A/N: Hey guys! This is my first Walking Dead fanfic that I've had the guts to post. So please be gentle with me :)

The hospital had appeared deserted for over an hour now but to be on the safe side, Linkyn scouted the area one last time using the coverage of the trees and surrounding bushes to keep out of sight. The last Walker she had seen had already gone around the far north side of the building joining the rest that had headed that way an hour earlier. None of them seemed to be turning back around although she figured none of them had much sense too. The bastards were literally as dumb as rocks at times but surprisingly they could somehow just sense when someone was around.

Linkyn had learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago and she wasn't intending on ever repeating that particular lesson anytime soon.

Getting on her feet she quickly tightened the straps on her backpack, snatching up her mid-sized duffle as she braced herself, taking off in a full on sprint down the hill towards the entrance of the hospital. She prayed that when her feet hit the pavement her booted feet would be silent and that the shitheads wouldn't feel the vibration. Her heart picked up speed as the hill launched her onto the pavement stretching her legs out farther to cover more ground, her muscles beginning to burn. She dodged past car after car not stopping to survey her surroundings, which she knew was a mistake. A Crawler could have easily snagged her from underneath a car or a Walker could've rounded the corner of one of the many ambulances that scattered the parking lot; but she didn't give a shit about that right now. The only thing Linkyn could care about was that she was out in the open and vunerable.

Using what little strength she had left she quickly flung herself over the hood of a red Honda and struggled to regain her footing as she made her way through the shattered sliding glass doors.

The Walkers that had surrounded the building hadn't been the problem, not really. What had worried her most was what could be inside the hospital that she couldn't see.

Once she was through the doors she slowed her pace down and quickly moved herself against the wall of the hospitals main hall, her breathing still ragged as she took in heavy huffs of air. As her breathing began to slow she took in a quick inventory of the hallway making her have to squint into the darkness that had swallowed up the halls. The only brief light that was given was by a few overhead ceiling lights that flickered only making the ambiance of the hospital feel more threatening, enveloping the things that did go bump in the night. With her eyes still adjusting to the darkness she was willing to bet that her eyes would be playing tricks on her as the adrenaline caused her muscles to squeeze painfully tight with anticipation.

Linkyn thought about taking out the flashlight that was in the backpack but quickly brushed the thought aside. In here that was sure to alert anything else inside or out that dinner had arrived.

All she needed was a supply closet and as soon as she got the necessities she needed out of it she would head back towards the only vacant grocery store she had found in miles. More than anything Linkyn would've loved to have just found a place up in the Georgia woods and been able to set up a camp there. For every grocery run she'd done she had always glanced on the date of the cans and plastic wrappers reminding her that sooner or later all of it was going to go bad. So Linkyn's first choice every time she entered a store was to go directly for the power bars. It seemed in every town's grocery store that no one had even thought about them but she had. She couldn't take canned food with her unless it was the canned fruit. Living with only the essentials had made her prioritize what was important: her ass or a pan to cook meals in. She chose her ass, naturally.

Every now and again, when the mood struck her, she would grab seed packets for some fruit and vegetables, kidding herself that she would ever find a place stable enough to use them.

Glancing back towards the entrance her eyes combed the cars, straining her ears to make sure that nothing was coming, and wondered how much daylight she was going to have left to work with.

Swearing under her breath she moved off of the wall and headed towards the receptionist area. With each step she paid close attention to the bodies on the floor not being in no mood for any surprises. All Linkyn wanted was to grab all the vaccines, medicines, and bandages she could carry and move out. It'd be a hell of a thing to end up dying of the common flu or of an infection. It seemed like something so foreign to die of these days; so human.

The overhead lights constant flickering wasn't casting enough light to see beyond the front of the desk and was becoming a bigger pain in the ass as her eyes fought to stay in focus. Quietly she opened the door, her heart thundering wildly, as she walked cautiously inside the office and made her way over to the desk looking specifically for the hospitals directory.

"Fuck, fuck! Come on," she whispered fiercely.

Her hands shuffled through the mess of blood splattered papers, opened up and searched the drawers one by one, and checked behind every object she could see.

"Shit!"

Placing her hands on her hips she bit her lower lip hard as she stepped back from the desk, desperately trying to think where else they would be. Her eyes searched what little she could see, half expecting to find the hospitals layout on the wall like usual but found nothing.

This was fucking great.

