. We would be set on fire in the blink of an eye and then be gone, reduced to nothing but ash and rubble.

I could barely focus on the conversations around me, even as Shane and Glenn tried their best at hacking at the doors with axes. But they didn't know those doors would never budge. Not even a blade or explosion would tear through that metal. We were in the safest building in the world, yet, still destined to die. 

Nancy dropped to a knee on the stairs in front of me. "Samantha, honey, you need to move."

I could barely look up at her. All hope was lost, wasn't there? I let my eyes focus on the dangling cross against her neck, a necklace I hadn't noticed before. Where were her precious pearls? 

"Get up and help the others," she continued. "You can't sit here and do nothing."

"Then what are you doing?" I whispered, craning my head to the side and meeting her forehead to avoid her eyes. Devil woman and devil daughter, destined to die together.

"You can convince him," she told me, nodding her head as if eager at the thought. "I just know you can. You could convince me of all sorts of things when you were a kid."

"No," I breathed with a shake of my head, "I couldn't." All the backhanded conversations, the little threats that were never empty, the begging on my end and the ignorance on hers. I was never allowed a compromise, a treat, something special. "We were a strict 'no' family." I couldn't get myself to look back, to see what Rick was arguing about with Jenner as I said, "We're not getting out of here."

"You can't think like that!"

"And why not?" I breathed. "Those doors are shut and we're trapped. He's not letting us go."

"You're so pessimistic," she groaned with a glare, "and you always have been. Nothing can be good. You can never have hope."

"What hope?!" I cried, meeting her icy glare. How was I related to you? How did you carry me to term? How am I yours? "There's never been any hope!" Sobs choked in my throat and I pressed a hand to my lips to suppress the noise.

Nancy was pulled back, disgustingly gentle but strong hands. I recognized those strong hands as Daryl knelt before me, Nancy behind him stumbling away to bother someone else, to perhaps cry with Carol and Sophia. 

"You okay?" he asked with a slight grunt. He smelled like liquor but I knew it wasn't from drinking. Hadn't he just smashed his bottle against the doors? Or had I imagined the sound?

"Do I look like it?" I whispered with a glare, my fingers still pressed into my lips. "We're going to fucking die here." That sob cursed its way up my throat, dying to be free just like the flames cooking below us.

"We'll get out of this, you hear me?" he snapped, grabbing my face roughly to force me to meet his eyes. There was a light sheen of sweat on his cheeks and forehead, a stunning fear coursing in his eyes. He clutched at my face with his one hand before his touch softened, like he hadn't realized he was truly touching me until now. 

Behind us, Carol was sobbing loudly.

"He won't let us go," I whispered once he'd let go of my face. My body rocked slightly, to try and calm myself with the movements. "We're trapped here, we're going to die like rats–" My breath hitched and I had to double over to stop the wave of panic as I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. "He's taking away our choice," I said in a dazed tone, panic settling in so deeply that I could feel it in my marrow. "My choice is–is gone."

"You don't got a choice."

"You think you have a choice? You're nothin' but a little girl. Pathetic excuse for a daughter."

"You never had a choice here, darlin'!"

"Take it off, I'm not givin' you a choice."

I hiccuped and gun shots echoed behind us through a chorus of yelling. I flinched and Daryl got to his feet, a hand on my shoulder and his body moving past me to act as a shield. I could hear metal breaking, the sound of little explosives only electronics could make. I heard a body hit the ground and the sound of Shane grunting before Rick snarled.

"You done now?"

Daryl's hand on my back eased and his surprisingly kindness left me aching. I turned slowly in my spot on the ground, balancing my ax on my knee to look at the mess of mangled computers Shane had shot in frustration.

"I think you're lying," said Rick, pacing between the group to stare at Jenner who raise a brow, confused. "I think 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. Why?"

Jenner sat back in his seat. "It doesn't matter."

"It matters," said Rick, stepping forward and forcing the doctor to meet his eyes. "It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to," said Jenner, weakness spilling from his eyes and I stood slowly. Jenner stood as I did, forcing Rick back a step. "I made a promise..." He pointed up towards the screen, the black and empty screen. "...to her."

"Your wife?" I murmured cautiously and Jenner looked at me, his eyes averting quickly. "You made that promise to your wife?"

Lori frowned and Andrea's face well as the Rick's wife whispered, "Test subject 19 was your wife?"

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?" he said to us, defeated. "She–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." He rubbed his face. "Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me?" He scoffed. "I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice," Rick whispered. "You do. That's–that's all we want. A choice, a–a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can," Lori pleaded. 

Jenner sighed, his eyes downcast before he began to speak. "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." He walked past Rick and back towards one of the desks where he picked up his key card. Typing against a small keypad, the doors opened.

It was like magic, watching them open and I expected smoke to spill out like in the movies. To see sunlight cascading out like liquid. 

"Come on!" cried Daryl, dropping the ax he had been clutching to go running down the blinding hallway. 

"Let's go! Move it, move it!" everyone began to yell, sprinting across the walkway and down the hall to grab their belongings. 

I watched, curiously, as Jenner pulled Rick closer, whispering into his ear. Whatever the man had said left Rick still, his face suddenly pale. When Jenner pulled away, Lori was running towards Rick, grabbing his arm as Glenn yelled at us.

"Hey, we got four minutes!" the man screamed. "Come on!"

T-Dog had his arms wrapped around Jacqui but she pulled away, shaking her head. "No, no! I'm staying!" Her face softened. "I'm staying, sweetie."

"But that's insane!" snapped T-Dog, trying to grab her arm but she jerked herself away.

"Jacqui, please!" I hissed but she shook her head.

"It's completely sane!" she yelled at us. "For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out." she pushed T-Dog back. "Get out!"

