Chapter Thirty- Seven

Dwight pulled up to their camp and I thought I was going to be sick. I rubbed my sweaty palms on the sweatpants that he had given me once we were inside the truck. I couldn't close my eyes without seeing Abraham and Glenn being brutally murdered. My ears still rang with Maggie and Rosita's cries. I couldn't believe that it had happened. It all seemed so surreal. I wondered how everyone back home was holding up, but more than anything I wondered where they had taken Daryl. I had assumed to the cells.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked.

"I'm not taking you anywhere," he said as turned off the truck.

I jumped at the sound of the driver side door slamming. When I looked to my right, I saw Kate emerge from the side door. I remained still until Dwight opened my door and pulled me out by my arm.

"She's all yours," Dwight said to Kate.

I stood in front of Kate with Bethany's dried blood caked to my chest and hands while my own blood stained my lips.

"Follow me," she said as she took her pistol out of her jeans. Another man stepped outside and he too was armed.

I didn't say anything but walked behind her and in front of the two hundred pound man who would tell me to hurry up if I wasn't keeping up with Kate's pace.

"You look like shit," Kate finally said as she opened a door down the long hallway that we had been walking through. She turned to look at me as she directed me to the row of showers. "You're not pregnant are you?"

I shook my head.

"Good," she said. "I'll wait here for you to shower. There are towels and soap on the shelf," she said as she pointed to the metal racks that were adjacent from the showers.

I peeled my clothes off in front of her and left them in a pile next to the shelf. As I stepped into the shower, I couldn't believe that I was here again. My skin crawled with the idea of having to be imprisoned in a cell, but worse than that was the idea of Daryl being locked away. I didn't know how long he would last before he would try to kill someone and in return get himself killed.

I closed my eyes so I didn't have to see the blood wash off of my chest and stream down my legs and into the drain.

"Time's up!" Kate called from behind me.

I quickly washed the remaining soap off of me and turned the water off. As I patted my face dry, I walked towards her. "How did you get here?" I asked, finally ready to talk. I felt more human with less blood covering me.

"Negan took me in."

"So what? Are you one of his wives?"

"Or something," she said. She handed me a white sundress. "Negan wants you to wear this."

I took the dress. "Does he pick out your clothes too or is it just me?"

"Negan isn't the bad guy, here, Juliet."

I scoffed. "Yeah, somehow I don't believe that."

"He could have killed you."

I let out a deep breath. "What happened to you?"

"Get dressed."

I dried myself off and slipped the dress over my head. I tried to towel dry my hair when Kate told me that it was time for us to go. I asked a string of questions, trying to figure out how she got here and why she was serving Negan. She refused to answer any of them.

"Just tell me one thing," I begged as she led me to a room similar to the one that Negan promised me when I had agreed to serve him.

"What?"

"Is Daryl alive?"

She nodded before closing the door, leaving me alone in the room. I ran to the door and tried to open it, but she had locked it from the outside. I let out a deep breath as I looked around the small room before sliding down the wall and onto my ass.

A couple of hours passed and I heard the doorknob turn. I got to my feet and watched as the door opened and Negan appeared.

"You clean up nicely," he greeted.

"What's with the dress?" I asked

.

"Kate," he answered as he closed the door. "She filled me in all about you and Daryl. She mentioned how you liked to wear dresses."

"What did she tell you about Daryl?"

Negan grinned. "All the juicy details." He walked across the room to the couch. "Have a seat."

I did as he asked.

Negan sat down across from me. "I kept you alive so you can tell me your theories."

"Why do you care what I think?" I asked.

"Because you're smart."

I bit my lip and looked him over. "So after I tell you what you want to know, you're going to kill me."

He shook his head. "That's not how I treat my people."

"I'm not part of your people," I argued.

"Let me make this clear," he said. "You are never going to see the others again. If you somehow manage to escape, orders will be to kill you on sight. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

He leaned forward. "Kate told me that you asked about Daryl."

My breath quickened at the sound of his name but I didn't deny or confirm.

"He's alive," Negan said. "Do you want to see him?"

"Is that a trick question?"

He shook his head. "No tricks."

"I would like to see him."

Negan smiled. "Then summarize this," he said as he pushed a packet of my data towards me.

I opened the file and scanned my handwritten notes, the real notes. I looked up at him surprised that he found them but nodded. "I looked at the symptoms of the walkers and reverse-engineered the idea of what activity in the walker brain would look like. While I had access to the brains, I didn't have an EEG to monitor brainwaves," I said.

"An EEG. Is that a machine we could find?"

I shrugged. "Maybe at a doctor's office or hospital?"

He nodded. "Continue."

"It appears that the walkers suffer from memory loss because they attack family and friends, not just strangers, therefore, the hippocampus is no longer functioning."

"Hippocampus?" Negan asked.

"It's the center of emotion and memory of the brain."

Negan nodded.

"We know that walkers are capable of movement, but not really human movement. So from that I know that the cerebellum is still working but because of death or injury, it has atrophied. Pair that with the aggression and the drive to act on base impulses, the orbital frontal cortex must be damaged."

