CHAPTER 1

She was off duty visiting her family when the world went to shit.

Her mind numbed itself as she thought about those first days of chaos and death… and undead.

It was a week before when she arrives at the door of her childhood home, her mother and father's bright smile greeting her as they threw open the door to get to her. Glad that their child was home safe and away from the war. They couldn't hold on to her for long, not when a small bundle of energy and tears came crashing into them, pushing her parents away from her so that they could wrap their tiny arms around her waist.

Valerie smiled as she kissed the top of her nephew's head, clutching him to her person just as tightly. She had seen so much death and destruction in her life, but this… family always put her mind at ease. Big green eyes met hers, so much like hers and her now-dead brothers, that her heart clenched.

Valerie laughed as her mother ushered them inside, the smell of Sunday roast making her belly growl to make its hunger known.

Valerie had spent the week in utter bliss, enjoying her short reprieve from the war before she would be sent back. The country couldn't afford to bench its best soldiers, with the best out there less of their men and woman came back in body bags.

Her mother had been setting the table, her father and nephew were watching a live game when suddenly it was interrupted by an emergency broadcast.

Valerie frowned at the television, the news reporter warning people to stay inside. She stood up, her dark red hair was out of its usual hair tie resting till her legs with how long it had grown. Her family was looking to her for direction. Valerie remembered ordering her mother to lock the doors and close the windows, for her father to pack up food and any necessities, making sure that her nephew stayed glued to his grandfather's side. She had her phone pressed against her ear as they went around the house doing as she asked.

The phone rang endlessly and eventually, Valerie had to accept that no one would be answering her call.

When she moved to the window, drawn by the screams of terror in the street, Valerie felt her heart stop as a man was suddenly slamming and clawing at the window, others joining him. Only they weren't human. Valerie stood rooted as she looked past the window watching as the sick looking tore into people… eating them… and then the dead rose.

She knew they couldn't stay there it would be too dangerous. They would corner themselves and if those things cornered them… Valerie needed to keep her family safe.

Valerie moved her family to the basement, while she stayed in the house and secured it, keeping watch for the dead, waiting for an opportunity for them to move. It didn't take long for her to recognize the patterns in their behavior. They were more active at night than in the day, and they could somehow sense she was there but wouldn't claw at the window if they couldn't see her, or any movement she made.

They were also largely attracted to noise.

When gunshots sounded further away the dead moved in the direction of the shots, even though they were aware she was there they ignored her in favor of heading in the direction of the noise.

They had about a weeks' worth of canned goods, anything else had already gone off.

Valerie armed her father with a gun and a large machete informing him to use the gun only as a last resort. She needed to go look for more food, or they would starve to death. She left through the back, climbing their high walls with ease and in silence. Her feet made no noise as she crouched low on the ground, her head on a swivel as she kept her ears alert for any noise that could indicate the undead… or even people.

From her place, hidden behind their covered-up windows Valerie had seen what had become of those still alive. They killed each other in a panic of fear or desperation for food or weapons. The walkers that surrounded her house, though nerve-wracking, made for a deterrent for humans who had gone just as bat shit crazy as the world had.

She couldn't blame them though. Valerie was still coming to grips with the notion that the dead were rising and eager to kill the living, but she was desensitized to everything else. Even though they were dead and monsters, they were once human, and for someone who had never killed before as a soldier had… Valerie cleared her mind of straying thoughts as she neared a store. The place looked wrecked as she prayed that she would find food.

Equipped with two hunting knives strapped to her legs, a pistol, and her compound bow which her father had thankfully kept, despite her having been away for so long, Valerie moved silently avoiding broken glass her eyes trained on the dead that began stirring their dulled senses awakening to her presence among them.

She moved swiftly, stabbing them through the head, they wouldn't go down otherwise, catching them to prevent noise. When the immediate area was cleared Valerie gathered what little remained before making her way back to her house. As she left, she encountered more dead, those she couldn't avoid she put down quietly.

Pleased with the food she had found, Valerie pulled herself over their wall dropping down into their backyard. She paused, the hair on the back of her neck rising. She wasn't gone for more than a few hours, though it seemed quicker to her, the death and carnage making the time pass by quicker. Valerie felt tears spring to her eyes as she stared blankly watching with a numbed mind as he nephew shambled towards her eyes white with savage and inhumane hunger, low growls sounding from his freshly dead face.

What had happened in a few hours, to her a brief run for food.

She made it quick, stabbing through the brain, the boy's body slumping to the ground. Her face was set like stone but wet with free-falling tears. She had killed many people and had lost her best friend and sibling in front of her, but Valerie had never felt pain like this.

Willing herself to hold together, she made her way into the house. Preparing for what she knew she would find.

They charged her as soon as she entered the house.

