Description of character:-

Name: Emma Johnson

Age: 26 years old

Hair eye colour: Medium brown wavy hair and blue eyes

Outfit: Green 3/4 sleeve top, black ripped jeans, black combat boots and a brown leather jacket.Gun holster (9mm glock) sheathe for her matchete and a little knife secured in her boot.

Days Gone Bye

Before:

When the apocalypse started it was complete chaos, well I guess I should explain how... well not how, because no one knows where it came from or how it spread so fast.

Well I was in my apartment (who I shared with my college friends) when the news came on saying 'people are eating people' I didn't believe it at first. That is until I heard coughing coming from the corridor and a knock at my door, I quickly went over and opened the door to my neighbour Louise.

"Hey Louise." I asked her and that was when she coughed up blood. My eyes widened "Oh my god, are you ok? Do you want me to ring the hospital or do you want me to treat you?"

She shook her head "No, all the... the news stories are real. This crazy person bit... bit me and ever since then I feel like I'm... I'm dying. Get out of the city before... before more people get killed." She paused "There should be a refugee centre set up in Atlanta, go there with... with your friends." She stuttered.

Louise had a job on the ambulance team at the hospital that I just started working at. I had the day off today but I guessed this 'flu' had gotten worse over night. I wasn't in the emergency department so I only heard the stories from the other staff. I was a nurse that looked after patients not the surgeons or the ER staff.

But when I took a look at her, she looked sick. There were beads of sweat on her forehead, I brought the back of my hand to her forehead and I immediately retrated it because it felt like a furnance.

I gasp "Oh my god louise, you're burning up, all these symptoms started with the crazy guy biting you?"

She nodded and lifted her long sleeve shirt and there was a bite mark, a human bite mark, a human bite mark on her forearm.That was when I started to believe the stories. "Go, ring your mom." She ordered me.

"Be careful, alright." I told her before I quickly ran into my apartment and grabbed my phone to ring my mom.

"Come on mom, just pick up your phone for once for just one time." I mumbled, that was when she answered.

"Hey baby, how are you?"

"Hey mom, are you ok? Where are you?" I jumbled half the sentence.

"Woah baby slow down, slow down, what's going on? Are you ok?" Obviously she is trying to make out what i'm saying by trying to diffuse the situation.

"Let's keep it short and simple, have you heard the stories on the news?"

"Yeah I have honey, but they are just stories." She answers hesitantly.It was pretty obvious she thought I was a little bit insane for now believing in people eating civilians.

"Well they are true, ok, I know it sounds crazy, but they are most defiantly true, my work colleague had been bitten by one of those people who have the 'flu'. So try to avoid people who are sick for now ok?"

"Ok... ok. I believe you, if someone has actually been bitten or sick then I will avoid everyone in the city." She awkwardly giggles at the end, still thinking I'm a little bit insane but will listen... hopefully.

"You're in Atlanta right?" I ask.

"Yes I am." She immediately answers.

"Ok I'll try to get to you as fast as I can -

The door slammed open and all three of my friends come rushing in. Drew slammed the door shut and locked it, Leslie had a bag and Max had another.

"I gotta go mom, I love you ok."

"I love you too Emma an-

My brows furrow in confusion when she didn't finish, I pulled my phone back and saw it was dead. That was odd considering it was nearly fully charged.

I was about to ask my friends what is going on when they ran to the window. I turned around and saw the lights of the town go out, one by one until the lights go out in our flat.

We look at each other frightened, what on Earth is happening?

Present:

I tightly close my eyes at the painful memory, it has only been two weeks since I lost all three of my friends. Now I'm on my own trying to avoid big groups of walkers as much as possible, if I encounter a few I take them out pretty easily with my machete. I don't use my gun because the walkers are attracted to noise.

I haven't encountered any living person ever since that night where our little house we were currently taking refugee in got over-run. Now I'm currently walking along a road heading to Atlanta where a refugee camp is and hopefully my mom.

It has been 59 days since the apocalypse began, I have been keeping track in my jounral. I record what happened in the day before I go to sleep, currently it only consists of saying no survivors, finding little supplies and taking out the dead. It's late in the afternoon and I have to find a place to rest before I get to Atlanta.

I have been running on around a few hours sleep now the past few days, because I'm alone I have no one to watch my back so I stay up if I camp in the open and I usually jolt awake at the slightest bit of noise if I do have shelter. But now it has taken its toll on me and I am exhausted.

I spot something in the distance, a gas station. 'Thank god' I thought. I trudged along and found a car, I knocked on the window lightly and after waiting a minute I open the boot of the car and search through it for supplies. All I found was a half of a bottle of water and a can of peaches. 'Today is going to be a long day of travelling' I thought.

