Apocalyptic Annie

Chapter 1

Daylight Part 1

Day 1

Today is going to be an absolutely shitty day, I can feel it in my bones!

I was rushing up the stairs, trying to juggle my coffee, car keys, bag, laptop case and my overdue assignment. I turned the corner and burst through the door, hoping I looked presentable enough to face my stupid boss. I walked as casually as I could past my co-workers, ignoring their stupid grins as I gently dumped everything on my desk and walked towards my boss's office. I pushed open the door and put on the fakest smile I could muster.

"Morning Charlie," I beamed while thinking very bad thoughts.

"Annie, just the person I wanted to see," Charlie replied. She was a very tall woman with a very bad perm and a sour expression. She didn't even look at me, "You're late. Again."

I peeked at my watch, "Only by two minutes. And in any case, I was just finishing up my assignment and running some errands for you," I stepped forward, "Here's your coffee, by the way."

I put the coffee on her desk and she glared at the cup as if it was her worst enemy. She looked up at me, "You look like shit."

I stared down at my sneakers, "Sorry, I'm working on three hours of sleep here."

"That's your problem," she waved me off. "Work on your assignment on your own time, Annie. Your studies are your problem. And by the way, the project I asked you to work on for me for my presentation tomorrow is absolute shit. I asked for a presentation on why manufacturing beauty products on synthetic skin is the best solution for testing, and I get a hippy-rant on its better than testing it on animals."

"But it's the truth––"

"It's garbage," she snapped. She turned her chair away from me, "Now do your job and go pick up my dry-cleaning down town for my meeting tonight."

"You mean you cheating on your husband," I mumbled under my breath while I turned on my heel and shuffled out of her office, closing the door behind me.

She is such a cow!

I went to my desk and gathered my things and started for the stairs, just my friend reached my arm, "Hey, what did Charlie say?"

"Oh, you know, your presentation was shit, you look like shit, you are shit," I shrugged. "The normal stuff. But it doesn't matter, Tasha, I'm leaving soon!" I turned to my dark-haired friend, "I finally had enough money to pay for medical school. It took six years, but I finally did it!"

"So you're leaving?" Tasha grinned, "Finally getting out of this thing?"

"Yup, and the best part is that I got a new job close to home as well that doesn't give me as much drama and that Charlie woman," we finally reached the ground floor and walked towards the car. "And then, I'll get out of here!"

"That's wonderful Annie! Is it that job with Carly?" Tasha grinned, and gave me a big smile.

"Yeah. So if medical school doesn't work out, I can be a reporter," I unlocked the car door, "I've been kissing Charlie's ass for so long that I think if I don't get this thing, I might just jump off the roof."

Tasha giggled, "Charlie will need you nonetheless. She'll find some way to bring you back––"

A loud scream echoed around the underground parking and made all my hair stand on ends. I locked the car again out of instinct and we started walking back to the building. I worked in quite a dangerous area that was filled with drug dealers and gangs, and robberies happened often because the bank was two blocks down. So when I heard a scream, my first instinct was to lock the car and drag Tasha back to the building. As we crossed to get to the door, I saw two people almost run us over as they went up the stairwell. The screaming still rang out, but it sounded gurgled and wet.

"What's happening?" Tasha asked, grabbing on my hand tightly.

"It doesn't matter, just keep on walking––"

"Annie, look!" Tasha pulled me to a stop just before we reached the door. There, by the entrance of the parking lot, a woman was lying on the floor and someone was on top of her. There were three people behind them, moving at a slow pace and moaning, and groaning.

They seemed to turn to the sound of Tasha's exclamation. I put my hand on her back and pushed her towards the stairs, "Go, go, go!"

We took the stairs two at a time, but we heard the moaning follow us. We reached our floor and stumbled to a stop. There was blood all over, smeared over the windows and the walls, and in puddles on the floor. Tasha stopped to examine it, but I grabbed her hand and dragged her to our offices. I noticed the doors were closed and pulled the door, but it didn't open.

"What the hell?" I let go of Tasha and pulled on the door harder, but it just rattled on its hinges, "Why won't it open?! Why is it locked?!"

Tasha peeked in the window and jumped back when Charlie's face appeared in the door's window. She grinned, "Charlie, open for us."

