Hey look at me remembering to post on a Saturday!! I think this is my favourite moodboard I have made, I do love a pinterest hunt for certain pics I have in mind (no one look at my search history). Sol and I have been super busy so we have kinda lost momentum with writing. (Writing blocks have me in a slump 😫) Please enjoy this chapter!! Love you guys xx
Sol ☀️ and Esra ✨
Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy if anyone else wants to be added, please let us know!!
Chapter Eleven: Sleepless Nights of Sam
Sam’s POV:
“Abby, no-don’t.” Sam called out as she made her way towards the girl who turned around to smile at her.
It played in slow motion, her boot finally coming in contact with the ground before a blast of light and heat knocked Sam back.
The blonde lay on the ground gasping for air that wasn’t making its way into her lungs. The ringing was all she could hear, she couldn’t force her limbs to move as she stared up at the sky that now was slowly filling with smoke.
Finally she was able to fill her lungs and make enough sense of the situation to sit up. That’s when her hearing started to fade in again. It was filled with screams of agony.
Sam got to her feet and stumbled towards the scene that played in front of her. She made her way closer to the hazy mass that laid on the floor. As she walked she tripped on a solid object causing her to fall to her knees. Sam glanced down and let out a gasp of horror, it wasn’t an object that had tripped her, but someone’s unattached leg. She leapt away from it, then she rushed forward. It was the mass on the ground that screamed with such pain it caused Sam’s heart to squeeze in agony.
“Help me!” It was Abby, her voice was unmistakable. “Please, help me!” She continued to beg as Sam arrived at her side.
“Oh, fuck.” The blonde mumbled taking in her comrades' appearance. Abby had been halved literally.
The place where the rest of her legs should’ve resided now was empty. Pools of blood gathered beneath her, she choked and spluttered on the crimson that filled her throat.
Sam gathered the girl into her arms. “Base, base, this is Foxtrot Alpha, we’ve been hit. I repeat we’ve been hit. One casualty. Position outer edge, I repeat our position is outer edge. We need medical immediately. Over.” The girl hastily reported the information into the radio fastened to her shoulder.
“Rodger, Foxtrot Alpha. ETA 10 minutes. Over.” The radio crackled back.
“Base, base, we need more urgent care, send in a bird. Over.” Sam debated.
“No can do, FA, we can’t reveal our position. Over.” The man replied.
“We just got fucking blown up, our position has already been revealed!” Sam yelled down the receiver. The radio didn’t answer back.
The blonde quickly got to work tourniqueting both of Abby’s legs to slow the blood loss.
“Sam. I’m cold.” The girl didn’t move but her hand reached out trying to find the older blonde. Sam made her way back to her side, there was nothing else medically she could do for her. She again bundled the girl into her lap and stroked her hair.
“Everything is fine, Abby. They’ll be here soon.” She tried to reassure the young girl.
“I’m tired.” The brunette whispered, her eyes fluttering closed.
“No, no. Abby, you have to stay awake. Look at me, open your eyes and look at me.” Sam begged her hand gently tapping the girl’s cheek to keep her attention.
“Sam?” Abby asked gently.
“Yeah, what is it?” The older girl leant down to hear her better.
Abby reached up and with shaky fingers pulled her dog tags from inside her top. “Can you give this to my Mum? Tell her I love her, ok?” Tears rolled down her cheeks and into her hair.
“Abby, you give it to her yourself when you get home.” Sam shook her head and pushed away the necklace she offered her.
“You and I both know that isn’t going to happen.” Abby smiled weakly. A whimper escaped Sam’s lips.
“It’s ok Sam.” The dying girl reassured the older woman. “How could we have known?”
Somehow the girl had read Samantha’s mind, it was her patrol that she was supposed to do, but Abby had offered instead, and she let her. Sam let her go, knowing it was her responsibility. It was her fault that the girl now lay in the middle of an abandoned town halfway across the world from her home dying.
“I’m glad it was me.” Abby’s bloodied hand reached up to rub away the tears that had escaped Sam’s eyes without her knowing. “Tell my mum, ok, you tell her she was my last thought.”
“Sam!!” The blonde was shaken awake. A gasp left her lips as she sat bolt upright.
“Are you ok?” A concerned looking Mars knelt beside her, “You were screaming in your sleep.”
The older girl must’ve fallen asleep completely, she hadn’t had that dream in years. Sam clutched at her racing heart.
