Disclaimer – I do not own TWD or any of its characters. The only creation so far is Allison Grimes. Enjoy let me know what you think. I've now edited and completed this story.

She would have to leave soon, hardly any food remained. The National Guard had taken the majority of supplies from the canteen after gunning down everyone in their sights leaving only the meagre offerings of the vending machines. It was quiet, probably the thing she hated most about the apocalypse so far, if she ever ran into another person they'd probably say the cannibalistic dead people were the worst thing but for Allison Grimes that was not something she had to worry about.

Allison POV

I've always been a strange child, I didn't have many friends growing up, preferring to spend my time surrounded by books and researching anything that came to mind. My parents did the best they could with a 'gifted' child, however, being the result of a mistaken menopause and planning for retirement rather than another child made it difficult for them to keep up with their precocious daughter. My brother Rick is my hero, our sixteen year age gap made him more of a parent than a brother to me, well until Lori came along. When our parents died when I was eight it was Lori that convinced Rick to send me away, I heard them arguing about it when they thought I'd cried myself to sleep. A heavily pregnant Lori had convinced Rick to use our parents' life insurance to send me to a boarding school for gifted youngsters. To be honest it was something my parents were thinking about but with the imminent arrival of the newest Grimes I had convinced my parents to let me go through a normal schooling system. When I left King County to go half way across the country as a heartbroken ten year old I hated Lori, losing my parents and being torn away from my brother nearly destroyed me. But as a nineteen year old completing my PhD in molecular and cell biology, genetics and virology and about to embark on a career in epidemiology Lori was the first person I thanked in my valedictorian speech.

My world ended two months before everyone else's. I'd just walked out of an interview with Candace Jenner when I received a call from Lori telling me that Rick was shot and in surgery. I packed immediately and headed back to King County to keep a bedside vigil for my beloved brother. Even getting the call offering me the job of my dreams couldn't persuade me to leave my brother. I spent the next two months going between Rick and Lori's house and the hospital, helping Lori look after Carl and even taking a part-time job as a receptionist to help support my brother's family with the quickly accumulating hospital bills when rumours of a virus started spreading. It started in the major cities; videos of weird behaviour, riots and people being shot in the street looking more like something off a movie than real life.

"Lori!" Shane screamed coming crashing through the front door out of breath

"Shane? What's wrong" Lori replied worriedly

"Pack only what is essential, this virus, it's not what you think… its' bad Lori we don't have time, we have to go now." Shane replied in a hurry already making a start on loading cardboard boxes from the kitchen cupboards.

"I'm not going anywhere without my husband" Lori replied stubbornly

"We'll go get him Lori" I replied entering the kitchen

Shane looked between the two of us exasperated but resigned and dragged me out the front door, "Keep packing Lori" he yelled over his shoulder as we ran out the front door. Thankfully Carl was home, the schools having been closed two days ago due to the ongoing crisis.

"What have you heard Shane?" I asked as we headed to the hospital in his Jeep.

"I've seen it... up close. Barely got away. Mr Turner started eating Mrs Coates not five metres in front of me, I swear it was like something from a zombie movie." Shane replied shakily. I'd known Shane my whole life I'd never seen him so rattled.

Thankfully the hospital was only twenty minutes from the house. Today we made the journey in ten. Shane handed me his spare pistol out of the glove compartment and we ran inside the hospital. It was chaos. People were screaming and running, down one corridor I saw the National Guard line people against the wall and then gun them down. I looked around and Shane was gone, already heading to Rick's room without me. I was about to follow when someone grabbed me, well, when I say someone that's not accurate. The 'thing' smelt like death had an arm missing and large bites in its neck. Its nails ripped into my arm as it tried to bring me closer to its snapping teeth, leaving long rivers of blood flowing down my arm. Suddenly Shane was back and the creature was dead.

"Oh God! Ally-Cat I'm so sorry" Shane said with tears in his eyes. "Rick… he's gone" Using Rick's nickname for me stabbed at my heart, I'd normally never allow Shane to call me that.

