I don't own the show, or any characters but the ones I came up with.

This is my first Walking Dead Fan-fic. I wrote some Supernatural ones that didn't turn out the way I wanted, so I'm hoping that maybe a change of universe will do me good.

Chapter 1

Tabatha sighed and turned her car off. She had been stuck in this traffic jam for hours and had given up on the thought of getting out of it any time soon. Luckily the sun had set about a half an hour ago, and it seemed to finally have cooled down enough that she didn't need her A/C. She had only been in Georgia for a couple of weeks, but she had started missing the dry heat of New Mexico as soon as she had stepped out of her car at her uncle's house. Tabatha had hoped that she would of been on her way home forever ago, but just when she had been ready to give up on her reason for coming all this way, the broadcasts to get to Atlanta had started.

Her uncle had gone off to get his late wife's mother from her retirement home, assuring her he'd be fine. It would all probably blow over by the time she got into Atlanta anyway. They both had figured that it had just been blown out of proportion by the media. Probably just a case of a small epidemic that you just needed to get a vaccine for. She didn't know why she couldn't of just gone home to get it, why they thought they really needed to close the borders out of the state was perplexing.

She stretched back in her seat and realized just how sore her legs were. Peering out of her rear view mirror she saw that a lot of people were getting out of their cars and walking around. Sighing again, she got out of her car, making sure to check her windows and lock the doors, getting robbed in a traffic jam would be just her luck. Tabatha walked around to the front of her car before she leaned on it and pulled her cigarettes out of her jacket pocket. Just as she had lit it and was fumbling to stick her lighter in her pocket a guy showed up.

"You think I could bum one of those off of you?" He asked, his accent definitely marking him as a native to Georgia.

"Sure," she mumbled as she passed him one and then offered him her lighter. 'Never fails' she thought.

Tabatha had hoped that he'd just wander off again now that he had what he wanted, but then again, she was never that lucky.

"I usually don't smoke, but it's a stressful situation." He said as he shot her a half-hearted smile.

She nodded in response. Everyone always wanted small talk, she found it irritating.

He must of realized that she wasn't going to pick up the conversation, he tried a different approach. "I'm Shane," he stated, offering her his hand to shake.

Barely suppressing another sigh, she accepted his outstretched hand. "Tabatha." She said simply.

"Don't sound like you're from around here. Where ya from?" He asked, trying to keep her talking. He really didn't know why, but he just had an urge to talk to her.

"New Mexico." She answered, really hoping he would get the point and leave.

"Naw, you don't have a Mexican accent." He laughed, looking at her like she was joking.

This time she couldn't stop the deep sigh that came out of her. "New Mexico is part of the US. Not part of Mexico. So, no, I'm not Mexican, I don't need a green card to leave my state, and, as you can see, I speak English fluently."

He gave her a sheepish look, "Oh, sorry. Ya here 'Mexico' and think south of the border, ya know?"

Tabatha nodded again, thoroughly done with conversation.

Shane opened his mouth to say something else when a loud boom sounded, followed by the dark haired woman he was with yelling for him. He took off in the direction of the noise, the woman close behind him. Tabatha looked around for a second before jogging after them, curiosity getting the better of her. When she got to the edge of the woods and saw what was happening, she stopped dead. Atlanta was on fire. Helicopters seemed to be bombing it, making the city blaze in the dark of night.

"Holy shit," she mumbled. Apparently she had been wrong. There was definitely something big going on.

Realizing there was nothing she could do, and that people would probably start panicking at any second, she turned and hurried back to her car, cursing under her breath.

"Just my luck." She growled at herself as she quickly unlocked her drivers door and got in, locking it behind her.

She started rummaging around in her back seat, searching almost desperately for her hand gun case. Quietly thanking whatever omnipresent being might be listening that her boss back home had insisted she take it. "Don't want you getting in any trouble when I ain't there to help you out of it." he had said. Boy, was trouble an understatement at this point.


Tabatha hadn't realized that she'd fallen asleep until there was a knock at her window. She jumped awake and gripped her hand gun just a little harder. Looking at the gun in her hand she mentally beat herself up about falling asleep with it in her hand. "Great job dip-shit, good thing the safety was on." She mumbled to herself before looking out the window.

It was Shane...great. She slowly opened her door and looked at him with her best "What the fuck do you want?" look.

"Hey, member me?" he asked, smiling slightly when she nodded. "Well, after what happened to the city last night, some of us decided it would be smart if we stuck together. There's a gully not far from here, you know, stay close to the city in case the military shows up, but not too close to get blown up." He laughed at his own joke.

She didn't even smile. Shane cleared his throat and continued. "I thought, ya know, that you might want to come along?" When she looked at him as if he'd lost his mind, he snapped a little bit. "It beats baking in your damn car."

Tabatha didn't even flinch, her eyes staid even on his until he looked away. "Who?" she finally asked.

"Huh?" he responded.

There was her sigh again, "Who all is going?" she asked, feeling like she was talking to a toddler.

"Oh, the RV, and a few of the cars around it."

She looked over, surveying the people packing up their stuff and chatting with each other. "Dammit" she thought. It was a good idea, but she really wasn't a people person. "Yeah, okay." she finally replied.

He smiled, "Kay, just go head and follow that car right there, that's mine." She nodded and shut her door again.


It was almost like a mini convoy, there was motorcycle at the lead, followed by the RV, Shane's car, her's, a little station wagon, a couple others that really didn't stand out, and a beat up pick up truck at the rear. Tabatha pulled up behind the RV and parked. She got out of the car and pulled her hair into a high pony-tail, holding her cigarette in her mouth. She started surveying her surroundings. "Great, camping," she thought.

Her eyes started taking in all of the people around her. Old people, women, some children, not really any decent looking guys. Then her eyes fell on the motorcycle, and her eyes immediately squinted. She recognized it. Tabatha turned to look for the driver of it, then she spotted them. They looked older, gruffer, more dirty than usual.

"Mother Fucker!" she barked out at them, causing everyone to jump and stare at her. Everyone but the two of them and her looked confused. Her look was more pissed/surprised, theirs was more just surprised/shocked.