Author's Note: I love The Walking Dead and all the characters. It's an amazing comic and an awesome television show. More importantly, I cannot wait for season three to start. READ AND REVIEW and tell me if you loved it or hated it.

Disclosure: Blah, blah, blah... I don't own The Walking Dead... Blah, blah, blah...

Chapter One

No one ever told me how hard it would be having to take care of a child. I didn't know the responsibility that was to come with the territory of being a parent but, I knew that it was supposed to change you, to make you feel compassionate about saving their life in any form of danger. I couldn't place where the feelings had started but, they were real now. Caring for a child is the most rewarding gift and accident of all; and having that love that they give so freely without ever questioning it couldn't be described more as pure bliss. I wanted to show my child all the things I had done for her but, time was flying out of my hands and soon, she'd be walking and running away from the things that now inhabit this new world of ours. She wouldn't grow up in a world that I had, she wouldn't get to see great rock bands in concert and she wouldn't get to see her face in a mirror with her make-up covering her counter tops in her bathroom. This world we live in now could only be described as Hell and not an exaggerated version of Hell but, true Hell in its most evil of forms. Fires were appearing everywhere throughout the city and it was my duty to get my child to safety, whether my life was spared or not. I couldn't let her be taken, I couldn't watch as she became one of them.

I begged to see what true paradise lay behind the Hell we came into living. No movie or book or video game could have prepared us for this and no matter how many times I thought of ways to achieve that perfect safe haven, it was taken away in an instant and in that instant of having your safety be taken away, there's something primal that begins to rip through you. Your heart drops in the very pit of your stomach as you watch the danger stalk towards you. It was the hunter and the prey and the prey were fighting back. The hunter wasn't as smart as the prey, on no, they were what we call 'blanks', empty shells still trying to make a move. The prey circled the hunter as it watched the other's movements, feeling where it should hit and how to stay away from becoming one of them. It didn't take long to figure out that smashing it's brains of the 'operation' was the only way to save yourself, even if the brain happened to be living.

I couldn't fight the urge to cry with her against my chest, feeling her body shake as I ran away, far away and didn't stop until I knew my legs were going to catch on fire. Her incoherent sobs frightened me but, I dare not look back. I just place my hand on her head and concentrate on running and hoping the hunter would finally wean off of this prey.

No one ever told me how hard it would be having to take care of a child. No one ever told me how hard it would be when the world went to Hell. No one told me that a mother could abandon her child and leave her to die within the burning apartment building of Atlanta, Georgia. No one told me that rush of being a savior would come with such a high risk. I had to save my child whether I wanted to or not.

I relaxed against the thick bark of a tree, watching as she walked slowly in front of me, her most cherished doll in her tightest grip. Her thumb was in her mouth and she sucked on it with vigor as she looked at the ground and at her shoes. I knew they would become too small for her soon and finding another pair now was something short of a miracle.

"Daddy," she whispered, having learned that whispering was the only acceptable way of speaking.

"Yes?" I answered, my eyes closed as the humidity tried breaking my body down into nothing.

"I've got to go potty."

I brought my head up and was she began doing her traditional 'potty dance' for me. I nodded and pushed myself up and of the tree, pulling her up into my arms. I felt her legs curl around my waist as we walked a few minutes to a near-by creek bed. I placed her down at the base of a tree, my attention turned to the creek bed where I had found a Blank crawling though the muddy sides. I kept watch as I heard a trickle sound and duly noted that my daughter did not care if anyone was watching her go. If she had to go, you'd better turn your head.

I looked to her as she shook her bottom and pulled her dirty white panties up then pulled her dirt-covered pink dress down. She grabbed her doll and walked over to me where I led her down to the creek bed so that she could wash up her hands.

A sudden crack in the forest we were just in pulled us out of our routine and I quickly pulled my daughter to my chest, placing my large hand on her head to assure her it would all be okay.

"I need you to 'shh', okay?" I asked her, looking down into her large blue eyes and watched as she pulled a little finger to her little pink lips. "Good girl," I whispered as I walked into the water, stepping carefully through the stream as I heard the first sign of a Blank.

A moan sounded behind me, far enough away so that I could put my daughter down and grab hold of the hunting knife that hung on my belt. I placed her down and she covered her ears and closed her eyes, following my instructions the first time I had ever told her to do so. I turned back to the Blank that was beginning its slow run towards us, its teeth gnarling at the air, its milky yellow/white eyes were watching nothing as it kept coming towards us.

