Author's Note/Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead, and I actually don't even own Crawford. For those of you who've played The Walking Dead Game, you'll know about it. I thought it would be fun to bring it into the regular series, so it may pop up again later (or one of the characters from the game, I haven't decided yet). In light of The Walking Dead starting up again, I've decided to start putting this story out there along with my other one, so let me know how I'm doing! I'll do my best to update decently.

Chapter 1:

Of all the decisions that Emma had made in her life, moving to Savannah Georgia had to be the dumbest one. Quickly followed by her decision to steal a car in the lot with no air conditioning. The heat- or, more specifically, the humidity- was killer.

Of course, that wasn't the only killer roaming these days…

Emma shook herself. 'No need to think about the fact that people are starting to come back from the dead to eat each other,' she thought furiously. 'Or…that place. Just focus on surviving.'

Right now, surviving meant water. Just because she could practically drink the air did not mean she wasn't going to get dehydrated eventually.

Emma had run in to car trouble after a few hours from Savannah, and so had to store the gas she'd had for three days before finding a workable car. The second car had a map in the passenger side door. Consulting it, Emma realized that she was pretty near Atlanta by now. She also realized that just outside of Atlanta by now. She also realized that just outside of Atlanta there was an abandoned quarry, which, theoretically, would have plenty of water. She looked at the empty jug gallons in the back seat, the prickle in her throat becoming more pronounced.

"Guess I'm going to Atlanta." She said dryly, pulling to the proper turn off.

TWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWD

As Emma drop up through the hills towards her water source, she actually missed the turn off trying to remember how long you had to boil water before it was drinkable. 'Was it 30 minutes… I think it was 30 minutes…' She thought, absently passing the turn and going straight.

She did have a kettle in the back, and some matches. With all these trees around she could find some wood to burn…or maybe she could ask those people over there if they had any…oh shit.

She stopped the car slowly, making sure she had her gun on her hip. She hadn't come across any living people since she'd left, and she couldn't be sure they'd be friendly. Especially when two or three of them were already pointing guns at her.

"Crap." Emma muttered, sighing at the number of cars and people. "Should've payed attention." She turned off the engine and cracked the window.

"You going to shoot if I step out?" She called to the group.

There was a pause before one called back. "Only if you do."

Fair's fair, she supposed. She shrugged and slowly got out of the car, hands slightly raised. She knew that they would be able to see her gun, but she wasn't about to go out without it!

There were three guys in the front holding guns- one Hispanic, one with curly black hair and combat boots, and one with short brown hair in jeans. What surprised Emma was the group of people behind them- some men, some women, an older guy, even a couple of kids.

At once Emma relaxed a little. 'They have kids,' She thought to herself. 'They're not the same as…them.'

The man in the combat boots stepped forward, almost aggressively. "How'd you get up here?" He demanded.

Emma shrugged. "Used a map. Saw there was an old quarry around here and figured I could get some water." She eyed a few water jugs in the back of a Jeep parked behind the group. "But I guess that you guys control that?"

"Our camp uses it," The man with the brown hair clarified. He looked just as tense as the others, as well as comfortable with his weapon as the first guy who'd spoken. But this one seemed much less aggressive. Emma decided to try her luck with him.

"I'm really sorry to have bothered you," She said sincerely, directly to him rather than the three. "I just came for some water. I can get some and be on my way."

The two men glanced at each other. "You alone?" The first one asked.

Emma nodded. "I used to be with people. Didn't work out." She shrugged. "I've only been on my own for a few days."

The guns lowered slightly, but the combat boots still looked suspicious. "Who were you with?" He fired at her. "And why did you leave?" Immediately Emma stiffened.

Both the Hispanic and Jeans looked at the guy sharply. "Shane, that's not our business," Jean guy said, which Emma appreciated.

"The hell its not, Rick! No one just wanders away from a group voluntarily. We need to think about who this woman is and who she may be leading up here!" The combat boots guy- Shane- retorted.

Emma stepped forward, making the guns jerk up again. "Who I am is Emma Conway," She said carefully, raising her hands. "I moved to Savannah two years ago from New Hampshire. No one-" She emphasized this strongly- "No one is looking for me or following me. I'm just trying to survive like the rest of you."

There was another pause filled with tension, but Jeans Guy closed the gap between them and held out a hand to shake. "I'm Rick Grimes." He offered. "That's Shane Walsh and Morales." Morales nodded at her and she returned the gesture. Shane just grunted.

"I'm sorry about that," Rick said, and Emma smiled a little.

"No worries. You're protecting your camp. I just didn't realize I was so threatening," she joked.

More people from the camp started coming closer, like deer scared of a gunshot. There were a couple of blonde girls, a young Asian guy, a brunette woman with her hand on the shoulder of a little boy, another woman with a little girl, and the older man with a fishing hat.

Emma waved awkwardly at the before shoving her hands into her back pockets.

"There are other people out there?" One of the blonde girls asked, sort of excited. "More groups like us?"

Emma hesitated. "I'm sure there are," She said neutrally.

"You said you were with other people," Shane said, narrowing his eyes.

Emma sighed. "I was, but they were nothing like you." She said, almost tired. "They aren't a group you want to hook up with."

