Disclaimer: Still don't own The Walking Dead. If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing a fanfic. I'd just put it in the show!

Alex is still mine though.

"All Stations this is CDC Detachment." Alexia Czartoryski once again regained consciousness to the sound of her radio.

"Our Perimeter is overrun, we are sealing the CDC to buy the scientists as much time as possible."

Physically she was feeling marginally better. Not good by any stretch of the imagination but she knew she could function again.

"Air Force is preparing to bomb Atlanta as all evacuation teams have either reported success or are assumed lost."

Mentally, she was just numb. Her whole world was lost to her. She had never had a family worth mentioning aside from the occasional decent foster parent, so that wasn't so much of an issue. But her company had become something of a surrogate family for her, and now most of that was gone. There was some hope in knowing her squad had at least made the evacuation. Maybe I'll be able to link up with them later.

It was a nice thought.

"To anyone still in Atlanta, there is no more time to evacuate. Find a secure basement or armored vehicle and stay down for the next twenty-four hours. The Air Force intends to deploy napalm munitions to eliminate as many of the infected as possible."

That honestly sounded like the best choice to Alex, even if it failed to kill a large number of infected, the noise of the bombs would keep them concentrated in the already lost Atlanta area. It would buy time for everyone on the periphery of the city put some distance between them and the teeming millions of the infected in the metropolitan area.

"We are evacuating all our surviving units now, all transmissions will cease. Regroup at Fort Benning. Good luck to you all."

As the radio cut out Alex opened her eyes to the near pitch black interior of the church van. She could just make out Glenn and T-Dog's horrified expressions. Clearly, they had heard her radio just as well as she had.

"Are they really going to do that?" the darkness of the van did nothing to hide the disbelief written all over Glenn's face, "I knew it was bad but…"

"Man, I can't believe this," Maybe it was a trick of the light, but T-Dog was paler than he should be. "There are still people down there! People trying to get into the city, thinking it's safe!"

"You heard them, that's the only option they have left," Alex spoke up for the first time, her voice felt somewhat hoarse from disuse. Or maybe just dehydration.

"It's a shitty fucking option!" T-Dog was growing angrier, especially as they heard the sound of helicopters and jet engines beginning their approach. "The Army was supposed to keep us safe!"

"Don't fucking tell me we didn't try!" Alex snapped, the paratrooper reminding him of what she was, "We fought with everything we had! Half those guys had family in those camps they were trying to protect!"

Well, not so much from her own unit. The 82nd Airborne was based in North Carolina and had been deployed to try and help secure Atlanta and reinforce the state National Guard and the units out of Fort Benning. But regardless they had fought as hard as they could. The 82nd was an elite unit in its own right, battle-hardened from the wars in the Middle East and some of the best-trained infantry in the world, and none of them were willing to surrender an American city to this nightmare. Fat load of good that did us.

"Good men and women died, units were overrun. My best friend and his entire squad were torn apart right before my fucking eyes and an hour later I had to kill two of them again!" Tears built up in her eyes, and she could feel her nose clogging up for what promised to be a nasty cry, but she refused to let it come, focussing instead on her anger.

"We fought until ammunition ran out! We fought until entire units had been wiped from the face of the Earth! We fought until our tanks ran out of fuel! We only pulled out when everyone we were trying to protect had either gotten out or had died anyways!"

"I got left behind because my squad waited until the last possible second before getting out. They couldn't get me out of that basement because the infected were literally nipping at their heels! Don't tell me we didn't fight!"

The two men in the front seats ahead of her fell silent at her tirade. Alex didn't usually speak more than three words at a time if she didn't have to. She couldn't make out specifically what their expressions were as they leaned away from her. She guessed it was shock.

"Shit, sorry," T-Dog seemed genuinely chastened by the soldier's fury, "I didn't know…"

Any further conversation was cut off by the sound of explosions in the city below where they sat on the highway. They couldn't see the streets themselves, but the glass of the skyscrapers reflected the glow of what had to be fires raging throughout the streets and in whatever buildings they could find purchase.

"I just hope no one is stuck down there," Glenn said, his still devastated expression illuminated slightly by the glow of the burning city.

Alex just sighed in defeat.

