Chapter 4: So That's Me

Authors Note: Okay, I am hoping to give everyone's character a bit of an introduction this chapter. I hope I have everyone and included as much as I could, not too much, but enough. Also, be ready, in case you forgot this is the walking dead and anyone could go at any second.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead.

(No One's POV)

Johnny and Marty left the van parked near the abandoned pet shop, the only place that had an open space for a car and they slowly approached the group of people near the diner. Marty gripped the handle of his bat, but he kept it to his side as Johnny had his hands in his jeans and kept his right hand gripped tightly around his switchblade.

The first two people they came across was a young woman with long brown hair that was tied in a ponytail and a young girl with short dirty blonde hair sitting in some lawn chairs. The older woman looked to be around twenty-four while the girl looked eighteen. They both jumped when the two men approached them. The woman gripped her machete while the girl pulled out a silver switchblade.

Johnny pulled out his own switchblade, but Marty stood between the two. "We don't want to start a fight, we just wanted to find some gas for our car!"

The woman stared at them with her green eyes, before releasing her machete and leaning back into her chair. "Yeah, well so is everyone else. The pumps are empty."

"Shit!" Johnny grunted as he tore off his hat to run his hand through his buzzed hair. Marty let out a deep sigh and he didn't know what to do. He looked back at the girls and shrugged.

"I'm Marty, Marty Chang," He introduced, before motioning to Johnny. "And this is my student, Johnny Mckellen."

The two girls looked them up and down before the woman spoke.

"I'm Ann Mac'Carty and this is my little sister Angela." She grunted. The girl smiled and waved.

"We shacked up here with a few other to get a few minutes of breathing room from those things and hopefully some gas, but like Ann said the pumps are tapped out and the cars are backed up for miles."

"Any of them happen to be cops or soldiers?" Marty asked.

They shook their heads with sorrow across their faces. Johnny let out a heavy sigh, they were on their own now. Marty shook his head and looked around at the small shopping plaza. There was the pet store they had parked near, a small gas hut, a quick stop grocery store and the diner. It was all boxed in and the lot was filled with different cars. There was no telling what the situation was with these people, but it was late at night, jets were dropping bombs on the city and those things were scattered and lurking around all over the place. They didn't have any choice, but to stay at the diner and hopefully get some sleep.

The two slowly walked into the diner, a small bell jingled when they opened the door and everyone inside tensed and looked up at the two. They both held their hands up defensively as some of the people had guns.

"Sorry, we were just passing through, same as you." Johnny stated. A lot of the people went back to either talking or eating, but a few of them kept their eyes trained on them.

"Don't worry about them, they're just scared." The two looked over to see a young woman with wavy brown hair and stunning blue eyes staring at them from a booth where she was slouching. She wore a grey double layered long sleeve top with black washed biker jeans and leather boots. The thing that caught their attention was the large black M16A2 assault rifle sitting on the table. She looked at it and smiled.

"It was my dad's," She stated. "Don't worry I know how to use it."

"Good, I'm Johnny and this is my teacher, Mr. Chang." Johnny introduced. She waved and introduced herself.

"I'm Leila, Leila Jane Watson." She introduced. "Sorry, the rest of these guys I don't know. No one has said anything since we all witnessed those bombs fall."

"Yeah, that was fucking crazy." Johnny stated. "We're looking for someone who might know what happened."

"They're trying to wipe out the whole bulk of these things." Another voice said. This time they were met with two sets of eyes. These two were very young, but looked mature enough to be adults. One was a sixteen-year-old Hispanic girl with shoulder length black hair and light brown eyes. The other who spoke earlier had short light brown hair that was swiped to the side. He looked a year older than the girl and glared at Marty and Johnny with his hazel eyes.

"This is why I never trusted the military. Sick fucks wouldn't think twice before nuking us." The boy snapped.

"My father served in the military you little shit!" Leila snapped, her hand reached out and gripped her rifle tightly. The boy slowly pulled out a Glock 17 out from under the table and set it carefully on the table top. The barrel of the gun pointed right at her.

"Ezra," The girl said reassuringly as she rubbed his hand which was still on the gun. "Sorry, he's just upset. I'm Mercedes and this is my boyfriend, Ezra."

"Nice to meet you." Marty smiled as he reached his hand out to shake hers, but before she could reach out, Ezra swatted his hand away.

"Nice to meet you, now fuck off, we don't have anything to say to you." Ezra snapped. Johnny looked at Mercedes and she gave him an apologetic shrug as Marty slowly backed away. Johnny muttered, 'fucker', under his breath and Marty placed an arm around his shoulder.

