Before You Start Reading: You're gonna want to read Too Far Gone and Blood Brothers before this, as there will be plot points relevant to both these stories that help further the story in here. Plus, you get more insight on the background of some of the OCs featured here, such as the two main characters, Ian Sullivan and Brett Sanderson.

For reference, this story takes place three weeks after the final chapter of Blood Brothers, and for a timeframe in this, it starts in December of 2017, about 7.5 years into the outbreak, although I'll be skipping ahead at certain points in the story for the sake of plot and whatnot. I know technically the Outbreak supposedly starts in 2003 in the games, sticking with the comic tmeline, well I'm sticking with the TV Show's timeline for that because convenience and I didn't actually realize that until I was a few chapters into Too Far Gone, so 2010 is when the outbreak starts in this universe. Deal with it.

Like in Blood Brothers, special thanks to undyingrage98489 for his OCs in this story, Benjamin "Benji" Sanderson, Annalyse Mayweather, and Jason Keaney, among others he may give me in the future. I have other user submitted OCs that I'll be incorporating in the future, and those users will get their thanks upon introduction, but I wanted to give a special thanks to Undying for being the homie and being a great supporter of my stories. He's been a great help with writing these stories. Without his support, among others, I probably wouldn't be writing this.

If you have any OCs you'd like included in the story, please leave them in a review or PM them to me and I'll try to incorporate as many as I can, although I can't promise how many will get used, how many will survive, and whatnot. I'm doing something a lot more different and a lot more involved wth writing this, so there's going to be some tough decisions to be made about who lives and who dies. Since my last two stories followed TellTale's story for the most part, it was easy to stick to that and then make adjustments as I saw fit for how I wanted to tell the story. Being that I am mapping out this entire story from scratch, you can probably imagine that I'm going to have to axe characters at some point. It's just a sad reality because of how life is in The Walking Dead. Just know that if you submit an OC, there is a chance that they get axed as I see fit. It's nothing personal, but in a universe with ~~zombies~~ walkers and people that are actively trying to kill you, it's just an unfortunate reality that it will happen. I only say this because I got a lot of shit for killing off a particular character or two in Too Far Gone that was not particularly well-received by a couple users. And no, I'm not doing a happily ever after where everyone is alive and happy. It's not realistic, and to be honest, there's no fun in that. With people dying, the plot can expand further, and we can get into some pretty deep waters with the things I've got planned.

Finally, and this is the biggest thing, I'm probably going to have an awful schedule when it comes to writing this. I'm working two jobs and taking a few classes this summer, as well as spending time with friends while I'm home, working out, and playing with my puppy. I'm gonna be busy. I'll try my best to be consistent, but it's unlikely I'll be able to do a chapter a week consistently. I'm thinking Friday uploads, but to be honest, it might just be whenever I feel like uploading. It's for my convenience, so I don't have to rush to get a chapter out, and I can have better quality chapters by keeping them up to my standards. Like I've said in the past, I'd rather take 10 days to write a good chapter, than take 4 days to write a shitty one. It's just me being realistic. Quality over Quantity. I know I said this at the beginning of Blood Brothers, and I wound up going 13 Chapters in 13 Weeks, but it's not gonna happen. Apologies in advance for that.

With that being said, I hope you enjoy.

Constructive Reviews greatly appreciated. I take any and all advice and suggestions to try and make my stories better, so I'd appreciate your input.

Chapter 1 - Snake Eyes

Every morning starts the same for me. Beams of sunlight pour into my bedroom as the sun rises above the horizon, and a big smile forms on my face as I slowly stir awake. In my arms, my very gorgeous wife, Kate Garcia-Sullivan, who I recently learned is due to have our daughter in roughly two months. I plant a kiss on my wife's forehead, rolling out of bed to get ready for the day while she gets some more sleep.

A pair of dark blue jeans and a dark green flannel should do the trick for today. I put the flannel and jeans on over my white undershirt and boxers I wore to bed the night before and quietly step out of the room.

From the next room over, some light giggling comes through the door, and I crack open the door and peek in to see my son playing with a stuffed lion in his bed. I chuckle as I walk in and sit down next to him, and he beams as he notices me.

"Daddy!" He yells as he jumps into my arms for a hug.

