Authors note: I do no own the Walking Dead universe, that belong to the brilliant writers and directors of the show and comic books. The only things I own are my OC's, Lexi and Evelyn.

As for the Rating, I gave it an M for language and future scenes with Daryl, and well just in case too.

Also, I have posted a story up before with the same name, however, my laptop had a hard drive malfunction and all my files were lost so I was forced to do a complete rewrite. I don't have a beta, yet, but I do spend an extra day looking over grammatical errors. If there is something off though, I apologize.

As always, comments and constructive criticism are always welcome and hope you like the story. I will probably be posing a chapter a week, but if there are enough people asking for them sooner I might be willing to work overtime to make that happen. ;)

I will stop my rambling now, hope you enjoy!

-DragonLady

Updated 4-23-2016 If you have read my latest updates then you know I no longer have a laptop :( but I am going through every chapter and tweaking and/or adding some things. Maybe I'll even figure out how I can put out another chapter with only my iPhone...we'll see!

"There is nothing permanent except change."

-Heraclitus

Chapter 1 - Call of the Zombie

There's a moment, a single glorious, or disastrous moment, in which you realize that life has changed forevermore. After this moment you finally realize there's no going back to the way things used to be. From that moment on you grow and evolve to adapt to new situations, you find yourself changing and you can only hope it's for the better. At first I believed this moment came with puberty, then my high school graduation, then finally the end of the world as I knew it. Though it was true for a while, my moment of realization came after the end of civilization, after I had once again become accustomed to life, that's when I was hit with a moment of clarity so profound it almost knocked my on my backside.

Now all I can do is hope for the best as I stare down the barrel of my Smith and Wesson 1911TA E-Series and feel time slow as the body slowly makes it's way to the ground, eternally lifeless. The barrel still smokes while I turn to my left and fire once more, all thoughts clear from my mind as I do so. The recoil feels reassuringly familiar, unlike the outcome I was so used to; no, this time it's not a piece of paper the bullet goes through, this time there's actually a body on the other end. I push the thought from my mind once more, there's no time for doubts at this moment.

It's difficult to think that just a couple months ago I was bitching about my obnoxious, misogynistic boss and unforgiving professors to my best friend/ roommate over Sangria Saturdays and reruns of Buffy. Everything changed so fast that no one had time to react. Listening to the news reports became a nightly occurrence, but I couldn't bring myself to believe completely even though there was always a nagging sensation trying to tell me to pull my head out of my ass and get the hell out of dodge. One minute it was just a sickness going around, next it was locking yourself in your house and waiting for help that would never come. How I so wish help actually came.

*Beep*Beep*Beep* "Ugghhh…shut up." I slam down on my alarm clock, hoping to stop the indecent howling. After my palm makes contact with the table, however, it doesn't stop the beeping in my ear. Maybe that's because I don't have an alarm clock…Wait, is that laughter?

I peel open my eyes, waiting for them to adjust until I see my roommate standing over my bed with her phone in her hand, laughing her ass off. "For once I'm up before you." She finally turns the alarm on her phone off and plops on my bed. "SO, since we both have the day off and finals are FINALLY over, I was thinking coffee then shopping for some cute summer clothes." Her face lights up with the prospect of spending all day at the mall while I fight the urge to fake gag.

I try to rub the sleep out of my eyes, "Lexi, in all the time we've been friends when have I ever wanted to spend an entire day shopping?" I throw the sheets off me and make my way to our shared bathroom. "The coffee, though, I'm all for."

"Call it wishful thinking, well I know you'll never turn down coffee so I'll got get some while you get ready." She jumps up from my bed and prances out the door.

A few moments go by when I hear what I assume is her slamming the front door behind her, one of her more annoying habits. I go to our bathroom turn the shower on and quickly slip in. The water helps wake me up and soothe my sore muscles. Long nights of practice have taken their toll; my shoulders and arms are the sorest I've ever felt them before, but with the competition coming up I need to make sure I'm at my best. Not only will it get me one step closer to becoming the best, but the prize money is also appreciated; after all, college ain't cheap.

