Hey guys. So finally my work and uni work is starting to slow down after one final push so I will hopefully be able to update more frequently. I have had a rush of assignments recently and work has been absolutely nuts! My manager has finally returned from sick leave and my secondment as assistant manager has finished, much to my relief. I will go back to my old job and quite happily be home at a reasonable time from now on which means more time in the evening to work on my story!

As always a major thanks for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing. Those little notifications on my email really do brighten up my day :-) xxx

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"You survived this?" Glenn asked in disbelief, waving his hand vaguely over the vicinity of Patrick's body, after a moment of surprised silence from the group at her declaration. He was looking very pale, sweat seeping from his pores and soaking his dark hair at his temples and neck line.

"Yes." She replied tiredly, averting her eyes from the bloody sheets. "I saw this on the army base. First stage is general flu symptoms, fever, nausea, heavy head, then comes the bone deep ache, it hurts to move and your bones feel like lead. Then the final stage is severe haemorrhaging. Lungs, ears, eyes and nose."

"All of us in my family where at the stage where we were feverish when we got to the hospital," She continued, hugging her arms across her chest and rubbing her upper arms absentmindedly.

"James went into a coma and died from the fever luckily before the last stages of it hit him. As for my children, well it's extremely aggressive and at the time Karen told me that they were severely short staffed and didn't know that the dead turned regardless of being bitten. The children were succumbing a lot faster than the adults and when they died they were left in their beds whilst they were desperately trying to attend to the ones that were choking. They ended up getting overrun."

"How did you survive it then?" Sasha asked warily.

"The hospital went under. I had managed to fight it off longer than James but as they were evacuating everyone I entered into the last stage of haemorrhaging. Karen begged one of the doctors to try and save me, he couldn't do much for me whilst they were moving us so the doctor as a last resort pierced the lining of my lungs through my ribs and put a drain in," she indicated to her ribs on either side just under her breasts where she knew the little raised white welts sat.

"Karen also used an intubating tube down my throat to keep my airways clear. It kept me alive long enough to get evacuated and onto the medical base. I was mostly out of it for a good couple of days but I was past the worst. I woke up about a week later."

"So the key is to keep the airways clear?" Hershel mused, throwing a concerned look at Glenn who was coughing and clearly wincing in pain.

"Yeah," she answered flatly looking down at the bloody sheet that covered Patrick, waves of guilt causing tears to prick at her sandpaper dry eyes again. If she had looked for him maybe he would have survived. Or at least not died by himself, probably terrified and drowning in his own blood. She looked up to see Maggie looking at her beadily, shaking her head at her as if she could read her mind.

"Is it contagious?" She asked Charlotte directly, trying to break her away from her dark thoughts.

"Yes." Charlotte replied grimly amid concerned looks amongst the group," One of the doctors on the base called it the Hanta Virus' kick arse big brother. A hundred and seventy three people were evacuated from the hospital, twelve of us survived."

"My God," Rick exhaled slowly, digging his palms into his tired eyes. Like most of the group he had only had a couple of hours sleep, and had one too many the night before. After the initial couple of seconds of bleary-eyed disorientation, he had sobered immediately at the screams of terror that had filtered through to his sleeping quarters and had shaken off the alcohol and minimal sleep. Once order had been restored he noticed that many of his friends had done the same although Glenn and Maggie were looking a little worse for wear. His hangover was returning with a vengeance, the musty headache had settled in and he felt sick to his stomach.

They all looked up to see Dr S slowly descending the stairs, the expression on his gentle face told them that he had the world on his shoulders. He glanced up at the gathering, mild surprise fleetingly crossing his face but moved towards them when he realised the people he wanted to speak to, Hershel and Rick, were in the group.

"How is she?" Hershel greeted him bleakly. Rick shook his head and screwed his eyes tightly trying to block out the screams that echoed in his head of the seven year old he had had to hold down whilst she had her leg cut off. He could honestly say that it had been the worst thing that he had had ever had to do, including when he had hacked Hershel's leg off. At least he had already passed out from the blood loss and shock. Kiera had been awake, and fully aware what was happening to her.

