Jayr POV - Earth, Geia, ter for Disease trol and Prevention - 2010

  Our caravan approached the C.D.C. with the suing, where waiting for us there were hundreds of rotting bodies id dead on the ground whose stench was bad enough to almost make the more sensible people faint.

  Of course, to avoid that, I made sure to tell everyoo cover their mouth and nose in whatever ossible while I gave the children some handkerchiefs doused in a harmless perfume to ralize the smell of the rotting corpses in some way.

  After warning everyohe group quietly approached the building and when they realized that it was locked and shuttered, they started to panic a little, but then before the situation could degee, I stepped forward and reassured them.

  At that point, Rioticed that the camera in front of the door moved and told us about it, taking advantage of that moment, I stopped Shane from shing out, stepped in front of the camera, and said, "Good evening. You may not know me, but I know the Head Stist of this structure Dr. dace Jenner as I've met her before during a medical ference. My name is Dr. Jayr Pucd I may have a possible solution for the Wildfire Virus but to prove my hypothesis I need a structure to safely duct the experiment. Please, if Dr. Jenner is iell her about me, I'm sure that she will allow me and my group inside."

  Of course, there isn't an immediate respo I'm calm and pretty fident after all, Cratergann is way too advanced for any kind of teology in this world and for sure it has successfully pleted my request which means that everything I have said be "proved" so I only have to wait for Edwin Jeo open the door.

  While we are waiting, Man steps o me and says, "You have old us you knew someone ihe C.D.C., the Head Stist at that." followed by Shane who adds, "That's right. If you told us that we would have agreed to the idea of ing here a lot sooner."

  Hearing that, I apologize and expin, "I'm sorry for not telling you guys about it, but I didn't think it was that important at the time. After all, I wasn't even sure if the structure would be still standing..."

  In respoo my words, Rick asks, "What do you mean with that?" but before I ahe shutters rise up and the door opens allowing us access into the C.D.d seeing that, I quickly say, "Let's head inside." followed by Shane who barks, "Daryl, you cover the back."

  The other survivors and I carefully file into the C.D.C. lobby as Rick warily looks around and calls out, "Hello? Hello?"

  At the same time, Shane is also doing the same while he warns, "Watch those doors." followed by Dale who also says, "Watch for walkers."

  We all stop a few meters into the lobby waiting for someoo tact us as everyone grows more and more tense each passing sed, until we hear an unknown male voice that shouts, "Hello?" which is quickly followed by the sound of a gun cog which makes everyone focus and point their on in the dire the void the sound are ing from.

  I also focus in the same dire and see a Caucasian man in his 40s with light brown, graying hair, a 5 o'clock beard, and brown eyes wearing a pi-shirt with pin blue gym pants warily looking at us while pointing an automatic rifle in our dire.

  He is, of course, Dr. Edwin Jenner a virologist who worked at the ter for Disease trol and the husband of dace Jehe C.D.C.'s st surviving employee who te in the facility during the outbreak and was trying to find a cure for the Wildfire Virus before he gave up and choose to end his life and who just like Rick, Shane, Man and the other looks very simir to the actor who portrayed him iV Show.

  (Image Here - Edwin Jenner)

  Spoiler

  [colpse]After looking at us for a few moments, Dr. Edwin Jenner shouts, "Anybody ied?"

  In respoo that simple question, Rick is about to reply but I stop him by putting a hand on his shoulder, stepping forward, and yelling back, "No one in this group was bitten or scratched by the walkers, I personally checked eae of them after eater."

  Hearing that, Dr. Edwin Jenner nods before he asks, "Why are you here? What do you want?" which makes me smile and reply, "I already told you. A ce to help the people fight this thing."

  In respoo my words, Dr. Edwin Jenner smiles wryly and ents, "That's asking an awful lot these days." which makes me smile bad say, "I know. But someone has to do it."

  Dr. Edwin Jenner nods before he asks, "Do you truly have a way to deal with the Wildfire Virus?" to which I nod and reply, "I e up with a few ideas by watg and studying the walkers on my way here... While I have not tested my hypothesis yet, I have a good feeling about them..."

  While saying that, I'm also thinking, 'Luckily I had enough time to study the virus and make use of my knowledge to truly e up with a few solutions as it unsuccessfully tried to i my body. Of course, such solutions do not involve my own Gold Blood... But I truly have to test them to see if they are pletely safe. After all, sidering the nature of this universe a little mistake is all it needs for the situation to beuch worse for everyone.'

