So this is my first fanfiction. It sticks mostly with the timeline of the show. All the big events happen in this, I stick as close to the canon. I am going to rework this in the future to stick much closer to the actual timeline but I enjoyed writing this so I thought I'd publish :)

Chapter one.

I awoke to the early morning light as usual, still exhausted. There was no point wasting precious daylight hours so I crawled out of my bedroll and made my way to the shower room. The water was only lukewarm but I was grateful for it. I missed real showers though.

I had nearly finished up when the water stuttered to a stop.

"Ah come on!" I sighed in exasperation as I wrapped a towel round my body and tried to find what was causing the problem. One of the pipes had split. Great. I needed to run into town anyway.

As I got dressed my mind wandered. The dead were walking for a year. My group had slowly been picked off one by one. Jeff had been turned five months ago leaving me as the only survivor. How I haven't gone insane I'll never know.

Our camp was a safe haven though, an old concrete shack in a field somewhere in America. I wasn't from America. I was from England, visiting friends after my graduation. They were dead now. Everyone I had known and loved were dead or presumed dead. I had no way of discovering what had happened back home.

I finished dressing and grabbed my weapons. Luckily the next town was a short drive away.

The dead meandered along the roads and adjoining fields. Moans filled my ears as I sped past. How I long for a radio station to hum along to.

I slowed when I reach the town. The group had erected barriers around the town before I had joined them. Some walkers were skewered onto the spikes. I palmed my handgun and knife, ready incase any walkers decided to take a bite.

A few walkers had managed to get into the closed off town but I took care of them with my knife as they reached for me. The hardware store was the first stop. We'd cleared it of walkers long ago so I sheaved my gun into its holster and replaced the knife in my boot. I listened carefully and kept my eyes sharp just in case.

It didn't take me long to find the tubing so I threw it into an abandoned shopping trolley along with some cable ties and gardening gloves. Next was to go to the clothing store across the road.

I pushed through the doors and paced quickly through the store grabbing any clothes and shoes in my size. I was always quick on runs into town, I didn't like being in the open and vulnerable.

Having everything I needed I left the store. It took me all of three seconds to register the sight before me. A small herd of walkers had somehow gotten into the town. And they were heading right for me. Their snarls were the sound that played in my nightmares. Turning from the rotten flesh I ran with the trolley back towards the car... Which was surrounded by yet more walkers.

"Shit. Shit shit shit!" I abandoned my haul and released my weapons. I had to find cover. I ran in the opposite direction of the shambling dead.

Hands of decaying skin grabbed at me. I saved my bullets and stabbed through eye sockets and skulls. Congealed blood painted the ground as I dispatched the nearest walkers but more replaced them. Using my gun I ran to the nearest building, piecing brains as I went.

I slammed the door shut, breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed my gore-coated knife. I was out of the woods for now. Or so I thought.

I turned around to find a walker reaching for my face. I kicked it in the chest and made to grab at my knife but it was stuck. Nowhere to run, I panicked.

"Shit!" I grabbed its shoulders to keep it from biting me. Its jaws snapped at me, desperate for a taste of fresh meat. I noticed it had bits of skin stuck in its teeth. I could never get used to the stench of rotting flesh.

This one was pretty strong and I struggled with it until suddenly an arrowhead burst from its eye socket.

The dead guy fell to the floor and I gasped. Looking in the direction of my rescuer I finally got my knife free. A man holding a crossbow stood about thirty maybe forty feet away, the bow was lowered slightly. He had shaggy brown hair and stubble. He wore a worn waistcoat jacket and jeans. I kept my eyes trained on his crossbow.

"You ok?" he spoke in a rough voice.

"Depends if you're going to use that on me next." I spoke wearily. He lowered his guard slightly and walked towards me. I backed up against the wall as he pulled his arrow from the walker's brain.

"I won't hurt you." he started walking away. "Where's your crew?" I walked a few paces behind him and kept my eyes trained on his back. I held my knife by my side just in case.

"Dead." he turned back slightly at that. I realized it probably wasn't the smart thing to say.

"You're alone? How long?"

"Five months." five long months. It felt wonderful to talk to an actual human being again but I remained on guard.

"And you've survived this long? Tough little girl." he whistled.

"I'm not a little girl. Who are you? Where is your crew?" He turned to face me.

"Some of them are here. Hey guys! I've found something." Footsteps approached from behind me. I raised my knife and looked around. A woman with dreadlocks and a katana walked beside a younger woman.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you... Unless you give us reason to." The younger woman said, she had a gentle southern drawl. 'Dreads' just watched me warily. "What's your name?" Southern Girl asked calmly.

"Sarah. I'm kind of freaked out right now." I raised my knife higher, but my arm shook.

"I think she thinks we're gunna hurt her. She's been surviving on her own for five months." Dreads raised her eyebrow a little in surprise.

"I've encountered other survivors that said they wouldn't hurt me and I have the graves and scars to prove that they lied." The man who saved me handed me a gun he had holstered. I looked at him in confusion, so did Southern Girl and Dreads.

"We won't hurt you. Lets get out of here before the walkers get in." They walked back towards the same door I entered.

"You might not want to go that way. There's a small herd out there."

"We can handle it." Dreads said. She had a deep soothing voice, though I'm sure she intended to be menacing.

Each of them raised their weapons before the man kicked open the door. We plunged outside and a wall of the dead awaited us. The katana split skulls in two, the crossbow punctured brains, the Southern Girls gun blasted holes and my knife stabbed away. I didn't want to waste bullets, especially if they weren't mine to use.

On my own I may not have come out of this but with three other people we executed the walkers that had managed to get into the town. I downed the last one as it approached my rescuer by throwing my knife at its head.

"Nice." The man said as he retrieved his arrows. I smiled a little in pride.

"I wouldn't have made it without you guys. Thanks for saving my ass."

"No problem. I'm Maggie. This is Michonne and that's Daryl."

"We need to get back to the others." Michonne said and started walking in the direction that my car was parked. I guess they parked in the same place as I had.

"Wait. Let me take you back to my place. You can clean up a little and have something to eat. It's the least I can do after you saved my ass." At this point, I was so desperate for some company that I decided to trust them. They had saved my life after all. They looked at each other and must have decided I wasn't a threat because Daryl smiled at me a little.

"Lead the way."

So ends chapter one. I hope you like and I'll publish again soon. I'd love to hear reviews but not much has happened yet :)