WHITE FLAG

chapter nine : feelings
{ season one - episode six }

KLOE FIRMLY PRESSED her finger against the button to the shower. Almost immediately, hot water came bursting out of the shower head. The biggest smile that probably had ever been etched on the younger Schmidt's face formed. She felt like she was in heaven. Back in the camp, they had to take turns on cleaning themselves in the quarry. The water was mildly warm, but it was clean.

Having a steaming hot shower, though, was so much better than bathing in the cool quarry. Kloe turned around and put her head under the shower head so she could get her hair wet. She ran her fingers through her hair as it began to soak with water.

She gripped onto the shampoo bottle that was placed on a small plastic shelf on the wall and instantly squeezed some onto her hand. She rubbed her shampoo covered hands thoroughly across her scalp, closing her eyes at the satisfying feeling of a massage.

Once she had finished cleaning her hair, she reluctantly turned off the shower. She definitely wanted to be in the shower a lot longer, but Jenner had told the group not to go hard on the hot water. Considering there were eighteen of them there, the hot water would run out in no time.

She wrapped one of her towels around her head, keeping her hair contained within it. She patted her other towel over her whole body to dry it.

She folded the towel around her body and stepped out into her bedroom. God, did it feel good not having to sleep in the same place as her brother. But from the limited amount of tents Dale had back at the camp, they had to.

She unzipped her backpack full of clothes and grabbed hold of a white long sleeved t-shirt, gray shorts and underwear.

After she had put on her clothes, she brushed her hair and teeth. It felt amazing to brush her teeth. Everything in this place was amazing, there was nothing wrong with it. It was in perfect condition to start a new generation.

She examined the room, searching for something to do. Her dark brown eyes landed on a new wine bottle, a corkscrew and an empty glass beside it, waiting to be used.

The biggest smirk tugged on her lips as she rushed over to it. Though, even if she wanted to drink it all by herself, she knew she wouldn't be able to drink it all by herself. So she began to think of who could drink with her, and she knew exactly who to ask.

Glenn.

The smile grew bigger while she hurried out of the room with the wine bottle in her hand. Her eyes scattered across all of the rooms as she searched for Glenn's. Then she found it.

Without hesitation, she knocked on his door. She tapped her finger against the wine bottle as she waited for him to open the door, which he did. "Hey. You okay?" he asked.

"Definitely," she answered with the widest smile Glenn had ever seen.

"What are you smiling about?" he chuckled. Slowly, the brunette shifted her eyes to the full wine bottle that was in her hand.

She lifted the wine bottle up so it was at her head height, "Please don't say you're already drunk?"

"Nope," he replied hopefully, the smile that was on the girl's face was on his.

"Then let's get drunk," she smiled widely.

Instantly, Glenn opened the door wider, allowing his best friend to enter. Her eyes never left his as she examined his appearance. He didn't have his cap on for the first time in ages, instead he had damp black hair that was brushed back and he had a black shirt on. "I, uh, don't have any glasses to drink out of," he said with a sheepish smile.

"Oh well," she shrugged. "Guess we're gonna have to share the bottle, then. Luckily I brought a corkscrew with me," she reached into her pocket and pulled out a corkscrew.

"Hell yeah," Glenn exclaimed as he gently clapped his hands, ready to drink.

...

Kloe leant against the wall in Glenn's room. They were down to the last drip of the wine in the glass and were both drunk out of their minds. Anyone in their group could admit that they were definitely one of the chaotic duos.

"We're all out," Glenn groaned in annoyance as he placed down the empty bottle on the nightstand.

"Damn," she muttered.

They stayed in silence for a few moments and things were running through Kloe's mind while Glenn sat down on his bed and laid across it, spreading his arms out.

It was then when she randomly remembered the fake relationship she and her best friend, Ryan, had made everyone believe for six years. Since she was drunk, she couldn't help but tell Glenn the truth. "It was all fake," she admitted mindlessly, making Glenn sit up and stare at her with confusion.

"What?" he asked.

"The relationship with Ryan, it was all fake."

