Curative
By Kaimaler
Shit getting a bit real for Laura.
The need to survive is still there, but her memories are filtering through. The undead virus in her brain creating complicated feelings to hit her. Time to enjoy emotional baggage.
Maybe Merle gets involved... hmm...
When Merle woke up he retrieved Laura from the porch and they picked up the packs. It was cool out with a dense fog that morning, she was not really ready to leave. Her arm felt better and remained together when carrying the heavy packs. Walking around with a bullet in her arm trying to carrying these packs was not going to happen for very long.
Thankfully Merle had seen to that issue. He regarded her cautiously when she lifted the packs, but did not pay much attention to her when she showed she had it together. She was curious about him, more so now than ever before.
While she was scared he had meant to spend their time in the abandoned cabin using her like so many others had, Merle was not the kind for that. He pulled the bullet from her arm and wrapped up the wound. This was an act of compassion, he did not have to do it. Had he demanded her to carry the packs with the bullet still in her arm she would have done so. Whatever he ordered from her, she did and that was the end of it.
Instead he took her aside, helped her, and had not harmed her. His consideration for her surprised and confused Laura. In Woodbury the kindest act they did for her was bring her food and water, which she had since put on much healthier weight since she arrived. That was a necessity they could not avoid, but Merle did something not necessary to keep her functional.
He was not really good to her in a sense that he showed he cared and supported her. Merle had his own way to do things and it did not involve being emotionally available. The man was like sandpaper, sounded like it too, but he was good for something specific. Laura kept watching him, as if she had imagined the entire night in the cabin.
Merle would occasionally look for her, making sure she was keeping up the pace. She was just behind him and did not ignore him as she used to do. There was a change in her attitude towards him and he saw that as they left the cabin. Laura not longer focused on everything else but him, now she focused on their surroundings and included him. She would look for him when they got too far apart, even made direct eye contact with him. Something she never did anymore.
Eye contact was seen as aggression to the doctor. He would either use the crop to correct this behavior or refuse her food for the day. When she was particularly rebellious he would use both punishments to train her. Merle had seen that behavior already, when he bothered her she would stare at him directly. It was a sign of defiance, meant to be aggressive.
To the others however, Laura would either stare at something in the area around the person or at what they carried. The punishment was not worth the trouble, she did not need to look at anyone's eyes to know they intended her harm anymore. It was a correct assumption that, when inside the walls of Woodbury, no one had good intentions for her.
That is why Merle puzzled her. He tore her jacket open, inspected her wound, fixed the damage, and moved on without actually making her time with him any worse. He was different, he stood out among the others. The only person to show her any kindness since those blurry memories of Rick and Daryl. It gave her feelings she was not able to figure out just yet.
Laura knew one thing though. Merle took priority, she would look out for him as he had looked out for her. Some strange side of her wanted to protect him now, it was far more instinctual than she expected, but it was prevalent. She felt like watching over him was watching over a friend, if she dared considered herself lucky enough to find one decent person in all of Woodbury.
Her earliest memories of Merle had been unfavorable. She recalled seeing him and his fist coming at her, but the rest was blurry. Something happened and he had hit her, the rest did not matter so much. All Laura knew was Merle treated her differently now.
She wondered why, what made this man who was notorious for his violent and hateful behavior take pity on her. If he even had the capacity for pity that is. Laura took preference to working with Merle now knowing he was watching her back. Before she felt alone, even with an assigned partner for her, she knew the only person that would save her was herself. Merle changed that.
Merle dropped the bags and bent over, the weight of the packs getting to him. He needed to take a moment to rest, using one of the packs as a seat. He waved her over and she dropped hers next to his but remained standing. Merle panted, sweating profusely. Laura did not as she could do neither of those things anymore, so she took watch over the tired man.
