A/N: Just a quick note to say this is my first TWD fic and I hope you like it. I started a Bethyl fic prior to the MSF, but my inspiration dried up after they killed Beth, so I decided to finally write a story that has been on my mind for a while. All original characters - main male character is a Dixon cousin (think Daryl without the abuse history). It starts off slow, but please hang in there. Since it is starting at the beginning of the apocalypse (not just jumping into it like the show) it is necessary to build the background and frame the world they are coming from.

Day One

Chapter 1 - Life Before

Alexandra Haddley was not your typical seventeen year old girl. She was raised on a ranch, known to the locals as the Lazy H, by her hardworking (and rarely home) parents, Scott and Julia, their housekeeper, Koko, who, along with ranch hands Danny and Manny had been with the family since they inherited the property twenty years ago. Their third hand, Jake Dixon, had been with the family since Alex was seven.

Alex was immediately taken with Jake. By eight years old, she was following him around the ranch every chance she got. Her parents loved Jake like their own son and they knew that Alex was safe under his watchful eye. Jake was a natural outdoors man. Born and raised in the woods of Georgia, Jake knew all about hunting and tracking. He was especially fond of the compound bow his father had given him when he moved to California to work for the Haddley's. His father and Alex's father had been in the Army together and their families had lived outside of Senoia, Georgia after completing their service to their country. Jake's father, Cal Dixon, worked hard to improve his family's quality of life; his brother was notorious around Senoia for his boozing, womanizing and abuse of his family, mainly his wife and youngest son, Daryl. For that reason, when Jake told his parents he wanted to drop out of high school and leave Georgia after getting suspended from school for fighting again, Cal called his old Army buddy in California to see if he could use Jake as a ranch hand. Cal hoped that Jake would finally be able to escape the disdain that people had for those with the last name of Dixon.

Alex was happy to have Jake around. As an only child, growing up on a two-hundred acre ranch with parents that were often gone, Jake became like an older brother to her. He never complained that she was ever-present. He kept an eye out for her and did his best to keep her out of trouble and harm's way. He kept her parents from finding out that she'd gotten the tractor stuck when she was joyriding around the ranch at 10. After helping her get the tractor out of the bog and back to the barn, he helped her clean it up. He then helped clean her up and sent her on her way, telling her parents that she'd been helping him clear some land they were going to plant next year when she slipped and fell in the mud.

When she was 15, she'd been out riding her horse, Penny, when the horse got startled by a rattlesnake, reared up and dumped Alex off. She broke her wrist when she tried to break her fall. Penny took off and Alex tried to go after her, but she only made it a few steps before she realized that she was going to need some help as every step she took caused a sharp pain in her hip and she wasn't getting anywhere fast. She had no cell reception, plus the fall had shattered the display screen making the phone useless even with reception. Alex was about two miles from the barn and most of that was a steep downhill trail that was going to be a bitch in her condition. Alex used her long sleeved shirt to make a sling for her arm, tying it close to her body. Then she stumbled her way down the trail, only making it about a quarter of the way before she heard the familiar sound of an ATV getting closer. After a few minutes, the ATV and its rider came into view, eventually stopping next to her.

"Figured ya'd be up this way," Jake said as he stepped over to her.

"How'd you know to look for me?" Alex asked through the wide grin on her face.

"Foun' Penny still saddled when I got back ta' tha barn. She looked pretty run down, figured somethin' musta happened, you'd never leave 'er like that. Thought I'd check yer favorite trail first," he drawled at her.

"She got spooked by a rattler, dumped me and took off runnin'. I shoulda known she'd run back to the barn. I think I broke my wrist, and there's definitely somethin' wrong with my hip. Think ya' can take me to the clinic? My parents are gone until Monday," she asked, knowing he would say yes.

"Yep. Let's getcha back ta tha bunkhouse. You can call yer parents an' let 'em know what happened. Don't worry Al, we'll getcha fixed up," he said.

It was always like that with Jake. Alex managed to find herself in a predicament and Jake always showed up at the right time. Alex was naturally curious, always asking Jake questions about nature, then going alone to investigate things. By seventeen, she was a capable hunter and tracker in her own right. She and Jake had been taking hunting trips since she was thirteen, often for a week at a time, just the two of them in some desolate area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Their exploits were well known to the locals. After being gone for a week, they'd roll back into town, truck loaded with game that they would barter at the local farmers market with various ranchers for things like honey and feed for the pigs, horses and chickens. They traded big game like elk, deer and bear to the butcher in exchange for him processing and tanning their hides. They had developed a nice little system over the years and everyone in town looked forward to their annual hunting trips.

