A/N Sorry about that last chapter, it had to happen. This one's a little short, but I hope you enjoy! Please review.
Sam walks back into the room, Kyle is still holding his sisters hand. She tries to get Kyle up off the floor, but he won't move.
"Kyle, you have to move. We have to take care of her."
"No. You can't touch her." Kyle says through his tears.
"You don't want her to become one of those crazies, do you?" Sam gives Daryl a desperate look, begging for help.
Daryl tries to talk to Kyle, make him see that this needs to be done, but he keeps trying to go back to his sister. Sam looks at Chris, fighting tears again, she was so young. There must have been a way Sam could have kept them away from this. Sam looks at her more closely, thinking she saw her eyelids move, just a flutter. Her eyes twitch again, and the fingers on her injured arm grasp at her clothing. Sam scoots back, afraid to say anything in case it's a false alarm, but when her eyes open, she knows for sure. Her once dark eyes are cloudy and ringed with red. She starts to stir, but Sam's vocal chords are frozen.
Daryl is still arguing with Kyle when he sees movement in the room, Sam is pressed against the bed, eyes locked on the girl on the floor. Her eyes are open again, and she is slowly trying to move. He raises his bow, trained on her head, but Kyle pushes past him and goes to his knees at his sisters side again. Her movements get more frantic as she tries to get at him. Daryl raises the bow again and takes the shot while he can.
Chris' arms fall limply at her side and her head drops back to the floor. Sam stares at Daryl, her mouth open as Kyle gets to his feet.
"What have you done?" his voice is low and menacing "What have you done! You killed her!"
Kyle lunges at Daryl, his hands trying to get a grip on his throat. Daryl is able to keep him off. "That wasn't your sister. Did you see her? She would have taken a chunk our of you too if I didn't do something."
Kyle is still fighting, swinging his fists wildly at Daryl's head. Daryl shoves him hard, Kyle loses his balance and lands on his backside next to Chris' corpse. All the fight seems to leave him in a rush. He goes back to holding her hand.
Sam tries to approach him "Kyle, we should get going, it's getting late. It's not safe to be out after dark anymore."
"Then go." his voice is flat, empty "I'm not keeping you here."
"You can't honestly think we're going to leave you here. Come with us." Sam tries to touch his shoulder but he jerks away.
"Don't touch me. She would still be alive if it weren't for you." he gives Sam a look so sharp she actually takes a step back "Just go away."
Sam's heart breaks a little when Daryl starts to lead her out of the room and down the stairs. He puts her in the car and gets in on the drivers side.
Daryl doesn't like the fact that he had to shoot the girl in front of her brother, he wishes he didn't have to, but none of them could do it. As it is, she almost took her brother with her.
"I had to." he says out loud, Sam nods but keeps staring out the window. "I kinda liked the kid, she had fire. I wish it had gone down differently."
Sam is quiet for a long time, letting the tears slide down her face as she watches the sunset. "Thank you," she finally says "I couldn't have done it.
"I know," Daryl lifts hand off the console, but he just lets it hover there, unsure what to do with it. After a few seconds he puts it down again.
"Your plan still Boston?"
"I don't know," she wipes her face and turns to him "I don't want to go anywhere tonight, but … do you think, maybe I could. If you and your brother don't mind? Can I just stay with you guys tonight? Until I can get some gas or something in the morning?'
"Yeah, course it is." he says as they near the town where they met up. "Shit, shit, shit. We gotta make a quick stop before we go back."
They pull up to where Daryl and Merle made their camp. There is a roaring fire, but Merle is no where in it's light. Daryl gets out of the truck and grabs the bags.
"You wait here. I'll find him and let him know we've got company." he says to Sam before shutting the door. "Merle! Where are you brother? I'm back."
"Bout time, " Merle walks into the firelight "I was startin to wonder. Thinking maybe you got lost.
"Naw, ran into some trouble is all." he hands Merle the bag of booze "s'all I could grab, and a few more boxes for your rifle. And, uh, we got company."
"Are you shitting me? How many times I gotta tell you, it's just you and me. We don't need anyone else."
"She just needs somewhere to crash tonight. "Daryl explains, exasperated "I don't think she'll stick around after tonight."
Merle stands, waiting "Well?"
Daryl motions Sam out of the truck, she steps out and slings her pack over her shoulder before walking towards them.
"Where should I put this? she asks Daryl.
Merle lets out a bark of laughter when he sees her "Well, hey there. You're wasting your time though baby brother. She don't like us big strong men. Does she?"
Sam's face turns a dark red in the fore light "I never said that."
"Oh, is that true now?" Merle starts swaggering over to her. "What if I said I didn't believe you?"
"Come on man, leave her be. She's been through hell already." Daryl moves in front of Sam just a little.
"Forget it." Sam says, turning back to the path they drove up "I don't need this right now. Thanks for today though, Daryl."