Alright everyone, here is chapter two! I just wanted to thank everyone who followed and faved this story! And those who reviewed thank you for taking the time to tell me what you thought! Hopefully this chapter isn't too boring to you all, I struggled a bit with the introduction to the group because I didn't want it to be too slow or too much of a snooze fest.

I know that this chapter is slower, but I felt it was necessary to have a little bit of Thea settling in at the prison before I jumped into any drama or anything too serious. Enjoy the chapter and please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything other than Thea Ellis and her storyline. All rights to The Walking Dead remain with Robert Kirkman and CO.


Before the world had decided to end Thea had been living a great life; sure there had been some struggles but that was to be expected. Someone once told her that if she wasn't suffering for her dreams then she hadn't chosen the right path and that was something she had taken to heart.

She wasn't exactly from a normal 'all-American' background, especially considering she was born and raised in England. She'd lived there for sixteen years before her parents had decided to relocate the family to the states, West Virginia to be exact, and that had gone over about as well as one could expect a teenaged girl being moved across the ocean could go.

She remembered her parents telling her that this was better, that the new job her father had taken was worth uprooting their lives; she hadn't believed them at the time of course. Once she had gone on to a prestigious medical school and then done her surgical internship at one of the best hospitals on the east coast she could see clearly what her parents meant.

Thea had been visiting her little sister in Georgia when the world had gone to shit. Catherine was always the more adventurous of the two Ellis sisters and after graduating high school ended up following her then boyfriend to the state. He had been accepted to Georgia Tech and Cat hadn't even applied anywhere; she was the carefree one after all.

Kyle Miller and Catherine Ellis married after his first semester of college and six months later little Henry Miller was born, but Thea could tell they were happy and Kyle treated her sister right so that was all that mattered to her. Cathy always was the one to live life to its fullest.


"Hank, slow down, okay?" Cat called out to the wayward toddler as he barreled towards the pond with a bag full of scraps of bread clutched tightly in one tiny hand.

Thea grinned as she watched him merely glance back at his mother in response, his pace remained the same. They were on the Georgia Tech campus waiting for Kyle to get done with a test so they could go out somewhere and celebrate the end of Thea's internship, passing her boards, and the beginning of her residency.

Cat snorted in a very unladylike manner and stuffed her iPhone into her back pocket. "He doesn't listen very well. I think he gets that from his Aunt Thea." She teased and bumped her shoulder against the older woman's.

"Yeah, that's accurate." She replied sarcastically, her eyes turning pointedly towards her sister who was in fact the only Ellis sibling to cause their parents extreme grief and worry; adventurous and wild Cathy Ellis.

The younger of the two laughed lightly and nodded in agreement, fully aware of the truth. Catherine was wise beyond her years, another reason Thea had been so surprised when she found out that college was not something in the blonde girl's sights.

They stopped beside the pond and watched Hank throw chunks of bread crust at the ducks. He reared his arm back and thrust it forward forcefully but the crusts never went further than a few feet in front of him. It made Thea laugh.

"Now that you've finished your internship, you think you'll be popping out some of your own little brats soon?" Catherine wondered, her accent even fainter than any other member of the family since she had spent more of her life in America than England.

It was Thea's turn to snort and she stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jacket and shook her head. "God no. You think I have time for children now? There's no way in hell I would try and rear a child while in the beginning of a surgical residency; I'm not mental."

Cat cut her eyes at her sister and shook her head again. "At this rate you'll be forty before you have children." She muttered. "Hank will be so much older than his cousins!"

Thea was about to respond to that, tell her that if Henry ended up being that much older than her own children then he could just babysit, when a piercing scream erupted from across the grassy hill that students used as a place to hang or study. She whipped her head around to see what was going on and spotted it, a young girl writhing in pain as another student ripped into her shoulder from behind with his teeth. Blood sprayed from the wound as flesh tore from muscle and bone, the girl's screams became horrific as a second girl attached her teeth to a flailing arm.

"Oh god," Cathy gasped, hands lifted to cover her mouth as they watched a young college student be eaten alive.

Thea grabbed her sister's shoulder and shoved her towards the pond, her eyes never left the horrific scene before her. "Quick, grab Hank. We need to go now."


"You getting all settled in?" Tyreese's voice interrupted her memory as he came to stand in the open doorway of the cell that had been deemed hers.

The 'safe place' the group that had recruited her mentioned just happened to be a very large prison. It was kind of perfect in that it was relatively off the grid and surrounded by tall chain-link fences, the outer ring of which had barbed wire across the top. Thea found it comical, to say the least, that civilians would find themselves running into a prison to find safety and survival.

She wondered if any of the inhabitants had been locked up here before the turn.

Turning to face the large man blocking the light from the windows, Thea stood from the bottom bunk with a nod. "Yeah, it's great, thank you." She replied hesitantly, glancing around at the monochromatic color scheme and the metal sink/toilet combination in the corner.

Tyreese seemed to notice the look on her face and chuckled softly.

"It takes some getting used to, I know. Hard to believe this is actually what we call home now." He was quick to comment, clearly trying to make her feel better about not being sure about her new 'room'.