As much as Alex just wanted to make a beeline for Fort Benning, she recognized that she just had no way to get there just yet. Even if there was a car with enough gas to get there, she would have to leave this camp without anything beyond a former Sheriff's Deputy, an old man with a hunting rifle, and a pair of rednecks of dubious reliability for protection. That did not sit well with her.

The former deputy, Shane was, as far as she could tell, a solid man who had taken command when it was needed. Alex definitely did not want to. She was a corporal, not the Sarge, not an officer, and certainly no civilian leader. She'd offer her advice if she felt like it would be useful but for now, she'd leave Shane to that particular task.

Dale meant well and was a decent shot if he was telling the truth, and Alex did not think he had a deceptive bone in his body. It was the Dixon brothers she was worried about in the camp. They were both skilled hunters and crack shots. If it were just Daryl she would not even be worried, instead happy that he and his crossbow would help put food on the table, taking pressure off their limited supplies. But Daryl was intensely loyal to his brother, Meryl, and that was where the problem lay.

Meryl was drugged up more often than he was sober, which was concerning on its own and had expressed nothing but disdain for the others in the camp so far. She had no interaction with him so far, and she was not going to go out of her way to get to know him. She really did not want to think about what he might do when he ran out of booze and drugs. No one was making any of that anymore.

She had no problems with the rest of the camp, though it had only been a few days during which she had focussed on sleeping off the truly epic bruises and post-concussion migraine. That Ed fellow was going to be trouble. He had heard the buffoon lecturing his timid wife on "Operational Security" of all things. It was all Alex could do to keep from laughing in his face. He just encapsulated every crackpot militia wannabe that she and her unit had made fun of over the years.

Regardless of her worries over the group dynamic, however, there were more pressing issues.

"Alright, so as we all know we are running low on supplies." Shane was leading a small meeting in Dale's old RV in spite of the heat and humidity, obviously trying to keep this conversation private to keep from panicking the rest of the camp. "It's nothing critical yet, but none of us really had time to stock up before we left."

It was just Shane, Dale, Glenn, T-Dog, Morales, and Alex herself, who's injuries seemed to finally have faded to the point they could be ignored, if not totally gone.

"Now our real problem is that the only good place for us to find supplies is going to be Atlanta, which is obviously going to be beyond dangerous," Shane was calm, but the stress was written clearly on his face. That expression was becoming ubiquitous as the days wore on. "Worse, whoever goes won't have much in the way of backup. We can't afford to leave the camp unprotected, but we need those supplies. Anyone got any ideas?"

"I could go," Glenn spoke up, holding his hands up at the shocked looks on the other's faces, "I know the city inside and out. I can make a few runs, in and out really quick and quiet for things we need. I don't even need anyone else, as long as I don't get seen."

He was confident, that much was clear. But the buddy system existed for a reason.

"I'll go with you," Alex spoke up, doubling her total words spoken since they had arrived at the campgrounds. "Too many would just get in the way, but you'll want someone watching your back."

Glenn nodded in acceptance, apparently finding no reason to argue against having someone who could actually fight along for the ride.

"You two are sure you want to go alone?" Dale voiced his concern, "We all saw how hard the Air Force hit the city, but I'd bet they didn't get everything."

"Like I said, I know the city. I can get the two of in and out with no problems." Glenn was surprisingly calm about the prospect of heading back into that hellhole. "Plus, we need those supplies right?"

Shane pondered it only for a second before acquiescing. "Alright, how soon can you two go?"

"Well, it's still pretty early," The Asian's expression turned pensive as he considered, "We could take a few minutes to pick out a few places that probably still have stuff and make a run today, and see what we need from there?"

"Okay, just let me know when you head out. Take the box truck."

Alex stopped Shane as he prepared to leave, indicating that she needed to talk in private.

"What's up?" Shane asked as everyone else left the RV.

"It's not my place to tell you what you can and can't do," Alex started off, knowing this would be an awkward conversation, but one she felt really had to happen sooner rather than later. Shane was already giving her an odd look. "But I've seen the way you look at Lori, and again it isn't my business, but you really should wait to start anything with her until after we've found somewhere permanent to wait this thing out. We both know this isn't it."

