Authors Note: I recently watched The Walking Dead - Season 2 finale (which scared the bejesus out of me), and thought it would make a great story for Jackson and Lisa. So be warned that this is a horror story with a dash of romance included. This story may be changed later as a crossover to the show, if I can work out a story between the characters. Disclaimer: I own nothing of Red Eye or TWD (just my own OC's).

I've also rediscovered my love of writing fiction and would appreciate your constructive criticism on anything I need to work on. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 1: Dance With the Dead

"Lisa!" a voice said excitedly while running up to the Lux Atlantic hotel's front desk. "Lisa, we have an emergency!"

Lisa turned from the computer monitor that she was looking at and gave Cynthia a sideways glance, acknowledging that she did indeed hear her friend loud and clear. Cynthia appeared to look more distressed than usual and she was in no mood for hysterics.

"Cynthia," Lisa responded, in a somewhat disconcerted tone. "What's the problem?"

"It's the Taylor's" Cynthia responded, with a slight winced expression, knowing Lisa would cringe from hearing the couples name. But her managers reaction was more exhausted looking than put-off. "They checked in yesterday afternoon, Room 2018. Mrs. Taylor just called and said Mr. Taylor needs medical assistance. He's really sick and throwing up everywhere in their room, and from what I'm hearing, he's making a real mess."

'Great,' she thought, wondering why emergencies always occurred right when she walked in the door. This newest emergency was of course coming from two of Lux Atlantic's favorite customers and regulars, Bob and Marianne Taylor. After giving the couple an earful about their insensitive complaining on that fateful day of the Red Eye incident, she thought they'd take their business elsewhere. But to her surprise, they still were content on patronizing the hotel without changing their annoying attitudes in the least.

She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, wishing she could crawl back in bed. It was just too early to deal with these two and she seriously contemplated on sending Cynthia up to their room to handle the situation. "Call for an ambulance and have two staff members from housekeeping head up to their room for a clean-up."

"I'm on it, but Lisa,… are you ok?"

"Truthfully, I didn't sleep well last night," she responded, looking at the cup she grabbed before taking a sip of her coffee. "My neighbor, who lives two doors down was screaming that he needed help. He was running door to door claiming that his wife was trying to kill him." She shook her head and took another sip from her cup. "The police showed up and was able to handcuff the woman, who was acting belligerent and fighting them nail tooth. She was eventually tasered so they could restrain her, and an ambulance showed up and took her away. The man's wife didn't look well..., she looked really sick. So needless to say, I couldn't go back to sleep after all that excitement."

"That's terrible," Cynthia said, while picking up the phone and understanding why Lisa was acting so agitated. "You know, I just saw on the morning news that there have been a slew of assaults – people either being randomly attacked or claiming that someone close to them was trying to hurt them…weird huh?"

"I didn't catch the news this morning but that is kind of strange," Lisa responded, while walking from behind the front counter, knowing she didn't have time to dawdle anymore. She was going to suck it up and deal with her day head-on, even if it killed her.

"I guess there is a bug going around. Quite a few of our staff have called in sick today too," Cynthia said, with her expression once again wincing. "I was going to tell you that news first but then the Taylor situation came up."

"Wonderful," Lisa responded out loud, sounding agitated from knowing she'd have to deal with staffing issues later. "I'm heading up to the Taylor's room to see what I can do to help. Escort the paramedics to their room when they arrive."

Cynthia nodded her head and focused back on the call she was making.

Lisa walked to the executive elevator, and slid her key card in the electronic lock to open the doors, and stepped in. Just before the doors closed, she caught a glimpse of Cynthia talking eagerly over the phone, using a lot of hand motions to explain the situation at hand.

Lisa didn't bother to tell her friend that she also had a disturbing dream about a certain assassin who'd been haunting her thoughts since the dreaded Red Eye flight. Having both, the bad dream and being awoken by her neighbor, made her feel worse for wear than she appeared, but somehow she was always able to pull off her people pleaser skills, when needed. "When's this going to end with you Jackson? Even in death, you're still torturing me. I need my sleep," she said softly to herself.

It still seemed unfathomable that Jackson died of the gunshot wounds that she and her father inflicted on him. She thought for sure he'd pull through, and from the way he looked at her when being wheeled away on the gurney, was a look of determination that they'd meet again. She felt an uneasiness staring in those deep blue eyes, knowing that there was still unfinished business between the two. Even though he was dead and that threat was behind her, he still managed to creep up in her thoughts and sometimes even haunt her dreams. On those days, she couldn't help but be jumpy.

