⤐ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝.
"I need you to listen to me. When we're out there together, if I say run, run. If I tell you to leave me, then damn it, you le...
'between seas, galaxies, and moons, I was lucky I stepped on the same land, and dreamed under the same stars, as you.'
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⤐
Eugene stood there, trembling.
Seventeen pairs of eyes were glued to him, some brimming with tears, some boiling with rage. Abraham took a step to him, and Zepp instinctively matched it, subtly adjusting her body between him and Eugene.
"I'm not a scientist," he blubbered, snot beginning to trickle down his nostrils. "I don't know how to stop it. I'm not- not a scientist..."
The only sound in the barn was of heavy panting, birds chirping in the forest, Judith's babbling. But a searing, sharp ringing was muffling even those sounds in Zeppelin's ears. Her legs trembled, even where they stood locked firmly. Daryl noticed, and stepped close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off his body.
Eugene mostly stared at the ground, too afraid to lift his eyes to meet the expressions they bore. It wasn't until Rosita stepped forward out of the dusty shadows, a soft sob escaping her throat, that he finally brought his gaze up.
"You are a scientist," she insisted, shaking her head. "I've seen the things you can do."
"I just know things."
Everything was spinning, faster and faster. Zeppelin stumbled back, pressing herself into Daryl's sturdy frame. He didn't back away.
"You just... you just know things?" Veronica scoffed. Her hands were clenched into tight fists at her sides.
"I know I'm smarter than most people, I know I'm a very good liar, and I know I needed to get to D.C."
"Why?" Zeppelin snapped, and Eugene whipped his head to face her. "If it was all a lie, then why? Why D.C.?"
"Because I believed that locale holds the strongest possibility for survival... and I wanted to survive." He fidgeted with his hands clasped before him, his mousy gaze darting between the group. "If I could cheat some people into taking me there, well... I just reasoned that I'd be doing them a solid, too, considering the perilous state of Houston, the state of everything."
Zepp tore her fiery gaze away from him, watching Abraham. He stared at the ground, muttering something incoherent to himself as he slowly shook his head back and forth. His muscles were tense, and his skin had grown three shades redder even in the dim light.
"People died..." Veronica breathed heavily, leaning into Rosita's shaking side. "Trying to get you here."
"I'm aware of that... Stephanie, Warren, Pam, Roger, Rachel, Janice, Rex, Josiah, Dirk, and Josephine... and Bob." He looked to Sasha at the mention of Bob, but her face was already buried in Tyreese's shoulder.
