Not another Dixon

Chapter three

Hey guys, thanks for the reviews. Sorry, if this chapter might feel a little rushed or not that good. I'm writing this with a major headache. I just want to get this chapter out there already for you guys.

So enjoy reading this, but think about my pain.

Oh and if you had caught the mistake I made, then good for you. I had "The dead are walking" and "not another Dixon" at the top, but it's all fixed now.

It felt nice to wake up to a bunch of people around. I sat beside Glenn as he kept moaning about his hangover. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again," he said holding his head. I chuckled as I ate my bacon and eggs.

"Hey," Shane said as he walked in. He looked a little off this morning then what I saw yesterday. Lori was looking down at her plate, not saying anything. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. I guess something had happened between them. And me being the noisy person I was, I wanted to know.

I looked at Shane's neck as he sat down. He had some nasty scratches on his neck. He could of at least cleaned them before he came in here. No one wants to see that when they eat.

"Hey," Daryl said walking in the room. He sat in the chair beside me and took a piece of my bacon.

"Good morning to you to. you know you could get your own."

"I just wanted to take yours."

"Like you do with everything of mine. You wouldn't like it if I took your crossbow."

"Touch it and you'll be missin' a hand," he said leaning in his hair. "And what we gonna do bout that mouth full of metal?" I grunted. I've had my braces since I was 15 and was suppose to get them off before I had turned 17, but my mom never had the time to take me to the dentist. And now, i'm stuck with them.

"Ugh, don't remind me."

"You have braces," asked Glenn. I nodded.

"Morning," said Jenner as he walked into the dinning area. Everyone gave their hellos.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..."

"But you will anyway," interrupted Jenner.

"We didn't come here for the eggs," said Andrea. Jenner turned around.

"Alright then. Follow me," he said walking out. Everyone got up and followed him. We entered one of the main work stations where Jenner started to type stuff in.

"Give me playback of TS-19."

"Playback of TS-19," said Vi. Vi kind of scared me at times even though she was just a computer. How do they even program a computer do say and pull up all the things she was asked? Creepy. Things started to pop up on the big screen. They were pictures of someone's head and a video.

"Few people got a chance to see this. Very few." Everyone was staring at the screen. I already seen most of this, so I wasn't that interested.

"Is that a brain," asked Carl.

"An extraordinary one," replied Jenner. "Not that it matters in the end. Take us in E.I.V." Vi did what she was told and brought it up.

"What are those lights," asked Shane.

"It's a person's life. Experiences, memories, it's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring is you," Jenner said pointing to no one particularly. "The thing that makes you unique and human."

"You don't make sense ever," Daryl said. I rolled my eyes. Maybe in he paid attention in high school he would know.

"They're synapses, Daryl. Electric impulses in the brain."

"That's right Cynthia. They carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death, is that what this is, a vigil?"

"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil," Jenner said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"This person died. Who," asked Andrea.

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us...record the process. Vi scan forward to the first event." Vi scanned and showed us subject 19. There was blackness in the stems from the spinal branching out to most of the brain. The virus, if that's what this even is.

"What is that," asked Glenn.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands, hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs." I felt like I wanted to cry. It was one thing to see someone die on the outside, but it was another to physically see it happen on the inside is another thing.

"Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be...gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim," asked Sophia. I wondered who Jim was.

"Yes," said her mother. Just about everyone seemed to get emotional, especially Andrea.

"She lost someone two days ago," said Lori. "Her sister." I felt really bad for her. At least she didn't have to watch her mother walk around outside all the time. Mine did. She just wouldn't go away. Every time I thought she was gone, she'd just show up.

"I lost somebody too," Jenner said. "I know how devastating it is."

"Aw hell," I said throwing my hands in the air. "We all lost someone. Friend or family. Just be glad you don't have to watch yours all the time."

"What you talkin' bout Cynthia," Daryl asked.

"Mom. I see her almost everyday just roaming around looking all...dead." I crossed my arms and sat down not facing anyone. Jenner sighed. I knew what he was thinking. He told me to stop looking out for here and I did it anyway.

"Scan to the second event."

"Scanning to second event." I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Daryl.

"Sorry I wasn't there." I patted his hand and gave a weak smile.

"The resurrection times vary wildly. We had 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 minuet and seven seconds." I turned around to see dark purple and kind of a light pink around the stem.

"It restarts the brain?"

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

"But they're not alive," said Rick with wonder.

"You tell me." Rick shook his head.

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

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part...that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell. Driven by mindless instinct." My eyes went wide when a flash went across the brain. Haven't seen that before.

"God, what was that?"

"He shot his patient in the head," said Andrea. "Didn't you."

"Vi power down the main screen and the workstations."

"You have no idea what it is do you?"

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

"Or the wrath oh God," said Jacqui. I nodded. Could be, you never know.

"There is that."

"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere."

"there are others right? Other facilities."

"There may be some. People like me"

"But you don't know? How could you not know?"

"Everything went down. Communications, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month. Cynthia too."

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere. Nothing. That's what you're really saying, right?" Jeez, Andrea could be so blunt. She scoffed and he didn't answer her. I knew this already. Being here with Jenner, you really learn a lot.

"Man, i'm gonna get shit- faced drunk, again," Daryl said.

"Doctor Jenner I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question but..that clock. It's counting down. What happens at zero?" I looked over at the clock Dale was talking about. I wanted to know too, but never asked.

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

"And then," asked Rick, but he didn't get an answer. "Vi, what happens what the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." I my breath caught in my mouth. I read something about this somewhere, but I couldn't remember what it was. Jenner walked off somewhere. We were left standing there looking around.

"Cynthia, do you know anything about this," asked Rick. I shook my head.

"If I did, I don't remember. I read something about it some time ago."

"Come on," Rick said. "Where's the basement?"

"I'll show you." I was getting really scared. This was suppose to be a safe place, and now it felt like the most dangerous place. I just wondered what would happen at zero, and if it was something bad, I didn't want to be here.

Yay, another chapter. I wrote this in the wee hours of the morning right before I had to head off to work. Like, love it, or hate it. Just review it.