Downtown Atlanta – August 25, 2010

Lucy Greene looked down at her scrubs and blood-covered hands. There was chaos everywhere, but her emotions were overloaded, and she couldn't comprehend everything that was happening. Patients and families lined Grady Memorial Hospital's hallway. People kept coming in with bites and died from an infection they didn't know how to cure or stop. They thought the infection was killing them, but it wasn't the case with her last patient. Lucy had declared her last patient's time of death, but while cleaning up, he sat up. He then proceeded to attack her, and he was a big guy. Luckily for her he was confused, slow and uncoordinated. She'd been forced to defend herself when he ignored her commands to stop. She killed him after taking the fire extinguisher down off the wall and hitting him repeatedly. She'd taken a life and broken her oath. Max found her and brought her out of the room and then disappeared. Max was the Er's head nurse and her best friend for almost seven years. Standing in the hallway, she was in a daze when Max ran up to her, also covered in blood. When she didn't acknowledge him, he grabbed her shoulders and forced her to face him. She looked him in the eye and her lips trembled, a breakdown very close to the surface. Max gave her a stern look and held up a hand and very firmly scolded her. "No, absolutely not!" He yelled frantically as he looked around the crowded hallway. "This isn't the time or place for that. We can break down once we're somewhere safe. This isn't an isolated event like we thought, it's everywhere. Lucy, you didn't kill that guy, he was already dead. I mean look around you, we're in a fucking Romero movie right now!" Lucy finally focused on her surroundings as she glanced around where the two of them stood, her eyes growing wider. The number of people struggling to stand up, skin a dull gray and eyes cloudy and void of color was growing. She looked back at Max, hysteria threatening to take control.

"Max what do we do?" she asked, scared for their safety. "My purse and car keys are in the locker room upstairs!" He shook his head, bent down to pick something up, and shoved her purse into her hands. "Your keys are in your bag." He said as he pulled her down the narrow hallway towards the elevator. "I grabbed what I could, but we have to leave! That bitch Dawn is talking about locking the hospital down and not letting anyone leave. She said bombs are going to be dropped, Lucy. We have to hurry to the apartments and get the fuck out of Atlanta!" Gasping at his words, Lucy pulled her cellphone out as the elevator descended into the basement parking garage. She quickly dialed her brother, Luke, who answered immediately. "Lucy, oh my God, are you okay? The news is saying some crazy shit right now!" Lucy started talking as they exited the elevator and jogged to her tiny Chevy Spark.

"Luke, Max and I are on our way home. Pack whatever you can for both you and me, okay?" She asked him breathlessly as she jogged to the driver's side of her car. "My duffel is in my closet. The pink one is the biggest. Literally throw what you can into it, just empty my drawers. Max and I are covered in…well we desperately need a shower. We have to grab whatever food and water we have and take your Jeep. They're going to bomb the city, Luke. We gotta go to Uncle Hershel's." Luke said he understood, and they hung up. Once buckled, Lucy maneuvered towards the garage exit. Officer Gorman was at the exit and stepped in front of the car to make them stop. Once she'd complied, not putting the car in park, but stopping it, he stepped next to her window and gave her a sickeningly fake smile. She cracked her window an inch so she could hear what he was saying. "Afternoon Dr. Greene, Max. It looks like we're sealing the hospital until further notice. If you'll just park and head back in, Dawn and I will get the med staff somewhere safe." Max grabbed her hand tightly at his words. Lucy put a smile on her face that she hoped appeared authentic. She wanted him to take what she was going to say well.