Her rifle in her hands, she scanned the area and waited for Merle to catch his breath. He leaned back and let out a deep breath. "Sit down girl, ain't nothing out here. Rest up, still got a ways to go." He insisted and she turned to him. She shook her head, denying his statement. "What, you ain't tired?... No, I guess not, huh. You don't ever blink, you don't ever breathe, what else? They tell me you're one of them, one of the dead we've been killing out here. That true?" Merle asked, taking the rest to talk to the girl.
She found his questions interesting, more that he was asking her rather than just continuing their absolute silence. Laura offered a shrug, the man had helped her she figured she felt a bit more comfortable interacting with him. Had anyone else asked her she would have just watched their perimeter, ignoring any questions directed at her.
"What the hell does that mean?" He watched her shrug, "You don't know?"
Laura shook her head, pointed to herself and nodded. A strange guttural growl emitting from her chest, it sounded much like a distorted hissing noise. Merle took that as confirmation of his first question. She was definitely not normal.
"So you are one of the biters...?" He saw her nod pointedly as his answer. "So you just wander around here... I know they have us feeding you bits of flesh, but do you just go on and eat people yourself? They told me you can't turn anyone you bite or scratch, so I ain't concerned or nothing. Just wondering why they bothered keep a pet biter around." Merle referred to her as one of them and she found she did not mind that so much. Laura came to terms with herself months ago.
She raised a hand, tilting it side to side trying to tell him sometimes and made a wavering humming sound; communication was a challenge. Merle understood her well enough, he paired the gesture with the sound and it conveyed from time to time for him.
Merle grinned, "That's something else. You're something else, y'know that? An actual biter running around out here with its head still screwed on right." He found it pretty amusing. "So you ever sink your teeth into those people from Atlanta?"
Laura tried to recall any memory of eating someone but found nothing but the bites on Woodbury's people. She would bite, if she tore anything off of them she usually swallowed it. Food was food and the living were just as edible to her as a cow. She shook her head and huffed, a lower tone hum from her told him she was not too sure.
"I figured if you had done they woulda just killed you. It was a long shot, but man- what I wouldn't pay to be there watching it happen." He chuckled, resting his elbows on his knees.
She shifted on her feet and rotated her shoulders. With quieter sound from her chest, a soft growl with a higher pitch at the end. She was trying to say she was none to sure about what he had said. Laura saw certain people she could remember like Rick and Daryl that stuck out in her mind, she did not like the idea of harming them.
Merle, surprisingly, picked up on her attempts to communicate her displeasure. "You're right, probably for the best. Who knows who you could've ate. Only one I give a shit about is my brother and if you ate him, you wouldn't be alive. I doubt you could even if you wanted to. My brother ain't no pansy like the others, he's a survivor."
There was a tight feeling in her chest and she looked to the road beneath her feet, kicking a small rock away from her. She raised her head, flipping her hair out of her face. She made a quiet higher pitched sound, like a sad huff not really meant for the conversation.
Merle caught it and eyed her like she had a secret. "You in with those cops, huh? They're probably dead by now, good thing you ain't with them anymore."
She shrugged, not really listening. Laura's attention came from the conversation to Daryl when Merle mentioned her trying to eat someone. There was a faded memory with Rick, Shane, and others she did not recognize. She was sitting against the headboard of a bed, soft sunlight shining through the thin curtains, and in her lap was Daryl's crossbow. She'd know it anywhere.
Rick was closest to her, Shane the furthest. Rick was talking to her and Shane interrupted, angrily saying something about trying to eat someone... trying to eat Daryl. She resisted the idea and Rick yelled at him, but the conversation was not clear. It felt like she was underwater listening to them talk just above the surface only when they yelled could she make out what they were saying.
Another situation where Rick defended her from Shane, but something happened. Shane accused her of eating Daryl? Or trying to at least. She could not tell exactly what was happening, but she knew it was not good. Why did I have Daryl's crossbow in my hands?
