CHAPTER ONE
i. A NEW BEGINNING WITH INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES

RUTH

THE GIRL READJUSTED the bag that rested upon her shoulders, the thick leather straps digging painfully into her chafed arms. Every time a twig would snap nearby, her body would jump one hundred feet into the air. The ominous dark of the night only made her walk faster, her small steps becoming noisy strides.

The girl was weak and afraid, and she hated herself for it. Her stomach ached in hunger, the pain almost enough to make her throw up. Ruth glanced over her shoulder every so often, confirming a walker wasn't sneaking up behind her.

Dark blue shadows covered her nearly translucent skin. If somebody wasn't looking close enough, they could mistake the woman for one of those monsters. Sweat rolled down the girl's face and her breaths were faint, an obvious sign of sickness. Pain erupted from her swollen leg, where a bullet resided. It gave her a disgusting limp that left her vulnerable to any attack. Leaves crunched and crackled under feet loudly, and each stumble she made would emit a hiss from her mouth.

Find water, you idiot, she thought to herself. Her silence continued until she heard voices. Ruth snapped out of her daze as two figures approached, not noticing her presence.

She quickly dashed behind the nearest tree, the bark crunching as she leaned against it. The voices halted. They heard her. She cringed back, holding a hand over her lips to quiet herself. The frizz of her dark hair tickled her face and scratched her eyelids, and she could only pray that it would stop. Her fear was almost like a shout into the empty forest. It radiated off of her like a horrible aura of fragility. No matter how hard she tried to calm herself down, it sounded as if her breathing was being played through a speaker. She prayed that it wasn't who she thought it was that lurked close to her, her former group.

Their footsteps reminded her of somebody stepping onto one thousand insects. It was loud, and each step made her wince in her hiding spot.

"You hear that?" One with a higher voice asked the other. Ruth clutched the small knife in her hand as tight as possible, waiting for the figures to pass.

"Probably some dumbass squirrel. Lighten up a bit, man." The other replied, his voice raspier.

"Yea... Yea, alright."

The two passed right next to the tree she resided against, and she pressed herself further into the trunk and slid down to the forest floor. As she adjusted herself, acorns cracked underneath her feet.

The two people whipped their heads to her figure, their weapons raised. A tall man stood in front of her, accompanied by a smaller and less intimidating man. Ruth backed closer to the tree, believing it would protect her from the strangers somehow. She raised her knife with a shaky hand as if it would intimidate them. The taller man scoffed in disbelief, knocking the knife away with his shoe.

"Please." She whispered, her voice shaking with the fear she held constantly. "Please don't."

"Who the hell are ya?" The taller man interrogated, raising his... crossbow?

She remained in silence, fear wracking through her brain. Ruth didn't want to move, afraid she would die. Tears emerged in her eyes as the confusion of whether to run or stay where she was battled in her head. The younger man lowered his gun, his compassionate and dark eyes showing a slight amount of confusion.

"Hey, it's alright. We aren't going to hurt you." She looked back at the taller man, who continued scowling in the Ruth's direction.

"Ruth." She said.

The taller man scoffed, annoyed."What?"

"Ruth. My name. Ruth Elliot." She spoke up. The younger man nodded slowly.

"Are you alone?"

"Yea, but-"

"But what?"

"I was in a group."

The taller man glared, but he didn't lower his crossbow. "You had a group?"

"A few miles back with my... my sister and fiancé. " She watched as the two men tensed, exchanging glances with one another. Those were the magic words that would reject any possible sanctuary she could attain. She ruined it for herself.

"Why'd you leave?" The man interrogated, walking closer.

"The leader. He's wicked, that man. Him and his group are awful. They wanted us to go after another group, and my sister and I refused. So instead of going with them, we ran." She licked her lips as she fought to get out the rest of the story.

"My.. well I guess now my ex-fiancé, Jack, he didn't want to. He stayed behind. Now the leader, Andrew, is after us, or just me now. He thinks we're gonna tell this other group their secrets."

"Where's your sister?" Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered Erin's brutal death. It was something that felt like a film being played before her eyes. The film was real though, and she had to watch it play in front of her without the ability to stop it.

She could still hear Erin saying run in her head. It echoed and rattled in the numb brain of hers.

"He killed her. Jack did." Ruth's voice came out barely above a whisper.

"Well uh.. I'm Glenn." The younger man's hand extended out to her, but she kept her hand tucked into her side.

"Daryl." The other said, his stance refusing to waver.

"You have a group?" She asked. The two figures exchanged a look. Daryl glared at Glenn, almost as if telling him to reject her, but Ruth could see the questioning gaze in Glenn's eyes, almost as if he was assessing the rights and wrongs of the situation.

"Yea, we do. A farm." Ruth's heart leapt as she thought of a possible future. Ruth felt a tiny bit of hope at his words. This was a chance to survive, and that was something she wanted since Erin died.

"Can I come with you?" Ruth asked hopefully. The two remained still, obviously hesitant. Maybe something to bribe them, she thought. She rummaged through her small bag, pulling out a can of corn. Her shaky arm extended the can towards the two of them, her eyes meeting theirs pleadingly. "Please. I have nowhere to go. I can pull my weight. I promise you. Just let me go with you."

They both shifted their stances awkwardly. "You'll have to talk to our leader if you wanna stay." Glenn muttered. He took in the girl's appearance, from her pale face to her blood covered jeans. "You sick or something?"

