Here We Are, Come Join Us (The Walking Dead FanFiction)

Chapter 1

Allison Harper ducked down into a crouched position behind the half-wall that formed a small, makeshift corridor at entrance of the corporate kitchen. Or break room. Or whatever this area of the office building had been before the world had come crumbling down. She heard voices. Human voices. The only sounds she'd heard in the past two weeks were the muffled shuffling feet and the grunts and groans that indicated Freaks approaching. But Freaks couldn't speak. There were people here.

"That's skin." She heard a voice near the oven accompanied by the sound of something metallic clinking against the stove top. "He cauterized the stump." Another voice spoke. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails." As she slowly stood up as quietly as possible to peek over the waist-high partition she simultaneously glimpsed a man aiming something in her direction and heard a voice yell "Freeze, motherfucker!"

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Allison called out as she stood straight up and raised both hands over her head, her right hand clasping the handle of an 18-inch field machete. A jumble of voices responded.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the man who was pointing what she now saw was a crossbow at her. "It's a girl!" a young Asian man blurted, stating the obvious. "It's OK," a second man, dressed in some sort of uniform, assured her, holding up his hand in a reassuring gesture. The third man, a muscular African-American with a shaved head stared at her mutely, looking uncertain.

"Whoa, just chill, I'm stepping out from behind this wall to show you I'm unarmed," Allison said in a cautious monotone as she slowly walked around the barrier. "Oh, except for this," she glanced upward to the blade in her hand and waved it slightly.

"Have you seen my brother?" the crossbow guy demanded.

"Um, I'm sorry, but since I don't know you, then it stands to reason that I don't know whether or not I've seen your brother. But I probably haven't - you're the first real people I've seen since I've been here, if that's any help."

"How long has that been?" the man in the uniform asked.

"I got here about two weeks ago, I think. Haven't really been keeping strict track of time. Been holing up down the hall in the ladies' room. I'm Allison. Allison Harper. I, uh, was just coming in to use the stove....to heat up something to eat....when I heard you guys talking..." She was babbling in a haste to explain herself as quickly as possible.

"Rick Grimes," the apparent cop replied. "This here's Glenn, that's T-Dog, and this is Daryl. We're looking for Daryl's brother, Merle." As he spoke the other three other men gradually relaxed their stances. The one named Daryl regarded her for a moment then looked back down to the ground and started walking away. "We're wasting time," he muttered as he followed a blood trail on the floor.

"Where did y'all come from?" Allison asked as she finally lowered her arms.

"I was 'bout to ask you the same question," Rick Grimes replied.

"Well, since I'm outnumbered, I guess I get to answer first," Allison said after a pause. She could understand their wariness; she was scoping them out as well. "I was on my way to visit home...rode down with a friend from school – we went to Duke, we work together now at the hospital – when all this started. We'd heard stuff on the car radio while we were still in North Carolina about this, this...sickness that was spreading. The roads got worse with abandoned cars and these freaks wandering around...took forever to get to the state line. Our cell phones had stopped working and when we finally found a working pay phone....oh, you don't want to hear all that. Long story short..."

"That ship done sailed," the man identified as T-Dog sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, I tend to go on when I'm nervous. Anyway, I found out that the person I was going home to see was already sick with the fever. My friend couldn't get an answer at her parents' house, and we ended up separating once we got to Atlanta. She took off in her car, and I went looking for the safe haven that we'd heard was set up in the city. But all I found was wandering freaks and a lot of nothing until I got here." She gestured vaguely around her. "Place still has running water, that stove still has a pilot light," she nodded toward the burning flame, "and I've found a lot of usable stuff while scavenging from the offices."