Update: I've decided to shorten the episode 1 chapter into three separate parts, on thewalkerinme's suggestion, and because after reading it myself, I realise it is a lot to read, especially when the story is only just starting.
This chapter will be more to just introduce Will, so expect a lot of writing and describing of his surroundings, since he won't be meeting anyone until the end of this chapter.
This story starts from Season 1, Episode 4 'Vatos'...
Just keep running. Just keep running. Those were the only three words running through Will's mind as he ran down the street, never looking over his shoulder to check his pursuers were still behind him. Even if he had only been running for around ten minutes, Will felt like he had been running for longer, like he might never stop running ever again. Will's full name was William Parker, aged 16, average height, brown hair with fading blonde streaks, emerald green eyes, and a slight bit of muscle to his slender build, all mashed together to make your typical teenage boy. Unfortunately, his life was nowhere near typical, especially when he's just one of many that is stuck in the middle of an apocalypse, with the walking dead roaming around every corner. As much as he disliked the life he was forced into before the world turned to shit, Will knew that he would give anything to have even a sliver of the life he knew before, back when his family was still alive.
Now, all he had left of his life was his uncle's jacket, and the metal baseball bat he got during his first game, sticking out of his bag, both seeming plain and boring to any other person, but seeming like prized possessions to Will, who had nothing else left. He may not have had his parents in his life anymore, but he at least had other relatives, like his uncle, who happily took him in when he had no one left. His grandparents, who had never stopped being there for him, especially when he and his sister had lost both of their parents in a matter of minutes. And, most importantly, his sister, Lucy, who was the main reason Will had come back to be in Atlanta in the first place. Before the world became what it was, Will was living with his uncle in a small town, about a day's drive away from the city of Atlanta, working in his uncle's mechanic to earn his keep. Since they had known at the time his grandparents would never have been able to take care of both of them, Will chose to leave, so that Lucy didn't have to leave her life behind, since Will was more likely to adapt to a new situation. When the world had started to take a turn for the worst, and he had lost his uncle, Will knew that, the only option he had left, was to go back to Atlanta to find his sister, so he could take care of her himself. And that's how he had ended up back in the city he had grown up in, to start the search for his sister and grandparents, so he could protect them all.
That was two weeks ago.
Now, the longer he stayed in the city, looking tirelessly to find his sister, the more he started to think about whether he should just give up and move on. For all he knew, his sister and grandparents had already moved on, having moved on when the streets had been blown up, when the undead had spread like wildfire. For all he knew, something much worse could've happened, they could've died, killed by bandits or the undead, or worse, they could be roaming around somewhere, being just a couple of rotting bodies among crowds of the undead, all waiting for their next meal. As much as he wanted to stay and to find his sister and grandparents, the only family he had left, he knew that, sooner or later, he'd have to make a plan to move on, to where, he had no clue whatsoever.
Will finally stopped at the corner of a street to catch his breath, leaning up against the side of one of the many office buildings in the city, as he looked back the way he came, not seeing any of the undead he had been running from following him. Even if they weren't visible to the naked eye at that current moment, Will knew they would be hiding somewhere, waiting for the slightest noise to be heard, to come out of hiding, like a dinner bell calling the whole family to their next meal. Will dropped his bag to the ground and opened it up, pulling the bat out of his bag to place on the ground, while he pulled out his bottle of water, which had around a mouthful left. With a small sigh, he screwed the lid off of the bottle, finished off the last of his water, and put the lid back on, slipping the bottle back into his bag for later use. After zipping his bag back up and lifting his bat off of the ground, Will got to his feet and continued down the street, deciding to slow to a walk for now, until he had no choice but to run once more. While walking down the street at a leisurely but cautious pace, Will looked up at the buildings around him, always managing to be surprised that there was so little damage to the buildings, yet somehow everything on the ground was burned beyond belief or still smelt like smoke. He had remembered seeing a news report before he made his way down to Atlanta about the military dropping napalm bombs on the city to clear out the undead, a method that definitely didn't work in anyone's favour.
Before long, Will stopped in front of a tall apartment building, taking a few moments to stare up at the many windows above him, before walking through the front doors, keeping his bat tightly in his grip. Taking cautious steps through the lobby, Will looked around the large room closely, making sure there weren't any of the undead waiting around the corner for him, having come in since his last visit. When he was sure there were none around, Will jogged over to the nearby emergency staircase and pushed the door opened, holding onto the door until it was safely shut, making sure it made no noise, before running up the stairs. He soon reached his desired floor and opened the door carefully, looking through to make sure the coast was clear, before continuing on his way, soon reaching his destination, his grandparents' apartment. He pushed the door open and quickly closed it behind him, making sure to lock the door before moving further inside. After throwing his bag and bat onto the nearby table, Will walked over and flopped down on the couch, finally being able to rest after a long day of running through the city. He soon drifted off to sleep, his eyes quickly drooping shut until he was dead to the world, exhaustion having finally taken over him, allowing him to have some much needed rest.
