Chapter 11! Enjoy!
Chapter 11
Blake woke up in a cold sweat as she shot up from her bed. She threw her legs over the side and put her head in her hands as she tried to rid of the images that were cutting through her mind. Images of him yelling for help… the blood…the screams. Blake wiped sweat from her eyes as she stood up from the slightly stiff mattress. Going through her raggedy brown knapsack she found a pair of black shorts. Her large t-shirt covered the shorts but she thought it was safe to assume that no one was roaming the hallways at this hour. She also grabbed a water bottle and exited her room to go for a walk around the halls.
As she took deep breaths and tried to direct her thoughts away from her devastating nightmare, she came across the children's rec room hoping to grab a book. Directly in front of the rec room door was the bookshelf and she immediately went towards the nice collection of older books. While scanning the titles a gruff southern voice said, "Why ain't you asleep?"
Blake jumped a bit and quickly turned her head to the side, feeling her neck pinch at the sudden movement. On the other side of the room on one of the single person sofas was Daryl. "I could ask you the same thing," Blake began, still kind of startled by Daryl's presence.
Daryl looked up from the arrow he was cleaning and paused. He then replied with, "Couldn't sleep," and went back to his cleaning.
"Same," Blake replied as she picked out Great Expectations, knowing she would only get through a couple chapters before she forced herself back to bed. Blake wasn't sure if she should sit near Daryl, not knowing if he would even want her there. In the end, she grabbed another one of the single person sofas across from him, hoping that maybe now was the time to get to know Daryl. Hopefully they could start working together instead of going at each other's throats whenever they spoke.
Blake tucked her legs up underneath her to cover her frozen toes. She had the book sitting on her knee as she stared absentmindedly at the cover.
"Are you gonna sit there n' stare at it or ya gonna read it?" Daryl said, picking his eyes up from the arrow he was cleaning to meet her gaze.
"I'm gonna read it, Daryl" Blake said, rolling her eyes. Keep cool, Blake. She opened the book to the first page and started to read. Not to much later she started to become frustrated, her thoughts deterring her from even finishing the first page. She slammed the book shut.
"I'm sorry about snapping at you back at the quarry and calling you a prick earlier. It was unnecessary, I was just really freaked out then and you pissed me off before," she blurted.
Daryl stopped polishing the tip of an arrow and nodded at Blake, then continued what he was doing.
"I…I don't know what that means. Do you forgive me?" Blake asked.
"We're cool, girl. Damn," Daryl snaps. Blake can see immediately that he regretted his snappy response by the way his facial features softened. "I'm goin to bed," he continued, picking up his arrows and quickly exiting the rec room.
"Alright," Blake says after him. She finally is able to open the book and read the first couple chapters before feeling her eyelids get heavy. She puts the book down on the coffee table in front of her and rubs her tired eyes. She looks at the seat Daryl was in and sees a bottle of whiskey on the floor. Picking it up she takes a few swigs that'll hopefully help her sleep. Blake then exits the room and makes her way down the hallway.
Blake shuffles down the hallway to the eating area the next morning, dying for something to wash away the swamp mouth from last night's celebration and to subdue the headache sitting behind her eyeballs. The lights are shining bright in the room when she enters, making her wish she had her college hangover sunglasses she wore every Saturday and Sunday morning. Making her hand into a visor was the best she could do as she entered the decent-sized kitchen-area.
"Miss Carter! Good morning, sleeping beauty," T-Dog announced as he pushed some eggs onto a struggling Glenn's plate.
"Why are you yelling?" Blake said as she popped a squat next to Glenn.
"Ha! I'm not yelling light-weight, you're just hungover," T-Dog said as he placed a plate of eggs in front of her. Blake's stomach churned as the scent of powdered eggs wafted through her nostrils. She pushed the plate a little away from her and put her elbows on the table and rested her throbbing skull in her hands.
"Hey sis! College didn't do nothin' for ya. It's probably because you're still under-aged," Tanyon announced as he slapped his sister on the back, taking a seat next to Dr. Allister.
