A/N I know this chapter isn't my best, not a whole lot of dialogue and pretty short. I promise it will get better. Enjoy it anyway. Much loves 3
Sam wakes in the morning with a vicious pounding in her head, in a room not her own. She looks around for Daryl, but the room is empty. She makes her way back to her own room and changes for breakfast, the bright lights make her head throb even more. She remembers all the events the night before, kissing Daryl, falling asleep on his chest. She smiles to herself when she remembers the half asleep ghost of his lips on her forehead.
Daryl walks into the kitchen and pours himself a big cup of coffee. Glen and T-dog are already there. T-dog is working on breakfast and Glen is slumped over the table, head in his hands, groaning.
"I hate you so much." Glen says when he sees Daryl.
Daryl lets out a bark of laughter and takes a long drink of the coffee. More people start to trickle in and take seats around the table. Sam walks in and gives him a small smile, he nods a hello and sits down at the table.
"Vi, playback of TS-19." Jenner leads them to a screen after breakfast.
"Is that a brain?" Carl asks when a picture comes up on the screen.
Jenner explains how the lights in the video are everything that makes a person an individual, the virus attacks the brain, shuts it down and restarts the basic motor functions. Nothing of the person's original self remains.
"We haven't been able to figure out what it is, or if a cure is possible.."
"What is that clock counting down to?" Dale asks, bringing attention to the clock on the far wall with less than an hour on it.
Jenner pauses before answering, "Generator runs out of fuel. Plant wide decontamination..
The group exchanges alarmed glances while Jenner walks away. Rick, Shane, Glen and T-dog run off to confirm, or try to stop it. Everyone else in the room looks around startled, but heads back to their rooms.
Daryl grabs Sam's arm and slows her until everyone else is around the corner.
"Get your stuff packed and be ready to go. I don't like this guy." he whispers roughly in her ear.
A cold fear settles in her gut as she closes her door behind her. This place was supposed to be safe, their reprieve. At least for a while. Sam notices the silence quickly, the air shuts off. She throws everything in her bags, doing a quick check around the room to make sure she doesn't forget anything. Lori and Carol are out in the hall, talking about the loss of the air conditioning without alarming the kids too much.
Rick, Shane, Glen and T-dog get back into the same hall as the emergency lights kick on. They all return to the computer lab and Jenner is sitting at one of the computers.
"The French were the one that held out longest. They worked until the end.." Jenner says when he sees them coming back.
"What happened?" Andrea asks
"Same thing. Ran out of fuel." Jenner sits calmly as the group panics "The building shuts it's self down and deploys HIT's."
"How can I building do anything? It's a fucking inanimate object." Daryl says sarcastically.
"HIT? What is that?" Rick asks, Jenner remains silent "Vi, what is HIT?"
The panic level rises as Vi explains how the HIT's will light the air on fire, designed for the greatest loss of life and structure. Sam's stomach drops through the floor while Lori and Carol plead with him for the sake of their children.
The fury takes control of Daryl as the people around him panic. He catches the axe that Shane tosses him and they start hacking at the door. He hasn't gone through all this, losing Merle, Sam getting kidnapped, for it all to en here. He refuses to just roll over and die. The reverberation from the axe on the door is enough to cause an ache in his shoulders, but he refuses to give up.
"Those doors are built to withstand a rocket blast." Jenner yells over the cries and pleas of the group.
Daryl's vision becomes a haze of red and before he knows what he is doing, he has turned around and is springing down the ramp, ready to bury the axe in Jenners head. Rick, Dale and T-dog grab him just before he reaches the good doctor. Sam steps in front of him, placing both hands on his chest.
"Daryl, please. He's our only shot at getting out."
Behind them Rick tells Shane, who raised him gun on Jenner, the same thing. Shane unloads the gun into the computer behind Jenner's head.
With only minutes left, their bags by their sides, Jenner opens the lower doors, allowing them to escape to the upper level. Jaqui refuses to leave, shutting down any attempt to change her mind. Andrea sits near Jenner on the floor, set on staying also.
The reach the lobby and try the doors, but everything is shut down and locked. Daryl tried the axe, but it hardly makes a scratch, let alone do any damage. T-dog tries a chair, until it falls apart. Shane even tries shooting the glass, but nothing works.
"Rick," Carol tries to get his attention "I might have something."
"I don't think a nail file is gonna do it Carol." Shane bushes her off.
"That first night in camp, I washed your uniform." she digs around in her bag and pulls out a grenade "I found this in the pocket."
Daryl can feel his eyebrows raise and a glimmer of hope returns to the situation. He rushes over to Sam as Rick places the grenade.
"Get down." he says, pulling her to the floor and covering her head.
Pressed against the floor, her arms and Daryl's covering her head, Sam prays to any and all Gods that are listening that this works, they make it out. Those few seconds of anxiety seems to stretch on for hours when finally the grenade explodes and rocks her to her very core. She looks up and gasps in relief.
"Let's go." Daryl helps pull her to her feet "Move it."
Their feet hit the pavement and they break into a run towards the cars, taking out the advancing walkers, drawn by the explosion. Nobody is shy about using the guns while making a desperate run to the cars. Dale and Andrea make it out of the building with only seconds left .
"Where to now?" Sam asks Rick, back on the interstate.
"I still say Fort Benning." Shane is insisting.
"We can head in that direction at the very least." Rick sees Sam's exasperated face "Even if we head in a different direction later, it's away from the city."
Sam shrugs indifferently, tired of trying to argue with Shane.
"Let's ditch the truck." Daryl suggests to her "Almost outa gas an about to fall apart anyway."
"And take what instead?" Sam asks.
"Ever been on a bike?" Daryl asks, unable to keep a smile off his face.
They manage to fit everything in the saddlebags on Merle's bike, Sam puts on the helmet Daryl gives her and straddles the bike. Daryl takes a second to appreciate the sight of her on the bike before getting on himself.
"Hold on." he says to her, and the bike roars to life.
Sam wraps her arms around his waist, grasping her opposite wrist and presses her helmeted head to his back as they ride off.