I don't own Van Helsing or TWD

EDIT 8/29/16 (M/D/Y): Fixed some grammatical errors and made the story flow better


Survival Led by God

Chapter 1: Woodbury


The citizens of Woodbury had gathered on the streets of their safe zone. They were waiting for their Governor to get back and bring news of the apparent group of survivors to them. A faint sound of an engine was heard and soon enough a military truck came to their view. The citizens of Woodbury made space for the trucks, taking some steps back.

The Governor stepped out of one of the trucks and made a speech about "how they had been too late" and that "the survivors had been killed by biters already".

When the Governor ended his speech, the crowd cheered and left to continue their daily routines: men going to guard the fences of their town and women to take care of their children and make food.

The Governor ordered some of his men to move the trucks and gestured for Van Helsing to follow him, which he did, followed by Martinez. When Van Helsing stepped into the room, the Governor asked for Martinez to leave them and lock the door behind him. The man did so without questions.

Van Helsing scanned the room with his eyes, looking for any ways to escape if the situation needed it, but didn't find any. The Governor waited for a couple of minutes for him to say something, but when the man didn't say anything, he began:

"So, Gabriel... I can call you Gabriel, right?" it was more like a statement than question and he didn't wait for answer as he continued: "What brings you here, Georgia, I mean. Your name doesn't sound like it's from around here."

Van Helsing just looked at the Governor for couple of seconds, before continuing looking around the room. After a couple of minutes, he answered:

"I couldn't stay where I was before."

The Governor just nodded and replied:

"You look like you can handle yourself. I assume you know how to use a gun," the Governor looked at Van Helsing silently for a couple more seconds and continued: "Martinez will show you to your new apartment. When you are ready, look for Merle, he'll get something for you to do. Welcome to Woodbury!" Van Helsing nodded as the Governor called for Martinez to take Gabriel to his new apartment.

The two of them walked down the streets of Woodbury. People were looking curiously at Van Helsing, probably wondering who the new guy was. Van Helsing spotted someone who was missing an arm and had some kind of knife holder in its place. The man was talking to some dark skinned man carrying a bow and arrows on his back. Van Helsing also spotted two women in a middle of some kind of argument that ended with the dark skinned one walking away with an angry look on her face. The woman looked at Van Helsing for a second and narrowed her eyes. Van Helsing thought nothing of it, thinking the woman didn't trust new people.

When they arrived in front of a door of a row house that didn't look any different than the rest of the houses in the town, Martinez opened the door and gestured for Van Helsing to enter first. The apartment was nothing special; it had two rooms and one bathroom. One of the rooms had a bed, a closet with some clothes, a night table and a lamp. The other room had a fridge, a table and a couple of chairs, like a kitchen. It was good enough for Van Helsing.

Before leaving, Martinez told him to give all of his supplies to him, which he did, but with a little hesitation. He was allowed to keep some ammunition and his Remington along the clothes he was wearing, of course. Martinez said he was lucky to even keep the shotgun. The Governor had probably taken a liking to him.

When Martinez left, Van Helsing took his hat off and looked through the clothes they had given to him. He threw most of them to a pile he planned on taking out at some point and left only some jeans and black and grey t-shirts and sweaters.

After that, he took off his coat, fell on his bed and closed his eyes.

He would probably like it here.


Merle was checking some guns for any problems. It was difficult with only one hand, but he refused to ask for help. He didn't need any, he never had. Merle put the latest gun back and took another one to check it too. Suddenly, he heard something small hit the floor and cursed as he realized something had fallen off the gun. He looked around for it, when he suddenly heard voice behind him:

"You looking for this?"

Merle turned to look at the source of the voice and saw a man holding the hammer of the gun. Merle took the hammer from the man and put the gun back together. To his irritation, the man didn't leave, instead opting to stand there. Merle turned to look at the man angrily, not wanting to deal with something like that at the given time.

"What're ya standin' there fo'? I don't need yer help so get lost!" Merle said angrily, but to his surprise, the man didn't even flinch and just replied calmly:

"The Governor told me to ask for a job from you."

Merle stared right in the man's eyes for a minute, contemplating his words, before turning around and nodding.

"Ain't many who can stare a Dixon right in th' eyes. What's yer name?" Merle asked calmly, earning a curt "Van Helsing" as a reply. The name surprised the Dixon ever so slightly, making him turn around to face the man.

"Van Helsing? Yer not from aroun' here. Name's Merle Dixon." Merle introduced himself and gestured for Van Helsing to follow him. They walked towards one of the new military trucks Van Helsing had arrived with. There were a couple of more guys waiting around it, including Martinez.

"Van Helsing, meet Martinez, Milton and Tim", Merle said and went to sit in the front seat. They introduced themselves, before following Merle's example and went to sit in the truck; Martinez to the driver's seat and the rest to the trunk. The truck's engine started and they sped off through the gates of Woodbury.

