HEART OF GLASS
CHAPTER FIVE !

[ season one, episode six ]

The air shut off in the afternoon of the next day.

The group were quick to voice their worries; Jenner was even quicker to shut them down. It was like watching a game of ping-pong from the sidelines, arguments and questions bobbing back and forth over the net of questions the doctor refused to clarify for the sake of the worried strangers. All they received was a short explanation about priorities. Light is priority. Air conditioning is not priority. Zone 5 is shutting itself down. In Marley's opinion, the doctor was acting shifty and strange. Suspicious.

She felt uneasy.

"Right on schedule."

The group followed along behind a somewhat intoxicated Jenner, approaching the main room — of which was dome shaped, filled with different types of advanced technology. There was a large timer in the corner, glowing red . . . counting down from thirty minutes.

Counting down?

Marley gripped Sage's hand and tugged her along. The indubitable feeling of dread bloomed in the pit of her stomach, snaking up to her heart like poison ivy.

Jenner offered his bottle of whiskey to Daryl, but the man merely snatched it from his hands roughly, splashing amber liquid across the pearly floor. The scientist — who admitted this morning that he didn't know anything about how the deadly virus started nor how to cure it — sighed in defeat.

"It was the French." he said.

Marley's gaze locked with the first pair of eyes she could find. Andrea. They both frowned, confused.

"What?" Andrea asked hesitantly.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know," Jenner stated. His words spread like rapid wildfire, inflicting hopelessness and fear into the bodies of those surrounding him. "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."

Marley took a deep breath. "What happened?" she asked aloud, curiosity breaching the dam of timidity she had assembled over time.

"The same thing that's happening here," Jenner shrugged nonchalantly. "No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

Everyone exchanged slightly bewildered looks.

Why was he stalling in telling them the truth?

Like everyone else, Shane had grown tired of the scientists peculiar and complicated ways. He charged toward the podium where the man was situated carelessly, prepared to attack.

"Let me tell you somethin'—"

"To hell with it, Shane!" Rick griped, yanking his companion away from Jenner. He was simmering with rage. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!"

Without hesitation, Marley turned on the heel of her foot and dashed toward the double doors, Sage hot on her heels. The panicked survivors barely had a chance to flood into the hallways when an alarm began to blare overhead, and the room became doused in flickering red light.

Marley's emotions were scrambled at that point. In her fear, she felt anger. In her anger, she felt despondent. Deflated. Her head was heavy, hands becoming slick with sweat. Jenner was playing cruel tricks on them now, it seemed. A sick game — bringing the strangers into his desolate lab, a safe place, just to taunt them until they were utterly sick with fear. But they were all so tired. So fed up.

Why couldn't they have one normal day?

The oldest Whitman sister whirled around to face the mad-scientist with bulging eyes. "What is going on?!" she yelled hoarsely. "Can you please explain? You're scaring us!"

His lips pinched together solemnly, and he looked away from the desperate girl. He showed no reluctance in ignoring her pleads, which only added a splatter of gasoline to the fire of fury flickering inside Marley. Knowing the end was close, he couldn't bring himself to care.

She grabbed the back of his white-coat, teeth clenched furiously. "You better tell us something—"

"Marley, not now!" Glenn yelled, noticing the hostile interaction from across the room.

Like a switch was flicked off inside of her brain, Marley released Jenner's lab-coat and stumbled back toward the steps. He stared at her retreating figure, dark eyes blank and downcast.

"Thirty minutes to decontamination." Vi's voice echoed throughout the dome-room, the toll of death.

Sage tugged Marley's sleeve. Tears were glistening in her emerald eyes, trailing down her pale cheeks in a river-like flow. She couldn't hear the screeching alarm, but the red lights and concerned expressions flitting across the group was enough to thrust her into a world-wind of anxiety. Her heart thundered against her ribs, painful to the point she clutched her chest in an attempt to alleviate the grim sensation.

It didn't work. If anything, it got worse.

"We're going to leave, okay?"

Sage shook her head, lower lip trembling fearfully. "I'm scared."

With a warm smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, Marley signed. "Hey, don't be. We're going to be fine. T-Dog will get our stuff."

She hated lying to Sage almost as much as she hated lying to herself. However, in this particular situation, the only option to choose to ensure Sage didn't blow a fuse and breakdown was to lie. If Sage thought she was safe — that they would make it out of the CDC unscathed — then she was one less step closer to the edge.