Her knife cut through the heads of her mother and father in quick succession. And then another of the dead as she realized the door to their home stood ajar. Anger bloomed in her chest as she killed her way to the door, before closing it again and propping a chair against it. Valerie made sure to clear the house before she allowed herself to collapse in grief. Her face frozen in a silent scream, aware that she was to be quiet lest she attracted the dead to her.

It might have been a day or two before she moved. Her stomach forcing her to eat, somehow stomaching the food even though her family lay dead around her. She couldn't stay here, she needed to bury her family and get away from this town which was overrun with the dead.

Valerie left when early morning came. A single bag with food she would have to make last, some clothes. The machete she had given her father was sheathed against her lower back, under the bag on her back. Hunting knives were strapped to her thighs and two handguns in holsters… her father's holsters.

Valerie spent days alone avoiding the dead, killing when she couldn't. Clearing outhouses as she made her way trying to get out of her hometown. She spotted many dead bodies covered with sheets her heart speeding up and she saw a dead and undead S.W.A.T. Valerie hid waiting with stilled breathe as a S.W.A.T zombie trekked towards her. The redhead killed him quickly, watching her surroundings as she pulled off the bulletproof vest. Swiftly she adjusted her equipment so that she could pull the vest over her, placing everything again.

Valerie swallowed a scream as dead rounded the house she was crouched behind. She backed away moving through broken fencing behind the houses, the dead just as clustered and stirred there. Valerie needed to find shelter, her presence had stirred the dead, she had to wait for them to calm before she tried to push ahead. The houses in the area were already worse for wear with broken down doors and broken windows. She did not doubt that those damages were caused by the living whether to scavenge or to loot because the world was going to hell she didn't know.

Valerie found a house with its doors and windows intact, though the number of the dead inside was concerning. The sounds of groans following her forced her to forge ahead. Valerie moved as quick as she could, drawing her largest blade and slashing into the head of the dead inside the house she picked, clearing it before securing herself inside. She stayed low to the ground as the dead ambled about, eventually moving away from her hiding spot when a lack of movement convinced their instincts that their prey wasn't there.

Valerie eyed the sun to try and determine the time of day, it was still bright enough. She could still move further. Her mind brought back the image of the S.W.A.T and she determined that she might find a weapon she desperately needed. While her bow made for an excellent stealth weapon, and she was good with it, Valerie was outright deadly with a sniper rifle. Hopefully, she found one with a silencer attached though that was wishful thinking.

Mind made up, she left the house eyes alert and ears listening all around her.

An army truck came in view, dead bodies under sheets surrounding it, the dead not far off, but far enough for her to get to the truck. The vehicle didn't produce much so Valerie turned her attention to the bodies of soldiers near it, moving quickly before the dead noticed. She had nearly given up, preparing to run when she spotted the hunting shop a distance from where she stood. It was a long shot, a place that people would have looted in the beginning… but it was a shot she was willing to take.

Skulking and taking a roundabout route to the shop she spotted, Valerie finally made it. The place looked bare, but she had placed her bets. Machete sheathed and hunting knife drawn she entered the shop. The dead swayed about, rousing. She spotted five from where she stood crouched in an aisle. Not enough to kill her, she was stronger than that. Valerie picked them off one by one keeping her breath even and quiet as she worked.

When the immediate threat to her safety was taken care of, she looked around the entrance of the shop. It was as empty as it appeared. Eyeing the counter she made her way over, placing her hand on the surface so that she could jump over, her eyes bugged out of her head, arm following through with on instinct alone.

Valerie let out a harsh breath, hand coming up to clutch the black tags around her neck, getting her breathing under control. Once she was calm again, Valerie hopped over the counter. Relief, confusion, and disbelief flooded through her. On the shelves under the counter sat a hunting rifle and a handgun. Hastily she grabbed both, before looking around the counter for ammo. She found two boxes for the hunting rifle and stored her third handgun in her bag.

Valerie had thought for sure that the behind the counter guns would be gone first, but with how empty the shelves were and the walkers she found inside she deduced that the theft of the shop had happened at the beginning of the outbreak and the dead that had wandered inside warded off anyone living who happened to pass by if anyone had passed by.

The search for a silencer had also been fruitful.

Valerie felt safe and secure with the rifle in her hands, and she held her head high. She could get out of the town now with better odds. Things might be looking up for her, the chances of finding a rifle and a silencer had to have been impossible.

She didn't have long to feel happy.

Groan mangled together as what Valerie could only describe as a herd shuffled in her general direction. Even with her newfound rifle, she wouldn't be able to hold those numbers off. If she didn't get away now, she would die. Valerie cursed herself for relaxing, for thinking things could go well. Nothing about this world was good anymore.

There was only surviving or finding a horrible and gruesome death.