Quick note:
I would love to give thanks to rocknrollprinces131 for being my beta reader for this chapter. She's a great writer and a very cool person. If you haven't yet, you should check out her work.
This story will be coming to an end soon. Only two more chapters ahead. I hope you all enjoyed the ride and enjoy the last two chapters that I will be posting soon.
So did Daryl survive? Is there another death in this chapter? Check it out and tell me what you think if you'd like :) Thanks for reading, stay lovely!
Chapter 28: Ready to Die
"Stop the car!" I screamed as I opened the back door, threatening to jump out, but Tyreese didn't budge.
"Stop the car!" Rick gripped onto Tyreese's shoulder.
Tyreese finally slammed the breaks and I jumped out, running a few yards, dodging walkers left and right. I went up to the beige truck that was crashed against a tree, the truck Sam was driving. The driver's door was wide open, the car chime still sounding, alerting me the keys were still in the ignition. Blood was splattered on the steering wheel, with Sam's knife on the floor, covered with blood. I looked over the whole car but Sam was nowhere to be found.
"Sam! Sam!" I paced all around the area trying to find him. I looked back to the group, seeing that they had their hands full with the scattered walkers that were nearing the car. From the corner of my eye, I saw two walkers approaching me. I picked up Sam's knife and tackled one of the walkers to the floor, stabbing it in the face several times.
"No! No!" I screamed as I stabbed it for the last time, leaving the knife in its skull.
I got up and turned to the other walker. I pulled out my gun and pulled the trigger multiple times, firing into its skull. I kept pulling the trigger after I fired all rounds, I couldn't comprehend that I had run out of bullets.
"No!" I let out all my anger and frustration on the walker with a torn up, dirty, white dress. Sam was probably dead along with Daryl and I was ready to throw in the towel, I was ready to die. I stomped my foot through the wet, deformed, blown off head. "No!"
"We need to go!" A gruff voice slammed the back of my neck and a pair of muscular arms grabbed me from behind, dragging me away from the already dead walker. I was fighting off who ever grabbed me, wanting to be left alone so I could just die.
"Lana!" The man turned me around to face him. Blood rushed to my head, I lost my balance and almost fell to the ground as he held me.
"We need to go." Daryl wrapped my right arm around his neck before carrying me to the safety of the car.
"Sam?" I called out as I stared at the man who was standing behind the car.
"I'm here, Lana." Sam answered.
My heart was immediately lifted; Daryl and Sam were okay…it was going to be okay. Everyone was in the car, ready to leave, but Sam just stood by the open back door of the car. Sam gazed down at Lana, then gently slammed the car door.
"Sam, get in the car!" Rick rolled down the window, wondering why he backed away.
"You guys need to go." Sam stood outside, not getting in.
"Sam, wha…" Rick stopped mid sentence as Sam walked away from the car.
Rick got out and I followed right behind him.
"I was bitten." Sam grunted in pain.
I stood behind Rick, breathless as Sam raised his pants, showing the infected bite on his right ankle.
"Happened when the walkers broke through the fence." He explained.
"No. There has to be a way. We can cut it off before it spreads." Rick stepped closer to him.
"No. It's too late. I'm already feeling it." Sam backed away from us.
Daryl had gotten out of the car, stabbing two walkers that were getting close and walked up behind me.
"No! Sam." I ran over to him after it finally sank in and tackled him with a hug.
"You guys need to leave, it's not safe here." Sam gently pushed me off.
I touched his cheek and he was right, it's too late. He was burning up with a fever that was slowly killing him.
"Sam…" Tears ran down my face as I looked into his eyes with sorrow.
"Don't cry, everyone dies eventually right?" He deeply sighed, attempting to be strong in his final moments. "I get to be with Dean again." Sam faked a half smile, followed by a hoarse cough, which caused him to back up and lean against a tree for support, clearly evident that he was showing signs of weakness.