But life didn't work that way.

A thick sheet of metal rolled over the only exit, sealing them in.

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn demanded timorously. Jenner neglected to give him an answer. "He just locked us in!"

The distress in Glenn's voice did very little to help the others, especially the children. Sophia and Carl ran toward their mothers, pulled into their safety-nets, cradled from imminent danger. Sage stared at Marley expectantly, but the older Whitman didn't have any answers to give this time around. She couldn't lie to make her feel better. They were locked in — that was the truth. The cold, bleak truth.

They were going to die here, weren't they?

"You son of a bitch!" Daryl seethed, brandishing the whiskey bottle. "You locked us in here!"

The red-neck grabbed Jenner viciously, the half-empty bottle held high above his head, but Shane and T-Dog intervened swiftly. Daryl was shoved aside, lips peeled back from his teeth like an incandescent dog, limbs shaking with inconsolable rage. Shane struggled to hold him back.

"Hey, Jenner," Rick said, his tone resembling the calm before the storm. "open that door now."

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down." Jenner stated, sighing heavily. "The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well open the damn things!" Dale yelled.

Marley slid an arm around Sage's shoulders. She was crying, eyelids wrinkled due to how tight she was squeezing her eyes closed — refusing to look at the blocked exit or the blue-tinged walls for a second longer. Her back was pressed against Marley's chest, seeking to find comfort and warmth in the only person who could provide it.

"I already told you," Jenner said. "once that front door closes, it won't open again. You heard me say that."

For a fleeting moment, there was silence.

"It's better this way."

Rick frowned, titling his head around to glance at the man trying to decide their fate. "What is?" he demanded, glancing at the timer. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

Nothing. His fingers clacked against the keyboard of a computer.

"What happens in twenty-eight minutes?!" Rick screeched hoarsely.

Jenner suddenly jumped from his seat, yelling, "You know what this place is? We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponised smallpox — Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!"

And, in this case scenario, it was the group taking the place of those devastating diseases. They were not getting out. Jenner had his gnarled hand curled over their fate as if it were a globe, twisting and turning it to his liking. He was playing God, in every way shape and form. He thought he, a mere stranger, had a say in their lives — their future, no matter how long or short it may be. Jenner thought he could give them the choice to stay in a sealed lab, to die of starvation or thirst, and they would accept it with gratitude.

He was horribly wrong.

The man of the hour sat back down and adjusted his lab coat. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure," he began in a calmer voice. "a terrorist attack for example, HITs are organised to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"HITs?" Rick implored.

"Vi, define."

The robotic voice whirred to life. "HITs — 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. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and it is useful when the greatest loss and damage to structures is desired."

Marley's mouth fell agape.

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner murmured, focusing on the floor beneath his feet. He was in a world of his own. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief . . . regret. Everything."

She couldn't believe it — the words spilling out of his mouth. In front of children. People who wanted to carry on, keep going. It was thoughtless. But, at the same time, she understood what he meant, about putting an end to the overflowing regrets and the burden of sorrow. To feel at peace again. However, the most dominant part of her refused to acknowledge the truth and what he had to say. It infuriated her. This was not the end. It couldn't be; not after so long of fighting to stay alive.

Sage sunk to the ground. She read Jenner's lips. It wasn't hard to miss.

Daryl was the first to break. He threw the whiskey bottle at the sheet of metal covering the exit, spitting shards of glistening glass everywhere. After that, axes were unsheathed and ploughed into the indestructible door. Marley took to pacing, tossing a glare at Jenner every now and then, trying to think of solutions. Jacqui comforted Sage, and she didn't blame Marley for being too overwhelmed to take her place.

They were children. They didn't deserve this.

The minutes ticked down. There was barely fifteen minutes left until doom struck. Everyone began feeling the effect of looming death, unable to hinder the guttural sobs that racked their bodies.

Jenner sighed, his face impassive. Marley stopped her pacing to hear what he had to say. "You should've left well enough alone, it would've been so much easier."

"Easier for who?" Lori retorted through gritted teeth. Sage joined her and Carl's huddle, giving Jacqui room to think.

"All of you." Jenner said, shaking his head. "You know what's out there. A short, brutal life and an agonising death."

Marley had had enough. She emanated a quick breath through her nostrils and locked eyes with Jenner. "You're wrong for doing this," she scolded, pointing a finger his way. "We're supposed to decide what we want to do with our lives. Not you." 

