(I DO NOT own Code Lyoko, The Walking Dead or any other names or brands mentioned or used within this story, and all of the names aside from the OC's used by I_heart_Lyoko are owned by their respective owners. That being said, enjoy!)

Somewhere near the city of Atlanta, Georgia there was a specific group of teenagers that were sitting inside of a silver-colored van that was going down a highway in the Georgia heat. These teens were unlike any others in the world, and all of them have a very specific secret that they share together. They literally keep the entire planet safe, they fight against a computerized evil on a virtual world...

They are the Lyoko Warriors.

Well, they were some of the Lyoko Warriors at least. Although the group is made of teens that come from all over the world, the group had come from their French boarding school called Kadic Academy for a much-needed vacation, which was mutually decided after the evil sentient computer virus they fight against, which was named 'XANA', had suddenly went dark months earlier. No one in the group had any idea why he did this, but they really hoped that he was finally gone for good. Many other students and teachers from their school also took a trip to America and the rest of the Lyoko Warriors joined them in going before these teens in the van, the six of which all wanted to stay in France for a little bit longer just to make sure that XANA was gone.

After an extra two weeks of waiting and often checking up on the hidden supercomputer in which XANA resided, they found no reason to keep staying. XANA had not shown a single trace of being active whatsoever. The teens also often checked the virtual world they fought him on called 'Lyoko', and not a trace of his presence was found inside there either. And since the supercomputer was very well hidden within an abandoned factory none of the teens saw any reason to keep watching. As a result, the teens boarded a flight from Paris to New York City, rented this van at JFK International Airport and then drove their way down the east coast of the United States to go and surprise the rest of their friends who had taken a different flight straight to Atlanta, Georgia. The plan was to meet up with the rest of the Lyoko Warriors and surprise them, stay in a hotel in multiple rooms for a night or two, rent another van or an RV and then all together drive their way through the entire nation, taking in everything that it had to offer until they had to fly back to France about three weeks from now.

One of the teens in the silver-colored van was a super genius named Jeremie Belpois, another was a pink-haired girl and also a super genius named Aelita Schaeffer. Another was a Japanese girl named Yumi Ishiyama, another was the driver and was named William Dunbar. Then there was the martial arts enthusiast Ulrich Stern, and finally a literal living black hole for food named Odd Della Robia. Then there was also a small animal quietly relaxing in a plastic kennel next to Odd, as it was his pet dog named Kiwi.

As William drove down the highway the others were just busy doing whatever they were doing, with Aelita listening to some really good Beethoven on her MP3 player with her boyfriend Jeremie sitting next to her, typing something down on his laptop as Aelita rested her head on his lap as a pillow. Ulrich and Yumi were sitting near the back of the van with headphones on and Yumi's head resting lovingly on Ulrich's shoulder as they were watching a movie on a portable DVD player together, whereas Odd was just staring out of a window and taking in the sights. He was in the United States America and he expected to have the time of his life, but alas the sight of an endless highway most of the time was absolutely maddening. New York was incredible, and so was Washington and the other cities on the East Coast that they all had visited, but the endless highways were absolutely not incredible whatsoever.

"...I'm bored." Odd announced to the others.

"Really? You're in America, Odd. I thought you'd be the opposite of bored. You really seemed to love New York and Washington DC." William pointed out from the driver's seat since it was his turn to drive.

"Yeah, but driving for hours and days on end is insanely mediocre. Thank god we booked that hotel room in Atlanta... I'd go nuts if we had to sleep in the van again. Even Kiwi seems to be getting annoyed about that." Odd replied with a shrug.

With a sigh Jeremie shut off his laptop and closed it, placing it back in his laptop bag in an effort to save some battery power. It would be a while before he could recharge it...

"Let's just try to enjoy what time we have here, boredom included or not..." Jeremie commented to his friends. "XANA seems to not be active right now, but I'm not holding my breath. The possibility of him coming back online is worrying me..." he added.

Hearing her boyfriend speaking, Aelita popped out her earbuds and set her MP3 player in her pocket, sitting up from his lap and turning to give Jeremie a reassuring smile as she gently took his hands. He had every reason to be worried about XANA and she did as well, but now was the time to just kick back, relax and have a bit of fun before they'd return home.

