Scarlett (Rick Grimes/OC)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I've seen some terrible shit since those... things started walkin' around. I've seen the military- the very people who are supposed to protect and serve our country- shoot the sick and healthy alike in the hallways of a hospital (If you're wonderin' if those men got in trouble fer doin' that in that hospital, they didn't. There ain't no government, no military, no police: the world's a free-for-all now, and it was, even in the beginning of all of this, and it ain't safe in any way, shape, or form.); I've seen men and women kill each other for nothing more than two bullets and a piece a' bread; I've watched three people go insane just because they couldn't take the state of the world no more. If you want the truth though, the most terrible thing I ever saw was someone become one a' those things.

The fever takes you first, and then the shakes and the pain comes next. All you gotta do to be infected is get bit or scratched, and I suppose ingestin' some a' their blood would make it happen too. It ain't a nice way ta' go, and even then you aren't really gone... someone's still gotta shoot you down or crack you one in the head with a bat ta' get ya' ta' stop movin'. I had ta' do that to a teenaged boy about a year ago, if I figure right. I stopped trackin' the days a long time ago.

Those "things" are lifeless corpses that have reanimated for some reason. They're decayed, they don't feel nothin' but hunger for livin' flesh, and they're not the people they were when they were alive. Their eyes are glassed over and grey, skin paper thing and yellowed. Some of 'em got got hair and all their body parts, some don't. It don't matter if they're missin' arms and legs, or even whole chunks a' their body though- they'll keep fightin' no matter what unless you kill their brain. A clean shot with a gun or an arrow, bashin' in the skull... it all does the trick. You just gotta kill that brain ta' end it. Otherwise, you better watch your ass and pray you get it on the next go before it gets you.

I'm lucky. I made it. Me, Scarlett Bradford- twenty-three-year-old nurse (give or take) and tiny woman- has made it this far. I'm pretty damn proud a' myself for that.

I ain't very much. I'm tiny, barely 5' 2", and I don't weigh nothin' at all, especially now that I ain't eatin' all the time. I was nurse before all this, didn't have a husband, and my parents were dead long before. I do have a brother, or did have, I guess, but I didn't talk to him much. He was druggie, and I ain't seen him sober since he was twenty-one. Last I heard, he was in New Orleans partyin' himself ta' death. He's probably dead, and I ain't broke up over it, even though I think I should be since we were once close.

What I lack in physical ability, I'd like ta' think I make up for in mental ability. I'm smart- I used ta' have all kinds a' papers and grade transcripts that would prove it- and I'm stubborn. I don't ever see myself just layin' down and dyin'- I'll fight, and I'll fight hard, if I should ever have ta'.

Like I said, I was a nurse. I worked in a hospital right in Atlanta. The shit hit the fan and all hell broke loose. I've seen everything. We were overrun with the bitten and the dying on top of our usual patients. Didn't take long for us to realize how ta' put 'em down and how they were made. The military came though, said they'd help, said they'd evacuate us, but they didn't. They took people out into the hallways and lobbies and shot them down. Nurses, doctors, patients, pregnant women, the elderly, hell, they shot kids. I bolted. They hadn't found me yet and I didn't want them to.

I stole a car and got the hell out a' dodge. The streets were a mess, the dead everywhere, feastin' on everything. Some screamed fer help, but I drove past them, in shock and not wantin' ta' take chances. I picked up food and some weapons on my way out of the city, and by nightfall, I was well out of the city limits. I didn't turn around to see the explosions the lit up the sky like the sun when they dropped bombs on Atlanta. I cried, but I didn't look.

Down the road in the some neighborhoods, I ran out of gas and met up with some people who were holed up in a house, two men and a woman, brothers and their cousin. They were fair-haired and mousy, none of 'em very brave. The girl wasn't too bright, but the two men were lawyers, so they weren't all that stupid. I provided a lot, catchin' food in snares and pickin' wild berries in the woods around the neighborhood. I grew up a hick kid in the country with an older brother and a daddy who liked huntin' anything residin' in the woods, so I know what I'm doin' when it comes ta' stuff like that.

We had a real good thing goin' on, but then the girl went nuts- just couldn't take the world bein' like this anymore. She hung herself, and that's when I figured out that you turn no matter how you die. She changed almost immediately, no fever, no shakes, just moans and glassy eyes and hunger for flesh. We shot her and buried her in the yard. The brothers were never the same after that, and they ended up shootin' themselves while I was gone on a hunt one day. I didn't care much for any of 'em, but them dyin' still made me sad 'cause I knew it meant I'd be alone from then on.

I found an abandoned farm shortly after and picked up a horse. She's a pretty black Arabian with a long mane and tail. Someone took good care a' her right up until they died, because she wasn't all that bad off when I found her. I call her Vi, and for right now, she's my only companion. There ain't many groups around these days, and if there are, I probably don't wanna join 'em. It's been a long time since all this happened, and I figure that only the smart and the evil are left by now.

Since I found my horse, all I've done is wander around. There ain't much else ta' do. I figure I'm find as long as I stick ta' the roads and keep my bat and gun handy. These things like noise, so I only use my gun for emergencies, and anyway, these things like noise- that's somethin' a baseball bat makes very little of.

Quick, quiet, smart, and alone- that's basically how I operate. I hope it keeps workin'.

***

Author's Note-

Hi ya'll! I'm Madison and this is my new story! Please, please, PLEASE vote and comment so I know what ya'll think and whether or not I'm any good at this whole writing thing!!!

- Love, Madison (evilqueen098)