Here Is my 2nd attempt at a walking Dead Fanfic, Last time I became to twisted and complex and strayed too far in my own direction.

Hopefully with this one I can keep the storyline more simple and easy to follow so I can work more on how the story is written. This time there is only 2 original characters Eric and Leon. They are two nineteen year old best friends from high school that dropped out and began working as soon as they could. They both grew up in Kentucky and recently moved to King County, the town that Rick and Shane lived and worked in. Eric is our P.O.V and main character.

I won't go too much into their story now, you will learn it slowly as you go. The prologue and the first chapter are the only time jump. Will go through the gaps between seasons and so on

So I hope you enjoy the story and excuse me for my long Authors note, I am open to any opinions and suggestions that you may have, please don't be shy, leave a review or a message and I'll get straight back to you.

Now let the fun Begin :)

ERIC

We had plenty of warning, me and Leon, we had managed to loot most of King County before people had even begun leaving their homes. I had felt immensely bad about it. I didn't have much of a connection with any of the locals but it still rubbed me the wrong way. The sheriff's department had gone belly up when Deputy Grimes had been shot and the virus had made it no better. The sheriff was a lazy bastard and Shane was too focused on his own agenda to step into Rick's shoes. I had only been a clerk, a helping hand, despite the fact that Rick and Shane had been pushing for my recruitment, but I had still felt a civic duty, but even some of the more veteran officers had abandoned ship and taken their families out. Shane had left one night with Rick's family, which was when I had decided the place was fucked; Leon and I started looting that night. We had more than a few brawls with fellow looters but we had managed to get all we needed nonetheless. That had been almost three weeks ago and Leon and I were still holed up on our farmhouse just outside King County.

Now Leon was driving my Jeep towards town and I had his silenced, scoped, hunting rifle in my hands as I examined the surroundings and the streets of our town. Most of the walkers had been put down in King County, thank god, but every day there would be a few more that had drifted in from somewhere else. I had begun using them as a chance for target practise. That first day when we had begun looting I went straight to the Native American Antique shop on the main street. I snatched myself a good tomahawk and bow and arrows. I had done archery with a friend in Kentucky before but with a proper modern bow, getting used to the old, wooden design of the one that I carried now had been more of a chore than I expected. I had become a lot better now though. Leon had himself a knife, a machete and his hunting rifle; he had always been a crack shot and a gun enthusiast.

I looked over at my best friend and smiled, me and him had spent our lives together. Neither of our family's were worth a nickel so we bailed, together, when we were quite young, relied, protected and supported each other ever since. Now was no different. Leon was closer than a brother to me, he was all the family I had ever needed. We were glad that we had been so co-dependant when the apocalypse rolled around... wasn't many people to mourn.

Leon pulled up to the front door of a mini-mart and I pulled the bow off of the holster that was slung over my torso. It also held the quiver and attached to the belt that I used to hold my combat knife and tomahawk. I climbed over the back of the Jeep and smashed open the glass, sliding door into the shop. I drew an arrow from the quiver and nocked it, waiting for the walkers that I could hear approaching the sound of shattering glass. I had to jump off of the back of the jeep to get a clear shot and I counted five coming at me, two from my left and three to my front. I heard the muffled shots as Leon put down two of the ones in front of me. I shot the third with an arrow and it punched halfway deep into its skull. The other two reached me and I swung the bow to crack into the side of one's head, I jumped back and clipped it back into the holster. I drew the tomahawk swiftly and brought it down on the oncoming walker's head. The other lunged, teeth first for my arm and my heart almost smashed out my chest as my throat tightened and my left hand subconsciously snaked the combat knife out of it's sheath at my side and skewered the thing's brain going up through the chin.

Leon just climbed in behind me and I heard him exhale heavily. "I swear it's closer every time, man." He commented.

"It'll take more than some starved, retarded cannibal to get rid of me." I said with a cocky grin.

"I know... I thought now might be the time I was rid of you." He teased.

"You'll go before me." I said plainly.

"I'm even gonna dignify that insult with a bet." He said, raising his head defensively.

