Author's Note: I don't own anything you recognize.
Daryl nodded, standing up with Beth. "Well, uh, I guess this is your room," he said, glancing around the tiny bedroom.
"And you?" asked Beth.
"I got a room, too, across the way," he said. "A roommate, too."
They were quiet for a moment, both glancing around at their surroundings. He reached for her elbow. Together, they emerged into the hallway. It was carpeted and lined with doors identical to the one they had just come from. Daryl led them down the hall until they heard voices growing louder.
"How many others are here?" asked Beth.
"No more'n twenty," said Daryl. "This is only the Georgia branch. At least that's what that Pearson guy told me before you woke up. And that's about all he told me."
The hallway blossomed into a commons area, where scattered groups of people sat at circular school cafeteria-style tables. The walls were the same gray as they appeared to be throughout the entire building, a dreary color that seemed to dull even the fluorescent lights.
Piper and Jane sat at a table close to Beth and Daryl, watching them with concern. A man was with them; he couldn't be older than 55. He smiled kindly, if not sympathetically, at Beth and Daryl. They must have looked so sheepish, looking on at this strange, dystopian cafeteria with their battered hair and hastily fit scrubs, standing close together as though anything might tear them apart.
"I'm Brian," said the man, his gentle voice matching his exterior. He stood from his seat and walked to them. "I highly doubt they explained much to you two." There was a twinkle in his eye.
"They did to me, sorta," mumbled Daryl. "But they scared the livin' daylights outta her." He gestured towards Beth. "'Name's Daryl, by the way."
"I'm Beth," said Beth, trying to smile at the man. She wanted him to know that she really did mean to be nice and outgoing, but she had just been so overwhelmed in such a short amount of time.
"And they told you that we all remember, right?" asked Brian.
Beth and Daryl nodded. "We don't know any details," said Beth.
"Why don't you sit down with us," said Brian, nodding his head towards Piper and Jane. "We'll catch you up."
The pair followed Brian to the table. Jane smiled gently at Beth, and Piper watched her carefully.
Beth took a moment to look more closely at the two girls. Jane was taller, with dark skin, but darker hair. Her eyes were extremely gentle, but full of a knowing intelligence. She wore stud earrings with her blue scrubs. Piper's red hair fell in loose curls at her shoulders. She had big, green eyes which watched everything around her very intensely. Her nose was scrunched towards her face.
"I know you've all briefly met," said Brian. "Jane, why don't you start."
Jane cleared her throat, tucking a pair of her dark hair behind her ear. "Well, my name is Jane Carlyle. I grew up in Atlanta. I was a florist, just about to enter my first year of law school. My parents, they were florists, too. They caught the fever early. When things started to get really, really horrible, I got out of the city with two brothers that I met in a Walgreens that got overrun as I was trying to leave, you know, getting some last minute supplies. I was with them for a long while. Terry and Jared were their names. Terry, the oldest, he got bit eventually. Jared and I were still out there when this second turn happened. I woke up in my apartment like nothing ever happened."
"And everyone else, they didn't remember, right?" asked Beth.
"Right," said Jane. She paused. "Brian, why don't you go next."
Brian nodded, still smiling gently. The tanned skin on his face crinkled around the corners of his mouth as his lips turned inwards and the corners raised. "I'm Brian Waltman, from Loveland, Colorado. I'd moved to Atlanta about four months before the turn, with my wife, Helen," he began. "Back in Loveland, I taught high school American history, but I bartended on the side. I was a bouncer for a little bit. A cab driver, too. I was a secretary in a dentist's office when I first started teaching. My first job, though, now that was as a cobbler's assistant, medieval apprenticeship style. Wait, wait, no, I suppose my true first job was as a cave tour guide."
Piper had thrown her face into her heads, laughing. Jane chuckled. Beth was smiling brightly.
"Damn," said Daryl. "You've been around."
Brian chuckled. "Well, I like to experiment," he said. "Experimenting equals experiencing, in my mind."
"So, what brought you to Atlanta?" asked Beth.
"Why don't I go," interrupted Piper, glancing at Brian. The redhead was leaned onto the table, her arms crossed. "I'm Piper Stone. I'm from Massachusetts, a town called Pittsfield, but I moved to Georgia about two months before the turn. I, uh, worked as a receptionist. At a flooring company. I was in my first year at a community college, getting my associate's degree to become a dental hygienist. Those guys make a whole lotta dough for two years of school, you know. Anyways, that's aside from the point. I lived in Atlanta with my boyfriend, who, uh, is right over there." She gestured across the cafeteria to a table where four large men sat. "Emerson!" called Piper. "Come meet the newcomers."
One man lifted up his blond head, standing from behind another man. He sauntered over, and Beth immediately recognized him.
The man from the hospital. He'd been dragged away like a mental patient, and Beth had worried she'd end up wherever he was going. Here she was.
"Hey," he said, his voice deep and raspy. "I'm Emerson." He looked at Daryl. "We already met."
Daryl nodded, then looked at Beth. "His friend over there's my roommate," he explained.
Beth looked over to Emerson's table. Daryl motioned to a larger man with hunched over shoulders, rough skin, and long, dirty blond hair that somehow looked as though it would crunch if you touched it.
"Yeah, Emerson and I started dating in our junior of high school, back in Pittsfield," explained Piper. "And, here we are, still together!" she said. She smiled up faintly at the man, who hardly watched her with dark circles under his eyes.
"I'm goin' back over to Maverick," he said. He turned and walked away.