“Bad dream. Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.” She apologised noting it was still dark out, the fire was in its last stages of life, so it must’ve been early morning.
“You’ve never had a bad dream before.” Mars whispered, she had woken up in a panic hearing the cries of the older girl.
“Cause I don’t sleep.” Sam confessed. The younger girl’s brows furrowed in concern.
“Like ever? How are you alive?” Mars asked scooting closer so the two could whisper.
The taller girl let out a sigh before replying, “My mum left when I was five, I stopped being able to fall completely asleep. Any noise would wake me, it could have been the quietest noise but I would still hear it.”
Mars laid her hand on her friend's knee and nodded, signalling for her to continue.
“I would wake when my father would get home. It was like clock work, my body would jolt me awake at the sound of his keys in the door. From then on I never fell deeply asleep. That’s why we never did watches, cause I knew if I heard something I would wake up.” Sam dragged her hand down her face.
“When I was little, if I ever fell into a deep sleep it would be plagued with gruesome nightmares, things that haunted me, my biggest fears.” The older girl admitted. She had never told anyone about her sleeping habits or the terrible nightmares she suffered from.
“My brain protects me and never lets me sleep fully.” Sam had been through enough trauma in her life to make the nightmares she had the worst, worse than any horror movie she had ever watched. Her experiences were far more terrifying.
“Who’s Abby?” Mars asked in a soft tone, craning her neck down trying to see the older girl’s face in the dim light of the morning.
“I’ll tell you another time.”
Mars didn’t push, this was the most the older girl had ever shared about her past, and though it was awful to hear, Mars was glad she felt safe enough to let her in.
“Get some sleep before we have to be up again.” Sam nudged Marleen back to her own bed and tucked her in when she lay down.
“Will you sleep?” The younger girl asked, peering her head out from her blanket.
“See you in the morning, Bam.” And with that the older girl rolled over and laid down. She waited for Marleen to fall back to sleep before she slipped out of the tent.
Samantha prodded the dying fire with a stick, there was no chance of her lying back down and trying to rest, she had had enough excitement for one night.
“Can’t sleep?” A voice pulled her from her thoughts. She whipped around readying herself for a fight.
“Woah! It’s just me.” Shifty held out his hand showing he meant no harm.
“Sorry, force of habit.” The girl excused her jumpy nature. The young man sat himself beside Sam, not close enough that they were touching, but not far enough away she didn’t feel his warmth.
“Why are you up?” Sam asked him.
“Someone wouldn’t quit snoring.” He gestured his head backwards towards the tent that him and Lip shared. Loud growling noises came from inside the shelter. “I mean, is he starting a car?”
Sam couldn’t help but laugh, it did sound exactly like an old car failing to rev to life.
“Plus I heard some commotion coming from over your way.” Shifty looked back over to the tent where Sam had left the flap open a tad to see in and make sure Mars was ok.
“Sorry, that would’ve been me.” Sam went back to prodding the fire with her stick, her knees curled up into her chest as she rested her chin on them.
“It’s ok, no one really sleeps well now.” Shifty grabbed his own stick as she shuffled around the hot coals mimicking the girl he sat beside. “I’m used to it though. Reminds me of hunting trips with my Dad. You never really slept the best, always had an ear out for the creatures.”
There was a beat of silence between the pair. Before Sam worked up the courage to ask.
“Where is your Dad?” She didn’t want it to be bad news but the way the young man spoke about him with such love she wanted to know more.
She watched as Shifty’s smile faded and she cursed silently under her breath. Nice one Sam.
“I didn’t get home in time. I was driving to get him. I had everything packed and ready, the car was fueled, all I needed was him. Then when I got home I looked everywhere. Last place I looked I found him. Maybe if I had looked there first I could’ve got to him in time. But he was much older than the other parents. I was an accident, a happy one, but still not planned.”
“All that hunting had got to his hearing, why he was always so strict with us kids about wearing our protection. I guess he didn’t hear it coming. The beast had slaughtered him from behind, ripped his neck clean open, killed him in the process. He didn’t even come back as one of them. I didn’t really have time to mourn cause the beast tried to come for me next, I fought him off but then.” Shifty swallowed.
“Then Mama got home from school, she was a teacher, she came out back and called for us. Distracted the thing and it charged for her. And I missed, the one shot I should’ve never failed, and I missed. It got her, and then-” He quickly wiped away the tears that streaked down his cheeks.
