Hi, my names Amy. This is my very first walking dead fanfiction, and so I hope you all enjoy it. I would like to point out that my story is based around the walking dead television series, but not completely to script. There may be some differences to the story you are used to, but I hope you enjoy it. I don't own any of the characters or ideas that you recognize. Happy reading
Chapter one: The world had gone to shit.
The air was hot and still thanks to the high September sun, causing several smalls beads of sweat to make their way down Ellie Lawns forehead and drip onto her nose. She paused for a second, dropping the weight of the bag from her back down onto the floor and moving her shoulders in small circular motions with a groan. She had been walking for miles, and as her stomach gave a growl, so knew that she needed to find a place to rest for a while and eat. She wiped her head with the back of her hand and puffed a strand of hair out of her eyes. Glancing behind her she saw Cooper, her friendly companion, sniffing at an open bag on the floor. Cooper had met Ellie when they had both been hiding from the dead in a small, crooked shed a few months back, and now they depended on each other for safety and company. Cooper gave a small huff when the smell didn't reveal any delicious treats and looked up towards Ellie.
"I know Coop, you're hungry. We'll eat soon." She muttered to the dog, tapping her leg so that he came bounding towards her.
He was a beautiful grey, built tall and strong, with a long tail that Ellie loved running her hands through. Ellie herself was a small, skinny woman. She has recently had her twenty second birthday, not that that mattered anymore, at least not in this world. She had black hair that fell in curls to her neck, and bright cobalt eyes that stood out from her pale complexion. And then of course, there was the bump. Not large enough to be too noticeable yet, but definitely there, was a tiny human that she had yet to meet. Unplanned but not unloved, Ellie had discovered she was pregnant three weeks ago when she woke up four mornings in a row with sickness. She knew for a fact how many weeks gone she was. Twelve long, tough weeks had passed since the incident. Ellie had barely managed to escape alive. It taught her a valuable lesson that she would hold with her. It was not just the dead that was to be feared.
A small shuffling sound to her left made Ellie's head snap. She bend down low and beckoned Cooper to her side. She reached into her pocket at the back of her jeans and pulled out a knife. The creature came around the corner of an abandoned car and into Ellie's line of sight. Not quite human anymore, the man slouched as he shuffled closer, his eyes dead and sunken. His skin was colored a light grey and sagged around his face. His clothes were ripped and torn and covered in blood. Blood also covered the majority of his face and dripped from the corners of his mouth. A gash was missing from his shoulder where he had been bitten by another and he let out a light moaning sound as he stretched his arms out in front of him, eyes locked solely on Ellie.
Ellie looked sadly at the dead man that was advancing towards her and sighed. She put her hand out to Cooper, who sat down at the sight of the signal, and took a few steps towards the unnamed man. Lifting the knife high into the air, she bought it back down and pierced it into his head just as he reached her. He instantly fell to the ground, making Ellie fall onto her knees next to him. She took a few breaths and then stood herself up, rejoining Cooper.
"Forty seven Coop. Make sure you keep count." She joked to the dog, and with a sigh she picked up her backpack from the ground and swung it onto her back. "Come on, let's find somewhere to rest. I'm sure you're just as tired as I am."
After another hour or so, Ellie headed towards a small house on the edge of the town. She halted at the doorway and knocked hard on the wooden door. Listening closely, she didn't hear any movement.
"I think its ok Coop." she whispered, reaching down to the handle and twisting it.
The door opened with ease and she stepped forward into the room with Cooper following close behind. After checking each room in the building, she sat herself down onto the dusty sofa and let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. Cooper came and sat at her feet, resting his head on her knees. She reached a hand down and stroked the soft fur behind his ears and watched as he closed his eyes, content.
After filling their stomachs and sleeping, Ellie and Cooper had repacked and were ready to set out again the following day. The hot sun had disappeared today, and instead a drizzly rain was falling hard from the darkened sky. They made their way around the woods, careful to avoid any sign of the dead.
Once they had been walking for quite some time, Ellie heard a sudden scream that made her freeze. The sound had unquestionably came from a small child, there was no doubt. Cooper snarled low and his stance was tense. Ellie spun to the direction the sound came from and swiftly made her way towards it. After running for a few minutes Ellie stopped and looked around. She had reached a small creek, covered in moss and plants. She couldn't see anyone and as she stopped to listen, she couldn't hear anything over the sound of her own thudding heart beat in her ears. She looked down at Cooper who was still growling softly and frowned as she saw that he was staring off into the trees on their right.
"You sense someone Coop?" she questioned the dog aloud.
She sunk down into a crouch and made her way slowly towards the trees, knife raised ready to strike. As she reached the edge of the trees, she heard a low grunting, followed by the sound of a twig snapping. She stepped forward and moved around the tree, taking in the sigh before her. A man, alive and fighting, was on his back on the floor crawling backwards as two of the dead slouched towards him. He reached around his head and grabbed a large rock, using it to smash the closest dead person in the head. He whirled around, ready to take down the second one, but there was no need. Ellie had ran out of the shadows of the tree branches and struck the second one in the head, falling on top of it as it dropped face down on the ground.
There was silence, and then their eyes met and they both looked at each other in shock. Before either one of them could move, Cooper had jumped in front of Ellie and was snarling at the stranger, teeth bared.
"Woah there, easy." Said the stranger, holding his hands up and eying the dog with unease. "Mind calling him off?"
"Cooper, come here." Ellie pushed herself up and came to a standing position, using her hand to beckon the growling dog towards her. "He doesn't like strangers."
"A good thing too." The man took a step backwards. "My name is Rick. Rick Grimes. Thank you for your help."
"Ellie." Ellie replied, nodding her head at the thank you. "Close call."