"I'll bet... that you don't know what dignify means." I said to him, trying not to laugh. I saw him struggling for a comeback and burst out laughing again. "Go get a trolley man."

Leon pulled one out of the rack and we went strolling casually through the isles as Leon picked shit off the shelves. I had an arrow nocked to my bow as I kept an eye out for him. "You think we got enough guns and ammo and shit?" he asked a few minutes into our shopping trip.

"The less guns and ammo we got, the less inclined we'll be to use em." I looked at Leon as he looked back at me with confusion evident in his face. "Hand to hand is quieter..." I explained.

"But we got silencers too." He pointed out.

"Ammo is more valuable than diamonds now... like food. We save the bullets until we're backed up against the wall, just common sense." I stated.

"I guess." He said as he picked out a packet of roll ups.

"Sustenance man... not taste." I reminded him. "We ain't got all day to be picking all the shit we want." I said to him.

I heard a gunshot suddenly and we instantly looked at each other in panic. "Stay here." I said to him and ran for the entrance in a hurry. I was cautious about getting close to the windows in case the shooter was some nut job following us but when I got there I saw nothing. I ran back to where Leon was waiting next to the trolley.

"What is it?" Leon asked me.

"The shot must have been further than we thought, sound carries in an empty town. You good to handle this on your own?" I asked my best friend. Leon nodded to me and carried on rolling the trolley through the isles. I realised the growling feeling in my stomach and ripped open a packet of power bars on the shelves. I ate two of them as quickly as I could. I pulled the nine millimetre Beretta from the back of my belt and got the silencer out of the back pocket of my blue jeans. I screwed it on and checked the clip before pulling a round into the chamber. I made my way back through the mini-mart and squeezed through the Wrangler and the doorway and stepped into the quiet, fresh air. I started jogging my way down the street to where I heard the shot come from keeping both hands on my weapon and my eyes were constantly scanning the areas around me. I looked around the corner and saw an African American man and his son carrying a man in his hospital gown towards a house. There was a dead walker on the road that I hadn't seen before also.

I stepped around the corner and shot the footpath in front of the conscious man's feet. He set the body down and looked at me as I edged my way closer to the silent pair with my gun raised and a ruthless scowl on my face.

I got within earshot and kept my eyes focused on the two of them. "What'd you do to him?"

"We just found him." The black man said with his hands raised. "My son hit him with a shovel."

I saw the blood on the gown and grimaced. "He bit?" I asked cautiously, the sight of the young boy with his hands raised, still holding his shovel made me feel like shit, but I couldn't let my guard down now. It was too late for diplomacy, I had already taken that off the table with my gun.

"Not sure..." The man muttered nervously.

"Well I'll take it from here. You and your boy go back to whatever hole you crawled out of, night will be by before you know it." I said to them strongly and forcefully.

The man nodded and grabbed his boys shoulder, pushing him ahead, almost desperately. "Thank you for your mercy." He said gratefully.

I nodded to the man and smiled at his son before they slithered away down the road. I turned the body over and found myself staring right into the eyes of Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes of King County. My breath caught in my throat. This man had been the closest I had to a friend in this town. He had taken me under his wing with no thought for himself and tried to settle me into the town. I knelt over his body and felt for a pulse. He's fucking alive! I thought joyfully. The man had pulled through the coma despite the breakdown of civilisation.

I saw the welt that had formed on the back of my head and once again looked at the young boy who was walking away with a shovel. Perhaps a tad too quick to violence. Was my first thought, at that moment Leon came swinging around the corner in the Jeep and stopped when he seen me kneeling over a body. I could hear the panic in his footsteps as he made his way over to me.

"You okay brother?" He asked me worriedly.

"I'm fine Leon. Look who I found." I said, indicating to the unconscious Rick.
"Fuck me." He said in amazement.

"One tough son of a bitch. We should get him back to the farm, re-dress that wound of his." I said, looking over the rest of his body. "Looks like the gunshots all he's got."

"There's a relief. Come on, lug him in and let's split. More walkers will come for that gunshot."

He was lighter than I expected but I still didn't want to aggravate the wound or anything like that, so I picked him up as tenderly as possible and lay him over the back seat with a blanket over him. Leon handed me his rifle and got back into the driver's seat.