Hours Later...

I trudge along the road very slowly, 'I need to find a place to stay for the night' I thought.

Thats when it was like God answered my silent pleading when I see a car a few hundred yards away. I silently thank him and basically run to the vehicle thanks to the last bit of adrenaline I had left.

I was basically bouncing on my feet and I knew I couldn't just go in without checking first, I knock on the window lowly so no nearby walkers will hear. Nothi - whack. I jump away from the vehicle to see a walker whacking the window.

Great. I unsheathed my machete and get ready to open the car door. I open it swiftly and the walker tumbles out, I didn't give it time to get up when I slice my machete into its head.

I wipe the blood off on the walker and sheate it, I climb in the car and shut the door. I pull out my journal and a pen to write in it.

'Day 59 - I'm basically a day out from Atlanta on foot, I still haven't encountered any survivors. I guess everyone just hid away, trying to avoid the dead. I would too but I was on a mission to get to my mom, I miss her a lot. Life is hard, well it has always been hard, but now it has turned out a lot harder for everyone in the world. To the rich and the poor, everyone is the same now, no one is different. Everyone just has to survive. I haven't found much food and water anymore just a deserted gas station and an abandoned car before I found this one to crash in. Ah well, I just have to survive one more day before I get to Atlanta. To my mom.'

I close my journal and put it back in my bag. I take out my little knife and hold it tight as I go to a dreamless sleep.

The Next Day...

I have been walking for a couple of hours when I hear a car coming from behind me obviously slowing down. I quickly turn around and walk a few steps backwards justbas the car came to a stop.

My hand hovers around my gun incase this stranger tries something, plus I don't want to give the impression of weakness but I'm slightly shaking.

The man steps out of the vehicle and slowly approaches me with his hands in the air. "Miss, I ain't gonna hurt ya, I'm officer Rick Grimes and I'm heading to Atlanta. What's ya name?"

I raise my brow at his kindness but my gut tells me to trust this 'Rick Grimes'. I slowly remove my hand from my holster and reply. "My name is Emma Johnson, just call me Em.. it feels like I'm getting a scolding when someone says my whole name. I'm heading to Atlanta as well."

He chuckles "Well that's a good thang I ran into ya, I can take ya to Atlanta, I would feel bad if I leave ya on the side of the road."

"Ok then I'll take ya up on that ride."

When we are in the car it is silent... pretty awkward. I decide to break it. "So... Why are ya headin' to Atlanta?"

He glances at me for a second obviously contemplating whether or not to tell me the reason. He sighs "I'm looking for my wife an' son. I woke up from a coma and found my house empty.What about ya?"

Woke up from a coma?!? It was bad enough experienbing it from the start but waking up from a coma to the world gone to shit is a whole new level. "Oh." I pause, "I'm looking for my mom, your wife an' son should be at the refugee centre most likely. l'm glad you have hope, most people don't have that nowadays. When me and my friends finally decided to leave our flat... our apartment complex got over-run due to my friend used her gun to shoot one walker. I lost all three of my friends, I barely got out."

I didn't realise we were at a stop, I could feel his gaze on me. I was about to leave the car when he caught my wrist preventing me from leaving.

"I'm sorry for ya loss, I really am. But your friend's deaths are not your fault. Your mom is still out there, don't give up your hope Emma."

"I guess that is what keeping me going, that is my life of survival... hope." I took a deep breath, "But what did I say about ya calling me Emma?"

He just shakes his head and chuckles. He is a pretty straight forward guy who has a lot of hope, me and him are going to be good friends.

We get out of the car and spot a farm just down the road. We glance at eachother and nod, he goes to the boot and gets a gas can and a huge bag of guns and slings it on his shoulder before we head off down to the farm.

"Where did ya get all 'em guns from?" I question.

"From the station where I used to work before I met ya." He replies.

"Good thinking Sheriff." I chirp, he rolls his eyes and shakes his head with a smile.

When we get to the farm it is eerily quiet. "Hello!" Rick yells, no answer. "Police Officer out here with a friend of mine! Do ya mind if we can borrow some gas? Hello?!" But there was still no answer.

We both walk up the steps of the porch, he knocks the door. We look at each window and when he looks through the last one he grimaces and has a sad look on his face. My brows furrow and I take a peek through the window and regret looking.

On the wall there was blood saying 'Please forgive us' and two bodies on the floor with parts of their skull blown off and one of them is holding a shot gun.

I sigh frustratedly and we both walk away from the house. I guess they ran out of hope or they didn't want to live in this new world. I sit on a bench while Rick goes through the truck.

