Waking up to the sound of someone knocking on his door, Gray stood up, drawing his gun.
"Whoa, easy there, man," T-Dog put his hands up, "Dinner is ready, just came to get everyone."
Putting his gun down, Gray got up, "Thanks, I'll be there in a sec."
Walking over to the bathroom and washing his face, Gray checked on his gold.
Gold: 213,974
"Dayum!"After doing a bit of math in his head, he found out he only needed 6 hours for the next upgrade.
Once everyone finished eating, Gray noticed Shane looked drunk and pissed as he kept looking at Lori and Rick being all lovey dovey, 'I better keep an eye out on him for today, don't want any rapey things happening in the group...' he thought before getting up and going to the recreation room.
Looking over at the library, he was already making plans to save as much as possible.
"I just need a big container and fill it up with as many books and as many useful things," he muttered to himself.
Going over to the game consoles, he found a few Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s, "These can come in handy later...I have big plans for this group."
"And what kind of plans are those?"
Startled, Gray turned towards the door where he saw Merle playing around with a knife.
"You never told me those big plans of yours." Merle sat down on one of the couches.
"I guess I didn't," Gray put down the PlayStation controller, "This is a good time as any, anyway."
Gray walked outside and checked the hallway. Seeing it empty, he continued talking, "We are not staying here for long; we have around 14 hours left."
"14 hours left for what?"
"Before this place goes up in flames, I'd rather not cause panic just yet, so if you can keep it quiet for a bit, I'll tell the group later, just let them enjoy a bit of peace while they can."
Merle stood up. "Okay...So what are we gonna do then? You said you already had a place in mind, right? Is that where we goin' then?"
"Yes, it's actually a place you might be familiar with..." Gray continued, "It's a prison a few miles south, I'm pretty sure it has enough space for our group and has fences all around...And before we make it to the prison, we have to stop on a farm, where we can leave most of the group there while a few of us go clear it out, since I'm sure it's overrun."
"A prison, huh, not a bad place to hunker down, I guess." Merle started walking out, "I'll let my baby brother know we ain't stayin' in this place for long then, no need to get comfy."
"Also, tell him to take a shower, he's the only one who hasn't taken one..."
Merle laughed, "Sure thing."
At one point, Carol and a few of the kids joined him in the recreational room. Gray grabbed a few books and sat down on a couch to read. After a few hours, Lori stumbled into the room and told Carl to go to bed, ' It's almost time' Gray thought before putting the books away. Opening up the shop, he grabbed an upgrade for a skill.
[New Skill]
{Advanced CQC} (9500 Gold)
After a few minutes, Gray opened his eyes, 'With this, I should be able to protect myself just in case.'
Eventually, Shane stood in the doorway, and Carol, seeing his state, decided to leave.
When Lori tried to leave, too, she got stopped by Shane, "We need to talk," he said as he closed the door. Once he was fully in, he noticed Gray sitting down, looking at him.
"Hey, man, you mind giving us a few minutes?" Shane said.
"I kinda do mind," Gray stood up, putting the books he had back on the shelves, "I was here first."
"It's fine, I was leaving anyway." Lori tried to walk out, but Shane grabbed her arm.
Seeing that, Gray said, "You know I usually don't like meddling in other people's AFFAIRS," he said, over-enunciating the word 'affairs,' "But you usually can't be grabbing another man's wife like that."
"Let me tell you something, man," Shane got close to Gray, "You ain't nobody to be tellin' me what I can or can't do."
"You might be right, but once Rick finds out about this, I doubt he will be very happy." At the mention of Rick's name, Shane seemed to come to it a little bit.
"Listen," Gray continued, "You're drunk, and you seem a bit aggressive, so how about you go to your room and sleep it off for now, and tomorrow when things have cooled off, you come talk to me if you still have issues with what I'm doing," Gray looked towards Lori, "And you also need to stop this shit, you either come clean to your husband or I will meddle and get involved, I'm not gonna stay in a group where you're playing around with people's lives like this,"
Lori looked offended, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Right, because it wasn't obvious enough, I'm telling you both to stop this shit, or I will go to Rick right now and clear this out right now...If you wanna cheat on your husband, that's on you, but when you guys are putting people at risk for your bullshit, I will put a stop to it." Gray walked past Shane, but before he made it through the door, he looked over at both of them, "Either talk to Rick about this affair or end it, but don't go around making issues for everybody else."
Gray walked off, but less than 2 seconds later, Lori left the room as well, leaving Shane by himself.
Two hours later, Gray was seen exploring around the generators, inspecting the empty fuel barrels. Before he could check the store to see how much a barrel would cost, Jenner approached him.
"I've been thinking about your proposal," Jenner said.
"It's only been a few hours; you don't have to give me an answer right now," Gray replied.
"No, it's fine. I've decided to stay. I'm not going to risk going out there for some man's delusions, thinking he can get whatever he wants-" Jenner stopped mid-sentence when he saw Gray touch an empty barrel and make it disappear. "Wha-What the hell was that?!"
