Author's Note: Yeah, I know, it's been ages. I've been pretty busy lately with schoolwork. On top of that, I've been training jiu-jitsu 2-4 hours a day for 5 days a week, so that's taken quite a bit of time as well.


"You sure you're okay to walk, even with the crutch?" Vera questioned skeptically, as she and Alice walked through the camp.

"Yeah," Alice replied absentmindedly, as she studied her surroundings with wonder, "I'm sure."

It was all so confusing to her, so much to digest at once. There were more people at Safe Haven than she'd ever seen in one place after the outbreak. People were busy, helping around the camp, entering and exiting tents, and looking curiously at the mysterious, bruised young girl exploring their camp with a makeshift crutch beneath her arm. She was unarmed, as Vera had taken her weapons before she awoke, something that made her uneasy.

"We-...I came upon some ruins a while back," She stuttered, still somewhat dazed, "I thought-"

"Our old camp was overrun by walkers after a group of bandits attacked the fences," Vera explained, "everyone who made it out decided to regroup here until we find somewhere permanent to stay."

As they approached the border of the camp, a small border came into view. It was a long line of vehicles parked into a makeshift wall around the camp, aided by a few extra wood pieces and other debris. People kept watch along the wall, standing atop the cars with guns. Something about those guns made Alice uneasy.

"So," Alice asked as Vera led her along the wall, "are you the leader here?"

"Oh, no, that would be Daniel. You'll meet him soon."

[I liked Vera, she was well-spoken. But I knew better than to trust easily, so I decided to keep the others a secret until the right time. I figured they'd bee worried as hell about me, but there wasn't much I could do about that.]

"Where is he?"

"He and a lot of the others are having breakfast, I'm bringing you there now to introduce you."

Vera led her to a group of people sitting in a circle, most of them on logs or rocks, eating various foods. They all turned around, eyeing her curiously.

There were so many of them. A young brunette woman with dark brown eyes styled in a boyish tank top. Two children, probably around Jacob's age. A somewhat short teenager around Riley's age, with a gray beanie covering his thick brown hair. At least fifteen people, something she found oddly overwhelming.

"Everyone," introduced Vera, "this is Alice. She's new here."

Each of them gave her an individual greeting, some more awkward than others. Before long, one man in particular approached her, extending his calloused hand.

"Nice to meet you," the man greeted, shaking her hand, "I'm Daniel."

"Nice to meet you too," she reciprocated, "I heard you run things around here."

"That's correct, I'm glad to see you've woken up. Perhaps you can meet my girlfriend when she gets back from the supply run."

"Yeah." Alice replied awkwardly.

Daniel was a tall man, somewhat overweight. He had a tan, somewhat intimidating face, that could easily change from threatening to charming with a simple expression. His cheeks were particularly red, and stood out from the rest of his face, atop which dark black hair sat, covered by a baseball cap stained from dirt and sweat. His eyes were dark brown, fitting in with the rest of his face.

"Until then, let's find you somewhere to sleep."


Riley sat alone by the fire, absentmindedly staring into the flames, lost in thought. The others were asleep in their bags, but he couldn't fall asleep, despite how tired he felt. He couldn't quite pinpoint why he couldn't sleep, he was used to being worried. How was this any different? He did his best to convince himself that Dick and Alice would be back any minute, and things would be back to normal.

Then again, what was the point? He was struggling to find a reason to try anymore. Back when things started, the idea of dying scared him. Nowadays, it seemed almost a luxury. He knew the others felt the same, Dick and Alice included.

His life before the outbreak seemed almost like a dream, now a distant memory. A different life. He had begun to forget a lot of the memories he used to think of often, the simple moments he remembered from his life before had begun to fade, replaced by the everyday horrors. He began to think of the people he used to know. His friends. His family. Thinking of what might've happened to them made him frown.

