SARAH

"What if we go to the basement?" Sarah said, feeling her heart race as the red numbers on the clock continued to decrease.

"And do what?" Shane asked, glancing at her.

"The voice said 'decontamination,'" she replied, her anxiety rising. "Whatever it is, it's not good. I'm sure of it."

"We should check it out," Glenn suggested, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah," Rick said. "We need to figure out what's happening." He turned to the group. "Okay, Shane, Glenn, T-Dog, and Sarah," he said, pointing at them. Sarah smiled at the sound of her name. "You come with me. The rest of you stay in your rooms. We'll be right back."

"Ya wanna bring Missy with ya?" Daryl argued with a frown. Sarah glared at him, remembering again all the nasty things he had said to her. Apparently, now he didn't even need to drink anymore to be an ass at her.

"It was her idea," Rick replied, observing Daryl as Sarah shook her head. "If she wants to come, it's fine by me."

"I want to," she assured him when he looked at her.

"Lori," she said, turning to the woman, "can you check on Nicki while I'm gone?"

"Sure," Lori answered, pulling Nicki closer.

Feeling the weight of everyone's gazes, Sarah followed Rick and the others as they tried to locate the basement. With less than an hour before the decontamination, urgency propelled them forward.

They raced through the corridor, desperately searching for the right door.

"This place is huge," said Shane as they ran, "Where the hell is it?"

"There must be some indication," Sara said. "It's the law."

"Emergency signs!" exclaimed Glenn. "There must be somewhere." They all started to look at the walls as they ran. It felt like losing a lot of time without being able to do anything useful, but after some moments, T-Dog found the sign. Luckily, they weren't that far from the right door. When they opened it, they came across a stair going down. They didn't have to say anything as they ran down.

"Decontamination...What does that mean?" asked Glenn anxiously.

"Decontamination, sterilization, elimination. They all mean the same thing," said Sarah. As she heard that word, the image of fire appeared in her mind. Decontamination meant the elimination of every type of contamination, and it usually happened at high temperatures.

"I don't like it," said Shane, "The way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that." Jenner's expression was full of sorrow and fatigue.

"What's wrong with him?" asked T-Dog as they arrived at the bottom of the stairs. "Seriously, man, is he nuts? He's medicated. What?"

I wonder how long he has been closed here. Without family or friends, people can go insane. 

What Nicki had said seemed a prediction now. 

What had Jenner planned? What did he want to do?

The room where they had ended up was full of tubes and black barrels. They split into two groups: Rick and Shane went one way, while Sarah, Glenn, and T-Dog went the other way. She wasn't really sure what they were looking for. They were surrounded by empty barrels that surely once held fuel. Why were they all empty? If that was the only way the building kept having electricity, they didn't have much time.

"Flammable," she muttered, brushing her fingers on the red sign on the barrel.

Decontamination...

"What does he have in mind?" Sarah asked, realizing another barrel was empty.

Suddenly, the lights went out, making her look around. Vi's voice echoed in the room, announcing that the emergency lights were on. Sarah let out an anxious breath. Nothing of that was good, nothing.

"Sarah!" she heard Glenn say as she noticed the light of the flashlight getting closer.

"I'm here," she said, moving another barrel to find it empty.

"Have you touched anything?" asked Glenn as he ran towards her, but she shook her head.

"Nothing that could cause a blackout," she said before following Glenn through the dark corridors. Soon, T-Dog was following them as they arrived where Rick and Shane were.

"Hey, you guys kill the lights?" asked Glenn, but they shook their heads.

"Nah, it just went out," said Shane, looking closely at a generator. It was almost empty, too.

"Anything?" asked Rick as they got closer.

"Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count," said T-Dog, making Sarah nod her head before turning to Rick.

"And nothing to fill them again," she said.

"It can't be down to just that one," said Shane in disbelief, looking over to Rick.

She didn't like it. Sarah felt anxiety rising in her. What could they do? They didn't have any fuel, and if they had to go out, with the power running out, she wasn't sure that the elevator would have worked. 

"No, it can't be," Sarah muttered. They weren't stuck in there; it couldn't be. And probably, she was mistaken about the decontamination thing. Why let them in if he didn't have good intentions? Why give them food? Or help her with her hand?

"What do we do?" asked Glenn, looking at Rick, who was deep in thought.

"Do we leave?" asked T-Dog.

That was the safest place they had found... or at least they thought.

"Decontamination..." said Rick, looking towards Sarah. "Elimination?"

Sarah nodded her head. "It's the same thing."

