Chapter Text
It was hard being smart, practically a genius - especially before the world went to hell. You were expected to get perfect grades, do other peoples’ work for them, and become the next Albert Einstein. It was exhausting and difficult to have everyone making goals for you, but since the start of the apocalypse, you actually used your knowledge to your advantage to build your survival skills. That was why you didn’t need a group. You went by yourself. Trust no one. Accept no one.
That day, you decided to leave the comfort of your new home to go on a supply run at a building a couple miles from where you were stationed. The strip mall was small and barely had any supplies in it, but from the last trip you made there, there was still a small amount of supplies left in the far side of the strip. So, that was your destination. Armed with your SUV - which you had taught yourself to drive the first time you discovered it - a pistol, and a couple of knives in different places on your body - two in your thigh and one in your jacket pocket - you drove to the strip and parked behind it. You turned off the vehicle and got out. You opened the back door and grabbed a small duffel bag. Afterwards, you closed the door, locked the car, and prepared to move into the building.
There was a small door near the location that you parked. That doorway led to the small space that held the only supplies that you hoped weren’t picked up by other survivors. The supplies weren’t anything major. Just some canned food and some bottles of medicine that became quite crucial to survival ever since the start of the apocalypse. In that time, you could never have too much food.
You grabbed the knife that rested itself in your inner jacket pocket and held onto it tightly, mentally preparing yourself for anything. From the door in the back, you entered a small office in the back of the small building. The place was neat, but it still had the smell of death that had soaked into the surface. You cringed once and held your nose. The smell of rotten flesh was one that a person could never actually get used to. It still made your stomach twist and turn and the food in you consider escaping from it.
You hummed and looked around. You kept the knife in your hand and made sure that your muscles were loose. There were several boxes near the far side of the office. You walked over and opened them. You looked inside. The boxes were just filled with sugar packets.
“Sugar?” You questioned to no one in particular. You stood up and decided to leave the office and go further into the building. You had your knife ready as you opened the door and looked around the empty building.
The place was smaller than you thought and it sure didn’t look like a store, more like a cafe. It was eerily quiet and completely empty. At least that was what it looked like. You still took your time to look around the small building. The tables and chairs were thrown around the lobby and the floor was completely spotless. There was a door next to the cash register and you hummed. With your knife at the ready, you walked over to the the door and jiggled the doorknob. It was locked.
Strange. You never found a locked door in all of your time searching that didn’t result in a hidden walker behind the door. You decided to risk it, so you took your knife and began to try and turn the lock on the door. It slipped several times and at other moments, you were just so close that it was almost frustrating. Finally, after a while, you got it unlocked. With a victorious smile, you opened up the door extremely slow like.
It was a small room. The smell of it wasn’t anywhere close to the smell of rotting flesh. It actually smelt like...a pantry? You walked in slowly, leaving the door open. There were boxes here and packages there. You decided to look inside the closest box that was there. When you opened it, you smiled. Inside were a bunch of loaves of bread.
Victory.
In that pantry were breads, bagels, small boxes of jams and jellies, and even more sugar packets. So, it was then that you began to take all of the boxes and packages out to the car. You set them all in the back of the SUV. It took about five minutes to get every single box out to the car. Once you did so, successfully, you closed the doors to the buildings. You were getting ready to get into the vehicle, when you heard the familiar cock of a gun from behind you. You cursed under you breath slightly and turned around to look and see who it was.
It was a boy with a shotgun pointed directly at your face. He had long brown hair that scooped over his face, covering a bandage that covered up half of his face. You would be lying to yourself if you would say that you didn’t think he was slightly handsome, despite the fact that you were being held at gunpoint.
“Who are you?” The boy asked with a strong, deep voice.
Your fear level had risen. That was the main reason that you didn’t go out on any type of mission - at least you didn’t like to. With the world the way it was, you had to be careful with who you could trust and who you couldn’t. Apparently the boy - who was slightly taller than you - seemed like the type to not trust easily. Your heart was pounding in your chest as he asked his question again. You ignored it once more, too scared to speak. It was supposed to go well, the run. Of course, you would have to make another close call. You were tired of those. Sick and fucking tired of them. With one swift action, you were able to kick the boy onto the ground and get into the car without any complications. You started the vehicle and drove off, hearing the gunshots from behind you as you drove. You yelped in fear and ducked. Thankfully, none of the bullets hit you nor the tires, although they hit the back of the car. Once you got a good distance away from the strip mall, you sighed in relief, a smile on your face.
