A/N: Hi! This is my very first Walking Dead fic. I'm a complete junkie, and the story just came to me out of nowhere. Obviously I have an OC, actually two, but if you decide to read you'll see how fast they wind up with actual characters from the show. Reviews and constructive criticism welcome. So, here goes:
Stumbling Faith Chapter 1
Cate trudged on along the tracks, switching her weapon from one sweaty hand to the other. She took a sidelong glance to her left, watching her son, Tyler, drink from his canteen as he continued to move in sync with her.
She remembered not understanding why her son wanted to collect swords, but she'd rolled her eyes and gone along with it. The items were quite handy now, good heft, easy to jab into a skull with. That didn't mean she didn't carry a rifle with a scope, as did Tyler, but noise was an enemy to two people who constantly found themselves going it alone in this strange world.
Not that Cate wasn't used to going it alone, or having it just be her and her son. At fifteen, she had gotten pregnant, and her parents had disowned her. Life had been difficult, especially those first few years when jobs had been hard to come by and harder to maintain with a baby at home and few support systems.
But, being the mother she had to be, she pulled herself out of the muck and had received her Master's Degree, beginning her career as a Nurse Anesthetist. Throughout the years, Cate had also remembered to thank the grace of God. Though her parents had rejected her on their interpretations of the faith she'd been raised in, she had always found help and support from the church, especially during her most difficult years. She had remained Catholic and had raised her son in the faith as well.
Before everything had gone to hell, she and then sixteen-year-old Tyler had been recent transplants in their Atlanta suburb. She had been going about her job, happy to see that it was worth the transfer and everything it had promised. Tyler was enrolled in karate and jiu-jitsu, making new friends at school, and, despite her assertions that it wasn't necessary, continued his survivalist lessons, picking up where he'd left off from in Massachusetts.
Of course, now, she held her tongue about his six years of training, as it had saved their lives day after day.
However, they hadn't always been on the road.
They had started out in a place called Woodbury, finding it pleasant at first until the man who called himself The Governor seemed more like a megalomaniac day after day. Once he started talking about training everyone to be in an army, mother and son had slipped off into the night.
The two had heard about a settlement in a prison and talked about joining, even though The Governor had publicly reviled and demonized its' residents. Ultimately, the two did not go. During their discussions, Tyler had outlined more of what The Governor had been saying to the young men he expected to fight for him. In short, he had horrific plans for those people and had them drastically outnumbered and outgunned.
Both had been somewhat surprised a few days before when they passed the ruins of the prison, the crushed buildings and the many walkers inside of what had probably once been secure fences. Cate and her son took a moment later that night to thank God that they had made the decision to stay away, and to pray for the souls lost in what appeared to be a horrific attack.
Just the two of them, they would find cabins, shacks and small houses to stay in for a couple of days at a time. They would scavenge and hunt and set walker traps and alarms around wherever they were staying. It was a life that required constant vigilance and left no time for them to process the fear they should have been feeling for what they had been witnessing.
A couple of days ago, they had spotted a sign and a map, a place called Terminus promising shelter and community for all. Mother and son had not debated, or even spoke about it. Instead, after reading the first sign, they looked at each other and shrugged as if to say why not? They then proceeded to follow the map.
Tyler stopped, and indicated for his mother to do the same. He turned to his left and trained his binoculars past the line of trees. "There's some cabins over that way. We should head there before we lose daylight."
"Sounds like a plan, Stan," Cate replied, hitching her pack and rifle further up on her shoulders and making to follow her son. She knew words could never describe her love and pride for her boy, her boy that had grown into a fine man despite having no father and despite the wreck the world was in.
Tyler was tall at six foot three and strong, his movements graceful and purposeful after his years of martial arts. His dark hair and eyes were Cate's shade and he was a young man of few words, choosing meaning over mass. She was glad that they had somehow made it though this together, just as they had everything else in their lives.
Cate focused on the ground as they went, noticing human tracks here and there. This usually meant that pickings would be slim as far as provisions went, but the buildings still could be secure enough to hole up in as they had enough supplies to last them for a bit. When she looked upward closely, she could still see the smoke from a large fire somewhere to the west. She hoped the walkers were still attracted to it, as they were moving steadily east of it.
As they continued toward the cabin Tyler had apparently selected, she remembered back to the beginning of this mess, remembered a fight she and her son had had.