It had been over a week since Alice and Dick went missing, and they had shown no signs of being in the area. They did their best to search the area, but he knew that wouldn't help much, even with Slade's tracking experience. Alice and Dick were gone.

He had never really expected to miss Alice like this. It was difficult to describe why, but she occupied his thoughts, even over Dick. There was something special about her, something he missed. Something he probably wouldn't see again.


Alice woke up inside her tent, awake from another nightmare. She was safe, but Dick and the others were constantly on her mind. She hadn't told Daniel or Vera about the others yet, and she was planning on it when the time was right. It had been a week since it happened, but Dick's death was still imprinted on her mind. She'd never had someone's death affect her like this, and it was eating away at her. She was used to being resilient, but that seemed harder than ever. Pushing her demons to the back of her head wasn't as easy anymore, but it was the only way to survive.

She had begun to adjust to life at Safe Haven, gradually introducing herself to the other residents. Getting dressed, she stepped out of her tent with slight discomfort from her rapidly-healing injuries, greeted by several other residents. Inside Safe Haven there was a sense of safety. Of family. But she knew better than to let that disarm her.

Not finding herself particularly hungry, she decided to skip breakfast, having woken up late anyways. She longed to go past the makeshift wall and search for the others, but she knew nighttime would be the only time quiet enough for her to sneak out, and the idea of wandering through the forest at night didn't exactly excite her. Plus, she had begun to bond somewhat with Vera, as she learned more about the community. She had considered telling Vera about her group, but for reasons unknown even to her, the idea of the community knowing about her group made her uneasy. Why wasn't she able to trust them? After all, if they wanted her dead, they would've left her in the ravine, she figured.

Awkwardly waving to a few residents or mumbling a greeting, she passed by one reddish-brown-haired man in particular, bright green eyes almost glaring at her. Then again, his classically handsome face almost always locked in a look of caution. He was tall, with ruggedly messy hair, one of the few people at Safe Haven that she found to be rather shady. Then again, she knew better than to judge by appearance.

[Almost everyone at the community was friendly to me, with the exception of a few, more reserved residents. Francis, in particular. He wasn't necessarily hostile, he seemed to have the same mood around me around the others. I never really saw him much during those first few days, he mostly stayed inside his tent writing. Vera seemed to be the only person he interacted with on a regular basis.]


Lana did her best not to stare at Riley, as she and him worked to collect firewood just outside camp. Ever since they found Dick's body in the city, Riley's demeanor had changed. They had been camping in the forest for a week, searching for Alice. At this point, she and Riley were the only thing keep the group from moving on, and even she had doubts. It was obvious that he was trying to act calm, but his frustration was showing through. She hadn't seen him this sad before. He and Dick appeared close before Dick died, best friends, even. They exchanged friendly banter quite often, often bringing out the more cheerful sides of each other.

But as usual, her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of approaching mutants. Only two, but still the smell made her cringe. She equipped her lengthy hunting knife from it's sheath, ready to lunge.

"I'll take the one on the left." She said, prompting a nod from Riley, who was now ready with a knife of his own. They no longer used guns to kill mutants unless it was absolutely necessary, given the scarcity of ammunition nowadays.

Riley made the first move, slamming the rightside mutant backwards into a tree before finishing it with ease. Lana followed, stabbing her knife through her mutant's eye with similar ease. Her proficiency with a knife was improving.

"I think I'm starting to get pretty good with this..." Lana said, toying with her knife.

Riley gave an awkward "mhm," and went back to work without a word.


Alice decided it was best to get to sleep, having been drawing for the past hours or so into the night. She wasn't particularly impressive as an artist, but it was entertainment nonetheless. Her current journal was gradually getting crowded, with entries and drawings all throughout the pages. Putting the book down, she closed her eyes, and began to drift away. However, she was suddenly taken out of her sleepy haze by a noise outside. Footsteps. Of course, she figured it was likely someone going to the bathroom, but footsteps always made her uneasy at night. The thought of a mutant walking through the camp at night, looking for a victim to devour, made her uneasy. She coaxed these worries, and closed her eyes again.

