Ch. 21
AN: I tried people, I really did, but nothing I wrote came out good, so you have my apologies for that. I will continue to try and if I ever write a lemon that I think is good, then I will post it, but until then, just leave things to the imagination.
They left the motel a bit happier. Beth was practically beaming and Sam was grinning like an idiot for most of the day. Sophia for her part, was just confused as to why they were acting like that. They made it back to the woods, sticking close to the tracks, making sure that they were covered from threats as they went along the path.
Eventually Sophia got bored with all of the sneaking through and began walking on the tracks. Sam called out for her to stop but she kept on. Eventually though, her foot got stuck and she slipped. Sam and Beth rushed onto the tracks and checked on her.
Sophia was crying and her ankle was red, already beginning to swell. Probably a minor sprain and she wouldn't be able to walk on it for a while. It was already close to dark and Sam suggested that they find somewhere to hunker down before they were stumbling abound in the dark. He gave his rifle to Beth telling her to keep them covered as he scooped Sophia up and gave her a piggyback ride. They went a bit farther down the tracks and found another Sanctuary sign, and a walker with half its guts torn out.
"What they," Sam muttered as he rounded the corner of the sign. Then in big bloody letters were the words, 'GLENN GO TO TERMINUS, MAGGIE'. "Maggie?"
"What?" Beth said as she went and looked at the letters. "Maggie?"
Beth smiled at the mention of her sister's name and was quick to read the blood note. And then her smile fell.
"Glenn? Why did she only write his name?" Sam swallowed hard. Did Maggie not have time? No, the note started with the name, it would have been the first thing she wrote. Maybe, she…. But Sam couldn't come up with anything, other than, She doesn't think Beth made it.
"Come on lass, we need to find a place to sleep tonight." Sam said softly tugging at her arm. Beth complied silently, not even glancing back at the sign.
They walked through the woods, coming up on a grave yard, with a funeral home sitting in the center. It seemed as good a place as any to hunker down for the night. They crept up on the home, Beth aiming the rifle the entire way. When they were close enough to be seen, and there were no gunshots, they simply began to stroll up to the front door.
Sam put Sophia down and pulled his machete out. He whistled into the house and then banged on the door.
"Hello! Anyone home?" He shouted into the home. There were no Walkers, and the house itself was impeccably clean that it was hard to believe that it had been abandoned. There was a casket and body in the viewing room, but other than that, the house was empty.
Sam swore under his breath as the cabinets turned up empty. So, did the fridge. "You find anything?" He asked Beth who was searching the other half of the kitchen.
"Whoa!" She exclaimed when she opened a pair of cabinets. Sam looked over and his jaw nearly dropped. Soda, canned goods, boxed goods, water jugs. Enough to last them weeks, even longer if they rationed properly.
"I have to say that is one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen in my life," Sa said as he grabbed a jar of peaches.
"Hey!" Beth joked.
"Sorry lass, you may be beautiful, but I haven't had any of this for over a year."
She punched his shoulder and they began to dig through the food. Sam cut open a can of peaches and poured it into three cups handing one to Beth and Sophia. They enjoyed a bit of relaxation and food, before they went and began to put up the noise traps so Walkers couldn't sneak up on them. When it finally became dark, Beth and Sam sat down at the piano. She played a bit and sang for him and Sophia, lulling the smaller girl to sleep.
Sam told her to move over and began playing a few keys, trying to remember how the song went.
"What are you trying to play?"
"Will the Circle be Unbroken. It's a good song. I can never remember the first few keys through. Always escapes me," he said as he finally hit the right key. "And there we are. You know the lyrics?"
Sam woke up in the coffin, Beth resting on top of him. He smiled as he thought of the previous night. So mundane, so normal, if it wasn't for the fact that he was in a coffin, he would have thought that it was just another night in Ireland. Well if it was then Beth wouldn't have been there, but the point stands.
He laid in the coffin, smiling to himself, the horrors of the past few days forgotten. Carefully he adjusted himself so that he could slip out of the coffin, Beth stirred and woke up due to the movements, but he was able to get her back to sleep. Sophia was still sleeping on the couch next to the coffin, so Sam took the time to go and do a security weep of the outside. He stepped over the cans that they had set up and did a walk around. Nothing, no walkers, no people, just the graves and the house. It was really quite perfect.
Then he heard footsteps behind him. His hand grasped his knife and he turned around ready to strike at whatever it was behind him. And then he paused. Behind wasn't a walker, or a psychopath wanting to kill him. It was a dog. It had white shaggy hair, at first glance he thought it was missing an eye, but, then he saw that the hair had simply grown over one of its eyes.
