(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, Code Lyoko, or any names/brands that might appear in the story. Any references to any person living or dead is merely a coincidence, and should NOT be taken as intentional. All of that being said, I hope you enjoy the story! :D)

It was for nothing, wasn't it? Trying to escape was futile. No attempts worked, the walkers were still there... Even the National Guard failed to quell the outbreak... Dominic's hope was disappearing minute by minute... It was now officially a week since he was trapped in his cell. America was dead, civilization was dead, and he was sure humanity was dead too...

He was out of hope. A ton of the walkers outside have already moved on, leaving only a few dozen or a few hundred or so outside, but he was still trapped like an animal... He just wanted to go back to what life was like before... He missed watching football, he missed drinking ice-cold beer, he missed barbecues... hell, he missed it all...

He even missed his father... He didn't even know if he was alive anymore. Or a walker... He was a good man, more than Dominic ever bothered to realize... He really hoped he was alright.

Dominic sighed, staring at the cement and featureless floor of his cell. He knew he wouldn't last for much longer... He still had a little bit of food left, but he wasn't doing very good mentally. He thought about suicide a little more often than not...

What was the point...? He was trapped in a cell, still surrounded by the living dead... He figured it wasn't worth it anymore...

"...What the hell have I done?"

Dominic was seventeen years old when he first killed another human being. It was a rival hoodrat from a nearby neighborhood, just a young punk who used a rival gangsign in front of him by mistake. But it didn't matter to Dominic, since to him he was just protecting the honor of his street gang... He didn't even hesitate, he just aimed his gun right between the other teen's eyes and he pulled the trigger...

The reality of what he did only fully hit him when he watched the corpse fall straight to the ground. Now it was just him, alone in a dark alley, a smoking gun in his hand and a dead body mere feet away from him...

Was it worth it? Protecting some honor-code that many later regret to have? He couldn't think about that as he started running from the scene, tucking the pistol in his waistband as he heard distant police sirens... He didn't think of mortality, he didn't think of death or the afterlife, even as he tossed the pistol in a dumpster before heading home...

The police never found out who killed that boy...

...And Dominic never forgot the look that was on the boy's face when he killed him...

It was time, now... Dominic pulled the dead officer's AR-15 into the cell. He had tears going down the sides of his face as he unloaded the magazine and saw it was still completely loaded...

He couldn't take it anymore...

Dominic sat down on his bunk, setting the semi-automatic rifle down on his lap. He sat there for what seemed like hours, staring at the rifle as he reflected on his life... He disappointed so many people, did so many wrongs... Hell would await him.

Thinking of his own mortality, he wiped away his tears before he raised the gun and stuck the barrel of it into his mouth... He switched off the safety and cocked the rifle, now only the pull of the trigger being all that was needed for his story to be over... But he suddenly dropped the gun, sobbing as he finally realized he just simply couldn't go through with it. He couldn't take his own life... at least not now. He knew it would either be starvation, dehydration, or the walkers...

Dominic remembered a saying his mother told him, shortly before she passed away...

"Mom once told me that a soul will leave its body when it is time... 'not always at death' she said. 'When the body becomes a prison...it is time for the soul to escape'. 'And once the soul is gone...the body will follow soon after.'..."

His mother was a really wise woman... He was ashamed he didn't realize it sooner...

Dominic kept thinking of his suicide attempt two days after he tried it... He was still not really feeling as good as he should, but he was now a far way off from crying himself to sleep...

The food was now almost fully gone. He had a few crackers left, and now he was forced to drink the water out of the toilet... It was gross, but at least it kept his thirst quenched. Dominic kept the AR-15 rifle in his cell, though, sitting right next to the door and across from him...

All of a sudden the front door to the building was broken down. Dominic was so startled that when he ran for his gun, he tripped on the fallen piece of bedframe. Two women, an adult and a teen, ran into the county jail. One was holding a bolo staff with blades on both ends, and the other holding a pair of knives. The one holding the knives ran into the armory to grab some guns, but the other woman froze when she saw Dominic in his cell, who managed to pick up the AR-15 and started to aim it at her.

"Take it easy, man..." the woman said, cautiously.

"O- Open the door... OPEN IT!" Dominic shouted out of desperation.

The other woman ran back into the room after she overheard it all. She instantly aimed a newly-acquired 38. revolver straight at Dominic, wide eyed as she didn't notice him when she ran in the front door.

"What the hell is going on?!" the other woman asked.

"Please let me out of here! I- I've been in here since it all started!" Dominic pleaded.

One of the women, the one with the bolo staff, ran over to the desk and grabbed a set of keys from one of the drawers... She then hurried to the cell door, finally unlocking it...

It was finally unlocked...

Dominic was finally free...

He would survive...

The woman with the knives grabbed Dominic's AR-15, putting her knives in a pair of holsters as the woman with the bolo staff took her 38., aiming it at Dominic as they forced him to lay on his stomach with his hands behind his head.

"Who are you?!" Dominic asked.

"Who are YOU?!" one of the women retorted.

Dominic dared to look up at the girls, the only sight he managed to receive was the barrel of the 38. revolver. He could see clear down the barrel... The woman with the bolo staff grabbed Dominic by his shirt collar, lifting him up and pinning him against the wall as the other woman kept searching.

"Do what we say, do what we do, and don't run off... you'll live." the woman ordered.

"M- My name is Dominic Mendoza... I was stuck in that cell for since the outbreak began, and I just want to get out... Please!" Dominic begged.

The woman with the bolo staff reluctantly let him go, picking up her staff as the other woman ran back into the room. The woman with the gun had brown skin, violet eyes, and brown hair with braided strands on either side. She had a tomahawk, two knives, the rifle and revolver, and a bow and several arrows. The other woman had red hair and emerald green eyes. She had the bolo staff as a weapon and Dominic could tell she she was angry because her eye was twitching a little.

"I'm Clair... Clair Fay." the girl with the bow and arrows said, setting her firearms into a dufflebag.

"I'm Syn..." the girl with the bolo staff said, taking a peek out of the nearby window to check for walkers.

As Dominic kept trying to get used to his reclaimed freedom, Syn noticed there was still plenty of walkers outside of the county jail. Clair, as a result, grabbed the AR-15 from the dufflebag and walked over to Dominic, giving him the rifle.

"You can shoot, right?" Clair asked.

"I- I don't know..." Dominic hastily replied.

"Well, you better learn quick! We're going out there!" Syn replied.

Dominic was shocked at what was happening. Who were these two girls, exactly?! He didn't get an answer as Clair picked up the dufflebag and then ran to kick open the back door of the county jail, Syn grabbing Dominic's arm and bringing him outside as they ran after Clair. All three of them ran through the walkers, stabbing (or in Dominic's case, shooting) any walkers that were in their way...

But there was too many...

After firing the last bullet in his AR-15, Dominic started using it as a bat, hitting the walkers as they ran down main street of the town they were in. Dominic didn't care if there was a cure or not at this point, he didn't care if these creatures could still feel pain, he just wanted to survive. They ran for what seemed like miles, going all the way through the town. Dominic could see they were running straight towards the Chihuahuan Desert, Clair and Syn having parked a vehicle on the outskirts of town before they got to the prison...

But, honestly, he didn't care if they would leave him or not... He was just happy. He was free... That's all that mattered to him...

Dominic Mendoza was free.

(Clair Fay belongs to DinoWriter23.)

('Syn' belongs to Rayne Arianna Maranochi.)