Hey guys! I'm so glad you're enjoying the story so far! I'm going to try to upload one chapter everyday. Before you begin to read, I just want to thank everyone who reviewed! You guys rock! I hope you all enjoy the first chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.

This story is rated M for gore and brutal violence along with language. If you"re all about sunshine ad lollipops, do yourself a favor and don't read this! Also be aware that this story is tragic.

Chapter 1

December 13th, 2015. 8:08 pm. Eastern Jump City

Garfield Logan was no stranger to tragedies. His birth parents were very successful scientists who studied zoology in Africa. When he was just four years old, he had witnessed his parents topple off a waterfall to their doom; they were on a simple experimental trip for their newest study. A few years later, his new guardians had attempted to murder him for his father's money. With Garfield out of the way, they'd be next in line to inherit the Logan's riches. Luckily, Garfield had escaped and ran away to Jump City. There, he lived with his mother's best friend, Rita.

Rita had been an excellent mother to little Garfield until she died of breast cancer when he was only sixteen. At that time, Garfield was about halfway through his sophomore year of high school. He was never considered popular. In fact, he had been bullied for years due to his under average height of around 4'11", and his great obsession with animals. However, Garfield was always a happy child. He had learned to accept the darker aspects of life after his parents died and vowed to make the most out of the good ones. Rita often described him as her, "Little Sunshine".

After Rita died, Garfield dropped out of high school and set up a small camp in the midst of the woods of Jump City. Much like his parents, Garfield loved nature. He had no problem living amongst the mosquitos, rabbits, and deer. In fact, he enjoyed it. The teen always thought of nature and animals as an escape from the hellish states of his life. For some reason, being outside in the open with various creatures calmed him. He felt safe with them. Because of this, Garfield knew he would be alright living alone in the woods.

No more than two months had passed when she wandered into Garfield's camp. He remembered his wife's younger self as petite and sickeningly thin. She possessed long, messy golden hair that fell just above her waist and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen. He remembered her appearing very ill and instantly invited her inside his shelter made of logs and leaves for a bite to eat.

Once hours of talking had finally seized, Garfield had learned a lot about the girl sitting cross-legged in front of him. Her name was Tara, and she was fifteen years old. She lived just outside of Jump City with her father, Samuel. Tara enlightened Garfield about her home life; describing in depth of the countless times her father had beaten her. She informed him that Samuel was a drunk. She knew he really did love her, but could not control his actions due to drinking. Because of her father, she often ran away into the woods to relax.

Garfield, in turn, spilled his guts out to the angelic young lady. He told her about his parents. He told her about his first set of adoptive parents. He told her about fleeing Africa in the cargo room of a shipping boat. He told her about Rita. And he told her why he had decided to come here.

From that moment on, the pair agreed to meet everyday to keep each other company. They would go on long walks, weaving through the tall trees and hopping over mossy rocks. They would sit in silence and listen to the soothing songs of the birds around them. They would collapse in piles of leaves and stare at fluffy white clouds; one claiming a cloud looked like an elephant while the other saw a shark. Sometimes, if Samuel was in very poor condition, Tara would sleep at Garfield's camp with him. It wasn't long before the two became best friends.

Garfield and Tara tied the knot when he was only twenty-two and she was only twenty-one. Others may have thought that they were way too young to get married, but both Garfield and Tara knew they were soulmates. Nothing was too soon for them. Just three years after the wedding, the outbreak had started. No one knew what exactly it was. All people knew was that something was causing their loved ones to have a sudden craving for human flesh.

Garfield loved comics when he was younger. He read a lot about zombie apocalypses; when the undead rose from their graves and feasted upon the living. At that time, he thought the dead coming back to life to eat everyone was funny. Now, since it was actually happening, he believed it to be nothing but horrific.

The term "zombies" seemed silly to him and Tara. He remembered himself watching her gaze out the windows of their boarded-up home; observing the dead as they carelessly walked around the surrounding forest. "Wanderers", she had whispered under her breath. "They have no purpose anymore. They have no goals or family or friends or...or anything to strive for. All they do is wander around, looking for their next meal".

It was then that they decided to call the living dead, wanderers.