Before they knew it, they were all running up the stairs again. She wasn't sure of how much time had passed, but she hoped not too much. They all needed to figure out what to do, to reorganize. Possibly talk to Jenner. Maybe it was nothing, maybe just the power was running out. But as they ran up, not only were the lights off, but even the air conditioning had stopped.

When they arrived next to Zone 5, they heard footsteps and voices getting closer. Looking up, she noticed everyone following Jenner walking towards them.

"The hell is going on?" asked Shane as they ran closer to the group.

"Rick?" they heard Lori call.

"Sarah," said Nicki, running to her. "Everything is shutting down."

"Yeah, I know," she said, eyeing Jenner. "But we couldn't find anything useful."

They all followed Rick as he was asking for an explanation from Jenner, who started to rant about how the computers needed to work until the last second. Her blood ran cold.

Last second of what?

31.27

Half an hour?

"What the hell is going on?" she muttered before Daryl walked past her to snatch the bottle of alcohol from the doctor's hand.

"It was the French," Jenner said after endless moments of silence, making them all frown.

"What?" asked Andrea.

"They were the last ones to hold out, as far as I know," Jenner said. "While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution." 

What was the point of all of this? What was the man doing? 

Sarah looked over to Nicki, who was just observing the doctor silently. She had always been good with her nerves, studying what was around her, even this time. Sarah was trying not to let the anxiety of her thoughts get the best of her, but she couldn't right now. There must have been some kind of explanation and a way of getting out of that.

"What happened?" asked Jacqui.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice," Jenner answered. "The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Sarah's eyes went wide; that man was getting delirious. Shane seemed so pissed, and when he went to talk to the man, Rick stopped him.

"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care," said Rick, turning to them. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Everyone nodded in agitation as they started to run back. As they moved, a red light and an alarm went off. Sarah pulled Nicki closed to her, and her eyes went even wider.

"This can't be good," Nicki said, looking around.

Everyone started to panic as the countdown clock ticked down to the last 30 minutes on the screen. Shane and Rick yelled for everyone to grab their things and run. As Sarah turned to move, she felt a hand grip her arm, pulling her back.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Daryl shouted, his grip firm as she yanked her arm away from him.

"What do you want? Get off me!" she snapped.

"I'll go. Ya stay here," he insisted, starting to head toward the exit just as the gate slammed shut behind them. Sarah felt her heart drop into her stomach. What had Jenner done?

"Did he just lock us in?" Glenn exclaimed in disbelief. "He just locked us in!"

Air rushed out of Sarah's lungs, panic setting in. 

They were trapped inside; they couldn't get out.

What would have happened when the timer would have come to 0?

What decontamination meant?

"We've hit the 30-minute window. I am recording." Sarah turned when she heard Jenner.

"What the hell is happening?" said Nicki, observing the man.

As everyone ran back, Sarah saw Daryl glaring at Jenner before heading towards him.

"You son of a bitch!"

"Daryl!" she found herself yelling as she tried to grab his arm.

"Shane!" Rick said, making Shane run to Daryl and trying to stop him.

"You let us out of here!" Daryl yelled, grabbing Jenner for a moment before Shane managed to push him back, helped by T-Dog.

"No, stop. Don't!" 

Sarah covered her mouth with her hand, seeing them so desperate. Daryl was trying to get to the Doctor as Shane kept holding him.

"Jenner, open that door now!" exclaimed Rick, getting closer to Jenner. He was trying to keep himself calm, but like everyone else, he was probably terrorized.

"There's no point," said the Doctor, making the two sisters look at each other. "Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn thing!" Daryl exclaimed.

"That's not something I control. The computers do." Jenner was calm as he talked, and that only made her worry more. "I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that."

He had trapped them inside. He had it all figured out. 

Why let them in, then? Why had he been so cruel?

"Why?" Sarah asked with trembling hands. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"It's better this way." Sarah looked over to Daryl, who was pacing next to her and Nicki.

"What's better?" asked Nicki with a frown.

"What happens in 28 minutes?" said Rick, but Jenner just turned away. Giving his attention to the computer. Sarah trembled again, looking at everyone in the room. Carol and Sophia hugged each other, and Lori kept Carl behind her. The others were looking at the scene with worry. No one knew what to do. How could they get out of there? How could they open that damned door?

Shane went to the doctor, pushing him a few times before the man got up. "You know what this place is?!" he yelled. "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!" they got silent, listening to him, but quite frankly, Sarah really didn't care about it. They had to get out. She had to get Nicki out of there.

