A/N: I know that I should be focusing on my other stories but I really need a break from my usual stories and fandoms and this is the ticket I need to get on that train. Telltale Games' The Walking Dead is a knitty, gritty story that I enjoyed and I think it'd be interesting to see how someone new interacts with the whole situation. Please note that some lines will be changed up because I didn't want to copy the lines of the game exactly, so there's that. And also, I did A LOT of VERY extensive research on the game and there was a lot of unused audio and concepts in the game and I'm going to be reviving at least some of them in this story because I want to experiment with the events that could've taken place if some of the audio and concepts were actually used. (Extra Note: Apologies if you cannot understand Maria too to well but I was working on my Scottish accent writing and had done some extensive research on the slang and terms and words used, so apologies if it doesn't make sense. For reference, however, "Ah" is the word for "I".) Anyways, I best shut the heck up and let y'all read. I hope y'all enjoy!

EDIT: I went through and realized there were MORE typos in this story, namely this chapter. I went through and managed to fix them all...

Chapter Genre: Horror

Chapter Rating: M

Rating Content: Blood, Violence, Coarse Language

Standard Disclaimer: I, in no way, own The Walking Dead: The Game. Telltale Games as well as the original creators of the comics are the rightful owners of the places, situations, characters, and names. I only own this story and my own character.

"Don't you think we should stop and rest?"

"What, and have those guys catch up to us?"

"Travis, we've been walking fer' a few hours, Ah doubt tha' they're even followin' us."

"Maria, let them fight, you know how bullheaded the boys can be."

She shifted her back pack and crossed her arms, realizing that he was right. They had been through a lot and they all had some stresses and frustrations, some more than others. She briefly thought back to when the raid had happened; the gun shots, the screams of terror, the bandits had just torn up the whole camp. They had barely made it out alive. She was just glad that she made it out with her friends, Travis and Ben. She was also glad that their music teacher, David Parker, had made it out with them; they needed a voice of reason, an adult voice.

She quickened her pace to walk beside David. "Ah dinnae think tha' Ah ever told ye' how much tha' it's good yer around."

"Oh?"

"Aye; between two bawheid boys an' a soft-voiced lass, someone's head'll be torn off at some point. Yer th' one tha' can put a stop t' tha'."

David let out a soft chuckle. "Well, I know you can get angry but I don't think you'd rip off their heads."

Maria let out a chuckle of her own. "They haven't annoyed me tha' much. Yet."

"Trav, come on, just chill out!"

Travis scoffed. "Yeah, 'chill out'; tell that to the bandits when they find us!"

"Like Maria said, the bandits aren't chasing us anymore!"

She turned around and pointed at the two boys. "Oi, ye just keep me oot o' this! Ah said my piece."

"How do either of you know that they aren't trying to chase us?"

"Travis, use yer noggin'; they had several other people t' worry about an' there was only about a dozen bandits compared t' dozens of students an' teachers!"

David sighed and turned around. "If you all don't stop arguing, I'll have to- ARGHH!"

All three students were startled by David's sudden cry and stopped dead in their tracks. He was huddled on the ground, favouring his leg.

"What the fuck?!" Travis shouted, kneeling down beside their teacher. "Who would put a bear trap out here?!"

Marianne knelt down on the other side of David. "We need t' pry it open or somethin'!"

"How? We don't have anything!" Ben said, looking around nervously.

Marianne grabbed David's hand and squeezed tight. "Alright, ye just need t' stop movin' fer a wee bit. Take deep breaths-"

"AHH!"

Travis had tried to remove the trap on his own, only succeeding in cutting his own hand. "Travis, ye wee jessie! Dinnae try t' open tha' on yer own!"

"Maybe if he just tried moving his leg, or something?"

"Great idea, Ben, then maybe he'll just end up getting more stuck and bleeding out!" Travis snapped.

"Sorry I said anything..."

The next few moments were filled with quick arguments, small quips and just trying to get David's leg out of the steel trap. Marianne did her best to try and calm him down, squeezing his hand as he cried out again. She started to hum a small tune, more to help calm her own nerves than David's.

"Jesus Christ..."

Travis stood up but Maria stayed put.

"Oh, shit; please, don't kill us! We just wanna help our teacher, then we'll leave, I swear!"