"Fuck off, Tanyon. Like that ever stopped either of us," Blake sputtered as the room started spinning from the impact of his palm. She looked up to see Carl's small freckled face and then looked at Lori, "Sorry," with an apologetic smirk. Lori just gave her a close-mouthed grin and told Carl to continue eating. Blake smirked at Carl and he smiled at his food, blushing at the pretty girl's soft smile. It was almost stupid how much little Carl reminded her of her brother when they were kids: so eager to be of help and getting into everyone's business. If he was anything like his father or her brother, he was going to be one hell of a man.
"Are you hungover like my dad?" Carl asked between mouthful's of eggs.
"Carl, no talking with food in your mouth," Lori disciplined as she slid a bottle of Advil to Glenn.
"Something like that," Blake said as she tilted to the right and laid her head on Glenn's shoulder. Ah, right here is perfect.
"I never want to drink again," Glenn announced to the table. Despite her current nausea Blake grinned at the comment, remembering many mornings where either herself or her friends made similar statements, only to go out again that night.
"I'll join ya in that," Shane said as he made his entrance known. "Only make stupid choices on the juice," he concluded as he took a seat at the head of the table.
"What happened to you?" Rick asked him. Blake brought her head up from Glenn's shoulder to get a good look at Shane. Across his neck were red scratch marks, she cocked her head to the side, considering all the possibilities of how those marks occurred.
"Must've done it in my sleep," Shane said.
Blake wanted to analyze the situation more but felt reoccurring nausea and laid her head back down onto Glenn's shoulder. She stared at Rick across the table from her and smirked.
"Looks like Officer Friendly should have put himself in the drunk tank last night," she said to the hung-over deputy.
"You're one to talk. I had to make sure your drunk-," he glanced down at Carl, "-butt made it back to your room last night if you recall."
"Yeah…I don't" Blake laughed, smiling a bit more when Rick cracked a small smile also. Gosh, I don't remember feeling this horrible when I was in the rec room last night. That was when she remembered she finished her bottle of wine when she returned from the room; thinking of an annoying redneck…speaking of which.
"Need some of these?" Lori asked when Daryl walked into the room, not looking too hot himself.
"Don't need no damn advil," he said, declining her offer.
Lori just shrugged her shoulders and continued eating her eggs. Jenner and Kris approached the group shortly after Daryl's arrival grabbing a plate of eggs themselves and grabbing seats at the head of the table. A few minutes of clinking silverware and T-Dog's whistling rang through Blake's ears until Dale spoke up, "I know you have welcomed us in graciously and provided us with resources but I do have some questions for you Doc."
Kris and Daphne glanced up to Jenner mid fork-full. Jenner looked down at his plate then back at Dale. "After breakfast I'll take you to the lab. Please eat," he said as he started to fork eggs into his mouth. Everyone continued to stare at him, wondering if he was stalling. "Please, eat. I promise after we will go to the lab and I'll tell you what I know," Jenner concluded pushing away from the table and exiting the room.
Kris stared at the door Jenner exited while Daphne followed. Kris turned to face the straggly survivors. "He's very stressed out," he said and then continued eating his eggs.
"Why?" Shane asked, "If he's stressed out I'm assuming we have the right to know. We are all suffering from the same issues now-a-days."
"I wish I knew," Kris said as he glanced to the door Jenner and Daphne had left through again. He looked back down at his plate and shook his head.
Blake watched him interestingly and was caught staring. Kris smiled at her and stood up. He walked toward her with his palte and grabbed the seat on the other side of her. She turned her head slightly on Glenn's shoulder to look at him and smiled.
"You look like you're half dead," Kris said as he scooped up more eggs.
"I'm not sure if that is an appropriate phrase to use anymore," Blake said as she closed her eyes, "But yes, I'm kind of hating myself right now," she said with a smile.
Kris nodded and then focused on his meal. Blake scanned the happy faces feasting on their breakfast. Rick was talking and laughing with Carl while Lori seemed very displaced staring at her plate of eggs. Shane was quiet and brooding, the usual focused on his breakfast. She scanned a bit more till she got caught on a pair of stunning blue eyes. Daryl was watching her from the other side of the dining room, leaning on the counter. His eyes immediately left hers and focused on his plate. Seemed people were finding a lot of interesting things in their plate of eggs this morning.