Doubt in herself and her ability to resist her hunger crept into her heart. Had she done something to harm Daryl or anyone in the group? Is that why she was no longer with them?
"You there girl?" Merle was standing in front of her, waving a hand in her face. She snapped out of the memory and nodded quickly, realizing Merle had gotten up after finding her unresponsive. "Good. Thought you just disappeared on me, been talking to you the whole time."
Laura took a deep breath, adjusting the rifle in her arms and straightening up. Merle was ready to move out again, but when he saw Laura was not moving he came to see what she was distracted by. She came back eventually, but only after she watched the memory play out. She did not know to react to it, something happened to Daryl and she had his crossbow with her.
Merle's entire reason for searching farther out every time he was sent to clear or scavenge was to search for his brother. Laura would not try to communicate this incident in case Daryl had been hurt or killed. She did not want to find out what would happen.
So she grabbed the bags and continued on, Merle leading the way as usual and Laura keeping an eye on their surroundings. She was trying to resist thinking about what happened to Daryl, why Shane thought she either did or attempted to eat the man she felt attraction to. It did not make much sense to her.
Laura knew one sure thing about her condition. She could and at times would eat the living, this was no more unusual to her than a bear eating a human. A predator eats what it catches, Laura was in this case a predator and the living were prey. Though she was leashed, muzzled, and kept under wraps Laura would not turn down human meat or anything else they happened to feed her.
She knew of course some of the meals they threw to her were not meat cut off an animal. It was someone living, someone who died or lost a limb. The doctor attempted tests of mystery foods in front of her.
That was an interesting experiment. She was placed in the interrogation room at the old precinct and asked to make a choice. Four dishes in front of her and a blindfold over her eyes. She was told to find the one she wanted.
No matter what they did to redirect her, Laura always went for human meat first. It smelled better, was fresher, and when she smelled it her stomach growled. Other dishes were cow, pig, and the occasional turkey dish. It was never intentional, Laura just went with whatever she wanted the most and her brain told her where to go. The test did conclude that the undead preferred human meat over animal, but will eat any meat if presented to it.
Laura craved the human dish, but would eat animal to satisfy her. The test also found that the human dish satiated her longer than beef or turkey, but pork would come relatively close. The experiment also tried if she would prefer raw meat or cooked and the answer was not surprising. Blindfolded the meals were given to her and she would always eat raw first.
Cooked meat was still good and certainly lasted longer, but raw human cut was the best gratification. She did however prefer raw meat drained first before consumption, an interesting evolution to her condition.
And so it was decided. When performing beyond their requests Laura was rewarded with raw human cut, when performing as expected she would be given cooked pork, and when she did not meet requirements she would either be fed vegetables and beef or nothing at all. The doctor was meticulous, checking every piece of data he recorded from his tests with Laura.
He never spoke to her much but he did talk at her often. He never wanted or expected a reply, only spoke aloud about what was coming next or something he found in a previous test that changed the next one. It was all very exciting to him and when able the Governor joined him in conducting the tests, but it was less and less frequent lately.
Something was keeping the Governor away from the lab more. He used to arrive every other day to check on the progress with Laura, now he might enter the lab for an or two once or twice a week.
Merle did not know why they told him her reward was human meat, but they did keep him informed that her performance outside Woodbury did affect their tests. This trip had been successful, she had fought with him and they operated as a team. When they arrived in Woodbury he planned on telling them about this scavenging run, explaining why they had not returned last night though the storm likely would have told them enough.
He had no idea if it mattered in the end, but if they rewarded her for this trip than he would be fine with that. He had been out with her checking the area before, but this was a bit different. They had begun to develop a survivalist bond, though Merle did not want to form a connection like that it had come about anyways. So he figured it was best to benefit from it.
When they arrived in Woodbury, the car sputtering to a stop, they were greeted by the wall guards quickly. The car was parked off to the side of the back entrance, avoiding the Woodbury citizens. Laura was never allowed to go through the town, when she went out they used a back entrance away from everyone. It was done to protect their image to the people.