"What does decontamination mean?" she asked with a stronger voice than she thought she had. Jenner took a breath and did not look at her.

"In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack, for example..." the man said, "H.I.T.S are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.S?" asked Rick. 

Jenner took another breath.

"Vi, define"

"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" Sarah felt paralyzed, they were all going to die. She felt Nicki take her hand as they both kept looking at Jenner in disbelief.

"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," Vi kept explaining as a tear rolled down Sarah's eyes. 

"It's set the air on fire," Jenner explained. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief. Regret. Everything." 

She turned her gaze in desperation, trying to find something, anything, to get everyone out of that situation. But what could she do? What could anyone do?

Her eyes fixed on the timing. They were all going to die in a few minutes. Were those really her last moments on earth? Will she really wait twenty minutes before getting herself, her sister, and her friends blown up?

Suddenly a loud crash made her turn to see that Daryl had thrown the bottle in his hand towards the door. Glass shattered in pieces as he turned angrily.

"Open the damned door!" Daryl shouted. He was still trying to find a way out.

"Out of the way!" yelled Shane, running towards Daryl with two axes. As he was close enough, he threw the weapon for Daryl to catch before they started to hit the door. They were trying. 

She wasn't going to die like this, terrified and helpless. She would never allow her sister to perish without a fight.

"Stay next to Lori," Sarah said, reluctantly letting go of Nicki's hand.

"Where are you going?" Nicki asked, concern etched on her face.

"I need to try something," Sarah replied, but before she could move, Nicki stopped her.

"I want to help."

Nicki's fierce gaze left Sarah with no choice but to nod. Together, they headed toward the computers.

"What are you doing?" Dale asked as they passed him.

"These are computers," Sarah said, urgency in her voice. "There has to be a way to open the door."

"You know how to use them?" Nicki asked.

"Not really," Sarah admitted, trying to power on a nearby computer. "But I'm not going to die like this." She glanced at Daryl and Shane, still pounding on the door.

"There's nothing you can do," Jenner said, his tone dismissive. Sarah shot him a glare.

"Seriously, shut up," Nicki said as she sprinted to another terminal.

"It would've been so much easier," Jenner kept saying.

"Easier for who?" asked Lori with wide eyes.

Sarah didn't even want to hear that man. If she had kept listening, time would have passed without her even doing anything. She didn't know how those computers worked, but if that was a system, she had to understand how it worked. If she knew that, maybe there was a way to bypass it. She looked over to Jenner. What had he done to close the door?

"The computers won't turn on," Nicki said as she rushed toward Sarah, her eyes darting between the machines and Jenner.

"Right, then," Sarah muttered.

Sarah walked closer to the doctor, who looked at her with a frown. His was the only computer working. It was still recording as she walked there; it was the only thing she could see on the screen. Then she looked at the desk; there was a little keyboard with numbers and a blue scan. Then she looked over to Jenner to see his badge; on it, there was his photo and a barcode. 

"Bastard," she muttered, moving her hand to take the badge, but before she could, he pushed her wrist away.

"Hey!" she heard Lori exclaim.

"You've got all of this planned out. You trapped us here," Sarah said to the doctor. "And you're just staying there patronizing us."

"You know what this does. You've seen it," Jenner said again, making her shake her head. Then he turned to Rick, "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"

"I don't want this!" exclaimed Rick before Shane walked closer to regain some breaths.

"Can't make a dent," he said with labored breaths.

That didn't open, the computers weren't working, and they were running out of time—less than fifteen minutes. They couldn't die like that. 

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launch," said Jenner just before Daryl arrived behind him with the hatchet raised.

"Well, your head ain't!" he was about to hit him when Rick, Dale, T-Dog, and Sarah rushed in to intervene. T-Dog managed to wrest the hatchet from Daryl's grip while the others pushed him back a few steps.

"Take him away," Rick instructed Sarah, who kept pushing Daryl so that he could stay a few meters from Jenner.

"I'm gonna kill him," Daryl growled, his anger boiling over.

"You're not going to do anything," she replied, trembling slightly. "He's our only chance of getting out of here." Her gaze darted back to the timer—only ten minutes left.

"Please, Daryl," she implored. "We have to get out of here."

He studied her for a moment, visibly trying to rein in his fury before finally shifting his focus back to the doctor.

"You do want this. Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner's words made Lori's eyes go wide as she turned to her husband.

"You really said that? After all your big talk?" asked Shane as he, too, looked at Rick in disbelief.

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick said as Sarah put her hands on her hips, taking a breath. Her eyes again on the timing. They were all about to die; who cared about what had been said?

