Disclaimer: The Walking Dead and its characters belong to their respective owners, which is not me but I do however own Neon, Spud and other characters that are my own creation and not part of the Walking Dead universe. I am merely borrowing the characters for my own amusement and storytelling purposes.

So here we are again back at the start. I got the boxed set of seasons 1, 2 & 3 and it kind of reignited my desire to write Neon and Daryl (And my new pup has given me a new lease on my life) so I decided to completely overhaul/revamp the story and refine Neon's character a little, she's still the same old Neon but with a bit more of a natural speech pattern and a bit more flawed human instead of Mrs. Badass. I've also toyed with her story and history a little so yeah, have a read and tell me what you think (I still have the original in 1st person but I'm not keen on continuing with the 1st person aspect). I'm just going to be replacing the chapters I've done so far instead of deleting the entire thing and reposting it. So thank you all for sticking with me (and welcome to all the newbies that have joined us) while I've been going through various bullshit in my personal life and hopefully I'll be back up and updating this story regularly now. (As you can probably see, a penname change came along with the overhaul; I like this one much better).

XX ChernobylSweetheart

Daryl panted as he sprinted down the deserted Atlanta street, his calves burning as he tried to outrun the ten strong pack of walkers that were hot on his heels. He chanced a glance back over his shoulder at the group, the urge to try and take them on was there but with only three arrows left he had to keep running and just hope to all hell he still had enough strength left to jam an arrow in his own head when he eventually got caught. He tried to drown out their vicious growls and gurgles from his mind by overloading it with anything he could think of the wilderness, hunting, hot women; anything would do. Both he and Merle had ventured into the infested city for supplies, theirs back at camp had been starting to running low, and he'd figured it was worth trying to visit the hunting store they'd scouted out, but in a sudden fraction of a second they'd been ambushed by a pack of walkers. At first it had only been just the one then other's had joined in forcing them to split up; Merle taking off in one direction with a good chunk of the walkers chasing him leaving him to head in the other direction with the rest of them.

He grunted as he hit the ground hard, his calf ablaze with pain as the muscles contracted taunt, and he glanced back at the walkers instinctively reached for his knife before remembering that he'd lent it to Merle right before they'd been ambushed. He scrambled to his hands and knees in an attempt to flee, he wasn't going down without a fight but with no weapons he was a goddamn goner. He twisted scrambling again for his crossbow that had fallen several feet from his reach, pain still searing through the cramped muscles in his leg as he twisted grabbing for his crossbow again and rolled onto his back ready to try and club them only to witness each walker in turn stop cold, head's forced back as bullet's ripped through them. The first one's neck broke from the force, the bone snapping through the skin of its neck as the back of its head exploded taking blood and whatever was left of its decaying brain with it, another four followed suit in the seconds afterwards before a brief second or two interlude allowed the other's to draw a few steps closer before they too joined the rest of their downed brethren.

He lay back panting on the ground, chest heaving with each breath as he tried to figure out what had just happened. His head snapped towards the black T-top that swung around in front of him and he briefly wondered if it was Merle's doing. He struggled to swallow the thick salvia in his mouth as the passenger door swung open. "Hurry up saighdeoir and get the fuck in before more shufflers show up," The woman in the driver's seat threw him a haphazard grin. "You can thank me later"

He scrambled into the car grabbing his crossbow along the way and spitting curses at the pain that raced through his lower leg. "Who the fuck're you?"

She looked over at him, an eyebrow arching slightly from behind a pair of blue mirror aviators, her lips quirking at the corner into a faint smirk. "The lass that just saved your life so show some fuckin' respect" She stated resting one hand on gearstick as she hit the gas tearing off down the street in the direction she'd come from.

"That still don't answer my question"

"What's it to you anyway?"

"All right Neon, no need to get all up in arms about it"

"Neon?" She queried with a cock of her head and he motioned to the bright neon green paracord bracelet strapped around her wrist, her fingers brushed over it. "At least it's semi original," She murmured shrugging lightly. "So what's your name?"

