Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or anything else that you might recognize except for the De Luca's.

I would like to thank Mzzvirgo and firechildslytherin5 for proofreading this chapter!

A/N: I have posted new pictures of what some of my characters look like along with Camilla's wardrobe if you're interested.


I awoke to the annoying buzzing of my alarm clock. The sun shined bright on my face while I read the flashing red numbers. It was 8:00, why was I up this early during the summer? Oh! Right! I had to drop Ben off at his friend's house today. I had promised my parents that I would get up early so that I could drive my little brother to his friend's house. Apparently they were going to go on a camping trip with the kid's parents. How fun. I resisted the urge to hit the snooze button and instead shut the alarm clock off. I rolled out of my warm, comfy bed while rubbing my eyes with my hands and simultaneously yawning. I had been trying to catch up on sleep since I had just gotten out of school for the summer. I was currently attending an art school in Atlanta, something that my parents weren't too keen on, and majoring in Art History. I really did love it but this year kicked my ass. Thank god next year would be my last and I could finally make a life for myself. Maybe even get out of this little hick town, in the middle of Georgia, I seemed to be stuck in. My mother desperately wanted her little girl to live here with her forever but that was definitely not going to happen. I had been living with my parents all my life, never really having a shred of independence. I relied on them for everything and it was time for me to finally get out from under their wing and be on my own. As soon as I get my degree and I get a job secured I'm getting the hell outta dodge! I loved my family I really did but they could be so overwhelming sometimes. Especially my mom.

I got up off my bed, walked out of my bedroom and across the hall to the bathroom. I stood in front of the oval mirror that hung over the sink. I inspected my tan heart shaped face. I always loved my eyes. They weren't anything special. They were a dark brown, almost black, color. Quite plain in my opinion but they were big and surrounded by long, thick dark lashes. My mom always described them as doe eyes. Another thing I liked was my smile. I was blessed with full soft pink lips that many women dished out thousands to try and achieve and I had also been lucky enough to have perfectly straight teeth without any orthodontic help. Unfortunately my brother didn't have that luxury. I remember having horrible acne when I was in high school. Thankfully it's gone now. My face is relatively clear occasionally getting a small bump here and there. I reached for one of the small black hair bands that usually sat atop the counter by the sink and pulled my unruly waves into a messy bun and proceeded to wash my face and brush my teeth. I had to leave at about 8:30 so I wouldn't have a chance to shower. I ran back across the hall to my room and discarded my striped blue sleeping shorts and pulled on a pair of black jogging pants. I thought the matching sky blue tank top I had on was suitable so I left that on. I skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen where I saw my mom in her blue scrubs getting ready to leave for work. She worked as a nurse at the nearby clinic. She was listening to the news on the small radio on the counter drinking her coffee. I heard the newscaster give us an update about the strange flu going around Adel, the town we lived in. I paid no attention to it. I hated the news; it was never good.

"Good morning Camilla." My mother greeted me as I walked into the kitchen. I pecked her on the cheek as I walked by grabbing a banana out of the fruit basket that sat on the counter.

"Morning Mom." I leaned against the counter pealing the yellow fruit.

"I hope you didn't forget that you had to drive your brother to Kevin's today." She gave me a pointed look as she said this while she took a sip from the coffee mug she held in her hands. I looked a lot like my mother. I inherited pretty much everything from her. My tan skin, dark hair, and eyes. Even my short stature. Okay so maybe I wasn't that short being 5'5 and all but still I wouldn't mind being an inch or two taller just so I could reach the top shelf of the cupboard without having to use a chair. I guess you could say I was a younger version of her. In looks anyway. I was definitely my father's daughter when it came to my free spirit and quirky personality.

"No Mother. I'm not completely useless you know." I replied drolly around the piece of banana I had just shoved in my mouth.

