After writing my Drabble Goodness (Chapter 11) drabble also called "The Streets" my mind was going crazy with ideas on how to expand this and it was something I really wanted to do. The drabble is not required reading as the meeting between the two characters will be much different in this story but the same circumstances apply and the biggest question I got from that drabble will be answered in this story.

The other cool thing about this story is that this will be my first big attempt at a nonZA AU fic (apparently them's popular around here).

Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Don't own none of the characters.


Flashforward

She was too scared to stop...to catch her breath. Beth kept running, even when she nearly got hit by several cars along the way. There was no looking back either. She didn't want to know if she was being followed.

But she feared they were looking for her now.

Only when Beth got to a darkened street corner, did her knees give way and she was forced to collapse to the pavement. Her breast was still sore and her breathing remained heavy. She struggled to look over her shoulder at the tear in her shirt, one of many reminders of how this one typical autumn day had turned into an absolute nightmare, which seemed to hold no end.

The empty buildings around her seemed to echo with her cry. "I DIDN'T DO IT!"

The loneliness of the area seemed to reflect her right now. She had allies, yes. But those allies, once they knew the truth...who knows what would become of them? How could she face her family knowing what happened to her today? Where would she get help knowing that the law that was supposed to protect her, had cruelly turned against her?

Two headlights turned a corner and Beth sprung in a panic once more. She ran across the street and hid behind a trashcan waiting for the car to pass.

It wasn't a police car, thank god.


Weeks ago...

The family farm had fallen on hard times. Bills were piling up and Beth knew her hopes of starting college in the fall at a prestigious university were now crushed. For a while she was taking classes at the local community college but as finances in the family got worse, Beth knew she had to give it up and find work in the big city. It didn't seem to matter though. Family was always going to come first and if that meant leaving the farm to find work in Atlanta, then so be it. Her sister Maggie was already set. She had a steady job and was bunking in the apartment of her boyfriend, Glenn. She had the work experience. But Beth, fresh out of high school, needed to build up her resume. With the economy gone to crap, Beth knew that she would have no other choices for a while but unpaid internships and volunteer work, especially if she wanted to get a big paying job like being an office secretary. A minimum hourly wage job simply wouldn't help the farm in its condition.

Fortunately, Rick Grimes, the county sheriff from her hometown and longtime family friend, had some connections in Atlanta who would be able to help Beth get the work experience to get her feet off the ground.

"I can't thank you enough for getting me this internship, Mr. Grimes."

"We've known each other long enough. You can call me, Rick. I never took Criminal Justice as your kind of career goal."

"Well it's not really," said Beth. "But I'll take what I can get. I might do some volunteer work to."

When they arrived at the steps of the police station, Rick pointed out a building a couple of blocks over. "There's a soup kitchen over there, always looking for volunteers. You might want to check that out afterwards." They went inside the bustling station. Beth was lucky that her internship was going to be mostly regulated to office work, maybe a coffee run or two. At least that is what Rick told her initially about the job.

They came to the office of a policewoman who seemed rather wound up and absorbed. "Not a good time," the lady said.

"I'm Sheriff Grimes, from King County. I called about an intern coming here. You're Lieutenant Dawn Lerner?"

The woman seemed to calm down. "Oh you're Rick Grimes? Sorry. It's a bit hectic here right now. Can we make this quick?"

"Sure. Lieutenant, this is Beth Greene. She's going to be interning here for a couple of months."

"Fine. But you must know I'm not here to be a teacher. We run everything on a tight schedule around here and you're expected to keep up with it from the go. You understand?"

"Of course, I do," said Beth.

"I'll see myself out. Good luck here, Beth." As soon as Rick turned the atmosphere at the police station turned intimidating with just her and the stern female officer alone together. "I'll take you to where you'll be working," said Dawn. "You're expected to be on time on a set schedule. No wondering off where you're not allowed, and stay out of our way unless we tell you otherwise. More importantly, you're to be tidy. I run a clean department here and I don't get pretty with anyone making a mess of it."

Beth couldn't believe how many rules, were being set down for her already, and she hadn't even started working yet. She wondered if she needed to write all of this down.

"Dawn." Another policeman approached them. "Is this the new intern?"

"Yeah, Beth this is Officer Gorman."

Beth reached out her hand, expecting a casual handshake. But something about Gorman's smile as he reached out to touch her hand seemed very unsettling to her. She was never good at reading signals though so maybe she was just being mindlessly paranoid. "Lovely to meet you. How 'bout you have her work with me, Dawn?"

