Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the characters in Twilight and Walking Dead. Those rights are reserved for Stephanie Myer and Robert Kirkman. I do own the original characters created for the storyline. Please support the official release.

Writer's Notes: Hope everyone enjoys!


Dark days are ahead for planet Earth. Chaos. Ruin. Pain. The crippling suffocation of anxiety lurks behind every corner. Though it's not the most dangerous thing to encounter. Without explanation the world got overrun. The day-to-day society that we thought we knew…. gone. There is no saving this world. No cure, for the maddening disease that propelled people to eat each other. No hope. The world was desolate now. No civilizations to turn to. This was survival of the fittest on hard mode. The crazed cannibalistic danger was not the only danger. People… were a danger. There was no trust… Trust was something that got you killed. It was you or them, not in between. Humanity was gone…


[Somewhere Outside of Atlanta, Two months post first outbreak]


Bella Swan. Survivalist, ex-military. Army. Her father was a marine and her mother was a Navy nurse. It was inevitable for her to end up in the field. She didn't consider herself as military anymore. The world was gone, there was no order of things.

"Bells." The voice of Jacob Black called to her. Jacob Black was a friend. His father was William Black, Billy for short and was in the marines with her dad. They were squatting in a house in the suburbs outside of Atlanta. They hadn't moved too much since the outbreak.

Bella's blue-green eyes shifted over towards Jacob. "What?"

"Do you think… do you think that our dads are safe?"

"No. They're not." Bella was matter of fact. She didn't sugar coat anything. It wasn't her style. "Two months Jake. Last call from my dad wasn't great. This is happening all over the world." She said and her eyes went back to looking out the window. She frowned when she saw a man stumbling through the street wearing a hospital gown. "What the hell?" She muttered and she moved from the window, going towards the door. "Jake, close this behind me. I'll be back."

Jacob got to his feet and he hobbled over towards the door. He had sprained his foot a week ago, so he was useless at the moment, but little things like this, it was easier for him to do.

Bella moved out the door, bringing her rifle up as she went into the street. She was wearing army greens and a white tank top. Her dark hair was braided down her back and she wore fingerless black leather gloves on her hands. The man was a little distraught she could tell. He had darker hair, shaggier and he had a beard forming from not shaving at all in the last two months it seemed. She whistled and it gathered his attention. "Inside. Now." She murmured, her voice low.

The man followed her order, stumbling back towards the house and Jacob opened the door to let him inside with Bella right behind him. He shut and locked the door.

"Are you bit?" Bella asked as she shouldered her rifle.

"I. What?"

"Are you bit?"

"No. I was shot… I don't know how long ago. What has happened?" The man's voice was lilted heavily from the South.

"The world went to shit. The dead are walking out there and eating people." Bella said and started examining the man. "Let me see." She said as she pushed the hospital gown off his shoulders. He was wearing boxers at least, so he wasn't naked. She examined his gunshot. It was actually a gunshot. It was getting infected, from the looks of it. "Okay. Jake, get the med bag. I need to clean this."

"Who are you?"

"Bella Swan. That's Jacob Black." She introduced. "Who are you?"

"Sheriff Rick Grimes."

"Police." Bella said with a nod and grabbed the med bag from Jacob and went through it, finding all the supplies she needed.

"Are you a doctor?"

Bella shook her head. "Army medic." She said and then made him sit on the couch. "Hold still. Be quiet, this will hurt and burn." She said as she started cleaning the wound.

Rick winced from the pain, but he stayed quiet. He had a high tolerance for pain. "What day is it?"

"When were you shot?"

"March-"

"Oh dude. It's been two months." Jacob cut him off. "You were in a hospital this entire time?"

"I… I just woke up and everything… the hospital was just… abandoned and things were scattered everywhere. I-I had to get home. My wife and son they… oh god." Tears came to his eyes.

Bella started bandaging the wound. "Listen, we've all lost some people since this thing started. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. They're probably dead. But, you're alive, so now you just survive."

"Are there any…"He sniffed. "Shelters?"

"Any shelters that started since this thing began were in Atlanta." Jacob said.

"Have y'all been to Atlanta yet?"