Once the water begins to run cold I jump out and quickly begin to dry, I pat down my long, unruly hair before French braiding it. As I do my hair I look at my reflection, amazed at how much I look like the picture I have of my mother when she was in college; the same soft features that make me look younger than my 21 years, long strawberry blonde hair, and the same clover green eyes. The only major differences between my mom and I was her taller, more athletic build that helped her become a track star through college; whereas, I am barely 5'5 and have always had a smaller, more lethal frame and my toned arms showcase my longstanding affection towards archery. Not too long ago I resented the fact I looked so much like her, but now I'm happy about it.

Once I finish my hair I begin making my way to my room once more and start dressing. I pull out my favorite straight leg jeans and put on a purple tank top with a loose white top over it then grab my favorite pair of boots and slip those on. Now awake and ready for coffee, I eagerly make my way out to the living room to wait the few minutes for Lexi to get back.

I turn on the TV, the channel already on the news. With the strange sickness going around I've been watching the news every morning, waiting for it to get dramatically worse or for it to be inexplicably be over; being the pessimist I am I'm sure it's not the latter. I get my wish when the nervous reporter continues talking about the spread into local cities across the U.S., she talks about reports of people dying after being bitten by an infected person. Only they don't stay dead, they become "reanimated" and attack and bite the people around them. She shows a clip taken by a camera phone where a police officer shoots one of them repeatedly, but the person keeps moving and eventually attacks the officer and bites into their face. Afterwards, the reporter continues discussing military intervention and the president declaring martial law and state of emergency. I'm so engrossed by what she's saying, that the sound of the front door slamming open then closed makes me jump in fear and look towards the entrance where Lexi just stormed through.

"Holy shit Lexi…are you ok?" Not only is she gasping and slouched on the floor, but there's blood on her shirt and it sounds like she's hyperventilating. I can tell she's too scared to talk so I walk slowly over to her. Trying to make sure she's ok, I place my hand reassuringly on her shoulder. Instantly she slaps my hand away and stands up, but upon seeing my face she breaks down and starts crying. I give her a few minutes to calm down before asking, "What the hell happened?"

"Everyone is attacking each other." She takes another deep breath, trying to steady herself. "I was waiting in line when this guy comes up and starts biting the person in front of me then more people come in from outside and start attacking everyone, blood got everywhere and the screams…Eve the screams…" She breaths heavily as sobs continue in small bursts.

I walk back towards the TV where the reporter is talking about a refugee camp being set up in Atlanta by the military and suggests everyone to go when they believe the path is safe. In the middle of her explaining we should stay away from anyone who was bitten or scratched, an emergency broadcast comes on and the screen goes black. I don't bother listening to the broadcast, knowing that they'll probably just tell us to stay indoors and wait for help. If there's one thing I know for sure is help doesn't always come, usually you have to help yourself.

I look back at Lexi, who's standing and staring blankly at the TV. I kick into overdrive, knowing that if we stay here we'll likely never get help. "We have to get out of here." She turns her head towards me and nods in agreement. "Go pack a bag and we'll leave in 10. Are you going to be ok?" Our best bet is making it to that refugee camp.

She nods weakly, "I'll be ok, let's just get the hell out of here." She walks to her room and I make my way towards mine. I keep myself focused on the task at hand, right now there's no time to worry or freak out.

As I begin shoving clothes and other necessities in a duffle bag, I glimpse the cases on the top shelf of my closet. I pull the larger one down and open it up, thinking of late night practices and the competition that obviously won't happen. The Hoyt Buffalo with black limbs and silver riser was the first brand new bow I ever bought. The first time I won an archery competition I knew I was hooked, after that I started practicing after school to get ready for the next one. When the first bow I was using broke I was forced to abandon my passion for a while.

