Disclaimer – I do not own the walking dead unfortunately. Only Allison.

Note – this story is going to be very different from the TV series. The whole purpose of fanfiction is to take the characters in new unexplored routes. Characters that died will survive and some that are still in the TV show may not make it as long on here. I haven't decided yet. I hope you enjoy.


Rick POV

"Can you see me?" I asked the anonymous voice on the radio

"Yeah, and you should see this mate, they're having a major freak out" sounding excited by what was happening in the street, but suddenly his tone changed, "Oh my God! How is she still alive?" He must have spotted Allison.

"Is Allison ok?" I asked worriedly, I knew to a new observer that how the walkers reacted to my baby sister would scare and confuse a lot of people and I'd only just woken up to this new world. Morgan whispered in my ear before saying goodbye that she was the most important person in the world, but that was nothing new to me, however, it would be a big deal for everyone else. Before my new friend could reply I head yelling.

"Rick! Rick! Where are you?" I could hear the fear in my sister's voice


Allison POV

It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer and made me in to a piñata. Being able to move I guess I am just bruised. I looked to my left and saw what was left of our horses already feeling sorry for the beautiful animals whose lives had ended due to mine and my brother's stupidity of coming into the city. Thinking of my brother I couldn't see him anywhere and then I started to freak out.

"Rick! Rick! Where are you?" I yelled, but it wasn't my brother that answered.

"Hey. Up here!" I heard someone shout, looking around to the tops of the buildings that surrounded the narrow street I finally spotted the source of the voice. A young Asian man was sat on the rooftop of a building looking at me with wide unbelieving eyes.

"Hi, how are you doing today?" I asked in a cheery voice, I must have banged may head harder than I thought, I sound like I'm talking to a neighbour out in the garden, I thought I might as well run with it. "Happen to see a bloke who looks like he's come out of a bad western around here?"

"Erm... Yeah sure, he's in the tank…. How are you still alive?" I would have laughed at how the guy sounded but I had bigger things to worry about, sure the dead don't bother me but that's not the case for my brother, I couldn't lose him after getting him this far.

"I would love to talk about this more but we don't have the time." I said gesturing to the zombies that had noticed the talking human on the rooftop.

"Ok sure" The mystery man said still talking as if he was dreaming, "Alley way two buildings that way." He continued pointing to the right, away from the majority of the zombies who were still making a meal of the poor horses. He talked into his radio and the tank lid slowly crept open revealing my brother. I sighed in relief at seeing him, however, I soon noticed that too many zombies had perked up at the sight of fresh meat. Running to a nearby car I honked the horn drawing them towards the sound and away from Rick, I then ran back to my brother to help with the ones that didn't fall for my trick. Together we took down six or seven zombies before coming to the alley the man had indicated.

"Not dead! Not dead!" The young man yelled indicating for us to follow him before heading to a ladder in the alley. I let both the men go first seeing as how my immunity/invisibility put me at the least risk so far. We climbed up to the fire escape platform and I could see the questions running through his mind. "Immune, don't know how, they don't notice me, I don't know why so can't explain. I'm Allison this one's baby sister let's get out of here. Ok?" I don't think he could talk much so tried to answer as many questions as he could think of.

After a brief pause all I got was "Glenn" with the biggest smile anyone has probably given. Thankful to finally have a name instead of referring to him as Asian or young man, which in itself was weird looking at him now I could tell he was at least three years older than me.

Just before I was about to head up to the roof of the building I remembered that our supplies were left in the street, it wasn't much but everything counted nowadays, we had left the majority of weapons hidden in the ambulance, unsure what awaited in the city. I had packed what I thought was essential to get us through a couple of nights all that remained in the bag was a couple of guns; a few hunting knifes; the CB radio; a small first aid kit; four bottles of water; a few cans of food and a fresh change of clothes for each of us.

"Rick I need to get our bag" I reminded my brother.

"My group are held up in Bloomingdales but due to the noise you guys made the front is surrounded" Glenn advised us.

"Get the bag go around the front see if there is any way you can draw them off." My brother told me. It was nice knowing he trusted me and my abilities to get this done. "Glenn, can I have your radio for a minute?" Glenn passed his radio to Rick, I watched as my brother checked the frequency and flipped it onto the one we generally used. One of the highlights when I was home from school from vacations was being able to talk to Rick when he was at work on the radio he allowed me to keep, we always kept a channel we could talk on and even taught me Morse Code that I could use if the distance didn't allow a strong enough signal for words to get through. "Keep in touch" He looked at me like he was scolding me, I hate that look.

