.・゜-: ✧☾　☽✧ :-゜・.

Stella Grimes sat round the round table, with her book in her hand, deeply devoted to the story of Katniss Everdeen, enjoying the first real breakfast that didn't consist of squirrels or canned beans. The scrambled eggs and the beacon used to be a simple breakfast, but now it was like heaven.

Most of the adults were hungover or feeling so bad they were still in their rooms. Most hungover was Glenn. He hadn't touched his food yet. He sat leaned over the table with his face in his hands. Every now and then, groans would escape from his mouth. Levi was eating his third portion of T-dog's eggs, going for a fourth.

"𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆." Rick said as he entered the room.

"Are you hungover?" Carl grinned. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom's right." Rick smiled as he sat down next to Stella, who didn't lift her attention from the book for one second.

"Mom's got that annoying habit." Lori joked.
Every time Stella looked at her mother, she was reminded of the night before. She wanted nothing more than to save her mother from the cruel things that happened.

"Eggs. Powdered but I do 'em good." T-dog said filling Levi's plate with scrambled eggs.

"Hell yeah, he does." Levi cheered.

"Protein helps the hangover." T-dog poured even more eggs on top of Glenn's already untouched food.

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked, lifting a bottle of white pills.

"Jenner," Lori answered.

"Could you help me, please?"

"He thought we could use it." She replied, opening the small bottle.

"Yeah, some of us at least." Stella tore her gaze from the book and giggled at her own statement.

But Glenn didn't seem to find the joke as funny as Stella did. "Don't ever, ever let me drink again." he groaned.

"Hey," Shane shouted. Stella's grip on her fork hardened and her knuckles whitened. She sighed as she saw his face and gazed quickly at her mother, who stared down at her plate.

"Hey, feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked.
It felt weird seeing how he joked with the man who'd done such terrible things to his wife the night before. It felt even worse knowing that he didn't even know.

"Worse," Shane replied without any sort of humor in his tone.

"What the hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-dog asked.

Red scratches trailed down his neck- fresh. Stella's jaw clenched, realizing who'd done it. She felt awful not being able to tell her father about what happened last night. Her father currently looked to Shane as his best friend who saved his family. Nothing else.

Stella stared down at her book, trying to ignore his presence but she couldn't read or understand one word on the pages.

"I must have done it in my sleep," Shane replied.

"Never seen you do that before," Rick questioned.

"Me neither. Not like me at all." Shane stared at Lori with a cold fury.

A look that made Stella's blood boil. She wanted to stand up and shout at him and throw her book in his face. He actually blamed her mother. For defending herself!
Stella focused her gaze on the book again.

"Moring," Jenner said, entering the room with an empty mug in his hands.

"Hey, Doc."

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions right away." Dale began.

"But you will anyway." Dr Jenner smiled at the old man.

"We didn't come here for eggs." Andrea disclosed. By the look on the doctor's face, he clearly understood what the woman was talking about.

He sighed, placing the empty mug on the table.

"You want answers."

Dr Jenner, followed by the curious group, entered the big main room.

"Very few people got the chance to see this," he said, putting test subjects on the big screen. "Very few."

Stella stared at the image of TS-19, trying to understand what she was seeing.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked the thing that Stella questioned herself.

"An exctrodinaty one." Jenner smiled. "Take us to the E.I.V" The computer did just as he said and showed a zoomed-in image of the brain, with bright blue particles with lights around them.

"What are those lights?" Stella tilted her head slightly.

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

"You don't make sense every?" Daryl asked.

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

"Death?"Rick asked taking a step towards Jenner, furrowing his brows. "Is that what this is, a virgil?"

"Yes, or rather the playback of virgil," Jenner explained, turning around towards Rick.

"This person died?" Andrea questioned, staring at the screen in soft sorrow.

She hadn't been the same since the night the camp fell. None of them had. But Andrea had barely said a word since then. She was still haunted by Amy's death. It had only been a few days. Stella couldn't imagine what losing Carl would feel like. She would never recover from his death. She hoped and prayed to die before him so she wouldn't have to go through it. She shook her head trying not to think about it.

