From Now On (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Mood Killer

Lauryn's POV

To not make things awkward, I acted as if I were still asleep and rolled over off of Daryl's chest. Daryl took that as his queue to get up and get ready for the day. I gave him a couple of minutes to get dressed and waited until I heard the bathroom door shut before I decided to "wake up" and get out of bed.

I started to take off Daryl's shirt and put my bra back on when I heard the bathroom door open. "Hey Laur, you're awake, I wanted to-" Daryl stopped mid-sentence as his eyes met my bare back. Staring at the scars. All 12 of them. It took him a second before he realized he was staring, " Sorry, I uh, sorry, I didn't mean" he stumbling over his words as his gaze switched from my back to the floor. I quickly clasp my bra and throw my hoodie on turning around to face Daryl.

" Daryl it's okay don't worry about it. I should have waited to change in the bathroom," I said walking over to him. Slightly embarrassed that he saw my scars. I can only imagine what he thinks of me now. That interaction probably ruined my chances with him. Why would he want to be with a broken girl? Physically and mentally. My body is scarred and he had no idea of the PTSD and anxiety that I have to fight every day. Thankfully, I have become pretty good at hiding the PTSD. I work on my anxiety every day so my panic attacks aren't as frequent. Since I have known Daryl, I have had only one anxiety attack and that was when we came across a guy who lost his mind over the whole apocalypse thing. The guy tried to attack me and looked similar to one of the men who tortured me. I froze. All my training and skills were useless at that moment. Daryl shot that man with his crossbow before he could lay a hand on me. Daryl never questioned or asked why I froze. Just carried on with his day.

" This won't make things weird between us now, will it?" I asked as I got closer to him. He finally looked at him with those beautiful blue eyes, " nah it's not weird," he said walking past me and out the door. His answer didn't seem very convincing, but I had to take his word for it. I let out a sigh and walked out the door heading to the main room in the CDC where Dr. Jenner was. Everybody else was already in the room eating some eggs that T-Dog had cooked up. Glenn and Rick look miserable. Obviously, they had way too much to drink.

Dr. Jenner pulls up a display of a human brain on the wall that looks enhanced. He begins to explain how the scientists were doing studies on the virus and how it affected the brain. He pulls up a specific test subject that was bitten by a walker to show how their brain functions as they go through the fever before death. Dr. Jenner explains every step of the infection process and what happens to the patient after death.

Everybody in the room looks at the display, shocked to see what really happens to the body when someone is bitten. The room is quiet, processing all of the information.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but...that clock-it's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asks with concern, causing all of us to look over at the countdown".

"The basement generators-they run out of fuel." Dr. Jenner said looking a bit nervous as he said it.

"And then?" Rick questioned the doctor more, but Dr. Jenner kept his head down ignoring Rick's question and scurrying out of the room. "VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick looks up waiting for the AI system to respond.

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."

Daryl and I look over at each other with fear in our eyes. What does it mean by decontamination? Why did Dr.Jenner practically run out of the room? Whatever it is, it can't be good.

Rick and some of the group went looking for generators to keep the power in the facility running. Daryl and I headed out of the room to look for Dr. Jenner. We need to find out what is really going on and get the hell out of here.