CHAPTER FORTY THREE,
become the result

THE FEELING OF the cold floor against her bare body was the only thing that reminded her she could still feel, that she was even still alive. She felt like she was a hollow being, a pile of flesh and bones that wouldn't simply just rot away.

Samantha still had a beating heart, but she felt like a ghost in an unmarked grave.

Her breathing seemed difficult now, and each breath she swallowed she felt like she was drowning. Her lungs were burning from all the cries, all the screaming that were left unheard.

Samantha always wondered how Daryl Dixon kept it all inside, she wondered how such deep etched trauma was easily locked up.

Maybe this was how.

She could still taste saltiness of her tears that had fallen and feel the blood under her broken nails whenever they had clawed at the ground. But most of all, she could still smell his sweat, a scent that would surely haunt her for a long time.

"It's okay to cry," He said to her, kneeling down and peering at her. Her curled up body was shaking and contorting, restraining the emotions that wanted to rip through her just like the Governor had moments before. "Just let it all out, honey."

She turned her face on the concrete ground to look at him. Her teeth were grinding together, her face layered with sweat and with bruises that he had embedded onto her when she tried to fight back.

He had marked his territory everywhere on her.

"I'm...I'm not crying for me," She breathed, every word feeling thick and hoarse in her throat as it travelled out. "I'm crying for you,"

The Governor tilted his head curiously.

"I'm thinking about all the things I'm going to do to you and it makes me cry. It scares me."

From her dangerous voice he saw it. It was a fire that was alive, seething and blooming. It was as if she had sucked up all the flames from hell itself and let them burn from within.

Then as if someone had flipped a switch, the look on her face became empty and her eyes were like stone, but he could still see her promise swirling within her bloodshot greens - and even for a second, it made the Governor falter.

"Well, are you going to keep that?"

The familiarity of the voice brought her head up from the ground, peering into the empty room around her. Was she finally going insane? Had she finally been pushed off the edge?

Like every few minutes, the lightbulb above her flickered off and Samantha was submerged into darkness for five seconds. When she was back in the light, the figure in front of her made all sense and logic be thrown out of the window.

"Shane." The name rolled off her tongue and brought tears down her aching face.

His head was full of his midnight hair and his even darker eyes stared at her. She could see the concern, but what really got her attention was that layer of adoration that never seemed to cease for his baby sister. The sight of her big brother made it feel like she was home again, safe and sound.

"You..." It hurt to speak, but Shane was worth the pain. "You found me!"

She reached forward to grab his hand but when she did, Samantha felt the air. She looked up at him and met his frown, before falling back to the floor and realizing how incredibly stupid and hopeful she had been.

"You're not really here." Samantha whispered, her already shattered heart falling into many pieces around her like broken glass.

He placed his hands on his hips and rubbed his head, sadness painting his features. Samantha thought it was a cruel joke that her brain was playing tricks on her. "I'm sorry, Sammy."

Shane kneeled down in front of her, peering at the blood and the swollen eye that Keri had given her, the same person that had come in every few hours to take out her loss on the woman who has caused it - but Samantha felt like she deserved the pain.

"Why are you here?" She questioned quietly.

Shane simply smiled. "My sister, my responsibility. Remember?"

His words made the burning tears cascade down her cheeks and leave cold trails behind. Even if his apparition brought a sense of comfort, it saddened her even more knowing that Shane wasn't really there.

"He..." She couldn't seem to finish her sentence without that feeling of disgust eat her alive. "He hurt me so bad."

There was a soft sorrow in his eyes that appeared so real, but she had to keep reminding herself that Shane wasn't actually here.

"It's not your fault, Sammy, please don't feel like that," Shane said gently. "Don't think about what happened, think about what needs to happen," His encouraging smile made her heart hurt, bringing many memories along with it. "You need to keep that hope alive, you need to get out of here."

"I think I'm done," She croaked, her sore body making her wince as she propped herself up against the wall. "Nathan was right, chasing ghosts isn't going to help anything."

More tears rolled down her cheeks, but Shane was relentless - just like the real one. "Don't listen to military man, he's the asshole that got you in here," He stated firmly. "I never did like him, he was always a bad influence on you."

Samantha didn't say anything, the thought of Nathan twisting that knife of betrayal he had left in her. Instead of focusing on that, she kept her attention on the pain in her bones and the catastrophe her mind was slowly becoming.

Shane let out a chuckle that got her attention, that infamous grin of his tugging his lips. "Yeah, that runs in the family. Blame that on grandma Jean, she was batshit crazy."

Her face softened, trying so hard to smile but that was agonizing too. "I miss you, Shane," Samantha uttered. "I miss you so much that it hurts. I want to find you, I want to find our group."

"Then get out of here," He pleaded desperately. "I can't help you, so it's your turn to help yourself. Find me, find our group."

"How?" Samantha demanded hopelessly.

"All that rage, all that repressed fire - let it all out," Shane said, determination filling his eyes. "Become the result that they created, show them hell."