Knowing I would have to make the money myself, I got a part time job at a 24 hour gas station to make some money. It took a while, but eventually I saved up enough to buy my own bow. Tragically, when I got home after school all the money was gone, taken by my step father. Not long after that, I left his house in the middle of the night, not being able to stand living under the same roof as him any longer. I had to jump from one friends place to another until graduation. My unwavering desire to escape that life propelled me to study obsessively for school in order to get scholarships. Luckily, I managed to earn a full ride to an out of state university in Georgia and I gladly left California behind. It was only a year later that I managed to save up enough money working at a local bar to once again buy a bow. Ever since I've practiced every day, aiming to be the best and win every competition I could.

That doesn't look like it'll happen now; hell, who knows what'll happen now. I slide my hand down the all too familiar limbs, my heart dropping at this new revelation; everything I had worked so hard for, it was for naught. I try to push these thoughts down, knowing there's no time to feel sorry for myself.

I stand and get the second case from the top shelf, I pull the Smith and Wesson 1911TA E-Series out of the protective foam and slip it into the front band of my jeans after checking the magazine to make sure it's loaded. I take the extra magazines and ammo and shove those in the duffle as well. I grab my bow, flinging it over my back, and the quiver full of arrows on my way out of my room. Here we go.

"What in the fresh hell is going on now?!" I attempt to shake the wheel in frustration. As if this day couldn't get any worse, the road to Atlanta is jam packed and we haven't moved an inch in over an hour. At this point I don't even think there's enough room in Atlanta, maybe this refugee camp is a hoax.

"The radio is telling everyone to get to the refugee center in Atlanta, it was bound to be packed. We'll get there, hopefully." Lexi has been fiddling with the radio the whole time, when a message does make its way through the static its the same emergency broadcast, besides that there is nothing. Needless to say, I started zoning it out.

I hop out of the truck, a 1990 black Toyota Pickup. I picked her up off a junk yard for cheap and have slowly fixed her up; added a lift, wheels and tires, and a bumper. Working part time at a local bar plus the money from the archery competitions meant I had money and wanted to spend it. I still spent a lot of time in the woods so I needed a truck that could get me anywhere I wanted to go, and this baby does the job. I start stretching out, muscles sore from sitting in place for so long. "I want to go figure out what the hell is happening up there, coming?" Lexi nods her head and gets out of the truck silently. I make sure I have my gun in my waistband and lock my truck up.

We walk up the road and pass by parents trying to calm down their children, telling them they're going on a vacation, and people trying to rationalize what they saw as a flu gone wrong. I may not be a scientist, but I know this is something we've never seen before. We saw more people eating each other and cops trying to shoot at them, but they kept coming until they got shot in the head. It's all still hard to believe and I find myself wondering if it's all just a big nightmare. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and this'll all be some weird dream my drunk brain thought up, but I doubt it.

After walking a few minutes in silence, I notice more people have exited their cars and are walking up the hill same as us. I keep scanning the area and my eyes land on an older truck with two guys in the bed, I watch as they rip a cover off a motorcycle strapped in the bed. As we get closer I can start to hear their voices, but still can't understand what they're saying. The obviously older, bald one take notice of us first and gives me a creepy smile as he eyes me up and down.

He lets out a wolf whistle, making me stop in surprise, "Well, well. Look at this lil' bro…hey Red, let's go in the woods and bump uglies while we still alive." The guy next to him, his little brother, puts his head down and turns away. It's dark, but I make out that he has dark hair, blue eyes, toned arms and is much better looking than his brother. I always get the ugly ones hitting on me…

I look at him with venom, "I would rather grab a bull by the nut sack."

I turn around and begin walking off as he yells back, "I'll be your bull, sweet cheeks!"

Lexi is laughing beside me as I fake gag, laughing at the ridiculousness of that man, "Look, you're making friends already, Eve."

"Ha Ha, very funny." With my luck, that would be the type of guy I make fast friends of. I roll my eyes at the thought.

We keep walking until we come across some people standing around a Jeep and some older looking wagon type vehicle. There are two kids, a young girl and boy, and a woman, older with short hair and a kind face, by the rear end of the older car and a guy in the Jeep messing with the radio. I hear one of the kids saying they were hungry and the woman with short hair say she can get him something. As she goes around the car I see a mean looking guy that was standing off to the side shut the door in her face. I can't hear what he's telling her, but she get a frightened look on her face, one that I remember all too well, and I immediately decide I don't like the guy.

