After *ahem* far too long of not updating, I've decided to rework this story. I've actually got a plan this time for how I want it to go, so try to be patient with me as I get there. I'll stay fairly close to canon for Season 1, and probably for Season 2 as well. I do plan to diverge a bit, though, mostly with the lengths of time between seasons, who lives, who dies, etc. By the time we get caught up with the show, I'll have quite a few surprises up my sleeve.

Slow burn Daryl/OC, other canon pairings, and maybe a few others as we go on (not gonna spoil the surprise, I guess).

I don't own TWD in any form or fashion – essentially, if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.

Please review! Let me know what you think so I can improve writing style, storyline, characters, etc. I can only get better if you give me some kind of feedback. :)

- Chapter One -

- The Highway -

Kaylee did her best to continue sitting patiently behind the wheel of her car and ignore the increasing amount of horn-honking and shouting going on across the cramped freeway. The sun had gone down hours ago, and there hadn't been any room to move for hours before that. And still she waited, blood and gore caked in her hair and on her bare arms – the blood of her family, her friends, people she'd seen every day for the past four years or more. The radio was silent for a change, although she could still hear in her head the strained voice of the broadcaster she'd been listening to all day, repeating the same message over and over and over again up until around thirty minutes ago. By then the words had already become as familiar to her as her own thoughts, and she knew she'd be able to recite them word for word for the rest of her life – however short that may be.

"... of unknown origin. Citizens are strongly advised to avoid all contact with anyone who has or may have been affected. Do not try to communicate or reason with anyone displaying strange behaviors, such as individuals displaying increased hostility and aggression. If attacked by affected individuals, IMMEDIATELY clean and disinfect any resulting bite or scratch wounds. Military units have initiated vaccination, rescue, and evacuation operations across the Southeast region. Details will be broadcast on this station as they develop. This is a recorded message and will play again in three minutes..."

The advice on the radio had come far too late. Her brothers' screams and her mother's dying sobs still rang in her ears, much as she was trying to forget them, if only for a moment. Maybe if they hadn't come to visit her this week in Atlanta they'd still be -

No, she couldn't let herself think that. If Atlanta was this bad LA would have been exponentially worse. The cities there were seemingly endless, the borders between suburbs and towns pressing tightly against each other until there was no telling where one ended and another began. At least here there was a countryside to fall back to – somewhere to get away from the milling, now-dead populous. This way, she might be able to keep Dad alive. That was something she could be thankful for, although "thankful" probably wasn't the right word to describe her thoughts on the day.

Finally losing her patience with the silence in the car, nothing but quiet static coming through the speakers, she slid out of the old yellow Mini Cooper with a small huff of resignation, the sore muscles in her back and legs aching slightly with the effort. Dad had gotten out a while ago with Sam to watch the city burn, awestruck by the helicopters raining fire on whoever was or wasn't left below them. Kaylee hadn't been able to look back on the city that had been her home for nearly eight years. There were too many people she'd left behind there – too many memories.

A heavy pipe wrench hung from the sturdy tool belt slung around her hips, gently striking her thigh with every step. She'd been lucky she'd had it – lucky she'd been off campus to help Sam with some busted plumbing in her basement. If she'd been on campus this morning, she had no doubt in her mind she wouldn't be standing here. The tool probably weighed around ten pounds, and tonight she felt its weight all the more acutely for its recent use. It had been all she'd had on hand when the streets were suddenly swarmed with the undead, and it turned out the back end worked surprisingly well for inflicting blunt-force trauma to the head.

Dad was still standing among the trees on the side of the road along with the dwindling crowd, all of them continuing to watch in shock as smoke continued to rise from the ruins of the city. Sam stood a little closer up on the slope, tall and thin and graceful as ever. Her long blonde hair, still somehow perfectly put up in a messy ponytail glinted in the moonlight along with various piercings in glittering silver. She was easy to identify in the low light, although Kaylee had known her too long to mistake her for anyone else at this point. They'd met under difficult circumstances, and sometimes Kaylee thought she felt more responsibility for Sam than friendship, but it was hard to imagine anyone else at her side at the end of the world. Much as she'd tried to escape the computer programmer and the painful memories that seemed to drift in her wake, the younger woman's obnoxiously perfect profile and sometimes-less-than-sterling personality continued to haunt her.