Not to mention they almost always used a back entrance regardless, constantly worrying the people of Woodbury would not get them anywhere. The supplies Merle and Laura returned with would, however.
She stepped out of the truck and went to the back, getting out one pack at a time and tossing them to the ground. The guards began to come up, picking up a pack and taking it inside the building beside them to write down their new inventory. One by one the packs were taken inside and Laura felt their trip out was relatively successful. Her mind was an unstoppable flurry of questions, fear, and abject terror regarding her memories and what they would do to her now that she was back in Woodbury. But Laura was good at bottling up her conflicting emotions.
Merle leaned against the truck next to her as the others carried the last bags inside. A man approached him, and grinned. "Nice work out there, all of that guns?"
"Yeah. Guns, ammo, some tools, enough to keep us going for a while." Merle answered, chewing on a protein bar he picked up. "Got blindsides by a buncha assholes on the road. Went out passed that flooded bridge and they tried to take us out, managed to put them down first and found out they were loaded. Kicked back in some old cabin when the storm hit."
"Figured you were stuck somewhere. The storm rolled through here, knocked a couple trees down. Pretty messy, but glad that old man had a chainsaw to get the work done." He patted Merle's shoulder before heading in behind the others leaving Merle and Laura alone.
It would not be for long as Laura's day had only just started. As usual there was no time to rest for her. Merle looked at her, their new bond a bit uncomfortable to wear, but he was alright with it as long as it kept them alive. He gave her a grin and her eyes met his, she closed her eyes and bowed her head as a sign of her kinship with him. It was not easy being pals with the dead; he figured it was an advantage anyways.
Nevermind that the girl started to grow on him. She was strange, distant, but he managed to reach her. It did not take much he found out, just offered her a hand sometimes and she warmed right up to him. He worked out it was probably the best treatment she got since she arrived in Woodbury.
"Merle." The familiar voice caught his attention. He watched her immediately reserve herself, looking to the ground and sitting completely still. Merle determined this was out of fear, why else would anyone act like that? What he saw in her was terror of the man approaching them. He also came to the decision he did not like that. "Good work, we needed the ammunition. I saw the pack carrying enough bullets to man the wall for another few months. You did well this run."
Of course it was the Governor. He never used to greet Merle at the gate, but when Laura was there he never failed to show up. It was to keep face with her, let her know he was always around. This power play was not lost on Merle; he was smarter than he let anyone know. Smarter than he even thought himself.
"Yeah, the girl here proved useful. Covered my ass out there when those guys opened fire; I hadn't even noticed they were there." Merle wanted to see what happened if he gave her credit. Not that he wanted to detract from his own handiwork, but he was curious to see how the Governor reacted to it. This was a test, one that had a lot more weight than Merle would acknowledge.
"Is that so?" The Governor turned his head to her. She was looking to the asphalt below them standing still with her head down just as the doctor trained her. She knew her place here and it was not with them. "Well I'm glad to here it, I'm sure the good doctor will be too. Isn't that right?" He put on a smile and placed a hand on her shoulder. Laura did not flinch away, the first time she had done that they took their time to beat it out of her. Instead she tensed under his touch in pure fear for what he would do to her.
Merle was not an idiot. He knew they tortured her, he didn't care in the beginning and he didn't care about it now. At least, that's what he told himself. In some heavily guarded part of this thick skinned man he did care, it did bother him, and he often thought about the people he did wrong. Laura was one of these, the only different was they kept her alive and he figured that was possibly the worst thing they could have done.
Laura survived what they had for her and prolonged that suffering through experiments. That was not something Merle thought much of, he did not like the idea of conducting experiments on someone. They had the information they wanted from her and still they kept her around to beat, to use, to test. Dragging it out like that, Merle thought it was a bit much but the Governor wanted her to stick around.