She looked to see two men, both carrying weapons. One was wearing some sort of a leather jacket, short and dark brown hair and blue eyes behind a pair of glasses and he was carrying some sort of sniper. The other man, dark skin and darker eyes, chocolate brown hair, carrying an axe; he definitely looked like someone who could handle himself in a fight.

Another man came running from the woods. He looked much older, sporting a mustache and long brown hair. He wore some old looking clothes, a long sleeved green shirt and jeans and a cap. "Lee! You guys okay?"

Maria held David's hand tighter as he suddenly began to struggle. "Just get it off! Get it off, goddammit!"

Ben was struck with an idea. "Travis, maybe they can help us!"

"These might be the same guys who raided our camp and we barely got away from that!"

"We're not gonna hurt you!" The man, whom was called Lee, said.

Marianne could tell that he was the authoritative, but friendly, type. Trying to diffuse the situation as best as he possibly could. She addressed him, "Look, just help us get him get oot o' this trap! Please..."

A moment of silence passed between the two groups before the man in the jacket shook his head. "Lee, this is fucked up; we've got to help them."

"Please!"

Travis hit Ben's arm. "Shut up, Ben! My dad was Special Forces, I know what I'm doing!"

Marianne snapped at him. "Oh, so then ye' got some special trainin' tha' we dinnae kno' about, lad?"

"Be quiet, Maria!"

"Excuse ye, sir?"

"Was he bitten?" Lee asked.

Ben shook his head. "No, no, he wasn't bitten. I swear!"

The man in the jacket approached them and knelt down beside the trap, closely inspecting it. "Lee, this trap has been altered; there's no release latch!"

That statement made Marianne's blood run cold. No release latch... That could mean one of two things; leaving David behind, or somehow removing his leg from the trap. Neither option sounded promising to her.

Travis gasped, grabbing her attention. "Oh no..."

The creatures were closing in on them, probably having heard David screaming. "Oh, shit; Walkers! It's now or never, Lee!"

"Please!" David cried. "Get me out of this!"

"Mark, get the kids back! Kenny; keep those Walkers off of me!"

Lee had tried everything; prying the trap, chopping the chain, even chopping the trap itself. Marianne could see the torn look on his face as he stood, adjusting his grip on the axe. "I'm gonna have to cut you out..."

David's eyes widened in panic. "No, no, no! Try the trap again, anything!"

There were many things that Marianne had seen and endured in her life; stepping on nails, cutting her arm on a screw, seeing her brother nearly have his finger cut off by a lawnmower blade, all things that were pretty average on a farm. Witnessing someone have their leg chopped off was definitely not something she wanted on that list.

Pulling away from David she stood and brushed her fingers through her hair, taking deep breaths. She prayed a silent prayer, holding her Cross on her necklace. That's when the sounds of ripping flesh started and Marianne clutched at the pendant, desperately trying to hold back the tears.

In a few brief moments there was no more shouts of pain or sounds of tearing flesh. All there was was the sounds of the monsters and gun shots. And the sound of Travis regurgitating his last meal.

"Is he...?"

"He passed out." Lee stated.

"Well if he's alive, grab him and let's go!"

Mark picked up David and started carrying him and Ben followed close behind. Lee looked back to Marianne and Travis. "Let's go, you two!"

Maria patted Travis's back as he gagged, looking around nervously. "If yer done with yer cowking, Travis, we really need t' get going!"

A Walker grabbed at Marianne's shoulder, making her cry out in shock. "Get oaf me, ye doaty bastard!" She shouted, kicking the Walker away. Grabbing Travis by his arm, she forcibly pulled him along and shoved him ahead of her. "Run, ye daft idiot!"

/ / /

All was quiet at the Motor Inn, for once. After the boys had left to go hunting the argument levels had died down considerably. Duck was colouring on a large plank of wood, Clementine was kicking a soccer ball around and her father was working on reinforcing the fence.

Lilly smiled as she looked at her father, ever the hard worker. Her father had a temper on him but he worked hard around the Motor Inn and she was glad that she at least had someone that truly cared about her and her efforts.

A rustling came from the bushes and she quickly turned her head, aiming the gun at the trees, waiting. She kept her finger off of the trigger, though, not wanting to reenact the time when she had nearly shot Lee.

Bang.

They couldn't be back yet. It had only been about an hour.

Bang.

Maybe something happened, maybe one of them got hurt.

Bang.

The rustling got closer and Lilly whistled, making everyone crouch down or stay down on the ground. She brought her attention back to the trees, waiting for something to come from the forest.

