Delta Force

I don't own anything pertaining to the Walking Dead, as sad as I am about that. However, Sid and her men are mine, all mine! (cue the evil laugh...)

Summary: Our favorite little group of survivors get found, and it turns out the government isn't as defunct as everyone would believe. What happens when they learn secrets they didn't know, and come across people who actually want to help?

No slash, possible Shane/OFC pairing, and more... haven't gotten that far yet. But the little Shane-voice in my head keeps screaming at me to help him get the girl, and I always try to accommodate him. He's just too cute not to. Amy is alive, Ed is dead (bastard), and Rick and Lori might mend their relationship if she gets her head out of her ass. Rated K+ for possible future scenes, we shall see.

Rate if you want, no pressure. It does help me get an idea where to go if you send suggestions, and I'm always open to it. Flames, however, help no one and it kinda stings. Keep that in mind, thanks!

The gorge was a beautiful place, the water clear blue and pristine, and the white stone of the rocks surrounding it like a circle of safety. Rick Grimes and his family and the other survivors spent a lot of time there when they found it, traveling the highways trying to find someplace safe. Rick knew it was an illusion of safety here, but he relished the times he spent watching them wash their clothes and laugh, splashing in the water and laughing easily with each other. He and his old partner Shane would patrol the perimeters to make sure they were safe, and that's what he was doing that random afternoon. Walking along the grass around the bank of the reservoir, his ears and eyes attuned to his surroundings. Lori was waist deep in the blue water with Andrea and Amy, watching Carl splash around with Sophia and Caol closer to the bank. His wife looked up at him, her eyes shielded from the bright sun with her hand. She started to smile, but when her expression changed into a horrified one he felt his whole senses go into slow motion.

He heard her scream his name as he spun around, but it was too late. The walker had come out of the woods and had him in its rotting grasp before he could react. His brain only registered the basics of thought as he felt the teeth of the thing penetrate his forearm and he ripped his arm away, sending blood gushing in an arc around him. A loud gunshot sounded from close to his ear and he saw the thing stagger back and fall to the ground in a heap.

"Rick!" Lori was screaming, and he could hear it, but he went to his knees and Shane came into his tunnel vision.

"God, Rick!" He cursed loudly and tried to stop the bleeding with his hands. When it just poured over his fingers he ripped his shirt off and wrapped it tightly around his arm. Rick couldn't speak, couldn't believe that after everything he'd gone through to get to this place, this was how it was going to end.

"Back up! Get back!" A voice from the treeline barked sharply and Shane looked up to see three people, commandos was the only thing he could think, burst through the trees with weapons drawn and aimed at them. Lori reached Rick and Shane and threw herself over his husband, sobs escaping her dry and tight throat.

"Get back lady." One of the commandos ordered again as he knelt down next to Rick, who was just staring up at them in shock, his mouth opening and closing silently. The stranger pulled a long silver thing that vaguely resembled a pistol without a chamber and Lori flew forward again.

"Don't kill him!"

The mask over the stranger's face stopped them from seeing his expression, but his tone was decidedly impatient. "I'm trying to save his life here. Will someone please get her?" He said and another masked person from behind him stepped around and placed their hands on her shoulders, pulling her back. Carl screamed and ran to his mother, but Andrea, being closer, grabbed him and stopped him.

"Can you hear me?" The first commando shouted down into Rick's face, and Rick blinked slowly, but nodded his head. "Good. This is a protein elastic compound. It's going to stop the bleeding, but it's going to hurt like a son of a bitch, got it?"

Rick nodded again and Shane felt like he was underwater. He should stop them, he knew, but there was something about the way they swept in, the way the other guy was only holding Lori firmly enough to keep her out of the way, and Shane didn't move. He watched as the first guy put the metal tool against the bite on Rick's arm and pulled a trigger at the end. A thick, whitish substance came out and sank into the wound and Rick let out a growl of pain through clenched teeth. Shane grabbed his writhing leg and and held it tight as the stranger dropped the metal tool and reached into a pocket on a belt at his waist, pulling out a long syringe. Shane opened his mouth but the stranger had the needle buried in Rick's arm before he could protest. Rick hissed again and rolled on the ground in agony for a few moments before falling quiet and still.

