Chapter one

For us it started in New York, one of the worst places to have been when the infections started spreading. Over 8 million people trying to get out of the state, to go anywhere. Roads were blocked, closed and run through and the crashes and explosions forced people out of their home and into the streets where they stocked up on anything they could get their hands on. Children could be heard crying, some left behind on purpose and some were separated from their families. Parents screamed at officers to kill the people whose skin was starting to fall off. Guns, knives and homemade bombs littered the streets...

All of this happened within just a few weeks after a horde came through from Vermont and Massachusetts. New York was cornered by all sides, people fled in boats and some tried to swim only to either drown or get eaten by sharks. It wasn't good. My family and I came from upstate New York where our traveling Renaissance fair was hit by the Shufflers, hard. thousands of people filtered in and out every year to watch our seasonal show and only hundreds made it out alive to their cars. We were saved by a man with a motor home but that was short lived when we got to New York and saw the devastation. My brother was left somewhere in the city, separated by a group of survivors who thought that if they went towards the sea they'd be safe. I gave up on him when cell phones officially went out after a couple months. My parents had given up long before that I think.

Survivors seems like a dumb term for what we were, our group in Maryland was just a bunch of people trying not to kill each other. But that's where it really started, after two years of circling around Pennsylvania and Delaware avoiding cannibals and savages who thought that killing everyone including the Shufflers would make the world a better place. I had never killed anyone before, my past life I was vegetarian verging on becoming vegan but here I was, sitting around a campfire years later wanting seconds on the meat that was in front of me holding the knife I had used to kill Shufflers with blood still caked around my jacket sleeves.

They couldn't handle it, my parents. It was like I was looking after them along with our forty other people, a mix of kids and older people and younger men and women who were as dirty and tired as I was everyday. No dogs, no livestock, we didn't even have plants. we just moved from site to site every time the Shufflers became to much to handle in that area. We've been in this site for a couple days now, I was hoping we'd get a good week in here at least before we crossed over into Virginia. some people were trying to make it to Bethesda, some had family there and some had heard of some safe zones still working and taking people in. I was waiting until someone offered to go to the White House. From other groups we had run into throughout the states it seemed like the whole world had turned off, nobody was trying to straighten anything out.

They had all said they were just trying to survive, and if we had any sense we'd stop trying to find poeple and start worrying about ourselves individually. I bit into the meat, finishing it before throwing it into the fire and going to our RV where a younger kid around ten was sitting next to, he looked up at me expectantly as I stopped on the steps.

"Can't sleep?" I asked, he shook his head and I opened up the door for him, "Wanna come in?"

He wordlessly got up and went in, I closed the door and began to strip out of the gear I had on as the kid curled up on the sofa with a blanket and faced away from me. His name was Michael, his mom died two days ago when we came up across a group that seemed hellbent on killing us and taking everything we had. I found him underneath one of their cars, eyes screwed shut so tight I thought his skin would start to tear.

I walked to the sink and pumped some water into my hands, watching the flaked blood drip down the drain as someone put the fire out outside. I could hear my parents sleeping in the room, my dad snored when he was stressed out. He hadn't stopped snoring since we left New York.

I walked to the driver seat and propped my legs up, wrapping a blanket around me and stared outside where a younger couple was holding hands and walking to their RV as well. Some people made it look so easy to just keep surviving for love and friendship and family. I heard one of my parents roll over and bang themselves against the wall, I wouldn't keep living just to see them again, it was like they were strangers to me even now. Just more people that I had to look after carefully; both were in their 50s and both were losing it day by day as y we lost more people to other humans and Shufflers.

"Hey."

I jumped as a tall man opened the passenger door and slid in, catching his foot on the door and cursing before closing it. I settled back in my seat and locked the doors as he smiled at me, dirt smeared across his nose.

"Where've you been?" I mumbled, handing him a blanket.

"We just got back, had to take a detour. We should be gone by noon, they're close behind us. They stopped for the night too a couple hours away but they're not giving up yet." He reclined his seat and stretched, bones and joints popping from running around and crouching all day, "How's it been here?"