The Lazy H consisted of about two hundred acres, most of which was not usable for growing crops due to steep hillsides and abundance of granite in the ground. But the Haddley's, or rather their ranch hands, had put years of hard work into the land and created about two acres of farmland, where they grew anything they could get to take root - tomatoes, various types of squash, pumpkins, leafy greens, carrots, watermelon and pumpkins. There was an old orchard that had been the pride and joy of Alex's great-grandparents, Horace and Mabel, who had originally settled the land. There were apple, cherry and almond trees, as well as a few mandarin trees. Alex loved to sit in the apple trees in the fall and feed apples to Penny. She got a kick out of the way the apples made her foam green at the mouth.

The ranch was nestled in the California foothills, about fifteen miles from the nearest town, Indian Springs, with a whopping population of 1,621. Their closest neighbors were about two miles away and the Haddley's had spent a lot of time and money to make the ranch self-sustaining. Electricity was provided via solar panels, there were several wells, a creek for irrigation and, of course, lots of farm animals - chickens, pigs, horses and about 50 head of free range cattle. They butchered their own meat and what they didn't need they bartered with their neighbors. Koko, the housekeeper, canned vegetables and made preserves out of the fruit - blackberry preserves were Alex's favorite. Supplies were stored for the winter and any excess was bartered as well.

This was Alex's life. She had just started her senior year in high school, excelling in her honors classes and on the debate team. She was on the water polo team - it was the only sport that girls could participate in that had any contact at all, and she loved the competition with the boys since the team was coed. Alex had applied early to her top five colleges and had already gotten early acceptance letters from 4 of them. She could go anywhere she wanted. She had a couple of girl friends, but most of her friends were guys. They were the ones that she could talk hunting and weapons with. She didn't have much in common with most girls her age. And Alex was ok with that. She was smart, talented and happy. The world lay at her feet; all she had to do was choose which way to go.

And then one day the news started reporting weird things happening all over the country. A man in Florida attacked his neighbor and ate him. When police responded, they shot him multiple times and he kept coming after them. A woman in New York ate 3 people in her apartment building before someone noticed and called the cops. She was shot a dozen times before she stopped coming after them. Stories like this were reported for a few days, all over the country, before the government took over and started broadcasting only emergency alert messages about remaining calm and staying indoors.

It all happened so fast. One day Alex was at school, talking with her friends about the weird stories of cannibals. The next day, Friday, there was a cannibal attack reported in her town at the clinic. The school closed early and Alex went home, waiting for her parents to get off work. By that evening, she still hadn't heard from either of her parents and she was growing concerned. She'd tried calling but both their cells went straight to voicemail. She sent them both texts and never got a reply, which was weird. While they may not always answer her calls, they always responded to her texts.

Her father, Scott, worked for a security company in San Francisco, and after a long week he occasionally would not make it home on Friday night. Scott stayed in the city all week and only came home on the weekends. Her mother was a nurse in a care facility in the next town over, so it was possible that something had happened and she needed to stay the night. Still, it was unlike them to go so long without contacting her. Something was definitely wrong. The housekeeper, Koko, was on her annual two week vacation to Montana to visit her family, so Alex was basically on her own. The ranch hands were always around, but they lived in the bunk house down near the barn. The main house was quiet, but Alex didn't mind. She liked the quiet. She had already checked the T.V. to see if the broadcasts had changed, but it was still just the same message about staying indoors, staying calm and waiting for further instructions.

By first light next morning, Alex still hadn't heard from her parents. She tried calling them again; both still went straight to voicemail. Alex didn't bother leaving a message this time. She decided to go to the bunkhouse and see what the guys had planned for today. There was plenty to do and they always welcomed her help. With Koko gone, the hands had to fix their own meals; she usually made lunch and dinner for them but they were on their own for breakfast. Alex thought she would see if they wanted her to fix their meals today. She wasn't as good a cook as Koko, but she was no slouch in the kitchen either.

She knocked on the door to the bunkhouse, expecting to find Danny, Jake and Manny getting ready to start their day. She waited, but no one answered. Alex looked around and noticed that Jake's truck was there, but both Manny and Danny's trucks were gone. Maybe they got an early start after all, she thought.

