Louis left the laboratory, his mind still processing the massive amount of information he had just received.
As he rounded the hallway, he saw Shane standing at the entrance of the living area, appearing hesitant, his gaze drifting toward Lori's room from time to time.
Louis walked straight over quickly: "Uncle Shane?"
Shane was nursing a bellyful of words he wanted to discuss with Lori when he was suddenly startled by Louis calling out to him.
He cleared his throat defensively and looked back, saying, "What's up, kid? Not in bed yet?"
"The doctor wants us to gather at the main control center immediately," Louis said with a very serious expression. "He said he has something very important to announce."
"Something important?"
Upon hearing this, Shane instantly tossed all his previous romantic intentions to the back of his mind.
Seeing Louis's grave expression, he knew things were likely not simple, and his face immediately turned serious as well: "Alright, I'll go call everyone right away."
A few minutes later, the entire team, bleary-eyed, gathered in the main control hall of the CDC.
On the massive electronic screen, the "Vi" logo was quietly flashing.
Dr. Jenner stood before the console, and without beating around the bush, he pulled up the main power monitoring interface.
"I think you have the right to know the true situation we are currently facing."
A glaring countdown appeared on the big screen, showing the remaining time the energy could support, which was less than a day.
"This is the wildfire protocol," Dr. Jenner's voice echoed in the silent hall. "When the CDC's main power is exhausted, the entire building will undergo a top-level decontamination procedure."
"Decontamination? What does that mean?" Glenn asked uneasily.
"It means," Jenner looked at him calmly, "this place will self-destruct. A high-intensity thermobaric bomb, enough to burn everything here, including us, to ashes."
"What?!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
The news exploded like a bomb among the crowd, and the survivors all showed expressions of terror.
"Damn it, I knew there couldn't be such a good thing!"
Merle irritably kicked a nearby metal cabinet. "Water, electricity, medical equipment... everything, just like a paradise. Turns out if we stay too long, we'll fucking end up in heaven!"
"You're dreaming pretty big," Daryl couldn't help but curse at him. "I think you're fucking going to hell."
"Oh no..." Carol hugged Sophia tightly in distress.
She had heard the doors here couldn't even be blown open by rocket launchers and thought she could finally give the child a stable place.
Ed really wanted to jump out and say a few words, since he wasn't there when the decision was made, but remembering his previous painful experience of sticking his neck out, he silently shut his mouth and acted like he didn't exist.
"I thought this was the safest place..." murmured Jacqui, who had short black hair. She was a former employee of the City Zoning Department and had some understanding of the facilities here.
"Yes, the safest place," Dr. Jenner finished the second half of the sentence for her, his tone carrying a hint of self-mockery. "...And soon to be the safest tomb."
"No," Jacqui suddenly looked up, thinking of a question. "A facility with such a high security level couldn't possibly have only diesel generators as its energy source!"
"What about the roof? According to standards, there must be a solar panel array here as a backup power source!"
Dr. Jenner glanced at her. "You're right, there is."
"Or rather, there was."
He paused and explained: "When the military abandoned this city, there was intense crossfire here."
"The solar panels on the roof were damaged by the shocks during the chaos, and the main cables connecting to the energy storage units were also cut."
"Even if those were intact," he shook his head, "weeks of city fires and explosions have covered the entire roof in a thick layer of smoke, dust, and debris."
"The power they can generate now probably couldn't even light the lamps in this room, let alone maintain the systems for the entire area."
After a brief, dead silence, Rick was the first to calm down. He looked at Jenner: "You called us here, surely not just to announce our death sentence?"
Rick stared into his eyes. "You have another plan."
Dr. Jenner nodded: "You have two choices."
"First, rest here for one last night. Tomorrow at dawn, take as many supplies from my place as you can carry, and then leave."
"And the other one?" Rick pressed.
Dr. Jenner gave him a deep look and pulled up another interface.
"The other is the 'zone decontamination' protocol."
He explained: "Wildfire is meant to destroy everything, while zone decontamination is a manual plan of mine."
"We can avoid blowing up the entire building and instead only activate the high-temperature incineration system to decontaminate the laboratory where all the virus samples are stored."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Merle shouted impatiently. "Hurry up and start this, then we can treat this place as our home base!"
"It's not that simple." Jenner shook his head. "zone decontamination will continuously draw a massive amount of energy to power the high-temperature incineration system."
"If the virus lab can be manually destroyed before the wildfire protocol activates, then even if the system enters emergency mode, the decontamination procedure might not necessarily trigger."
"However," he added, "I don't know if the remaining fuel is enough, and I certainly don't know if the AI will still trigger the wildfire protocol's decontamination procedure if energy consumption reaches emergency levels during this process."
"Wait!" T-Dog suddenly thought of something. "We brought a lot of diesel from the gas station! Can't that be used?"
Dr. Jenner shook his head: "Even if your diesel can be used, that amount... I don't think it can completely avoid the risk."
He looked at everyone and stated the fatal risk:
"Therefore, there is a very high probability that the system will misjudge. While zone decontamination is activated, it will also automatically trigger the wildfire protocol's final self-destruct countdown!"
"Then isn't that still a dead end?!" Shane's face became incredibly grim.
"It might be a dead end." Dr. Jenner confirmed his suspicion. "But it's also possible that before the energy is exhausted, the zone decontamination completes successfully, giving me a chance to cancel the self-destruct program before the countdown ends."
"Wait, so if we choose this plan, you have to stay here..." Rick seemed to realize something and looked at him in disbelief. "Then if the plan fails..."
"I never planned on surviving anyway," the doctor said calmly. "Now it's just a gamble for our future."
The hall fell into a suffocating silence once again.
Everyone understood that this was a plan almost equivalent to suicide.
"Actually," Rick spoke up hesitantly, "you could also come with us. There will always be other ways out."
"This is my best way out."
Dr. Jenner's gaze passed over the crowd and finally landed on Rick and Louis: "I have to stay to finish this work. But you, you must leave."
"If I succeed, this will be your safest home. If I fail... you won't ever have to come back."
"No!" Shane immediately countered. "It's almost night now, and there are Walkers everywhere outside! We just got settled, why can't we wait until dawn to leave?"
"We can't wait." Dr. Jenner's attitude was firm. "The sooner this operation begins, the better. No one can say for sure when the energy will hit the critical point; we have no time to waste."
"Then we can wait in the cars, right?" Glenn proposed. "Just outside the main gate. If you succeed, we'll know right away."
"No." Jenner rejected it again. "The noise when zone decontamination starts will be very loud, and it will draw all the nearby Walkers. It's too unsafe for you to stay nearby."
Leaving just after arriving? And during the most dangerous time at night?
Everyone looked at each other, caught in a dilemma.
Just then, Rick stepped forward. He glanced at Lori and Carl beside him, then at Louis, and finally made a decision.
"We're leaving."