Lee pushed through the patch of bushes, waving up at Lilly. "Get the gates open, we've got wounded!"

Lilly sneered. "Shit. What the hell are they doing?" She hopped off of the RV as the gates were opened by Carley and Lee.

Two boys and a young girl pushed by Mark, stumbling over each other as they rushed in. Mark had a man over his shoulders, making Katjaa gasp.

"Who's that?"

"Who the hell are these people?!"

"There's no time to explain..."

"Lee, are you okay?"

"Get him on the truck, I'll see what I can do!"

The whole group was hounding them with questions, their voices escalating in volume and the kids stood off to the side, obviously not looking comfortable with the situation. Lilly tried grabbing Lee's attention, constantly shouting his name.

"Can you fix him, Kat?"

"Jesus, Ken. I dunno!"

"LEE!"

Everyone went quiet as Lilly's voice finally broke through. She glared at Lee. "What the hell, Lee. You can't just be bringing new people in here!"

Kenny fixed a glare of his own on Lilly. "Hey, you just wanna calm the fuck down for a minute?"

Larry snapped at him. "Hey, you watch your mouth!"

"No, I don't! I want to know why you thought bringing more mouths to feed was a good idea!"

Marianne shrunk back, rubbing her arms. She didn't like where any of this was going. The one man, Lee, seemed like a nice enough guy despite that he had just chopped David's leg off, but she realized that he probably wasn't the leader of the group.

"I thought we could save his life!" Lee explained. "I'm the one that took his leg, that makes me responsible!"

"We are not responsible for every struggling survivor we come across! We have to focus on our group, right here, right now."

Mark spoke next in the hopes that he could diffuse the situation. "Come on Lilly, these are people! People who are trying to survive, just like us! We need to stick together if we really want to survive!"

Lilly turned to Mark. "The only reason you're here is because you had food. Enough for all of us, but that food is almost gone and we've got maybe a week's worth left."

She then turned to Travis, Ben and Marianne, hands on her hips. "And I don't suppose you three are carrying any groceries, are you?"

All three just stood there, almost too stunned to speak. Gathering all of her courage, Marianne raised her hand slightly. "Uh, maybe?"

Travis looked incredulous. "What?! You had food with you and you didn't bother to tell us?!"

She jabbed a finger at him. "Oi, Ah had my reasons, ye jessie! If we all ate food we would be oot by now! We needed t' ration th' food!"

Lilly crossed her arms in disbelief. "Let's see it, then."

Slowly, Marianne took the pack off of her back and gave it to Lilly who took it and opened it. "You call this a food supply?" She scoffed, dropping the bag beside the RV.

Marianne tried her best not to be too harsh with the woman. She understood that she was stressed and going through a lot, not unlike she and her two friends. "Please, try t' understand, our camp was raided by bandits. Th' camp was almost torn completely apart an' th' boys an' Ah barely made it oot alive! Ah grabbed what Ah could an' then we were oot o' there. Ahm sorry it's no' much, but it'll last a short while..."

Mark sighed, slowly walking away from the feuding group. "Welcome to the family, kids."

Marianne shuffled her feet slightly and then she felt the sleeve of her jacket being pulled. She looked down to see a small girl, looking almost no older than ten, pulling on her sleeve. "Come over here and see what I drew."

She cracked a small smile at the girl; she was no idiot and knew that the three of them were nervous. "Alright, lassie."

Marianne gestured and Ben and Travis followed close behind her. As the little girl lead her to a wooden plank, Marianne began to think. She really didn't know what to think about the group. About five out of the nine of them were fairly pleasant, the rest didn't want much of anything to do with the three of them. If things continued the way that they currently were then chances were that they would be kicked out more sooner than later.

She truly didn't care. Just as long as they granted them a safe haven, even if for a few moments, she would be fine with it.

They all sat down and watched as the girl and the young boy drew on some paper, from furry cats to puffy clouds, sunny skies and green grass. It reminded her of the good old days before the dead were walking and the living started killing each other mercilessly.

My Lord, please grant us some mercy. She prayed. I know that mankind is undeserving of it, especially now and in this time, but please, just cut us some form of a break. Please...

"Hey, Clementine, you need something to eat."

Marianne turned her head and saw Lee, handing the girl, Clementine, an apple. Looks like he's handing out food...

"I love apples! Thanks, Lee!." She said, a smile on her face.

"Sure thing, Clementine."

