Too Late to Say Goodbye - Daryl Dixon

three

TW: another suicide mention in this chapter...I would expect it at this point :/ I'll mark the upcoming mention with a ' * '

Robin

We all followed him to the big room, looking at the screen in front of us all. Jenner walked over to one of the desks and pressed a button, "Give me a playback of TS-19." He said, signalling Vi to pull up a file onto the big screen as her voice echoed, confirming the playback.

I looked around the room, watching as everyone stared at the screen, waiting for something to come up. My eyes caught onto Daryl as I hadn't noticed him in the kitchen earlier. He looked over to me and I sent him a smile, earning a nod back.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this." Jenner spoke, turning his body around so he was facing everyone, "Very few."

I looked up at the screen, seeing the data that I had seen many times before, there were MRI's, clips of cells interacting with each other...I'm sure it looked nuts to everyone else, despite them not knowing what any of it meant.

Everyone walked a bit closer, their heads craning up more the closer they got to the screen. They looked fascinated and confused, not exactly sure what they were looking at.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked, his eyes moving from the screen and landing on me.

I nodded as Jenner spoke up, "An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end."

Daryl showed up next to me, a few feet away. I looked over to him and crossed my arms over my chest, taking a deep breath, "Ever seen anything like this?" I asked, curious if he had any knowledge of stuff like this.

He shook his head and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "Nah." He spoke quietly.

"Take us in for E.I.V." Jenner spoke up, causing the screen to zoom into the brain, getting an in depth look at the neurons.

"What are those lights?" Shane asked from behind everyone, seated against a desk. He was staring at the screen in wonder.

I smiled a bit and looked back to the screen as well, "It's a person's life...experiences, memories. It's everything." I explained simply, "Somewhere in all of this organic wiring, all of the ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique, and human."

Daryl looked at me and tilted his head, "You don't make sense, ever?" He asked, giving me a look before his gaze turned to Jenner.

Edwin pointed at the screen, turning towards us again, "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."

Rick took a few steps forwards, moving closer to Jenner, "Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" He asked, his tone almost accusatory.

"Yes." Was the simple reply that Jenner gave, "Or rather, the playback of the vigil."

Andrea frowned a bit, her tone soft, "This person died? Who?" She asked.

I looked down at the ground with a frown, not wanting to think about the persons death that they were watching. It felt too soon...made everything even more real, "Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten, and infected...and volunteered to have us record the process." I said quietly, yet loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Vi, scan forward to the first event." Jenner interrupted, signalling Vi to skip the recording until it reached one of the most interesting parts of this experiment, yet also one of the saddest.