Author's Note: I've been writing this story for a year now and I've only just plucked up the courage to upload it! And I am so excited!

This is an AU version of the show, and this basically means, for this story, that it doesn't follow the timeline of the show or comic. Events that have happened in the show and comic will be explored, however, they won't be in the same order as such. There will also be scenes completely created by myself.

The story will be in parts, consisting of ten chapters per part. There will be explorations of a lot of the characters which I hope you enjoy!

I own nothing except for my OC.

I think that's it for now, so please enjoy!

Prologue

Canary

.x.

It had been just a normal day when the dead started coming back to life.

A typical Monday; where the citizens of the world began their day with a grunt, and a stretch, and a thought to how quickly the weekend had passed them by. People went about their weekly routine, heading to their respective establishments whether it be to school or work or, more leisurely, to the gym or coffee shop to meet friends.

It was just a normal day.

Except, it was anything but. It was their last day of normality, where the only thing important was what they were having for lunch, or whether they would get to the end of their to-do list. It had been their last day where they were truly free, and where nothing in the world mattered. The world was changing around them; minute by minute, second by second, and no one realised just how different the world was capable of being.

And for many, it was the last day of their lives; their deaths just a mere few hours away. But for most, it was the start of a long journey of survival where death was on every corner or a lapse of judgement away.

.x.

Macon was hit first.

Shit had well and truly hit the fan in a local diner when an elderly gentleman called Dennis Hopper complained of flu-like symptoms whilst enjoying breakfast with his wife, Angie. His condition worsened considerably within minutes, and before his beloved wife of fifty-one years let out a scream so full of pain and heartache that confirmed his death to the other patrons of the diner.

Except, he didn't die.

Not in the sense that many would conjure up. His body stilled and his wife held him as the sirens sounded outside the thick windows of the diner, their flashing lights dancing and reflecting against the surfaces around them. Angie had held him long after the EMT's arrived and it was only after she thought of their beloved grandchildren and what she would say to them about their grandfather's passing did she allow them to work on his frail and ever so heartbreakingly still body.

They worked on him but to no avail. His body having been feeble and frail after many years of hard manual labour to keep a roof over his head and food on the table for his wife and children. Angie sobbed in the chest of a stranger, a kind hearted woman who knew nothing about their lives had offered her the comfort she needed in those crucial moments, and who held her up when the EMT's stopped working on Dennis.

She had held him once more; his body colder than it had been. She stroked his cheek the way she always did when he was ill or when he was sleeping. Teenage sweethearts had fought together to create a life together that people who knew them hoped for, a love like no other, and a love that people would hope to find one day. But they had it; they had spent so many years fighting for one another that today was not something they imagined would happen.

As she cradled him in her arms, she felt a breath escape him; and as she lifted her head up to tell the EMT's that he was breathing, that he had returned to her, her husband of fifty-one years, tore a chunk out of her neck.

No-one escaped the diner that day. Husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons never stood a chance.

.x.

The US Army was called almost immediately.

Extra precautions were taken and all targets within the diner was shot on sight, and their bodies were taken to the CDC immediately. Everyone called to the site believed it to be contained and, with testing underway, they thought it was the end to whatever it was. But nothing in life is ever simple. Blood from a geek – an endearing term conjured up by the military – had seeped through a cut in the glove and into the torn skin on a hand of a scientist that had been called to assist.

It took a few days before the symptoms she was experiencing to truly take hold and, whilst her and her team were working tirelessly to figure out what the cause was, she collapsed and died at home. And like Dennis Hopper and his victims, she woke up and unlike Dennis, she ravaged her husband to death whilst he slept.

And like dominoes, the end of the world as they knew it was in sight. More and more people were becoming infected and, before anyone realised it, it was an epidemic. The military was sent in and given control; all the time testing was still being conducted at the CDC. Safe zones were addressed, and safety procedures were put in place. But it seemed as though all hope was lost.

The world was irrecoverable.

Lost.

Gone.

But no-one wanted to admit that, not even when death stared them in the face and wiped millions of lives off the face of the earth.