Hello everyone! Before I post the first part of this story, I'd just like to say that I missed this site so much. I haven't posted a fanfic for almost 2 YEARS and I feel like I've missed out on a lot of things. Now that I'm back, I intend to write as much (and finish!) stories as much as I can.

This fic is obviously about 'The Walking Dead'. I love the story/comic/show/novel(s) so much that I just can't stop thinking about it. I've been a zombie fan since I was a little girl and having a show about zombies really just made me so much happier. Because of my obsession with it, and the looooooong breaks of the show, I decided to log in here on ff and look for fanfics - AND MY GOD - this site is like Narnia! I've read so many good stories here and I especially like JadedSun's. I've been wanting to write a fic about TWD and this one has been waiting idly to be published since November of last year, I think, but I never had the guts to publish it because of all the awesomeness I've been reading. I felt like I needed a concrete plot, lots of research and basically an overview of what TWD was before I could continue and be in line with all the goods stories here in fanfiction.

ANYWAY, before I bore you guys to death, this is the first chapter of my fic. I hope you like it. Reviews will be very much appreciated! (A welcome back message will be nice too) Thank you guys! - D

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to The Walking Dead. This fanfic is based mainly on the show and not the comic. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Is she alive?"

The woman woke up to a sound of a man talking nearby. Actually, she wasn't quite sure if she was hallucinating or actually hearing someone talk. She waited for someone to speak again but heard nothing this time, just the cracking of leaves and the sounds of birds from afar. The air was quiet, too quiet, that it seemed awfully haunting and deafening to her ears. She closed her eyes and began taking slow, deep breaths to calm herself.

"Daryl!"

She heard a man shout nearby again, completely waking her up and making her realize that the voices were somewhat close to her.

Or was it far away?

She didn't know where she was at that moment, all she knew was that her head was throbbing and she couldn't see straight. She was lying on the wet ground and as she reached out, she felt leaves and rocks around her. She shifted all her weight to her side as she gradually opened her eyes, finally learning that she was somewhere in a forest.

Looking down at her arms, she saw that she had bruises all over and there were marks of dried blood – lots of it. Gazing up, she saw that the sky was starting to light up and figured that it must be early morning. The sun was the color of amber and its rays peeked from the trees, illuminating almost everything around her.

But where is she?

She tried standing up but she couldn't, her body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. For a moment, she wondered if she had broken something that could make her immobile. And when she tried to move completely, a sudden, sharp pain pierced her right ankle and made her realize that it was not in good shape.

Why was she in a forest at such an early hour? What happened? Things weren't making sense.

Her head felt like it was about to explode and she couldn't think clearly. She tried blinking a few more times, as if that would ease the pain, but it obviously didn't work.

Suddenly, a man was standing above her, covering the sunlight that was almost blinding her eyes. When her vision improved, she saw that he had brown hair and had a crossbow slung on his shoulder, his silhouette looking down at her. She couldn't see his face clearly because it was against the light and she stared at him trying to unmask his expression. Something about the crossbow alarmed her but she couldn't bring herself to question him. Before she could wonder why he had a weapon, he looked down at her and started talking.

"Hey, are ya okay?" He asked in an accent that seemed awfully familiar to her.

She tried to speak but no words came out of her mouth. For a few seconds they stared at each other, not sure of what to say. Her throat was so dry and she couldn't breathe or talk properly. She could only watch as the man quickly removed the weapon from his shoulder and pointed it at her. The hair at the back of her head stood up as he watched him load the weapon, the steel edge of the arrow was reflected by the sunlight and it gave her goosebumps.

Stop.

She wanted to shout at him so badly but her throat felt as if she just swallowed a golf ball. To her panic, she tried to reach out to him and signal him to lower his crossbow. She was unsure, but it felt like the expression on the man's face changed when she moved, as if he suddenly doubted his own actions. However, he didn't lower his guard - he stared at her a little longer, but the weapon was still in place, ready to fire.

"What the fuck Daryl?"

He turned to someone and she realized that this man had 2 companions; one looked like a young man and the other was wearing what seemed to be a torn and rugged police uniform.

Shane and Glenn both stared at them for a few seconds before deciding to help.

"Lower your goddam weapon, she's not a walker!" Shane hissed.

