Author Note: Hey guys, this is my first ever Walking Dead fanfic and I am extremely nervous but at the very same time I am beyond ecstatic to be putting it up here. I don't really know where this idea came from but it just went BANG, like a bullet to the brain... That sounded a little morbid, dinnit?

Character: Valentina Clare - Ex-Mortician - Ex-Nurse - Ex-Soldier

Pairing: OC/Daryl - hints of OC/Rick

Rating: T for teens, but maybe if I am comfortable enough there will eventually be M rated chapters. But I will make sure to tell you beforehand and will post that it is in fact to be rated M in the AU

Type: Horror/Romance/Supernatural/Humour

Portraying Valentina: Colbie Smulders

Full Summary: What if there had been a girl in the tank that Rick hid out in while the Walkers devoured his horse. He doesn't notice that he is not alone until she dispatches of the dead Soldier to which he had plopped next to as he searched through his pockets for any ammo or more weapons. She accompanies him to the alley, much to Glenn's confusions as she most certainly did not see her with the Lawman, but quickly gets over his shock in order to help them both survive Atlanta.

Disclaimer: Do you honestly think that if I owned Walking Dead that I wouldn't be shagging Daryl or snogging Rick or Shane right now? Yeah, that is what I thought. Peace bitches! HAPPY READING!

Dead Weight of the World

Chapter One: Welcome to Atlanta, Officer Friendly

Hiding out in a tank in the middle of a Biter infested Atlanta, Georgia is not exactly what I had in mind when looking for a safe place to lie low for a while, neither was being covered - literally - from head to toe in blood and gore from a dead-Biter's body (it was a couple of them, actually) but it had been necessary at the time.

It worked, too, like a creepy and disgusting charm.

The dead bastards never even knew what had hit them when they had gotten too close to my liking, and for that I was beyond grateful for thinking of it. Even if it made me think that I was a little demented and beyond nasty, I mean ew, I smelt worse than my Uncle Bert when he could no longer hold himself in.

Sure, it really was a disgusting idea but before the end of humanity as we know it I'd been a coroner so, it wasn't too much difference. The smell was, sure, but that was pretty much it with my little 'differences and similarities' game.

Man, I was bored. No, not just bored, I was tired and thirsty, too, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to leave my nice shelter. Well, almost nice, if it weren't for the dead body of a once-handsome Soldier; I wasn't sure if he was dead-dead or if he was alive-dead and I wasn't going to investigate.

I attempted running my hands through my long chocolate brown hair, but hissed in pain when my thin fingers got themselves tangled up in a knot with a gooey clump of Biter blood, making me cringe slightly in disdain, it was going to be a bitch to wash out. If I ever got the chance to have a bath or a shower again.

A girl could hope, couldn't she?

The sound of a shrill whinny and then a loud and pain-wracked wail from a horse wafted from the open hatch of the tank, and then moans - the sound of shots being made wasn't far after that. Which meant that I was probably fucked royal, my escape wouldn't be such pie this time around.

Just great, fucking great. My safe haven was most definitely not as safe as it had been moments ago. Did whatever God was in the big blue sky really hate me that much? I mean, c'mon this was going a little over board.

As a pair of boot clad feet dropped in through the hole my heart began to thunder wildly in my chest, making me fear that it would just break itself out of my chest cavity and run for the hills. Was this a biter? Nah, it would have come in face first if it was. It was definitely another living, breathing and non-re-animated person, like myself.

But, my question was; was he a bad guy or was he a good guy? If he was a bad guy then I was irrevocably screwed, but luckily, I had two bullets left in my gun. If he was, in fact, a good guy then I'd at least have me some company and maybe even a bit of safety? I wasn't really one hundred percent sure, you can never be too careful anymore.

The man slammed the hatch shut before planting himself next to the dead Soldier and began to search through his pockets (why hadn't I thought of that before?) for any extra ammo or weapons. He never even noticed me, though I was directly across from him in the small space of the tank, but that didn't surprise me too much seeing as he didn't even notice the once still as stone Soldier began to lean towards him slowly.