Glenn furrowed his eyebrows with even more confusion, "But he is real-" he paused for a moment, "was," he corrected.

"Of course he was real-" the brunette laughed, "It's just, my mom wanted me to have a boyfriend, but I wasn't ready. Ryan at the time was my best friend and he offered to help me out. We pretended for a long, long time."

Glenn stared deeply into his best friend's eyes, "Where is all this coming from?"

She bluntly shrugged her arms, "I'm sorry. I actually don't know where that came from. I just had the ought to say it."

Glenn hesitantly nodded his head in understanding. "Where's Zayn?" he eventually asked.

Kloe's brows raised at her best friend's question, "You expect me to know, how? I've been with you the whole time bud," she laughed, causing Glenn to laugh himself.

"Right, of course," he smiled, "maybe he's drunk or something?"

"He definitely is. If he isn't, then he's missing out," she chuckled, pushing herself off the wall, "Is there just one little drop of wine left in that, uh..." she trailed off, thinking massively for the word, "bottle?"

"Yeah, but it's mine," he teased, pushing the wine bottle behind his back.

"Seriously?" she groaned playfully, "Sharing is caring," she added as she tried to walk over to him to gain the bottle, but failed miserably as she stumbled into the bed, making her fall onto it with a small gasp as a loud laugh escaped her mouth

"Knock out!" Glenn exclaimed, beginning to laugh as he sat down on the bed directly beside her.

Managing to contain her laughter, she looked up at him and locked her eyes with his. She began to search over his face at every little detail. His damp dark hair was pushed back and slightly pushed to one side. She had never looked so sharply at Glenn's facial details. Of course she knew that he was good looking, she admired everyday, but she never truly got a close-up. "Did I ever tell you how attractive you are?" she eventually asked.

"No, I don't think you ever did," Glenn smirked as he watched his best friend carefully.

"Well, you are. You're really hot, did you know that?" she questioned, smiling uncontrollably at the boy.

"Nope, didn't know that either."

"I wish my brother told me sooner that his best friend was extremely attractive."

"And I wish my best friend told me that his sister was pretty."

At that, Kloe's smile grew wider as her best friend played along. She shot up from the bed but still sat on it. She stared at the Korean and lightly blushed at how close the two were, "You do look better when you're not sideways though. Don't take offense to that."

"Mm, none taken," he laughed.

Kloe had an idea of standing up to see what her best friend would look like, but she wasn't that dense to not know that he wouldn't look different, "I was about to say stand up to have a look at each other's appearance, but I don't think there would be a difference."

"Wouldn't it be a bit abnormal if we did?" he chuckled at his best friend's silly thought. Then, his eyes slowly traveled to the brunette's lips, immediately looking back up at her eyes as he began to think how weird he'd look.

He couldn't help it though. The two were awfully close to the point where they could almost feel each other's breath. They sat there for a long moment, making the boy shake his head, "Please don't hate me for what I'm about to do."

"What-" the younger Schmidt instantly got cut off by Glenn's lips connecting to her's. At first, it was one big shock, but it wasn't long before she began to kiss him back as butterflies settled in both the young adults' stomachs.

To both of them, it felt like one big dream, but they both knew that they weren't and that it was real, making it even better. Reluctantly, Glenn pulled away to catch his breath as he leaned his forehead against hers, "You seriously have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

A teasing smile etched the girl's lips as a small giggle escaped. She placed both of her hands onto his cheeks and brung his lips onto hers again. At first, she didn't know how to feel, but deep down she knew exactly what she was feeling. Her stomach continued to flip over and over as Glenn brushed a piece of her damp hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek with the same hand.

This time, it was Kloe that pulled away. She hesitantly opened her eyes, only to spot Glenn already looking at her with a wide, sheepish smile. She couldn't help but smile back as she entwined her fingers with his, "I wonder how thick the walls are in this place."

"I'm not sure," Glenn answered, a smirk growing across his face as he soon figured out what she was saying, "what are you suggesting?"

