Chapter 1

"Just one more," her lips moved as she winked one eye to ready fire her rifle.

She positioned the sniper, aimed her target and circled the trigger carefully with her index finger.

"Steady fire," she whispered.

She pulled the trigger and shot. The bullet flew with great speed from the window of an abandoned house to the head of a hungry Walker.

She scoffed and kneeled down feeling proud of her shot. Having cleared every Walker down the street she knew she could finally rest. The night was silent and dead like the Walkers; in which she secretly feared. She let her-self fall upon the cold floor. She lacked rest due to the Walkers, she knew it was going to be harder to keep surviving because one; she began to lack material and two; she traveled alone.

"It's a very mad world," she whispered to her-self singing the famous song.

Abruptly she heard gun shots. She gasped and quickly got up on her feet. She peered through her scope. To her surprise she noticed a couple of people start to run towards the house…leading in a couple Walkers.

"What? Are these people crazy?" she panicked.

Quickly scoping each Walkers positions, she began to shoot. She shot a couple Walkers before the survivors noticed her at the window. She gulped taking in the sudden fear of having to let them in. She knew that's they were looking for; somewhere safe.

She quickly broke away from Lippy (her sniper) and tried to cover using the darkness as a sheet. She jumped as she heard bangs at the front door downstairs.

"Let us in!" screamed a voice.

She didn't respond, she just stood there letting her heart race in an unknown fear; fear of being grouped.

Bang! BANG!

She felt her hands sweat as she pondered whether to let the survivors in or not. They refused to stop knocking and screaming. She shook her head and stumbled downstairs towards the door. She knew they were attracting Walkers every moment they banged their fist upon the door.

She looked through the peep hole then without thought she began to disassemble the barricaded door. The door swung open finally and they all quickly hurried inside.

"Quickly before they get in here help me repair this now!" she hissed at the men.

They quickly got to work replacing the nails and stray wooden boards. After they had finished she looked down then turned to the worried faces.

"Are you all nuts? I'm trying not to attract them," she snarled.

"I'm sorry. We needed a place to stay for a while. We've been over run for a while and my wife, my wife is pregnant. Please," spoke what seemed to be the leader.

She shook her head in agreement then suddenly looked at the pregnant lady.

"Is anyone bit?" she asked staring at the pregnant woman.

"No," the leader assured "My name is Rick. This is my wife Lori, our son Carl and this is our group."

She nodded "You all could call me X. I want to make things very clear to you and your group Rick, I travel alone. I don't want to be in a group."

Rick nodded listening to her. "I understand."

X walked away from the group awkwardly.

"Help yourselves to whatever. Remember this isn't or wasn't my house to start with."

X sighed slowly walking up the stairs.

"Excuse me?"

X turned around to see a fairly aged woman. Fear painted in her eyes.

"My name is Carol and I'm so thankful for what you've done. We lost so many in our journey already and it's been so hard," she whispered looking down at the floor.

"No problem Carol," X spoke softly feeling the pain at her face.

X took a deep breath and walked back into the room to meet Lippy.

"Did you miss me?" she whispered rubbing the smooth surface.

She peered through the scope again and searched the dark field carefully. No Walkers roamed around so she took a break and sat upon the dirty bed. She knew accepting the group would bring trouble to her travels. She wasn't one to just stay at one safe house for day's even months.

"Excuse me?"

X rubbed her eyes and looked around, having realized she fell asleep.

"What?" she groaned.

"We've made dinner with a couple supplies we found. Everything's still good. We just want you to know how grateful we are for you to welcome us," said Lori.

X sighed hearing the hope in her voice. She knew if she were to turn down this meal she would be very stupid.

"Thanks, I'll be right down."

Lori smiled and walked out of the room.

X sighed pushing her fairly wavy hair out of her eyes.

"The new girl," said a slick cocky voice "Always excited to meet the newbie."

X glanced up with one eyebrow raised.

