Chapter One - The end is only the beginning.

It was one of my worst mornings, with barely any sleep from the night before and now the screaming voices of two children, I was about ready to quit everything.

I lifted my head from its place on the dining table, my eyes peeking out underneath my frazzled bangs, I caught sight of the children just as the girl pulled harshly on the boy's hair. His high pitched yelp was what finally pushed me over the edge.

"Susie!" I shouted. Her tiny body jumped high in the air and she turned to me, eyes wide and terrified. Pushing up from the table I made my way towards the little girl, anger but mostly exhaustion fuelling my irritation at having to discipline her in this way. Kneeling on the ground in front of Susie, I grasped her tiny hand in her own, lifting it so it was level with the little ones eyes. "How many times have I told you to keep your hands to yourself young lady?"

Her bottom lip began to tremble but I saw right through her, raising an eyebrow at her attempt at avoiding being told off, I dropped her hand. "I'm sorry Mummy but he keeps trying to make Annie kiss his big guy." My eyebrow raised further as she continued. "Annie is a lady Mummy, she doesn't want to be kissed by disgusting dirty boys." Susie's pretty little eyes turned a glare on her cousin. "I told him to stop because I didn't want Annie to cry, but he kept doing it, so I had to teach him a lesson."

I sighed, praying that my elder brother would get here quicker. "Susie, violence is not the answer. Next time Jake does something you don't want him to do, you tell me." I turned my eyes on the little boy whose chin was touching his chest, I could see a smirk touching his cheeks. "And you little man," I said sternly, his head snapped up, the smirk instantly erased. "If Susie doesn't want you to doing something, you stop ok. That goes for both of you. Now Susie, go to your room." The little girl immediately started protesting, her little hands flailing around. "Room. Now."

Without another word, I watched her stomp out of the room, her curls trailing behind, her footsteps were loud as she thumped up the stairs. With the sound of her bedroom door slamming closed I returned to my seat at the table, my eyes roamed over the newspaper headlines once more and my heart dropped for the hundredth time today. Resting my forehead in the palm of my hand, I reread the article describing the horrific events occurring in the north.

An Outbreak of a mysterious virus has put New York City and Philadelphia in quarantine, by the hour more of the population is being put on lockdown to secure the virus. Military and CDC personnel have been relocated to these areas to investigate further and to prevent the virus from escalating. No information has been released as to what caused the outbreak and if it's fatal but there have been reports of the illness bearing similar symptoms to rabies.

I skimmed over the rest of the article, the last article that had been released over a week ago, since then the only source of news came from the radio, over the past week, they've warned civilians to report any sign of aggressive ill patients to authorities and to not get too close and that's all we've heard. The past couple days all radio channels have played the exact same message, too report all suspicious events and to stay indoors.

It was three days ago that my boss phoned and said all staff members were on temporary paid leave until the government deemed it safe to return to normal routines. So it's been safe to say that with a six year old daughter also off from school and an eight year old nephew coming over to stay, while his dad patrolled around in police cruiser, that I've had my hands full.

My phone rattled harshly on the glass surface of the dining table and without any hesitation I accepted the call. "Noel, how long are you going to be? These kids are driving me nuts."

My brother groaned through the phone. "I'm sorry Rosie, we've had a lot of calls this evening. We had to restrain one guy because he actually bit some poor dude, he bit him Rose. He tried biting one of the officers as well but we managed to restrain him until they brought one of the vans around. He was crazy, it fucking terrified me. Please don't go outside, we don't know how many of these fuckers are out there. Apparently there was a whole mob of them in Savannah attacking and biting people. That wasn't what fucking terrified me though Rose, their eyes, it's as if all the colour has drained out of them. Fuck. I'll ring you in an hour ok, kiss Jake goodnight for me."

My heart was beating erratically at his words but I managed to control my voice as I spoke. "That sounds really scary. But okay, I'll make sure to lock the doors so I'll leave the key under the doormat for you." My eyes wandered over to find Jake at the window, his little legs peeking out from underneath the curtain. "I'll be sure to give Jake as kiss for you." Slowly I rose to my feet, my eyes glued to Jakes shoes, my curiosity peeking as to why he was at the window. "Be careful Noel, speak soon."

"Thanks Rosie, bye."

I breathed out my own goodbye and settled the phone back on the table. My mind was haywire, with the circling images of crazy cannibals attacking and creeping up on people in the streets, I imagined them outside my own home, imagining them sneaking up on my house, viewing my nephew as their next victim. All I could hear was my heavy breathing, all I could see was the frozen legs of my nephew and all I wanted to do was rip him away from the windows and lock all the doors.

