Living On A Prayer (Daryl Dixon/ TWD)

Chapter 1

Hi guys! This is my first 'The Walking Dead' story and my first fan fiction! I'm starting off from season 1 and going from there, I will be keeping some things from the story line the same but I also will be changing up a lot. I do not own any of the AMC TV SHOWS original characters or any of the original story lines! So far the only characters I own are Ashlynn, Aralyn and Adasyn. Enjoy!

Adasyn

My lungs burned as I sprinted through the dark forest, fear twisting it's way through my gut like a sharp knife. Sobs echoed through the dark, still trees and the ground shook from the force of the bomb.

"We have to go," I panted as I reached the small Toyota my sisters and I traveled in,  grabbing bags and shoving them in their hands. "Right now."

"What do you mean?" Aralyn asked, her brows furrowed as she grabbed the bags from my hand. "What happened Ady?"

"Where are we gonna go?" My other sister, my twin, Ashlynn asked me. "The traffic is backed up for miles and we don't have camping gear. We need to stay with the car. Besides, the city should be opening up soon so that we can-"

"We can't!" I snapped, fear consuming me as the cries picked up. People were running between the cars like crazy. It wouldn't be long before a full blown riot broke out. "They - they just dropped bombs directly into the city."

Their eyes grew wide in fear, mirroring my own. They stopped asking questions as we hurriedly grabbed the rest of our belongings from the car. I quickly opened up a paper map I had managed to grab from a gas station on the way and scanned the area surrounding us.

"Do you know what we're gonna do?" Aralyn asked, her voice trembling. She had always been so timid, it pained my heart. I couldn't comfort her. "Those things .. they could be in the woods. It's dark..couldn't we try and head back home? Maybe we could hunker down there until this all blows over."

I took a deep breath, my own fear and guilt of not having the answers causing me to grow irritated. Should we have just stayed home? I brought us all here, all the men at the station talked about a quarantine in the city before the broadcasts stopped. We'd be safe there, or so I had thought. Clearly something had gone horribly wrong and that was no longer an option. And now I didn't know where to turn.

"Aralyn, the traffic is backed up for miles.  These people are all scared - and fear makes people do crazy things in times like these. Trying to back track on the highway through all these people is dangerous. And who knows how much unwanted attention is being drawn here due to the noise. I know it's scary but the woods are our safest bet right now, okay?"

She nodded, tears in her eyes as her fingers fumbled with the locket our mother had given her - had given all of us.

"Here," Ashlyn said over the sounds of the screams around us. "There are some mountains up this way. It could be a couple days walk but it should be a safe place to wait this out until it all blows over."

"She's right," an older man said, slowly approaching us. My hand quickly dropped down to the gun in my waist band and he raised his in surrender. " I mean no harm," he assured - pointing towards a camper in the lane to the right of us. "That's my RV. I overheard your ladies talking - those mountains you mentioned, I used to camp in them frequently. I have two other women with me, we are planning on heading that way. I could supply you three some shelter, it would be a tight fit, but it could save your life."

I relaxed just a bit, allowing my hand to drop down to my side, and looked between my two sisters.

"You just go around picking up random girls off the highway?" Ashlynn asked. "What's in it for you?"

He smiled softy, "no one is forcing you to come. I know I can't save everyone here, but I'd like to try and help as many as I can. We have a few more in a group rounded up from here- women, men and children. You can decide, but you need to do it quickly. This place won't be safe much longer."

He was right about that. Already I could see people smashing car windows and fighting off in the distance. I took one last assuring look between my sisters before looking back at him. "We'd appreciate that - thank you. We all have useful skills we could offer a group."

"Let's just worry about staying alive for now," he replied, ushering us to the camper before we drew unwanted attention. I let Aralyn take the lead, who was already thanking the old man and getting his name.

"We scope the place tonight," I whisper to Ashlynn. "If we get one bad feeling-"

"We head out first light-" she finished. I nodded towards her, and hiked my bag up on my shoulder before taking the first step into the RV. I was met by two smiling women, who's names I quickly learned were Amy and Andrea.

I relaxed once the man veered the large vehicle over the guard rails and into the woods. These people seemed decent enough to wait this out with until the disease was cured and Georgia was all cleaned up.

Little did I realize that help was never coming, and none of this was going to "blow over". This wasn't just a problem for Georgia - this disease wiped out the entire population, nation wide within days. This was the beginning of the end. The end of everything as we once knew it.

This was our apocalypse.
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Any type of feedback would be lovely , thanks so much!

Xoxo - Jenny.