Bella shook her head. "No. Large populated cities should be avoided." She said and then stood. "Jake get him some clothes from upstairs."

Jacob nodded and then hobbled towards the stairs to grab clothes. Bella wouldn't let him sit still and wither away. As long as he wasn't putting a lot of pressure on his foot, it was okay.

Rick looked around the house. It was a mirror of his own. All these houses were built the same when this subdivision was built six years ago. "How long have y'all been here?"

"A little over a month." Bella said and then grabbed a bottle of water and gave it to him. "You need to regain energy. You're weak right now. It's a miracle that you're even alive."

"I had tubes in me. I think maybe someone was taking care of me there at the hospital, but when I woke, I didn't see anyone."

Bella nodded. "Your saline bag was full?"

"Yes." Rick said and then nodded to Jake when he returned with the clothes. "Thank you."

"No problem." Jake said with a smile. He watched Rick get to his feet and go towards the bathroom to change. His gaze went back to Bella. "Poor dude."

"Yeah." Bella said and blew out a breath. "Okay. We need to think about long-term survival. It's been two months and the only other people we've encountered haven't been friendly. We need to disappear somewhere more reclused."

"Do you think he can travel?" Jake asked, motioning towards the bathroom.

Bella shook her head. "If he wants to survive he'll figure it out. We'll drag him along for as long as we can."

"Bells, we can't leave him out there in the world."

"Jake, we can't afford it."

"We've been sitting here longer because of my foot. I'm the one holding you back."

"That's different."

"It's not." Jake argued.

Rick returned from the bathroom, the jeans fit pretty good and the t-shirt was just a simple white t-shirt. "I know that… we're strangers, but I want to help. I think I can help."

Bella raised a brow. "You think you can help?"

"Yeah, I mean. I was a cop before all of this. I know how to defend myself and others."

"You were shot." Bella pointed out.

"It happens. You were an Army Medic. Are you saying that the guys you patched up weren't helpful?"

Bella was quiet a moment. "Okay. What do you propose?"

"I just want to check Atlanta. Worse case it's overrunned and we don't go into the city… but if my wife and son are alive, they would have went to a shelter." Rick needed to be sure. His heart hurt to think that his wife and son were walking around… one of these things that just… wasn't natural.

Bella looked at Jake and then back at Rick. "Listen. I get it. You want to find your family. This world is fucked." She shook her head. "It's a death sentence if they went to the city. That was the first wave of this infection. The shelters are gone, there is no way-"

"We can try." Jake interrupted Bella and looked at Rick. "We can try." He nodded. "Then we move on."

Bella sighed and then looked from Jake to Rick. "Fine. We'll head to Atlanta. Take a look around. But first sign of trouble, we leave and we do not go back. Understood?"

Rick nodded. He understood and was relieved that Bella was agreeing. He didn't know if he could do it himself. He had woke up in the hospital and the entire world around him was just gone.


[Atlanta, GA: Four Days Later]


Bella crept down the littered street, Jake and Rick behind her. Jake's foot was doing much better and Rick seemed to be okay with his shoulder. They had limited ammo and they didn't want to use it. They armed themselves with other things, like knives and machetes. Bella carried a crossbow and not just one of those older, hard to load crossbow. It was a rapid fire crossbow. She picked it up from a sports shop a while back. They had the Toyota Highlander packed with stuff from the sporting goods store, including other crossbows and weapons. They kept the Highlander rigged when they were away, so it if someone was going to steal their stuff, the alarms would bring in the dead from everywhere and whoever was trying to steal, would get caught. Bella had the key in her pocket where she could turn the alarm off from a distance so they could wait out the dead if they needed to, to get to their stuff. Jake thought it was paranoid and extreme, but Bella didn't take chances.

"Where were all the shelters?" Rick asked, his voice low as they walked.

"Over on main, I remember from the broadcast. The mall isn't far from here. Wouldn't hurt to look around, find things we could use." Bella said and looked at her watch. It was still early in the morning. "We're looking for stuff people would have overlooked in the first wave of looting. Everyone hit up electronic stores and grocery store when this happened. Looting and riots took to the streets. But, surviving in this world was the last thing on some people's minds. This is Atlanta after all." She said and they kept walking.

