CHAPTER FIVE
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     "DECONTAMINATION — WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?" Glenn questioned as Rick led him, Arden, Shane, and T-Dog down the stairs to the generator room which she had pointed them in the direction of.

     "I don't like the way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that," Shane explained as they reached the bottom.

     "You would be right to think that. Decontamination isn't so much like a nice wash down of the lab - it's more like obliterating the entire thing," Arden elaborated, finally shedding some much needed light on the situation for her companions.

     T-Dog went on to voice his suspicions about how Jenner must be crazy, while the others just wore grave looks on their faces. They turned the corner and Arden was first to enter the room, knowing the building best out of all of them. Everyone had flashlights, but the upper lighting systems turned on once they entered.

     She hadn't been down there much and the room was a maze. "Check that way," Rick ordered them, pointing to the right while he beckoned Shane to come with him on the left. Her eyes scanned everything that they passed as the other two followed behind her and she felt unsettled. Jenner wouldn't really try to blow them up, would he?

     "So, uh, why is decontaminating, uh, necessary?" Glenn asked from behind her. She wanted to smile at his nervousness, it was a sort of real thing that tethered her back to reality. But the situation was weighing down on her more than she would've liked.

     "Regularly it's so that any virus we're looking at in here doesn't get out there," she responded, gesturing in the general direction of 'outside' as she did so. "But I don't understand what's happening now."

     It was the truth. The mechanics of the building were a mystery to her, or at least a bit of a mystery, Jenner was much more versed in how the building worked.

     "Oh," Glenn let out in response, clearly not wanting to hear much more whether that be about them possibly blowing up or her not knowing as much as would be helpful. She couldn't exactly be blamed for her lack of knowledge, as it was only her second week on the job when the outbreak began. Sure, she had all the qualifications, but her career was so new she was not nearly as experienced as Jenner was.

     All of the sudden the lights flickered and left them in complete darkness for a moment. "Emergency lighting on." A more dim light now surrounded them and Arden, Glenn, and T-Dog jogging back to the direction that Rick and Shane had headed in.

     "Hey, you guys kill the lights?" Glenn asked. Shane and Rick were leaning down by what looked like a fuel tank.

     "Nah, it just went out," Shane answered as he and Rick continued to observe the tank.

     "Anything?" Rick inquired expectantly.

     "Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count," T-Dog responded, him being the last one to arrive to where they were all now gathered.

     Arden took a step closer and inspected the tank for herself. The fuel needle was pointed at E and there was nothing that indicated it had a single drop of fuel left. "It can't be down to just that one," Shane denied with the shake of his head.

     "Yeah, it can," Arden confirmed. She turned around and started to walk back towards the room's exit, hearing the other four following behind her closely. "This place is on it's last legs, that much is for sure."

     They climbed the stairs as quickly as they possibly could and emerged out in the main room, everyone else looking panicked as they shouted things at Jenner. Lori called out for Rick and he held his hand out as he scurried over to the man of the hour - the one who had every answer they wanted at the current moment.

     "Jenner, what's happening?" Rick demanded, Jenner not even stopping to answer the question as they reached the middle of the room. He held a bottle of alcohol in his hand and kept taking swigs of it as they walked.

     "The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second," he clarified. "That started just as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule."

     Gesturing to the clock that counted down on the wall menacingly with the bottle, he finally stopped at the small set of stairs that led to the workstations. He handed the bottle to Daryl, who grabbed it violently, spilling some of the golden liquid on the ground.

     "It was the French," Jenner suddenly spoke.

     "What?" Andrea questioned, her brows furrowed in confusion.

     "They were the last 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 until the end," he said emotionlessly, halfway up the steps before he turned around and climbed up onto the platform. "They thought they were close to a solution."

     "What happened?" Jacqui inquired, looking as puzzled as Andrea did.

     "The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice," Jenner responded, a pensive look appearing on his face. "The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean, how stupid is that?"

     Arden looked up at her former colleague in bewilderment. "You're crazy," she announced, the look on his face and everyone else's indicating that they had indeed heard her.

     "Let me tell you -" Shane began, climbing the steps after Jenner furiously, only to be held back by Rick cautiously.

     "To hell with it, Shane," Rick scolded as he followed him.

     "I don't even care!" Shane snapped, glaring daggers at the man who was eluding any real answers. Of course, the newcomers now had an idea of how the search for a cure was truly going, but Arden already knew that was a long shot. Something that wasn't happening, no matter how much she believed.

     "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff," Rick commanded at the group behind him. "We're getting out of here now!"

     The group started to dash to the doors that would lead them to the dormitories, Arden staying put. There was nothing that she had to bring and this time, she was definitely leaving Jenner; without question.

     A blaring alarm echoed through the facility, everyone stopping their quick movements immediately and looking up and around, finally their eyes landing on the clock. "Thirty minutes until decontamination."

     Daryl shouted at Jenner, demanding to know what exactly what going on. Arden set off at a brisk pace toward the man, done standing around and listening to him. "Everybody, y'all heard Rick! Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane shouted, gesturing violently for them to leave the room as soon as possible.

     "Hey!" Arden shouted at Jenner over the array of shouts that were already sounding, who was now pushing a few buttons on a keypad and swiping his badge through something. Any exit was sealed shut by large metal doors, blocking anyone from leaving.

     "Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked fearfully, glancing between the man and the door rapidly, taking the silence as his answer. "He just locked us in!"

     Those words were what it took for full panic to break out. Arden finally reached the man, who was logging another entry into the video diary and everyone was shouting at that point. Before she was even able to do anything to Jenner, Daryl came up from behind him and grabbed his shoulders in an attempt to harm him but was pulled back almost as immediately as he approached.

     "You can't do this," Arden told him as calmly as she could. Rick was demanding for him to open the door and as was Dale, but he responded that all emergency exits were sealed above them and there was no way. And of course, everyone was not too happy to hear that he couldn't control it either - the computers did.

     "I told you, once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that," he defended, pointing his finger at Rick. "It's better this way."

     "What is?" Rick asked almost immediately. And Arden knew exactly what, just as she explained to them, and it would not be pretty for anyone. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

     Again, Jenner didn't answer but turned to the computer and started to type, the sound of the keyboard being the only thing filling the room for a few seconds. Shane stepped forward and slammed on the desk harshly.

     "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" he demanded roughly.

     "You know what this place is?!" Jenner screamed, standing from his chair suddenly. "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!"

     He looked around and seemed to yell at everyone in turn, including Arden, as if she didn't already know exactly what he was speaking about. Taking his seat again, he took a deep breath, but she didn't let him go on.

     "I told you. If the power fails and decontamination happens - it will obliterate us all. As in, this entire place just," she explained, mimicking an explosion with her hands. "To prevent anything from getting out."

     Some of them began to cry at this revelation, and it finally began to sink in for the people that she had given the information to earlier. Jenner looked at the ground blankly, almost like he was in a trance-like state.

     "It sets the air on fire," he added. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief...regret. Everything." Each person around her was either crying, hugging their loved ones, or staring at the man fearfully. Arden shook her head and stood in front of him.

     "No, this is an end to innocent lives. They get a choice, we should have a choice," she snapped, angry, hot tears gathering in her eyes, wanting to slap all of the sense she could into Jenner.

     "I thought you were done! You have been done for months now! What changed?" he yelled back, snapping once again with an unfriendly outburst. The sound of a bottle hitting a wall and axes pounding against it interrupted their conversation, followed by Daryl's shouts to open the door.

      Arden had proceeded to search the area for anything that might be a failsafe in case the doors got closed accidentally, but even she knew that was a longshot.