Authors note: it's been a really long time, so you will have to bear with me, I'm just getting back into this. I'm also currently working on my own novel to be sent to publishing so it may be a little while between updates. My promise is I will try and be frequent though.

Thanks for reading.

Chapter 1

"How many walkers have you killed?"

Zoe's head was swimming, every muscle in her body ached but she refused to let it show, she kept her hand on her knife clipped to her thigh and eyed the group in front of them.

"Hundreds," Sam's voice was gravelly, exhausted, but he held his ground. They'd been through too much already, too much to go back.

There was a pause.

"How many people have you killed?"

Unnervingly determined green eyes met with Zoe's piercing blue irises, before crossing to Sam's hazel ones a silent conversation, a silent agreement, passing between the three of them.

"Thousands."

At the sound of Dean's response Zoe's eyes flickered over to where the man holding the crossbow flinched, his eyebrows narrowing, his teeth gnawing at the inside of his bottom lip. Had Zoe not had the training and experience she did she probably wouldn't have thought anything of it, but she knew better.

He was waiting for someone's order.

"Thousands? Really?" the main man's voice crackled as he spoke, he was covered in sweat, his clothes tore and bloodied. But it was his eyes that the three noticed, they were haggard and exhausted much like the rest of his wiry frame. He had the look of someone that had seen far too much in such a short time frame, he looked like he had experienced more than he thought possible and done so many things he never thought he would, or could. Zoe knew that look because it was the same one that Sam had carried on his face for years, the weight of death and destruction and absolute chaos echoing out and manifesting itself in the forms of heavy lines and tired eyes.

"Yes," Zoe spoke finally, her voice sounding so much smaller than everyone else's, "thousands. We've been doing this a really long time."

"Doing what?" the woman with short grey hair asked tentatively.

"Hunting things," Zoe looked down at her blood soaked hands.

"Hunting things don't mean you had to kill people," the man with the crossbow spat.

Dean's eyes narrowed, "you can't make that call. You have no idea the kind of hell we've seen."

"If it's anything like the hell we've seen," the main man interjected, "then yeah we do have an idea."

Sam's hand balled into a tight fist as his brother took a step forwards, his face inches from the other man's. Everyone seemed to react, all hands going to guns, knives, crossbows and any other array of weaponry they all had.

"No," Dean's voice was a gravelly bark, "you don't. You never will."

"Look," Zoe stepped forward, her hand resting on Dean's forearm, "if you people are looking for a reason to stick with us or whatever it is you want to do then we aren't going to give you one. We aren't like other survivors you have more than likely run into over the past few months."

The two brothers watched the group closely, hunters' eyes following prey, survivors' eyes seeking out threats, "we aren't here to hurt anyone, we aren't here to cause problems. We also aren't here to accumulate followers or settle down with some group for safety. Trust me when I tell you this, we have been travelling a long time, we have seen so much more than you can even begin to fathom and the worst part is that those 'walkers' as you call them, aren't even the beginning of bad stuff out there."

All eyes were watching her, "You're better off just letting us go on our way, forget you ever saw us just turn around and walk away."

"Why?" the man with the crossbow's voice was soft, passively aggressive, but soft, "why should we just let you go?"

"Why shouldn't we try and help you? Try and save you?" the large darker man holding a tiny baby added.

Dean couldn't help the bitter laugh that passed his lips, "we're so far beyond saving man. You people are better off without us, you stand a better chance at living, without us."

The slender darker skinned woman spoke this time, "you don't think you deserve to live? Don't think you can be saved?"

Zoe's ocean blue eyes flickered over to where Dean stood, slightly in front of his brother. Always protecting the people he loved, always willing to die for someone else's life. His green eyes fell to meet hers, an even gaze that spoke so many more truths than that little group could possibly understand. Sam let his head fall, his jaw set as he tried to push the thoughts of the coming months out of his mind. The question hung heavy, though it didn't get the opportunity to be answered because just as Sam went to speak a blood curdling scream filled the air around them quickly followed by the begging and pleading for someone to help.