"James says that we're running really low on food and even lower on water. We've got a handful of people and most of them are...expendable...He says." I looked back to the bedroom and brought my voice down to a whisper, "I'm pretty sure the next time we stop he's going to leave the older folks behind, Leo. He keeps mentioning how much they're slowing us down."

"Maybe the cannibals can make use of them." Leo snickered and I hit his arm, "Sorry. I really shouldn't be saying anything being the town medic and all. What about you? You good?"

"Fine. I just want to get somewhere where we can stay awhile and not worry about anything." I ran a hand over my face and groaned, "And take a shower to get all this shit off of me."

Leo looked me over once smiling to himself, and I knew he wasn't faring any better underneath his ratty long sleeve. Dirt, blood and god knows what else had caked into our skin. If someone smelled good we'd probably think it was the opposite. He leaned back in his chair and I did the same, our conversation dwindling out, I set an alarm on my watch for a couple hours and closed my eyes. Just another day.

"You see that? Melaney wake the hell up!"

I was shoved into my seat by Leo several hours later. I sat up tiredly, shoving his hand off of me and yawning as he leaned forward in his chair looking outside the windshield and the mirrors as the sun began to peak through the trees.

"My alarm-"

"Melaney shut up for a second." he slammed a hand over my mouth and we stayed silent, hearts now racing as I struggled to hear what he was listening to.

No, there it was. Someone was yelling outside, very softly. We stood up slowly, craning our head to the side like dogs as we tried to hear the noises again. I grabbed my gear from where I had thrown it last night as Leo woke up Michael and my parents. He came back, cocking his gun as I buckled myholster up. I didn't like guns, I didn't know how to use them and I didn't want to. We had run across a small town which had a tactical shop and i stole pretty much all of their knives and tactical modern swords. I felt like Alice strapped up fighting the Umbrella corp...but this was somehow more terrifying.

"What's going on?" My mom came out the room, eyes wide. My dad put his hands on her shoulders as Leo talked Michael into hiding in the closet, "Laney?"

"Just stay put, we heard someone yelling outside, Leo's gonna check it out. Leo?"

"Yeah, just stay here and wait for me to come back." Leo slid out the door quietly and I went to the windows, trying to peek out at anything from behind the curtains. Everyone's cars and Rv's were still in place, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"Michael you okay in there sweetie?" my mom knocked on the closet door and Michael cracked it open to watch us peer out the windows.

"Melaney!" Michael stood out from the closet and pointed out the window.

I turned to see one of our members stumbling out of the RV in front of us, holding his arm and trying to stop the blood where it was lacerated on his shoulder.

"Everyone stay inside!" I yelled back to everyone before jumping across the driver seat and opening the door, I hopped out and grabbed the younger man and pulled him into the RV, "Sam what happened?!"

Sam was crying, and I could barely hear what he was saying through his mumbles as my mom running about the RV trying to find our first aid kit.

"Came and took her-" He shook his head as I pressed a spare cloth over his shoulder.

"Sam!" I tried getting his attention but it was no use, he jerked his arm and cried out when the cloth ripped some of his skin off, "For fucks sake Sam stop moving!"

"They carved into them-they killed her right in front of me!" Sam grabbed my arm before his eyes glazed over like he wasn't even looking at me.

"Here!" my mom tossed the medical bag my way as my dad knelt down and began cleaning and wrapping his arm up properly. He was a mess, bleeding everywhere until I realized that some of the blood were splatter marks, "Sam honey, where's Katie?"

"Melaney!" Michael screamed again from the closet and there was a scream outside.

I looked out the windshield again to see blood splattered across it from outside with Katie, Sam's girlfriend sinking down to the ground. Michael slammed the closet door just as a monster of a man climbed into our RV, eyes squinting as he looked over us. He raised a crowbar.

"Move him to the bed!" I yelled, pulling out my machete and blocking he man's way. I couldn't see his face, wrapped in a bloody cloth as blood dripped off the bar, "Come on then."

He stepped forward and swung, I ducked and swung up, managing to slice the inside of his thigh. He went down to the floor on one knee, cloutching himself as I got up and dove across the drivers side and closed it before turning back in my seat. He was over me in a second, hands grabbing at my clothes to get a better grip on me as he raised his weapon again and swung, smashing the window to pieces as I tried to grab the gun on my waist.