In an instant, Kloe leaned closer and connected their lips, more passionately this time. Their hearts were filled with pure joy. Neither of them had been so happy since before the apocalypse had happened. Kloe's hands reached down to the edges of her t-shirt as she broke away from Glenn's lips so she could pull it over her head. She released her grip from the t-shirt, letting it fall to the ground.

Stood in shock, Glenn's eyes widened and Kloe silently giggled at the boy's reaction. A smirk etched her face as she waited for him to lift his own shirt up. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion for a moment, before realizing and began to pull off his shirt, revealing his bare, smooth skin.

Kloe sensed her cheeks burn up at the sight as she lifted her eyes to Glenn's. She pushed herself forward as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and pressed her lips against his. She briefly shuffled out of her shorts and threw them onto the pile the two had made, followed by his.

The two leaned backwards on the bed they were sitting on. Glenn hovered over the girl as he lifted his head away from her face and attached his lips to her neck. Heavy breaths came out of their mouths as Glenn continued to kiss her neck. She was in pure bliss, and she could tell he was too.

The butterflies remained in their stomach as their eyes met again, "You sure you wanna do this?" Glenn asked barely above a whisper.

"Hell yeah," she answered. He placed his lips heavily against her own as she wrapped her hands around his bare back. Glenn's hands snaked to Kloe's back, unclipping the strap of her bra. Kloe released her hands from the boy's back and reached for the straps of her bra, letting it slip off of her shoulders.

Glenn's lips were parted with even more shock than before, a large grin formed on the brunette's face as she pulled him closer to her and pressed their lips together firmly.

She was going to sleep with her brother's best friend.

...

Kloe's eyes fluttered open as she heard light footsteps run past the door to the room she was sleeping in. She brought her hands to her eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them. Her whole body tensed as her head began to pound repeatedly.

She slowly sat up, holding her hand against her head, not that it was helping much. She glanced downwards and realized she didn't have any clothes on. Her eyebrows furrowed instantly as she scanned the room, searching for why she had no clothes on. No one else was in the room, she was alone.

She didn't know why she had no clothes on since the alcohol had clearly taken away her memory as her eyes landed on something that had caught her eye in the corner of the room.

Glenn's baseball cap.

"Ah, shit," she muttered to herself. Considering she was in a double bed, she was naked, and Glenn's backpack was in the corner of the room, it was plainly obvious she slept with him. She stood up from the bed and wrapped the covers around her body in case Glenn happened to come into the room, despite that he had seen it all the night before, but that was different.

She walked over to the pile of her clothes that were on the ground, picking them up and swiftly went into the bathroom.

She threw all of her clothes on and made her way to the room where she guessed everybody else was. She stumbled through the hallway, placing her hand against her head at every wave of pain that pounded through it.

Faint voices grew louder and louder as she got closer to the two doors to the room where she could smell breakfast. Her mind was stuck on trying to figure out what had happened last night. She for sure knew that she slept with Glenn, but she tried to remember how it happened. She pushed open the two doors, noticing everybody sat around a table eating food.

No one heard the younger Schmidt enter the room as they all continued to eat their food. The girl's eyes set on Glenn, who had his head resting on his hand, hungover by the look of it.

"Morning, Klo," Lori spoke up, making the girl's eyes fly over to her as she politely smiled back.

"You look like a mess," Zayn joked, stepping over to his younger sister and handing over a glass of orange squash.

"Wow, thank you," she replied sarcastically as she took the orange squash and brought it to her mouth, swallowing a mouthful. In the corner of her eye while she was having a sip of the orange squash, she noticed Glenn flicker his eyes up to hers nervously. He wasn't nervous that he had slept with her, it was the fact that she was his best friend's sister who is way too overprotective of her.

Kloe decided not to look at him to make things even more awkward than it already was. She knew too that he was only being nervous because of her brother, and she couldn't blame him.

A large wave of pain filled her head, causing her eyes to subconsciously squeeze shut. "Hungover?" Zayn asked, chuckling slightly through his nose as he sat back down in his seat.

"Bingo," she muttered, stepping over to the seat next to Zayn and pulling it. She hastily fell into the chair and slouched as she stared at the plate of food in front of her. Streaky bacon.

