Daughter of a Dixon ✔️

06: TS-19

At breakfast the next morning, most of the adults, like Rick, Shane, Lori, and especially Glenn, were too sick to eat anything. Apparently, not eating in a few days and then feasting on great food and lots of wine didn't settle well with them. Thankfully, no one was too bad off; Glenn was obviously the worst, though. The green tint of his face, the slurring of his speech, and the weakness of his body let me know that he had probably never drank before, and was in a serious hangover. It was kind of funny, but a little sad at the same time.

After everyone got woken up and Glenn got some Ibuprofen, Dr. Jenner called us into the main room of the CDC, where he conducted all his research. In front of us, there was a large, digital computer screen. It looked amazingly high-tech, and I was in awe just looking at it.

"Vi, pull up the playback of TS-19," Jenner commanded.

Then, a robotic, feminine voice echoed throughout the building, "pulling up playback of TS-19."

An image of something appeared on the screen. It looked like the outline of a human head, and inside it, there was a glowing object that looked very similar to a brain.

"Is that a brain?" I asked for clarification. Dr. Jenner turned back to me and nodded.

"Yes... a rather spectacular one."

"What are all those little lights?" Shane asked.

"Memories, life experiences. It's the part of your brain that makes you... unique. Somewhere, in all those little lights... is you."

I smiled softly as I watched the light blue, transparent lights dance across the person's mind. It was amazing to think that I had blue lights dancing around in my mind, too, although I wondered if I had near as many as the person on the screen did.

"Vi, scan forward to the first event.," Dr. Jenner commanded after a moment.

"Scanning to first event."

We all watched the screen in expectance, but no one could've expected what we saw next. Suddenly, all the blue lights that were flashing brightly in the brain began to darken as a black source overtook it.

"What is that?" Glenn asked, squinting his eyes at the screen.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. It takes over the brain, the major organs... and then death."

I didn't understand what, "it" was right away, but when I finally did, I stepped slightly closer to my dad, who was standing to the left of me. Then, something on the screen caught my eye, and I looked back to it quickly.

I watched with confusion as a red light source began to ignite a small part of the bottom of the brain.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked, sounding extremely confused.

"No, just the brain stem. It basically gets them up and moving."

"But... they're not alive," Rick said, walking up to get a better look at the screen.

Dr. Jenner shrugged. "You tell me."

Rick shook his head. "It's nothing like before; most of that brain is dark."