Chapter 1: Collide

In those first three seconds, you learn something about yourself.

One. You learn that you are not as tough as you make yourself out to be. You are weak.

Two. You learn that the people you don't care for actually mean something to you.

Three. You learn that you don't want these people gone; you don't want to be alone.

And then you're either lucky, or you're not. If you're lucky, you get to live to see another day. You get to escape the rotting bodies that want nothing more than to tear into your flesh. If you're not, you get overwhelmed by the dead and then it's over.

I'm one of the lucky ones.

I am Riley and this is my story.

Everything was too quiet. No chirping of the birds. No buzzing of the insects. Nothing. The only sound that could be heard was the soft slapping of black boots on the road. The sound was so quiet it was barely noticeable, but it was still there interrupting the complete silence. The young girl - Riley - that the boots were attached to was alone with a backpack slung over her shoulder, a knife attached to her belt, and gun stuffed into her dark jeans. She walked in a straight line, not wavering for any reason. When her head wasn't faced straight ahead, it was bobbing down to look at her feet as she walked. Her posture was stiff, giving indication she had been walking for a long time, and the sweat glistening on her skin was another visible sign of this.

The girl had no clear destination except straight ahead along the road. Wherever the road would take her, that was where she wanted to be. As long as that place had water. That was her only condition. She had been travelling alone for two weeks now and her water had run out yesterday morning. She still had some food left in her backpack and she had enough ammo to last her another day or two, so finding water was her top priority. And if she found a river, she wouldn't mind washing off a bit. Her ebony hair had been soaked with sweat, dirt, and blood for the past few days. Even a wash with no soap would be nice.

However, nowadays things that were "nice" didn't matter. It was all about survival. Food, water, guns...those were the three basic things needed for survival. Everything else was just a luxury. As unfortunate as it was, that was just the way it worked. The only time anyone could ever afford a luxury was if they had a place to stay. Obviously Riley didn't.

Her light blue eyes caught sight of a building up ahead and her pace quickened. The closer she got, the more the trees around the road thinned out and soon the one building became three. Before she got too close, she crouched down next to a tree and silently scanned the area for signs of eaters. The buildings seemed to be a collection of office-type buildings, only the difference was that they weren't clean and pristine. The dirt and grime was mostly from wear and abandonment, but she also spotted some blood splatters on the side of the middle building.

Something moving caught her attention and her gaze shifted to the third building. Two eaters were wandering slowly around the door. If those were all that were here, she could take them down easily, but she would search the first two buildings before she attempted to do any killing. If she could avoid them, she would. It was better not to waste time and energy when it wasn't needed. She couldn't afford to overexert herself.

If she was quick, she could probably make it to the first building without the eaters noticing. So without waiting any longer, she peeled out from behind the tree and quietly trotted over to building number one. The wooden door was slightly ajar, which was an instant red flag. Eaters or other survivors could be inside.

Riley pulled her knife from her belt and opened it up while pressing herself against the side of the house next to the door. She took a peek through the crack of the door, but didn't see anything of concern inside. All she could see were rows of cubicles and a few doors that must have led to bathrooms or a kitchen area. No eaters. As quietly as she could, she opened the door further, slipped inside, and then closed the door behind herself. Papers, books, staplers and the like were scattered everywhere. Some computers were even broken. If she was going to find any resources here, it probably wouldn't be much.

Since the main room was clear, she headed straight to one of the doors at the back and peered in through the small window. It was a kitchenette. Her hands fumbled quickly for the doorknob and she went right inside and began searching through drawer after drawer. When the cabinets and drawers yielded no water, she reached over to turn the sink faucet on. She would have been pretty damn lucky if the water was still working.

"Doesn't seem like I'm getting anything useful from here," she muttered to herself, aiming a frustrated kick at one of the open cabinets.

Her fists clenched and she glared down at the ground, her dark eyebrows knitting together as frustration and desperation clawed its way through her body. She was so thirsty and the dehydration was clouding her mind. She just needed to find some sort of water source... All the water that could be retained in her body was oozing through her pores from the intense heat.

Would drinking my own sweat be an option? Riley didn't exactly know where that thought had come from, but if she had no other option, it might not be the worst idea. She surely had enough sweat. Running her hands over her face, she let out a sigh and then reached for the doorknob. Her body instantly froze when an all too familiar sound reached her ears.

Gunshots.

