So here is Chapter 2! Thanks so much for giving my fic a chance - I know these first two chapters may seem a little too similar to the script and plot of the show but I promise that this has only been done to introduce my character, Leia, to the group. The proper action and more original content will begin with my next upload - enjoy!


Seeing as she got distracted last time, Leia made her way back into the city to get supplies. It wasn't that her and her uncle desperately needed supplies, Leia found that she strangely enjoyed going on her little adventures. It was better than be locked away back at home. Home. Leia could almost laugh at herself for calling it that. It wasn't really a home at all - just somewhere to lay low and avoid the dangers of the new world.

She decided that it was best to check territory she was vaguely familiar with and so headed to the department store where she had met the others yesterday. As she feared, it looked to be overrun with deadheads after they had broken through the glass doors the day before. So she made the decision to check the offices on the floor above. Constantly checking for any threats, from both the dead and alive, Leia climbed the ladder on the outside of the building and pushed her way through a broken, back window. Once successfully inside, she immediately began checking the cupboards for some kind of food, or anything else that may be useful.

Without any luck so far, she opened one of the cupboards and was overwhelmed with the wave of a rotting smell that poured from a packet of moulding cheese and crackers. Leia sighed, defeated, "It'll have to do, I guess."

As she hesitantly lifted the packet of crackers off of the shelf and into her rucksack, she felt a sudden, hard pressure being forced on her back. Dropping the packet, she began raising her hands in some sort of surrender. She then froze, feeling her heart rate begin to speed. Someone was behind her.

"Please, let that be a gun," Leia lifted her eyes to the ceiling, struggling to speak as the air caught in her throat.

"Nah," an unfamiliar, male voice drawled sarcastically from behind her, "I'm just real happy to see ya."

Shitshitshit. If she wasn't panicking before, she certainly was now. A, possibly very dangerous, stranger was holding some sort of weapon to her back. At this point, Leia was practically deafened by the sound of her heart pulsing in her ears. However, she managed to hear another, softer, voice speak up, "Leia?"

Her heart stopped completely. She could feel the first stranger lowering their weapon as the pressure on her back slowly disappeared. Still struggling to breathe, Leia slightly turned her head to face the others in the room.

There were four men standing in the office; one of them was wearing a familiar cop uniform - "Rick?"

Letting out a sigh of relief and immediately could feel the tension in her shoulders ease as she saw the familiar face smiling back at her. Leia was sure her own features reflected his evidently startled expression. Caught up in her surprise, she almost completely forgot about the others in the room. Looking to the men beside Rick she noticed T-Dog was there, as well as Glenn who beamed at her from the doorway. The three men looked at her with a sense of familiarity and Leia felt alleviated that they were still alive. Taking a glance to the stranger that stood behind her, she immediately noticed the crossbow that had obviously been held to her back moments before. She noted the toned but dirtied arms that held it, and the shabby, torn vest, before settling her eyes on the man's face. He held a stern, almost bitter expression, and she noticed how his eyes darted suspiciously between her and the others. Just as she had no idea who he was, he clearly had no clue who she was.

The unknown man's grip on the crossbow remained tight as Rick spoke up, "What are you doing here?"

"I was just getting some supplies. I got distracted last time", she feigned a accusing look at the men, holding back a smile.

Rick tried his best to contain his grin too as he shook his head, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"So what are you doing back here?" Leia asked, curious. Immediately she could feel a tension return and flood the room. She watched as the three men in front of her shuffled slightly on their feet, their eyes either taking sudden interest in the ground or the walls around them. Rick avoided her gaze and turned back to the other men, all remnants of his previous smile gone within a second. Leia began to feel uneasy. Something wasn't right.

Glenn rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he cleared his throat, still refusing to look in her direction, "Well, we uh-"

"We are looking for my brother," the man next to her spoke up, not even looking at her but rather glaring at the other three men. His voice was rough, almost aggressive, matching his scowl.

Leia frowned, "Your brother?"

"Merle," Rick spoke up now.

"You're Merle's brother?" Leia turned to look back at the stranger beside her. She wasn't particularly surprised by this; she should have been able to tell from the arrogant way he held himself. Leia huffed, 'What's he done now?'

"It's more what we have done," Rick mumbled in response.

"What?" Leia's frown deepened.

"We, uh, left him. On the roof," Glenn guiltily muttered.

"You what?!" Rick winced at her expression. She couldn't help the dumbfounded tone of her voice and so waited for someone to explain what the hell they were talking about. She could almost feel the fury radiating off of the man beside her.

