NOTE: This is a cross between a modern AU and a zombie apocalypse AU. Because of the latter, there are some references to well-known zombie stories peppered throughout. This is also intended to be a rather lengthy story, and there are various references and parallels to the events of ASOIAF itself in here, mostly related to Arya's story and the people she meets and interacts with.

Chapter One:

Starting Point (2010)

On April thirteenth, 2010, the life of twelve-year-old Arya Stark changed forever. On that day, she was sitting in a seat in the middle of the school bus that was in the process of taking her home. While the school year was coming to a close, Arya was disappointed that she'd been given more homework throughout the past few weeks, and this was because final exams were coming up and the county school board had decided to add more homework so the students would be more prepared for their final tests and class assignments.

However, Arya felt that once she was over this academic hurdle, the following few months would be smooth sailing and that she would have an okay summer. She planned on going dirt biking and skateboarding, even if she didn't have many people to do these things with. Her first and only real friend, Mycah, had died in an accident three years earlier, and Mycah's distraught mother and father moved out of the town of Winterfell within weeks of their son being buried. Arya felt horrible when her friend died, and even years later, she still felt upset when she thought about Mycah for a long time.

If Arya wanted to bring anyone along, it would have to be her older cousin, Jon, if he decided to visit from where he lived up north. Jon was fond of riding on dirt bikes through the woods as well, though he didn't like skateboarding at all. Concerning other relatives, Arya knew her parents wouldn't come along, Robb (although athletic and enjoyed biking) no longer lived nearby, Sansa didn't like these types of activities, Bran was crippled, and four-year-old Rickon was too young to come along.

Robb himself, aged twenty-three, was getting married in five weeks. Although she got along with Robb's significant other well enough, Arya hated weddings. She'd been dragged to a few of them by her parents, and this would be the latest. While Robb got married, Arya wanted to be out biking somewhere through the woods going really fast, which would likely end with her being flung from her bicycle after hitting a tree stump or something and rolling through the dirt. She didn't care if it happened; as long as it took place, she'd be happy. One other event she would experience soon, likely within days from what her parents said, was that her Aunt and Uncle, Lysa and Jon Arryn, would be driving up from Eyrie to visit, likely bringing Arya's bratty cousin, Robert, up with them to visit the Stark family for a few days, perhaps even a week. Just what Arya needed: a spoiled, rotten little brat who would scream in her ear all day and snitch if she tried to sneak out to go skating or biking.

Currently, Arya's backpack sat next to her while the other children on the bus noisily shouted at one another. She was sitting next to the window in a seat on the right, and her bag was to her left. Nobody usually sat next to her, so this was common. Waiting for the ride to be over soon, Arya decided to look out the window to her immediate right. Mostly, there were a few cars and the occasional truck on the other side of the road, but then she noticed a police car with its siren on. Not too out of the ordinary; she saw some police cars every now and then when the bus took her home from school. However, what she noticed was that several more police cars began to tear down the road towards the main roads of the town of Winterfell. After a short while, even a police helicopter arrived and went the opposite direction of the bus. Arya wondered about what was going on, and she continued to watch as more police cars came around, part of the group even including an armored truck or two.

After a while, the bus stalled and then stopped, breaking down. The bus Arya took home had broken down before, and she knew what was going on as soon as it started happening. All around her, various students made surprised and confused noises while she stayed silent. The last time this happened, it took two and a half hours before Arya's mother, Catelyn, arrived to bring her home. Arya didn't want to spend two hours sitting there, waiting for her mother to show up, so she figured that she should sneak off the bus somehow and walk the rest of the way home. It wasn't very far from where the bus was currently located, just two left turns before she reached her family's home on Winter Street.

While the bus driver began to explain that the bus had broken down, Arya decided to wait for an opening to sneak off of the bus. Before she thought about how she'd go about doing this, she looked to her right for a short moment and saw that more police cars were headed towards the center of the town. Arya wondered if there was a riot or something going on in town, and she figured that if it was, she was fortunate to have gotten out and was on her way home before anything happened. Knowing that she'd have to make a few left turns, Arya decided that she would be leaving out of the left side of the bus.

Arya, after getting off the bus after successfully sneaking off, walked with her backpack towards the first left turn. She walked through the tree line adjacent to the bus so no one would see her, and as she neared the first turn, she heard more police sirens and saw another helicopter. Feeling like whatever was going on in town would catch up to her if she stayed put, she kept moving forward. She wondered if anyone from the bus noticed she was gone, but she didn't count on it. After all, hardly anyone noticed she was even on the bus with them half the time because of how quiet she always was.