And then she was darting over to the closest window searching frantically for any human beings. The third building where the two eaters had been before was now completely overrun. A dozen or so were pouring out of the building like a pool without a wall and they were all headed toward a small group of very alive people. She counted three and one of them appeared to be around her own age. The older man, that couldn't be a day over 30, was trying to shield the younger boy from the reaches of the eaters as he shot the closest ones down. He was wearing jeans and brown flannel shirt that was splattered with blood from the close kills he was making. His dark brown and wavy hair wasn't helping him much, as it was all in his face as he shot the eaters down.

The woman that was nearby was swinging around a long, bloodied sword. Her body moved quickly as she spun and killed off the eaters with simple slices with her sword and her long dreadlocks moved in motion with her.

The boy, with a sheriff's hat atop his brown mess of hair, was trying to help, shooting the eaters every chance he got, but the man was blocking him most of the time. Just by the protective stance of the bearded man, she could see that he cared very much about the boy. Maybe they were father and son?
These people were strangers to her. She didn't need to help them. They could turn on her after she had helped. But seeing the boy that was around her age made her think differently. Hunters didn't keep children around. She had been a victim of that. It was why she was alone now. So instead of wasting time wrestling with the decision in her head, she went with her gut feeling and darted outside to help.

As soon as the humid air hit her face again, she pulled her gun from the waistband of her jeans and clicked the safety off. One of the eaters was reaching for the boy. Aim. Breathe. Fire. The eater dropped like a fly and the boy's head snapped back to see where the bullet had come from. Blue connected with blue. She quickly moved forward, shoving the boy aside as an eater attempted to grab him while he was looking at her. She heard him fall to the ground behind her, but she didn't look back, aiming at the next eater and shooting it down.

Unfortunately, her next few shots weren't as lucky. Her head suddenly started to spin and the bullets she had been aiming at the eater's heads instead lowered to their shoulders and chests. It was the absolute worst time for her dehydration to rear its ugly head because the eaters were getting too close. She was just about to drop her gun and take out her knife when the boy came up beside her and shot the close ones down.

Riley felt an uncomfortable heat gush from her neck to her cheeks. She could have taken those eaters down just fine on her own! She didn't need help from a stranger! Gnashing her teeth, she aimed at the single eater that was left and brought it down with a bullet to the skull. Then, she brought a hand up to her head and rubbed the side of her face, blinking away the dizziness. The man and woman were now turning to her and she took a step back. Her hand was gripped firmly on her gun in case they decided to try anything. The man looked over her carefully. She was expecting him to say something first, as he seemed to be the one in charge, but it was the sheriff boy who spoke first. His voice was deeper than she imagined, but it was also cracking slightly thanks to puberty.

"Thanks for knocking me over. I could have handled everything fine." The sarcasm dripping from his words was quite evident.

Riley scoffed. Was he for real? "I saved your ass! How about a 'thank you'? I could have just left you all to the eaters. I didn't have to stop by for a cup of tea."

The man put a hand on the boy's chest, gently pushing him backwards as the boy opened his mouth to protest.

"Don't mind him. We've been through a lot today. Didn't get too much sleep. Name's Rick Grimes. That's Michonne," he pointed to the woman, "and smart alec over here is my son, Carl."

Riley shot a glare at Carl before looking up to the man named Rick. He seemed awfully nice for a survivor. "Riley."

"Are you alone?" Michonne questioned.

"Does it look like I have anyone tagging along? Wait, I think I've got someone in my backpack," she quipped, taking another step back and rolling her eyes.

"No group? You're pretty young to be wanderin' on your own. Can't be older than Carl," Rick commented, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head.

"Fifteen is old enough in my books."

"Carl's fifteen," Michonne piped up.

"Your opinions and my opinions are different," Riley muttered, trying to avoid the topic. Couldn't they see that she didn't want to be badgered with questions about her being alone? It was like they'd never seen a lone person before. "Look, I helped you and now that the eaters are dead I can't stick around."

"We can't just leave you alone," Rick said.

"Why not?" Carl muttered, his gaze hard and his tone moody.

Rick ignored Carl. "This world isn't a place for children anymore. You may be tough and you may be stubborn, but you're still young and hot headed. And the fact that you put your neck on the line to help us proves that you're not like everyone else. I can't just leave you behind knowing all that. That would be on my conscience."

Riley stared at him, her eyebrows furrowing together. After everything that happened with her group before, she had some serious trust issues, but Rick was being so persistent. Would it be a bad idea to tag along? It was so strange that complete strangers could still be nice after everything that had happened. If she went with this group, she couldn't form a bond. She couldn't get attached. Just like her last two groups, she was sure this one would come crumbling down. She had to be prepared to go out alone. She had to be prepared to let go.

Could she even do that? She didn't have to stick around, but Rick made it seem like they were going to follow her around no matter what. Maybe this was a chance to start over. She didn't have to like these people. And the fact that they would hang around would mean that she wouldn't have to go looking for food and water by herself.