Van Helsing, who hadn't been told what they were going to do, looked at Tim and asked:

"Where are we going?"

The man looked at him in a slight surprise and was about to answer, when Milton called out nervously:

"We are going to one of our traps to look for any biters. Merle didn't tell you that? I should have know he would leave an important detail like that untold."

Van Helsing stared at the man, not because of what he had said, but because he had blurted it out so fast. Milton seemed to get uncomfortable under his gaze and apologized ever so quietly. Van Helsing just sighed and turned to look at Tim once again.

"Where do we need these "biters" for?" he asked, earning a glance from the man, before getting a reply:

"We're holding an event where you can challenge someone to fight, surrounded by the biters. That is where we need them to."

Van Helsing was a little surprised about that, but thought nothing of it. He nodded to the man and turned to look at the scenery.

"Hmmm, those events sound interesting. I think I'll take a look at them", he thought, being reminded of all those sport events with boxers and such.

After ten or so minutes, they arrived in a clearing. There was some kind of device spinning and making some kind of noise near a hole on the ground. It looked interesting, to say the least, and Van Helsing decided to ask Milton about it:

"Interesting device... Who made it?"

The man seemed startled from being spoken to as he replied quickly:

"I developed it and some other people put it together. Its purpose is to attract the attention of the biters and get them to fall into the hole on the ground."

Van Helsing just nodded and looked as Merle played around with the walkers, and decided to help Tim and Martinez to drag them to the trunk of the truck.

When they left the clearing, he couldn't help but think how Carl would have reacted to these new devices that had been invented after his death. Those thoughts took him to his memories of the Vatican, all the demons and creatures he had hunted down for them, and to a certain Anna Valerious. That took him to how he had turned into a werewolf and been cured by Anna, at the cost of her life.

Van Helsing shook his head to get out of those thoughts as he focused on the scenery. When they finally reached Woodbury again, he was asked by Merle to accompany him on guard duty. He agreed, just to get the thoughts of his former friends out of his head…

The guard duty went pretty well and Van Helsing was able to keep the thoughts of his friends out of his head. That was until the same two women he had seen arguing before, heading towards the gate. Merle went to talk to them and came back a little later, calling out:

"Hey, Brownie!"

He earned the attention of Martinez and the two of them talked with each other. One of the women came to speak with Merle, only for Merle to ask her to back off politely. After a couple of minutes, Merle opened the gates and gestured for the two of them to go on. They argued a little and the dark skinned one left, but the other one didn't. Van Helsing listened on as the one left behind called out:

"MICHONNE!"

It was all in vain.

Van Helsing glanced at the one who had stayed, but turned away quickly. He couldn't handle the sorrowful look on her face.


Later that day, the people of Woodbury gathered to a stadium that had been put up. They were excited, so much so that some of them were almost jumping in joy.

Van Helsing was there as well, not as excited, but a little curious. He wanted to know about these events Woodbury had and hopefully, it would prove to be a good distraction from his thoughts. Among the crowd, he noticed the woman who had been left behind by Michonne. Her name was Andrea, he had later learned and, to his relief, she wasn't so sad anymore. Some music started to play and Van Helsing was once again reminded of how different it was to the one he had been used to back in his vampire hunting days.

"This sure ain't no Tšaikovski", he thought and laughed a little at his inside joke. He had hated the music of the 19th century.

Suddenly, the lights turned on, and people cheered as Martinez came to the arena, followed by Merle. The crowd started to shout out their names. The event reminded Gabriel of some boxing matches he had attended during the 80s. Only difference was that there had been no biters.

After a whistle sounded, Merle kicked Martinez in the face, starting on the offence.

"Okay, not so much like boxing", Van Helsing thought and continued to watch Merle beating Martinez down.

Suddenly, thanks to his good hearing he had left for being a werewolf, he heard someone talking. He looked around the audience and soon noticed Andrea arguing with the Governor. He overheard some of their conversation and agreed with Andrea at the "you are teaching them the walkers aren't dangerous" part, but people had the right to have fun. And the problem could be easily fixed with teaching people about the walkers. Andrea was just worrying too much. Van Helsing froze at that though. If Anna was there today, she would probably worry just as much.

He was pulled out of his thoughts, when Merle shouted in victory and people cheered wilder than at the start.

"Now, we have special guest here today, who has the honor to fight our very own Merle Dixon. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: GABRIEL VAN HELSING!" Tim called out and gestured for Van Helsing to come to the stage. Gabriel hesitated a little, but went down eventually. People cheered as Gabriel gave his coat and hat to Tim. He turned to look at Merle, who had a huge grin on his face.

"Let's give them a show!" Van Helsing said, matching the Dixon's grin.


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