The next thing he knew, Will opened his eyes to complete darkness, the sun having vanished from the sky since he had drifted off to sleep. Sitting up in his seat, he leaned over towards the nearby coffee table and switched on the lantern, lifting it up to bring to the kitchen with him, so he could find himself some food. Opening the cupboards, Will pulled out what little food he had left, which included an unopened pack of beef jerky, and a few tomatoes from the plant growing on the windowsill, along with a few stored bottles of water, enough to last him another couple of days. Looking at the pitiful amount of provisions he had left, Will knew that he didn't have much choice but to think about moving on, it was just the where he was going he had to figure out. While nibbling on some jerky, Will walked into another room, the one his sister used, and sat on the bed, thinking about his next move. There really wasn't any places Will could think of that Lucy and his grandparents might go, so the only thing he could think of doing was finding a little more supplies, maybe grabbing some other weapons, and moving on out of the city. All he could do was travel to somewhere that might have other people, since there seemed to be very little chance of finding other people still in Atlanta, and try to survive the best he could, hoping for the chance to maybe see his sister again. So that was the plan, at least, the best plan he could make, given his current situation, and the amount of unknowns he still needed to think about. When the morning finally rolled around, he would collect what little he had, go out to find more supplies and weapons, choose a direction, and start walking, in the hopes of running into something other than the undead on his trip. With his plan decided, Will fell back onto the bed and let himself fall asleep once more, trying to get as much energy into him before the next day's events.
A few hours later, Will was awake and moving around the apartment, packing away the last of his food and water into his bag, pulling out one of the knives in the drawers to pair with his bat as weapons. After packing the last of his items away, a flashlight and a lighter, Will zipped up his bag and hefted it onto his back, keeping his bat in hand and his knife in his jeans pocket, ready to get moving. Before leaving, he looked around the room, taking in every inch of it, not wanting to forget any of a small part of his life, having been a place he visited a lot during his childhood. Soon, he turned away and made his way to the front door, stopping at a side table near the front door full of photos. He looked over all of them, seeing ones of his parents when they were younger, his grandparents, aunts and uncle, and his sister, all the members of his family, on a small surface of hardwood. He picked up one of the photos and smashed it against the table, pulling out a photo of his sister and mother, smiling at it before folding it up and slipping it into his back pocket, finally feeling ready to leave. He carefully opened the front door and stepped outside, closing the door behind him, so that nothing could come in and ruin what was left of his old life. He quickly moved down the hall and onto the staircase, moving as fast as he could down to the lobby, being careful not to trip on his way down. Upon reaching the bottom floor, he did the same as he had the day before, carefully opening the door to make sure it didn't make any noise, before moving out into the lobby, scanning the area for any movement, before stepping out and quietly closely the door behind him.
Not wanting to waste any time, Will quickly moved over to the front doors of the building and stepped outside, scanning the street before he started to jog along the sidewalk, in a different direction to the previous day. Having decided that morning where he was going to head when he was packing up his belongings, Will moved along the streets at a brisk jog, making his way to the tank the military left behind when they attempted a ground assault on the undead. Since it was an area he hadn't visited much since returning to Atlanta, Will hoped that he might be able to find any leftover supplies that wasn't taken by the people who used to live there, or any bandits that probably went through there when people cleared out. After running through an alley that led out onto the street containing the tank, he noticed something that hadn't been there the last time he was. There, sitting in the middle of the road as the undead shuffled around the area, was a large duffel bag of guns, just waiting for someone to pick them up. Although Will didn't like to use guns, or even touch them for that matter, he knew he had to take whatever he could to survive, even if it meant going against his own rules. So, after making sure there were no undead approaching the bag, Will quickly bolted out of the alley and ran for the bag, noticing some movement up ahead, something that was moving faster than the undead usually would. As he moved closer to the bag, he saw someone living, a man who seemed to be of Asian origin, jump over the nearby barrier to start moving towards the weapons as well. Not wanting to lose his chance, Will quickened his pace and reached the bags first, lifting them from the ground before the man reached them.
"Hey, those aren't yours," the man growled quietly, moving to try and take the bag from Will, who pulled it out of the man's reach before he could grab it.