  While I'm thinking that, Dr. Edwin Jenner demands, "You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." which makes Rick casually nod and agree, "We do that."

  Hearing that, Dr. Edwin Jenner lowers his automatic rifle and says, "You got stuff t in, you do it now. Ohis door closes, it stays closed."

  In respoo that, Shane quickly moved to call in Daryl and the other men who stayed outside watg our backs and watch over the supplies that we brought with us.

  Once everyone is ihe C.D.C.'s lobby and they have closed the doors, Dr. Edwin Jenner walks up to an inter and presses a buttom that makes a beeping sound before he orders, "Vi, seal the mairance. Kill the power up here."

  As the shutters e down ahe entrance, Rick walks up to Dr. Edwin Jenner and offers his hand while saying, "Rick Grimes. Thank you for letting us inside."

  In response, Dr. Jenner looks a little awkard for a few moments before he shakes Rick's hand and says, "Dr. Eriner."

  After that, he leads us further ihe C.D.til we reach a series of elevators he stops in front of one of them and says, "Hmm... There are a little too many people for a single elevator. Each elevator safely hold a little more than 15 people so for safety's sake, let's divide introups. But let me warn you. Vi trols everything and if you try some funny business you won't have a good ending."

  Shortly after, we divided into three smaller groups, one posed of Morales, his family, and a few other less important survivors who should have died in the nightly walker attack, another one posed of Man, Duane, Andrea, Amy, and other of the less important survivors, and the st one is posed by Dr. Jenner, Rick, Shane, Lori, Carl, Carol, Sophia, Daryl, Jacqui, Dale, Glenn, T-Dog, Dale, and I.

  Onside, the elevator quickly desds, so I decide to ask him some questions to solidify my background, "Dr. Jenner... you are Dr. dace's husband, right? Is she here? How is she?"

  In response, Dr. Jenner looks down as he replies, "Yes... dace was my wife... She isn't here... She... She didn't make it." which makes me immediately say, "I'm sorry for your loss. Even if I didn't know her very well, it was obvious that she was an exceptional person and one of the leading minds in virology."

  Hearing that, Dr. Jeakes a deep breath before he softly says, "Thanks..."

  Shortly after that, an awkward and somewhat tense silence falls in the elevator which is quickly broken by Daryl who rudely asks, "Doctors always go around pag heat like that?"

  Hearing that, Dr. Jeurns around and looks at Daryl for a few moments, and then he replies, "There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." before he stops to look at eae of us and ents, "But you look harmless enough."

  Then shortly after he looks at Carl and says with a humorous smirk on his face, "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." which makes Carl chuckle a little.

  A little ter, the elevator stops at the underground floor and Dr. Jenner leads us out where we wait for the other two elevators to arrive, something that happens a few seds after our arrival.

  Once everyone is here, Dr. Jenner leads us further into the structure and after walking for a few meters Carol 't stop herself from asking, "Are we underground?"

  Hearing that, Dr. Jenner briefly turns his head to look at her while he tio walk and asks, "Are you custrophobic?" to which she replies with, "A little." before he turns his head back to look ahead and casually advises her, "Try not to think about it."

  Before long, we arrive in a very big and dark circur room full of puter stations and a very big s, and just before stepping inside, Dr. Jenner shouts, "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." which turns on the light of the room giving us a better view of what is clearly one of the trol rooms of this structure.

  Immediately after that, Dr. Jenner walks further into the trol room and says, "Wele to zone 5." However seeing the empty room makes Rick question him, "Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?"

  In response, Dr. Jenner simply answers, "I'm it. It's just me here." which makes Lori warily ask, "What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?"

  Hearing that question, Jenner smiles wryly before he says, "Vi, say hello tuests. Tell them... Wele." which is quickly followed by the monotome female voice of the virtual intelligehat says, "Hello, guests. Wele."

  At this point, Dr. Jenner dryly admits, "I'm all that's left." seeing how disappointed everyone is, he adds after a few seds, "I'm sorry." but I shake my head and loudly say, "Don't worry about it, Dr. Jenner. I came here expeg a much worse situation than this one..."

  I take a pause and look at the digital clo the far wall which is slowly ting down from 16:23:36 letting him uand with my gaze that I know what is going to happehat ter reaches 0.

  I quickly realize that he uands my message as his face turns somber and his body nguage tells me that he is struggliween revealing the truth to the others or keeping quiet until it seems that he resolved to admit what is going to happen.

  But before he say anything, I interrupt him and say, "Luckily, everything is much better state than I expected and with a little bit of hard work everything is going to work just fine."

