Hello guys! This is my first attempt at any sort of fan fiction, a friend and I just kind of threw it together… Hope y'all enjoy! :D

The year was 2018. I was in the military with my two best friends Sean, and Sid. We go all the way back to middle school. We met when Sean got into a fight with a kid, back then Sid and I didn't know him yet. But when we saw him in the fight we ran up to restrain the two boys, stopping any further injury. Ever since Sid and I helped Sean, we all became close friends. After we graduated high school, we then proceeded to join New Winchester City Military Academy. Training was tough, I had the most trouble. The guns and ammunition were very heavy, but I got used to it. Sean, Sid and I got into a lot of trouble, like stealing food. The stuff they served us at the academy should not be classified as food… New Harlem City was a quarantine zone because of the disease outbreak that happened the year before. Sean and I were always intrigued by the events that took place in New Harlem City. By order of the president himself, the army was forced to shut off all contact with the city, the disease would have spread all across the US. People viewed the president as an inhuman murderer. But he decided to sacrifice 1 city for thousands more. New Harlem City was off limits and guards used to be protecting its borders from unwanted visitors. But that was a year ago, and the guards moved on. So Sean and I did lots of research on it, we couldn't let anyone know. If anyone found out we'd be in a lot of trouble. All info on the city is pretty secure, at the time Sean and I didn't think much of it. When Sean and I weren't researching we were training with Sid, and when we weren't training we were usually in a fight. We'd get in fights over who got the good food in the mess hall. Sean was serious with what he did but he got injured many times. Sid was smart but very impulsive. I was very tough, but I kept to myself. Sean was also very tough and smart, he was the leader of our group. Sean really brought us together as friends, Sid and I would get into arguments a lot. But Sean always cooled us down, he was a natural born leader. Maybe that's why he rose high in the rankings in the academy. Sid wanted to be a doctor when we grew up, and that stuck with him. When he joined the military he joined the medical branch. I wanted to be an engineer when I grew up, build planes and develop new vehicles and weapons. That also stuck with me, although I couldn't do much with it as a soldier. When the time came and we graduated from the academy we matured and were more responsible, we thought we were prepared for anything.

It was dawn and we had just woken up to do our daily routine. We started going through the obstacle course. We had a race to see who could finish first, but Sean had to sit out because of his bad knee. Sid and I started out running through the mud course, we had to jump through a tire. We then had to go under the barbed wire but I got cut. My wound was bleeding badly, and the mud that seeped in didn't help. "Why do they have to have real wire," I said complainingly. By then we were tired but we had to climb a giant wall. The wall was about 10 feet in the air. Sid and I barely made it across the wall but we made it. Then all we had had to do was cross the finish line. That was the end of the obstacle course for me. The next thing we had to do was go to the shooting range. By then Sean's knee was feeling better so our instructor let him join us. I picked up a pistol, Sid picked up a rifle, and Sean stupidly picked up a rocket launcher. I fired first and shot the target in the middle of his head. Sid shot the target a number of times in the chest, and Sean when he fired the rocket launcher it hit the target and blew it up. He flew across the room and hit the wall hard. Sid and I came up to Sean. "You ok?" Sid said, "Maybe next time don't pick up the rocket launcher," I said as a medical team picked him up on a gurney. Sean grunted as he tried to get up he had a hard time breathing but he soon could. By then it was the afternoon, and Sid and I went to the clinic to check up on our friend. Doctor said he'd be fine, just a couple of scratches. The nurse let him go, and we went into the mess hall for lunch. "Hey, Rosenberg!" John Snoke called, no one like him. John was a jerk, picked on people smaller than him. John had his butt kicked many times by Sean but never learned his lesson. "Not now John…" Sean said, gritting his teeth. "Aw c'mon… Why don't you give me that cookie you got there?" John stood up and walked over to Sean grabbing the only real piece of food on his plate. Sean grabbed John by his collar and pulled him in close, and with a threatening look in his eye said, "Not. Now." He threw him back and John sat back down defeated. We sat down at an empty table, and for the most part, lunch was silent. Until Sid looked over his shoulder and said, "When is he gonna cut it out." The three of us put our trays away and threw away our trash and headed out to the gym to get an evening workout. By the time we finished up and showered it'd gotten late. We folded the flag and went into our room. We went to bed dreaming about what was coming next. The next morning we were awoken by the General himself, saying he had a mission. Still half asleep, I covered my head with my pillow, longing for more sleep.

