A/N: This is a zombie apocalypse story which takes place in the Walking Dead universe and will eventually crossover far down the road.
A/N: I do not own TWD or any recognizable aspects of this story.
Summary: The dead have risen and society is crashing. Thomas Everett never expected to live in a world like this but now he must not only survive but lead. Will this new world make him stronger? Or will it turn him into a monster worse than the walking dead?
Ch.1 Days Gone By
I sat inside the church, sipping on my water and trying to catch my bearings.
"This world has gone to shit." I thought to myself.
In just a matter of weeks what seemed like a bad flu outbreak has turned into a full on apocalyptic plague. The dead are rising and the government is gone.
I stood up as the door creaked open.
"We were looking for a place to take a break." The old man said. He was followed by a woman around his age, a college aged boy, a woman with a small girl, a teen girl, and a man around my age. All of them were exhausted and scared. Like everyone else in the world is now.
"No problem." I attempted a polite smile. It was hard seeing as I hadn't smiled in weeks.
"I'm Doug." The old man said. "This is my wife Trisha, and our son Nick." The old woman and college aged boy smiled and nodded respectively.
"I'm Maria." The woman with a child waved. "And this is my daughter Emma."
"I'm Tyler." The guy my age nodded.
"And I'm Kylie." The teen girl said timidly.
"Thomas." I waved to the group.
"You with anyone Thomas?" Doug asked.
"No." I replied.
"That sucks." Doug said.
"Yeah." I answered.
"So tell me about yourself?" Trisha asked, attempting to change the subject.
"Not much to know, I'm twenty-four, did a few years in the Marines." I said.
"A Marine?" Doug asked. "You may come in handy." He lightly chuckled.
"You're welcome to join us, we're kind of just riding blind in this thing but its not good to go it alone." Trisha told me.
"Sure, if the whole group is ok with it." I nodded.
"We could use a military man if you ask me." Maria said and everyone else nodded.
"Alright then." I nodded back.
"Do you have a plan?" Nick asked.
"Not really." I said.
"But you're a Marine?" Kylie said confused. "Marines always have a plan don't they?"
"I don't think anyone had a plan for this." I answered. "I've just been heading home to Tennessee to my parents and my little brother. I started in Chicago, my construction company was doing a job when all this went haywire."
"Well south is as good a plan as any to me, only one issue." Doug said.
"That is?" I asked.
"We need to go through the city. We need supplies and Maria's sister is stuck somewhere in there."
"More people are in the city, and that means more walkers." I said.
"Please, help us." Maria pleaded.
"Quick and quiet." I said.
The next day we were traveling down the empty, destitute highway into the city in Doug's truck and a moving van I found.
"Thank you for helping me. All of you." Maria said to myself and Tyler who were with her in the van.
"Family is all we can hope to remain the same nowadays." I answered and she smiled.
We soon reached a point in the highway we couldn't pass.
"Her apartment is only about a mile from here, we could walk it?" Maria asked.
"Seems like we have no other choice." Doug stared down the jackknifed tractor trailer.
"We should keep the rescue team small." I said as I readied my machete and took out a walker advancing towards us from behind the truck. "Maria, Trisha, Kylie, and Doug should stay."
"What? No." Maria said. "Its my sister."
"Tell us how to get to her and we will." I promised her. "But Emma needs you and our shit needs watched."
"Promise you'll bring her back?" She asked.
"If she's alive when we get there I'll do everything I can to make sure she's alive when we get back." I said and she nodded.
We wove in and out of abandoned cars, dropping a few walkers along the way. Once off the highway we turned down a side street.
"Shit!" Tyler exclaimed and we dove behind a dumpster.
"There's at least twenty walkers right there." Nick said.
"Yeah." I looked up and noticed a balcony above the dumpster. It looked low enough to climb on to from atop the dumpster. "Follow me." I said as I climbed on the dumpster and hoisted myself on top of the balcony. They both followed me and once we were up we noticed what had kept the walkers attention off of us. A small group of people laid on the ground with the walkers surrounding them, all of them ripped to shreds making it impossible to tell how many there were.
"Poor fuckers." Nick shook his head and I nodded in reply. We crept across the balcony over the small sea of dead beneath us. Once on the front side of the building we climbed down. We saw the apartments Maria said her sister was in across the street.
"How do we get across without drawing attention?" Nick asked, referring to the roughly dozen walkers scattered on the narrow street.
"Fucking carefully." I answered.
We started across the street, staying as low and moving as fast as possible without drawing attention to ourselves. One walker caught sight of us and Nick put his knife through its eye.
Once we made it across we went up the stairs to find apartment 2D which is where Maria said her sister lived.
Once we found the apartment I knocked.
"Renea?" I asked. "My name is Thomas Everett. I have two other men with me. We were sent by Maria." A few seconds later the door opened and we funneled inside.
"She's ok?" Renea asked. I nodded in reply. "Emma?"
"Both fine." I reassured her. "But we need to get out of the city if any of us want to stay that way."
"Is there anywhere we can get supplies?" Tyler asked. "Food and water at the least."
"I actually manage, well managed, a small store not far from here. Only about a three minute walk. There is food, water, some clothes and blankets, and a small auto section." She told us.
"Are you sure nobody has gotten in?" Nick asked.
"Not unless they can pick 2 locks and shatter 3 inch thick glass." She replied "This is the bad side of Indianapolis."
"Worth a try." I nodded. "Lets go."
We followed Renea down the back alley of her apartment and through a field to the store. It was luckily pretty quiet and we only had 3 walkers along the way.
Once inside the store we began bagging as many supplies as we could carry.
"Jerry!" Rene yelled from a few aisles over and I bolted to her. I looked down on the ground to see an old man lying on the floor, his stomach ripped open and his legs eaten to the bone but he was reaching for us. Grasping at us as if we were the only thing he wanted.
I put my machete through his face and turned to face a crying Renea.
"He was literally the nicest guy I knew." She said. Tears running down her face.
"I'm sorry."
After gathering some more supplies I noticed the sun was setting.
"We need to get back now." I said. No sooner than the words left my lips did a car alarm start blaring outside the store.
"What the fuck?!" Tyler exclaimed. "That's gonna draw every walker for a mile.
"Then we need to fucking hurry." I replied.
We made our way out of the back entrance into a small narrow alley. I peeked around the corner to find dozens of walkers surrounding the car and bumping int others around it causing more alarms to go off. Once i determined it was clear we went back through the field.
After crossing the field we rounded a corner and came face to face with more walkers than any of us had seen yet.
"Fucking run!" I exclaimed and we all bolted in the opposite direction. I pulled out my Glock17 and began dropping any walker who got dangerously close. We all jumped into the back of a bread truck and Tyler slammed the door shut. The truck was immediately surrounded.
"What now?" Renea asked.
"Try and get this thing started?" Nick asked.
"Oh look, our lucky break." Tyler smiled and pointed to the keys in the ignition.
I jumped in the seat and started the truck.
"Hold on." I said as I revved the engine and blasted through the walkers in front of us. I smashed through a small car.
About ten minutes later we pulled up on the opposite side of the traffic jam that blocked us from getting in and made our way back to the group.
"Renea!" Maria and Emma ran up to hug her. "Thank God you're ok."
"What took so long?" Doug asked.
"Ran into a few snags." I smiled. "Place is a fucking nightmare."
"I bet." He smiled. "Lets all get some rest."
A/N: Ch.1 of Walk With The Dead complete! Please review! It will crossover with TWD at one point!