"Katherine?" a man knocked on the door to a young woman's room. She was sitting at a desk, hunched over a small sketchbook. The room was lit only by two candles that were on either side of the book.

She lifted her back, placing the pencil in the middle of the open book. Her hair was a chocolate brown, coming just below her shoulder in light waves. Her head turned to face the voice, "what's up?"

"He wants to speak with you," the man said, giving her a familiar look. She knew what this meant because it's been happening more and more the past few weeks.

"I'll be right there." She sighed, turning away. She took a moment to think to herself before getting up.

As she walked through the small community, she noticed eyes on her. It was a subtle change, but she noticed it quickly. People looked at her differently since The Saviors came. She couldn't figure out why, but it was like they knew something that she didn't and when she asked, no one had any clue of what she was talking about.

"Can't you ask someone else?" she asked, approaching a man who was watching a grazing cow.

"You know very well that you're the only one who knows what they're doing out there," he didn't make eye contact, continuing his gaze towards the cow.

"They can learn as I had to. I didn't just know how to handle this when the world went to shit," she argued. "And if I keep risking my life to go on these runs, who's going to take care of the animals when I don't return?"

He looked at her, "I understand your point, Katherine, but we need you. Now more than ever."

There it is again. The kiss-ass guilt card.

"If I go-" she sighed, "then you have to give me your word that I can start bringing some of these men out with me to train." There was a silence between the two. "Do you hear me, Mark?"

"You have my word."

Oakwood Farms is a tight-knit community of survivors. Before the undead started walking it was a dairy farm with quite a few cows and bulls. The livestock were left for dead by the proprietor, leaving the place up for grabs.

Mark was the man to settle his small group early on, in hopes of making a living. The large land made for easy visibility and they could use the surviving cows as a means of food. Of course, they had no idea how to breed cattle and their plan would be them eventually running out of options.

Not too long after, a man named John, with knowledge of raising livestock and growing crops, had joined them. He helped them to utilize all the tools they had to breed, raise and milk cows. Baffled that the man suggested they save every cow and bull, rather then use them for meat right away, they very slowly agreed to it.

As time went on, more people would come across the farm and settle. Many types of people with different skills had helped create the community. They built walls to keep roamers out, and had a steady flow of productivity within those walls.

A woman named Katherine had stumbled her way to those walls, bloody and weak. She was welcomed in and nurtured back to health to which she offered to go out and search for supplies. Mark made it clear that he had people for that job and suggested she work side-by-side with John.

Katherine soaked up everything John taught her, eventually doing some jobs without him. She couldn't help but notice the people here had little to no experience outside the walls, and the few who did would end up leaving with no return. That being noted, there came a day when the men who did supply runs didn't return. That's when Katherine was asked to go out on her own to try and bring supplies back to Oakwood. She gladly accepted, now taking on two jobs.

During one of her runs, the farm was raided by a group called The Saviors. Don't be fooled by the name, they were no heroes. They pretend to give a choice, but really, you had no choice at all. You either do as they say, or pay for it in blood.

A man called Negan wanted half of everything Oakwood had, now and in the future for protection against the undead. Mark, being the man everyone looked up to for leadership, had no choice but to agree to the terms or there would be blood shed right then and there.

A small group of Saviors would return every so often to collect their half and they stressed it more than enough that if they weren't happy about what was given, they'd kill someone.

The last time they came to collect, they weren't satisfied. Being it was the first time, they threatened that the next time they showed up they would take more than half and if they came up short then they would kill double the amount of people. Not only that, but they were bringing the man himself along.

"I don't know that I will be able to bring back nearly enough to satisfy them," Katherine paced in Mark's room. The weird thing is, he seemed remotely calm about the whole thing. People were at risk of being killed and he sat there without worry.

"Do the best you can."

She walked to her room to prepare for her run. Her heart raced just thinking about what was going to happen when these people find out they couldn't come up with enough to give. They were already struggling with their own supplies, halving it was just going to make things even harder.

She grabbed her backpack that hung from the doorknob, tossing her sketchbook inside and heading out.

"Oh, Katherine, one more thing," Mark called from down the hall. She furrowed her brows, wondering what he could want now.

"What's u-" she stopped in her tracks when she noticed someone from around the community in the room."What's going on?"

"I just wanted to go over the supplies," he said.

"Is that really necessary? I know what we need and time is tick- hey!" the other person walked behind her and grabbed her wrists. She struggled to get free but the man had some strength.

"What the fuck is this?" Katherine continued to struggle.

Mark walked over with a pair of rusty handcuffs and cuffed her wrists. She tried to kick at them, but they pushed her to the ground.

"The Saviors are coming tonight and we don't have enough to give them," Mark began.

"So what do I have to do with it?" she questioned, "I'm the one who goes out to get the stuff!"

"We're offering you as part of the deal."

"Y-You-What?" she couldn't form words. She felt like her brain just melted and poured out of her mouth.

"Get her ready," Mark ordered the man, leaving the room with questions unanswered.

"This is ridiculous," she managed to say. He walked towards her and got kicked in the groin, shuffling back while gripping his junk in pain. "You bitch!" he grabbed her legs, dragging her closer. He slapped her in the face, leaving a large red mark on her cheek.

"You people are fucked without me!" she yelled, "you'll all die anyway."

He took a burlap sack from a chair in the room and covered her face, "shut up."

I hope you liked the start of this story. I'm choosing Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays him on the show, to represent his appearance in this story rather than the comic version. As for the plot, it will be mostly AU events but has the same ideas and characters as the comic and show. Not sure if I will weave plots yet, but you'll see. Let me know what you thought :)