#the only explanation possible to the whole Lori/Shane thing

[acidbubblegummie]

Shane, to Lori.

[hunted-moth]

Just Like Him  Chapter Five If Only We Were In France

Wordcount // 2k

Summary // Dr. Jenner feels as though it’s better if you stay locked in the basement of the CDC

Warning //Angst, Language, Death, Killing of Walkers, Typical TWD stuff really

OTHER STUFF//wow this really short lmao

A/N // LETSS GOOO last chapter. After this, I'm gonna take a small break from posting chapters. I'll be writing for season two, but I'm gonna write all the drafts and then post them when I'm done editing/proofing it lol

***: Major time Skip/scene change

*: small time skip/scene change

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          It was quiet and tense as you and Carl read a book on the couch in Lori's room. After the events from that morning, no one was really in the mood to talk. The only words Lori said were to Carl. Telling him to study and stuff. So to get your mind off everything, you decided to read a book on mushrooms and other stuff on forging. 

While you were reading you heard a noise and saw Lori stand up and reach her hand up to the ceiling vents. 

“Something wrong Mom?” Carl asked, you looked to her for answers as she turned to you both.

“It’s, uhh…nothing, the air just stopped working.” she looked around then a moment later the lights went out. You gathered your books and followed Lori as she poked her head out to ask others if they were experiencing the same thing. 

Then from your view, you could see Jenner walking down the hall with his signature speed. Everyone started to bombard him with questions about what was going on and why the lights were out. 

“Energy use is being prioritized” he answered the questions bluntly. Dale got a shocked look on his face at the answer

“Air isn't a priority, and lights?” he asked the man who didn't even blink an eye towards him

“It's not up to me, zone fine is shutting itself down” Then he disappeared behind a corner. You all quickly followed him as Daryl demanded answers from him. Daryl matched his speed and got in his face.

“Hey man I'm talking to you, what do you mean it's shutting itself down??” the more you walked the closer you got to the big room. You soon met up with Rick the others who went to look around.

“What's happening?” Rick demanded, but Jenner just flew past him. Throwing the explanation over his shoulder. 

“The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It’s designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark.” he checked his watch as he stopped “Right on schedule” and then continued walking.

He stopped, and everyone stared at him. All of them were scared and didn’t know what was gonna happen.  You looked to Dale as he put his arm around you, shielding you. You saw Jenner bow his head and looked at the rest of you before he spoke again.

“It was the French” he spoke cooly and bluntly. You scrunched your eyebrows in confusion, what does the French have to do with this right now, you thought. 

“They were the last ones 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 till the end” he took a breath “They thought they were close to a solution” he said sadly.

“What happened?” Jacqui asked his softy. You looked at him again.

“The same thing happening now.” he looked around “No power grid, the place ran out of juice” he threw his arms up like a madman “The whole world runs off fossil fuel, I mean how stupid is that!” Jenner looked to you all again. 

Shane grew pissed as he stared down the scientist. “I'll tell you what” he began to walk towards the man, but Rick cut him off.

“To hell with it Shane, I don't even care” he turned to you three “Lori grab our things, the rest of you, grab your stuff, we’re getting out of here NOW!”

As you all began to leave a loud alarm filled your ears. You covered your ears as VI's voice came over the intercom. 

“30 minutes to decantation” You looked to Lori and Rick confused then looked to the clock, and sure enough, the clock had thirty minutes remaining. During the confusion, you saw Jenner enter something and then you heard Rick yelling at everyone to hurry and grab their belongings. You ran after the metal door about the pass it when it shut on you.

You looked back to see Jenner talking to the computer monitor as everything sunk in. ‘he just locked us in here, were gonna die’ You wanted to cry but at that point, you felt nothing. This was supposed to be a safe haven, nothing was gonna go wrong, but it’s been all wrong since you got here.

But Shane attacked Lori and now the mad scientist just locked in here to die. Your attention was pulled away when you saw Darly run toward Jenner as he tried to hit him. But T-dog and Shane held him back. 

Once Shane and T-dog got Daryl away from Jenner, Rick demanded that he open the doors, but Jenner kept saying that he doesn't control the doors, the computers do 

“Can’t you override the doors? Please you have to do something” you begged the man as he looked back at you then Rick. 

“What happens in twenty-eight minutes?! What happens!?” Rick demanded from Jenner but that pissed Jenner off as he went on a rant about the CDC. But he controlled himself as he sat down again and explained the protocol.

“In the event of a catastrophic power failure—in a terrorist attack, for example—H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out.” you looked at him confused and scared, Jenner signed and looked down as he had VI defined H.I.T.s

“high-impulse thermo baric fuel-air explosives consist 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 at between 5,000 degrees and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired” VI explained in its soulless robotic voice.

“It sets the air on fire, it's painless” Jenner tried to comfort everyone but it was drowned out by Carol and Sophia's cries of anguish. “An end to sorrow and grief-” Jenner was cut off by a smash of glass. 

“OPEN THIS DAMN DOOR, NOW!” Daryl yelled making you jump as you looked back at the door now dripping with liquor.

Shane then rushed past you with an axe then Daryl somehow got an axe and they both started to hit the door but it did nothing, it barely left a scratch. A pit began in your stomach as they continued to hack at the door. Jenner kept spewing bullshit about how this was better. You wanted to ring his neck, because if you died, then your mother would have died for nothing.

“Can't make a dent,” Shane said with a deep breath, then Jenner sighed and pinched his nose.

“Those doors are meant to withstand a rocket blaster” That's when you felt Daryl rush past you with the axe held high.

“WELL YOUR HEAD AINT!”  everybody rushed towards him and pulled him back as Jenner stepped back away from the scene. Something in Jenner must've snapped inside him as he stared at Rick.