"I've dealt with angry young men like him before, just leave him with his girlfriend and hopefully she can calm him down." Leila scoffed.

"Yeah, how many of those students threatened you with handguns?" She asked. Marty sent her a stern glare.

"Just please do not aggravate him." Marty warned out of fear of what he would do with that gun, especially since there were children around. Most of the diner was filled with young people around Johnny's age and a few young adults. Some had families and friends while others were crept in a corner by themselves gripping their guns or knives.

Marty was a teacher for a long time and he had seen his fair share of lunchroom brawls. Anyone of these people could go off and armed with gun or a knife didn't make matters better. He was starting to think he was better off outside with the dead.

As he was just about to sit down, the Mac'Carty sisters stormed in and slammed the door behind them.

"There's someone out there!" Angela yelped. "He's got a big fucking truck and big fucking guns!"

Everyone started to panic at this as a few people got their guns ready. Ezra grabbed his Glock and his girlfriend and he led her to the back of the diner. Marty readied his bat as two men stomped towards the front door. They both looked to be around twenty-six, one had shaved black hair, wielding a Benelli M4 tactical shotgun and the other had messy black hair with a goatee, wielding a Mossberg 590 shotgun.

They both stepped out and cocked their guns.

"We don't want any trouble, so if you're planning on robbing us you'd better fuck off right now!" One of the men shouted.

"I'm not here to cause trouble, for Christ sake I'm a cop!" The man shouted from behind one of the cars. The two didn't let up and kept their guns pointed at the car he was hiding behind. From behind the car the man pulled his badge out from his pocket and set it on the ground, sliding it under the car towards their feet. One of the men picked it up and examined it, before looking back at the car.

"Come out slowly," The man said. "My friend here is gonna keep his gun on you, but I'll have mine lowered. You keep whatever guns you have pointed away from us or we'll blast your ass back to Atlanta, understand?"

"Sure thing!" He shouted as he held up his modified assault rifle over his head. The man looked to be twenty-nine years old Hispanic man with medium black taper hair. He wore a green bomber jacket over a grey shirt with jeans and combat boots and from the rifle held above his hand and the machine gun slung behind his hip the two could tell he meant business.

"Like I said I don't want any trouble, just a place to crash for the night." He explained. "I don't like being out in the open at night. These things start to get crazy at night, they start gathering and freaking out more than usual. It's a mess out there."

"Shit," The messy hair man said. He looked to his partner who merely shrugged. "I'm Paul, this is Eli."

The man smiled and nodded as he lowered his rifle and slung it over his shoulder. "I'm Jessie Cortez, but my friends call me, J.C."

The three stepped in and everyone tensed, some even grabbed at their guns. Paul stepped forward and spoke is piece. "Okay everyone, listen up. This is Jessie, he's gonna crash here and if you don't like it, well I don't give a rat's furry ass."

"Watch your mouth around my kid!" A woman shouted from the back of the diner.

"Why don't you-" Paul was cut off when Marty stepped up in front of him and placed his hands on his shoulder.

"Please, calm down." He said. "I understand that everyone has been through a lot for today, but can we please try and get through this night without any more violence or trouble amongst ourselves."

"I'm with him." Jessie said. "Those things did a pretty good job of fucking up our daily lives and we don't need to make it easy for them."

"How about we start over and properly introduce ourselves." Marty explained. Everyone gave him a strange look and he shrugged. "I helped with a few group exercises back at the high school I use to work at. It was a way for kids to get along. I'll start us off. My name is, Marty Chang, I teach high school physics and I have a wife and child all the way in South Carolina in army base. I hope. Anyone else wish to speak?"

Everyone remained quiet for a moment, before Jessie spoke out.

"Like Paul said I am, Jessie Cortez. I severed in the marines for a few terms, before joining the Atlanta police force and S.W.A.T team. I was out camping and hunting with some friends when I got the call to come in and assist with a city-wide evacuation, but I never made it there because I was stuck between rioters and these things. I'm just trying find a place to hold up."

"I'm Johnny Mckellen, I was a student in Mr. Chang's class and I killed my mother, nuff said." He said in a shaky voice as Marty wrapped and arm around his shoulder.

"He's with me." He said.

From their table, Mercedes wrapped her hand around her boyfriends and she decided to speak out.

"My name is Mercedes Lizel Muniz and this is my boyfriend Ezra Quinn Cowell." She introduced. "We've been together for a year and we were trying to make our way to Atlanta, hoping to find safety when we got stuck here."