"That's test subject-19." Jenner nodded towards the screen. "Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event." He told the computer.

The screen showed black and red spread all over the test subject's brain.

"What is that?" Levi asked.

"I invade the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then..."

The person on the screen stopped moving.

"Death. Everything you ever were or ever will be gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" The innocent Sophia asked, with fright in her eyes as she stared at the screen.

"Yes." her mother responded.

Tears pooled in Andrea's eyes and she turned away from the screen, avoiding looking at the image that reminded her of her sister.

"She lost someone two days ago," Lori explained to Jenner. "her sister."

"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is." Jenner told Andrea. "Scan to the second event."

"Scanning to the second event." the computer repeated.

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

Small red flickers began to appear inside the brain on the screen.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.

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

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.

"You tell me," Jenner responded.

"It's nothing like before. Most of the brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead," Jenner said. "The frontal lobe the neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part."

Stella looked over to Levi who looked like a walking question mark, trying to understand the complicated words coming out of Jenner's mouth. She couldn't help but smile despite the deep and obvious sadness and confusion in the room.

The doctor turned off the screen leaving the group with just a little better understanding. But it wasn't enough. The doctor didn't seem to know much better than they did.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked in despair.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Jenner threw out words that only made Levi's eyebrows come closer and his forehead wrinkle even more.
He met Stella's eyes and mouthed the word 'What is that?'.
Stella, who understood no better than Levi did, just shrugged her shoulders. She should have listened more in biology. Or is this science? She wasn't sure.

An argument broke out. Apparently, Dr Jenner didn't seem to know anything. He was just as confused as the rest of them.

"There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?" Andrea asked.  "That's what you're really saying, right?"

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again," Dixon said.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask more questions but..."Dale paused. "That clock, it's counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators, they run out of fuel," Jenner answered.

"Then what?" Rick approached Jenner, but he just hurried away from him avoiding the question. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

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

"What does that mean? Dad?" Carl asked with fright in his eyes. "Dad?!"

Stella didn't know what it meant either, but by the look on the adult's faces, she knew that it wasn't good.

Rick along with Shane, T-dog, and Glenn had gone down to the basement to find answers.

Stella sat on the couch in their room, with Carl in her arms. She tried to assure him that it was going to be fine but she was trying to calm herself down as much as him. Stella hated not knowing what was going on and hated not getting any answers. Their mother stood in front of them and started waving her hand under the air conditioner.

"Mom, something wrong?" Carl's voice, tight with light painc.

"Nothing, it's just... The air conditioner stopped." Their mother turned around. But just as she did everything went dark. Carl yelped and clamped his arms tighter around his sister. Both siblings found their way into the hallway where they bumped into Levi.

"What's going on?" Stella asked.

"You asking me? Do I look like a scientist?" Levi laughed.

"Levi! It's no time for jokes!"

The hallway began to get crowded with the frightened and confused members of their group.

"Why is the air of?" Lori, who just entered the hallway asked, her face wearing the same soft panicked look as everyone else.

"And the air in my room." Andrea filled in just as the lab coat-wearing Jenner man appeared around the corner.

"What is going on? Why is everything turned off?"Daryl asked, peeking out of his room with a bottle of alcohol in his hands.

"What is happening, doc?" Levi asked as the doctor passed him, Carl and Stella.

"Energy is being prioritized," he answered, not slowing down for a second as he passed the confused faces around him.

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale countered.

"It's not up to me," Jenner said. " Zone five is shutting itself down. "

"What the fuck does that mean?" Levi frowned as the doctor left the hallway.

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl shouted and pushing his way through the crowd that had formed in the hallway to catch up to Jenner.

"Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down?"The man asked as soon as he was side by side with the doctor. "How can a building do anything?"

"You'd be surprised." The doctor walked coldly down the stairs with half the group following.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked, approaching the man.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running until the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." The doctor spoke calmly as if he was talking about a great book that he liked. But all the big words and the big red timer on the wall that was constantly ticking down, made Stella think that something bad was about to happen. Really bad.

