All the Lonely People

Chapter One

NOTE: I in no way claim the characters or plot content of these fanfiction stories that belong to The Walking Dead, those are proprietary creations of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, and Frank Darabont. Original characters and plot content are a blend of my own creation, and suggestions, input, and guidance from readers and reviewers.

Hello and welcome friends! This first chapter will hopefully serve as a structural template of many upcoming chapters featuring some of the submitted OCs. I wanted to feature some of the OCs in the first chapters before we unite everyone and begin our adventure together, so I apologize if it seems a bit slow. I used my character as a sample. Let me know if the timeline is unclear, or there is too much jumping back and forth, or it's just too boring. I hope you enjoy.

- Present Moment -

Dagny Quinn jumped to life screaming, thrashing and flailing wildly as she felt fingertips graze her throat just shy of her carotid artery. Her china-blue eyes fluttered with wonder and she stared awestruck into the face before her. Words escaped her. "How long had it been since she saw another human being? Another LIVING human being?"

A small statured, fair-skinned woman with long, silky, brown hair and wide hazel eyes stood erect and serene facing her. "Jackie Stone." She calmly introduced herself. "Are you healthy? Have you been bitten?" she interrogates.

- Three Hours Prior –

Dagny gripped her long, wavy, honey-colored hair at the roots and tugged while vehemently blinking her eyes. Tears of grief, devastation, and sheer exhaustion rolled down her dirt-smudged cheek. "How long had it been since she last slept?" She leaned wearily against the massive oak, and closed her eyes for only a moment to contemplate how she got here.

- Four Days Prior-

Gunshots rang out through the variegated pandemonium of screams, cries, and unworldly moans. People, coworkers, friends fell tumultuously into unforgiving piles of lifeless corpses. Dagny crouched beneath a desk at the nurses' station in the ICU. She rocked back and forth on her haunches cursing herself for coming back to the hospital. She reflected in disbelief on her current position. "How was this possible? This defied all laws of science and reason."

The United States Army had shown up yesterday, at first evacuating infected patients. This soon escalated into an assassination of infected patients. Nurses protested in rage, and were promptly shot. What began as a fever four days ago quickly turned fatal. The morgue was full of bodies one day later, and only hours after that, bodies began to spring to life.

"What is going on in the morgue?" Dr. Colie shouted at Sebastian scratching the day-old stubble that grew on his chin. "I heard moaning in there, and the pathologist is outside smoking." He stated flatly. "Sebastian, we can't have patients running around in there. We need to keep the morgue quarantined. I don't want to encourage nosocomial infections. Can you please go check it out?" the doctor ordered. Sebastian rolled his eyes and turned to face the doctor.

"I have seven call lights going off right now, antibiotics are due, and there is no one else to dispense them, plus Mr. Weatherby needs an enema." Sebastian stated in frustration. I am the only nurse on this floor. You are going to have to check on the morgue yourself."

The doctor stormed off towards the morgue like a petulant little child. Dagny shook her head at Sebastian and smiled. "Let me help you with those antibiotics." She volunteered reaching for the cart.

"No, I need you to suture…" he was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream.

Dr. Colie ran down the corridor, crimson blood splaying from a laceration on his anterior forearm. "That Son of a Bitch bit me!" he screamed grabbing at his arm. "Get the suture kit." He ordered Dagny.

- One Week Prior -

"Who's presenting?" Dagny Quinn asks eyes locked downward on the patient's chart, right-hand massaging her temple. Morning rounds had begun to dwindle in attendance over the past few weeks, and it seemed that doctors, PAs, and NPs where hard to come by lately, particularly at this hour.

"15-year-old female presented with hyperpyrexia. Patient also complained of fatigue, malaise, and hallucinations…" charge nurse Sebastian Romero began wringing his knuckles nervously.

Dagny and the nurses preceded from patient to patient through the Intensive Care Unit, reviewing the chief complaint, history of present illness, medical diagnosis and treatment for each one. Census at UCSF the past two weeks had shown a record high, while staffing was always short. Rooms were dispensed at a premium, and overflow patients were being examined and admitted to empty gurneys in the hallway. On-call rooms, usually occupied by doctors, PAs, NPs, and nurses had been surrendered to patients in need days ago. It had been two days since Dagny had slept, not wanting to leave the hospital, and return to a downward spiral of increasing chaos and desperation.

"Dagny, are you listening?" Sebastian prompted. "Dagny?" he said scratching his thick, dark, wavy hair.

"Mmmm?" she mumbled in reply, blinking hazily.