I ran at it, the hunting knife having thrust its way up through the skull of the Blank. Its moans were silenced and its arms fell to its sides. The Blank hung there on the knife until I pulled it out, letting it fall into the shallow water. I wiped the spoiled blood-covered knife on whatever clothing it had on and sheathed the knife. I ran towards my little girl as she began to rock back and forth, her whimpers soon would turn into cries if I didn't do something.

I touched her hands and her eyes shot open to look up at me and with a sense of relief, she stood up and wrapped her arms around my neck, refusing to let go. I stood with her attached to me like a leech and kept to the stream. I rubbed her back and soon, she fell asleep against my neck. I kept walking the creek bed until it dried out, leaving only a hallowed out ditch that weaved its way through trees and brush. I stepped over a fallen tree, holding onto her body so I wouldn't disturb her sleep she rarely achieved.

I looked up into the sun of a very hot day in Georgia and I begged God, or what ever was up there laughing down at us, to send me some help, a sign, anything to get my little girl to safety. As soon as I said that, a crowd of moans broke me from my so-called 'praying' and brought me to my stomach, waking my daughter up quickly.

"Daddy?"

"Shh," I pressed my finger against his lips, indicating the need to stay absolutely quiet. She nodded and pressed her finger to her lips, closing her eyes and I held her head against my chest, running towards, running towards a hill and lying against it, hoping the herd hadn't seen or heard the two of us.

I looked up through the tall weeds we lay in and the countless Blanks weaved through way through a mess of cars on the freeway that was only twenty feet away. Their moans and growls were something out of a comic book but, this comic book couldn't describe the terror they caused. My lip trembled as I kept my daughter pressed into my chest as hard as I could, shielding her away from the evil that walked by us.

Just as I saw the last one pass by, I released a bit of my grip from her and looked up a little more only to be stricken with a small scream. I looked down to my daughter who still had her finger pressed against her lips and realized…

"Survivors." I held onto her small body as tightly as I could and ran up the small hill the freeway ran over and jumped across the wooden and metal guardrail. I tucked myself behind a car as I heard people calling out and a soft cry permeate the air around the two of us.

"Daddy!" She looked up at me, her blue eyes now looking away from me and up behind me. I spun around and saw a silent Blank having gotten close to us. I dropped her quickly and pulled the knife out as fast as I could, ramming the large blade into the eye of the Blank, watching it fall backwards and into the back of a flipped over car.

Something pushed against me, making me trip and fall on top of my daughter; only my hands and knees stopped me from crushing my daughter with the falling weight. I spun my head around quickly, watching two Blanks follow a little girl who jumped over the guardrail we had just crossed, keeping silent as they tracked the screaming young girl.

I pushed myself up and grabbed my daughter, jumping over the lifeless corpse that I had killed and ran through the jungle of cars I had just crossed and watched as the girl ran through the brush. I sheathed my knife and picked up my daughter against my chest, watching the little girl scream and the two Blanks following her.

"We got another one!" I heard behind me.

I was just about to turn around when a sharp pain soared through my arm; the burning sensations made me scream, dropping my daughter as I grabbed onto my arm. I looked down; blood covering my hand and quickly falling down my left arm. The feeling of my arm being ripped open was an understatement; I felt the hot burn getting worse as I sucked in a huge breath.

"God damn it!" I screamed, dropping to my knees as I screamed out.

"Daddy!" She screamed, running to me and grabbing onto my shoulder, shaking it as I sucked in deep breaths to help with the pain while my daughter's pale blonde hair flew into my face.

The sound of a gun cocking behind me silenced me and my daughter. She was sobbing silently as she stared to the person behind me, her lips quivering as her big blue eyes were locked on to the threat. I reached my arm out for her, trying to grab her and pull her in front of me, trying to keep her safe.

"Don't fuckin' touch her." A rough southern drawl came from behind me.

"Daddy?" Her voice was laced with sobs as she cried out again, her tears running down her face as she tried running towards me. Two hands grabbed a hold of her, pulling her away from me. "DADDY!" She screamed, kicking and screaming as a tall woman with long brown hair pulled her away from me, taking her away.