"Good morning, Chandler." I smile as I run my hand through my son's messy brown curls. "You want some breakfast?"

He nods as I pick him up to go downstairs to the kitchen, but he points towards my and Kate's bedroom. "Mommy?"

"Mommy's sleeping, buddy. We should let her sleep. Now, do you want an apple or some blueberries?" I ask him, and his eyes light up.

"BLUEBEWWIES!" He screams as loud as he can, and I immediately cover his mouth, softly shushing him, causing him to giggle once again.

"Chandler, you need to let Mommy sleep, okay?" I shush him once again, nodding as I set him down in his chair. I pull out my knife, grabbing a small handful of blueberries from the bowl Kate keeps and I cut a few of them up, dumping them into a bowl and placing them in front of my boy, who immediately starts digging in.

From upstairs, I hear the all too familiar sounds of my wife retching in the bathroom upstairs. I turn back to Chandler, who continues to chow down on his berries without a care in the world. I walk back upstairs and toward the bathroom, pausing as I hear Kate vomit once again. I step into the bathroom to the sight of my wife, still in her bra and panties, dealing with some morning sickness which, according to Dr. Lingard, is pretty normal in this stage of her pregnancy. I crouch down next to her, rubbing her back as she hangs her head into the toilet.

"I need this baby out of me as soon as possible." She groans, retching again, but nothing coming out.

"Another eight weeks or so, and we'll welcoming a baby girl into the world. She'll appreciate what you're going through now, I guarantee it." I assure her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"She better." My wife mumbles as she spits into the toilet, wobbling to her feet. "I think that's it. Can you make some breakfast?" She asks sweetly, giving me some begging eyes that I have no choice but to say yes to. With a nod, I give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Go put on something comfortable and take a personal day. I'll get someone to cover for you at the nursery."

"Can you just do that?"

"Of course I can. I'm the Governor. I'll ask someone to and worst case scenario, I'll ask Clem to take care of it."

She grins. "You're the best. You know that?"

"All for you." I tell her with a peck on the cheek. "Now get comfortable. I'll throw something together and have it up to you."

As she disappears into our room, I go back downstairs to see my son sitting in his chair still, dropping a final blueberry into his mouth, although I'd say about a third of what I gave him now coats his face, specifically his mouth. Nonetheless, I can't help but smile as I grab a towel, wiping the mess off on his face before getting to work on Kate's breakfast. Some berries, a banana, and some grapes get cut up and tossed into a bowl. I take a loaf of bread, cutting off a couple of slightly stale pieces, and slathering it in jam that a friend from a nearby community gave last time I visited. Kate loves it and I love her, so naturally it makes sense.

I take the bowl of fruit and the plate with bread, balancing that on one arm as I pour her a glass of water and bring that up with my free hand. As I reach our room, Kate smiles widely, now wearing a pair of sweatpants and a baggy tee shirt. I place the meal around her, and she gives me a hug as she starts to dig in.

"Remind me to pay you back for all this tonight." She tells me with a flirty wink, and she and I both laugh after.

"You don't have to tell me twice." I grin back to my wife, giving her a kiss and swiping a couple berries before looking at my watch. With a groan, I get up.

"On the clock soon?"

I nod back to my wife. "Going on a supply run today. Just a quick one, but I've gotta go soon."

"Who're you going out with?"

"Brett. Clem says he has serious leadership potential, so I want to get to know him a bit better."

She gives me a soft smile. "He seems like a good kid. I saw him and his brother the other day. Very respectful, but kinda quiet."

"Those kids have been to Hell and back. I don't envy them for a minute." I frown to Kate, thinking about what Clementine told me about their past. They've gone through a lot at a pretty young age. I feel bad, but they've made the most out of it.

"Well don't get yourself killed out there, alright? Our kids are gonna need their daddy, okay Daddy?" She shoots me that flirty smile again and I feel myself actively resisting the urge to skip this whole run. Dear Lord, give me the strength.

But no, I promised Clem I'd take Brett on a supply run and get to know him. And besides, we need more firewood, with Winter coming up faster than we think. With one last kiss, I walk out of the bedroom and grab some clothes for Chandler. Putting him in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, he and I walk out of the house, into the brisk morning air.

