infected days.

home for now

"so, how did you find this place?" asked Jerry, He and Samantha and him had been touring the little community she was leading. 

"well, the place was a lightly fortified neighborhood when i arrived with Alexander and Riley. the place was crawling with walkers, clearly whoever lived here failed to defend the place. we did a little work and got the place livable. we eventually got some more people and were able to get some extra walls and space. but it's been slow" responded Samantha.

"how many people do you have here?" 

"not including your people? about seven. you met half of us last night"

"not many fighters huh?" 

Sam nodded "the only people here who really know how to fight are me and the soldiers, even then Riley was a fighter pilot, so really it's two. truth be told i'm not even sure how Callahan survived this long"

it had started to lightly snow by the time they had finished the tour, as they started to head back it was Samantha's turn to ask questions "so whats the story with your group?"

"well, i met Diane and cocheta a while back and saved their lives. later we caught Shelby trying to steal some of our supplies and took her in, but she's been reluctant to tell her story"

"and Xavier?"

"he's... he was a reluctant Ally to the Templars. apparently they had kidnapped his daughter, forced him to work on the virus"

"he made the virus?" asked Sam, her tone was one of anger "how'd you find this out?"

"i interrogated him when John let it slip. He claims to have had no idea of the templars goals"

Jerry could tell she was more than a little angry after this news, and wasn't surprised when she spoke "We should go have a little chat with him-"

"he's not a bad guy sam. like i said he was pressured into it. he's more than likely our best chance at some kind of cure"

she didn't really seem to become less angry, but she relented "alright, fine. i won't hurt him. but i am still having a chat"

"and do me a favor? don't say anything about it to anyone. with the exception of Shelby no one else knows about about any of this. and i don't know how they could take it"

"still keeping secrets from your friends? why am i not surprised" 

jerry couldn't respond with anything other than a shrug.

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it took a second for him to answer the door, but Xavier's head cautiously peeked out "i- on uh... Jerry- what can i help you with?" he asked nervously, he got even more nervous when he noticed Sam "I-i take it this isn't a social call"

"no" stated Sam, Xavier opened the door to let them in. Sam walked right past him and into the house's living room

once jerry was inside Xavier closed the door, rubbing his hands together nervously as he followed the two into the living room

Sam went straight to business "so, you're the one responsible for this whole shit show?" she asked through gritted teeth

the scientist paled, and glanced over at jerry, giving him a 'you told her' look of distress, obviously seeing that playing dumb would likely not work out he nodded slightly "i had no choice, they took my baby girl, threatened to do horrible things-"

"you always have a choice, you chose to be selfish. you chose to release a deadly virus on an unsuspecting population to save one person"

"i- well when you put it like that, yeah it does sound a little selfish... and i suppose it didn't end well anyway..."

sam softened a little "what do you mean?"

"they released my daughter to me, but... when the outbreak hit... she..."

Samantha was clearly still angry with the scientist, but she seemed to pity him at least, giving a relenting sigh "Can you make a cure?"

"cure? I... maybe. i'm good, but i highly doubt you'd have what i need, even then i barely understood what i was working with"

"What would you need?" asked jerry 

"a long list of things you wouldn't even know exists probably, even then the actual ingredients are a complete unknown, could be anything, i'd need to experiment"

"just... get me a list of equipment and supplies. i'll see if i can source them" stated Sam plainly

"i... Ok, i might know some labs and military ruins where you can look"

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"feeling better?" asked jerry as the two of them left the house

"no. this is all his fault, but i won't do anything to harm that man. he is our one chance"

"for what?" asked jerry

"to restart" stated Sam

"restart what?" asked jerry, laughing a little, he couldn't help it, after everything he'd seen the idea amused him "civilization? that shit's long gone Sammy, burned to the fucking ground the second the dead started eating people and the living started murdering each other over scraps!"

"it's never going to be the same Jer, but... i don't know, if we can become immune maybe we can get our shit together, we won't have to deal with worrying about getting bit. the walkers will still be a problem sure, but they can't turn us. we pass it on to other groups, friends. then maybe once we no longer have to deal with the virus we can worry about the people"

"that's idealistic" commented jerry "you don't even know that it's possible, he said 'maybe' it's possible"

"i-" she let out a frustrated sigh "i know. i'm just tired of this... i lost jenny to a bite, maybe..."

jerry felt himself sink a little, he had forgotten about jenny, she was a cute enough young woman they met shortly after everything had started, she wasn't his type, but she was Sam's. the two had been really close before Jerry had been separated from his old comrades

"Sam... I'm sorry i didn't know"

"I'm aware I'm thinking wishfully, but I've lost so much, we all have... I'm tried of living in fear" she muttered, a little defeated, a couple of tears welling up. Samantha was a strong woman, but she was clearly breaking down, Jerry completely understood.

"look, I'm not really sure how this will play out. if we do get a cure at all it'll still be incredibly dangerous out there. but maybe, just maybe things will get better if we can figure it out" putting an arm around her

Sam Nodded "that's what I've been trying to say you numskull" she took a deep breath "right. i could really use something to make myself feel better"

Jerry though for a moment "you know. i might have just the thing"

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