"What have I told you about talking with your mouth full! And don't lean on the counter!" she scolded lightly while chuckling at the same time, her light Italian accent slightly slipping into her voice. My mother had immigrated here to the United States along with my grandmother and grandfather when she was about five so now her accent was almost non existent and you could only ever detect it when she raised her voice... or if she drank too much wine at dinner. She honestly made a horrible disciplinarian. She could never keep a straight face. Now my father on the other hand was a different story.

"I know, I know. It's rude." I stood up straight and held my hands up in surrender. I didn't think I could handle one of my mom's lectures on being a proper lady this early in the morning. I turned toward the stairs as I heard loud footsteps. Ben ran down the stairs dragging a giant duffel bag behind him with a huge grin on his face, his blue braces on full display. I don't think I've ever seen him this happy at this time of day. He must really be excited for this camping trip. Unlike me my brother was an exact replica of my father. His skin was lighter than mine and our mom's. He had light eyes, golden-green, and sandy light brown hair. I could already tell that he was going to be tall just like our dad. He was only eleven and already his head was up to my chin. A lot of people had trouble believing we were actually related; We looked nothing alike.

"Good morning Tesoro. Are you ready for your trip?" My mother asked with a small smile on her face.

"Yeah! Hey Cami do you think we'll see any bears or wolves?" My brother asked me excitedly as he sat down at the kitchen table. My mother already had a bowl and spoon in hand by the time Ben had sat down. She set them down in front of him and he proceeded to serve himself his favorite sugary, tooth rotting cereal. I had no idea how someone could possibly eat something so sickeningly sweet first thing in the morning.

"I don't know kiddo. I sure hope not or else we might not see you again." I replied jokingly. He managed to find the humor in my comment as he laughed into his cereal bowl but my mother not so much as she sent me a stern look. I smiled sheepishly at her in apology. She may not seem like it but she was very worried about letting him go on this camping trip without her there to watch his every move. She was very protective of her family especially her children. She may seem sweet and soft spoken now but if anyone caused us any harm or even tried to she would claw their fucking eyes out.

I finished off the rest of my banana and threw the yellow brown spotted skin into the trash bin that stood beside me. Just then I heard the screen door open and then close followed by heavy footsteps. My dad then walked in dressed in his usual attire which consisted of an unbuttoned flannel shirt over a white t shirt, blue jeans, and his steel toe work boots. He was wiping what seemed to be oil off his hands, most likely from trying to fix the old mustang he had out in the garage, with an old rag which I assumed used to be white but was now an old dingy Grey color. If you looked at my father you would never have guessed that like my mother he also had Italian blood running through his veins. Although he wasn't a full blooded Italian like my mother it was still there. His skin tone was the only indicator that he was half Italian, even though he was lighter than my mother and I, that and his last name was De Luca. Not a typical American surname. But even then people would always be shocked and skeptical of his heritage. He threw the old rag on the counter and went in to give my mother a morning kiss until he caught the disapproving glare. He quickly snatched up the dirty rag from the counter and stuffed it into his back pocket while my mother chuckled and rewarded him with a small kiss.

"Good morning Aida." He says while looking down adoringly at my mother. She looked so tiny compared to him standing only at about 5'3. My father's 6'2 frame towering over her. I always admired their love for each other. They had been together for almost 25 years and they were still going strong. I could only hope to find someone that I could share that kind of love with. "Morning guys." he directed towards my brother and I. Ben waved his spoon at him and shoved another spoonful of cereal into his already full mouth. I giggled at the thought that he looked like a chipmunk or squirrel. I greeted my dad and walked up to him to give him a quick peck on the cheek and a hug. I was definitely a daddy's girl.

"Good morning Scott." My mother said while looking down at her watch. Her eyes widened slightly as she looked at the time "Oh dear. It's 8:30 already. I gotta go right now or else I'm going to be late." She hurriedly washed out her mug and set it in the sink. "Camilla Caro, you and Ben need to get going too." she said as she scurried around the kitchen collecting Ben's empty cereal bowl and also depositing that into the sink. She grabbed her keys off the counter and quickly made her way around the room bidding us goodbye. She stopped by Ben's side last and gave him the longest hug out of all of us and she showered his face with kisses telling him to be careful and not wander off and always listen to the adults, etc.

