Maybe I'm foolish
Maybe I'm blind
Thinking I can see through this
And see what's behind
Got no way to prove it
So maybe I'm blind
But I'm only human after all
I'm only human after all
Don't put your blame on me

-Human; by Rag'n'Bone Man

Jerilyn Duchannes used to love watching horror movies with her friends. It was entertaining. Jerilyn loved the thrill of it all — that adrenaline rush whenever a jumpscare happened; the shock that ran through her body whenever some kind of twist occurred. It sent chills up her spine, made her body tremble in anticipation. Jerilyn's favorite kind of horror movies were the apocalypse ones, ironic enough. She used to laugh with her friends on how the protagonists did super predictable things; how the antagonists weren't even good; how every apocalypse movie ever made seemed to regurgitate the same kind of plot, no matter how many ways the producers tried changing it. It was meaningless fun. At least, until it wasn't. When all those stupid movies Jerilyn and her friends would make fun of started to happen, with less Hollywood predictability and more...realism.

All those jokes, all those snide comments and remarks, those slowly eased their way out of Jerilyn's mind as she watched her entire world — both her own personal world and the one around her — fall apart.

~8~

It all happened in stages, that's how Jerilyn kept track of the apocalypse. That was how she kept herself sane when everything else — when everyone else — seemed so crazy.

Stage 1 had been the news reports. News stations and radio broadcasting systems aired the spread of an unknown virus. It was called the Wildfire Virus, because of how quickly it spread and how fast people got infected. Origins for the Wildfire Virus: unknown. Conspiracy theorists believed it was the beginning of biological warfare; the use of unknown, possibly mutated, pathogens to cause serious damage to the enemy. It was unsettling, how suddenly the Wildfire Virus came to be, how fast it seemed to spread and just how many people were falling ill. News reporters suggested deep cleaning to prevent the spreading of bacteria, making sure the healthy were wearing masks and other forms of protection against airborne spreading. The sick were sent to hospitals, only displaying flulike symptoms in the beginning — aching joints, congestion, coughing, headaches, trouble sleeping, etc. Stage 1 lasted a period of two and a half months, with no luck on finding anything useful on anything that was going on. But that was only Stage 1.

Stage 2 was the spark. The virus was progressing faster than anyone was comfortable with. Doctors and scientists only knew that the virus was extremely aggressive, and once it had a living host... There were countless claims that studies were being done to create vaccinations for the virus, but because no known origins could be discovered, it was nearly impossible. Was the Wildfire Virus bacterial? Was it fungal? Was it something else entirely, like an already known bug that just mutated? Maybe it was the beginning of biological warfare. Jerilyn wouldn't be surprised, but it didn't make the situation better. Stage 2 added three months onto the two and a half months that went by.

Stage 3 was the fanning of the spark. The infected were dying off, the people were starting to become unsettled, antsy. News of rioting in parts of the country were being broadcasted on news stations and on radio stations. Police were being sent in to calm the rioters, rumors of the military even coming in to stop the fighting. Apparently, shots had been fired and some people had been killed. That was also when stories were beginning to change. The people who were once declared dead were coming back, both recently deceased from the virus, and those in graveyards. Corpses were coming back to life and eating the living, whoever managed to escape with only bite marks would later die from infection and then come back as corpses. That was the start of the never ending cycle. Then the power went out. Everyone realized they were isolated. More riots broke out. The government had to intervene, splitting the healthy up into safe-zones, while anyone who'd recently been infected — whether it be with the virus or anything else — were being sent off in high numbers. The safe-zones were expected to keep the living away from big cities, away from the dead. The military were in charge of the zones, of giving resources to the survivors. A month and a half was added onto the five and a half months that already went by.

Stage 4 was when society officially dissolved. Some of the safe-zones lasted longer than others. Jerilyn heard stories of some safe-zones lasting maybe a month at most, while others lasted for months afterward, lasting well into the official fall of civilization. Even after the military's betrayal. After the power had been cut, the military didn't have a lot of ways to communicate with each other, which meant they had easy access to abuse the survivors in their care. They wouldn't distribute the resources fairly; they'd ask for favors before distributing food, water, or medicine. A lot of those favors weren't pleasant. A lot of good people ended up exiled or dead because they wouldn't go through with what the soldiers wanted. When the soldiers first started killing survivors who disobeyed them, that led to a good number of people standing up to what was going on, which led to more violence. Eventually, there was an uprising in certain safe-zones, and the soldiers stationed in those areas were either taken down or driven out. As for the sick, after they'd been gathered up, they had been taken to nearby military facilities (tents that were put up miles from the nearest zone) or to hospitals to be tested on. No amount of medication would cure the sick, no amount of studying got remaining doctors or scientists any closer to understanding what was going on. Not long after, the sick were put down. Stage 4, in total, no matter how long the safe-zones lasted, added three months to the seven months that had already gone by.

