Hey everyone. So, if anyone knows - I have previously attempted this story, but took it down for quite a few reasons. Mainly, I was unhappy with how it was turning out and couldn't see it working out how I wanted it to. I have decided to give it another try because I do truly love the idea and I really want to find a way to make it work for myself. So, please read ahead and let me know what you think of this re-vamped version of it I guess.

S.S.S.

Third Person POV

After leaving the last group, the girl had decided she'd had enough. Enough of people that is – whether they're dead or alive. The dead only want to kill you and the living seem to have the same agenda. Fucking great. This had been the fourth – or was it fifth? – group to turn on her. They decided to try to eat her one day after they'd not eaten for a few days, but she took a woman's hand. That halted them. Then they tried to drown her one night as payback for the woman, but this caused her to choke a man to death. After a third strike, they had decided to try and hang her, she chose to leave them.

She only bothered one look over her shoulder at what remained of the makeshift camp ground and the bodies of her former group before taking off. Where she was going, she had no clue, but anything was better than this. When voices would sound in front of her, she would dive behind trees or logs to hide herself – allowing them to leave with their lives. If they decided to bother her then she couldn't be blamed for her actions. She had left her last group on pikes, with the heads tied up like an alarm system, as payback for their actions. If this group tried anything she could do so much worse – she would.

Walking through the woods alone would make any normal person long for company – long for noise, but she enjoyed nature. She loved the freedom that nature gave her and loved the fresh air, loved the burn of it in her lungs, but mostly she adored the fact that it was so vast. She had everything she needed out there and what she didn't have she could make or catch.

She walked from the time the sun rose until dusk, eventually finding a stream to make a camp by. She set up lines of cans at the bottom and middle of trees surrounding her, giving herself plenty of alarm in case of unwanted visitors. After quickly catching a fish from the stream, she set up a fire and cooked her meal – proud of her fish catching abilities – before laying on the ground, falling asleep at the sight of the stars.

She woke early – always did – and headed out once more, catching the glimpse of something white through the trees. Making her way out of the woods, she eventually was standing in front of a giant white house.

"It looks abandoned" she said to herself before taking in the field of skin-eaters, "yup. Definitely abandoned."

Walking over to the screen door, she entered the building and shoved different pieces of furniture in front of the doors and windows before making her way up the stairs. Finding a window that looked out the field was a little more difficult than she thought it would be, but she succeeded, kneeling in front of the open window with her rifle aimed out. It was gonna get loud.

She took her time, taking them out one by one. Of course, the skin-eaters were drawn to the noise, trying to enter the building, but her stands were holding. She didn't let their moans and groans distract her as she kept taking more down, clearing a section of the field in no time. By the time it was dark out, she had cleared the field completely and was preparing to leave the building. After finding a bag in one of the empty rooms, the girl went down to the bottom level and took all she could: food, ammo, weapons. She found medicine and health stuff in a bathroom while catching a rare glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her long blonde hair was absolutely filthy and looked to be a rats' nest while her clothes were so torn that they barely qualified as clothes anymore. Shaking her head, the girl left the building.

She couldn't stay in the house, wouldn't allow herself to. She didn't deserve to stay in a place so nice – even in the current state of the world. She wasn't worthy of it.

She kept moving on, using the materials from the bag until they were gone. The food was the first thing to go with the medical supplies following. Her ammo and weapons lasted a while, as she generally used her dagger over her guns preferring the silent sneakiness the dagger had.

After making another makeshift camp, she began her hunt. Walking silently through the woods, she carefully looked around trees before spotting her dinner – a deer. She didn't know the different between male and female, all she knew was it was big and meaty. Quietly putting the knife away, the girl pulled out the rifle and slowly laid on the ground before lining up her shot. Her finger on the trigger, her eyes looking through the scope, breathing even –

"RICK!" She heard someone yell before seeing the deer take off. Standing up she made to follow when the sound of gunfire rang out, drawing the young one's attention. She ran through the woods, making her way to the sound of the gunfire and busting out of the trees quicker than ever before. She saw a truck to her right with a group of people who seemed to be firing weapons at the people to her left, who were in a prison?

