This is a work of fan fiction and is not meant to infringe upon properties of Kirkman/Moore/AMC.

Of Alexandria

By Leah Pensotti

Chapter One: Polite Society

Polite Society.

She had heard the term many times growing up. Mostly at the Christmas Cotillion in Savannah when she was introduced to the so-called "polite society" when she came out as a debutante in her 19th year.

Anna Leigh Marber. Mrs. Anna Leigh Marber.

It felt like a lifetime ago.

Dawn Lerner, who was roughly the same as she was, told Anna at their first meeting that she should spare her "the Scarlett O'Hara and Steel Magnolia uppity bullshit."

That was before the bomb, before her husband Phillip, a doctor at Grady Memorial had died.

Since then, Anna passed the time avoiding Dawn's darting glares and passive aggressive abuse and worked in the kitchens, feeding whoever in debt whatever they could cook up. She did her best to be invisible, though the idea tended to be imperfect. Someone always noticed. Someone always took something in some manner.

The day the exchange went down, there was a charge in the air. Pins and needles. Frayed nerves. Dawn wanted her officers back.

Scissors in shoulder. Gunshots and blond hair. Dawn Lerner's last stand.

Their horror in their eyes. Those who had come to save their friends. Something stirred in Anna's stomach. Something asked her to rally and move and be brave.

So when the man announced that he would take anyone who wanted to leave the coldness of the hospital and whoever wanted to leave step forward...Anna didn't hesitate.

Polite society was dead and gone.

But somehow, hope remained.

Once outside the hospital, no one spoke to Anna, but she bore witness to more pain and grief than she had experienced in some time. This group was connected, there was no power struggle, and no lording over one another. Those without power in Grady had learned to shut off their emottions. They learned to merely exist.

There was a fire truck and other vehicles they took from the hospital, she and Noah were the only defectors. They were the only ones who stepped out of the hospital for more freedom...or danger...

She watched as they buried their dead. She watched as they mourned. They had traveled fifty miles north of Atlanta's ruins before they circled the wagons to make camp. Anna sat beside Noah, shivering in the thin, gray hospital scrubs Dawn had doled out to her wards. She watched as the man who liberated them talked to his own, a few threw her furtive glances over their shoulders.

"They've seen a lot. They've been out here a while. I know they seem scary."

Anna looked at Noah and nodded, "Yeah. But not as scary as that hospital. Not tricking people into indentured servitude. Not oppression based on whatever one crazy bitch had in her head. At least they care about their people."

"Rick's gonna want to ask you some questions. Be honest with your answers."

Rick. The one with the Colt revolver. The one who ushered her out of the hospital by the elbow. The haunted one.

"What kind of questions?"

She didn't have to wait too long to find out, because Rick approached. Noah excused himself and Rick didn't speak right away. Anna felt her eyes widen a bit in anticipation.

"What's your name?"

"Anna. Anna Marber."

"How did you end up at Grady?"

He was blunt, to say the least. Anna shook off the lack of courtesies and answered, "My husband was a doctor there. Before the bomb. Before..."

Rick sighed heavily, he seemed to know exactly where she was leading, "Anna...how many walkers have you killed?"

"Walkers...the dead? Three. On our way to Atlanta."

"What about the living? Have you killed any of the living?"

She felt her eyes glass over, like her stomach fell out of her bottom. The living? She hadn't meant too...

"Three weeks...after the bomb...after my husband. I miscarried." She felt herself shake with the memory...violent and unforgiving.

The man with the Colt revolver paused and looked at her square in the eyes, "That wasn't your fault."

"I..."

"Anna," Rick put a hand on her shoulder, "get something to eat. Get some sleep. Sasha and Tyreese have first watch. We leave at first light."