There was a pop and he slumped forward before Leo was there, covered in blood and reloading his weapon. He grabbed the man and shoved him out the passenger side before closing and locking his doors.

"Start the RV." He ordered. I wiped the blood off my face and grabbed the keys under the mat as he jumped out and grabbed several more of our people and shoving them inside the vehicle, "Go Melaney!"

I slammed on the gas and we drove off, slamming into our circle of RV's and cars on the way out onto the road. The tires squealed on the pavement as we passed the campsite. There were gunshots following us as we took off.

"What the fuck happened?!" I yelled over my shoulder over the terrified conversations of the people Leo had managed to save. James appeared next to me, the man that we looked up to as our leader, his red beard was splattered darker red. He was cut across his head and over his collarbone as he lowered himself slowly into the passenger seat in pain.

"They came fifteen minutes ago, barged in and just started swinging. Everyone was attacked. I heard the kids yelling first before they came into the bedroom and I opened up the window and fell out." James was staring at the road, white knuckling the seat belt but not putting it on as I tried to will this heap of junk to go faster. Leo was quieting everyone down as they listened to James, "We left so many people behind back there."

"They must have decided to come early, didn't even hear them pull up." Leo crouched between us on the console as he wrapped his own hands up and slicked back his short dark hair before realizing he still had blood in his fingers, "I counted fifteen dead before we came in here."

Everyone was quiet at that. I didn't even have anything to say as I dodged broken down cars and Shufflers coming out across the road. James sighed and looked back to the others before looking to me.

"How much gas do-"

"Full tank and we have extra gallons underneath. Where are we heading?" I cut him off and he nodded thoughtfully.

"Head for Arlington. I had maps of Bethesda on the walls, I don't want them following our trail." He looked behind him to see if anyone had any objections, no one said a word.

"Alright, we've got an hour and a half then so everybody just hold on alright?" I voiced, I looked quickly to see eight people spread all over the couch and floor. Nobody got out unscathed except for me, my parents and Michael, "Leo, can check on Michael?"

Leo got up and dissapeared as my mom began handing out waters. I leaned back in my seat, my knuckles white with tension and i relaxed looking in the side mirrors. Nobody was following us, not yet anyways. I looked at my watch. It wasn't even noon yet.

When we crossed into Virginia it went to hell.

They had caught up to us, somehow they had gotten up right besides us and took out all of our tires. They fired warning shots through the window. I had swerved the RV into them but they just held back and watched as the tires blew out from underneath us and sparks shot up from the rims as the RV tipped and fell. I had screamed, slamming my head against the glass as we skidded across the road.

I could hear everyone else yelling and tumbling and smacking into whatever was in the vehicle. When we finally stopped, I was ontop of the door and Leo was crushed besides me, arm bent behind him funny.

"We need to get out." I groaned to Leo as we heard the savages' vehicle pull up and we heard them hop out their own vehicle and walk across the glass in the road. I couldn't see well my vision was hazy. I made out little Michael struggling to get out from underneath what looked like a dead James. I didn't know where my mom and dad were amidst the mess of blood and bodies, "Leo!"

"Melaney!" Michael cried out as we heard the men jump on top our vehicle laughing.

I sat up, wincing as my hip twinged in pain and my leg twisted. Not broken, but definitely not right either. I crawled to Michael, shoving James off of him and he curled into my arms as Leo grabbed his gun from where it flew. I tossed my ruined knives on the floor, the collision had snapped the tips off. Not a big use to us now.

"We go out through the bathroom window. They're making their way to the wind shield." Leo grunted as we listened to them laugh and tap on the vehicle with their weapons, mocking us.

We crawled to the bathroom, slamming the door behind us as the Savages made it to the front of the RV busted out the windshield.

"We head for the trees. Michael goes first then you and then me. You cover me." Leo knocked the bigger pieces of glass away from the bathroom window as we heard the savages enter, "Michael, go!"

Michael scrambled out and stumbled into the coverage of the trees before diving behind a tree. Leo handed me his gun and I began to drag myself over the glass.