Dr S sighed heavily, a mixture of the hangover and his duties making his stomach churn as he gave him the glum assessment," We've stopped the bleeding but I don't know whether she will be okay, if we caught it in time. She's still passed out. Jeanette's with her."

"Lottie when did Patrick first complain about his head ache?" Hershel asked breaking the dark silence that fell on the group.

"Late afternoon, after Maggie got back but before Daryl turned up." She told him thickly, blinking away her tears furiously.

"Which means that he died within about twelve hours of his first symptoms." He murmured, scratching at his white beard. Taking a deep breath he addressed Dr S and brought him up to speed on what Charlotte had told them before he had joined them. If possible, his dark skin seemed to pale at the information given to him.

"My God, we've all been exposed to it. The children..." He mumbled, looking around the grey cell block which had intermittent blood pools on the floors and spattered on the walls. What had been their safe haven only the day before would become a crypt within the next twelve hours.

"We need to quarantine and lock down this cell block." Hershel ordered in his quiet authoritative voice. "Anyone who is showing any signs of sickness should be moved into here. We may have all been exposed to it. The children, especially Judith, need to be placed away from both cell blocks and have no contact with anyone who has been in here."

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Daryl secured his cross bow in the passenger side foot well of Zack's car and stood up stiffly, stretching his back. It was a sleek black Audi R8, a pleasure to drive any other time and had been just days before when he had taken it out on a run but following the events that morning he felt no excitement course through his veins in the normal way as he prepared to leave. All he felt was resigned anger, frustration, tiredness. Bone deep tiredness.

Dry rubbing his face roughly he growled a frustrated grunt and slammed the door shut. Everything was fucked up. He huffed in exasperation and rolled his eyes, okay, more fucked up than usual. Just when it started to look like they were catching a break then a new pile of shit lands on their door step. Five dead, that little girl with her leg cut off who would if he was brutally honest not live thi. She wasn't a tough, son of a bitch like Hershel. She was a God damn seven year old slip of a girl. And even if she did, how in the hell was she going to survive in a world where flesh eating monsters roamed freely?

Now Glenn, Sasha and half of the cell block were ill, in desperate need for antibiotics. Charlotte had been the harbinger of bad news. He didn't know what the Hanta Virus could do but Patrick's blood soaked face had caused a lead-like unease to settle in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't shift. The kid had basically exploded. What the fuck were they supposed to do with that? He shook his head as he recalled Hershel's list of things that he needed. Penicillin, ventilation masks, tubes, surgical alcohol, anything they could find at the veterinary college more than fifty miles away. A couple of years ago fifty miles would have been nothing, now it seemed like yet another impossible task. He would try his damnedest to get what they needed but what if they were too late? It had taken less than twelve hours to kill Patrick and they were already two hours closer to their deadline since all the shit had gone down.

His morose thoughts were interrupted by a sight that he didn't think he would see for at least another couple of days or so. And one that picked up his spirits in only a welcome sight could. Michonne was standing at the gates of the prison, the undead clambering against the large logs behind her that fortified the fences just out of her reach.

She watched with a look of concern, as her friend jogged down to her to let her in, her infamous sixth sense catching on that something was a miss. The greenery was empty as was the courtyard only a hundred metres away. The place was almost eerily silent, too silent for the time of day. She had walked a little faster in the last mile or so eagerly anticipating the lure of a good breakfast, her stomach growling unnecessarily at her. She was hungry for more than the power bars and luke warm water in the metal canister that jostled about in her backpack. Although barely dawn there were always the usual early risers, starting breakfast, the children playing on the greenery alert and full of energy at what was once an ungodly hour. Now the only sounds that greeted her ears were the perpetual groans of the undead.

"Ya have impeccable timin'," He growled in his low voice at her as he swept the gates back enough to let her squeeze through. She frowned in greeting, her black eyes narrowing slightly in question at her taciturn friend. With her following in his wake he stomped back towards the courtyard, and in his usual austere manner he related to her the events of the night before. He had finished his narrative, and she was aware of the bare facts that she needed to know of by the time they reached the courtyard gates. He figured he would fill her in later about the rest of the things that had happened in the last couple of days, they seemed to him unimportant at that moment.

