Chapter One

The West Midlands.

Ned Stark.

December 12th 2016.

If someone had told him years ago that he would be sleeping on the hard ground of a cave in years to come, he would've called bullshit. However, every waking moment of his life was spent looking for another hard surface to call Home. He'd once been a family man with the want to provide his children with everything he never had as a child, yet none of those children were around anymore. Not a single one.

However, the loss of his children didn't mean parenthood was now at an end.

Sleeping by his side was his companion and friend, Winter. They guessed that she was now around twenty-two, but he couldn't be too sure since none of them kept track of the days that passed them. When they first met she had only been sixteen, curled up in a ball in a desolate building to keep herself away from danger.

At first glance she reminded him of his daughter Sansa. Her narrow features and delicate smile caused him to take her under his wing and keep her safe. Yet, he'd been wrong to judge her in such a way; to judge her as incapable of protecting herself. It turned out that the reason for hiding in the building wasn't to protect herself, it was to protect others from herself.

When he first witnessed her brutality it reminded him of Robb. Although his son was less harsh and aggressive in his ways, they both took on a stance of a wolf when under threat. Ned still remembered the fights Robb and Jon got into as teenagers, and Robb would always need a long time to calm down afterwards incase his temper got the better of him.

He saw many of his children within Winter, but he knew that it was just his mind projecting his memories onto someone that he cared about in the hopes that she would eventually become them.

When the world started to crumble around him, he had been working alongside his childhood friend, Robert. The dead arose all around them, and he'd done his best to return to his family, but by the time he got there, their house on the outskirts of the city had been wiped out by the weapons of destruction.

Gone. His wife. His children. His life.

He never crossed paths with Robert again; he'd headed to his house to find it was intact, but no one was inside. Another person gone from his life. He'd wanted the zombies to take him away. Nothing else mattered to him anymore, not even his life. Yet, he soldiered on into the night. People died around him as the days passed, and he spent most of his time hiding from the flesh eating monsters.

That was until he found Winter.

Ned sat up with a yawn and did his best to click away the pain in his back. He glanced over at Winter, who was staring up at the cave ceiling with a blank look on her face.

"Did you even try to sleep?"

Her blue eyes shifted to his. "No point."

"There's a point to everything."

"Zombies could come at any moment; some scroungers looking for a place to call Home could come wandering in, anything could happen while we close our eyes. You won't be of much help with your leg."

Ned tossed back the itchy blanket that covered his legs. His bandaged thigh was the cause of their well-hidden bedsit. A few days ago they had a run in with a man called Ramsay. Him and his group were a sick bunch of people who captured innocents to play his twisted games. He enjoyed hunting them down in the woods then opening up their bodies to cook over an open fire.

The standoff had begun at an intersection on the road. Winter wasn't good or pleasant when it came to talking to new people, so her immediate attitude rubbed Ramsay the wrong way. Ned had sensed that something wasn't right with the man, and immediately tried to leave. However, Ramsay decided he wanted Winter to play his game.

Ned grabbed her hand and they fled the group as quickly as they could, unfortunately, one of them caught up with them, and Ned took a poorly made spear to his thigh. Winter was on the deluded man within seconds and repeatedly smashed a rock against his skull until there was nothing but ground to hit. After, she pulled the spear from his leg and dragged him to a safer part of the woods to avoid Ramsay for the night.

For a woman so small and fragile, Winter had some unseen strength, that when called upon, caused her to become freakishly strong. Ned was a heavy man, so how she managed to support his weight while seeking out the cave was beyond him.

He hated that they were stuck because of him. He always felt like he was the one in control; if anything ever went wrong, he would protect Winter and find them safe places to stay. Yet, now the roles were reversed, and he didn't like the added pressures it added onto Winter.

Her lack of sleep has always been a thing he wished to tackle, but no matter how hard he tried, she only managed a few hours a night, often less. After a drunken night by an open fire, she confessed that nightmares plagued her about an unforgiving cold with a monster that had similar eyes to her own. Cold, blue and lifeless.

Ned had read a long time ago that meditation could help relax the mind, so he'd recommended that to her. She scoffed loudly and refused to talk to him for the rest of the day because of his meddling. There seemed to be a reluctance from her to open up about anything. He had no idea about her past.

She knew of his family since he felt the need to unload his memories onto her. Although, at times he felt bad for telling her how good his old life had been without knowing if she even had any happy memories about her life before the apocalypse.

"We need to get some more food today," Winter sat up with a sigh. "I'll go on my own."

"I can still walk," said Ned.

"You'll only slow me down."

This didn't sit well with Ned. He wasn't an invalid. "I can still do the things I did before I hurt my leg."

Winter sighed. "Fine."

Ned struggled to get to his feet under Winter's skeptical gaze. He groaned from the pain in his lower back, and regarded her with a smug look. "I can still stand like a normal person."

"Yet, you cannot run fast at the moment. What if we get overrun by a herd of zombies?"

"I'm flattered that you care about me so much," his smirk was something that he knew irritated her.

Winter shot to her feet and stormed out of the cave. He watched her go with a sad smile then started to gather their things together.