♤

Charlie sat reading his comic book as I paced back and forth. Rick, Shane, Glenn and T had gone down to see if they could fix something, make it last a little longer.

"Mommy, what are they doing?" Charlie's calm and sweet voice asked.

Turning slowly to look at him, I smiled, "Just trying to fix something, darling"

His face morphed into confusion, "Fix what?"

"I don't know, you just stay here, I'm going to get a book" I lied, in truth, I just needed to escape, to be able to breath. I wandered towards Daryl's small room, where he was sat on the cot drinking himself to death.

I gently tapped on the door frame, catching his attention. "Hm?" He grunted.

Sighing, I looked at him and spoke, "Mind if I join you?"

He nodded ever so slightly and I soon found myself sitting beside him, with his half drunken bottle of wine in my hand. Taking a sip, he spoke, "How's Charlie?"

"He has no idea what's going on.." I admitted quietly, looking at the bottle after it fell from my lips. "He's going to die soon and he doesn't even know...Maybe it's best this way"

Daryl shook his head and took a swig of wine. "Nah, don't say that, we ain't gonna die"

I let out an exasperated chuckle and looked at him, "If you really believed that you wouldn't be sat here drinking yourself to death"

"I'd drink myself to death on a good day," Daryl smirked and laughed quietly.

There was a moment of silence as we passed the bottle back and forth, starring ahead of us. "Thank you," I choked. "You've been so good to Charlie after Merle--"

"--Don't thank me, I'm doing it for Merle..I promised him I would, so I am" He explained sharply.

I nodded slowly, a slight twang of pain rushing through me, his words pointy against my skin. There was another moment of silence before I stood, "I should get back to him, thanks for the drink"

Daryl didn't respond, he only watched me as I walked away. As I entered the hallway, the lights turned off. Everyone emerged with confused faces and Daryl soon popped out behind me. "What's going on? What happened to all the lights?" He asked as Charlie rushed over to me and Jenner passed, wearing a fresh shirt and tie, along with his white coat.

We all followed behind Jenner, more lights going off. Daryl stayed close, even placing his hand on Charlie's shoulder as fear filled the young boy. "It's prioritizing power"

"And air isn't a priority?" Dale chimed.

Jenner supped from a bottle and shook his head, "It's not up to me. The hive is shutting itself down"

Daryl let go of Charlie and raced forward, "Hey! What the hell does that mean?! Hey, I'm talking to you!" He yelled, his accent thick. "What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"

"You'd be surprised" Jenner muttered as we all entered the main control room.

We all trotted down the stairs as Rick grumbled with Jenner, signalling us to stay where we were, though few listened and we all continued to follow, Jenner explaining how the computers were there to run until the last possible second.

As I glanced up at the clock, I spotted the time, just over half an hour.

Jenner passed the bottle back to Daryl, "It was the french"

"What?" Andrea snarled.

"They were the last ones as far as I know, while our people were bolting out the door and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs til the end.....They thought they were close to a solution"

Everyone gasped. "What happened?"

"Same thing that's happening here, the power grid, ran outta juice. The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean, how stupid is that?" Jenner said, a laugh caught in his throat.

"Lori, grab our things, everyone get your stuff, we're getting out of here, now!" Rick yelled as Jenner wandered away.

We all began shuffling until a loud horn began sounding, Shane ordered us again to get our things but as we rushed to the door, it sealed itself. "Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn yelled in a flurry of panic.

Charlie was now crying and I was doing my best to comfort him. Daryl watched as I held the crying boy and before anyone could shout, Daryl was lunging towards Jenner, yelling until Shane grabbed him.

"Jenner open that door now" Rick snarled.

Jenner didn't waver. "There's no point, everything topside is locked down, all the exits are sealed"

"Well open the damn things" Daryl growled.

Jenner shook his head, "That's not something I control, the computers do, I told you, once that door closed, it wouldn't open again, you heard me say that" Everyone looked lost. Holding each other as we came to a sad realisation. "Trust me, it's better this way"

"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked Jenner. Jenner didn't answer which fueled the fire in Rick who grabbed Jenner.

It was like flicking on a switch and Jenner stood, loud and tall. "You know what this place is!? We protected the public from very nasty stuff!" He yelled, shouting at Shane, "Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out, ever!"

After a few seconds, and Daryl pacing back and forth, Jenner calmed, and sat. "In the event of a catastrophic incident, a terrorist attack, for example, HIT's are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out..."

Rick titled his head, "HIT's?

Jenner looked at the ground an sighed, "Vi, define"

"HIT's are high impulse thermal apparel air, that consists of a two stage thermal aerosol ignition, emitting a blast significantly above any other explosive except nuclear. The pressure creates a vacuum and sets the air on fire between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest damage to structure and life is the desire"

The room dropped. Cries could be heard, people began embracing each other and I dropped to the floor to hold Charlie who was still in tears. I felt Charlie curl up against me as Jenner spoke about the end. It even sounded appealing..easy...

