Chapter 6: Much Too Much
A bottle of wine. An entire bottle of wine I polished off myself. Glenn and I had found a deck of cards in the rec room Jenner showed to the kids and I decided to teach him how to play this stupid drinking game called Ride the Bus, in which I used to play in high school all the time. We played a couple of rounds and before you knew it the wine was gone.
Everyone kind of did their own thing right now, for once we didn't constantly have to have each other's backs, aware of our surroundings. And at this point, a lot of people weren't. The kids went to bed fairly early, along with Carol. Rick and Lori were off somewhere, together. About twenty minutes ago I witnessed Andrea falling victim to the negative side effects of over-drinking as she hugged the toilet bowl while Dale tried to comfort her. Both Daryl and Shane were off on their own, as usual, and Jacqui and T-Dog had just said goodnight to us before stumbling off to bed. That just left Glenn and me, finishing up our last game before we also decided that sleep was our best option at this point.
"You know, I'm really glad we're both not dead… together," Glenn slurred, flashing me a smile as we sat across from each other on the floor, multiple cards laid out in front of us. He wasn't making total sense, but I got the gist of it.
"Me too," I laughed, raising my empty wine bottle to him. "To living," I toasted, a fake laugh escaping my mouth as he clicked his wine bottle to mine, what we were doing wasn't really considered living though, we were just… surviving.
"I'm gonna go shower before bed," Glenn said, pulling me out of my thoughts. He was already halfway to standing up before I was able to respond.
"Okay, I'm just gonna clean up real quick," I responded, referring to the mess of cards on the floor. I watched him stagger off in a zigzag motion until he was out of the room. Piling up the cards, I arranged them as neatly as I could and placed them back in their case. Getting up off the floor is when I realized just how much the wine affected me. Placing the cards on the table I stumbled towards the door. My vision blurred and my head spun in circles. Trying to ride the spins I walked down the dimly lit hall until I reached the room. Walking in, I could hear the shower running and I immediately threw myself on the bed, snuggling up underneath the covers, clutching the pillow as my eyes grew heavy. I was about to fall asleep when the sound of the bathroom door opening caused me to groan, the bright light coming from it making me shut my eyes tighter.
"What the hell," a voice murmured that wasn't Glenn's, "This ain't your room," he said and the poor choice in grammar finally allowed my brain to clue in that it was Daryl.
"Yes," was all I responded with as the mix of the wine and this extremely comfy bed was causing my body to forcefully put itself to sleep.
"You can't stay here," he said with a tone towards me.
I just groaned in response, I couldn't move and I wasn't going to. It was quiet for a couple of seconds which caused me to start drifting into sleep, but right before I was completely out the bed shifted a bit, as Daryl slid under the clovers, lying as close to the edge as possible.
Waking up the next morning the hangover was bad, one of the worst I've ever had. I rolled over in the bed expecting to see Glenn lying there, still blackout from last night, but the space was empty. Thinking he had already gone out for breakfast I pulled myself out of bed, wanting to change before I headed out. Looking around the room for my bag it was nowhere in sight, then my gaze landed on the arrows that rested on the bedside table. Shit. Everything from last night finally came back to me, realizing that I wasn't in my room, but Daryl's.
Getting up quickly, my head spun but I continued to rush out of the room into my own. Shutting the door quickly, I startled Glenn who sat hunched over on the bed. The only person who drank more than I did last night was him.
"Where did you go last night?" He groaned, turning to look at me slightly.
"Ugh…" I thought for a second. Do I lie? Would it be weird if I told people or would it just be another funny drunk story? "Okay if I tell you, will you promise not to say anything to anyone else?" I asked, sitting down next to him, he shot his head up eager to know, nodding his head vigorously. "I passed out in Daryl's bed last night thinking it was ours," I facepalmed myself, out of all the people in the group it had to be Daryl.
He started to giggle, clutching his stomach, "Oh that's the best thing I've ever heard," he continued to laugh which caused me to, "I would have loved to see Daryl's face when seeing you lying there."
"Me too," I chuckled.
"Okay," Glenn groaned, "I can't laugh anymore," he continued to clutch his stomach, sick. "I'm never drinking again."
I patted him on the back, rubbing it a bit, "How 'bout you go get some food in you, I'll meet you out there in a second," I suggested and he nodded his head, slowly making his way out of the room.
Once he was gone I walked over and grabbed my clothes that had been graciously washed by Jenner. It was an odd feeling to have fresh-smelling clothes again, but I was grateful for it, enjoying it while I can. I slipped on my ripped jeans that were nice and warm, threw on my grey tank top, shoved my feet into my worn-out black army boots, grabbed my chain, and once again put on Glenn's red baseball cap. Feeling a bit cold, I grabbed my brother's leather jacket and made my way out to the cafeteria.
Upon walking up to the table where the rest of the group sat, I made eye contact with Daryl. He side-eyed me, scoffing slightly to himself when looking at me, probably laughing at the 'white girl wasted' state I was in last night. I took a seat beside Shane, pouring myself some coffee in the process.
"Morning," Jenner announced as he entered the room, abnormally cheerful considering he wasn't hungover like the rest of us.
