Author's Notes: Basically beginning life as an OC-Insertion fic piece, this has been worked on multiple times to develop into an alternate version of the movie 'Land of the Dead' (2005), including scenes and events that never happened in the script.

The names, places and concepts all belong to George E. Romero and the prospective owners. All recognisable characters are also property of the above. The original character of Nancy, including concept, appearance and background are copyright of author known as mindyg84.

CHAPTER 1

Survivors

It was a cold night in the middle of October, cold enough to put a thin layer of frost on the windscreens of cars and make their breaths mist in the night. The small convoy of vehicles seemed to huddle together near the edge of Uniontown like creatures for warmth. An excited and fearful atmosphere was building, as it often did before a salvage run- some stood near their trucks sharing a flask which was passed around quickly, voices raised in nervous bravado, while others circled on the dirt bikes like pacing lions, trying to shake off the charged air.

Tonight Riley Denbo was more on edge than usual. Because tonight would be the last time he would go out there with Dead Reckoning. Tonight he was retiring once and for all…

And tonight his second-in-command had decided he was going to be late.

Beside him, leaning dirty jeans against the door of the pick-up, was Charlie- dutifully checking down the sight of his rifle for the countless time in the past hour before replacing it upright in his hold. The scarred side of his countenance was displayed to the other man, deep furrows in its melted-wax texture highlighted by the stray spotlight of an approaching vehicle.

The rumble became that of a familiar engine, causing Riley to turn his head and check. Sure enough the white, rust-encrusted box van was rolling towards them through the tunnel of semis and he recognized the wild mop of hair behind the wheel to be Mouse before it passed. Pulling up in the lee of the Reckoning, the roller door in back clanked upward before the whole thing had even come to a complete stop, revealing a lop-sided sneer.

The other members of the second unit didn't waste their time jumping down from the filthy interior of the van, but Cholo was in no apparent hurry. The Hispanic man cocked a hip and leant against the side of the wall, taking a slow drag of his cigarette before lazily blowing the blue smoke into the cold air.

"Hey, Riley, looks like God left the phone off the hook, huh?" he quipped.

Lazily stretching his lop-sided smile into place on his lips, Cholo replaced the smouldering stick between his teeth and jumped down from the bed of the van with a thud. Others came from the depths of the cargo box to dismount in similar fashion in the man's wake, the rest of the second unit posse, including the large biker Foxy.

One in particular made Charlie take a step further away from the van.

The girl who dropped down onto the cold concrete in worn boots was young, too young, defined by a thick curtain of dark brown hair which needed a hairbrush badly, cascading down thin shoulders draped with a stained brown coat. As pale as the corpses and just as gaunt she might have been pretty if not for the emptiness of her features. And the dark light which pierced her vacant stare. That gaze, like coal, settled on both Denbo and the scarred man at his side, sharpening as if the girl no longer looked straight through them like she did everything else. Her glare lingered long enough for even Riley to shift his feet uncomfortably. It was like looking into the stare of a shark; intelligent but unfathomable and alien all at once.

Nancy.

No one was sure about the girl who had rode with Cholo for as long as anyone at the Green could remember. There were theories, but no one had the balls to confirm them. She almost never left his side. His constant shadow, wherever the bombastic man went Nancy and her sawn-off were never further than a step behind.

"What's wrong with her, Riley?" Charlie murmured, his voice low. Charlie was cautious around the girl and with good reason. He would not look away from her, as if she were one of the undead ready to rip his throat out and his thumb brushed the muzzle of his rifle nervously.

"Everything…" Riley hissed.

Cholo strolled over, taking another lazy drag of his smoke. "Go get my ride, Nancy-girl," the man ordered her. "And get yours too." The girl turned away to obey without a word, much to Charlie's relief, letting out the tight exhale from his body in a whoosh.

"What's the matter, man? You look like shit." Cholo greeted nonchalantly as he stepped up to the pair, flashing a vicious smile as he planted a finger in the middle of Denbo's chest. "Didn't I tell you not bang chicks with problems worse then you, huh? When you gonna listen?"

"You done?" Riley retorted in an unimpressed tone, not rising to the verbal bait of his second.

"I'm never done, bebé. Why?" Cholo grinned, blowing out blue smoke into Riley's direction through his teeth.

"….The town's full of walkers." The rusty-haired leader told him with a cursory glance over the shoulder of DeMora's leather jacket, as if he were making sure that listening ears were not hovering.

"Yeah, every town's full of walkers." Cholo dismissed the remark with a shrug and a sneer.