“I didn’t have the heart. That was my Mama. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her, even if it wasn’t her anymore. So I left. The car didn’t last long, everyone else was driving like crazy, caused me to be run off the road. Grabbed what I could carry and now here I am.”
“I’m so sorry, Shifty.” The man seemed so lovely and sweet, Sam felt awful making him relive that day.
“I’m sure everyone has had a pretty awful time.” The young man sniffed. “I’m just glad I found those guys.”
“Yeah, they seem nice.” Sam nodded.
They fell back into comfortable silence until the sun rose fully, and the birds in the trees chirped loudly.
The rest of the group slowly made their way from their tents. Everyone packed down quickly and ate before they were off moving again.
Moving through the Susquehannock state forest wasn’t easy, thankfully Shifty seemed to know the woods well. The terrain was difficult and treacherous at times, there were pros and cons to this. It meant no one else was up there with them, but it was hard work and dangerous. The days were long, climbing up and down steep hills and fighting through thick bush that had never been trekked before.
It took them longer than it would’ve to go around the state forest, but this offered them safety in a way.
The weather was unpredictable as well, the mountains were high and when a storm moved in it was fast and vicious. Often the group was caught unawares, scrambling for cover from the weather.
But Shifty was able to lead them through the state forest, stopping them from getting lost multiple times in the dense brush that had them turned around.
“Girls!” Lip called to the two ladies who walked ahead of the group. Mars paused her conversation to turn and look over her shoulder, Lip was signalling for them to stop.
Mars and Sam made their way back towards the group which had paused.
“Everyone alright?” Marleen asked as her eyes scanned over the men, looking for any signs of distress.
“We’re pretty low on supplies, we'll need to make a stop in the next city if we can.” Shifty said.
It took less than a day to trek to Emporium, so they had an hour or two to search the town for supplies. Food and water were always the first priority- anything else was a bonus.
The five of them managed to clear several abandoned buildings, but only found a few odd cans of food and a single bottle of water.
The light was fading and the decision was made to set up camp in an empty house.
“You guys get some sleep first, Sam and I will take the first watch.” Marleen offered up, she took note of the annoyed look Sam shot her but chose to ignore it.
The girls took their post in the living room while the three men chose to sleep in one of the bedrooms, leaving the other empty.
“So…” Marleen prompted her friend. Sam kept silent, giving her a blank look.
“What do you think of them?” Mars continued after realising Sam wasn’t planning on starting up a conversation. Before the older woman could answer, Marleen spoke up again, “They’re pretty cool, right?”
Samantha shrugged which caused her younger companion to roll her eyes in jest.
“I know you don’t like people-“ Mars scooted across the couch so she sat directly next to Sam, “But I think we should stay with them.” Her voice was soft like she was testing the boundaries.
Mars noticed Sam’s facial expression twist and quickly added, “I know Denver, he’s a good guy! Plus Lip and Shifty are both really smart. We probably wouldn't have made it through that forest without them.” Her words tumbled out in one breath.
“Okay.”
“Wait, I really think- uh wha… did you just say okay?” Her mouth hung open. Mars was expecting more of a fight from her tall friend. She wanted so badly to follow up with a whole bunch of questions but didn’t want Sam to change her mind or take it back so she did her very best to stay quiet.
“These guys are…decent.” Sam managed to say, straining as if the words hurt to say.
“Woah, was that a compliment?” Marleen teased, grinning at Samantha.
The older girl turned her head away to hide the smallest of smiles from her easily excitable friend.
Was this a new leaf the older girl had turned?
——————————
Morning broke over the small town, the girls both rose with the sun. It had become their new norm.
The boys had already packed since they were on the later watch together.
“You girls ready?” Shifty poked his head into the room the pair occupied.
“We sure are, Shifty!” Mars replied every so cheerily.
“Well isn’t someone chipper for a 6 o’clock start.” The young man noted, sending a bright smile back to the petite girl who grinned up at him. Her smile was infectious.
“Yeah, too happy.” Sam observed, looking over the suspiciously joyful blonde, “What’s got you so excited?”
“Nothing!” Mars’ high pitched sing-songy voice told the older girl otherwise. But the younger of the two kept her mouth shut about what had made her so excited.
“Just excited for a brand new day.” The girl bounced to her feet. As the older one groaned.
