2010

Interstate 87

New York

Kariwase Fowler was driving south down from Albany into New York City. He had about twenty minutes of driving left before he would be where he needed. He drove a 57' dark blue Chevy Bel Air. He was on his way babck down south to find his girlfriend. They were in a relationship despite being in different colleges. She went to NYU and he went to Albany University.

He pulled over as he saw a hitchhiker. He pulled over and the man walked up to him. He looked maybe a year or two older than Kariwase give or take. Kariwase was 20 himself and had only started college a little bit ago. The man was scrawny and had glasses, deep brown skin. A deeper shade of brown than he. The man jet black hair. He suspected him to be of Indian descent or possible Arab. "Where you going?" He asked him. "Manhattan. Coming down from Syracuse,"

"I got a cousin that goes there. Get in. You're in luck."

He didn't suspect the man would try anything. He had always been told to not talk to strangers let a;lone pick up hitchikers but if it had been him needing a ride he would hope somebody would be as kind. If he did try anything, he had a pocket knife at least. He would prefer to have a gun but he had been busting his ass working and going to school and so he hadn't had much time to try. Still, he had at least four inches on the guy and at least thirty pounds. He looked harmless but looks could be deceiving. Kariwase was six foot one, an American Indian with light brown skin the tint a bit reddish in hue. His eyes were a hazel color. He had long brown hair which was tied back in a braid. He had the slightest amount of facial hair that really grew as more of a five'oclock shadow than a beard. He shaved as often as he could usually. Then again it wasn't like she hadnm't seen him looking like shit before. Despite the facial hair he looked good enough.

He wore a black t shirt with a flannel brown checkered jacket over it. For pants he had some black khakis. Shoes were just regular old Nikes. "I'm Kariwase," He said introducing himself. "I'm Jacob. Kari...?"

"Kariwase."

"What kind of name is that?"

"Kanienkehaka. Mohawk."

"Oh ok. Nice. I'm the other kind of Indian, obviously," They chuckled as their eyes met.

"Got holiday plans in the Big Apple?" He asked. The youngster nodded. "Family reunion. It's funny we're not even Christian but we always ave these big blow outs every Christmas."

"Yeah well Christmas wasn't even really a Christian holiday to begin with. They just sorta made it theirs. But being pagan, that means it's for everybody. They're the ones with the exclusiveness about it even though they aren't supposed to celebrate."

"Yeah well, I',m not too religious...my family on the other hand...anyway, you got plans there?"

"Nope. Just gonna pick my girlfriend up and we're heading back up north. Going into Canada."

"You coming from Syracuse?"

"No. Albany."

"And your girlfriend's in Manhattan?"

"Yep."

"Well that's a hell of a long way to go. Long distance relationsips and all," The Mohawk looked over at him and he said, "Sorry...I talk too much when I'm nervous."

He looked at him thinking of asking why he was nervous but then decided not to as he would have been nervous in his shoes too. "It's not that long of a distance," He corrected him. "When I think of long distance, I think another state. Yeah, it might be another area code but a two hour drive isn't that big of a deal. It's not like she's living in Hawaii. Then that'd be another story."

"I hear ya, man. It's just lucky you could stayt in the same state. Most people that get accepted to a college in another state. Then again I hear of a lot of people going to NYU too. What was your major?"

"I'm studying Biotechnology. How about you?" Asked Kariwase. "Pre law. My parents..kind of pressured me into it. They said doctor or lawyer. I didn't like the idea of operating on somebody so I said fuck that. I mean...I don't really want to be a lawyer either but you know, maybe if I become a lawyer, I can save lives. In a different kind of way."

"Yeah or defend the guys that sends people to the hospitals and the morgues, right?" Kariwase said with a smirk. He suddenly swerved as he saw a man walking out in the middle of the road. He swerved to miss but honked as he did. He got out of the way and Jacob freaked out. "Jesus! What was wrong with that guy?!" Kariwase yelled out the window, "ASSHOLE!"

He came back in saying, "He's high off his ass. Either that or drunk. He's lucky we didn't hit him. Somebody else probably will so he's either wasted or suicidal."

"Shouldn't we stop and see if he's okay?"

"No. He almost just took my life and yours. Whether he's shit faced or suicidal he made his choice and I'm not about to go reward him for it. He made his bed."

They were nearly to New York City.