So, from what you may have already seen, it seems like I have a pretty great life. And I do, I won't lie about that. I'm married to an absolutely gorgeous woman, I have a son who's the absolute best, and I'm going to have a daughter soon, too. I'm the leader of a strong and growing community, and I'm pretty much in charge of rebuilding this little piece of civilization.

But, things weren't supposed to be this way. My life was supposed to be different, in a lot of ways. And while I thank my lucky stars every night for Kate and my family, this wasn't supposed to be how life was. I had everything, and I was ready to take on the world, doing what I loved with the woman I loved.

Let me paint you a picture of a twenty-one year old Ian Sullivan, a young man who had the world ahead of him. A college football standout at the University of Georgia, so much so that he was drafted in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft by his childhood Atlanta Falcons. That night, already the best of his life, he asked his longtime girlfriend, Carley Madsen, to marry him. He wanted her to join him on this new adventure into the NFL, and she graciously said yes. He had everything, and it would take Hell itself to come drag him down.

Three months later, Hell literally rose and dragged him down.

I still don't know what caused the outbreak, or what it would take to end it, but some three months after my dream came true, it all came crashing down with the start of the apocalypse. One minute, I was ready to relax at Myrtle Beach with my fiancée, the next, I'm fighting tooth and nail against the undead. Within months, the vast majority of the world was a walking corpse. Carley and I had been fortunate, albeit with more than a couple close calls where one of us or both of us cheated death. I couldn't tell you how many times I could've been the landing spot for a bullet, or a walker's next meal, or whatever else almost killed me in the last seven years. Carley, however, wasn't as fortunate as I was, and I regret it every day. After we'd been married for a year or so, two years into this mess, I lost the last person I was fighting for, to a single gunshot to the chest. Carley was shot once before, by a vicious woman that was part of our first group, but she lived, thanks in part to some quick thinking by yours truly, but this time, it wasn't enough. I lost the one person I had left, she bled out in my arms that afternoon, and it haunts my dreams every night.

Years passed, and I found myself on the road one afternoon, looting what I thought to be an abandoned van. That was when I had a saving grace in my life, getting held at gunpoint by the very same woman I married months later. Back then, I was just a thief, but she and her brother-in-law, Javier, along with her stepchildren, Gabriel and Mariana, offered me a ride along with them, and it turned out to be the best thing to happen to me in this God forsaken world.

We traveled for weeks, scavenging the area for any resources, before we were ambushed, losing Mariana in a gunfight. We wound up attacking the regime that killed Mariana, and raided countless peaceful communities in the area. And for one reason or another, I found myself in control of this community, Richmond, after helping overthrow the previous regime that was then known as The New Frontier. I inherited the city, and the mess that The New Frontier had created.

That was three years ago, and I like to think that I've done pretty well, given the cards I was dealt. Of the original four leaders in The New Frontier, three of them died in the coup or as a result of the coup. The only one left was, thankfully, the one I could tolerate the most, Dr. Paul Lingard, formerly the Head of the Hospitals. I offered him the position when I took over, but he turned it down, choosing instead to deal with addiction and other mental health demons that he chose to exorcise, which I couldn't blame him for. So, I offered the position to Eleanor Tang, a doctor that helped save Kate's life after the ambush, and someone that, despite some… bumps in the road, has proven her worth time and time again, more times than I could count in a lifetime. I named Javier my Head of Security after, taking the position formerly held by his brother, a military man that just so happened to be Kate's husband during the coup. You can only imagine the look on his face when he found out about Kate and I having feelings for each other. Yeah, I probably almost died that afternoon. He died by being a reckless asshole, but anyone could tell you that was inevitable after spending a few days with David Garcia in a survival situation like this. Together, Eleanor, Javier, and I are tasked with keeping this community intact, with myself leading the charge as Governor of Richmond.

I pick up Chandler and walk down a few houses on the block to a small house on the corner, and I knock on the door a couple times. Answering the door, a tall, lanky man, a few years younger than myself

"Ian?" He says to me with his thick British accent, yawning. "Is something the matter?"

I shake my head. "Not particularly, Jason. Is Annalyse around? I need a favor."

A blonde woman, slightly shorter than Kate, pops her head out from behind her boyfriend. "Right here. What do you need?"

"Can you cover for Kate at the nursery? She's not feeling well today, and I know you're supposed to go out hunting, but it looks like there's more than enough there."