  Dr. Jeands stunned for a few seds as he uands the underlying message I'm sending him before he snaps out of it and leads us into another room where he is going to take our blood samples.

  Ohere, I casually offer to help him with drawing the other survivors' blood, an offer that Dr. Jenner gratefully accepts and so we divide the survivors into two groups and start to take a little bit of blood from them.

  At the same time, I 't help but smirk a little while thinking, 'Good, this way I take out the blood I prepared beforehand and avoid giving him my own panacea-like Gold Blood, that isn't something that I'd like to hand over to anyone...'

  While I'm thinking that, I take the small tube taining the blood of the person I just drew, put the name and date oamp, and pce it together with the other samples, at the same time, I take a look around and seeing that no one is fog on me, I take advantage of this brief moment to pull out a small tube taining some ied blood from my Soulbouory, mark it with my name and today's date and pce it o the other while thinking, 'Thank this little deception I'll also avoid the annoying expnation of why the syringe's needle was uo pierce my skin which could have been quite awkard.'

  Shortly after that, we are finally drawing the blood of the st survivor when I hear Andrea ask, "What's the point? If we were ied, we'd all be running a fever."

  In response, Dr. Jenner calmly expins, "I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thh." but I quickly add, "He is drawing your blood not only to test if you are ied but also..."

  At this point, Dr. Jenner who realizes what I'm about to say gets nervous and yells, "Stop it!"

  I look at him and calmly say, "Dr. Jenner, while it is true that what I'm about to reveal is shog and may cause panic, it doesn't ge the reality of the situation. Moreover, if my hypothesis are true... They don't have to worry about that for much longer."

  At this point, notig that something is going oween us, Rick gets up and asks, "Wait. What is going on? What are you hiding from us?"

  I look at Rid answer, "It is just a piece of information that if delivered carelessly could cause a lot of panid fear. Because of this, Dr. Jenner is worried about your rea once you learn about it. But different from him, I know you guys a little better than him, and while some among you are hot-headed and dumb, I also know that the ones able to maintain calm are able to take trol and reassure the others. The only reason I didn't tell you guys until now despite the fact that I knew about it was only because it wasn't really urgent at the moment, but now it is time I tell you guys about it."

  Shortly after saying that, I get up ahat everyone is fog on me, so I start to expin, "Well, let's me start with a brief expnation of what the Wildfire Virus actually is. The virus initially transmits through airborne particles and possibly direct tact. Followih, Wildfire reactivates the hindbrain and resurrects deceased hosts into mindless, aggressive vectors for the virus. Walkers will attempt to devour any living beings, spreading the active agent through bites, scratches, and other forms of ination. The active ages in an iion that causes death within 48 hours and subsequent resurre."

  After giving them that brief introdu, I take a small pause to let them digest my words while I also take a close look at everyone, including a very anxious Dr. Jenner before I ask, "Are you guys still following me?"

  Seeing most of them nod in respoo my question, I smile and tinue, "Now it es the shog piece of information that Dr. Jenner didn't want to reveal yet. The Wildfire Virus is initially a tent viral iion that spreads via airborransmission. What does that mean? It means that after a person has bee ied with the initial virus the host won't show any symptoms or ge at all. He or she will still be perfectly healthy even if the person iion is, in fact, ied. The virus will only bee active when the host ceases all biological funs. Following the death from ahod, except extreme head trauma, the ied host will reanimate as the virus reactivates the hindbrain and preserves most of its bodily funs to slow the deg process."

  At this point, the more quick-witted among the survivors already started to uand what I'm trying to say and they quickly start to react as they stand up and excim.

  "Fug shit!!"

  "No way!"

  "Are you kidding me!?"

  "Do you mean...!?"

  Seeing that, I nod with a serious expression on my face as I crify for those who still haven't caught up by directly dropping the bomb without aation "Indeed. It is as some of you have guessed. Everyone is already ied by the virus. What the bite of the walker does is ihe active agent of the virus into your body and upoering the bloodstream of a healthy individual, the active agent will spread and ihe brain like meningitis and cause a cytokiorm. The adrenal gnds heme, resulting in the brain and majans shut down, followed by death. Ohe active agent spreads, it has a near 100% mortality rate."

  In respoo my revetion, a tense silence falls into the room as they fully digest it and I let it simmer for a few more seds and then I expin, "This is why Dr. Jenner wants to examine your blood, he hopes to find a person that is naturally immune so that through his blood he at least find a way to create a vae for the Wildfire Virus."