For Jerilyn, Stage 5 was the final stage. Stage 5 was survival. With the old way of running things gone, that meant everyone either had to become self-reliant or learn how to adapt in a group. The ones who managed to go without being infected in the first couple months were left to be exposed to a world that was violent and vengeful. The dead roamed the streets, hid in houses, and occupied otherwise abandoned cars in most situations. While the dead was obviously a danger — one bite from them and the victim would eventually turn into them — humans proved to be just as dangerous, if not more so. Corpses could be killed, it was quickly discovered that one blow to a corpse's head killed it for good; humans, on the other hand, were a different story. Humans could think, plan out strategies, do elaborate schemes to get an end goal. Corpses were walking skin and bones hungry for flesh; nothing else mattered but that. Not to mention that corpses tended to shuffle, and that usually meant the uninfected could get away rather easily. It was only when they decided to make a horde that corpses became dangerous. Cities seemed to have the most dead, where people had been so close together in cities the Wildfire Virus could spread even quicker. Towns seemed to have less of the dead, but still enough to be dangerous. Not only that, but gangs of survivors tended to make certain areas their domain. Anyone who trespassed in an area that wasn't theirs would get killed or worse. Stores, homes, cars, anything with the capability of being looted was looted. Medicine was scarce; food was becoming harder and harder to find. Clean water was just as difficult to find. So was a car with a full — or even partial — tank of gas plus a working battery. Weapons were essential. Various blades, knives more commonly, were used to kill corpses. Guns were useful, but with bullets becoming even more rare than medicine and water, they were used at a bare minimum. Stage 5 went from the ten month mark onward.

Jerilyn Duchannes watched civilization fall firsthand. She witnessed everything she'd ever known turn upside down in just less than a year.

~8~

When the safe-zones were being established, Jerilyn had been passing through Arkansas. She was trying to get to Alabama, where her younger brother was living. Beforehand, Jerilyn had been staying in her home state of Oklahoma with her older sister, Dany, in hopes of getting enough money for making it to Alabama in one piece. Unfortunately, Jerilyn couldn't even get halfway through Arkansas before her car died. Then the safe-zones were enforced, so Jerilyn had no choice but to go. It had been bad enough the power had been cut, but having to stay in a small area run by the military was even worse. The soldiers would watch everyone's movements like a hawk. Once the soldiers started getting a little power hungry, that was when things started to feel a little tense. Survivors were trying to hold onto the flicker of hope that maybe the soldiers would revert back to the way they were before, but it wasn't happening, and the survivors weren't happy. One of those survivors being a woman named Veronica Chavez.

During her time in the safe-zone, Jerilyn befriended Veronica Chavez. Veronica was a very outspoken individual, coming from a relatively wealthy Mexican family, the young woman had a lot going for her before everything went to shit. Just like Jerilyn learned plenty of info on her new friend, Veronica came to understand her new friend, as well. Veronica learned that Jerilyn had Dutch/Pawnee Indian heritage, having grown up with an older sister in Oklahoma with their Native American mother. Jerilyn had spoken of a younger brother who went to live with his father in Alabama after a nasty divorce. Veronica's parents, due to religious purposes, found divorce distasteful; having worked out any disagreements through communication and religion. Veronica knew that Jerilyn loved her siblings immensely, and when Jerilyn graduated high school, lived with her sister for a while before deciding to pay their brother a visit in Alabama. That had been around the time the Wildfire Virus started picking up steam.

For Jerilyn, she looked up to Veronica in a way, seeing the other woman as someone who had potential to do well in the new world. Veronica could see the inequality the soldiers were establishing on the people, and she wanted to do something about it. Jerilyn had always been used to just letting things work themselves out; she didn't want to get involved if she could help it. But in the new world, it was all about involvement. Passiveness led to death or reanimation, and Jerilyn couldn't decide which was worse.

But when the safe-zone was becoming less and less safe, Jerilyn participated in the riots against the soldiers, but while she got away with some cuts and bruises, Veronica hadn't been so lucky. A soldier had shot Veronica point blank, the young woman dying instantly. Jerilyn managed to escape just before she got any major injuries, but that didn't stop her from mourning the death of her friend. Veronica Chavez gave Jerilyn the push she needed to survive. Everything she did afterward was up to her.

(A/N):

Not the best way to end a chapter, but where I'm at right now, it's well into 1 in the morning and I have work later in the day so I thought I'd end it somewhere. If you've got any constructive criticism, don't hesitate to let me know. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter. Hopefully it was interesting for you guys.

TWD isn't mine. I own Jerilyn, Veronica, any other OCs I had, and any subplots in the story.

It's pretty exciting season 8 will be released in a little over a month. To me, it seems like season 8 will be really exciting, especially since the trailer showed Old Man Rick at the end. Now, I started reading the comics (I haven't finished the comics) not that long ago, but what I do understand is that after Negan and the Saviors are taken down, there's a time skip and then we've got Old Man Rick. I could be wrong, some of what I know on TWD I read on the internet before I started reading the comics or watching the show. I didn't even start watching the show until after the midseason finale for season 3. But that's not important right now.

As a warning for you guys, I start fall quarter at my community college in about two and a half weeks, maybe less, so I'll be pretty busy with that and work. I'll have some time to update a few chapters every now and again between now and then, but I thought I'd let you guys know.

Thanks plenty.

Bleu