After reading every single Andrea/Daryl fanfic on this site I finally decided to give it a shot. (I had no idea I liked zombies that much.)

The beginning follows the start of the show but I changed a few things to match to my story. This is a very short introduction but a lot of action is to come so tune in!

I would love some reviews if you guys enjoyed it, it would give me the will to write more! :)


Chapter One - Ambush

They had been on the road for days. Driving through the streets of Atlanta looking for any sign of life. Wrecked cars everywhere, dead bodies piled up on the roads, just a plain emptiness in the previously life filled world.

After the CDC incident, Andrea had pulled away from everyone. Dale checked on her in the RV every day but she only ignored him. He didn't give up though. He knew what he had done was wrong, and he had no right to do it but he cared too much about her to let her throw her life away.

In a sense, Andrea didn't hate him that much for it because when she thought about it sometimes, she didn't know if death was a better choice than this life. Death was definitive; it was nothingness. You just stop existing. Did she really want that in those few brief moments before the facility got blown up to pieces? Yes, she definitely did, but it was just all the pain that had been building up. After Amy's death, she didn't see a point in surviving since she had no family left. These people though, she'd grown attached to them. Dale was like a second father to her, he cared for her in a way she appreciated and made her feel safe in all this madness.

But she still couldn't bring herself to forgive him for forcing her to make a choice she didn't actually get to choose. She just couldn't have his death on her conscience.

She had been looking out the RV window as they drove through the wreckage. Daryl was leading the way on his brother's motorcycle. A road full of abandoned cars, all piled up in a single line. And then the RV came to a slow stop. She heard Dale cursing as he opened the door to check out the smoke that was coming out of the front part of the RV. There didn't seem to be any walkers around but when she made her way out of the RV, the place reeked of death and rotting flesh.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked.

Dale explained that the radiator hose was broken, and that there was no way they could find one, but then he thought again as he looked around.

Daryl had already started scavenging through the abandoned cars. "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find here."

They could look for some food, fuel and supplies. This place was a good thing for them even though they would technically be stealing from dead people.

"This is a graveyard." Lori commented.

And she was right but this wasn't the world as they knew it anymore. They had to get what they needed to survive.

Everyone looked hesitant at first, but eventually they agreed to do it and started looking around for supplies. Dale and Glenn were fixing the radiator and Rick was keeping watch near the RV.

Andrea followed T-Dog and Daryl as they walked on further ahead. T-Dog found a hose, and started drawing some fuel from the cars.

Daryl was looking through the cars, his crossbow over his shoulder always within reach. He picked up a knife that was sitting on the passenger's seat inside a red wrecked Volvo. He examined it and turned to Andrea. "You want it?"

She looked at it warily. She wasn't really capable with knives and close combat weapons. She reached out to take it nevertheless. Now was as good a time as any to learn. They couldn't always be using guns because the sound would attract nearby walkers. But she didn't want to have to get up close and personal with those bloody rotting corpses.

"It don't bite." Daryl said.

She looked at him confused, but she realized she had been staring at the knife in her hand as if it was something alien, not hers. She sighed and placed it in her belt pocket. "Where are we gonna go?" She asked as she followed him.

"Whadaya mean?" He asked without looking at her. He kicked a trunk door open and grabbed a white cloth from inside. He examined it. It was a T-shirt that looked just about her size. He tossed it to her.

She grabbed it with a quick reflex, and tied it around her belt. They could use some more clothes. "After we get moving again. There's nothing left, Daryl."

"You don' know that."

She scoffed. "Look around."

He turned to her with a disapproving look on his face. "Even so, I sure as hell ain't gonna take the easy way out."

She looked away. Is that what it had seemed like to him? The easy way out? "Nothing about this is easy!"

"S'why we're still here, blondie."

Of course it had seemed like that to him. Daryl was tough. He was a survivor, she could tell that much. But he couldn't judge her for wanting out of this. He couldn't judge her for wanting to put an end to all this suffering. He knew what it was like to lose a sibling. But at least he had hope his brother would still be alive. She had to watch her own flesh and blood turn into those lifeless monsters. All she wanted to do was look at her bright eyes one last time but as soon as she opened them, she knew that… thing wasn't her sister anymore. She cringed. Her bloody face still haunted her. It was all just too fresh. She closed her eyes, and tried to shake the thought.

She looked inside a car for anything to grab, but she gasped as soon as she caught the reflection on the rearview mirror. She jumped out so fast, she hit her head on the hood. Turning around, she saw a horde of walkers limping between the cars. She felt her blood rush to her head. There were too many. This was it, they were going to die. "Oh god! Daryl-" she almost yelled as something grabbed her from the waist and pushed her to the ground.

"Shh!" Daryl put a hand over her mouth and pushed her towards a car. "Get under there!" he whispered.

She did so as quickly as she could, and she watched him go under another car a couple of feet further. She looked at him in search of any kind of reassuring gesture but she didn't get one. He was just uncertain as she was that this would work. She put both her hands over her mouth to muffle the loud, quick breaths she was taking.

She heard footsteps, and soon numerous bodies were dragging themselves all around her. They could have never taken them on one by one. The walkers didn't seem to take notice of them. Maybe they would leave, and they could get out of there as quickly as they could, as long as the RV was still working.

Panic crossed all over her face as she went for the non-existent gun in her pocket. She had left it in the RV, disassembled. All she had on her was the knife Daryl had given her moments ago.

Then, a loud clank was heard and she saw Daryl looking at something she had no visual of. He turned to check on her, and furrowed his eyebrows as if he was making a decision. In a few second span, he rolled out from under the car, and ran to whatever it was he had been looking at. It could have been one of the others that needed help. It would never seem like Daryl to go out of his way to help someone; at least not when she had first met him when he was with Merle.

She tried to keep her composure and not panic. She caught a glimpse of Daryl dragging a bloody T-Dog next to a truck. Was he bitten? She quickly dismissed that notion as she knew that if he really had been bitten, Daryl would have shot him without second thoughts. She saw him throwing a dead body over him, and then taking his turn as he laid on the ground, and placed another dead body over him, but not before looking at her and nodding in a reassuring way.

After a few agitating minutes, the walkers' footsteps seemed to grow further and further away, and soon the silence overpowered the distant moans. They waited a couple of minutes just to make sure they were gone. Suddenly, a scream was heard, and Andrea looked to the other side only to see a terrified Sophia running away from two walkers. Where was the poor girl going all alone, and why had everyone let her? Andrea closed her eyes for a second. She was so close, if she made a run for it she could catch up to her. Then, she opened them, and wondered why she should risk her life for someone else's little girl.

She was already up and running to the woods before she realized that Sophia wanted to live. She knew this would be a death sentence for at least one of them, but it might as well be her rather than a kid who hadn't yet had the chance to live.

She could faintly hear Daryl's voice yelling at her not to go, but she was already too far away to start having second thoughts.