She faced him again and smiled, more than grateful that he didn't think she was being picky about the living situations after being rescued. This was technically the best set up she had been in since before she could remember; she'd been shacking up in vehicles, attics, and gas station bathrooms for a while now as she had gone from place to place. This was definitely an improvement by far.

"I just came to tell you that dinner is ready if you want to join us outside."

And then he was gone, giving her space should she decide that she didn't want to eat with the group after all. But it wasn't like she could say no, they had taken her in graciously and given her a bed of her own and now they were going to feed her. If she said no to that it could possibly result in banishment…right?

She quickly decided that the notion was a bit ridiculous, but she still felt she needed to try and meet some more people at dinner and talk to those she already knew. She had met Carol, an older woman with a kind smile and short, gray hair; Karen a beautiful brunette who was obviously very in love with Tyreese; Glenn and Maggie who were married and absolutely adorable with each other as well as very welcoming to her; and then Herschel, Maggie's father who had welcomed Thea with kind words and apparently lost his leg to a walker bite.

'Walker', that's what this group called the dead ones. She figured that was much better than literally calling them 'the dead ones' or 'the infected', and she may just adopt the term during her time here.

The cell they had given her was up the stairs and all the way in the far corner of Cell Block C so it wasn't that far of a walk out to the courtyard where most everyone had gathered to eat. Earlier Karen had shown her to the bathrooms where they had set up some sort of irrigation system with troughs and hoses. They had actually managed to make working showers and it didn't matter that they only had cold water, Thea had been washing in either streams or when things were bad with just a few drops of water on some cloth. She'd taken a much needed shower and felt a thousand times better, meeting new people wouldn't be so bad now that she was smelling fresh and her hair was no longer a greasy mess matted to her head and neck.

When she had collected a bowl of rice with what looked to be some sort of meat she realized that this was basically like her first day of school in America all over again; everyone was seated and stories were being exchanged, she didn't know where to sit or if she should just go back to her cell to eat. It felt incredibly awkward standing there where Carol was dishing out food with her eyes wandering the area for somewhere to put herself out of the way.

She finally spotted an empty spot on one of the steel bleachers that was set up facing what used to be a basketball court for the inmates. Everyone else had mostly gathered around one end of the metal seating and were chatting while others were sitting at the tables beneath the awning by Carol.

Thea kept her head down and made her way to the spot she'd picked but only got about halfway there when she heard Glenn call her name. She lifted her head to find him waving her over to where he sat with Maggie, Tyreese, Karen, and a man she hadn't met yet. He was holding a baby on his lap and beside him sat a young boy wearing a wide brimmed hat who she had seen earlier when they arrived.

She glanced towards the empty bleachers again and wondered if she could just ignore him and go over there, but ultimately figured that wouldn't be taken well with the group and so she turned to join the others at their table.

Glenn moved to sit beside Tyreese which left her to sit beside Maggie in his now empty seat. She smiled politely, or rather awkwardly, at the group and slid onto the bench.

"This is Thea. Michonne and the others brought her back with them." Glenn spoke up, his eyes on the man with the baby.

The man gave her a polite smile and nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Thea, I'm Rick. These are my children Judith and Carl." He informed her in a tired voice.

He looked like he had been doing something with dirt all day, possibly working in the small garden she had seen when the group had arrived at the prison. He was handsome nonetheless, the grime somehow adding something extra to his appearance rather than taking away.

"Michonne said they found you in the pharmacy?" Rick's asked, which drew all eyes to her for confirmation.

Thea nodded once and glanced down at the bowl in front of her for a second before responding. "Supply run," she explained. "I usually avoid going into town if I can help it."

Glenn jumped in to ask where she had been camping out, his mouth still full of rice and meat as he spoke.

Thea paused for a moment as she thought about whether or not she should tell them. If the prison didn't work out she might want to circle back to her hideout and if they knew about it then it could come back to haunt her. Then again maybe it was just plain paranoia that had her sitting on the edge of her seat, literally.

"Um…I moved around a lot. I was holed up in a deer blind just outside of the town but it didn't really offer much shelter from the elements so I figured it was just about time to move on." She finally admitted, if she needed she would just have to find somewhere else to hunker down.

Hopefully she would be able to stay here for a while, but there was no way of knowing how these people would be. Sure they had children and elderly here, but it had been her experience that this new world changed people and the way they thought.

"Where are you from?" Carl asked suddenly, scrunching up his little nose at her in confusion; he had more than likely registered the remnants of her accent now that she had spoken more. He had good hearing…most people didn't notice it until after she mentioned home.

She looked at him with surprise before responding. "England. Ascot, Berkshire to be exact. We moved to the states when I was sixteen."

Carl seemed content with that answer and went back to stuffing his face with rice while the others made sounds of interest.

"That must have been quite the culture shock," Karen commented from her seat between Carl and Tyreese. She had finished her food and now gave her full attention to the newcomer.