Naturally, Sam was the first to notice her approach – oblivious as ever to Kaylee's sour mood. The pleased smile on her face gave away what she'd been doing, and Kaylee felt almost bad for the solemn-looking Asian guy standing beside her. "Kay!" the woman called, too loudly. The older woman flinched slightly at the sound. "Come meet Glenn."

Dad glanced over his shoulder at her from down the slope a ways and tried to look encouraging. He wasn't aware of the whole grisly story between Sam and his daughter, but it didn't matter much at this point. He smiled slightly, pushing past the pain shining in his own hazel eyes to try and help her let go of a little bit of hers. That was always his way – always trying to hold her up. She couldn't quite bring herself to smile back, though she wished she could for his sake.

"Glenn, this is my firend Kaylee." Sam's honey-gold eyes were alight with the excitement that came with meeting new people. Her slim hand brushed Glenn's shoulder in a way that wasn't lost on either of them, and – to his credit – the man had the decency to look uncomfortable.

"We've already met," came Kaylee's quiet reply, and she tried to offer a small smile of greeting to the man. She'd known Glenn since her freshman year at Georgia Tech, though she hadn't seen him in a few years since he'd graduated and she'd stayed at school for her Masters'. He was a few years younger than her, even though they'd started school at the same time – Kaylee had worked in Atlanta for a few years before so that she could afford tuition, and Glenn had been fresh out of high school that year. Still, they'd gotten along fairly well in the past, and she was glad he'd made it out of the city alive.

"Really?" Sam asked, clearly confused. Kaylee wasn't known for being incredibly social, often leaving that aspect of her life to her ever-present golden-haired tagalong. "How?"

Glenn grinned slightly and gestured to the golden "GT" emblazoned on Kaylee's stained t-shirt. "Where do you think? First semester Calculus I. I had to take it twice since Kaylee screwed up the curve the first time."

"Sorry," she shrugged half-heartedly, knowing he wasn't really upset about that. He'd teased her about it often enough in the past that she knew better than to take the complaint seriously.

"It's a bad habit of hers," Sam broke in, never one to be left out of a conversation for long. Kaylee could almost feel her satisfaction – she was always trying to get the older girl to be more social, make small talk, meet people on her own. Social situations had always seemed like a waste of time, and Kaylee had always preferred to spend her time in the library or the machine shop.

Glenn's smile faltered as he glanced back at the burning Atlanta. "Bet campus was a wreck today," he said quietly, and Kaylee understood how he was feeling. From what little she'd seen of the school out of her car window on the way to Dad's hotel, "wreck" didn't even begin to describe it. Too many people in too small a space, and none of them armed with anything more than a baseball bat or a screwdriver. The police cars blocking off the main drive had been quickly overrun.

"I wasn't on campus today, thankfully," she answered simply, not trusting herself to elaborate. "How've you been?"

He shrugged and straightened the red baseball cap on top of his head. "Been delivering pizzas since graduation – couldn't get a job. It's not too exciting, but it pays the bills, mostly. Economy's crap still. You?"

"Slowly been working on my Masters, but mostly I've been doing repair work for extra cash. I imagine pizza delivery actually wins out as far as excitement is concerned."

"So how'd you guys get out?" Glenn asked, voice soft.

Sam answered, knowing with just a glance that her companion wasn't going to be up for telling this particular story. "Kaylee was fixing my basement when I started to hear the screams. We got outside and, well... found a new use for pipe wrenches and baseball bats. Jumped in the car to get her family from the hotel, but only her dad was left, so..." She trailed off there, and Kaylee tried to blink back the tears threatening to form in her eyes. "You?"

"I was on a delivery and got chased by a group of 'em. T-Dog," he glanced back at an African American man standing a few feet away with another group of people, "and his sister were driving around picking people up. Saved my ass." He turned sad dark eyes on Kaylee. "Sorry about your family."