"He's been gone for three months now..." Aelita smiled. "I'm not worried. My mom and dad said they'd keep an eye on him and check on the supercomputer every day for us. If he was truly back then I'm sure we'd know, and we'd immediately fly straight back to France if that is a possibility." she assured.

"Maybe... but him being gone for such a long time with no good explanation? That's what has me worried..." Jeremie sighed, but still leaned over to give Aelita a thankful kiss on the cheek before he turned to look out the window, noticing that a lot of police cars was on the other lane of the highway and were heading somewhere.

The others also saw all of the police cars on the roads, raising their curiosity. They debated amongst themselves on what the reasoning behind this could be, but they merely assumed that it was probably some sort of rock concert or a huge car accident or something of that sort, and that all of the cop cars were for security reasons. Either way, William continued to drive. Yumi took out her cell phone from her pocket and she looked down at its screen to see a picture of herself and her little brother, Hiroki. He was a complete brat most of the time, but she was looking forward to seeing him again here in America. After such a long time apart from a little brother, what big sister wouldn't feel the same way?

Seeing that there was a traffic jam beginning on the highway, William turned the van off onto an exit ramp and got onto the surface streets to try and get around all of that mess, driving for another twenty minutes or so until he saw that they accidentally ended up in some small town. The others looked out of the windows to see where they were and all of them were stumped. Where the hell were they at...?

"Where are we...? This obviously isn't Atlanta..." Odd pointed out.

"No, we're about forty miles or so from there at the moment... but I've got no clue where this is." William replied with a shrug.

The group kept looking out the windows and noticed something very peculiar... there wasn't anyone on the street whatsoever, and all of the cars on the road appeared to have been emptied, many still with their doors ajar. Hell, a few of the vehicles were even parked right in the middle of the street as if they were simply abandoned! To their shock they even saw a car that appeared to have its interior covered in a dark red liquid... was that blood? Out of nowhere Kiwi stood up in his kennel and he also suddenly began to loudly bark straight towards one of the windows of the van, as if he sensed that something threatening was outside...

But what? What exactly could be out there?

"What the hell...? Where is everyone?" Aelita asked as she closely examined the deserted streets.

"I have no idea..." Odd replied as he kept looking out the window, seeing several buildings with their windows shattered.

"Should we try to head back to the highway?" Yumi asked as she saw what appeared to be a kicked-in door on a house.

"I don't think I can find our way back... The GPS in this van isn't working right for some reason, so I might have to pull over and ask someone." William said to the others.

Although the others were a bit anxious and worried over everything they saw out their windows, none of them knew the area whatsoever and they knew they would have to ask someone for directions, or at least ask for a map. William took their silence as agreement and he pulled the van to park in a gas station parking lot. The the collective shock of the group they saw that the gas station was in tatters, with many of its windows broken apart, the fuel nozzles of the fuel pumps laying ajar on the ground with litter everywhere... There was even an overturned car on the parking lot. What the hell was going on...?

"Oh my god..." William muttered with shock.

"This is bad... this is very, very bad." Yumi stated with a growing feeling of anxiety and worry.

Kiwi continued to bark very loudly and he even began to growl, causing Odd to have a feeling of worry as he opened the cage to try and calm down his dog. Kiwi just ran straight out of the cage and ran up to one of the windows, continuing to bark very loudly.

"Woah, boy! Calm down! It's alright!" Odd said in an effort to calm down his dog.

"He's definitely freaking out about something out there..." Yumi said with suspicion as she continued looking out the window, trying to see if anyone was out there.

William kept the key in the ignition as he knew that the group may need a quick method of escape. Now all that was left was to decide who was going to go into the gas station... at the very least they had to find out what happened to this town. He turned in his seat to look back at the others and he got their attention.

"Who'll check out the station...?" William asked.

No one dared to speak up and even Kiwi went silent, as if he definitely didn't want to go out there either. After several moments of silence the group heard Jeremie give out a sigh before he sheepishly raised his hand as if to volunteer for the job, which really surprised them considering that he was usually the meek one of the group.

"I'll see if I can find anyone... or at least a map." Jeremie volunteered.

Aelita's eyes widened with a feeling of worry as she saw her boyfriend volunteer. Jeremie noticed this, and he made sure to give her a smile and another reassuring and loving kiss, this time on her lips. With that, Jeremie opened the side door of the van and got out into the parking lot as the others watched, with Ulrich, Odd and Yumi all ready to rush out and help Jeremie if the need arose. Jeremie walked through the parking lot and approached the gas station, peeking inside through one of the destroyed windows.