Feeling bad for the woman who was just trying to help I step in, "I've got a granola bar, m&m, trust me it's the best." The boy's eyes light up when I reach into my pocket and produce said bar, handing it over as he holds out his hand.

A woman with long dark brown hair comes up and puts her arms around his shoulder, obviously his mother, "Thank you for that." The guy that was in the Jeep walks up and stands in front of her, waiting.

The older woman comes up to us, looking distraught "Ed must have forgot to pack those MRE's, I found these in my purse." She produces some crackers.

"It's ok, this woman had something." She turns to me, "I didn't get you name."

"It's Evelyn, or Eve for short. This is Lexi. My truck is back there a ways, I was just coming up to see what's happening." Lexi, who is telling the kids about a time she went camping and ran out of food because a bear ate it, waves as I say her name.

"That's what we were about to do, I'm Lori," She points to the man in front of her, "This is Shane, and this little man is Carl." She ruffles his hair and he shoves her hand away playfully.

The older woman looks at me, an overly trying smile on her face, "And I'm Carol, this is Sophia," She hugs her daughter close to her, "And he's Ed." She gestures the the mean looking man smoking near the front of the car.

Lori steps closer to Carol and asks her to watch Carl for a minute while they walk up the highway. She kisses the top of his head and Shane fluffs his hair. I tell Lexi I'm going with them, she barely acknowledges me as she continues playing checkers with the kids. She's always been great with children, which is why she's studying to be a teacher.

I walk silently behind Shane and Lori, trying to figure out what they're talking about, but I'm unable to hear them as a loud banging reaches my ears. People start fighting in the street and we keep walking towards a clearing in the forest when we hear helicopters overhead. They start running, trying to figure out where the helicopters are doing and I follow. We make our way to a spot on the hill where the city is visible, at night everything looks so peaceful that you would think nothing bad is happening. We all watch silently as they make they're way over the city. Then the explosions start, making everyone gasp and some start crying. Shane says they're dropping napalm on the streets and pulls Lori closer to him as she starts crying.

At this point, I'm not sure what to think or do. Atlanta was supposed to be safe, that's why we are all on this highway. What are we supposed to do now? We have no where to go and still have no idea what's going on. I get this sinking feeling in my chest, and a take deep breaths to try and calm my beating pulse. I can't fall apart now, that's not going to solve anything. We just have to get someplace safe and wait this out.

We all stand there, staring at the devastation for what feels like hours. Finally, Shane starts walking back to where we came from, a distressed Lori right behind him. I follow without thinking since I have no other idea where to go and I can tell he has a plan by his determined gait.

We get back to the others and I know Lexi sees right away that something bad happened. Shane starts talking about some campsite he knows would be nice, but Lexi comes up to me and asks me what we're doing. I'm wondering the same thing, I don't have an idea and I'm not sure if we're invited to this place with Shane and the others, after all we just met them. I'm interrupted by Shane walking up to us.

"Lori and I talked it over, Carol and Ed are following and we wanted to extend the invitation to you two as well." Looking at him, I notice he has a shirt with a sheriff star and a holster with a gun. Well, cops are trustworthy right? Not like we have another option anyways…

"Thank you, I appreciate it." He starts to give us directions and I hope that Lexi remembers them because I have never been good at memorization. Once they all start getting into their vehicles, Lexi and I start heading back to my truck. I take a quick glance at the old ford and see the brothers sitting in their truck, the older one is in the drivers seat and the younger in passenger. Suddenly, the younger one looks my way and I can't seem to look away. I feel my cheeks redden even though I'm not sure why and turn around, hoping Lexi didn't notice. Luckily, she seems lost in thought and is staring straight ahead.

"We'll be ok." I'm not too sure why I said it, but I can only hope I'm right.

She looks at me and gives me a sad smile, "I think so too, eventually. At least they all seem like nice people. Hopefully this place is as nice as Shane was explaining it."