"Daryl"

"Daryl, huh?" A grin spread across her lips. "I think I like saighdeoir better," He was about to question the name until a deep woof echoed from the back seat earning a laugh from the woman as he shot around to look and found a gnarled looking sandy brown pitbull staring back at him. "And that's Spud"

Daryl assessed the dog just as it seemed to be doing to him, it had white markings splashed across its throat, chest and underbelly with old scars littering its entire body. "Spud? What kinda fuckin' name is Spud?"

"His" She jerked her head towards the dog before turning down another street. "So what the hell are you doin' out here alone anyway? I mean, shit, I'm half way fuckin' barmy so I have an excuse"

"I was out here with my brother, got jumped by a pack of geeks so we had to split" He explained slowly turning back in his seat.

She nodded slowing the car to a halt before throwing it into reverse, the back end bouncing slightly as she reverse into a small alcove and slotted the '82 TransAm between a delivery truck and a roller door. "Come on, it's gettin' too late to go find your brother, best hope is that he finds somewhere to hold up for the night or makes it back to wherever the hell you crawled out from" She stated sliding out of the car, grabbing a canvas pack and a rifle from the backseat, and slipped through a small side door into the building, her pitbull following suit.

He followed after her and stepped inside the building looking around. "So this is home, is it?"

The woman he'd nicknamed Neon snorted softly. "Boston was home, this is just a stopover in my travels," She seemed somewhat bitter as she spoke and he watched her check the other door into the small loading dock, he assumed the door led into the main part of the building since it had been barricaded up with heavy wooden crates. "She's not much but she's cosy enough for a night or two," Her eyes landed on the leg he was rubbing. "You get bit?"

He shook his head. "Pulled a fuckin' muscle"

"Show me," His head snapped up to find the barrel of a Smith and Wesson stealth hunter aimed only a few millimetres from his forehead, he hadn't even heard her move to her position in front of him. "I'm not takin' a chance on your word, we only just met" He yanked up the leg of his jeans to show her his calf and she inspected it before giving a nod and uncocking the gun dropping it away from his forehead. "So where's home base?" She queried as she turned away and grabbed her pack hauling it up onto a nearby crate.

"Quarry, just outside of the city" He spoke without thinking and immediately berated himself for letting the location slip. She made a soft noise to show she'd heard him as she rifled through the canvas pack before a bottle of pills landed in his lap and an unopened bottle of water rolled across the floor.

"Should help with the pain" She said as she moved back over to him and settled down a comfortable distance away before placing two bowls on the ground and tearing into one of the packets in her hands. He watched as she mixed the contents of the packet before holding the first bowl out to him, he hesitated to take it. "M.R.E, I raided most of the military outposts on my way down here"

He took the bowl and looked down into it before finally deciding to dig into it and then began to watch silently as she laid three guns out on a strip of cloth and began to dismantle the first, a matte black L115A3. "You know how to handle those?"

"Commando sniper with eleven years' experience under my belt, previously employed by her Royal Majesty's Royal Marines," There was an air of pride in her voice as she spoke and then looked up through her eyelashes with a slight grin. "And if you didn't see, I saved your arse by takin' down the dead bastard's chasin' you"

"Yeah…" He rubbed at the back of his neck, embarrassed over being saved by a woman. "Thanks I guess"

She gave a small jerk of a nod as she dropped her eyes back to her task and began to clean the rifle and then reassemble it. "So Daryl," She drawled out his name as she rifled through her pack again. "You any good with that crossbow?"

He looked towards the crossbow lying at his side and nodded. "Yeah, used to hunt all the time before the world when to shit" She nodded tearing into a chunk of jerky before holding a piece out to him; after he took it she threw some towards her dog and watched as the pitbull began to tear into it.

Silence stretched between them for a while, the only sounds were of distant walkers and the scrap of metal as Neon disassembled, cleaned and reassembled her guns. "Hey, this camp you're at, you got kids there?" He hesitated to answer and she pressed further. "You know, ones that ain't got parents and the like?"

He shrugged. "Don't know"

"Not that social with them?"

