CHAPTER NINE,
blood

PEACE TOOK AWAY the tension that moved surrounded the camp as night fell over the group. Samantha Walsh looked across the fire and at Amy, who had her head on Nathan's shoulder with a blissful smile pinned on her face. The two girls caught eyes and Samantha sent her a smirk, and even through the flickering light of the fire she could see the blush reach her cheeks.

The sound of the crackling fire would've put the twenty year old in complete peace if it weren't the anxiety that ceased to leave the pit of her stomach. It took away her hunger and Shane seemed to notice, letting his sister's head drop on his shoulder. Her big brother was her security, and always has been since she could remember.

Morale's laughter broke the silence. "I've been meaning to ask you man, it's been driving me crazy," said, a smile on his face. "That watch." He gestured towards it on the older man's wrist.

A smile surfaced on Dale's face as he eyed the metal on his hand. "What's wrong with my watch?" He asked, his gentle eyes twinkling.

"I see you everyday, the same time, winding that thing up, like a village priest saying mass."

Samantha lifted her head from her brother's shoulders and rose her cup. "Preach!" She agreed.

"Time - it's important to keep track, isn't it? Don't you think, Andrea?" The blonde merely chuckled, the people around them listening with open ears. "I like what, um, a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said; I give you the mausoleum of all hopes and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better then it did mine or my father's before me, I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it."

After Dale's speech, Samantha felt familiarity with his words and she glanced at him, a faint nostalgic smile pulling her lips.

"That's William Faulker, isn't it?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Her words seemed to make Dale smile even more. "Yeah, it is, or maybe it's just my bad paraphrasing."

"You're both so weird." Amy commented, causing the children to erupt into giggles.

"You really know how to make me feel young, old man." Nathan agreed.

After a few moments of silence, Amy got up with a sigh, both Andrea and Nathan looking at her quizzically. "Where are you going?" Her sister questioned.

Amy sent her a look, looking at the campers that looked at her. "I have to pee," She said. "Jeez, you try and be discreet around here..."

And with another chorus of laughter, she disappeared into the RV. Chatter filled the void of the silence and Samantha noticed her best friend, who uncharacteristically didn't speak at all during Amy's absence.

With concern (and ignoring her brother's confusion) she pulled herself up from the ground and went over to Nathan. Behind his eyes he was struggling with something, but upon seeing that Samantha was next to him, it vanished - as if he had concealed it with a mask.

"Are you okay?" She asked, their shoulders touching as she leaned close to him. "Did something happen with Jim earlier?"

The look of puzzlement filled his expression, but Samantha knew it was all an act. "You can just stop pretending. I've known you since elementary, remember? The day you lied about stealing my sandwich and I beat the shit out of you-"

"First of all, I won that fight." He interrupted with a risen eyebrow.

"That's not my point, my point is from that very moment I met you I knew you were going to be a terrible liar," Samantha continued, crossing her arms. "What's going on?"

The soldier heaved a sigh, averting his gaze away to look at the fire. "There's a lot I haven't told you, a lot has happened to me since we last saw each other," He began, his voice lowering. "I'm just, I don't know."

Samantha frowned, her concern increasing. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Nate looked reluctant to speak. "Well-" He paused himself, before cursing damn! and standing up. Everyone turned to look at him. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot the toilet paper in the woods."

Puzzled, Jacqui asked, "Why would you leave toilet paper in the woods?"

"I don't like taking dumps in the RV. Sue me."

As if on cue, the door to the RV opened and Amy stepped out. "We're out of toilet paper?" She asked in disbelief.

Laughter was their response, but any humor that was once there crumbled to the ground at the sound as the sound of a bloodcurdling scream pierced through the night sky. Horror made Samantha's blood go cold, her heart dropping to the pits of her stomach as she whirled around. "No," The word left her lips in a utter, Amy's screams continuing as a walker mauled into her arm.

Nathan was the first to react, hopping over the log he was sitting on and whipping out his pistol, putting a bullet into the walker's head. It sunk to the ground but another replaced it, ripping at Amy's shoulders.

"Lori, get him down!" Shane ordered through the terror and chaos that possessed the camp. His eyes searched for his baby sister, his heart plummeting when he couldn't find her. "Sammy!"