I gave Rick a hug, "see you soon big brother" smiled at Glenn and climbed back down the ladder towards the ravenous mob of undead my brother smiling at me the whole time and Glenn looking gobsmacked as the dead didn't react at all. I calmly walked back out the alley and past the walkers to grab the stuff. I made sure to take out the CB radio and headed to the front of my favourite store. Glenn was right it was surrounded, and the way this group were riled up I didn't see any chance of me being able to draw them away. I was just about to start making noises to see if they would react when suddenly bullets started firing from the roof.


Rick POV

Glenn led me across the buildings towards the back door of a building where two people ran out in riot gear to cover our entrance. Entering through the door I was immediately set upon by a blonde lady, "we're dead because of you" she sneered pointed a gun at me, My concern disappeared when I noticed she'd left the safety on, it was a miracle she was still alive in this crazy world. I noticed I was in a storage room, there was the blonde pointing the gun at me; A fragile looking black woman who looked to be in her forties; an Hispanic man who appeared to be around my age whom was one of the men in riot gear; the final man was a tough looking black man with a scowl on his face obviously not pleased at the new arrival.

"Whoa! Whoa! Andrea. You don't understand!" Glenn said directing everyone's attention towards him, probably about to tell them about Allison. Before he could explain further we heard the unmistakable sound of bullets, I worried for a second that Allison was in danger but it soon became clear that they had someone else who was firing from the roof, into the crowd of walkers at the front of the store. My first thought was for my sister, she's immune from walkers not from bullets. I felt sick of the thought of her being in danger, her weird immunity making me forget the other perils she would be facing in this world, and I just sent her off with a smile and a hug.

"Is that Dixon?" Andrea uttered in disbelief. The group leaving the storage room we were in to investigate. As we entered the store I saw the mass of walkers trying to get into the building but couldn't see Allison so I hoped she was elsewhere. I grabbed my radio and held it to create the signal we always used I heard two clicks back and sighed with relief, that was the 'I'm ok' clicks. I did the same in return quickly and headed up the roof.

On the roof stood what could only be described as a crazy redneck. He looked to be in his late forties, he had on a leather vest top exposing his tattoos, some were personal however I noticed the service badge indicating he'd been in the military at some point, but right now he looked to be high on something that was causing him to think that he could take out the hundred strong hoard of walkers with just a tiny pistol.

"Merle, what the hell are you doing." The man Hispanic man yelled. Merle started yelling racist insults at the men and a fight quickly broke out.

"See. I think the man with the gun should be in charge. Don't ya agree" Merle sneered holding his gun to the black man's head.

Suddenly my training kicks in, I hit Merle with the butt of the rifle I had in my hands and punched him in the face before handcuffing him to a pipe. "Things are different now, there's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart." I held a gun to Merle's head, "I'm just looking for my wife and son with my kid sister." Some of the others in the groups' heads snap up at that, not knowing about Allison yet. I pat Merle down and find his stash of drugs quickly throwing them off the roof. "Now I've done you a favor, just calm down and we can all get out of here." It felt nice to take charge of a situation again, from the time I'd woken it was my baby sister leading me around like I was a lost little puppy but with these people I could regain something I thought I'd left behind, leadership.

"What sister?" Andrea asked

Before I could answer I heard my sister on the radio, "BB, I can't do anything out here, I'm sorry, you've got to think of another way out. Over." My sister sounded out of breathe and worried.

"It's ok AC, I'll get back to you in a minute, you safe for now? Over" 'AC' stood for Ally-Cat whereas 'BB' stood for big brother, those were our handles for each other over the CB to avoid any cross chat and keep as private as possible.

"I'm in the tank BB, wanted to check if there was anything cool inside. Over" I rolled my eyes, sometimes I forget with how smart she is how much of a kid she still could be.

"Wait till you meet her, she's amazing" Glenn told the group. I guessed he wanted Allison to be a surprise and from the looks on their faces they assumed that Glenn was smitten not the actual reason he was so excited about her and that we had become separated somehow.

"Right we need another way out of here" I addressed the group. "How about underground?" I start suggesting ideas hoping someone in the group has something.

The black woman puts up her hand to gain my attention, I nod to her, "I used to work in the city zoning office, an old building like this will have basement access to the sewers." She replied confidently, "Jackie" she continued when I smiled and nodded at her.

"Thank you Jackie, let's go take a look." I lead the group this time back down from the roof, Merle yelling at us for leaving him alone. Just as we walked down the stairs I heard a loud rumble followed by an explosion.