"Fuck." My waist strap caught on a bent piece of metal and I heard footsteps come from the around the side. Leo pulled me back in and I pulled out my machete. One of the men bent and peeked in, iI slid the blade into his skull quietly and he dropped like a sack of rocks, "Leo, just go."

Leo jerked himself out of the window, using the man's body to not cut himself on the glass and I followed soon after. We stumbled into the forest, grabbing Michael and running through the trees. I could barely breath, my chest was tight with pain and guilt. My parents...I stopped and looked back as screams rose up from the wreckage. I took a step back unconsciously and Leo grabbed my arm.

"Melaney no-"

"Hey! We got runners!"

"Fuck! Go!" Leo ducked as the men shot at us blindly through the trees, they were a ways off but they knew we were running now. Michael was making a path for us as we ran.

Shufflers appeared here and there but they couldn't catch us but we could hear the men's shouting coming closer and closer. My boots sunk into mud and dirt as we crossed into an opening in the forest line. We ducked behind some cut down trees, chests heaving as we struggled to catch our breath. We watched the men come into the opening, only five strong but they had guns. All we had was a half empty chamber, my hunting knife and machete.

"Michael, you need to run. Run and keep running, don't wait for us alright?" I turned to the kid, pressing the knife into his hand. His brown eyes got wide but I brushed his hair out of his face as Leo and I got ready for a fight, "You need to do this. For me and Leo and your parents. I know you're scared Mikey but you need to go."

"Melaney I don't w-want to leave you-"

"Shufflers get a hit to the head, humans do too." I kissed his forehead and shoved him towards the closest trees. He stumbled and fell to his knees, crawling the rest of the way. He looked back to us, lost and afraid and only ten. The men shouted and he disappeared through the brush. I saw a glimpse of his floppy uncut hair running away before he was out of sight, "Leo."

"Right here. We need to split up, distract them then duck. I can shoot but we need to keep distracting one by one. If my shots count then we could take them out in a timely manner." his hands were shaking as the men grouped together and faced each direction carefully, trying to find us.

"Yeah, okay." I tucked my weapon away and took in a deep breath, eyeing the closest stump, "Three trees. That's all I've got over here for coverage."

"I'll make it count."

I flew out from our hiding spot, grabbing their attention and making them shoot at my path. I yelled and slammed against the other side of the second stump, safe. I heard Leo shoot three times and then three bodies dropped and the last two men yelled and shot out angrily with their guns. Fuck. I got to my knees again and fell down to my elbows as pain racked my entire middle section.

"Melaney!" A body slammed next to me, Leo, before more gunfire erupted. Leo showed me his gun, "I'm out."

"Out?! there's two more!" I yelled and he made a face.

"Come on out and we won't shoot you lovelies. Well the boy we might." There was an evil laugh and we heard the men draw closer, "Girl we might take ourselves."

"Fuck." I got to my knees, crouched behind the tree as Leo looked at his bleeding shoulder, "Hey."

"One just grazed me. Almost blew off my foot too."

"I only have the fucking machete. I say we throw it over their heads, hope theyh follow it and tackled them." I took out my knife and Leo nodded, taking it from me, "Try to think javelin."

"We need a distraction so they don't blow our heads off though."

"MELANEY!"

We looked around the stump to see Michael on the other side of the clearing, standing out in the open. Knife still in hand and waving.

"Michael, no!" I shot up as the two men turned around and raised their weapons at Michael.

Michael ducked back into the trees and Leo stood up, throwing the machete over his head and managing to hit one of the guys in the neck, brigning him down to the ground, dead. I tackled the other one to the ground, forcing the bullets to pepper everywhere as we landed on the twigs and sticks and dirt. I rolled off of him and kicked the man's gun away from him as Leo tossed me the machete through the air.

I caught it and lunged forward, swiping the air as the Savage got up and swerved to the side, smashing his palm against my ribcage. I yelled and went down and there was a shot in the air. A single shot.

Leo fell down on top of me as the man's body dropped to the ground, Leo looked behind me as he shielded his body with his own as another shot rang out and the man bleeding from the neck jerked to the side.