She looks back at me, uneasily, reluctant to turn down a chance to hunt, which I understand, but I've known Annalyse for a year or so now, and I know just the way to convince her.

"You know, Jesus is supposed to be coming by tomorrow. I can put in a good word and try to get you a bottle of wine or two." I remind her, referring to my friend, Paul Monroe, who bears a stunning resemblance to Jesus Christ, who also makes some incredible wine back at his community. He comes by every now and then, and he always comes with wine he's willing to trade with the good people of Richmond.

Annalyse rolls her bright baby blues and nods. "Sure. I'll do it for her. But Jesus better have some wine for me. You understand how big of a sacrifice not going hunting is for me." She smiles to me, and then to Chandler. "Want me to take him off your hands?"

"Could you?" I ask her, and I'm met with a nod, before I turn to Chandler. "Hey buddy, wanna play with Annalyse and Jason today?"

Chandler, never turning down a chance to play, cheers loudly, getting the other three of us to laugh. I hand Chandler to Annalyse.

"I'll be sure to tell Jesus to have a couple bottles ready. You have my word. Thanks for this."

We go our separate ways from there, and I walk off toward the armory in town, what used to be an old high school. Classrooms that once educated children now store our main means of defenses. Guns, explosives, ammunition, the whole nine yards. Sitting on the steps in front, an older teen, brown hair, a dirty Milwaukee Brewers cap covering most of it, an old black Nike jacket on with a faded, torn pair of jeans.

"Sorry I'm late." I apologize to Brett as he stands up to shake my hand. "Family matters to deal with, you know?"

"I get it. You're actually not that late." He reminds me. "Anyways, I'm ready to go on this supply run."

I smile back to him. Nodding toward the building as he and I both walk in, and I lead the way through the halls to the armory. I open the door, leading to one of the massive rooms full of rifles and shotguns on tables and shelves. I grab an AR-15 from one of the shelves, quickly looking through its sights, adjusting the stock to my likeness, and checking a couple other things before I determine it to be perfect for this, although hopefully I won't have to use it. I grab another one for Brett, who looks around at the options, eyeing the AK-47s and 700s a great deal, but he happily accepts the AR-15 regardless. He and I both load a few magazines with .223 rounds, and we both walk out, heading to a room across the hall, to where we keep sidearms. I grab a .44 Magnum revolver off the main table, my personal favorite. I spin the chamber around once, delighted to see it fully loaded. I spin the chamber shut and grab some more ammo for it, as Brett chooses a Beretta M9, expertly looking it over before putting it in his pocket. He and I walk out of the armory, but not before I grab an axe by the door. We'll need that.

Back out in the slightly warming morning air, I lead him toward the garage, where we take an old Ford pickup truck out for the supply run. I slowly drive the truck through the city, with more and more people walking to their respective jobs, and we finally reach the gates, and with a signal to Max, he raises the gate open, and Brett and I drive off.

"So, how's your brother adjusting to the prosthetic?" I ask him, thinking about how Conrad made him a prosthetic for his leg, which he lost part of to a walker bite. He gives me a shrug and an uneasy smile.

"He's coming around to it. He's complained a lot about it hurting, but he's getting used to it. In all honesty, I think he's just glad he doesn't have to rely on the crutches anymore, you know?"

"I hear that." I smile to him as I reminisce about my college days. "Sophomore year of college, I tore my ACL, the main ligament in your knee that keeps the bones in your knee together, so I was in crutches for a few months while that healed. It absolutely sucked. Granted, it wasn't nearly as bad as losing your foot to a walker bite, but yeah."

He frowns, thinking about how his brother almost died, so I offer some extra words of encouragement. "Clem told me about what happened, how your brother threw himself on the line for her, and almost died because of it. It takes a special kinda person to do that sorta thing, and how you were willing to do what needed to be done to keep him alive, even though he told you to kill him. That takes guts."

His frown turns into a light smile. "He's all I had left. The rest of my family, dead, my friends, dead, my girlfriend…" He pauses, and with a heavy sigh, he finishes what he was saying. "Dead."

"Damn. What happened?" I ask the teen, who blankly stares ahead, reliving a painful memory.