"Jake." I called, my voice higher than usual. He didn't answer so I called him again a little louder. His head popped out underneath the curtain, a grin plastered to his face. For some reason the happiness on his cute little face erased all the negative emotions from my body. "What's outside buddy?" No longer frozen to the ground, I walked hastily towards him eager to see what had ushered a grin out of a usually sombre child.

"A dog." He squealed the word and it finally dawned on me. Despite his disinterest in people, the child was a lover of animals, I've seen him get excited at the mere sight of an ant before.

"Oh that's nice sweetie."

He ushered me towards him. "Come watch this man chase him, it's so funny."

Delighted by the little boy's clear enjoyment, I joined him at the window, peeking my head through the side rather than lifting the curtain to fit my whole body in. It took me a few moments to pinpoint where the dog was along the road outside, I finally located it across the road a few houses down in a strangers garden. A brown Labrador I recognised as my neighbour's dog was bouncing around the garden avoiding the grasping hands of some guy who must live further down the street because I didn't recognise him. I watched as the guy threw himself at the dog whose tail was wagging in a whirlwind of excitement, the dog deflected him easily each time. My eyes narrowed in confusion as to why the guy was trying to capture the dog in the first place but what spiked my confusion even more was way he was chasing him, instead of trying to trick the dog by blocking his exit the guy literally threw himself at the dog each time. It was as if the dog had more of a brain than the actual human.

Jake laughed beside me as yet again the man collided into the ground but shot back up again as if nothing happened. "That man is so stupid." He giggled.

"He sure is buddy." I bit my lip, the dread beginning to return to my body. No longer wanting to watch the strange events in front of me, I pulled Jake out of the curtain with me. "I think it's time for bed now, why don't you head on up and tell Susie."

Always the obedient child he nodded his head and made his way upstairs. With a deep breath, I pulled back the curtain again and sure enough the guy was still out there chasing after the dog the exact same way he'd been doing before. "What the fuck is he doing?" I questioned no one in particular, the voices in my head making themselves vocal now that my nephew was out of earshot.

Now that it was apparent I wouldn't be getting to sleep tonight after my brother's phone call and now this crazy dude being outsmarted by a fucking dog, I shoved the curtain back in place, for a few seconds I held it tight to the wall and closed my eyes. I couldn't deny any longer that I was terrified of the next coming days, nothing this crazy has ever happened and with the government being tight lipped I felt certain our lives were slowly changing.

Hearing the giggles of the children upstairs, I felt a sudden determination. If our lives were changing I had to make sure that those children didn't feel the brunt of it, I had to make it as normal for them as I could. Stepping back from the curtain, I turned on my heel and hurried into the hallway almost tripping over my own feet as I snatched the keys from the stand near the door. Securing the main lock, I also battled with the rusty deadbolt grunting as it finally slid into place. Not yet finished I ran back through the front room and into the kitchen, securing the back door as well. My heart was pounding again, my own mind was making the situation worse, I was hoping Noel would call again, say it was all a joke but we had only talked five minutes ago, he wouldn't call for at least another hour.

With a deep, heavy sigh I walked past the table, while picking up my phone, and took a slow walk upstairs trying to calm myself before facing the children. Each step felt heavy and forced even though I using the banister to support myself, I felt drained from all the panic coursing through my body. I can't remember ever feeling this terrified and uncertain. As I reached the top landing, the children's giggles were more apparent and it was at that moment I realised Susie's bedroom faced the front garden, including the crazy man chasing that stupid dog. As if the energy reenergised my body again I flew across the landing, pushing open Susie's door so quickly that it smashed into her wardrobe, and rebounded back into me stubbing my fucking toe in the process. I yelped loudly, bringing my toe up to cradle it while bouncing around Susie's room on one foot. Both the children were now pointing and giggling at me instead, I rolled my eyes and sat on the floor not forgetting why I came in here.

"Kids get away from the window, get into bed please."

"Can you read to us?"

"No just go to sleep." I said as I closed the door sealing us in their room, both the children looked at me confused. "I'm going to stay in here tonight."

"So why can't we have a book?"

I groaned. "Because I said so Susie, Now just get into bed."

"Okay, sorry Mummy." She and Jake quickly climbed into their separate beds while I dialled down the light to dim.

Using the wardrobe to lean against I reached down and relieved my feet of their fluffy slippers and then slipped into bed beside Susie, wrapping my arms around her small form I nuzzled my face into her hair. "Goodnight sweethearts."

(Authors Note) This is my second attempt at a fanfic for The Walking Dead. I've been through a deep hiatus because of personal issues and while I'm still not recovered fully from that. I've felt the motivation to finally re imagine the world I had thought of before. While this Fic centres around the TWD characters I've decided to diverge from the original story. While yes there will be aspects of the original, most of this plot will be my own.

I'm sorry to those who liked the plot of my other Fic, however I didn't have the heart to continue it. I hope this one is even better.