I couldn't tell you how long it's been, a few weeks, months maybe? I'm not sure, it just all happened so fast… I know pretty cliché right, but it's the truth.

It started off with reports on the news about people freaking out and biting and stuff. I just figured it was some sort of new drug someone had cut with something they shouldn't. Then it got worse; and worse and then it all just went straight to hell.

Seriously dude this shit got totally messed up.

Sickness.

Blood.

Guns.

Dying.

Soldiers.

Biting.

Dead people biting.

Yep, like I said it got crazy. I was actually relatively safe believe it or not, thick locks, heavy door's… shiny bars on the windows. It would probably have been a good place to crash until the whole thing blew over, but I couldn't have stayed even if I'd wanted to.

I had to know if they were safe, I had to keep them safe, my family.

I'd managed to swipe a security key with all the commotion and slip out, almost getting my arm torn off by this freaky little thing, Lucy, who grabbed me, trying to get me back inside… not that it did her much good, all her whaling just called them to her, got her bit. I watched as a gang of these fucking creatures, that could no way be called human anymore, ripped her apart, they ate her alive.

It was sick and wrong and fifty different shades of fucked up but it happened. I felt bad about it, I never asked her to follow me but I'd known the girl a bit, we were friendly, played chess and checked out the security guards together. Lucy was sweet… she reminded me of a friend, my best friend. Maybe that's why I latched onto her, maybe that's why I could still hear her screaming sometimes.

The streets were in chaos, army and police with gunfire and blood and noise, so much fucking noise.

Nevertheless, I managed to make it home, it was more than ten blocks and I'd lost my slipper on the way but I got there and when I saw my Mama and kid brother packing up the car I felt so relived. Rhett all but threw himself to me, all doe eyed and just needing his big sister, just some reassurance. It reminded me of when he was little, for a second he'd reverted back from that snarky teenage punk into that sweet mud covered kid who had a weakness for pranks and lollipops. Then my Mama smiled and brushed my silky black hair out of my face, I could see the fear there, she didn't know what to do, fuck neither did I, I don't think anyone did.

I managed to change into something a little less slumber party, she hadn't touched my room since I'd been gone, the rose vine skulls on my dresser having a thick layer of dust covering them and my favorite black denim jacket and fishnet finger-less gloves sat by the door like I used to leave them after a late night of partying. She'd been waiting, waiting for the day I'd come home.

I just never thought the reunion would have been that fucked up.

We didn't dilly dally at the house, despite my Mama trying to collect every single damn drawing all her kids had ever done, we didn't have the time.

Not with my other sibling's still out there.

The streets where swamped, with the dead and the living but we somehow got to the college campus in one piece, it was just as bad there. Rhett looked freaked, curled up on the back seat with a baseball bat and I could tell Mama was on the verge of tears. I'd reached out into the toolbox we packed and handed her a screwdriver. I looked her in the eye, the same bright baby blues she passed onto us kids and smiled "you do what you gotta' do 'k? Anyone or thing comes near y'all end 'em? Got it?"

I didn't stick around to hear their answers, i didn't know how much time I had, if there was even any time left. I made my way through the courtyard, the weight of the hatchet heavy in my hand and somehow managed to get blood splattered across my face as arrived at the doors of a sorority that was almost overrun with those fucking flesh eaters trying to break down the door. So I took my daddy's Hatchet and sliced my way through them, with the help of a frat boy holding a nine iron looking for his girl, he didn't make it.

I did, and when I got inside I scanned over the nameless terrified faces to find a girl, my mirror image… well if I had peroxide blonde hair, a love of cashmere sweaters, heals and the over use of the word totally. My sister, my twin sister curled up into the arms of an all too familiar face, his scared frown matching our mothers to a T.

"Dottie?"

I just smiled at them, after Mama told me Benjie had come to get Rose I knew it was stupid idea… my big brother never has been a fighter.

"What, no hugs?"

And he did hug me, lifting me off the floor because he always was freakishly tall, it has nothing to do with me being just over five foot. What? That's average height! I did miss it though, missed him, hell I even missed Rose.

Who just stood scanning over me with glare I was more than used to, when Benjie put me down I reached out to her "Rosie… I know y'all got a stick up your butt with me but please, Mama and Rhett are waitin' so hold up on the hate until we're all safe, alright?"

She just looked at me for a second before seeming to swallow her bullshit judgment to follow Benjie and I as we made our way back to the car with minimal hatchet use thankfully.

We got out of the city, barely, the drive was slow and the roads were flooded with folk trying to get as far from this shit as possible, not that it was working. The traffic was piling up and then piled to a halt, we waited there for hours. Mama was shaking, so Benjie wrapped a blanket around her, staying close to keep her calm while Rose walked through the sea of crowds to yell and tell people to move it, Rhett and I sat on the hood of the car just watching all the commotion.

He'd grown up so fast, I hadn't seen him in almost two years, yeah we wrote and had weekly phone calls where he'd shout over Mama to get to speak to me, but the last time I'd actually seen him he'd been fourteen and teary eyed as they took me away. I spent my eighteenth birthday being strip searched and locked into the smallest room with the itchiest blankets ever known to man.