Rick was quiet again as he thought about how the world fell apart so fast. They rounded the next corner and they saw thousands of the dead packed on the street. "Holy shit." He cursed, shocked at how many of these things were just gathered in one spot.

"Back up." Bella said, backing up away from the corner. They were lucky that the dead hadn't spotted them and charged at them. "Let's go. There's a back entrance into the-" she stopped when she heard gunshots coming from up above. She went into defensive mode as she spun to see where the gunshots were coming from. "Damnit. They're on the roof." She said and then they heard the trampling sound of the dead starting towards the gunshots. "We have to run." She said and pushed Rick to make him run.

The three of them ran towards the back entrance into the mall as the gunshots continued up ahead. They came to an abrupt stop when they saw more of the dead marching towards them, starting to box them.

"Over here!" A man called towards Bella, Rick and Jake. Bella turned and looked at the man. He was wearing a baseball cap and was Asian, his dark hair showing from under his hat. Bella didn't hesitate. She ran towards the man and they ducked into the ally and they ran towards the end of the ally and he opened a door and the four of them ran inside, shutting the door behind them. "Come on." The man said and he guided them up stairs that kept going up.

Bella didn't recognize the stairwell, but a sign told her that they were on the East side of the Mall right now. The man led them to a department store, that had the gate closed in the front. They were inside a section of a JCPenney.

The man looked around. "Sorry, I didn't have time to explain."

"Who are you?" Jake asked, looking around to make sure there were no others.

"Glenn Rhea. The idiot on the roof shooting is Merle Dixon. This was supposed to be an easy in and out for supplies. But now he just made our exit harder."

"I'd say." Bella said and looked at Rick and Jake. "Okay. Well, we're here now. Is the mall completely overrun?"

"No actually. The top floor is pretty safe. The biters can seem to figure out how to climb up the escalator that well. So, most of the bottom floor has these things. But up here, we're safer." Glenn explained.

Bella blew out a breath. "Good. Bass Pro is on this level."

"Why Bass Pro?" Glenn asked.

"Survival gear? How have you lived this long in this world and not been inside a Bass Pro?"

"I've been inside a Bass Pro before, it's just, we've been focused on food. Clothes. That sort of thing." Glenn said. "I can get you to the Bass Pro though. I know the layout of the mall like the back of my hand."

Bella nodded. "Alright. The fastest in and out. The idiot on the roof is Merle, but there are others right?" She was trying to gather how many in the group there was and if they were all a danger to them.

"Oh, yeah. There's Andrea, T Dawg and Morales. They are likely on the roof right now, trying to get Merle to stop shooting. I was supposed to find a clear way out of here, but he made it harder. But I can get you over to the Bass Pro Shop then we can go to the roof."

Bella was hesitant. "Listen. Thank you for showing us a way out of that situation, but we don't-"

"You don't seem like bad people." Glenn cut her off. "We have a bigger group. We're camped in the quarry right outside Atlanta."

Bella studied Glenn. He wasn't threatening or at least he didn't appear to be. "Okay. Fine. Let's just get to Bass Pro and then we'll go to the roof." She agreed and she followed Glenn out of the JcPenney.


On the roof, Bella looked around and then saw the shouting and two men fighting. One was dark skinned, his hat on backwards and was a little heavier looking. He was trying to project his face from the other man, who was older looking, his hair shaved like a marine and he had his arms bare, wearing a plaid shirt that had the sleeves ripped off.

Bella rushed over, throwing herself in between the two men. Jake was there too, putting his hands up to stop the darker man from advancing. "Calm down." She growled at the older man and when he tried to hit her, she put him in an armbar and sent him to his knees, locking his wrist and if he moved it caused a great deal of pain.

Another woman was there, blonde hair and blue eyes and she had it pulled back in a pony tail and another man who was latino was there, obviously stressed about the situation.

"Let me go you bitch!" The man howled in pain.

The other man put his hands up, showing that he wasn't going to hit him and Jake relaxed his guard a little.

"Who the hell are you?" The blonde asked, her tone snippy.

"Bella Swan. Glenn here found us in the street and led us here."