Ruth nodded. "I'm pretty sure yea. I need a doctor or antibiotics. Just anything." Glenn and Daryl exchanged a look, and Daryl sighed with a roll of his eyes before snatching the can and placing it back in her bag. The man paused for a moment before placing the bag over his shoulder, not trusting the woman to be completely free of weapons. He grabbed her knife from the forest floor and placed it in his pocket.

"I'm gonna take this until you're approved of." The girl sighed. If this let her get into a group where she could survive, she was willing to do anything.

"How far?"

"A few miles." She nodded, finding herself following them at a slow limp. Glenn glanced back at Ruth and sighed before wrapping his arm under her ribs to help her walk.

"Thanks." She muttered. 

"Y-yea."

••

The trio approached a small white house among a barren field of green. Tents were scattered haphazardly out front with an RV parked near the porch. Ruth had to admit, it was a lovely home. She wished she could have had something so beautiful in the city where she had grown up.

Two men approached them, one storming angrily to her while the other who adorned a sheriff's uniform appeared confused. "Daryl. Glenn. Who the hell is she?" The one with a shaven head asked. His face contorted with a scowl as Daryl rose an eyebrow at the man.

"Ruth. Found her in the woods." Daryl said. "Where's Hershel?"

"I'm here." An older man announced while opening the front door. "What's wrong with her?"

Ruth swallowed, and she spoke as loud as she could. "Got shot in the leg. Pretty sure it's getting infected." Her lips stung with the movement, the chapped skin dry and cracking.

"Bring her." Glenn helped her up the steps, nodding to a brunette younger than Ruth, who gave her a small smile. Her hair was cut short in a bob, and the brunette's green eyes gazed at Ruth with a hint of curiosity.

Ruth was laid onto a couch in the living room. The sheriff and a woman with long dark hair followed behind, talking quietly to themselves. Hershel quickly grabbed a small kit with some medical supplies inside.

Ruth watched his frail fingers fumble as they rummaged in the small bag. When they were removed, a small pair of scissors lay between his fingertips. His hand rose hesitantly to her leg with the scissors, looking at her for confirmation. Her eyes met Glenn and the woman from before, and they nodded that it was alright. "Just get it over with." She muttered, and he cut the fabric of her jeans to examine the wound.

"You're lucky this is all in one piece." The older man sighed. Ruth whimpered as his pale and cold fingers pressed against the skin. The inflamed and tender flesh nearly covered the metallic object, leaving the older man to stare at it curiously.

"You ain't gonna give her some pain killers or something?" The sheriff questioned.

"We don't have a lot left. I can give some after, but we can only provide so much to her." Hershel turned his head towards the girl, her eyes attempting to remain open. "I apologize, ma'am."

"It's fine. Just get it out. Please." Ruth just barely managed to utter the words. She almost wanted to laugh at how polite she still managed to be. The stupid bullet had been in her leg for a week now after one of the men in the group shot her, and she was too afraid to pull it out. Ruth was lucky it was her leg, though. She was fortunate that she wasn't in the same position as Erin, who was shot in the abdomen by her fiancé. The girl screamed at Ruth to run, and that's what she did despite her gut telling her to run back. It was like she was yanked away by a rope on her waist, and she couldn't go back no matter how hard she tried. Ruth figured she was dead by now, and it ate her alive that she didn't do anything to stop it. The guilt bit into her like leeches, sucking every ounce of happiness from her body with the suction of a vacuum. Her chest was hollow and each heartbeat ricocheted off of her ribs like the gun that hit her sister. 

Hershel quietly grabbed the forceps beside him and, with a quick movement, dug the prongs into the skin. As he pulled the bullet out, the pain increased in tenfold and she screamed. Her eyes closed shut as the broken skin covered by the bullet became exposed to the air. All she could feel was a throbbing pain, and loud sobs erupted from her mouth. She caught the woman with long brown hair staring at her concern; the sheriff beside her had his eyes wide open.

Ruth felt weak. She couldn't protect herself. She couldn't protect Erin. She wanted to leave. She wanted to die. She wanted her sister back. But she couldn't have or do any of those things.

"Sorry about this." Hershel said, his sympathetic eyes gazing upon her crying figure. Ruth didn't want pity.

He poured the alcohol into the wound, and a thousand fires ignited on the spot. Ruth screamed even louder, startling almost everybody in the room. Her eyes closed even tighter as she tried to not cry. Her small hands clutched the cushions of the couch. Her fingers curled tightly against the furniture, and she gasped in pain as her chest came away from the couch. She kept moving her leg away as the white-haired man attempted to suture the hole. "Rick. Glenn. Hold her down. I need to close the wound." Hershel demanded.

Glenn and the sheriff quickly rushed to her side. Glenn held down her legs as she panicked, Rick pulling her shoulders against the armrest. Ruth gazed up at the man, her breathing erratic as she tried to calm herself down.

"Ruth. Ruthie. Calm down. Everything's gonna be just fine." Rick shushed her, his blue eyes gazing down at her brown ones. She kept his gaze, wincing as she tried to move her legs. Her eyes narrowed, not believing a single word that came from his mouth. It wouldn't be okay, because it never was to begin with.

The pain and her grief was too much for the woman. Dark spots lined her vision before eventually covering them like a shadow. Before she could fall into her unconscious state, she muttered three words that would never leave Rick's mind.

"No, it won't."

**

FIRST CHAPTER F ME UP. THIS TOOK SO LONG BUT IT'S ALRIGHT MY DUDES

Also babe Adelaide Kane <3

(Ruth is about 30 considering in the comics Rick is at least 34 by issue 1-because Rick's age isn't clarified in the show, I'm just going to use his age from the comics to make it more clear for myself.)