After she made her first turn to get to Winter Street, she noticed that there were not a whole lot of people outside and around the street like what was normal for her neighborhood. Arya briefly wondered if this had something to do with the police cars and vehicles heading into town, but she put it out of mind. After all, she didn't really pay much attention to her other neighbors after Mycah died. Walking through the neighborhood, Arya became convinced that she would make it to her family's home without much trouble. Catelyn commonly left the door unlocked so that Arya could get in the house after the bus dropped her off (hers was the first stop). If it was locked, she'd just ring the doorbell and knock loudly and rapidly, and Eddard or Robb (who was visiting for a week with his dog in tow) would surely open the door for her.

After a brief while of walking, Arya made it to Winter Street and began to walk towards her family's two story house. As she made her way down the street, she noticed that like before, there were no people anywhere. The only sounds were the distant police sirens coming from the main road and what sounded like gnawing and chewing. Curious, Arya followed the sound of the chewing noise and walked to its source, which was behind a parked car. Cautiously and quietly, Arya continued to follow the sound to its source, and she found a neighbor hunched over something.

"Hello…?" Arya said cautiously. Instantly, the man dropped what he had in his hands–a dead cat–and Arya realized that this man had been eating it. The man jerked upward and turned around to face her. It was then that Arya noticed the man's skin was gray instead of a healthy pigmentation, and his eyes were sunken-in and completely pale blue. No irises or pupils, just pale blue. Arya, not expecting to see something like this, staggered backwards while still looking at him, realizing he'd been eating the cat when he opened his mouth and growled aggressively at her like an animal, revealing bloodstained teeth.

Arya screamed and ran towards her house when he started to chase her. Arya was quick, but the gray man was quicker–grabbing onto her backpack after a short while. Arya shook the bag off of herself and kept running towards the house, not caring if her bag got damaged or not by this crazed man that was chasing her. Arya managed to get back to the house, and to her delight, she found that the front door was unlocked. She flung the door open as the man neared, and she slammed it shut and quickly locked it. Immediately after, the angry, growling man began slamming himself against the door. Arya, shaking, stared at the door for a short while the man continued slamming himself against it, and he left a short while later. Arya figured that he'd given up and was hopeful that he wouldn't return. The thought of the cat still stuck in her mind, though, and she wondered why the man had decided to eat a cat. As she walked into the house, Arya figured that the man outside was sick and or crazy, hence the gray skin and pale blue eyes and behavior.

A beeping noise caught Arya's attention. She looked over to the kitchen, and she saw the answering machine giving off a red glow that signified a new message or two. Curious about what the message could be and just wanting to take her mind off of nearly being potentially beaten up or even kidnapped by some nut job, Arya decided to listen to the message before she went looking for her mother, father, and brother. She was confused as to why they were not around at the moment. Usually, Arya would come home to find Catelyn getting dinner ready and Eddard in the back gardening. Regardless of where they were now, Arya pressed the button on the answering machine to play the message.

"Two new messages," the robotic voice belonging to the answering machine said. "Message one. Left at twelve-thirty AM on April thirteenth."

April thirteenth? Arya thought. That's today.

"Hey, Cat, this is Lysa." Arya recognized the voice of her aunt, Lysa Arryn. On the message, Lysa's voice proceeded to discuss Arya's uncle, Jon Arryn. "Unfortunately, we can't begin to come up there today like what we discussed. Jon had a run in with a crazy guy outside our house when he went to check the mail, and we had to take him to the nearest hospital because, get this, this guy he ran into out there bit him."

With the description of the "crazy guy", Arya was reminded of the individual who had just tried chasing her outside. She then became more horrified than before. What's going on? she thought. Lysa's voice continued. "Anyway, Jon says he's not feeling well enough to drive up to Winterfell to see you and your family, so we'll have to postpone our trip until this whole mess gets sorted out and Jon is feeling better. Anyway, I hope you can understand. We'll call you back if there's an update."

The robotic voice came back after a brief pause. "Message two. Left at one-fifteen PM on April thirteenth."

Then Lysa's voice again. "Cat, are you there? Ned? Anyone, please call me back! Jon's… Jon is… please, there is something going on, there are lots of sick-looking people around, and the police aren't letting me leave! Please, just let me know you're okay!"