"Oops" I head come through the radio


Allison POV

Taking cover from the bullets I headed back onto what I decided to call 'Horse Street' in honor of our fallen friends; really starting to feel a bit dizzy from the fall, think I might be concussed. Trust me to start acting loopy with a head injury. Rick got to have all the fun today, he's in my favorite store, probably has no idea he's in one of the best stores in Atlanta for women's fashion oh and he got to go in a tank! I mean seriously, who does that. I see the tank roof still open and think 'what the hell might as well see if there are any goodies inside.' Before I climb up I hear the static clicks that indicate Rick is trying to establish contact. I send the two clicks back to let him know I'm ok and continue my ascent of the massive tank.

As I climb inside I'm immediately hit with the smell of rotten flesh and notice the dead zombie in the corner. He still has a couple of weapons on his belt, a nice knife which I take along with a grenade clipped to his belt which I add to my bag of supplies, that might come in handy at some point. I'm just about to continue my search of some of storage facilities aboard when I remember I should probably let Rick know I'd failed in my primary mission, seeing the dead military man got me thinking like one "BB, I can't do anything out here, I'm sorry, you've got to think of another way out. Over." I made sure to use our codenames but I couldn't keep the worry out of my voice.

"It's ok AC, I'll get back to you in a minute, you safe for now? My brother replied obviously concerned about me, I suppose the bullets from the roof might have freaked him out a bit.

"I'm in the tank BB, wanted to check if there was anything cool inside. Over" I replied, I realized I must have sounded ok and excited as I never got another reply. I assumed he was busy and continued my search. I found quite a lot of interesting things, the instruction manual for the tank was in here, that was an interesting find, I assumed the military would have to keep that sort of thing away from the tank in case someone climbed into use it, oh well, lucky me. I found a stash of weapons and added everything I knew we had the ammunition for into my bag which was becoming very packed quickly. I decided to remove some things to make room. I took out my change of clothes to change into along with the small first aid kit that would fit in my pocket. I took out some of the smaller guns and ankle straps to place them on, along with my belt that I could attach some knifes to. After getting dressed and equipped knowing I probably looked a lot like Lara Croft right now rather than Allison Grimes PhD graduate I couldn't help but smile.

I started to wonder if the tank still worked, Due to all the studying I had done at a young age I was a very fast reader. I read through the main section of operating the tank and attempted to turn it on. I noticed the fuel gage stayed almost at zero and figured it would only be good for a few meters at best. I started playing around with some of the gears and the tank started moving down the street back towards the store. It was very noisy and I noticed out the small window that many of the zombies started to come towards the tank. Unfortunately I was leading more of them to the store, not getting them away. Before I could change direction and draw them away a warning light came on and the tank ground to a halt. Out of fuel. I banged my hands on the console and the tank fired. I closed my eyes hoping I hadn't hit the store or made it more difficult for my brother. I looked out the window of the tank and noticed that I'd hit the bank four stores away from Bloomingdales. "Oops" I said into the radio, knowing there was no way Rick didn't hear that.

"AC. What do you mean Oops? Over" Rick responded quite calmly but scolding, I wasn't shocked, he often used that tone of voice when he knew I'd done something bad, like the time when Shane had talked his cousin; Jack, into taking me to his high school prom and I didn't come home until 10am, two days later. Rick thought his sixteen year old sister, who already had one degree I might add, had done the stereotypical hook up at prom thing and then eloped, he found a receipt for the hotel I had gone to in my purse when he searched it like I was a criminal. The reality was I had left early to go to a symposium on the Ebola virus, problem was it was in Las Vegas. Even more amusing was he was more mad that I hadn't acted like a typical sixteen year old would and I was in more trouble than I would have been had I gone off somewhere with Jack. My brother hated that I had grown up too quickly. In my defense it was a good thing I didn't go anywhere with Jack, he was just like his cousin and had a bet going and webcam already set up at the house he planned to take me back to. Like I didn't already hack his emails and find out about that; luckily Rick didn't find out about the hacking thing, he doesn't know I know how to do that. That would warrant an even more I'm the grown up tone than he's using right now.

"I may have accidentally, blown up …. A bank" I whispered the last two words hoping he would just get passed it and move on. No such luck.

"AC. Repeat last. It sounded like you said you blow up a bank. Over" he sounded incredulous. Wishing my brother didn't have super hearing right about now.