"Give me back my daughter! Hailey!" I screamed, trying to jump up but a boot crushing into my back, slamming me down into the asphalt under us. My cheek fell hard and the tiny, hard rocks were cutting into me as I struggled to get out from under the heavy boot that was holding me down. "Hailey!"

"Shut up! Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" Another southern voice shouted, this time though, a pair of boots coming into view where that fucking woman took her away.

"I'm just trying to survive! Give me back my daughter!" I shouted, my eyes seeing red as the only thing I could see were his boots and his knees.

"How do we know you weren't bit?" He asked his voice stern as if he had authority.

"Because some guy cut me with a knife! He ran after that girl who ran through the woods now, get off of me!" I shouted, trying to push myself up only to succeed in being pushed down again.

"Why were you followin' us?" The first southern and rough voice asked.

"I wasn't following you; I'm just trying to find other survivors!" I screamed back at them, finally getting enough pressure to push the boot off of me and flipping over onto my ass, jumping up and grabbing the sheathed knife, holding onto the handle with all my might, staring down the two men who were questioning me.

A guy around my age held a hand gun up, his thick black hair soaked in sweat from the hot Georgia heat. I looked to the other man who stood with a crossbow aimed directly at me; his eyes squinted as he took in his target: me.

"Give me back my daughter." I said, my face contorted and twisted with anger I had never felt before.

"Why should we? For all we know you could have stolen her and do who knows what, you bastard."

"Are you rapin' her, you sick fuck?"

I growled, my body shaking as I looked towards the ground as I tried holding back from ripping them apart. How dare they accuse me of even thinking about hurting my own child? That was my baby, my child who I saved and then risked my life for months to care for, to protect in this apocalyptic world.

"How dare you," I spat out, dropping my hand from my knife and walking away from them and towards the woman who took my child.

"You better quit walkin' or I'll shoot." The one with the hand gun said, his head cocking to the side as if he were intimidating.

"Do it but, I'm getting my child." I snapped back, walking through the sea of cars towards an RV with a grouping of women and a couple of men around it. I held onto my arm, feeling the blood still seeping out of the still fresh knife wound. I listened as the two men were arguing, most likely about me but, I could only hope they find that girl that ran off.

As I neared the old yellow and dated RV, I grabbed onto the ladder that was bolted to the back of the RV and heard the gasps of the women as I appeared.

"Listen here, you man," an older man started to say, his rifle fitting rough into his hands. His fishing cap was dirty and I went silent as I ignored everything he said, searching behind him to find Hailey. "Have you been listening to anything I said?" He finally asked, reaching for my attention and finally able to grasp it.

"Yeah, I'm listening." I said sharply, eyeing him as he stiffened, watching as I took in deep and staggered breaths.

"No, you haven't. Look, you're hurt; let us help you." He said, passing the rifle off to a short blonde woman who just kept watching me with those blue/green eyes like she wanted to say something, reach out and touch me.

I shook my head and sucked in another hard breath as the pain radiated through the wound, making me hold onto it a lot harder than I ever thought was possible. The more I hurt, the more I grabbed and the more I grabbed, the more it hurt. It was a lose/lose situation. As I turned my head back to the older man and the blonde woman, I swallowed my pride and nodded.

"Please, just give me back my daugh…" I swayed, feeling light headed as I reached for the edge of the RV, only to see my hand stretched out in front of me, reaching for the ladder that was slowly falling away.

"Hey, hey, are you alright?" A woman's voice echoed in my head and it felt like she was just screaming into my ear. I wanted to push her away, whatever it was away. I stretched my hand and felt the hair from her head; it was completely greasy and I swallowed, trying to open my eyes and finding the Georgia sun was a demonic son of a bitch.

I grinded my teeth as I finally forced myself to open my eyes, her face now in front of the sun, eclipsing it as she saw me struggling.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked again, her voice now velvet compared to the harpy voice from before. I opened my eyes all the way now, looking up into her face as she smiled back down at me, her blue/green eyes shining brightly as I shook my head and pushed myself, my free hand rubbing my head as I nodded and accepted that yes, I did pass out and probably looked like a fool.

"I'm fine." I was able to get out, my throat coarse as I spoke. I looked to my left arm, seeing the blood having started to coagulate and the blood dry all around it. I began to stand up, only to have this woman grab onto my right arm, knowing the pain from my left.