Without skipping a beat Zoe, Dean and Sam were off at a sprint, their legs hammering against the shrubs as they followed the sound, the group hurrying along behind them. When they broke through the clearing a man dressed in an entirely black suit, a white clerical collar visible, was perched on top of a boulder screaming as he kicked frantically at the decaying zombie hand that held fast to his scuffed shoe. Zoe pulled up short and waited as the two boys surged forwards. Within a few seconds the others had charged in to help disperse the corpses and as quickly as it had all started it was over. The priest, as Zoe realised he was, slid down from the rock, his eyes wide a look of sheer disgust and fear still plastered on his face. Before anyone could say anything he was keeling over and expelling almost the entire contents of his stomach onto the ground beneath him. The Winchester boys didn't seem to be in the slightest bit bothered by the scene, they'd seen far worse things than vomit and blood. The same man that had just been interrogating the three stepped up and started the process with the newcomer.

Dean turned his back towards the group, his green eyes flickering between his little brother and their companion, "we have to keep moving, we can't afford to hang around here any longer than we already have."

Sam's eyebrows knitted together, "these people don't exactly seem like the type to try and kill us though Dean. I mean, if they were going to do that don't you think they would have already done it by now?"

Dean gave his brother an even glare. Sam always wanted to see the best in people, even after everything they had experienced together, everything they had been through to get to that point. Even if Dean would never admit it openly, there was a large part of him that envied his brother for that.

"Sure, they would have done it by now, but Sam, we can't stay here, we have heaven and hell on our asses we can't expose more people to that. They've seen enough as it is, they don't deserve that kind of madness, plus we need to get to Washington before we get stuck in a standoff all over again."

At 5'3" Zoe was tiny in comparison to the Winchester brothers, but she had been trained in the same way and had spent enough time with them to hold her own without having to bat an eyelid. She was lean, with a more athletic body than a skinny one, she had powerful legs and Dean was forever making comments about her biceps being nearly the same size as his. Of course the reality was she was strong because she had to be, lifting heavy weapons, killing monsters and breaking dead men's skulls wasn't exactly an easy pastime. She had piercing electric blue eyes that were made only the more luminous by the length of black hair she was sporting. She had met the boys some ten years prior, a scared, demon possessed sixteen year old that had managed somehow to fight for her body back. From that moment on Sam and Dean had protected her, cared for her and taken her on practically as their sister. Though as the years went on and her skills grew, she needed them less and less, but she had never once strayed from them. Through everything they had experienced, through hell, literally, she had been with those boys and there was no way that some minor apocalypse was going to change that.

"What do you mean you have heaven and hell on your asses?" the three of them turned to see one of the girls staring at them intently, her brown eyes wide as she waited for their response.

Sam cleared his throat, his hand running through his hair absently, "it's a long story."

"Well, the good Father here says he has a place we are going to check out, so we got more than enough time to hear it," the very first man said with a rather stern look.

The three exchanged looks, Sam glaring incredulously at Dean before speaking first, "well how about we start with names, I'm Sam, this is my brother Dean and our friend Zoe."

The man looked him up and down, almost weighing him up before he replied, "I'm Rick."

Dean folded his arms over his chest with an unimpressed glare, he hated pleasantries.

"Let's get moving, we can do the other introductions as we go," Rick said after a long pause , without too much hesitation the three followed after the rest of the group, falling back a little as they all made small talk with the Father.

"I don't know why we are hanging around with these people, no point getting to know people that are just going to die anyway," Dean hissed as they trudged their way through the undergrowth.

"We aren't staying long Dean," Zoe remarked with an exhausted sigh, "we'll check this place out then leave. No point getting invested. Everyone we meet just ends up dead anyway."

Sam gave the young girl a sideways glance before nodding a little, he hated how cynical and isolated they had become, but the sad reality was, they didn't have a choice. Zoe was right, everyone they ever met and cared for was gone, and most of the time it was because of them.

"Speaking of dead people, does anyone else think that girl," Sam nodded towards one of the women with short cropped brown hair and knee high boots, "looks a whole lot like Bella?"

Dean smirked a little, his green eyes flaring with a humour Zoe hadn't seen in a very long time, "look Sammy, I know these are the first women that you've seen in a while but I hate to break it to you, not everyone looks like Bella. No matter how hot you think she was."

Zoe couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face as Sam gaped at his brother, his foot getting caught on a rock causing him to stumble as he struggled for some sort of witty retort.

"Shut up Dean," was all he could come up with and, for the briefest of moments, Zoe thought that maybe they did stand a chance at being normal again. Maybe everything wasn't as utterly hopeless as they had thought.