"You said you wanted proof, right?" Gray pulled the barrel out of his inventory and placed it on the floor. "So, I'm showing you the proof. Congrats, Doctor Jenner, you're the first person to know my secret."
"How did you do that?" Jenner crouched next to the barrel, inspecting it closely. "It's just a normal barrel. How in the hell..."
"Let's just say I have a few other tricks up my sleeve, but I wasn't lying when I said I'm your best shot at a cure." Gray walked over to the only working generator. "Hell, I could probably keep this facility running if I wanted to."
"And why don't you? If what you said is true, then that means you can get the fuel to keep everything running, right?" Jenner paced back and forth. "This facility is secure, and I already have everything I need to continue my work here. Why do you want to leave?"
"I won't always be around. This facility requires me to be here at all times, and people will start to get suspicious." Gray sat down on the floor. "Tell me, once we run out of supplies, what are we going to do? There isn't enough space to create a field, so am I just supposed to keep everyone alive? I'm not a messiah, a hero, or a savior."
Gray paused, allowing his last statement to linger before continuing. "I'm going to be around for a few years, but I want everyone to be able to defend themselves; they need to survive without me. I can't babysit everyone while just handing them whatever they need."
"I get that, I really do, but why not stay here? It's secure enough, and the supplies would last us for weeks! With power back in the mix, we can open the top shutters!" Jenner continued to try to convince Gray.
"The location is why I don't want to stay. We are too close to the city, and this place only has one entry and exit." Gray stood up. "What do we do when raiders find this place and camp right outside the doors? What if they have explosives and blow up the metal shutters? We won't have an exit available." He continued, "I already have a place in mind. It's a prison a few miles south of here, in the middle of some woods. It has enough space for fields, and with time and manpower, we can expand the safe zone. It's the perfect place!"
"Okay, I got it." After thinking about his options for a bit, Dr. Jenner had his answer: "I'll join your group if it means I can keep my promise to my wife, so her sacrifice is not in vain."
"Nice! Welcome to the group, Doctor Jenner. I promise you won't regret this!" Gray shook Jenner's hand.
"Thanks for having me." Jenner seemed to remember something. "Right, how are we going to leave? I wasn't lying when I said I can't open those metal shutters."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that. I'll check to see if I can make them go away like I did the barrel. If not, I'm sure some grenades can blow up the windows." Gray continued, "But yeah, let's keep my abilities a secret for now, okay? I don't want the group to lose their minds."
"Speaking of which, what else can you do?" Jenner asked, now more curious.
"Oh, all sorts of things. I haven't found anything I can't do yet." Gray thought for a moment. "I don't want to get your hopes up, but at one point, I might be able to bring people back from the dead."
"!!!!"
Opening the shop, Gray found something.
{One-Time Resurrection Syringe} (5B Gold) Warning: Needs a body for it to work
'That seems like the cheapest option. We need the body...'
"I have one question for you," Gray continued. "Do you still have her body?"
"Yes, I had to use her brain while trying to find a cure, but her body is still intact. Follow me; it's in the morgue."
When they reached the morgue, Jenner opened a drawer. Gray saw the body, touched the arm, and then placed it in his inventory. As the body disappeared, Jenner looked nervous.
"Don't worry about it too much," Gray reassured him. "Time doesn't pass when I do that. She'll be safe until we are ready for her to come back."
"Okay, now what?" Jenner asked.
"Now we wait. Try to gather as many books on relevant subjects as you can, and collect some computers as well. We can take whatever we need. Once you have everything, bring it to the basement, and we will store it until we need it." Gray remembered the people from the farm. "Also, if you can retrieve the footage you showed us and put it on a laptop, we will need that later."
"Got it. I'll gather everything I need. What about the food supplies?"
"I'll inform the group once we reach the four-hour mark, which should give us enough time to gather everything useful and leave."
Two hours later, Jenner had everything he needed, ranging from books to laptops.
"Great, I'll take it from here, Doc. You can go ahead and rest," Gray said.
Gray then checked on his gold.
Gold: 285,479
He spent the next hour making trips to the recreational room to grab everything from books to gaming consoles, going around taking tv's and plastic containers. Once the hour was up, he got the next upgrade.
[New Upgrade]
(300000 Gold) 12000 Gold/Hour ✔
[New Hourly Rate]
31,801 Gold/Hour
Gold: 1680
"Nice, now I just need a big shipping container to put everything in it."
Opening the shop, he found a few options.
{10-Foot Shipping Container} (2500 Gold)
{20-Foot Shipping Container} (5000 Gold)
{40-Foot Shipping Container} (10000 Gold)
"Perfect, now I just need to test the metal shutters. If I can't put them in the inventory, I can buy a few grenades, and we should be fine."
Since he had a few hours to kill, Gray decided to get his daily workout out of the way first.
After finishing his workout, he grabbed one of the laptops Jenner had left behind. Seeing it had a full charge, he went over to the store and bought a USB stick with all of 'The Walking Dead' seasons on it for 200 gold, to refresh his memory and get a bit ahead of the plot.
