"Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world."-Jane Addams
~Sam~
I got to a spot in the hallway where I was pretty sure no one would find me and slid down the wall to the floor. 'I shouldn't have done it'? 'I shouldn't have done it'?! I was one of the last damn girls on the planet and he shouldn't have done it?! I let out a long sigh and ran my hands through my hair. I just couldn't believe it. Our kiss had been a mistake to him, and he probably thought I was a whore now. Maybe I should have stayed with Daryl after all. At least he didn't bro-zone me. I sighed again, pressing my face into my hands. No, I knew that he probably wanted to see me ripped apart by a Walker or two now.
Besides, he's an asshole.
At that moment I thought about Simon and Jason for some reason. Out there cold and alone while I was in here eating all this incredible food and getting to feel hot water against my skin. I felt so guilty that we were just sitting here while they were out there looking for me. I couldn't just leave them out there. I had to go get them, bring them back to this incredible place, because it felt so alone without them. I touched Simon's bracelet, still wet from my shower and sighed. I was a terrible sister.
I don't know how long I must have sat there, but it must have been long enough for them to get worried, because the next thing I heard was Jacqui's voice. "Sam honey, you're missing breakfast." I smiled weakly at there.
"Be there in a second." I said. She immediately sensed something was wrong and sat down next to me.
"Alright, what is it?" She asked, taking my hand in hers. I pressed my tongue into my cheek, I liked Jacqui, she was a great lady, but the last thing I wanted to do was cause drama. But before I could lie to her, she caught me. "It's about Glenn isn't it?"
"What makes you think that?"
"He has the same look on his face as you do." I sighed and Jacqui squeezed my hand. It reminded me so much of my mom that I felt my eyes tear up. But, as usual, I pressed them back and looked at Jacqui.
"Last night, we were both a little buzzed and we kissed, Glenn passed out, and this morning he told me that it was a mistake and that we shouldn't have done it."
"You like him, don't you?" I weakly nodded.
"How did you know?"
"I see the way you two look at each other, it's beautiful. Trust me, he cares about you too, maybe he's just intimidated." She promised. I chuckled.
"You sound like my mom."
"That's because it's true, Glenn's just intimidated."
"Intimidated?" I asked. "By what?"
"Daryl has… said some things." She admitted. I leapt to my feet.
"What kind of things?"
"Threats mostly, to stay away from you."
"Dammit." I muttered. "Where is that parasite?!" Jacqui stood.
"In his room still I think, But Sam-"
"Tell everyone I'll be right there." I said. I made a beeline for Daryl's room and threw open the door. "DIXON!" He stood in the middle of his room on his boxers. He looked over and scowled at me.
"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?!" He snapped, striding over to me and slamming the door shut.
"What the Hell did you say to Glenn?!" I growled getting right in his face.
"I told him the damn truth. That I'll kill him if he so much as looks at you."
"What the Hell gives you the right-" Daryl slammed me into the door and got right in my face.
"What the Hell gives you the right to ditch me for that stupid china man?! I saved your life!"
"That doesn't mean anything if you ruin it!" I snapped, trying to shove him off me, but he just pressed me harder into the wall, sliding me up so my feet dangled off the ground.
"I can do whatever the fuck I want girlie. I own you."
"Get your damn hands off of me you low life! I care about Glenn, and I will never care about you you ugly, redneck, racist, piece of shit! Get that through your thick skull!"
"You don't get to go off looks anymore, I can protect you, he can't."
"He also doesn't treat me like some kind of animal he wants to catch just because it keeps eluding him." I snapped.
"You know that's not why."
"Really? Then what is it? You just want to bang me? Well listen up you dumb ass; I'm not getting pregnant and making a child come into this hell. So dream on."
"It's not that either!"
"So you don't want to sleep with me?"
"No, yes, fuck!"
"That's what I thought, besides, I will never want you."
"Then why did you kiss me back?" He demanded. "We both know that, even if it was just a split second, you did want me. So if you love Glenn so damn much, why did you?" I glared him down.
"I kissed Glenn too, twice. Our kiss? It didn't mean a goddam thing to me." I lied. I instantly regretted my harsh words when I saw the split second of Daryl's pain. I wanted to take it back. He had already lost the only family he had and now I was abandoning him too.
No.
