Same Love

21: Uneventful

Sam stood outside the little shack waiting for Rick. Daryl stood a good way away from him, eyeing Martinez, one of the Governor's men and Hershel also stood outside. Rick was inside with the Governor and Andrea. Someone emerged from the wooden building. He was spectacled, his hair sticking to his head and his glasses fogged slightly. Sam ignored him and settled for cracking each of his joints loudly. He didn't realize it was annoying until Hershel told him to stop it. Voices raised in the shack and Andrea soon appeared. The spectacled man Milton started to talk to her but her eyes stayed trained on Sam. Sam shifted uncomfortably before he had enough, his cold eyes moving to her.

"What do you want Andrea?" He asked, politely enough though he didn't trust her. It was all too rich, he thought she died and was happy then she reappeared. Milton stopped babbling, Daryl and Hershel and Andrea all tensed up, knowing just how Sam could be.

"I'm sorry" She apologized and Sam's eyes darkened.

"For what? Leaving me tied to a post bleeding out while your boyfriend tried to kill the people who've become my family?" Sam said quietly. He had long given up on allowing his rage to overcome him. He was simply too tired to get worked up about trivial matters, perhaps it was this world that was getting to him. Before the apocalypse he had been ill-tempered, very sarcastic and a tough no nonsense man that was rather intimidating and yet now he was stripped down to the bare bones of his personality, an insecure, calm and exhausted broken man. Andrea was puzzled. he had changed dramatically, he no longer hid behind a tough facade. 

"Yes"

"Don't be, i'm none of your concern" There was the coldness creeping in, a sign of a grudge he would hold until the blonde was dead. Martinez and Daryl nabbed some cigarettes from a dead walker and smoked, conversing about the outcome of the meeting while Hershel and Andrea spoke too. Sam settled for staring up at the peaceful clouds floating by, he remembered doing exactly that with his mother everyday when he was little. Talking of his mother, she still loomed over him, her ghostly figure watched him wherever he went and it only haunted him at night. His insomnia was expected in an apocalypse after all. He had learnt to live with her being there, it seemed she was the only one who stayed with him, Nate and his father had vanished after he awoke but his mother was persistent even in death. He felt the need to laugh. This had not happened before to him but his mother had suffered from mild schizophrenia throughout her life, it never affected her but she said she saw people watching her. It was never threatening, she had expressed to him one night, but they were there. This only added to the list of things wrong with him. He was now hallucinating, an insomniac and useless due to the amount he got injured. It wouldn't have been so bad if he could live a life where he didn't always seem to be the target.

He began to sharpen a stick with his knife, fashioning a spearhead out of it and Milton watched his skilled hands work in awe. His hands were rough, working hands that endured physical labour. Once the spearhead was complete he weighed it in his hands calculatingly before his eyes locked onto a tree where a bird sat undisturbed. He wound some twine around a stick and attatched the sharp wooden spike before hurling it at the animal, turning everyone's heads as he jogged over, picking up the now dead bird and the effective killing instrument. He inspected his kill with unsatisfied eyes.

"They're gettin' smaller" Daryl commented, staring at the common bird analytically and Sam nodded, attatching the animal to his belt for later, at least they'd have fresh meat and as Rabbits and squirrels and Deer were out of the question now that the Walkers were eating them then this was all they could get probably. They left the meeting place soon after this, truding back to the prison and once there Rick debriefed them all, telling them that the Governor and the group were going to war. It came as no surprise of course. The day was still young and Sam sat himself down in the guard tower as the others attempted to fortify the prison as best they could. The governor would strike soon, they knew that much was true. He oberved them, the silence was comforting though he was concerned as Rick had earlier told him that the Governor wanted Michonne to torture her and that he promised a truce if the group handed over the swordswoman. Sam had not talked much to Michonne but from what he gathered she was a very hard worker and she was skilled and adept at surviving. It never occured to him that she had become a valued member of the group, perhaps because he'd been out of it for so long.