Chapter 7: New Reality

Authors Note: Thank you all once again for your feedback and support I am glad you all enjoyed it I can't wait to see what you think of this chapter. I hope I edited it properly this time. I know I make some grammar mistakes. I hope you enjoy!

Also, I wanted to let you guys know that I am going on vacation next week, so it may be a while till my next update.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead.


While everyone went off and scavenged for supplies, Eliza Nixon stood guard for the diner to make sure that no one or nothing got inside. She wasn't entirely alone in this situation as she had Olivia Hannay and Ann Mac'Carty to back her up, but so far, she was the only one with the gun. The rest were just scared kids, despite their age. Rose was fifteen while Clary was nineteen, but they were still young girls who were still in shock at what had just happened.

Angela was eighteen but growing up with a sister like Ann has made her as tough as her sister and Eliza knew she wouldn't be getting help from Ezra, who was only looking out for himself and his girlfriend, so it was up to her to protect everyone.

It wasn't too bad to keep everyone busy. Angela cooked lunch for everyone while Mercedes kept the kids distracted with a game of Uno while Rose and Clary tried making small talk.

Eliza just stood outside of the diner with her Walther PPK in her right hand and her pipe in the left hand. It was around two in the afternoon when she saw something lingering around the front gate.

At first, she thought it was the two groups returning from their runs, but that turned out to be wrong when she saw the gate start to open. She was the one with the key to the lock, so she should be the only one to open it. She quickly peeked into the diner and whispered out to everyone.

"Everyone, hide now!" She whispered as Olivia and Ann started gathering the kids to take behind the counter. She quickly backed out of the diner and shut the door, before turning to the direction of the gates and running towards the entrance. She started to panic when she saw three men dressed like bikers and each of them had a blunt object. One was a skinny man with a softball bat, another was a big man with a sledge hammer and the last guy had long dirty blonde hair armed with a tire iron and a pair of bolt cutters.

She aimed her small handgun at trio and they all quickly held their hands up. The one with the cutters and tire iron let out a chuckle and looked her up and down.

"Nice outfit, darlin," The man said with a lick of his lips. "That suit there really clings to your every curve."

"And its remarks like that, that made me attracted to women." She shot back. The man's men let out small chuckles of their own.

"Rug muncher, go figure."

"Fuck you, now get the hell out of here." She warned him as she kept her gun aimed at them.

"Whoa, now why don't we tone it down for a minute." The man said in a reassuring voice. "My friends and I are just here looking for some food and gas do you have any to spare?"

"Does it look like we have anything?" She asked rhetorically. "We've been stranded for days."

"Hmm, who's car is that?" The man nodded over to the white Chevy Cruise that was parked over by the corner. Paul's car to be exact.

"Why does it matter?"

"That car belongs to a killer I'm afraid." The man said. "He killed a few of my friends for no good reason."

"That's funny, because he said that you tried to rob him at gun point."

"Look, we're just scavenging for supplies, so why don't you just put that gun down and we can work something out." He explained as he slowly stepped forward. Eliza, not taking any chances, pulled the trigger, but the only thing that came from her gun was a light clicking sound.

She forgot to turn the safety off.

The man didn't take any chances and he quickly swung his tire iron at her gun, sending it flying across the lot. Eliza let out a grunt and she quickly swung her pipe at the man, but he ducked beneath her attack and tackled her in the stomach and knocking them both on the ground.

The two struggled for a moment, before the man grabbed a hold of Eliza's pipe and started to press the shaft of the object on her throat, cutting off her breathing.

The big guy with the sledgehammer was smiling down at the two fighting, when he heard something running up behind him. He turned and his eyes widened when he saw Ann rushing towards him with her black machete. He quickly stepped out of the way of her attack, but he suffered a cut across his left shoulder.

He let out a deep hiss through his teeth, before gripping his sledge hammer and swinging it towards Ann. She jumped out of the way of his heavy swing and stumbled back on her ass giving him the chance to attack again. This time her sister Angela leaped in and stabbed him in the back of his shoulder with her switchblade. He let out another scream and turned to attack her, but Ann quickly got up off the ground and raised the tip of her machete to his back and with all her strength she rammed it through his heart.

He let out a choked scream before falling face first on the ground dead. The last man standing with his bat charged at Ann as she tried to pull out her machete from the corpse. He was closing in on her while the other man was coming close to strangling the life out of Eliza.

Right when Ann pulled out her machete, gunfire started echoing around them as the man was struck twice in the chest, before the final shot struck him in between the eyes. The man who was strangling Eliza watched his friend go down and he quickly threw his pipe away and reached into the back of his pants to pull out his Glock 19. He didn't get a chance to aim it as one last shot rang out and the mans brains flew through the back of his head and all over the pavement.