T-Dog cleared his throat a little and spoke up, "Yesterday, I dropped the key to the handcuffs in a drain when we were trying to leave. We were in such a rush that we just ended up leaving him there."

Rick looked at her, "We had no choice. We had to leave."

Leia took a moment to process this, "So he's still up there?"

She was met with nods. Rick continued after another moment of strained silence, "We are also trying to get some guns; I left my bag full of them on the street when I got swarmed."

Leia nodded before making a decision, "Well, can I help at all?"

Rick looked her in the eye and tilted his head to the side slightly, "You sure? What about your supplies?"

"I'm sure I can survive one more night on stale crackers," she quipped with a shrug as she leant down to pick up the packet she had dropped on the floor. She could hear Glenn let out a small chuckle at her remark and was about to make another comment as Merle's brother scolded them.

"Can we just hurry the fuck up and find my brother now?" He said as he raised his crossbow a little, glaring menacingly at Rick.

The officer responded with a nod of his head and ushered them out of the room. As Leia went to step out of the doorway, she felt the crossbow-man push past her, roughly hitting against her shoulder and made her stumble forward a little. She glared as he strode past the group to take lead down the corridor.

Turning to her right, she saw Glenn offer her a timid smile, "That's Daryl."

"Daryl?"

Glenn hummed and let out a sigh as the two followed the group down the corridor.


The group of five made their way to the roof, constantly alert for any geeks or other threats. Merle's brother, or Daryl as she had just found out, led from the front, his crossbow raised as always. Once they reached the top of the stairwell they opened the door, expecting to be met with Merle undoubtedly throwing barbaric curses at them. Leia moved to stand next to Glenn and looked over to the pipes where they had supposedly left the redneck agitator.

The handcuffs were still attached – but Merle was gone. Well, most of him was anyway. All that was left was his right hand in a pool of blood.

"Oh god", Leia whispered, her hand moving to rest on her unsettled stomach.

Leia felt her mouth hang open in disbelief. Her stomach was flipping and twisting with unease. Glenn, who was to her right, was doing his best to keep down the bile that threatened to come up in his throat. The others all stood in silence as they watched the younger brother pace around; trying to comprehend the sight of the severed hand. He occasionally let out small cries of despair and disgust.

The group didn't even have time to let the situation sink in before Daryl turned and threw his crossbow up to T-Dog's face with a growl. His fingers were tense and fully prepared to pull the trigger. Before he had the chance, Rick pulled out his Python and held it against Daryl's cheek.

"I won't hesitate," Rick threatened through gritted teeth, "I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."

There was a moment of suspense as the men stood with their weapons raised and pointed at each other, waiting for someone to make a move. Leia watched as Daryl turned to look Rick in the eye, and it seemed he noticed the sheriff was being completely honest with his threat. After another moment of hesitation, Daryl slowly lowered his gun, the rigidity in his shoulders only faltering slightly as he did so. The man's accusing scowl never broke away from T-Dog, who was clearly horrified and ashamed at what had happened. He obviously blamed himself for dropping that key.

Leia released a breath she didn't know she had been holding when she saw Rick lower his gun and take a step back.

"You got a do-rag or something?" Daryl asked T-Dog. Leia had expected him to make a rude remark or to start yelling again. T-Dog reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, reluctantly placing it into Daryl's outstretched hand. The others then watched as he knelt beside the hand and stared at it for a moment, taking a breath. Leia looked to the floor as Daryl went to wrap it in the handkerchief. In this new world, gore was to be expected. But the bloodied bodies and beaten in heads of things that were technically already dead was entirely different to seeing the severed hand of a living human being. The geeks were dead. Merle was alive - or so they hoped.

She heard Daryl call Glenn over and watched as he made the younger man turn around. Glenn's face distorted into a look of disgust as his backpack was unzipped and Merle's hand was placed inside it.

"He must have used a tourniquet – maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't," Daryl noted.

Leia looked down to the pool of blood on the ground where his hand had been. This was awful. She understood why Daryl would be angry, hell, he had every right to be mad. If it was her brother who had been left there overnight and then had to cut off his own hand to escape, then fuming wouldn't even begin to cover what she would be feeling. But she could also see it from the rets of the group's perspective. Merle was reckless and they needed to escape. It was a choice between saving the lives of many or risk endangering all their lives to try and save one. Also, it had to be made in the heat of the moment. There was no time for discussion. They needed to escape. They needed to survive.

Looking back down at her feet, she noticed there were more red spots where she was stood, "hey, there's more blood over here. Look."