"She got her head bashed in by one of the only people I thought I could trust. The leader of our old group, this guy Marlon. He seemed like a good guy, he welcomed us in with open arms, was real friendly to all of us. Turns out he was a total scumbag. He was ambushed by your friend Lilly, and instead of doing the brave thing, he gave up two of his own people so they could be child soldiers just to save his own ass."

I eye him curiously as I continue driving. "Child soldiers? What? Clem never mentioned child soldiers. The fuck does Lilly need those for?"

He shrugs. "Something about a war her people are fighting. One of her men we captured said it was a bloodbath from Richmond to the coast, but I don't see it."

A shiver goes down my spine at the thought of this. We're currently heading East, right toward the coast. Could there be a war going on that I didn't even know about? How?

And even then, why child soldiers? Is Lilly that desperate? If that's the case, no wonder she got her ass handed to her by this group of kids.

"So, why did Marlon bash her head in, if you don't mind me asking?"

He shakes his head, solemnly staring out the front window. "Brody was there when he gave them away. She saw everything, and Marlon forced her to keep quiet about it all. They came up with a story that the kids were killed by walkers instead of given away to be soldiers, and the other believed it. That was four days before Benji and I joined. Brody and I became a couple not too long after, and we were together for about a year. A month and a half ago, her conscience got the best of her, and she tried to tell the truth to us, so Marlon… got his hands dirty to stay clean…"

My heart drops at his story, my mind flashing images of Carley's death. The white snow, stained with her blood. That single wound, right above her abdomen. That last moment, where she told me she loved me, and the life slowly faded out of her as she fell limp in my arms, her eyes glazed upwards at Heaven. Years ago, I would've had to fight back the tears, but I've cried so much over it, I can't seem to anymore. It just doesn't work.

"Shit, I'm really sorry to hear." I tell him, giving him a sympathetic look. "I know all too well how it feels to lose someone you love like that. It's painful."

"Your wife, Carley?" He asks, and I nod.

"Yep."

"Clem told me what happened." He murmurs. "I'm surprised you didn't kill the kid. I would've."

"I wanted to. Something inside me stopped me. I like to think that was Carley in the afterlife stopping me. But, maybe it was just me thinking enough people had died. I had lost a lot of good people the few days before… Mia…"

"Mia?" He asks, curiously.

"My sister." I explain. "She was at a soccer tournament in North Carolina when this started, and I thought she was gone. Our paths crossed two years in, with a group of some really good people, AJ's parents were a part of it. They rescued Mia and kept her safe. I didn't think I had any family left, so seeing my baby sister standing right in front of me was something that surprised me, to say the least."

"How'd she… you know?"

Pictures of Bill Carver pop into my mind. That bloodthirsty grin imprinted in my mind standing behind his .44 Magnum, smoking barrel and everything, as a couple of his cronies held me down. I fully expected to be executed that morning, and instead, I got to live with my greatest loss to that point.

The single bullet wound in between Mia's eyes, her blue eyes blankly looking up at me as everything hit me. He executed her, like it was nothing, for something I did.

"We were kidnapped by this man, Carver, who had a community in Tennessee. It was essentially a labor camp, and I was kinda defiant to his leadership. So, he killed my sister to set an example. I got my revenge that night, though."

"Killed him?"

I slowly nod. "Bashed his head in with a crowbar. Didn't stop till his head was a mix of blood, brains, and skull bits. Kinda gross, but I didn't care. I saw red. It was fucked up, but it felt good."

He nods. "I woulda done the same to Marlon. I wanted to, I just never had the chance."

"Someone got him before you?"

He nods once again, as I take a bite of out my apple. "AJ."

The apple chunk lodges itself in my throat, forcing my body to violently cough it back up into my hand. I throw the chunk out my window in disgust, before turning back to Brett. "AJ? What the fuck? You're telling me that a five year old killed Marlon?"

"He shot him in the head, after he'd surrendered." He confirms. "Clem told him it was wrong, but he didn't exactly understand. He's too young. He knows that killing bad people isn't bad, but he doesn't understand when someone's a threat and when someone isn't."

