21 parts Complete MatureThis is a Zombie Apocalypse AU.
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Tara Carpenter loved Amber Freeman. Amber Freeman loved Tara Carpenter. They were childhood best friends, practically attached at the hip. Then, in late 2015, when they were 11, Amber went missing. Everyone looked practically everywhere they could think of, but Amber was never seen again. Her parents didn't seem to care, however.
Four years later, in 2019, the apocalypse occurred around what would have been Amber's sophomore year of high school. She would have been 15, just like Tara and most of the others their age. It's now 2023, meaning it's been four years since the apocalypse started and almost a decade since Amber disappeared.
The world isn't exactly "safe" anymore; it never truly was, anyway. There are still survivors here and there, but not many, as around a third of humanity has fallen (either killed or turned, usually both). The government, despite its best attempts to control what had happened, fell as well. It was long overdue.
Amber is very much "alive". When she went "missing", it turned out her parents had sold her to a lab, and she was turned, in a way. Given that she seems mostly turned, she can easily appear to be completely gone, but she's not. She's still in there. However, it's hard to speak for her due to the infection in her veins, but she's for the most part okay. She wanders around now, often with hordes of fully turned zombies, traveling the devastated world. She has been almost everywhere, in terms of cities and locations.
Eventually, she stumbles upon Woodsboro again and finds a few people she thought she'd never see again. And maybe, just maybe, they can help her become human again.