"Are you shot?" I checked his chest and he frowned, shaking his head before we heard footsteps come out from the trees.

A dozen men and two giant trucks rolled into the clearing where Michael had run into. We sat up, grabbing my machete and aiming it at them as the trucks stopped on top of the first man's body, crushing it. Men on foot crowded around us lazily, grinning at us; some were clean shaven and some had beards. They were all decked out in and looking like they could kill us with a snap. They watched us languidly, like this was just another day for them. The white truck closest to us opened up and I saw heavy black boots hit the ground as the person walked around.

An older man wielding a bat wrapped in wire, smiled as he surveyed the scene and then his eyes found us. Bloodied on the ground and still on our ass, holding each other. His red scarf brought out his charming smile he plastered across his face.

"I don't suppose you're responsible for all that racket, are you two?"

"Melaney!"

"Michael, no!" I reached out as Michael came running past the truck and bent down next to us. The man with a bat made a face as Michael came into out arms and hugged us.

"So that little shit is with you then. He came sprinting out of god knows where onto the damn road and nearly made us go off the road ourselves." he swung the bat down on the ground, kicking up dirt as he leaned on it, "Now why-oh fucking hell get that shit out of here."

We turned around to see some Shufflers coming out of the woods. The men shot them easily before the man snapped at us, getting our attention back to him.

"Hi, I'm Negan. So, for compensation for almost running us off the road, wanna tell me what the fuck went on here."

"Not really." I answered, Leo slammed a hand over my mouth as Negan raised an eyebrow at me.

"Our group was attacked by another one about two hours ago. They caught up with us, turned our van over and we ran." Leo answered and Negan nodded his head and pursed his lips. "Thank you. For this, Negan."

"We could have handled it ourselves." I mumbled, Negan heard it clearly though, he straightened up and came closer before crouching in front of me. Leo gripped my arm hard as Negan leaned forwad.

"Watch your mouth, girl. I don't know you and you clearly don't know me so why don't we behave like civilized people?" Negan smiled warmly and got up, gestureing around us with open arms, "After all this ain't the end of the world yet...you're Melaney, right?"

I nodded.

"And that shit's Michael. And you are?"

"Leo."

"Right. So, you're out of a group and you're hurt, obviously. Got any plan?"

"...If you're trying to humiliate us into asking to be with you-" I started, Leo put a hand over my mouth again.

"I'm a trained paramedic, Melaney is as well and she knows how to fight. Michael's only ten but he's strong." Leo spoke up, I gave him a look and he shushed me as he stood up, "We can't repay you for saving us from them but we can try. We need a group, we can't survive hurt like we are."

Negan was smiling again and so was his men, but it was a different kind of odd smile that sent shivers down your spine. He tapped on the end of his bat as I tried to stand up but my knee gave out and Michael struggled to help me back up from the ground.

"Up you go." Broad hands gripped my arm and I looked up to find Negan inches away from me, leather jacket shining in the sun as he helped steady me, "You know what, I like you three. So I think I'll to take you with me."

Negan shouldered his bat and Leo grabbed me from him with a thank you as Negan's men retreated back into the trees as well as hopping up in the tailgates.

I sat in the truck in between Negan and Michael. Leo sitting by the window. I brushed Michael's hair back and kissed his forehead as we pulled out of the clearing and onto the road again.

When we passed the flipped RV, it was on fire.

A/N: Alright. SO. Updating this entire story, there were problems about writing and names and I figured I'd just rewrite the first chapter since people had trouble following. I'm sorry I made a couple of you guys mad with the name in regard to another WD fic and the story line as well as how it's written. The concept of the story that I'm using has been used alot of times, yes that's true but that's with every fandom I feel, personally. I'm new to the Walking Dead fandom, pretty much just writing this because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is one of my favorite actors and a big influence in my life with the SPN fandom and I think he plays Negan extremely well and I wanted to explore his character a bit more.

I don't want to be mean about it, I really don't but if you don't like where the story is heading then maybe just not read my story if it's not as original as you want it to be? I'm not trying to be rude about it, if you feel I am, please private message me and we can work it out.

Thanks to those who are still reading this, I'm trying to fix the problem people are commenting about.