Alex knocked again as she opened the door. "Mornin' guys, everyone decent?" she hollered as she stepped inside. No response.

Alex made her way through the house, knocking on each door before peeking inside. Both Danny and Manny's rooms were empty - Danny's looked like he'd packed in a hurry, clothes tossed haphazardly on the bed and floor, closet door half open. Manny's room looked like it always did - spotless. Alex knocked on Jake's door and opened it, afraid she would find the same scene. Instead, Jake was sprawled out on his bunk, naked as the day he was born, covered in sweat and shivering, blankets shoved off the bed.

Alex didn't flinch at his nakedness. She'd known Jake most of her life, and they'd spent a lot of time together, just the two of them. When they were out on their hunting trips there wasn't much privacy, they were both familiar with each other's bodies, not in an inappropriate way, it was just a function of the relationship they had and the activities they did together.

Alex made her way into the room, talking quietly the whole time so that she wouldn't startle Jake. She pulled the covers over his body, and then felt his forehead to check his temperature. He was burning up. She'd never felt a person that hot before. Alex couldn't just leave him here. She had no idea what was going on in the world, she didn't know where her parents were, it looked like the other hands weren't coming back anytime soon and Koko wasn't due back for another week. She'd seen Jake Thursday afternoon after school and he didn't look sick. This had come on real fast. She knew she needed to get his fever down before she needed to worry about anything else.

Alex pulled the door closed behind her and went to the bathroom to check the medicine cabinet. There was some Tylenol and some cough syrup. She knew her parents had some stronger stuff up at the main house from when her father had been sick with pneumonia the previous winter. He'd had a high fever too, but Alex didn't remember him being as hot as Jake was.

Alex grabbed her cell and called the clinic in town, but the phone never connected. She tried again from the land line. Instead of the usual operator, a recording came on - "Due to the current outbreak, Indian Springs Emergency Clinic has been closed by federal authorities. If you have a medical or psychiatric emergency please call 530-555-7878 for the local authorities. Residents are encouraged to shelter in place until local authorities advise you differently." Federal authorities closed the clinic… that didn't make sense. How bad had things gotten overnight that they had to close the clinic?

Alex tried the number from the recording, but there was no answer. There wasn't even a recording. Alex took this as an ominous sign and decided that she would just have to take care of Jake herself until someone showed up or she learned of some place she could take him. She went back to the main house and gathered everything she could think of that might help Jake, all the prescription meds she could find, over the counter fever reducers, rubbing alcohol, cloths for cold compresses, a thermometer, some Ensure and some chicken soup. She tossed it all in the back of her old '79 Chevy truck, as well as some extra blankets and towels. She was pretty sure she was going to have to try to get Jake into a cold bath to try to get his fever down. He was a big guy; she wasn't sure how she was going to get him in there.

Alex brought all the supplies into the bunkhouse, and then took a glass of water and the bag of medicines to Jake's room. She found him just as she had left him. She felt his face and his skin was still burning up. Alex grabbed the thermometer and stuck it under Jake's tongue. She watched the digital display as it crept higher - 100, 102, 104, it finally stopped and began frantically beeping at 105.1. That was the highest temperature she'd ever heard of. She wondered how long it'd been this high. Alex knew that there was risk of brain damage from a fever being too high for too long. She hoped that wasn't the case this time.

Alex grabbed a couple of pillows, lifted Jake's head up and propped him up in a sitting position so she could try to get some meds and water into him. Alex sat on the edge of the bed and raised the glass of water to his fevered lips. She tipped it slightly, hoping his body would reflexively swallow the small amount she dribbled in and not choke on it. She held her breath as she watched Jake's Adam's apple. When it quickly bobbed up then down she exhaled. That answered one question - she should be able to get some medicine in him. She gave him another few sips, each time watching his throat for his swallow reflex. Alex took a look through the prescriptions she had found, looking for the one her father had taken for the pneumonia. She found the bottle labeled Erythromycin and took out 2 pills. They were rather large and Alex wasn't sure if Jake would be able to swallow them. She took one, placed it on Jake's tongue and tipped a little more water than before into his mouth, then waited. After what seemed like forever, he swallowed the pill. Alex gave him the other in the same manner and followed with two extra strength Tylenol.

