For anyone who follows me you know I have a lot of unfinished stories in the works, so I apologize for starting another one without completing the others. This is one that I've been pondering for awhile. It really only has the intention of being a short story that follows the world of The Walking Dead. This first chapter is going to throw you right in to the mix, but there will be more to follow in terms of explaining what's going on and why they are in Georgia. Rating is for language and violence. Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters related to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys or The Walking Dead.

Thanks as always,

Lily

Prologue

Nancy Drew glanced over at Frank Hardy. His clothes were filthy and splattered in different places with dried blood, some of the splotches fresher than others. None of it was his. His eyes were shadowed with the lack of sleep she felt in every muscle of her body. He had given up shaving a couple of months ago due to convenience. They really had not found a safe place to stay in awhile that could give them access to both food and protection. Shaving, therefore, was the least of their worries.

Joe Hardy's stomach growled. Had it been the days back when they were working a case, Nancy may have found a way to poke fun at him for being hungry all the time, but now they were always hungry. It was such a common feeling she often didn't notice until it made her dizzy. They were usually able to find something to tide them over before Nancy got to that point, but not always.

Joe walked close behind Bess Marvin. It always made Nancy sad to think of her friend. Bess had probably changed the most. She was used to being involved in Nancy's cases but she was never the one holding the weapon or standing up to a criminal. Now she had a hunting knife sheathed on her right side and a hidden .45 tucked into the back of her pants. Her eyes held a hardness that wasn't there before and necklace around her neck that shimmered when it caught the light just right. She never took it off.

"It'll be dark soon," Frank pointed out looking at the sky through the forest of trees.

"Shh," Joe said urgently. "I hear one." Everyone immediately stopped walking and listened. The heavy breathing seemed to be coming from an area close to Joe. They got into a circular formation, a protective circle.

It appeared as Nancy thought, right next to Joe. It was a woman. Its hair was dirty, clumping together in large greasy tendrils. The eyes were blank, empty and hungry. Decaying muscle shrouded in blood showed every vain her neck. The area around the lips also showed more bone than would be natural. The dress it wore was absolutely filthy. It looked like it was once blue but was now brown and looked more like a burden since its walk was labored with an extensive limp.

An almost feral hiss came from its lips when it saw the group huddled together. Frank had pulled his machete and Joe favored a mid-length sword that he was first made fun of for acquiring in an abandoned house around Marietta, Georgia, but it had proved more useful than any of them thought. Nancy kept to a small hatchet while Bess preferentially used a shovel handle with a deadly sharpened point.

It growled before running blindly at the group, but they were ready. Joe stretched his arm and sword out easily and penetrated its skull in mid-stride. Joe yanked his sword out in disgust and the limp body fell to the ground like so many others. The group relaxed slightly before hearing a low hum. Their eyes searched as a group, looking for the source. The low hum was accompanied by loud stomping. Nancy looked fearfully at Frank, knowing exactly what it meant. They hadn't been in a situation like this since Pendleton.

"It's a herd," Bess whispered under her breath.

"We need to get out of here before they see us," Nancy encouraged. No one needed an explanation. They took off running. Nancy saw a couple of zombies, as Joe like to call them, break through the trees, but it was obvious there were many more to follow. None of them wanted to know exactly how many zombies made up the herd.

The group ran hard, no longer worrying about stray zombies. It was important that they put some distance between themselves and the herd. They could handle only small groups at a time. A herd would kill them. Trees and bushes left scrapes across their skins and the forest ground was hard and uneven, making a sprint difficult.

As trees blurred across their vision, Nancy caught sight of a flat topped tower.

"Guys!" Nancy called as she caught sight of the tower again. "We need to head left!"

No one questioned her. They had come to trust each other enough that explanations took too long and weren't necessary, especially in desperate situations. They changed their direction and as a result, the number of zombies increased. It seemed to be a good sized herd and they didn't want to know the half of it. They continued to run, pausing only briefly to take down zombies along the way that blocked their path. Blood and silenced screams made up their bread-crumbed path.

The tree line was thinning. More of the setting sun shimmered through and the ground became flatter and less cumbersome. Nancy began to feel the tiredness of a prolonged full run when they broke through the tree line. The group almost stopped in surprise. They were standing in a large grassy area with scattered zombies. Before them stood mile after mile of fencing, curled at the top to prevent people from climbing over, surrounding a long brick building with more bared windows than Nancy could count.

"It's a prison," Frank gasped as he regained his breath.

"It's safety," Joe agreed.

Bess glanced behind them. "Let's hope it has less zombies in the inside than there are out here."

Frank's brow furrowed. "There's none in the yard," he noticed apprehensively.

"But there's a couple of fences between us and the herd," Nancy pointed out.