Sometimes the dreams were vivid, where she was being chased by him and running for her life but other dreams were ambiguous and anomalous, as if he was lurking in the shadows, where she couldn't make him out but knew he was present. She would sometimes wake in a cold sweat and try to push the nightmares away, but was always unsuccessful because she'd find herself thinking about him more during the quietness of those restless nights. This last dream though, was an exception. She dreamt that she woke in her bed to find Jackson lying next to her, stroking her hair and smiling at her. It was a genuine kind smile and she found herself brushing his cheek softly with her hand. When he leaned forward to kiss her, she abruptly awoke with her body tingling from being aroused. She laid in bed for a good hour after that thinking about him.

Recently, she started to think about his personal life and wondered about his childhood and if it was a happy one, and why he chose the path of a criminal. She was curious to know if he had a family and children of his own. It wasn't too long ago that she believed the man was nothing more than a cold, calculating, sociopath, but now, she was trying to humanize him and see him in a different light. It left a burning desire within her to search out the answers to her questions, so as to know a little more about her tormentor, and move on with her life.

The elevator doors opened and she walked out, taking the last sip of her coffee. She turned and threw the empty cup in the trash bin that was near her, knowing she better put her own personal problems aside for the moment and deal with the business at hand.

"Time to extinguish the newest fire of the day," she said quietly under her breath, shaking Jackson from her thoughts. "Let's see what kind of mess you've made Mr. Taylor."

Reaching the room that was clear down the corridor, she could hear a loud commotion coming from inside and hesitated before knocking. Turning her head, and leaning slightly towards the door to listen closer, the commotion on the other side suddenly went silent. Taking a deep breath in and wishing she had sent Cynthia on this errand, she proceeded to knock firmly on the door.

A panicked Mrs. Taylor swung open the door, "Oh Dear God, he needs medical attention now - he's not doing well! Please help him!"

"Mrs. Taylor – I need you to calm down, paramedics are on their way." Lisa said, while quickly following after the anguish woman to the bathroom.

She saw the woman's husband hanging his head over the toilet while gagging, moaning and throwing up. He then dropped to his knees on the floor, surrounded by vomit and pools of blood.

"Mrs. Taylor, why is blood everywhere?"

"It's his blood, he's throwing it up!"

The stench of vomit and blood was overwhelming. It was so foul, that Lisa could honestly say that she'd never smelled anything like it before. She couldn't help the gagging reflex that she was trying to discreetly hide, but it wasn't helping when the man was heaving so loudly, triggering that reflex within her.

"Oh – gross!" a woman's voice shrieked from behind Lisa.

She turned to see two members from housekeeping, Tom and Juliet, staring disgustingly at the mess before them and gave them a look meant to show a little consideration. However, she quickly turned back around when she heard a loud gasping and grunting sound coming from Mr. Taylor, which sounded like he was choking on his own vomit.

She held her breath not knowing what to do, but snapped out of it, when she realized her cell phone was ringing. Once again Mr. Taylor hunched his head over the toilet and proceeded to vomit but this time it looked as if blood was coming out of his mouth. From where she stood, she could see blood bleeding out of his ears as well.

Without tearing her eyes away from him, she flipped open her phone but before she could speak an excited voice started talking over the line. "You're not going to believe this!" Cynthia cried in hysterics. "Seconds after you left, a woman collapsed in the lobby. Witnesses said she was getting sick in the first floor ladies room before she collapsed. A few of our staff are assisting her….but Lisa, I don't think she's breathing!"

Lisa froze when Mr. Taylor stood and turned to face the small crowd that was gawking at him. He kept his head down and had eerily become quiet, while salivating all over himself. She took an uneasy step back but continued listening to the hysterical voice over the phone. "I'll be down in a moment. Try to stay calm Cynthia," she said, hanging up the phone, shocked that she had two dire emergencies back to back.

She watched the man just stand there, wobbling slightly, as if he had one too many to drinks. Without opening his eyes, he slowly started to raise his head, while his breathing became louder and more constricted sounding. Mrs. Taylor rushed over to him, reaching her arm out to assist him. "Honey, paramedics are on their way. You need to take a seat –"

What happened next, no one saw coming. Mr. Taylor lunged at his wife, knocking her down and biting into the soft flesh of her neck. The blood curdling scream that came from the woman was loud and horrifying. He was mauling her like a wild animal.

