AN: Hey Everyone, I've been working on this since right before season 7 premiered. I have over 60,000 words prewritten, and will be continuing to write as I post these chapters. I'm hoping to post chapters on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's. The Chapter will vary in length. If I feel a chapter that is only a thousand words needs to be its own chapter it will be, but most will be 1,000 – 4,000 words in length. I am very proud of my writing, as this is probably the most well written story I've written, and it gets better in quality the farther along you go. I've never written a story that was more than 10,000 words roughly. I had over 20,000 done of this within two days.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of AMC and Robert Kirkland. I am not making any money from this.
I do own Kat, and the Warriors (Characters that come in, in later chapters).
AN: Now with all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy. On with the show!
-Line Break-
Being a nerd I always used to joke about what I would do if the world ended. My friends and I would make plans on how to survive a nuclear holocaust and an Alien invasion. We would laugh for hours about it. We had survival kits, with food and weapons. We'd have competitions on who could make the best one. We learned how to hunt, how to fight, how to survive as a joke. We had so much fun in high school doing that, annoying our families with Christmas lists filled with guns, knives, for me different bow and arrow sets. The others would make a theme for theirs and make different kits for each theme; I always made a kit that would fit all themes. I tended to win because of it. I'd make a special one every Halloween, one that went with my costume that year. When we graduated High School we took our kits, the ones we still had, filled them with food and water and stashed them in tree trunks and old buildings we used to hang around. So if anything did happen we could always have one around. We did it as joke… We never thought we'd really need them… We never thought the world would really end… We were prepared, more prepared than anyone… but we were still so very unprepared when the dead started walking.
"Kat, wake up…" Katrina blinked her eyes open feeling around on the tent floor for her glasses, slipping them on. She looks up at her husband, kneeling next to her.
"What is it Glenn? What time is it?" She sits up hearing a few people moving around camp but not many, and a very small amount of light coming from outside.
"It's about 6 AM, I think… The suns coming up, we're heading into Atlanta for a supply run. I wanted to say goodbye before I left." He says with a shy smile and shrug. Katrina nods biting her lip.
"Good." She stands up starting to get dressed "I'll see you off, just give me a minute." She quickly pulls on her sports bra, a black Harry Potter T-shirt, with a blue plaid button up over top which she leaves unbuttoned, some black jeans, and her black Hiking boots. Glenn watches a blush covering his face. She looks up and laughs softly. "You know you'd think after being married for two years you'd get over blushing every time I change in front of you." She teases leaning over kissing his cheek. Glenn catches her before she can pull away, pulling her close to him and kissing her full out.
"I'll never get over how lucky I am that I found you, Katrina Rhee." He says leaning his forehead against hers. Kat smiles softly at that, kissing the tip of his nose before pulling back.
"You will never get over saying that will you?" she says with a laugh shaking her head, leaning down and grabbing some hair bands. Glenn snatches them from her and turns her away from him putting her hair up in a high pony tail for her.
"No, no I will not." He grins at her mischievously. She pulls on a baseball cap pulling her pony tail through the hole in the back and knocks Glenn's down to cover his eyes. She straps on her gun and knife belt, placing the weapons inside and slips a small knife into her boot.
"I'm the lucky one." She tells him as they leave the tent, walking over to those going on the run. "I went from my friends being the only people who cared for me in the world, to meeting the sweetest man alive." Glenn grins taking her hand in his.
As they reach the truck where the others are pretty much ready to go, Glenn pulls her into a hug. "I'm coming back, I promise." He kisses her. Kat nods kissing him back then hugging him tighter.
"You had better… I love you." She ignores the people watching them and the crude comments coming from Merle Dixon in the truck.
"I love you too." He kisses her again then pulls back sliding in next to Morales. Kat stands beside Amy watching them leave, seeing her worried look for her sister, Andrea, who was also on the run.
"They'll be fine, and they'll be back before you know it." She tells her walking over to Shane, Jim, and Dale by the RV "I'm going hunting for the day, I may be back late so try not to shoot me this time when I come out of the woods." She tells them with a smirk.
"I didn't shoot you, I only aimed at you." Dales counters with a huff. Shane shakes his head.
