Author's Note: This is set after season 3 but before season 4...none of the timeline in season 4 has happened in my story.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this story except for the Original Characters of Madisyn and Petey. This is strictly for entertainment purposes.

Chapter One

Madisyn was effectively stuck, she had no viable means of escaping this time and she'd trapped herself by climbing the stupid tree. She'd been hunting, or attempting to anyway, for her little brother and herself in the woods. He was only fourteen, the only family that she had left, and she was terrified for his life. She'd told him to stay in the little hunting shack they'd stumbled upon. It was falling down and smelled horrible, but it had worked keeping the walkers away…for a while at least. She saw movement to the left of the tree she was in and she made eye contact with Petey after he settled into the tree directly across from hers and too far away for her to get to him. There were at least a dozen walkers in between their two trees, they were straining to get at them. She hadn't realized just how close they'd been to the prison, but it was too late to worry about that now. She was sitting in this bloody tree and all she had was her machete that she'd stolen from her barn before they'd escaped. She should have been more careful where Petey was concerned, but she hadn't checked to make sure he wasn't following her out. She could barely make out his fear stricken face because the sun was setting on the horizon, she'd left the hut too late. She knew that the sound of her voice was just going to agitate the mindless beasts below, but she had to know if he was alright. She pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes and leaned forward as far as she could so he could hear her better. Her petite frame fit perfectly between the two branches that were shaped like a V. She was only five foot two, on the shorter side of it…her brother looked older than she did because he got the tall gene. She strained forward, letting her legs keep her firmly in place as she spoke as quietly as the space between them would allow.

"Petey, are okay over there?" His eyes were wide with fear, but she faintly saw him nod his head in the affirmative. She took a deep breath and tried to sound calm as she asked the next question.

"Are you bitten or scratched?" He let out a startled chuckle causing a few of the walkers to turn towards his tree and start reaching up, but she wasn't distracted enough to miss his answer.

"No Maddy, I'm not bitten, I promise that I'm okay…I'd tell you. What about you, they didn't get you, did they?" Madisyn almost sobbed in relief to hear that he was okay and relatively unharmed. It had gotten dark quickly, she could no longer see his face in the tree.

"I'm doing just fine, brat, we just have to figure out a plan. Do you still have your pistol with you?" They'd had most of their weapons taken from them, but in their haste to get away, she hadn't asked what he still had with him. She couldn't see his facial expression, but she did hear his scoff in the darkness.

"No, that one-eyed bastard took it from me, said that kids shouldn't play with guns. Now, all I have is my flashlight…a lot of good that's going to do us." She bit back a swear, she should have killed that asshole when she had the chance, but instead she'd escaped with her brother when the opportunity arose. They weren't prepared to spend the night in the woods, neither one of them had been able to grab their coats or anything really because all they could do was run. Despite being twenty-six, this unshaven maniac thought that her brother was older than she was at first glance. She had natural rosy cheeks and she'd lost most of her body fat as well as her curves from being hungry all of the time. That doubled with always working on fortifying their piece of heaven from the undead, she was all muscle and thin as a rail. It was winter, so the heavy clothes usually hid what womanly shape she did have left. She'd convinced this guy and his two lackey's that she was only sixteen. It was ridiculous, but no one ever believed her age, even before the walkers took over everything. She looked in the general direction of where her brother sat and spoke in whispers. He was playing with his flashlight, shining it around the stream, revealing part of the high fence around the outer prison yard. The poor kid had ADD and it was going to be a long night for the both of them, assuming they didn't catch a killer cold because they weren't dressed for the cold weather. She spoke to the dark, just to pass the time.

"I had no idea we were so close to the prison, but these guys are apparently his enemies so we'll find a way to get their attention tomorrow when the sun comes up." She didn't hear an immediate response, but he suddenly began to wave his flashlight erratically fast from side to side. A cold chill ran down her spine when she saw the answering lights a few hundred yards away, and it wasn't from the cold. There were several sets of fences around the prison and yet they still patrolled…it surely couldn't be for the walkers so were their inmates still in the prison? She was suddenly regretting her decision to seek these people out just because this so called Governor hated them. What if they were worse than he and his sadistic friends were? She looked over at her brother's tree and frantically called to him.

"Petey, turn it off, now isn't the time! We don't know these people at all, they could be just like those guys or worse, turn it off! We can figure things out tomorrow when the sun comes up." He hesitated for a brief second, but he turned the light off like his sister told him to. He had heard the fear and the solid logic in her words and sat shaking in fear in the silence and pitch black as the lights got closer.

It was Glenn's turn to watch the gates and he was very uncomfortable. He was bundled up, but it was still freezing outside. He couldn't believe that it was already winter again. The sun was just setting and it was getting dark very quickly, like it always did that time of year. He saw the movement of several walkers headed towards the stream behind the prison, but he couldn't see anything else. Keeping watch in the dark was always hard because they didn't have any fancy equipment to see, but it was always worse when it was cold. After about ten minutes of staring at the dark yard, unable to see much at all, Maggie came out with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and two steaming cups of coffee. It wasn't great, but it was at least hot. She smiled prettily at him as she handed him his cup and immediately he was lost in her beautiful face. It was so easy to stare at her, he'd never loved anyone like he loved the woman standing in front of him. She giggled softly to herself until the smile slid off of her face and she began to point out into the yard.

