WHAT LIES AHEAD PART 1

The old and rusty hatch leading up to the rooftop creaked loudly before there was this popping noise from someone forcefully unlocking it from the other side. The hatch swung open and daylight flooded into the dusty and unused attic. Natasha Creed lowered her head inside to look around, but it was far too dark to really see anything beyond the outside light. Taking a chance though, she swung her body around and jumped through the open hatch, landing inside the Atlanta nursing home that the Vatos controlled.

Natasha didn't want to sneak in this way since they left the Vatos on good terms. She'd rather use the front but found the place to be oddly quiet with no guards anywhere. That alone immediately rubbed her the wrong way and Natasha didn't feel comfortable anymore going in through the front gate. Her gut told her something was wrong, but she still wanted to be sure about it, which is why she took the scenic route by going in through the roof.

Apparently, the hatch led her into a cobweb-covered attic that hasn't been cleaned in over a year, before even the outbreak happened. It looked like the staff at the nursing home used it mainly to store things they didn't need, like furniture and torn-up mattresses that have been used to death by the old folk. It didn't even appear that the Vatos used it either.

Since there was nothing in the attic of use, Natasha made her way over to the exit door and headed down the stairs into the main facility. She was about to grab the door at the bottom of the steps when an unfortunate sound crept its way into her eardrums. Shuffling and uneven footsteps, and abhorrent chewing noises of ripping flesh. Natasha's nerves ignited and every ounce of her body tensed up at once. She stood perfectly still, frozen in time as her brain began to work and unfold the situation in only seconds. She unzipped her coat and reached inside for the handle of her pistol, simultaneously grabbing the door handle and creaking it open about an inch to see outside.

There were two Walkers who were aimlessly wandering the halls and a single one hunched over, ruthlessly chewing on an unrecognizable corpse. Natasha changed her approach and moved her hand down to her knife instead and waited. The two aimless Walkers eventually wandered off down the hall and left the single one alone with the body. Once they were gone, she moved swiftly out from behind the door and approached the unsuspecting creature. She was completely silent, and the Walker wasn't even aware of what was going on until Natasha planted her knife right in the back of its head. He stiffened up and toppled over his meal once she removed the knife.

Natasha sharpened her eyes and finally saw who the Walker was chewing on. It was an old resident lying dead with a bullet in his head and guts ripped out. "What's going on?" she muttered and continued her investigation.

More and more mangled bodies started to appear the closer she got to the lounge area, and once she was inside, her nose was assaulted with the stench of rotten flesh and stale blood. Corpses covered the ground, and like the ones in the hall, they too had sustained the same kind of bullet wound. At a closer inspection, it looked like someone had shot them in the back of the head, execution-style. It even looked like they ransacked the place too after killing the Vatos and the old residents.

"Probably happened about a day or two ago, guessing by the smell and color. Walkers must've wandered in after the place was abandoned." Natasha said while pulling down her scarf. She turned her head up to the sound of distant shuffling footsteps that were approaching from the branching hall. "Can't stay here..." She pulled her scarf up again and quickly left the room just as the shadows of Walkers stretched down the hallway.

The survivors had taken temporary shelter at a rest stop that was right outside Atlanta. After Natasha went to scout out the nursing home, they had taken the time to pack all their things up into their vehicles. Natasha was the one to advise that to them. To get ready while she was gone so they could move on quickly by the time she got back.

Everyone turned their hearts up eagerly when Natasha finally pulled in with the station wagon she borrowed. Rick approached her first with everyone trailing behind him. He opened his mouth to speak but quickly noticed that something was off with her. Just the look in her eyes and the way she was trying to avoid eye contact immediately diminished their hopes.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

Natasha took her time to find her words while yanking her scarf off and unzipping her coat. There was no better way of saying it though and decided to be blunt. "They're dead. The Vatos," she said and saw every one of their faces break out with disbelief. "I don't know for sure...but it looks like their place got raided. No one was left alive and whoever did it took their supplies too."

"You can't be serious," Andrea spoke up spitefully. "How would you even know that?"