"Officer Gorman, we greatly appreciate your offer, truly." She started calmly while glancing at Max who looked extremely uneasy. "I have to get home to my family, but I hope you all stay safe." The smile fell off Gorman's face at her words, his hand drifting to his police baton as he replied. "I understand you want to get to your family, Lucy." He said menacingly, dropping all formality completely. "I'm afraid I'm following orders and I'm going to have to insist the two of you come back inside." Lucy was glad she'd kept her car in gear as she stepped on the gas and lurched forward. She heard Gorman swear at her sudden action as he struck her window with the baton, sending glass shards everywhere. Lucy screamed as he reached inside the window and grabbed her steering wheel. She felt Max slip something into her lap. This caused her to slam on the brakes and grasp it with her right hand, letting go of the steering wheel. The abrupt stop caused Gorman to stumble which gave her the time she needed to slip the safety off the pepper spray, point, and shoot. Gorman screamed loudly and finally released her wheel as his hands moved to his face. He put his hands out, trying to grab the car again as he shouted at her. "You stupid bitch! You're going to pay for that!" Lucy didn't hesitate to slam her foot onto the accelerator again. The wooden barrier that blocked the entrance was down, but she kept going and slammed through it. This caused her car to lurch backwards slightly because it was so small. Luckily, they got through the exit, but her bumper and windshield were damaged.

Lucy drove straight down Peachtree and up to the midtown exit and to their apartment building. She didn't bother pulling into the parking garage, just pulled right up to the door so she and Max could jump out. He lived two doors down from her and Luke, so they ran into the building and ran up the steps. They stopped when they reached her door and faced each other. Lucy looked down at her watch and grimaced. "Max, it's 5:05pm." She said in a shaky voice. "Let's try to meet here in twenty minutes. Wash up, get your clothes, and whatever food you can bring. We're going to need lots of water if you have any. We have a case of 24 but who knows how long it will take to get to my uncle's farm. We shouldn't stay here if they're going start dropping bombs." Max agreed and took off down the hall to his own apartment. Lucy turned around and came face to face with her brother. When he saw her, his eyes widened as he saw the state of her scrubs. Tears began falling down her cheeks as she nodded at him, but she kept herself from hugging him to avoid getting anything on him.

All in all, it took them forty-five minutes to get cleaned up, put their stuff in Luke's car, and head out of the city. They were only about ten minutes outside of the main city, the skyline still visible when everything came to a standstill. People began getting out of their cars because they didn't know how long it would take to start moving. It was around eight in the evening when they heard the rumbling in the sky. Jets began to fly overhead and the three of them ran across the highway, jumping over the highway, and running into the woods. They were joined by a large number of other people. No one believed that they were going to just drop bombs on their beloved city. The three of them were huddled together when the explosions started, and Lucy gasped audibly. She leaned into Max who put his arms around her protectively, both trembling. She spoke to both of them as they could not stop looking at their home's destruction. "What are we supposed to do now?" she couldn't keep the fear out of her voice. "Max when you said they were going to bomb, I didn't believe you." Before Max could answer two people began walking towards them slowly. A skinny woman with beautiful brunette hair that fell to her waist and a tall, muscular man wearing cargo pants and a King County Sheriff's t-shirt stood in front of them. The man's deep, southern voice addressed the three of them as he looked between them.

"I'm sorry to just walk up on you all, but I couldn't help but overhear. Did you say you knew this was going to happen?" Luke stepped next to Lucy as if to protect her from danger, but looking into the man's chocolate brown eyes, she felt safe. When neither boy opted to answer him, Lucy pulled away from Max and spoke softly. "The two of us were in a hospital downtown." She said pointing between her and Max as she explained. "We worked there and the cops that worked security there said it. They…they tried to make us stay there, but we were able to get out and leave the city in time. They didn't even do an evacuation, they just…there's still uninfected people down there." Lucy watched as the woman's mouth opened in shock at her words and the man's eyes softened, his lips pursed. He looked at all three of them and held his hand out.

"I'm Shane Walsh, I'm a deputy for the King County Sheriff's department." Max didn't hesitate to take his hand, feeling safe already being around an authority figure. "I'm Max Porter and this is Lucy and Luke Greene. They have an uncle who has a farm in Senoia, we're trying to get there but the traffic." Shane glanced at what Lucy assumed to be his wife who nodded, and he turned back to them. "Listen, we've got to get off the highway. Infected will start to come out of the city now that they were stupid enough to bomb it. We do not want to be on the highway when that happens. There's a quarry a few miles back that we're going to use as a camp until the military rolls through to fix this mess. There's about twenty of us in a group that we've been talking to since traffic decided to stop moving. We'll have to go off-road to get there. Ya'll are welcome to come too if you want." Luke shook his head automatically causing Lucy to drop her eyes. She listened to her brother as he addressed them.