Charlie shook her head and I heard another lock, latch into place. The moaning and gurgling grew louder behind us. I pulled on the door, "Open for us, Charlie!" she shook her head, and it was then that I noticed that there was blood on the side of her face. I pulled the door again, "Open for us!"

"Go away," Charlie said, "You'd be more useful to us dead."

Tasha's teary blue eyes looked at me, "What does she mean?"

I pulled the doors again, rattled them on its hinges, "Open for us, you bitch!"

The groaning grew louder and as I turned, a man stumbled from the stairwell on top of Tasha. Tasha screamed and fell to the ground. The man kept opening and closing his mouth, while Tasha fought him off. He had a bad smell, like rotten meat.

I searched the corridor and found the fire extinguisher and grabbed it from its case and set it up, I pulled the trigger and sprayed the guy with foam, pushing him off of Tasha. He stood up against the wall and started coming after me. When the fire extinguisher was done, I threw the canister at him, causing him to fall down the stairs. I dusted the foam off of Tasha and helped her to her feet and grabbed her hand, I dragged her upstairs onto the next floor, and up another flight of stairs just to put some distance between us and that man, and pushed her into the bathroom.

Tasha started to scream but I covered her mouth with my hands and followed her gaze. Lying on the floor, covered in blood was one of our co-workers. She had deep wounds on her neck and on her side, but her eyes were wide open and staring at the bright white light of the Woman's bathroom. I could tell she wasn't breathing because her chest wasn't moving at all. Tasha started crying and I had to force myself to look away. I heard the groans behind us and I allowed the door to close silently behind us. I moved Tasha out of the way, forced her to move around the body and pushed her into the stall at the end of the line. It was the only one with a big window, and it was the handicap bathroom. I closed the door behind us and locked it.

The handicap bathroom was big, with its own sink and bars around the toilet and own cabinet. We were lucky our bathroom was the kind where there were no spaces between the stalls, of above the doors, it was its own safe and secure space. No one would be able to tell if we were in here. Tasha sat on the toilet and started sobbing. I leaned against the door and fell down to the floor, shocked to my core. How could Charlie not let us in when someone was trying to kill us?!

"When the police get here," I said to Tasha, "I'm killing Charlie."

"What's happening, Annie? Why was Amy dead? Why did that man try to bite me?!"

I sat up, "That man tried to bite you?"

"Yeah, why would anyone do that?"

I was about to answer when I heard a loud scream, and then several more from inside the building. I stood up and walked to the window and forced it open. The smell of smoke filled my nose, along with something foul. The window wouldn't go far enough so I could see what was happening below, but I could hear the screaming, the sounds of gunshots and police sirens and chaos.

I moved from the window and crouched in front of Tasha, "Hey, hey, it's okay. Everything's just a little crazy now."

"Ahh…"

I stopped. That sound didn't come from me, or from Tasha. Tasha realized this as well and stared at me, the colour drained from her face. I stood up and walked to the door, I unlocked it as quietly as I could and pushed to open by just a crack. The mumbled sounds carried on, slow at first, and wet sounding. Suddenly Amy's arm lifted up violently, then a leg and then a very dead Amy was walking around. I heard screaming and someone ran into the bathroom, someone I didn't know but I could tell that they worked in the office somewhere. She screamed when she saw Amy and Amy limped and stumbled to her and took her down to the floor. My mouth fell open as I watched a very dead Amy lock her jaw on the other woman's throat.

I gagged when I saw her tear the flesh, and the smell of blood filled the air. The woman couldn't scream anymore, but Amy didn't notice as she tore more flesh from the other woman's body, spilling blood everywhere. I backed back into the stall and quietly locked the door. I tip-toed to Tasha and put my finger to my lips and shook head, unable to understand what I had just witnessed. Amy – a dead Amy – had come back to life and eaten someone else.

