13.

stiles sat in Daryl truck, the ride was long but daryl held his hand, the rv and ricks car infront of them the CDC should be the best call if it safe. Stiles watch as zombie try to catch up to them but daryl keep on driving, the radio was playing a song he had never heard before but it was kinda catchy. Daryl glanced over at him and smiled, "you know i would never let anything happen to you right?" Stiles nodded, his heart swelling at the look in daryl's eyes. "i love you too," he whispered, not wanting to be overheard.

the car infornt stop and they got out wave for everyone to follow them to rick. " we out of gas we could get some from the cars on the road"

"no problem we got this" daryl said as they head to the back of the cars on the road to get gas. they got the gas and head to the CDC when they get there the doors was close, people started to panic as the dead start to come for them, but the door open when rick start to scream at the camera that moved, "please let us in, your killing us" when the door open the man inside said that once the door close it stay close no one really under stood what that meant 

"alright come on" daryl said as they went in and the doors close behind them.

the first rules was the had to have their blood take and tested, then the man show them to the living rooms and the rec room and the dinner room  and the kitchen and the med bay and the labs and the armory and the green house and the garage and the gym and the pool and the game rooms they called that dinner was ready, so they went to each when shane ruined the mood

" why is just you?" shane ask

" when the zombies appeared many when home to be with their love one, those who could not take it opted out. i chose to stay to try and find a cure, but their is not one" the man said 

when the group learn their was no cure their faces fell, stiles and glenn try to shift the mood with booze that sat at the table, and daryl almost force glenn to drink a whole bottle and to see how red glenn face can become before stiles jump in at put a stop to his mate and glenn bet.

after dinner the man showed them to their rooms and they all went to bed, stiles and daryl lay in bed and daryl held stiles close, the bed soft and comfortable and the room warm, stiles feel safe for the first time since the apocalypse start, he kissed daryl on the cheek and closed his eyes, listening to daryl's heartbeat, it lulling him to sleep.

in the morning they all went to breakfast, the food taste like home made and stiles could almost taste his mom's cooking, 

Jenner leads everyone into the big room after breakfast the next morning. Most stumble after slowly, holding their heads and groaning. Daryl snorts at them as he passes them and makes it to the front with Stiles and Rick.

"Bunch of sissy can't take a little hangover. Wasn't even the good shit." Rick looks at Daryl, one eyebrow raised, causing the alpha and his son to laugh at Rick's bloodshot eyes. "Sissy."

The men chuckle as the group gathers around Dr. Jenner at his computer station. "Give me a playback of TS-19. Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."

Up on the wall an oversized display shows varying 3-D views of human skulls. The main screen changes to show the upper shoulders and head of the subject. The screen skews to a horizontal view then increases the magnification. The image becomes more and more detailed. The magnification shows the inside the skull. It appears to be lit with bright blue threads of energy. Some areas are denser with light than others but there are lighted threads throughout the skull. The detail zooms in until the threads become closer and pulses of light can be distinguished.

"What are those lights?"

Jenner addresses the Alpha who asked the question, Shane, as he speaks, "It's a person's life-experiences, memories. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you-the thing that makes you unique and human."

Daryl rubs his face with a sigh. "You don't make sense ever, do ya doc?"

Jenner points at the blue lights on the screen, "Those are synapses; electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death. This is a vigil... or rather the playback of the vigil, for Test Subject-19. Someone who was bitten and infected... and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, Scan forward to the first event."

The brain has lights still flickering in the outer areas, but the center has become dark as if black roots were growing inside. Glenn gasps at the image of the spreading darkness in the brain; blue lights being replaced with red. "What is that?"

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death." Jenner clears his throat as the brain goes black, all the lights gone, "Everything you ever were or ever will be...gone. Scan to the second event. 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 minute... seven seconds."

A red glow flickers at the base of the brain. The rest remains dark. Random sparks shoot out into the larger area of the brain, but no further lights grow.

"It restarts the brain?" Stiles asks in shock, staring at the screen with wide eyes.

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

Rick watches the body move as he walks closer to get a better look, "But they're not alive?"

Jenner gestures to the monitor, "You tell me."

Rick shakes his head no, "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." The subject moves, its mouth opens and closes. The head moves side to side, the shoulders move as if the arms were being lifted. The barrel of a gun appears at the forehead pointing down. A bullet enters the brain and tears through the red cluster of embers. The brain goes completely dark, the subject stops moving.

"God. What was that?"

Jenner starts to shut down his computer, "VI, Power down the main screen and the workstations."

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you? You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea looks at the Alpha, waiting for an answer while the computer was powering down the main screen and workstations.

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

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but..." Dale points at the huge clock on the wall as it hits one hour, "that clock-it's counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators-they run out of fuel."