He got an idea of some of the work they put into her when he was patching her up. The scars she had were recent and some of them still healing. It did not matter anymore, what happened was over and he figured even if he was one of those guys who did something about it; it'd be too late.
When the Governor spoke again Merle realized he was too deep in thought about this. His guilt ate at him for what happened to her and to the other survivors he had met while working for the Governor. There were many, others who had been tortured for answers as well. Very few of them had ever died keeping their secrets and over time the Governor improved his methods. Laura was an end result of this, she had lost her fight to keep quiet and she never needed to hold out as long as she did. She only refused to give him what he wanted for her own enjoyment.
"Return to the lab, the doctor wants you. Another round of tests it seems." He had that usual charismatic smile on his face. It would have been inviting had Laura not seen it through bloodied hands and bruised eyes. She hated the look on his face, that smile and his cocky behavior. Her fear overpowered her pride and hate though, self preservation was her only objective these days.
As always she did as he told her, turning in the direction of the lab and leaving them behind. The bags were inside and she had no part in inventory. Merle watched her leave and figured his day was over. The trip was longer than expected, he wanted to go back to his bed and sleep.
"You didn't have any problems with it, did you?" The Governor watched Merle closed up the back of the truck and lean against the edge of the panel. He was curious about something he did not put a name on just yet.
Merle looked at the Governor for a moment and gestured in the direction Laura left. "Girl's good out there, useful. Keeps the biters away from me and watches my back. I got no complaints. Without her wouldn't have brought back half the shit we did, might've not made it back at all." Air between the Governor and Merle was always tense, but there was something that changed. The Governor did not know what but was always cautious about dealing with Merle.
"Good, good..." He put a hand on the truck, the wide smile still on his face. "We've just been having some issues in the lab." A lie to keep Merle's suspicions down. "Had to make sure it was still listening to commands, that it hasn't gone off the deep end. We want to keep it moving so we can conduct more tests." He continued, trying to dissuade Merle.
Merle just gave a half hearted nod before walking around the truck, heading home for the morning. He knew he would have a long night and needed his rest before it begun. Before he left the Governor followed him from around the far side of the truck.
"I just noticed something, wanted to ask you about it." He put his hands on his hips. Merle waited for him to ask his question, tired of listening to the Governor already. "You call it a her. The good doctor and I talked about its condition to you and I thought you grasped the concept of this creature... I guess not, huh?" His tone remained friendly, but was dripping with venom.
He had no response ready for the Governor. Merle just looked at him and knew for a fact that Laura is still a person in there, somewhere. It was hard to tell at times with how absent minded she was or how she acted. Laura was not like anyone else that much was clear, but she was still there. He huffed, "Yeah, I got that."
"Glad to hear it." The Governor walked up and patted Merle on the shoulder, "Remember, it's not human. There's nothing left of the doctor's daughter; she died a long time ago. That creature is a biter, the same that wander around outside these walls. Don't let your guard down around it." He left Merle standing there, heading into the same old store that the other guards were taking stock of their haul in.
Merle looked down to the ground and thought of the night before. He had the image in his mind of how she reacted to him pulling her jacket off, her way of thanking him, and the most damning evidence that she was still a person inside those leather straps and spikes... when he spied what should have been a private moment to herself in the rain. He saw that creature on the porch crying, trying to use the rain to hide it and keep herself away from Merle while she did so.
She was actively seeking a moment alone, something she never got in Woodbury. Something she didn't even get in the cabin with Merle around. He was never the nice guy girls got along with, but he had his limits. He was tired and there was something bothering her, so he left her alone outside in the rain. A biter had no capacity for emotion, there's no sadness or pain for them. She experienced both the same as anyone else would.