"What about your parents?" Jessie asked.

"They're dead." Ezra stated sharply, putting an end to Mercedes story.

"I'm Leila Watson, I was studying to be a doctor and I was on my way to visit my mother who was in the hospital when my mother called me, telling me that the hospital was under attack and I should get out of town. So…that's me."

"I'm Harper Rose Smith." A young feminine voice called out. She was wearing a black racer back tank top with a pair of blue skinny jeans and motorcycle boots. She was fidgeting with her fingers as she started talking. "I was living on my own for a few years now since my mom died and I cut school early only for this to happen, so that's me."

A small family sitting in a booth introduced themselves next.

"My name is Aaron Hannay," The older Hispanic man said. He then nodded to his wife a Caucasian woman and a young twelve-year-old girl. "This is my wife Olivia and my daughter Clara. We both worked as teachers and our daughter goes to school, obviously. I work as a mechanic for some extra cash. In fact, that is what I was doing when I started seeing people eating each other. We are just hoping to find a place to wait this whole thing out."

"Wait this out?" Ezra asked, nobody missed the skepticism in his voice.

"Yeah, you know for a cure, isn't that why you're going to, Atlanta?" Olivia asked. Ezra rolled his eyes as a shaky voice started to speak.

"I-I'm Clary Evans." The nineteen-year-old girl said as she twisted a strand of her blonde hair around her pointer finger. She had blood on her white shirt and judging from her personality, everyone could assume that blood belonged to someone who was important to her or someone who wasn't. "I was at home sleeping when my brother started shooting at something from downstairs…I went down and my parents were…being eaten. Jared, we packed up and left right away, but we got held up in traffic and then the bombs fell and before I could do anything I was knocked down and trampled by the mob of people. I woke up and I was alone…so that's me." She wrapped her arm around her legs and curled up in a fetal position in her booth. Her right hand gripping a bowie knife.

"I'm Elizabeth Walsh, I work in the E.R." A young woman in scrubs said as she wrapped her brown hair into a ponytail. She said down in a chair and started to scratch the ears of her two-year-old black Labrador. "And this is, Apollo. I was walking him when this shit went down, so I loaded us up in our car and got us the hell out of, Atlanta."

"I am Victoria Kallen," A Japanese woman said with shiny red hair, tied in a ponytail. "I was studying to be a nurse. I worked at Hot Topic and I was vacationing with some friends when this happened." She shrugged.

"I'm Eli," The man from earlier said as he poured himself a glass of scotch. "I work as a bartender, I'm from Macon and I was on my way home from work when this shit happened. It was a bit of trouble getting here, but my shotgun here helped me get through it all." He chuckled, patting his shotgun.

"Okay, I'll go next, I am Ann Mac'Carty and this is my sister, Angela. We're from Mexico and our parents died a few years ago. We were planning on heading to Mexico to see if we could find what little family we have left."

"Good, now is there anyone else?" Marty asked.

"I'll go next," A young Indian woman said as she ran a hand through her long black hair. "My name is, Evangeine Bawne, but my friends call me, Evan. I am from India, but I came here to go to school for my degree in electronics engineering. I was out shopping when I spotted some folks…eating each other. I went back to my dorm room and packed up with plans to get to a safe zone in Atlanta, but I had to practice my batting first." She chuckled sheepishly as she held up her metal softball bat. Her face turned red when no one laughed and she cleared her throat before continuing her story. "So, one of my classmates gave me a ride out of town and we were heading to Atlanta when those jets started bombing the city, so with nowhere left to go we just headed here."

"What happened to your roommate?" Clary mumbled from the next booth.

Evan let out a heavy sigh and she reached into her tool box and pulled out a, Glock-17 pistol.

"I saw a Geek heading towards me, I panicked and started wailing on him and I noticed his gun was still holstered, so while I busied myself trying to take off his gun my friend got bit and…well we saw what happens when you get bit. She didn't want that…she asked for the gun. So, that's me."

"I'm Ann Nixon," Another voice called. Everyone looked at the small family huddled together in the booth as the woman sat at the edge of her seat with the butt of her Remington 870 police magnum rested on the floor next to her combat boots. "This is my wife Eliza and our daughter Olivia. I'm an EMT and Eliza was a lawyer. Olivia over there was getting ready to start school when this bullshit happened. It wasn't easy, but we made it here, before those bombs fell."

Marty looked at the other woman in her dark black suit, cradling her thirteen-year-old daughter. He gave her a nod and a small wave, which she returned, before looking back at the group. "Anyone else?"

