❛ SURVIVOR'S HEART ! ❜
chapter sixteen ―― air on fire

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ "WHY'S THE AIR OFF?" Carol asked as she and a few others stuck their heads out of their rooms, all confused. "And the lights in the room?"

"Hey, what's going on?" Daryl asked, hanging out his room and Jenner took the bottle of whisky from him. "Why's everything turned off?" Jenner didn't answer, he just continued down the hall.

"Hey, doc!" Charlie shouted as she followed him once he passed hers and Mason's room. "What the hell is going on?"

"Energy use is being prioritized." He answered before bringing the bottle to his lips.

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

"It's not up to me." He replied as the lights in the hall went out, everyone following behind him. "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

"Hey!" Daryl called after him, pushing his way forward past Charlie and Mason. "Hey, what the hell does that mean?" He didn't answer. "Hey, man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"

"You'd be surprised." He told him, leading them down a set of stairs in the big circle room.

"Rick?" Lori leaned over the railing of the catwalk to see her husband, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog on the floor below while the others followed the doctor. Charlie placed her hand on Daryl's shoulder as Mason looped his arm around her back to help her down the stairs. Daryl didn't even look back, he knew it was her.

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

"You better start explaining or I'm gonna start kicking some ass." Charlie called out.

"You can barely walk, princess." Daryl mused as he stepped off the last step and turned towards her as she hoped down on her good leg, landing in front of him.

"Don't underestimate me." She told him before she turned and limped away, the pain had lessened and it was manageable but it still hurt.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power." Jenner told them "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." He pointed towards the clock that read 31:28 . . . and dropping. He took another sip from the bottle then held out to Daryl who snatched it back, but he kept his eyes on the doctor, as did everyone else. Jenner looked over his shoulder, his eyes on Andrea for a second. "It was the French."

"What?"

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know." He clarified. "While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs until the end. They thought they were close to a solution." He started up the steps to the platform in the middle of the room.

"What happened?" Jacqui asked, stopping him.

"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice." He stated. "The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean, how stupid is that?" He turned away from them and Shane made his way up the steps.

"Let me tell you-"

"To hell with it, Shane." Rick stopped him. "I don't even care." He turned to his wife, his eyes moving over to Charlie who stood next to Daryl and Mason, with Josh not from them. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting outta here now!"

Everyone turned to leave, but before they got far an alarm went off and they all stopped.

"Thirty minutes to decontamination." Vi said as a timer pulled up on the big screen.

"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl shouted as Jenner rushed across the platform to one of the computers.

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

"Let's go!" T-Dog waved the forwards and the all rushed to the door, Mason scooping Charlie up as she limped along and she didn't bother to protest. But before they got to the door, it closed.

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked, looking from the door to the doctor who ignored the question. "He just locked us in!" Everyone made their way back to the platform and Daryl looked around, he spotted Charlie, who was standing next to Mason and there was something in her eyes that he had never seen before - fear.

He couldn't explain it, but he was angry and the fact that Charlie was scared, when she so rarely was, made him angrier. He rushed up the steps and across the platform towards the doctor who was talking into a camera on his computer. "You son of a bitch!" He shouted. "You locked us in!" Just as he grabbed the back of Jenner's chair Shane rushed over, and pushed him back, putting himself between them as T-Dog ran over. "I'll kill you!" Daryl shouted, fighting against Shane, but he kept a good grip on him.

"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick told him as he walked over, his voice calm.

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

"Well, open the damn things." Daryl told him, still fuming but he had calmed down some.

"That's not something I control. The computers do." Jenner told him. "I told you, once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." He told them and Carol pulled her daughter closer to her as Charlie chewed on her lip, her brown eyes wide but she tried to hide the fact that she was starting to panic. "It's better this way."

"What is?" Rick asked. "What happens in 28 minutes?" He didn't get an answer, Jenner turned back to his computer, Shane pulled his chair back and turned him towards Rick again. "What happens in 28 minutes!?" Rick shouted.

"You know what this place is?" Jenner snapped as he stood up. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff!" He yelled at Shane before turning to Rick. "Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" He took a breath and collected himself before he sat back down in his chair. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure - a terrorist attack, for example - H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.s?" Rick questioned.

"Vi, define."

"H.I.T.s - high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists 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° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."

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

Charlie let out a choked sob, one she had been fighting back and Shane looked over and he saw the moment she clasped in on herself. She turned towards Mason, who wrapped her in his arms. His eyes were closed as he hugged her to his chest and she sobbed into his shoulder - she knew she was gonna die one day but she didn't want to die like this.

NOVA SPEAKS !

only two more chapters left in act one!! would y'all want them today or do you wanna wait until thursday??

also, how are you enjoying the book so far? I know season one is a little slow and not much happens but I have so much planned for season two!!! I'm so excited!!