"And to my surprise she isn't bad looking. I thought all the pretty girls gone dead by now."

X scoffed at him.

"Ew who are you and what do you need?"

"I'm Daryl Dixon sweetheart," he replied licking his lips.

X began to laugh. "Well Dixon it's a pleasure meeting you."

"So," replied Daryl playing it smooth with her "You travel alone all the time, I'm sure you need a man in your life to protect you at times."

X smiled and walked up to him.

"Maybe I do need a man," played X in a seductive tone "a big man."

X stood there in front of him now. Daryl looked down at her, staring at her plump lips. X touched his chest slowly now and let her hand run down to his stomach now near his crotch.

"Your gunna love what you feel," whispered Daryl.

"Am I?" X whispered back now with her lips an inch apart from his.

X lowered her hand down to his crotch and let her hand hover over it.

Just when Daryl was about to lean in for the kiss X pushed him roughly away causing him to fall back.

"Idiot you think I'd want a redneck like you," she shook her head "Fucking pathetic."

She laughed and began to walk downstairs; she heard his footsteps quickly follow.

"You'll want me one day and when you do you'll be thinking about this," he growled snatching her head towards his. He pressed his lips upon hers. She quickly pushed him off,

"You can't take the fact that I don't like you, at all. I was teasing you, fucking with your head. It's funny because I haven't had the chance to do that in a long time. It's great to do it to you motherfucker," she smiled at him and walked towards the dining room.

She glanced at everyone who now had eyes on her.

"Hey?" she greeted awkwardly.

"Um, X thanks for everything. We made you dinner," responded Rick.

X nodded and took a seat near Carol. She sat across a guy who partially looked angry and picked around at his food in slight disgust.

"Hey I'm Glen and this is Maggie."

X looked up to see an Asian looking guy with a pretty girl.

"Maggie Glen, I'm X," she shook her head awkwardly.

"I'm Dale and she's Andrea, nice to meet you X," said a fairly mature man.

X slightly waved her hand to them.

"Hershel," said another mature man.

"Shane," replied the tough looking guy in front of her.

X smiled at them all and looked at her food. She had been aching for a good meal since a long time. Traveling by her-self wasn't always so great, having human contact again felt relieving to her in a weird way. Somewhere deep inside of her she now found hope; noticing how close and loving these people were.

After dinner was over X quickly went upstairs avoiding the others. She met Lippy quickly who sat at the window with a steady aim.

She smiled touching her rifle smoothly.

"You haven't been cleaned in a while you know that," she whispered now turning to her rifle ammunition.

"Is this what you got here?"

X quickly turned.

Shane stood at the door looking at her.

"A sniper rifle? Where did you get that thing from?"

She sighed and looked at Lippy.

"I already owned it," she replied quickly.

"How old are you again?" he asked with a smart indifferent look.

X stood and placed the ammo under the bed sheets.

"That shouldn't concern you; this is a survival situation now. It doesn't matter if a 9 year old wields a gun anymore or plays with knives. He has to or he'll die."

Shane looked at X and smiled.

"I like the way you think, reckless," he scoffed walking up to Lippy "You on watch every day?"

X looked at him.

"Well you could say that. This is entertainment. Watch this," she stood and slightly pushed him out of the way.

Shane stood there and watched as X positioned her body. She looked through the scope and slightly moved Lippy towards the direction of a roaming Walker. X took count to how many Walkers were roaming around. She took a deep breath and shot her first bullet; one headshot. She instantly moved Lippy again; second headshot. Without even thinking about it she pulled the trigger one more time; third headshot.

She retreated from the scope quickly preparing the rifle for another shot. She glanced at him,

"I have experience, especially with snipers."

"Damn," laughed Shane looking out the window.

"What's going on here!"

Shane and X looked to see Rick, with a face of disagreement he glanced at and her sniper.

"Get out of here Shane," Rick demanded with a straight serious tone.