"Do you think they'll hold?" Bess asked.

"I don't think we have a choice but to find out. We won't last out running them," Nancy said.

"How do we get in?" Joe asked looking around. A stray zombie outside the fence caught sight of them and began to make its way towards them.

Nancy bit her lip and looked at Frank. "Climb?"

Frank looked at the fence grimly. "If there are no zombies in the yard then there are no obvious holes. It might be our best bet."

"Man, this is going to hurt," Joe stated as he looked up at the barbed wire at the top.

"We don't have a choice," Nancy said as she sliced off the head of a nearby zombie with her axe. The body fell instantly but the head rolled on, still hissing and snapping at Nancy as she approached. She finished off the head with a clean slice right through the middle of the skull. The mouth stopped moving.

Nancy put her axe through her belt loop and slid her fingers into the fence. She watched as her friends did the same. Nancy didn't have the strength, let alone the body strength for this sort of climb. By the time she was six feet off the ground, Joe and Frank were close to the top trying to figure out what to do with the barb wire. Bess was a foot above Nancy.

The fence began to shake and Nancy looked to see a few zombies below her shaking the fence and attempting feebly to reach for her. More zombies were starting to emerge from the woods. Nancy sucked in her breath and continued climbing. She heard cursing and the fence shook as Frank and Joe made their way over. She gasped when she saw a white blur cross her vision from the other side and the sickening thud of a body hitting the ground.

"Joe!" Bess shouted. Bess was working her way over the top and was looking at the ground with worry.

"I'm okay," he called with a groan. "My foot slipped."

"Be careful," Frank warned the girls.

Bess and Frank made their ways over and Nancy watched both of them jump towards the ground and away from the fence to avoid the reaching arms of the small crowd of zombies that had gathered. Nancy continued climbing. One of the brothers had sacrificed a sweatshirt that now clung to the penetrating barbs so that they could have some protection as they climbed over.

The growling and hissing became louder as Nancy climbed, but it wasn't until she heard the safety being released off a gun that she froze. It wasn't typical for them to use guns. It attracted the zombies, so she knew it wouldn't be Frank, Joe or Bess unless things were desperate. She'd just reached the top and was contemplating the best way to get over when she looked down to see the source of the weapon.

Two men had weapons drawn. One had a crossbow trained on Joe who was still on the ground a short distance from the fence line. He had short brown hair and a sleeveless button down shirt. The other was a taller African American man. He was bald, but built. It looked like he wore a single colored jumper, making Nancy think he was an inmate. His gun was trained on Frank. If they were both inmates, they could be in trouble.

"Don't move," the guy with the crossbow called.

"We don't mean any harm," Frank tried to reassure. "We just need some place to stay until a herd passes."

"Herd?" The guy with the bow said with narrow eyes. He glanced at the woods briefly and then back at them.

"Of zombies," Joe supplied.

Crossbow guy almost barked a laugh. "Zombies. That would be the best name for them." He looked suspiciously at the group. "Any of you bit?"

"No," Frank answered. The black man was quiet, but his shot never wavered. It seemed as if the crossbow guy was making all the calls but it didn't seem as if they would make much head way with the gun man if they tried. "If you don't mind, can we at least get our friend down on the ground?" Frank asked gesturing to Nancy.
"We don't have room for you." Everything about him said he was deadly serious. "You'd be best off climbing back on over."

"What do you mean it's a gigantic prison," Joe argued angrily.

"Where else are we going to go?" Bess supplemented.

"That's not my problem," Crossbow answered.

"Look, we both know what it's like out there," Frank reasoned. "Just let us stay the night, until the herd passes. Just one night."

Nancy didn't hear Crossbow's response. The group by the fence had attracted at least 20 zombies and more were dragging themselves out of the woods. The fence was shaking viciously now and Nancy was finding it difficult to maintain her grip.

"Guys?" Nancy called but didn't know if she was heard over the groans, growls and shaking fence.

She heard something about not being able to trust them right as her left hand came loose when the fence bowed against the force of the zombie bodies against the fence. She grabbed the chain-link awkwardly in her left hand so that it dug into her skin. Her feet sought a stronger hold in the fence, in the fence link but it wouldn't last. She could feel the dead hands below brush against her legs. With the majority of her weight being put on her right hand, she felt her grip slip half an inch. Nancy opened her mouth again to call out to Frank, but stopped herself as her friends argued with the strangers below her. They had been through a lot in the last year and there was no sign of it getting better. They had struggled to maintain some of the basic ways of life such as food and sleep. She glanced grimly below her at the snarling decaying things that were once human. She knew what would happen if she fell and at the same time she wondered if it really would be the end of the world if she let go.