"Fuck me." I groan. "Kate told me it was a bad idea. She told me it was a bad idea to let AJ go with Clem. She said Clem and Gabe should've gone instead, but Clem insisted she wanted to teach AJ how to survive in the outside world, so I trusted her judgement. Fuck… he shouldn't know what killing is like. Not at such a young age. Damn it…"

He remains silent, but frowns, looking out the front window as we start reaching the outskirts of what used to be the city. "I'll talk to him and Clem about what happened later. All I ask from you is that you keep this between us for right now, alright? I'll settle this issue, but if everyone hears about a five year old that murdered someone in cold blood, that might go over pretty badly. So can we keep this between us and your friends you came here with? No one else. Not even Kate. I'll talk to her, too."

"I'll keep quiet about it. AJ's not a bad person. He just made a bad decision." He tells me, which I agree with.

"Of course, of course. I love the kid, just… fuck… this'll be something that we can worry about when we get back." I tell him as I park by some woods on the side of the road. "In the meantime, let's get some wood for the Winter. That's all we really need right now."

He and I get out of the truck, and we grab our rifles and handguns, I also grab the axe, ready to chop some wood to bring back, as he and I walk deep into the woods.

"So, Clem said you used to play football?" He asks me as I slam the axe down on a fallen tree, splinters flying and the wood splitting.

"Yep." I confirm, "Played Wide Receiver for the Atlanta Falcons. At least, I would have, if the dead didn't start walking. Were you a big football fan?"

He nods back to me. "I lived about half an hour away from Green Bay. Dad would take me and Benji to Lambeau for a Packers game or two every year."

"Wisconsin, eh?" I ask him as I slam the axe down on another piece of wood. "How'd you wind up so far from home?"

"Lots of traveling." He tells me, "We started in the midwest, moved East toward Ohio, then went North through New York, and then back South through Pennsylvania, and we found ourselves in West Virginia with the others."

"And you and your brother lasted through all that, for so long?" I follow up, impressed by the boy and his brother.

He simply nods, pulling out a canteen as he sits down on a log. He sips some water from it and sighs, relaxing in the cool morning air.

"Why don't you start bringing the wood over to the truck?" I suggest as he gives me a look telling me he wants something to do, although he didn't say anything. With a small smile, he gets up, taking an armful of wood and walking back toward the truck, and I grab a new log to chop, looking back at the haul. It's not enough, but it hasn't gotten cold enough that we need it yet, so we've got time. I chop another piece of wood.

Brett seems like a good kid. I hadn't talked much with him since Clem brought him and his people here, but he seems like a capable fighter. He's considerate, a little quiet, but also pretty bright.

But what I think is most amazing is his resiliency. He's lost a lot. His family is gone, his girlfriend was murdered like it was nothing. I'm sure he's lost lots of others, too. We all have. But how he's been able to overcome all that and keep surviving in this world, at a young age, it's impressive. He handles himself pretty well, especially in high-pressure situations. Cutting off his brother's foot so he wouldn't get infected and turn, genius. If only we tried that with… no, it wouldn't have worked with him. He was too far along.

Brett's a strong kid. It's kinda rare nowadays. People have to be hard to survive now, but that's different from being strong. To be strong, you have to be able to keep moving forward, to look out for your people, while being able to do what needs to be done. Clem could be right. Maybe he could be a strong leader in the future. I guess we'll wait and see. I raise the axe above my head, and I swing down, the wood splits in two and the axe lodges itself into the wood stump I was using to support the wood. I grab the handle, and with a grunt, I try and dislodge it from the stump, wiggling it around before pulling it back out, forcing myself backwards a step as it's finally dislodged.

I hear a clicking noise from behind me, and someone juts the barrel of a gun to the back of my head. Before my attacker can even do anything, I drop the axe to my side, raising my hands above my shoulders. I patiently wait, but my attacker says nothing, and a confused look forms on my face.

"This is usually the part where you start telling me what to do, isn't it?" I ask as my attacker remains silent. Confused, I slowly turn around to my attacker whose eyes meet mine.

It's a girl, black hair, hazel eyes, and a black bandana covering the rest of her face, although her eyes have a nasty glare in them that I can only assume is matched by the rest of her face. She holds a rifle at my neck as she and I look each other dead in the eyes. Behind her, another individual, with Brett tied up and gagged. My eyes shoot open our gazes meet.