Marty acted like he was asking no one in particular, but he was casually glaring at Paul, who just sat at the counter with his back turned to the group. Paul could feel eyes on him and he let out an annoyed groan and finally spoke.

"I am, Paul," He grunted. "I worked at a grocery store, I had hoped to go to trade school for plumbing, my mom is dead, my uncle is dead and his shotgun is the only thing I have left to remember him by."

"Well, I like to think we are better off than how we were before It was nice meeting everyone." Marty smiled as he sat down at one of the tables. "Maybe we can get through the evening without any more issues."

"Oh, shit!" Johnny snapped as he pointed outside. Everyone looked outside and they could see the faint image of three walkers lurking around.

Paul was one of the first ones out the door, shotgun in hand as Jessie followed him outside with a bowie knife in hand. Leila had her double edge fighters dagger ready and the three proceeded towards the three walking corpses while everyone else had their weapons ready.

Paul approached the first walker and he raised his shotgun and swiped the butt of the gun across it's face, knocking it down on the ground. He the pulled out a small metal switchblade from his belt and placed his foot on its throat, pinning it to the ground and plunging the blade in between its eyes killing it.

Jessie ran towards the other one and with the blade held upside down, he plunged the blade into the center of its skull while Leila managed to stick her dagger into last ones left temple.

Jessie scanned the area to make sure that no more were lurking around as Ezra stomped out of the diner, dragging Mercedes by her wrist towards his red Ford Mustang. Jessie was confused.

"Whoa, where are you going?!" He snapped. Ezra pulled out his Glock, but he kept it at his side as a warning.

"Back off, we are leaving before more of those things come back." He snapped.

"Where are you going to go, those things get agitated at night and it's pitch black out!" Leila snapped as she holstered her dagger. "Then there's the fact that you don't have any food or water, your ride is low on gas and you two looked like you were passing out before those walkers came in. For a guy who cares about his girlfriend, you sure don't think before acting."

"Oh, and sitting here with group of assholes with guns and itchy trigger fingers sounds so appealing!" Ezra shot back.

"Excuse me," Marty spoke up from the doorway. "But everyone in there is just an average joe trying to survive. Just like you two."

"Let him go," Paul shouted from his spot by the walker. Everyone watched him as he dug through its pockets and to his surprise he found a shotgun shell and few nine-millimeter rounds. "If the walkers don't get him then the convicts will."

"Convicts?" Mercedes asked. He nodded.

"I was a few miles outside of town when those bikers started cruising around the cars." He explained.

"The Proctors?" Jessie asked, Paul nodded.

"There was a prison bus stuck in traffic with us and I guess they must have had a few of their boys on board, because they started shooting the shit out of the bus." Paul explained while approaching the couple. "The inmates scattered out, some of them had the guard's guns and then they started robbing the people around me."

"Did they try to rob you?" Marty asked.

"Oh yeah, but they soon regretted it." Paul chuckled as he rested his shotgun on his shoulder. "But I only got one of them, before speeding off."

"You think more are out there?" Ezra asked.

"Them and a few hundred killers, thieves and rapist." He said. "Not a lot of people are sad to see the world go to hell you know."

"He's right, so if you want to be a lone wolf and risk your girl's safety, then by all means, if not then get your ass inside and shut up." Jessie warned. Ezra glared at Jessie for a moment, before taking his girls hand and taking her back inside.

Paul walked past him and handed him the bullets for his pistol and Ezra took them as he went back inside. Jessie looked at the entrance and pondered over what he was going to do.

"Okay, the who plaza is fenced off, so all we have to do is close and lock the gate, maybe even park a few of the dumpsters in front of it. Then we can figure out our next move."

"Everyone is willing to share their food and Angela has offered to cook whatever the diner has left." Marty explained.

"Okay then," Jessie said as he approached the gate. "Let's get this place fortified really quick and get some food in us and hopefully some sleep. Then tomorrow we can figure out what to do next."

Everyone did as they were told as Jessie and Paul fastened the lock and chain around the gates and to their fortune is was a pad lock with the key still inside and as for the food, the Hamay's gave the group some sandwiches and Angela made some pancakes for everyone. It was instant mix with a little water, but with everything that has happened it was the best meal anyone has ever had.

Despite how they all met, and even though they were still strangers they were all glad to have each other.

(A/N)

So, a bit rushed for some characters, but that is only because I don't want to pour too much exposition on you guys. I want to build up and let these characters explain themselves for their actions. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed and more is on the way.