“You wanted this, you said it was a matter of time before everybody you knew and loved was dead,” Jenner said cooly while looking Rick dead in the eye. Everyone was looking at Rick, with confusion, shock, and anger. 

“What? You really said that after all your big talk?” Shane said in disbelief. Rick looked around before his eyes locked on Lori's confused and hurt face. 

“I had to keep hope alive didn't I?” Rick looked around desperately. But Jenner just interjected again.

“There is no hope, there never was” You looked down solemnly.

“There’s always hope. Maybe it won’t be you, maybe not here but somebody somewhere-” Andrea cut Rick off, making her mind known.

“What part of ‘everything is gone’ do you not understand” Her tone sounded annoyed and done. 

“Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event.” Jenner reasoned that what he said was common sense. Like it was a known fact that humans would die because the dead were eating the living. You didn't like it, you balled your fist as your body went ridged and some tears leaked from your face.

You really couldn't believe this is where you would die, stuck underground with a whole bunch of people, and not surrounded by family when you were old and frail in a hospital. You couldn't even say goodbye to your brother, you couldn't see him anymore because your body would be nothing, not even dust. 

You were pulled from your thought when you heard a gun cock, making you look up to see Shane also rushing Jenner. You were actually kinda hoping he would shoot him so that he could suffer in his last moments. 

Rick tried to intervene Shane's path but Shane just pushed out of the way and aimed the shotgun. 

“Out of the way, Rick!  Stay out of my way! OPEN THAT DOOR OR I’M GONNA BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF. DO YOU HEAR ME?” he shouted in Jenner's face with the shotgun pointed at his head. Rick ran up to Shane and tried to pull him away again, trying to reason with him.

“Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here.” he stared into his eyes, Lori tried to convince him but he gave neither a reaction as he stared into Jenner's soul. You swear you saw Shane's finger twitch around the trigger before Rick spoke again.

“He dies, we all die” Shane looked at Rick then screamed and began to shoot the monitor screens behind Jennifer's head before Rick wrestled the gun out of Shane's hands. During the struggle, Shane began to fight back causing Rick to hit him with the butt of the gun, knocking Shane to the ground.

Rick lectures Shane while handing the gun to T-dog. He then composed himself and looked Jenner dead in the eyes.

“I think you’re lying” Jenner looked at him confused “You’re lying about there being no hope. If that were true, you’d have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn’t. You chose the hard path. Why?” Rick got up in his face, looking into his soul.

“It doesn't matter” Jenner brushed it off and looked to the computer screen. But Rick didn't like that answer and questioned him again. Sometimes you forget he’s a cop.

“It does matter, it always matters. You stayed, and others ran, why?” Jenner was getting mad now. You could see the way his eyes and eyebrows narrowed causing his face to winkle in anger. 

“Not because I wanted to. I made a promise.” he stood up and pointed to the screen, TS-19 still projected, “To her. My wife.” he said with so much restraint like he was willing himself to stay composed. 

You felt pity for Jenner when he revealed the identity of the subject, just a smidge, you still wanted to leave the damn basement. 

“She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?” he said sadly. In the distance you could hear pounding on the door again, looking over your shoulder you saw Daryl trying and failing at breaking the door down. 

“She was dying. It should’ve been me on that table. I wouldn’t have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world.  Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here.” he took a breath and composed himself “In our field she was an Einstein. Me? I’m just… Edwin Jenner. She could’ve done something about this. Not me.” Jenner was a broken man on the inside, you could tell. 

“Your wife didn’t have a choice. You do. That’s—that’s all we want—a choice, a chance.” Rick looked at the man earnestly.

“Let us keep trying! As long as we can” Lori pleaded with him. She locked eyes with him, her soft kind, and desperate eyes, then sighed and turned to the keypad again. You hear those femoral beeps again and jump up, grabbing your stuff, but what he said made you bold to the doors.

“I told you, everything topside is locked up” Then the door opened. Everyone was grabbing their stuff and running out. But when you looked back two people didn't follow. 

Andrea and Jaqui. 

You didn't have time to register why didn't follow because Daryl practically dragged you down the halls? You make it to the lobby. Glenn and T-dog went to try the doors but they wouldn't budge. Then Daryl and Shane went at the glass with axes, which didn't work either.

Everyone was freaking out and running, trying to figure out how to get out. Then you saw Shane load a shotgun and back away. When he fired the gun, all it did was cause a huge spider web crack. Then Carol walked up to Rick.

“I think I have something” You looked at her and saw the goddamn grenade in her hand “When I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket” Rick took the weapon and everyone backed up to hide from the blast. You hid behind some stairwells and crouched down, covering your ears and bracing for the impact.

BOOM

You heard the sound of glass breaking and peeked out from behind the stairs and got up and and ran to the rest of the group, following them out as they ran. The once foul smell of the area didn't bother you, it reminded you that you were alive for another minute. 

Walkers were limping towards your group but you paid no mind as Rick and Shane handled them. Your eyes were on the blue truck in front of you. 

You ran with Daryl as you ran for the blue pickup. He was in the lead making sure there weren't any walkers. He reached the pick-up first and opened the door urging you inside.

“Comon hurry up!” he yelled at you. You jumped he pushed in the foot space area then got in himself. And just as soon as he did that, you heard the building blow. You covered your ears as you felt the truck sway from the blast. Daryl lay flat against the bench of the cab. When it was over you looked out the window to see nothing but fire and rubble. 

“You okay?” he asked as he looked at the building. You nodded your head quietly.

“Ye-yeah, you?” you asked, not tearing your eyes away. All you got was “hpm” in response. Moments later you got out of the foot space and sat down on the seat. Daryl sat on the divers side and started the truck when the other vehicles started driving off. 

Once a beacon of hope for your group, is now reduced to flames. 

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