On the drive home I told him about the black man and his son. It seemed that they had been living in town a while. Leon had wanted to know if they were going to be a threat. It hadn't seemed like it to me. But I told him it was best we stay on our guard. We reached the farm in a matter of minutes, it wasn't far from town. This time when we parked outside Leon helped me carry the poor guy inside and I went into the garage and pulled him out a double mattress and heaved it into the lounge, next to the fire.

Leon laid him down and told me to go and fetch the medical basket. I did so and he began to undress the bandages around the deputy's gunshot wound. I left him too it, Leon would probably be better at that shit than me. The whole day had begun just like they all had the past few weeks and now the dead had come back to life, except this time they weren't trying to eat me. It had been a weird turn for the day but I was glad it had happened. Perhaps he will be smart enough to stay. I thought to myself. Knowing Rick he would go gallivanting for his family in any direction and wouldn't stop until he found them... alive or dead.

In that moment the whole thing just suddenly became real to me. Everyone was gone. For all I knew we were the only ones alive in the world, us and the two they had seen today. Everything was fucked, the whole world... society and government. It was every man for himself out there, and it would only be a matter of time before the world became one gigantic savage war zone. I didn't look forward to the idea but I knew that I'd rather be alive than dead. And I'd rather be dead than turn my back on my morals and beliefs.

I took a stroll down into the basement and found my packet of tailor made cigarettes. I lit it and sat at the table that was down there, pulling the ash tray next to me. I took a drag on it and felt some of the stress ease as it went into my lungs. I exhaled and a smile came over my face. I wiped it away instantly. I actually felt guilty for smiling, and I felt stupid about feeling guilty. I had never been one to express my feelings to anyone, I just didn't know how... and now... well now it was damn near impossible to describe how I was feeling at any given moment. Since the turn my emotions had been an uncontrollable whirlwind of rage, depression and fake attempts at happiness mixed with various other things that I couldn't even fathom.

I got up from my seat and left the cigarette in the ashtray as I unclipped my holster and belt and left it hanging on the door. I felt much better without my weapons on... most of the time. But today was just a weird day, nothing serious... I hope. I grabbed a drink of iced tea from one of the bags on the bench and smiled as the slightly warm yet refreshing and tasty liquid slid down my throat, revitalising my entire body. I sat down and took a bigger swig of it before returning to my cigarette.

"He had a fever... but I think it might have just been a blood infection. I gave him a bunch of antibiotics to settle him down. Redressed the wound, no bites or scratches. He's resting, gotta have a killer headache, I'll give him some painkillers when he wakes up. But he may need to rest here a while." Leon said from the doorway. He was cleaning blood off of his hands with a rag.

"Fine by me, he's welcome to stay."

"We both know that ain't gonna happen." He exclaimed.

"Yeah." I admitted, shaking my head. "Thanks for patching him up."

"It was easy... good practise." He stated simply, sitting down with me and taking the cigarette before taking a drag.

"We got a decent amount of food I saw." I said with a slight grin at him.

"That place still has enough left to last us a few months if no one else loots it." Leon said grinning back happily.

"And small town communities are supposed to stick together." I said jokingly. "Instead they all ran for the gun shop and ended up shooting each other."
"Yeah... and we picked up their guns when they were done." We both chuckled and I had another sip of the iced tea before handing it over to Leon.

"So what's for dinner?" I asked cheekily, standing up and stubbing out the cigarette.

Later that night: 7.56pm

"Eric..." I heard Leon say quietly. "I think he's waking up." I felt him shaking my shoulders and I shook myself free of his grip.

"Rick." I said as I groggily rubbed at my eyes.

"Eric..." He said in a raspy voice, I opened my eyes properly and sat right next to him. He grabbed my shoulder and smiled. Leon handed me the glass of water and I put it to his lips. I gave it to him in small doses so he didn't choke on it and eventually he was able to sit up and drink it himself.

"You want to know what Leon decided to cook for dinner? Grilled cheese..." I said dramatically. "How exciting... after we just went shopping today."