"I know they weren't overrun by Walkers if that's what you're doubting me on. Almost everybody had a bullet hole in the back of their head." Natasha crossed her arms over her chest and looked every one of the survivors in the eye. Her voice was calm but there was also an undeniable harshness to it. "I'm sorry...but this stuff does happen sometimes. You get a group with more people and firepower than anything is possible."

The coldness of their reality stuck close to the silence that was haunting them. They wanted to reject Natasha's claim but the confident look in her eyes immediately snuffed their objections. Everyone was quiet, but just because they didn't know what to say.

Natasha continued. "If you want my opinion...I think it's time to leave. Atlanta's done. There's nothing left for people here."

Rick ran his hand over his face and took a breath. He momentarily looked over to Shane and saw his friend nod in agreement, already knowing what their next move was. "Alright...Fort Benning. Start packing up your things. We're leaving in a half-hour," he ordered, and everyone broke off to finish packing.

Natasha spoke up just as Daryl began to walk past her. She tapped her hand against his shoulder to grab his attention. "You still mad about Rick giving away half our guns? Only for things to turn out like this," she asked and began walking beside him.

"Hell yeah I do," he said immediately. "Especially now. I stand by what I said."

"Yeah, I get what you mean, but honestly...I'd be hard-pressed to make the same call Rick did. The point still stands that he ended things without a single person dying. If things really did end up in a shoot-out, I'm sure we'd all end up dead, along with the Vatos."

Daryl shrugged his shoulders and spoke dryly. "Nah... you'd live."

His comment took Natasha by surprise. She looked over at him and cocked a brow, unsure how to even approach that. "You really think?"

"Yeah. I'm sure you would've figured out something to make it out of that mess," he said half-heartedly like it was a meaningless afterthought to him.

Natasha looked away but began to feel her heart swelling with a bit of pride. "Thanks. I appreciate the confidence you have in my ability to stay alive." She fell silent for a moment when an old memory crossed her mind that made her laugh.

"What?"

"My best friend...he told me once a while back that I'm way too durable for my own good. He even said I'd be here with the cockroaches if the world ever ends."

Daryl scoffed at the absurdity and began to head off to finish his preparations. "Guess he was right if you're still here," he said while waving her off.

After some time, Natasha's smile did eventually fall when she was reminded of the Vatos. She can't say that she was really surprised that their group was wiped out in such a short amount of time. Knowing their situation, they were trapped and backed up into a corner because of the old folk. In the back of her mind, Natasha was already aware that something like this was going to happen...that they weren't going to last.

It was going to be a challenge to get to Fort Benning, and after a long discussion of what road to use, they decided to take the shortest highway route. Daryl took the lead on his bike with the RV and station wagon trailing behind, carrying the rest of the survivors. They were only on the road for about an hour and a half when they came across their first obstacle. And a rather big one at that.

"Oh jeez," Dale mumbled and came to a halt when he couldn't go any farther.

The road ahead was completely backed up with over a hundred cars that looked to have been abandoned since the start of the outbreak. People must've tried to get out of the city but didn't make it far because of accidents that happened further down the road. Since it was impossible to move the wreck, people decided to leave their cars there and go on foot. Natasha could only imagine how that must've gone for people when all this first started. She was still in Atlanta with Ben at the time, so she never knew about this cluster.

Dale rolled down his window when Daryl came driving up to them after getting a good look ahead. "See a way through?" he asked.

Daryl made a gesture with his head for them to follow.

Glenn was already looking down at the map to see if there was an alternate route they could take. "Uh, maybe we should just go back. There's an interstate bypass-"

"We can't spare the fuel," Natasha cut in and groaned. She waved her hand up and made a motion for Glenn to hand her the map. "I wonder if there's any back road we can take. It might be tight for the RV but it's better than trying to navigate this maze."

Just when those words left her mouth, the engine suddenly burst with hot steam and gave an unfortunate whistling noise. Dale pulled the RV into park, and just as before, muttered under his breath while exiting with the rest of the survivors.

"I said it. Didn't I say it?" he said grumbled while fanning the steam away. "A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" Shane said with a cocked eyebrow.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Dale paused his rant and looked around at all the perfectly good cars. "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane said.