Sense told him Laura was still Laura from before the infection spread. The Governor insisted otherwise. Merle would keep it to himself, the girl had stuck to him out there and he wasn't in the business of selling out. Laura's secrets were safe with him surprisingly, she would not guess Merle would be on her side of this ordeal, but he made his choice. His brother came first, Woodbury would just help him get there. Laura was a new entity entirely and while Merle would abandon her for his brother, she was definitely on a list of people Merle thought higher of than anyone else here.
She was here because the Governor was told of a group hiding out in the farm house. He came with his usual team to cut down the survivors and take their supplies, a practice he had executed without fail this entire time. Merle figured had Laura not covered the escape of her group than they would have been caught, or at least they would be on the right trail to them.
Self sacrifice, he knew it and it made him feel even more like a piece of shit considering one of those people could have been his brother. He had no way to know, Laura was too messed up to recount everything between Atlanta and Woodbury. He knew a memory like hers that forcing it was not going to help, it was the same as that wound in her arm. If they left it alone eventually it would heal and come back to her, but if it was stressed and allowed to fester she may never get it to heal right again.
So he left it alone. Merle was smart enough to know how to survive, today he had to bite his tongue and wait. He wanted to get away from the Governor as soon as possible though, when he had his brother he would leave behind this town and it would be just him and his brother again.
Laura was alright, but he would not risk a chance to find his brother to help her even if he was why she was caught in the first place. It was survival plain and simple. Denying she ever existed would be hard, she lived the longest and suffered the most out of all the prisoners they had taken so far. Merle would not forget he played a part in that.
Fifty days later...
It would be strange to describe their live in undead resident as a person. She failed to recognize herself in the mirror, straining to remember times were she was not as she is now. The Governor called her a thing, and it. With enough time and work put into conditioning her behavior she held no resistance to the idea. Laura thought the Governor was right; she was a shadow of the person she used to be.
They often sent her out on her own now. She never displayed any aggression to anyone of the guards, her father, or the Governor. There was no resistance even when he performed more evasive tests on her. His main interest was how her body remained functioning without a beating heart. In hopes of finding an answer to this mystery he took her out of the field to open her chest.
It took some getting used to. The pain was more than she ever expected yet compared to the branding it did not compare. Being carved open came close, but she had some resilience to it after facing it so many times she could no longer recall just once instance. The tests mostly blurred together. She had extreme sensitivity to heat and no issue at all being frozen.
Water soothed her, the cold numbed her, and heat was the worst pain she had ever felt. Her compliance with them never just came from a place of fear, it was now just a part of her life. She is as she was made to be; a test subject her father spent most of his time and energy working on. He tried to improve her, copy her, or at least find out how she kept moving without blood flow. No test regarding her functional body came back with clear results.
However the desire for cannibalism found some weight, but without more advanced equipment he could not find out a solid answer. Humans do not eat humans for more reasons than simply taboo. Neurological degenerative diseases could kill another human easily, with no way to fix it once the disease presented itself inside the host. The undead did not display that disease when consuming human flesh, which made Laura's father curious to how that could happen.
He gave Laura dishes of prepared human flesh and when she ate he would continue dishing the food to her regularly, trying to note any signs of Kuru. When nothing happened he came to the conclusion the dead brain was either immune to Kuru or carried it, but did not suffer from it. The host of the disease could not spread it unless a living human ate the human infected with Kuru.
With no decent tools to investigate his theories, he was forced to write off a dead end to this line of testing. Laura did not suffer any negative side effects and remained mentally intact through the tests. Kuru could not kill the dead or even moderately bother them. They were completely immune regardless of their reanimated brain.
He speculated that Kuru and the desire to eat human meat may stem from a need the Wildfire virus creates. No more investigation into his theories would help solve his questions though, there was no way to know for certain if the Wildfire virus that reanimated the dead actively sought out Kuru which it potentially used to thrive. The study behind the two diseases interaction was inconclusive and he shut the book on it.
Laura was still healthier than ever, having put on a more natural amount of weight and developing dense muscle structure. He found the ability to gain size through either fat or muscle mass was interesting without functioning organs. That being said the ability to heal from any wounds at all confused him, but the only way to find answers were with medical equipment he did not have access to.
