♤

I groaned as my head pounded and my stomach lurched at the littlest of movement. The cot beside me was empty, Charlie was up.  This was one of the few times I didn't feel the need to worry. I knew he'd be safe here.

Still, I wasn't sure of the time but I could hear the patters of feet from in the corridor and so I managed to pull myself out of bed.

After rummaging through my bag and grabbing some clean clothes - well, as clean as they could be given the circumstances - I wandered out into the halls where Shane was heading down for breakfast. "Hungry?" He asked.

I chuckled, "Hungover more like"

He laughed as we headed towards the door, "That makes two of us"

Everyone was sat around the table as Shane and I walked in. "Mom!" Charlie smiled as I wondered over and kissed the top of his head.

"Hey kid, enjoying that?" I chuckled to which Charlie grinned and smiled.

Wandering over to the back table to grab a drink, Daryl wandered over. "I hope you don't mind, I was walking by and he was awake, figured you could do with the sleep so I brought him to get breakfast"

A smile washed over my face. "It's alright, thank you, I appreciate it"

He nodded and wandered back away. As I sat beside Charlie, I heard the lifeless groans coming from Glenn who was hunched over his eggs. I chuckled, "I remember my first time drinking, looked a little something like that the next morning too" A few low chuckles emerged around the room.

"When can I drink alcohol?" Charlies little voice asked, looking up at me with wide eyes and a grin.

"Never" I laughed and smiled back at him.

We continued to eat and chatter until Jenner walked in, with a quiet, "Morning"

Dale and Andrea gave each other a glance before Dale spoke. "Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing in the morning..."

"But you will," Jenner retorted.

Andrea had a hard look on her face and a sharp tone, "We didn't come here for the eggs"

Her words rattled around the room with a vengeance.

Jenner realised what they wanted and immediately he took us back to the main control room. Daryl followed closely beside me and Charlie. As he approached a computer, he spoke to VI.

"Can I get a playback of TS-19" He asked.

"Playback of TS-19"

The screen began changing and showing new images as Jenner spoke about how sacred this footage was.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked as the image began changing once more.

Jenner nodded and looked at the young boy as my hands rested on Charlie's shoulders. "An extraordinary one" He then paused and looked down, his face dropping slightly. "Not that it mattered.."

"Take us in for an EIV" He demanded.

The computer obeyed and repeated, "Intense internal view"

We all watched as this brain lit up. Lights dashing around. The blue shine reflecting on all our faces. We were all captivated in disbelief and fear. Fear of what we would learn.

Finally, Shane spoke, "What are those lights?"

Daryl glanced over at me as I starred up at the screen. I had always wanted to be a forensic psychologist, it was what I was studying when Charlie was young, and so I had a fairly good idea what these lights were, though I wasn't certain.

"Among all that organic wiring is you. Your thoughts, feelings, memories. The things that make you unique, the things that make you human"

Daryl furrowed his brows and crossed his arms. "You don't make sense, ever?"

"Those are synapses" He spoke with confidence.

I nodded, remembering. "Messages to and from the brain from all over the body..." I whispered in awe.

"Electrical impulses. Yes. Everything a person says, thinks or does from the moment of birth, to the moment of death" Jenner explained, his mind working away.

Rick stepped forward, "A vigil? That's what this is?"

Jenner sighed, "Yes" His eyes were fixated on the screen. "Or..Rather the playback of the vigil" He admitted.

Andrea then stepped forward, "This person died? Who?"

A lump appeared in my throat as Charlie began leaning against the computer desks to watch. About to watch a person die.

"Test subject 19" Jenner spoke softly, "Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process."

We all sat and watched as he ordered the computer to scan to the first event and as we watched, a black taint stained the brain. "What is that?" Glenn asked with wide eyes.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage. The brain goes into shut down. Then the major organs" He explained in detail. "And then death" His eyes fell to the floor. "Everything you were or ever would be, gone."

A blanket of sadness fell. Everyone in the room reliving the death of a loved one. All except me. I had no one left to lose. I lost everyone before this..Long before.

A small voice came from the corner of the room, "Is that what happened to Jim?" Little Sophia asked to which Carol nodded and said yes.

Andrea let out a snotty wail as Jenner looked at her. "She lost somebody, two days ago, her sister" Lori explained.

Jenner took a step forward and muttered to Andrea, "I lost somebody too, I know how devastating it can be" And with that, he asked the computer to scan to the next event.

"The resurrection times vary wildly, we have reports of it happening in 3 minutes, the longest we heard of was 8 hours. In the case of this patient it was 2 hours, 1 minute and 7 seconds." He cotinued to explain. 

As he did, we watched little red lights begin to shine and move along the wires of the brain. Like a warning sign. "Mommy, what's happening?" Charlie asked me with a scared look.

I shook my head, "I don't know, sweetie"

"I don't like it" He admitted with a small cry.

I tucked him into my side and held him close as Lori spoke, "It restarts the brain?"

Jenner shook his head, "Just the brain stem, basically it gets them up and moving"

Daryl's POV

I watched as Kelly tucked Charlie into her side. The fear and confusion on his face. He was so young, far too young to understand the world. Kelly's face held a lot of emotions.

There was fascination, she clearly had an interest in this before the world went wrong. This was probably the education she never got. There was worry, assumable for Charlie, as far as I could gather, it had always just been the pair of them and to see him like this, to constantly have to watch him, she bears a heavy weight. I could partly see why Merle was so eager to take the kid off her hands for a while. She definitely seemed more stressed and tense without the help of Merle. And the last emotion which was clear as day was sadness, it was plastered onto everyone's face, but hers seemed to be a different kind of sadness. I wasn't sure exactly what it was.

Rick stepped forward, "But they're not alive?"

Jenner shrugged, "You tell me"

"It's nothing like before, most of that brain is dark" Rick sighed.

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, that doesn't come back, the you part. Just a shell." Jenner explained,starring at Jenner coldly.

Then there was a flash and the brain was ripped in half. I watched as Charlie and Kelly jumped. Instinctively and without thought, I edged closer to the pair and placed a protective arm around them, causing her to look up at me with slight confusion before I realised what I'd done and sheepishly stepped back.

"Oh my God, what was that?" Carol asked with tight knit brows.

I heard Kelly whisper, "He shot her..." Before Andrea spoke.

"He shot his patient in the head, didn't you?" Her throat was tight as she held back her tears.

Jenner ordered the screen to power down and sat at a desk. "You have no idea what it is, do you?"

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal--" He began before Jacqui interrupted.

"--Or the wrath of God"

Jenner shrugged, "There is that too"

Andrea was clearly fired up and upset, she wasn't taking no for an answer. "Somebody somewhere must know something,"

Kelly stepped forward, "What about other facilities?"

"There may be some, people like me..." Jenner's voice clearly gave away how unsure he was and Rick bit at that.

He lunged forward, "You don't know? How can you not know?"

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

Andrea looked at him, "So it's not just here, there's nothing left anywhere"

Hope faded from everyone's eyes and I watched the shift in Kelly.

Everyone took a few seconds to take in this information. Each person responding in their own way. I sighed, "Man, imma get shit face drunk, again" I rubbed my eyes and head as Dale continued.

"Doctor Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but that clock, its counting down, what happens when it gets down to 0?"

Jenner spoke quietly and hesitantly, "The basement generators, they run out of fuel"

"And then?" Rick asks. Jenner walked away, refusing to answer anymore questions. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

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

Everyone's faces dropped. Hope had finally been drained from everyone. After all this time, hope was gone...