"Well unless you were stupid enough to leave your own bag of guns just lying in the street, I highly doubt they belong to you either," Will snapped, turning around to run, only to almost run into some of the undead, that were making their way towards the two boys.
"Just give me the guns, and I'll let you go," the man said, backing away from the approaching dead behind Will.
"Help me get away from these things, and I'll only take a couple and be out of your hair," Will told him, backing up to stand beside the man.
"Deal." With that, the pair turned around and ran away, the man turning back to pick up what looked like a sheriff's hat, before the pair moved past the tank to go onto another street, hearing some screaming in a nearby alley, which the man started running towards. Will tried his best to keep up, the weight of the bag in his hands slowing him down as he arrived in the nearby alley a few seconds after the man, seeing two other men beating up one that was keeled over on the ground. When the two men noticed Will and the Asian guy standing nearby, they both looked down at the bag in Will's hand, their eyes filling with anger and surprise.
"That's it, That's it. That's the bag, vato. Take it! Take it!" the one with the bat shouted, the bald man running at the pair to grab the bag. Before he could reach Will, the Asian man jumped at him and pushed him away, stopping him from reaching Will, the guy with the bat moving to help the bald man. With an exasperated sigh, Will threw the bag to the side and shifted his bat to his right hand, running at the three men to hit the man with his own bat. Having seen him coming, he quickly dodged Will's swing and shoved him away, knocking Will into the brick wall while the bald man continued beating the Asian man up, until he started screaming. Will looked at him and realised there was an arrow now protruding out his ass, having been shot by the man they were previously beating up, a crossbow in his hands as he loaded another arrow. Before Will could get up to help again, the man with the bat grabbed the Asian man and held him back with his bat, the sound of wheels squealing against the road as a car pulled up. The pair quickly pulled the Asian man away towards the car, stuffing him inside before getting in themselves, the car pulling away before either Will or the man with the crossbow could stop them.
"Come back here, you sons of bitches!" the man with the crossbow shouted, running to start banging his fists up against the metal fence, as the undead slowly started to approach the alley they were occupying, having been attracted by all the shouting. He quickly pulled it shut to stop them from going anywhere, while Will got to his feet, realising there was someone else in the alley with them, a boy that seemed to be around Will's age, getting to his feet to try running away. Before he had a chance to, two other men started running down the alley towards them, the man with the crossbow running over to stop the boy, roughly throwing him up against the wall in his anger.
"Woah woah woah, stop it," one of the other men shouted, his clothes indicating that he might be the sheriff of a town somewhere.
"I'm going to kick your nuts up in your throat. They took Glenn, this little bastard and his little bastard homie friends. I'm gonna stomp your ass!" the man with the crossbow shouted, trying to push past the sheriff to get at the boy, who looked scared out of his wits.
"Guys, guys, we're cut off," the other man said, pointing back to the undead banging against the fence, their numbers having swelled since Will's arrival.
"Get to the ladder, go!" the sheriff shouted, turning his attention to Will who was still standing nearby, gripping his bat tightly as the sheriff and the guy with the crossbow stared at him.
"What do we do about him?" the latter asked, looking Will up and down, before turning his attention back to the sheriff.
"We'll take him with us, he might know who those people were," the sheriff replied, walking over to grab the bag of guns and the hat, while the man with the crossbow gestured for Will to get moving. Reluctantly, Will started jogging away from the fence, moving to reach the nearby ladder, climbing away from the nearby groaning to safety.
Welcome welcome welcome everyone, to my new fanfic, The Will to Live, with my new OC, William Parker.
Since it's the start of the story, and Will's introduction, it's mostly just describing his own, personal situation, where he sort of came from and what he is doing in Atlanta in the first place. I'm hoping chapters will start to be a little longer than this, probably around 3000 words or so, so I don't waste too many chapters on episodes.
I've been wanting to write this story for a very long time, since The Walking Dead is my favourite show, and has been since it started all those years ago. After planning out basically everyone single episode, and seeing the most recent ones, I finally decided to was time to start work on this, so I can share my love of TWD dead with all of you guys, fellow fans of the zombie apocalypse.
Why did you guys think of the first chapter? Did you like Will? His back story, which I will expand on a little as the story progresses? Any comments or questions will be greatly appreciated, feedback is what keeps amateur writers like myself. I plan to hopefully keep posting either way, but some helpful criticism and nice comments inbetween would be an added bonus to being able to share this with someone.
Can't wait to share this journey with all of you.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, can't wait to hear from you all.