"How ya sure about that?" Daryl replied with the same tone of anger and frustration that Shane gave him.

"Don't be stupid, Dixon. If she was one of them, she would've bit you by now, seeing that you stood there staring at her for God knows how long." Shane gave him one last look before approaching the woman, grabbing her carefully and helping her sit up.

"Ma'am? Are you okay? What happened?" He was beside her now, staring at her as if trying to make out if she was really alive or not. "Were you bitten?"

They all stared at her, waiting for a response.

"I.." She started to talk but her throat was too dry, she couldn't speak. She tried pointing it out to them but they couldn't understand and she was too weak to gesture.

"-Ter..Wa..ter.." She whispered. "Pl..ease."

Daryl moved away and that was the time she saw his face completely. He had a square face, with jaws that were locked as he moved and soft green eyes that were hidden behind the angry expression on his face. She watched as he finally lowered his weapon, looking annoyed as if he didn't want to admit defeat. Glenn and Shane nodded at one another before hoisting the woman up, and soon they were moving away while carrying her. She looked at the ground as they walked, realizing that she was not familiar with the place they were in. The forest looked dangerous and she wondered if these men saved her life by taking her away from here or if they were actually the ones she should be afraid of.

As she stared at every leaf and twig they were passing by, she suddenly felt her whole body ache. She had no idea why she was so exhausted, all she knew was that she wanted to drink, sleep and wake up feeling better than she did at that moment. The idea of not knowing anything terrified her but at the same time, she felt useless. She couldn't walk on her own and she needed help, there weren't any other choice at the moment.

She didn't know how long it exactly took to get there, but after what seemed like a lifetime, they stopped walking. She turned her head and saw that they arrived at a camp that seemed to have been occupied for a while now. The place had a fire in the middle and she assumed that there were many campers there, basing from the parked cars she could see from a distance. In the middle was an RV and several men were standing next to it, their attention now focused on their new visitor. On the other end, there were women sitting down surrounded by clothes, maybe sorting them out or ironing them, she couldn't quite tell.

"Oh my God!" A woman cried from a distance. She stood up from where she was sitting and quickly approached them, a shirt clenched in her hands. "Shane, what happened? Did she get bit?"

"I don't think so, but she doesn't look so good." He replied in a tone that was a-matter-of-factly. "Give her some water and maybe something to eat, if we have anything left. I think we needs to check her wounds and give her something."

The men carried her inside a trailer van and laid her down on a bed, careful not to hit her head on anything as they did so. Inside, an older man was looking at her with a shocked expression on his face, as if he wanted to help her but he couldn't bring himself to move. She stared at him for a while before the pain in her head made her focus on something else.

When she was finally down the mattress, she realized that her headache had worsened into sharp pains in her temple. Glenn helped her sit up a bit as the same woman from before, she heard her name was Lori, approached them with water and an energy bar in her hands.

She grabbed the bottle and drank all of its content in one long gulp, hoping that the rush of water inside her would make the headache go away. Everyone watched her as she did so, their expressions clearly showing that they were unsure of who and what she was.

"I'm Shane Walsh, you're safe now." The man in the police uniform introduced himself formally and she stopped to look at him. He had black unruly hair and dark eyes, it was obvious from the dark circle under them that he had been lacking sleep lately. His jaw locked as he stared at her, waiting for a response.

She looked around the trailer and noticed that everyone there looked exhausted and bruised, as if they all haven't had decent rest for days. This idea bothered her and for a moment she contemplated on whether she was going to believe what Shane just told her. She locked eyes with the man that almost shot her, Daryl, his expression unreadable. He was standing at the back, staring at her as if wanting to tell her something. When their eyes met, he quickly turned away, leaving the trailer.

"What's your name?"

She fixed her gaze at Shane again, and for a moment her face looked as if he just asked her the hardest question ever.

Name.

"Can you talk?" It seemed like he was getting frustrated this time. "Say something."

She nodded and closer her eyes, feeling her head throb in agony again. She held it with both her hands, as if trying to control her thoughts.

Name. Her name.

It was really simple and she knew it was an easy thing to recall, but somehow no matter how hard she focused, she couldn't come up with anything. The more she thought of it, the more her brain felt like it was going to burst out of her skull.

"I.." She finally blurted out, her voice cracking. "I don't remember."