Disclaimer: I obviously don't own FTWD because if I did, Eliza Taylor would already be in it.


Chapter 1

Elyza Lex was having a very good day. She had scavenged a shotgun along with two big packs of shells, a brand new stainless steel canteen, a barely used pair of commando boots, painkillers, three packs of cigarettes, and an entire carton of canned food. She hadn't had that good a haul in months. Most importantly, she hadn't seen a single person; living, dead, or undead.

She walked back to her car with the carton of food in her arms and moved some things around in the trunk, making sure to arrange everything as securely as possible so that any reckless driving she might need to do wouldn't send things flying at her head. There were already plenty of ways for her to die in this mess of a world, no need to add stupidity to the list.

She sighed contentedly as she surveyed her neat pile of belongings and decided she deserved a mini-vacation. She knew the beach wasn't far, so she closed the trunk and got in the car, grabbing her sunglasses from the glove box and buckling her seat belt. She drove twenty minutes or so before she spotted a stretch of coast that seemed inviting. Parking the car directly on the beach, Elyza hopped out and did a quick routine check. No zombies. Good. No rotting corpses. Good. No people at all. Good.

Feeling entirely relaxed for the first time since she'd passed L.A., she proceeded to get her towel, a can of soda, and a cigarette. As she plopped herself down and buried her feet in the warm sand, Elyza thought that the only thing missing was music. Sometimes she wished technology still worked. She also really, really missed her guitar. Unfortunately, guitars don't sound so great once you've used them to repeatedly bash in skulls, not to mention that getting the blood off would be a disgusting task. Damn walkers.

Elyza wondered if it would be safe to sleep on the beach tonight. How much safer would she be in an abandoned house than she would be in her car anyway? Okay, maybe a little safer. She'd slept in her car before, though, and she had an okay-ish security system in place to wake her up if she needed to quickly make an escape.

She lit her cigarette and looked up at the clear sky, noting that the stars would be visible tonight. There were few things as relaxing as feeling the ocean air, listening to the waves, and staring up at the stars while laying in the cool sand. Fuck it, she felt like sleeping on the beach, she was going to sleep on the beach. What would be the point of all this surviving, if she couldn't stop to enjoy the good things?

As that thought crossed her mind, she had a strange sense of déjà-vu. Maybe life should be about more than just surviving. She felt like she had said those words out loud before, she just couldn't remember in what context. This gave her pause, and she sat unmoving for several minutes trying to recall the memory, until she felt her fingers abruptly getting hot and she dropped the end of her cigarette in surprise.

Her stomach was starting to protest from lack of food so she got up, took her newly acquired shotgun from the front seat of the car, loaded it, and slung it over her shoulder thanks to the strap it was attached to. She also grabbed her axe, because a shotgun blast is about as subtle as a stampede of elephants and she'd rather avoid attracting anything. She locked the car before heading on foot to a patch of trees a few hundred yards away to gather firewood.

It was only after she had already come back, lit a fire, put a pot of soup over it and started rummaging through her things for her utensils that she noticed her new boots weren't in the car. What the hell? She was sure she had tied them to the side of her green duffel bag. She searched the car a second time, thinking she might have overlooked them somehow. Not only were they nowhere to be found, Elyza now realized a few other things were missing. Her windbreaker. One of the bigger flashlights. Maybe a few cans of food, but she couldn't be sure.

A spike of fear ran through Elyza's body and she quickly jumped out of the trunk back onto the sand, pulling her shotgun from her back and scanning the area around her. She couldn't see or hear anyone. Hadn't she locked the car before she left? She inspected the sand for footprints, but it was so soft and scattered that she couldn't tell if those were her footprints or someone else's. Heart rate slowly returning to normal, but still feeling uneasy, Elyza tried to gather her thoughts. If someone had been here and stolen her things, why hadn't they taken more? It would have been more efficient to just grab one or two bags and run. Whoever it was, they had ninja skills and that worried her. The thought struck her that the person could still be here, watching from afar, hidden in the trees or near the road that ran parallel to the coast. This was no good. No good at all.

What if she was just being paranoid? Maybe she somehow misplaced a few items while rearranging the trunk in the parking lot, and thought about tying her boots to her duffel bag but didn't actually do it. Fuck, she thought, I'm losing it.

Whatever the case may be, she didn't feel comfortable staying on the beach anymore. She quickly went back to her soup, cursing under her breath because she had left it unattended too long and the bottom of the pan was sticky with overcooked mush. She carefully poured the soup into a thermos, leaving out the mush, then rinsed the pan in the ocean, using sand to scrub the bottom. She kept a keen eye on her surroundings for any movement.

One day. One single, good day from beginning to end, without anything to ruin it. Was that too much to ask for?

Throwing a panful of seawater onto the dying fire, Elyza picked up the rest of her belongings, got in the car and drove back to the road to head towards the nearest houses. They were roughly 10 miles further in the direction she had been heading, on the outskirts of a small town. It was only mid-day, which meant she had plenty of time to get there and clear out a house to spend the night in. She slid a CD into the battered car stereo, determined to cheer herself back up, and concentrated on the road ahead.


A/N: I've been reading fanfiction for years now, but this is my first time posting anything online. Feedback is very welcome, including constructive criticism, but also flattering compliments :D Thanks for reading!