Archive of Our Own ^beta

Maybe it was due to the habit of rising early post-Apocalypse or maybe it was because there was more light than normal streaking through the shoddily re-made hut that Sam slept in, but he instinctively knew that he was waking up later, much later than normal. He also knew, after waking, that he should, under no circumstances, open his eyes right away because his head was about to explode, and the light was just making everything hurt worse than it already did. From the sounds outside of his shack though, Sam forced himself to throw the blanket over his face and slowly roll off the side of his thin mattress pad onto the rough dirt floor. This was a start, Sam Yao, a good start, he had to remind himself despite feeling that he just wanted to let himself collapse over from being semi-upright and die.

Perhaps a new zombie-controlled rocket launcher attack could occur, and he would have an excuse to feel as awful as he did. Sam stopped his train of thought. This was definitely a hangover, which meant that there was definitely a reason for it, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember how he started drinking or even how he got into his bed in the first place. His brows furrowed for a moment until the headache pain had him rubbing his brows and putting pressure on his nasal bone to try and relieve some of his suffering. He just needed to think, however complicated that was at the moment, and figure out what he did. Or didn’t do.

He drew the blanket tighter over his head to keep himself in the dark as much as he could manage. The lions, he definitely remembers the lions. Runner Five and the others having to escape that crazy zookeeper. In this back of his head, he vaguely imagined Janine, respectable job, Mr. Yao. Scoffing, he didn’t think she would praise him just for recollecting a small detail. Still, with the idea of an encouragement, he thought back. After the safari mishap, they were followed. Yes!

He was locked in the CommShack during everything, but he remembers when Runner Five and Runner Three were able to get things under control. He had told them through the headset that they were okay, despite the thieves getting away with some of Maxine’s documents. Janine finally let him out (and he nearly wept once he reached the loo because having to wait as long as he did was painful). Then what happened? Sam had to focused, leaning his head back to see if the angle helped him think, increased blood flow and all that?

It took a minute, but the image of Simon barging through their cleaning efforts carrying a bottle of rum in one hand and a bottle of tequila in the other flashed behind Sam’s lids and more details quickly followed. He groaned, one hand on his stomach as the thought of the alcohol had his insides doing cartwheels. Once he had calmed down, Sam tried to summon the evening’s next events. Oh man, he began, if it’s this bad, I really should ask someone. As he was standing, he got a vague sense that he had kissed someone. After taking the blanket off his head, he groaned as he realized he may have kissed a few people. His mouth felt fuzzy, most likely due to the amount of sleeping he had done without brushing his teeth after drinking, so the first thing he did when he gingerly left his space with a seen-better-days cap on his head was head over to the hospital to see if Maxine had any spare toothbrushes. For some reason, his favorite one had disappeared, and he couldn’t remember if that had anything to do with last night or not.

As he slowly shuffled across the Township, he heard loud catcalls from Eugene and Jack, and he tried his best not to turn. If he pretended that they weren’t calling louder and louder as they got closer, then they would just disappear, right? That’s how the universe worked. Someone could just imagine really, really hard and it would just…

“Hey, Sam! That was quite a night you had! Call back to the ones that I have,” Jack exclaimed, hand coming down hard on Sam’s shoulder.

“To the ones you had,” Eugene corrected, shooting Sam an apologetic grin as Jack rubbed the back of his head – “yeah, yeah, of course.”

“Guys, not that I don’t really appreciate this, but I already feel like a zombie and I would really like to feel less like that by getting a new toothbrush from the Doc,” Sam responded and started to walk away as fast as he could.

However, he had forgotten that Jack was fast in his own right, “now Sammy, that’s no way to treat your friends. I know you probably feel like the worst turd in the pit, but,” he paused to look over Sam’s shoulder to make sure that Eugene was catching up okay, “we would really be interested in discussing some of the details of last night.”

“For our show,” Gene explained, slightly breathless, “we got quite a few notes in the drop box we set up outside our tent and they almost all had to do with you.” Sam groaned and almost, almost wished it was the warning groan of the undead. Maybe then this would all go away. He started to walk away again slowly. As much as he wanted the guys gone, they were still his close friends.

“Love to help you mates, but I don’t remember a thing. Simon brought out the liquor and I think I had some. Well…I mean, I remember finishing some of the clean-up work. I know that some people went off to have some dinner, but I don’t think I did. If,” Sam’s brain was working overtime as it caught up to certain details, “yeah, no. I stayed behind because Simon was getting that whine in his voice. Everyone was going to leave him alone, but we’d all had such a hard day and I wanted to relax a little and not deal with a wired Runner Three, so we had some drinks.”

“Some?” Eugene asked, tone disbelieving. “Sam, you finished a bottle and a half before you and Simon decided that you need to raid some more of his secret stores.”

Sam spluttered as they got to the hospital entrance. “I had more than a bottle?” He knocked and pushed it open when he heard the distinct, “come on in.” As he turned to say hello to the doctor, he met eyes with Janine who had been standing next to Maxine. He raised his hand to wave, but Janine grew stiff and nearly sprinted out of the hospital without saying a word.

Maxine laughed at Sam’s horrified expression. “So, how are you feeling today? Before you ask, you’re going to have to deal with that headache on your own. Can’t spare any medicine for an unwise decision.”

