The Enigma That Is

An Alex Rider and The Walking Dead crossover

He is an enigma. As well as trying to survive the 'end of the world', the group spend time attempting to decipher one of their own. Alex Rider.

Snippets of moments with Alex and the Gang.

I do not own Alex Rider or The Walking Dead, those rights belong to Anthony Horowitz, AMC and the comic book creators Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore respectively. I make no money from this writing, I write this purely for my own enjoyment and (hopefully) the enjoyment of others.

Chapter 1

Silent footsteps tracked his prey through the dense woods. He paused as he saw his target lift its head. A stag. Hoof frozen in mid-step, the proud animal stared into the trees, stretching his neck this way and that to see where the danger lay. But he underestimated his predator, silent as a breeze across the sand, the footsteps resumed their chase.

Lifting the bow up and ready, the deadly weapon slid into position, pulled taut, the hunter steadied his aim. Too late, the stag's eyes snapped to attention as he caught sight of his stalker, and the arrow met its target. Startled, the stag tried to scramble away, but another quick arrow prevented the animal from covering much ground. As the stag lay crumbled to the soft woodland floor, he turned his head to keep the hunter in his sights. From the shadowed cover of the trees, out stepped a man. No, not a man, but a boy. He walked over and lay his hand upon the neck of the frightened animal. With a calming murmur of apologetic words, a swift movement of a knife ended the suffering of the once magnificent stag. The boy removed the arrows and set upon preparing and gutting the animal. Blood and guts tended to attract animals and walkers, so better out here than around the camp.

Once the messy job was over, he cleaned his weapons and rummaged through his bag. Pulling out some rope, he tied up the stag's hooves for easy handling. Sitting back on his haunches, he cast an eye around his surroundings. It's easy to forget that world has changed. That the dead walk again. The woods give off a false pretence of peace and security, until a walker stumbled into the clearing that is. With a sigh the boy stood up, brushing leaves off his legs off as he went. Twirling a knife through his fingers he meandered up to the walker, and smoothly slid the knife through its eye, side stepping the body as it fell to the ground. He turned away, wiping the knife on his top as he went. Before leaving the clearing, he bent down by the stag, grasping the knot around the hooves and heaved the massive weight over his shoulders and began the journey home.

Lori sat at the fire with Carol, with their careful eyes keeping tabs on their children. Carl and Sophia shared a strong friendship which came from surviving together during the 'awakening'.

She was relieved that Carl had found someone his own age to keep him grounded and to prevent him from growing up too quickly. Even though she was thankful for Shane, keeping them sane and safe under his wing after Rick's passing, she was worried that his interest was too invested in guns and violence.

"There's something out there!"

Her thoughts were broken as a shout pierced the quiet air. Everyone suddenly stood to attention as they waited to see what emerged.

"Carl, Sophia. Get over to the fire." She heard Carol call out. Her eyes followed the two children as they dutifully followed the command. She absently wondered where the other children were, but relaxed as she saw them standing behind Miranda.

"It's getting closer." Ed called out. Lori inwardly scoffed, as she noticed him move away into the centre of the camp away from the danger. She and Andrea had seen the bruises on Carol, it's pretty hard not to when camping in such close confines. Carol refused to talk about the marks on her body, so obviously left behind by Ed. Everyone saw the way he treated her, but had yet to see him actually lay a hand on her. It was almost a mutual decision by the girls in the group to watch over her, looking after their own.

"Well why don't you check it out then instead of running away, ya chicken?" Merle Dixon. Lori was under no illusions that Merle was a pleasant man, but she knew when to admit that both him and his younger brother Daryl, added extra protection and were skilled enough hunters to keep everyone's stomachs mostly full.

She pondered this as she saw Merle knock Daryl's feet from a cooler box, which his feet were resting on as he lounged in a deck chair. "Come on baby brother. We'll check out the big mean nasty in the woods." Merle drawled as he pushed at his brother's shoulder.

Daryl scowled, flapping away Merle's arms, he sighed and peered around into the trees through squinted eyes. "No need, there's no danger there." He shrugged. "Well, no walkers anyway."

Everyone relaxed minutely at that, and waited to see what emerged from the dense trees, when a familiar shaggy mop of dirty blond hair appeared at the treeline.

"Well, as much as I'm enjoying the welcome party. Anyone care to help me with this? Because it's rather bloody heavy." He huffed out through pants of exhaustion.

"ALEX!" Carl cried as he ran down to meet the boy in question, with Sophia following closely at his heels. "Woah, that's a big deer." He said peering down, eyes wide in wonder. "You caught it and brought it back here all by yourself?!"

"That is a stag, and he sure is going to fill our bellies tonight." Shane walked up from behind, ruffling Carl's head as he passed. He helped Alex haul the animal over to fire where the girls began to start preparing it for food. "But Carl's right, this is pretty impressive. We were starting to wonder where you had disappeared to."

"Yeah well, I wasn't planning on being out so long." Alex said sheepishly as he ran a hand through his hair. "But, I saw the tracks and couldn't come back, knowing he was out there. So, I just stayed out to find him. Took me 2 days straight before I caught a glimpse of him. Knackered now."

"Sure is a hellova find there boy." Merle proclaimed and he wandered over to inspect the kill. "Could have made the gutting a little cleaner though."

Alex shrugged. "Better than squirrels." He replied with a smirk before he headed to his tent and disappeared through the flaps.