"Hello...?" Jeremie asked.

No answer...

"Hello? Anyone in there?" Jeremie asked again.

Silence...

Jeremie backed away from the window and turned to look around, sighing as he was still very confused on what was happening. He looked over at the overturned car and noticed something was still inside, and he began to approach it. His eyes widened with horror when he got close enough to see that it was a woman hanging upside down in the passenger seat, a woman covered in blood and what also appeared to be large amounts of bite marks... Hell, parts of her arms and neck appeared to even have been ripped out of her! She had a freaking gunshot wound on her head as well!

"OH GOD!!" Jeremie exclaimed, seeing that this woman appeared to have been murdered.

Jeremie immediately went to unbuckle the woman from her seat and he made sure to carefully grab her so she wouldn't hit the roof of the car hard. After that he gently pulled her out of the wreck and gently laid her down on the ground, wide eyed with shock and horror as he placed two fingers on her neck in an effort to find a pulse.

Horrifically she didn't have one...

No heartbeat whatsoever...

This woman was dead.

"O- Oh my god!" Jeremie exclaimed with shock as he stood up to his feet.

Jeremie hurriedly ran to the other side of the car and saw that Yumi and Ulrich had already gotten out of the van, apparently since they heard his screams from finding the woman and seeing she was dead.

"There's a woman over here and I think she's dead! One of you call nine-one-one, we need an ambulance!" Jeremie shouted over to them.

Suddenly Jeremie could see that Yumi and Ulrich had expressions of shock and matching horror on their faces, with the others inside the van leaning their heads to the windows, likewise with expressions of shock and horror. Why were they just staring at him like that?!

"Guys? What're you looking at?! Call nine-one-one!" Jeremie said again.

That's when he suddenly heard a very low growl. Jeremie quickly turned in time to see a man rushing towards him with burns, cuts, a few gunshot wounds in his chest, and horrifically half of his face hanging off like a flap!

"OH GOD!!! GUYS!!!" Jeremie screamed as the man suddenly tried to grab him.

The others watched in a stunned horror as the man quickly forced Jeremie straight to the ground, and Jeremie himself was even more horrified to see that the man was apparently trying to bite him! What the hell was happening?!

"HELP HIM! GET THAT FREAK OFF OF HIM!!!" Aelita screamed from the inside of the van.

Without a moment to spare, Yumi and Ulrich quickly began running towards Jeremie as fast as their legs allowed them to. They arrived just in time to yank the crazed man off of their friend and roughly pin him to the ground, with Ulrich making sure to press a knee down against the back of his head partly to pin him and partly to just teach him a lesson for trying to attack his friend. Odd quickly put a now loudly-barking Kiwi back in his kennel for his own safety before he, William and Aelita all ran out of the van and over to Jeremie to check on him, and much to their relief he appeared to be alright, albeit shaken.

Aelita quickly ran up to Jeremie and almost tackled the bespectacled boy in a bone-crushing hug, which Jeremie was absolutely glad to return to his girlfriend.

"Are you okay?! What just happened?!" Aelita asked with shock and worry.

"T-That psycho just tried to bite me! But other than that I think I'm unharmed... d-don't worry, Princess, you're still stuck with me." Jeremie replied, still shaky but forcing a grin on his face as he somehow found the will to make a joke.

Aelita managed to smile as she kept her tight hold on Jeremie, not even daring to let go. As she did that, Yumi and Ulrich were still pinning the crazed man to the pavement with great difficulty, as for some reason he just would not stop struggling.

"Stay down, dammit! Stay down!" Yumi growled as she struggled to keep his right arm on the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with this guy?!" Ulrich exclaimed as the man tried to claw at his arm with his fingers, but failing.

William then looked around the area and his eyes immediately stopped on a street leading to the gas station. His eyes widened as he saw what appeared to be dozens of people that looked just like this man that were walking towards them, people who appeared to have horrific wounds on their bodies... one person was even missing his jaw, another was missing an arm.

...They literally looked like walking corpses.

"Guys, we need to get out of here! NOW!" William shouted to the others.