Daryl deserved this. He fought me just as much as I fought him. Besides, maybe I had just imagined his look of pain as he let go of me and I dropped to the floor.
"Get the fuck out." He warned.
"Happily." I snapped and I stormed to where we had had dinner the night before. I walked in to see everyone getting up and leaving. I walked over to Jacqui. "What's going on?"
"Jenner is going to tell us about the virus and the progress that they made." I nodded and walked along with them to the lab. I saw Daryl slither over to the group and wanted to rip his head off. I left Jacqui and walked over to Glenn, who looked surprised but happy to see me.
"So Andrea said you never came and checked on her." He whispered.
"I tried to find her, but she'd already left." I lied. But Glenn bought it as Jenner asked VI to bring up something called TS-19. Glenn slowly took my hand, much to my surprise, as we watched the person's brain on the screen. It was shining with thousands of lights that Jenner explained were the synapses in our brain.
"Everything you are, your likes, your dislikes, your fears, and love. They're all right here." He explained, pointing to the screen. I was taken aback; it was so beautiful that it left all of us speechless as Jenner instructed VI to take the screen to the first event. As Jenner explained how the disease worked we watched at the person on the screen slowly coughed and spasmed. But what was most terrifying was how a giant red streak snaked its way up the brain stem and into the person's brain, shutting off the beautiful blue lights as it went. "It attacks the brain, like meningitis, we don't know if it's fungal, viral, bacterial-"
"So you don't know anything?" Andrea asked in disbelief.
"You'll have to excuse her." Jacqui said quietly. "She lost someone two days ago, her little sister." Jenner walked over and put a reassuring hand on Andrea's shoulder.
"I've lost someone too; I know how hard it is." Then he turned back to the screen. "VI. Skip to the second event."
"SKIPPING TO SECOND EVENT." VI responded.
"The resurrections times vary wildly. We've had cases of as little as three minutes, and as long as two days."
We continued to watch as the red started to pulse and small red dots started to flash. Then the person started moving until what looked like a bullet went through their head. I gripped Glenn's hand as the screen went dark. Jenner looked at us all blankly.
"Doctor, I hate to bother you with another question." Dale said.
"But you will." Jenner joked.
"That clock has been counting down, what happens at zero?" Dale finished. I whipped my head over to the clock which had less than an hour. Jenner looked at Dale blankly.
"The station powers down."
"What happens when the station powers down?" I asked. He looked at me for a long time before turning and leaving. "Jenner!" I demanded. But he was gone before he answered. I looked at Glenn, then we all turned to Rick.
"We should go down and try to find some fuel." He said. "T-Dog, Glenn, Shane, come with me." Glenn gripped my hand before slipping it away to follow the others. As they raced off Jacqui came over to me and put her arm around me.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, turning to her.
"I don't know." She admitted quietly. "But I'm going to go pack my things, I doubt we're staying here." She sighed, obviously strained by our constant moving. I knew she was even more reluctant to keep going now that Jim was gone. I squeezed her shoulder.
"It's going to be alright." I promised. She smiled at me.
"Your optimism is…cute." She said, then walked off to go pack. I sighed and started off to do the same when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Daryl glaring at me. I bit my lip, we were the only people in here, everyone else had left, and I didn't like it.
"Get your hands off me." I said, trying to shove it away, but he didn't budge.
"We didn't finish our little chat."
"Yes we did, when you told me to get the fuck out." I growled. "Now get your hands off of me."
"Sam what do you think we're going to do when this place loses power in an hour? We can't get back up the elevator, that's for sure."
"We'll think of something, we'll leave before then, something."
"Except I saw Jenner lock the door, no one knows the code but him, and he ain't talking." I felt my stomach hit the floor.
"We're going to be trapped down here." I whispered. "Jesus Christ, we're going to die."
"Not if we get that code from Jenner."
"I don't know where he went."
"We can figure it out I'm sure." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"How do I know this isn't bullshit?"
"Why would I bullshit you about something like this?" He growled. "Now will you come on?" I looked at Daryl for a long time, his animalistic eyes, desperate for me to follow him. I looked at the clock, ticking down to when we'd be trapped down here.
I thought about Simon and Jason, searching this horrid world for me while I would be buried down here and everyone lost it and eventually killed each other.
I thought of Glenn, I couldn't be with him if we were dead. I looked back at Daryl.
"Let's go."