Carl started after him, probably to pester him and bombard him with questions about his recent exploration, Lori thought. Stretching her hand out, she gently grasped him by the elbow and led him away. "Let's leave Alex alone for now, yeah? He hasn't stopped for 2 days, so probably needs a rest. You can call him out when tea is ready, OK?"

Carl sighed as he scowled at his mother. "Ok." He said reluctantly. Lori pushed him gently towards Sophia where Carol was setting up a game for the kids to play, as he trudged over to join them.

Lori started preparing all the cooking utensils and pots ready for the venison meal. "I don't know how he does it." Lori jumped at Carol's voice from her side. "Sorry, I made you jump." Carol said apologetically, her face twisted up in a nervous grimace.

"No no, I was lost in thought." Lori waved it off with a laugh. "Don't know how who does what?" As she reached for a knife and began cutting up a section on the meat.

"You mean Alex?" Lori looked around in surprise as Amy helped herself to a pot and started dumping the chopped up meat inside of it. She hadn't even noticed Amy arrive, her hunger distracting her.

"Yeah." Carol said. "He must be, what 17? 18? He's out here with no parents, but can hold his own against walkers and bring this back." She gestured at the stag between them.

Lori hummed as she mulled over Carol's words, she too had thoughts of the same nature. Movement in her peripheral vision saw a few of the others wandering over to help, who must have caught the tail end of the conversation.

"Not to mention, he's British." Andrea said.

"Well." Miranda pondered. "Didn't he say he was on holiday and got separated?"

"No, I said that may have happened. He never actually said anything about it. I didn't ask, figured it would have been too nosey." Andrea responded.

"Besides, he's only just began to open up a bit more. Well, to the kids anyway." Amy countered.

Carol nudged Lori with a smile. "Carl's really taken to him hasn't he? Sophia too, it's always 'Alex this and Alex that'. I think it's helped Alex settle here with us."

Lori laughed. "Yeah, I think he wished Alex was his brother." She paused for a second, staring at Carl as he chatted with the other children across the camp. "I'm just so thankful to Alex for finding him." She sniffed and looked up, feeling her eyes stinging with unshed tears. "If he hadn't brought him back. He hadn't of save him from that walker in Atlanta. I just-"

Carol reached over and wrapped the other woman in an awkward hug with the pots and pans between them. "But he did find him. He did save him, and Carl was brought back to you. You don't need to think about the 'what ifs' and 'maybes'. He's here. Safe and happy." She smiled, releasing Lori from the embrace.

Lori smiled back and nodded. "Thank you." She resumed her duties in preparing tea, peacefully listening to the chatter around her as she thought back to when she first met Alex Rider.

She remembered feeling lost and confused as she, Carl and Shane were stuck in the traffic jam on their way into Atlanta City. That's where they had met the Peletier's and Carl had struck up conversation with Sophia. She left Carl being watched over by Carol as Shane and Lori tried to figure out what to do. In the panic that followed the horrifying explosion, she set out to return to Carl. Over the terrified screams and cries of terror, she heard Carl's name be called by Carol. She soon as she saw Lori, Carol had ran over clutching Lori's forearms. "He's gone." She remembered Carol screaming. "He ran off after the explosion."

Lori had never felt a feeling like it. Like a buckets of cold and hot water dumped over her simultaneously, as her breaths began to quicken and her eye sight went blurry and tunnelled. Shane refused to let go of her, not wanting to lose her too.

During an agonising 30 minutes that felt like hours, she screamed his name, terrified that he had been trampled on by the hordes of panicked people after the bombing. Tears streamed her face and desperation clung to her like a second skin.

Suddenly Carol shouted out and pointed off the road a little way, where the crowed had seemingly parted to present Carl standing there, gripping the arm of another older boy. Lori surged forward with Shane shouting after her, with one destination in mind.

She reached her arms out and dragged Carl to her chest, promising in increasing hysterics that she would never let him go again. It wasn't until after, when they headed to find a safe place with their new group, that she realised the deathly grip that Carl still had on the boy's arm, who was shouldering Carl's backpack with his own. "Thank you. I don't know what you did, but thank you." She remembered wrapping her arms around him and whispering more thanks into his ear.

He had tensed up but had shrugged awkwardly and brushed it off with an "its fine. No worries."

After that, he stayed with them. There was never really a question of should he stay or not. He was a part of the group and did his bit with protecting the rest of them and bringing back just enough food to keep them going.

When the Dixon brothers joined, he started going out hunting with Daryl too, and learnt how to bring back more game and bigger meals. He kept himself to himself around the camp and stayed out of everyone's way, until the children, usually led by Carl, would seek him out to bombard him with questions and pestered him to join in with games until he usually gave in.

Lori's wondering mind was pulled back to the present, when she was aware of Carl tugging on her jacket. "Mom, is the food ready yet? Can I go get Alex now?"

She smiled and shook her head with fond exasperation after casting an eye over the cooking meat. "Give it another 20 minutes, then you can call him." Carl huffed and turned to walk back. "Not a second before, do you hear?" She called after him.

"Fine!" He reluctantly shouted over his shoulder as he trudged back to the other children.

Whatever Alex's story was, Lori thought as she turned back to the meal. It would be an interesting one, of that she was sure. She smiled to herself and tuned in to the conversation around her.

Hi, so I've just joined the rest of the world in watching The Walking Dead, and I pretty much love it! To my surprise I couldn't find an Alex Rider x The Walking Dead fanfic. So, here it is. The first of it's kind! I don't know if anyone will find this or even want to read this. But if you do, then I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it inspires some of you to write your own.

- Skendo