1: New Faces

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TO FIRST TIME READERS: My writing slowly improves throughout the book and it really shows. So I know when you start reading this book, the lack of detail will AMAZE you. Please don't stop reading just because it looks like one of โœจthoseโœจ books. I can assure you, it's not. Soon, I will slowly start to edit the beginning chapters because DAMN, they suck.

TO RETURNING READERS: why the hell are you reading this shit fest again?

A twelve year old girl can get pretty anxious when she's alone, imagine how scared she'll be when she's alone and dead have started walking. She sat there, in a dirty jumpsuit she got when she was thrown in juvie just a month before the world went down hill. It's been a while since she's seen a living person, but whenever she did, they generally didn't have a good reaction to her atire.

Suddenly, there was a lot of noise. Peaking out of the wood panels that blocked out the sun from a bar window, she saw a man on a horse. He looked to be a cop of some kind. Ironic. He had a bag labeled 'SHERIFF' and it was full of guns.

Following him on the horse, a better term would be surrounding him, was a hoard of a couple hundred of the undead at the least.

Dumbass. Why would he come into the city? The entire city of Atlanta was littered with dead people walking.

The horse got spooked and threw the sheriff off of his back before being pulled to the ground by the massive horde.

The girl anxiously watched as the man crawled under the abandoned tank, shooting the undead freaks as he tried to find the latch. What is this guy doing? Coming to the city, then firing a gun? What's next, he tries to cook them a meal?

She didn't know why, but she was relieved to see that he made it inside the tank, unharmed. Thinking fast, she grabbed a walkie talkie that she snagged before coming into the city and changed the channel until static stopped ringing in her ears.

She held down the button before speaking into it, "Howdy there, Sheriff. You alright in that tank?" She asked, not knowing why she was even engaging at all.

"Who the hell is this?" A voice responded. "You're not in the tank."

"Correct, I'm in the bar across from it.. who is this?" She was confused now. She only saw one person go into the tank and she would've noticed if anyone went in earlier.

There was a moment of silence.

"Are you two still there?" The man they assumed sho was the Sheriff asked, and he was close to, if not, panicking.

"Nice to hear from you, thought we lost you there." The other guy spoke. He sounded young, while the guy in the tank didn't exactly should 'old,' per say, but you could tell he was older than who ever else is on the line.

"How do I get out of here?" The sheriff asked.

"Most of the geeks are distracted by the horse, but a few of them are making their way up the tank. I'd say you have to make a run for it." He explained briefly.

"You want me to 'make a run for it?'" The idea wasn't totally smart, but it the only option.

"You got a better plan? What do you have in there?" He asked regarding weapons.

"Hold on," the girl took this second of silence to think to herself. He's actually helping him. He is saving his life right now, and he doesn't even know him. Still being amazed by these facts, she didn't hear what the man said he had in the tank with him.

"Run a block east of the tank and I'll meet you in that alley, you think you can make it kid? It's about fifty to sixty yards from where you're standing." He offered, now he was saving her life. Did she want to risk that? How did she know she could trust him? She doesn't know but there's only one way to find out.

"Yeah, give me one second." She spoke before quickly running behind the bar, knowing what she was looking for. And she found it. A gun and a pocket knife. They'll have to do.

"Alright, on my signal." He paused for a moment, waiting for the right second. "You ready, kid?"

"Yeah, I just hope that horse keeps them busy for a while."

"Go." Instantly, the top of the tank opened and the sheriff hoisted himself out of it and started making his way towards the alley, shooting at any undead that come close. At the same time, she busted open the door and just ran, easily dodging them as she caught up with him.

"Stop shooting!" She told him, they turned into the alley, almost being cornered by the dead.

"Woah! Not dead!" A man shouted, they now have the face of the man who helped them.

They ran down the alley, reaching the yellow fire escape and began climbing frantically. The two pushed her up first, then the young man, then the sheriff.

They stopped half way up and caught their breath on the landing.

"Thank you, I'm Rick Grimes." The sheriff held out his hand.

"Glenn, you're welcome."

"Well, Rick Grimes, why the hell did you come into the city firing your gun like that?" She asked him, directing all the attention in herself. He generally seemed confused by her question, like she was crazy. They both stood in silence, then she remembered what she was wearing.

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me? It's a little late for that." She looked over the railing.

"Can I at least ask why?" Glenn wondered and he was genuinely curious.