We make it to the truck, hop in, and set out. I drive out to the shoulder and try to remember the directions, luckily I spot a couple vehicles turing up a dirt road just ahead and follow them. I recognize the older vehicle as Carol and Ed's and Shane's Jeep just ahead. After following this road for a couple minutes, I see headlights in my rearview. "Looks like we got people following us."

She looks behind us before shrugging, "They probably had no where else to go either, right now everyone is lost."

"Strength in numbers I suppose. If things are as bad as it seems then we'll need to stick together to survive." She nods her head in agreement. The rest of the drive passes in silence until we finally come up to a clearing. It's hard to make anything out with how dark it is, but it's better than the highway. I park my truck away from Shane and Ed; mostly because I still don't know them and I like my personal space, but also because Ed gives me the creeps. I look over at Lexi and see that she's fallen asleep so I get out of the truck carefully and ease the door shut.

I walk over to Shane, who's getting a bag with a picture of a tent out of the back of his Jeep. He hands it to Lori and I see her start to set it up a few feet away. He nods his head at me, "We should be safe here, but we'll need to get some supplies to really set this place up." He pauses when more headlights appear in the clearing. "Looks like we got company."

I follow him out of curiosity. And it's good to know your neighbors, right? The first vehicle he walks up to is one I actually know, the old Ford with the two brothers. Of course, well this'll be interesting. The older one is leaning up against the passenger side door while the younger one leans up against the bed, eyes fixed on a crossbow in his hands. I've never been a fan of crossbows, so I don't know much about it just by looking at it.

Shane looks imposing as he stares at the brothers, "Who are you and why did you follow us?" Nice and blunt.

The older one gets closer to Shane, "Didn't know I need ta check in." His face changes from hostile to friendly, but an obviously fake kind of friendly. "Ain't got no where else ta go. Merle Dixon, sunshine there is Daryl." Merle looks over at me, recognition flying across his features. "Well, well if it ain't the spitfire from earlier. Ready to go off in tha woods yet?"

Ugghh, gross. Daryl looks up at the mention of spitfire and meets my gaze briefly before focusing on his crossbow again. "Not hardly."

Merle smirks at me before turning his attention back to Shane, "We hunt. We'll jus' set up oer' theren' stay outta your hair." He motions to a place tucked away from the main camping area. I don't realize I've been staring at Merle until he smirks and comments, "Unless ya want me there, Red." He looks at me seductively as he eyes me in a way that makes my skin crawl, and not in a good way. Seriously? Does this guy not take a hint.

"Look, if you need a tease and please that bad I'll shove my gun right up your a…" I don't get a chance to finish when I suddenly see Daryl's back. In the blink of an eye Merle stepped forward like he was about to hit me, but Daryl stepped in front of me and put a hand on his shoulder. He didn't say anything, but whatever he did worked as Merle backed off and started pacing around the truck. I can feel my heart pounding, wondering what would have happened if Daryl hadn't stepped in front of me. I was always told my temper would get me in trouble one day. I blame the Irish in me for my short temper.

Daryl turns around and glares down at me, "That was stupid." He has a deep accent common to those in Georgia and his voice sends shivers racing down my arms, partly due to the sexiness of said voice and party due to the severity of his words. He turns around and gets in the truck with Merle and I stand there speechlessly watching as they drive to their secluded section of camp.

Shane looks at me like a father about to lecture his child, "You should get some sleep, we'll probably be busy tomorrow settin' this place up." Shane doesn't wait for me to respond before walking off to the other vehicles.

That was excellent, piss off the moody redneck and make his brother think I'm an idiot. I can only imagine what Shane thinks of me as well. I storm off to my truck, half upset at myself and half at Shane for so casually dismissing me. Somehow I get in the truck without waking Lexi. I put my seat all the way back and eventually fall into a restless sleep, my mind throwing images of explosions and death into my nightmares.

Fun fact: Call of the Zombie is an introduction song to an album by Rob Zombie called Hellbilly Deluxe. I thought it a fitting first chapter title! :D