"Thanks," she murmered, suddenly done with talking. "I think I'm gonna go find Dad. I'll catch ya later, Glenn." She excused herself quietly before trudging further down the hill, work boots snapping twigs in the grass.

Dad heard her coming and adjusted the worn cap on his head, motor oil and sweat having stained the hat beyond recovery some time ago. The mechanic's thin face, usually lit with a smile, was worn and blood-spattered from the events of the day. Kaylee was sure her own face looked similarly strained.

"We got a plan?" she asked quietly, meeting his tired gaze. He glanced around uneasily for a moment before answering in a low voice.

"You remember Miranda Morales?"

She nodded. "She works in the Admissions Office."

"She and her family are joining up with a group they met on the road. Sounds like they plan on hunkering down somewhere until things calm down a bit. Miranda said we could probably jump in if we wanted to."

"You meet these others?"

"A few," he shrugged. "Seemed like reasonable people. A cop and his wife. Two sisters. An old man and a couple others. Sounded like there were a couple kids, too. What do you think?"

"I think we've got nowhere else to go," she replied carefully, surprised that her father seemed to be looking to her for answers. They were in a bit of a precarious position, as far as joining people was concerned. They didn't have many resources to offer a group, other than their skill set. "All we managed to grab on the way out was Sam's stuff and my tool bag."

"That's about what I was thinking."

She took in the faces on the hill for the first time, wondering who they were, what they'd been before today. Her stomach turned unexpectedly when she wondered how many of them would be left when morning came. "Where's this cop? I'd like to talk to him."

He pointed casually off to the right where the group Glenn's friend was in stood talking in low voices. "Officer Walsh, I think it was." Dad pulled her into a quick hug before letting her wander over to the other party. She kept a watch on Sam out of the corner of her eye, making a mental note to warn off Glenn before anything happened. The apparent apocalypse didn't seem to be the place for what was sure to be a messy breakup.

"Officer Walsh?" The man who turned to face her was tall and powerfully built, intense dark eyes skimming over her analytically. His hands rested on his hips, thumbs tucked into the waistband of his green uniform pants, never far from the weapon on his hip.

"Yeah?" He almost seemed surprised to be approached. The dark-haired woman at his side looked her over with a combination of curiosity and fear, as did the others standing with them – an old man in a bucket hat, the man Glenn had called "T-Dog," and Mr Morales. "I know you?"

Kaylee didn't balk at his gaze, although an old joke about engineers ran through her head briefly, bringing a small smirk to her otherwise solemn expression. The typical engineer will look at his own shoes when he's talking. A social one will look at your shoes. Kaylee refused to even glance at the man's shoes, although she would admit that she was tempted if only to escape his apparent scrutiny. She couldn't afford to look weak in addition to unprepared. "I'm a friend of Glenn and Mrs Morales. She was talking to my dad and mentioned you're setting up some kind of plan for getting off the roads. I was wondering if you might be able to take a couple more."

"How many of you are there?"

"Three. Me, my dad, and a friend I left the city with. She's over there with Glenn."

He glanced over and nodded in thought. "Glenn's already with us. Y'all useful?" His gaze flickered down to the logo on her shirt and then to her tool belt.

"Dad's a mechanic. Sam's a programmer, but I'm sure we can find something else for her to do," she shrugged. "I'm an engineer."

He looked her over one more time, and Kaylee tried not to take it personally. There were people to keep safe, and the cop couldn't afford to take too many chances. His gaze lingered for a moment on the wrench hanging from her hip, noticing the blood, bone fragments, and brain matter splattered across its surface. At last, he nodded. "Alright then. Dale over here says he knows a good spot up in the hills we might be able to hole up in. Grab your car and drive back this way along the shoulder. We'll take the back roads – try and get away from all these people before something happens. That RV over there is Dale's, so you know what to look for. If y'all aren't here when we move out, we're leaving ya. Understand?"

She nodded and strode away with renewed purpose, calling for Dad and Sam to follow her quickly. Glenn tagged along, hesitating just long enough to get a nod of affirmation from T-Dog and Officer Walsh before jogging to catch up. No one asked her what the hurry was – there were people starting to scream in the distance.