Part One - Adjustments

1 - Hell in a Handbasket

"It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning. They shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid the general applause from all the wits who believe that it is a joke."

- Søren Kierkegaard

Shattered glass and spilled drinks, and even a little black blood coated the tiles, though the brunette couldn't see much of them in the unlit store. Her hands were quick as they moved the last three cans- of what, she didn't know- into her backpack and zipped it half up. Quietly, she crouched to see what remained of the bottom shelf. It had taken a few weeks for her to realize that people had been rushing too much to check the back of those lower shelves, which meant sometimes there might be an extra scrap for her to eat. One lonely little bag sat at the back of the shelf, it's silhouette just barely darker than the shelving. The packet rustled, snapping the silence, as the scavenger took it and unzipped her bag fully to add it to her small collection. She'd loved food before this, but now she had to eat whatever came by in crappy little quantities.

Glass crunched somewhere. She stood, grasping her baseball bat with clammy hands. Not another of them. Her shoulders were hunched around the bat and her pulse was throbbing in her ears as she begged for it to just walk away, but sounds continued around the store. Crunching, the thud of metal rolling into the bottom of a shelf, the shuffling of material dragging along something. The shelf before her wobbled back and forth, creaking dangerously. If it fell on her- her hands shook as she tried to fasten the zipper of her backpack. It was on her back and the bat was back in her hands with the quivering speed that only adrenaline could bring. She stood to the sound of her own loud breathing and started creeping down the aisle towards the grey rays of light that slipped in from outside. If she was quiet then maybe it wouldn't follow her.

"Hey, wait!"

The journalist spun, pointing the bat towards the sound. She was a sight to the man, backlit by the cloudy Atlanta light, blood splattered across her. He stood at the other end of the aisle, the dark side. In normal times the fridges behind him would have given off an artificial white light and a mildly irritating buzz. Now, silence.

"Who are you?" she asked, "I don't have anything to give you." The looters had been bad, setting fires to cars and throwing bricks through windows to steal televisions, but the bandits were worse. The brunette called them bandits because it seemed right for the type of person that attacked and stole.

The stranger walked forward, palms in the air, and began to speak, "I'm Glenn- look I won't do anything. No need to hit me, I just want supplies for our camp." As the light began to reach him, the woman could see his red cap. It had looked menacing in the darkness, but now it was calming. A reminder of the old world before armed thugs roamed the streets in dark hoods.

"What camp? The refugee center went to hell in a handbasket."

"A bunch of us made camp in some quarry when they napalmed the city. It's on maps and stuff. People have been joining us ever since. You could come with me- if you don't hit me."

The scavenger considered slowly. What if they napalmed the city again? What if this group wasn't all that good?

She lowered the bat. "Alice. I'm Alice."

The pair were walking through a department store. The shutters were down, which left them with Glenn's lone flashlight to see. Alice held her baseball bat close as they walked.

"Lori said the girls need more… underwear. Could you uh, grab it for me?" asked Glenn, his cheeks going red.

"I got it." She said, moving across the store to the underwear section. Wooden shelving rose to the ceiling, with the best bras and underwear separately laid out on it. The other bras and underwear hung around her, manakins towering out of the two racks at intervals to sexily display the best of the lingerie. She didn't like leaving his side. Alice just grabbed what she could before making to move away.

"I don't know sizes so I just grabbed a bunch, is that okay?" she called across the store. Silence greeted her, and Alice felt uneasy. Turning, she couldn't see his light so she tried to make out Glenn's head through the aisles. She saw the top of one moving across the store in the jean department, near the back corridor they'd come in through. She wondered if he was leaving without her. Alice was about to call to him again when she saw another two heads appear, and then more behind those. Shit. She dropped into a crouch, wondering if they'd heard her shout. The walkers were blocking the door. Alice moved to grab a hanger but stopped herself. If Glenn hadn't left her then he was here somewhere, and throwing things to distract the walkers could lead them right to him. His presence didn't change that the group, a dozen she thought, was staggering in her direction. Alice peered under the racks but couldn't see the boy's feet.

She listened to the shuffling and periodic groaning, trying to create a mental map of the dark room. A set of hangers clacked together as they were knocked, and then clattered about as some fell. The dead were close. Moving with fervor, Alice stayed to the wall and attempted to bypass the dead. She could see the walkers tumbling along down the center aisle looking for the source of her shout.

Where was the exit from here?

She stood, catching sight of the light spilling into a corridor in the opposite corner, but dropped when she saw a figure appear from the clothing racks she ducked back down again, turning to them, and raising her hands in a 'what the hell?' motion.

