Sam wakes up in her hotel room to her ringing phone, she answers with a groggy "Yeah?"
"Sam! Finally" Andy's voice sounds relieved "look, things are a little worse than we thought. I'm back on base now, but they locked it down. We can't leave unless our group is relieving the response team."
"Andy, what's going on? Should I be worried?" Sam sits up in bed, concerned for her friends safety.
"I," he pauses "I can't really tell you. I'm sorry. We were told to keep this under wraps until it's over."
"Alright, fine. Call me when you can, keep me updated. Just let me know that you're ok." She sighs, at this moment hating his career choice.
"Ok mom." Andy jibes "Gotta go."
San turns on the tv, trying to hear something on the news about the mess near the coast, but it's already too late in the morning. As she is waiting for room service to bring her breakfast, she thinks about the night before, the redneck brothers, and finds herself thinking about how amazing his accent was, the one she got the cigarette from.
Daryl wakes up a little before eleven, Merle is already up, banging stuff around in the front of the house. He sits in bed for a while, blowing the smoke from his morning cigarette out the open window into the humid Georgia air, not wanting to deal with his still pissed off brother just yet. He takes one last drag and smiles, remembering the hottie that blew Merle off the night before, and how upset Merle was the rest of the night. He makes up his mind to go back tonight, maybe she'll be there again. Not that he likes her or anything, but any girl that ballsy is worth a little attention.
"Hey princess!" Merle yells from the living room "Get yer ass up! You gotta go to the store."
"Why can't you go?" he yells back, dragging on a somewhat clean pair of jeans.
"Cuz I'm making a deal later, ya know, getting us money?"
He grumbles to himself as he drives to the store, the crappy radio in his truck only broadcasting every other word of the station.
"outbreak… coast…ckness… an indoors."
Not wanting to deal with the station, he just switches the radio off and drives the rest of the way in silence.
Sam gathers her hair up in an elastic before going into the bar. Way busier on a Friday night, she has to elbow a few people aside to get a drink. She looks around the bar, hoping to find another empty table, but settles for leaning against the wall, the bass from the band playing in the corner making the walls vibrate. She always loved going to shows, the smaller the place the better, you can really feel the music that way. She sees the guy from last night leaning against the opposite wall, and thankfully no sign of his jerk brother and a smile creeps onto her face and she makes her way over to him, moving slowly like he would bolt if she moved too fast.
"Hey." she says, still a few feet away from him.
"Hey" he barely gives her a sideways glance.
"Look, I'm still really sorry about what happened last night, or at least bad mouthing him to you. I should have known better, you walked in together." she tries to explain.
"I said don worry bout it." he shrugs and swigs his beer "Merle's, ah, not for everyone. But he's blood."
"I know, but still…"
He cuts her off before she can say sorry again "Stop apologizing, yer starting to piss me off."
"Alright, fine."
" 'Sides, that was funny as hell, seein Merle get all bent out of shape cuz of you. He was still pissed this morning." he lets out a low chuckle.
"He's not here again, is he?" Sam asks, looking quickly around the room.
"Last I saw he was still sulking at home. But he's probly out at one of his dives by now." he finishes his beer with one final swig.
"Good. I think if I had to turn him down again, I woulda started throwing punches." Sam says with a little laugh, she takes a cigarette out from the pack she bought earlier that day and hands it to him "I owe you one for last night."
He takes it with an almost unnoticeable smile and tucks it behind his ear, "Thanks."
Sam winces as the band now on stage botches yet another cover and turns to him "This band sucks. Let's make them a little more interesting."
He raises an eyebrow in response "What'd ya have in mind?"
"Just a simple drinking game," she laughs "two shots when they screw up the lyrics, one when they screw up the music."
"Alright, sounds like fun. What's your poison?"
"Whiskey work for you?" Sam asks with a smile, he nods "I'll get the booze, you go hustle us up a table."
She orders a bottle of Jack and two shot glasses and makes her way over to the table he got them and sits down opposite him. "The only flaw here is at least one of us had to know how the song is supposed to go. And I'm Sam, by the way."
"Daryl." He says, pouring himself a shot.
Daryl set the almost empty bottle of Jack on the table. "How are you still standing girl?"
Sam laughs loud and gracefully sits back down as the song she had been dancing to ends. "Musta forgot to warn you, I'm half irish. Got whiskey in my blood."
"That just ain't fair. I figured you'd be gone after the first few songs."
She smiles and grabs the bottle, they stopped using the glasses a while ago, and takes a long drink leaving only a little left "I'm bout ready for a smoke, you?"
He finishes what little is left in the bottle and stands "Yeah, I could go for one."
They thank the bartender and give her the empty bottle and glasses and stumble slightly out the door into the cool night. Sam pulls a lighter from her pocket and offers it to Daryl.
Sam watches people slowly trickle out of the bar, "They're probably closing soon. Which means another night at the hotel by myself. Yay."
Daryl shrugs, either ignoring or oblivious to her attempts, and only slurs slightly when saying bye "Thanks for the drinks. See ya round."
She watches him walk away, towards him truck probably, and cant help pout. They had so much fun earlier, she thought for sure… she sighs and shakes her head as she plops down in the back seat of the cab, whiskey finally catching up with her.
Daryl sits in the cab of his truck, window open letting in the cool night air. He lets out a heavy sigh and lights another cigarette. What is it about this chick? He cant remember the last time he did that. Just sat and talked with someone, never mind an attractive someone. Usually he gets stuck with some dumb girl because Merle is trying to hook up with her friend. He takes a deep drag trying to clear his head. "She was just some girl, probably never gonna see her again anyway."
He peels out of the almost empty parking lot and whips down the empty back roads towards home.
Sam drops her room key when her ringing phone makes her jump. She glances a the clock before she answers it. "Andy, what the hell. It's almost one in the morning." she tries hard not to slur too much, but between exhaustion and the whiskey, she doesn't do so well.
"Sam, your hotel, you're not in the city, right?" the anxiety and stress clear in his voice.
"No, its like ten minutes outside. Why? Andy, what's wrong?" she's never heard him this frantic before.
"Ok, stay there. They're gonna tell you to get into the city, but don't do it. It's not safe. It's some sort of infection, what we were trying to contain, on the coast. Don't let anyone who looks sick anywhere near you. Never let any of them bite you, that's how it spreads. The CDC is working on a cure or an antidote or something." there is so much noise in the background she can hardly hear him "It spreads fast. The city is the worst place to be. They think it will be easier to protect, but they didn't see the coast."
"Andy, please calm down. You're scaring me." her voice shakes, she sits on the bed and pulls her knees to her chest.
"They quarantined a whole town, only about half at them were sick when we got there. The next day the whole town was gone. Everyone was infected. The first person? The one to bring the town down? A little girl. Just five or six. The only way to stop them is to hit them in the head." there is a loud crash and more noise "I gotta go. I love you Sam. Be safe. Stay out of the city."
"I love you too Andy. Take care of yourself." she wipes a tear from her cheek as she hangs up the phone and curls up on the bed, trying to process all the information just dumped on her