Wall Street, New York

The police were called in to deal with Anarchists. The cops had been arresting people and a lot of people were fighting back. Malcolm Hightower watched as it all went down, smoking a cigarette. He had been part of Occupy Wall Street for some time now. He'd been arrested a few times for protests in the past weeks but he had a feeling things were starting to die down. He spotted a Caucasian man being slammed to the pavement but he tried to still resist . He couldn't go to jail again. he wouldn't. Maybe the revolution would happen someday but it wouldn't be today and he wouldn't be one of the ones to take the fall. The cops had arrested hundreds in protests so far. He was sick to death of these pigs.

Some in the crowds were fighting back but most were running or being peaceful and letting themselves get arrested peacefully. Malcolm wasn't going to be any of the above. He hurried running out of there as the cops were chasing people down. He ran through a parking garage and stayed low behind parked cars. He spotted several cops chasing down a man from inside the garage and tey started taking billy clubs to him. "Fucking pigs..." He muttered under his breath. After all, they'd been protesting against the inequality of the system and the police. It was funny to him how you couldn't hit cops for any reason and be in the right but they could beat you, kill you, jack you up and get off with it.

To him, there were no good cops. If there was good cops, they'd have been arresting the bad ones. He looked at his own reflection in the metal of the bumper. He was African American, particularly dark skinned, with curly hair, a round nose and brown eyes. He had a birth mark on the side of his right cheek. He wore a red yellow and green dashiki and blue jeans as he was a Pan Afrikan Activist. Occpu Wall Street didn't address every issue and problem he'd wanted to nut it was a start and he'd tried to address as muchas he could whenever it'd been his time to speak without taking up too much time.

He'd also been given reading matterial when on campus. He'd been expected to read three different books written by Karl Marx. It was really a tough read. He was not a particularly tall or muscular man and was in fact scrawny but somewhat athletic. He stood at five foot nine. He saw two cops coming into the garage with police dogs. He had a feeling he was screwed and he prepared to be attacked as they started barking but to his surprise, he saw them siccing somebody else behind a red Subaru. A Muslim lady was being pulled out as the cops got the K9 unit off of her. As soon as they left the garage he ran fofr the exit on the other side.

He ran into his friend Sean Williams and Tito Gonzales. Sean was black like himself and from the same part of town. Uptown. He wore a blue Wu Tang Clan t shirt and gray jeans plus a Mets cap. Tito was from Washington Heights and was of Puerto Rican descent and had a crew cut. His skin was a yellowish brown color and he had a goattee and mustache. He wore a gray puffy jacket and blue jeans. "What the fuck you doing here, man? we gotta get outta here the cops are locking up everybody!"

Malcolm nodded. "I know. They almost found me but I think I gave them the slip."

He noticed Tito's arm. "Damn what happened to you?"

]The man stated, "We were throwing down with the cops bro. They tried taking Emmanuel to jail. I mean they did talke him but we didn't let them go so easy you know? So I got into it with one of them but then this other guy with us, he bites me right here. I don't think he meant to. But I socked that motherfucker hard. Sean got me outta there but when we left he was trying to do the same thing to a cop."

"Dsamn that's crazy," Malcolm said. "But maybe he was trying to bite the cop?"

Sean snorted. "Yeah whatever. Fucking sherm head. "I aint waiting to find out."

Malcolm sighed. "We need to get off the streets before they come for us. I'm not waiting around to get scooped up by five o. I mean we don't gotta go home but we shouldn't hang around here. Let's find a place to get something to eat or something."

He then looked at Tito's arm. "That's a pretty nasty bite. We should get you to a hospital."

"Nah bro no hospitals. They got cops there. Let's just get some peroxide and a bandage at the store I'll be fine."

"You sure? That looks pretty nasty. You got the right to protest same as anybody else. We all do."

"Yeah I aint a bitch i can handle it, son. Let's go."

They looked for the nearest store. "Hey there's a pharmacy up ahead," Malcolm stated. They noticed a Caucasian lady trying to come towards them. She looked homeless. Her hair was blonde and frizzy, wild and she wore a dirty orange t shirt and white jeans. She staggered towards the men walking in a way he had never seen before. "M'aam you all right?"

She didn't answer. "She's homeless bro. She's strung out. Look at her."

She came towards Malcolm lunging at him, grabbing him but his reflexes were quick. He shoved her back. She let out a growl. "Lady, stay back. Do NOT touch me..."

She tried to grab him again and Tito shoved her back. She grabbed him again this time, sinking her teeth into Tito's neck and they pulled her off. Malcolm punched her in the face. Tito screamed in pain as he bled out intensely as she had taken a hug chunk of his flesh with her. Tito gushed blood and he got it all over Malcolm and Shawn. "Good god...hang in there, bro..."