"What the hell did you just do?" Shane blurted out as the man who held Lori let her go and she went flying back to Rick's side.

"He'll be fine. The bite was fresh enough, hadn't gone through his system yet." The stranger said, sitting back and pulling the mask off his face. Shane and the others looked at him with wide eyes, shocked and terrified. He was young, late twenties with spiky dark blonde hair and blue eyes that sparkled and a dimple in his chin, evident with the smile he was giving them all at the moment.

"He was bit. How can you say he'll be fine?" Lori said angrily, holding Rick's head in her hands.

The blonde man looked at her kindly. "He's had the anecdote, he'll wake up in an hour or so. He's gonna feel like a truck hit him going 90, but he'll be fine. Bet he won't even need the second dose."

Lori and Shane's eyes went wide. "Anecdote?" Dale said questioningly, coming up behind them and staring at the blonde man and his counterparts. "There's an anecdote to the bites?"

The man nodded. "Sorry it took us so long to get here. You guys are pretty out here, you know?" He looked back at the other two men. "Pick him up, let's get back before Sid let's us have it."

"What! What are you doing?" Lori grabbed at Rick again when the man who hadn't moved yet, a big guy in black fatigues like the other two, leaned down and picked Rick up like he was made of feathers.

"We're getting you all out of here." The blonde man stepped forward and put his hand out toward her. "Taking you someplace safe. Come on."

"Shane." Lori said and he stepped up between them.

"Look, man, I don't know what's goin on here, but you can't just sweep in here and tell us to follow you. We seen what those bites do, there's no anecdote." Shane said, getting in the blonde man's face, his hands on his hips. "And you ain't takin Rick anywhere."

"That's his name, huh? Well, I'm Parker." he stuck out his hand and Shane hesitated in taking it. "Alright," He said when none bothered to answer. He pulled his hand back and held it up, yanking the sleeve of his shirt. A deep scar in the shape of a bite mark was on the top of his forearm. "Bit a month ago in Cleveland. Not a walker, as you can see from the baby blues. So will you trust me enough to come or are we going to have to bond a little more?"

Shane looked back at his group on the banks, all gathered near now and watching with quite trepidation. He looked back at Rick, passed out over the shoulder of the tall masked man.

"They fired. Gonna draw more roamers." The man who had held Lori back stepped toward Parker and spoke quietly.

"We have to go, man." Parker looked back at Shane wearily. A walkie on the chest chest crackled to life.

"What's taking so long, Parker?" A female voice. "Get your asses back here."

Parker winced and pushed a button on a device sticking out of his ear. "Copy that. On our way, with survivors." His eyes went to Shane, who pressed his lips together and nodded.

"Take them back to their camp." The voice said and the speaker clicked off. Shane nodded and turned back to the others.

"We're just going back to camp, come on." Shane said to Lori and the others, and Carl grabbed her hand tightly as they followed Parker and his men back to the RV and camp site they had on the hill.

They expected to see others when they reached the top of the hill, wet clothes from the reservoir now dry in the baking sun and heat. Parker didn't seem concerned however, he just led his two men to the tents and turned back to Shane.

"You have something we can put Rick on or should we use the ground?" He asked.

"The cot in the tent." Lori said and Shane looked back to see her tear stained face. She'd cried silently all the way back up the hill.

"I'll get it." Shane said, moving away.

"Good, bring it out here so I can watch him." Parker said and looked around the camp as Shane brought the cot near enough for the big guy to put him down. Lori went to his side immediately, grabbing his hand and holding it tightly. Shane watched his face for any sign of life, and except for a bright rose color in his cheeks, there was none.

Shane walked up to Parker, glancing at his men on either side. "Who the hell are you?"

"We got time. Sid is going to be here in a minute and we'll all sit down and have a nice talk. Sound good? Good. Attention!" He finished with the barking order and he and his men snapped up and stood straight, eyes forward. Shane turned and saw a shorter figure emerging from the trees to his left, followed by two more masked figures with rifles across their chests. She was dressed in the military outfit they all were but did not, however, have her face covered by more than a pair of mirrored sunglasses, and her shiny dark hair was pulled back from her face in a bun. She was pale, they all were, but her cheeks were rosy and her lips full and pink. Her dark eyebrows arched delicately above her glasses, and her nose was pretty and petite. She couldn't have been more than 5'5, well below Shane, and was perhaps 24, 25.

