Hi guys I'm back! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the guest who reviewed my last chapter, I appreciate it more than anything! I'd like to know if I'm doing an alright job, if I should continue this story, what I should add, what I should change or get rid of, etcetera. Anything and everything is welcomed! Sorry this is such a short chapter it is kind of an introduction along with the first one and because of that I will try and post a new one tomorrow too.

Much love!

I clutched my knife tightly, so tightly that a white shade of color was displayed along the ridges of my knuckles. Branches and dead leaves crunched constantly under my boots as I made my way through the forest. I drove back to the highway this morning where the stopped traffic is and got more gas before deciding to explore within the woods. I wasn't really sure what I was necessarily looking for, maybe some answers, maybe more survivors. It's like I had nothing left to lose, so it didn't matter anymore. My senses were on high alert today, luckily, because before I knew it, when I turned around I saw two zombies headed right for me, thirsting for guts.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath before lunging at one and thrusting my knife right into its forehead.

I twisted the weapon and pulled it out and the monster fell to the ground with a huge thud, collapsing on itself. I repeated my action with the other one, stabbing it and kicking it away swiftly. My brother had taught me that that was the way to do it, to kill them right through the brain. Without him and without him teaching me the things he had, I would, without a doubt, not be here right now. My mind began to drift again and memories of Atticus singed my brain once more.

"Lauren, what the hell? What are you doing!? You are going to get yourself killed!" Atticus' voice pierced the air.

I walked down the street unguarded. My brother's warning shouts whined closer behind me. A gruesome looking figure stood nearly fifteen feet in front of me. It barely dragged itself towards me looking to be struggling a bit. I could see pieces of flesh peeling off of its cheeks. Its eyes were circled with dark caves, and its jaw was gnashing. It moaned and grunted, outreaching its arms in my direction. Suddenly, it fell backwards, collapsing. Confused, I furrowed my eyebrows and stepped towards it. A knife had flown into the area right between its eyebrows. Blood poured from the wound and trickled down the sides of its grossly deteriorating face. I turned around and saw my brother, storming closer to me, his face was red with anger. He pulled his knife out of the head of the monster, and wiped the blood on his dirty work jeans. He grabbed my arm and started walking me back towards our house.

"What was that!? Are you out of your fucking mind? I told you what it was like out there, why don't you ever listen to me?" he shouted as he slammed the front door close.

"They will tear you to shreds, Lauren, is that what you want?" he grumbled. I couldn't get a word in since we got inside.

"I'm sorry," I whimpered and pulled my arm back. I could feel him staring at me hard, but I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye, so I averted my gaze to the floor.

I could hear him sigh and he shuffled his feet, "No…I'm sorry, I could've been nicer. You just scared me to death, please don't do that."

I looked up at him and his facial features visibly softened. "You're all I have left okay," he lowered his voice. His words reminded me of our mom. The day she passed away was the absolute worst for the both of us. She hadn't caught the illness that had been gradually consuming our world, thank God, but she had run down with a very bad string of pneumonia. She progressively got worse and since every hospital had closed, there wasn't a chance of her getting better.

"We have to stay together," he said, his voice much calmer and little now.

A loud bang drew me away instantly from my nostalgic thoughts. There was another piercing crack after that one. I blinked quickly, trying to restore my position in reality. I gazed around, a group of zombies were circling closer to me. There were more bangs. "Holy fuck," was all I could manage to say before I was tackled by one. I screamed and cried, thrashing my limbs around wildly, trying to hold it back. It drooled with hunger, the spit dripping onto my skin. Its gnawing teeth were literally just centimeters from my nose. "This is it," I thought to myself repeatedly, playing those three words over and over in my head. I tried and tried to push the monster off of my body, but it was too heavy for my strength. No matter how much adrenaline was coursing throughout my veins, nothing would be able to stop me from receiving the end of this fate. I could feel warm tears slipping down the sides of my face as I began to lose hope. Instantly, however, the muscles in my arms gave out and the body fell on me. It wasn't trying to fight back, though. I was surprised to feel my own heart still beating rapidly and the uneven breaths escaping my lips. Blackness began to encase my blurry vision and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was a figure moving above the zombie and blood from the corpses' head oozing onto my skin.