"Glenn!" The woman turned on Glenn.

"They're good people Andrea calm down." Glenn said.

"I don't give a fuck who you are, let me go you bitch!"

Bella snorted. "That's not a way to talk to a lady." She said and forced his wrist harder and he howled again. "I'm not going to let you go until you calm down, so the faster you stop swearing, the faster you get to your feet."

"That's Merle." Glenn pointed out.

"Ah, the idiot popping off shots from the roof. You're the reason why I'm here." Bella said.

Merle growled. "I'll do as I fucking please I-"

"That might have been fine before but if you haven't noticed, this is an apocalypse and there are things that want to eat us." Jake pointed out.

Merle growled at Jake. "Shut up you fucking wet-"

"Nope, not Mexican brother, Native American, but I would keep your racism to yourself." Jake said with a smirk, crossing his arms. His skin was tanned beautifully and his dark hair was long and braided down his back. He was buff and it was clear that he was extremely strong. "Bells, just knock him out. It'll be easier for me to carry him off this roof."

"How fucking dare-" Merle started, but then Bella did what Jake said and she knocked him off swiftly, letting his body go to the ground.

"You're insane!" Andrea exclaimed.

Bella rolled her eyes and she adjusted her crossbow on her back a little. "Your definition of insane needs work." She said and looked at Glenn. "Alright, you've drug me into your problem. Now you're gonna get us out of here. The back of the mall has trucks. Back one of them up to the roll doors and we'll enter into the back of the truck and we drive out of here."

Glenn nodded. "Sounds like a solid plan. The rolls doors are on the bottom floor. It will be cramped down there with the biters."

"Leave that to me." Bella said and looked at Rick. "You go with Glenn. You're his bodyguard, don't let these things near him."

"Rodger." Rick said and stepped towards Glenn.

Bella looked at Jake. "Grab the idiot. We'll make it to those roll doors." She said and looked at who she figured was T Dawg. "Are you afraid of these things?"

"Nope." T Dawg said, swinging around a machete.

Bella nodded and looked at Morales and Andrea. "You don't have to like me or know me, but I will make sure we all get out of here alive. So, you have two choices. Don't follow or follow."

Andrea pursed her lips. "Fine. I'm not afraid of these things either." She muttered and they all moved, heading towards the stairwell to go down. Rick and Glenn were moving fast ahead of them going all the way down towards the garage that was attached to the mall.

Bella eased out onto the first floor, her crossbow ready. She found more arrows for it at Bass pro and her pack on her back was full of supplies as we Jake's and Rick's bags. They could have grabbed more, but it was harder to carry then. Bella went into Military mode as she walked forward, firing her crossbow when she saw one of the dead rasp and meander towards her. Then there were two, then four and then more. She pushed through them, T Dawg, Morales and Andrea fighting along side her. They made it to the spot they needed to be in and they shut themselves inside the receiving bay behind the roll up doors and they waited. They heard the hum of a truck as it backed up and then they heard the rap on the roll up door. T Dawg cranked it open and they all loaded up in the back of the truck and Glenn drove away. Bella looked at the herds of the dead stumbling after them, unable to keep up with the truck. Seeing this many dead in one spot was exhausting, Bella realized. All of the potential to die here. It was stupid to come here, but at the same time, they found a group that showed promise that they weren't going to hijack their shit and take off.

Glenn pulled over once they were clear of the city and Bella hopped down out of the back of the truck, as did Jake and Rick. Glenn got out of the front of the truck and looked at Bella. "That was a good idea."

"Well, it was the only one I could come up with. My highlander is over there." She motioned, pointing towards the black Highlander that was loaded with all their stuff. "You said you're camped near a quarry?"

"Yeah, want to follow us back?"

Bella nodded. "Yeah. Won't hurt. How many people you got at camp?"

Glenn had to think about it. "13 more."

"That many?" Jake was surprised.

"Yeah." Glenn nodded. "We've been camped there since the start."

Bella was surprised that many people were surviving in the Quarry at this time of year and only by camping. "Alright. Well, let's go meet the rest of the group." She said and she headed towards her Highlander. Jake and Rick followed her, trotting a little keep up. She tended to move fast everywhere she went.