"Grilled cheese would do me fine." Rick said as Leon put the plate onto the floor beside the mattress.

"Are you okay?" I asked him as he reached for the plate shakily.

"Did one of you hit me with a shovel?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Save some of that water dude, I'll get you some painkillers." Leon said, rushing back towards the kitchen.

"You got a couple of other degenerates to thank for that. I saw a black guy and his son carrying you towards some house down your road." I said to the man as he tried to sit himself up. "Just relax man, your safe as can be in here." I told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He lay back down and chuckled.

"I thought this was all some weird dream. It isn't is it?" He asked me, his face was dismayed as he looked at me.

I didn't know how to break it to the man, not after he had looked at me like that. How was I supposed to tell him that there is a big chance that his family is dead or walking around eating people? "You... just eat something and get some more rest. We'll tell you everything eventually, but you need to get yourself right." I said, standing up and wandering away from him.

I sat down at the dinner table. We had a fair few guns and they were spread out over the table along with the ammo. I began to examine them, Leon was in and out of the house for a while but when I had seen my friend walk out the last time with all his gear I knew he was going to butcher us up another pig. We had been eating quite well since it all happened. Food and guns had been our priority. After the first week we decided to stock up on all the gas we could in case we had to leave. One of the small sheds next to the barn where Leon was headed just outside was jam-packed with gas tins and other containers that all held petrol.

There had been a hunting shop in town as well as a gun shop and we had split up, taken one each and brought back as much as we possibly could. I had taken damn near every one of the guns off of the shelves at the hunting shop. The ammo had been harder to find I had almost had my throat cut because of it. The owner tried to stop me and I had been forced to beat the shit out of him to stop him from trying again. I had been in a rush after that and so it happened that most of the rifles were low on ammo.

Leon had gone to the gun store. The swag of weapons that he had brought back with him was immense and the ammo plentiful. He found a black steel Python revolver with a wooden grip and plenty of boxes of ammo for it. He had five nine mils, a desert eagle and two .357 revolvers with a holster. There were two more hunting rifles and only one of them was scoped. A legitimate Remington sniper rifle with .308 rounds that I just couldn't wait to use, I had always had a fascination with sniper rifles. At one stage I wanted to go into the army just for the chance to use one. We had three Ak-47 assault rifles and a few automatic carbine rifles with ACOG scopes. There were a few shotguns on the table too and I couldn't help but think that we needed more.

"Did you get any of that from the station?" I heard Rick mutter, his voice returning to normal.

"I refused to loot it." I explained simply, without looking at him.

"Fair enough." Rick groaned. "You want to tell me what's happened?" He said, sitting up.

"Only if you're ready." I said carefully.

Rick nodded to me confidently and I started to explain about the news stories and the virus and how it affected people and how bad it had gotten. Rick was grieving all the while and I could see it in his eyes. A part of him believed his family was dead and I couldn't help but sympathise with the man, even though I had no idea how he felt.

"It really spread that quickly?" Rick asked him.

"Too quickly, barely anyone was prepared for it. They told everyone to gather in the cities... to be safer. Just lead them all into a massive feeding pit." I said, slowly and sadly.

"My wife would have taken Carl to her father's house in Atlanta." Rick said purposefully.

"They said they had a refugee centre there. But we got word from a traveller about a week back, they napalmed the city when it got too bad..." I said emotionally. "But they could've gotten out before that happened, or not even arrived there in time. Who knows." I muttered.

"The CDC in Atlanta. They would protect that place at all costs, don't you think." Rick said, looking at him for reassurance.

I felt bad giving him false hope, but maybe it was best that he didn't view the world as I now did. "It seems the logical decision." I replied. "I take it that means you won't think about staying?" I asked him.

He looked up at me with regret and sadness. "I'm sorry Eric, it's my child, and the love of my life, I gotta go after them."

"Shane drove her out of town when it got outta hand. Headed for the city. If anyone can keep her safe it's him." I reassured the man with a grin.

"He's a good man." Rick said, drinking back more water as he began working on his second sandwich.