Alex kept Jake propped up and left him to rest. She figured she'd give the medicine a couple hours to see if it affected his fever at all, and then try to get him in the tub. She went out to the kitchen, filled a bowl with rubbing alcohol, ice and water, took one of the cloths she brought from the main house and returned to Jake's bedside to gently wipe his face, neck and check down with the cold compress. He moaned a little when she introduced the ice cold towel to his neck, but that was all. After a few minutes and several passes over his upper body, Alex went to the kitchen to fill several Ziploc bags with ice cubes. She placed them in his armpits and on either side of his neck, and then left him to let the meds kick in.

She needed to eat something. She also realized that with no ranch hands around, she was going to have to take care of the livestock and all the ranch chores. There were some things she might be able to leave for a day, but she would definitely be overwhelmed within a few days. There was just too much work for one person to take care of, especially if she also had to take care of Jake.

As Alex set about in the kitchen making something to eat, she started thinking about her parents. She really should have heard something from them by now. She checked her cell again, but there weren't any new notifications. Alex tried calling again while waiting for the toaster to pop her toast out. Again, the call never connected. She tried calling her friend Molly Riggs, whose father was the town sheriff. Again, the phone wouldn't connect. Alex grabbed the handset for the land line in the bunkhouse and tried Molly again. Nothing. She tried the phone number for the sheriff's office and got an answering machine. She left a message asking Sheriff Riggs to call back or come by the ranch if he could. Alex was definitely getting worried.

After a quick cheese omelet and some orange juice, Alex went in to check on Jake. It'd been just over an hour since she gave him the meds. Alex was increasingly feeling like Jake was the only person she had left in the world and she really hoped he would wake up soon. Jake was still the same - still hot, still in the same position she left him in. Alex decided to try to get him into the bathtub, maybe if she could get the fever under control he would wake up.

She grabbed one of the blankets she'd brought from the main house, a thick comforter that was a kind of satiny fabric. She rolled Jake over away from her and placed the blanket underneath him before rolling him back on his back. She climbed up on the bed and pulled the blanket out towards the wall, so that Jake was now fully on the comforter. Now for the hard part. Alex wrapped Jake up in the comforter, and then swung his legs off the bed. She crawled on the bed and positioned herself behind him, pulling his upper body onto her lap, and then she slowly scooted them forward towards the edge of the bed. Locking her arms around his chest under his armpits, she slowly maneuvered him onto the floor, eventually laying him down flat. She grabbed the edges of the comforter near Jake's shoulders and began to pull him out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later she had him in the bathroom, but she had no idea how to get him in the tub. Alex pushed the comforter off of him and stood in the tub, hooking him under the armpits again. She managed to get him up on the side of the tub but couldn't figure out how to get him in the tub without dropping him. Finally, she just pulled him in on top of her, using her body to break his fall into the tub. The sight would have been hilarious in any other circumstance - on her back in the tub with a naked man passed out awkwardly on top of her. Alex wished someone was here to find it amusing. She managed to wrangle herself free, then propped Jake up as best she could, trying to get his core low enough to be in the water when she filled the tub.

Turning the water to lukewarm, she let it run as she ran back to the bedroom to grab the thermometer and a large plastic cup from the kitchen. She returned to the bathroom to find Jake quietly moaning, though he still wasn't moving. Alex filled the tub as high as she could, then began taking cups of water and slowly pouring them over Jake's neck and upper body. She placed a cool cloth on his forehead and just continued pouring cool water over him. After only a few minutes, Jake began to shiver, but Alex continued her ministrations. After twenty minutes, Alex pulled out the thermometer to check his temperature again. 104.5. At least it was lower. She wasn't sure how long she should keep him in the water. Then again, she wasn't sure how she was going to get him out of the water, so it looked like the best option was to continue trying to cool him.

Alex continued this process for an hour, checking his temperature every 20 minutes or so. When it got down to 102.4, Jake started moaning again, this time rolling his head back and forth and moving his arms. His body was shivering and he had goose bumps all over his body.

"Jake, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me?" she asked while ringing out the cool cloth and replacing it on his forehead.

"Mmmpppphhhh," was all he replied.

"Come on, Jake, you gotta wake up. I don't know what else to do to help you," she whispered.

Alex continued to talk to him, about nothing in particular, just whatever came to mind. The recording she got at the clinic, the last news report she'd seen, the latest school gossip, anything to keep her mind busy and away from the increasing likelihood that this was bad, like end of the world bad. Jake would moan and move a little, but so far he hadn't opened his eyes. Alex finally ran out of things to talk about, so she started quietly singing the last song she'd heard on the radio, Rollin' in the Deep by Adele. She was halfway through the song when Jake's raspy voice startled her into silence.