"Can you tell us anything?" Rick prodded a little. "Anything at all? We might run into these guys at some point."

"You won't." Emma said with certainty. "They're all shacked up in Savannah, it's highly doubtful they'll wander off. Unless the apocalypse happens again."

That explanation didn't seem to do much to settle the crowd. Emma knew that explaining wasn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and Rick had a point when he said that they might run into them. They needed to know what some people were capable of. There was just one small part of her that wanted to keep those secrets buried.

"It's called Crawford." She said reluctantly. Everyone perked up, seeing she was finally spilling about other survivors.

"After everything started going to hell, one neighborhood in Savannah blocked itself off from everything else. Started forming their own little Utopia- scavenged food, guns, gas, anything that might be useful. While the rest of the world around them went to shit, they survived. If you lived there, you had guards, a place to stay, food and water." She took a breath. "On the face of it, Crawford was a paradise."

"Then the rules started coming down on us."

Emma leaned against the hood of her car, pulling her hair into a ponytail- a nervous habit she'd picked up years ago.

"Crawford wanted to make sure it survived. To do that, they decided to start cutting out weaknesses. They started weeding out people that they thought couldn't pull their own weight. Anyone who was old, or sick and required special care, any…" She looked at the little girl and boy sadly, "…any children, they all were ruled as a waste of precious resources. And Crawford couldn't afford to waste resources."

There was a long silence. Emma saw both mothers clutch their children closer. The older man ran a hand over his face. Shane and Rick both looked sick.

"They…they killed them?" The Asian kid asked. "All of them?"

Emma smiled wryly. "The old and sick. They started rounding them up like cattle and leading them off to be killed." She left out the fact that they were killed inside the hospital. She left out that Crawford stacked the bodies around their 'borders' to warn people away.

"The children were just kicked out, with their parents, and left to fend for themselves."

After she finished, everyone just looked shell-shocked. They had always thought the danger came from the Walkers, but apparently the living could be just as deadly.

"That's why you left?" Rick finallya sled. Emma knew it was coming, and really at this point, there was no reason to lie. The more you lied, the easier it was to get tangled up in what you told people, and the more likely you were to lose their trust anyways.

"Mostly. But I know if I hadn't, they'd have come for me sooner or later." She crossed her arms. "When I was in college, I was diagnosed with lupus; it's an auto-immune thing. It's not going to kill me or anything, but it affects my joints and sometimes makes me slow down. Under Crawford's list of what was and wasn't allowed, I was under the 'walker fodder' category."

No one seemed to know what to say to that, and Emma didn't really need them too. She'd had lupus long enough that it didn't really phase her anymore. They wanted honesty and she'd given it to them.

"So that's why I'm alone." She said, shrugging. "Been that way for almost a week and I've survived. So really when I tell you I stumbled here by accident, I mean it. And when I tell you that I don't anything other than water, I mean it."

Rick stepped forward with a sympathetic look on his face. "We believe you," He said softly, though Emma could tell that didn't apply to the whole group. Plenty were still eyeing her suspiciously. "You know, our camp is pretty secure, and we could always use more hands-"

"Woah woah woah, Rick!" Shane burst out, grabbing the other man's shoulder. "You hear one little sob story and you're just going to let her right in?"

Both Rick and Emma bristled. "What are you suggesting, that we just throw her back out there?" Rick asked, voice hard.

"Look man, we don't know anything about this chick except the sob story she just told us. For all we know, she was part of that town and she left anyway!" Shane argued. "We've got to think about the mouths we have to feed already! How do we know what good she'd even be?"

"Excuse me." The words were quiet, but the venom behind them was overwhelming. "SHE is right here, and SHE can hear every word you're saying!" Emma hated being treated like a special case, but she hated more when people acted as though she was using her "special case" to her advantage. She did have some self-respect.

Shane just rolled his eyes. "You want a prize for that or something, princess?"

"Look, I didn't come here to join up with another group!" Emma snapped. "I just want to get some water and I'll be out of your hair! I'll even trade you for it, if that makes you feel any better."

Rick moved like he was going to protest, but Shane stopped him. "Trade what?"

Emma did a quick mental inventory. "I've scavenged a lot of medicine along the way here- antibiotics, pain meds, that sort of thing. I can give you a couple of boxes for a couple of hours to get water."

Seeing that Shane was not backing down, Rick could only sigh. "That sounds like a fair arrangement," He said.

Emma retreated into her car and pulled out a couple of boxes of cold medicine, antibiotics and pain meds. She also threw in a bottle of Aloe, knowing that a sunburn now would be a pretty big pain that no one needed. She jumped out of the car, walked up to Rick and started handing him items. Shane seemed like he was more in charge, but he was a jerk and Rick seemed like a reasonable person. She actually respected him.

"I'm sorry about this," He said as he took the medicine. "I can talk to Shane, you shouldn't have to go-"

"It's fine." Emma said shortly. "I wasn't coming to find a new group. I just wanted some time to get some water."

She kind of felt bad for snapping at him, but she had just told a group of strangers her weakness, and she was getting kicked out without ever being let in. She really didn't owe them anything.

Right now, she just wanted water.