Lucien left the lab with his head spinning.
The information Edwin had dumped on him was almost too much to process. His mind kept circling back to the same thought: he was valuable now. Valuable in a way that could either save him or get him killed, depending on who found out.
He needed time to figure out how to use this information without it using him.
But first, he had a job to do.
The corridor outside the living quarters was quiet. Most of the group had already turned in for the night, exhausted from the day's events and eager to enjoy what might be their first decent sleep in weeks.
He rounded the corner and stopped.
Shane was standing near the entrance to the sleeping area, shifting his weight from foot to foot. His attention kept drifting toward one particular door.
Lori's room.
Lucien had noticed the tension between Shane and Lori. It wasn't obvious, both of them worked hard to keep it buried.
It was a powder keg waiting for a spark.
"Shane?"
Shane nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun around.
"Jesus! Don't sneak up on people like that." He cleared his throat, trying to look casual. "Shouldn't you be asleep by now?"
"Dr. Jenner wants everyone in the main control center," Lucien said, keeping his expression serious. "He said it's important."
The way Lucien's face stayed grave was apparently answer enough. Shane's whole demeanor shifted. Whatever romantic drama he'd been contemplating got shoved aside, replaced by the focus of a cop assessing a threat.
"Alright. I'll round everyone up."
He was already moving.
---
Ten minutes later, the group assembled in the CDC's main control room.
Carol had Sophia pressed against her side, the girl rubbing sleep from her eyes. Glenn was trying to smooth down his messy hair. Jacqui looked annoyed at being woken up. Dog was alert but wary.
Merle himself was leaning against the back wall with Daryl beside him.
Ed lurked near his family, keeping his head down. The man had learned to make himself small and quiet after his last attempt at asserting dominance had ended with Rick's fist in his face.
Rick stood near the front with Lori and Carl. The boy looked half-asleep, leaning against his mother.
Andrea, Dale, Morales, and his family filled out the rest of the group, all of them looking confused and increasingly worried as they took in Edwin's expression.
The doctor stood before the main console, backlit by the massive screens displaying the "Vi" logo. He looked like a man about to deliver a terminal diagnosis.
Which, Lucien supposed, he was.
"Thank you for coming. I believed you deserved to understand the reality of our situation."
He turned back to the keyboard. At his touch, the screens shifted, replacing the previous display with a monitoring interface straight out of a science fiction film. Graphs fluctuated in real time. Streams of technical readouts scrolled endlessly. Complex data filled every corner of the monitors, far beyond the ability of most people in the room to interpret.
But the countdown timer in the center?
That was clear enough.
23:47:16
And it was ticking down.
"This facility was built to study and contain the infection. From the beginning, the CDC understood the risk. If containment ever failed, there had to be a way to ensure the pathogen never escaped."
Edwin looked at each of them in turn.
"That safeguard is called Wildfire. It is the final containment measure and exists to eliminate all biological threats inside this facility if recovery becomes impossible."
He gestured toward the darkened systems around them.
"This is the Wildfire Protocol. Once the CDC's primary power supply is exhausted, the facility will automatically initiate its highest-level decontamination procedure."
Glenn raised his hand like he was back in school. "Decontamination? What does that mean exactly?"
Edwin turned his gaze toward him. "It means this place will self-destruct," he said calmly. "Thermobaric charges will detonate throughout the complex. The resulting heat and pressure will incinerate everything inside. The infection will be erased."
Silence.
Then the room exploded.
"You've gotta be shitting me!"
"We're trapped in a goddamn bomb?!"
"Oh my God—"
"Mommy? What's happening?"
Carol pulled her daughter closer. She didn't have an answer.
"Well ain't this just perfect! Hot water, electricity, three square meals..." He kicked the metal cabinet beside him hard enough to dent it. "Shoulda known it was too good to be true. We get to live like kings right up until we all get barbecued!"
"Shut up, Merle," Daryl muttered.
"What? You sayin' I'm wrong?"
"I'm sayin' you're loud and it ain't helpin'."
"Boys." Andrea's voice was sharp. "Not now."
Ed drew in a breath. He wanted to complain that he had not been consulted, that none of this was fair, and that someone should be held responsible. But when he met Shane's eyes, the words died in his throat.
Shane's expression left no room for argument.
Ed lowered his shoulders and kept his mouth shut.