"I don't get it, Mom," Tyler said in frustration, his eyes locking with hers over the candlelight. "How can you possibly believe in God after all of this? Why did you put Holy Water on the bodies of those, those things that would have eaten us without a second thought? Why did we say Grace over this," he gestured to their meal of canned ravioli. "You act like this is some kind of fancy dinner. Chef Boyardee isn't exactly filet mignon and lobster, Ma!"
She saw the tears of frustration in her son's eyes as she composed a response. She knew the content of what she wanted to say, she just needed to phrase it to her son properly. She put down her fork, dabbed at her mouth, and looked Tyler in the eye.
"God did not do this, Ty. Man did this. Science probably had a hand in this, science that should have not been brought into being. But we have free will, and you and I both know that sometimes free will takes us into a direction that doesn't belong to God."
"But why did He let this happen to us?" The young man lowered his gaze to his own plate, moving his fork absentmindedly. "This is awful, just, I don't have any word but awful. Our friends, our neighbors . . ."
"Their souls are already gone, thankfully," Cate placed her hand over her son's free one. "What's left of them is something gone amok that has nothing to do with you or me or God. The reason why I bless those bodies is because they were never given last rites when they died, and I want to do that. What makes them into this isn't of the God we know and love, but He's already taken their souls."
"How can you still believe, Mom? How can you still believe in a loving and merciful God? He let this happen. To us."
"Don't you see, Tyler? That's why I believe. Because you and I are together, despite the odds. Neither of us have turned into one of those creatures and we get to see what comes next, side by side. If I had lost you, I probably wouldn't have my faith, but I do have you, so the rest is easy. Maybe God decided to hit the reset button, just like He's done before. His ways aren't always pretty, but I'm always gonna believe in him because I have you. Can you possibly understand this?" Now her eyes were brimming with tears.
"I promise to try," Tyler kept his gaze low, he didn't want his mom to see him crying, but she already had as she made her way over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I love you, Baby, more than you could ever comprehend," she kissed her son's head. "We'll do this together, okay?"
Still trying not to betray his emotions, Tyler simply nodded and put his hands on his mother's arms.
"Mom," Tyler said, breaking Cate out of her memory. "Let's eyeball the grounds first, then we'll sweep the cabin."
Cate nodded, and got into their customary position, back to back, no one left unchecked, and they slowly made their way around the grounds of the cabin.
Finding the area clear except for some old tracks that belonged to deer and living humans, they entered the shack in a similar fashion, Cate leading the way with Tyler at her back, sword at the ready. One room was easy enough to check, so after mutually declaring an all-clear, Tyler immediately went to work securing the windows while Cate assessed the amenities, happy to find a wood burning stove that would provide them an ability to cook, boil drinking water and warm the cabin.
"I'm gonna go get some firewood in a few minutes, Ty, why don't you set the snares and see if you can't get a rabbit or two so that we can conserve our canned stuff." She turned to her son and began to dig through her pack for the various road signs she had stashed in there. They made a great alarm system for walkers when strung together. "I'll alarm the place and then get the fire going."
Tyler simply nodded his assent. Most of the windows were covered, which meant there had been people there before them. No matter now, he thought, this could be a nice place to hole up for a couple of days before walking in the hot sun again.
He walked out before his mother went to set her alarms, sword at his side as always, trapping line in the other hand. He headed out toward the treeline, moving closer to the other cabins, hoping they were empty, or, if they weren't, that the inhabitants would want their peace like he and his mother.
He focused on the task at hand, and began setting up his snare lines, one ear cocked for his mother as always. As Tyler bent down to test the tension on the wire, the breeze sent him what sounded like a voice. His head snapped up, it wasn't his mom. Taking a tentative, quiet step toward the north, where the breeze was coming from, he paused to listen again. There it was again. He took another step. Maybe the lack of other people was making him hallucinate, he'd heard of things like that all the time. One more step, and there it was, faint, but distinguishable this time: "Help, please, somebody help me!"
He wasn't making a mistake and he wasn't hallucinating. Swiftly, quietly, he made his way to where his mother was collecting kindling. He took her arm and led her back to his original place without a word. Tyler put his finger to his lips and indicated for his mother to be quiet and listen. He waited patiently and guided her a few steps more to the north until her eyes went wide and he knew she heard it, too.