Linkyn ran a quick hand through her hair and began to try and come up with game plan number two. The signs on the ceiling weren't going to be of much use and she didn't quite like the idea of fumbling around in the dark looking for one damn storage closet either. As she took another step back the sound of crinkling paper filled the space, the sudden noise in the eerie silence making her almost crawl out of her skin.

Lifting up her left boot she looked down and saw that most of the entire floor was coated with loose papers and blood…among other things. Maybe the directory was down there?

She glanced out the receptionist's window, the flickering of the lights beginning to fill her with an awful feeling of paranoia that she couldn't shake. Even after she had noted that the coast was clear she still couldn't bring herself to bend down and rummage through the papers. You couldn't always hear Walkers and they were sometimes sneaky bastards.

You can do this.

Quickly she bent down onto one knee and started shifting through the papers once again. Right when she was just about to give up she noticed a hand clenching tightly onto a group of papers. The arm that was attached to the hand was hopefully attached to an actual dead person, who apparently, Linkyn mused, thought it was a great idea to hide underneath one of the desks. Nervously she licked her lips as she edged toward it and reaching a shaky hand out grabbed a bold of the edges and immediately yanked them towards her. She covered her mouth with her free hand quickly as the hand shot out towards her. Her heart had becoming deafeningly loud as her panic began to subside and her mind finally realizing that the hand was just clutched on tightly to the papers. That's all it was, just a hand.

Strangely she wanted to laugh as she lifted the papers and hand, still attached, in front of her. She quickly pushed the idea away and slowly began to remove the stiff fingers from the paper. What worried her most was how very un-strange this whole process felt to her not even caring when she broke back the middle finger that finally released the papers. These sorts of things should have never felt normal but they did.

She tossed the hand away from her and quickly assessed the papers laughing as right in front of her was the hospital layout and directory. The poor bastard who had been holding onto them had marked all the exits in red. She made a quick mental note that the supply closet was in the C wing and shoved the papers into her back pocket.

"Thanks Buddy."

She patted the hand before she got up and made her way back out into the hallway. When she saw the sign for the A wing she started down it no questions asked knowing that she had a ways to go before she got down to the one she needed.

The walls and floors looked like a horror movie, actually it was more like this whole fucking thing was a horror movie, and it was constantly being put on repeat. None of this really bothered her at all she just did her best to ignore it. Ignore the still moist pools that hadn't coagulated, the outsides that were meant to be insides, and the small hand prints that littered one wall she passed. The smell didn't even bother her nor did it really in the beginning. This was just nothing but old death and even though the smell of rotting bodies, among other things, was gag worthy to her it had nothing compared to the smell of fresh death.

On her way past B wing she'd found an emergency fire axe still inside the case. Whoever had tried to get it never got the chance but Linkyn did. She reached inside and removed it from its station making sure that she didn't knick herself by any of the glass as she did. She continued her decent down the hallway checking the weight of it in her hands and gripping onto it tight. It was a good thing she had found another weapon on such short notice and a good one at that. She had lost her crowbar in a Walkers head which had ended up jammed in the damn thing. The others had been descending on her and she hadn't had a choice in leaving it behind.

She had a spare gun in her backpack but there were only five bullets left and that was only for immediate emergencies.

Taking a left as she came to the C wing she started to check the names on the doors. She picked up the pace her boots treading softly on the floor as she read from left to right each passing door. Suddenly her boot caught on something and down she went landing hard on the floor and the axe sliding down the hall. She winched as she righted herself already feeling the bruises setting in.

When she looked up she sucked back in a scream as she scuttled back fast until she thought she was as far as she could get. Her face had landed right next to pile of bodies one of them being a mother with what looked like it had been a small child or what was left of it. The Walkers had stripped that poor thing clean all the way down to the bone.

Cursing loudly she got back on her feet and fought the urge to vomit. Linkyn rushed past the infant and made a dash towards the axe and continued back down the hall.

An outburst was threateningly close to having her breakdown. Linkyn wanted to scream, kick, and cry. She wanted to violate those bastards like they had violated every pleasant memory she could remember about home. She wanted to scream until her voice was so hoarse it bleed but she didn't.

Two months.

That's how long she had been back home before…before this all happened. For five years she had been in Afghanistan amidst constant sprays of bullets, blood, explosions, and the regular fear of death. Her mind still remembering the faces of the innocents that got caught in the crossfire and that feeling of betrayal when the ones you thought were innocents, that you were protecting, was not. She had seen enough dirt and sand to last her a lifetime and the heat alone was enough to make the Georgia heat seem like child's play. Every once in a while the memories would overwhelm her sleep and have her wake up violently, reaching out to grab her weapon when there was no M4 around, no sand, and no yelling with the booming sound of explosions in the background.