"Fine. You can tag along. But I'm not going to lag around playing sheriff's deputy." She shot a pointed look over at Carl. "You treat me like an adult and we'll be good."

Michonne's lips curled up in an amused smirk and Rick nodded, holding out his hand for her to shake. Riley stared down at his hand for a moment before shaking it.

"We got ourselves a deal," he said.

"Dad," Carl started, his tone like the bristles of a porcupine, "you can't be serious. We don't even know her."

Rick pulled Carl aside and she rolled her eyes as he bent down to look his son in the eyes and explain his reasoning. She could already tell that she and Carl were not going to get along very well. Sure, she had knocked him over, but he would have been bit if she hadn't noticed. He probably just didn't want to admit that he had gotten saved by a girl. A typical boy...

"Where are you guys headed?" she asked Michonne, turning her back to Rick and Carl.

"Been seein' signs for a place called Terminus. Following the train tracks and scavenging when we get the chance. We think the rest of our group might be headed there," she answered, her dark brown eyes studying Riley.

"Terminus? Doesn't that sound like the best place in Georgia. Did you guys happen to pass a stream or something?" Riley glanced from Michonne to Rick as the man straightened out and turned back toward her.

"We did this mornin' but it's quite a ways back. Carl's got a jug a water in his bag," Rick informed, glancing over to his son and holding out his hand for the bag around his shoulder.

Carl glanced up to his father as he reluctantly handed him the bag. Rick pulled a medium-sized jug out and handed it to the teen girl. She had to hide her excitement. Swallowing the dry saliva in her mouth, she unscrewed the cap and began to drink. It was like an instant transformation. Her mouth went from feeling like cotton to feeling like a pool and she had to force herself to stop gulping down the lukewarm liquid before she drank too much. It was probably swarming with bacteria and who-knows-what, but it was the best water she had since yesterday morning.

Riley handed the jug back to Rick once she was done and nodded her thanks. At least she didn't have to go looking for water for the rest of the day. One thing less for her to think about.

"It's startin' to get late so we'll need to find a place to camp. I'd say here, but if there are any walkers in the area, they'd come runnin' after we were shootin' up the place. Best we move on," Rick pointed out, putting the jug back into the bag and giving it back to Carl. "Did ya see anything in the buildings we could use?"

Walkers? She had heard plenty of different names for the eaters, but she hadn't heard that one before. Riley shook her head. "Not in building one, at least."

"Why don't we check the other two 'fore we move on? Michonne, you wanna take Carl with you in the second building? I'll take Riley with me in the next."

Michonne smiled a little at Carl and motioned for him to follow after her.

"If ya need anything, just shout out and we'll come runnin'," Rick reminded, patting his son on the shoulder as he went to join Michonne.

Rick and Riley were then left alone and she glanced over the man. His eyes were narrowed and slightly squinted and his face was wrinkled up in thought as he looked at her. It made her feel a little bit uneasy and she questioned her decision to let them hang around. Before she could quickly duck away toward the building in front of them, he moved in front of her, his eyes sharp as he looked at her.

"Before we go in, I just want to ask you a few questions," he said.

Riley remained silent, unsure of what to make of his change in behavior. He studied her for a moment before speaking up again.

"How many walkers have you killed?"

"Too many to count," she muttered, her eyes darting all over his face as she tried to avoid his sharp gaze.

"How many people have you killed?"

Riley took in a sharp breath when she realized what this was. It was a test - a test to see if she would be trustworthy. Even though he was the one who wanted her to go with them, he still had to make sure. She had to take this carefully.

"I haven't had to kill anyone yet." Lies. Lies. Lies.

She forced her eyes to connect with his in a desperate attempt to show that she wasn't lying. But she was and he could never know. Those memories full of pain and misery were ones she tried to block out, but this man was reminding her. He, a man that she barely knew, was bringing her back to her past and it was crashing down around her. She could see the scenery morphing around her. She could see the filthy, rotting bodies of the eaters desperately reaching at her. She could hear the cries of the innocent.

Rick put his hands on his hips. "Just know that you might have to," he said quietly after a moment of silence.

Then, he motioned for her to go ahead and she nodded slowly, turning away from him and taking a deep breath. Riley needed to focus and stay alert now. Slipping the knife from her belt, she opened it up and crept into the dark and dingy office building. It was easy to tell the eaters had been around in the building for a while. Blood was splattered all over the walls and floor. Computers, papers, and chairs were all out of place and splayed all over the floor. She even detected some skin and other undesirables on the corners of tables and stuck to the floor.