Eliza watched as some chunks got stuck in his hair and she quickly pushed his carcass off of her as she looked up to see who was doing the shooting. Ezra stood with his still smoking Glock 17 and stomped towards the man Ann had just killed, aimed his gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

"What the fuck?" Angela shouted as Ann wrapped an arm around her.

"What, he was still breathing." Ezra snapped. Ann shook her head.

"I stabbed him through the heart, trust me, he was dead!" She snapped.

"Okay, fine I imagined it, you're welcome by the way!" He snapped as he looked over to Eliza. "Great work protecting us, boss!" He smiled as he gave her the thumbs up.

"Screw you, you could have helped keep watch earlier if you felt so threatened!" Eliza snapped back.

"Oh, so sorry, but I thought the catatonic bitch with the knife and the red headed lassie who just hit puberty would have helped, but to my shock and horror they did absolutely nothing!" He wept as his face turned serious. "So, you'll forgive me for not trusting them with the safety of my girlfriend's life."

"Listen you littl-"

"Mommy!" Olivia screamed as she ran towards Eliza. Her young daughter caught her off guard when she collided into her, knocking the wind out of her as Oliva wrapped her arms around her mother tight. "Are you okay, that man looked like he was about to kill you!"

"I'm fine, baby." Eliza reassured, stroking her daughter's ponytail.

Olivia looked over at Ezra, who was being held my Mercedes and smiled.

"Thank you for saving her." She said sweetly.

Ezra said nothing and turned to leave, but he was blocked by Mercedes, who had a very stern look on her face. He shrugged his shoulders, oblivious as to what she wanted, but she nodded her head back over towards Eliza and Olivia. Ezra let out a heavy sigh and turned to the mother and daughter with a phony smile on his face.

"You're welcome, kiddo!" He said a cheery as he could. "Your mommy was very brave to try and protect us like that."

Ezra then turned to Mercedes and took her hand leading her back to the diner, while Mercedes flashed Olivia a smile and gave her a friendly wave.

Clary walks up to her with her bowie knife and Eliza pulls her daughter off of her, before kissing her on her forehead. "Honey, I need you to go with Clary while I help keep us safe, okay?"

"Okay, mommy." Olivia says as she walks away with Clary who places a reassuring hand on her back. Eliza walks over to where her gun flew and she picked it up off the ground as Ann pulls out a Smith and Wesson Model 29 from the shoulder holster of the big guy she just killed.

"You know how to use that?" She asked her.

"Yeah, my mother was a cop, she taught me out to use a gun." She said as she checked to see if it was loaded.

"Good, do me a favor and keep it pointed at the entrance. If you see anyone that isn't apart of our group, kill'em."

(!)

Back at the outdoor store, Jessie got the back up generator to work, giving the store enough power to light up the interior and hopefully the radio in Reggie's office. Paul and Jessie both approached the office while keeping their guns trained on the door. Jessie walked to the door slowly and carefully reached his left hand towards the door knob.

Marty and Eli backed them up as Jessie silently counted to three.

'1…2…3!'

He pushed the door open and everyone aimed their guns inside. Everyone quickly backed away from the doorway as they were met with a fowl smell. Jessie knew the smell all to well and he quickly adjusted and walked into the office to see the owner of the store sitting in his desk chair with his brains splattered all over the wall.

Everyone slowly stepped into the office with their noses buried in their shirts as they watched Jessie pick up a nearby note book.

"'To whoever finds my body, bury me, burn me, or leave the fucking door closed. I don't want to be biter chow', well tough break old man, but I don't think the walkers want anything to do with you." Jessie chuckled, setting the book back down on the desk. He spotted Paul crouched down near Reggie's right side and he watched him pick up the old mans pistol a Kimber Warrior 1911.

"Sweet piece." Paul chuckled as he started rummaging around the office looking for ammo and anything useful.

"Seriously, show some respect!" Jessie snapped.

"I am," Paul said. "I am respectfully looting this mans office for supplies, so I can hopefully last longer than he did."

"Asshole." Ann said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't you have a call to make?" Paul snapped back getting Marty's attention.

"Yes, please help me." He pleaded. "Where is the radio?"

"Over here," Jessie said, leading Marty over to a small radio station. The radio was a small CB Radio and Marty was starting to worry. He didn't know how this thing would work and if it did then how would they get in contact with anyone at Fort Jackson. There was no guarantee that they would even be listening for their call. When Marty heard the static whirring on the radio his heart started pounding fast and hard. "Hello, testing, testing…anyone broadcasting on this channel…My name is Jessie Cortez. Is there anyone out there on this frequency?"

Nothing but static. Marty was starting to worry.

"Is there anyone from Fort Jackson on this channel?" Jessie called out to anyone listening. There was nothing for a short while until a voice finally called out.

"…Hello," A voice rang out. "Are you still there?"

"Yes, yes, we are, are you from Fort Jackson?" Jessie called out.

