and in a single breath,
the world cries out,
" cure us ! "

THINK ABOUT LIVING
written by izabela

HUMANITY'S ONLY HOPE IS THE CURSE OF THE SAVIOUR. Such cruel irony is amonst those of the kind history likes best: hiding the cures behind martyrs, behind sacrifices and questions of morality, behind someone marked, someine like her.

Mallory Cohen survived despite all odds and logic, for better or for worse, a life that by all means should have ended on that hospital table she winded up on after anger had gotten her drunk and stupid enough to mistake the gas pedal for her perfect coping mechanism to a mistake that was of her own. June 2010 is when she should have died. In those moments of consciousness slipping into infinity, when she was dreaming of a night that had ended better, with Daryl answering the door instead of his brother, with feeling his warm embrace around her instead of the blanket of blood lingering in ache, she should have taken her last breath in peace. Her aortic surgery went wrong, she had bled too much on the way to the hospital, on the surgery table too, and there was very little the doctors could do.

It should have ended there.
But it didn't.

Back then, it was only an anomaly: Mallory's brain activity received an autonomous and internal spark of life, of unknown origins which restarted all of her bodily functions, right before the doctors could pronounce her dead. What had allowed them then to complete the surgery and save Mallory would in two months be known as less of a medical miracle and more of a dangerous virus degrading society into a hallow carcass of what it once has been - Wildfire.

With the world spiraling into madness, very few would even recall there was one patient who did not come back a "Walker", one infected patient whose consciousness remained intact upon resurrection, one immune.

Daryl Dixon led a tumultuous life from the fires and lashes of which he was scarred with the mindset of near non-existent self-esteem. From a dysfunctional family to an unfavorable entourage put together by his older brother, it was amongst the least expected things for him to find love in a small coastal town, in the smile of a sailor's daughter. He was there for Merle's business, Mallory was enoying the shore after her first time at sea on her family's cargo ship.

It's been a couple perfect months they had spent together.

Almost a whole year had passed before she was due to return at sea. A long voyage was ahead, but he was convinced something as good and real as what they've nourished with one another could survive and endure through even years of separation. It was then, on the eve of her departure, that Merle decided he's had enough of it and he should start what he knew to do best: ruin his little brother's morale for the sake of saving him the heartbreak. Merle's " You're just another pin on her map " cast a dark shadow over Daryl's mind and when a year at sea turned into two, then three and four, a little early loss of hope saved him in the long run the sorrow.

He couldn't have known it was a warm June night in 2010 when Mallory made it back home and he wasn't there. Merle never told his little brother, because to tell him would entail admitting he was wrong about her.

It's June 2011 now and Mallory has become that good memory Daryl never expected to find chained up in some abandoned house basement.

AKA . . . In which Daryl's first love is a miracle, in more ways than he is ready to acknowledge after their reunion, a year into the end of times.

━━━━━━ MAIN CAST ━━━━━━

Kate Siegel as
MALLORY COHEN

aka dead girl walking

" cannot tell if death loves me
or hates me at this point. "

Norman Reedus as
DARYL DIXON

aka the selfless hero

" death better watch it,
i ain't losing you again. "

THERE SO MUCH DEATH AND DYING

THINK ABOUT LIVING FOR ONCE

━━━━━━ SOUNDTRACK ━━━━━━

I. LET'S THINK ABOUT LIVING, by Bob Luman
- " we've lost most all of our happy people and i'm wondering why .. "

II. TRIGGER, by Mississippi Twilight
- " finger on the trigger, over and we all fall down .. "

III. FOLSOM PRISON BLUES, by Johnny Cash
- " always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns .. "

IV. ALONE AND FORSAKEN, by Hank Williams
- " oh, where has she gone to? oh, where can she be? "

V. EVERYBODY WALKIN' THIS LAND, by Paul Cauthen
- " we walked on fire, and we fought through hell, we're soldiers 'til the end .. "

VI. DEATH DON'T HAVE NO MERCY, by Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams
- " i said death don't have no mercy in this land .. "

VII. SLEEPING ON THE BLACKTOP, by Colter Wall
- " sunshine beating on the good times, moonlight raising from the grave .. "

VIII. 99 PROBLEMS, by Hugo
- " looking for the prize but i don't want blood, oh, i won't drink then i drink the flood .. "

IX. TEAR YOU APART, by She Wants Revenge
- " but a slip turns to terror and a crush to light .. "

X. SEX ON FIRE, by Kings of Leon
- " but it's not forever, but it's just tonight .. "

DISCLAIMER | I do not own The Walking Dead, nor any of is afferent titles, lore, settings, characters and plot lines. I only claim right over my own original characters and their respective plot lines, lore additions and new settings. Please do not steal anything about this story.

COPYRIGHT | izabela / llxcifers

RATING | Mature. Rated R.

TIMELINE | Season 2-3 onward, with modifications to the timeline.

DEDICATIONS | 
To the lovely people that haved inspired me to post this, directly or indirectly, love you all regardless and shout-out to youu :

-folklorist raichia fireestar
-voidlegends fciryriots
dlhgjkfj mantiswitch

NOTES |
   •    Here we are then, I have delayed my watch of the TWD for sooo long for no reason at all really, only to finally watch it and realize oh, yeah, new obsession for sure. Initially this book was supposed to be a Glenn fic, and I had a different plot for Daryl, but then I kept on watching the show and realized Daryl is just growing on me too much, that cutie... So I mashed both plots together and kept only a Daryl fic in works 🥰

   •    To clarify, I am only at Season 3, like middle of it, with my watch so don't go over the top with spoilers. I know the basic spoilers, like the most important deaths and stuff cause that's how it is when you start a show that used to be so darn popular sooo late, but don't know the finesse details yet, so bare with me.

   •    AS FOR THE IMMUNE PLOTLINE, hear me out —  I am heavily inspiring this off of the "All Of Us Are Dead" show idea, where they had the "half-zombies" thing. Since everyone in TWD got the Wildfire in them, it makes even more sense to apply that sort of take here I believe. Basically, it's going to be fun to explore through Mallory the idea: immune, cures, the line between human and monster, the morality of it.

   •    Because of her condition/immunity, Mallory does not exactly smell appealing to zombies (again, heavily inspired by the show above stated, it is what it is, i love that show), only a gunshot to the head could theoretically kill her for good while every other sort of death she gets to come back from, but she has to heal in a normal human way, normal time. I will go through the other twists and turns of her condition throughout the book.

   •    Thank youu all for giving this book a chance! Mallory and Daryl already have stolen my heart and hope they will grow on you too. Stay tuned for more.