Soooo...

This is my first fan-fic. Ever.

Yup.

So, you know, don't have the highest of expectations.

Rated M for gore, language, violence, blah blah blah... actually, mostly it's rated M to be safe, not really sure. Things will probably get more in that scale later on.

I apologize in advance for grammar, reviews are great, flames encouraged, and hopefully, you will enjoy.

I don't own The Walking Dead, (obviously), and any OCs and the plot are my own.

The girl looked up.

"Oh, shit."

The whole cafeteria was filled with walkers. They all looked up at the sound of the door scraping the dirty floor, and some stood up abruptly at the sight of her.

She turned and ran back out of the door, running through the courtyard as she heard the crashing of tables and chairs being knocked out of the way and stumbled over by the walkers. Surely, she was their first meal in a few weeks, at least, judging by the clean but gnawed on bones that were littered in the cafeteria.

She rounded the corner and saw a chain link fence, about ten feet tall, stretching off to the right into the gloom of the evening. Behind the fence was an open field of waist-high grass. Beyond the grass she could clearly see the line of trees and dense undergrowth, stretching on into a forest. If she could get over the fence, she could take refuge in the trees. She put on a burst of speed, and jumped, clinging on to the fence as it swung from her leap. She climbed frantically, the moans of the lunchroom walkers growing louder as the first few rounded the corner.

A rustling in the grass below her made her look down as she climbed, and she internally groaned. Decayed, bloody hands were reaching up out of the grass as more walkers rose out from the grass, chunks of flesh torn off and yellowed-eyes bloodshot. Dust shook off of them and filled the air, and the girl coughed, crawling faster than before.

"Double shit."

She swung her left leg over the top of the fence and looked around. To her left, more of the dead were rising from her previous escape route, shuffling forward and hissing. To her right, the cafeteria walkers were crowding around the corner, re-energized by the sight of their prey. Behind her the hospital wall rose up, to tall for her to climb. In front of her, the chain-link fence went on for about a hundred more yards until it turned right and continued back to encircle the hospital. Right on the first section after the corner, one of the fences had caved, so the cafeteria walkers could get out if they wanted to. Her best option right now, she realized, was to crawl as quickly as possible along the top of the fence, jumping down and running into the dense forest to take refuge in the trees. Sure, all the walkers would follow her, but if she landed right, she could get a head start. Plus, last she checked, the walkers couldn't climb trees. If she got trapped in a tree, though... but she would think about that when she got there.

Suddenly, the walkers from the cafeteria slammed into the fence, and she held on for dear life as it swayed alarmingly. Panicked, she started scuttling forward, her backpack leaning to the left, her knife slipping out of its holster, and her bat sliding out of its sling. She stopped, gripping the fence as well as she could with her legs, and quickly snapped the cover over the knife handle, securing it in its holster, and tightened the ropes on her baseball bat, slinging it diagonally across her backpack.

The walkers on both sides rammed into the fence again, and she held on tight, hoping her jeans wouldn't rip as she scooted forward.

She had almost made it to the end when something grabbed her leg. One of the tallest walkers she had ever seen, maybe about 6'8", had risen from the field and snagged her foot. She tugged but it pulled her down with surprising strength, and she slipped, sliding towards its rotting mouth. She whipped the bat out from its holder and snapped it across his skull with a wicked flick. Its head caved in on one side and its rotted brains exploded out of its skull. Bits of dark blood and cartilage flew onto her jeans, and it dropped down, its fingers still caught on her shoe. There was no holding on this time with its deadweight pulling her down, and she crashed to the ground, landing hard on the smashed walker.

She cried out when she landed on her left ankle wrong, but stood up quickly. The cafeteria walkers were level with her on the other side of the fence, and the field walkers were almost upon her. She staggered along the fence, trying desperately to reach the forest.

She felt something grab her shoulder, and she turned to swing the bat blindly. She heard a satisfying crunch as the bat smashed into the walker's weak skull, and grimaced when she was showered with bits of flesh and brain. More walkers grabbed at her, one tugging on her backpack, another biting at her wrist. Luckily, her jean jacket was too thick, and she kicked that walker down.

She was level with the end of the fence now, and the cafeteria walkers had started climbing out of the smashed section. She swung her bat around her blindly, holding on as it collided with several heads. She broke free of the ambush and pushed on into the dense undergrowth of the forest and ran as fast as she could through the bushes and over the logs, wincing as her hurt ankle protested.

Behind her the walkers were crashing their way through the trees, and she glanced around desperately for a low enough branch for her to grab. But just as she spotted a decent climbing tree, she felt something snag her foot and she was pulled upward. A coarse net wrapped around her, and snapped shut at the top, the branch it was hanging from bouncing from the sudden movement.

She looked down from her cramped position in the clearly home-made net. About seven feet below her were the walkers, but as she looked around she noticed more traps in the woods. Several walkers ran straight into long spears of bamboo sticking out of bushes and wedged between trees. Others were hoisted into nets similar to hers, hanging up around the trees like some sort of sick party decoration. Others fell into covered pits, landing on more spears and crumpling together as their spines snapped. There had only been forty or so walkers from the field, and maybe thirty from the cafeteria. Only about twenty walkers had made it into the forest so far, and all of those had fallen into the traps. The rest were pushing through the line of trees, and the girl watched as they too were stabbed, snagged up into the air, and pushed into the pits.

The girl waited for all the walkers to be trapped, the nets trapping them around her slowly spinning in the air, the pits filled with them hissing, the ones stuck on the spears growling and moaning. When the last unfortunate walker had speared itself securely on one of the stakes, the girl reached for her knife. She unclipped the holster and maneuvered as best she could to saw at the net under her feet. She was in a cramped position, her knees in her face and her left hand trapped behind her. Her left ankle ached, but she ignored the pain as she continued to saw at her prison. Whoever set these traps would come back, and she didn't want to stick around long enough for them to find her. In this world, she could trust no one. Every person still living had to make sacrifices, and choices they would never have considered before to survive. She kept hacking at the net, hoping that she hadn't run out of time yet.

Well, there you go. First chapter. Hope you guys liked it!

Review, comment, hate on it, it's all good!

-the shadow-light