"I can't…we can't…Sam…" I mumbled.
"I just need a gun."
We all stood in front of Sam knowing that this was it.
Glenn walked up to Sam, holding back the tears and pulled him in for a hug.
"You guys got this." Sam assured Glenn.
Glenn backed away, wanting to cry as Carl walked up to Sam and hugged him goodbye. As Carl released from the hug, I went in and hugged him again for the last time.
"I'm sorry." I rested my forehead on his hot wet forehead as the rain continued to drip down on us.
"This isn't on you." Sam's right hand quickly ran through my wet hair, pushing it out of my face.
I pulled away, trying not to further bust out crying.
Rick walked up to him and pulled out his gun, checking the cylinder for bullets. He went in for a hug and in that hug, Rick handed Sam the gun as he closed his eyes in disbelief and backed away from him.
"You sure you wanna do this?" Daryl looked to Sam, not knowing what else to say.
"Yeah." Sam replied. The fear and terror showed behind the forced half smile he wore.
We stood there for another moment, it had become unbearable to walk away from him. He was one of us, but we would now be one less without him. Another one bites the dust. I turned around and wept my way to the car, I couldn't look at him any longer. I leaned my chest against the car and rested my arms on top of the wet roof. As I leaned against the car, I felt gentle hands pulling me away.
"C'mon." Daryl whispered, as he opened the back door and helped me in.
Everyone got in the car and Daryl pulled me into his arms. Rick hesitated to drive away as he looked back to Sam, who was leaning against the tree, before hit the steering wheel, releasing his frustration, and turned on the car. All of us were frustrated that we couldn't help Sam. We drove away, I looked back until Sam's figure disappeared into the night. Once he was out of sight, I sobbed into Daryl's wet jacket. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I knew that it was just at matter of time before I lost everyone else as well.
Dawn
"Dad, I need to use the restroom." Carl whispered into his father's ear.
After what seemed like hours of driving and the twilight dawn rising, Rick pulled over to the side of the road of a small deserted town. We all got out to stretch and relieve our bladders. After all was relieved, we gathered back to the car once again.
"Seems pretty quiet, we should probably scout out a few places for food and anything else worth taking." Rick studied our surroundings.
"Alright." I muttered under my cold breath as I walked away from them and off to the nearest building I saw.
Footsteps pattered behind me, but I didn't bother looking back.
"You ain't goin off alone." Daryl walked beside me as we approached a small grocery store.
"I'll go first." Daryl pushed himself in front of me, his gun and hunting knife out, ready to attack as he opened the door.
We cautiously walked in, shelves broken down, wrappers scattered, the place seemed like it was already raided thoroughly.
"I'll check the back, see…" The door to the back room of the store silenced Daryl as we both aimed our guns to whatever it was that was opening the door.
"Whoah." A woman gasped as she aimed her gun to us.
I tilted my head to the right, in shock of who was standing across from me.
"Lana?" The woman softly whispered as she put her gun back in her holster and walked over to me with open arms.
"Carol?"
"I thought you were dead. I went over to your house and saw blood everywhere and Matt…." Carol stopped mid sentence, not wanting to finish it. I let go of the hug and saw another woman with a katana coming out of the back room, observing what was happening. "Is it just you two?" Carol glanced at Daryl.
"Five of us now, including me."
"You guys holding up anywhere?"
I looked down, shaking my head in decline. Carol walked away and pulled the woman she was with off to the side for a discussion. I felt Daryl's eyes on me but I didn't lose focus of Carl and the woman she was with. The woman with the Katana nodded and Carol walked back up to me.
"We're holding up in a prison, eight miles north of here. There's twenty two people in our group. I need your word that the people you are with are not bad. We've ran into a few bad eggs and we've lost many."
"They saved my life countless times, they're good people."
"I need to meet the rest of your group first." The woman with the katana walked over to Daryl and I, observing and studying us.
"I'll go get them." Daryl walked out.