Mr. Taylor looked up at the three petrified hotel workers with a chunk of his wife's neck in his mouth. The blood from the woman's neck was gushing everywhere, and she laid on the floor making gurgling sounds, while gasping for breath.

"What the...?" Lisa said, looking at the man's eyes, which had a white opaque glossy film to them. She could barely make out the color of his iris, which appeared grey.

Tom gestured forward quickly, as if to help, but turned on his heels and high tailed it out of the room when seeing Mr. Taylor take another chunk from his wife neck.

"Run…" Lisa could barely gasp out to Juliet. Both stood frozen in shock and paralyzed with terror from hearing the woman's screams becoming weaker, as if the life within her was being drained away.

Utterly distressed to what she was witnessing, Lisa's legs finally darted toward the front door, with Juliet just ahead of her. She needed to warn security and get help for the woman now! Quickly flipping open her cell phone, she looked down at the screen but tripped on her own two feet, falling to the ground and knocking the phone from her hand and across the room. Her legs were trembling so badly that she felt as though the ground below her was like quick sand when trying to stand again. Bolting to her feet and feeling completely disoriented, she continued running out the room and down the corridor, ditching the phone, and not realizing that she had also dropped her elevator key card in the fall.

Tom, who had reached the elevators first, pushed the call button frantically and looked down the hall to see Juliette and Lisa running with a crazed Mr. Taylor just behind them. "He's behind you!"

Closing in to the elevators, Lisa reached for her key card but saw it was missing. "Oh shit – stairs!" she yelled, turning around to see Mr. Taylor closing in on them. Suddenly the elevator bell rang and one of the doors opened, which she and Tom jumped in but Juliet was already at the stairwell, slamming the door open, and running down it quickly.

Lisa quickly pushed the button to the first floor and the doors started closing but just as they were about to shut, a bloody arm came through, trying to grab and claw at them. The doors started slowly opening and she realized that she had something tucked in her pocket. It was a discreet item that she started carrying after the Red Eye flight.

"Keep pushing the 'Close' button!" she yelled to Tom, while pulling out a small can of mace and spraying it as close to Mr. Taylor's face as she could. He backed up screaming and thrashing at his face, as the doors finally closed.

Both she and Tom stared at each other in complete shock.

"What the Fuck was that?" Tom screamed.

"I don't know but we need to get ahold of security!" Grabbing the elevator phone that connected to the front desk, she closed her eyes while trying to catch her breath.

"Lux Atlantic Hotel - "

"Cynthia, we've got a situation – notify security that Mr. Taylor's attacked his wife – he's dangerous – and call the police! He's at the twentieth floor elevator corridor but could be on his way down! I'm on my way back to the lobby now!"

"What? Ok…ok…I'm calling security!"

Lisa hung up the phone but looked up when she heard the elevator bell ring to stop on the twelfth floor. The doors opened to a young couple who didn't seem to notice the look of terror on the two employees faces. After they stepped in, she pushed the first floor button repeatedly, and all looked over in a frightful surprise toward the closing doors, when they heard a male voice screaming in the distance. It sounded like it was coming in the direction of the stairwell.

The couple looked over at the two hotel workers, perplexed and a little nervous by what they just heard.

"When we reach the first floor, you two need to exit the building quickly, we've got a situation going on," Lisa said shakily to the couple as she picked up the phone again. "Cynthia – he's coming down the stairwell – notify security!"

She hung up the phone and looked up to watch the elevator floor numbers descend as they passed each floor. It felt like time was standing still as the numbers counted down slowly. Finally reaching the first floor, the doors opened and she motioned the couple out while looking around. It looked as if Mr. Taylor hadn't reached ground level yet. "Go now!" Lisa told the couple again as they ran out of the elevator, who were now looking just as terrified as the two hotel workers.

"Lisa! Help's here but I don't think these guys are the paramedics!" Cynthia cried out, running up to her. "Why are they wearing hazmat suits?"

She watched a group of men who were fully dressed in protective gear, with some even carrying guns, run through the lobby.

"Cynthia, I have no idea what's going on - "

She turned to hear a group of people screaming and running towards them. Mr. Taylor had made his way down to the first floor and was yelling and chasing after the crowd.