I nodded my head slowly, Shane was a good man. He was courteous and respectful to others and he was always looking to help anyone he could. But I was sure there was something underlying inside of him. A rage of some kind, I had seen it when he took me out for a ride-along and we had chased a couple of shoplifters through some people's backyards. Shane had hammered one of them until they could barely speak through their shattered teeth. I had been too shocked and surprised to say anything to Shane, but he had carried on afterwards as usual, as if nothing had happened.

"You two have been friends a long time, just like me and Leon. I get how he felt." I said to the bearded man with a grin.

"Why don't you two come along? Give me a hand." Rick asked him curiously. "Maybe all hope isn't lost, maybe we could... you know... help out or something."

I couldn't agree with him. I wish I could, I wish that I had that optimism that the world could just get its act together and cast the virus out. But something held me back every time the thought came to mind. "I think its best we all just take care of each other and ourselves. Ain't no point trying to teach a pig to drive." I said, quoting one of the expressions Rick used with me when I started working at the station.

Rick chuckled along and looked out towards the window. "If you knew me a bit better, you'd know that it's no secret that I spend a lot of time doing things that I say shouldn't be done." He said distantly. He seemed sad that he had laughed, that he could possibly feel amusement given all that was going on. I could see it in his face. Hell... I'd seen that same damn expression on almost every person we had talked to since the virus broke out.

"You don't gotta feel bad for laughing. Right now any positive feeling is a gift... just embrace them man." I told him with a frown on my face.

"You look like you're having a bit of trouble with that yourself." Rick mentioned quietly.

"I didn't have a lot of 'positive feelings' before the... epidemic." I said, struggling for the right word.

"You seemed cheerful enough at the station." Rick commented with confusion.

"Would you really have taken on a depressed teenager?" I asked him with a chuckle.

"Point taken." He muttered, finishing his food greedily. Leon came strolling inside then and went straight to the sink, where he washed his hands of all the pig's blood. "I wanted to thank both of you... for dinner, for taking me in, making sure I'm okay." He said gratefully and purposefully. "But I'll be leaving tomorrow. I need to get on the road, I need to find them."

"I get it deputy." Leon mentioned as he dried his hands off. "As long as you sure you're gonna be healthy enough. We'll give you some food and water to take, some spare gas, you might need it." He said, moving out of the kitchen and leaning on the dining table. "I'll have a bag ready for the morning."

"Thank you Leon, much appreciated."
I stood up then, Rick being here and then him saying he will leave... never to be seen again had hit me hard, we had finally found someone from our lives and we were letting him slip away, perhaps it was for the best, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. Rick had been a good friend and mentor to me... I only wish we had become closer then I may have felt some kind of urge to help him. We wouldn't be so lonely in this godforsaken, fucking shit hole of a world. "I'm gonna catch some rest. Make sure you don't leave without saying goodbye Rick." I warned him, before tiredly gliding towards my room.

She was wearing her light blue dress... my favourite one. And she was waiting for me. She was standing beneath a small bridge and there was water up to her knees, her dress rested on and flowed with the current of the small river. I felt myself walk towards her but I wasn't moving, something else was moving me. I could see my hand reach out. It rested onto her belly and my heart began racing faster and wilder than it ever had before, I felt tears sting my cheeks.

"Baby." She whispered, leaning forward into my ear. "Where are you?"

I couldn't answer her. All I could do was feel that belly and my hand was warm and it tingled with pins and needles. She started crying after a while and suddenly I saw blood start running down from her eyes, I tried to speak, to move... but nothing happened, blood streamed down her face as she cried and I could feel more coming out of her stomach and wetting my palm. My hand wouldn't move and suddenly I felt something very small and weak curl around my finger.

I woke up with a start and found myself crash face first onto the floor. My eyebrow stung like fuck and I held my hand on it as the pain burned through me. I sat up and leaned against the bed, I felt a dribble of blood from my eyebrow and it started streaming down my face. My mind couldn't pay attention to it... All I could see was her big green eyes. I could hear a faint echo of her voice and it made me cry, the tears mixing in with the blood on my face.

"Eric baby, you can't leave... I'm... I'm carrying your child."

I sobbed uncontrollably and put my face in my hands. "I'm sorry baby." I stammered to myself.