“Don’t go all disney princess on me Bam, I think that may actually kill me!” Sam mocked being stabbed in the heart, letting her eyes roll back in her head and she stuck her tongue out to the side.
Mars swatted the older girl. “Sam! Don’t” The young girl pretended to do CPR on the tall lady.
“You guys are on a new level of strange.” Shifty laughed at the pair's antics.
“We need more supplies, we hardly got any from this town.” The trio had walked into Lip complaining as he rummaged through his gear.
“I agree.” Bull nodded, his head lifted as the group entered the once nicely furnished lounge that now was a wreck.
“Girls, how did you sleep?” Denver asked.
“Very well, Denver!” Mars skipped over to him as she slung her arm around his shoulders, he knelt on the ground so the short girl was able to reach them. If he was standing she would’ve had to jump.
“We think we should stop at the next town over. We barely got enough to last us more than a few days.” Lipton shared his thoughts with the group.
“I think so too.” Sam nodded, they had only been able to obtain one bottle of water that was not going to last very long. They needed to restock.
The next town over was Johnsonburg, 30 miles away, they would be able to make it to the edge of town by nightfall.
After an 11 hour walk they had made it to the outskirts of Johnsonburg. Mars perched on a flat log that laid on the ground.
“Will we set up camp and go in tomorrow?” She asked as she took a sip from her bottle. The group had moved relatively fast and she was tired.
“I think that’s best.” Lip stood beside her looking out into the distance. “We don’t want to be tired going into the town. Best we get some shut eye and food into us. Then tomorrow we take Johnsonburg.” Lipton propped his foot on top of the log that Mars sat on, he looked like an explorer, with his hands on his hips and a tall stance.
“Ok Christopher Columbus, cool it.” Sam had arrived behind the pair. Lipton laughed at Sam’s comparison.
“Let’s get a small fire started.” Bull announced sending everyone to work.
—----------------------------------------------
“Shifty, is it clear your way?” Sam asked as she glanced around her corner trying to find any signs of life or death.
“Yeah all clear.” He whispered from next to her. “Call ‘em through.” Sam signalled from over her shoulder calling the rest of the group forward to where they stood.
The three other’s slowly appeared from the brush they had been hiding in. They crouched behind Sam and Shifty who were currently leading the scope through the small town.
“Let’s go.” The duo moved together in unison, they each took a side as they swept their surroundings.
The group moved slowly through the small city, they had found a few abandoned stores with more goods than they found in the last one.
“Is everyone happy with their haul?” Shifty looked around the group as people stashed items into their bags.
“Right, we should move out. Then we can do a stock take and see what we want to do from there.” Bull informed the rest of his peers who agreed.
And just like that the group set off; Mars, still in her spectacular mood, skipped ahead of the others. She sang to herself, mumbling the words as if she didn’t quite know them.
The distance Marleen was putting between herself and the rest of the crowd was starting to concern Samantha.
“Stop skipping, Bambi.” The older girl told her younger peer.
“I won’t trip this time!” The excitable blonde called over her shoulder, not slowing her pace or watching we’re she was going- a dangerous combination.
Especially when rounding a corner.
“Wait! Mars!” Sam had seen the shorter girls path and just knew something was coming. She began jogging to catch up with her companion but it was too late.
Marleen had smacked straight into something and fallen flat on her ass.
“Mars!” Sam’s jog turned into a run, her only thought was getting to the girl and protecting her from whatever evil she may have encountered.
The footsteps of the men in their group followed her and Sam drew her gun, preparing for the worst.
“Mars, are you-“ The tall blonde wasn’t able to finish her sentence, she cut herself off when she noticed the presence of other humans.
Instinctively, her arms raised up and aimed her weapon their way.
“Who the fuck are you?” She growled out, eyes squinting into a menacing glare.
There were three of them- three men.
One sat in the same position as Marleen, rubbing a spot on his head. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he and Mars had- quite literally- run into each other.
Sam rushed to the young blonde and used one hand to grab ahold of her arm and heaved her upwards until she was on her feet.
Her other hand still pointed the loaded gun at these strangers.
“I told you to stop skipping.” Sam's voice was low, almost threatening as she told off the recovering woman.
Mars looked down, slightly embarrassed but didn’t open her mouth to speak, instead pouting like a child. It made Sam feel like she was a mother telling off her excitable child who refused to listen.
