The Belle and The Beast

Chapter One

When I used to be asked if I ever thought I'd survive an apocalypse of any kind, I'd burst into laughter and claim I wouldn't have a chance in hell. I was a tiny, scrawny pageant girl, my strongest punch barely made my big brother flinch and I was scared of just about anything. It was the kind of typical interview questions I got asked all the time, being Miss Tennessee and on the pageant circuit meant I was almost always in interviews and having to answer the most random questions.

Then again, when I gave that answer I never thought an apocalypse would actually happen, but one day we found ourselves in overrun with people who were dead, now roaming the streets, looking for the living to eat upon. Every day I found myself just hanging on to survival, kind strangers helping me get to safety, and just pure luck on my side meant that I'd crossed the border from Tennessee to Georgia 2 months after Nashville fell.

That's how I found myself, holed up in a pharmacy somewhere in Georgia, completely alone. I had no idea how I'd managed to survive this long, with only a tiny knife someone I travelled with through Manchester had given me, he was a nice boy that had his wits about him and saved my life countless times. But he was headed for North Carolina, and we had to part ways.

The pharmacy I was hiding in, after I heard some of the dead coming my way, was almost bare and I'd finished the last of my water the day before. If a dead didn't get me now, dehydration sure would. I wrapped my arms round my legs as I felt my eyes start to close, and all hope of me surviving any longer began to fade away. I was just about to close my eyes completely when I heard a soft voice.

"Glenn... you gotta come here a minute."

I fluttered one eye open to see a young brunette woman standing over me and an Asian man joined her a couple seconds later. He looked me over for a couple seconds and passed a bag he was holding to the girl.

"She's not a walker, we'll take her back to the farm and help her out. Poor things out here all alone." He spoke, and before I knew it he was lifting me from the floor gently and my eyes closed once again.

The next time my eyes opened I was gently being lifted again, I pried my eyes open slightly to see that it wasn't the same Asian boy that lifted me from the pharmacy, but a tall brown haired man whose face looked like it was in a permanent furrow. I closed my eyes again, the Georgia sun making them burn and tried to pay attention to what I could hear around me.

"Hershel," a man called, "we need your help."

A door opened, and the man who was carrying me laid me down on something extremely soft that made me want to go to sleep instantly and stay there for days. I heard a soft gasp a couple seconds later.

"Daddy," a girl spoke, "that's Georgia May Swinton!"

I zoned in and out of sleep as the same girl explained to someone who I was, and a man started barking out orders to people to fetch him things he needed. I felt a soft scratch on my arm, heard some people mumbling about sending someone to watch over me and then I was fast asleep.

When I woke, the sun was setting and I felt a lot better than I had before. I slowly wiped the sleep from my eyes and looked around the room, where a blonde girl was sitting in an armchair next to the bed, reading a book. She looked up quickly when she heard me attempt to sit up and quickly ushered me back to a lying position.

"Hi," she spoke softly, "I'm Beth, lemme just go get my daddy and the others."

She dashed out the room and returned just a few seconds later with an old man, a guy with brown curly hair, the girl and Asian man who saved me from the pharmacy and the man I vaguely remember from carrying me and putting me in this comfortable bed.