Tara was expecting their first child. She was very close to her due date, which led to Garfield's idea of camping out in Jump City's hospital. He was sure the hospital was bound to have supplies necessary to deliver a baby. Tara opposed the idea, but gave in feeling as if her husband knew best. The entrance of the hospital was clear upon their arrival, but once they waded deeper into the building, they practically were calling for trouble to locate them

Garfield had left the hospital that day without his wife and unborn son. He remembered feeling as if the memories he and Tara shared at camp were being torn away from his heart. He felt as if someone crushed him under the weight of a bulldozer. He felt an unexplainable amount of sadness and horror. Tara was the one happiness he had in his life. Those damn wanderers had literally ripped that joy away from him. And it was his fault

It was HIS idea to migrate to the hospital. HIS. Not hers, HIS. If he had just listened to Tara, she would still be glued to his side, holding his son in her arms.

These thoughts were overwhelming poor Garfield to a great extent. The pain and guilt caused such a heavy burden that Garfield actually fell unconscious on the concrete just outside the hospital.

He laid there for hours in a pool of thick, rotten wanderer guts. When the moon began to peek over the treetops of the forest, a young man, only a wee bit older than Garfield, had discovered his motionless body.

The man bent down to examine Garfield's pale form. He scanned his body for any injuries, and more importantly, bite marks. Once a living person is bitten, they naturally turn into one of the bloodthirsty monsters who were tearing the world apart. When the man had come to the conclusion that Garfield was clean, he hauled his body over his shoulder, and carried him away from the horrors that took place just hours earlier at the hospital.

Garfield awoke in a cold sweat, staring at a yellowish ceiling covered in star-shaped stickers. His head was pounding and his body ached all over. For one split second, he had forgotten what happened. Of course, that second did not last long enough.

It all came back to him. The running, the wanderers, Tara, his son...all of it. Garfield let out a hair-raising scream and smashed his fist into the wall behind him.

Instantaneously, the man who had rescued him bounded into the room. He had obsidian black hair spiked up all over his head, and wore a pair of dark shades to conceal whatever color eyes he was hiding. The man was dressed in tattered jeans and a black T-shirt. He pointed a steak knife at Garfield, ready to defend himself if the stranger before him made a sudden move.

Garfield studied him carefully before speaking. "Who are you?", he grumbled rudely.

The man sighed and lowered his weapon."My name is Dick Grayson. I found you passed out in back of Jump City's hospital. If I were to leave you there, you'd be the main course of one of those thing's dinner. If I were you, I loose the attitude and thank me for saving your scrawny ass."

Garfield glared at the man for many long moments. "I'm Garfield. Thanks for helping me out."

Dick nodded his head and crouched down to meet Garfield at eye level. "Look, you seem like an okay guy. My friends and I set up camp here at the pre-school. We've been here for a few months and the place has held up just fine. If you're willing to pull your own weight, I'm sure we could grant you the blessing of crashing here for awhile", the dark haired man stated.

Garfield swallowed his own saliva with quite some difficulty. It was then that he realized he hadn't drunken anything for the past day. He knew he couldn't make it on his own, so he gratefully accepted Dick's offer

Over the next few days, Garfield became friendly with Dick and his two other mates. One of them was a very large, muscular black man named Victor Stone. The other, a tall, gorgeous redheaded woman by the name of Kori. He soon discovered that Dick and Kori had something going on, so he quickly decided to stick around Vic instead of the two lovebirds.

Garfield assisted the group by gardening and hunting. He could be considered an expert because of how much experience he's had in nature throughout his life. Because of the years of camping out in the woods, Garfield knew just where to plant crops, just the right amount of water to give them, and just when the time was right to harvest them. Since he possessed broad knowledge on hunting and animals, he made an excellent tracker. Usually, the light haired man brought home a minimum of two rabbits a night. Sometimes, he was lucky enough to snag a deer.

Dick, Victor, and Kori were very thankful for Garfield's skills. Dick was the combat and weapons expert, Victor was the mechanical expert, and Kori was the defense expert. With Garfield around, the three of them could focus more on their tasks instead of constantly breaking to hunt down food

As for Garfield, he was very comfortable with the group he had settled in. Victor became his best friend, Dick became his "leader", and Kori was his inspiration. All and all, he felt safe. That was something he never thought he'd be able to say again.

Alright loveys chapter 2 up tomorrow! Leave a review if you enjoyed this chapter and let me know if you want to see something specific happen throughout the story!

-bloodyshadowxx