"It looks like you passed out." The older man said as he neared me and helped grab my other arm gently, realizing why the blonde woman grabbed my right arm. "Come on over here and I'll have Andrea fix you right up." He said, giving a very strained smile.

I nodded, following the path they led me down and up into the RV where all I heard was a tiny squeal and felt the thud that came with the small scream and felt two arms wrap around my legs, a grip tighter than any clamp in this world couldn't compare to her hugs. I shook my arms free from Andrea and the old man and reached down, pulling her up with my right arm and with the strength I never knew I had, I perched her against my side, pulling her into me as I soaked into her warmth.

She cried against my chest, her tears soaking my dirty and sweaty shirt as my hot breath soaked her hair. "I'm sorry, Hailey. I promise I'll protect you better."

"Okay, Daddy."

"So, where are you from?" The older man had asked. He had introduced himself as Dale as he sat me down at the table within the RV for Andrea to start patching up the wound.

I watched as Andrea kept her eyes completely focused at the task at hand, her fingers very steady as she cleaned the cut well and proceeded with stitching it. "I'm from Los Angeles." I said as I continued to watch her. I turned my attention back to Dale for the respect of conversation. Hailey was playing with a young boy who I had been told was named Carl.

"What are you doing all the way out here in Georgia?" Dale had asked, intrigued with this new discovery.

I looked away from them, turning my attention back to the happy laughing in the bedroom of the RV where my daughter was.

"Ah, your little girl, I understand. How was it that she was here?" Dale asked, his dark eyes scanning me as he interrogated me.

"Her mother." I cut it short, looking out the window of the RV and staring into the forest Hailey and I had been in almost an hour ago.

"A sensitive subject, huh?" He asked as if he were all knowing.

"Just a bit." I nodded and then looked back to Dale, giving him a knowing look which he took respectively.

"I never caught your name." Andrea spoke up, her fingers pulling the needle and thread through my skin.

I nodded and chuckled a tad, shaking my head as I contemplated whether I should let them know or not. I had no idea who these people were. What did they want from us? Were they going to kill us like savages or hold us ransom like an old civilization? No, that only happened in the movies and I knew a whole lot about that.

I sighed and looked back out the window as I watched the edge of the forest for anymore Blanks that may have become stranded from the herd. "My name is Jason, Jason Knight."

Andrea stopped sewing and looked up at me. "Oh, my god. You're the Jason Knight?" She looked like she was about to faint and I realized at that moment, maybe I should have gone with a different name, perhaps my real name instead of the screen name.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Wow, hold on. I have to go tell Lori and Carol!" She smiled and jumped up, running out of the RV and yelling something incoherent to the women who were still outside.

"I have no idea what they're talking about." Dale whispered, leaning towards me as he shook his head, trying to make sense of why Andrea became a lunatic in just two seconds.

"Come on, come on!" Andrea shouted as she charged up the steps of the RV and ran towards Dale and me. I pushed myself as far as I could backwards so that I could give myself just a little bit of room to breathe.

"No way, I thought I recognized him when I saw him!" The woman with the long brown hair that had taken Hailey said.

"Oh, he is even much cuter in person. Ed never let me watch his movies alone and now I know why." The shortest of the three women said. Her hair was cut short and was salt and pepper in colour; she could have used a definitely colouring but, she had that natural beauty most women would kill to achieve.

"Ladies, why are you bothering this poor man? You're acting as if he were a movie star." Dale laughed, looking back at me so that I would join in laughing about his joke. When I never returned the laugh or even gave a hint of a smile, his face lost its composure and he nodded. "I guess the jokes on me then. How come you never told us?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. We're only humans now, either trying to survive or become one of them." I looked out of the window again, nodding and having accepted the world as it was. "We must survive, whether we want to or not."

The three women continued to look at me with glitter and hopes in their eyes. Lori and Andrea smiled and Carol held her hands against her chest, her eyes tearing up.

"He's even more amazing when he speaks. It's so… glorious!" Lori whispered to Andrea, not minding her volume.

I looked to Dale and at the same time, we sighed and rolled our eyes. I looked down to the almost complete stitching of my arm then looked to Dale again. Dale took the hint and nodded, looking to the women and giving them a smile. "Ladies, why don't you give him some room, hmm? He's been through a lot recently and with all this heat of the Georgia sun, it's amazing he hadn't passed out from heat stroke."

Lori nodded and Andrea sighed, reaching for my arm.