"It was an accident. Yes a bank. Less zombies outside your store now. Over" I replied in my defense. It was silent for quite a few minutes, I started to get worried but then remembered; I'm in a tank. I'm in charge. Realizing my thoughts were taking a very unsisterly like turn I decided to get back to my packing and organizing of supplies from the tank. I came across something that made me cry. It was a picture of the dead army man on the floor and a little girl no older than three, on the back it said 'Ella and her daddy' it made me pause, it was so easy in this new world to forget that the zombies are us. It made me think of all the other families that were out there possibly losing their lives right now and here I am able to walk around amongst the zombies with nothing happening to me. I needed answers, I need to get to Doctor Jenner, who I hope is still at the CDC and find a way to help people like the man lying dead a few feet from me.

Before my thoughts could drift anymore away from me Rick finally came back on the radio. "AC. Head to the construction site four blocks west of the store. Over." The urgency in his voice made me act quickly. Grabbing the bag of supplies I climbed out the tank, the zombies around only reacting to the sounds I was making as I climbed. Due to the street being full of walkers I took a different route to the construction site going around the back of the building and then running to get to the fence.

I started to worry about what I needed to do now, I didn't want to contact Rick on the radio in case he was in a radio silence needed situation. Just as I was about to give into temptation to contact Rick I saw two zombies running. Thinking my concussion must have started to produce hallucinations I blinked and tried to focus on the running zombies finally realizing they weren't zombies but my brother and Glenn disguised with intestines and other body parts hanging from their clothes. I quickly climbed over the fencing of the construction site waiting for them to do the same. "I would hug you but you look and smell disgusting" I told my brother when they climbed the fence. The zombies that had followed them started to claw at the fence to get to them, I knew it wouldn't be long until enough of them got the fence down.

"We are going to take a van each" Rick instructed gesturing to the vans that were parked in the construction lot. "Glenn is going to get a car to drive and draw them away from the store whilst I get the others of his group out though the service exit. I need you to go in after us and load up as much supplies as you can from the store. I know you can take your time, Glenn here tells me they're camped at the quarry just outside the city, the one we used to go on camping trips with mum and dad, do you remember?" Rick had his thoughts clearly organized giving out directions like a military general but still with a hint of trepidation due to the situation. I nodded and Rick continued. "They've got a large group, women and children, maybe someone has seen our family."

I smiled at my brother and went to the construction office returning with several sets of keys. After getting the correct keys for both vans we knew it was time to go, the dead were getting more persistent in their attempts to get the fence down. I handed Rick the bag with all the supplies in it as he would need it more than me. "Stay on the radio. Don't travel at night. Avoid other people." My brother gave his final instruction and left the lot, knocking down the gate on his way out. I waited inside the van for about twenty minutes not wanting to draw the dead back in with my van before Rick could get the others out. I heard out signal come over the CB on the seat next to me and started driving towards the store. I parked the van in the storage entrance which was still opened from when Rick must have left, I was just about to start my pillage of the store when my brother's voice came back through the radio. "AC come in over." He sounded worried

"Hear you BB. Is something wrong? Over." I replied instantly

"There is a man in handcuffs on the roof. I put him there for the safety of the group but he wasn't meant to be left behind. Over" That didn't sound like my brother, to leave someone in this hellhole, well he left me here but I'm immune so there's a big difference.

"I'll get him. Over" I replied knowing that I couldn't leave someone here, especially on the roof. It was approaching the height of summer now and although it was passed mid-day temperatures could still get uncomfortable.

"Be …, he's been on some …. Name … Merle. Over" my brother instructed. I noticed on his transmission that some of the words were fading out obviously moving away from the city the radios were losing their signal.

"See you soon. BB. Over" I replied sadly hoping that would be the case. My brother didn't reply so I hoped everything was ok. I decided to check out the situation with Merle first, didn't want him to leave the roof whilst I was here. Heading into the store I saw a few zombies but nothing to be too concerned about, most of them must have reacted to the car that even I heard with its alarm blaring. I headed to what I assumed were the stairs for the roof access. These stairs were not free of the dead, in fact there were dozens all trying to get up the stairs spurred on by the lead zombie banging against a door that must be shut at the top. The zombies were so tightly packed that I wouldn't be able to get past them. I needed a distraction.

I headed outside into the street over all the smashed glass of the entrance to see if there was any other access points to the roof, possibly via a fire escape. I soon noticed that there was a fire exit that went half way up the building and decided to try that. The steps brought be into the office section of the store for the administrative staff. There were a couple of zombies here probably those who came into work not knowing the bites they had gotten from either friends or family would turn them into raging zombies, poor people. I saw another access point for the roof through the employee kitchen possibly to allow employees to go outside for a smoke without having to go through the store. What I found made me sick. The man Merle, obviously a redneck, should have guessed from the name, was starting to hack at his hand with a saw. I screamed.