"Where's Juliet?" Lisa asked, backing up slowly, seeing the man covered in more blood than he was before. "Cynthia! Did Juliet come this way?"

"I…I…I didn't see her."

Lisa covered her ears, when loud shots rang out. Several of the men in the hazmat suits shot at Mr. Taylor, pelting his body with bullets and knocking him to the ground. He laid there motionless, appearing fatally wounded.

"We need everyone to evacuate the area," another man ordered over a blow horn.

The chaos that was surrounding Lisa was surreal. Everyone seemed to appear in slow motion, as people we're screaming and running in every direction.

"Ma'am, can you tell me who's in charge? Ma'am?!"

In a daze, Lisa watched the man who was instructing the others hazmat workers, approach her, "I'm in charge…"

"I'm Agent McLane with the CDC working with Miami Health Care Services. Are there any others in the building like the man that was shot?"

"Others?"

"Others who are sick like him. Who did he come into physical contact with?"

"Um…I don't…." she started, trying to gather her thoughts. "His name is Bob Taylor. He attacked his wife in their room…Room 2018 on the twentieth floor. He may have also attacked one of our workers in the stairwell…, I haven't seen her - we were all trying to run from him. There's also a woman who collapsed here in the lobby."

She watched as the agent turned to look at his colleague, who was examining the fallen man. He lifted his hand signaling a thumbs-up to the agent.

"We have a Code Red. Subject is down with others possibly infected. I repeat, this is a Code Red situation," the agent said, excitedly over his handheld transceiver radio.

"Infected? What do you mean - " Before she could finish her question, she whizzed around to hear a voice screaming and shots being fired again. The woman who had earlier collapsed, was now attacking a small group of unsuspecting and confused bystanders, knocking one of them successfully to the ground and biting at him.

Just behind that commotion, another figure lunged at two of the health care workers and through the struggle, Lisa was horrified to see it was Juliet, who was now covered in blood and missing part of her left cheek.

"We've got more Walkers!" someone in the commotion yelled.

"Take them down!" Agent McLane yelled, "We need to get out of here and quarantine the building – lock it down!"

Lisa jumped when she heard the high-pitched sound of the hotels fire alarm blaring and saw Tom running out a side door that was near the alarm. He must have set it off to warn people before exiting. She grabbed Cynthia's arm to run out of the building but was barely able to pull her trembling body along, and turned her attention back to the agent who was listening to a panic voice over his radio.

"Were at a Level 5 nationwide emergency! There are incidents occurring everywhere! The dead are walking! I repeat the dead are walking! They're everywhere! You and your men need to get back to headquarters – get out of there!"

Agent McLane didn't move but instead look around at the chaos that was developing around him. "We couldn't contain it…," he said to himself out loud in disbelief, which Lisa heard from an earshot distance. "We couldn't contain it," he repeated, the fear trembling in his voice, this time looking at her as if she knew what was going on.

"How's he getting up?" Cynthia questioned, stunned and visibly shaken by what she was witnessing.

Lisa looked over in shock at Mr. Taylor, who slowly stood and turned in their direction. He made eye contact with the two terrified women, and started quickly limping his bullet-ridden body toward them. His focus was completely on the two.

"Cynthia…we got to go!" Lisa yelled, yanking her arm and struggled to run along side a panicked crowd, while dragging her friend behind her.

"Oh shit!" she bellowed out, turning her head to see that Mr. Taylor was getting close on their heels. Shots fired out again, this time coming from Agent McLane's pistol. One bullet flew over Mr. Taylor's head, and the other impacted his chest, which he fell backwards but he immediately started moving again. The agent watched in horror as Mr. Taylor grabbed at the ankle of a frantic guest, tripping the person to the ground and taking a bite out of the exposed flesh.

Finally, reaching the outside of the building with Cynthia in tow, Lisa went in full sprint mode again running across the hotels parking lot. She turned her head slightly to the side, but not fully looking back, when hearing more shots coming from within the hotel. She wanted to pinch herself and wake up from this nightmare but was too terrified to let go of Cynthia, who was hysterically crying behind her. Little did she know that her world would be changing and unraveling so drastically, that running at a fast pace would be part of her normal routine. She already had nightmares that came to her in her sleep, now she was going to have them in the waking world.