Shane seemed angry at first but mulled over the paratrooper's words for a moment. "If she got pregnant..."

"Exactly, that would probably be a death sentence. We don't have a doctor or even more than basic first aid," Alex pointed out, "If she is worth that kind of commitment, she is worth waiting until you know an accident isn't going to get her, and maybe the rest of us bogged down and killed."

"Alright, I get the picture," Shane said, "You mind keeping this to yourself though?"

"Don't talk much anyways, I won't bring it up unless it becomes an issue."

"Thanks."

Alex just nodded before following Glenn out to his tent so they could look over the maps he had brought along with him, checking her sidearm along the way. They'd have to try and find weapons while they were at it. A couple of hunting rifles, a crossbow and a handful of pistols just were not going to cut it if the camp came under attack.

An hour later they were on the road in what was probably the most awkward car ride Alex had ever been in.

To be fair, it was mostly her fault. She was quiet at the best of times and the last few days had nothing to make her want to open up.

"So…" It was apparently too much for Glenn, who turned to look at the soldier, who was fiddling with the straps of her helmet, trying to adjust their fit, "you really don't talk very much do you?"

Alex just snorted at that. "Not really, no."

"Any particular reason?" Alex couldn't help but think that Glenn's curiosity would get him killed one day.

"Got nothing to say."

"Ah…"

"Hey," the soldier got Glenn's attention again after a few minutes of silence, "Thanks for getting me out of that basement."

"Hah, yeah you're welcome." Glenn gave a nervous little laugh at that, "I couldn't just leave you there. That would have been a shitty place to die."

That got a laugh out of Alex. Better than a foxhole in Afghanistan.

The rest of their drive was completed in companionable silence.

The two of them worked together well from the very beginning. Glenn led the way from where they parked the box truck. Alex hopped out, checking to make sure her body armor was in place and grabbing one of the large duffle bags they carried along, with Glenn taking another. They then fell into a routine of Glenn in front, navigating while Alex, with her armor and weapons, watched his blind spots.

Together they ran through the sun-baked and occasionally charred streets and alleyways in complete silence, even taking to the roofs in a couple of places to bypass a horde of the 'geeks' as Glenn had taken to calling them without being seen.

They crouched down next to the wall of one such roof, this one to an apartment building, with Glenn pointing down to indicate the grocery store across the street.

"Think it's worth a check?" Glenn kept his voice to a whisper. "I used to work here for a little while. It's alarm systems were all electric so with the power gone we should be able to get in quietly."

Alex nodded, "Not a lot of time for looting in this part of the city. Too far from the safe zones."

Their minds made up, they made their way down a fire escape to street level, crossing the street without attracting more than a couple of scattered walkers that Alex dealt with her bayonet. And they told us we would never use these in a real fight.

They made it to the store's doors without issue, though they had to push to force the normally automatic sliding doors open before carefully making it inside.

Alex pulled Glenn aside before he could start searching the aisles for anything left behind.

"Clear the building first, then loot." She whispered his unspoken question, receiving a short nod in return.

Here Alex took the lead. The tough material of her fatigues and her actual armor would protect her from anything up to and including bites as long as they didn't catch exposed skin, where Glenn's civilian clothes would provide no protection worth mentioning.

That and Alex actually knew how to fight.

The combination of the eerie darkness of the store, lit only by the light let in from its storefront and the absolute silence of the building itself made for a nerve-wracking process of carefully clearing each aisle in the front, before moving to the back offices and storage areas.

The shelves themselves were mostly empty of things they could use, though Alex did find a roll of duct tape that she went ahead and stuck in one of her pockets. The real treasure was in the back, where they found the doors locked and hopefully indicating that the store's stock was untouched.

After sharing a glance to make sure her companion was ready, Alex gave a massive kick to the door near the deadbolt. Then another, and another until finally the wooden door frame gave up the fight and the door swung open, creating even more noise.

Immediately the two survivors were assaulted by the smell of decay, though not just that of the perishable items that permeated the whole store that had long lost its refrigeration, but also of decaying flesh. Alex turned on her flashlight to illuminate the windowless room, and immediately she saw what must have been the store manager at one point. The slightly heavy set man was dead now with a massive chunk of flesh taken from his shoulder and was now groaning and shuffling his way towards the new arrivals, slowly picking up speed.