He took a sip from the almost empty bottle that he had taken from Daryl earlier before giving it to him. Daryl quickly snatched the bottle from him and gave him a hard look.

"It was the French," Jenner said.

"What?" Andrea said, taking a step towards the man

"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."

"What happened?" Stella asked.

"Same thing that is happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuels. I mean, how stupid is that?"

"Let me tell you-" Shane said, bolting towards the Jenner man with eyes flaming.

"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care." Rick quickly grabbed Shane before turning to his wife. "Lori, get our stuff. Everyone, get your stuff. Get out of here, now!"

Rick's face was a mask of alarm, which caused Stella to feel panic consume her. Levi grabbed her arm, lightly pulling her out of the room. But before they could leave, a loud alarm began to blare, followed by blinking red lights.

"What's that?" Stella panicked.

"30 minutes to decontamination."

"Doc, what's going on here?" Levi shouted.

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go. Go now! Go!" Shane shouted.

Everyone listened and ran towards the doors. Big metal walls blocked every exit of the room, locking everyone in. Stella panicked.

"Did you just lock us in, you fucking lunatic!?" The blonde girl yelled

Jenner ignored her comment and sat down in front of a small camera and began recording.

The room echoed with the sounds of yelling and people crying out for help.

"Son of a bitch!" Daryl shouted, running towards Jenner with eyes wild with rage. "You locked us in here!" Daryl lifted the bottle in his hands, about to strike it into Jenner's head.

T-dog and Shane quickly grabbed him and pulled him away as he yelled and shouted.

"Jenner, open that door now!" Rick demanded.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn things," Dale said.

"That's not something I control. The computers do." Jenner explained. "I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that."

Stella remembered hearing him say it. Once they stepped inside, it was one of the first things he said. After they had just entered the building that was going to be the death of them.

"It's better this way," Jenner said.

"What is?" Rick asked. "What happens in 28 minutes?"
Jenner stared straight ahead, avoiding the question. An action that filled Stella with rage. She hated this man. Her brother, mother, and father were going to die because of him. Young Sophia was going to die. Carol, t-dog, Glenn, Joaqui, Dale, Andrea, Daryl. Levi.

"What happens in 28 minutes?!" Rick yelled.

Jenner stood up quickly. "You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!"

After Jenner had calmed down a little he continued.
"In the event, of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack, for example, HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"HITs?" Levi frowned.

"Vi, define."

"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 5000 and 6000 degrees and it is useful when the greatest loss of life be damage to structures is desired."

Stella should have listened more in class. Rick pulled her and the rest of their family into a hug.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Stella asked.

"It sets the air on fire. No pain. An end to sorrow, grief.. regret. Everything."

Stella pulled away from the hug. How could he do this? How could he let innocent people and children die?

"Are insane?! You are going to kill us? You fucking—" She approached the doctor but was quickly pulled back by Levi and her father.

She quivered in anger. He was going to kill her family. She couldn't let that happen. Her family was going to get blown to pieces. She had to do something.

"Open the damn door!" Daryl threw his bottle against one of the metal doors, breaking it into pieces.

Shane ran towards it with a large axe over his head. "Out of my way!" He swung the axe into the door.

"Daryl!" Glenn tossed another axe to Daryl, who joined up next to Shane. But every pound on the door only left a small scratch. The room was filled with panic and cries. Stella sat in her mother's arms, holding her brother's hand. He squeezed it harder and harder every time the loud bang echoed in the room from Daryl and Shane's desperate attempts to get out. Stella was scared, like everyone else. But she had to stay strong, for her brother. Tears threatened to fall, but she blinked them away.

"You should have left well enough alone. It would have been so much easier." Jenner spoke.

Stella hated him. He acted like it didn't bother him that he was going to kill the whole group. He spoke softly and normally.

"Easier for who?" Lori was frowning with anger.

"All of you. You know what's out there. A short brutal life and agonizing death. Your sister. What was her name?" Jenner asked Andrea.

"Amy." Andrea looked up from where she sat huddled by herself, with her arms around her legs.

"Amy." He repeated. "You know what this does. You've seen it."