"So where are we going?" She asked without preamble, knowing that although he hadn't asked her to come with him that she wouldn't take no as an answer to joining him.

"Vet trainin' college just over fifty miles south of here," He answered simply, acknowledging her instant addition to the party without a blink of an eye. He took a swig from his water bottle, throwing a couple of painkillers to the back of his throat and grimacing as he swallowed. The day was already planning out to be warm, the dull headache that settled in his temples did not help. He was never drinking again he promised himself, wiping his brow with his forearm and lighting up a cigarette.

"You okay?" She asked having watched him closely, he looked pale and more grouchy than normal.

"I'm fine," he replied grumpily and flicked his cigarette ash moodily, "damn hangover is all."

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Maggie and Charlotte were securing the last of the small crates of water onto the pallet sized delivery trolleys they had found at the new build site when Rick, Daryl and Tyreese joined them in the back section of the courtyard. The two women had been boiling large amounts of water in the large industrial cooking pans to sanitise the river water, and letting it cool before syphoning it into the large gallon water bottles. Piles of clean bedding were folded and stacked ready, with another crate of food, fresh fruit and packages of dried food. Enough for a forty eight hour lock down. That was how long before they knew how the land would lie. Who would die and who would survive.

Both women had barely uttered a word, carrying out their tasks with determination to try to banish any dark musings that crept into their minds. The dead and the ill didn't seem to want to leave them in peace, their faces constantly bombarding their thoughts. Patrick, Ryan, Karen, Chloe, David. Kiera was currently in the grips of a fever with Jeanette watching over her, and now Glenn and Sasha had become ill too. Beth and the children had been quarantined to protect them on the other side of the prison. And Daryl, Tyreese, Michonne and Zack were going out to get medical supplies more than fifty miles away. Once again putting themselves in danger.

"Right that's everything." Maggie spoke for the first time that morning since they had set to their task.

Charlotte bobbed her head, quickly scanning the food area to make sure they hadn't missed anything. Having been covered in blood from her hair to her feet that morning she had taken the briefest of showers to scrub herself clean, trying to ignore the red water coming off of her and had thrown on a pair of jeans and a long sleeved t shirt, piling her soaked hair without bothering to brush it into a loose bun at the crown of her head. She was just thankful that she hadn't been drinking the night before, the lack of sleep being the only thing that had hindered her since the early hours of this morning.

"It's good that you have done this for them, it will hopefully make it a lot more comfortable for them." Rick told them both looking approvingly at the large trolley. "At least they also have water in the cell block as well. It seems like a minor miracle that we managed to get the water systems working right before all this happened."

"Or maybe a little too late," Maggie replied harshly, tears welling in her eyes at the thought of Glenn being locked down in quarantine, "If they had been in earlier then maybe the disease wouldn't have had a chance to take hold."

Maggie glared at them daring them to challenge her and turned on her heel, stalking off towards the courtyard to put away the large pans they had used. Charlotte blushed and ducked her head down feeling the reproach in her voice aimed at her. She hunkered down, unnecessarily checking the holdings of the crates once more, fiddling with clasps to keep her eyes averted from the group who were standing silently around each other and exchanging frowns.

What if she hadn't had her training sessions with Daryl which had extended from an hour or so in the beginning to almost all afternoon in the last week. She had been enjoying herself so much that she had even on occasion pretended to miss a target or accidently on purpose done a stance he had shown her wrong so that he felt he needed to prolong training her. It had been worth the playful jibes and even the occasional frustration at her getting something simple wrong to spend a little longer with him. The shame and guilt of that selfish deceit weighed heavily on her now. If they had worked a little longer hours they would have had the systems up and running earlier. She was right to a certain extent, it was the unsanitary conditions and people living in such close quarters that allowed disease to take hold. If they had had the systems in earlier then the prison would have been a cleaner place to live.