"Morning Doc," the majority of us chimed back, along with a grunt of acknowledgment coming from Glenn. He sat there, hunched over with his eyes closed as he slowly fed himself some scrambled eggs. Jacqui rubbed his shoulders to ease him.
"I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing but…" Dale paused.
"But you will anyway," Jenner nodded his head as he finished stirring his coffee.
"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea turned in her seat to look at him, hinting towards the many questions we had and the possible answers he could give us.
He turned, looking over the group and sighing, "Follow me." He began to walk back towards the main room, the one with the platform, flat screens and computers, and the large clock in which counted down. We all immediately got up, eager to follow him and hear what he had to say or show us.
"Vi, give me a playback of TS-19," He called out, to which the computer quickly responded, putting a video up on the flat screen stationed on the wall. I walked up onto the platform, taking a spot beside Andrea, crossing my arms skeptical of what I might see.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asked as the scan of a human skull appeared on the monitor.
"An extraordinary one," Jenner responded. The video progressed as it zoomed up on the inside of the brain, small vessels of it lighting up and sparking. "That's our lives.. in there. Experiences, memories… everything. Somewhere in all the organic wiring and ripples of light, is you," he explained, all eyes focused on the screen. "They determine whatever a person thinks, says, or does from the moment of birth… until the moment of death." He spoke as we began to watch as the brain filled with darkness, a virus of black liquid killing off everything it once was.
"This person died?" I asked, my voice shook as I watched it.
"Test subject 19… bitten, infected, then volunteered to have us record the process," he finally broke eye contact with the screen and looked over to us. "It invades the brain. Everything you ever were or ever will be… gone," he spoke and my eyes teared as I watched it. Seeing the very thing that was destined to kill us.
Everyone broke their focus on the screen, taking in the reality of the death that would eventually get to them. Expressions of terror filled the room.
"What about when they turn?" Glenn asked.
"The time period ranges, some cases can take under three minutes, others I've heard up to eight hours. This one took two hours, one minute, and seven seconds," he said before we watched the next clip. The brain began to reactivate, the blackness of it beginning to spark red. "The you part, that never comes back. It's just a shell." Just then a bullet lodged through the patient's head causing me to jump slightly when watching it. "Vi shut down the main stations."
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" I asked, breaking up the silence and uneasy tension of the room.
"It could be many things, but no… I don't know for sure," he looked to the floor.
"But someone must know something," Andrea spoke up, you could tell she was pissed off.
"Everything went down when things started going from bad to worse, I've been in the dark for almost a month," he shook his head, this man really didn't know anything.
"So it's not just here, there's nothing left anywhere. That's what you're really saying, right?" I said more as a statement than a question, running my hands through my hair frustrated. You could hear a pin drop in the room.
"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again," Daryl groaned, rubbing his eyes in disappointment.
"Doc, I know this has been rough on you and I hate to ask one more question, but that clock is counting down," Dale pointed out, walking towards it, "What happens a zero?"
Jenner wouldn't answer, you could see it in his face that he didn't want to, he was ashamed to.
"Vi what happens when the clock hits zero," Rick called out to the computer.
"When the countdown hits zero facility-wide decontamination will occur," she answered, striking fear in all of us.
"R-5 is shutting itself down," Jenner finally spoke up.
"What the hell's that mean?" Daryl threw his arms up in furry, but Jenner ignored him, "Aye man I'm talkin' to you. What'd you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How could a building do anything?" Daryl approached him angrily.
"You'd be surprised," was all he responded with. "The system is shutting itself down, once it hits the half-hour mark we run out of juice-"
"But that's right now," I stepped forward, panic filling inside me.
"Exactly."
"Lori go back to the room and everyone get your things, we're gettin' out of here now!" Rick demanded, urgency in his voice.
Everyone was about to run off to grab their stuff when an ear-piercing alarm began to go off, causing everyone to freak.
"What's that?" Shane yelled.
Seconds later each of the hallway entrances to the main room slammed shut, a large metal wall trapping us in. My heart raced as everyone frantically spun around, looking for any possible exit but there was nothing.
"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn's voice shook with every word, scared of the answer being a yes. "He just locked us in!" he screamed.
"Son of a bitch!" Daryl cursed as he ran full speed at Jenner. "You locked us in!" His face went red with anger as he grabbed at the doctor, he probably would have killed him if Shane and T-Dog didn't step in the middle of it.
The doctor adjusted himself, not speaking a word to anyone but the computer that was recording him, he was documenting this.
"Jenner, open that door now," Rick walked up to him with a steady yet determined voice.
"There's no point, everything is sealed, even the emergency exit," he confessed.
"Well just open the damn things," Dale said, everyone who spoke had anger and fear in their tone.
"That's not something I control. I told you, once that front door closed it wouldn't open again, you heard me say that," he said and Rick shook his head angrily. "It's better this way," Jenner tried to convince us.
"What is?" I questioned."What happens at the end of twenty-eight minutes?"
"In the event of a catastrophic power shortage or terrorist attack, HITs are deployed restricting any organism from getting out of here, restricts all the bad we have protected the public from for so long," he explained.
"HITs?" Rick questioned. Jenner paused, taking his time to answer like he already knew we wouldn't react well.
"It sets the air on fire… it wipes out everything in its way, everything."
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