"I didn't kill anyone, I can promise you that. But I was charged with attempted murder." They stayed quiet. "Long story."

"You're like.. nine." She rolled her eyes at the comment.

"Twelve but whatever."

"Rick, Glenn." They reintroduced themselves, hinting that they never got her name.

"Elle Clarke," the blonde replied while cautiously looking down. "We should get going." She suggested, seeing that the large group of undead were practically pushing each other up the later.

The two men agreed amd began making their way to the later, looking up to see how much climbing they had left.

"On the bright side, it'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass half full kind of guy." Glenn spoke before continuing to climb.

Once they made it to the top and stood on the roof, Glenn spoke up. "We have to meet up with the others."

"Others?" Rick and Elle asked in unison.

"Yeah, my group is waiting for me back in that department store. We got trapped so I came looking for an easy way out." He explained. "You might want to change first.

"Dammit." Rick sighed as they stood in front of a clothing store that was boarded up. He looked around and picked up a nearby crowbar and busted through all the wood.

"Make sure it's clear of geeks." Glenn warned. Sure enough, a few of them started stumbling towards them. Taking them out, though it was a little difficult for Elle, being a child and all, the store was now clear.

"'Geeks?'" She asked.

"Well what do you call them?"

"Undead, or freaks, I'm not judging, it was just.. interesting." Elle shrugged. "What about you Sheriff Grimes?"

"Walkers."

"I like that," she walked inside. "sounds kind of badass." She chuckled as she kicked around some broken glass. "I'll only be a few minutes." Glenn and Rick nodded, agreeing to keep watch and give her privacy to change.

Elle found a plain black backpack and grabbed it, planning to fill it with more clothes and other necessities.

She grabbed a pair of black jeans, a grey tee shirt, and an orange flannel to put over it.

She grabbed a bunch more clothes and stuffed them in the bag before finding a corner to change in.

After finding that the clothes fit just fine, she began looking for other things like deodorant, hairties, bobby pins. When she did find them, she quickly put on the deodorant before shoving everything in her bag, with the exception of a single hairtie that she used to tie her hair back. There was a bit of a struggle due to her hair being curly and not combed through.

"Alright, let's get going." She announced, making sure her shoes were tied.




They made their way back to the roof in order to get into the department store, because the outside was surrounded by walkers.

Glenn went down the ladder first and turned around the help Elle who then stepped out of the way so Rick could make his way down.

Glenn led them through the store when they were met with a group of four or five people. It all happened so fast, all of a sudden, Rick was pushed against a table with a gun right between his eyes.

"Andrea back off." A man said. He put a hand on her shoulder with the hopes of calming the blonde woman down.

"We're dead. We're dead because of this stupid asshole." She said as tears formed in her eyes.

"Hey, listen to your guy and back off." Elle said stepping between her and Rick.

"Who the hell are you?" The same man who tried calming Andrea asked.

"I'm Sheriff's here new bestie, now back up." She said to Andrea again.

"I don't understand." Rick said. Everyone looked at him. He actually had no idea what he did wrong, did he just wake up yesterday?

"I told you to stop shooting. Noise draws those things in like when you call your dog's name. They hear noise, they come running. Except these dogs want to eat us alive." Elle explained.

"How the hell did you two survive this long?" A woman asked, surprised that a kid and a man popping off rounds made it a month in. She had dark skin and short hair. She looked stressed.

"I just woke up from a coma yesterday. Thought the city would have refugee camps. I'm looking for my wife and my son." Rick explained. So he actually did just wake up yesterday. They all turned to the girl, waiting for her response.

"I'm small, I've just been running around going unnoticed." It was true, whenever she went out, she just avoided the undead. Glenn and Rick didn't say anything about the condition in which they found her. Before anymore questions were asked, gunshots rang out.

"Oh my god, is that Dixon?" Andrea asked, rolling her eyes. Everyone all ran to the roof to see a man with a sniper rifle shooting into the streets.

"Merle! Stop it man!" One of the men said.

"Ought to be polite to the man with the gun, only common sense!" Merle joked. Elle learned the man's name was T-Dog. The other woman was Jacqui, and the other man who told Andrea to back off is Morales. As she was having these thoughts - confirming who was who, Merle and T-Dog got into a fight. Everyone was pleading for Merle not to shoot T-Dog, as he had a gun to his head.

"Now let's all remember who's in charge. I vote me, anyone else?" He asked raising his hand. They were all helping T-Dog up. "Come on, anybody?" Merle laughed as Jacqui raised her hand, but was instead giving him the finger.