She heard grunts and looked ahead to see a man get pinned. Pulling out her pistol, she had no choice. She started taking out the skin-eaters that climbed on the man, turning to the other humans when he was on his feet. She didn't miss the look of shock on his face when she got his ass up and also didn't miss the surprised noise he made when she nailed one of the men.

She saw a man with an eyepatch standing protected by the door of the vehicle and his men but also shooting. She lined up the shot and was able to make him drop the gun, turning his attention to her. The stare down was so tense it could've been cut with her blade at it's dullest. He put up a hand to stop his remaining people before getting into the vehicle and pulling out, the rest following.

Turning to the man, she nodded.

"Thank you, for the help." He said,

"No problem. Well, see ya later."

"Wait," he paused looking at the people behind him, "How many people have you killed?"

"I don't know. It's not like I have a counter that goes up with each kill. I kill them and then move on."

"How many infected have you killed?" the man pressed on.

"Do I really have to repeat myself? What part of 'I don't have a counter' don't you get?"

"Why?" He continued.

"Why did I kill the living or why do I not know my own numbers?"

Chuckling, he met her gaze once more, "Why did you kill the living?"

"Why does anyone kill the living anymore? Looks like your friends from earlier wanted you dead for some reason. I had my own reasons – I believe that to be good enough, for me at least."

"We aren't a big group," he said pointing to the people behind him, who were now clinging to the fence in order to watch us with their guns raised, "but we are a good group. We only do what we must to survive and you seem pretty good with a gun. Would you maybe want to join us?"

"Don't make me laugh" the girl replied, "the only reason you bring this up is because I saved your ass. Also, I am not 'pretty good' with a gun – I don't miss, so I find it to be pretty stupid of you to tell me there aren't many of you. That tells me I could take you all out pretty quickly if I chose to, so why tell me that?"

"You save my life and their lives. Without any incentive or reason to. That shows me that you are a good person and it shows me that you wouldn't kill us unless you really had a reason to. So, let me introduce myself correctly. Hey, name's Rick Grimes." He finished, putting his hand out.

Hers immediately shot to her dagger, aiming it at his throat. Drawing his hand back, he put them up in a show of surrender. "I'm not trying to hurt you, just a handshake." He said, earning a shake of the head from her.

"Alright. What's your name?" He asked, keeping his hands up.

"That's personal and nothing you need to know."

"C'mon. I said mine. Can I just get a first name?" He said quietly, trying not to set her off.

She looked towards the trees as if they held the answer. Should she tell him? Should she meet them and join them? Would she lose her freedom if she did? Would she lose herself if she did? A breeze blew by as if in answer, making her turn back to the man.

"Chloe." The girl responded, earning her a smile from the man.

"Would you be up for meeting the others? You don't have to stay, just so they know that you aren't a threat."

She chuckled before turning her back on the man, a hand on her knife. "No. I don't do cages and I don't do strangers. You waltz back up to your people there, princess. I got shit to do." She finished before heading back into the woods. She didn't dare turn to see the man's face at her rejection. She didn't care.

She made her way back to her campsite before remembering the deer. "Well crap!" She sighed in irritation before collecting herself once more and making her way back out to where the animal was. Kneeling down, she followed the tracks through the trees until she caught line of sight of the animal once more. She smirked before drawing her rifle once more. This time, she got her meal.

Putting the meat on sticks over her fire, Chloe laid on the ground while taking in the sounds of nature. The chirps of the birds, the swishing of the water in the stream, even the footsteps making their way toward her. Wait – footsteps?

She quickly and quietly took the food off the fire and wrapped it up before hiding behind a tree. 'If it's one of that princess' people, I swear I'll skin them alive' she thought as an older man walked up with three other men behind him. They didn't look familiar. She waited as she heard one chuckle before they sat around her fire and began digging through her stuff.

