Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf or whatever.

Prologue.

Stiles Stilinski is a killer. He's fast, sharp witted, and dangerous. He's killed more zombies than anyone else in his small mountain town. He can spin a katana and take off a zom's head before the thing even has time to gnash its teeth in his direction. He can put a bullet through a head and kill something before it even hits the ground. He's also only seventeen years old.

Before the end, Stiles lived a happy life. (Of course, he can't remember any of it, but it's the thought that counts.) He had a mom and a dad and an older brother who all loved him and would do anything for him. Then, on his fourth birthday, the end began.

He has vague memories of the First Night, including his mother's bloody arms shoving him into his dad's grip. He doesn't remember what she looked like, but he remembers her arms. The blue long-sleeved tee shirt she wore torn to shreds and stained with the blood of her oldest son. The dark liquid clotting under her fingernails from when she had to shove her reanimated child away. The metallic-y smell that he still can't get out of head sometimes.

His brother had been bitten by a man on the street, hiding it from his parents because isn't that what fifteen year old kids do? They hide things until it kills them. That's exactly what happened, too. His older brother had died on the floor in his room, shaking and alone because he was too scared to call for him parents. (He didn't stay dead.)

Later, when Stiles and his dad were finally safe and stable in a town shrouded by a fence on three sides and a mountain on the fourth, Stiles would question his father why he ran away. Why didn't he stay with his mother and son, instead leaving them behind and running into a street full of cops and undead people attacking the living? Stiles would be angry and ashamed of his father for being a coward, leaving his dead son and dying wife behind just because he was scared. His dad wouldn't explain, only leave the house and spend time at the makeshift police station near the Fence.

Now, at seventeen years old, Stiles Stilinski has his answers. He knows the reasons for his father's cowardice and he forgives him. He understands and he grows from the information. He assists his father in trekking through the Ruin back to the gated community where they used to live and "quieting" what used to be his family. They share a bonding experience through the entire endeavor, and Stiles's dad takes a year to teach him the trade of zombie hunting.

On the night of his seventeenth birthday, thirteen years after First Night, Stiles Stilinski is forced to kill the reanimated corpse of his father once and for all. That night, he's no longer a hunter. He's a killer.

a/n: just a little something i've been toying with for a while. a full-fledged zombie story. i have pages of ideas and notes for this in my math notebook. it's gonna be good. like, multiple chapters of goodness. yeah.

i don't have a beta, so let me know if you see typos, and i'll fix them. i love reviews! thanks a lot!