Y'know what? I fucking hate zombies. They ruin everything, just strolling in and they act like they own the place! This really didn't need to happen, not during my lifetime atleast. I was only 23, for Christ's sake! Basically, all this shit started when I was getting ready for work at the nearest book store, cute little place, and the nice little old lady that owned it was such a sweetheart. Emphasis on 'was', because now she's wandering the streets of Atlanta like the rest of the population of Georgia. This situation truly sucked major chode.
So, I woke up like I did everyday, took a shower, got dressed in an army green tank top that ended just above me belly button, tied a green hankerchief in my hair and put on my ripped jeans that also had paint splattered on them. Brushed my teeth, deoderant, perfume, pineapple lip gloss, basic bathroom stuff. And before you ask, "Why didn't you brush your hair?" I got dreadlocks a long time ago, my blonde hair was too long to take care of all the time, and dreadlocks were awesome. Atleast I thought so. I walked out of my small apartment with my bag that had signatures from all my friends on it form high school. I know my outfit and everything wasn't exactly modern, but I was raised by dope-smoking hippies that travelled everywhere for parents. As that may be, I still loved the whole life style of being on the rode and such, so I didn't mind.
Finsishing up the rest of the morning, I walked up to my truck, opened the driver door and drove to work, as if it were a regular day.
The afternoon wasn't so great, though. After selling a few books, trying to run away from a few sick people that seemingly had the flu, buying a few books of my own, I decided to head home. Some guy was standing in front of the complex stairs though, he looked like he may have been waiting for someone. I tried to get up another flight of stairs, since this guy was really creeping me out. But it was just my luck that the other flight of stairs was locked. I sighed as I decided to cup my hands over my mouth and scream for him to move away from the stairs. "Hey, guy! Can you move?" His body twitched, his joints moving freely as he faced me. And I screamed in horror, the right side of his face was completely torn off, like you could see the muscles, eye socket and other gruesome details. Blood dripped from his teeth and mouth, which made me cringe. "Dude! Are you alright? Th' fuck's up with your face?" I screamed in horror. His eyes were a complete blank, like LITERALLY. They were that sort of color you saw from those zombie movies. Did that fucking mean he was a zombie? He started stumbling closer to me and let out this weird groan, it sounded animalistic, full of hunger. Yep, the dude was a zombie. I didn't know what to do, so I started feeling around me for a blunt weapon, and what I got? Nothing. Fuck, I was so fucking fuckity fuck fucked! And then I was in arm's reach. So, my natural instinct? Swing my feet around. As my foot connected with his stomach, there was a sickening cracking noise emiting from the stomach. I groaned quietly as I ran for my apartment, my mind set on one thing: getting the fuck out of Atlanta.
I slammed the door shut behind me and grabbed the nearest bag, which was ironically a bag that had zombie pins on it I got from conventions. I chuckled at the irony as I grabbed clothes, tank tops, t-shirts, few long-sleeved shirts, jeans, shorts, PJ's, panties and bras. I thought about packing other shoes, but I loved my Chuck's too much. I took another bag and put alot of my books in there, sorry, but I needed something to do. Maybe when all this shit's over I'll be an english teacher, or write books of my own. You never know! But, I automatically knew I was missing something. My baby bearded dragon, Fontaine. Fancy name for a reptile is fancy. I packed a smaller bag for him, holding some food and his water bowl. I picked him up out of his container as I placed him in a smaller one I kept for travel. "C'mon baby boy, as long as you hold on, we'll get through this shit, 'kay?" I asked, but his beady eyes just blinked. I sighed as I grabbed all of my bags and ran for my truck.
Only to be held up on the road out of the city. There was a truck behind me that kept honking, and it was annoying the piss out of me. "We all want to fuckin' go, 'kay buddy? So calm the fuck down!" I yelled out of my window at the people in the truck. But as soon as the traffic began to move, it stopped. There was a fuckin' road block this way! "Are you fucking kidding me!" I screamed. I pulled over, as did the truck behind me. "Oi, are the rednecks coming to yell at me?" I mumbled to myself. I peered out of my window to see two men waiting, staring at the driver door. I slid out slowly as my eyes peered at them cautiously. "C'mon, baby doll. We don't bite." the seemingly older one said, his thick accent dripping on every word he said. "First of all," I growled, putting my hand up to him, "the name's not 'baby doll'." And I sort of made this hip popping motion as I placed my hands on my hips. "Th' fuck you guys want?" I asked tiredly. "Well, maybe if you stopped back talking sweetie pie, I could explain." he retorted, mimicking my actions which won a sneer from me. "Listen now, a guy and his kid and wife is sorta putting together a group'a survivors. Told me to ask you if ya wanted to join." I considered it, thinking whether or not to trust these guys. "Hmph, fine." I said. He gave me a wild grin as he clapped my back, "Name's Merle. Quiet guy over there is mah brother Daryl." I let a small grin creep onto my face as I answered him, "The name's Riley." "One question," Merle started, "why ya got dreads? Ya ain't no darkie." he asked. "They're good for keeping cool." I took a glance at Daryl, who was looking around his surroundings. "Y'gonna talk to me?" I asked as I flashed a smile. He glanced at me and smirked with a faint pink brushing at his cheeks, "'Sup." was all he said. Well, it was better than nothin'. "Alright, let's get this show on the road!" Merle walked back to his truck, but Daryl and I shared a brief glance and nodded at eachother before he returned also.