Rick and the others ran over to her as she pointed out the trail of blood. Following with her eyes, it seemed to lead to another stairway. Daryl pushed past them again, his crossbow in the assumed position. Rick clapped her on the shoulder with a nod before they followed after the younger brother.


Rick watched Leia out of the corner of his eye as they quietly followed Daryl down another corridor in the office block. She was peering around the doorways as they walked, checking the rooms for any sign of the older Dixon. Her hand was resting on the edge of her bat as usual. He had spent the past day worrying about whether she had made it home safely and without any trouble. He had struggled to sleep last night as the thought of her running off on her own, with only a baseball bat for protection, had been eating away at him. The relief he felt when they found her, alive and unharmed, was overwhelming.

Rick regretted not forcing her to stay so that he could at least escort her back to her home, wherever that was. He reminded himself to ask her later about where her camp was situated as he did not have the chance yesterday, what with trying to escape the city alive and all. Leia turned to him then and he returned her polite smile.

They were disrupted by the sound of familiar groaning and heard Daryl released an arrow into the geek's head. Reaching over the corpse, he pulled it back out, smirking, "Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches."

The group looked around him to see two corpses on the ground in pools of thick, black muck.

Daryl continued, "And one handed too. Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is," Leia sighed, earning a cold glare from the other man. Daryl growled a bitter 'whatever' before stalking ahead into a small kitchen.

As the five of them entered the kitchen, Leia immediately noted the unpleasant burning smell.

"Merle!" Daryl yelled out.

"We're not alone here. Remember?" Rick hissed.

It looked as though Daryl was going to reply with some snarky remark, but Glenn interrupted by pointing back to a stove that was still lit, "What's all that burned stuff?"

Leia moved a little closer to inspect the stove, and realised that the belt on top of it must have belonged to Merle. Leia had to swallow to clear her throat as she came to the realisation, "Skin. He cauterised the stump."

A silence fell upon the group. Leia turned to Glenn and they shared a sickened glance. She then turned to look in the direction of Daryl and was bewildered by how passive his expression was. He seemed to not be so bothered by this revelation or the situation in general. Leia almost felt like taking him by the shoulders and shaking him whilst yelling, 'Your brother has just severed his own hand and is still missing. Why are you not at all bothered by this?' But she doubted he would react graciously to that.

Daryl just sniffed, "Told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that in faith," Rick commented, still looking at the lumps of flesh that simmered on the stove, "He's lost a lot of blood."

"Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap," Daryl said as he moved to the other side of the kitchen. He brought their attention over to a broken window. Leia could see it had been broken from the inside as the shards of glass were on the other side.

Glenn voiced what Leia was thinking, "He left the building? Why would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Daryl squinted at the younger man, "He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's go to do. Surviving."

T-Dog shook his head, "You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?"

T-Dog instantly knew he had made a wrong move by speaking up. Daryl practically flew across the small room before anyone could stop him; a fierce, threatening scowl on his face.

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks!" Daryl spat as he made to raise his clenched fist.

Rick made to move towards him, ready to put himself between the two men, but saw that Leia had gotten there first. She stood in front of T-Dog, holding her two hands up against Daryl's chest, forcing him to stay put. It took Daryl a moment to process the two small hands pushing him back. He snapped his gaze down to her with a bewildered frown, before he started to struggle against her hold. No matter how much he tried to push past her, he was surprised at her determination, before recoiling away from her, "Get your hands off me!"

"Just back off," Leia scolded. She made sure to keep her voice steady and quiet, so that they wouldn't attract any unwanted attention. Daryl was ready to shout back at her. Who the hell was this girl, anyways? She didn't know him, he didn't know her! Who the hell did she think she was trying to tell him what to do?

He attempted to get around her again and towards T-Dog, pushing her to the side with some force, but the sheriff now stepped in and put his hands out to stop him, "He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel."

Leia watched as Daryl began to slowly back down and pay attention to what Rick was saying as the officer continued, "We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head."

"I could do that," Daryl nodded, taking a few steps back.

Leia breathed a sigh of satisfaction at feeling the hostility in the room diminish. Looking in Daryl's direction, she could see him doing his best to avoid her gaze, still slightly furious, and perhaps even a little embarrassed, that she had stood up against him like that. She cleared her throat and stepped towards the men a little, "Maybe we should find those guns first."

She saw a couple of them agree, T-Dog nodding profusely, "Yeah, I ain't strolling the streets with just my good intentions, okay?"