Alex wasted no time. Trusting Glenn to watch her back she dashed forward and ducked an uncoordinated grab before kicking out the corpse's knee to bring his head slightly lower and then jamming her bayonet into its temple, giving it a twist before yanking it back out again as she felt the corpse fall for good this time.

She heard a shout from Glenn however before she could relax. Turning towards him she saw him shoving a smaller infected man who looked to be an employee of the place against the wall with his baseball bat, but not seeming to find a way to kill the thing.

Alex rushed over and stabbed the new corpse in its eye socket. The survivors backed away and let the corpse drop.

"You alright?" Glenn asked after making sure he wasn't hurt. His reactions were surprisingly calm. Probably from the adrenaline that Alex had long since gotten addicted to. It was half the reason she joined one of the last US paratrooper divisions in the first place.

Regardless, he'd probably make a good soldier, he's good under pressure.

Realizing Glenn was still waiting for an answer, Alex just gave him a gloved thumbs up before turning to clear the rest of the building.

It took them another ten minutes to check the place thoroughly, but they found no more infected and so moved on to the fun part.

Looting.

They grabbed all the nonperishable foods they could get their hands on. A number of cans, but especially things like dried fruits, jerky that would last a long time, and even packs of ramen that in addition to being nonperishable were also very light, allowing them to carry many at once. Even if they were only debatably actual food.

They also grabbed things like tubes of toothpaste and various hygiene items and soaps that they knew they wanted to make sure everyone had. No one wants to live with a bunch of grody ass people in the middle of the woods. Plus, you know, disease.

They even managed to find a handful of simple medical supplies, but anything more serious would have to wait for their next trip. This grocery store didn't have a pharmacy and they did not have time to go searching for them. One thing the Army had learned early in its attempts to contain this was that night time was when the infected were most active and dangerous. They could not afford to be in the city after dark.

Once they had all they would be able to fit in their bags they made their way back out the way they came.

Unfortunately, once their eyes adjusted to the light they saw a much larger group of infected out in front of the plaza.

Glenn took one look, paled slightly and said, "Alright, detour." After a short pause, he turned back into the store, Alex following behind him and closing the sliding doors to buy them a little time as the horde had noticed them and was slowly crossing the parking lot after the two.

"Alright, we'll have to go out the back door and cut east to get around this." Glenn led them to a nondescript metal door. Thankfully it was not locked and so the two made it safely into the alley behind the plaza that was blessedly clear of the dead.

It took them another hour to get around the massive crowd of infected. As they jogged past another shopping center, however, Alex put a hand on Glenn's shoulder to get his attention.

The soldier motioned towards a gun store and firing range. The building itself was nondescript, though it had bars over the windows. The most concerning though was that its doors had been forced open some time ago.

"It's probably already been picked over," Glenn warned.

"It's worth a shot," Alex whispered back, "We need guns."

Sighing in defeat, the Korean just followed the slightly shorter girl as she led the way into the building with the same care they had approached the grocery store with.

Ultimately, while the gun store was clear of infected, it had obviously been picked clean. Alex was not quite willing to admit defeat however and with four solid kicks, managed to get into the small office in the back and immediately went to check the desk. Underneath she found at least one of what she was looking for.

Strapped to the underside of the desk was a rifle. Specifically an old, but very well maintained FN-FAL. A battle rifle as opposed to an assault rifle, it fired higher powered and larger rounds than its assault rifle cousins at the cost of greater weight and much higher recoil. You could only use the fully automatic setting if you had something to brace the thing against and even then, the shooter had to be ready to deal with nasty bruises from the thing's kick.

That said, it struck Alex as a wonderful weapon for their situation, it was wickedly accurate and long ranged and a fairly rugged weapon with a reputation for reliability as long as you kept it clean and avoided desert conditions.

She immediately claimed the weapon for herself, and rummaging through the desk she managed to find a couple of boxes of ammunition for the rifle, a couple of magazines, and as they took a look around the store she was able to get a shoulder strap and an adjustable ACOG sight for the weapon. Unlike the original version of the weapon, this variant of the FAL had a universal rail on the top of the receiver and on the forward barrels, having clearly been modernized, where she was able to mount the sight as well as a folding stock with a cheek rest.