"Don't worry, I am too and so is Glenn. But I'm not as bad, somehow," Zayn patted his sister's shoulder comfortingly, but in a teasing way. She forced a quick smile before grimacing from the pain.

Footsteps entered the room, causing everybody to simultaneously glance up towards the man that was approaching the group. "Morning," Rick greeted, slipping into a chair beside his wife, Lori.

"Are you hungover?" Carl asked, his eyes darted between his mother and father, "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right," he agreed, sending a quick smile to Lori, who took a bite out of her streaky bacon.

"Mom has that annoying habit," Lori smiled. More people entered the room with whatnots asKloeI continued to lean her back against the chair and stare at the ceiling, dealing with the unbearable pain.

"Eggs. Powdered, but- but I do 'em good," T-Dog exclaimed loudly, causing Glenn to groan loudly. "Bet you can't tell?" Kloe opened one eye and looked at Glenn, spotting Jacqui behind him, rubbing her hands on his shoulders. "Protein helps the hangover," T-Dog walked over and dumped a load of scrambled eggs onto Glenn's plate. T-Dog glanced up at the hungover girl and parted his lips to speak, but she immediately cut him off.

"Don't even ask, just give me them," she said barely above a whisper. Everyone shared a small laugh as T-Dog nodded, walking over beside her and dumped scrambled eggs.

Rick gripped onto a small tub of painkillers on the table in front of him and lifted them up, "Where'd all this come from?"

"Jenner," Lori answered.

"Could you help me, please?" he handed the pills over to her.

"Yeah," Lori began to twist the tub cap. "He thought we could use it," she glanced up, flickered her eyes between Glenn and Kloe, a small grin sprouting her face, "Some of us, at least."

"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again," Glenn mumbled.

"Don't let me, either," Kloe added, groaning a little at the pain.

"Hey," Shane greeted as he walked into the room.

"Hey. Feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked, placing a few painkillers in his mouth and swallowing them down with orange squash.

"Worse," Shane answered, stepping over to a coffee pot which was placed on a counter. Kloe's eyes searched the whole room, trying her hardest to un-blur her vision.

"The hell happened to you?" T-Dog questioned, causing the younger Schmidt to whip her head around to Shane, faintly noticing four scratch marks on his neck. "Your neck."

As he stepped closer and closer to the table, Kloe started to see the scratches more clearly, they looked pretty bad. He placed himself down in a seat and sighed through his nose, "I must have done it in my sleep."

"Never seen you do that before," Rick narrowed his eyes, blinking them frantically.

"Me neither," Shane glanced up at Lori, "not like me at all."

Kloe suspiciously squinted her eyes as she darted them between the two. Something definitely happened between them, she could tell. It wasn't that difficult to connect the pieces.

"Morning." Kloe spun her head around, noticing Jenner walking in the room as he stepped over to the coffee machine, where Shane previously was.

"Hey, Doc," Shane spoke, along with a few others.

"Doctor," Dale spoke up, "I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-"

"But you will anyway," Jenner interrupted, pouring some coffee into a mug.

"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea plainly said.

...

Everybody in the group followed Jenner into the big room as they all gathered around the mass amounts of computers scattered across the area and watched Jenner speak into the computer, "Give me a playback of TS-19," Jenner instructed, pressing his fingers down on a few buttons.

"Playback of TS-19," Vi repeated.

The younger Schmidt watched the big screen in front of them light up as Jenner turned to face them, "Few people ever got the chance to see this." The screen showed an x-ray of a human head, meaning they could see its brain. "Very few."

Kloe leaned her hip against the side of an abandoned computer and stared at the screen in awe. The pounding in her head began to decrease overtime, so she wasn't wincing every five seconds.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked in shock.

A grin plastered Jenner's face as he looked at Carl, "An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for EIV."

"Enhanced internal view," Vi stated.

The screen zoomed into the brain and rotated the body sideways, leaving it at a sideway view. A mixture of green and blue colors flickered through the brain. It was beautiful, like an explosion of fireworks.

