𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔽𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 | Daryl Dixon

9 | OPTING OUT

Tori was in the room she'd slept in, lying on her back on the couch, with her hands gripping her hair. Her eyes were closed, but she was far from sleep. Her mind was far too busy trying to chase down the racing thoughts, and the voices that came with them. Her ears rang, it being all she could hear besides the static sounds of the lights.

She tried to focus on something to calm herself. The air conditioning unit was humming on the ceiling above her, and she just tried to pay attention to that, trying to let the white noise lull her into a false sense of security which her mind was refusing to trust.

Her bags were fully packed and by the open door of the break room, as she wanted to be ready for something happening, and needing to leave. Her mind was racing as she thought about the way Jenner had clammed up when questioned about the countdown. She didn't trust the look on his face when he'd walked away without saying a word.

The silence spoke volumes though. He was definitely worried about something.

Daryl came into the room after finding a new bottle of whiskey, and he'd already drunk a decent amount of the amber liquid as he took a seat at the round table. On hearing what Jenner had to say earlier, Daryl had been lost in his own head too, unsure as to what came next. He'd seen rick and some of the other guys go looking in the basement for something, and he'd left them to it. 

"What's with the bags?" he asked, glancing over at Tori briefly. "Goin' somewhere?"

She gave a shrug. "Doc was being weird before. Better to be prepared."

Tori avoided looking over at Daryl. Dribs and drabs of the night before were coming back to her, with small memories of talking way too much, then throwing up. She was embarrassed, to say the least. Her and Daryl were barely even friends; knowing that he'd seen her be all emotional and vulnerable just made her feel uncomfortable.

"Sorry for uh..." she began, finally sitting up. "If I did anything dumb last night."

"Nah, you're good," Daryl mumbled, taking a long swig from the bottle. "Just rambled about some shit, then threw up."

"I rambled?"

"Little bit."

"God," Tori groaned, running her hands over her face. "Sorry."

"Mentioned you ain't had a drink in a couple years," Daryl told her. "Explains why you were such a lightweight."

Tori glared, narrowing her eyes. "If you were sober for more than two years, you'd be a lightweight too."

Daryl just raised his eyebrows with a sigh as he took another drink. His mind wandered back to the previous night. The scars. It was still none of his business, and it seemed that Tori didn't realise he'd seen anything. Still, it made him feel something. Whether it was pity, empathy, maybe even a little guilt, he wasn't sure.

Tori noticed that he had something on his mind, but before she could question him, the humming that had been moving through the air came to a sudden stop, and Tori frowned.

She stood up on the couch, waving her hand under the AC unit. It had switched off completely, no flow coming through the vents at all. Seconds later, the lamp in the corner of the room turned off too, the room now feeling smaller as there was hardly any light.

Sharing a look with Daryl, Tori hopped off the couch as he opened the door, seeing the others were all out in the hall too. Jenner was walking quickly, wearing a white lab coat as Rick and some others were following him with questions.

"What's goin' on?" Daryl asked. "Why is everythin' turned off?"

Jenner never slowed down his fast pace as he snatched the whiskey bottle from Daryl whilst walking past. "Energy is being prioritized," he exhaled.