Stuffing her new ammunition into her pockets and the rifle over her shoulder, she went to find Glenn again who had taken to searching the range and storage area, where he managed to find a couple of handguns, holsters, and knives along with a couple of boxes of rounds for them all.

"Nice find," they said at the same time, causing Glenn to laugh lightly and getting a smirk out of Alex before they both left the building to continue their trek back to the truck.

"This is bad." Glenn stated, entirely unnecessarily.

There were a good two dozen walkers milling about in the partially fenced in parking lot where they had left the truck.

"Shooting will just get us in more trouble," Alex stated plainly as she tried fixing her bayonet to the front of her new rifle. She was pleasantly surprised when she was able to lock the knife in place, giving her a reach advantage in a hand-to-hand fight. Normally the bayonet for two different pattern rifles would not work together, this rifle must have been modified in the US.

"So what, are we just going to fight them?" Glenn asked in disbelief, "There are only two of us!"

"Are you any good at baseball?" the question was so out of the blue that it threw Glenn for a loop for a moment.

"Yeah, I played all through middle and high school, why?"

"You think you can hit this rock," Alex placed a chunk of masonry that had come loose at some point during the fall of the city in between them on the window sill they were leaning against to catch their breath, "through those windows over there?" She pointed to an office building about fifty yards away from them, on the other side of the parking lot. It was one of those that was more glass than actual wall.

"Probably…" Glenn seemed to catch on to her train of thought, "You want a distraction that won't bring the whole city down on us!"

Alex just nodded and motioned for him to get on with it.

Squinting in concentration, Glenn picked up the relatively small rock, just small enough that he thought he could get it to actually go somewhere, but large enough to probably break the glass when it hit, and tossed it up in the air before swinging.

The rock took off with a loud PING, raising the attention of the undead for a moment before it struck the glass of the building on the other side of the lot with a much louder CRACK, stopping just short of actually shattering the glass, but enough to get the attention of many of the infected who made their way over to the broken glass to investigate the noise.

As soon as the majority were far enough away, Alex took off for the truck as fast as she could manage with her heavy bags, Glenn hot on her heels. She stabbed one corpse that turned to face them through the face with her bayonet, just like she had been trained in basic and never expected to have to do in real life, just aiming for the head instead of the torso.

To her left, there was another crack as Glenn brought his baseball bat down on the head of one infected that just so happened to be missing its legs, not that it seemed to mind.

Another two were brought down with a snarl from the soldier before Glenn managed to reach the back of the truck and through the back door halfway open so they could toss their bags inside.

By this point, the majority of the infected had turned back towards them and were closing in with a chorus of groans and snarls, but it had served its purpose. Glenn pulled the door shut as Alex killed another infected with a stab through the ear as it tried to bite the young man, who then dashed around to the driver's seat and started the engine while Alex all but leaped into the passenger side.

As soon as the doors were shut, Glenn took off. They only relaxed as they merged back onto the highway and saw it was blessedly clear of infected.

"You would make a good soldier," Alex stated bluntly, throwing Glenn for a loop for a second.

"What makes you say that? I've been pissing my pants since this whole thing started."

Alex just snorted in dismissal, "Everyone does that until you get so used to it you can't even imagine life without it. Even then it sometimes hits you."

"You handle pressure well," Alex continued, "You keep thinking even when you are scared out of your mind. Everything else is pretty easy to teach in comparison."

Glenn just decided to take the compliment for what it was. The rest of the drive was in a comfortable silence this time, the two of them both basking in their accomplishment and coming down from the rush of a fight.

A/N: You know, I've noticed that Alex has taken on a bit of my own personality in that when she does decide to talk, she tends to rant. I guess that's not really a problem, just not something I planned for. I guess completely Laconic would have gotten boring after a while. Weirdly enough writing a character as quiet as I tend to be is a bit harder than just writing a talkative one. Learn something new every day I guess.

Also, I've been researching guns for shits and giggles, so expect gun trivia to occasionally pop up in the story. I'll keep it at least somewhat relevant though.

Anyways, Thanks again for reading!