"Dixon is already hunting you don't need to go too Kat." Shane argues. "Why don't you stay and help the girls with the laundry?" Kat raises an eyebrow at him.
"I do mine and Glenn's laundry and I do others when they give them to me when I offer. And besides I think we need fresh meat more than clean clothes." She shakes her head "I'm going hunting, I'll be back before tomorrow, if Glenn gets back before me, let him know." She heads to her tent grabbing her game bag and bow and arrow set heading into the woods.
She spends a few hours hunting picking up a few birds and squirrels before heading back expecting the group back by then. She heads to Shane "Hey, I got a good catch; after I skin these we can roast them over the fire." She holds up the catch. Shane nods.
"Good work… Kat I got to tell you something." He looks down at his feet uncomfortable. "We got a call on the CB, from T-Dog… They're stuck in the city. We don't have much info other than; they're trapped in the department store." He tells her. Kat stares at him for a minute before nodding.
"I take it we aren't sending in help?" He shakes his head. She nods again.
"If they're not back by tomorrow, I'm going myself, and you aren't stopping me." She says firmly taking her catch down to the water to skin it down there. She skins her catch looking up as Amy joins her.
"They'll be back won't they?" She asks looking worried.
"If they aren't back by tomorrow morning I'm gonna go get them." She assures her. "They can last one night in the city, Glenn and I have lasted more than that on runs before." Amy nods nervously.
"Thanks Kat." She heads back up. Kat sits there finishing skinning her catch and cleaning her hands in the quarry, before carrying the meat and the pelts up. She hangs the pelts to dry on a tree branch and puts the meat in bags sticking it in the RV fridge to be cooked later; Giving Dale a nod as she exits the RV. She heads over to where Lori is cutting Carl's hair. Catching a bit of the conversation she adds in.
"You know frog legs are considered a delicacy in France." She grins at Carl with a wink, and then gives Shane a nod. "Plus they're fun to catch"
"We'll be hero's son spoken of in song and legend, you and me, Shane and Carl." Shane grins laughing. Kat snickers shaking her head before turning as they hear a car alarm. She rushes over to the RV looking around, Shane close on her heels.
"Talk to me Dale?" Dale shakes his head looking through his binoculars.
"Can't tell yet" Kat loads her gun when Shane starts loading his having it out and ready to go.
"Is it them? Are they back?" Amy asks hopefully.
"I'll be damned…" Dale mutters
"What is it?" Amy calls.
"Stolen car is my guess." Dale says shaking his head, Kat looks between them all raising an eyebrow as the red car comes into view. She face palms when Glenn gets out of it grinning like a maniac.
"Holly Crap, turn that damn thing off." Dale yells as Shane and Amy rush over to him, Kat following trying not to grin.
Amy starts asking about her sister and yelling as Shane yells at him to please pop the damn hood. Glenn yells "Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay!" popping the hood. "Yeah, yeah, she's okay, she's okay!" He yells at Amy.
"Is she coming back? Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?" Amy continues franticly.
"Yes, yeah, fine, everybody is…" He assures her. "Well Merle not so much." He adds as an afterthought. Kat shakes her head at all the yelling.
"You crazy driving this wheeling bastard up here? You trying to draw every Walker for miles?" Shane yells.
"I think we're okay." Dale speaks up.
"You call being stupid okay?" Glenn looks very offended.
"Well the alarm was echoing all over these hills, hard to pinpoint the source." Shane glares at him, "I'm not arguing I'm just saying. And it wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?" Dale says pointedly to Glenn.
"Sorry. Got a cool car." Glenn says motioning to the car. Kat lets out a laugh shaking her head pushing past the others towards Glenn.
"Well… He's not wrong." Kat points out. Dale and Shane nod hesitantly. Everyone turns as a white box truck drives up the road behind the car, Glenn smirking.
Andrea climbs out the back running to Amy, the two sisters hugging happily. The Morales family running to Morales. Lori walks away with Carl kneeling in front of him as he starts crying about his dad.
Kat walks over to Glenn dragging him into a hug "Don't you dare scare me like that again." She mutters into his shoulder. Smiling as he wraps his arms around her tightly.