Then the robot. "End of messages." There was a beep, and then silence.

Now thoroughly unsettled, Arya began to search the house for her family. "Mom? Dad?" she called as she began to walk through the house. The house was uncharacteristically quiet, and it made Arya wonder if they were even home at all. She had seen Robb's car out front, so she figured that he was still around somewhere. Wanting to see if the cars belonging to other relatives were present in the garage (Robb's was the only one outside), Arya began to walk to the garage to see if they were there. She scurried over to the door to the garage, and she opened the door and turned the light on. The car belonging to Arya's elder sister, Sansa, was missing, but her parents' car was there instead. She heard a familiar gnawing sound, and she followed the sound of the noise to its source, and she was horrified at what she saw.

It was Robb, with gray skin and pale blue eyes, tearing into the remains of his beloved Akita, Grey Wind. Arya's heart lurched into her throat when she saw that like the man outside, her brother was just like him. Robb, who was facing Arya's direction, briefly paused to look up at his sister, lowly growling as Grey Wind's blood dripped from his mouth.

"Robb…?" Arya said carefully, trying hard not to sound frightened.

Robb growled and dove for her. Arya screamed and ran back into the house, hoping that Robb wouldn't open the door and follow her. Instead, he slammed himself against the door several times, and Arya thought the door would break down due to the sheer amount of weight being pressed and slammed on to it.

Arya, starting to become fearful, shouted, "ROBB, PLEASE STOP!"

Robb didn't listen. Instead, he continued to growl and slam himself against the door. It was then that Arya noticed that the hinges on the door were starting to splinter from the wall. Because of this, Arya ran upstairs and to her bedroom to hide herself. She locked the door and quickly pushed a small shelf in front of it to act as a barricade in case Robb followed her up there. Deciding to stay in her bedroom and wait, Arya wondered where her parents were. She knew that Robb was inside the house, and he'd apparently killed Grey Wind. Thinking about this, Arya was more confused and unsettled than before. Why would Robb kill his pet? The only other dog the Starks had, Sansa's Yorkshire Terrier, Lady, had to be put down after getting severely sick and was unable to be treated. Almost everyone was saddened, but Sansa and Robb were the most distraught of all of them. Robb loved dogs, and Arya didn't understand why he'd harm Grey Wind.

Hours passed. During those hours, Arya mostly stayed secluded in her room and occasionally looked out the window in order to view the street below. She watched several people get swarmed by people who looked like Robb and the man outside. Some got away, but most of these poor souls were swarmed and killed. Arya watched as a good amount of them were eaten alive, while others were partially eaten. Those who had been partially eaten or even just bitten turned into more of those like Robb. Some of the gray, blue-eyed people targeted animals and bit into and ate them, but unlike the people, the animals never came back.

Arya thought back to Robb and the man outside when she saw the bitten and partially eaten people turn. She had indeed seen bite marks on the both of them, and Arya didn't think that whoever was bitten would come back to being like a normal person. And now Robb was one of them. Arya had ventured out of her bedroom a few times, and it was during these times that she discovered her parents in the house. The both of them had turned as well.

Going to bed that night, Arya kept her door locked and kept it barricaded. When she woke up the next morning, she sat on her bed and did a lot of thinking. She came to realize that her home was not safe with everything that was going on taking place. I need to leave and find somewhere actually safe, Arya thought. However, her aunt's phone messages flashed back into her mind, and Arya figured both she and her uncle were among the growing ranks of the gray, blue-eyed people as well. Because of this, she didn't know where "somewhere actually safe" was located because if this was happening in both Winterfell and Eyrie, which were long distances apart from one another if one were to look at a map, then likely nowhere was safe. Regardless, she figured she had to try and find something, anything, that was potentially out there.

Arya cautiously exited her bedroom, and she quickly snuck downstairs to the kitchen. She could still hear Robb growling and stumbling around in the garage, and she wanted nothing to do with what was going on in there. Knowing she had to protect herself somehow, Arya made her way to where Catelyn kept her large kitchen knives and pulled two of them out of the knife block on the counter and then some rolls of bread from the fridge. Arya made her way to the door, unlocked it, and she opened, stepping out into the day.

"I'll check in town first," Arya said to herself, thinking that since there was a massive police presence going towards town a short while earlier, there would be someplace safe there. Arya gripped the handles of her knives, took a deep breath, and stepped out of the house and onto the street, leaving behind her infected parents and brother.