"I think I am too Shane." I replied sadly. I figured from the way the National guard were reacting to what looked like innocent people that this virus was spread by bites and scratches. I showed Shane my arm making him gasp. "Just leave me here. I'm going to go sit with my brother and say goodbye." I continued with the tears pouring down my eyes. "Promise me you'll get Lori and Carl and keep them safe, tell them I love them"

Shane hugged and kissed my cheek, "I promise to keep them safe." He then turned and ran out the hospital.

I managed to make it to Rick's room without running into anymore of those things or National Guard finding a gurney left against my brothers door, this confused me, if Rick was gone why would Shane block the door. I entered to see my brother, his chest slowly rising and falling. I'd never been so mad at Shane in that moment and he'd done a lot of crazy stuff over the years for me to get mad at, always finding ways to torture me when I came home from school for vacations, making me feel like a freak for being smarter than him. He could have found a way to get Rick out of here especially since he was now breathing on his own. I made sure to secure the door and then laid down on the bed next to my brother like I used to during thunderstorms and went to sleep.

I woke up and the room was dark meaning I must have slept for several hours. Rick didn't stir as I got up meaning he was still comatose, I checked his pulse and breathing relieved he was showing so much progress. My stomach started to rumble so I got up to find some food. After securing the door again I slowly ventured down the corridor the lack of light made the place even scarier. It didn't take me long to come across a zombie, I'd decided that was the best way to call them. I decided to just avoid the thing as they didn't seem to move very fast when I came across a group of about twenty. I resigned myself to it being over, however they just walked past me as if I wasn't there. I was stunned. How was this possible? Maybe it was my arm, I was infected already it wouldn't be long until I was one of them, however looking at my arm the scratches had nearly healed fading to just pink lines. I decided I must be dreaming but I should find food anyway and continued on my search.

I've been on my own a month now, I don't count sleeping beauty a.k.a. my big brother Rick, I've started talking out loud to myself I think I must be crazy. Some days I think I'm dreaming, trapped in some crazy zombie nightmare. Some days I spend screaming at the top of my lungs, other days I know it's real and those are my most productive days. I've secured all the zombies in the empty cafeteria, it was weird, like herding cattle they don't attack me and I don't know why. I've salvaged all the medical equipment I could find and taken samples of different zombies; ones who have just bites, ones who have just scratches, some with combinations and then I've looked at my blood, even my brother's blood, it was quite cathartic stabbing him with a needle. I found someone who had died of a gunshot would inflicted by the National guard and quickly learnt that it's not just bites or scratches that make a zombie. I'm very limited on the equipment here, it's only a small hospital. However, I have made some progress and found something odd in my blood, which is different from everything I've tested so far. Lately I've been weighing the pros and cons of leaving the hospital and making my way to the CDC in Atlanta where hopefully Dr Jenner still is and with my strange reaction to this virus we can somehow make a cure, I have no delusions that I can do this on my own I've only just started out in the field and by my age I should still be at university. However, no matter how many pros there are to leave and how much the guilt weighs at me that my reluctance is costing more and more lives each day, I can't leave my brother. I keep saying to myself one more day, he'll wake up, we'll go find Lori and then go get the cure started at the CDC. The decision will be taken out of my hands soon, I'm running out of food.

It's Thursday, I've been keeping track of the days as best I can. Well today is special, it's my birthday, I'm officially 20. I've been saving my favourite chocolate bar for today and as I bite into it I make my birthday wish. Wake up brother. The eternal optimist looks over to my brother hoping against hope that this nightmare will finally turn into a fairy-tale. I let out a big sigh at his continued sleep and begin my day. I need to pack otherwise I will die, I'm under no illusion that my mysteries immunity has turned me invincible I will starve if I stay here indefinitely and the added issue of my continued delay, what if it was Carl or Lori that ended up as one of those things because I've stayed here too long. I take a quick cold shower in Rick's shower room and begin loading up the bags I've half prepped already. I managed to find organ donor storage boxes which I use to keep my samples in, making sure everything is sealed and ladled correctly. I then head to the pharmacy. Three hours later, and quite tired, I return to Rick's room. Something doesn't feel right, but I can't put my finger on it. I start going over things in my head wondering what I'm missing when I finally notice the empty bed.

