Blood. There was blood everywhere. These things used to be human, but they sure bled more than any other human witnessed. The blood was unreal, their gray skin was gory, and their putrid smell would make even the most unhygienic folks gag. The worst part was that they were once the people you loved. It could be a parent, spouse, child, sibling, or friend. They're now nothing but Walkers, shadows of who they once were. They were the walking dead.

Two days ago, the world was overrun by a plague. The disease caused the dead to return as flesh-eating monsters, not remembering anything about who they were. They don't remember the people that they knew in their life; the only thing they understood anymore was the scent of human flesh, and their uncontrollable desire to devour it. If one felt sympathy towards the diseased, they would end up dead. Some believed that there would be a cure, some type of vaccine to get rid of the "Walkers". But these things were already dead. You shoot it in the heart, it still comes at you. Rip its head off and it'll still try to bite you. Rip it in half and it will drag itself towards you. These things no longer felt any pain. The only way to kill it was by destroying the brain. Kate learned that the hard way.

The first day of the Outbreak was painful for Kate. She had woken up in the house that she grew up in, no sign of Merle or Daryl anywhere. It was normal for them to be out of the house in the morning. Merle was usually either getting high or finding some girl to bring home for the night. Daryl enjoyed the woods and usually hunts so they'd be able to eat. Kate was always out late at night in order to break into stores to steal supplies, so there was no need for her to be out in the morning. She always slept in. The absence of her siblings was normal to her. The abnormal thing was the commotion outside. Kate sat up, clad in only a gray tank top and shorts, and got out of bed. She walked slowly towards the window and gasped at the chaos outside.

People were shooting each other, the military stormed in, shooting. Kate didn't understand what was going on until she saw a man kneeling over a woman, ripping at her gut and shoving his face into her bleeding abdomen, devouring her insides. The woman screamed at first, and then her cries died down as she faded into death. "Shit…" Kate ran over to her dresser, pulling on clothes. She quickly put on a sleeveless black vest, dark skinny jeans, combat boots, and her fingerless gloves. Kate froze when she heard footsteps outside of her bedroom door. She looked over her shoulder and saw her door slowly open, a deep growling emitting from behind it. She quickly slipped underneath the bed, holding her breath in order to remain silent.

Someone entered the room, but they weren't normal. They moved with only their right foot, their left one dragging behind them pitifully. The calf on their left leg was chewed on, the bone showing through the torn fragments of their pants. Kate waited under the bed while the Walker roamed the room. Realizing that it wasn't going to leave, Kate inched over to the opposite side of the bed, where her knife lay strapped to the side of the bed. She slipped out from underneath the bed, silently grabbing her knife, gripping it at the hilt. She stood up behind the Walker and approached it. Once she got close enough, she shoved the blade of the knife into its spine, striking it through the heart. She pushed it away afterwards, her breathing scattered. Kate turned around, and her heart sank when she heard the growling again. The Walker grabbed at Kate's hair, yanking her head back. She yelled out and reached behind to grab it's wrist as she turned around and twisted its arm in an attempt to knock it to the ground. She heard a sickening crunch as it's arm dislocated from its shoulder. It reached out and grabbed at Kate's ankle, pulling her to the ground. "Fuck…" She kicked it in the head multiple times, crawling towards the corner of the room quickly. She reached into the floorboard, pulling a few up. She pulled out her father's gun and loaded it, shooting the Walker in the head. It collapsed onto the floor, no longer moving. Kate was breathing heavily as she took in what just happened. She peeked outside the window and saw more Walkers walking towards the house, having been attracted by the sound of the gun. Kate quickly got up, grabbed her bow and quiver. She walked over to the dead Walker and pulled out her knife before running to the floorboards to get more ammo. The front door of the house was crowded with Walkers, so Kate couldn't use that way. She ran to the back door, noticing that it was clear with the exception of a few Walkers near the forest behind her house. She took a deep breath and sprinted to the nearest tree, jumping up, grabbing a branch, and swinging herself onto the nearest branch. She jumped from tree to tree until the Walkers weren't so crowded. She jumped back onto the ground, planning on going to the hunting store from which she got her bow.

Kate walked through the forest, avoiding the Walkers. She was freaked out about how that previous Walker didn't die after she stabbed it in the heart. She had already figured out that a headshot was needed to kill the geeks, but she didn't want any more surprises. When she finally arrived at the hunting store, she was relieved that it wasn't as chaotic as the others that she passed. The grocery stores were packed with people grabbing for food at the last minute. Kate didn't need food; she knew how to hunt, picking up a few tricks from Daryl. But she was nowhere close to Daryl's level when it came to survival. She knew the basics, but she'll need supplies. Kate ran inside, grabbing a new set of arrows and a backpack. She put a few things inside, such as a water bottle and rope. Once she was done, she ran out, avoiding the herds of Walkers now filling the streets.

"Daryl…Merle…Where are you?" Kate sat against a tree, her head in her hands, trying to think of what to do. Part of her wanted to go back to see if her brothers were there, but the rational part of her told her that that would lead her to her doom. In the back of her mind, she feared that one or both of them had been attacked and devoured by one of the geeks, but she couldn't acknowledge the fear. She had to focus on one thing only: surviving.

For days, Kate traveled deeper into the forest, using her bow to hunt for food. Killing the Walkers got easier. They were attracted to sound, so Kate used her old arrows to take them down. She used her newer ones for hunting. She didn't want to get Walker blood in her game. Kate wasn't the best at hunting, she got by, but sometimes she'd go for a day or two without food. She could hear Daryl teasing her, "What? 's getting' too hard now?" She missed her brothers.

Kate had lost hope of surviving. "Least 's better ta die this way than bein' eaten alive by one of 'em geeks…"

The youngest Dixon had traveled from a suburban town all the way to the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. She had located a camp set up by a few people, they were residing there. Struck by hunger, Kate snuck into the RV parked by the camp and took some food from the cabinets. She ran back into the forest and opened up the canned food with her knife, devouring it, moaning in pleasure at the feeling of food in her system.

Kate had dubbed this group the "Atlanta group", not knowing what else to call them. She didn't trust them, so she never joined them, but she'd always occasionally steal some food and supplies to ensure her own survival. These people were capable, they'd fetch their own water, and one of them even had the hunting skill to be able to track down deer and kill it for meat. That one reminded Kate of Daryl, and her heart felt pained for a while. "'m gon' find ya again…both of ya..I promise."