"Glenn, look at that over there, someone is trapped out there!" Glenn frowned and followed her gaze and immediately dropped his cup, spilling the coffee onto the cold concrete. How long had they been trying to get his attention when he was so preoccupied with his wife? A flashlight was waving outside of the gate by the stream, which would explain the walkers suddenly migrating in that direction. He looked at Maggie and nodded that he understood.

"You stay here and keep an eye on them, I'll go tell the others." He ran inside the building and down the hall until he reached their cell block. Daryl, Carol, Hershel, and Carl were playing a game of poker at one of the tables and Rick was standing off to the side holding Judith. When they saw the look on his face, Beth immediately walked over and took Judith from him and Daryl jumped up from his card game. He was the one to speak, impatient to know what was up.

"What is it, Glenn, is it that son of a bitch?" Glenn shook his head, suddenly realizing that the room was filled to the brim with the folks of Woodbury, he was just so used to focusing in on his group.

"No, there is someone stuck outside of the fence by that little stream. They're flashing a light, waving it like they're trying to be noticed. I saw a lot of movement from the walkers head that way, but this just started. The light is high up, like the person climbed a tree or something." Daryl nodded and walked over the weapons table, picking up his arrows and crossbow.

"Climbing a tree is smart because they can't reach them, but it's not like they'll just wander off after a while…not when they know someone is up there." Rick was hesitant to act and everyone noticed it so Hershel addressed him quietly.

"What is it Rick, do you think this could be a trap of some sort?" He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"That thought did cross my mind." Daryl paused once he thought about it but quickly dismissed it.

"Come on Rick, this isn't his style at all. He's not the kind of guy to knock first, you saw what he did to Axel when he proceeded to shoot the place up. I say we go the outer yard and see what we can find out about it." Rick thought for a moment before nodding, he knew they needed to check it out.

"You're right, we can't just leave them out there if they truly need help. I think Glenn, myself, Michonne, Daryl, and Ty if you'll join us that would be welcome." Tyrese stood up from where he was sitting with his sister and Karen and went to pick up his rifle.

"You got it, let's go."

They didn't take any chances so they quickly took out the remaining walkers that were in their yard courtesy of the Governor before heading to the outer fence. They weren't going to attempt the gate until they knew what they were dealing with. They'd made it halfway when the light suddenly went off so they couldn't really see anything. Glenn suddenly got a bad feeling, why would they turn their light off if they needed help? Rick pointed his gun and looked through the scope to see if he could see something. He stared a long time and Glenn wondered if he was still seeing Lori when he lowered his gun and walked quietly towards the fence. He didn't quite touch it because their sudden appearance drew several of the dead back towards them…Glenn wished they'd all just rot away. It wasn't like they didn't have enough to deal with now that they had no idea where the Governor was, but the walkers just kept coming. Rick was looking up at the tree line and when he began to spoke, all eyes went to him.

"Okay, it's dark out here and we can't see you well enough to risk opening our gates and coming back there. I know you're up there, I did see the movement in the trees that I know wasn't a squirrel. We're friendly people and we have a whole community of survivors so if you want us to help you, you're going to have to talk to us." Glenn wasn't exactly comfortable with Rick giving away that there more people than just them and from the looks of Daryl and Michonne, they agreed with his objection. However, when a small, terrified voice sounded from above the ground, his anger dissipated. Glenn hadn't noticed when the old Rick had reappeared, but he was…slowly because his gut was right about this one.

"How—how do we know that you're friendly? You seem pretty heavily armored to me and I'm not so sure I want to come down from my hiding spot." The girl's voice was shaking both from fear and cold causing Glenn's reservations to completely disappear and walk to stand next to where Rick was.

"My name is Glenn, I was the one that saw your light and got the others to help with the walkers. We have to be heavily armored these days because it's not just the undead we have to be careful of. We have big walls and fences…some people have tried to take our new home from us. We try to help anyone we can so we're going to draw those walkers that are still over there to us. You jump out of your tree and Daryl and Michonne will meet you to make sure you don't get attacked…or attack us. We have to be careful the whole way around, but you have to be fast when we tell you to move…okay?" They didn't hear anything for some time, but a slightly more sure voice sounded than the one before.

"Alright, we'll play it your way but if you guys try absolutely anything, I will not hesitate…do we have a deal?" Rick clapped his hand onto Glenn's back and favored him with a rare smile before answering.

"Deal, we'll tell you when to move." Glenn watched as Rick motioned for Michonne and Daryl to head towards the gate and then he started to bang on the fence.

"Knives only guys, let's try not to use anymore ammo. Hey over here you stupid apes! Hey come this way!" Glenn, Tyrese, and Rick had an immediate response of walkers and they set to work of clearing them out. When they had no more at the gates, Glenn stepped back to shine his light on the scene. There were still two walkers that refused to leave her tree so Rick had to take them out with his gun. He clenched his jaw as he nodded at Glenn who looked up and spoke the orders quickly.

"Jump down now, the area is clear but it's so dark there could be more around." They heard the movements and when they saw two figures emerge from two separate trees, his jaw dropped open. He looked over at Rick in absolute surprise.

"Holy crap Rick, it's just two kids…how have they survived on their own?"