However, she noticed something odd about the footsteps. They kept getting farther, keeping consistent even after she heard the sound of someone slipping beneath the wall around the camp, going much farther into the forest than one would to relieve themselves. Eventually, they faded out of earshot. Five minutes passed, but no returning footsteps came. Perhaps they reentered through a different part of the wall. Ten minutes passed, still no returning footsteps. What would someone be sneaking out of the camp for, not to mention at night? These thoughts kept her awake longer than usual, but she eventually drifted away into slumber.


Dylan instinctively kept his hand close to his gun, as he slowly approached the nearby camp. This was one of the times he regretted his decision to run his supply runs alone. He didn't hear much chatter, but it didn't appear that the strangers had detected his presence. He considered turning around, and walking back to Safe Haven with a word. After all, he had no idea who these people were, or what they were capable of, only that there were more of them than him. Nonetheless, he pushed these thoughts aside, and stepped into view of the strangers.

The strangers quickly drew their guns, although more defensively than otherwise. A disheveled young man with lengthy jet black hair seemed particularly skeptical of him, being the first to speak, cutting Dylan off before he could introduce himself.

"If I were you," he warned, holding his gun with hesitation, "I'd back up."

"I'm not here for trouble, I saw the smoke from your camp..." Dylan began to explain, drifting off at the end of his sentence, a bad habit of his.

"And?" The young stranger replied.

"...And I was wondering if you'd like to come back to my camp...we have food, water, supplies-"

"Who are you, exactly?" A man to the left interjected.

"My name's Dylan."

"This camp of yours- does it take in newcomers often? Any recently?" The young man in front asked, seeming to have been lost in thought for the last few seconds.

"Um, yeah. Actually, we had one a few days ago. A girl around your age."

Suddenly, the man's face lit up.

"Was her name Alice?" He asked, giving looks to the rest of his group.

"It might've been, I'm not really-"

"Take us back to your camp."


Alice found herself unnaturally bored as she walked through Safe Haven, absentmindedly inspecting the walls. The walls were quite crude, and a walker could easily crawl under one of the cars without anyone to keep watch. The thought of what could happen if a herd ever passed by made her worried. Her thoughts were disrupted by a noise from across the camp. She noticed a small crowd begin to form near the front of the camp, accompanied by commotion. People began to enter the camp, first Dylan, then several newcomers which she couldn't see very well through the crowd. She walked to the back of the crowd, then froze. She began to recognize the newcomers one-by-one. Riley. Lana. Abby. Jacob. Slade. Leo. Lily.

She and Riley made recognizing eye contact, before quickly running into a hug.

"Where the hell have you been?" He asked with relief.

The others were ecstatic, greeting her warmly. However, she soon realized that people were watching, and that no one in Safe Haven knew of her previous group. Vera stepped forward, looking strangely less confused than Alice expected.

"Alice, do you know these people?" She asked.

"There, um, may be a few things that I need to explain...This is my group." Alice replied.

Vera extended her hand to Riley, oddly not showing much surprise.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet you...welcome to Safe Haven. I'm Vera, you must be Riley."

"How do you know-" Alice began, surprised.

"I read your journals while we were waiting for you to wake up after we first found you. I've known about your group since you got here."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I figured you'd tell me when you felt comfortable." Vera switched her gaze to Alice's group,"C'mon, let's get you all something to eat. But first, I need to introduce you to Daniel. He's the leader around here."

Vera gestured for them to follow, then led Alice's group to Daniel. Still mystified, Alice and Riley exchanged glances, then soon followed.


Author's Note: Reviews are always welcome, I'll be updating more often from now on, hopefully!

Reader-made OC credits:

Vera - Created by FromTheClouds

Francis - Created by FromTheClouds

Abby - Created by TheInternetSassQueen

Leo - Created by Grimrphr