Awhile ago, she would have thrown up the contents of her stomach at the sight of the gore and blood, but she was used to it by now. Everyone she had met had seen the worst things possible and it just seemed to be getting worse and worse.

The soft banging on a door caught her and Rick's attention and the man hurried toward the closed door near the back, pressing his ear against the wood. She neared at a slower pace. The sounds behind the door was obviously the growling and snarling of an eater. It would be best for them to avoid it and search the other rooms. But it seemed Rick had different ideas.

"I'm gonna open the door and distract it and I want you to kill it, alright?" he instructed, those intense blue eyes of his jumping to connect with her own.

She quickly jumped on the defensive. "What? It can't get to us behind the door! Why can't we leave it here?"

"There might be supplies in there," was his simple reply.

Riley stared at him for a moment before slowly backing away and raising her knife. Rick reached out and grasped the doorknob, opening it and then beginning to wave his arms to get the attention of the lone eater. It growled and staggered toward him, reaching out to try and grab onto him, but he was too quick. She snuck up behind it, biting her lip as she tried to time everything exactly right. It was pretty tall and she'd have to either jump up to take it out or get it to fall on its knees. Or she could always leave Rick to deal with it.

She was sure that if she left Rick and ran that it might not end well for her, especially if Michonne and Carl were already done poking through their building. So, with fierce determination, she sprang forward, bringing her foot down hard on the back of its leg. It gave a sickening crack and the eater fell to the ground in front of her, giving her enough time to plunge her knife into its rotting skull. It gave one final growl before falling lifeless at her feet.

Rick nodded at her and moved forward to the open doorway. She pulled a rag out of her back pocket and wiped the blood off her knife before following him into the other room, which was another office area. Amidst one of the cluttered desks, she spotted what appeared to be a bag of chips and after moving everything aside, she was able to see it was a small sealed bag of potato chips. Some food was better than no food. There wasn't much else to find, but Rick had found a half-empty first aid kit in the bathroom with band aids and some gauze inside.

"Nothin' else here," he muttered, heading back outside.

Riley stayed behind for a moment just to shove the bag of chips into her backpack, but she soon caught up with him, who had met up with Carl and Michonne just outside the door.

"We should get movin' before the walkers start to show up. Maybe there will be a place not too far from here we can set up camp for the night," Michonne piped up.

"Alright but let's not go too far from the tracks," Rick suggested. "Don't want to loose 'em."

They headed out into the woods in the opposite direction Riley had taken to get to the buildings. Everyone remained quiet for a few moments before Michonne and Carl started to talk quietly to each other. She glanced back behind her at Carl when she swore that she heard her name, but he stopped talking as soon as she had and stared at her with a gaze all too similar to his father's. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. He was definitely doing a good job of making her feel unwelcome, but she wasn't going to let him know that. Besides, the ruder he was to her, the less she would care about these people and she could not care about these people in any way, shape, or form.

It wasn't too long before they had come across the train tracks that they had been talking about.

"We should head northwest, see if we can find a place there. If not, we'll camp out in the woods," Rick explained.

"Do you even have any idea what this Terminus place is?" Riley asked suddenly.

"No. But it's not like we have anywhere better to look for our group. Wandering around the woods would take forever," Carl muttered.

"I wasn't asking you, wise guy."

She saw Rick give them an amused smile out of the corner of her eye.

"No wonder you were on your own."

Riley rolled her eyes and turned away from Carl, beginning to walk once more. The light was starting to fade and she had a feeling they weren't going to find a place to stay before it got too dark. They were practically in the middle of nowhere with only the train tracks as a landmark. As they wandered through the woods, she realized how quiet it had been, just like before the whole eater herd back at the office buildings. She hoped that it didn't mean anything. It made her feel a bit uncomfortable and she kept an extra eye out as they continued to walk.

It felt like they had been walking for thirty minutes before it was too dark to see. Rick slowed down and looked around carefully before turning back to look at them.

"We can't go much further in this light. We oughta settle down here 'n then we'll head back to the tracks in the mornin' to try 'n cover more ground. Michonne, can you stay on watch while I get a fire goin'?

Michonne replied with a nod and unsheathed her katana. Riley bent down to try and find some sticks and longs they might be able to use for firewood. It didn't do much good, however, because it was so dark she merely ended up fumbling around the area and trying not to bump into trees. In the end, it didn't really matter because Rick had already started a fire up and she abandoned her search to sit in front of the low-burning fire.

"I'll keep watch first. You three get some rest," Michonne said quietly.

