This will be a mature reading for audiences 18+. I own the OC's. I do not own anything of the Walking Dead! Please enjoy and criticisms are welcome! This is my first time writing! :)

Chapter 1

Blake strapped up her shoes laces, packed up a granola bar, water bottle, and a plastic bag in her frayed brown backpack and headed out to catch dinner.

"Blake, be careful out there. Are you sure you don't need help? It's not all-"

"No, Tan, just stay here. You need to rest up. You won't last long on a twisted ankle, and it won't heal if you keep pushin'"

"Blake-"

"Tanyon, no. You're useless until you can stand again. Let it go," Blake's voice boomed. Blake and her brother Tanyon have been hiding out at their small campsite in the trees of the Chattahoochee National Forest since the outbreak went global. Both her and her older brother were wired, but well stocked on food, meds, and clothes….for the meantime. Stepping out into the wilderness from the abandoned RV, Blake hiked through the dry brush of the forest, her boots crushing the dried leaves and sticks every step. She felt guilty raising her voice to her brother, but she was on edge. How couldn't she be? Just a few weeks since her brother had passed away. The memory flickered in Blake's mind but she immediately tucked all her thoughts away; she had a mission. Blake sighed and continued her journey a few miles outside of the camp. With bow and arrow strapped on her back, she followed small tracks. "Maybe a rabbit," Blake said to herself.

She and her brother had enough canned goods and bags of snacks to last for a while. It wouldn't last forever though. It wasn't worth going through it all now if she can just hunt. It was either that excuse, or she wasn't going to admit she really needed the time to get her mind off things. In this new world, it was hard.

SNAP!

Blake twisted her head to the left as she heard the snapping of twigs. Blake prepped her bow and an arrow, walking inconspicuously through the dried out trees and their rather large roots. There it was, a male rabbit, maybe about six pounds if Blake eyed it correctly. The young woman, lined up the arrow with her next kill, her black leather fingerless gloves stretching across her hands and she prepped her fingers for release. As Blake was about to release the trigger, her dinner was claimed. Another arrow found its place in the rabbit's neck.

"What the hell?" Blake said aloud.

Out of the bushes walked an older looking man clad in long khakis and an olive green wifebeater. "Well, lookee here little brother. Looks like you killed enough food to feed half a grown man."

"If you don't like it, I'll take it off your hands. It was mine until you came out of no where. It's enough to feed a girl like me," Blake stated. Stepping out from her spot behind a tree.

"Well, hello sugar pie. You think this here your rabbit?" the older man replied with a grin that made Blake slightly uncomfortable.

"I've been tracking that rabbit since dawn, rule of the hunt, asshole, " Blake said as she grabbed the dead animal off the ground.

"There aint' no rules anymore, sweetheart," the man said as he gripped her arm tightly.

"Don't call me sweetheart, don't call me sugar pie," Blake spit back as she tried to yank her arm away from the man. Blake started to panic. Her brother wouldn't be able to hear her yells from here, nor get here fast enough if he even wanted.

"You should watch who you're talking to out here little lady, you never know when someone will snatch your pretty ass up and-"

"Merle!" another southern voice cut the tension as another man, a younger male, came into view behind the older man. "Let her be," he said.

"Little brother, this broad here is trying to steal your kill. You gonna let her get away with that? Huh?" Merle stated, yanking Blake forward to show the man who their problem was. Before much more could be said Blake made a move, biting the older man's bicep, breaking the skin.

"Ahh! Mother fucker!," Merle yelled, "You bitch!," he bellowed as he charged Blake once more.

"Merle! Leave her be," the man yelled again, this time stepping closer in case he had to intervene between the young woman and his brother, "we just started tracking that rabbit thirty minutes ago, she's been following it for hours, rule of the hunt," the man said, looking straight at Blake. "It's her's".

"You're kidding me! You're fucking kidding me," Merle started to say as Blake took off with the rabbit back into the woods.

Her heart was racing, she hasn't seen other alive, actually alive people in almost two weeks. Blake slowed her pace down and she leaned against a tree, catching her breath as she tried to calm the burning in her lungs. After catching up with her breathing, she took out a water bottle and took a few sips to cool the sensation in her throat, then took out the plastic bag. After removing the foreign arrow from her dinner, she put the rabbit corpse in the bag and packed it up along with the arrow. Blake threw on her backpack and began the trek back to the RV. She had a lot more to think about now; the loss of her one brother, her other injured brother, the living dead, and two rednecks who were camping out in their backyard.