"Don't ya pay her any mind, she's tired and upset and scared as hell for Glenn," Daryl muttered to her standing right next to her, she could feel his eyes boring into her back as her slightly trembling fingers finished their unnecessary task. She stood taking a shaky breath and with her side to him, nodded mutely.

"We've all lost people that we cared about, what she said was out of order but as Daryl said she's upset," Tyreese told them in his low voice agreeing with Daryl, "The systems being in days earlier wouldn't have made a damn difference. We know that this all happened in the beginning when we had everything we could ever need, medications, clean water and good health. This was going to happen regardless of how well prepared we are for it."

Charlotte nodded again offering them a sad smile but felt her spirits rise slightly. Tyreese was right this had already ravaged the world when everything in their privileged life had been available to fight it. She couldn't be angry at Maggie for her outburst, she understood the pain of loss. It made you unreasonable at the best of times.

"Daddy," Maggie's voice rang out breaking their reflective pause in conversation. They looked over to see Hershel slowly limping back through the gate carrying an old wooden box full from what they could see of flowers, berries and herbs. He paused clocking his daughters disapproving look and resumed his slow gait to the large sliding metal door that housed the quarantined cell block. She marched up to him, blocking his path and crossed her arms scowling at the box.

"Maggie," he told her firmly his expression clearly brooking no intention of backing down and barely acknowledging the group of people joining them, " I cannot stand by and let these poor people suffer when I have the means to help them."

"Daddy, " she whispered fearfully, tears swimming in her green eyes, " If you go in there you could die, I can't lose you. Beth can't lose you."

"Those people need my help and if I can ease their suffering I will try," He told her softly," Glenn needs my help, he's sick."

They stared at each other, one looking at his beautiful daughter with all the conviction of a man that knows he is right, the daughter looking at her father with warring emotions. She was desperate to save Glenn but the thought of losing her beloved father was heartbreakingly painful.

"I'll come with you," She told him after a beat, a look of resolve in her expression that clearly showed her fathers genes. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

"No." He denied her sternly, " I am an old man. You are young. I won't let you take the risk of becoming ill."

"I'll go." Charlotte volunteered quietly, causing all of them to look at her and stopping Maggie from replying, " I'll help you."

"No Lottie you can't," Maggie protested just as Daryl growled a similar sentence. She had immediately felt guilty as she had walked away at her unreasonable and unfair barb about the length of time it had taken to fulfil their plans. She knew that Rick wasn't congratulating them and himself about the things that they had accomplished in the last month. He had been stating a fact that hopefully it would be easier to get people through the illness with the systems in place. The thought of Glenn in the quarantine, the fact that the disease had taken hold and that her mind kept placing Glenn in Patrick's place spurred her to viciously snipe at them. In truth she was truly thankful for the things that Lottie and the men, which included Glenn, had managed to pull off in the last month.

"Yes I can," She replied firmly to the both of them," We all know how easy it can get out of hand, look at what happened last night, and he would be by himself. This way I can watch his back and plus I can help to look after the ones that are ill."

"What if you get ill too?" Rick asked quietly still eyeing Hershel and his box of wild ingredients a little warily. Usually he trusted the older man's sound judgement but he had to admit a serious doubt that a couple of flowers and herbs would help in anyway when he thought of the remains of the young boy that had succumbed first to the disease. It unsettled him to think that this futile attempt may end up costing them one of the stoic leaders of their group and a potentially valuable member of their community should she chose to stay.

"Of all people to go in it makes sense that I go, I may have some immunity against it because I had it before." She told him as confidently as she could muster.

"And if ya don't?" Daryl glared at her angrily, making her quail slightly under his stony gaze. He could see through the front of confidence that she was trying to portray, she really needed to work on her poker face.

"Then we will know in twelve hours time, won't we?" She replied a little defensively at the hunter scowling at her.

"Lottie, if this is to do with you feeling guilty about what happened last night, you don't have anything-" Maggie told her quietly, grabbing her forearm and leaning in close.

"No Maggie," she interrupted, pointedly looking into her eyes to convey her sincerity, " I have my own demons to deal with that but this is genuinely just about helping Glenn and the others, and looking out for your dad."