He shook his head, apparently opposed to what she had to say. For a moment, his gaze flickered across the room, brow furrowing. "Your parents . . . what happened to them?"

A disbelieving scoff left Lori's lips, but Marley answered Jenner before the woman had a chance to say anything, spitting her words out venomously.

"They died at the start. Got bit in Atlanta."

Content with her revelation, Jenner nodded. "Is that really what you want for your sister?" he asked, nodding over to Sage who had her head buried in her hands.

Marley's face drained of colour.

"No," Lori piped up, voice wavering with anger. "don't you dare guilt trip her into thinking this is right. She's been through enough already."

Jenner glanced between Lori, Sage and Marley curiously. It looked as though he was prepping himself to say something, but Shane hurried over, breathless and angry.

"I can't make a dent."

The sealed exit was unmarked. T-Dog continuously slammed an axe into the metal, sending reverberating clangs across the dome-room, but it was to no avail.

Jenner was calm as he said, "Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."

Daryl thundered up the podium steps and raised his axe. "Well, your head ain't!"

It took Dale, T-Dog and Rick to hold the man off. They yelled, using every muscle in their body to shove him back. And for the first time since they arrived, Jenner appeared fearful, rising from his chair to take a wary step back. Unsuccessful, Daryl grumbled to himself and skulked away, adjusting his grip around the hilt of the axe.

Once again, Jenner was impassive.

"You do want this." he assured, focusing on Rick. "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

Rick hesitated, avoiding Lori's eyes. A tremendous amount of guilt overcame his expression.

"You really said that?" Shane questioned discontentedly. "After all your big talk?"

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

Jenner pinched the bridge of his nose, becoming irritated by the survivors lack of sense. "There is no hope. There never was."

"For you, maybe." Marley considered, her eyebrows pinched together.

Rick nodded, taking a step toward Jenner. "There's always hope," he urged with clenched fists. "Like Marley said — maybe it won't be you, maybe not here. But somebody somewhere. . ."

"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" Andrea snarled.

Ever since Amy died, she had lost every ounce of hope that once lived and thrived and flourished inside her. It evaporated into thin air, ebbing away alongside Amy's heartbeat. Gone. Just like that, she was the shell of the woman she once was.

"Listen to your friend. She gets it." Jenner said assuredly. "This is what takes us down. This is . . . our extinction event."

Sophia and Carl choked on their own sobs, nuzzling into their mother's arms. The sight of Sage rocking back and forth, refusing to look up from the smooth ground, urged Marley to continue fighting for their release. To break the globe Jenner was twirling beneath his fingers.

"We get it," she hissed, stepping closer to him. Her cheeks burnt from the attention, but she continued, far too consumed by rage to stop. "You don't want to keep fighting anymore, but we do. Keeping us caged in here like wild animals because you don't want to be alone when the time comes isn't right."

Jenner stared at her, and Carol's sniffling was the only thing she could hear through the white noise ringing in her ears.

"Our lives are not your pawn."

Heart racing, Marley stepped over to Sage and dropped a hand on the girl's shoulder, rubbing soothing circles into the exposed flesh peeking through her jacket. Jenner's eyes followed her, and he looked at the sisters with downturned lips.

"But wouldn't it be kinder?" he asked, considering Marley's words with a different approach. "More compassionate to just hold your loved ones close and wait for the clock to run down?"

There was a click.

They turned to see Shane charging toward Jenner with a now-loaded shotgun, shouting out of pure, unadulterated rage. He ordered him to open the door with a deadly calm voice, only to be met with a blank face. His voice grew louder, sharper, and Rick stepped in warily.

"This is not the way," he hissed lowly. "If he dies, we all die!"

Shane screamed gratingly and pulled the muzzle of the shotgun away from Jenner's face, choosing to fire into numerous computers behind instead. Marley cupped her hands over her ears as the technology burst apart in a series of scintillating sparks, dropping behind the counter alongside others to shield herself from flying debris.

Rick pried the gun from his comrade's hand and drove the butt into Shane's head. He dropped to the ground, regaining his senses with laboured breaths.

"Your wife didn't have a choice." Rick began, jabbing a hand through the air. "You do. That's . . . that's all we want. A choice. A chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori said shakily.