"Leave her alone," Stella said.

"Is this really what you want for your wife and kids?" Jenner asked Rick, ignoring Stella.

"I don't want this," Rick shouted.

"Can't make a dent," Shane said, leaning on a table trying to catch his breath.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."

"Well, your head ain't." Daryl swung his axe at the doctor's head. Dale and Shane quickly grabbed the man and pulled him away.

"You do want this," Jenner spoke.

"No! Nobody fucking wants this." Stella snapped. "My family is going to die! My brother is going to die, because of you!"

Stella's voice shook with anger as she fought back the burning tears that were swelling behind her eyes.

"I'm saving you from the horrific sight of your parents, your brother, and your friends getting ripped into pieces by those things!"

"Saving me?! You think you're saving me?!" Stella looked at him in disdain.

"Rick," he turned to Stella's father. "You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

Everyone stared at Rick. Stella's mouth opened slightly as her anger transformed into a stab of disbelief.

"What? You really said that? After all your big talk." Shane asked.

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick turned to his family.

"There is no hope." With every word, Jenner said Stella's rage and hatred grew. "There never was."

"There's always hope," Rick stated. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere—-"

"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" Andrea cut him off.

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

"Yeah? Well maybe it's yours, but it sure as hell ain't ours so open the damn doors." Stella's eyes flashed.

"I can't," Jenner spoke softly.

"This isn't right." Carol sobbed, lifting her face up to reveal the torrents of tears streaking down her face. "You can't just keep us here."

"One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain." Jenner leaned forward.

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."

Levi, who stood next to Carol, helped Sophia and Carol from the ground. Once standing, Sophia grabbed his hand tightly and cried.

"Wouldn't it be kinder? More compassionate to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner responded.

A gun clocked making everyone spin around. Shane had grabbed his shotgun and headed for the doctor, his eyes flaming with anger. Stella wanted to cheer on him, but stopped herself.

"Shane, no!" Rick yelled, trying to block his path.

"Out of my way, Rick." Shane pushed him aside and sprinted towards Jenner. "Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!" Shane's aimed the gun right into Jenner's face.

Rick stood next to Shane. "Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here."

"Shane, you listen to him," Lori warned.

"He dies, we all...."

Before Rick could finish his sentence, Shane snapped and roared out his rage freely. He turned and shot the computers in the corner. Stella wrapped her arms around her mother and brother as metal pieces flew across the room and the gunshots rang in her ears.

"Shane!" Rick grabbed the gun. He fought off Shane and slammed the back of the gun into his head, causing him to fall to the ground.

"You done now?" Rick asked, once standing above Shane. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I guess we all are." He spat at him.

Rick handed T-dog the gun before turning to Jenner. "I think you're lying."

"What?" He frowned at his accusation.

"You're lying about no hope." He paused as he tried to catch his breath. "If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

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

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when the others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise..." Jenner pointed to the black big screen. "To her, my wife."

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asked in a soft voice.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?"

Daryl stood in front of one of the metal doors, pounding at it repeatedly with his axe.

"She was dying." The Jenner man continued. "It should've been me on that table. It wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was the 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 have done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice," Rick spoke. "You do. That's.. That's all we want, a choice, a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori's voice broke as she pleaded.

Jenner took a deep breath. "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." He walked over to a keypad and scanned his card and entered a code.

The metal door opened. Finally. Stella grabbed Carl's and her mother's hands and they ran to the door. Stella glanced back at the clock.

4.29

They had less than five minutes. Her heart began racing in her chest.

"Come on! Let's go!"

"Move it!"

Suddenly, Stella stopped.

"Stella?!" Lori shouted.

The blonde girl looked around trying to find Levi, to make sure he got out. The tall boy stopped next to her. "Stella, what are you doing?"

"Dad! Dad come on!" She yelled desperately. Just like she had yelled when they first arrived at the CDC.

"There's your chance, take it," Jenner said to Rick.

"I'm grateful," Rick replied.

"The day will come when you won't be."

"Dad!" Stella pleaded.

"Rick!"