The group then noticed all of the people heading straight for them, much to their horror. Leaving the pinned guy with a punch on the back of the head by Ulrich, the group quickly ran back for the van and almost dived in on top of each other when they got in. They all dived in so quickly one after another that Yumi actually almost stepped straight onto Kiwi's kennel, but thankfully she missed it. Odd hurriedly closed the side door as William got back in the driver's seat, immediately flooring the gas pedal as the van sped out of the parking lot of the gas station and back on the streets.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!!!" Aelita exclaimed in one breath out of pure horror.

"What just happened back there! What was with all of those people?! They looked like they were dead, guys! I swear to God that they all looked like they were fucking dead!" Jeremie exclaimed with dread and pure shock.

"I- I don't know, but we need to get out of this town! We need to call the police!" Yumi replied.

"I've already tried that but the police aren't answering my calls! They keep sending it to an automated message!" Odd said.

William slowed down the van a little bit when he saw that they were far down the road from the gas station and away from the crazed people. He pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road so everyone could just take a moment to catch their breaths and process everything that had just happened. Those people... they looked dead. They actually, truthfully looked DEAD. But they were up and walking about...? What the hell?!

"T- That was... I- I... He... Oh God, I don't even know where to begin!" Aelita fearfully sighed as she shakily rubbed her temples, trying her absolute hardest to calm herself down.

"Those people looked like they were dead... A lot of them looked mangled, some of them were missing limbs! How were they still standing?!" Yumi exclaimed to the others as if she couldn't believe what she had just seen.

"We've got to find the others..." Ulrich stated to the others, getting their collective attention. "We've gotta find the others in Atlanta, and then we all need get the hell out of this state. They've gotta be alive somewhere in or near the city..." he stated.

The others all looked at Ulrich and every single one of them nodded in agreement. They couldn't leave, not without trying to find their friends at least. The Lyoko Warriors were damn sure not going to leave any of their friends behind! The Lyoko Warriors were gonna pull through this mess no matter what! William then turned his attention back to the road and got the van moving again, but he suddenly stopped once more once he noticed that another group of these crazy people were right down the street. A much, much bigger group...

Kiwi loudly growled and barked even more at hearing the noises the crazy people were making. There appeared to be dozens of them out there and they had already noticed the van...

They had to get the hell out of here!

"Guys, get your seatbelts on if they aren't already! We've got more trouble!" William warned to the others.

The others had taken their seatbelts off earlier in order to assist Jeremie, so they all quickly put them back on as William put the van in reverse and floored the gas pedal, backing them up as fast as the van could go. Odd also made sure to put a seatbelt around Kiwi's kennel as best as he possibly could. William was unfortunately forced to stop once more at an intersection when yet another large group of the crazed people showed up from one of the streets and began heading towards them, quickly blocking their path backwards as well. Now the group was pinned between these groups both straight and behind, and they had to think of something fast.

William then put the van in drive and he floored the gas pedal once more, immediately taking a left and taking the van onto a different street in an effort to get away from the crazed people. Alas as he drove one of the wheels of the van hit something sharp on the street and popped the tire, quickly sending the van out of control as William struggled not to crash. Unfortunately William failed to keep the van from crashing as the van suddenly tilted and ultimately flipped upside down before crashing straight into a ditch near a treeline on the side of the road.

Everyone inside the van was dazed and a bit banged up from the wreck, but surprisingly they were not very much harmed from the accident. Aside from everyone gaining a new bruise or two from the wreck and from when they all unhooked their seatbelts and let gravity take them back to the ground, they really were fine for the most part. Even Kiwi seemed to be physically okay, ut his kennel was trashed and the front gate of it had completely fallen off. This allowed him to quickly hurry out of the kennel and over to Odd, sniffling him and licking his face a bit in order to see if he was okay.

Aelita managed to get herself back upright first, and after rubbing her now-sore head and brushing some broken glass off her shoulder she quickly crawled over everyone else and their luggage in order to get to the back of the van and to open the back doors, with Odd quickly grabbing Kiwi and hoisting him back into his destroyed kennel. If he held it upright then maybe he'd be able to prevent his dog from becoming a meal for those crazy people out there...

Everyone also proceeded to gather their belongings and then one by one crawl they all crawled their way out of the back of the overturned van, which only took a minute or two at the most. After getting themselves out of the wreck the group saw that the huge group of crazed people were still making their way towards them, so without saying a word the group all immediately hurried straight into the treeline and into the forest behind it, hoping to lose the crazed people somewhere in there...

Little did they know that their nightmare had only just begun.