"Ooh angel come to sen' ol' Merle on his way" the redneck responded drunkenly.

"Don't be stupid. I'm real. Now stop slicing your hand." Merle still looked at me like I was crazy as I quickly knelt beside him to check the damage. "You're lucky, you haven't gotten far yet." I talked to myself as Merle was now slumped over unconscious. I removed the medical kit from my pocket and started to tidy him up a bit. "You know, if you wanted out of the cuff all you need to chop off was a finger, not your whole hand" I don't know why I was saying it out loud, probably just to distract myself from the situation. I was ok with blood and other injuries having worked in hospitals as an intern for experience and to try out different fields to see what my specialism would be after gaining my first medical degree. Lucky for Merle one of my rotations was in an Emergency Room doing stitches on injuries just like this one, though I struggled to recall any of the people I helped deliberately trying to slice off their own hand to get out of handcuffs. I do remember someone who had more of their faculties chopping off their little finger.

After making sure Merle was stitched up I looked at ways I could get him out the cuffs. Obviously the blade was too dull to cut through the metal, he would have tried that already, he didn't take me as the type to not try the option that would allow him to keep his hand. Deciding that Merle was going to be out for a bit I checked the door noticing the zombies trying to get through it. I used a metal crowbar from the ground to stab the first one and pushed him back allowing the door to fully close. I kept quiet and the dead stopped, seeming to forget someone was on the roof. As I was thinking about what to do I heard screaming in the distance and the unmistakable sound of footsteps on the stairs. Looking over the edge of the building the dead started filing out, drawn to the unknown victim who just sounded the dinner call. Happy that Merle was going to be out of it for a while I made sure to move all sharp objects out of his reach so he wouldn't wake up and try again whilst I was gone and go back on with the initial task assigned by my brother.

The van was loaded, I'd got enough supplies in it to clothe an army. I had even cleared out all the non-perishable foods from the staff cafeteria and restaurant. I had ventured next door to a camping store emptying it of as much equipment as I could fit in the truck, including; a few tents; a gazebo; sleeping bags and outdoor cooking equipment. I felt really proud of myself. As I was going to and from the store and van I noticed that almost all the zombies had left spare a few stragglers which I put down myself. I grabbed some water, food, the gazebo and a couple of sleeping bags and headed back to the roof, there was no way to get Merle off the roof without some bolt cutters and on my own I didn't want to venture more than a block in case I ran into other survivors who weren't as nice as Glenn was.

"Ya 'r' real" Merle exclaimed as I joined him back on the roof.

"Nice to meet you too Merle, I'm Allison Grimes." I responded in my most calm and gentle voice remembering all the lessons I had learnt at hospitals dealing with patients coming down from drug highs.

"Grimes. Not related to officer friendly 'r' ya angel" I grimaced at my new nickname "'Cos I don't like officer friendly very much right now" he said gesturing to the handcuffs still attached.

"Sister." Merle scowled struggling even more with the cuff "Now don't you scowl at me Mr. If it wasn't for me you would be trying to survive the zombie apocalypse with five digits instead of the lovely ten you're currently waving at me." I berated him "and don't start pulling too hard, I'm proud of those stiches" Merle looked down finally noticing where I'd patched him up.

"'hank ya. Now hows about you get me out of these so we can go survive this 'zombie 'pocalypse' together" Merle growled suggestively.

"Thanks for the offer Merle, but I think you're too old for me" I replied with a smirk. Merle rolled his eyes not seeming too affected. As he did I saw something familiar in him but I couldn't put my finger on it. Putting it down to lack of sleep I decided to get prepared to settle in for the night.

"Ya don't know what ya missin' angel. Ol' Merle's got a lot of things he could teach a pretty little thin' like' ya" I rolled my eyes and continued on with assembling the gazebo. The gazebo would provide cover from the elements as I couldn't get Merle into a tent due to being cuffed to the pipe. I passed Merle his own sleeping bag silently and rolled mine out a good distance from Merle so he couldn't reach me.

"I don't have anything to get you out of those cuffs, I'm going to contact my brother so he can come and get us." I then tried to contact my brother. After trying for a good thirty minutes I finally resorted to Morse code and received our coded reply. I typed out the one thing that would get us off this roof - 'bolt cutters'.


Hope you enjoyed next chapter will be all Rick POV from when he leaves Atlanta to returning for Allison. Any suggestions on what you would like in there and I may try and incorporate some of the ideas. I have it mostly planned out but always changing things round. Hoping to update within a week. Review, like or follow please.