She walked up to Parker and surveyed Shane and the others before seeing Rick on the cot by Lori. "Bit?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"How fast was the anecdote administered?"

"Two minutes, give or take a few seconds."

She looked up at him amused. "Good. Your time is getting better."

"Thank you, ma'am." He said, but his eyes drifted down to her and he turned the corner of his mouth up. She walked past him and got down on one knee on the other side of the cot. She lifted Rick's eyelids and checked his pupils, then put two fingers against his neck, feeling for a pulse. She pulled a device from her belt and laid it against his forehead, and it chirped quietly twice. She pulled it back and read it.

"No temperature, eye reflexes are good. He'll be fine." She said, looking up at Lori. "You his wife?"

Lori nodded, her eyes wide and terrified.

"Don't worry. He'll be awake soon."

"Can somebody tell us what is going on here?" Dale stepped forward, his face confused and bewildered, and asked the question they all were wondering.

The woman at him curiously. "We saved your boy's life. We came to help."

"But who are you?" He said, looking around at her and her men.

"Benson, but you can call me Sid. We're first tier responders for the outbreak."

"Military?" Shane asked, stepping up next to Dale.

She nodded. "We handle pandemics, biological based contagions, you get the idea."

"That's why you have an anecdote." Dale said, his face clearing from the confusion. "Boy, we sure have been looking for you guys."

She raised her eyebrows. "Not as hard as we've been looking for you. You people got pretty out here, didn't you? How'd you manage that?" She looked around the clearing and over the hill to the valley below.

"Wasn't easy." Dale chuckled, and Shane frowned.

"Wait, you have an anecdote, so why are we still being attacked by those things? Where the hell have you been?"

She looked at him and pressed her lips together. Parker rolled his eyes and winced silently behind her as she walked up to Shane and put her hands on her hips. "There were 313,898,770 in this country as of May last year and over half of them are walking around here with their faces melted off eating each other. You'll pardon me if it's taking a little longer than I'd like to get this under control?"

Shane looked a little startled. He wasn't used to being called down, especially by a pretty little brunette with five guys under her thumb. He frowned but fell silent, and Lori piped up behind him excitedly.

"He's awake!"

She patted his face, hers only inches from his, and they saw Rick's eyes blink and flutter open, wincing at the sunlight on his face. Sid went back to his side and checked his eyes again. "How do you feel?"

"Like I was bit." He said, raising his arm and seeing a patch of hardened white over the place he had sworn had been ripped open and bleeding.

Sid chuckled. "Nothing gets by you. That's a elastin to help the healing, it'll fall off when it's ready."

"Heal?" He said, looking up at her in confusion. "But it was a bite."

"We got the anecdote in you fast, don't worry." Sid said, sitting back on her heels. "Can you sit up?"

Rick groaned and Lori helped him get upright to a sitting position.

"Move your fingers." Sid instructed and he wiggled his fingers against the hand she held up against his. "Good. Press as hard as you can." He did so and she nodded, pulling her hand away. "Doesn't look like it got any muscles or tendons. You got lucky."

"What's goin on?" He looked back at Lori, confused and she shook her head.

"They said they have an anecdote, they're military." Lori said softly and Rick looked back at Sid in shock.

"You're military?"

Sid sighed, standing up and raising her hand for her men. "Gather everyone so we can get this spelled out for them. We need to get back for report."

Shane and Lori got Rick to the semicircle everyone was forming by the tents, and Carl got down next to his knees protectively when they sat down. Sid squatted on the grass while Parker and the others turned their backs to them, watching in a broad circle for more walkers. Dale was excited, sitting close to Sid, his face turned toward hers with a smile. She nodded to him and looked over the group.

Shane was squatting to, next to Rick, Lori and Carl, not wanting to seem to eager to accept what the woman was going to tell them. She seemed to notice and when she spoke, she often looked at him.

"Long story short, we're here with the 1st Special Forces Operational Detatchment-Delta." She began, and Shane's mouth dropped open.