Daryl walked over to one of the nearby cars and scavenged through the things it had in the back. "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find."

T-Dog shrugged. "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start."

"Maybe some water," Carol muttered

"Or food."

"This is a graveyard," Lori spoke up grimly and looked over to Rick and Natasha. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"It's a better place to be than any," Natasha said. It's not like she didn't understand where Lori was coming from, but they didn't really have a choice. People must've forgotten a lot of things when they abandoned their cars. Forgot things like weapons, ammo, clothes, food. Natasha honestly can't complain and was pretty eager to look around. "It may be morbid but what else is new. It's best to take advantage of this while we're here."

Everyone parted after that and began to wander around through the maze of cars. Everyone but Andrea. She turned green pretty quickly because of the car graveyard and headed back inside the RV.

Lori still couldn't shake the jittery feeling in her gut and didn't like that they decided to stop here. "Hey, Carl," she called out to her son who was a couple of feet away from her. "Always within my sight, okay?" she reminded

"You too, Sophia," Carol followed

Natasha wandered past them and tapped Lori's shoulder on her way by. "Don't worry. I'm gonna be looking for some new clothes too, so I'll keep an eye on them," she said to assure her.

Lori smiled appreciatively at her diligence. "Thank you, Natasha." It was becoming quickly known that she was growing more comfortable with situations like these if Natasha was around. She trusted her sharp mind and quick thinking.

"Don't worry about it."

Natasha began to search for new clothes and peeked into some of the cars that were left behind. Some of them weren't abandoned though and a couple did have dead bodies inside, practically glued to their seats and baking out in the Georgia sun. Natasha could feel her face turn up into a scowl while passing by the...occupied vehicles. She didn't want the smell of decay to stick to the clothes and decided to look elsewhere.

She walked up to a minivan that was the type a soccer mom would drive. She looked inside and saw a cardboard box that had a bundle of unorganized clothes, all ranging in sizes. It looked promising enough so she slid open the door and yanked the box over. She rumbled through the stack and tossed away some of the clothes that looked like they would fit a kid, but she guessed that was to be expected when looking through clothes that were in a minivan. There were adult-sized ones though among the bunch that she snagged for herself.

Natasha was getting near the end of the box when she heard a rattling noise at the bottom. She raised a brow and pulled the rest of the clothes out, and much to her surprise there were two boxes of ammunition at the bottom. 9mm rounds, to be exact. She wasn't expecting a soccer mom to be packing ammo like this, so the thought made her chuckle.

"What is it?" Carl asked, peeking curiously around her to see what she was laughing about.

Natasha turned her eyes down to the side and saw both Carl and Sophia standing beside her. "Just found 9mm's. You know anything about this particular round?" she said to spark their curious minds. "9mm's are a very versatile round and are a common favorite among gun owners. They're very reliable," she explained while taking out her own gun and releasing the magazine. She was pretty low on ammunition and just wanted to be sure her own weapon was loaded to its fullest capacity. She decided to take about half a box's worth of ammo and give the rest to the survivors.

Sophia's eyes grew wide when the sight of silver crossed her vision. "Is that your gun?"

"It's my fiancé's," Natasha corrected. "He told me to take it with me when I left Atlanta."

Carl looked a little hesitant at first before speaking up. "Can I see it?"

Natasha immediately lowered her weapon and stared at Carl with suspicious eyes. It did dawn on her though that he was around the age that young boys tend to be curious about these sorts of things. In any other situation, it would be fine, but the world as of now caused a bit of concern on Natasha's end. "I'm gonna have to ask your mother first," she said, just to be on the safe side. "Lori!" she called out faster than Carl could protest.

"What is it?" Lori was only standing a couple of feet away with Carol beside her.

"You wouldn't mind if I let Carl take a look at my weapon, would you?" As expected, she instantly saw Lori become uncomfortable upon being asked that. Even Carol looked troubled but meekly kept her head down.

"I'm not really comfortable with that," Lori said. "I don't want my boy to hold a loaded weapon."

