A/N: Yay, I've finally written another chapter for this fic, expect another chapter soon.

Hiya, I've updated and reposted this chapter since I wasn't too happy with how I did it the first time around, so instead of splitting up into two parts, I've decided to leave all six pages together. I'm just hoping that this chapter isn't too long for anyone.

Anyway, I would just like to mention that this story will feature some of the following content, so I'm just going to tag and place warnings for what's in store for the future here.

Mentions of intense violence, drug references/reference to addiction, strong sexual content (/Lemons/Limes, if you know what they are 😏), graphic mentions of illness/death, and references/mentions of suicide, stong/coarse language, and many more which will be tagged on later chapters.

^^^ The only warning for this chapter is the use of strong/coarse language and the above warnings will come into play later on. ^^^

Also, this story isn't going to strictly follow Tv cannon since there are elements from the comics and video games (Poor Clem) which I love, that being said Clementine is likely only going to serve as a brief mention later on in the story and nothing else. It's also going to be a while before my group of original characters are going to be meeting up with Rick's group for a while.

Now with all that out of the way, happy reading.

Posted 29/12/18 |Last updated:01/01/19 |Word Count: 1,896

Chapter two: Three hours left

An achingly dry throat and a throbbing, pulsating headache are what she awakens to as she tries to block out the early morning sun filtering in through her partially closed curtains. She shuffles and squirms in her bed as she tries to find a position for her head that doesn't make the room spin and sway as much.

She never does find a comfortable position for herself, her alarm blaring to life beside her before she can, sending a wave of pulsating pain through her skull as she struggles to reach over and shut it off. She huffs as she rolls over onto her back to stare up at the paint cracked ceiling, while the early morning sound of birds, cars, and her neighbour's dog barking sounds from outside.

She sighs, palming a hand over her face as she tries to shake off some of the grogginess of her hangover to no avail. She swings her legs over the side of her bed before she forces herself to stand on shaky legs, forcing down the sudden bout of nausea that bubbles up at the back of her throat as she makes to the bathroom, in the hopes that a warm shower will help rid her off some of the pain surging through her head.

She makes quick work of her clothes as she steps into the bathroom, before hopping into the shower and letting the lukewarm water wash away the dirt and grime of yesterday. She tries to let herself relax, but the quickly cooling spray of water is anything but pleasant and doesn't do anything to help soothe her aching head or body, so she decides to quickly set about washing her hair and body before the water starts to run any colder than it currently is.

Shutting off the water, she wraps herself in an old course bleach stained towel as she hurriedly brushes her teeth, before grabbing another old towel in a quick attempt to dry her hair. She doesn't care that her hairs still mostly damp when she leaves the bathroom in favour of getting herself dressed for another day of work.

She spends a few minutes rooting through her dresser and closet in the hopes of finding something to acceptable to wear, amongst the piles of grimy discarded clothes littering her bedroom floor. Before, eventually settling on a white long sleeved button up blouse, black dress pants, and a weird moss green jacket she didn't realise she had but fits nonetheless.

Amelia brushes her hair and ties it up into a loose ponytail as she makes her way downstairs and into the living room, swallowing down the still persistent urge to vomit as she makes her way through the house in search of painkillers and something to drink.

"Good mornin', sunshine." Calls Jayden from the couch as she heads past him into the kitchen.

She just grunts in acknowledgement, as she searches through the bare cupboards and draws of their kitchen for something to dull the pain in her head.

"If you're looking for painkillers than you're out of luck." Said Jayden from where he's sat on the couch, dressed in nothing but a pair of pink boxer shorts and an old black band t-shirt, watching old reruns of Scooby Doo while he eats handfuls of cheerios straight out of the box. "Chloe finished the last of them off when she went out partying last week."

Amelia huffs, slamming the cupboard door shut as she makes her way over to the fridge, unsurprised to find it just as empty as the rest of the kitchen, condiments and a quarter full carton of orange juice being the only 'food' items left. She grabs the juice, shutting the fridge door behind her as she guzzles down the liquid thirstily, before tossing the empty bottle into the trash.

"Where're the others?" She croaks out, noting the lack of noise and mess as she sits beside him on the couch, grabbing a handful of cheerios when he ever so politely offers her the box.

Jayden doesn't look away from the Tv and just shrugs in response as the cartoon teens unmask the cartoonishly deranged villain. "Chloe's sister's gone through a pretty bad relapse so she's driving up to her folks to see what's happened, and Mike had a couple of chunks taken out of him by some psycho yesterday and is still under observation in the hospital, he's come down with a pretty nasty fever, apparently."

He flicks a few Cheerios into his mouth as she blinks up at him. "He what?" Asks Amelia, using whatever brain cells that aren't currently trying to break through her skull to make sense of what's just been said. "He's in the hospital? When the hell did that happen?"