"This can't be right," Jacqui said. Before everything fell apart, she had worked in the city planning department. She understood infrastructure well enough to recognize when something was wrong. "A facility with this level of security clearance wouldn't rely solely on diesel generators. There has to be backup power."
She turned to Edwin. "What about the roof? Standard design would include solar panel arrays for exactly this kind of situation."
"You're right," Edwin said. "There are solar panels on the roof. Or rather, there used to be."
The hope that had started to bloom on Jacqui's face withered.
"When the military abandoned the city, there was heavy fighting in this area. The solar array was damaged. The main cables connecting it to the storage units were severed. And even if it was still functional..." He gestured vaguely upward. "Weeks of citywide fires have covered the roof in soot and debris. At this point, those panels couldn't power the lights in this room, let alone sustain the facility's systems."
Silence.
Rick was the first to recover. "You didn't call us here just to tell us we're screwed. There's more to this."
Edwin studied him for a moment, then nodded. "You're right. You have two options."
He brought up another interface on the screen.
"First option: stay here tonight. In the morning, take whatever supplies you can carry from my stores and leave before the timer runs out."
"And the second?"
"The second is something I'm calling Area Decontamination."
Edwin pulled up technical schematics that looked incomprehensible to most of the group. "The Wildfire Protocol is designed to destroy everything. Area Decontamination is selective. We activate the high-temperature incineration system to purge only the laboratory levels where the viral samples are stored."
"Then what the hell are we waitin' for?" Merle demanded. "Fire that shit up and let's call this place home!"
"Area Decontamination is a controlled sterilization process. It requires a sustained and stable power supply to operate the incineration systems safely. The system was designed to burn contaminated sections gradually, not all at once. If we can manually destroy the virus lab before Wildfire activates, we may be able to remove the primary contamination source. In theory, the system would no longer detect an active biological threat and might not initiate the full purge sequence. But I do not know if we have enough fuel to sustain the process."
"Wait..." T-Dog straightened. "We brought diesel from the gas station. A couple hundred gallons at least. Can't we use that?"
Edwin nodded slowly.
"If the fuel is compatible with the generators, it could extend the facility's operational time. But the quantity is insufficient to guarantee safety."
He looked at each of them in turn, making sure they understood.
"And there's a high probability that starting Area Decontamination will cause the system to misinterpret the power draw as a critical failure. Which means it might trigger the Wildfire countdown anyway. While we're trying to save the facility, we could all get incinerated."
Shane's face had gone ashen. "So we're fucked either way. That's what you're saying."
"Maybe." Edwin's expression didn't change. "But there's also a chance Area Decontamination completes before we run out of fuel. If that happens, I might be able to cancel the self-destruct sequence before it reaches zero."
Rick's eyes narrowed. "You said 'I might be able to cancel it.' Not 'we.'"
"That's right."
"Which means you'd have to stay. Someone would need to be at the controls." Rick's voice was quiet. "And if it fails..."
"I never intended to leave here, Officer Grimes. I was planning to let the power run out and let Wildfire do its job. Now I'm gambling that maybe I can give you all a future instead."
No one spoke.
Carol was holding Sophia so tightly the girl was starting to squirm. Dale had removed his hat and was gripping it in both hands. Morales had his arm around his wife, their kids pressed between them.
"You could come with us," Rick said finally. "There has to be another way—"
"This is my way." Edwin looked at Rick, then at Lucien, then back to the group. "I have to stay and finish this work. But you need to leave. All of you. If I succeed, this place becomes the safest home you could ask for. If I fail... you'll never need to come back."
"No." Shane objected immediately. "No way. It's almost dark out there! Walkers are everywhere, and you want us to just pack up and leave right now?"
"The sooner we begin, the better," Edwin said. "The power could hit critical at any moment. We can't afford to wait."
"Then we wait outside!" Glenn suggested. "Right by the main doors. If you succeed, we'll know immediately. We can come right back in."
Edwin shook his head. "Area Decontamination will make an enormous amount of noise. It'll draw every walker within a mile radius."
"So what?" Merle demanded. "We just drive off into the night and hope for the best? That's your genius plan?"
"It's the only plan that keeps you alive," Edwin said flatly.
The argument might have continued, but Rick raised his hand.
Everyone fell quiet.
He looked at Lori. She was pale, one hand resting on Carl's shoulder. The boy was fully awake now, his eyes wide as he tried to understand what was happening.
Then he looked at Lucien. The kid met his gaze without flinching.
"We're leaving."