I felt myself slowly slipping back into consciousness, noises and sounds beginning to swarm around me again. I opened my eyes to see a man not even a foot in front of me, his eyes wide and lips parted with shock. I screamed and kicked him off, pulling the knife from my pocket and lunging on top of him. I was about to treat him as I would a zombie, until he grasped my wrist just before the blade was about to puncture his flesh. "You crazy bitch," he grunted and slipped the knife out of my hand and pushed my body off of him. I shook with fear backed up by my unbearable amount of exhaustion and hunger. "I'm sorry," I whimpered, feeling tears sting my eyes again. A different man came near and place a hand on my shoulder blade, rubbing the tense muscles in tiny circles.

"It's okay," he shushed me, shooting glances up at the man I almost killed.
"It's okay!? The psychotic bitch nearly turned me inta walker bait, and it's just ohhh-kaay?" he mocked the tall man, an angry tone piercing his groggy voice.

The man next to me knelt on the ground next to me, trying to be as comforting as possible. "What's your name, may I ask?"

I looked at him and at the other man. I examined them slowly, gazing at the crossbow the one standing was donning on his shoulder. I looked at my knife in his hand and then at his face. He glared only, and crossed his arms over his chest. I looked at the guy next to me, he wore a small, soft smile on his face for reassurance. I cocked an eyebrow at him, cautious of his intentions.

"You look oddly healthy for living in an apocalypse. Where are you all holed up at?" I asked them, avoiding his interrogation.

"He asked you a question, sweetheart," the man with the crossbow smirked sarcastically.

"And I'm expected to trust you?" I snapped back, "Give me my knife and my backpack back and I'll be on my way."

"I can't do that right now, sorry. Just please…what is your name? Where are you staying?" The man next to me continued to press.

I glared at the both of them.

"Look, my name is Rick. Rick Grimes. I'm here to help you if you can just answer some of my questions." The look consuming his features appeared honest and sincere, but even the most trustable looking people will stab you in the back in a heartbeat. I thought about it for moments until I realized that honestly, I have nothing left to lose anymore. I've known that that was the case for too long.

"Lauren. My name is Lauren. I don't reside anywhere and haven't since my oh-so-humble abode was overrun by walkers three and a half months ago. Happy? Is that the answer you want?"

Rick nodded and turned to the other man and shot him a questioning look and the man only shook his head. Rick turned back to me and the corners of his lips turned up ever so slightly.

"So you don't have anyone with you?" He questioned.

I glared at him, "Yeah, because I would've just taken my sweet time joy walkin' out in the forest by myself and almost get killed if I had someone looking out for me. No I have no one, now are we done chitchatting or are you going to skip to the part where you kill me?"

He stifled his laughter, "No one is planning to do that."

"Well, what do you want from me?"

He skipped right to the chase, "For reference, how many people have you killed?"

I was taken aback by his forward question and furrowed my eyebrows, "None."

"How many walkers have you killed?"

"Walkers?" I chuckled.

"Yeah those bloodthirsty biters that almost killed you," he laughed slightly.

"Too many to count," I answered his question, "Is that it? Can you let me go now or..?"

"Okay look…We are residing at a farm just down the road a ways," he began explaining, "it's a large white farmhouse with a big old field, you can't miss it. I'm thinking you should come with us and get cleaned up and your wounds checked out. Please. A woman like you can't be living on her own like this." The features on his face twisted up and he looked pained. "We just lost a girl, about ten. She's off in these woods somewhere and we are aware of what the world is like out there and it is so scary for someone to have to deal with that." He calmly placed a hand on my knee and looked at me sternly, the way my brother used to. "Please."

I thought about it hard for several moments, while both men conversed with each other, both shooting glances in my direction often.

"She almost killed me!" The unknown man said loudly.

Rick fought back, "She passed out and woke up with you dangling in her face and you expect her to not panic?"

They argued some more while I pondered the idea of me moving down there. How many people are there? Are they as hostile as crossbow-man over here? Do they have food?

"Okay. I'll go." I said simply and Rick and I exchanged soft smiles while the other rugged looking man sat defeated.