"I won't, next time I won't take a big group." He promises kissing the top of her head through her hat.
"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane asks. Glenn pulls back from Kat keeping one arm around her as he turns to Shane.
"New guy, he got us out." Glenn explains.
"New guy?"
"Yeah crazy vato just got into town, Hey helicopter boy, come say hello!" Morales yells back to the truck. "Guys a cop like you." They all look as Rick Grimes walks up. Kat, Shane, and Rick adopting identical looks of shock. Although Rick is looking at Shane, Lori, and Carl. Lori and Carl turn shock appearing on their faces as well.
"Oh my god. " Rick starts over to Carl and Lori quickly turning into a run.
"Dad! Dad!" Carl screams running to him as well, Lori close behind tears forming in all their eyes. Kat stares in complete shock. Rick hugs Carl falling to his knees as he sobs, picking up Carl and going to Lori who has stopped in shock and hugging her too. He hugs them turning grinning at Shane, who grins back. The whole group is grinning at this. Kat waits until Rick has set Carl down before pulling away from Glenn and walking towards him.
"Rick?" She calls as she gets closer. Rick looks at her confused before recognition covers his face.
"Katrina?" he asks looking from her to Shane for confirmation, who nods. Kat walks up to him hugging him. "Oh my god, Kat… it's been years." He hugs her back.
"Yeah, 15 to be exact." She pulls back. Glenn comes up to them smiling. Carl is grinning holding onto his dad's belt. "I wouldn't have even known who Lori and Carl where if I hadn't recognized Shane." Rick nods.
"You know each other?" Dale asks.
"We're half-siblings." Kat explains. "We lost touch after our dad died." She steps back letting Rick put an arm back around Lori. She takes Glenn's hand stepping back beside him. "I see you've met Glenn."
"Uh yeah, he saved me in the city… why?" Rick asks her looking at the joined hands with a raised eyebrow.
"She's Katrina Rhee now, man. Those two are married." Shane says walking over. Rick's eyes widen as he looks back at her.
"Your married? Your only, what? 20?" Rick asks shocked.
"I'm 24 Rick, and yes I'm married, have been for two years." She smirks at her older brother squeezing Glenn's hand "And happily at that." Rick nods eyes still wide.
"Well, okay then… I guess I have to say I approve of who you married… he saved me, when he didn't need to." He runs a hand through his hair. "It's just, last time I saw you, you were younger then Carl… and now… damn time goes by quick." He shakes his head.
"15 years is a long time, a lot of things change. I mean you're married with a kid" She points out. Rick nods.
"We have a lot of catching up to do."
"Yeah, we do, but later, I think your wife and son want your attention right now." She says giving Lori a nod who nods back gratefully. The three walk away to their tent. Kat turns to Glenn kissing him again. "Well, now you've finally met my brother."
"Yeah, and he's awesome." Glenn laughs pulling her over to some of the chairs by the RV. He sits down pulling her down with him. She laughs moving off his lap and onto the chair next to him taking his hand.
"So, tell me what happened out there?"
-Line Break-
"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented." Rick says sitting with Carl in his lap. Lori is sitting close, her hands in Carl's hair. The group is sitting around the camp fire having just finished dinner. "Fear, confusion… all those things but… Disoriented comes closest."
"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale says looking over at him.
"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever."
"Mom said you died." Carl says looking up at him. Lori lays her hand on Carl's forehead, not saying anything.
"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it." Rick assures him.
"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori explains.
"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell."
"Yeah."
"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."
"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane cuts in.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Rick looks at Shane gratefully. Shane looks a bit uncomfortable but smiles back.
"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale says shaking his head.
Kat is sitting between Glenn's legs leaning back into him, his arms wrapped tightly around her. She sighs when Ed puts another log on his fire behind them. She just shakes her head ignoring the argument that ensues, although feeling horrible for Carol and Sophia, Ed's wife and daughter. She had watched them since day one and it was very clear Ed was abusing them. She knew from experience what it was like growing up like that. Her step-father not being too dissimilar to a mix of Ed Peletier and Merle Dixon. The only reason she hadn't stepped in yet is because she hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Carol alone.
