Despite the Dead

Well, here will be my officially started Walking Dead fanfiction. My other one was practice, and seeing so many of you liked it, I gained more confidence about writing a longer story. So please enjoy, and sorry if you don't like OC's, as I explained before, it helps me capture the official characters better lol. Enjoy! xx


The sound of moaning and the smell of death, filled the Hospital, which Rick, Shane, T-Dog, Glenn and Daryl scouted through, in search for medical supplies for the rest of their group.

They kept Daryl in the front, as he was the only one with a silent enough weapon so they wouldn't attract any unwanted Walkers that roamed the hospital.

"How much more do we need?" Daryl spoke roughly, but quietly over his shoulder, back at the remaining guys.

"I'd say that'd be enough…fer now," Rick replied, checking the bags they had recently filled.

"This place reeks," T-Dog scrunched up his face, in some attempt to block his nostrils from receiving the putrid smell. "Can we just go?" Rick looked at the fear and exhaustion in their faces. They needed rest and food. It was best to go back.

"Let's get back," said Rick, holding up his gun in case of Walkers. "Get this food to the rest."

All five men began carefully retracing their steps back to the exit, however, once the sound of more than one Walker was heard approaching down the corridor where they stood, they quickly diverted into the small room closest to them, quickly shutting the door.

"Now what do we do?" Shane whispered, whilst Rick quickly silenced him, seeing the Walker's silhouettes pass by the outside of the door. All held their breath. Scared to breath. The horrid sounds the Walkers made. Once the moaning and hissing dimmed away down the corridor, all gave a mental sigh of relief, all except Daryl. Who studied the room for another way out.

"I can't take much more of this," whispered Glenn. "I swear my heart just stopped for a moment."

Through his speech, Daryl heard something move in the small closet just on his left. He held up his cross bow and without hesitation, approached the door cautiously.

"Once we get back, we'll eat, and be back on the road again," Rick assured the Asian male. His attention then drawn to Daryl's movements. "Daryl? What ya' got?"

"Ssh!" Daryl tightened his grip on his cross bow, and licked his dry lips as he reached for the handle. The others holding up their weapons for back up. Daryl made sure the rest were a safe distance back, and also further enough back enough for him to back up if needed. Then, he instantly opened the closet, which by first look was empty. Allowing them to breathe normally again. "Coulda sworn I heard something," Daryl turned back round to face the others, in which he didn't expect to receive a large box to impact with the side of his head, causing him to fall and cry out in pain.

Shocked and startled by this sudden action, the rest held their guns up to the cause of this. While Daryl carefully regained his standing position, nearly falling over from the pain the impact of the metal box with his head caused, blood dripping from the small gash it caused.

"Get back!" a female voice barked. A very shaken up female voice. In the closet sat a young brunette woman, who wore jeans and a black hoodie, around her blue eyes very dark, defiantly caused by lack of sleep. Upon seeing another survivor, Rick immediately lowered his weapon, putting it in his pouch on his belt, replacing his gun with defensive hands.

"Easy now," he spoke gently, trying to calm her. "We're not gonna hurt ya'." He began to slowly approach her, but Shane's arm halted him for a moment.

"Are ya' bit?" Shane asked to confirm, noticing cuts and bruises running along her arms.

"No," she replied, shakily. "No I'm not." She observed the men that stood before her. "Who're you?"

"We're survivors, same as you," Glenn replied quietly, respecting how nervous she was. "What are you doing here by yourself?"

"What does it look like?" she barked, steadily exiting the closet. "Hiding."

"In a closet?" Daryl asked, roughly. "No offence, not exactly the best place to hide, sweetheart."

"Well, it's kept me safe for the past week," she replied, heading for the window, separating the blinds slightly to observe outside.

"A week?" Glen asked, shocked by it. "You've been in there for a week?" the girl nodded in answer, almost looking like she was looking out for someone. "How have you been eating?"

"I had a small supply," she headed back to the closet and fetched an old back pack. "Finished it yesterday morning though. Same with my ammo." She held up a small gun and clicked it a few times to prove it was empty.

"Why haven't ya' left?" Rick asked. "Why have ya' stayed here? Surely you could have got out with that." the girl's expression turned from scared to hurt. Her eyes recalling, what looked to be a painful reminder of something.

"My sister," she barely whispered. "My sister hasn't come back yet." hearing those words, the guys all knew that there was a very high possibility that her sister had been eaten, or even bit and shared the same fate as the other Walkers. It even seemed like she knew that too, but was in denial.

"What's ya' name?" Rick asked, gently. She scanned his face, one last check to see if he was sincere.

"Brooke," she replied. "Brooke Ryder." Brooke then noticed the small trail of blood falling from the gash on Daryl's head. "Oh!" she covered her mouth with her hands. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. Here, let me help-" she was about to grab some supplies from her own back pack but was stopped.

"It's fine," he barked. "Just a scratch. Will get it looked at back at the camp." his tone was foreign to Brooke. She wasn't sure by his tone if he was being rude, or polite.

"Okay, but again, I'm very sorry."

Not receiving a response, she then watched Shane open the small window which drew everyone's attention to him.

"It's a short drop, we can get out this way," he whispered. Glenn's expression showing what he thought of that idea. He was traumatised about jumping out of the window.

"You sure that's-" Glenn gulped at the thought once more. "A good idea?"