She maintained a balanced weight now. Her work outside Woodbury and some of the tests inside the walls helped her to develop a strong, athletic body. Laura never had defined abdominal muscles before, but with the constant work and inability for fatigue; she built her muscle structure faster than anyone else could have. Endurance, sprinting, climbing, heavy lifting; all parts of her tests to see what, if anything, could be created from work or broken.
Laura proved she was a capable runner, able to keep pace without tiring. She was just a bit faster than the average human at her height, but was theoretically able to maintain speed indefinitely. Limited only by her own mental ability to keep moving without tripping, miscalculating a step, or sustaining an injury. This made her an exceptional hunter, able to catch anyone they sent her after.
Her tracking abilities far surpassed even their best hunters. With stronger smell, hearing, and sight Laura could pick up a trail even without physical signs of the target. Another reason why when someone went missing or they needed to stop someone from getting away; they sent Laura to catch them. She was taught to incapacitate or restrain the target unless given a kill order.
Unnervingly similar to a guard dog, Woodbury had its uses for her and exploited every advantage she could possibly give them. Laura's mind was as blank as it had ever been, making their lives much easier when ordering her around. Their commands burned into her head, she hear the direction they gave her and followed without hesitation.
She was kept now in the holding cell inside the old precinct turned private laboratory. There was no light inside the cell, only a buzzing light in the hallway to the cell. The doctor had covered all possible sources of light inside the cell, having Woodbury workers hang old black curtains around the cell to block out any additional light that could trickle in.
The hall light was powered by a localized generator and had a high beam light. They used an outdoor light and hung it above the cell door. When turned on the light was bright enough to hide whoever was standing under it. Laura's eyes far too sensitive to make out anything through the powerful white light. It served a purpose of course, meant to test how the strong contrast of pure darkness to immediate powerfully bright light could mask a person entirely to her sight.
Smell was still a factor though, hearing as well. Masking these from her senses was proving a bit trickier. Knowing she identified smell of a human and smell of another undead, they used the stench of a corpse to hide themselves from her sense of smell. The doctor wore a filtering mask and waited to see if she could tell on smell alone that he was in the room.
Laura had caught a whiff, but not as strong as it would have been. So he covered a tarp in gore and wrapped it around himself. His smell was masked and she had no idea he was there, standing below the light.
Hearing was one of the only senses he had not found a sure answer to. She could tell the difference between the stumbling gait of the undead and the careful steps of a human. Attempting to create uneven walks was the only way he found to momentarily confuse her, though the result was inconclusive. Laura was still able to tell the difference between him and the other undead in her cell.
As usual, at the end of the tests the cell was cleared of the dead and food set aside for her. Laura found comfort in the pitch black prison, it relaxed her somewhat though not enough to compare to floating in water. Still she preferred it to the bright sunlight outside or the searing bright light in the hallway. She sat in the farthest corner of the cell and waited for when they needed her.
They used her as a tool to get the job done and she always performed to expectations. When they were unable to watch her they kept her in a cage, much like a kennel. She waited sometimes for a few days until they needed her or had something else they wanted to test out.
She stayed in her cell without making a sound. Her movements had changed, something a bit more animalistic in nature. She kept her movements minimal with extremely cautious steps to as to remain silent, undetected. This often made people more uncomfortable around her seeing how inhuman she was generated a certain level of fear of her.
Were she entirely aware of this, aware of how they saw her. It was not much, but she took some sinister pleasure in scaring these people. They tore her apart and she was left with what ruins they left her. Laura thought only of what they wanted from her, what she did to survive, what she will do to survive, and how to be something they were scared of.
They nailed a muzzle into her head, claws onto her hands, and tortured her. The least she could do is be the monster they saw her as. Treating her as even lower than an animal, one of the dead that had no feeling, no thought, just hunger and rage. Laura had never done anything to express herself that way, but they believed what they wanted to believe.