Riley didn't think that she would sleep at all, but it had been days since she had someone to watch her back while she slept, so she found herself dozing off against her backpack. She fought with everything she had to stay awake, but her eyelids were too heavy and sleep was too welcoming. The next thing she knew, everything was turning black and she was out like a flashlight.

Her body was being shaken violently. She could hear muffled shouting and the crack of a gunshot. Riley bolted upright, the sleep vanishing from her body as she looked around. Carl was crouched next to her and once he knew she was awake, he let go of her shoulders.

"Took you long enough!" he shouted bitterly. "We need to get out of here!"

"What is going on?!" she growled, pulling out her gun quickly and glancing around. She could make out Rick a little ways away trying to keep two eaters at bay. Michonne was nowhere to be found, but she could hear her sword slicing through the air. It was only when she took a closer look that she realized there was an entire herd of eaters surrounding them, and one of them was headed straight toward her and Carl.

Without waiting for his response, she clicked the safety off her gun and took aim, taking the eater down. Then, she reached for her backpack and slung it over her shoulder before scrambling to her feet. The eaters were beginning to close in on them and she could barely hear Rick's screams over the rapid thumping of her heart.

"Run! Run!"

Riley took off running, dodging eaters as they reached their disgusting, rotting hands for her face. She took two more of them down on the way, but after that, she was out of ammo. There were some loose bullets in her backpack, but she didn't have the time to stop and find them. She could see Rick and Michonne's figures just up ahead. Carl was probably just ahead of them. She was the one falling behind. Almost there. Just hurry up and run faster...

And then she was being yanked back by her black hair, the growling of an eater whispering in her ear, beckoning her to a feast - a feast of her own flesh. Riley let out a strangled cry as she struggled to escape the grip of the eater. The other eaters were moving in on her when they realized she was trapped. The figures of Rick and Michonne had disappeared and she was alone. Suddenly, the crack of a gunshot filled her ears and the eater that had its grasp on her hair went limp. She shook the dead eater off and glanced to her right to see Carl.

"Come on!" he shouted, taking off as the eaters closed in on them.

Riley didn't hesitate. She caught up with the boy, taking in short, quick gasps of air to fill up her lungs. Carl must have been behind her rather than in front of her. Even though she and Carl didn't really get along, she was glad he was there or it would have ended a lot differently.

The longer they ran, the more distant the snarling of the eaters became and soon she had to stop to breathe. She bent over and placed her hands on her knees, trying to steady her breaths as Carl did the same.

"W-where is your dad and Michonne?" she spluttered, looking over at him.

"They w-were just up ahead last time I checked," he replied breathlessly.

Riley quickly scanned the area around them, seeing no signs of Michonne or Rick. She couldn't hear anyone shouting or any of the eaters anymore either. Everything was silent. Slowly, she straightened up and took a deep breath, her blue eyes locking with Carl's. "We're alone."

A/N: And just as a warning before you start reading this author's note, it's probably going to be long. I hope that you enjoyed this first chapter of my very first Walking Dead fanfiction. I was honestly a little bit unsure about doing any Walking Dead fanfics because I didn't know if I could do any of the characters justice. I'm still a little unsure about that, so if you enjoyed this or saw anything that was ooc, please let me know in a review! I want to try and do the best I can with this story, so feedback is really important. On a side note, this is the longest chapter I have ever written (5,000 words) and I have a feeling that most of the other chapters will be around the same length. Although, since I have other stories I'm writing right now and due to the fact that chapters will be longer, I might not be able to update as often as I would hope. But I will surely try!

If you're wondering why I've chosen Carl/Oc as my first TWD fic, well, I honestly wasn't gong to at first. I wanted to do a Canon/Oc story that wasn't too popular (unlike Daryl/Oc, but I have and idea for that so I might end up doing it even though there are so many). I was originally going to do Rick/Oc because I have barely seen any on here, but I could not come up with a single good idea for a plotline. I also didn't want to do any characters that were too minor since I'm still unsure about writing even the main characters. I looked up Carl/Oc and didn't see a whole lot and since Carl's character is a little bit easier than some of the others, I decided to go with it. I did tweak Carl's age slightly, as he's really supposed to be 14, but I moved him up a year. Hopefully it's not too big of a deal.

And finally, to end this hideously long author's note, I just want to warn you that this is not going to be a very "happy and easy" romance story. Romance isn't even going to be the main part and it will be very eventual. It's going to be dark and full of hardships (but I'll try to keep a light element to some of it). I'm also a little unsure if I should keep this story rated T, so if there's anything you see that might merit it an M, just let me know. So as of now, the rating might change to M later for gore and violence.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! This is just the beginning! Thanks for reading!