"Get your butts up! I've got a special mission for you boys!"

"Uuugh…" We all replied in unison.

The helicopter blades were so loud I couldn't hear what the General was said as we flew over New Harlem City.

"...Careful…...Epidemic…"

After I thought about it I managed to put together what he was saying, something along the lines of, "Be careful, there was an epidemic." I had done some research on the base we were going to. It's been abandoned for quite some time after an epidemic outbreak made the New Harlem City close off, that city has been isolated for 4 years. To my knowledge, every one of those citizens has died off.

"Sir, I'm picking up some heat signatures on the inferred radar…" The pilot said.

"What? We're the only ones here in this damn area, there are no people alive in this city-"

The heli had been hit. A rocket was launched into the tail of the helicopter. We were going down, spiraling out of control. Sean, Sid and I were freaking out. We were approaching a building, when we heard the General's harsh gravelly voice, we snapped back to reality.

"You kids ever skydived?" He said.

"No!" We all said.

"Well, today is your lucky day." He replied

The general shoved us all out of the helicopter. We landed with pain all throughout our bodies, scrapes, and broken bones. We looked up to the sky just in time to see the explosion that was the remains of our helicopter.

The sound deafened us for the moment. A ringing filled our ears. We stood up, but Sean had suffered some bad leg wounds, he shattered his leg and was screaming from the pain. Sid and I had only suffered minor scrapes and some sprained joints but we were ok. We looked around in desperation, trying to find the general but he was nowhere to be found. Sid and I decided to head for shelter, who knows what's out here? We picked up Sean and headed for the nearest building. We went into an old convenience store and set up a bed for Sean.

"I'll head out to find some medical supplies," I told Sid.

"I'll go with you-" he replied, but I cut him off.

"Someone needs to stay with Sean, tend to his wounds, and defend him if you need to. We can't lose another man." I said commandingly

"Fine, but we'll switch off," Sid replied.

"Sure, I won't go too far, radio in if you need me," I said.

I walked out of the store, gun in hand. Not knowing what to expect in this godforsaken place. I was working hard, as was Sid. He was tending to Sean wounds, but they were getting worse. I needed to find some antibiotics… I walked into an old clinic, I was making my way through the town when I saw it. Once inside I scoured the place, looking for anything to help my fallen comrade. "Finally!" I exclaimed. I'd found some painkillers, medical gauze and some antibiotics. I placed them into my bag and rushed back to the Lucky's convenience store. On my way back, I tripped over a pothole in the road and fell on my gun. Causing a loud POP!