"And then? VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asks when Jenner ignores the question and walks out of the big room.

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

.....

Jenner had locked the group in zone 5, waiting for the HITs to detonate and set the air on fire. After a couple attempts on Jenner's life, which Rick had broken up before the doctor was hurt, the Alpha begged Jenner for a second chance. Once the doors were reopened everyone, but Jenner, Jacqui, Andrea and Dale run up the stairs to the ground level. T-Dog and Daryl run for the doors, banging against them. T-Dog tries the electronic security pad beside the door.

"Try it! Try it! Try it now!"

"Daryl!" The Alpha tosses the axe into Shane's hands. They both start hitting the glass, but it doesn't break. T-Dog makes a run at the window with a chair.

"Daryl, look out!" The chair doesn't work. Shane loads his shotgun and fires a round at the glass. It barely makes a dent.

Seeing no progress, Carol reaches in her bag, remembering one important detail from Rick arriving at camp. "Rick, I have something that might help."

Shane scuffs as the timid Omega fumbles with her purse, "Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it."

"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." Carol ignores the other Alpha as she speaks to the Prime, pulling out the grenade Rick had picked up in the tank in Atlanta. She gives it to him and takes Sophia away toward the back of the lobby.

"The fuck Officer Friendly?"

"Oh my god, that's a GERNADE!"

"GET DOWN!"

Everyone but Rick takes cover while he removes the pin and puts the grenade on the window sill. Terrified at what he's just done he leaps back and away as quickly as he can.

"Oh, Sh-" stiles doesn't get to finish his words

Only the window nearest to the grenade shatters but it's big enough for them to escape through. Once outside the group runs to their vehicles, the guys shoot down any Walkers that are in their path; Daryl takes one's head off with his axe. Rick leads the way, the pups and their mothers right behind him. He climbs into the RV and gets keys to start the engine. Lori points out the window as Andrea and Dale jump down out of the building. "Wait wait wait wait wait. They're coming."

Andrea and Dale make a run for the R.V. and Rick checks his watch. They weren't going to make it. Lori sees the flames building up in the window and sticks her head out the window "Dale, get down! Andrea, down!"

Dale and Andrea take shelter behind the sandbag cordon out by the guard shack. Everyone else ducks down in their vehicle as a huge fireball builds up inside the C.D.C. building until it fills the entire place. The heat blasts out the windows, setting fire to everything around it, exploding tanks, cars, trucks, everything it touches. The explosion expands until the roof disintegrates and the building implodes on itself. Everyone is shocked at the destruction. Behind the sandbags Dale reaches down to Andrea and helps the Beta up.

Stiles opens the R.V. door, ushering them into the vehicle as he sees the Walkers getting closer. "Get in, get in, get in. get in!"

Rick drives the R.V. away, looking shaken. The five cars turn around and drive back up the road they'd come down on, the burning of the C.D.C. sends a column of black smoke high up into the Atlanta sky.

stiles hugs his mate, Daryl rubbing his back, trying to calm him down. "It's over, man. You saved us." Rick looks in the rear-view mirror at coral, who's holding Sophia. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she whispers. "I just can't believe they were in there."

"They weren't just people, coral. They were scientists," Rick says, pulling the RV over to the side of the road. "They did this to themselves."

Shane looks over at them, still angry at Rick for not trusting him. "We should have just left them in there," he mutters.

T-Dog sighs heavily, his gaze fixed on the burning building in the distance. "No, man. We did the right thing."

Daryl looks at T-Dog and Shane, then back at Rick. "What now?"

"We find a place to hole up," Rick says, looking at his map. "We need to find somewhere safe, somewhere with supplies, and get set up. We need to get ready."

"Where's that?" Shane asks.

"Not too far from here," Rick replies. "But it's gonna take some time to get there. We'll need to keep our eyes open."

Rick turns the RV back onto the road and starts driving. They pass through the remains of a small town, the silence broken only by the occasional moan of a Walker and the crunch of gravel under the tires of their vehicles. Daryl sits in the backseat with Sophia, watching the road through the rear window. He can feel the tension in the air, the unease of not knowing what's around the next corner. But he knows they're safer together, under Rick's leadership.

As they continue to drive, they spot a group of Walkers shambling down the road ahead of them. "Shane, T-Dog, take care of those," Rick says, pulling over to the side of the road. "Daryl, keep an eye out for any more."

Shane and T-Dog hop out of their cars and begin to methodically take down the Walkers, using their guns and knives. Daryl watches them with a mix of respect and resentment. He knows they're good at what they do, but he can't help but feel that there's something missing from their approach. There's no finesse, no understanding of the Walkers as individuals. It's just kill or be killed.