Chapter One

There are seven of us, excluding the children. A married couple, Jackson and Lainey, an elderly man, we all call Robert since he can't really speak, two Asian sisters, Lilly and May, and an asshole of a man about my age named Jessie.

Then there's me.

We are your typical group of survivors. We found each other when the military bombed Atlanta, and we stuck together ever since. Of course, there were many more of us then, but what happened to them happens to everyone.

The turned got to them.

We've had many 'sanctuaries', many different homes, but we always had to leave. We moved to our current place about three months ago. So far, it's been the longest time we've been able to stay at one place.

It's a large brick home, with a tall brick fence surrounding it, enclosed by large metal fence doors. Whoever previously owned this home had to be extremely wealthy. Any space of grass we could find, we used for plants. Our garden proceeded nearly the entire yard, including some pots inside the house.

So basically, we were doing pretty good on food.

"I'm heading out." I tell Lilly, who was attending to a strawberry plant that we all knew she was very proud of.

"Be careful, Annabelle." She said, "You really should take Jessie with you."

"I'll be fine." I want to take Jessie with me, I hate going out on my own. I also have too much pride to suck up to him and ask for his help.

He's a dick.

I had Jackson open the gate for me, and I walked out. We own a car, but I prefer the silence of walking. Besides, you definitely can see more when you're not in a large, blinding vehicle.

Of course, the downside of not driving, is that it takes hours to reach a destination you haven't already scavenged.

I went through an old 'historic' neighborhood, for the third time in the past month. I keep telling myself it's worth the effort to search the place again, because 'I might have forgotten something'. I never find anything.

I then stumbled upon a small gas station. The voice in my head was screaming, "Don't bother! There's nothing in there!" But I had to go. I grabbed a rock from the ground, and with all my strength, I threw it at the glass doors of the small building. I waited. I counted to precisely sixty seconds -and then another sixty just to be extra safe- before confirming there were no dead inside.

I opened the door, and walked in. The place was obviously already raided pretty meticulously. I began moving shelves around, hoping to find anything that had fallen under them that someone missed.

I did managed to find an unopened box of gum, which didn't really benefit me in the slightest, but I took it anyway.

There was a carton of cigarettes under the counter, a few of them were missing but I didn't care.

I hoisted myself onto the checkout counter, and sat there, enjoying the silence for the few seconds it lasted. I stared at the pack of cigarettes. I never smoked one before, but looking at them, I was incredibly tempted to do so.

I took out a lighter from my pack, and I grabbed a cigarette and lit it. The moment I inhaled the smoke it gave off, I felt as if I were choking. I succumbed to a coughing attack, and quickly threw the cigarette to the ground.

Disgusting.

I quickly popped a piece of gum into my mouth, in a desperate attempt to get the taste of smoke off my tongue.

I sat there for a long while, feeling sorry for myself for stupidly trying to get addicted to something like cigarettes anyway. When I finally to leave, I hopped off the counter, and began to pack all my stuff up. A sudden noise caught me off guard, making me stop what I was doing.

It was the sound of a car engine, so loud it may just be a truck.

It got louder and louder, and suddenly, it came to a stop. It had stopped right in front of the gas station. My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach, and I quickly crouched down to the floor and hid behind a shelf. I had a good view to outside from the window, and watched three guys hop out of a large black truck. They had guns bigger than I could even imagine having, and they were heading into the gas station.

"Shit." I said under my breath as I darted to the back room before they could spot me.

I hid under a desk, and waited for the perfect opportunity to slip out the back door.

"What the fuck are we even doing here?" One guy said, as I heard a loud crash of something hitting the floor. I assumed he tipped over one of the shelves.

"Negan wants every place searched and secured, you know that you fucking moron." Said another guy.

"There's obviously nothing here."

"Wait wait-" There was a long silence, "Look at this."

"What is it?" I heard footsteps.

"It's a pack. It's fucking loaded, food, cigarettes, and a goddamn 22. full of ammo."

"Shit, someone left in a hurry."

I mentally face palmed. My pack. I had forgotten my pack on the counter. I couldn't be more stupid.

Not wanting to stay any longer, I finally racked up the nerve to leave. I crawled towards the back door, and opened it as slowly as I could so it wouldn't make a noise. With my eyes focused on the front room where the two guys were talking, I crawled backwards out of the door until I was officially outside. I closed the door, and quickly stood up ready to make a run for it.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" I heard a voice to my right, and I turned to see the third guy aiming a gun straight for my head.