There it was, the words that she needed to hear to bring that burning hope back into her veins. It made her feel alive again, like she wasn't some other walking grave in a world full of unmarked ones.

Samantha needed to stay alive for her brother.

Shane stood up, looking satisfied and peered up at the lights. "That's some shitty electricity," He glanced back at her with a twinkle in his coal colored irises. "They should probably fix it before someone gets hurt."

And just like that, the lights flickered off and Samantha tried to adjust her vision to the darkness but they were back on seconds later. Her stomach dropped when she noticed that Shane was no longer there, gone as easily as he came.

"No, no," She sobbed, her body falling forward and she outstretched a hand into the air. "Please, don't leave me, big brother. I need you by my side!"

And then for a second she heard his voice come like the wind.

"I've been with you since before you were even born."

━━━━━

The door creaked open and Keri stepped through, her eyes hard but the dried out wetness on her cheeks making her feel numb. The plate of food felt heavy in her hands, and when she saw the monster that caused her so much loss and pain, she wanted nothing but to throw it at her.

The bloody and broken looking figure of Samantha Walsh made the hatred in her curl inside, twisting her features into a snarl as she stepped closer. Her under garments were back on, but Keri could still see the mess she created - the mess that the Governor created.

Keri was too disarranged over the murder of her beloved father to realize how morally wrong this is, but that cloud of repulsion in her made every sense of good and bad fade. She wanted the ebony haired beauty to suffer, and it made her absolutely happy that Philip had given her the chance hours before.

Keri stepped in front of her and Samantha looked up, the sight of her swollen eye that she gave her bringing satisfaction.

She dumped the food in front of her, it piling onto the ground as she looked at Samantha with detestation.

"You can eat it off the ground like the dog you are," Keri spat. "Or just starve. I'm done with you."

She turned away but Samantha's croak of a voice brought her back.

"That's my brother's necklace,"

Keri looked down at her neck and the 22 glinted back. The sword holstered across her back was heavy, the gun that Shane gave Samantha years before in her belt loop and the jacket that Glenn gave to her covering her frame. Keri was wearing all of her things and it made something shift inside of Samantha.

"That was my father," Keri quipped harshly, her glare hard. "But you still killed him, didn't you?"

Samantha's didn't waver. "Before he died, James wanted me to tell you he loved you," She said. "He wanted-"

Before she could finish Keri's fist connected with her jaw and she fell to her side, blood being spat from her mouth.

The tears were fresh across the grieving woman's face. "Don't talk about him," Keri snapped, her voice raising and full of anguish. "I hope the Governor is nice and slow with you. You deserve every second of it, you bitch."

She turned away and begin to walk to the door when suddenly, all lights turned off. Keri's brows furrowed, her heart stopping in her chest and her lungs stopping from collecting air momentarily.

And then the lights turned on, and she felt a presence behind her.

Turning around Samantha stood there with her teeth bared and a look of maliciousness penetrating her stare. The dagger that Keri also stolen and had placed into the combat boots was now in her hands.

The conversation before - it had been all just a distraction for the right moment, and Keri had fell for it.

For a moment Samantha fed on the absolutely terrified look on her expression and then she dragged the dagger across her neck.

The line was thin, but it was enough to pour out thick, red blood.

Keri was too much in shock to register the pain that her body was enduring, disbelief and horror swirling in her eyes as her hands crawled to her throat to stop the bleeding, choking and spluttering and making blood spray onto Samantha.

Her frame leaned towards her and it fell, making contact with Samantha's smaller body and they both fell to the ground together.

She could feel the warmth of the liquid all over her almost bare body, getting into her mouth and taking over the air but for the first time ever, she wasn't disgusted - she was entranced.

The blood on her teeth tasted like a religion she's never bowed down to.

Samantha threw Keri off of her as she struggled to live, trying to breathe but all she could do was swallow her own blood and she was choking on it. She grabbed her leg but Samantha was quicker, backing away and watching Keri slowly die, her eyes crazed and full of hunger. She was enjoying this.

The Samantha before, the one before she was thrown into this room, she would've hated this. But the one now, the result that they created, found joy as the life drained from her.

Keri continued to choke, trying to cling onto life but it was slowly fading her eyes and Samantha kept watching, feeding on every second.

And then she finally stopped, her movements ceasing and her outstretched hand falling to the ground - yet the twenty year old felt no sympathy. She felt nothing.

They wanted a villain, a monster, so she was going to bring them their wretched antagonist.

She looked at Keri, breathing in the metal of the crimson and getting up. She turned her body and took back her brother's necklace, hooking it around her neck and that's when her chest tightened.

Changing into her clothes and taking back her weapons, she put them on and hid all her hair into the denim cap as she placed it on. Samantha didn't know if it was day or night, but she didn't care.

She would leave a trail of bodies if that meant escaping Woodbury.

Samantha counted three bullets in the gun and went to the door, but the sound of someone gasping made her look up.

The last person she'd thought she saw, the last person that had followed Keri down there to find her, stood there with his dark hair and grey eyes.