We sat.

11 minutes to go.

Rick, Shane and Daryl were hammering the door with whatever they could.

Charlie was calm now, just laid against me as I held him tight.

"We havent made a dint..." Shane admitted.

Jenner shook his head, "Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher"

"But your head aint" Daryl yelled, suddenly emerging with an axe in his hand.

Everyone yelled and grabbed Daryl, taking the axe from him. "You do want this, you said last night, you knew it was just a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead"

We all looked at Rick, "What? You really said that? After all your big talk?" Shane asked with disappointment.

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick countered.

"There is no hope, there never was" Jenner scowled.

Rick shook his head, "There is always hope, maybe not for you, maybe not here but somewhere there is"

Andrea spoke, peeking her head up from the ball she had curled up into. "What part of everything gone don't you understand?"

"Listen to your friend, she gets it. This is what takes us down, this is our extinction event"

Carol sobbed harder, "This isn't right, you can't just keep us here"

Jenner sat forward, "Just a second, a millisecond, no pain"

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like that" Carol wailed.

I stood, holding Charlie at my side as Jenner continued. "Wouldn't it be kinder to hold your loved ones and wait til the clock runs down?"

"To spend our last moments in fear of our fate? No animal, human or not deserves its last moments to be filled with fear!" I spoke, my words rattling until the sound of Shane's shotgun overpowered.

He pointed the shotgun at Jenner, causing everyone to scuttle away, Dale herded Charlie and I towards Daryl and the rest of the group. "You open that door or imma blow your damn head off!" Shane yelled.

After a few quiet words with Rick, Shane began popping off rounds at the computers until Rick managed to wrestle and retrieve the gun. Rick hovered above Shane, the butt of the gun in his face until he stepped away.

We all looked around the room for a moment, my eyes lingering on Daryl a few seconds longer than  they should before Rick spoke once more. "I think you're lying, about no hope. If it were true you'd have bolted with the rest but you stayed, you chose the hard path, why?"

Jenner shook his head. "It doesn't matter"

"It doesn't matter, it always mattered. You stayed when others ran. Why?" Rick pushed.

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise, to her, my wife..." He said, pointing towards the screen.

Lori's voice was quiet, "Test subject 19 was your wife?"

"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, it wouldn't have matter. She was a loss to the world, hell, 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."

Hearing the sadness in his voice bounced around my hollow figure, he was filled with pain.

"She didn't have choice, but you, you do, that's all we want, a choice, a chance.." Rick's words sunk into Jenner.

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

Jenner looked around at us all before he shuffled. "I told you, topsides locked down, I can't do anything about that, within seconds, Jenner had unlocked the doors and Daryl was urging everyone on.

But I stood, just for a second, wondering whether it was worth the pain that awaited us. I watched as Daryl and the rest began moving to get our things, but I was frozen until Charlie tugged on my arm and I remembered everything I had endured for this little boy. His smile on a morning, his laugh, the joy he brought to the group..

If I was to leave him, if I was to stay, it wouldn't be the world tainting him and condemning him to suffering, it would be me. His mother.

Within a few seconds, I was racing with Charlie to the room to grab our things, "Here," Daryl chucked our bags at us as everyone rushed around, packing and grabbing their precious belongings. "What took you so long?" Daryl asked.

I shook my head, "Nothing..."  Looking around I spotted one member missing. "Where's Jacqui?"

T looked at me as we emerged from the halls. Pain. Sadness. "Oh.." I immediately realised where she was. She wasn't coming.

As we raced towards the entrance of the building, Shane and Daryl began hitting the glass with anything they had at hand. T came an d hit it with a chair,  but nothing helped. Even Shane's shotgun barely left scratches.

"Rick! I have something that might help" Carol yelled as she shuffled through her bag.

Rick raised his brow as Shane grumbled, "Carol I don't think a nail file's gonna do it"

Soon enough, she presented a grenade and handed it to Rick. "Look out!" Shane yelled.

Immediately, I covered Charlie and soon enough, I felt Daryl lay beside me but sure enough, the glass broke.

We all ran to the cars that we had earlier abandoned. Everyone carrying their things, walkers rising from all the commotion. Charlie and I headed to Daryl's truck, Charlie sat in the middle of us as we spotted two people emerge from the building.

Everyone began screaming to get down, Charlie immediately fell into a fetal position and I fell over him, shielding him and then, Daryl placed himself over me as the building went up in flames. The concrete collapsing on itself.

Heat radiated off the place like a furnace.

Daryl lifted himself and looked around, then he checked on the pair of us. "You both okay?" He asked to which I nodded.

"I can't believe...Oh my God.." I said, my chest heaving up and down.

We all turned the cars around and drove away.

Charlie watched as the burning wreckage of the CDC slowly faded into the background and became just a memory.