Elle looked at Rick and nodded. She knew exactly what she was thinking and exactly what he wanted to do. "Yeah..." Rick said. When Merle turned around, Rick punched him square in the face, sending him on his back. Elle put her foot on his chest in attempt to keep him down as Rick cuffed him to the pipe.

"Who hell are you man?" Merle shouted.

"Officer Friendly. You need to know something. Now adays, there's only light meat, and dark meat. There's us and the dead." He said with a grip on his collar, pulling him up to look at him. She backed away and watched as Rick squated next to him. Merle spit in his face and Rick drew his gun.

"Ought to be polite to the man with a gun, only common sense." He said mockingly. She chuckled. "All I am, is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna lose." Rick said. He studied Merle's face. "You got a little something there." He said flicking the man's nose. He dug in Merle's pockets and found a small amount of cocaine. He tossed it over the roof.

"What's your real name Officer?" Morales asked.

"Rick Grimes. This is Elle Clarke. We just met out on the streets as her and Glenn saved me." He said shaking his hand.

"You're not Atalanta PD. Where you from?" Morales asked looking at Rick's uniform.

"King County. Elle is too, I've seen her around." Rick said, assuming he was covering for her. She was actually from King County like he was.

"Sorry about earlier," Andrea spoke, walking up to Elle. She just shrugged. "I'm Andrea."

"Elle."

"How old are you?" She asked, still curious as to how a child seemed to survive the end of the world.

"Twelve."

"How the hell did you get a tattoo at twelve?" She asked. Elle remembered the tattoo behind her ear. It was a butterfly. It was a 'prison tattoo'. She looked at Rick and he gave her a look saying it was her choice whether or not she would lie.

"I wasn't really the most obedient kid. I got myself into a lot of trouble." She answered, that wasn't necessarily a lie.

"You'd get along just fine with my son." Rick chuckled. "Except his idea of getting into trouble is when he stays up all night reading comics."

"I wish that was my case." She said, she'd give anything for another chance. They all left Merle on the rooftop as they devised a plan to get out. Jacqui suggested that they could go underground, but the sewers are all in the streets, not the alleys. And the streets are flooded with unwanted visitors.

"How else can they know of us?" Rick asked.

"They hear you. They smell you. And if they catch you, they eat you." Morales answered.

"They smell us?" Rick asked.

"Can't you? They smell dead, we don't." Andrea said.

"Its pretty distinct." Elle added.




One thing lead to another and next thing you know, they're bringing in a walker to gut it.

They got trench coats and gloves from one of the racks. It was decided Glenn, Rick, and Elle were going to make their way through the crowd of walkers and get a moving truck to get everyone back to their camp outside the city.

Glenn knew his way around, Rick insisted he go with, and Elle was small enough to maneuver around any obstacles.

"He had twenty-seven dollars in his pocket when he died." Rick said looking through the man's wallet.

"One more thing..." Glenn said as Morales grabbed the axe, pulling down a face mask to protect his eyes. "He's now an organ donor." He swung the axe down and chopped off an arm. He handed the axe to Rick for him to continue.

"Oh god, I'm gonna puke." Glenn whined.

"Don't." Rick said, looking like he himself was going to vomit. "Think about something happy. Like puppies and kittens."

"Dead puppies and kittens." T-Dog added. Glenn turned around to puke as they were spreading guts on their trench coats. They took Elle's backpack and offered to take care of it for her, grateful for the load off her back, she thanked them.

"Next time, let the cracker beat his ass." Jacqui said, upset with T-Dog for making such a comment.

"Anyone keeping track of the days? I gave up." Elle asked changing the subject.

"Yeah, it's October second. Why?" Andrea responded, as she smeared blood on her back.

"Dammit." She said, a little louder than she had intended. They all looked at her.

"Is it your birthday or something?" Morales asked, wrapping an intestine around Glenn like a scarf.

"If my birthday came every month." She chuckled. Jacqui and Andrea knew what she was getting at.

"We have stuff at camp." They assured her. The guys were all confused except Glenn.

"I picked up more earlier." He said. Elle looked at him funny.

"I had 3 sisters." He said as he spread his arms out, getting more coverage. Elle gave a thumbs up, deciding she couldn't handle getting anymore insides spread over her. Whether or not she was wearing a trench coat, it was still disgusting.



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rewritten (poorly lol): december 28, 2021

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