Once back in his room, he locked the door, bought a good pair of Bluetooth headphones for 100 gold, and started watching the series.
By the time he finished season 1, the sun was already up.
Seeing that everyone was still asleep, Gray used the time to buy the 20-foot shipping container and set it down near the generators. Opening the metal doors, he started filling it up with all of Doctor Jenner's things while also going around, grabbing sheets and a few unused mattresses.
Once he had put everything he could think of into the container, he closed the doors and added it to his inventory.
[Inventory]
{Dr. Candace Jenner Corpse}
{20-Foot Shipping Container}
"God, this inventory system is so broken, I love it!"
Going over a few documents, he found a map of Georgia. Using a marker, he circled the prison and stored the map in his pockets.
After breakfast and before anyone could start drinking, Gray took everyone to the countdown clock.
"Listen before you all start partying and getting drunk again, you need to know something," Gray pointed at the clock, "Once that clock hits zero, this whole building will blow up."
Looking at the clock and seeing that there were barely 4 hours left, many people started getting agitated.
"What do you mean, the building will blow up?" Rick was the first one to ask.
"It's a safety protocol designed to destroy the CDC facility when its resources are depleted, preventing the spread of contaminants." Doctor Jenner was the one explaining, "There is some really nasty stuff being kept in here...Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country, like it's not bad enough as it is..."
Gray looked around and got on top of a desk. "Before you all get upset or start panicking, Dr. Jenner has agreed to join us and continue his work trying to find a cure." Not waiting for anyone to speak up, he continued, "Before you start asking any questions, follow me."
Gray led them to the basement, where the generators were located. He pointed out the empty barrels. "We're down to the last barrel, and once it's empty, this place will blow up."
Rick asked, "So there's nothing we can do?"
Gray replied, "Not unless you can magically find fuel inside the building. And that's not even the worst news." He continued, "Remember when Dr. Jenner let us into the building and said that once those doors closed, they wouldn't open again? He wasn't lying."
At that moment, Shane lunged at Jenner and grabbed him by the collar. "You knew about this and still let us in? You asshole, you got us all killed!"
Gray intervened while getting help from Rick and Merle by pulling Shane away from Jenner. "Would you just listen for a minute before you start going crazy? Jesus Christ, I didn't say we don't have options." Gray paused and said, "I found a few grenades on some dead soldiers outside. We could blow up some windows and make our escape."
Morales exchanged worried glances with his wife. "So what are we going to do? This was supposed to be the best place, and now it's going to blow up in a few hours... I could have already been in Birmingham."
Gray responded, "Once we get out of this building, you can leave if you want. No one is holding you back. All you do is complain and expect everyone to fix your problems." Turning around, he pulled out a map he had found earlier and showed it to everyone. "I found this map and circled a place we can go before this building explodes."
"A prison?" Shane was the first to speak up.
"Yes, it's closer than Fort Benning, and we can check it out before deciding on another option."
Rick nodded and began giving orders. "Okay, everyone, start gathering your belongings, and let's collect all the supplies we can find."
As everyone got to work, Gray slipped away and headed to the entrance to see if he could add the metal shutters to his inventory. When he arrived, he purchased an extra inventory space and tried again.
"Not good, huh?" he muttered to himself. Opening the shop, Gray took the opportunity to buy a couple of grenades, as he had lied earlier about finding a few.
Returning to his room, he swapped the grenades for his laptop in the inventory. With only two hours left on the clock, everyone was finally ready. Gray handed Rick two grenades and kept one in his backpack. "I've never used these before, so you can do the honors," he said.
Nodding, Rick addressed the group. "Alright, stay far away and don't even peek; shrapnel could still hit you."
Each member of the group had at least one backpack, and as Rick pulled the pin on the grenade, everyone covered their ears and waited for the explosion.
BOOM!
As the window shattered, everyone started running out. Gray was among the first to escape. Spotting a few walkers nearby, he didn't waste any time and quickly shot them in the head.
The explosion attracted a few more walkers. Gray handed his backpack to Amy and started shooting at them all. Finally, once the surrounding area was clear, they let their guards down.
People started making two or three trips trying to get as many supplies as they could. While they were doing that, Gray began checking the bodies of the soldiers, looking for the keys to one of the nearby military vehicles.
After checking most of the bodies around, he finally found the keys to one of the Humvees. Seeing as they had a bit more time, he also checked inside the tanks, where he found a few metal shovels and around 4 boxes of ammo.
After getting everything into his new vehicle, he turned it on and moved it out of the way. Checking the gas gauge, he saw it had a bit more than half a tank.
Double-checking the building for any missed items, Rick finally walked out alongside Shane. "The clock has around 30 minutes left," Shane said to the group.
"Got it," Gray showed the people driving where they were going. "If you run into any issues, we do the same thing as before, honk once, and we all stop."
Finally, the group drove away, and a few miles down the road, they heard a loud explosion.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The caravan stopped, a few people got out of their cars, and the only thing they saw was a huge fireball in the distance.