This War of Mine: Apocalypse:

First chapter of a story idea that spawned from some intense planning between myself and Jadey97, where we decided to combine two of our favourite fandoms into a crossover, in this case we took the characters of the video game This War of Mine, including OC characters we developed for our novelization of the game and put them in a different survival scenario, by having them inhabit the world of The Walking Dead (TV series). This first chapter serves merely as an introduction and will show a couple of characters who will form part of the main group that will form soon. This story is set up like the TV series, so this is basically part 1 of Episode 1 of Season 1. To envision what I mean, this would basically be the first episode up to the first commercial break. Anyway, hope you enjoy it :)

Disclaimer: I don't own This War of Mine, Walking Dead or the characters.

Season 1

Episode 1 Part 1

The night was still, lit only by a full moon as a lone figure stood in the shadows of the bushes and trees looking at the house before them. Said figure was a teenage girl no older than sixteen. She was of medium height with a rather skinny build, yet still with some curves, she had long dirty blonde hair that was currently pulled into a ponytail and tucked under the hood of the all black clothing she was wearing. She also had icy blue eyes and rather pale skin, as well as notable scars on her face.

'Whoever lives here must be on holiday or something...not been lights on here for nearly a week.' The teenager thought. 'Perfect chance, too good to pass up...There's gotta be something valuable in there. Anything to get some money that I need.'

The teen girl was in fact a cat burglar and had been since she was fourteen, stealing valuable objects to fence in order to get money to live. She couldn't rely on her parents for any help, her mother was gone and had been for years, her father was a worthless drunken waste of space who drank all the money he made from his construction job and who would beat her whenever he felt like it and make sure it hurt.

Shaking her head the girl dropped and stamped on her cigarette before slipping out of her hiding place. She'd waited long enough, the path was clear, it was time to get inside.

Reaching the ground floor window that would lead into the living room of the home; she had already noticed that the house had no alarm system. Which just made her work all the easier. With that she got to work, stealthily and quietly, as always and soon she had the window open just enough to squeeze through.

She did so, glad that she, while not flat-chested, wasn't too large, making it easier for her to fit through. Inside she stood up and looked around, by staying hidden where she was, she had attuned her eyes to the darkness, so she didn't need a flashlight or other light source. There was nothing readily apparent in the living room, but something was definitely off.

'Place looks like it's been trashed...but nobody's broken in...urgh and what is that smell?' The teen girl thought, grimacing.

There was an almost horrific odour permeating around the house, the foul smell was almost impossible to place or identify.

Shaking her head she tried to recover. 'Need to, need to focus, need to find something worthwhile, maybe upstairs.'

She began to make her way up there, not making a sound as she moved, just as she had trained herself since childhood, initially to avoid her father, but later adapted to her burglary skills. She reached the top of the stairs and instantly noted that the smell was even worse up here. Grimacing again she approached the nearest door and opened it slowly, revealing a bedroom too her. Her eyes instantly zeroed in on the jewellery box on the bedside table.

'Pay dirt.'

She immediately began to head towards it; only for hell to be unleashed.

As she moved she heard a loud noise, almost like a shout. She silently cursed, thinking she had been caught by the owners, who hadn't been away. But then she saw them up close and let out a strangled scream. For the two people before her were in what appeared to be a rapidly advanced state of decay, their skin was leathery and peeling, there were some blood stains around their mouths. They looked like corpses, but they were up, and walking, staggering and groaning and reaching for her.

The girl then realized. 'Those news reports, about the...the dead coming back to life, killing people, they're true...fuck...'

It was when the nearest of the two approaching her roared and lunged that she unfroze and dodged. All thoughts of robbery gone from her mind she bolted from the room, hurrying down the stairs and back out through the window, struggling due to her distress and hurry.

But as soon as she was out of the building she fled, heading back home.

Getting back home, she'd barely gone a few steps when his voice called out.

"Arica!"

Rolling her eyes she turned away from the stairs and over to the living room where her father Viktor sat in his usual chair, slumped back, beer can in hand, TV on.

"Where the fuck were you?" He snapped.

"Out." Arica replied curtly.

Her father, Viktor was fifty-two, a tall man with a large and intimidating figure, sporting a grey beard but completely bald, Arica had inherited her icy blue eyes from him. He wore his typical jeans, a white T-shirt and dark boots. He was clearly already drunk, typical of his alcoholic self and was typically cold and gruff.

Narrowing his eyes at her, her father then held out his hand.

"C'mon, hand it over." He snapped.

Arica scowled. "What?"

"The money, dumb whore, where is it?" He snarled.

"What'd you call me!?"

He laughed. "Oh that's right, you're not a whore, you're a fucking thief, you still owe me money. You live under my roof you, pay for the damn privilege."

"I don't have anything okay, the home owners weren't gone after all." Arica replied. "They were there, they were...like those things we heard in the news."

Viktor scoffed. "You seriously believe that crap, you're too old for them damn fairy tales!"

"I saw them you fucking moron, with my own eyes!" She yelled back before Viktor suddenly smacked her.

Arica reeled back, startled, clutching her burning cheek.

"Don't ever talk to me that way again you stupid bitch." He growled angrily.

Arica merely shook her head, taking her hand away to show the rapidly reddening skin on her cheek. Without another word she turned and stalked upstairs, heading for the bathroom.

Viktor shook his head. "Bitch."

With that he slumped back down in his chair. Meanwhile Arica was in the bathroom and stripped off her clothes, dumping them in the laundry, repelled by the horrible smell emanating from them and herself, from being so close to those walking corpses. Shaking her head she wasted no time getting into the shower and cleaning herself, loosening her hair before hand.

Once she had cleaned off and felt relieved once more, she quickly dried off and hurried back to her room, pulling on some clothes. She tied her hair back again as she checked herself in the mirror. She was now wearing a pair of grey sweatpants, a white tank-top with a dark blue unbuttoned jacket over it and white sneakers.

'Honestly, that fucking asshole...I oughta...' She began to think.

But then there was a yell from downstairs, as well as the sound of breaking glass. For once however, it wasn't the sound of her father in anger, he sounded, afraid.

"Dad?"

She could hear sounds downstairs and hurried to check. She was only halfway down the stairs when she saw her father fall to the ground, having stumbled over his own feet, having attempted to grab the keys to his pick-up truck. Hurrying down she saw the reason why, more of those creatures had somehow broke into their house, likely through the window explaining the breaking glass sound. Arica wasted no time and scooped up the keys.

"Dad, move!" She yelled.

He struggled to his feet and they managed to get out of their house just in time and ran to the truck.

"Give me the damn keys!" He yelled.

Arica rolled her eyes. "You're drunk and can't drive, get in the fucking truck and stop whining."

She had unlocked the truck and got in. Her father growled but did so.

"Oh and you can drive?"

"I've had practice." Arica shot back as she started the truck up.

Viktor scoffed. "What, hot-wiring cars now too?"

"Buckle up and shut up." Arica snapped.

With that she gunned the engine and, with them buckled in, she tore out of the driveway and drove away, just in time as the dead began to close in around them and so they only, narrowly escaped.

End of first chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.