Moving quietly, she made her way over to the group, fingering one of her throwing knives. Fine, it wasn't a throwing knife but a kitchen knife. Still worked the same as she threw it as one man, nailing him in the throat before putting her dagger to another man's throat. The other two jumped up and pointed their guns at her.

"Well, Well, looks like I got a brave one" she says earning her a chuckle from the man. He signals for the other two to put their guns down and she stops them, "I don't think you wanna do that. You came into MY camp and you dug through MY stuff. You don't get to leave, not after invading my territory like this."

"It's just a little girl boss. I wouldn't take her too seriously. What's she gonna do, sing us to death?" one of the other two says.

"My man Robert over there is right little one. Why don't you just head out? This stuff's ours now. Or do we have to kill you for it? We will you know." The man who had her knife to his throat said.

"No. Let me tell you what's gonna happen" she replied pulling him back by the hair as hard as she could before putting her mouth next to his ear. "First, I'm gonna hit you in the temple hard enough to knock you out and then I'm gonna rush your unnamed boy over there, gutting him with my knife, before finally going for your boy Robert. I'm gonna hit him over the head and tie him right next to you on a tree. Them I'm gonna skin you alive. Your unnamed boy won't die from being gutted, but he won't be able to help."

The man chuckled once more before she struck. The butt of her blade hitting him in the temple hard enough for him to fall to the ground unconscious before she ran at the other man. She reached him quickly and swiped her blade across his abdomen, leaving him curled over with his guts splayed out onto the ground. She turned to Robert and smiled at him, sending him running from her. She smirked before following quietly. She watched as he reached an open field and starting spinning in circles in an attempt to find her, as she put her small knife away and pulled out her big one.

"I don't know what you are, but I'll kill you!" He yelled out. She made her way to him, making sure to stay out of his line of sight. Upon reaching him, she stood still until he faced her and jumped back, the gun still in his hands.

"If your plan is to kill someone," she said as she slowly walked around him, "maybe you shouldn't have the safety on when using the gun."

The man looked down and she charged him, earning a scream from him before her blade entered his ribs. She looked him in the eye and watched as his widened when the blade twisted and went upwards. She pulled it out and watched him trying to crawl away, but she stopped him with the blade once more. He looked at her and smiled once more before bringing the blade down onto his head. Ripping it out she walked away and went back to her camp.

She found the boss slowly coming to, so she dragged him over and tied him to the tree, waiting for him to fully wake.

"What is this?" He eventually yelled out while trying to escape his bindings.

"I warned you to leave me and my stuff alone. You chose to laugh at me and threaten me." She said as she kneeled in front of him. "You know, you remind me of a few reasons as to why I just don't like the living anymore. It's all entitlement now. You survived this long so you deserve everything and no else really matters. Tell me, how many people have you killed or stolen from because you could?"

He spat in her face, "Like I'd tell you anything you stupid bitch. Boys, come kill her!" he yelled out. When no help came, the look of shock made her chuckle.

"Your boys are dead, I told you I'd them. Now," she sighed before pulling out another throwing knife and stabbing the blade into his kneecap, earning her a scream, "I believe I asked you a question."

"I don't know how many!" he yelled back at her, his breathing becoming shallower. "We just found them and took, I mean we needed it more, so why not!"

She pulled the blade out, making him scream once more, before sitting on one of his legs and putting the other in her lap. Holding it tightly, she laid the blade against the skin and began to drag it, making sure to apply a good amount of pressure. This earned a scream so loud, she was able to hear skin-eaters making their way over. She dropped the leg and put her blade away before making her way to the first one she killed and grabbing that knife as well.

"Thanks for the info, too bad you weren't really all that useful. Have a nice party with your friends." She smiled once more before grabbing her food and walking away. As she walked she heard his screams once more, but they eventually stopped, allowing her to sigh in peace once more.

"The living and the dead have the same agenda. They both wanna kill you. Fucking hell."