"That's exactly what he wants," said Nicki, sitting down next to Carl. "Making all of us get desperate. To not let us see any hope." Sarah was surprised at her sister. Even if she could see her trembling, she was still able to keep her nerves.

"There is no hope," said Jenner.

"There's always hope," said Rick. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere..."

"What part of "everything is gone" do you not understand?" said Andrea. 

He had convinced her. She had been so desperate after Amy's death; he was just getting it worse. It wasn't his call to decide how they had to die. Sarah knew that the world was terrible, that it was bad and scary, but they had the right to choose their destiny.

Carol was thinking the same. She screamed at the doctor that Sophia didn't deserve to die like this. 

Nicolette, Carl, and Sophia... they were so young. How could he look at them and want to kill them?

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asked just before the sound of a loaded rifle made them turn to see Shane walking towards the man with a furious expression, pointing the weapon towards Jenner.

"Nicolette!" Sarah shouted, instinctively ready to run to her sister, but Daryl grabbed her arm, holding her back against him.

"Open that door, or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!" Shane exclaimed. She had never seen him like that. Furious, not thinking straight.

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this," tried Rick. "We will never get out of here."

"Shane, you listen to him," said Lori, keeping both Carl and Nicki behind her back.

"He dies, we all...We all die! Shane!" Rick cried out, desperation lacing his voice.

In a fit of rage, Shane let out a primal yell and began firing at the computers behind Jenner's back.

Sarah had never been afraid of Shane before, but in that moment, she couldn't stop trembling as Daryl pushed her back, urging her to cover her ears. She yelped, clenching at Daryl's shirt as the shots rang out. When the gunfire finally ceased, she looked up to see Shane sprawled on the ground, Rick hovering over him. Panic surged as she scanned the room for Nicki, relief washing over her when she spotted her sister knelt beside Carl, both hiding behind a row of computers to avoid the chaos.

"We need to get out of here," Sarah muttered. They were all starting to get crazy. If it wasn't for the fire, something else might have happened between them.

"Yeah..." Daryl replied, striding toward the door with his hatchet in hand. Sarah glanced back at the doctor one last time before moving to join him.

"What are you doing?" he asked, frowning as she approached.

"I'm trying, just like you," she said, studying the hermetically sealed door. That code was their only chance of escape.

"I don't want to die," she admitted, her gaze flicking to her sister. "I don't want Nicolette to die."

"Ya're not," Daryl grunted, striking the door again. "We're gettin' out."

"That sounds like a promise," she replied, continuing to search for a weak spot as he struck the door.

"Whatever."

He was trying so hard. There wasn't much they could do, but she felt slightly better seeing him not giving up, even if there were just a few minutes left.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Daryl and Sarah looked at each other. Had Jenner opened the door? She had heard nothing of what they had been saying.

"Come on. Let's go!" said Daryl.

"Nicolette!" Sarah yelled, then searched for Glenn, gesturing to him to follow. Carl helped Nicki get up before they started to run towards the door. Carol and Sophia were next to Lori, as T-Dog and Jacqui were behind her, when the woman stopped.

"No, no, I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie." Sarah turned her full attention to Jacqui.

"But that's insane!" T-Dog exclaimed, but she just shook her head, crying.

"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time" she said "I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out" she said pushing T-Dog towards the exit.

"Jacqui..." Sarah said, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Just go, sweetie." Jacqui smiled sadly at her before turning back to stand next to Jenner.

"Jacqui!" Sarah called again, but Daryl gripped her arm, pulling her toward the exit.

"Come on, go!" he urged. "Now!"

Nicki was right behind her as they sprinted toward the stairs. Sarah glanced back to check if everyone was following. She spotted Lori, Carl, and Glenn starting to run, then Rick. Shane, T-Dog, Carol, and Sophia were already ahead. But she couldn't see Andrea and Dale. Where were they?

"We gotta move, come on!" exclaimed Shane as they ran up the stairs. 

They had less than four minutes to leave. Sarah felt her lungs burning because of how fast she was running. But when they arrived in front of the exit, her heart almost stopped.

"Shit..." the doors were still locked.

"Can we open them, Mom?" she heard Carl say as T-Dog and Glenn went to try pushing the doors open, but there was no use.

"Daryl!" she heard Shane yell as they ran towards the windows, starting to hit it with the hatchets. 

"That's not possible," scoffed Nicki with labored breaths.

She was right. 

They finally convinced Jenner to let them go, but they found the exit locked. They surely had less than three minutes now.

