Consequences of a Chance (The Walking Dead)

Prologue

I woke up only to feel more drained than ever, guess being stuck underground in a box will do that to a person. I slowly sit up and stare at the familiar grey wall in front of me. This box had been my room since it all happened.

I got up after a minute or so and walked over to the desk, and looked at the clock, I had slept for seven hours and it was a new day. So I picked up my knife and carved another line in the wall in front of me. The count was now 132, that's how long I've been stuck down here.

I left the room and headed to the mess hall, I grabbed my usual breakfast of a power bar and sports drink and headed to the main hall where I found my dad sitting in front of a monitor doing his daily progress report, doubt anyone was listing though. I could see him turn on the transmission and then he spoke.

"Jenner here. It's day 194 since wildfire was declared and 63 days since the disease abruptly went global. There's no clinical progress to report. Item... I finally got the scrubbers in the east sector shut down to save power. Wish I could have done it a month ago, but it took me that long to figure it out. Too bad I never studied engineering. Could have saved a lot of amps. Item... I'm still not sleeping well. Can't seem to keep regular hours. Living underground doesn't help, not knowing if it's day or night. I'm just feeling very off-kilter these days."

I saw him end the transmission and place his head in his hands as he let out his usual frustrated groan.

"Did you get any sleep?" I asked as I joined his side, placing my hand on his shoulder. He lifted his arm and placed his hand on mine.

"No more than usual," he replied.

"Dad you can't keep this up for much longer," I pointed out.

"I know Lottie."

"When you gonna stop calling me that? I'm not five anymore."

"Charlotte Marie Jenner you will always be my baby and I will continue to call you Lottie while we walk this earth and beyond," he said as he stood up. As he faced me I became more concerned about his state by examining his appearance. He was a mess, doesn't look like he's shaved in days or slept in weeks by the bags under his eyes.

"Come on let's get you cleaned up and fed so you can get some work done without falling asleep," I said grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the mess hall to get some food in him.

"Since when do you look after me?"

"Since you stopped looking after yourself," I laughed.

After I finally got my dad to eat something we headed over to the laboratory where I helped him get into his biohazard suit. I watched as he passed through the airlock and into the lab. I watched him open a tissue sampled and begin his experiment. He placed the sample in a test tube and then added corrosive fluid and spun it in a centrifuge, after which he examined it under the microscope. Ever since I was a child I was coming along to watch him work, it always fascinated me to sit behind the giant glass panel watching my dad in the lab as he experimented and examined stuff.

All of the sudden as he reached for a beaker, dad knocked over the bottle of corrosive fluid all over the tissue sample. The alarm started to go off as dad runs to the decontamination chamber and strip the biohazard suit.

"Alert status. Air qualifiers indicate corrosive fumes. All personnel must clear the room. Corrosive element is deemed poisonous if inhaled," the computer spoke, as dad left the lab the computer continued, "All personnel clear. Full decontamination in effect."

From behind the thick glass wall I watched helplessly as the lab, and all of the remaining samples, were engulfed in flames. I lowered my head, they were the best samples by far.

"Full decontamination complete," the computer finished.

I know dad is going to be so disappointed, this was the best sample he had to work with, the best hope to find what it was.

I walked out of the observation room and walked to the mess hall. The kitchen was stoked with food and drink before the outbreak happened which was lucky for dad and I, we hadn't even made a dint in the food yet.

Out of nowhere my dad appeared in front of me. He walked passed me and opened the wine fridge grabbing a bottle, then walking over to the cabinet, grabbing a wine glass and walking out. I decided to follow him, best not to leave him alone right now. I followed him into the main hall and watched as dad opened the bottle, poured a glass and started to scull the wine. He stopped and sat in front of the computer monitor. He started another transmission.

"The TS19 samples are gone. The tragedy of their loss cannot be overstated. They were our freshest samples by far. None of the other samples we gathered even came close. Those are necrotic, useless dead flesh. I don't even know why I'm talking to you. I bet there isn't a single son of a bitch out there still listening, is there? Is there?" he took another sip of the wine and stood up before continuing to speak, "Fine. Saves me the embarrassment. I think tomorrow I'm gonna blow my brains out. I haven't decided. But tonight, I'm getting drunk."

Dad poured himself another drink. I continued to watch from a distance, I wanted to see what he was really feeling, not just what he was putting on show for me.

"Speaking of which, how far do you think I can chuck this, huh? Pretty far I bet," dad spoke. I watched as dad picked up the bottle and threw it over the light hold, I heard the glass shattered when dad started to cheer, "Oh! It is out of the stadium!"

Just then an alarm started to go off, dad looked closely at the monitor and muttered a no to himself.

"Dad, what's going on?" I asked as I made my way over to him. As I got closer I looked at the screen myself, it was the proximity alarm, it let us know when there was someone close by. It hasn't gone off for something living in a very long time. The monitor changed to the security cameras and we saw a group of people heading towards the front door.

Dad and I watched in shock as the group banged on the door and begged us to let them in, they looked desperate and beat up, like they had been to hell and back, I even saw a small child in the back of the group. I looked at dad and before I could even speak he shot me down.

"You know I can't," dad muttered.

"Why not, look at them! They have children!" I yelled, "They need our help!"

"No, just go away," dad continued to mutter.

"Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left," a man in sheriff's clothes spoke, he continued to speak at the camera as another man tried to drag him away, "We have nowhere else to go."

"Dad we have too, it's what mum would have wanted," I knew that would hit the spot.

Dad looked at me, he knew I was right. I hated bringing up mum but I had to, it was the proper thing to do.