As she drove down the highway with her hand hanging out the window, Kayla Wilmington was lost in thought about where she was going to go next. She's already been through several towns in the past few weeks and needed to find a place to settle down for the weeks to come. Especially with the upcoming winter right around the corner. She was also low on supplies which wasn't good so she needed to go on another run pretty soon.

As she got farther down the highway, she found herself coming up on a car backup. "Perfect…" she muttered to herself. She was able to get around it, but something caught her attention in the corner of her eye…a person. An older man wearing a fishing hat stood on top of a RV with binoculars and had Kayla's car in his sights. As she got closer, she stopped her car and got out.

"You folks need help?" she asked as she walked over.

Another person, a dark skinned man with a gap between his two front teeth and his forearm bandaged came around from the other side. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Kayla Wilmington." She introduced herself. "And who are you."

The dark skinned man looked at the man with the fishing hat who nodded. "I'm T-Dog." The dark skinned man introduced. "And that's Dale."

"Nice to meet you." Kayla said. "What are you doing stopped on the highway?"

"The rest of us are out looking for someone who got chased off by walkers."

"That's what you call those walking corpses?" Kayla questioned. "Actually now that i think about it that makes sense…"

Dale chuckled and looked down at Kayla. "What about you?" he asked. "What are you doing out this way?"

"Just going to find somewhere new to hunker down for a few weeks… I've been bouncing town to town, place to place for a while." Kayla looked at T-Dog's wrapped up arm again. "What happened?" she asked him.

"Cut it open on some metal." T-Dog answered.

"I was an EMT before the end of the world…I could check it out if you'd like me to." Kayla offered. T-Dog nodded and she walked over to him as he led her into the RV.

In the Winnebago T-Dog got out the one medical kit with some basic supplies inside of it and sat down at the table. Kayla unwrapped the gauze wraps, revealing a long, deep gash in the man's forearm. "Oh…" she gasped. "Pretty bad, huh?" T-Dog questioned.

"Well it's certainly not good…" Kayla commented. She grabbed an antiseptic wipe and wiped all the blood away before disinfecting it with some hydrogen peroxide. "You need stitches for sure and until then keep it wrapped up or you could get a blood infection…" Kayla informed T-Dog. He nodded as Kayla rewrapped his forearm in fresh bandages with a small smile on her face.

Back outside Kayla asked the men if they needed anymore help. "Well where are you heading?" Dale asked. She shrugged. "Anywhere that's safe I guess." She answered.

"Why don't you hang around?" Dale responded. "Our people will be back in a couple of hours, maybe you can stay with us, be part of our group."

Kayla lit up at the offer. She hasn't been part of a group for such a long time, let alone be around people weren't trying to kill and eat her. "Really?" she questioned. "You seem alright to me and a person with medical training may come in handy." Dale reasoned.

"I'd love to, but I don't wanna intrude…" Kayla replied.

"You wouldn't. I don't think anyone would mind. We need people." Dale assured her.

"Okay!" Kayla accepted. Dale gave her a smile and she climbed up to the roof of the RV and sat with him. "So what's your story, Dale?" Kayla questioned. "Or at least the group's story at least."

"Well it's a long story." Dale began.

"Well I don't have anywhere to be." Kayla said as she stretched her legs out in front of her. "So i got all the time in the world." Dale smiled and began the story of the group and the history of each group member. After Dale told her everything they've went through since Atlanta, she learned about Rick, Carl, and Lori and how Rick woke up from a coma and found his family outside Atlanta. It was truly an amazing story. Dale went on with each group member as well. How Andrea lost her sister a few days ago, Carol's little girl running off after the herd passed, and then he told her about Daryl's brother Merle getting handcuffed to the roof of a shopping center in the city.

It was a lot to take in for Kayla. Despite everything the people have gone through, at least they had each other through it all which Kayla didn't have the luxury of having. She's been on her own for weeks and she'd be lying if she said she didn't get lonely. So talking with Dale was definitely something of a nice change to her.