"When was the last time you slept?" he asked gently placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Sleep?" she repeated as she stared questioningly into his chocolate brown eyes, trying to coin an answer. "I'm not sure. Maybe a day or two ago."

"You need to get some rest." He said firmly.

"I can't go home, what if something happens? You are already short-staffed, and it would take me over an hour to get back here." She responded quickly. BART trains, it seemed, were operating with a perpetual and cumulative delay this week.

"Here," he offered tenderly slipping a small scratched titanium key into her hand. "Crash at my place. It's close enough that you can walk back here quickly if need be." He assured her. "Dr. Colie will be here in 30 minutes or less. I spoke with him on the phone when we began rounds."

"Thank you," she replied quickly without a moment of hesitation. "I owe you one." She grabbed her navy wool peacoat from behind the nurses' station, and thrust her left arm quickly into the sleeve.

"Make sure you thank me when you win the Nobel Prize for that research of yours!" he shouted merrily, his eyes twinkling as he smiled at her.

She was out the door before she could finish putting her coat on.

- One Month Prior -

"I love you. And not in a way that you love your friends, or even that you love your grandmother, though we do make amazing friends, and you fall asleep at the movies like my grandmother. Not in a high school crush way, though that's what how you may think of it. I just love you. You are everything I have ever searched for. I know you think of me as just a friend, and I know that tonight I crossed a line, but I had to say it. I love you." Sebastian stuttered. He began to chew nervously on his thumb nail as he gazed across the hood of the car at her. Dagny remained speechless for a moment, a moment that seemed to drag onto eternity as she looked out at the city lights below her, contemplating how to respond. She shivered. It was a chilly night on the San Francisco hillside. She sidled up to his warm body, and laid her head slowly on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her slender body without word, understanding the sentiment behind the gesture.

"I just need time. We don't need to rush. Just a little more time." She whispered quietly. He nodded in agreement and kissed the crown of her head.

- One Year Prior -

"Shane, what are you doing here?" Dagny proclaimed irritated and in exasperation tapping her foot on the floor. "This isn't a good time. I'm right in the middle of preparing for my PANCE exam, and I have a job interview at UCSF tomorrow. Seriously, what are you doing here?" she demanded.

Shane Walsh bit his lower lip thoughtfully, "I had to see you. I can't stop thinking about you. 'Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.'" He asserted.

"I'm sorry, but did you just fly 2,500 miles to quote Dead Poets Society?" she interjected impatiently. "Look, Shane, I told you I loved you six months ago, that I wanted to be more than friends. SIX MONTHS AGO!" She yelled waving her arms angrily. "You let me leave without saying one word to me, not even a goodbye. I haven't heard from you in six months. Not one call, not one text, not even an e-mail. Look, I really need to study. I'm sorry you wasted a trip out here." She shook her head lightly, and soft waves of hair tumbled around her shoulders. Dagny began to close the door when he grabbed it firmly.

Shane grabbed her wrist and pulled her across the threshold, outside the doorway. "I'm sorry Dagny. You put me in an awkward position. I had a girlfriend."

"We SLEPT TOGETHER!" she screamed, her face flushing with rage. "Did that mean nothing to you?" she demanded.

"Look, I think about you every moment of every day. I'm a cop for Christ's sake, do you know how dangerous it is to be inattentive on the job?" he said running his hand briskly through his cropped hair.

"Kind of like performing surgery and suturing patients while thinking about your botched declaration of unrequited love?" she retorted huffily.

He reached into his pocket, and removed a small, navy, velvet box.

"Don't." she said flatly. "Don't do anything you are going to regret." She cautioned him. "Go home and think about this first." Tears of anger, and frustration welled in her eyes.

"I love that you read the last page of novels first." He began grabbing her hand. "I love that you listen to Christmas music 365 days a year. I love that you taught my grandmother how to rap 'Ice Ice Baby.' I love that when you're mad, your nostrils flare… like that." He smiled.

"Don't." she interjected once more shaking her head.

"I have loved you every day, even when you are sweaty and gross from running, even when you enter 'who can go the longest without showering' contests, even when you reek of formaldehyde and corpses from school, and even when you angrily label all the muscles on my body with permanent marker when I am sleeping… ALL the muscles. I am so sorry that I hurt you and that it took me this long to realize it. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, even if it means spending it apologizing for the pain I caused. Please, marry me." He pleaded beseechingly.

Dagny slowly withdrew her hand from his grip and towards the door. "Shane, I need to study. I'm sorry." She murmured through her tears as she walked into her apartment and closed the door.