The Walking Dead. Good game. Great story. The only problem: I'm in the game now. Or rather, the game has become my reality. Whichever one you prefer. The point is that I now have to fight for my life to the best of my abilities.

After about five minutes of hysterical crying over my likelihood of dying via walker I take a moment to gather my thoughts and try to discern where I am in the story. Right now I'm in a car on an abandoned neighborhood street. Cars piled up for as far as I can see up the road.

Actually now that I think about it I have skills that could be exceptionably handy in my current situation. I speak multiple languages, I can fight well, I'm much stronger than my looks give me credit for, and I'm a pretty good shot. Being a cop rocks! I'm like Rick 2.0 except a girl and not as old.

Out of the corner of my eye I see a bag on the floor of the backseat. I could only pray that whatever higher power that put me here wouldn't screw me over…any more than they already have at least.

Reaching back I grab the bag from behind the passenger seat and bring it to my lap. Opening the various zippers and pouches I can feel myself almost squealing in joy. Inside the bag were various handguns, grenades, knives, and other survival bag goodies.

*Sniff* The Universe doesn't hate me after all. Oh wow there's a whole bunch of cool shit in here. Riot gear? Oh hell yeah. I'm putting this on first chance I get. Not now though. I'd rather not let anybody see my goodies. Even if they are only walkers.

I hear a car with sirens crashing in the distance. So I'm guessing the beginning of the game in regards to my earlier inquiry. I wonder if I should meet Clementine before or after Lee. I honestly don't want to wait so bump that whole following the story line to the letter thing.

Getting out of the car and keeping my bag of lifelines close to me I head over to a house that I assume is Clementine's. It took four more tries to find the one with a treehouse. And when I did Lee was already over the fence and about to walk into the house.

I let him deal with the walker and Clementine while I looted the cars for whatever I could find. But most of the stuff that was worth taking had already disappeared. What remained however was something most people didn't think to take. Gasoline.

And there was what twenty, thirty cars out here waiting and ripe with gas just for the taking. I'd seen the people in movies siphon gas with a hose, their mouth, and a container for the gas. After making a discovery of several empty water cooler jugs it took me a while to drain the cars of their gas.

While I was draining them, and contemplating why someone would have empty water jug containers in their trunk, I realized that it was getting to be night soon. Hurrying to finish with the siphoning I looked around to check if there were any undesirables headed my way.

To my joy there weren't. To my absolute horror I see the back gate to Clementine's house open and several cars pushed out of the way. Lee, Clementine, and the other two left? "Shit!"

How could I have been so stupid as to not notice them leaving? It didn't help that because of my outburst I was attracting a lot of undead attention. Luckily there was a nearby truck that I hadn't gotten to yet.

Hauling ass to load the containers of fuel I put them in the back and took off in the direction of the farm. But halfway there I realized that I could better prepare by heading to the motor inn first. I'd hide the gasoline until the group left the drug store.

Oh man I am so excited. Meeting characters and changing fates is so dang exciting! Doug you shall live! Also Carley because I ship her and Lee. I'm not too sure I want Larry around though. He's kind of an ass. Hmm.

A thought came to me about a mile before getting to the motor inn. If I can I want to save the woman who was already at the motor inn. It was really sad to see her die the way she did. Maybe I can stop that.

Scene Break

It was almost too late. I got there just as she was struggling to get out of a walker's grip. With a swift stab to the side of the head it went down. Quickly running up to and killing the rest of the walkers nearby, I saved the day as well as made a lovely new acquaintance.

"Thank you. He almost got me." I smile at her and say "It. Not He. Whatever that thing is it's no longer human. Are you ok?" She simply nodded her head and stared at me in awe. Looks like I have a fan.

"Now. Is there anyone else with you or are you all by yourself? If you're not with anybody than I suggest we stick together." I ask because time is of the essence. I need an ally, she needs protection, and this motor inn needs work.

She was still looking at me but I could see the answer in her eyes before she could say anything. "Good. My name's Penny. You can also call me Ellie if you'd like." I waited. "Oh right. I'm Irene. It's nice to meet you. And thank you again for saving me."

"Now I think we should start clearing out this motor inn and begin to fortification. What do you say? And trust me when I tell you that this place is, and even more so after we're done with it, the safest place for miles around."

"You're probably right. What should we do first?" A bunch of ideas came to mind. Considering the fact that I drove to get here at top speed let's us have at least a day before Lee and his people get to the drugstore. A few hours after that they'll pull up out here and try to set up camp.

"We should start with clearing out the rooms of any walkers, I call those things walkers by the way, and gather up anything remotely useful. What do you think?" It was key in any newly formed partnership to show that both sides had equal say. Plus she might actually have a good idea, who knows?

"I think that's good and all but I'm not too comfortable around those w-walkers. I'm sorry" She was scared real good by the one that nearly got her. I could understand that now but the future would need her to be ready.

I nodded with a friendly pat on her shoulder and walked off to clear the rooms of any undesirables. There were only three walkers in total and they were easy enough to clear out. Irene would come in after I was done in each room and we would both take anything useful outside and into the room she was staying in on the second floor.

By the time we were finished with the clearing and piling of useful and non-useful items half a day had passed and it was nearly noon as I had gotten to the motor inn at nearly midnight.

What we found was helpful for building minor defenses on all sides of the motor inn rather than focusing on the front entrance. As I said, we're building a fortress; one that'll be good enough to withstand a siege if need be.

And in a couple of years it'll need to be. Those masses of walkers roaming the country aren't exactly a walk in the park to survive. We'll need super adequate defenses if we have any desire to even survive those days.

This place won't be some rinky dink operation because I'd rather avoid Crawford as a whole due to the fact that that section of the game was a mess. The only real losses in my opinion are Chuck, Omid, and Christa. I'll have to see about maybe getting Chuck. I could do with some music and homeless man wisdom.

I can only hope that whatever power brought me to this world also guides Christa and Omid towards me and this motor inn. Damn. It really sucks. *Sigh* Nothing I can do about it for now. Might as well get back to work.

"Hey Irene would you come here for second? We should talk about our next move." She made her way over to me. "Yeah what's up? Isn't our next move to hunker down until the government arrives?" Oh boy. One of the discussions I'd rather not have.

"I need to be honest with you and say that I highly doubt that anyone is coming to save the day or us. I've seen enough of things to know that no one is coming. You may hold out hope and that's fine but I want to live through this. And that means being prepared whether they come or not."

She became visibly depressed at that and to my shock nodded her head in agreement before bursting into tears and clinging to me while I awkwardly tried to comfort her.

It's not that I'm not a comforting person, it's just that I don't like to deal with crying. Women, children, and babies that cry are my weakness. My Kryptonite, so to speak. Thankfully she stopped long enough to regain some composure and dried the waterworks. However she still saw fit to not let me go so that's happening I guess.

After that tender moment we discussed that it would be better to quickly roll into town and gather supplies for better defenses. The only problem would be abandoning the motor inn for a short while since I was, without question, not leaving behind Irene to watch our things.

Before leaving we made sure to hide the containers of gas I brought. Who knows what kind of degenerates might try to come through this place.