"Aida let the poor boy go. He's turning blue." Dad said with a smirk on his face. He could see through Mom's facade. He knew how hard it was for her to let him go.

"Don't worry Mom. Everything is going to be fine. You know Kevin's parents. They'll take good care of him. Isn't that right Ben." I directed the last part to my baby brother that had finally managed to wiggle himself out of Mom's grasp.

"Yeah Mom. Don't worry so much." Ben said as he wiped any kiss residues off his face.

"Alright. Well I'm off. I'll see you all tonight." And with that said she walked out the screen door and to the garage.

"Alright Ben. Time to go kid. You got all your stuff ready?" I asked as I went over to where my old tan suede boots lay on the welcome mat.

"Yes! I'm ready to go! I'll wait for you outside!" Ben shot out the door as fast as he could while still dragging the huge duffel bag behind him. I chuckled again at his excitement. I pulled on my boots and tucked my jogging pants into them. My dad walked over and rested his large hand on my shoulder.

"You know I've made some progress on the mustang. You wanna help me out later when you get back from dropping Ben off?" The '65 Ford Mustang fastback. He's been trying to get that thing fixed for about five years now. It would be such a beautiful car once it was all fixed up. I was such a sucker for classics. I always jumped at the chance to be able to spend time with my dad. Like I said before I was a daddy's girl.

"Yeah I'd love to! I can't wait till that car is finally fixed. Have you thought of the color yet?"

"I don't know. I was thinking Jet Black or Cherry Red. What do you think?"

"Cherry Red for sure!"

"Red it is then, but we still got a lot of work to do before then so you better be on your way."

"Alright. Bye Dad! See you later!" I yelled over my shoulder as I jogged to the garage and over to the car. I realized that I had forgotten to grab the keys to the car. Ben looked at me impatiently as I smacked myself on the forehead.

"Hurry up! What are you doing?" He yelled exasperated.

"Sorry Ben. I forgot the keys. I'll be right back." I quickly ran back to the house and almost ran into my dad as I was about to pull open the door.

"Hey Cami forget something?" He dangled the keys in front of my face with a smirk on his face. I grabbed them and thanked him. I was getting ready to turn around when his voice stopped me. "Hey you think you can drop this off at the hospital after you're done with Ben. Your mom must have forgotten to grab it when she ran out." He held the small lunch bag out towards me and I swung it over my shoulder.

"Yeah I got it. See you later Dad!" I ran back to the car and unlocked the doors to the silver sedan. Ben quickly threw his bag in the back seat and jumped into the passenger seat as I got in on the driver's side and turned on the car.

"Took you long enough!" Ben said while shoving me lightly as I pulled on my seat belt.

"Oh shush! Buckle up."

"Yes Mother!" I laughed and ruffled his hair as he did what he was told. Unlike other siblings Ben and I rarely argued. We got along quite well. Maybe it was the ten year age difference? Once we got onto the road I turned on the radio but kept the volume low so Ben and I could still hear each other speak. I rolled the windows down as well since the air conditioning wasn't working at the moment. Something Dad promised to fix very soon.


Ben babbled on about his impending trip. I was never one for camping. I think I was just a bit to high maintenance for that. I could get dirty that I didn't mind. I was just way too lazy.

"I can't wait! We get to build a fire and go fishing and make s'mores and sleep in tents outside and go cannooing!" He went on and on. I knew the kid could talk fast but this had to be a record.

