22 (TWD Fanfiction)

Chapter 1 - Police Officer

 Charlotte opened her bedroom door. "Mom? Dad?" She called into the house. A gunshot rang from outside and she ducked down. It was the third one she heard in the last minute.

"In here sweety!" Her mom yelled.

Running down the hallway she entered the living room, the news was playing on the tv. A frantic-looking reporter told everyone to head to the nearest safe zone when he was cut off and the screen changed to "No Signal".

"Mom, Dad, what's happening?" The girl asked, she was shaking and her hands gripped the side of her shirt tightly. The fabric already beginning to stretch.

Her Dad picked her up, holding onto her tightly, and looked directly into her eyes. "Nothing, we're going to be fine."

Charlotte tried calming down. If her dad said everything was going to be fine then she knew it would be. He never lies.

Her dad put her down and told her to grab her favorite things and put them in her backpack. So she ran back to her room and began stuffing her backpack with all the important things a nine-year-old girl would need. A couple of shirts and a pair of shorts. Paper and her favorite markers. A stuffed dog and a thin fuzzy blanket.

She looked around her room, there was still a little space left but she felt like she had everything she could need. Gripping her backpack she walked back into the living room where her mother was rushing around grabbing pictures.

"Mom, why do you need all those? Aren't we coming back?"

Her mom didn't answer the question. She rushed down the hallway before bringing out more picture frames. "Help me take these out of the frames." She handed her a picture of the three of them standing outside Uncle Smith's house for Thanksgiving.

Charlotte dutifully took out the photo and was about to hand it to her mom when the doorbell rang. She put the picture in her pocket and ran over to answer the door.

"Charlotte no!" Her father yelled. Charlotte stopped in her tracks as her father passed her to open the door. He looked out the peephole and then opened it.

One of their newer neighbors was standing on the other side. He was sweating a lot and was holding a gun. "Tom, they're here. We all gotta go. The town's overrun."

Her dad spoke, "We're leaving now. All of us, you're free to come wi-" He was cut off when a dirty man in old clothes took a bite out of his arm. He screamed wildly when another came and took a bite out of his shoulder. The neighbor shot blindly in the air. Her Dad ducked away from the gunshot.

So focused on the gunshots he didn't notice one come through the front door. It grabbed her dad's arm and he tried to wrench it free when another grabbed ahold of him and bit the back of his neck.

Charlotte backed up into the living room away from the doorway of horror. Her mom's screams and cries causing her to start crying too. "Mom!"

The now bigger group of crazy people pushed through into the house. A woman in a tattered dress fell forward and grabbed onto her mom's leg. "Get off of me!" She yelled, kicking her leg in a desperate attempt to get it to let go. Another moved forward and pulled her down. "Charlotte run!" Was the last thing she said before erupting into painful screams.

She grabbed her backpack and threw open the back door. Running to her backyard fence and unlocking it she rushed out teary-eyed into the streets of her neighborhood. Screams and gunshots could be heard everywhere. Police sirens were coming from all directions.

Two women with glazed white eyes came stumbling toward her and she bolted away from them. She didn't know where to go and her blurry eyesight wasn't helping. Heading toward the park with her favorite playground she didn't stop running until she came face to face with a large man. He was covered in blood and had the same white-glazed eyes as the other people. Before she could run he grabbed onto her arm and she struggled to try to get out of his grasp.