The two men shook hands then Jenner pulled Rick close to whisper something in his ear.

Glenn took Carl's hand as Lori sprinted down to get her husband.

"Hey! We've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn shouted.

"Let's go, let's go." T-dog panted, pulling Joaqui to the door.

"No, no." She stopped. "I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie."

"But that's insane!" T-dog grabbed her arm.

"No, it's completely sane." She cried and pulled herself out of his grip. "For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out."

T-dog stared at his wife in disbelief as Shane grabbed his arm. "Dog. Come on, man. Come on! Let's go! Let's go!"

Stella felt a dull ache in her heart. She really liked Joaqui. She was a good person and always did the right thing. At the start, when Stella was grieving her father, Joaqui would check up on her and try to comfort her. Her eyes stung with tears as she ran out the door.

The group sprinted through the hallway. But Stella stopped right outside their room. She bolted through the door.

"Stella!" Levi shouted in the distance.

She knew where she had put it. On the bed. She grabbed the small bag and swiftly packed down two family photos that she had put next to her bed. Then she grabbed her book, which lay on the floor.

"Stella! Come on!" Levi appeared in the doorway. The blonde girl threw the bag over her shoulder.

The duo ran to the exit and joined up with the rest of the group.

"Stella!" Her mother exclaimed. "What were you thinking?!"

The group panicked as they tried everything to get the doors open. They pulled, tried different codes, and tried to break the windows with axes, chairs, and Shane's shotgun. Nothing.

"The glass won't break?" Sophia panicked.

"Rick, I have something that might help," Carol said, digging through her bag.

"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna do it," Shane muttered rudely.

"Your first morning in the camp, when I washed your uniform. I found this in your pocket." The woman pulled out a grenade and held it in the palm of her shaking hand.

"Look out!" Rick shouted.

Before Stella hid, she looked around to make sure that Carl and her mother were safe. Levi grabbed her arm and the two ran to the stairs and lay down flat. She watched as her father kneeled down at the window, with the grenade in his hand. She held her breath as Rick fiddled with the weapon.

"Ohh.. shit!" He sprinted to the group.

The window blew into millions of pieces.

We're almost out. Stella thought to herself.

The group climbed over the broken glass. Stella looked back before climbing over. Andrea and Dale were still inside.
The group ran over the open surface outside, which was now filled with walkers. Being the only two people who had weapons, Shane and Rick began shooting at them.

"Stay close!" Levi shouted.

They finally arrived at the RV. Stella held the door open as Glenn, Carl, Levi, and her mother and father hurried inside. Rick hopped into the driver's seat and fiddled with the keys, trying to start the RV.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Stella pointed to the broken window. "They're coming!"

Dale and Andrea climbed out and started running to the cars. Stella held her breath as the duo ran over the open surface, dodging the walkers that came at them. Suddenly, Rick started honking the horn.

"Dale, get down!" Lori peaked her head out the window.

"Get back! Everybody." Rick shouted.

Stella grabbed Carl's hand and pulled him into the back with her, bringing her arm around him and holding him tight.

A loud explosion rattled the ground. The RV shook from the blast, but other than that they were fine. Stella squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears.

Once the explosion was over, she looked out the window and saw big pieces from the building flying around and fire consuming the CDC. There was nothing left. What she had thought could have been a home was now a burning ruin.

But they were safe now. They were out and alive. Dale and Andrea joined up next to Stella in the back of the RV. Everyone panted and stared at the burning wreckage of the CDC.

Stella looked at her family. They were safe. That was all that mattered. She didn't fear what was going to happen next. She didn't fear not having somewhere safe to go. She was just relieved that her family was okay.
The cars began driving away, this time with one less member of the group.

_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____
𝟒𝟕𝟔𝟕 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟑𝐭𝐡
𝟏𝟐:𝟏𝟖 𝐀𝐌
_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____

𝐀 /𝐍
This chapter was pretty boring. It was super boring to write, except for the end.
I can't describe my hate towards Jenner. He was so fucking annoying.

Vote if you hate Dr Jenner and miss Joaqui🫶🏼