Her chest was thundering as she took in a shaky breath, her heart feeling like it was going to rip from her chest. The echoes of her boots hitting the floor sounded more like grenades going off around her. Linkyn ducked down even as her eyes read frantically on the doors looking for the supply closet. She could feel the panic attack pressing into her now and when it finally came she wanted to be locked in somewhere safe enough to ride it out.

Finally she found the door and rushed towards it only to find that the damn thing was locked, the tears finally escaped her as her shaking hands struggled with the lock. Moving back she quickly rushed forward kicking as hard as she could at the door not even caring about what would draw the echo in. She swore she could feel the itch of her uniform collar on the back of her neck and the axe in her hand forming into her M4. She lashed out one more time, her boot connecting hard with the door, as she let out a blood curdling scream her mind making her believe that she was with her teammates again and once again they were dying as she struggled to get them to cover.

Remembering the axe she picked it up and swung with all the strength she had and knocked the handle clean off. Linkyn moved swiftly forward her fingers lacing into the hole of where the doorknob had been, opened it and shut it behind her. She leaned her back against the door and fought against letting herself crumble to the floor like she was useless.

She wiped the tears angrily off of her face, damning herself for being so weak. She wasn't going to give in to dead men and old memories; her life depended against it. She wasn't anywhere close to fine but now wasn't the best time to need a rest. No time ever was really. Pushing off of the door she went into her backpack removing the flashlight from within. Once she had it out she set the backpack down on the nearest counter and went to work.

Her little outburst had no doubt lost her valuable time she already didn't have. Silently she cursed herself as she shoved a few more trial boxes of some antibiotics, pain medication, and a full bottle of aspirin into the backpack. Linkyn thought about hitting the drugstore she'd seen a few miles back to grab some Sudafed and Dayquil, among other things.

Linkyn always stalked up on items like that. Mainly because she seemed to run into people who were in more need of it then she was on a regular basis. She was never sure how much good it did them or if they had even made it after she'd left but she never allowed herself to linger on those kinds of thoughts. She had to believe all the folks she'd met were still out there, alive and fighting. If she didn't she'd probably go insane.

A moan echoed down the walls of the hallway instantly making Linkyn freeze. There was no way to be sure in which direction it had originated in or even how close the damn thing was to the supply closet. As quickly and quietly as she could she finished putting a few syringes into the backpack and zipped it up putting it back on her shoulders in one fluid motion. Reaching down she picked up the duffel and moved over to the door picking the axe up as she went. The backpack was fuller then it had been earlier so she wasn't able to press herself against the wall so the only other option she had was the not so fun one.

Turning off the flashlight she tucked it tightly into her belt strap. That loud rhythmic beating from before was back again but this time it wasn't going to make her panic. Taking hold of the door she began to open it slowly praying that it hadn't been a squeaky door that she'd missed because she'd been too busy screaming like a mad woman and wrapped up in kicking the goddamn thing to have paid attention.

She poked her head out around the corner looking left then turning right, her eyes instantly locking onto the ominous silhouette of the Walker that was moving towards her direction.

Now this wasn't nowhere close to being Linkyn's first undead rodeo and she'd seen enough fucked up shit to last her a life time post-Afghanistan. But when it came to being in a creepy horror movie like hospital with the damn lights up top flickering in and out…yeah she was willing to admit, only to herself, that this one lousy Walker was scaring the shit out of her.

Before she moved from behind the coverage of the room she doubled check to make sure it was the only limping asshole headed towards her. She could handle up to about three on her own if she was quick and lucky but go past that number and she would bow out, gracefully or not, for the nearest exit.

Her fingers danced on the shaft of the axe as she moved into view and made her way towards the creature. Instantly the thing recognized her as dinner and with renewed purpose like a born again Christian it came rushing towards her. Linkyn let go of the duffle and wrapped her hands around the axe like a baseball bat and made her way towards it galloping until they were barely a few feet away from each other.

"Aargh!"

She swung as hard as she could bringing the end of the axe down hard on top of its head. A sickening crack reverberated out against the walls as the vibration of the steel meeting bone left her fingers tingling. The Walkers hands were still clawing for her, its nails snagging on her Henley forcing her to kick it back hard, but she hadn't dislodged the axe yet and she found herself following it down to the floor. She landed on top of it barely moving back in time before its teeth sank into the flesh of her face. Its breath alone made her gag as she put both of her hands on the top of the hilt and shoved down as hard as she could.