Jack leaned against one of the hospital cots as Eugene sat on it. “Reporting for a monthly check-in,” he murmured as Maxine approached.

“What,” Sam started, still confused, “what happened to Janine?”

“Other than you kissing her and Runner Eight on the cheeks and telling them and everyone around you that you really, really loved them all. Nothing,” Maxine said back, nonchalant tone as she got to work checking Eugene’s leg to make sure that there were no sores from his crutch or on his amputation site. When Jack started to wheeze with laughter, she glanced over her shoulder to see Sam with his face between his legs trying to breathe. She couldn’t help, but join in her laughter, though she was able to hold back a bit more.

“It really wasn’t that bad, Sam. I just think Janine isn’t used to having tell her that, and I quote, ‘even if you run your place like a dictator, there isn’t a better person around who I love and people can fight me on it,’” Maxine explained. Sam just let out a whine. “I think I would be more embarrassed by what happened after.”

Jack leaned in forward, trying to get more information, “there’s more after? Why Dr. Myers, the public deserves to know this information. You see, Eugene and I went to sleep after getting a swig or two from Simon, but we had numerous reports of caterwauling that we simply need to get the bottom of.”

Maxine, to her credit, looked unimpressed with Jack’s attempt. She pushed lightly on his shoulder before patting Eugene’ shoudler and letting him know that he was all set to go. She stood and gently eased her way around the prone Sam who had yet to move from his defensive position. Seeing that the radio hosts hadn’t yet left, she shook a scalpel in their direction until they giggled at each other and slowly walked away.

“Sam,” she started gently, “Sam, look at me.” The young man raised his head slightly. “It really wasn’t that bad. You didn’t run naked anywhere and I wouldn’t exactly say there was…caterwauling.”

“But it was bad enough?” He groaned out to which she shrugged.

“Not bad enough that you can’t get something to eat. Here,” she ruffled through her desk drawers and pulled out a bottle of Tums, “one of the Americans at New Canton had a few bottles of this for a pre-zomb friend, but they hated the taste. Since it’s non-essential, I don’t mind giving you a few to settle your stomach. Try to get something to drink and some bland food in your stomach and you’ll feel better.”

Will it take me back in time, Sam wanted to ask while chewing the chalky tablets and nearly spitting them out. Fake banana flavor coated his tongue and he immediately understood why the American would want them gone. Yuck. “Thanks, Maxine,” he muttered and started the long shuffle to the Kitchen and make-shift dining area for overflow outside (really like a tarp strung up above after the raiders came through and made a mess of everything). As he walked, more events flashed through his mind. Apparently, he led quite a passionate rant on how jealous he was of Simon’s flexibility. He flushed when he thought of this as he remembers Simon trying to get him to do certain stretches with Runner Five and Four standing next to them laughing.

He tripped over himself as he thought of Five. Something had been bothering them, but he couldn’t for the life of him put his finger on what. He thought that Five had told him something and then gotten a sad look on their face before slipping out as Simon convinced him to try a new drink. What had been Five’s problem? The blood drained from his face in a moment though. Had he really dragged himself around yelling out Five’s name after he wasn’t able to stand straight anymore?

Steeling his nerves, he hoped that most people had already eaten by the time he got into the kitchen. What he didn’t expect was to see all the runners sitting together and laughing to themselves. Simon was among them and he had seen better days but seemed to be laughing with everyone else. Walking carefully and trying not to make eye contact, Sam went through the line and grabbed the plainest food he could, despite his stomach not liking the idea of consuming anything. He had just nearly made it to the far corner of the kitchen when Simon’s clear yell of “Sammy!” rang over the tables and caused his shoulders to tense up near his ears.

Turning, he met eye contact with Jody, Evan, and Sara before he looked down and shuffled over to the table. Carefully sitting down near the end, he tried not to look at anyone directly and his muttered, “sorry, must not have seen you.”

“Little Sammy,” Sam felt Simon move in closer, “didn’t realize that you felt so poor. Would have brought you some things myself. Or, I’m sure Sara would have loved to bring you some too.” Sam flushed as he recalled Maxine’s explanation.

“Oh, shove off, Simon. Sam was quite sweet, telling me that he thought I was a gooey lava cake under all this bad bitch tough leather,” Sam met Sara’s eyes and he saw them crinkly at the corner in delight. He could feel his shoulders relaxing. “You’re a good kid, Sam, don’t let Simon push you around.”

Feeling reassured, he looked down to grab a bit to eat when he felt the people at the table shift around him. Looking up, he met eyes with Five who grinned at him. It was hard to prevent the blush that arose when he met that look. It was a grin he had seen many times before Five did something clever and he wasn’t often at the other side of it. They lightly placed an object in front of him and his eyes widened as he took in the familiar lightsaber design, even the large red button that would light it up for as a countdown would start for brush time.

“How…?” he started, picking up the toothbrush in confusion. He made a note to himself that while he had forgotten to pick up a new one at the hospital, it was not needed. His brows furrowed as he couldn’t remember seeing Five after they left the gathering and he definitely couldn’t remember why Five would have his toothbrush.

He was still staring in confusion at his toothbrush when Five’s note slid in front of him. The other runners could tell the minute he finished reading because a cacophony of laughter filled the area. The note wasn’t much. Just a simple question.

Now would be a great time for that rocket-launcher zombie, Sam thought as he dropped his head to the table below.