"Son of a bitch…"

Brett's POV

Ian seems pretty cool. He's a super strong, confident guy, but he's also really down to Earth. It's almost impossible to think he's done some of the messed up things Clem's described. But, it's pretty clear he did. He's a very open and honest guy, which I respect. In a world like this, it's easy to try and lie your way through it, but not Ian. He calls things like he sees them, and he isn't afraid to tell it like it is.

He's lost a lot, like me, but he's lost a lot more, his wife, his family, his football career, friends, and plenty of other people, I have to assume. But even then, he kept moving forward. No matter what, he kept looking ahead. That's a strong person. That's someone I want to be. I want to make Mom, Dad, Brody, and everyone else watching over me proud. I like to think I'm doing my best, even if I've fucked up sometimes. It's kinda hard not to fuck up every now and then, especially in this world. It's just that now, when you fuck up, people can die. Death is inevitable, but I can't let more people start dying cause of that.

Ian has me taking wood back to the truck, which I don't mind. It gives me something to do. It's nice to get to walk through the woods a bit, at least to explore outside the city walls a bit, even if there isn't much left to explore.

As screwed up as this world has been for the better part of a decade, this world is pretty beautiful. It's kinda like someone hit the reset button on everything, and now it's going back to its old way. Of course, if I had it my way, I'd be in college, my family and friends are all alive, and people aren't coming back from the dead. But still, given how things are, it could be a lot worse. Hell, I could be dead just as easily as anyone I've lost these past seven years. So, I guess I can thank whoever for that.

I reach the truck, placing the pieces of wood I collected in the bed, as someone grabs me around the neck with a chokehold. I struggle, but it's no use. Someone kicks me in the side of the knee and I collapse on the side of the road.

"Well look at this." Lilly smugly smiles as she plants her boot on my chest. "Brett. I didn't think I'd run into you again. After you let me go, I figured that was it. We're just out here on a scouting mission for our war, minding our own business, and you happen to cross our paths again. How convenient." She gives me a vicious smile as another one of her troops walks over to her. A shorter, black-haired girl with hazel eyes, a black bandana covering her face, and an olive green camo jacket, with some black jeans and some dirty brown boots.

"Ma'am, you know him?" She asks Lilly, who doesn't break her stare at me.

"All too well, corporal." Lilly dryly responds. "He and his friends were responsible for blowing up the Fitzgerald. Cute trick, but it doesn't matter now. My people will win their war, one way or another."

"Fuck your war, and fuck you." I spit back at her. "For everything you've done, you deserve to lose."

Amused, she takes her boot off me, grabbing my collar and standing me up on my feet. She turns to the other troop, a small smile on her face. "Corporal Morin, do you have any rope for our friend here?"

She nods back to Lilly, handing some rope to the Delta leader as I get tied up. As my arms get more and more snugly wrapped around my body, I look back at Lilly. "I hope you know I'm gonna keep my promise to you. You better hope I don't get my hands on a gun, cause the first round is going right between your eyes."

She softly chuckles. "I'm sure you will, kid. You should feel glad you're even alive right now. All the trouble you and your friends have caused would warrant me killing you, but we saw you're with a new community now. A big one. Lots of people. We need lots of people. You see where I'm going with this?"

"You already know my answer. I'm not fighting for you or your fucking Delta." I growl to her, which only amuses her more.

"We'll see about that. In the meantime…" She grabs the rest of the rope from her corporal, wrapping it around my head, specifically my mouth to keep me from talking. "We saw you with someone else. He's deeper in the woods, isn't he? Perhaps he'll be more willing to negotiate."

I keep a stone cold look on my face, but my chest sinks. Ian. He knew Lilly. He knows she's still out here. And she knows he's still around, too. Oh shit…

She shoves me forward, "Move. Take us to your friend."

I gulp. Seeing no other option, I comply.

Through the woods, held at gunpoint by Corporal Morin, I trudge through the dirt and leaves down the path, and the sound of Ian chopping the wood comes within earshot. Lilly drags me behind a tree and puts a knife to my throat.

"Make a sound and it'll be your last." She warns me with a whisper, poking my throat with the blade. My heart racing, breathing light, I quickly nod as she turns to her corporal. "Disarm the other one."