Glenn had led them into another room and sat at a desk, beginning to make a plan to recover Rick's guns. The others, believing he would be the best for the task, scattered themselves around the office. Daryl retreated to a corner and began cleaning his arrows with a cloth. T-Dog moved to the window, watching as the geeks mindlessly fumbled around in the streets below. Leia leant her bat against a desk and sat beside it on the floor, her head resting against the wall behind her. Closing her eyes, she felt a presence sit down next her. Not to her surprise, it was Rick.

"Hey," she smiled.

"Hey," the officer returned it, "I, uh, I found my family."

Leia sat forward and her smile grew, "Rick, that's fantastic! How are they?"

Rick felt his own smile grow as he saw the way her eyes had lit up at the news, "They're good, yeah. Just so happens they've been at the camp outside the city this whole time."

"With the others? Wow, what a coincidence," Leia had to admit, that was the wildest coincidence she had ever heard of. She turned to him with a smirk, "See, I told you so. I said you'd find them and I was right."

Rick agreed, unable to hide his grin as he heard the smug tone of her voice.

"I'm really happy for you, Rick, honestly," she said, sincerely, as the two shared another smile.

From the opposite corner of the office, Daryl found himself watching the pair's interaction. He just couldn't make his mind up about her. Who the hell was this girl? He quickly gathered she was the one he had heard Glenn talking, rather excitedly, about yesterday back at camp. The girl supposedly took on about ten geeks with just her baseball bat and pretty much saved their sorry asses. She had clearly formed some sort of bond with the group yesterday, particularly Rick and that was clear by the way they were now sat grinning stupidly at each other.

What was so special about this girl? He had just assumed Glenn liked her so much because he had a silly little crush or something. But after seeing her stand up to him earlier today, he wasn't sure that was the case. She stood up against him. He couldn't decide if she was brave or simply just dumb. No one stood up against him or his brother. Especially not women. And yet she did. So should he be in awe or irritated? A part of him wanted to admit he had been slightly impressed, but it was so much easier to bury it deep down beneath his ego. So, he decided she infuriated him.

His thoughts were interrupted when Glenn quickly stood from his chair and knelt on the ground. Daryl watched as he took out a pen and began drawing some sort of diagram on the tiled floor. The rest of the group noticed this too and began to slowly gather around him, waiting for an explanation.

"What's this?" Daryl heard the girl ask from next to him.

"It's a diagram," the Asian boy replied.

Leia fought back a smirk, "I can see that, thank you. But what is the diagram of?"

"Oh, uh, it's Atlanta. The streets. Here, take a look," Glenn pointed to his drawing. The others listened intently as he began to explain his plan.

When he finished sharing his idea, Rick shook his head, "You're not doing this alone."

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much," Daryl said as he pulled himself up to sit on the desk beside Leia, who rolled her eyes at his unnecessary remark. Yeah, he was definitely related to Merle.

She could see where Glenn was coming from with his plan and felt the need to support him, "Just hear him out."

She smiled down at Glenn as he turned back to the diagram on the floor. He took the others' silence as his chance to carry on with his explanation, "If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast."

Leia could see Rick shifting uneasily on his feet on her other side. He was obviously not comfortable with the idea of Glenn going out onto the streets alone. She didn't blame him. It was dangerous. Really dangerous. But it was the only plan they had so far that could work.

"Look. The tank is five blocks from where we are now. The bag of guns are here," Glenn began to point at where different parts of the plan would be situated, "Here's the alley where you, me and Leia first met. That's where Daryl, Leia and I will go."

"Why me?" Daryl and Leia said simultaneously. They sent each other an uncomfortable glance before hurriedly looking away.

"The crossbow is quieter than Rick's gun, your bat too," he explained. Leia sent the young man a nod of her head in agreement, whereas Daryl just looked irritated, "While you two wait here in the alley, I run up the street and grab the bag."

"You got us elsewhere?" Rick asked, referring to himself and T-Dog.

"Yeah, uh, you'll be here-"

Leia's thoughts drifted from Glenn's explanation as she thought about the plan. Could she really go ahead with this? It was going to be getting dark soon. There was no way she would travel home, alone, in the dark. She needed to get back.

But she couldn't just leave, could she? She had offered to help and was now going to leave before they actually figured out a plan? Maybe her uncle wouldn't even notice she wasn't back yet – that was likely. No, she needed to get back.

"Leia?" Rick's voice broke her out of her thoughts. She tried to smile up at him but clearly was failing as he frowned, "You alright?"

Her expression fell as she let out a small sigh and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "Look, I'm really sorry but…I really need to get back. My uncle will wonder where I am."

She saw Rick stiffen as he stood up straighter. She immediately felt terrible as she felt the uncertainty of the others in the room too. Looking around at them she went on, almost hysterical, "I'm sorry. I really am. I know I ran off last time too and I don't mean to ruin any of your plans it's just-"

"Leia, its fine."