"Yeah, I was stationed there, but we had to relocate down to Georgia. A few bitter and bitten got in and swarmed us. We only had enough time to evacuate a few families and some of our troops."

"Families, do you have anyone by the name of, Chang?" Jessie asked. "Where are you located?"

"We had to set our helicopter down in a ranch out in the rural parts of Georgia. It's a dude ranch called, Trippy's Dude Ranch."

"Trippy's, I went there once, that's near Macon." Jessie said. "What about the family, 'Chang' do you have anyone by that name?"

"I'm not sure, there aren't that many of us here. We ju-"

Both the message and the radio were cut off as power to the whole store went down.

"Shit, the generator must have been low on fuel." Jessie sighed before looking at Marty. "Sorry, Marty."

"Don't be, now I know that Fort Jackson is abandoned and my wife and son may be at this ranch."

"Sounds like there might be more people and some soldiers there too. It could be a better safe haven than that plaza we're all shacked up in."

"We better head back there now, it is starting to get dark." Marty said as he started to make his way out, Jessie soon followed him out the door and through the now dark store as they gathered with everyone else in the parking lot.

Everyone had spent the better part of the day picking the store clean of everything it had. Paul, Johnny, Ann and Eli each had a cart and they were filled with duffle bags, rifles, bow and crossbows.

"This place was pretty picked clean. We managed to snag a couple of rifles and a few crossbows. I guess they preferred guns and bullets to bow and arrows."
Eli shrugged.

"Yeah, speaking of guns, here." Johnny handed Marty a police belt loaded with everything a cop would need, including the gun. Marty took the belt and pulled out the gun to examine it. It was a Smith and Wesson .45 revolver model 625.

He had never held a gun before in his life in fact he had done his best as a teacher to steer his students clear of them and now he was given one by his student to defend himself against these monsters and god only knows what else.

"What am I doing, He asked himself. "I have never killed before in my life and now I am smashing a bat across peoples faces and stabbing them in the head with a knife. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Nothing," Jessie said. "Killing isn't usually about right or wrong, but whether or not you can sleep at night. I remember my first S.W.A.T mission. It was a bank robbery gone wrong and the creeps took hostages. My job was to go in and disarm them, but it was no good, one of them had a gun held to one of the bank tellers head. I didn't even hesitate to pull the trigger and killed that guy on the spot the rest soon followed. Everyone kept giving me looks and asking me how I felt, but the truth was I didn't really feel bad. He was a bad man with bad intentions and I did what I felt was right. I slept like a baby that night."

"C'mon, let's just get back to the diner." Paul said as he pushed his cart back towards the diner.

Everyone else soon followed as Marty holstered his new gun and slung the belt over his shoulder. This was their new reality now, fighting the walking dead while finding a place to call home. He shouldered his bat and followed everyone back to their temporary home, feeling better than he did before arriving. He turned around and looked at the abandoned store that was once a man's place of business, but now a rundown building with the owner dead inside.

"Thank you, Mr. Otis."

(!)

It was nighttime by the time everyone finally made their way back to the diner. Everyone was on high alert when Leila and Eliza told everyone about their encounter with the bikers and convicts. Jessie had everyone hunker down in the diner as Angela made them dinner on a hot plate and the area was lit up by a gas lamp they had gotten from the camping store.

"We managed to get a few more guns and ammo from the bikers, but who knows how many guns and numbers they have." Leila stated as she loaded bullets into her clip. "We didn't even make a dent in the highway."

"Okay, I'll help you keep a look out while we get a few more hands to help out. Then we get the hell out of here as soon as possible." Jessie informed everyone as he peered out the window.

"No offence, but after what happened to Eliza I am not leaving her alone again." Ann said as she sat in a booth holding her wife and daughter close to her.

"She's right." Eli said, pouring himself a glass of scotch. "We need some guns here at the home front too."

"Honestly, since we have more guns and bullets to spare we should teach people how to shoot." Paul said as he held an empty glass out for Eli to fill.

"I don't know," Jessie said running a hand through his hair. "I know times are tough, but…"

"But nothing." Marty said. "You said it yourself back at the store, we need to accept our new reality or die. My family may or may not be at this ranch, but I am going to do whatever it takes to find out. I'll go at it alone, but I would sleep a lot better at night if you would all come with me to this possible safe haven, now who is ready to start really working together?"

"I'm in." Evan said. "I wasted a clip on these ass hats and I would refer to keep it to one bullet per asshole."

"Charming," Ann said as she stroked her daughter's hair. "I'll help with the gun training, Jessie you will help keep guard, sound good?"

"Sounds great." Jessie said as she stepped outside into the parking lot, shutting the door behind him. He sat down in the lawn chair and took first watch. He wasn't alone for long as Marty stepped out with a chair of his own and set it down next to him.

He pulled his new revolver from his belt and sat down next to Jessie setting the gun in his lap. Jessie nodded at Marty, before staring back at the gate for their long watch.