The ride to your base was quieter than it was leaving the strip. Your base was a large hospital that was abandoned when you got there so you decided to make it your home. The top six floors belonged to you and you had your own special way to get there. You pulled your car into the parking garage - which you had blocked up and set up a digital password in order for a gate to be unlocked - that was connected to the hospital building and parked at the roof of the parking garage, near the door of the hospital. You opened the door of the building and propped it open with a box from the car. You then started to bring the boxes from the car to the building. Once you got all of the boxes and packages into the building - down the stairs and to the nearest storage room - you took the box that was holding open the door and closed it. You took the box down to the supply room.
The top six floors of the hospital were closed out from the rest of the building so that the walkers couldn’t get to your safe places. On the first of the six floors were just some beds, spare pillows and blankets as well. The second floor was where the storage began. On that floor was your weapon cache. They were all separated into different rooms - knives and other blades in one same room, pistols in another, shotguns in another, rifles in another, and throwables like grenades and flares in the last one. The third floor was where you kept most of your valuables - items that were not necessarily important to your survival, but just some that you had found when you went on runs, like purses, clothes, some make-up, and paintings. The fourth floor was where you kept all of the science equipment that you had found in the hospital and that you found on runs. The fifth floor was where you lounged and watched movies on DVD and VHS. You also had a small library in that room that was filled with books and board games. Finally, the top floor was where you kept your food, cooked - after lugging a fridge, stove, and a sink up there and taking your time to hook them up - and slept. So you went into the ‘kitchen’ and put all of the boxes at the bottom of a pantry.
You frowned when you saw a hole in the side of one of the boxes. “Fuck.” You cursed as you opened it up. Sure enough, some of the loaves of bread had bullet shards in them. You cursed louder and took out all of the bread. You threw all of the bread in a separate box and figured you might as well use it for hunting at some point. You grabbed a marker and wrote, ‘ Hunting ’ on the side of it. You then placed it on top of the fridge, facing the lettering outwards. It was then that you began to look around in the pantry, keeping inventory, adding the sugar and bread to the list of items that you had.
All of a sudden, there was a small alarm that went off in the kitchen for several seconds before it turned off. You furrowed your brows and went to the main kitchen area. There was a small monitor next to the sink. The monitor went to a camera that you hooked up to show when someone or something gets anywhere near the gate. In the camera, there were two vehicles. One of them was a motorcycle and the other one was a 2010 Toyota Highlander. Four people were in view. The boy was one of them - the one that put a damn gun to your face - as well as two men and one woman.
One of the men were lighter skin with a beard that seemed to be starting to show as well as short hair. He held a revolver in his hand. The other male that was there had longer hair and it was very hard to see his facial features but you could see that he was carrying a very nice looking crossbow. Then the woman had dark skin. She showed a lot of skin and had dreadlocks in her hair. She had two swords on her back.
When you saw the group walking towards the openings of the parking garage, you pressed a small button for the intercom. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” You said. The group jumped back. They spoke, but you couldn’t hear it. You rolled your eyes. “Just stay right there.” You said and stood up straight.
You left your kitchen, grabbed the keys to your SUV, and walked out to the top of the parking garage. You looked down at the vehicles that were below before you hurried and got into your car. You drove back down the endless - it seemed - ramps of the garage. When you got to the bottom of the structure, you saw them point the guns at the vehicle. You sighed, parked, and got out. You walked close to them, near the side of the door, but not leaning close enough to poke your head out.
“Who are you?” The man with the short hair and revolver asked you.
“My name’s (Y/N). You’re lucky you didn’t try to climb in through the sides. You could have severely injured yourself.” You told them.
“What are you-?”
“I’m referring to the microblades that I planted on rather thin pieces of wire and made rows of at every opening in this place.” You leaned to the side just slightly so that you could see the outline of a small line that reflected in the midday sun. “It’s made of carbon steel. Not the most durable material, but it’s the best thing that I could find. And it withstands an attack from one of the infected.” You poked a thin wire and flinched at the pain. You pulled back a bloody finger and showed it to the group. You wiped the blood away. “Now…” You trailed. “How may I help you?”
“My name’s Rick. Rick Grimes.” The man told you. “Where is the rest of your group?”