Glenn shrugged before gesturing to where the exit was. He moved forward, grabbing onto the clothing rack, and holding 3 fingers up. Alice nodded and grabbed the next one in preparation to push away their cover.

3. 2. 1.

They pushed the racks and ran, tumbling through the corridor and past the back offices to the fire door. Alice slammed it closed but it opened to the outside which meant the dead could just push the busted lock open. Moments later, the dead started growling behind the door, forcing their entire bodyweights into the door as one large weight.

"We need something to block this or somewhere to run." She groaned as Glenn joined her pressing against the door. They couldn't hold it for very long. The alleyway before them was empty now but that could change with the noise they were making.

"There's nowhere here to hide. Trust me, I know the area." He stopped as they both pressed back harder against the doors. Alice felt her tennis shoes slipping on the gravel. "I thought we closed the door."

"I don't know." Alice looked at him then said, "I have an idea. Can you hold this alone for a minute?"

Glenn nodded, and she slowly backed off the door before jogging to the end of the alleyway. The street outside wasn't huge so there were only half a dozen walkers stumbling around. They were far enough away that Alice figured it was worth the risk. Weaving out into the road, Alice reached the silver motorcycle that had been left overturned in the center. She'd spotted it on the way in. Alice threw her baseball bat onto the ground to lift the motorcycle. It was heavy and Alice felt her arms burn a little as she lifted. Her hands moved faster than her brain, finding the key in the ignition and remembering how to operate the thing. Hearing the roar of the engine she was cautious for a second, moving slowly down the alleyway to Glenn.

She saw him staggered down against the door, arms stretched out. Relief crossed his face as she stopped.

"Get on!" she called, and he let go of the doors. The dead spilled out behind him, rushing for the motorcycle, but the pair were already long gone. Glenn whooped on the back of the bike as Alice rode along the sidewalk around a traffic jam. "Where am I going?"

"Down to the quarry. I know the way."

What the fuck, Glenn?" a man yelled, striding over to where Alice had stopped the bike. He was running a hand back and forth through his curled black hair and holding a black shotgun with the other.

"She saved my ass in Atlanta," Glenn said, climbing off the bike. Alice stayed on it, waiting for them to inevitably tell her to leave. Maybe she could head to the coast, find a boat. She had to find her parents.

The foreigner watched as the new man looked back and forth between the two. A crowd was gathering behind him from the many tents.

A blonde woman strode over, a handgun visible in her belt against her blue shirt. "Who's this?"

"I'm Alice." She said, looking to Glenn for support.

"Look, she's cool. I found her scavenging and asked her to come with me. She helped me get supplies before we got trapped in a store. If she wasn't there then I wouldn't have been able to get away." Glenn said, "I was holding the walkers while she got the motorcycle. If she was bad then she woulda just driven away, Shane."

Alice realized that Glenn gave her credit for a decision she hadn't even intended to make. "I wouldn't just ride off- I'm not a complete piece of shit." She climbed off of the motorbike, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Well, 'lotta people are." Shane said, "Dale, you still got that spare tent?"

An elderly man approached at that, stopping and adjusting the rifle on his back as he looked at Alice. "Of course. Here, I'll show you where it is." He said.

After a reassuring nod from Glenn, Alice followed the man named Dale. He wore a stupid hat that oddly suited him. "I'm Alice." She said, feeling a bit like a parrot. "Thank you… for helping. Really appreciate it, actually."

"Dale Horvath, nice to meet you. You're not from around here, though. On vacation?"

"No uh, I moved here last September. I'm a journalist." Alice noted the scattered tents and the way they left a large area in the center of them all for a fire-pit. It was that area that now held groups of people sat on chairs. She was aware of them looking at her as they talked. Talking about her, she imagined. "Everyone usually this nosey?"

"Says the journalist." Dale joked, "They're curious, I imagine. No one's joined this camp for maybe a month. It's easy to imagine that most of the world is dead."

"It's not like I'm part of the paparazzi or anything. Besides, Atlanta isn't really dead, not yet." Alice looked away as she said "There's a lot of looters and bandits. I bet there are decent people but they don't make their presence known if they can."

"That why you came back with Glenn?"

She took a long breath before looking back at Dale to reply. "I don't know how long that city has. They won't evacuate it when they bring in the support; all they're gonna do is bomb it again."

Dale busied himself opening the RV door and gesturing for her to follow before he responded, "You still think the military is coming?"

Alice bit her lip, feeling through the denim of her jacket for the phone in her pocket. It had been out of power for weeks, which didn't matter with the phone lines down. "They're the military, the government. They have to be. How are we alive if they aren't?"