"Why does it matter that the has been damaged?"

"Because they can't control the most basic instincts that drive human desires and needs."

Negan handed me another file. "You did drawings of what you thought their brains would look like," he said.

I opened the file and nodded. "Yeah. This is a typical human brain and then because of the damage and atrophy, I predict that this is what a walker brain would look like," I said as I pointed to one of the sketches. "This lesion on the frontal lobe is key, in my opinion."

"Key to what?"

"Their aggression and lack of impulse control." I paused. "Based on what I've studied, I would say that of course, a virus causes this, but technically, the walkers are all suffering from consciousness deficit hypoactive disorder. There have been causes in humans and other animals that suffer from CDHD. It's basically the same where parts of the brains, like the amygdala, the periaqueductal gray, the hypothalamus, and the thalamus are damaged and thus the brain cannot control fear and rage."

"What does all this tell you?"

"That maybe the brain could be repaired and the walker would be human again, of course if the virus didn't cause permanent damage to the brain with the fever, the wound was kept free of infection, and rigor mortis hasn't set in, which would be about four hours after death. Then there's decay, which would be about twenty-four hours after death."

Negan's eyes went big. "Woo, that's one hell of a claim, sweetheart."

"I know. And unfortunately, I'm not a neuroscientist or a brain surgeon." I paused. "I wouldn't know where to begin to repairing a walker brain."

"What about decomposition?"

"What about it?" I paused. ""Cells are dying and the body is breaking them down."

"Why do the cells die?"

"Because the heart stops beating and tissues don't receive oxygen anymore."

Negan nodded. "What dies first?"

"The brain… after about seven minutes of not receiving oxygen."

"How would one go about making it stop?"

"What? Decomposition?" I asked.

He nodded.

I shrugged. "The heart needs to keep beating." I paused. "Why? What's the big deal about decomposition?" I stopped. "Decomposition is what gives us the advantage on the walkers. They're easier to kill because their skulls aren't hard and their decaying limbs make them clumsy."

"So for them not to decompose, their heart needs to keep beating."

I nodded reluctantly.

"How?"

"I really don't know. Adeline shots have been known to bring people back. Something to generate blood flow would work."

"Such as?"

"I couldn't tell you. This is a little outside my realm."

"Are you willing to keep working on it?"

"If I do, will you let Daryl go?"

Negan stood up. He looked out the window as he thought about it. He turned to me a few moments later. "I can't do that. He would just come back for you and I can't have that."

"Why is this research so important to you?"

"Let's just say, I'm very invested."

"Then let Daryl go back. If I'm safe, he wouldn't try to come back for me."

"I just killed two of his buddies right in front of him," Negan said. "He wants me dead."

I looked at my hands that were in my lap. "What are you going to do to him?"

"Make him see it my way."

I looked up at Negan. "You said I could see him."

"And you can." He paused as he walked to the door. "In a couple of days."

I stood up.

"Until then, look over your studies and refresh yourself. I'll send Kate up with dinner in a little while."

"I didn't agree to help with the research."

"Something tells me that you won't be able to resist."

...

Daryl leaned over my shoulder as I laid sprawled out on his living room sofa. "What are yew readin'?"

I looked up from my biology book. "Just studying for my test in fifth period."

He sat down next to me. "I feel like a dirty old man when yew do your homework."

I closed the book and sat up. "I'll lend you my copy of "Lolita" and I promise you won't feel as dirty." I straddled him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "What turns you on the most about me?" I asked trying to be seductive.

He chuckled. "What kind of question is that?"

I shrugged and played with the hair that tickled the nape of his neck. "I'll give you a hand," I said realizing that I put him on the spot.

He grinned.

"The way I wear my white sundresses without any panties or bras?"

He nodded but didn't say anything.

"The way I suck your dick first thing in the morning?"

His smile grew, but he still didn't say anything.

"Hm…" I said trying to think. "How I dance like a stripper when I've had too much to drink?"

"I like all that," he agreed.

"Well, you have to pick one."

He moved my hair away from my face and kissed my lips gently. "I like how yew are first thing in the mornin'." He ran his hands through my hair. "Your hair is wild, your lips are swollen from sleep, and you're always so horny."

I smiled. "That's three things."

"Yew," he said finally. "Yew are the my biggest turn on."

"What about when I'm not longer young and beautiful?"

"Yew'll always be beautiful."

"Will you love me when I'm older?"

His eyes narrowed. "Why wouldn't I?"

I shrugged.

"Yew are the first girl that I've been with since I was a teenager. I ain't into little girls. If I knew how old yew was before I fucked yew then I would have waited until next year."

"So you'll want to fuck me in ten years?"

He nodded. "Kid, I'll be fuckin' you in twenty if yew'll still have me."

I crashed my lips against his, breathing in his scent and tasting the beer and cigarettes. I pulled back with my hands still in his hair. "Promise?"

"Fuck yeah."