"I wasn't going to let him hold a loaded gun, Lori. I was going to take out the magazine and make sure the chamber was empty. I just want him to check out the weight," she pushed a little further but was willing to drop it if Lori gave a firm no.

Lori considered it for a bit after being told that and looked to give up. She still looked uncomfortable but not as much as before. "I guess it's fine. Just make sure he doesn't point it at anything."

"It's fine with me, too," Carol timed in last minute.

Natasha waved back to them and turned her attention back to the kids. Carl for one looked surprised.

"I didn't think my mom would say yes," he said with an eager grin.

"I'm pretty sure it's because your mom trusts me." Natasha had already taken out the magazine and was pulling back the slide a couple of times to make sure the chamber was empty. "Sophia, I got permission from your mom. Do you want to try?"

Sophia shrugged her shoulders and pulled her doll close to her side. "I don't mind," she said in a meek whisper, a lot how her mom does.

"Alright." Natasha held the gun by the barrel and carefully handed it over to Carl. "Remember, even though it's empty, always treat it like it's not. Keep it pointed at the ground, away from everyone's feet, and finger off the trigger."

Carl grinned when he felt the whole weight of the gun being placed into his small hands. He knew to keep it pointed at the ground but also fought the urge to aim it at the trees and pretend they were Walkers. "This is so cool. Check it out, Sophia." He turned the gun to the side and handed it over to her.

If anyone looked out of place while carrying a weapon, then it would be her. Sophia was always a scrawny thing with thin, toothpick arms that shook from the weight of the gun. "It's heavy. Don't your arms shake while trying to aim?" She turned her young eyes up at Natasha.

"Not as much anymore. I'm pretty used to the weight," she said.

"What if you're scared?" Carl asked, but Natasha shook her head again.

"I don't get scared. I get nervous sometimes...but not really scared."

Sophia's curious gaze turned into a perplexed stare. "How can you not be scared of what's happening now?"

Natasha fell silent and stared at the kids from the corner of her eyes. Her lips melded into a small smile, but her eyes looked melancholy. "It's because I have other things to worry about," she said with an air of darkened mystery and took back her weapon.

"Like what?" Carl pressed further for more answers, but Natasha quickly brushed him off.

"Don't worry about it."

"No, uh, if you tell us what you're really worried about...then maybe we can help," he insisted as confidently as a twelve your old could get. It was true though. This whole time, ever since they met, Natasha has put her life on the line to watch out for them and make sure he and his family were safe. In return for what she had done for them, Carl wanted to help her out too in any way he could.

Natasha could feel her heart flutter with an appreciation for Carl's concern. "Spoken like a true son of a cop." She patted his shoulder and quickly loaded her pistol and placed it back inside her holster. "Nah. You guys are a bit too young to really understand it. My fears and worries are my own, and it's just gonna have to be something I deal with," she said with the same melancholy tone that her eyes continued to hold.

Dale watched them from the top of the RV a couple of feet away and sported a grin on his face. He was happy to see Natasha interacting with Carl and Sophia and looking after them while Lori and Carol were busy. It was nice to see her talking with others because she did have a habit of being oddly distant from people at times. It did concern him whenever she did that, but he was trying to hold himself back from prying too much into her personal life.

He tore his eyes away from them and looked down the highway with his binoculars. He stared, frozen and silent long enough for Rick to take notice. He had a rifle in his hand and decided to take a look with his scope. He scanned through the car maze when he saw a distant Walker, followed by more. One turned into two, and two turned into fifty. It was a damn herd heading right towards them.

Rick took in a deep shuddering breath as the color on his face drained away to an ashy paleness. "Oh, Christ."

Author's Note:

Welcome back! As of now, I will be tackling season 2 of the Walking Dead, which will be an extremely heavy story for Natasha. I got a crap ton of things to do with her before the season ends and I'm very, very excited to show you guys.

Oh, and in case your guys are wondering, the Vatos did actually die in the original series. It was a deleted scene for the first episode of the second season that I decided to incorporate into the opening scene of Natasha's story.

And I know You want the romance between Daryl and Natasha, but just hold on. This is gonna be a pretty slow-burning romance for them. It'll happen eventually, and I know the exact season and episode it will.