Lee then handed the little boy, Duck, some crackers and cheese. She smiled, once again, at the acts in which Lee was performing. He knew what was important, keeping the children fed was a must. They ran out of energy far quicker than adults did.

He then approached she and the boys. "Hey guys."

Silence.

He cleared his throat. "So, who are you people, exactly? The group's gonna want to know."

Ben spoke first, being the most trusting of the bunch. "I'm Ben. Ben Paul. The man you saved is David Parker, our band director. We came down from Stone Mountain for the playoffs when... Everything happened."

Travis raised his hand. "Travis."

Marianne nodded. "Marianne Elizabeth Grace, but everyone calls me Maria or Mary."

Lee chuckled. "Everyone?"

"Everyone. Only my maw can call me Marianne, but when she does," She gestured with her thumb, "Ye be seeing me runnin' th' opposite direction."

Lee chuckled again but his demeanor quickly switched back into seriousness. "Listen, uh, Maria? I appreciate what you did back there, with the food."

"Och, dinnae mention it, Lee. No sense 'n keepin' anything from anyone, nowadays."

"No, I do have to mention it. Things got pretty tense back there and I think anyone else would've probably done otherwise."

"Tense is puttin' it lightly, lad, but Ah see yer point."

Lee nodded. "I got another question; how did you three end up together? You said your camp was raided and Maria here said that you barely got out alive..."

The three high school students looked between one another, the memories of the raid flowing back to them. Marianne cleared her throat. "Well, it was no' always like this. There were more o' us."

"Yeah, right around forty or so." Said Ben. "The bandits had our number for a while, always trying to screw with us."

Travis nudged Ben's elbow with his own. "He doesn't need all the details." He looked up at Lee, clearly still unable to trust him. Marianne just shook her head at the boy. "Long story short, the lil' bawbags had been messing with us fer weeks an' Ah was prepared. Ah had been gathering food fer a while in case we ran oot or were low on it, had a back pack stored away. When th' raid happened, Ben and Travis and David had managed to grab me an' sneak oot. They had seen us an' tried killin' us, but we were oot o' range o' their crossbows an' shotguns."

"Sorry you had to go through that."

"No' yer fault, Lee, no need t' apologize."

Lee cleared his throat. "Alright then... I guess I'll talk to you guys later."

He walked away and all was silent again. Lee seemed like a nice enough man, he left some pretty good first impressions. Loyal, brave, kind, face of a leader and a good father figure to the girl. He also seemed to be the most sane out of the whole group, aside from the lady in the purple jacket and Mark. A voice of reason was good, especially in times like these.

"Do you think anyone else could've made it?"

Marianne was shaken from her thoughts. "Hm?"

Ben shrugged. "I mean, not all of them could be dead, right? Some of them could've gotten away."

She shrugged back. "Ye never know, Benjamin; the Russian exchange group could have made it."

Travis scoffed. "Yeah, I doubt the Russians made it out, especially when R.V. was with them."

Marianne pointed a finger at the boy. "Oi, dinnae judge Arvo! He may no' have th' use o' both his legs, but Ah know he had some friends here in America an' he knows how t' shoot a gun. He's more capable than ye know."

Travis scoffed again, obviously not buying it. "Yeah, sure."

"You know, Trav, it's alright to have a little bit of hope every now and then."

"So what if they made it through?" Travis snapped. "Even if they did, what are the chances that we'll see them again?"

Ben couldn't argue with that so he stayed silent, watching the kids draw.

Marianne easily understood Travis and his current attitude; he had taken the worst blow from the raid. The bandits had started shooting up the place and tearing through the camp like wild animals, shooting anyone who ran. Travis's brother had tried running but the bandits got him before he could go too far. Since then he had been somewhat of a recluse and was acting hostile towards people; it wasn't good. Not one bit.

She leaned over, gently nudging Travis. "Oi, Trav? Listen, Ah know tha' ye went through a lot back when th' raid happened, but ye gotta-"

Marianne was interrupted by a shout. Looking over, she saw Lee pulling the woman, Katjaa, away from a reanimated David Parker. "Grab the axe. Hurry!"

She cursed under her breath. "Shit..." Marianne sat up and bolted over to the RV, grabbing her pack and opening it.

Various shouts of alarm were heard as Lee struggled to fight off the Walker. "MOVE! MOVE!"