I heard the dragging of feet across pavement behind me. I got up, confused at the sound I'd just heard. I turned to see a humanoid figure of a small child with a decaying body, blood falling out of its skin. It made a horrible noise, coming from its throat. My skin shivered and immediately went pale. The thing was charging me, and I didn't know what to do. But I knew that this thing wasn't natural. I didn't want to kill it, as it was just a kid. But it had tackled me with superhuman strength. I was down. And the thing was about to dig into its meal. I pulled my pistol from its holster and shot the thing through the side of the head. Hoping it wouldn't attract more of the creatures. Covered in the things blood, traumatized from killing a child, I went back to the Lucky's. Hoping that was the only one. When I arrived I was sad to see that Sean's wound's had gotten worse and the bleeding had started again. I passed the med supplies onto Sid, who wrapped Sean's leg in the gauze, and gave him painkillers. As time passed Sid and I switched off daily to go gather supplies while Sean's leg healed. About 1 month later due to help of other medication that Sid found Sean's leg was healed completely, and for the first time Sean got to go on a supply mission with Sid and I. Since Sean was healed, we journeyed out further in the city. We journeyed our way to a Nutricorp skyscraper and headed to the roof for a better look at our surroundings. We went inside the building but only to realize that it was empty. Sean went up to the front desk and hit the bell. "No service, guess there on their lunch break," Sean said. "Shut up Sean, it's not funny." Said Sid. We then went to the staircase to go to the rooftop. When we reached the second flight we saw someone, it was a man in a suit with his back turned. "Hey, are you ok? We're not going to hurt you." I said. But he turned around but instead of a well-dressed nice man, we saw a man with his jaw hanging by a thin thread. A part of his head completely gone and blood dripping from his mouth onto his shirt. He came at us fast, he made this terrible noise, a shriek. He charged at Sid but he shot it in the chest about 5 times. The man had fallen down onto the ground.

"What the hell is that?!" Sid said. "I think it is dead..."

But Sid was wrong. The man jumped up and tried to take a bite out of Sean.

"Whoa! Get it off of me!" Sean yelled. I shot the thing right in the head. Painting the walls with its brains.

"What was that thing," Sid said.

"I don't know..." I told them.

We then ran up the stairs quickly so we could get to the roof. Once we made it to the roof. We would see what happened to the place. When we reached the top we looked out and were amazed at what we saw. The towering buildings around us were completely destroyed, some looked as if they were blown in half by a bomb. Vines and other plants had overthrown the buildings, and it was growing out of control. We stopped to take in the sights. It was beautiful, but we weren't there for sightseeing. Sean took out his imaginary camera.

"That's going in the scrapbook," We headed down stairs with a goal in mind. When we were outside we noticed a book on the ground. Sean picked it up and started reading.

January 7, 2015; Today I found a bag of potato chips, surprised they haven't gone bad yet.

January 9, 2015; Today, I danced with death. I thought I found another survivor, but it turns out it was just another one of those things in the form of a young girl. I had to run away, I didn't have my knife with me at the time. Just another reason to not trust this godforsaken place.

February 6, 2015; Well, I made it past the one month line and I'm still alive. Yay me! Heh.. Yeah, I don't think I'll last much longer out here. Supplies are running low and there are what seems like more and more Walkers every day. This book is all that is keeping me from snapping, and going insane.

February 19, 2015; Barbara just had the baby! It's a boy! I swear I'll do all that's in my power to protect that kid from the Walkers.

"That's sweet," Sid said reading it over Sean's shoulder. As his eyes continued to read, a face of horror came as Sean flipped the page.

"March 1, 2015; I left to get food, but was ambushed and my legs got torn off. I can't talk to my wife and son, there back at camp so I'm writing. I hope you guys see this. Barbara, I love you with all my heart, you're most kind person I know, and I'm sorry I'm leaving but promise me that you'll take care of Grayson? I love you bo- the writing stopped there. I only saw a blood splotch on the page before Sean could shut it. We moved on, though we all still held hope that maybe we'd find Grayson or Barbara.

We needed to find food, water, some safe shelter, and a fire. I've been camping all my life, so getting a fire going wasn't a problem.

"We've got fire and a roof over our heads. What about food and water?" Sean said.

"Looks like tonight we'll have to go to bed hungry," Sid said, looking at the setting sun. We tried to go to bed that night, terrified of that man. I decided I'd finally tell them about the girl that nearly killed me.

"I ran into one of those things, just like that man earlier this month…" I told them reluctantly.

"And you didn't tell us?!" Sid shouted back, as Sean looked off into the distance.

"You almost got me killed!" Sid yelled angrily, but Sean stopped him.

"It doesn't matter what happened in the past, we have to focus on our task at hand. Survival."