Sean ripped his own shirt off to put pressure on his neck. "That bitch...bit me...what the fuck..is with people..." He cried out. They noticed an NYPD officer walking forward and he asked, "What's going on here?" Malcolm panicked because he wondered if they would try and arrest them cause of their protesting but at the same time, he had his friend to think about. "This homeless bitch bit my friend, man!"

The woman got off the ground and started to come back towards them. The officdr tackled her to the ground. He pinned her and started to cuff her. He then got on the radio and called for am ambulance. "What's his name?" Asked the police officer, a Caucasian in his late thirties with a receeding airline of sandy colored hair and green eyes. "Tito Gonzales,"

"Just sit tight...we're going to take care of you."

The vagrant lady started to go for his right leg and the officer stomped on the back of her head pulling out a tazer. "Ma'am you need to calm down!"He yelled as she growled at him. She tried to get up despite being in cuffs only to fall back down. The officer put her in the back of his car and shut the door. Finally the paramedics came. They got Tito on a stretcher and brought him on board. As he was loaded up, he looked and said, "Malcolm...I don't wanna die, bro..."

"You're not going to," Malcolm promised all though he was not sure how true that was. "We'll be right behind you bro."

The officer then told the paramedics what had happened.

"They taking him to Bellvue?" Asked Malcolm. "Yeah. Should be," The officer, who's nametag read O. Harris said. "You want to tell me what that was about?" He asked. "I don't know, she just looked like a random street person to me. I don't know why they don't got her in a mental hospital if she's that bad off."

"You two mind coming down to the station to answer a couple questions?" Sean looked at the officer saying, "Look, man we didn't do nothing wrong. She attacked us. You saw that."

"I did. I just want your version of what happened."

"We're the victims, yo, why we gotta go to the police station?"

Malcolm followed up. "Do we got a choice?"

"Not really. It was just a formality. You're both witnesses to an attempted murder. I need you to at least make a statement."

"I aint riding with her..." Malcolm told him. The officer smiled. "She can't hurt you. She's cuffed and in the back but okay how about this. I'll arrange for another car to come get one of you. Or both of you."

Malcolm looked at the vagrant. "She tried to kill my boy. Long as I don't gota ride in back with her, I'll answer some questions and sign whatever you need me to. But I don't wanna get charged with nothing myself ya heard? Only thing I'm guilty of is protesting."

"Bro, stop snitching on yourself," Sean said. The officer held a hand up. "Look if you didn't do anything wrong, don't worry about it. the protests are getting pretty ugly. You have the right to protest it's your first amendment right. If you had been picked up by the boys over there it'd be another story. We'll just get a statement and you can be on your way."

"Good, cause I gotta pick up kids from daycare," Malcolm stated. "That won't be an issue. And if it becomes one we'll make sure you get to call whoever you need.,"

NYU Campus

A young woman sat at her lap top hammering away in her dorm room. Her room mate watched her with a smile. "Naomi, you're too much of a workaholic, girl. You gotta live it up a little. It's almost Christmas. You've got to come to Megan's party it's going to be a blast."

The room mate was a thin Caucasian woman with reddish blonde hair and blue eyes plus a tan. Her name was Hannah Montgomery. She wore a white sweater and blue jeans plus a cross around her neck. She stood at five foot nine, and was twenty one years old. She had darker skin than Naomi did but it wasn't natural as she often used spray on tans and went to tanning beds. Naomi Moon was American Indian, of the Seneca nation and had long black hair and almond shaped brown eyes. She wore a dark purple and white sweater a Violets sweater plus a head and which kept her hair out of her face. Her skin was light brown a somewhat yellowish bronze color. She was only a shade lighter than Hannah but not by much and this was her natural look year round where as Hannah's was not. Hanna was nearly albino in the winter.

Naomi was five foot seven and twenty years old.

"I'm not big into those sorority scenes, Ali. You know that," Naomi said. "Oh come on live a little. There's gonna be a lot of cute guys there too. You like Charlie, right? The quarterback."

Naomi laughed. "No. We're just class mates. And I'm a fan but I have a boyfriend. He's coming down to visit and we're go up north."

"Boo. You're no fun," She pouted. "I am too. We're spending Christmas up in Ontario but before that we're going to see Niagara falls."

"Yeah but he lives all the way upstate. That's crazy far."

"Not really. It's not like hes in California. That would be longer distance. You know, like if we only talked on the phone or the internet. We see each other as often as we can he just lives closer to home than I do. I would have rather gone to Syracuse though."