A crash was heard and curses could be heard above the shouts and snarling. Marianne, having finally found what she was looking for, turned and saw that Mark had gotten the axe stuck and Lee was struggling to fight the Walker from biting into his neck. "Hold 'em still!" She shouted.

She swung the hatchet down, killing the Walker instantly. All was silent as Lee shoved David off of him, wiping the blood off of his hands. "Thanks." He said.

Marianne waved, suddenly feeling out of breath. Travis and Ben were beside her in an instant, asking if she was okay.

"Why'd you bring him here in the first place, asshole?!"

"Dad, please calm down..." Lilly said.

"You're gonna get us all killed!"

Kenny glared menacingly at the three students. "YOU said he wasn't bitten!"

"What?!" They all shouted in unison.

"We asked y'all, point blank, 'was he bitten?', and you said no!"

Ben stepped back. "He wasn't! We swear!"

Kenny took a threatening step towards the group. "Well, your 'not bitten' friend just came back to life, and tried to kill my wife!"

Travis took a step in front of Ben and Maria protectively. "He wasn't!"

Marianne leaned towards Travis. "Travis, lad, Ah dinnae think they know..."

"The hell you talking about, girl?!"

They all paused, looking between one another. Marianne stepped forward. "We know from personal experience tha' it's no' th' bite tha' does it." This seemed to grab the group's attention, so she continued. "Ye come back an' it does no' matter how ye die, unless ye destroy th' brain, yer gonna turn."

"You can't be serious..." Lee said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Marianne raised an eyebrow, rolling up the sleeve of the jacket. "Ye want evidence tha' a bite does no' matter?"

Travis grabbed her arm. "Maria, don't-"

"They're gonna find oot sooner or later!" She snapped, rolling up the rest of her sleeve. Turning her attention back to the group, she thrust her arm out. "Here is yer evidence."

A gruesome looking bite mark was on Marianne's arm, scarred over, small bruises dotting around the scar.

"Son of a bitch..." Larry cursed. "She's bitten!"

"Take a good look, yeah?" She said, backing away from the larger man. "This bite is about three months old! Ah haven't turned!"

A lot of them crossed their arms or shook their heads, unable to believe anything that was said. "But we've seen more than enough people turn who were bitten." Mark said, unsure if Maria was being honest about her bite.

"All we know is that we've seen people turn who we know were never bitten." Ben said, his voice cracking. "When we first saw it happen, we were hiding out in the gym, thinking it would be safe there. One of the girls, Jenny Pitcher I think, I guess she couldn't take it any longer. She had taken some pills... A lot of them. The next day someone went into the girls' room, and... God..." He shook his head at the returning memories.

Marianne sighed. "We had lost a lot o' people, tha' day. Good people."

Suddenly a shout echoed through the air. "Back off!"

"Woah, lady, relax! Me and my brother, we just want to know if y'all can help us out and give us some gas?"

"I said 'back off'!" She shouted again, still pointing the gun at the two men. Lilly stepped forward, trying to get her to stand down. "Carley..."

"Are you armed?" Lee demanded.

The shorter one nodded. "Yeah, for protection. The dead could be anywhere!"

Marianne grabbed the hilt of her hatchet, pulling it out of David's head. "I dinnae like these men..." She said to Ben and Travis.

"Why?"

"They dinnae give me good vibes..."

The taller one sounded nervous as he spoke. "Yeah, but it looks like you got the upper hand, here..."

Carley looked to Lee then back at the two men. "Why do you need gas?"

"Our place is protected by an electric fence! We need gas to keep the generators running! Look, we own a Dairy up the road a few miles so, if y'all would just lower your guns, we could maybe work out some sort of trade?"

"How y'all doing on food? We got plenty at the Dairy!"

Whispers were heard as people discussed what the two men had said. Food... Marianne thought. The only thing in this world that we really need, nowadays...

Lilly leaned over and whispered something to Lee, who looked tense about the whole situation.

"So what do y'all think?"

Lee contemplated what the brothers said, carefully determining if this was really the best course of action. If they didn't agree then they all may starve to death by the end of the week. But they didn't know these people, they didn't know if they were being honest or not. But what if they were being honest? Then they'd be missing out on a good meal.

"You got a deal." Said Lee. "We'll give you some gas and in exchange you give us some food to bring back to the Motor Inn. We'll see how things play out, then."

The taller one nodded and smiled. "Sounds fair. A couple of gallons should power up one of the generators for a while!"