Hello everybody and welcome to my first ever Walking Dead fanfic, Brink of Insanity. I have tons of ideas for this and I hope you like them. I've also decided that readers will also be making decisions along the way every so chapters as well. Secondly, I'm most excited to show you that not only will the charaters have to endure Walkers, Bandits and other survivors and Joyce suffering from her Schizophrenia. Here are some examples; a psychotic game show, a delusional bounty hunter, a blood murdering family, and so much more! But for now, without further ado, here's the first chapter to the story...

Chapter 1

The sun hung high in the sky, beating down on the world below. Animals roamed the once busy streets of Lyons, Georgia as the combination of trash and rotting corpses littered the streets. The whole town looked like it was torn apart by rioters with burnt down buildings, mostly destroyed buildings.

The remaining standing structures were graffitied on with 'S.O.S', 'God has abandoned us' and other random stuff on them. I did my best not to look at the corpses mostly because I just sick of seeing what the world has turned into.

I kept my attentionon anything that wasn't destroyed or dease ridden while I hummed a tune to keep myself calm. I was doing alright before I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I turn to see a corpse laying on its stomach. Judging by the amount of chewed intestines and other uneaten organs, this corpse was torn into. But that's not what caught my attention, it was what I assumed to be a medical kit underneath it.

That could come in handy, I thought to myself before cautiously tiptoeing towards the corpse. It wasn't like you find something useful nowadays, so I gotta take this chance.

I gently kick the corpse to make sure it is totally dead before trying to flip him over. I grabbed a pair of heavy duty gloves out of my survival pack so I don't catch any diseases that the corpse could be carrying. It wasn't easy to do so since the corpse was somewhat imprinted to the cement, making the corpse's dead skin peel off its face and other exposed parts.

As soon as I finally flipped the corpse upright, the hole that the Walkers torn into now had maggots crawling within it as a very powerful oder reached my nostrils, smelling like four month old spoiled meat drenched in sewage water. I gagged and coughed at the scent before covering my mouth and nose with a handkerchief, making sure I don't have to smell the stench and prevent me from puking as well.

I first grabbed the corpse's hands and tried to retract them from the med kit, which became a mistake. As soon as I reached a certain point of bending the hands, I heard bones crack as bone fragments poked out of its skin. It was too much for me as I vomited near the corpse before getting up and walked a bit away from it. I tried to calm my breathing by taking deep breaths, while I tried not to think about what I just witnessed.

I mustered enough courage to go back to the corpse and try to pry the med kit away. More bones cracked as I pulled its arms away, forcing myself not to puke again. As I nearly had the corpse's grip pulled away from the med kit, I suddenly heard a ghastly moan come from behind me. I whipped around to see five Walkers dragging their feet against the pavement towards me.

I fumbled for my survival pack before pulling out a Glock 35 and shakingly pointing at the group of Walkers. I couldn't get a clear shot of the Walkers' heads because of all my shaking, so I just unloaded my last five bullets and hoped for the best.

But to my surprise, the bullets harmlessly passed through the Walkers. _Oh no, not again_, I thought before I suddenly heard whispers coming from almost nowhere.

"...Let us save you..."

"...Let us take all the pain away..."

"...We can be your saviors..."

I took a few steps back in fear before I felt something grab onto my ankle. I look down to see the corpse grasping onto my ankle tightly.

"...Let us protect you..." the corpse rasped out before I fell to the ground and began scooting away from them.

I scooted into a wall but I wasn't paying much attention as I was panicking about the scene in front of me. The Walkers continue to make their way to me as their whispers turned into screams.

I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes before counting down from ten.

10...9...8

The screams echoed all around inside my head as I began to rock myself back and forth to keep calm.

7...6...5

Hands began grabbing me almost everywhere, either desperately trying to get my attention or drag me somewhere else.

4...3...8? 17? 35?

I was already getting too paranoid and too frustrated, that I lost count. Out of all that, I screamed, "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Everything seemed to have ceased but I refused to open my eyes as I sat quietly and listen to my own rapid breathing. As soon as my breathing returned to normal, I opened my eyes as the hallucinations have vanished.

I put my head between my legs and began to cry.

I don't know which ones worse, the zombie apocalypse itself or my own Schizophrenia. Yes, you heard right, I'm a Schizophrenic. But what surprises me is how long I have survived in this hell-hole. 2 years. 2 years I've been surviving here for. Which is weird, considering that me with my mental disorder should only give me a 2:5 ratio for surviving by my count.