King County, Georgia (2 hours earlier)

Shane Walsh watched the green faded pick-up truck descend slowly back on the road, leaving a dust trail in its wake as he stood by his patrol car with his hands on his waist. The woman who was driving the truck was speeding and trying to explain to him that she needed to get her husband to the hospital quickly that was across town. They were the Johnson's, a couple in their late forties who lived on the outskirts of the county line and who mainly kept to themselves. However, Mr. Johnson on occasion, liked to patronize the local bar in town and throw one back, which sometimes got him into trouble. Shane had been at the bar yesterday, breaking up a fight that Mr. Johnson had instigated, claiming the other guy had been bad mouthing his wife. Due to his actions, Johnson spent a night in the jail, sobering up real fast, and from the looks of it was now paying the price by having to go to the hospital from the injuries he'd sustained. The other guy, who was just as intoxicated, went to the hospital for a few scrapes and bruises, and ended up sobering up in a patient room there. Rather than giving the couple a speeding ticket, Shane let it pass but warned them to slow down, which the woman had promised to oblige.

He sat back in his squad car looking down at the highway again and saw the vehicle disappear at the end of the road, which bended down the hill. In a few hours he'd also be heading to the hospital to visit Rick Grimes, his Deputy partner, who was still in a coma. Anger was now welling up in him as his thoughts trailed to the men who gunned him down. All three men died on the scene, satisfying his need that justice was done but still wished he could have given them all a piece of his mind, which would've resulted from his fists that were clenched on his lap.

He mellowed out when his thoughts strayed to Lori Grimes, Rick's wife. Besides visiting Rick daily, he was also checking in with Lori and the Grimes' young son Carl. Shane and the Grimes didn't live to far from each other, and so he'd often drop by to see how the family was faring during Rick's stay at the hospital. He was getting emotionally closer to Lori during these visits and knew the feeling was becoming mutual from her, and felt guilty that he couldn't stay away from the woman. He always considered her a nice gal, who on occasions was gracious enough to invite him and whomever he was dating at the time, over for dinner at their house for a social call. He considered Rick a lucky man to have such a good wife, but from their last conversion on the day of his injury, was now thinking his friend didn't appreciate his wife as much as he should have.

Static sounded over his CB radio, shaking him from his thoughts. "Shane, this is dispatch, over," a females voice muffled over the speaker.

"This is Shane, what the problem Diane?"

"We got a call that there's a situation at the hospital..., we're hearing that patients are attacking staff."

"Say what?"

"That's what's being reported. Hospital security seems to have a handle of the situation but could use some assitance."

He noted yesterday, during his visit at the hospital, that the place was bustling with sick people and wondered if had anything to do with that. Suddenly, he jerked in his chair when a convoy of military trucks roared along side of him on the road. There appeared to be a dozen trucks driving down the hill fast.

"Diane - did we get word that the military is training nearby or conducting a sweep?"

"That's a negative."

Due to the amount of vehicles that passed by, he thought it odd that the station wasn't notified. But there was chance they were just passing through. Usually if there was training or a sweep being conducted of illegal activity that the military was investigating, the station was given a heads-up.

"Alright, I'm in route to the hospital," he said, starting his vehicle. "Have Kendal and Bassett meet me at the hospital."

"That's another negative. Both deputies are still investigating the fight that happened with the teens at the shopping center. Also, Deputies Parker and Anderson left for the Mill's place about ten minutes ago to respond to a domestic dispute call out there, and Simpson and Mendez just left for the courthouse to respond to another disturbance that was called-in."

"Well, when someone's available, have them meet me at the hospital," he said, sounding agitated, knowing his temper was getting the best of him again. All hell was breaking loose in just a short matter of time since he left the station to patrol the county highways, that he couldn't help but think people were going a little crazy around him. Taking in a deep sigh, he pursed his lips to relax. "Thanks Diane..., just notify the deputies that I'll need some back-up."

"Roger that - over and out."

Peeling out on the road, Shane sped up to the convoy. He tailed up to the last vehicle and could see military personnel sitting in the back of the truck, dressed as if they were going into combat. He quickly eased up his vehicle to look at the lane next to him and saw no incoming traffic. Darting into the next lane, he thundered down the road and passed the trucks one by one, observing that each one was filled with military personnel. Something didn't sit right with him from seeing this and he punched on the gas pedal hard to speed down the highway and get to the hospital fast.

TBC

Yes, Jackson will be making his grand appearance in the next chapter!