"That sounds like a lot of fun!" I couldn't but be excited for him. Our parents worked very hard all the time so we didn't get the chance to have family trips like this. We finally arrived at his friend's house where I saw who I assumed to be his parents loading the car. They looked nice enough. I pulled into the long driveway and marveled at the huge house in front of me. Ben had his seat belt undone and was jumping out of the car before I had even come to a complete stop. He quickly pulled his duffel bag out of the backseat and ran over to the other car where Kevin's parents were standing. I put the car in park, stepped out and made my way over to them.

"Hi. I'm Camilla. Ben's sister." I greeted them holding my hand out towards them.

"It's very nice to meet you Camilla. I'm Stan Pierce." The blond man said reaching out to take a hold of my hand and give it a firm shake. "And this here is my wife Allison." he said motioning to the blond women standing beside him. She too took my hand except her handshake wasn't as firm as her husband's had been.

"Nice to meet you Camilla. That's such a beautiful name." Allison said as she let go of my hand.

"Thank you Mrs. Pierce. And thank you for taking Ben along on your camping trip. He's really excited about it."

"Please call me Allison. And we're more than happy to bring Ben along." I looked over at Ben who was busy talking to the little blond boy who must have been Kevin. They seemed to be planning what they were going to do first when they got to the camp site.

"Well thanks anyway. I haven't seen him this excited in a while." I called Ben over. He stopped what he was doing and ran over to me. "Alright Ben. I'm gonna leave now. You be careful, Okay kid?" I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a long and tight hug.

"Okay Cami jeez! You're acting like Mom." He struggled to get out of my grip so I let him go and kissed his forehead which he groaned at.

"Bye! It was nice meeting you all!" I waved at them and walked over to the car and drove to the hospital my mom worked at.


It took me about 10 minutes to reach the hospital. We did live in a small town so everything was close. I parked the car and switched off the engine. I grabbed the lunch bag and made my way into the small hospital. As soon as I walked in I noticed the abnormal amount of people waiting in the lobby. The majority of them looked pretty sick. I guess this flu was worse than I thought. I hope I don't catch anything. It looked like the whole town was in the small lobby of the hospital. I walked towards the check in desk, where a heavyset, redheaded woman sat.

"Hi. I'm looking for Aida De Luca. I'm her daughter." I gave the nurse a small smile.

"Alright. Just give me a minute and I'll try to reach her and tell her your here." the nurse said with a very strong southern accent. She proceeded to then try and page my mom while I waited looking around the lobby. My gaze stopped on one guy that looked as if he was going to drop dead at any moment. He was very pale and sweaty, while his lids drooped, dangerously low.

"Miss?" I turned and looked at the nurse behind the desk. She can't come out right now but she told me to send you in. So if you just go through these doors and take a right and then take the first left you see and you should be able to find her."

"Okay. Thank you." I followed the nurses direction and I thought that the lobby looked bad. Well it looked about a hundred times worse in here. People were coughing, sniffling, and vomiting all over the place. It was disgusting and I tried my best to keep my distance. I eventually stumbled upon my mom. She looked dead on her feet. "Hey Mom. I brought you your lunch. What's going on?"

"Oh Cara mia! Thank you Dolcezza! It's that damn bug that's been going around. It's been like this all week. It's like the whole god damn town is sick!" Whoa! Things must be bad if my mom just swore.

"Wow! What do you think it could be?" I asked. I started to get this feeling deep down in my gut. Like something bad was going to happen.

"No one here has a clue." She said with her hands on her hips. All of a sudden I heard a commotion behind me. A blonde nurse ran out of the room she was just in clutching a bleeding hand. She was freaking out. Screaming about the guy, in the room she had just come from, biting her. I frowned. That was strange. I turned and looked at my mother and she too looked confused.

Further down the hall another nurse this time started yelling for help. My mother ran towards her and I followed. The curly haired nurse was trying to hold down a women that looked like she was trying to take a bite out of the nurses arm.