The knife that he left in her twisted and turned.

Nathan Barton saw the body and then looked back at her, his gun raised in his hands and the shock making him rooted to his spot. He didn't think she was in here, he didn't think she was anywhere near here at all.

There was so much blood. It reeked of it, and it was all on her.

The look Samantha was sending him made him feel like he still hadn't found his best friend at all.

She stepped forward but Nathan didn't move, his gun shaking in his hands. She stepped closer and closer, until the barrel of his weapon was pressed into her chest with an unblinking look.

Samantha was daring him to kill her.

Nathan was both a mixture of confusion and shock and horror. He didn't want to do such a thing, she was the last person he ever wanted to hurt.

When he didn't move, the smile on her face made chills run up his spine. It was like a loaded gun, and any second she could pull the trigger

A guttural moan averted his attention and he looked back into the room. Keri was twitching, slowly resurrecting and becoming the undead.

When he looked back at his best friend, she was already gone, leaving only traces of what had been her destructive awakening.

━━━━━

By the time she reached the woods, she felt like she was floating. Samantha was nothing but a phantom of blood and of determination, fueling the fire inside and ignoring the pain her body screamed at her.

She was relentless.

Samantha knew that she was going to be followed, because if Nathan hadn't told them then someone else would've. She didn't care if anyone had see her, she just cared about getting the hell out.

That possibly had been a mistake.

The sword felt strange in her hands as she clumsily drove it through a walker who had smelled her, reaching for her with bloodlust. Her bones were aching, and she was exhausted - but her hellfire wasn't.

She could hear the voices of the men behind her, echoing around the trees and meeting her ears. The Governor had sent them after her, and she knew if they found her they would put her down.

She stopped by a tree and leaned against it, huffing and puffing the burning in her lungs. She was supposed to be good at running, it was supposed to be her number one thing. But Samantha had finally regained her a little strength back, and it was going to take awhile until it was fully there.

There was a moan next to her and another roamer had spotted her, stumbling towards her and making her raise her sword.

Before she could end it's purgatory, a bullet did and she gasped.

"Deputy princess is gettin' mighty fine with that sword."

The end of the hairs on her rose and she felt the back of her neck heat up. Slowly looking over her shoulder, she saw Merle Dixon standing feet away with his prosthetic shining in the sun.

"Merle..." She whispered, feeling that knife twisting in her gut. He was there to kill her, that was an obvious answer to his appearance.

He grinned at her, and for a second she could see how weak it looked, as if he didn't want to be out there at all.

Samantha took a step away from the tree and turned back around, breaking off into a sprint.

Green zoomed past her and she could hear his yells, calling behind her but she couldn't decipher what he was trying to say. She couldn't deny the tears that had glistened her eyes for a second that Merle out of all people would be there to kill her.

Her heart was frantically beating in her chest and she kept the sword aimed, hacking and stabbing at walkers that stepped into her path. She could feel the hair falling from underneath the denim cap and she was even surprised it had stayed on for so long.

Then suddenly a loud gunshot went off and she felt something pierce through her.

Samantha couldn't feel anything but shock. It filled her veins and made her mind stutter, trying to comprehend was just occurred. She brought her fingers upwards and felt something warm, and when she saw the blood that's when she realized she had been shot.

As soon as the realization came in so did the pain, and it was the worse thing she's ever felt. It was like something had stuck a syringe with lava and injected into her.

The horrible agonizing pain made her fall to her knees and let out a scream. Her fingers curled into the dirt and the blood dripped into the soil, feeling where the bullet had ripped through the right side of her upper chest.

She heard crunching and she turned around in time to see Merle. Her stomach dropped, and she clutched the wound on her chest as she used her elbows to crawl back.

"You don't have to do this," Samantha was so hurt, so betrayed that he was doing this. "Please, Merle, you know me!"

Merle didn't say anything, but there was a ghost of a frown on his lips as he grabbed her hair and she yelped, the coldness of the barrel of the gun being placed to her temple.

Samantha looked up at the man she thought of as an old friend, now her very own assassinator.

"It's me, Samantha Walsh - you know me!" She screamed desperately. "Look at what he's done to me! Look!"

He finally did, and he saw it all.

The bruises flawing her skin, the blood like strokes against her flesh, and the swollen eye that completed the devastating painting that told a story.

Merle gritted his teeth, a war of conflict contorting his rough features. He knew what he was ordered to do, but he was contemplating on what needed to be done.

And then as if her words had finally got through his skull, he pulled the gun away. "Goddamn it," He cursed. Merle knew her - he knew her and for some reason he couldn't do it. It made him angry.

The hand gripping around hair loosened and she fell to the ground, looking up at him through relieved and tear glistening eyes. "Run! Before I change my mind, woman!"

She scurried from the ground and didn't look back, running and running until her body would ultimately shut down.

Samantha Walsh had finally gotten her freedom, and Merle Dixon had been the one that gave it to her.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟnote

HER WOODBURY STORYLINE HAS FINALLY COME TO A CLOSE IM SO EXCITED

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