Shoving something through someone's skull, even an undead rotting person, was not as easy as they made it look in the movies. It didn't just take a few simple shoves to finish going through it took what felt like a million. Little by little the edges of the axe went farther in with the skull making a repulsive wet sound as the skull continued to crack making Linkyn think of a walnuts. It was taking too long to do this and it was tiring her out fast. She could hear the shuffling of a group somewhere down the hall. She had no way of knowing how many were actually in the group or if it was even a group but she couldn't chance it.

Swiftly she removed herself from the fallen Walker and didn't hesitate the minute she was up to lash out with the heel of her boot driving the axe the rest of the way in. Linkyn kicked it in two more times to make sure that the damn thing was dead; breathing hard as she tore the tip of the axe out free from its skull.

The sound of a gurney crashing to the floor tore her attention away from the split mess in front of her in time to see what wasn't a small group like she had thought, but a good sized horde coming her way. Her eyes widened in terror as she tightened the straps of her backpack, quickly snatching up the duffel as she took off down the other hallway. As she ran she tried to remember the exits that the mystery hand had marked on the hospital layout but she was coming up blank. When she rounded the corner she almost ran right into the arms of an unsuspecting Walker which she dispatched quickly with a blunt blow to its head. It stumbled back far enough for her to squeeze by.

She was closing in on the D wings which, if memory served her right, lead to the stairwell. Linkyn remembered that right before it hit that dead end to the stairs that the hand had placed a giant X around the middle of it. She just had no idea where exactly the fuck that was.

She could hear the bastards clamoring behind her with their constant moaning and groaning making her think it was the song of death. Taking the nearest right she ran down a little farther until she saw it; right in front of her was the bright red neon EXIT sign that she had been hoping for…and of course the handles held together by a chained lock. She lifted the axe and swung violently out at the chains screaming as she did so.

She was officially trapped in this dead end of a fucking hallway and her only choice was to break the lock or die. Screaming out her irritation she swung the axe down harder sending sparks out across the floor. She didn't need to hear or even glance behind her to know that those bastards were closing in on her, she could smell the stench of their rotting flesh as they grew closer. Linkyn swung the axe progressively faster and harder as she struggled to stay as calm as she possibly could with Walkers closing in at her back. She was not going to die like this…to hell with that.

She screamed so hard her throat cracked as she brought the axe down one last time with as much force as she could muster. Finally the damn thing fell apart and without looking behind her she slammed her shoulder into the door. She hadn't counted on the door flying open so easily and she found herself struggling to stay on her feet as she stumbled into the South parking lot. Linkyn had struggled to keep her footing but in the end she ended up landing hard on her knees. Using the axe like a cane she quickly righted herself just as a Walker rushed towards her. Without missing a beat she kicked out hard landing a booted heel into the Walkers abdomen, her boot sliding through the rotten flesh and into its blackened insides. The smells alone had her fighting not to vomit as she picked up her duffel and struggled to get her legs to start running.

"Fucking disgusting," she coughed.

The horde that had followed her inside of the hospital and only seemed to multiply as the Walkers out in the parking lot rapidly realized she was out there. She took off running back towards the trees as the mass of Walkers struggled to follow her. Linkyn had a good five feet or more between them but it wasn't enough to her. She was struggling to hold onto the axe and duffel as she sprinted for the coverage of the trees and she had to make a split decision: keep the weapon or ditch the duffel with the tent and blankets.

Without hesitation she tossed the duffel aside and took off at full speed up the hill that led back into the Georgia forest. Once she'd made it up she didn't stop to take a breather or a drink of one of two bottled waters that she had left. No, Linkyn ignored the unstable wobbling of her tired legs, the aching of her lungs every time she took a gasping breath, and the spots that threatened her vision, disappearing only after she blinked them away.

Linkyn didn't stop until she found herself under a canopy of shade; her legs collapsing from under her as her hands barely caught her before she landed face first in the foliage of the forest floor. For a few seconds she allowed herself to lay there on her back and look up at the sky as grey clouds rolled in and after take in a few sips of water.

It was going to rain soon which only meant one thing, she needed another tent soon.

So what did ya'll think? Reviews would be greatly appreciated :)

Let me know if you guys loved it and/or hated it!

Thanks so much for reading

~Much Love, Jeneane~