He comes over to me with a solemn expression... I guess that truck has no keys to it or it has ran out of gas. Plus I'm not going in that house to find the keys of the truck. A shiver went through my spine of the thought of the keys on one of the dead people.

It was quiet until a horse brought our attention, we quickly walk around the house to a fenced off field with a chestnut coloured horse in it. We look at each other and smile geniunely, this is turning into a good day.

"Hey there, I'm Rick and this is Em, we are headin' to Atlanta. We ran outta gas, we want to take ya along with us, there's a refugee centre and some horses too I bet. I'm hoping for a proposal, we can get ya to Atlanta safely and ya can meet some new horses and we can find our families. What ya say?" The horse replies with a neigh and walks over to him.

"I take that as a yes Sheriff." I laugh. He smiles and nods his head agreeing with me.

"Yes I do too."

I carry the bag of guns and my pack and hop on the horse after Rick. The horse starts to walk and slowly jogs.

"I haven't done this in a while so let's take it nice an' slow." Rick tries to encourage the horse but it doesn't listen and gallops fiercely towards Atlanta.

I laugh at his reaction. The horse finally slows down after its excitement a few miles away from the city and that was when my excitement kicked in, I couldn't wait to see my mom after so long. I shouldn't have left in the first place even though it was for my friends' apartment and my job. I met Leslie in college and her two friends Max and Drew who eventually became my friends, they took the same classes as me because they wanted to become doctors and eventually we all worked at the same place and 4 months later the apocalypse started and we survived. Now they are just a memory.

When we got to the city it was nothing as I expected and judging from Rick's posture he didn't neither. On one side of the highway there were tons of vehicles jam packed and destroyed and on our side there was nothing. The city skyscrapers were destroyed, but most of them were standing but some of them weren't; I doubt anyone who was here when the city got destroyed survived, however it happened anyway.

The horse carefully walked through the city, it was deserted; 'it's like a ghost town' I thought. When we pass a tank there was a crow pecking on a walker, eating some of its flesh, gosh even the animals have gone morbid enough to eat dead corpses.

It was quiet until we passed a bus, the horse gave a freakish neigh and jumped quickly to the side. "It's only a few of them, nothing we can't handle." Rick states.

It was if he was trying to convince himself other than me or he was trying to convince the horse. But either way I didn't care I was trying to convince myself that everything is ok, that the city where my mum and Rick's wife an' son should be is still standing.

Thats when I hear a noise from the sky. A helicopter? "Do you hear that?" I whisper in disbelief.

He just nods his head, we look around, both of us probably looking like meerkats trying to find the source of the noise. We fimally look at the direction of a building with loads of glass windows and see the reflection of the helicopter there.

Rick kicks the horse to a gallop to follow the helicopter, the only sign of life other than Rick, myself and the horse. I was brought out of my thoughts when the horse slid to a stop and shrieked, I look ahead and my eyes widen and my breath catches in my throat of what I'm seeing. The whole street was packed full of walkers. Their attention now on us.

Rick quickly turns the horse around and kicked so we were at a full gallop to get away from the swarm, but when we head back the way we came there was more of them. Shit we're surrounded.

The horse reared back onto his back legs I fell off with a thump. "Em!" Rick shouted. He jumped off the horse before he can get swarmed and eaten by them too.

A walker gripped the bag of guns and I let out a yelp, I slid the strap off me and swiftly took my machete out of its sheathe, turn around and stab it in the head before it bit me.

We crawled away from the swarm and slid under the tank. I pulled out my gun as well as Rick, we both shot the walkers coming at us, just before the walkers on both sides of the tank get us we climb in a hatch. I slam the hatch down with a bang and lock it.

"That was too close." I explain panting. Rick only nodded at me. He checked the walker next to him for anything and took out a baretta. That's when I see the walker move, just before I warn Rick not to shoot he pulls the trigger.

It was a deafening ringing in my ear, I look up and notice a hatch open. I slowly climb to my feet and raise myself up just as the ringing stopped. I peep my head out and see a swarm around the horse feasting. Poor horse. I see the bag of guns, I wonder if I can get to it before- growling gets my attention and I realise that some walkers have spot me and start to climb the tank. I quickly shut the hatch and hop down.

I look at Rick and shake my head silently telling him there was no way we could get out of this. He nods and checks the gun he took of the dead guy in the corner, I hear a click, I hope it has some bullets in there that can help us.

I guess we are in too much shock to talk, it was quiet for a few moments until the radio came on.

"Hey, dumbasses, you two in the tank? Cozy in there?" A voice came through.

Me and Rick look at each other then the radio.