"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Dale asks once things have calmed down. Kat starts paying attention at this. She hadn't liked Merle much, but her and Daryl had become somewhat friends in their time at the query, often hunting together when running into each other in the woods. Glenn hadn't liked the idea of her spending time with him, but he trusted her to know what she was doing. And in exchange for the friendship Daryl had done his best to keep Merle from making too many comments about her or Glenn. She felt awful that he had lost his brother and she knew how much it would hurt him.
"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog speaks up.
"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick shakes his head disagreeing.
"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn points out.
"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog argues.
"We could lie." Amy suggests.
"Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." Andrea turns to Lori. "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."
"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." Dale shakes his head at her.
"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog argues again.
"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea asks confused.
"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that. Not that chain, not that padlock. My point, Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." T-Dog stands starting to walk away.
"I'll tell Daryl. Unlike the rest of you I've tried making friends with them… well with Daryl… Merle was… is an ass. But Daryl's a good guy. If anyone should tell him his brother… the guy who basically raised him and is his only family, the only person he's got, got himself chained to a roof and left behind. It should at least come from a friend." Kat speaks up finally getting fed up with the fighting. "Leaving him up there was wrong, and whereas all of us might not miss him, he had family too. How would any of you feel if it where your loved one who got left behind? Even if they had been being a danger to the group." She says looking each of them in the face. "No one, not even, asshole Merle Dixon deserves that fate… No one." She stands up heading to her and Glenn's tent. Glenn sighs, saying good night before following after her.
"Hey" He comes into the tent zipping it closed behind him. Kat has turned on their electric lantern and has taken off her belt putting both her gun and knife under her pillow. And taken her second knife out and placed it in her bag. She looks up at him.
"Hi, sorry about that, they were getting on my nerves." Glenn nods sitting down next to her.
"It's okay. I get it… You spent more time with the Dixons then any of us." He rubs her shoulders softly.
"Merle could be an ass, but I had learned how to know when he was joking, and most of the comments towards me and the other ladies where jokes. They weren't funny, but he was just trying for a laugh. Daryl said the reason he had stopped making bad comments towards me, when Daryl and I would sit near their tents skinning our catch, was because I had stood up to him that first day and did it at least somewhat civilly, unlike everyone else who just basically told him to fuck off…" She sighs. "You can't expect someone like him, or anyone really, to be civil with you when you look down on them like your better. He should have tried to be, but he does not deserve what happened to him." She shakes her head. Glenn moves hugging her from behind setting his chin on her shoulder.
"I know… but he did deserve to be cuffed, just not left there… he was threatening people with guns and was out of his mind on drugs… which Rick threw off the roof." Kat smiles at that.
"Sounds like Rick… When I was 8 my dad came for a visit and Rick came with him. Rick found my step-fathers stash and flushed down the toilet… I remember standing there in shock, before cheering him on and rushing around the house to get the rest that I knew where was. God, Mark was pissed, but it was so worth the repercussion after they left, just to see his face when Rick told him what he had done." She grins to herself at the memory. Glenn smiles somewhat sadly at this not sure he wants to know exactly what the repercussions had been. He hugs her tighter loving having her in his arms.
"I know he got himself into the mess, and it was his fault. But Daryl is going to be heartbroken… no matter how he reacts in public, trust me when I say this is going to hurt him horribly." She turns around in Glenn's arms kissing his cheek. "We should change for bed." She pulls away and starts changing her clothes.
Glenn does the same before pulling the comforters Kat had brought with them from their bed at home when they had left, and climbing under holding them up for Kat. She slides in next to him taking her glasses off and placing them to the side, and turning off the lantern. She curls into Glenn's arms placing her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat.
"I love you Kat, good night" he kisses her forehead running his fingers through her long brown hair. Kat smiles closing her eyes.
"I love you too… night" she mutters out the last bit falling asleep. Glenn plays with her hair for a bit longer just looking down at her before relaxing to sleep as well.
-Line Break-
AN: So begins our tale. If you enjoyed please review and favorite. And follow to be notified when I post new chapters. Feel free to PM me if you have questions. I would really love reviews, letting me know what you think, just please keep it civil and constrictive. Thanks everyone for reading.
Live Long and Prosper,
~Kat