A/N: This is background for a fic I'm doing, called "Our Darkest Hour." The fic is a... slight crossover between Leverage and the book World War Z. It's only slightly Leverage... it's not the characters, but actors and crew. If y'all want to read that, I'll post it on here once I get it broken up into chapters. Each character will have TWO parts, for a reason I won't go into here. If you DON'T want spoilers for the story, then ONLY read part one, which will read "Becoming (character name)" while the others will be in a different format. You've been warned. Also, I'll have this before all the chapters, up until the "breaking it up into chapters" just in case. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing... I don't own the concept of zombies either...
She looked around, panicked. The first moan had been heard not even minutes before, but it had felt like eternity. Her job required her to be in good physical shape, but nothing could have prepared her for this. She had jumped out of buildings, but always attached to a harness. She had fought enemies, but the fights were usually staged. She had been asleep when they came. There was a party going on downstairs, but she didn't feel like joining in. She had finished up a day of filming, and was dead tired by the time she got home. She didn't know why there was a party. Maybe they were celebrating lasting this long; maybe they thought they were invincible. All that was certain now was that they were all dead, and all coming after her. She didn't turn around as she kicked the door shut behind her, and she barely hesitated as she leapt out the window and rolled as she hit the ground. It was just like she was taught, but with no landing pad. She tried to remember what she had read in her book, the one the military issued. She knew that she had to meet her friends on Thursday, but she didn't want to worry them by staying with one of them until then. With that thought in mind, Beth hurried through down town LA, going from house to abandoned house, trying to find shelter. She finally found a place high enough to sleep in without anything coming through the windows. After climbing up, she used a nearby candle to torch the stairs, careful not to burn the whole place down. She soon fell into a restless sleep.
She didn't even have time to react. Something was on top of her before she could even react. She didn't even open her eyes before grabbing her knife from her side and sticking it in between the eyes, right at the top of the nose. When she pushed the thing off her body and looked at it, however, she found herself gasping. It looked just like her friend, the one that she made in the apartment next to hers. But she didn't look like a zombie yet. She had been moaning, had attacked her just like a zombie would have… and yet her blood was still red. She peered down the stairway to find another dozen zombies, all moaning and trying to climb up. She retreated to the hallway and sat down for a second. She made a vow then and there. She would no longer wait until the last second. She would help any survivor, even if they were insane. From then on, she wasn't going to be Beth. Beth was the prewar her, the person that lived the pampered life, had enough to eat, didn't have to worry about zombies. From then on she was going to be the character she had learned to love, and yet fear becoming. She was going to be the thief with a knack for disappearing, the person who could probably kill someone with whatever she could find. The one who knew how to fight and defend her and her friend's lives. She wasn't going to be Beth Riesgraf anymore. No, from there on out, she was going to be Parker.