Shane looked at him with a twitched eye then walked past him and out the room.

"X," Rick started taking off his hat "I know I don't have a right to say this to you because you welcomed us but..,"

X shook her head and glanced at him.

"Then don't say it," she responded taking the cloth at hand and wiping Lippy.

"I have to for the safety of all of us. You see I care about everyone here in the group. I'm trying my best to keep everyone alive and now I want to keep you alive. I'm trying to keep everyone out of harm's way and well unfortunately you continue shooting. I'm not saying its bad to shoot the Walkers, all I'm really saying is that the more you shoot the more they come and I don't think we have enough bullets to keep on killing them all."

X glanced at him for a quick second then persisted with the rifle.

"One less Walker to worry about," she replied in a steady tone.

"One less? Seriously X there are about millions out there…,"

"You're throwing down hope for your-self. Basically with what you said we'll be dealing with this situation until we grow old and we're unable to support ourselves. If it's really like that Rick then why don't we all just go the fuck outside and kill our-selves? Huh? Does that sound like a good idea? There's no fucking hope for anyone. Everyone's dead now!"

Rick looked at her completely stunned.

"Everyone's dead, there's no hope and especially there's no hope for that god dam baby you're bringing into this world. That baby is confirmed dead and it isn't even born," X hissed at him.

"Don't you say that," Rick argued moving in closer to her "We are going to make it through, we will. There is hope and that child; my child will grow up healthy."

X looked at him with a disagreeing face.

"He'll grow up? Stop lying to your-self Rick."

Rick licked his lips and leaned away from her.

"If this is how it's going to be, then fine take the house. It wasn't mine to claim in the first place so take it," X said getting up on her feet and setting down next to the hidden ammunition.

"It was never my choice to be with a group neither did I ever want to be in one," X shook her head and glanced up at Rick; whose face had frustration.

Rick sighed and looked at her sniper.

"Just tell me if any Walkers are headed this way. We will take care of it. I don't want that rifle going off every second there's a Walker that can be handed manually."

X sighed.

"Ok, ok, you get your way. Now just leave me alone."

Rick stared at X for a second feeling a threat but decided to let it pass by.

X stood and walked over to Lippy. She peered out the window and turned around to see Rick still there. She took the moment to ask him a couple questions.

"Hey your wife, she's the pregnant one right?"

Rick walked up to the bed and sat there looking up at her.

"Yeah she is."

"Why would you get her pregnant in a world like this?"

Rick sighed and let his head hang low.

"It wasn't my intention for her to become pregnant. Actually it's a bit of a long story."

"Yeah I would assume so," X suggested.

"She slept with Shane."

X looked at Rick puzzled.

"Really she would do that to you?"

Rick scratched his head and stood.

"She thought I was dead because I had been in a coma for about four months. I don't want to blame her. She was losing hope and Shane was the only man by her side."

"So she literally just met him and she fucked him?"

"No, wait look, Shane and I used to work together. He and I were best friends. One day there was a shootout and I happened to get shot. Shane freaked out took me to the hospital but I was badly wounded. I had to stay in a coma and when I finally woke up, I woke in this world. Didn't know where my wife was, my son, no one. I was scared to death for my family but soon we got reunited."

"Wow and during this time period she was with Shane?"

"Yes," he answered wrestling his fingers.

"So you don't know if the baby really is yours?"

Rick shook his head and took a seat once again. X sighed and sat next to him.

"I'm sorry," X apologized.

Things remained silent for a while, X could feel the tension. She didn't know what type of shit Rick was going through but now she knew. She knew how hurt Rick must be and yet how much responsibility he has to take. It had to be hard all around the circle for him.

"I should go downstairs to meet Lori."

"Your wife?"

"Yes," Rick said shaking his head.

X glanced at him and let him leave.

She knew Rick didn't deserve someone like Lori; he deserved someone who would love him even when he passes. X would never see Lori the same way. She actually didn't like the whore at all.