"No, these guys aren't just walking." Riley added tersely, his patience thinning with the cavalier attitude of the other man.

The incident still shook him. What should have been a routine scout of the outlying town had yielded a dangerous development: he had witnessed one of the undead going through stiff motions, the zombie still wearing the uniform overalls toying with the pump like a child inspecting a new toy. But that was not the limit of its newfound intelligence. When the rookie had tipped it off to their surveillance they had both watched jaundiced, milky eyes fix on their hiding place and the corpse grunt deliberately not once but twice until its fellows began shambling towards them. Without a doubt, that walker had called them like a master calling a dog…

None of them could afford to be so complacent anymore. "It's like they're communicating. They're thinking and there's something going on. "

The information seemed to fascinate Charlie, who up until that moment had still been huddled against the car door, keeping a look out for the small, dark-haired ghost. Now he leant around Riley's shoulder, commenting:

"But… they're dumb, Riley…" He gave a breathy laugh and a nervous smile as if suddenly self-conscious as he flicked a glance over to Cholo, expecting ridicule. "Well, hell, dead folks is near dumb as me…"

"You learned to make yourself useful, didn't you, Charlie?"

"Well, yeah…"

"Then that's what they're doing."

The eerie pantomime of the gas station attendant rose large again in his mind's eye. Useful indeed.

"'Make yourself useful.'" Cholo repeated mockingly, stepping up until he was inches off the slow-witted shooter and giving him a sharp grin. "You don't got one redeeming deflect, do you, son, huh?"

"I got this! I got this!" Charlie protested as Cholo gave him a shove back against the car door, raising his rifle between them as it to shield himself with it from the mocking taunt.

"Oh, you got that. You got this too." Cholo leered, flicking what was left of his lit butt into Charlie's open jacket, causing the disfigured man to jump back and bat at his clothes to avoid being burnt. Smiling sourly to himself, Cholo turned his back on the two, fed up with Riley's over-cautious bullshit for the night.

"Come on! Let's get to work!" he barked back at the few of the second unit members who had lit their cigarettes and were milling near the exhaust to keep warm. He slapped his leather gloves against his hand for emphasis, making Mouse jump. "Before I forget what it is I do for a living! C'mon!"

Riley was not letting the warning go so easily however, stalking after him. "Cholo, hey, I'm talking to you." he snapped.

His tone made Cholo turn around, cocking an eyebrow, one which was faintly bisected by a faded scar at the tip, and giving him a look which said 'hurry up and get it over with'. "Alright, what?" he conceded after a moment, stepping back in to finish up whatever it was Denbo felt was so important. His stance had gotten a little wider however and his back straighter, as if he was now more confrontational and had lost his frivolous air.

"Things are changing." Riley cautioned in a low voice. "Just be careful. We go in, we do our job… and we get the fuck out. Everyone alive." He gestured obliquely at the vast side of Dead Reckoning where she idled beside them in the cold night as he continued. "Now, you take command of this unit, you can run it anyway you like…. But tonight, it's my last night. And I don't want any fuck-ups…"

A dark look came across the deep eyes of the Latino who shifted his feet and tipped his chin up a little higher. "Oh, so that's what it's about, huh?" he growled. "Well, you're not gonna dump these recycled delinquents on me. I don't wanna take command."

The answer surprised Riley into a moment of silence as Cholo leant closer and hissed in a conspiring whisper. "Because you know what? Tonight's my last night, too, bebé …" He tilted a cryptic smile which dimpled his chin and left the man to mull on that...

"Hey you," Cholo addressed Mike, the rookie, who until now had hung back at the hood of the pick-up, automatic kept close to his body. "C'mere, you little nose-picker." Cholo motioned for the boy to follow him, turned and left Denbo there, still watching with a puzzled look in his green eyes while Mike shuffled to obey the summons.

"You been with Riley all day painting the town beige?" Cholo was saying as he walked the young recruit towards the van. "I'm gonna show you how it's done. Come on."

It was only when DeMora was far enough to be out of earshot that Charlie felt safe enough to return to Riley's side, joining his friend in watching the retreating back of the leather jacket in contemplation of his last words.

"What'd he do, Riley?" Charlie finally murmured. "Win the lottery or something?"

"Or something…." Riley replied.

Footnote #1: So far this fiction adheres very closely to the movie version, but as the chapters progress it will become more and more loosely based on the scenes therein. The first chapter may be in 3rd POV but from now on it will switch to Cholo's POV. So expect depravity, profanity and other mature things!

As always constructive criticism and comments are welcomed, flames and abuse will simply be ignored.