There was no blood on the bed so he hasn't been eaten by a stray zombie whilst I've been gone which can only mean he's finally woken up and left the hospital, I'm so happy I could cry until I realise how scared he must be waking up into this new world and then I do start crying. For the first time in our relationship I feel like I'm the older one and I need to find Rick and quick. I grab the bags and take them down to the ambulance I've prepared with all the fuel I could siphon from the other vehicles in the parking lot and head to Rick and Lori's house.

It's getting dark when I arrive and Rick is not here. There is no point going out in the dark, I'm not worried about the zombies, I'm more scared of people only having my sleeping brother as company for a month has made me people phobic. I decide to gather together as many things from the house as possible, get a decent nights' sleep and then find him in the morning. I doubt many survivors are in the area so hopefully it won't be too difficult to find him, I just hope he hasn't come across any zombies.

I'm woken by someone yelling. I soon realise the hoarse voice is my now wide awake brother and quickly make my way downstairs.

"Rick!" I say with tears in my eyes

Rick collapses to his knees and I run as fast as I could into my brothers embrace collapsing in a heap on the floor. Its then I notice the two people behind my brother, trust him to manage to find probably the only live people in town. "Hello, I'm Allison Grimes, Rick's sister."

"Nice to meet you Miss Grimes, I'm Morgan, this here is my son Duane, have you been here long?" Morgan replies with a smile on his face, he seems happy to meet me obviously pleased that his new acquaintance Rick, isn't alone.

"I've been at the hospital looking after sleeping beauty for the last month, I leave him alone for five minutes to get the meds out of the pharmacy and he wakes up and walks off!" I say with light humour

"Oh my god Ally-Cat! I'm just so happy to see you." Rick finally talks

"It's ok big brother, we've just got a lot to catch up on. Lori, isn't here, Shane got them out as far as I can tell" I say gritting my teeth, if he notices I'm tense saying Shane's name he doesn't react.

"Next stop is the station, we need some weapons and I think the propane tank will still be full. Should be good for a couple of hot showers" Rick started planning, I forgot some of the things I loved about my big brother is his ability to keep a cool head in crazy situations.

"You had me at weapons" I replied with a smile on my face. "I've got the ambulance outside loaded up with supplies, got meds and other essentials, however low on food and weapons. I think that Shane would have taken Lori and Carl to the Atlanta refugee centre, as long as it hasn't been overrun that's the first place we need to check. But it is imperative I get to the CDC" Morgan's head peaked up at this, I was reluctant to give all the details to the new person even though it was obvious from the way Rick was around this man that they'd already developed a strong bond.

"My sister here is a genius, PhD in microthingys" Rick replied grinning like a proud parent even though he didn't know the exact title of my qualification

"Its molecular biology, dumbass." I replied noticing Rick arching his eyebrow at me for cursing at him. I rolled my eyes, I was just so happy he was next to me. He is not used to me being so carefree, having gone through education so fast surrounded by peers who were often ten or twenty years older than me.

"Wow! Do you think you can find an answer to all this?" Replied Morgan quizzically.

"I don't know, but I've got to try" I reply my tone indicating an end to this conversation.

A few hours later after collecting weapons from the vault in the station and having some nice hot showers with Duane singing it was time to say goodbye to Rick's new friends who had decided to stay and try to deal with Morgan's 'walker' wife. 'Walker' was a strange thing to call the zombies and I didn't like it, it implied they were still alive but after studying the ones that remained at the hospital there was no way that anything of the living survived. We had just walked out the station when the first zombie we had collectively seen came into view. I recognised him immediately, Leon, he was one of Rick's deputies and someone I had gone to school with before being sent to boarding school, he used to rip my books out of my hands and trip me into puddles of mud, my mum always said it was a boy's way of showing they liked you, that made me more sad then all the bullying. Rick didn't think much of him either.