"You make a good point." He was stood in the bedroom, digging under the bed. Alice took the moment to look at the RV, which was a quaint little thing and full of odds and ends. Mismatched cutlery in the drying rack, a game of monopoly on the table, a photo album tucked next to the driver's seat. She picked up the little metal racecar, smiling. "You like monopoly?" Dale asked, holding a black bag that must have held the tent in.

"Yeah. I used to play a lot as a kid, sometimes with my parents, and occasionally with myself. I'd a couple players, but I always made sure the racecar won. It's my favorite."

"Is there a reason or do you just like it?"

"I like the speed. Must be why I'm a reporter, watching the way the world flips itself over and over again, lightning quick." Alice turned the car over between her fingers before placing it back down, "Don't like this, though."

"No one does, I'm afraid."

Alice was scared of the mass of people gathering for food. She'd dumped the underwear on Glenn after he helped her put up the neon red tent, not wanting to approach the women she didn't know with lingerie. This was something she couldn't avoid, though, and ended up squished between Glenn and a guy named T-Dog. The darkness of the woods made her jumpy, especially with the fires and the noise coming off of the people. Alice hadn't even dared light a candle in her apartment back in Atlanta.

"Here," Glenn said, passing out the three bowls he'd been balancing to her, T-Dog and keeping one for himself. It was pasta and what must have been canned tomatoes. Alice reckoned it looked alright for a post-disaster meal.

"I can not wait for takeout." She said before shoving a mouthful of the pasta into her mouth. "Or to have a shower, damn."

T-Dog turned in his chair, bumping his bowl against hers with a plastic clack. Alice felt awkward at the motion, pasta still in her mouth.

"Hell yes, I could use a cheeseburger. Please Lord, let the fast food be okay." He laughed.

"Speaking of the city, I was gonna ask you," Glenn said, drawing her attention. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat for a moment, "Since my car died I've been struggling to go on the runs. I could use someone to watch my back while I'm out there, get me out of a tight spot."

Alice bit her nail, considering. She wasn't any good at killing the dead and was too jumpy to properly journalist did it because she had to, not because she wanted to. "I wouldn't be much help."

"I only survived today 'cause you got us out of there."

It was dangerous, downright stupid, but Alice wanted to be useful. More than that, she wanted to go back to the city. The ruin was hard to believe. It made sense, somehow, to go with Glenn. "We'll need to get some gas." She said, "and we need to stop outside of Atlanta. The noise of the motorbike will draw them to us, otherwise."

"Most places have been looted so we're gonna have to go somewhere big, somewhere where people might have left scraps. Especially if we wanna get a new CV. Shane mentioned that ours is busted and we need it to call for help." Alice nodded to the plan even though it meant there'd be a lot of walkers. If they were quiet then they'd be fine, she hoped. Her stomach churned.

Alice turned to observe the woods out of fear of the dead but instead spotted a smaller camp just a stone's throw away from the other tents. Just one tent with two men sat around their own tiny fire roasting something.

T-Dog said, "That's Merle Dixon and his brother, Daryl. I wouldn't go near those two. Merle's a whole boatload of nasty."

"Why don't they camp over here with you?"

"Guess they'd rather keep to themselves. Shane doesn't trust them one bit." He said before going back to his pasta.

Alice turned back, looking at the Dixon's. In the low light, she couldn't see much of them but something sparked her interest, made her curious. No, she told herself, pushing down the curiosity. She had more to worry about. After saying goodnight to everyone Alice retreated to the pile of borrowed blankets in her tent. She opened her empty backpack, having donated the food to the camp, and fished out of the bottom a notepad and pen. The journalist never went anywhere without one. Scribbling to test the pen, Alice began to jot down a list and a plan.

Tomorrow was as good a day to get bit as any other.

A/N : I just want to say a big thank you to anyone who's read this. The fact that literally anybody is reading what I've written means a lot to me. 3

This story will follow the canon plot somewhat even though I will be filling some gaps of skipped time and diverging from parts of the plot. It's really just some of our favourite characters (and not so favourite) from a new perspective since I was rewatching Seasons 1 and 2 and I was missing the old style of Team Family being together doing things.

It's gonna be a slowburn DarylxOC and a few characters are going to be dying in different places/times in addition to a few plot changes. If you don't like OC's or variations from the show plot then this story isn't for you, but if you do, I hope you stick around for more!

DISCLAIMER : No characters, plots, references, etc from The Walking Dead Universe are owned by me. Only my OC and my prose are mine.