I nodded as she touched T-Dog's face. I didn't waste anymore time, snatching Nancy's bag off the ground where I'd dropped it earlier and finding the woman by the doors, her arms wrapped around herself in shock.

It seemed her and Jacqui were better friends than I realized. I pushed her bag into her arms and she stumbled with a gasp.

"How–how–?"

I ignored her, shaking my head. "Get up to the lobby, now."

How was it that hope had been stripped away and now it was brought back with the force of a thousand gods? It felt like we were given our final chance, our final moment to run and not look back.

As everyone ran to their rooms to grab their things, I went racing towards the stairs. Taking them two at a time, pumping my arms by my sides and feeling the strain in my lungs and the burn in my legs as I made it to the right floor. I slammed the doors open, stumbling out into the lobby, sunlight shining through the windows high above my head.

I went to the main doors first, trying the handles and cursed as they wouldn't budge. It didn't seem fair for us to get this close just to have it all stripped away again. I pulled my ax from my waistband and ran towards the windows, jumping up a few stairs before swinging the blade into the glass.

It rebounded back but I swung again, feeling the pull in my arms and grunting at the strain. It felt good to be active, to feel the force of my arms and muscles at work but no matter how hard I struck the glass, it wouldn't crack. We would need something powerful to tear down these walls. 

From the stairs, I could hear the loud pounding of feet. Shane, T-Dog, and Daryl broke into the lobby first, followed by everyone else out of breath and panting.

"Doors won't open!" I cried, slamming my ax back into the glass one more time for good measure. "Glass won't break!"

Daryl and Shane tried their share at ax swinging as T-Dog tried to work the security code in the panel by the wall and when that didn't work, he came barreling for us with a chair. Yelling, he slammed it into the glass and even him with all his strength wouldn't make the glass budge or crack.

"Dog, get down!" snapped Shane and we turned, watching him approach with his gun. We scrambled out of the way as he raised his weapon. When he fired one shot and the bullet bounced off like nothing, Shane lowered his gun and cursed.

"The glass won't break?!" cried Sophia, her voice wet with tears.

"Rick!" said Carol, scrambling to her feet from where Sophia sat terrified and shaking. "I have something that might help!"

"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna do it," snapped Shane and I glared.

She was digging around in her bag. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She pulled the object free and a smile spread across my face.

"You've had that this whole time?" I breathed and she nodded. The grenade fit perfectly in the palm of her hand and before Rick could grab it, I snatched it up. "I'm faster than you," I snapped, running to the window.

"Get down!" yelled Rick as I bent down and pulled the pin free. In a split second, I had the grenade against the window and I was running back, launching myself to the floor just as it exploded. 

The explosion knocked into me and I skidded to my knees. The glass window shattered and a soft ringing filled my eyes. But we were free. I could hear the distant groan of the building and I jumped to my feet, racing towards the window to help Lori and Carl out first, then Sophia and Carol. 

I kept myself close to them as I got myself through the window, minding the broken glass the best I could to cover the children once we were free. I had my ax out and ready to swing, the sunlight near blinding. The bodies across the front lawn were scattered everywhere and behind them, stumbling towards us, were walkers freshly awoken and alerted by the noise.

We couldn't be here long after the building finally went down. It was going to be the biggest dinner bell for miles. 

Rick and Shane raised their guns and I cursed at them, snarling, "Don't waste your goddamn bullets!"

I swung at the first walker as I was the head of the group, the head slicing in half with the force. The body dropped and I turned instantly on the next, not waiting for my arms to stop aching or the ringing in my ears to finally die down as I slammed my ax straight down onto the walker's head.

As it fell, I pushed against its shoulder with my foot to dislodge my weapon as Daryl took out the next walker, swinging his crossbow with enough force to knock the head clean off by the neck. There were only a few walkers left but far enough not to get to us by the time we got to the cars.

Daryl grabbed my forearm, yanking me in the direction of his truck where he threw open the passenger door and nearly lifted me up to shove me inside. He rounded the opposite side, and reached down to start his car when his eyes got wide.

I followed his eyes and watched Dale and Andrea come running out of the building. Up ahead in the convoy, we heard Rick faintly scream, "Take cover! Get down!"

Daryl reached around me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me down against the bench seat. His body covered mine as the building finally combusted. The explosion was ear piercing and I felt pressure build up in my head at the sound as a shock wave slammed into the truck and rocked us back and forth, a ripple of heat following suit. 

His body tensed as another wave slammed into us, the sound of falling rubble echoing through the once silent city. I buried my face into his shoulder, squeezing my muscles as the car rocked once more and then everything seemed to go still. Deadly quiet.

It was only when we knew for sure the explosion had finally stopped that we could sit up. He peeled himself away from me and I sat up cautiously, looking out the window at the sight. Black smoke billowed up into the sky, the rubble where the C.D.C. once sat burned brightly. Orange and yellow lit up the sky like a sunset as the cars slowly rumbled to dull life and our caravan began once again.

From beside me, Daryl gripped the steering wheel with one hand and I felt him squeeze my own with his other. He glanced at me, giving me a small nod and I could only stare.

We'd gotten out but at what cost. Were we just as screwed out here as we were inside?

In the rearview mirror, I watched the burning C.D.C. slowly fade out of sight and I hoped this would be out last time visting the city. We didn't need to see another graveyard, not for a while.

AUTHOR'S NOTE━━ok yes. new chap after me vanishing so sorry!! it's a long one and it def feels rushed but i hope u guys like it!! (so unedited btw oopsie)

how do we feel about daryl & sam so far

and also....carl and sam are like the cutest ever. when he leaned into her <3333 bestie for life. rick and sam will def reconcile just btw....he just needs to get over himself but when he came to her when she was going bonkers bc of jenner <33

vote/comment and maybe someone will get a kiss from sam