"Everybody got a tent?" the man named Shane asked as we all parked. I met all of the others, a man named Morales and his whole family (which I envied), a bald man named T-Dog who was pretty nice, a lady named Jacqui that literally had the face of a sculpture in a museum, I mean with those cheekbones and skintone! Then there was a nice old man named Dale in his RV, which was a God-send. He had two girls with him, their name's were Amy and Andrea, which were just like me. The all-American girl, like, pale skin, blue eyes, blonde hair and such. Amy was closer to my age, so I was automatically glad I met her. Andrea was pretty cool too, looked like she could take on anybody in a bar fight. Then there was Glenn, a small Korean kid. He was nice. Then there was this lady named Carol with her husband, big guy named Ed. Didn't like him though, he gave me the skeevies, and her daughter Sophia. I just knew her and I were going to hit it off. Then there was Shane, bless his soul, with his best friend's wife and her kid. Apparently her husband was shot and went into a coma, and was long gone before all of this. I nodded in respect at them. Then there was Jim, some nice guy who had lost his family also. I felt bad for him, but also for everyone else. This world just wasn't fair. I groaned when Shane asked if we had tents though. Fuck, why didn't I grab one? I raised my hand, seemingly being the only one that didn't. He nodded at me and motioned me to come over to him, "Guess you'll just have'ta bunk with someone at camp. Sorry, kiddo." I just nodded as I walked back over to to the center of our little society.
"'Ey sweet cheeks!" Merle called after me as I was walking to the tent I shared with Glenn. I just ignored him, he would get the message saying 'That's not my name you prick' vibe if I ignore him long enough. I heard him groan before he started again, "Alrigh' Riley! Get yer ass over here! Mah brother and I ain't gonna feed ourselves!" He then started chuckling as he walked back to the area of his tent where Daryl was cleaning his crossbow. I just sighed and let a small grin creep onto my face before I walked over to my tent. They're allowed to tease me, but they wouldn't expect a retaliation like this. I stepped into my tent, put down my now clean clothes before I placed Fontaine on my shoulder. I hadn't taken him out the whole two days I had been in camp, Glenn was the only one that knew about him and voluntarily got food for him, which I thought was sweet. Another good thing? Glenn was coming back to the tent with a water bottle full of insects and leaves and apparently heard Merle say that he looked like he was feeding a freakin' reptile and how much he hated lizards all together. I chuckled at the thought of one of the strongest men in camp to be afraid of something that barely surpassed his pinky. I stepped out of the tent casually as I continued to pat Fontaine's head lovingly. He was my little buddy for a year so far, he was my first pet that I owned myself. Any other pet like my pet bird Peterson and my goldfish Glub had been owned by my family and I. I then thought about my family, were they safe, or dead? Who knew. But if they were dead, like my dad always told me, I would just move on. He never really liked the whole crying ordeal, even though he would get a bit emotional when he was alone- or when he thought he was alone.