I looked then to my kid brother, little Rhett all grown up and smiled "you good kido?"

He sat fiddling with a silver crucifix hanging from his neck and shook his head with a bitter chuckle "nope, what in the hell is all this Dot's? The next plague, the apocalypse… I saw Joey from next door rip out his dad's spleen an' eat it, that is until his sister stabbed him in the head… Kelly's ten Dottie, ten years old and she had to… I'm scared."

"Ya'll'd have to be a fool not to be, I don't know what all this is little man, but I do know we're here, together, we're alive and breathin' and that's all that matters; the family."

I watched a crooked smile play out on his lips as he chuckles "even Rose?"

I followed his gaze to find my twin sister screaming in the face of a pretty big dude, the type to take steroids and all but live in the gym, not that it stopped my darlin' sister from giving the man abuse "Yep, even Rosie."

We laughed together, it was good to see him laugh, but it was sort lived because with our moment came the crashing sound like a firecracker, a giant firecracker smashing into Godzilla.

We all moved forward towards the noise, meeting up with Rose who was already ahead of us, she stood with a crowd of scattered people on the tree line with a hand over her mouth, trying to swallow back down the shock and fear.

There was silence, except for the deafening sound of the falling bombs. I looked around at my family, Rose was stood exactly where we found her, Benjie crumbled to his knees where Rhett had fallen in a fit of streaming tears, my elder brother trying to sooth my younger as they wept together. Mama was just stood silent, staring off into the distant napalm fire, twirling her golden wedding band mercilessly around her finger. So I stood in her line of view, stilling her hand with my own, clutching it tight as I stared into her vacant gaze "Mama, Mama you hear me?"

Her eyes met mine and for a second she looked like she'd seen a ghost until she briskly pulled me into a tight hug and whispered into my ear "I'm so sorry baby-girl. I shouldn't have…I just… I shouldn't have let 'em…"

"Hush now, its OK Mama bear, I'm here, it's all gonna' be alright, I'll take care of it. I promise." I brushed my fingers through her ebony curls with each word, she was in shock that's all, she'd be OK, I'd make her OK.

Another six hours ticked by we could almost see the horizon, there was a lot of talk about just abandoning the cars and moving on, it sounded like a good idea, not that it did many people much good, yeah some had already bailed hours ago but not us because Rose was so dammed sure that we were safer there.

She was wrong, just as the first lick of sun hit the morning sky the screaming started, folk running past us without even looking back to see if those they abandoned where fallen to their gory fate.

They ran for their lives and so did we, leaving behind our treasures and taking only two bags, they went to follow the crowd but I grabbed Benjie's arm, almost digging my nails through his shirt "No, this way, those things'll follow the noise of the crowd so we head to the woods, stay small, quiet."

"And who in all of goodness gracious put ya'll in charge?"

I glared at my sister, ready to just knock her out and drag her skinny ass into the woods, but I didn't get a chance. Benjie hauled her over his shoulder "lead the way sissy."

Rose kicked and groaned at our brother to put her down as we dodged through the car's and made a beeline for the tree's, we looked back only once, just once to see people we'd known, neighbors and friends and strangers all being ripped apart by these monsters and for a moment I thought… thought I saw… nah, couldn't be.

We spend more than a good portion of the day making space between us and the highway, then Rose went and twisted her damn ankle. I didn't pity her, I mean who in their right mind wears eight inch heels, never mind all the running we had to do in the last twenty-four hours but just in general.

I mean they have to hurt right?

Never mind what they must do to the bones in your feet, mess up the muscles.

This was what ran through my head as we sat near an old tree as we bandaged up her leg with the torn strands of Rhett's shirt, it wasn't much but it was the best we could do. I could feel her stare into the top of my head, burning holes into my skull "ya'll keep glarin' like that a girl would start thinkin' you ain't to pleased to see her."

I looked up to see her snarl, wow, been a long time since I saw that, it always made her look like a cat fish I thought, guess that meant it looked the same on me. Her eyes wondered to the bloodied hatchet tucked into my pants loop, like it was a strange foreign artifact from some museum she didn't understand "It comes so damn easy to you don' it?"

I looked her dead in the eyes, she's all sorts of fancy and polished that I could never be and she's looking down at me, like I'm some fucking criminal holding her hostage or some shit. So stern and sincere I shake my head "no, Rosie, it ain't easy… it's scary as hell an' harder then gettin' honey outta a bee hive with ya bare hands but it's just what needs to be done is all."

"Ya'll don't need to do nothin'" her voice was venom sliding off her tongue as I stood and bit the inside of my cheek, fingering our daddy's hatchet "some people need killin' Rosie, and others just ain't people at all."

She shook her head at me, it reminded me of when we were on opposite sides of the debate team back in high school, except then she'd smile after and we'd get pizza at lunch, pineapple for her and pepperoni with jalapeno's for myself.

That was another lifetime, back when we shared more than a last name and face.