Jenner looked down at the ground again, chewing the inside of his cheek. His arms swung by his sides, but the rest of his body was so still . . . as if he had died already long ago, and this person was just the shell of his past existence.

Finally, he mumbled, "I told you topside is locked down. I can't open those."

Confused, Marley watched him walk toward a set of computers, half-expecting him to sit down again and wait for the inevitable flames to come. But he took something from his pocket — a keycard — and slid it over a touchpad. It beeped, and he pressed a few digits.

The metal door slid open.

"Come on!" Daryl yelled instantaneously.

Marley's chest swelled with relief, shoulders drawing up tight as adrenaline began to swim through her veins. Her lungs felt like they were going to explode at any minute. She peered at the timer, and her breathing quickly became clipped and ragged. Four minutes.

She latched a hand around Sage's upper arm and yanked her up from the ground. Sage was confused, but once she saw Glenn rush past her toward the open door — urging everyone to follow — she almost dropped back down to the ground in relief.

She ran up the staircase and almost rammed into Jacqui. The woman was standing still, making no move to run while watching T-Dog with glassy eyes. Sage tapped her on the shoulder and gestured for the woman to follow along, but she shook her head firmly.

Jacqui was staying.

Her hands pressed against Sage's tear-stained cheeks, and she smiled. Everything shone through that tight-lipped smile; her emotions bled through. They had no time to waste, so Jacqui quickly let go and gave Sage a soft nudge to move on. Reluctantly, she did.

Within seconds, they were back in the foyer.

The bulletproof windows managed to withstand the weapons that clashed and bounded against it. Glenn cried out, and Shane refrained from yelling again by gritting his teeth and driving the axe into the stubborn glass repeatedly.

Nothing happened.

Carol ran to Rick, her shivering hand raking through the contents of her bag. "I think I have something that might help. I found it in your uniform during your first day at camp."

On the palm of her hand was a grenade. She handed it to Rick, and he took it with wide eyes.

"Holy shit." Marley breathed in disbelief.

Rick ran toward the unbreakable windows, clutching the highly-explosive weapon in hand.

"Look out!"

He unclipped the grenade just as everyone gathered at the bottom of the staircase and huddled close. Marley tugged Sage into her chest and cradled her like she was a teddy-bear, shielding her from the blast.

Every hair on her body stood on end when the building shook due to the sheer power and magnitude of the explosion. The ground beneath their feet trembled, and the indestructible windows shattered within seconds.

"Come on!" T-Dog cried, the first to clamber up from the floor.

They slid over the dusty window-ledge, avoiding shards of glass, and landed on the tufts of grass below. Marley broke into a sprint, forcing Sage to keep up: she was determined to reach the RV ahead. She was determined to live.

Bullets spewed from drawn weapons behind her, putting down the walkers stumbling nearby in a blur of splattered crimson. They leapt over bodies, debris, crumbled walls — reaching the vehicles in lighting speed.

Glenn tore open the RV door, and it was at that point Sage noticed Dale was missing.

She jerked back from Marley's grasp and looked over the group. He wasn't there. He wasn't there. He was still inside.

Marley lacked sympathy during that brief moment, shoving her sister into the vehicle and slamming the flimsy door behind once everyone had jumped aboard. Sage crumpled to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, watching as Glenn wildly gestured for her to move beneath the table. She did, with a heavy heart.

Then, the clock struck zero and the RV shook.

Desperately, Glenn grabbed Marley's wrist and drew her down beside him. Her knees thumped against the floor, and she pressed her forehead against Glenn's shoulder at the same moment the CDC erupted in spluttering flames.

A gargantuan plume of thick, black smoke rose into the sky. The building crumbled, the pavement cracked, the city rumbled, the lives inside came to a swift end, and the undead dotted across Atlanta city changed routes to locate the substantial explosion.

And then . . . it was over.

Any evidence of the CDC was buried beneath the scattered debris of a building that once was.

Sage scooted out from beneath the table when the door flung open. Dale and Andrea stumbled inside, their clothes thick with remnants of the explosion, cheeks paler than the grey sky above. In a flash, Sage flung herself at Dale — knocking the wind right from his lungs. He breathed a sigh of relief and hugged her back, eyes lingering on Andrea who walked toward the back of the RV with sunken shoulders.

It was over.

And that was the beginning of it all.

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

this took three days to write and i'm
so disappointed with the outcome :(

anyway so. szn 2 next besties 🙌
( the entire season is part of act 1 )