The sun began to set and the sky grew pink while Dale and Kayla remained on the roof of the RV talking while T-Dog relaxed inside. Kayla began telling him about herself after all he told her about the group. She started with how she was originally from a small town in Mississippi, but moved to Georgia with a friend after she graduated from college. They lived together and worked at a hospital together as EMTs, but were separated when shit hit the fan.

"She left town for a few days to visit her parents in Mississippi. Two days after she left the outbreak happened and I never saw her again." Kayla told Dale sadly as she thought back to her friend.

"What was her name?" Dale asked curiously

"Angela…" Kayla answered.

"Maybe you'll find her again one day."

"Maybe."

As the two continued their talk, a scream from the woods caught both their attention. They looked at the woods and then at one another. "One of yours?" Kayla asked. "Probably…" Dale said worriedly, recognizing it as a woman's scream.

Not too long later the rest of Dale's group came up the hillside sweating and panting. Dale climbed down and Kayla followed, coming up in front of Glenn, Carol, Daryl and Andrea. "Is everyone alright?" Dale asked. "I heard the scream. Where's Lori and the others?"

"Look all I know is some girl rode out of nowhere on like Zora on a horse and took Lori." Glenn explained. "And you let her?" Dale questioned Daryl.

"Climb down out of my ass old man, Rick sent her." The crossbow armed man defended walking past them. "Carl got shot and I guess they took Carl to some farm." Glenn added. "The girl told us how to get there so we gotta go now."

"I won't do it… We can't just leave." A sad voice said. Kayla turned and guessed it was Carol. "Carol, the group is split...we're scattered and weak." Glenn reminded her. "What if she comes back and we're not here?" Carol replied. "If Sophia found her way back and we aren't here gone, that would be bad." Andrea agreed.

"Tomorrow we'll put a sign here, leave her some supplies. I'll stay here tonight and stay with the RV." Daryl offered. "If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale seconded. "Thank you… Carol said "I'll stay too." Andrea offered. "Well if you're all staying, then I'm…" Glenn began. "Not you Glenn, you take Carol's Cherokee and head to the farm with T-Dog." Dale said.

"Me? Why is it always me-" he started again, but was cut off again. "You have to find this farm, regroup with our people and see what's going on, but most importantly, you have to get T-Dog there. That gash has gone from bad to worse and Kayla said if it gets any worse he could get a blood infection which could be fatal. He won't make it without antibiotics or something." Dale explained. Daryl frowned and then went over to Merle's bike, grabbing and throwing Dale's oil rag at him.

"Get your oily rags of my brother's motorcycle. Why'd you wait till now to say anything? I got Merle's stash." he said, pulling a plastic bag full of pill bottles. "Crystal, Ex… don't need that… Got some kick-ass painkillers." he said throwing a bottle of pills to Glenn. "Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither first class. Merle got the clap on occasion."

"One question." Glenn said. "Who's Kayla?"

On that note, Kayla stepped out from behind Dale, exposing herself to everybody else. Daryl looked at her and took her in. She had long brown hair that fell past her shoulders and a pair of beautiful hazel eyes. Her outfit consisted of dark blue skinny jeans, a red baseball shirt with several stains on it, and some work boots. "Hi," she said her voice calm. "I'm Kayla. I bumped into Dale and T-Dog on my way down the highway."

The other group members looked over her before Glenn called out for T-Dog. "Kayla you go with them." Dale said. "If Carl was shot they're gonna need more medically trained people."

Everyone's eyes fell on her again. "You're medically trained?" Glenn asked as T-Dog came out. She nodded. "I was an EMT before all this." She explained.

"Do you have a car?" Glenn replied. Kayla nodded and pointed at the Ford Escape on the other side of the highway. "Okay follow behind me to the farm. We gotta go now." Glenn ordered before walking over to the Cherokee. Kayla said goodbye to the others and walked back to her car, climbing in and starting it up. Glenn started down the road with T-Dog in the passenger seat and Kayla followed…feeling as if she had purpose again.

So this my second attempt at a Walking Dead fan fiction and the first chapter is pretty rough, but I rewrote it a million times so just stay with me on this one alright? :)