Maggie looked torn, warring between her need to stop her friend from possibly succumbing to a deadly illness and the comfort of knowing that her father would be protected in a place he wouldn't let her enter. Charlotte huffed out a soft chuckle as Maggie launched herself at her unexpectedly, gripping her in a tight hug, and planted a tear stained kiss on her cheek. "I'm sorry," she apologised, Charlotte knew she meant for her earlier throw away comment. She squeezed her back, reciprocating the tight bear hug, and smiled at her friend.

"Okay. We best be moving." Hershel interjected gently, receiving an acknowledging nod from Charlotte as she pulled out of her hug with a teary Maggie. He hated drawing out sorrowful moments, especially long goodbyes with his daughters. He hadn't had a chance to tell his youngest daughter that he loved her this morning before she had been rushed away with Judith and the kids but he was confident that she knew that she meant the world to him just like his eldest daughter.

Daryl was chewing on his lip so hard that she thought that he was going to draw blood, his head turned away and staring far at the distant fences without truly seeing them. Drawing a deep sigh, he let his head drop forward and shook it trying to throw off his aggravation. The painkillers had not kicked in yet, and now to add to his worries whilst he was facing death outside he would be distracted at the thought of her being trapped in a what amounted to a diseased rabbit hutch. Then again she had shown guts in the past couple of weeks, he knew she wasn't a weakling and everyone would have a much better chance of getting through this ordeal with both her and Hershel in there.

"Fine," he agreed finally reluctantly acknowledging that he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it, she wouldn't back down. Reaching down he unsheathed his large hunting knife and flipping it over in his hand he held it out with the handle offered to Charlotte.

She stared at the knife in surprise, but then shook her head," I can't take this, if you're going out there you're going to need it."

"I got other weapons." He muttered, after she still looked at it unsurely he growled at her, "Woman, take the damn knife."

"Ya don't take any chances, ya hear?" He ordered sternly after she had finally taken it from him and slipped it into her belt. He held her eyes captive with his intensity not being able to tear them away from his piercing gaze, "If someone has passed, ya make sure ya put 'em down straight away."

She nodded mutely in acknowledgement, he was confident that she would anyway and his words may prove to have been unnecessary. She had shown that clarity of thought even in the nerve racking heat of her escape, to spear the base of the neck of each one that she killed knowing that she may get caught out if they turned unexpectedly. Still, he also knew enough of her that she was soft hearted and had grown to care about the people that were ill. Putting down someone you hate would be substantially easier than putting someone down that had once laughed with you, shared a meal with you, that had meant something to you. He swallowed hard as Carol's soft smiling face came to the front of his mind, and hid his moment of weakness by rifling through his pockets looking for his cigarettes.

Rick unbuckled the loaded smaller gun of the two he carried from the holster on the back of his belt and handed it to her. "Just in case." He told her quietly, watching her put it on the other side of the belt to the knife.

Maggie hugged her father awkwardly around the box of medicinal fauna, placing a kiss on his weathered cheek and whispered that she loved him to which he smiled gently to her and told her to look after Bethy.

Charlotte smiled her goodbyes and good lucks to the group, and grabbing the handle of the trolley followed Hershel to the large sliding door. She waited for him to enter before stepping in after him, and closed it behind them with a feeling of foreboding stepping into another dark place that seemed to banish the warm daylight.

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A/N

Ok so like I said in my summary this story follows mainly cannon with tweaks her and there. I will be using a couple of the events in the series to warp them into my version of the story that include Lottie but hopefully you will see as it progresses that it is still AU enough for those people that have told me that they prefer that kind of story. Hopefully I can please both preferences - Cannon and AU.

Also if you have followed and are reading these last couple of chapters thinking that it looks like I am just going to basically rewrite the scenes from the show and land Lottie in the middle of it, please don't give up on me yet. There is a purpose to me doing this and you will see that in the next couple of chapters where I am going with it.

It is for want of a better term a means to an end to progress the characters and the story. Thanks xxxxx