"She died five minutes ago!" she screamed. My mother went to try and help the woman. "Her heart isn't even beating!" I looked over at the heart monitor that was attached to the pale women thrashing around on the hospital bed. Sure enough the monitor was not detecting a heart beat. Then how the hell is she still moving? I heard a shrill scream that I knew belonged to my mother. I turned to look at her and saw that she was clutching her left shoulder. She was bleeding. She had been bit. I then saw the woman lunge at the nurse and bite into her neck taking a huge chunk of flesh out of the screaming nurse. Blood spurted everywhere. Some of it even splattered on my shirt. My mom grabbed me by the arm and quickly dragged me out of the room. While we had been in the room trying to help the now dead curly haired nurse the whole hospital had erupted into chaos. What the hell is going on? I had never seen anyone act this way. I saw nurses and doctors being attacked by multiple people that looked exactly like the first women I saw. They were pale and sickly looking. All of them had a glazed over look in their eyes. They growled, snarled, and viciously bit into people that they managed to latch onto as they ran by.

We had come to a stop. I noticed that we were now in the lobby. The same thing that was happening behind those doors we had just come from was happening out here. Except now there were other people entering the lobby. They looked like soldiers and in their hands they held huge automatic weapons. My mother quickly pushed me behind a pillar by the check in desk, where the nurse that had greeted me earlier lay with a bullet hole in her head, that effectively kept us hidden from the military people that had started shooting the people that were in the lobby. Even the healthy ones. My mother grabbed my head in her hands forcing me to look into her eyes. She had tears streaming down her face and it was then I noticed that I was also crying.

"Amore mia you stay right here and don't move or make a sound do you here me?" I quickly nodded my head while more tears ran down my face. "I'll be right back. I need to call your father and make sure he is alright?" I grabbed onto her as she was about to take off.

"No Mom please don't leave! Please!" I sobbed as I desperately tried to keep her from leaving.

"Camilla I will be right back." I had no choice but to let her go. I watched as she tried to quietly make her way to the check in desk to call my father. Please let him be okay! Please! I hoped that she had managed to reach him.


I saw her hang up. She started to make her way over to the pillar that I was hiding behind but then she stopped and her eyes widened as she collapsed to the ground. Her entire back was riddled with bullet wounds. I slapped my hand to my mouth to keep the loud sobs from escaping. I squeezed my eyes shut. This cannot be happening! Tears continues to stream out of my eyes. I looked to the door that was about five feet away from where I stood. I had to hide. I managed to sneak into the small closet. I hid in the very far corner of the dark closet and I used it's contents to try and conceal myself in case anyone decided to look in here. The gunshots in the lobby had stopped as I heard foot steps making their way to the doors that lead to where the patients were treated. I heard the door to the closet open. Light flooded in through opening which helped illuminate the closet. I held my breath and stayed completely still. The man, satisfied with seeing no movement coming from the closet, closed the door and walked through the doors where gunshots and screams could be heard.

I waited a minute before I dared to peek my head out of the closet and check to see if the coast was clear. I saw absolutely no one in the lobby. At least anyone that was living that is. I looked over to where my mother lay and I ran over to her lifeless body. I gently turned her over. Her eyes were wide open. I small sob escaped my lips but I quickly stopped for fear of alerting anyone that I was here. I closed her eyes with my hand and bent down to lay a kiss on my mother's forehead. I squeezed my eyes shut as more tears threatened to spill over.

I got up and checked my pockets. I found the keys to the sedan and ran out of the hospital towards my car. I threw myself into the driver's seat and started the engine. I quickly drove out of the hospital's parking, not even bothering to put on my seat belt, and raced home.


Italian translations:

Tesoro - My little treasure

Fem. Cara mia/Masc. Caro mio - My dear

Dolcezza - Sweetness/Sweetheart

Amore mia (Masc. mio) - My love

I hope everyone likes it so far. This is the second story I have posted here on this website and reviews would be greatly appreciated. So please review and let me know what you think. Constructive criticism would be great too! Also if anybody is interested in being a beta reader for this story please let me know. Thanks! :)