Without even thinking, I lifted my blood coated hand, aimed my gun at the Biter's head and fired off a shot - startling the man as the shot echoed painfully around the enclosed space. Yeah, wasn't the best idea. I should have just use my hunting knife, but of course I had not been thinking things through, guess it was starting to become a reflex action.

For the next few moments our ears rang, our eyes clenched tightly shut and our fists rammed into our ears in an extra attempt to get the sound to cease completely. Being the first to recover from our little ordeal (once again, my bad!), I got a thorough look at him.

He was wearing a tan Kings County Sheriff's uniform, a gun holster, dark brown working boots, had an attractive face covered in light stubble and he looked to be fit, not overly so, but definitely enough to be noticeable. I had no idea what his eye color was, seeing as he still had his eyes squeezed tightly shut in pain.

I quickly crab walked half way, while he was doing the same - undoubtedly to get away from the corpse - and nudged him in the hip with my bloodied combat boots. They went along with my camo's and my tight black short-sleeved t-shirt with white block letters spelling out HOOAH! Alright?

Startled, his eyes snapped open while his hand (wrapped around his gun this time) was pointed at my head. All I gave him was my 'you're kidding, right?', look and had my hands held out in front of me in an 'I surrender' sort of way - my dirty palms facing him.

Damn, those were some blue eyes. Mama like.

"What the- were you bit?" he asked quickly, his deep voice practically demanding, but totally yum-worthy accented voice.

Oh yeah, mama really like. Oh! He wanted an answer... Well, speak damn you!

"N-not..." oh dear baby Zeus, my voice sounded scratchy and painful. And most definitely not attractive, I sounded like I hadn't talked in weeks. Well, that was close to true. "Not bit."

Head cocking to the side in confusion, he lowered his weapon (much to my relief) and put it back in it's rightful place, his holster, before looking back at the now totally dead Soldier, then back to rest on me once again.

"Thank you for that by the way. Name's Rick Grimes," he added with a grateful smile and a swift nod in the corpses direction. "What's yours?"

Stop staring, moron.

"Oh, yeah. Valentina Clare," I said quickly, my hand automatically jutting out to shake his but even quicker ended up pulling it back when I remembered I was absolutely disgusting and he was perfectly clean. "Uh, I look like death incarnate. Don't I?"

A soft chuckle came from his lips as he shook his head in disbelief, "A lil' bit, yeah. Now, what are you doing in here?" and there goes that question, I was wondering when he was going to ask me that, as well as the next question that popped out of his mouth. "And why in the hell are you covered in all this?"

I felt the tips of my ears and the back of my neck heat up, but thankfully he couldn't see it because of all the gross that was caked on my body. And in my hair.

"It was my safe haven, until someone came into Hotlanta with a horse and fired off his gun like he was freaking Wild Bill or something." I said with a quiet huff, I had momentarily forgotten that this guy had pretty much insured my demise. "And all of this keeps the Biter's at bay. You walk around covered in their filth and they barely even notice you, that is why I am covered in insides."

"That's pretty disturbing." I rolled my eyes at this, and waited while he continued. "How was I supposed to know this place would be practically flooded with those things."

"Welcome to Atlanta, Officer Friendly." I said with a sardonic smirk. "Now- ..."

A soft crackle of static caught my attention and then a filtered voice wafted through the speaker bits of a radio. "Hey, you. Dumb-ass " Rick looked at me but I quickly pointed to him with a scowl on my face. "You in the tank. You cozy in there?"

Both our heads turned towards the forward compartment of the assault vehicle, stunned at the fact that there was really someone on the radio. And they were telling us how to get out of here and to safety.

Maybe my luck really wasn't that bad after all. Thank you baby Zeus, you never fail me!

And that would be my first chapter. Tell me what you think in a review? We've got nekked Daryl!

Oh and if you are confused, Valentina is completely covered in the blood and other nasties of a Walker just like what Rick had him and Glenn did in order to get passed the Mass of the Undead in, I believe, episode 2? I can't remember, I need to re-watch TWD again lol.