It swiftly zoomed into the center of the brain, showing more lights than before. "What are those lights?" Shane inquired, who was placed down in a chair.

"It's a person's life," Jenner responded. "Experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique, and human."

Absentmindedly, a small smile etched Kloe's lips as she continued to stare at the screen. "You don't make sense ever?" Daryl cluelessly asked, his arms wrapped over his chest.

"Those are synapse, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages," Jenner explained. "They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth, to the moment of death."

"Death?" Rick stepped forward. "That's what this is, a vigil?"

"Yes," he softly answered, "or rather the... playback of the vigil."

"This person died?" Andrea calmly asked, "Who?"

"Test subject nineteen," Jenner answered. Simultaneously, the group set their eyes onto him. "Someone who was bitten and infected, and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event."

"Scanning to the first event," Vi repeated.

The screen changed again, but this time, the center of the brain was black and had no colors. "What is that?" Glenn asked, making Kloe peer over her shoulder to face him as he asked the question, and immediately looked back at the screen before he noticed.

"It invades the brain like meningitis," Jenner pointed as the body began to frantically move its shoulders and jaw. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs." Unexpectedly, the body went still and the entire brain went dark, "Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be... gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked, her eyes locked onto her mother's.

"Yes," Carol nodded.

Kloe sadly looked down to the ground and held back the tears that were rising in her eyes. She had completely forgotten the people they had lost. How could she forget something so important?

Andrea sighed through her nose and turned away from Jenner, blinking away the tears that sprang to her eyes. "She lost somebody two days ago," Lori spoke up, "Her sister."

Jenner slowly took a few steps towards Andrea, "I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is," he hesitantly turned away and looked up at the screen, "Scan to the second event."

"Scanning to the second event."

"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," Jenner explained. "In the case of this patient, it was... two hours, one minute, seven seconds."

Suddenly, a red glow formed in the stem of the brain. Although, it didn't feel the entire thing, just the middle. "It restarts the brain?" Lori queried.

"No, just the brain stem," Jenner corrected. "Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive," Rick stepped closer to Jenner.

"You tell me."

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

"Dark, lifeless, dead," Jenner added. "The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

The person's jaw began to move again, along with its shoulders. A fast, bright line pierced through the brain as it stopped moving. "God," Carol muttered. "What was that?"

Andrea slowly stepped forwards, realizing what had happened, "He shot his patient in the head," she hesitantly turned her head to the man, "Didn't you?"

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations," he ignored, stepping away.

"Powering down the main screen and workstations."

Everything went dark, only having minimal light. The computers, the screen, everything except one single light powered off.

"Do you even have any idea what this thing is?" Kloe questioned.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal," he listed, causing the girl to shake her head slightly.

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui shakily spoke.

"There is that."

"Surely there's somebody that knows something," Kloe said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Somebody somewhere," Andrea added, siding with Kloe.

"There are others, right?" Carol inquired, "Other facilities?"

"There may be some. People like me," Jenner answered.

"But you don't know?" Rick skeptically narrowed his eyes. "How can you not know?"

"Everything went down. Communications, directives, all of it," Jenner explained. "I've been in the dark for almost a month."

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

Jenner stared at the woman silently, no emotion on his face at all. He knew nothing, which meant they were never gonna find out how it all happened, or why it happened.

"Jesus," Jacqui muttered.

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again," Daryl commented, stepping away.

"God, the thought of getting drunk again makes me wanna hurl," Kloe stated, sighing deeply.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but..." Dale took a few steps closer to the huge digital clock that was on the wall, "that clock, it's counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The-" he paused, searching for his words, "basement generators, they run out of fuel."

"And then?" Rick asked, but Jenner didn't respond. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."

Everybody's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, obviously not knowing what decontamination means, except Kloe's. She got a sudden memory of when she learnt about decontamination in science class. She knew it certainly wasn't a good thing, but she just couldn't remember what it was.

"Uh, what does decontamination mean?" Zayn asked.

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Words: 4110
- 15th December 2021

ay ay ay, the did it. 😼