My name is Joyce McCullough and yes, I'm a female, perhaps shortening my chances of surviving even more because of that. Life was hell for me even before the zombies, surviving on a day to day basis, just trying to not go mad from my schizophrenia. But when you throw in the actual apocalypse into the equation, I'm not really sure what I'm surviving for anymore.

I'd probably give myself a week before dining with Saten in Hell. I guess there's nothing left for me to do but see how far I'll live before biting the dust. Well, what's see how far I get...

Dark clouds rolled overhead, threatening to unleash its wraith. I walked slowly down the empty street of Richmond Hill, Georgia. I've been walking for days since the incident in Lyons and my legs are exhausted. The question of why I travel to find a safe haven still rolled around my mind because no matter where I ended up, it was all the same; deserted, destroyed and plagued with the risen dead. Maybe there's no hope anywhere in this world anymore.

It began to drizzle and thunder could be heard overhead, giving me a sign that it'll be storming here pretty soon.

I finally found myself staring at my reflection at a cracked mirror someone left behind. My shoulder length black hair was covered in grease and muck, my once lively brown eyes are now looking like they had no more life within them, my brown light coat and black sweatpants are covered in mud, blood and other unknown fluids, my survival pack hung loosely behind me and my tan tennis shoes are torn to hell.

Man, what I would kill for a hot bath right about now. I continued to stare at my disgusted self before I spotted something or someone watching me from afar through the mirror. I whip around to find a human-like figure standing forty feet away, motionless. The figure was wearing a black heavy coat with the hood up, covering up his/her face, brown cargo pants, brown boots and a military style backpack.

Please let it be another hallucination, I pleaded to myself before quickly jogging into another street away from the figure. The rain began to fall quicker as a flash of lightning lit up the dark skies above. I finally decided to take refugee a half destroyed building. I quickly fumbled through the rubble of the building until I reached what I assumed to be the basement.

I grabbed my oil lamp from my survival pack that I found on my way here and I just hope it works. I turn the knob to surprisingly find out that it actually works. I slowly descended down the stairs, cautious not to alarm any unaware Walkers that may be down here. But thankfully that there were none as I found myself in an empty room.

It seemed that part of the basement has caved in on itself, giving limited room set up camp for the night. I was about to begin setting up when I heard a weak moan echo throughout the basement.

"Hello?" I called out before quickly grabbing a broken pipe from tge ground. "Is anyone there?" I called out again in hopes of getting a reply.

Another moan echoed again as I look to the ground to find someone pinned under the enormous rubble. Judging by how the moans sounded, it was a woman.

"Miss? Miss! Are you alright?" I asked as I rushed over to the pinned woman. The woman began to hiss at me and tried to grab for me, which I found odd before I shun my light on the woman's face to finally realize she wasn't human anymore. I was kind of relieved that I wasn't putting a human out of their misery but I still felt a little bad for this person. I positioned the pipe onto the Walkers head as it continued to struggle to reach for me.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered before turning my head away and applied pressure as I heard the skull crack from the pipe and the last ghastly moan of the Walker. I removed the pipe from the Walker's head before tossing it aside.

Even though I've seen death and destruction everywhere I turn, it was still hard to kill something, even though it was technically dead.

I choose to nessle a the furthest corner away from the stairs as I dimmed the oil lamp just enough to barley see. I tore everything out of my survival pack for my routine check. I had a MCU2/P gas mask I swiped from an abandoned military camp, three sets of flashlights with extra batteries, my Glock 35, several scavenged boxes of bullets for assault rifles, snipers, and shotguns, five cans of food, three water bottle of water and other random stuff.

I repackaged everything back into my pack except for a can of mixed vegetables. I open the can and started digging in with my fingers. As I ate, the storm must be picking up because I heard water splashing hard on cement somewhere else in the basement and muffled thunder coming from outside.

As soon as I was done eating, the temperature felt like it dropped by twenty degrees and I huddled close to myself to keep warm. Well, it couldn't get any worst than this, right?

Just as I thought that, the flames began to flicker before burning out of existence and leaving me in the dark...alone and cold.

Great, me and my big mouth! I thought angrily. I was too cold to move as I felt drowsy. I tried to fight the urge to sleep but the sensation was too strong. My eyes closed and the only thing I could do now was hope for a better tomorrow...