"Wait" I said suddenly making a decision.

"Ally-Cat, I'm sorry about your friend but I can't leave him like this I've got to put him out of his misery" Rick replied thinking I was upset about Leon.

"There's something I need to show you and you will just think I'm crazy if I said it out loud, wait here don't fire and don't freak out OK" I replied looking into my brother's eyes so much like my own, trying to convey my honesty.

"Ok" Rick replied with a worried look on his face, trusting me but cautious.

I entered the station knowing my way as I'd come here often during my summers to help Rick out answering phones. I went out into the courtyard where Leon was against the fence still trying to get to Rick, Morgan and Duane.

"Allison Grimes, what the hell are you doing get away from him!" Rick almost screamed at me.

"Watch" I replied simply. I walked up to Leon, and put my hand on his shoulder, he looked at me with my hand on his shoulder seemed to sniff, then went back to trying to get to my brother and friends who now stood looking as if they'd just witnessed Bigfoot doing a dance wearing a tutu.

"Oh my god" Morgan murmured, "How is this possible?"

I rolled my shirt up showing him the pink line that was still slightly there, "I was scratched, but nothing happened to me, I've got samples in the ambulance, I'm going to take them to the CDC, I needed to show you so you have hope Morgan, for you and your son." I replied trying to convey in my tone that there wasn't any hope for his Jenny. Unfortunately he asked the question

"Can you cure the already infected?" Morgan had too much hope. I had to let him know

"I'm sorry Morgan, anyone who is already turned is too far gone, there is no coming back, I've been doing experiments with my blood and the 'walkers'" I replied still struggling with his word choice but refraining from saying zombie in front of him and his son, I didn't want to destroy his hope completely.

"Thank you for showing this to us Allison, I know you must be scared to reveal this gift to people." Morgan finally replied after thinking

"Ok, I know he's not going to hurt you Ally-Cat, but you standing next to him whilst he's clawing to get to us is starting to freak me out." Rick finally weighed into the conversation.

"Ok big brother, don't get your pants in a twist." I replied. Turing to head back into the station and back towards were my brother was. When I arrived outside, Rick was trying to convince Morgan to come with us one last time.

"I have hope now Rick, but I need to be here a little longer, I'm still a bit rusty with this and I need to teach Duane a few things before we try and venture into the city." He gave Rick a hug muttering something in his ear that I couldn't make out. "Be safe miracle" Morgan continued looking at me with so much hope in his eyes.

Rick took out his Python and shot Leon in the head before leading me back to the ambulance. We had decided it was best to take the ambulance over one of his squad cars as it could carry more supplies and it had fuel stored so we wouldn't run out. We were a mile outside of Atlanta when Rick made the decision to hide the ambulance and use a couple of horses we spotted in a field. Hiding the ambulance inside a garage that was abandoned we saddled up after taking a few supplies and began the ride into the city. The ominous line of traffic headed in the opposite direction concerned me but I didn't want to voice my fears. I spotted the helicopter first, shocked at the prospect of some form of military still in action, I didn't notice the amount of zombies until it was too late. The horse reared up throwing me to the ground. All I heard was my brother yelling my name before I blacked out.

Rick POV

Watching Allison being thrown off the horse was the second heart stopping moment I'd experienced today, the other one being earlier when she'd stood so calmly next to the walker. I didn't have time to react before the walkers were about to swarm me and my horse. I knew she would be ok from the walkers, I wasn't sure she had survived the fall. I couldn't do anything, I felt so powerless but I had to get away from the walkers. Luckily I spotted the tank, crawling under it and inside I had a moment to collect my thoughts, I knew that I would either die in here or have to wait for Allison to wake up and somehow rescue me, before either decision could be made I heard a crackling of the radio.

"Hey. Hey you, dumbass. You in the tank. Cozy in there?"

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