Shane then walked back to take the rifle and yelled at everyone to get back. He started to shoot at the glass. It just cracked, but it didn't break. 

"This is a government building," Sarah said, shaking her head, as she looked at Daryl and T-Dog hitting the glass again. "This place has to make it through wars."

"War, yeah!" exclaimed Carol as she started to look through her bag, making everyone frown.

"Rick, I have something that might help," Carol said, running to Rick.

"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna to do it," Shane said, looking at the glass.

"Funny, man," said Nicki, still taking deep breaths.

"Your first morning at camp," kept saying Carol, "When I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket." 

She was holding a freaking grenade! 

That could work. They would have to be really careful, but it could actually work. 

Sarah observed Rick and Shane share a look before nodding.

"Everyone, stay back!" Rick exclaimed.

"Dog!" 

"Daryl!" Shane and Sarah called at the same time, making the two men turn to run towards them.

Rick walked to get close to the glass, pulling the safety and igniting the grenade. 

It happened fast. Sarah pulled Nicki onto the ground, trying to shield her as much as possible as everyone tried to stay far away from the glass. When the grenade exploded, Sarah had never heard a louder noise in all her life. It rang in her ears and made the floor tremble.

"Come on! Come on!" Rick said as Lori helped Carl get up. Carol and Sophia were running to the shattered window with T-Dog. Sarah turned to Nicki, who was shaking her head, probably to get a better idea of the noise.

"Let's go, Nicki," she said, helping her sister get up. They ran towards the window, where Glenn helped Nicolette get out, and Daryl helped Sarah jump out.

"Run, run!" yelled Shane.

But when she turned, Sarah's eyes went wide, seeing walkers coming their way.

"We have to go," said Glenn in a worried tone. He was right. If the H.I.T.S. got the air on fire, they couldn't know what its range would be.

They didn't have even a moment to think as they started to run again. Walkers were coming their way before Shane and Rick shot some right in the head, making them fall limp on the ground. 

"Get in the cars!" Rick exclaimed as Daryl chopped another walker's head off.

It was less than two minutes. 

"Come on!" Daryl said, pulling Sarah and Nicki in his pick-up, while T-Dog, Carol, and Sophia went in Rick's car, and the others got in the RV.

"Stay down!" he exclaimed as they all tried to cover their heads. 

Sarah's heart was beating fast. It was the only sound that she could hear before the earth shook under them, and a loud explosion could be heard. It was far louder than the one they had heard before. The earth shook for some time as the temperature got hotter and hotter. When she didn't hear anything else, she started to raise her head before she felt Daryl's hand push her back.

"What the hell?!" she exclaimed.

"Stay down," he scoffed. "Always wond'ring around." 

Sarah frowned, shaking her head as he looked up first. When she heard him take a breath, she set down, too. In front of them, the CDC had disappeared; its ruins were on fire, and the smoky air was so dense that she had trouble breathing.

"Nicolette!" she called, looking at the back of the car as Nicki coughed with her thumb up. Sarah smiled weakly before turning to Daryl, who was looking at her and breathing heavily, too. She observed him for a moment before he nodded his head a little, making her do the same.

"Look," Nicki said, making them both turn where she was pointing. Sarah let out a light laugh as she noticed Dale and Andrea running towards the RV, where Glenn was gesturing to enter in.

"We're alive," Sarah said, leaning her back on the seat.

"Yeah..." Daryl said, leaning back to take a breath.

She still couldn't believe they had survived. 

"Are you all alright? Copy," Rick's voice came from the radio. Daryl and Sarah looked at each other before the girl took the microphone in her hand, bringing it closer to her mouth before pressing the button.

"Nicolette, Daryl, and I are fine. Copy," she said, releasing the button.

"Same here with Carol, Sophia, and I. Copy," T-Dog's voice came from the radio.

"Me too. Copy," Shane said, too.

"We gotta move. Copy," Rick announced as Daryl gestured to her to give him the mike. She observed him as he pressed the button.

"Where?" there was a moment of silence before Rick's voice came through.

"Don't know," he said. "But we can't stay here." They were in the city; it was not safe to be there, and a few walkers already started to show up.

"Let's go. Over," Rick said as Daryl took a breath and turned on the car. The caravan started moving to get out of the city. The buildings ran past them as they stood quietly. She felt relaxing. Maybe it had been the hell of a day they had or the tiredness she was feeling, but she was happy—happy to be alive and to have survived. No one knew what to do, but at least they were together, and that was enough for now.