“Why do you assume that I have a group? You think that because I’m small and young that automatically makes me incapable of taking care of myself?” You questioned.
“I didn’t mean-”
“I know what you meant. I have no other group. I’m pretty sure that, if they saw two random vehicles approaching their base, they would attack or take hostages. I, however, take the more appropriate and gentle approach. I keep myself rather quiet unless someone were to approach my doors and attempt to open them, which you will, no matter what, be unsuccessful. This is a code activated door.” You told Rick. “Besides that, is there any particular reason that you would be asking me about a possible group other than the obvious?”
“Well,” Rick said and stepped closer. “My group and I, we’re from Alexandria. We have been searching for groups that could be capable of helping us take down the Saviors. Do you know them?”
“Know of them? Yes. I have no personal connection with those pansies, nor do I wish to have one anytime soon. Negan’s methods, as I have heard, are rather...extreme and egotistical.”
“Right. The Saviors have to be taken down. They killed our friends. Our family .”
“And you think that revenge is the best option?”
“I got a little girl back at our camp. I can’t risk anything happening to her.”
You raised your brows. He did look like a father figure now that you had the time to look at his face. A worried father figure. It was then that you took the time to look at the female in the group. She, too, had that parental look in her eyes. She also had a look of determination in her eyes and concentration. You then looked at the other man. His hair was still in the way of his eyes - a simple sign of someone being rather sketchy or skeptical. His stance was careful and solid. Then, you looked at that damn boy. Asshole. You already had a close up of his face and immediately looked away from him and back at Rick.
“She’s just a kid.” The other man said, leaning close to Rick.
“I’m sorry,” You said and crossed your arms. “But who are you?”
The man looked at you. “Daryl.” He said in a deep, gruff voice.
“Well, Daryl, I am overjoyed to inform you that, even though I may be young and young is associated with a low knowledge rank of any type of helpful survival skills, I have been able to keep myself alive, and only myself, for the years that this plague has been active.” You said. “So me being ‘just a kid’ is highly relevant to the situation.”
Daryl took a step closer to you - the garage - but he said nothing. There was a part of you that figured that he did wish to call you out and insult you, but another section of your brain was convinced he said all that he had to said. You were the one that looked away from him and back at Rick.
“So you’re wanting to converse with me about some sort of partnership? I can do that.” You said. “But please, first, introduce the rest of your current group so that we’re no longer strangers.”
Rick looked at the woman and the boy. “This is Michonne.” He pointed to the woman, who gave a small nod towards you. “And this is my son, Carl.” He pointed to the boy.
You raised your brows. “Your son? I would have never guessed.”
“Why do you say that?” He asked.
“You seem rather nice, whereas the first time I came in contact with Carl , he had a gun pointed at my head. At the strip mall. He saw that I was there and decided to hold me at gunpoint.”
Rick looked at Carl. “You never told me that.” He mumbled.
“I bet he didn’t.” You said. “Aside from that, I would like to make an offer to help your group. You will need someone to come in and look at my base.” You said. “And the only way that that is going to happen is if it’s the kid. No weapons.”
“No weapons?” Rick questioned and sighed as he looked down. “No, I need to come in.”
“Either the kid or no deal.” You told Rick. “And I have nothing to gain from killing him, as I am almost certain you are thinking. I have no idea where you guys are located, nor do I want to know until we set up some form of agreement. Give me about fifteen minutes with the kid and then we will talk.”
Rick looked at Carl. “It’s okay Dad.” Carl told him and handed his weapon to his father. “I’ll go in.”
Rick sighed and looked at the gun and then at you. “If you hurt him-”
“You’ll kill me, I understand.” You said and walked over to the keypad on the far side of the garage. You typed in 3583. The exact number of times you have typed in the code. It was set to change and go up one number each time that you put it in correctly. The large, metal doors slowly began to open up upon command. You stood in the middle of the open doors with a cocked hip.
Once the doors finally opened up all the way, you gestured towards your SUV. Carl took one last look back at his group and then walked through the doors. After he went through, you walked over to the keypad and pressed the automatic button to have the doors close. You then walked over to the car, unlocked the passenger’s side door, and got in. Carl got in soon afterwards and glanced at you and then at the floor of the car.