  Shortly after saying that, I also reassure them, "Anyway, even if the knowledge that everyone is already ied be quite shog, the truth is that nothing actually ged that much. If you are alive, your life will tinue as usual. You still have to worry about the same things. The only ge is that now you know that if someone among us dies for one reason or another. We still have to double tap them to avoid any surprises. Moreover, I already told you guys that I have a few ideas on how to actually deal with the Wildfire Virus ond for all."

  Hearing that, Man stands up and says, "That's right! If there is someohat find a solution for this virus that someone only be you, Doc! After all, you are the ohat was able to find the cure for the freaking cer!"

  This new information revealed by Man gees a new wave of surprise aement among the other survivors, even Dr. Jenner looks a little bit more hopeful.

  Later, the whole group feasts in the C.D.C. cafeteria, joyfully eating some simple pre-cooked dishes and drinking wine and liquor from the fully stocked kit.

  Watg Dale as he is filling a gss of red wine for her, a ughing Lori tries to stop him by saying, "It's Fine." which makes the smiling Dale stop before he offers Lori her gss while narrating, "You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wih dinner. And in France."

  Hearing that, Man looks at me and asks, "Is that true, doc?" which makes me smile a little as I reply, "I'd like to say that it is only a stereotype... but it is irue. My parents did make me and my sister taste wine and beer more or less at the same age as Carl to teach us at an early age that alcohol is something to drink casually and in moderation. Basically like many other people in my home try, they felt that shielding kids from wine would only lead to other alcohol-reted issues and that it was the best way to try to teach us how to handle wine in a responsible manner."

  In respoo that, Lori seems still against the idea as she grabs the gss offered by Dale and ents, "Well when Carl is in Italy or France, he have some then." but Rick looks at his wife and says, "What's it gonna hurt? e on."

  Hearing that, Lori relutly nods and says, "e on." followed by Man who adds, "A small bit for Duaoo." while Carol excims, "What?"

  Dale joyfully ughs as he prepares two gsses with barely two fingers of red wine for Carl and Duane before he gives it to them while gentily saying, "There you are, young ds."

  Everyone chuckled watg the two young kids grabbing their gsses and slowly taking a sip before they both sched up their faces because of the bitter taste causing them to ent in perfect sync, ""Eww."" making all the adults present ugh out loud while a delighted Lori pats Carl on his shoulder and says, "That's my boy. That's my boy. Good boy."

  Soon, Carl shakes his head and recovers enough to ent, "Yuck. That tastes nasty." which makes a smiling Shane say, "Well, just stick to sour pop there, bud." before Daryl points his fi Glenn and says, "Not you, Glenn."

  fused and already a little tipsy Glenn asks, "What?" which makes Daryl say, "Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face get." which makes everyone else jovially ugh.

  Shortly after that, Rick uses a ko gently tap his gss full of wine gees the usual king sound, and catches our attention before he stands up and says, "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." followed by a tipsy T-Dog who ents, "He is more than just our host."

  Hearing that, Daryl raises his gss and excims, "Hear hear! Here's to you, Doc. Booyah!" followed by everyone else who also shouts, "Booyah!"

  In respoo that, Dr. Jenner looks at me before he smiles wryly and says, "Thank you!" but then Shane asks, "So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the... the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened... where are they?"

  Rick quickly tries to stop him by saying, "We're celebrating, Shane. Don't o do this now." but Shane shakes his head and says, "Whoa, wait a sed. This is why we're here, right? To find a safe pd to give the opportunity to Jayr to do his magic. We were expeg to see a bunch of stists... but we only found him. I want to know why and if this pce is truly safe."

  At this point, Dr. Jenner somberly expins, "Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

  Hearing that, Shane further asks, "Every st one?" but Dr. Jenner shakes his head and replies, "No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They... opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

  Curious, Andrea asks, "You didn't leave. Why?" which makes Dr. Jenner look down as he keeps his gaze focused on his gss of wine and replies, "I just kept w. Hoping to do some good."

  At this point, Gles up and looks at Shane before he says, "Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man."

  After dinner, Dr. Jenner shows the group around the building, "Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are fortable, but there are cots in ste if you like. There's a re down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies... If you sho easy o water."

  Shortly after saying that, Dr. Jenner walks away while the rest of the group is thrilled at the idea of an hot shower and quickly rushes into one of the many rooms that Dr. Jenner made avaiable.

  I also walk into a random room, take off my clothes and quickly wash them before I take a very quick cold shower just to wash away the smell of rottih that stuy body during our brief walk toward the C.D.C.'s structure earlier today.

  Odyin