"What and miss out on your favorite team? Hey we all gotta make due with where we are,"

Naomi sighed but smiled. "This midterm paper is kicking my ass. He might get caught in traffic on the way here but I'm gonna take a nap."

Hannah nodded. "Okay. Well, I got a few calls tlo make I'll be back. Love ya, loser. Have fun with your boring boyfriend," She flashed the l sigh and Naomi flipped her off saying, "At least he's got more brains than the dumb asses you date,"

She stepped out into the hall to see a man wearing a Bobcats mascot. "It's not football season yet, Robbie."

"Who cares. Violets all the way!"

"Anyway are you coming over tonight?"

"Yeah I should be., Hey have you been watching the news?"

"What about? The Occupy stuff? Yeah i cant go to it I've got work."

"No not that. There's been cannibals out there going around biting people's faces off."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah funny."

"No, I'm serious," He pulled out a cell phone and accessed the news article. "Look here. Gregory Winters, aged 56, was shot dead on December 15th after biting a woman, Carolyn Andrews, age 29, in the face. Suspect was hostile towards police and tried biting them too and did bite one of them on the thumb. He was shot six times in the chest and once in the face as he tried coming towards more of them."

She read it and her eyes widened. "It';s just some crazy old guy. Probably went nuts or got high. Who knows. Maybe he was a creep like you. She turned him down so he bit her," She said with a grin. He said, "Yeah but who the fuck gets shot six times and doesn't go down?"

"Like I said he must have been high," Hanna stated.

Robbie said, "Yeah I men one minute your face is intact and you're breathing and everything..." He puled the head off and tossed it at her. "The next your head is off and you're dead!" The sudden move startled her and hit her and she growled, "You asshole," She threw it back at him he tried to dodge but it hit his shoulder. "It's not funny."

"It was a little it funny. But you better be careful, Ali. You never know who might be out there...you look pretty delicious yourself."

She sneered. "You'll never know."

Queens, New York

FDNY sergeant Harold Nakamuri was on his way to a five alarm fire. In the truck with him were the rest of his men. "Remember what I told you. Stick together. This is not gonna be easy. We're there to help who we can and put this scorcher out but that doesn't mean this is a suicide mission. Don't get yourselves killed."

They pulled up to the fire and he said, "Time to rock and roll."

That's all for the first chapter so as you all know I have another walking dead story the Northwest Chronicles well this is the North East Chronicles., Seeing as The Walking Dead the show already has a setting in the South West, Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, plus Mexico and Georgia so the south east I though we should represent the other two corners of the country too. If any of you wanted to make a Midwest based TWD that's your choice but I have no interest in doing so.

So right off the bat we've established several characters. More will be revealed on them later as we get into the story. As I mentioned in my other story the survivors in the Seattle group, in NW Chronicles will most likely at some point encounter Travis and his group as it's only two states away. As far as this one they are more likely to meet the Georgia survivors IE Rick Grimes. In both instances though that won't be for a while as I want to establish these characters and flesh them out. One major difference though I might add is that all though in the other story Leschi was the main character but yet it was still an ensemble, well the same is true here but instead of one main character we got two. Kariwase and Jacob are both the main characters while everyone else like on TWD, will be supporting characters and some chapters will focus on certain characters more so there is main characters but there isn't.

That's what I like about TWD Rick is the main character of TWD and Travis is in Fear TWD but it's not like they hog the episodes so it feels more even and EI like that more.

As I also stated in my other story while there will be cops and soldiers, they will not be as prominent in this. Or the other story because too many sows involve a cop or a ex marine and I'd rather just show people of other professions in this. That's not to say there won't be guns there will be but it's more gonna be along the lines of a gun owner who will show the others how to use it. I mean there are more legal gun owners in America than cops anyway. Besides a lot of these cops are fat asses who would e just as dead as the average joe. Especially if you were in say, Wisconsin.

As far as Ned goes he'll be more established next chapter but the thing about him is I always see in these shows they have cops in zombie shows represented you got Rick you got Abraham as a soldier, you got Rosita as a medic but firemen seem to not be represented but I think they'd be just as handy in a zombie apocalypse. They at least would have a fire ax and they are often in good shape their job is way more dangerous than a police officer's. Plus they often have to do medic type stuff too.

Besides, who else is going to nail your girlfriend, wife, sister or mother? I'm joking but you get the point. I'm new to writing walking dead stories so go easy on me.l i'm keeping this a mostly oc based story with reference to the canon much later.