You started the car, made a U-turn, and then made your way back up to the roof of the garage. The two of you were silent the entire drive. You stared ahead and he looked out the window, at the floor, and sometimes at you. When you reached the top of the garage, you parked in the exact same spot that you had - it was a sort of habit that you had forced yourself to form just in case you were to find yourself some more vehicles.
You got out of the car and closed the door. You waited for Carl to get out as well. He walked over to you. Before you got a chance to make your way towards the house, he spoke.
“Where did you learn how to drive?” He questioned you. “Did someone help you?”
You turned back to him and shook your head. “No,” you responded. “When you have enough space on the empty roads, it opens up a good time to practice. The first couple of months I spent walking before I found this place.” You gestured to the building behind you with your thumb. “Then I found my vehicle and practiced. I started cautiously up here and then started to take her on scavenges. Pain in the ass to get back though.” You patted the back of the SUV. “Come on. You first.”
Without another word, Carl walked past you and towards the door. He opened it and walked in, afterwards, you did as well. You closed the door behind you. With a gentle hand pressed against Carl’s back - at which he tensed at - you led him to the floor you would like to call the Leisure Level.
“Right here,” You said and gestured towards the library. “We can talk in here.”
Carl looked back at you and then walked into the room. He looked around. “It’s a nice setup you got here.” He told you and sat down on one of the couches.
A smile appeared on your face at the compliment. “Thank you.” You said to him and sat down on the opposite couch. “It took me awhile to get it this far. I still have a couple floors below us that are clear and in use.”
Carl raised his brow. “Really? More floors.”
You nodded. “Yes.” You told him. “But, that aside, let’s talk about this teamwork that your father was referring to.” You pushed your hair behind your ear. “First of all, tell me what happened between you and Negan.”
Carl looked down and then at you. “He killed our family. A man named Glenn and another man named Abraham.” Carl said. “When he did, he took Daryl as well, but he escaped.”
“He escaped? I have to give him credit for that. Negan has a lot of men and if he was able to escape, that means that they aren’t as strong as I thought.” You mumbled to yourself. You shook your head. “I’m sorry for what happened to you and your group, but, if you don’t mind me asking: what happened to your eye? Or….face?”
Carl placed a hand over the bandage and looked down. “I got shot.”
“And survived? Extraordinary. Lucky too.” You said. “Again, I’m sorry for the unfortunate set of events. I would like to join you and your group in taking down the Saviors. I, of course, will have some standards that I would like to have.”
“Like what?”
“Like the fact that I cannot leave this place.” You said. “This place is my home and I have all of my work here. I don’t think it’s safe for it to be moved. I can provide weapons though, food, and medication. Not all of it, just some. And, maybe, you could possibly provide me with supplies as well. I wouldn’t be needing food or weapons, I have all of those. I would need chemicals that you could possibly fine. Metals would also work.”
“Why do you need those?”
“This place could always be reinforced. I could also show you some ways that you can fortify your own camp.”
“Really? That would be awesome. How did you find all of this out anyway?”
“Experimentation, mostly. However, my knowledge on historical tanks and weapons have assisted as well.” Carl gave you a simple nod. “So,” you continued. “If you are willing to agree to my conditions, then I am able to help you.”
Carl looked around, as if to find his father, before looking back at you, straight into your eyes. “Yeah.” He said. “Let’s do it.”
You smiled. “Alright. Come with me and we will call your family up. I will finalize it with your father.” You stood up and gestured towards the door. “Upstairs, follow me.” You said and walked out of the room.
Without looking back, you could hear Carl stand up and follow after you. You walked up the stairs and back to the kitchen. You looked at the security camera and saw Rick conversing with the two other people in his group. You pressed the intercom button and spoke into it. You could feel Carl’s presence behind you.
“Rick, you may come in.” You said. Rick jumped and looked around. “Get in your vehicle, go over, and type in the code 3584. Afterwards, drive up to the top of the parking garage. Me and your son will be waiting at the top for you. Again, the code is 3584.”
You stood back and left the kitchen with Carl following your wordlessly. You walked up the stairs to the top of the parking garage and opened the door. It didn’t take long for you to see the car that Rick drove and the motorcycle that Daryl had appear. Now that you thought about it, Daryl did look the type that would own a motorcycle. They parked the cars next to you.
Rick got out, and then Michonne. Daryl turned off his bike and walked to you. You stood as tall as you could, looking at them. Your gaze moved towards Rick.