"I'll take care of that, Andrea. Why don't you go with Carol and Lori and see if they've found Sophia yet?" Dale asked, more than motioning for them to leave.

As Dale ushered them out, he chuckled, shaking his head as he did so. "I can't believe those ladies. They're acting like teenagers, ha ha."

"Don't worry, they were just fans. I have had much, much worse."

"Oh yeah? What happened? Did someone try and cut off your hair and clone you?" Dale laughed and cleaned his hands before starting to work on the stitching.

"No, not that crazy." I laughed finally, shrugging my shoulders as Dale began to finish the stitching Andrea should have done. "So, how long have you and the others been together?" I looked at the old man who widened his eyes and took a deep breath in, thinking long and hard about how they all finally found each other.

"It's a long story but, I had found Andrea and her sister, Amy, stuck on the side of the road. I helped them into the RV and once outside Atlanta when all Hell broke loose, we met up with the others: Lori, Shane, Daryl, Carol and her family."

"Carol? The shorter woman?"

"Yeah, her husband was killed in our camp during the night when a herd had found us; ripped him wide open. I shouldn't say he deserved it but, sometimes, putting your hands on your wife in public out of anger allows the laws of this world to have you ripped to shreds." He chuckled, looking back up at me as I joined in on the laughter. "But, what happened just a couple of hours ago was something no one had expected."

"That huge herd, right?"

"Oh yeah." Dale nodded, finishing up on the knot and tugging it just a tad to keep it tight. "We were absolutely scared shitless and I can personally vouch for that. That little girl though, Sophia, had gotten out from under the car, thinking it was all over. One of the Walkers almost caught her, forcing her to move away and back under the undercarriage. She screamed, which made it even worse, catching the attention of another Walker to come after her. And then, she ran away. Rick chased after her, telling all of us to stay put, saying he'd take care of it. It looks like he hasn't and that's a darn shame. Poor girl," Dale ended, cleaning the stitch with some hydrogen peroxide he pulled from a bucket underneath the small sink in the RV.

"So, was that Rick who cut me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as he nodded, taking a seat opposite of me at the table.

"Yep. I guess he thought you were a Walker."

"A Walker, huh? Is that what you call them?"

Dale nodded again, pulling his fisherman's cap off of his head and wiping his sweaty forehead. "Yeah, why? What do you call the 'undead'?"

I shook my head and looked back out of the window. "Walker sounds much more threatening than Blank." I chuckled, grabbing the bottom of my shirt and wiping my face of its sweat.

"Well, I guess it's anyone's prerogative out here now; no rules, no political correcting. Just good ol' fashioned 'kill or be killed' or rather, 'kill or be killed and join the undead'." Dale laughed out, shaking his head at the poorly executed joke.

"It's so true though. I don't know how I kept her alive for as long as I did." I motioned to Hailey as she played with the young boy, Carl, on the bed.

Dale turned around and smiled, his dark eyes gleaming as he saw the children playing as if nothing was wrong. As he turned back towards me, he had a serious look on his face. His black eyebrows were drawn down as he looked at me. "I have another question and I am so sorry to keep bothering you about it but, why did her mother leave her? Was she killed?"

I kept my eyes on Hailey, her smile brightening the small room as they read mathematic books. I shook my head and looked back to Dale. "How could a woman, a mother, just leave her own child? I asked myself that for what has felt like years. I questioned humanity once the virus spread, bagging up all the belongings I could and boarded a private aircraft headed to Atlanta, non-stop. I had gotten a call from my daughter's neighbor who I had asked to keep me informed on how she was doing, any violence or shit like that; and as soon as I answered that call, I couldn't stop myself from feeling betrayed, angered. The neighbor had told me she had Hailey and that a fire was spreading through the city. She said it was like wildfire and that people were trying to break down her door, trying to kill her as soon as she locked it with Hailey inside.

"She told me that Hailey's mother had run off with her dude, leaving her screaming in that empty apartment as the city began to burn. Her mother left her to die, to rot and be burned by the malicious fire that was somehow sweeping through the city and I was still in Los Angeles, still waiting for the damn plane to take off. I had no idea what I was going to do, I…"

"Dale! Rick's back! Sohpia's gone…" Andrea shouted, her face reddened with distress.


A/N: Did you like it? Review and tell me if you praise it, don't like it or want to stomp on it while it burns. Do it.

-Laania