First of all, I'd like to welcome some new readers to this story! I hope you all enjoy it. I have written so much the past few days! I'm up to chapter 38 right now, so that's huge. I'm not sure how long this story will turn out to be eventually, but I am thinking about an ending. The coming weeks I will not be able to write much, but I have so much pre-written already, it won't affect future updates. I am close to getting a fulltime job, and in that case I won't have much time left to write... But we'll see how it goes.

HellaChloe: I did enjoy 'What happened and what's going on' as well, I think it was one of the best episodes so far, and I really enjoyed these dead characters coming back to life. Well, sort of. I just thought Tyreese's death came too soon. First Beth dies, and then the episode after her death they lose Tyreese. But I guess it is realistic. Everyone will die eventually, the same goes for my story.

Ultimate Queen of Cliffies: Thank youuuu :D

For those who wondered about Ben's whereabouts... Well, here you have it. After this chapter you'll probably know where I'm headed with this story. For now, at least. The first part of this chapter is some sort of hommage to someone I know, as to one of my readers... I hope nobody takes offense, it is not meant to offend anyone.

Ben's POV:

"Ben!"

I yawned, and slowly opened my eyes. A blonde woman was hanging over me, a worried look on her face.

"God, Ben, you sure sleep like a baby. For a second I thought you were dead." Then she smirked and tilted her head a little. "Were you dreaming about a girl?"

I stretched a little and sat up. My back was stiff from sleeping on the couch but other than that I was fine. "What? No, why?" I followed her gaze.

Oh.

My cheeks colored deep red. "I, uh, uh…" She laughed and shook her head.

"I'm just teasing ya. It's okay. I've had boyfriends before. Nothin' new." Still blushing I stood up and quickly made my way to the toilet. When I returned to the room I stretched some more. The sun was already high up in the sky. Had I really slept for that long?

"Where's Michonne?" I asked the perky blonde. Her hair was tied into a messy ponytail, and her blue eyes looked friendly. She surely was an attractive woman.

"She's on a supply run." The blonde walked up to the window and gazed outside. "She wasn't too happy about you sleeping in. Could've used your help. I told her to let you sleep. You seemed to need it."

I smiled. "Thanks, Andrea."

I had met Andrea and Michonne not long after I had left Demi and the others. Leaving them had been an impulsive decision, I just couldn't deal with their silences and accusatory glances anymore. What I had done was awful, lying to them like that, and I knew they weren't going to forgive me just like that, especially not Demi.

So I left.

The first few days had been tough, and I had been thinking about giving up a lot. I was lonely, scared and this time withdrawal started kicking in for real. I didn't know why I was still trying to survive, I had nothing left to live for, and started playing with the thought to just get it over with.

When the walkers came for me I didn't even move. I just sat there, waiting for them to end it all. It probably would have been a painful way to go, but at least it was better than sitting around and waiting on something that would never come. I was delirious, and positive life would only get worse.

And then the hooded woman had shown up.

With some swift moves she had decapitated all of the walkers that had surrounded me. I watched them all fall down, heads rolling.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed, boy?" She had hissed at me, incredulous. And agitated I had looked up, only to see she was accompanied by two undead men, chained up and with their jaws and arms removed.

I had gaped at her.

"Who are you? And… What are that?"

She stared at me with her big dark brown eyes, her face gruff. Then a blonde woman had popped up from behind her.

"Jesus, man, what are you trying to prove?! You would have been killed if Michonne and I hadn't spotted you from afar!" She looked furious, as if it had been her life at stake, instead of mine.

"Who says I wanted to be saved? Maybe I wanted them to attack me, and you ruined it." I spoke bitterly.

The dark-skinned woman, Michonne, had kept staring at me, while the blonde had lost her head.

"Do you even know what you're saying right now? I lost my sister to these things!" She spit out the words, while I had just crossed my arms indignantly.

"I'm sorry for your loss, I really am, but this isn't your choice to make." I stared into the distance again, turning away from the women. I was surprised when the blonde sat down next to me. She put her hand on my arm, and I looked up to find a compassionate shimmering in her blue eyes.

"Look, I know what it's like to not want to live in this world anymore, trust me. I was devastated when my sister died. She was so full of life." Her eyes were somber, and her mind seemed distant. "But you gotta keep trying."

I sighed and remained quiet.

"Give it up, Andrea," Michonne urged. Andrea rose to her feet and as they walked away, dragging the harmless walkers with them, I had a change of heart.

"Wait."

They stopped moving, and Andrea turned to me expectantly.

"I'm on my own. Do you mind if I travel with you for a bit? I eh, don't think I stand that much of a chance on my own." I admitted reluctantly. The blonde just smiled.

That bit had turned to weeks, and from weeks to months. I had learned that these chained walkers were for protection, and with my own eyes I had seen how well it had worked.

I got along the best with Andrea. The blonde was a couple of years older than me and had been a lawyer before all of this went down, just like Victor. She was witty and intelligent, and I liked that. On top of that she was brave, taking out walkers like a pro. We were in the middle of her teaching me how to handle a gun, which was a boy dream come true.