It was like a bad horror movie, except it wasn't a horror movie…it was reality. And suddenly all the screaming, the smoke, the gunshots made perfect sense and I started questioning my own sanity. I sank down to the floor and cradled my head in my hands, thinking back to how Amy tore that poor woman's flesh right off her bones, the gurgled sound of blood filling her mouth. Even now, I could hear the very soft but distinct sound of someone chewing, chewing and chewing until another groan began, and like a chorus, they mumbling and groaning grew louder and softer and then the sound of wet flesh on wet tile drifted up and we were left alone…

I wiped the tears from my eyes, and stood up slowly. I went back to the door and unlocked it quietly and pushed it open, and we were left alone. I tip-toed out of the bathroom, ignoring Tasha's whispered cries. I tip-toed to the main door and opened one of the other bathroom door stalls to use as a shield. I looked at the mirror across the main door and looked into the corridor. There were a bunch of those creatures standing in the corridor, and blood was all over the floor, and so were bodies. Including one of those things that was keeping the door wide open.

I stood on my tip-toes to get a better look at the thing, and noticed the side of its skull was missing. I looked back at the mirror and heard gunshots, I jumped out of my skin and heard the creatures make louder groans and start shuffling towards where the sound was coming from. I turned to look behind me, and saw Tasha standing in the doorway of our stall, hand over her mouth to keep from crying. I motioned for her to calm down and crouched down on my hands and knees, keeping my eyes on the mirror. I crawled around the blood pool and my shield towards the main door. I crawled towards the slumped body and examined the bite marks on his arms. My whole body shook when I recognised our building's security uniform. I crawled towards the body, my eyes now focussed on the creatures that were lurking to go downstairs. I crawled closer to the body and moved so my feet went first. I tapped him with my foot but he didn't move.

What's that?

I crawled closer to the unmoving body and saw a flashlight sticking out of his pants pocket, as well as a cup by his foot and a Taser hanging from his jacket pocket. I looked up, and saw the creatures didn't notice my existence. I moved onto my hands and knees again and reached for the cup by his foot and for the Taser and the flashlight, I was moving back into the bathroom when I noticed that there was a latch lock on the bathroom door that could only be unlocked from the outside.

I could lock it, then we would be safe…but what if we need to get out? I looked at the corpse and gave him a little kick so he slumped forward. I kicked him away from the door and the spring made the door shut – right onto my leg.

I slammed a fist onto the tiled floor and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out. Tears welled up in my eyes and I pushed the door open to get my leg free. I stood up and peeked through the little window, the corridor was completely empty, but with the creak of the spring I didn't know who heard it. I turned and tried to put weight down on my foot, but pain rocketed through me. I cursed and limped back to Tasha, pushing her back into the bathroom and closing the door behind me and locking it.

I slumped down onto the floor and Tasha crouched beside me, "Are you okay? Oh god, what does it look like outside?"

"Not as pretty as you think," I rolled up my jeans, the bruises were already coming through, "Shit. That hurt a lot."

"How long do we have to stay here?" Tasha asked.

"I'm not sure. It looks like hell outside," I leaned against the wall, "I think it'll be safer to stay for a little while."

"What are we going to do for food and water?"

I lifted up the cup, "We've got our own private sink. And I've got food in my bag. One perk to being at Charlie's call. I eat a lot on the road. When that runs out, I'm not sure what we're going to do."

"What do we do now?" Tasha sat beside me, staring at the door.

"Wait for help. And if it doesn't come, we'll figure something out," I closed my eyes. The lack of sleep was finally catching up with me, but I was too frightened to sleep. I opened my eyes and saw Tasha crying again, and she sat in front of the door, determined to make it difficult to get into the bathroom.

She gave me a small smile and a small nod. The lights flickered above me and I shook my head. I couldn't sleep now, not when I needed a plan. What was I going to do if no one came to help us? I opened my bag and pulled out a deck of cards and started shuffling them. I dragged myself to sit beside Tasha and dealt out the cards, and we played crazy eights to distract ourselves from the screaming…

I was right about it being a shitty day.

A/N: Hello hi, so the reason I decided to rewrite Apocalyptic Annie was mostly because I was interested in Lee's story and how he came to survive the Walkers, and it was really intriguing so I decided to give it a shot and I kinda like it. In my head when I type this all out, I see it as half TWD series episodes and TWD Game episodes so that's why I decided to make it a crossover because I honestly love characters from both the series and the game.

For now, I hope you like the story and enjoy it. It might be OC but TWD characters are bound to meet up eventually. Sorry for any errors but they're there, treat them like you would chocolate.

I hope you enjoyed reading it, and you liked it enough to leave me a review :D

That's all for now,

-SBDI