Sam sheathed his knife and knelt down. The dog walked up to him, and Sam held out his hand. It sniffed it tentatively, and then began licking it. Sam smiled and rubbed the dogs head.
"Well hello there mate, I'm Samuel. And you are?" the dog barked. "Never heard that name before. How about I give you another one?" the dog barked again. Well before I give you one, I'm gonna need to introduce you to the others, wanna do that?" the dog barked again, and Sam began walking to the home again, the dog right next to him.
To say that Sophia and Beth were happy about the dog was a colossal understatement. They spent most of the morning bathing it and then clipping the hair so that he could see properly. They hadn't decided on a name yet, Sophia wanted something like snuffles, or snowball because of the white fur, Beth wanted something along the line of Toto, since one of her favorite movies was The Wizard of Oz. He wanted to give it a name after Michael, though considering who he was, that probably wouldn't have been the best idea. So, for the time being, they would simply call the dog, boy.
They spent the next night there as well, loading up the food, getting ready to make it to Terminus. Beth was still sour on the whole 'Glenn' thing, which was completely understandable, and Sam was not going to say anything about it, he would have been pissed as well.
When night fell again Sam heard the cans shake and grabbed his machete. He opened the door carefully and as it creaked open he felt the force of a herd push against the door. "Shite! Beth! Sophia! Get out of here!"
He could hear the dog barking loudly and Beth shout that she wasn't leaving him. She appeared in the doorway and pushed her body against the door helping him keep it shut.
"Beth, take this!" Sam said handing her the machete. "I have my knife, grab Sophia and climb out one of the windows!"
"What about you?"
"Not dead yet! And this is not how I die Beth. Give me the rifle." She handed it to him and then he kissed her and then pushed her away from the door. "Go! Up the road! I'll be there!"
He led the Walkers through the house, every few steps he would turn and kill a Walker. HE led them to the basement and moved one of the examination tables so that he would have a barrier to contain the flow of walkers. He managed to get four of five of them before move arrived and he began to get overwhelmed. He spun the table around and trapped them in the basement, giving himself enough time to get out of the house.
He ran to the road, avoiding and killing walkers where he could. he got to the road and then he saw it. Beth's' bag sitting on the ground, as if someone had thrown in. If a walker had grabbed it then there would have been tracks, but now, there were only tire tracks. Wheels squealed against the road and Sam saw a car with a white cross on the back speeding off.
"Beth! Sophia!" he heard barking and saw the dog running up to him. Its mouth was bloodied and he had to do a double take, then he realized, that wasn't the dogs blood. Whomever must've taken Beth and Sophia must've been bitten by the dog.
"Good job ya' little bastard!" Sam said as he ran in the direction of the car.
He ran, and he ran, until night turned into day. His legs screamed for him to stop, his lungs begged as well, but he kept going. The weight of his pack, and the gun slowed him down, but he couldn't leave either of them. When he reached a fork in the road he paused. Which way? Which way? Which fucking way? His arms and legs felt like jelly, his hand loosened us and the gun clattered to the floor. He fell to his knees and felt a few tears sting his eyes. The dog came up beside him and licked hi face, some of the blood sticking to his cheek.
He wasn't sure how long he was like that. He just remembered when he heard the footsteps.
"Well lookit here," the lead man said. Six of them formed a circle around him. Sam scanned them and then noticed that the dog wasn't there anymore. The lead walked up to Sam and just as he was about to reach out for him, Sam swung and hit the man in the face. The men raised their rifles and Sam had his gun trained on the man he punched. "Damn it, hold up!
"I'm claiming his jacket!" a man behind him said.
"Hold up!" The man he sent to the ground wiped his face and began laughing a bit madly before he got up again. "A kid! I respect that. See grown men, they could have just look intimidating and then no one would say a word, surviving is a bit easier for them. But a kid? Well you have to work twice as hard!"
"You get yourself in some trouble partner?" The same man that claimed his jacket said, noticing the stains on Sam's knife and the butt of his gun.
"You pull that trigger, these boys are gonna drop you several times over. That what you want?" the lead asked him. "Come on fella, suicide is stupid. Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?" There was a growl and the dog reappeared, its teeth bared and its legs bent, ready to jump on any of the men. "A dog too? My aren't you just full of surprises? Come on, put the gun down. Names Joe."
Sam lowered his rifle and whistled at the dog, who immediately stopped growling. "Samuel."
"An Irishman! You're far from home."
"Tell me something I don't know."
AN: So two chapters in is it two days or the same day? Not sure, all I know is the three hour period between my classes sucks! Anyway, please let me know what you guys thought! Please leave a review and I will see you all next time! ~Pacco1