Thea felt her palms grow sweaty at all the attention, she hadn't even had the chance to take a bite of her food yet with all the questions being thrown her way. Part of her wanted to be a little aggravated by that considering how long it had been since she'd had a proper meal, but she knew they would want to get as much information as they could out of her if they were going to let her live here; maybe this was Tyreese's plan all along when he had invited her down for dinner.

She nodded her head in agreement and rubbed her hands together under the table. "Yeah, it was weird. Kind of like being the new kid in school, except it's not just school but also a whole new country. I missed home, hated my parents a little for making me leave…" Trailing off she took a moment to remember her mother's smiling face the day she had set off to Georgia, and her father's tight hug; that was the last time she had seen them. The last time she would probably see them ever again for as long as she lived.

The group seemed to notice the change of mood and fell silent. After a moment Thea finally took a bite of her food. It was lukewarm by now but it still tasted better and filled her up more than anything had in a long while. She didn't care that she wasn't sure what the meat was, maybe deer or some sort of rodent, she only cared that she was going to fall asleep with a full stomach tonight. That feeling was something she had never expected to miss as terribly as she did.


Light filtered through the white sheet Karen had given her to hang in the doorway of her new cell. It woke Thea from a deep sleep, one that had been a long time coming. For a second she jerked into an upright position and whipped her head around to figure out where the hell she was, but then she remembered her run-in with the four survivors at the pharmacy and coming back to the prison and relaxed enough to flop back down onto the thin prison mattress.

She stared up at the bottom of the bunk above her where someone carved tally marks into the metal. Running a finger over a group of five she wondered if it had been an inmate pre-apocalypse or a survivor who had been marking the days.

Whoever it was had stopped marking after only sixty-two days and she wondered what happened to them, death being the most likely outcome.

Sighing softly, Thea rose from the bunk and stretched her arms high above her head. After her back had popped a couple of times she sat and slipped her shoes back on before she pulled the sheet back and stepped out into the open cell block.

She wasn't sure what time it was but Rick was standing down below with Judith on his hip, his free hand messing with something on the table by the wall. She paused for a moment to watch him and the almost normalcy of it all, like seeing a father with his daughter could take away from the fact that the outside world was literal hell.

A young blonde girl appeared from further down the row of cells and took Judith off his hands with a smile and then returned to whichever cell she had been in before and Thea took that as her cue to head for the stairs that lead down to the main floor.

Rick's eyes found her the second she set foot on the staircase and he eyed her for several seconds before turning and picking his watch of the table and slipping it back onto his wrist. "Morning." He said quietly as others were still sleeping.

"Morning." She replied with a small smile, crossing her arms over her chest. "What time is it?"

Carl came from a cell then, his eyes filled with sleep and a frown on his face. "Too early." He commented with a yawn that had his father chuckling.

"It's just after seven. Carl and I are just headed out to take care of the pigs and the garden." Rick informed her, patting the young boy on the shoulder.

Thea nodded her head. Her assumption that the dirt covering the man last night came from the garden had been correct. "Sounds like an important job," she said, eyes flickering to sleepy kid. "I could use some air…do you mind if I walk out with you guys?"

Carl looked to his father to see how he would respond, not seeming surprised when Rick stated he didn't mind at all, and then the three were headed out of the cell block.

When they reached the courtyard Rick spoke up. "What is it you did before all of this?"

She had wondered how long it would be before this question posed itself and when she had returned to her cell last night she had found herself trying to decide if she should tell them she was a surgeon or if she should lie and say she did a job less valuable in this world? Now that the question had been asked she found herself unable to lie.

"I was a doctor. I'd just finished up my internship, passed my boards with flying colors, and was about to start my surgical residency."

Rick seemed impressed, nodding his head. "That's impressive." He commented, though she could tell by his face he had more thoughts on the matter.

"If I had known the world was going to end, I wouldn't have gone through so much schooling." She joked, smiling a little as her eyes surveyed the area.

Carol was cooking up breakfast with a boy about Carl's age who wore thick black glasses, and down at the outer ring of fences there was a crowd of walkers forming. Their hands gripped at the chain links and so many of them had gathered in one spot that the fence swayed with their weight, the barbed wire spirals on top moved back and forth.

"We don't exactly have the luxury of many doctors these days." Rick told her earnestly, clearly seeing value in what she had thought of as a waste of her time.

Thea returned the smile he offered her and nodded, suddenly feeling like maybe now she had the chance of doing something with the life she had worked so hard for. When the world had ended she felt like the years of training and studying had been for nothing, like she had done all of it just to have it ripped away from her.

Now she might be able to get some sort of normalcy back, some form of reality. Of her life. And that was a good feeling.


A/N: That's the end of chapter two! Like I said, I wanted to get the introductions done and get a sense of where Thea stood at the prison. I do apologize if this chapter bored you. The next chapter will have a bit of a time jump as I don't want to spend too much time in the lull this chapter created. Also I know it may be a bit of a cliche to have a character from England and a doctor, but I am basing Thea off of a character I created for RP on Tumblr and I didn't want to change her story.

Thank you for reading and please review to let me know what you think!