"It's the only one we got," Shane replied, "Unless you wanna go that way?" Shane pointed to the door where Zombies moans could be heard approaching, he shook his head quickly to Shane, who then faced Brooke. "You comin'?"

"Leave?" Brooke replied, almost shocked. "But my sister hasn't come back yet, if I leave she might come back and see that I'm not-"

She was cut off by the sound of banging against the door, moaning and groaning zombies trying to get in and feast upon their fresh flesh.

"Time to go!" Daryl used his heavy boot to break the window to make more space for them to get out. "Go!" he commanded as he used his cross bow to fire at one of the zombies through the glass of the door. The squishing sound of brains exploding were heard. Brooke watched the commotion, being frozen in fear. The guys left through the window and Daryl looked at her. "GO!" he bellowed. Startling her so much that she grabbed her back pack and jumped out the window, while he followed shortly after.


The journey back to the camp had been quick, fearful and silent. Brooke didn't know what to say to these strange men, could she even trust them?

"Brooke," Rick's voice spoke. "Ya' okay?"

"I don't know … still in shock," she replied, too nervous to even make eye contact. A groan was heard beside her as she noticed Daryl was pulling a painful expression, reminding her that she had injured his head.

"Ya' alright?" Rick asked him. Daryl replied with a stubborn nod and kept moving.

"I feel so guilty," Brooke whispered to the rest.

"It's alrigh'," said Rick. "I'd say he's gone through a lot worse." Brooke didn't know exactly how to start another conversation based on that topic, she was sure she didn't want to know things worse than the gash on his head. She felt too out of place with these people.

"I should go back," said Brooke, halting and walking backwards slightly.

"You can't go back there," Glenn halted in his steps also, turning around to face her. "That place is swarmed."

"But my sister-"

"Is most likely dead," Daryl interrupted, walking back to them. Brooke's eyes widened in fear, not only at his statement, but also at his intimidating behaviour. "Which is what we'll all be, if we don't get our asses back to camp." He then began heading off expecting the rest to follow.

"How dare you!" Brooke's voice barked. Daryl turned and gave a challenging smirk, approaching her once more. "Who do you think you are? You drag me away from my meeting point, then throw that in my face! What the hell?"

"I'm just tellin' ya' the truth. But ya' more than welcome to go back and rot in hell with the rest of those dead bastards!"

"Alrigh'! That's enough!" Rick stepped in. "This ain't the place to be havin' ya' disagreements. Let's just concentrate on getting the supplies back to the rest, alrigh'?" Daryl and Brooke had a glare war with one another before he stormed off back in the camp's direction. Brooke sighed, clutching the straps on her back pack tightly.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I found him incredibly rude…"

"You'll get used to him, Lord knows it took us a while," he joked, which calmed Brooke down slightly. "C'mon, we should keep movin'."

Brooke had witnessed some disturbing things since the whole city became infested with Walkers. Other survivors trying to run for safety and getting feasted upon. She heard blood curling screams, the air turned putrid. She could say that they all lived in Hell. Maybe that's why she stayed in that closet, she could have just left like her sister, but was too scared that the worst would happen.

"Did ye' sister say where she was goin'?" Rick brought up conversation. Brooke almost didn't hear him from being so lost in traumatising thoughts.

"She said she would find a way out, and find us some help," said Brooke, the look on her face knowing that didn't sound like a convincing way to say she could still be alive. "When she left, I heard her Gun fires … they lasted all the way down the street. Maybe she couldn't find her way back, or maybe she could but couldn't get back. Like you said, the streets are swarmed with them."

"Well, we'll see if we find her on the way," Rick gave her a comforting pat on the back, however the contact wasn't so comforting, it startled Brooke, which Rick sensed, and tried to give her the friendliest smile going, to prove he wasn't going to harm her.

"Thank you," she whispered, forcing a smile. "I never caught your names," she reminded politely.

"I'm Rick, that there, is Shane, Glenn and T-Dog," he pointed to the people he was naming as he walked.

"And him?" Brooke asked, discretely pointing to the Redneck.

"That's Daryl."

"Ah," Brooke didn't know how to keep that conversation going so remained silent.

"Here we are," Rick said, as they entered a small area where the camp was. The camp had many survivors, she stood and watched for a moment, wishful thinking that her sister would be one of the faces in the group, unfortunately, she wasn't.

She saw a dark haired woman approach Rick, a small boy stood with her. They both embraced Rick tightly, relieved he made it back. The woman then noticed Brooke.

"You found someone?" she asked, almost stunned by another persons presence.

"Yeah, this here is Brooke, we found her at the hospital. She ain't bit, so we decided to take her along, keeping an eye out for her sister." after hearing that statement, the woman looked at Rick. She saw how hopeless that situation was in his eyes, "Brooke, this is my wife, Lori, and my son, Carl." Brooke gave a skittish smile, while Lori could see the trauma in her eyes. She then walked over and embraced the young brunette.

"Lord only knows what you have been through, but if it has been anything like what we have, then I'm deeply and true fully sorry." She spoke calmly to Brooke, it had been a while since Brooke had anyone speak so calmly and sincerely to her. Tears fell from her blue eyes, and she embraced back, tightly.


So, what do you think so far? :') I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, the next one will be uploaded soon, please leave a review and thank youu for reading! xx