Rick laughed. "Ahh, I've had closer. Are you on your own out here?" His eyes left Cooper and he looked back up at Ellie with questioning eyes.
"What's it to you?" Ellie knew better than to answer too many questions without asking a few herself. Cooper sat down at her feet and kept his eyes on Rick.
"It's a dangerous world to be on your own in." he said, gesturing to the bodies on the ground a few feet from them.
"I'm not alone, I have Cooper." She replied defensively.
"I'm sure he great company!" Rick agreed. "Look, you look like you are alone here, and I have a group. People… children. It means protection and there is safety in numbers." He began to move to pass me. "I have to get back to Sophia, she's just through here. If you're interested, follow me."
He disappeared through the trees that Ellie had just come through. She looked down at Cooper and frowned. "What do you think buddy? We do ok on our own… do you think we should check these people out?" She paced towards the trees and paused, talking aloud. "I mean, at some point, we're going to have to trust someone again. He said there are children there… maybe they will be okay?"
As she pondered in thought, Rick's panicked face appeared through the trees, eyes wide and worried. She gave him a questioning look.
"Did you see her? Sophia? She's not there." He ran a hand through his hair and turned to face the creek.
"There was no one there when I walked by. I heard a child scream and came running this way." She explained, following Rick as he hurried back to the water.
"Yeah that was her. She was being chased by some walkers and I ran to help her. I hid her here." He pointed to a small hole under a tree. "She must have headed back to the group!"
He stumbled a little and began to head towards their left, calling out the name Sophia as he went. She glanced down at Cooper and then began to follow him, keeping a little behind and scanning the woodland area for any sign of the missing child. Once they reached the edge of the trees, she saw a group of people stood around the low barrier next to the road. Rick ran to meet them, and Ellie hung back slightly with Cooper by her side. She could see Rick motioning to the trees as he said something she couldn't quite here, and then eyes were on her. A woman with short grey hair dropped to the floor, surrounded by arms and other woman. Two men advanced towards Ellie, eyes locked onto her. One of the men held a crossbow and had it pointed at her head. He had wavy brown hair and narrowed eyes. The other man, whose jaw was squared and hair was kept short, help a gun at her too. Cooper tensed and moved in front of Ellie, growling at the men and causing then to pause a few meters in front of her.
"Who are you?" The man with the gun demanded, eyeing Cooper with a nasty look.
"Rick asked me to come." She replied, ignoring his question. She made no move to defend herself or to call Cooper off. Her heart pounded against her chest.
"Ain't an answer lady. Who are you?" This time, he took a step forward and Cooper grew louder.
"I wouldn't come any closer if I were you." She warned, gesturing to the dog at her feet.
"Are you threatening me?" he spat, moving the gun down to point it at Cooper.
"No!" yelled Ellie. "Get that thing away from him." She made a move to grip her knife from her pocket.
"Shane!" shouted Rick. "She's with me. Drop your gun." Rick ran over and stood next to the man named Shane.
"With you?" questioned Shane, lowering his gun. She noticed the other man lowering his cross bow too. "Who the fuck is she?"
"Shane, Daryl, this is Ellie." Rick gestured to each person as he said their names. "And her dog Cooper." Ellie was surprised that he had remembered. "She helped me take on some walkers."
"Where's the kid?" muttered the guy that Rick had names Daryl.
"We thought she had ran back here. We got separated as I drew the walkers away, and when I got back to her, she was gone." Rick looked distraught. Both Shane and Daryl gave Rick a pat on the shoulder and headed back up to the others. "I'm sorry about that Ellie. It's hard to trust new people nowadays, you know."
Ellie nodded in agreement. Cooper had relaxed next to her once the men had walked away. "The asshole pointed a gun at my dog."
"I'm sorry." Rick looked sincere. "Come and meet everyone. It's a bad time, we need to hurry and get back out to find Carol's little girl."
Ellie followed Rick up the small slope and stopped just short of the group of people. The grey haired woman who had fallen to the floor was now sat on a car trunk with her head in her hands, and a small boy sat next to her, crying silently. Two woman eyed Ellie uncertainly, one with blond hair and the other with brown, her hand on the small boys shoulders. Rick whispered to me that they were called Andrea, Lori, Carl and Carol. He then pointed to an older man, Dale and a larger injured male named T dog.
"Hi, I'm Glenn." A skinny Asian boy said, nodding at me.
"Ellie." She replied, taking in all of the new people.
Rick introduces her to the group quietly and then set about getting some of the men together to go and search for the missing child.
"I can help." Ellie began. "I can search the woods with Cooper."
Shane scoffed at her, and shook his head. "We are fine."
"You need the help." Ellie interjected. "I'm offering to help."
Rick cut in before Shane could continue. "Thanks Ellie that would be great. You can take the right side. Who would you like to come with you?"
"I have Cooper. I'm good." She insisted. Rick looked unsure but didn't argue. He pointed to the different areas as he explained the plan and then they each step out.
..
After two hours of searching, Ellie decided to head back to the group. She had a horrible feeling in her gut because she was going to have to deliver the bad news. Coming across two of the dead in the woods, she had checked that they hadn't eaten recently. There hadn't been any fresh blood on their mouths. Climbing back through the woods, Ellie felt the weight of the day's events weigh her down. A new group. She was planning to join a new group. She felt uneasy about this decision but she had known for a while now that she needed people. Good people. She just hoped that they were it.
Ellie and Cooper reached the group just as the sky began to darken. She shook her head sadly when questioned about the little girl and walked silently over to a car that was parked a little way back from the group. Apparently the men had not found the girl either. It was a miserable atmosphere and the thought of a child missing in the wood made Ellie clutch her own stomach instinctively.