"I don't think so, Gorman," said Dawn. "On your schedule, she won't be able to keep up. I won't have her slowing any of my best officers down. I'm dumping her on that rookie, Chambler." Although Beth wasn't liking the way Dawn was putting her down infront of her other officers, for some reason, she felt better about walking away from Gorman and down a quiet hall. Dawn opened the room to one office that seemed more like a records room if anything else.

"Rookie, I'm leaving you the intern. Makes sure she stays with you." Dawn pushed Beth into the room and slammed the door.

"Wow," said the young woman in the room. "Looks like you got the full dose of Lerner."

"Um, I guess so," said Beth. "Is she always like that?"

"Oh yeah."

"She didn't even introduce me. I'm Beth."

"I'm Tara. But everyone here calls me Rookie. Please, don't call me Rookie."

Beth smiled. "Okay, no problem."

"Fist bump on it?" Tara reached out her fist and Beth reluctantly tapped her fist with her own. "So what are we doing here?" Beth asked. Tara pulled out a large bin of files. "Paper work, by the shit ton. It sucks hardcore. I'm supposed to be out there shooting up the bad guys and all that. But you know cops like Lerner, they gotta give rookies fresh outta the academy the boring stuff. We could make this fun."

Beth opened up one of the files. "Oh god!" She dropped the file quickly upon seeing the pictures inside. "That man was gored up. How's this supposed to be fun?"

"It's just nice to talk about how gross it is." Tara pointed to the dropped file on the floor. "You better pick that up, Lerner will have a bitchfest for not keepin' this room clean." But the office was so cluttered with file cabinets and boxes, it seemed such a request by Dawn was impossible. "Why are there so many files here anyway? This can't be the records for the entire department."

"It ain't," she explained to Beth. "These are just for special crimes, the gang crime stuff."

Beth picked up the dropped file. "Since when did they started goring people?"

"Aw man, don't tell me you don't know about The Walkers."

"The Walkers?"

"The Walking Dead...whatever people call them. Largest gang that's never been caught or seen. We don't even bother with them anymore. Police just lets them kill whoever they want. These are just victim files."

"That's terrible," said Beth. "Why would the police just let them do that? It's going to get more people killed."

"Like I said. Never been caught. They kill where the cops don't come around and they don't shoot them or kill them or nothing. They bite the flesh out of them. Let 'em bleed to death. I think they're like cannibals or something. They're always wearing masks acting like they're zombies and shit. So if you see them, they'll kill you. No questions asked."

Cannibals? Beth couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was starting to think that working and living part time in Atlanta was going to be a huge mistake. "So...no one's ever lived? No one's ever killed them?"

"Hold up." Tara pulled out a file from one of the drawers. "Some of them were killed. But they couldn't I.D. the bodies. There was this one woman on the east side, said like a dozen of them broke into her apartment in the middle of the night. So she took this Japanese sword she had on her fireplace and sliced them all. Walkers never came around her neighborhood again. You know where the old park is?"

Beth shook her head.

"That whole place is pretty much crime central and pretty much abandoned. Cops don't go over there much anymore but they've been finding Walker bodies, all bashed in or shot or stabbed in the head."

"Why the head?"

"Who knows? But they think it's the same person killing them. A lot of them were found with their ears cut off."

Ugh, Beth thought. Crime was brutal stuff and this area of the city that Tara spoke sounded like it was filled with crazies, not just this Walker gang. She kept a mental note to never try and wonder into that area.


Flashforward

She rested her head against the trash can, realizing how weak she was. There was no relief, no rest. She opened her backpack expecting to find something to eat, or if not that, some money. Unfortunately, she realized that she used up all her cash. To even use one of her credit cards would be asking for the cops to come and arrest her.

The cold was getting to her too.

Behind Beth was the old city park, a place that had become a decayed mix of rusty metal, broken concrete, and vegetation. The entrance to a world she had no chance in...where all manner of law and order was absent. The words came back to haunt her...that girls like her wouldn't last a night in these streets.

But she needed to prove those words wrong...prove him wrong.

With all the strength left within her, she made her way into the park...into the near dark and deadly silence, keeping her senses on high alert. The first bridge she came across, Beth crawled under hoping to find some warmth. But it was neither warm nor comfortable. She used her backpack as a pillow and curled herself up. No help there either.

'At least no one will look for me here,' she thought to herself. She was starting to prefer death, embrace it. If the stories were true about this place, about the people who hung around here at night, then maybe she'll get lucky. There was no one left who could help her now.

The words still hung in the cold night. "I didn't do it."


We'll meet Daryl in the next chapter. I wasn't sure how to end this without spending another full day trying to wring out my brain so I decided to split the opening Flashforward into bookend scenes for this first chapter. The rest of the story will built its way up to that event.