Unexpected Love

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The next moring I woke up face down on the cot. I groaned for the pounding in my head. The last thing I could remember was talking with Daryl on the couch as we drank. He must have moved me. I got up and changed into jeans and a tank top and put the flannel I had took from Daryl years ago.  I slipped my boots on and pulled my hair in a ponytail and left the room. Daryl had already been gone so I assumed he was in the dining hall with everyone else.

I walked into the dining hall to see everyone but Rick and Shane. I walked over to the coffee pot and pour a cup of coffee. T dog was behind the counter cooking and everyone else was at the table. I sat beside Daryl and sipped on my coffee.

"Mornin, sunshine," Daryl said.

I groaned and shushed him. "My head hurts," I said.

"Here," Gleen said from the other side of me. He handed me a bottle of aspirin.

I opened the bottle and shook two pills into the palm of my hand. Just as I did Rick walked onto the room. I put the cap back on and handed it down to Lori.

"He's going to need this I can tell," I said smiling.

"Thank you,"  she said as Rick sat beside her.

She handed him the bottle and he asked her where she got it. She replied by saying Jenner gave it to us. T-Dog walked over serving eggs to me and Rick. "Protein helps with the hangover," he said.

Glenn groaned "I'm never drinking again," he said.

I chuckled and pat him on the back. "I said that once in college," I told him.

He looked over at me "it didn't happen," I said and winked at him and he groaned again.

Shane walked in and sat down beside Rick. "What happened to your neck?" Rick asked. I looked up to see he had stretch marks on his face.

"Just of done it in my sleep," he said.

"Never seen you do that before," Rick said.

"Me either," Shane said looking at Lori who was glaring at him.

I could tell something had happened between them. Most likely Shane did something or said something to her last night while he was poss drunk.  I just looked over at Daryl ignoring them.

"How are you not hungover?" I asked.

"Cuz I got a high tolerance then you sunshine," he said.

"Right of course how stupid of me," I said and rolled my eyes.

He leaned in closer to me "Have you forgotten you my father was? Or my brother?" He said.

I sighed "no," I whispered.

"Do you remember anything from last night?" He asked me.

"Not really. Just us talking and drinking that whole bottle of Whiskey. Why did I do something? Oh my god did we...." I said starting to panic a little.

"Calm down we didn't do anything. You tired.. hard like really hard but I stopped ya. You get very sexual when your drunk," he said.

"Oh my god Daryl, I'm sorry," I said looking at him.

"You're fine. You passed out shortly after and I put ya to bed," he told me.

"Thank you," I said.

We went back to eating and everything was good until Shane opened his mouth asking Jenner what the hell was going on and why he stayed. He ended up leading us into the Big Room as he called it. He showed us a playback of a patient who was bitten and volunteered to let them study the process. It showed how the brain was all light up when they were still alive and human. Then everything went black as they slowly died. Shortly after there were sparks of light in the brain but not like before.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.

"No, just the motor part of the brain," I said.

"It only starts up the part of the brain that tells you to move," I said looking at Jenner.

"Yeah, it affects the brain kinda like meningitis," he said.

"So what is it? Do you know what causes it?" I asked.

"No, unfortunately they were the last fresh samples I had but there was a chemical accident and the lab was decontaminated," he told me.

"So it was set on fire and everything was lost?" I asked.

"Yes," he told me.

"Damn," I whispered.

Everyone was looking at me shocked. "What?" I asked. "I went to NYU people I studied more than just nursing okay," I said. I rolled my eyes and walked over to Daryl. He had another bottle in his hand and I took it from him taking a drink.

"I don't mean to ask all these questions but that clock it's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asked. I looked to see the big clock on the wall. It was counting down in big red numbers.

"The basement generates, they run out of fuel," Jenner said.

"Rick," Lori said.

Rick, Shane, Glenn, and T-dog went to the basement and the rest of us went to our rooms.
Me and Daryl sat down and drank like we did last night. But this time I wasn't going to get drunk. Daryl on the other hand wanted to get shit faced. "This shit sucks," I said.

"Whadda mean?" He asked

"I don't know I just have a bad feeling," I told him.

"About?" He asked.

"Jenner, this building. That damn clock. You know this place will blow up if there's no more fuel," I said.

"What? Blow up?" He said looking at me.

"Yeah, to keep anything from escaping," I said.

Just as I said that the power and air went off. We got up and walked out into the hall to see Jenner walking down it. Everyone was coming out of their rooms as well. "Hey, what's going on?" Daryl said as we followed Jenner.

"They build is shutting itself down," Jenner told him.

"Air isn't important?" Lori questioned.

"Or power?" Dale said.

"How can a building do anything," Daryl said.

"You'd be surprised," Jenner said.

We walked into the Big Room. Rick and the other guys came up from the basement. "All the drums are empty," he said.

I looked st Daryl and then walked over to Rick. "We need to leave, now," I said.

He looked st I and o gave him that look that said just trust me. "Right, Lori get our bags. Everyone we're leaving grab your stuff," he said.

We went to leave but Jenner locked us in. "Did he just lock us in?!" Glenn said.

"What the hell Jenner!" I yelled.

He talked about how the clock was on time and sat down. "Rick we need to leave. What he was talking about will happen. The build will blow up. It sets the air on fire," I told him.

We were eventually able to talk Jenner into opening the door. We grab our stuff quickly and rushed upstairs. The guys were trying to break the glass. "It won't break!" I told them. Then Carol was pulling out a grenade and handing it to Rick. He pulled the pin and put it by the window. We all got down and he blows the window out. We rushed out to the cars. As we all got in our cars Dale and Andrea ran out. We got down and Daryl put his body over mine just as the building blew up. The heat hitting us like a wall. When it was over we got up and left to look for a new place to take shelter.