No one noticed Fontaine just yet, suprisingly since he was a yellow sort of color and didn't exactly blend in with my gray tank top and once white sweat pants that were now covered in dirt and blood from skinning squirrels with Merle and Daryl. Poor things, I hated to see those squirrels that were just thrown around all willy-nilly by the two. "Well, it seems baby-doll decided to show up, see baby brother," Merle said, smirked and patted Daryl on the back, "this is why I'm the better looking one out of us." I scoffed and then let out a small giggle, "Sorry to break it to you Merle, but Daryl is ten times better looking than you." Merle was taken back in fake shock. "Don't deny that you don't want a piece of this." he said as he winked. I just rolled my eyes, only for them to land on Daryl, who was still focused on cleaning his crossbow and blushing like a mad-man. I just smirked as I sat next to him. His eyes cast amall glance at me before returning to his crossbow. "So, why do you guys want me over here, because I know you're both capable of making your own breakfast." I said. "Well baby doll, we jus' wanted to know if ya wanted to go huntin' with us. Tha's all." Merle said. I didn't answer him, he knew why. "Alrigh' Riley, we wanted to know if ya wanted ta know if ya wanted to go huntin' with u- WHAT THE FUCK'S ON YOUR SHOULDER?" Merle exclaimed, causing the whole camp to stare at us. I giggled lightly before patting Fontaine's head lightly. "It's called a lizard, somethin' your afraid of apparently." I said with a smart ass tone. Daryl stopped cleaning his crossbow as he began snickering at his older brother. "I got Daryl to laugh!" I exclaimed as I began giggling again, Daryl looked at me and smirked, "Congrats on that." I covered my face because a little blush crept onto my cheeks. I looked at Merle, who was still staring at my baby lizard. "You're such a pussy, Merle." I said smugly. He then returned my grin, except his was something you'd see on a pedophile, "I am what I eat." I cringed in fake disgust towards him. "I'm not even going to bother arguing with you." I said plainly. He just smirked at me as he left for the woods. I looked at Daryl, who was still red in the face from laughing at his brother. "You aren't going with him?" I asked. I hope he'd say no, Daryl was an awesome guy to hang out with, like he didn't even have to talk. That's how chill he was. "Nah, not today. Fucked up mah shoulder few days ago." He said as he returned to his crossbow. I nodded as I just sat next to him, playing around with Fontaine in my hands.
A while later, Daryl and I were sitting in his tent, sharing a few beers he had managed to sneak into camp with out anybody swiping them. "Okay, what's the most disgusting thing ye've ever done?" he slurred, popping another cap on his beer can. "Probably eat a worm from the ground." I said plainly as I took another sip from my beer. His eye brow quirked at me, almost not believing me. "Lost a bet back in the sixth grade. Had to eat a worm." He cringed in disgust. "Nasty." "How 'bout you?" I asked, crushing the beer can and throwing it into the small mountain that we were building. "Had to take a shower with Merle." he answered. I slapped my hand onto my mouth as I began snickering. I just continued to giggle until I was red in the face. "Oh sweet baby Jesus..." I sighed. He just rolled his eyes at me, a smirk plastered on his face. "Got any tattoos?" I asked, placing both arms behind my head. "Yeah, got a few on my back. You?" "I got a tramp stamp." I muttered sadly. Now it was his turn to laugh at me. I just sat there, red in the face thinking about the tramp stamp I had done when I turned 18. "So,what is it? A butterfly, a name?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "It's a weed leaf." I said. "So lil' miss Riley does drugs?" he said sarcastically. "Doesn't suprise me, since ye're trying ta look like a nig and all." I leaned over and smacked his arm, which caused him to yelp lightly. He rubbed his arm where I had smacked him and scowled at me. "Don't give me that look, you had it coming to you." I said, pointing a finger at him. I heard a barely audible 'Yeah' as I pulled my legs toward me. "One thing you miss the most?" he asked. I sighed as I stared into space, "Out of all of the stuff I miss, I miss sex the most of all. Pretty sure everybody misses a good fuck." I said. He stared at me before chuckling. "What?" I asked, a small grin on my face. "Skinny girl like yerself don't look like she could handle a porky." he sniggered. My mouth flew open as I stared at him before I got up and grabbed one of his arrows, "Dixon, ya better apologize before I shove this arrow up yer ass!" I growled. He started laughing before he pushed me off and grabbing his sides, "Alrigh' alrigh', I'm sorry Ms. Riley." he said jokingly. I set the arrow down and smiled triumphantly. "Gonna go change, see you later, loser."
A while later we were all sitting around the camp fire, eating and sharing stories. "So, what did you do before all of this?" Jacqui asked me, putting he paper plate down on the ground. I sighed as I ran a hand through my dreads, "Worked at a bookstore. Nothing much really, I have a really boring life." I answered. Everyone nodded in understanding, obviously I didn't have much to say. We had very little small talk after that, and then everyone turned in for tonight. I nodded at Dale who now sat at the top of the RV, which sort of signaled, 'Going to bed now, night.' He nodded back before smiling at me. I grinned back, making a mock salute before heading to my tent and crashing just as my head hit the pillow.
A/N: So? How was that for a first chapter? I'm not the best writer in the world, so just bear with me. I really hope Riley isn't a typical Mary-Sue, so if there's anything I could change about her please let me know! And any racist comments (from Daryl and Merle of course) I truly do not mean! Just trying to get them into character! I hope I don't offend anyone D:
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own The Walking Dead, if I did I would cream my pants. Hehehe :D I only own Riley and Fontaine.
