The Walking Dead (Fanfic)

Chapter 9

Jenner took us back to what I assumed was the screening room. The sound of the computers was whirling as we all filled the room, curious to see what the doctor wanted to show us. "Playback of TS-19." Vi said after most of us were turned to the giant screen in the front. I sat down on one of the desks as the screen filled with images of brain scans and information. Jenner turned to look at us as Daryl leaned against the computer beside me. "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."

"That's a brain." I said while looking at the screen as it changed colors and shifted to a side view. "An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end." Jenner said as he looked at the screen with his hands on his hips. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the red countdown clock was still counting, seconds passed as everyone focused on the screen.

We saw the brain light up like the northern lights, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen and everyone else was memorized by it too. "What are those lights?" Shane asked, he was sitting in a chair with his elbows on his knees. "It's a person's life. Experiences, memories. It's everything." Jenner sighed as he pointed around for emphasis, his whole demeanor had changed from quiet to excited but sad. "Somewhere in all that organic writing, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique. And human."

Daryl had crossed his arms, his hands between his sides and biceps. "You don't make sense ever?" he asked, almost mocking Jenner to help us understand better. "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," Jenner explained looking at the screen and then at us, "to the moment of death."

"Death?" Rick asked stepping forward, still looking at the screen. I sank deeper into the jacket, seeking comfort as the throbbing in my head became a dull ache. Jenner explained that the brain we were looking at was of someone who had been bitten, and they gave their lives to record the process. "Vi, scan over to the first event." Jenner called out, I looked over at Daryl who was intensely staring at the screen.

The lights in the brain were barely flashing and there were black inky branches at the base of the brain, it was coming from the spinal cord. "What is that?" Glenn asked, looking better than he did this morning. "It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death." Jenner explained as we saw the brain go completely dark, and the vital signs beside it fell into a straight line.

"Everything you ever were or ever will be, gone." He said, I looked back and saw Andrea staring at the floor. I climbed off the table and walked towards her; I gave her a hug without saying a word. Jenner looked over at Andrea as she silently shuddered in my arms. "She lost someone two days ago." I told him, Andrea squeezed my arm and gave me a small nod. I let her go as Jenner told Vi to scan to the second event.

"The resurrection times vary wildly. We have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds." Jenner explained, we all looked up at the brain as red lights started sparking through the dim brain. It looked evil, menacing. "It restarts the brain?" Lori asked in disbelief, leaning on one of the many computers.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets you up and moving." Jenner said not looking away from the screen. Rick and I looked at each other, just as everyone were trying to understand. "But they're not alive." I said but it came out sound more like a question. "Everything is dead. The part that is you, doesn't come back. There are no traces of the person you were before." Jenner said before we saw something slice through the brain of test subject nineteen. "What was that?" Carol asked holding Sofia close to her, Andrea looked at the screen with understanding in her eyes. "He shot his patient in the head." She said looking at him, he nodded before he powered down the workstations. There was light but it was dim.