SAM TEMPLE hadn't been out of bed for days. Not eating, not sleeping, just lying there, staring at the ceiling of the small, cramped boxcar, trying to figure out what he had done to deserve this.
It had been two weeks since he moved some of the kids of the FAYZ over to the lake, where he first found Toto. He was lost without Astrid, who hadn't come, and yet he was the leader. Again. Edilio didn't want the job, and Albert stayed in Perdido Beach with Caine, so the job fell to him. He had managed to trudge along, feeling like he was dragging his feet through mud... until the boy came.
The boy came at around noon one day, lugging a wheelbarrow of saltwater fish for the rest of the kids. They had grown used to it after months of eating it, and trout got boring after a while. The boy's face was grim. "I need to talk to Sam," he said, trying to push past Edilio.
Edilio, being much bigger than the boy, pushed him back easily. "Why do you gotta see Sam? Nobody goes in without a reason." Not after what happened to Albert.
The young boy sighed. "It's Astrid. Something... something happened."
Edilio's face fell, his mood immediately darkening. "Go on in."
The boy left the cart with Edilio and rushed up to the small boxcar that currently housed Sam Temple. He burst through the door, snapping Sam out of a trance.
"What is it, Mark? The fish here yet?" Mark silently nodded. He played with the frayed hem of his shirt, nervous to tell him the news. Astrid was a very touchy subject. "Do you have something to say? Go ahead, I won't yell at you."
"Um... well it's... it's Astrid. She... she committed suicide," Sam's head shot up, his eyes burning. Mark rushed to finish. "She... well, you know she was pretty broken up about sacrificing Peta- Pete," he corrected, careful not to use the dead boy's common nickname. "She jumped off Mary's Cliff. Lana saw her."
Sam was silent for a second, but then he just seemed to explode, his hand hitting the side of the train car hard enough to make it shake. "DAMMIT! Why? Why did she not listen to me? IT WASN'T HER FAULT! God, I should've stayed, I should've..." He sat down on the floor, hard, beginning to sob into his arms. Mark, frightened at seeing Sam in such a state, slowly backed out of the train car, nearly falling of the edge.
That was five days ago.
Now all Sam did was lie on his back, occasionally bursting into tears, crying until there was nothing left. He was broken, and nobody could do anything about it. Astrid had been his love, his world, and she was selfish enough to kill herself. And he was selfish enough to almost... ALMOST hate her for it. But he could never hate her.
Edilio entered the car warily today. Youu never knew when he might explode. "Boss, we have a situation. A girl found our camp, but she's in bad shape, man."
Sam turned to face the wall on his makeshift bed. "You deal with it."
"Come on, man. We need you. You, Lana, and Dahra are the only ones that know how to heal anything, and you're the only one here."
Reluctantly, Sam pulled himself up. "Fine. Just Give me a sec, okay?"
"Yeah, sure man. Hurry though. She might not live too much longer." And with that, Edilio left Sam, who was silently seething as he pulled his pants on.