“I have decided to help.” You said. “But, like I told Carl, there are going to be some conditions that I would love to discuss with you.”
Rick looked at Carl and then back at you. “Alright. What are the conditions?”
“Well, why don’t we talk about it over some drinks. It would be rather rude of me not to offer you any. You, after all, have been kind to me this far.”
“We don’t want to stay long.”
“I insist.” You said. “Plus, I could show you my home. But, please, leave all weapons out here. I don’t wanna risk it.”
Rick looked at his other group members before he nodded. He walked to the car, opened up the back door and began to put his weapons into the back seat. Michonne followed, placing her sword in the back as well. Daryl then went, setting his crossbow in the back before turning to Rick and Michonne and you.
With a nod, you opened the door and gestured inside. Carl went first and then the group followed. You walked down to the kitchen and gestured for them to sit down at the dining table. You nodded.
“Would you like some coffee?” You asked them.
Michonne denied a beverage and so did Daryl. Rick turned down the coffee, but asked for some water. Carl did too. Once the drinks were set down, you grabbed another chair and pulled it back. You sat at the head of the table.
“So,” you said.
“So.” Rick said after he drank. “What are you conditions.”
“My conditions are that I stay here. I have so much work that I have done here with fortification and other scientific aspects that it would be a huge shame to waste my hard work like that, especially considering the length of time that it took to complete my research.”
“What is your research?” Michonne asked.
You looked towards her and shook your head. “I will get to that in a minute, but right now I would like to discuss my conditions.” Michonne nodded. “Aside from me staying here, I will be willing to give your group small amounts of weapons, medications, food as well, but I ask for some supplies in return. And I’m not talking about the ones that I’ve mentioned, but I really, really need any type of metals that you could find or chemicals even. Nevermind what they are for, let’s just say that I have ideas for some weapons.”
“Weapons? What kind of weapons?”
“If our relationship grows, I will let you in on that secret.” You said.
Rick raised his brows and nodded. “We can work with those conditions.” He said.
“Good.” You said and stood up. “Now, if you would like me to lead you down to the library, I have a map in there. I would like you to show me where you are camped out so that we can meet up.”
“Alright.” Rick said and stood up. Everyone else did as well.
You began to lead them down to the stairs to the library. In that room, there was a table in the corner with a map and the board games on them. You took the board games and set them on the ground. You grabbed the map and unrolled it. You placed a board game at each corner of the map to keep it from rolling back up.
“Please show me.” You said.
Rick leaned over the table, pressing the palm of his hands against the table, his eyes roaming around the map of the area. His tongue ran over his bottom lip before he pointed to the location where their camp was.
“Alexandria, huh?” You questioned and nodded. You looked around. You grabbed a pen and circled it. “Thank you.” You said and held out your hand to Rick.
Rick took your hand and shook it. “Thank you.” He said. “For this.”
“You’re welcome Rick. Now, it’s getting late, you might as well get back to Alexandria. You’ll make it before nightfall.”
Rick nodded. “Right, right. Is there any way that we can communicate with you?”
You hummed and bit your lip. “Not as of now, but if you ever need my help, just come on back. If I’m here, you just have to show up at the gate. A small alarm will warn me about a presence. Then I will let you in by telling you the password. Just so you know, if you are going to bring anyone else here, you gotta be here too, or one of them,” You pointed to the group. “So that I have someone who can vouch for them.”
“Will do.” Rick said and let his hand fall at his side.
“And if you or your group members have to stay the night anywhere, you can go ahead and come to me. I have extra beds down a couple of floors.”
Rick smiled lightly. “I appreciate it. We all appreciate it.” He said.
“Well, you’re welcome Rick.” You said. “Let me lead you outside.”
Rick gave you another nod as you walked up the stairs until you got to the roof. Rick and the rest of them walked to their cars. “To get out,” you began. “You need to type in 3585. It changes each time it is put in correctly.”
“That’s smart.”
You smiled and blushed. You rubbed the back of his head. “Thanks.” You told him.
Rick nodded and got in the car. Everyone else did as well. A smile was on your face as you watched them leave the top of the parking garage. You walked over to the side of the garage’s concrete walls and watched. It wasn’t long before the cars drove out and away.
You knew, from that day, that it was going to be the start of a strange, strong, and dangerous alliance.