Silently, Morin goes from behind the tree, creeping up on Ian, who remains oblivious to it all. I want to warn him, but I know both of us will be killed before we can do anything. She finally gets close enough to Ian, putting the barrel of her gun to the back of his head, and he immediately stops what he's doing.

"This is usually the part where you start telling me what to do, isn't it?" He remarks after a moment of silence.

Lilly drags me out from behind cover, keeping the blade to my throat as Ian slowly turns around. He looks at the corporal, then at me, and then up at Lilly, and his eyes shoot wide open.

"Son of a bitch…"

Ian's POV

"Lilly?"

"Ian?"

She lowers the knife held to Brett's throat, stunned, as her other troop backs off, turning to Lilly. "You know him, too, ma'am?"

"We go back, Corporal." She mutters. "When Clem told me you were alive, I was sure she was just bluffing. And yet, here we are. And you're even with this piece of work and his friends? I'm not shocked for a moment."

"So, what do you want?" I ask her, as she throws Brett to the ground, he lets out a muffled grunt as his body hits the ground.

"I'll cut to the chase. You have a community near here. Don't lie. My scouts have already told me. We want to work out an… arrangement, so to say."

"What kind of arrangement?" I ask her, skeptical.

"My community, the Delta, is at war with a group that lives around here. This group is ruthless, crafty, and if we don't get support, we'll die."

I cross my arms, staring right back at her. "So? What reason do I have to help you? In case you can't remember, we didn't exactly leave things on good terms."

"I know what I did seven years ago, and we can talk about that. But, you need to understand that my people are good people, and they're on the verge of being slaughtered by some heartless bastards that'll turn their sights to you next." She tells me.

"You shot Carley like it was nothing. I should've shot you that night. You should feel glad I gave you a fighting chance out there."

"You've changed." She notes. "The Ian I knew was hard, but he helped people who needed it."

"You know why I'm not helping. I've got my own people to look out for. And for all I know, this is you trying to trick me into something."

She frowns, before crouching down to Brett, taking out her knife and cutting his binds. He gets to his feet, stumbling back over to me. Relieved he's safe, but confused by her actions, I glance back at her. "What's this?"

"Consider it an act of good faith. If you're not gonna help me, don't come crying when your people are attacked next." She grimaces. "We'll probably be dead, anyways."

Still confused, I frown, giving her a weird look. This doesn't seem like Lilly. She seems desperate for help. So this means there's two things this could mean. She's either lying, trying to get something out of me, or she's being sincere, and her people actually are in trouble.

Knowing Lilly, it's probably the prior.

From behind Lilly, a walker stumbles down the path, and I unsheathe my knife to take care of it, nonchalantly walking past the others as it stumbles towards me.

"Oh, shit…" Lilly murmurs from behind me as the walker stops moving, frozen in place, staring me back in the eyes. Taken aback by its gaze back at me, I take a step back, not breaking my stare back at it.

"Ian…" Brett says shakily from behind me, but I don't respond, slowly backing up as the walker stares back at me, not moving at all.

I finally break the staredown between me and the walker, looking around the four of us, and we're surrounded by them, walkers, not moving, just standing and staring.

"What the Hell are they doing? Why aren't they trying to eat us?" Brett asks, just as confused as I am, but Lilly gives him an answer.

"Those aren't walkers." She mutters back to him. He and I both look back at her, only more confused than before. The situation makes itself more apparent as I turn back to the first walker, still in its same spot, but no longer hunched over, rather upright like a human.

Like a human, it walks over to me, reaching behind and pulling out a sawed off double-barrel shotgun, pointing it right at me. I instinctively back up, as it continues to approach me, before I bump into the rest of them. The rest of the "walkers" follow suit, walking in and making the circle tighter, before the first one and I lock eyes once again, this time, it has words for me.

"Trail ends here." She says, with a chilling Southern twang to her voice.

Happy Summer, everyone. Welcome to my third story, The Enemy of My Enemy. My first two stories, as I previously mentioned, have taken place during the canon of the TellTale games as well as my personal canon for parts. Well, this one does not revolve around any one game, rather following the events of Blood Brothers, which in itself was a continuation of Too Far Gone. Idk when I'll be releasing this story but whatever day this chapter goes up (Likely Friday), that'll probably be the day of the week all chapters will go up. Hope you're excited, cause I've got a Hell of a plan for this one :]