"We appreciate the offer, but we've got to make our way to our uncle's farm. He's our family and we need to get to Senoia." Shane nodded at them, but sighed heavily as he put his hands on his hips. "I'm going to be honest, Luke." He said softly and in a calm voice. "I'm not sure traffic will move, and Senoia is thirty miles away. If you come to the camp, you can at least get some rest before you start that way again. You can also come to where our cars are so you can meet some of the people and then decide." Lucy let go of Max completely and looked at her brother with pleading eyes. "Luke, we've been sitting in the same spot for over two hours and people aren't even honking because no one is moving." She glanced over at Max who nodded that he agreed with her. "I personally don't want to sleep in your Jeep with all three of us crammed into it." Shane gave her a small smile and motioned for them to follow them. "Let's head to my Jeep and I'll show you the map."

When they got to the Jeep, they realized they were on the other side of the highway. Shane introduced them to Carol, a sweet woman with short gray hair, and her young daughter Sophia. They were also introduced to Lori officially, the woman who had stood with Shane and her son, Carl. There was another family, the Morales's who had his wife and two children. When they were mapping out their route to the quarry, Lucy walked over to Shane and addressed him softly. "Thank you for inviting us to come along with you." She said in a resigned way because there was no way they'd get Luke's Jeep to where they needed it to go. "We're not going to be able to drive there with you. We were on our way out of the city, so our Jeep is on the other side of the highway and across the median." Shane looked to where she was pointing and hung his head for a moment before walking over to where an RV sat. She watched him converse with an older man in a Hawaiian shirt and wicker hat. He pointed at her and then over to their Jeep and she had a feeling what he was trying to do. The older gentleman walked over to them with a very warm and welcoming smile. Shane did the introductions and smiled in victory as he did so. "Dale, this is Lucy Greene. She's with her husband and brother, Max and Luke. Lucy, this is Dale Horvath." Before Dale could say anything, Lucy couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped her at his introduction. Max had walked over to her and heard the intro, so he was also chuckling softly. "He and I are not married." She said pointing between herself and Max. "Max is my best friend and Luke is my brother." Dale nodded and kept smiling as he addressed them.

"It's very nice to meet you both, though I wish it was under better circumstances. I have that RV over there and it's got plenty of room if you want to grab your bags and whatever you have in your Jeep. We can pile in so we can get to the quarry." Lucy opened her mouth in shock at his invitation and smiled brightly at the two of them. "That is so kind of you to offer that." She said as she looked over at Max, who was also astonished at their kindness to strangers. Working in the medical field had left them jaded. Dale just shrugged his shoulders and pointed around them. "What kind of people would we be if we didn't help each other, especially in times like these?" She reached out her hand to him and he readily accepted her invitation to shake it. "Thank you so much, we'll quickly grab our stuff." Shane walked with them, falling into step beside her. When she glanced over at him, he smiled again. "I'll help you grab your stuff." He stated matter of factly. "That way your brother can move his Jeep onto the side of the road in case traffic does start to move. We may even be able to return to it if we get stuck there for a few days."

It took quite a bit of time to maneuver the vehicles around the ones that were parked. Luke was angry at being forced to go with them, but Lucy explained that it would get them off the highway for the night. The plan to get to Hershel's was still the plan, but they had to make sure they were safe as well. Lucy was just happy that Max had enough foresight to bring his spacious tent and told them to bring their camping and fishing gear. They picked a spot at the end so they would have a little privacy away from everyone. Though she was a doctor, Lucy didn't feel comfortable around people she didn't know. This was a side effect of the relationship she'd escaped from. The three of them climbed into their tent and shared a meal of leftover spaghetti Luke had made the night before. It was cold but it still ate, and it was delicious. Each taking a spot, they fell asleep quickly with the plan of packing up early to get to their uncle Hershel's farm.

A/N:

This was the setup chapter, I know it was a little slow and boring. I'm going to add some chapters about life at the quarry before Rick arrives to setup relationships with the other characters.

I hope you like it and if you see any blatant grammar errors, just ignore it, I'll end up re-editing this at some point.