"Last night." He says, leaning back into the couch as he crunches on the cereal. "His brother came by last night to pick up some clean clothes and the likes for him. Told me they'd been out drinking and this dude came out of nowhere and attacked them when they were walking back from the bar, the guy bit off a few chunks off of him before they managed to get away."

She leans forward on the couch, rubbing her fingers into her temple as she tries to will away her headache. "Fuck." She groans, words escaping her at the moment as the marching band residing in her head continues to rattle the inside of her skull. "Cops catch the guy?"

"Nope."

"Figures."

"Yeah, and his brother told me he's not the first person to have had chunks taken out of him either. Apparently, some other people have been attacked recently too and the cops seem to think it's to do with junkies sorting some new kind of bath salts or something, I don't know." He shrugs, grabbing another handful of cereal. "You know how wild David can get with his stories and the ensuing theories that follow."

Amelia nods in response, everybody who had the pleasure of meeting David knows that he's more than a little bit unhinged at the best of times. The best of times usually being when he's taking his medications as he should, and not screwing around with the dosages and the such. Because he's got it in his head that the government are secretly trying to poison or abduct him.

"Anyway," He adds, grabbing the remote to flip through the channels until he finally settles on another kid's channel with a cartoon he's interested in watching. "The short story's that the police are still apparently trying to catch the bastard responsible. The verdicts still out on whether or not they will though."

"Typical." Grunts Amelia, swallowing down a small handful of the dry cereal. "Aren't you suppose to be working?"

He yawns, stretching out as much of his body as he can on the cramped couch as he watches Wile E. Coyote try and fail to catch the Road Runner, yet again. "Restaurant's been temporarily closed due to that super flue that's been going around, nearly all the staff except yours truly have come down with it recently, and Mr Garcia's wife's still in critical care and isn't likely to leave the hospital so who knows when he's going to reopen it." Jayden sighs, scratching the back of his neck as he sets his feet onto the coffee table.

"It's not like I don't like having the time off or anything, but it sucks." He shakes his head as an overly obnoxious toy commercial plays on the Tv. "I mean it's not like I'm getting paid while the place is closed."

"Don't worry about it." Reassures Amelia, patting him on the shoulder as she struggles to keep down a sour wave of nausea that rises to the back of her throat, leaving a rancid almost fruity aftertaste on the back of her tongue which makes her regret not checking the expiration date of the juice she drank earlier. "I'll spot you your quarter of the rent this week if you need it."

"You don't have to," replies Jayden sheepishly as he fiddles with a frayed piece of couch cushion. "I'm sure Bill has some under the counter work that I could do or knows someone who has who's willing to pay me cash in hand for a few weeks"

"Well, I'm just letting you know yo-" She cuts herself off as she takes note of the clock on the Tv and jumps up from the couch, sending the box of cereal flying across the room scattering Cheerios all over the hard wooden floor. "Fuck. Fuck. Shit." She holds her head as the marching band from earlier returns for a repeat performance.

"What's wrong?"

She whips her head back to look at him and almost doubles over from the pain that pursues the action. "I'm fucking late for my fucking bus." She shouts, scrambling into the kitchen to grab her work bag from where it's perched on the counter,

"Key, keys, where the fu-"

"Red bowl on top of the fridge." Interrupts Jayden from the living room as he grabs the cereal box from off the floor.

She grabs her keys from out the bowl and mutters a quick "Thanks." to Jayden as she makes her way back through the living room and towards the front door, stepping over the scattered cereal as she promises to fetch back some actual food when she finishes work.

She makes her way down the street and towards the all too familiar bus stop, giving the customary waves to her neighbours as she passes them on the street and receives the usual curt nods and greetings of morning from them in return, as they themselves go about their lives and head to work or other such places.

She decides to check her phone as she makes to cross the street as she nears the stop, only to nearly get herself run over by some jackass going at least three times the speed limit in a residential area. She just curses as the car screeches around the corner nearly hitting an elderly gentleman and his dog, before disappearing out of sight as it speeds on past the clearly shaken old man.

She manages to forget the incident a bit by the time she reaches the stop, this time being sure to look both ways for speeding morons as crosses the street and gets in line at the bus stop, taking a good few steps back from the dishevelled man standing in front of her as he proceeds to cough opened mouthed towards the people in front of him, sending spittle and other fluids into the air as the other rightfully disgruntled people in front of him step away from him.

Oh, The joys of public transport. Is what she thinks to herself as the man continues to hack and cough his lungs up opened mouthed only stopping to tell a young mother to "Fuck off and mind her own business." when she politely asks him to cover his mouth when coughing near her infant son.

What a great day this is gearing up to be. She muses as the women shoots the man a seething look, filled with so much utter contempt she's surprised he hasn't burst into flames where he's standing, or at least reconsider his decision of coughing on a newborn.