It broke my heart to remember.

We were sisters once, real sisters, more than blood and genetics.

I missed that, missed us, but after that night… well, I guess we just ain't those silly little girls anymore.

"What are we goin' to do? Where are we even goin' here Dot's?" I looked over to Benjie, he wanted answers, when had he even started talking to me?

I just stood and wrapped my arms around his middle, like I used to do when he had his panic attacks, then looking up into those despairing baby blues and mustered up a smile "it'll be OK Benjie-boo, we'll figure it out, we always do."

My words did little to help and I didn't let go of him, just reached the lock my hands together around his lean frame "what's rattlin' round up there, huh?"

"The city, what if you hadn't got out? What if…"

"hush now, I did, we all did. I swear Benjie your gettin' as bad as…"

A loud scream echoed through the tree's, pulling us apart "Mama!"

We found our mother pinned to the floor, nothing but a branch between her and the dead thing yapping its jaw at her, its arm was missing and chunks of flesh had been torn away leaving gaping teeth marks. I raised my hatchet high, ready to end the damn thing when it turned to me.

Lucy.

Sweet, sore loser Lucy.

Her eye's where whited out, like those Halloween contact lenses, a large smear of dried blood flaking around her mouth.

Oh god.

The next moment she was on the ground; a rock being smashed into her head courtesy of my baby brother who cried with each blow "Stay. Away. From. My. Sister!"

I froze, I just god damn froze to the spot, looking at my kind of friend's corpse. No. that thing wasn't Lucy, Lucy cried when she accident stepped on a ladybug in the courtyard, even demanded some crappy funeral with a matchbox.

Lucy was no monster.

That thing wasn't Lucy.

"Dottie? Dottie are you 'k?"

I finally came back to my senses and saw Benjie over by our frenzied mother, she must have been so scared. Rhett had his hands on my shoulders, covered in blood, splattered onto his face, it was even scarier than those biters, seeing my baby brother like that.

"I'm 'k Rhett. I'm 'k."

Rose just watched us, observing me with folded arms like a professor and their lab rat "let's just get the hell outta here."

They all followed me in almost silence, Mama coming to hold my hand up front, kissing at my knuckles with muttered words I couldn't make out.

Mama tried so hard to make this family work, tried to save our family but in the end she just wasn't built for the labor it took. Life had taken its toll, she could only be so strong and Benjie, well he was a pussy ass mama's boy, but he was loyal and sweet, to sweet. Rose had always been tough, a broken kind of tough, like a candy with the hard outside and the gooey middle that melted in your mouth, then Rhett, me and my baby brother always had a lot in common; books and music and a childish sense of humor, but seeing him like that, covered in blood, not even phased… I didn't want that for him, he was to good, better than I'd ever be anyway.

I looked down at my snow pale wrists, the tattooed ribbon laced like a corset to seemingly hold my peach colored scars together, a small phrase weaved over the right scar, the deeper scar and it brought a smile to my lips.

The corset had been my idea, I wasn't ashamed of what I'd done, I'd been in a bad way and I made a choice, a fucked up selfish choice. But she'd been there, so young and bright and a smile that lit up the sky, it was selfish to bring my family out this way, even with Rose and her hobbling while Benjie holds her up and Rhett pokes fun at her. Yeah it had been for all the reason's I named before, to get away from the crowds was safer. Like K said in Men in Black 'a person is smart, people are dumb, panicky dangerous animal's and you know it.'

If I was being honest though that wasn't the whole reason, I needed to know, needed to try and see if she was alive and if not then do for her what I couldn't do for Lucy. That's what best friends are for right.

Besides it was the least I owed her.

We'd made it to the clearing thankfully without any more incidents, and my god was it was a sight for sore eyes. The warm beautiful country home that had always been a welcomed sight stood untouched by the nightmare coursing through the city, just as I remembered it.

"Dottie!"

The voice was coming from the distance, near the house, that's when I saw her, running hot on her heels and I dropped the blood stained hatchet to my feet as they carried me through the long field. She was there, she was safe.

As we met I held her tight like a life support, her strawberry shampoo shoving its way up my nose but it was OK, because it was her.

We looked each other over, dried tear tracks stained those rosy cheeks as she babbled "the bomb's, the chopper's I thought…"

"Please, you should know better Beth Greene." We laughed as my family came closer as did hers, but we stood oblivious, just happy to see each other, alive and well.

A smile poked through the corner of her lips as she quoted the words forever latched to my skin "yeah, 'sides to live would be an awfully big adventure."

We laughed together as though it all melted away around us until I saw the face of a man I knew well "Dottie Valentine, alive and well I see."

I hugged the old man even though he resisted slightly, I'd missed him, even missed Maggie glaring at me. Hershel was a good man and I knew so few good men.

He looked through us, before gesturing to the house "come on, we have a lot to catch up on."

Beth's arm encircled my own as we walked to the house, the home that had seen me sweating, bleeding and swearing in my darkest days.

It felt right to be there, safe… the start of a great adventure.