One of the other men mirrored Sam’s actions, shuffling closer to his fallen friend and picking him up. He also sent the younger man a scolding look- something told Sam he had been doing something similar to Mars when they crashed into each other.
“Sorry about that. Purely accidental, it won’t happen again, right Luz?” The oldest stranger spoke, his last words were aimed at his companion, who scratched the back of his neck and nodded.
“We’re not looking for any trouble, okay?” The oldest told Sam, raising his hands to her as he eyed up her gun, “We’ll just be on our way. No harm done.”
“Wait, Martin! Maybe they could help us?” The third man finally spoke up.
“Yeah, maybe they know about Idaho?” ‘Luz’ added. The two shorter men flanked the leader of their little trio- Martin.
“No, I don’t think-“ But Martin never finished.
“What do you need help with?” Marleen's sweet voice sounded. Sam wanted to slap a hand over the girl's mouth; how could she be so trusting of literal strangers?
Sam still had her gun out, pointing towards the newcomers but she had noticed they weren’t copying her actions. She wasn’t sure if that should settle her nerves or not and decided to keep her weapon drawn, just in case.
“We got robbed a couple days ago.” The brown haired Luz offered up. He got a dirty look from Martin but completely ignored it.
“Yeah, they took all our food and water.” The third guy added on.
“We’ve been going from building to building trying to find something but it looks like this whole town has been looted.” Luz continued.
“Oh my gosh! That’s so rude, they didn’t leave you anything? I mean, how hard is it to look for supplies for yourself? No, they had to steal it from you guys? Unbelievable.” The young blonde said, her emotions were plastered on her face, easy to read.
Sam could tell where this was heading and tried to shut it down before Mars started to work herself up.
“Marleen. No.” Sam’s voice was stern and her look was even sterner but Marleen wasn’t even fazed. She pouted at her friend and pushed her eyebrows together, silently pleading with the older woman. Sam shook her head but Mars only stuck her bottom lip out more before mouthing ‘please’.
That had Sam rolling her eyes in defeat. She glanced over at the men they had been travelling with and saw no qualms.
“Fine. But only because we just stocked up, we can’t afford to do this every time we meet strays.” Sam had to put her foot down, but let the matter slide for just this one time.
“Hi!” Mars jumped ahead and was already shaking hands with the men, she hadn’t even waited for confirmation from the older lady before introducing herself.
“I’m Marleen, call me Mars, pleased to meet you guys!” She shook the hand of the man who had bumped into her, so hard his whole arm moved. He mirrored her action, shaking her back with vigour.
“George Luz, but everyone calls me handsome.” He threw a charming smile over Mars’ shoulder to Sam who visibly cringed at the terrible line.
“Luz.” Martin, the older man, growled.
“What? I was just introducing myself.” George grinned as he sauntered over to the taller woman.
“What might your name be?” The shorter man purred as he picked up Sam’s hand from her side.
“Uninterested.” Sam snatched her hand away as she saw Luz craning his neck down to kiss the back of it.
“That’s Sam. She isn’t that friendly to newcomers.” Mars introduced the girl, knowing she wouldn’t do it herself and the male members of the group nodded in agreement.
“Enchanté.” George didn’t seem all that fazed at the displeasure that the tall woman wore on her face.
Sam stepped back from the interested man, all he did was smile up at her undeterred by her indifference.
“Johnny Martin, you can call me Martin.” The older man stepped forward and politely shook Marleen's hand, “And this here is Perco.” He gestured behind him.
“Frank Perconte.” The short man waved to the group who nodded back in greeting.
“Ok, enough with the introductions. We’re exposed here and it’s getting dark. We need to move.” Sam’s eyes scoured their surroundings, the coast appeared clear but it could be easily changed in a heartbeat.
“Bossy. I like it.” Luz smirked at the stern woman. Marleen couldn’t help but giggle at the look on Sam’s face.
“Let’s go.” Sam said to the group, ignoring the chocolate haired man. The taller girl made sure to secure Marleen’s hand before she stalked off, hand in hand with her grinning companion.
Oof another gut punching chapter, poor Sam has seen some shit. But then we got more boys whoop whoop. Luz and Mars are gonna be besties I can tell!! And Sam is gonna be pissed that there is now two Mars' lmaooooo!! We also got the lovely Martin who is so Fatherly, which we love, these girls need some guidance. And we have the cutie patootie which is Perco, someone get this man a toothbrush and toothpaste stat!!!!!
All my love Esra ✨