Michonne, on the other hand, often remained quiet. She seemed hardened, and I wasn't sure why. Her best friend was her katana, and though she and Andrea got along relatively well, she still shunned me, not trusting me completely.

I hadn't told them what had occurred with my old group. I just told them they were gone. And they were, in a way. I was positive they hadn't even searched for me. Finally they were freed from the flawed addict.

I was doing much better now. I did not have a drink in months. This once we had found a pack of cigarettes during a supply run, and I had smoked those, much to Andrea's dismay, but other than that I was clean. And that felt good.

Yet part of me was still broken-hearted over Demi, as much as I hated that. I wondered where she was, and if she was okay. Even more so I wondered if Victor had made his move yet. To me it was clear he was gonna, with me out of the picture. I could understand why, she was an incredible girl. Would she have accepted, though? Or did she, somehow, far far away, still –

"Earth to Ben? Hello? What's with you today?" Andrea curiously eyed me, and I let out a sigh.

"Nothing. I was just… Thinking." I emphasized, and she raised her eyebrow, but before she could say anything else we both heard a sound. Something stumbling. It set us both on edge.

The blonde let out a relieved sigh when the dark-skinned woman came through the door.

"You scared me, Michonne."

The latter rolled her eyes, but refrained from speaking. Instead she threw me a bag. I barely caught it.

"What's that?" Andrea wanted to know. "Come on, open it."

Cautiously I opened the bag, searching for the content. Whatever was in it wasn't heavy. When I saw what it was I started smiling. It was a lighter. A while back I had mentioned how I used to collect lighters, before the apocalypse. At home I had a huge collection of them, in all kinds of sizes and brands.

"Thanks, Michonne," I smiled at her, but she didn't return my smile. "Did you find anything else on your supply run? Like something more useful than a lighter?" Andrea demanded to know, slightly irritated.

"We have to relocate," Michonne said, grabbing her stuff.

"What? Why?" Andrea's voice echoed through the room. I put the lighter into my pocket and looked up at the both of them.

"Because it's not safe here."

Andrea and I quickly exchanged a glance, but started packing our stuff nonetheless. Michonne was a woman that could be trusted on her word. I had no idea how long she had been on her own before rescuing Andrea, but she seemed to be perfectly capable of determining whether we were in danger or not. It actually surprised me we were able to stay in this place for so long.

Michonne got her shackled walkers and we carefully made our way outside, through the field, dragging the walkers along. I was still amazed by them, and wondered if Michonne had known them before the apocalypse. For some reason I couldn't imagine her dragging along two unknown walkers, but maybe I was wrong.

"I spotted people," Michonne spoke after we had walked for a number of minutes. "They looked like soldiers of some sort."

Andrea made eye-contact with the woman. "But isn't that a good thing? Maybe we should approach them, who knows, maybe they can help us, or bring us to a camp or so." Michonne resolutely shook her head. "No. We'll observe 'em first."

All of sudden she eyed me. "I, eh, I think that's a good idea. Nowadays you don't know who to trust," I replied. She nodded, while Andrea stayed quiet.

We made our way through a small forest. Every time a walker crossed our path I held my breath, but none of them attacked us. It still gave me the creeps though, to see them from such a close distance. Their eyes were all glassy and bloodshot. Empty. Yet these creatures walked the earth as if they had always been there. As if there had never been a normal world.

In the distance I heard thunder, and I noticed the sky darken. A thunderstorm was on its way, and I knew how thunderstorms in the mountains could develop. We had to find shelter.

"Ladies, it might be a good idea to find a new shelter soon. The sky is going to break in a matter of minutes." I had not entirely spoken my sentence, or small raindrops started falling from the sky.

"Ah, shit," Andrea cursed. She inspected the environment, as did I, but there wasn't anything helpful in sight. We were in the middle of nowhere, in an open field, surrounded by mountains.

It started raining harder now, and the raindrops left dark spots on my white t-shirt. We all tried to move quickly, which wasn't exactly an easy task to do while dragging these walkers with us. I feverishly started thinking of places where we could shield ourselves from the storm, but I had no clue. This area was completely new to me. I didn't think I had ever been here before. We're fucked, I thought to myself as rain starting pouring from the sky.

"Follow me!" Michonne suddenly hissed, and she motioned us to come with her.

We followed her for a while, getting completely soaked to my underwear, until we arrived at a little hay shed. She chained her walkers up at the door and motioned us to enter it. She came after us, shutting the door behind us.

I looked around in the shed. It was barely big enough to store the three of us, it was just a small hay shed where farmers would stack some of their hay during summers. My family used to own a similar one. At least we were dry in here, dry and safe.

"Damnit, I'm completely soaked," Andrea complained, wringing out her shirt. Her wet hair hung in strands around her face. Michonne sat down, not acknowledging the fact the water still poured down her back.

I let out a big sigh. "Well, at least we are safe here. Safe from the walkers, and the storm."

In the background thunder roamed, echoing through the mountains, while the rain slammed against the wooden door.

This was going to be a long day.