"He's a man of few words," said Piper.
Brian cleared his throat. "Well, that's the summary on the inside of our covers. What're you guys'?"
Beth and Daryl, taking turns speaking, explained, in a very much abridged version, the backstory of each of them.
"So you two have really been through a lot together," said Jane, astonishment in her voice.
They nodded. "I'm just...man, I'm glad to meet some people who remember, too," said Beth. She almost wanted to cry again.
Brian smiled. "Well, we're glad to have you here!" he said. He was the kind of man whose words one immediately could trust in. "This place looks pretty dull, I know. But, we've got some alright amenities. Just down the hall over there is a library."
"Really?" asked Beth. "What exactly is this place?"
"It's a disease research center called WCRF, or World Crisis Relief Facility." said Jane. "It's like the CDC, but much more private. It was started up before the turn, and now it's functioning as a research center of the turn itself. Since all around the world a similar story was being told by so many people, of this horrific zombie apocalypse, the WCRF took up an undercover effort to run tests on these people, to see what on earth had happened."
"So here we are," said Piper.
"How th' hell did they know to find us, then?" asked Daryl.
The others glanced at each other. "We couldn't tell you that," said Brian. "If I were you, I'd talk to Pearson, or Idan."
"Who's Idan?" asked Daryl.
"One of us," said Piper. "Someone who remembers and was brought in for testing, I mean. The thing is, he was in a research facility in Israel during the turn, so now he's pretty high up with the other scientists around here. He really knows what he's doing."
Beth took a moment and looked around at the people surrounding her. Daryl to her left, Brian, Jane, and Piper before her. There had been so many answers thrown at her all at once. She was left quite speechless, quite unsure of what to do next. A part of her was happy with these explanations. Another part wished she and Daryl were sitting around Rick's dining room table, reminiscing with him and formulating a plan of their own for finding the others.
They ate their nighttime meal with Brian, Jane, and Piper. The meal was served on school trays, and within the squares was turkey with a thin gravy, strangely bright white mashed potatoes, and a pile of green beans in a watery pool. The group ate everything right up, quite happily.
"You gonna sleep okay tonight?" asked Daryl as he walked with Beth back to her room.
"Surely," replied Beth. "I've slept on a muddy forest floor multiple times."
"You got a point there," he said. "I'm just across the cafeteria and down the hall to the left, if you need me."
Beth smiled. "I know," she said. "And I'm right down here, you know, if you need me."
His tired eyes watched her for a moment. And she finally let herself have the thought: She wanted nothing more than to kiss him right then and there.
"Hey, roomie," said Piper as she came down the hall. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to turn in." She moved around the pair and flipped on the light in the bedroom.
"Goodnight," said Beth to Daryl.
"Yeah, 'night," said Daryl in reply.
Beth shut the bedroom door behind her. Piper had turned off the overhead light, and let the lamp on the nightstand in between the beds light the room. Both beds were turned down, their pale blue sheets coming to a folded point towards one side of the mattress. Beth slipped off the converse she was wearing.
"Do we sleep in our scrubs?" she asked.
Piper stood from the bed she sat on. "No, no, there're pajamas in the wardrobe," she said. She walked to the wardrobe to the left of the door, opening it and handing Beth a pair of striped shorts with a matching button-down shirt. She had a set for herself. "You can always change in the bathroom across the hall, if you want." She was already pulling off her shirt.
Beth undressed, too, and pulled on the pajamas. The sheets were cold once she huddled beneath them.
Piper turned onto her back, arm across her forehead as she stared up at the ceiling. "So, you and Daryl. You guys a thing?"
Beth laughed softly. "No," she said. "Not really."
Piper shifted her head to glance at Beth from under her forearm. "Not really?" she repeated, smiling. "Hm." She was quiet again before she said, "He looks at you like you're his life, you know."
Beth tried not to turn towards Piper too quickly. "What do you mean?"
"He watches you all the time, like he's gotta protect you, but like he's captivated at the same time," said Piper. "It's heartwarming, especially after knowing what all you two've been through together."
"Well, that's...that's interesting to hear," said Beth. What an understatement. "I suppose you'd know what those sort of looks are like, with Emerson and all."
Piper was quiet. "Yeah," she agreed.
Beth pressed her head into the pillow, which was gradually growing warmer, and looked at the room. This was nice. Piper was nice. Brian was nice. Jane was nice. This place had answers. The lamplit bedroom was cozy and warm.
"Hey, I'm gonna turn off the lamp," said Piper. "I hope you sleep alright tonight. I remember my first night here; it was all such a whirlwind."
Beth smiled. "Thanks. Goodnight."
The darkness was total aside from a dim line of light at the bottom of the door. Piper shifted under her sheets. A few far off voices could be heard, probably in the cafeteria. Someone walked by the door, the shadows of their feet momentarily muddling the line of light. Beth's eyes adjusted, and she could barely see the hazy outlines of Piper's bed, the wardrobe, and the nightstand.
"Hey, I wanted to ask," said Piper's voice after several minutes. "What made you cry like that earlier? I mean, I understand, I guess. I just don't see you as the crying type after hearing your story."
"Well, it's just... you know the hospital I was taken to? The one I mentioned with Brian and Jane?" said Beth into the darkness. "When I saw the scrubs, I thought, for just a moment, that I was back there. That I was separated from Daryl again."
They fell silent. Piper's breathing steadied. Despite the comfort Beth felt, she wished that steady breathing belonged to Daryl.