>>Word count; 1188<<

~Katherine's Pov~The next day~

We just finished eating breakfast, Jenner showed us the process of how people die when they're bit and what happens when they come back as walkers. "Vi, power down the main screen and work stations." Jenner said to the computer. The main screen shut down along with the lights to the desks. "You have no idea what it is do you.?" Andrea asked. "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." he said. I shook my head a bit, "Or the wrath of God.?" Jaqui asked. "There is that." He said. "So what you're telling us is that there's no- cure." i said. He looked over to me. "There is no other place up and running trying to fix this shit show? Because in my line of work, when shit goes down we're always communicating to other facilities and bases. Your lines aren't even open, you shut down your computers, Meaning you're most likely the last man standing aren't you.?" I asked crossing my arms.

"There may be others.. people like me." He said. "Have you tried reaching out.?" I asked shaking my head. "Everything went down. Communications, Directives- all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month." He said. I tilted my head slightly, confused. How is that even possible..? Did they just cut out all modes of communication? "So she's right, there's nothing left anywhere.?" Andrea asked. He looked down not answering our questions. "Jesus," She said. "Man, Ima get shitfaced drunk, again." Daryl said walking over to the computers, resting his elbows on it. "Dr. Jenner, i know this has been taxing for you and i hate to ask one more question but.. that clock." Dale said and pointed to the big digital clock with bright red colors. "It's counting down. What happens whens at zero?" He asked.

"The.." Jenner started speaking. His posture changed and he looked away from us. "Basement generators-- they run out of fuel." he said and walked away. "And then.?" Rick asked. I scoffed a bit, "Yeah that's no sketchy at all." I mumbled. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out.?" Rick asked "When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." the computer said. I furrowed my eyebrows a bit, decontamination..?

~~

There was a knock on my door, "Yeah." i said getting up. The door opened, "Let's go, come with me." Shane said tossing me a flashlight. I caught it and walked out of the room to see Glenn, T-dog and Rick walking. "What's going on.?" I asked as i followed them. "We're checking the basement generators." Rick said as we walked quickly, we found the entrance to the basement and we started making our way down the steps. "Decontamination- What does that mean??" Glenn asked as we made our way down the stairs. "He's not telling us something." i said as we made a turn. "I don't like the way he clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that." Shane said. "What's wrong with him? Seriously man. Is he nuts? Medicated, what.?" T-Dog said. Shane and Rick checked out the map on the wall. Rick started walking. "In there." Rick said, We followed him turning on our flashlights.

He opened a door and i turned on the light switch., we saw stickers on black barrels in all caps that read "FLAMMABLE" and a drawing of a fire on top of it. They were on some machines too. "Check that way, Shane." he said and walked off with Shane in another direction while T-Dog, Glenn and i walked down the hall. "I have a bad feeling.." I said as we walked. "Yeah me too," he said as we walked, we turned a corner and looked around. "Damn," T-Dog said as we walked by a bunch of generators, the lights were red which meant they're dead. "Yeah look at that." i said pointing in a corner, there were a a couple of those black barrels, they had stickers that said "FUEL". I tipped one a little bit, "Empty." i said. T-Dog and Glenn started checking the rest like i did. They were all empty. Suddenly, the lights went out and we looked around, turning our flashlights on. "That's not good." i said as we ran back to Rick and Shane, "Hey, you guys kill the lights.?" Glenn asked. "Nah, It just went out." Shane said. "Anything.?" Rick asked looking at me, "Bunch of empty fuel barrels," I said. "And a bunch of dead generators." T-Dog said as we reached them.

Shane shined his light to a meter that read "FUEL INTAKE", the needle was on empty. "Jesus.." i whispered looking at it. "It can't be down to just that one." Shane said looking at Rick. "We should go warn the others, maybe get our shit together. I don't wanna be here when that clock hits zero, we don't know what'll happen." i said looking at both him and Rick. They looked at me, "Yeah," Rick said and started walking, we followed him back up to the rest. We ran over to the main room, "Rick?" We looked up to see everyone coming down here too, following Jenner. Rick held his arm out towards Lori. "What the hell's going on.?" i asked walking up to Jenner. "The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second." he said as we followed him.

"That started as we approached the half-hour mark." he said and looked over. "Right on schedule." he said pointing at the clock with an almost empty bottle.

00:31:28

The clock kept counting down, and we kept walking, following him. He drank from the bottle then stopped walking, he held the bottle out towards Daryl and he snatched it away, spilling some in the process. "It was the French." He said. "What.?" Andrea asked. "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 till the end. They thought they were close to a solution." He said and walked up the steps to the main area of the room. "What happened?" Jaqui asked

"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 asked looking down at us then walked again. "Let me tell you-" Shane said about to go after him. "To hell with it Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab out things. Everybody get your stuff we're getting out of here now!" he said. A loud alarm started blasting and red lights flashed. "Oh what now.!" I said frustrated. "What's that.?" Carl asked scared, going up to Rick. He put a hand on the back of his head. "30 minutes to decontamination." Vi said. "Doc, what's going on here doc?!" T-Dog called out.

"Everybody, Ya'll heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now.! Go!" Shane said. We started heading towards our rooms but the door shut in front of us.