She looked up at Rick and saw him offering her a small smile. His hand came to rest on her shoulder as he spoke softly, "Don't worry, we understand."

Looking around the room, she saw Glenn looking back at her with the same reassuring smile, T-Dog too. Daryl, on the other hand, still held the same irritated expression, most likely because he just wanted to get up and go find Merle.

"Thank you," turning back to Rick she breathed in to calm herself, "I should go now and then you can start your plan as soon as possible."

Glenn stood and walked over to her. He smiled, warmly, "It was good to see you again today. Thanks again for all your help."

"I really haven't done anything for you to be grateful for," she said, feeling her cheeks begin to heat up, "but look at you, being all clever and making all the plans. I hope it works out for you. Those guns are important , but you guys are the priority, ok? Any sign of danger, forget the plan and just get the hell out of there."

She reached her hand out for Glennto shake. As she felt him squeeze her hand reassuringly, she realised that this may be the last time she ever saw these people. The guilt and uncertain feeling swelled in her again.

Dropping her hand, she sent a small smile to T-Dog who mirrored it and winked at her.

"Just be careful out there," Rick said, sincerely, as she moved to grab her backpack and the bat that had been resting against a desk.

"Always," she returned.

Rick offered to escort her out. As she reached the doorway, she turned back to the other men in the room. Her eyes glanced over from T-Dog to Glenn before landing on Daryl who stood awkwardly away from the others. He had kept out of their goodbyes as he hardly knew her and so spent the time gawkily shuffling in the corner of the room. He also just wanted this to be over with so that they could get on with finding Merle.

"I hope you find your brother. I really do," she said, softly with a sincere smile.

This caught him off guard. She sounded like she cared - genuinely cared. He didn't reply.

She turned away from them to look back to Rick who ushered her out of the room and to the stairwell. He looked at her, sensing her uneasiness, "you sure you want to go back on your own?"

She nodded. They reached the bottom of the steps and she turned to look up at him, "Thank you, Rick. I feel terrible running off again but- I hope to see you again some day. Until then, I wish you the best of luck."

"You too," he said as he gripped her arm supportively.

She did the same, "I'm glad you found your family. They are lucky to have you."

He nodded with a small smile, unsure what to say. She smiled at him one last time before turning around and running down the alleyway. She turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

He wondered if he would see her again.


"You're killing us!" Rick yelled as he banged on the shutters. Shane began to try pulling him away as others yelled at him that they needed to leave, "You're killing us!"

The security camera had moved. He saw it. Someone was in there. And they were just going to ignore them?

Within a matter of hours after returning to camp later that evening, all hell had broken loose. Merle was still missing, Glenn had been taken and they nearly ended up in a gun fight to try and get him and the guns back. Walkers had overrun the camp; people were dead, the tents and resources were ruined. Amy, Jim, security - all gone. The group was broken.

Martinez and his family had announced they would leave to find their family a couple of cities away. Rick had made the decision to go to the Centre for Disease Control, so the remaining survivors packed up the few belongings they had left and headed away from the city. Hopefully, they would find answers there, as well as a place to stay. Shane had disagreed and argued that Fort Benning would be better. But they all finally agreed to go to the CDC.

Once they arrived, it looked as though it were abandoned. Dead corpses were scattered all around its surrounding areas. It was getting dark. They couldn't get in. No one was there. All hope was practically lost.

"Rick, man, we need to go," Shane pleaded over Lori's cries. Walkers were beginning to stumble closer to them.

"No! The camera moved!" He remained looking at the camera that was now turned onto him, "Please! Let us in! We have women and children!"

It was chaos. The sky was dark now. They were trapped between the closed shutters of the CDC and the hungry corpses that had begun to wander their way. He could hear the quiet sobs of Carl and Sophia behind him. Lori was screaming at him to go. Daryl was also yelling that it was Rick's fault they were in this danger. Andrea and T-Dog had taken to shooting walkers. They needed help.

"Rick?" a small, static voice broke through the pandemonium. It was coming from a speaker.

He looked to the side and saw some of the others looking at him in confusion, but Rick had no time to ask who the voice was, "Please, help us."

And with that, the shutters slowly began to open. The group stood still and watched in a stunned silence as they were enveloped in a white, blinding light.


Thanks so much for reading Chapter 2! I hope you are enjoying the story so far - if so, please let me know what you think. If not, feel free to send me some constructive feedback as I'm still fairly new to writing and would really appreciate some help.