Samantha had darted into the crowds of the living and the dead, adrenaline and hatred coursing through her veins and being her motivation to save. She pulled out her pistol from her waistband and fired at a walker that neared Carol. Sophia screamed as the walker fell to the ground.

"Carol, get Sophia to the RV and stay there!" Samantha couldn't hear her own words coming out of her mouth, but at the sight of the mother and daughter running towards the RV, she knew they had heard.

People were screaming all around, begging for mercy, their prayers going unheard by whatever God they believed in. Samantha heard Jim not too far away crying out my family! My family! You killed them! as he beat one to the ground with his ax.

She knew they were outnumbered, most of their security in Atlanta. There was no chance to come out of this without bloodshed.

That was the horrible truth that made the hopelessness sink in.

"Come on, everyone say close!" She heard her brother's demands.

Blood pumped in her ears as she kicked a walker away, the sound of bone and skin being ripped a part, the smell of blood poisoning the earth and making her insides rise.

Samantha found Nathan beating a walker to death with his bare hands, his eyes wild and his senses out of control. She caught a walker creeping up behind him, and she opened her mouth to scream a warning, but the air was knocked out of her as a hysterical man ran into her.

She felt the weight of her gun fly from her hands, her head hitting the ground hard and her vision blurred for a moment. Once cleared, she found one nearing her with speed, its teeth were chomping and it released a gurgling growl, it's hungry groans making the adrenaline pump in her heavily. She searched the ground for her weapon, chanting no, no, no as the walker neared her. Samantha had gone through damnation and back, refusing to let this be her end, refusing to be food to something that used to be living.

A scream ripped her throat as the walker fell on top of her, and from across the camp her brother heard her, his eyes wide and searching for his sister, his responsibility. "Samantha!?"

His voice was the motivation that made her dig her hand into her boots and she felt the handle of her dagger. She pulled it out and the walker's head fell onto the sharp blade as it lunged it's jaws towards her.

It's body fell limp against her body, and she let out relieved pants. Blood splattered against her face and clothes, the screams and gunshots still continuing around her. Just as she moved the walker and tried getting up, another walker appeared - but as if miracles decided to exist, an arrow had gone through the it's skull and she let out a screech as it fell on top of her.

Daryl Dixon threw the walker off of Samantha with a disgusted curse. His eyes then landed on hers, and he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up. "Cmon, woman!" He grunted, finding her gun on the ground and shoving it into her chest.

Whimpers were beginning to rise from her throat as the stench met her nose. She looked up at her savior but before she could say or do anything he had turned away from her, fighting along with Rick and the others who had finally returned.

She could hear Rick's cries for his family, but it all became muffled over the ringing in her ears.

"Sam, Sammy!" Shane's voice continued. She found his coffee colored eyes and as soon as they landed on her, they widened with relief. "Oh god, Samantha. Are you alright?"

He pulled her into my chest, but she couldn't find the words to speak. "I..." The reality of what happened dawned on Samantha, and she looked around at all the destruction, the bodies, the souls that had perished in the most horrible way possible.

Anger, remorse, and defeat all mixed together punched her in the gut. The group was unarmed, the group was unarmed, the group was unarmed-

The taste of guilt was foul in her mouth. "I could've saved them." She sobbed, her face dropped to the ground.

"I'm sorry," Shane frowned, and she looked back at him. "There was nothing that any of us could've done."

But she still didn't believe that.

The loud wails by Andrea reached Samantha's ears. She looked over and another choked sob left her lips, scanning the body of a bloody, sprawled out Amy, who once had been beautiful and been full of life.

She was completely and utterly hopeless as she stared down at her dying sister. "I don't know what to do."

Samantha found Nathan in the crowd surrounding of what's left of the camp. He was bloody from head to toe, his face morphed into grief. Amy's eyes had barely met his before they slid back to Andrea and they drifted shut. Her lips released a final sigh to the cruel world, and then she fell still.

Andrea let out a wail of utter anguish. Samantha turned away, resting her face against her big brother's chest as he wrapped her arms around her.

"I remember the dream now, why I dug the holes."

words ; 1820
edited ; ✔️