A/N Thank you very much for reading this! To begin with, I will briefly explain how this crossover works. Characters have been brought from Lord of The Rings to the world of The Walking Dead and have been adapted appropriately. I have made the Lord Of The Rings characters female and have changed their names to suit the context of The Walking Dead as follows:

Samantha – Sméagol

Deanna – Déagol

Billy – Bilbo

I have kept Gollum's name the same, considering his real name is Sméagol (which has been changed) and Gollum is only his 'nickname.'

In the midst of the woodlands, Samantha began to stir. A crow had been pecking about her arm, but caught by surprise, it squawked and flew off. The black wings beat against the wind rushing through the bare autumn trees, the leaves decaying on the earth. All of this was a blurred haze to Samantha, the branches of each tree competing with one another for height, in a desperate bid to escape the horrors of the world beneath them. In her limited state of mind, she heard a subdued cracking and crunching, as someone carefully trod through the littered ground of dirt, branches, leaves and bones. Slowly, Samantha's vision came into focus, and her nose's sense was aroused at the scent of fresh meat. The footsteps came to a halt at her feet, but the silence was soon broken once more by a soft sobbing. Uttering Incomprehensible words, Deanna, Samantha's only friend, fumbled for her gun in an attempt to put down the monstrous figure which had taken over. Yet this figure still wore Samantha's face, albeit with rotting flesh coated with dry blood choking around her left eye, her skin as pale as the clouds above, which were shrouded and stabbed by the branching trees.

Samantha remembered nothing of Deanna, nor of her life before. Having only her walker instincts in place, Samantha was not impeded by the hesitation Deanna faced with memories of the past, both sweet as before the apocalypse and bitter as afterwards. Samantha lunged at Deanna, sinking her teeth straight into her weak skin with a complete lack of awareness as to her actions.

Several screams were followed by the fluttering of many other birds departing in flight, as they too held on to the false promises of peace that the deadly calm of the woodlands insinuated.

Gripping on to Deanna's black hair, laced with the refuse of the ground, Samantha faced little resistance as her friend clasped her hand, filled with the regrets of her life. It was all meaningless, however, as she simply yanked Deanna's hand and began to gnaw against her arm. A final whisper escaped Deanna's lips:

'I'm... sorry, Sa-'

Her body went limp before she could finish.

Samantha, however, was far from finishing.

Not long afterwards, Samantha and Deanna's group found the two of them: one a crumpled gory mess, the remnants of a detached arm nearby. The other was languid and drenched in blood, turning towards them, her malnourished face contradicting the implications of the sight of her prey.

A gunshot rang out as one member of the group shot what was left of Deanna between her eyes, before she too could reanimate. There had been remorse in her eyes, but this vanished as she turned her aim towards Samantha, a secure grip clenching the trigger. However, this faltered in her sudden surprise.

To everyone's complete astonishment, they heard something they thought they would never hear before. A slow stutter emerged from Samantha's bloody lips; not the mindless groans of other walkers, but real, apprehensible words:

"Wait… Don't kill…"

And nothing more.

In disarray, the different members of the group looked at one another, unsure of how to react or whose decision this was to make; walkers have never even tried to speak before. One called Samantha's name in their surprise, his face creased in a frown, as he was unaware what impact this may have, if any.

The significance was far more profound than any of them would have guessed.

Samantha's mind began to form thoughts, at first a trickle of words, then a fountain of names and places before the flooding of a lifetime of memories.

Turning slowly, she looked back to Deanna's body, beginning to realise what she had done. Her eyes widened in fear and horror, but she could not drag them from the sight. She remained as motionless as the body itself, nagging pangs prodding at her stomach in her guilt.

She ate her.

She ate her only friend.

She wanted to throw up, she wanted to take this all back, she wished she was dead for good. The only thing that kept her together, her final grasp at sanity, was her unabating lack of ability to feel emotions strongly.

Involuntarily, a choking cough convulsed from her mouth as though she were saying 'Gollum'; a sporadic contraction originating in her throat which she had no control over.

The group had never cared much for Samantha and so began to mock her, mimicking her noises and blaming this all on her for being weak, for being naïve.

The woman who had shot Deanna was afraid of what might happen if they kept Samantha, though she dared not admit it. She decided the appropriate 'punishment', as they called it in their jeering, would be leaving Samantha to live alone with her guilt. They abandoned Samantha, their taunting ringing in her ears as they went.

It was then that she regained the full extent of her human emotions, feeling despair and revulsion towards herself. She wept, her head between her knees, with the occasional glance at Deanna which would only leave her crying out, pulling at her hair and trying to scramble away. Then for a while she lay in a still heap upon the ground, only for the crows to return to her and Deanna, causing her to scream in fright and grief. No other walkers came, they were too far away to hear; that was why her group had chosen to camp in those woodlands for a short while.

She was alone.

In her state of utter disorientation, her reason left her with but one option. She felt in her pocket for her gun and once she had taken it out, she ran her hand along the cool metal. Except, the metal no longer felt cool to her. She was no longer shivering in the autumn breeze as she had been mere hours ago. She could not feel the cold anymore because she was dead and overstaying her welcome in the world. She was decided: she raised her gun to her left temple, the side of her face on which her bite mark lay, and tightened her grip against the trigger.

She was left alone in the moment she needed consolation the most. And somehow, consolation found its way to her.

The strangest sensation had taken over her body, as if it was no longer hers anymore. She could still feel but had lost control over what she was feeling. She heard a voice come from her mouth, but it wasn't her own. It sounded like Samantha, only deeper, harsher and full of concealed malice. Nothing she was told had passed through her stream of consciousness. At first she was terrified, yet at a loss for what she could possibly do and so she listened.

They told her that they understand, and will understand her as no one ever will. They told her that this is what she is now, and there's no way to change it. She can only embrace it.

Listening to this voice, Samantha slowly lowered her gun. She was told that she could disappear for a while, for forever, if that is what she wished, but that she was always welcome back. The voice told her that they will be her only friend from now on, the only one who will listen.

And Samantha heeded every word said, sinking back into the depths of her mind, letting the other presence take over.