"Not really"

She nodded gaze dropping to the Desert Eagle in her hands. "…Thanks for tellin' me anyway"

Daryl watched her for a moment, for one brief second she looked exhausted like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and he called out to her. "Why?" She looked up, eyes a little wider in surprise. "Why'd you wanna know?"

She simply looked at him for a moment before pulling out a folded piece of paper from down her bra; she looked down at it for a few long seconds before finally holding it out to him. He took it and unfolded it to find a photo staring back at him; it was her and 2 children. "Yours?" He queried looking up at her.

She nodded. "Connor and Amelia"

He looked at the photo again, three smiling faces staring back at him. She looks like a good ma, they both look really happy. He jerked slightly when the photo was tugged out of his grasp and she folded it once more sliding it back down her shirt. "I ain't seen them at the camp but they gotta be somewhere, right?"

A tense smile flickered across her lips. "Right, and that's why I'm riskin' my arse in this city," She took a drink of water from her bottle looking contemplative for a moment. "We can take a look for your brother in the mornin' but we can't travel too deep into the city, we're askin' for a bite by stayin' here," She began to crawl a square in the dust on the floor and trailed her finger around it. "If we track around the out lyin' streets we should be able to make it from one end of the city to the other without drawin' too much attention," She began to stroke her dogs sandy brown fur as he rested his head on her knee. "Besides, I need to refill the 'Am"

He laid down and stretched himself out before deciding to speak. "So why'd you come this way? Boston's a long haul from Atlanta"

"My kid's mostly, and the fact that Boston got overrun, DC too, heard Atlanta was supposed to be a huge refugee camp or some shit," She laughed dryly as she shook her head. "What a crock of shit that was, I thought I might find them here but when I first saw the city I knew that wasn't goin' to be the case, I only stuck around this long to make sure they weren't shufflers," She looked his way before shrugging lightly. "I made a promise to myself that I'd put a bullet in them if I found them like that," She tipped her head towards the roller door. "Scoured the entire city and they're not here, not sure if I should be relieved or worried," A small broken smile graced her lips before it faded. "What about you? Why're you here?"

"Same as you, thought this shithole was supposed to be a fuckin' safe haven but it wasn't, they dropped bombs or some shit on the city…" He shrugged lightly. "At least that's what everyone back at the camp's been sayin'"

Worry creased her brow as she gave a soft 'hmm' and slowly stroked the top of the pitbull's head, eyes unfocused for a moment before they shut and then opened again, this time clearer than before. "Napalms, if I remember correctly, they did it to all the big cities when they got overrun. Preventative measure… fuck lot of good that did," She snorted bitterly and shook her head before rubbing at the corners of her eyes. "I'm goin' to catch some kip, you should too, I want to be out of here by sun up," She shifted to lay down flat. "Try any funny business and I'll shove you out that door stark bollock naked and you can fend for yourself"

He couldn't tell if the threat was real or not but decided against testing her. He closed his eyes listening as her breathing evened out after only a short few seconds, he knew Shane would have a field day if she came back to the camp with him and expected to be given safe harbour but something about her told him she had no expectations of generosity. He reached out blindly and felt his fingers brush against the familiar stock of his crossbow, and closed them around it tight. The loading dock was safe enough, barricaded up to the eyeballs and then there was her pitbull. Spud. He reminded himself, was awake with one eye on the only entrance, he was sure it was how they'd survived so far; find a corner, barricade it and have Spud keep guard while she caught some shut eye. He shifted on the hard concrete wondering if Merle had gotten away or if he'd be delivering a bolt through his brother's head at some point to end his misery.

Daryl shook his head lightly to clear the thought and tried to focus on sleep instead, hoping the night would pass as quick as they always seemed too.

And there we have it. First chapter of the revamped Odyssey into Hell. I want to post every few days to give myself time to edit upcoming chapters, work on the next installment, and to give myself some downtime so I don't burn myself out.

Hope you all enjoyed and I will post the next chapter in a few days, I'll try and work out a steady schedule.