"Ya know I hate that shit. Whatcha singin' fer?" Jake mumbled at her.

"You're awake! Thank god! I was starting to get worried," Alex spewed out. "I was talkin' to you to maybe help wake you up, but I ran out of things to talk about in our one-sided conversation."

Jake's eyes were now fully open and he was slowly processing the situation.

"What tha hell is goin on? Why'm I in tha tub? This fuckin' water's freezin'! Ya tryin' ta kill me, Al?" Jake made like he was going to push himself up, but Alex put her hand on his chest to stop him.

"Don't be such a baby. I came in this mornin' to see if ya'll wanted me to make lunch and dinner since Koko is gone, but Danny and Manny were gone and I found you dyin' in your bunk. You were burnin' up and I couldn't get you to wake up. I took your temperature and it was over 105. I managed to get some strong antibiotics and Tylenol in you, but I needed to get your fever down before it started to cook your brain. This was the only thing I could think of," she explained quickly.

"How'd ya get me in tha tub all by yerself?" he asked.

"I managed to get you on a blanket, slid you off the bed, dragged you down here and pulled you into the tub," Alex answered quietly. "Here, let's take your temp again. Make sure it's still going down," Alex said as she put the thermometer under his tongue.

"101. Well, that's a little lower than before. How do you feel? Do you remember what happened?" she asked.

"I 'member feelin' a little off on Thursday afternoon but didn' think nothin' of it. Friday me n' Danny were out repairin' tha fences on tha southern pasture. Danny said somethin' 'bout gettin' a call from his wife that somethin' was wrong with their kids, real sick or somethin'. Said he was gonna head home early fer tha weekend. Don' know what happened ta Manny. He was workin' on tha' eastern pasture fence with Allen Wheeler since it's their fence line too. Don't remember gettin' back to tha' bunkhouse or nothin'," he finished.

"You think you can stand? I'll admit, I wasn't sure how I was gonna get you outta the tub. Gettin' you in there was a bitch, but gravity was on my side. Thought I might have to build a travois to roll you on and bring one of the horses in here to getcha out," she joked.

"I think I can get myself up an' outta here. You gotta towel or somethin'?" he asked.

Alex grabbed a large towel off the rack next to the toilet and held it up for him, shielding his body from her view.

"Ya already seen everythin' there is ta' see. Don't know what'cher hidin' from now," he drawled as he pulled himself to a standing position. Alex helped him wrap the towel around his waist before offering her arm to help support him as he stepped out of the tub.

"Yeah, I seen it all," she grinned. "Not like it's the first time. Besides, I was paying more attention to keeping you alive, not staring at your junk."

"Uh huh," was his only response.

Jake was a little shaky once he was out of the tub, so Alex had him rest on the toilet while she went and fetched him some clothes.

"What day is it?" Jake asked as she handed him some boxers, pajama pants and a t-shirt.

"Saturday. Afternoon. I been here since just after sun up trying to fix ya up," she replied as she helped him get dressed.

"Where're your parents? Shouldn't they be here?" he asked, concern evident on his face.

"I don't know where they are. I haven't heard anything from them and I haven't been able to get through on their cells. I don't even know if the phones are still working," she replied as she helped him into his clothes.

"What do ya mean ya don't know if tha phones're still workin'? What tha hell is goin' on?"

Alex filled him in on everything she knew as she got Jake back to his bed - getting sent home early from school on Friday, the reports from all over the country about people eating other people and not dying when they were shot, the recording at the clinic and the reports of cannibals there.

Alex checked his temperature again after all the exertion of getting out of the tub, dressed and back to bed. It was still at 101. That was good. There were still a couple of hours left before he needed his next dose of medicine. Maybe she could get some food in him.

"Think you can eat some chicken soup?" she asked him as she got him settled in.

"Sounds good. I'm actually hungry. Guess I haven't eaten in a while," Jake said as he got comfortable. "I really appreciate ya takin' care of me like this. I prolly woulda died if ya hadn't come along."

"No worries. You've saved my ass plenty of times. It's about time I returned the favor," she said with a smile. "Now let me go heat up some soup for you. You finish that water and I'll bring you another glass. You've got to be dehydrated, running that high a fever for that long."

"You got it boss," he smirked.