So she stopped feeling sorry for herself, stopped missing a life she would never have with people who she would never see. The Governor wanted a monster under his thumb and that is precisely what he got. Turning what was once a shy, terrified girl into a rabid animal. Laura had slaughtered any survivor they sent her after, captured others to suffer a fate she had survived, and just by the way she moved, the growling sounds she made, and her presence she made every living being around her feel a chill.
Laura was a terror to the people around her and she liked it that way. The more nightmarish she was to them, the less they bothered her.
Before she was moved into the holding cell in the back of the precinct, she was still at the mercy of anyone who entered the metal room they held her in. The punishments were always the same, but her ability to retain some sense of self had been beaten out of her viciously. Some were more violent than others, some just wanted to have a woman underneath them unable to resist them, and others just enjoyed seeing someone suffer.
Now though, no one visited her anymore. They moved her to the holding cell outfitted to house her after she began to scare some of the guards that used to visit her. She remembered them all, not their faces, but the bite wounds she left them with before she was kept to this muzzle when not feeding. She could see the bite scars on their hands, forearms, and kept them all in the back of her head.
It was better here surprisingly, she was stable, fed, and no one bothered her excluding the tests and work the Governor had her do. Mostly though she was alone, able to think on what was going to happen next.
In the dark of her cell, the hall light having been turned off and the black makeshift curtains allowed to fall shut, Laura spent a small amount of her time thinking about the people she knew before. How they smiled when they saw her, how they held her to them and she was happy to be in their arms. It felt like she was loved and protected.
These few memories, most no more than memories spliced together over time, unable to find the truth behind them. There is a peace to those memories that reminded her, underneath the violent monster act she put on to intimidate others or the people the Governor had her brutalize - there was a person still there. A person she put down and ignored, trying to keep herself alive.
Laura no longer recognized Laura. She saw Laura as a girl who died during the early days of the outbreak and whatever she is now, the monster that took her place when she turned, was something else entirely.
This is how she stayed alive.
adelphe24:
Ah yeah, well Carol knows and she also knows what Laura was struggling with. I always thought Carol was a character who was intelligent and thinking even when she was scared of everything. She hardened of course, but she was always very smart. She may not know what is going on in Laura's head, but then again no one really has any ideas. Carol does know Laura would not do anything to harm anyone unless provoked. So hmm... :)
And yeah, she does still growl. This becomes more prevalent in this chapter, letting everyone see that Merle and Laura can communicate without Laura having to detail what she means. Merle is fuckin' smart, the show touches on it, but during the Woodbury arch did not have a lot of time to expand on it. TWD let the watchers / readers know that Merle is more than he seems.
The sounds Laura make also have a use more than just talking to Merle. I will compare the sounds she makes to the walkers, but with more character and emphasis as her calls do have meaning and direction. She can put more or less force behind them, making them more characteristic in nature, but also a part of her native mammalian side all dead and living rely on.
And thank you 3 I've been trying to give it what it deserves. I know this story is my most successful continued series. I really do love it, but feel bad that detailing the months she is with Woodbury would become repetitive and bore the readers. :x
You don't watch the show?! Oh man, it's so good. I won't spoil it for you though and refrain from answering if Merle would switch sides for Daryl.
And yes, Merle in the show is a hardass but he's not entirely bad. There are people in the world who I disagree with for being hateful people, but are often only hateful because of their experiences as a child and what they learned.
Merle is this, he lived a hard life and got nothing good from it. He learned the wrong lessons and he doesn't fit into a modern, polite society. His views are wrong for sure, but when it comes down to it Merle is the best person Laura could have on her side. He doesn't think keeping her around still being tortured is alright, considering the Governor's treatment of Laura overboard even for him.
But for the time being he is looking for his brother and working with the Governor is his best bet to do that.