A/N Hello again everyone I hope you're all enjoying the story sorry about my weird upload times but college has been throwing assignments at me like mad I'm hoping to upload every 2 weeks or sooner.

Also thanks again to Fallen Angle Awakened for being my beta you're awesome and thanks to everyone reviewing and following it means a lot to me.

Anyway shall we continue with the story

Chapter 3 New Friends Old Memories

Carl looked at Elliot with his piercing blue eyes and said to him, "You're obviously skilled with a sword, when did you start?"

Elliot, seeming surprised by the question, looked Carl in the eye and responded, "I started training with swords when I was thirteen so I've been able to use a sword for the past four years, but I started training martial arts when I was nine. Have you ever had any form of martial arts training?"

Carl told the English teenager, "Um… I did karate for about a year and a half when I was ten, but, my mom thought it was unsafe, so I had to quit before I could start sword training, which my dad wanted me to do. I know this is asking a lot, but since Michonne won't teach me how to use a katana, would you?"

Elliot was kind of surprised that Carl asked him to train him because nobody has ever asked for him to teach them before, after thinking about it for a second he responded, "Yeah sure, if you're parents are okay with it." Carl dropped his gaze to the ground when Elliot said 'parents' but quickly said "it's just my dad."

"Oh." Elliot felt bad for mentioning that. Seeing the look on Carl's face, he could tell the death was probably recent. "I'm sorry. I know what it's like to lose the people you love."

Carl looked back up at Elliot, question in his eyes. "How did you lose your family? How did you end up alone?"

Now it was Elliot who looked upset as he responded, "I'm going to tell you the full story from the beginning of how I ended up here."

Elliot was just fifteen years old, and one of the best swordsman in his class. He was invited to the nationals and won the tournament, for which the prize was an invitation to the international martial arts tournament of 2010 to compete on behalf England in the under 16 category.

Despite the strange news broadcasts of riots and sudden bursts of violence, Elliot's family decided to go to the tournament. After all, it was the chance of a lifetime.

Elliot arrived to America with his parents and his prized Katana, which he was only allowed to take after a mountain of paperwork was signed. The tournament was supposed to last three days, and Elliot was under 16 so would be competing on the first and second days, if he qualified through the first day.

The first day was going well, he had just won his hand to hand match, and around one pm he would be doing his first round of sword combat, but the first day they were only allowed to use wooden swords, so Elliot's Katana was left in his hotel room.

Just as Elliot was about to take the floor to compete in his first match of the day, a few spectators-which everyone assumed to be late-sauntered in, and one bit one of the judges, which shocked everyone and caused a panic. Within minutes, multiple people were biting each other, and there was blood everywhere. Elliot managed to find his parents and told them to return to the hotel room while he tried to fight off the biting people. As Elliot approached the nearest person who was on all fours biting the flesh out of a woman's arm, he realised that the man had a dead look in his eyes. There was no expression on his face as Elliot kicked the man off of the woman and then kicked him in the chest. The kick didn't stun the man, and he just kept coming. Elliot slightly panicked, and attempted to knock the man out by kicking him in the head, which resulted in blood spilling over his toes. That silenced him.

After what seemed like forever fighting the monstrosities, and Elliot had counted he killed twenty within a matter of a few minutes. Covered in blood, he turned to leave being what looked like the only non-bitten survivor but was suddenly taken down by a final monster, jaws chomping desperate to get to Elliot's flesh. In a flash of what seemed a second someone had killed the thing. Elliot quickly thanked the stranger after throwing the lifeless beast off of him but the stranger ended up being his sensei.

Surprised to see his sensei in America with him Elliot was quickly told to head to his hotel room and grab his actual Katana. On route to the room he was staying in Elliot ended up taking on and ending another five of the people who were trying to bite. The realisation that he had just killed multiple people was slowly creeping into his brain, but he couldn't think about that now. He had to get back to his parents.

Once Elliot reached his hotel room his life was turned upside down. Opening the door to the room the teens worst nightmare came true he saw both his parents dead covered in blood with both of them missing a chunk from their arms and bullets in their hearts with the gun left on the bed with a note on the table addressed to him he knew his parents went out on their terms and he hated himself for not protecting them but he read the letter and it said,

"Dear Elliot

By the time you read this we will both be dead. We got bit trying to help someone on our way back. We are so sorry for our stupidity, son, but we both want you to continue to live no matter how tough the times get and we will always be with you watching over you and we are proud of the young man you have become.

We only want what is best for you so we decided to commit suicide to save you the pain of having to see us die. If you can, we want you to return to England and to take care of your brother and to keep him safe but if you cannot then please for us don't do anything stupid to get yourself killed. We want you to take the gun and the spare mags left in the under the bed there you will find your sixteenth birthday present we were going to surprise you with it after the tournament but it's yours now and hope you use it as well as you would your sword but do what you can to help people the way we raised you.

We love you always and we will always be proud of our little samurai and will always be watching over you.

Mum and Dad xx"

After tearfully reading the note and putting it in his pocket he grabbed his Katana and the gun, looking under the bed he found the spare gun mags and his sixteenth birthday present: a brand new top of the range crossbow with his initial's on the side, he then took what he could and sat on the bed opposite his parents, letting the emotions roll over him. He knew that if he supressed his feelings now, he would have a breakdown at the most inconvenient time possible, so it was better to let the tears out now.

After a few minutes of staring, Elliot noticed his mother's fingers twitching.

"Mum?" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet and kneeling beside her. "Mum, can you hear me?"

All that he got in exchange was a moan, a moan that sounded suspiciously like the ones who were eating people.

"Mum?" He said again in a strangled voice, tears falling on the quilt. Suddenly, she lunged, her teeth snapping, trying to grab a bite of his flesh. Elliot screamed as she knocked him to the floor. Instinct kicked in and he grabbed his katana, chopping his dead mother's head off before scuttling back into the wall, shaking and crying harder than before.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He repeated the words to himself until he stopped crying, then forced himself off the floor.

"They're dead." He said to himself. "They're dead and you have to destroy their brains." That didn't make any sort of sense, but Elliot had to grasp onto the thought in order to justify what he knew he would have to do. "He's dead. He'll try to kill people." Elliot grabbed his sword again, hands shaking as he walked towards his father. "He's dead. He'll kill people."

After a few deep breaths and a lot of hesitation, Elliot noticed a finger twitch form his dad. His father's eyes opened, milky and vacant.

"I'm sorry." He whispered and plunged the blade into his father's head.

Elliot wiped his blade on the bedsheets and gathered everything he would need. He sure as hell wouldn't be staying in this room for a second longer than he needed to. Taking one more look at his twice dead parents-that he saw alive and smiling less than an hour prior-he left the hotel and never looked back.

He tried to find his sensei, but had no luck so he just left. Out on the road, alone for two years, avoiding people whenever possible; until he stumbled across Rick's group. He was always wondering if his sensei was dead or alive; he would probably never find out.

Carl looked shocked and awkwardly patted Elliot on the shoulder. He broke down after telling the boy everything. From his back pocket Elliot produced the note but Carl asked, "What happened to your crossbow?"

Elliot knew this question would come up, and responded with, "It's at the house I'm staying at. I can take you guys to it if you want."

Carl seemed to think for a moment before calling over to Rick "Dad. Elliot as a place we can go."