Sam has a free spirit, painting everything she sees in the middle of the apocalypse.
Arriving in Alexandria, Rick Grimes's group meets her and discovers an engaging and refreshing personality.
As the challenges arise, Sam is forced to reconnect wi...
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A few days had passed since the party at Deanna's, and Rick's group seemed to be slowly acclimating. Sam had had a chance to chat with each of the newcomers, mostly for Maggie and Gleen, and was enjoying the new dynamic. She had the opportunity to spend some time at Rick's house so that Caleb could play with little Judith, the two children got along wonderfully bringing joy and lightness to the group.
The sun was high in the sky, lunchtime was approaching and Sam was sitting near the pond. Caleb, securely tucked between her legs, was having fun throwing pebbles, laughing as he heard them splash.
They were sitting next to a small flower bed wich had bloomed recently and Sam decided to try to extract some color from the surrounding plants. Using a jar and a stone, she crushed a pretty red flower in a little bit of water. Sam wasn't sure how effective it would be, but thought that it might be possible to get something close to watercolor. She gasped as she suddenly heard a voice behind her.
"You're trying to make paint. I learned at Deanna's party that you have an artistic soul, I'm more of a scientist which allows me to know the composition of paint. Actually you would need a binder, like alkyds." Eugene stated as he stood by them with his hands on his hips and staring at Sam's hand which was still in the jar with a puzzled look
"Hello Eugene," Sam laughed as she looked up at him with one hand shielding her eyes from the sun.
"Hi Sam, I didn't imagine you'd remember my name. Eugene Porter to be precise, but I'm flattered all the same," he added before resuming his concentrated expression. Sam watched him with a look of half amusement and half wonder as he continued.
"So I was saying, alkyds, to start, a solvent or thinner should then be added to make it fluid and workable. The last step would obviously be the pigment, which is the step you're getting close to right now by grinding up what looks like lobelia cardinalis to me."
Eugene stopped talking as abruptly as he had started, and Sam looked at him feeling like she was out of breath just listening to him talk.
"Well, thank you Eugene. That was... very interesting," Sam added with an uncertain smile and no idea what to add. She didn't have to wonder for too long because Eugene took over right away.
"As for you, young blonde head. A good ricochet is actually made with a flat stone so that the force of the pebble's lift allows it to float on the surface of the water. Finally, you would have to adapt the speed and the rotation according to the size and the weight of the stone," Eugene finished with a very serious look at the baby.
Caleb had his hand suspended and was observing Eugene with a meditative look on his face.
Sam could not hold back the small laugh that escaped her. "I'm sure that when he's old enough to make ricochets, Caleb will be honored to come and find you so you can teach him everything you know," Sam assured Eugene.
"Very well, I will be at his complete disposal. I'm going to go eat now if you'll excuse me. Sam, Caleb, I hope you have a good day."
"Thank you Eugene we really appreciate it. Same goes for you and say hi to everybody for us. " Sam smiled.
After this surprising conversation, Sam picked up the jar with its semblance of paint and perched Caleb on her hip before heading back to the house.
On the way home, she passed the town entrance where Carol, Rick and Daryl were returning from outside with a determined look on their faces. Sam saw an expression on Carol's face she never seen before, that determined look that Carol seemed to lose the moment the trio passed the first residents and regained the jovial and overly friendly expression threw Sam off a bit. She never really had the chance to talk to Carol more than a few seconds but she slowly began to understand little by little the method used by the latter.
She tried to hide her astonishment when she greeted them with a hand gesture, which Carol and Rick returned before turning the corner of their street.
Daryl turned away after saying a few words to them and headed in Sam's direction. During these few days, she had only had a few opportunities to speak with the archer, but a few discussions had nevertheless arisen as he carried out mechanical repairs on the motorcycle.
"Hi Daryl!"
"Hi" Daryl greeted her through the strands of hair that fell across his face. "Wanted to let ya know that I'll probably come by later for the bike if that's okay." Daryl uttered his sentence while picking at the skin on his thumb with his teeth and looking at her in the eye.
"Of course, no problem. You know you don't have to ask," Sam replied with a beaming smile.
She was joined by Caleb's little babbles as he waved his hand open and closed in Daryl's direction. Sam watched with surprise as Daryl looked down at the child and held out his little finger, which Caleb clenched in his tiny fist, and she detected again that hint of sweetness in Daryl's eyes that she had noticed the few times she had seen him interact with Caleb.
"See, he agrees too !" Sam laughed, nodding her head in the direction of the baby who continued his monologue. Caleb soon dropped Daryl's finger to turn his attention to a flock of birds that were splitting the sky, and the archer returned his attention to Sam's face.
"See you later then ?" Sam gently smiled.
"Yeah" Daryl nods, walking back in the direction his two friends took.
When Sam arrived, she noticed that Aaron and Eric had not yet returned from their meeting with Deanna, they had to discuss the areas they had already explored so that Aaron could prepare his next expedition with Daryl.
She went down to the basement and put Caleb in his usual place. The child immediately grabbed the water-based paint he currently used and started making fingerprints on the floor before Sam slid a sheet underneath.
"Impatient little one," she laughed, ruffling his blonde locks.
Sam sat down next to him and tried to see the results of her little concoction, she grabbed a brush that was lying around and a scrap of paper.
A pink streak was deposited on it, which she tried to intensify with a second pass. The result was not the most conclusive but maybe with more rest it would be possible to get something.
Her reserves of paint were beginning to dwindle a little, nothing to worry about, but she preferred to experiment with new things before she ran out.
She had kept a few tubes from her previous life, which may have seemed completely unnecessary when trying to escape death during the apocalypse, but she had always carried a small satchel as a last vestige of her long lost life.
Over the months spent outside, the precious bag was always with her, even when she had to flee her old camp. It seemed that the paint was always at hand, impossible to forget along the way.
And when Aaron and Eric had found Caleb and Sam while she had been trying for days to find food without any success, all they had to carry was a bag of full of powdered milk and some necessary items and another one with tubes of paint.
Hello there ! I don't really know what to think about this chapter, pretty boring to my opinion. But so you know, I'll probably make another one wich not follow the actual chronology of the show just to settle Sam a bit more into the whole thing.
That's why I have choosen to let a few days pass before Daryl and Aaron trip. But it should come back to normal after the next chapter :))
Hope you enjoyed anyway, I'm really curious of what you guys think from the story so far ? Any advices ?
