𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 | 𝐭𝐰𝐝 ¹

ending.

common ground,
—in the end

credits

cover by ; erin-park / me

written by ; erin-park / me

special thanks ;

to umbreonender, for listening to me rant about about this story and series entirely. Thank you for listening to me rave about how much I love Dacole and how much I love Nicole. Thank you for helping me through my writer's block and keeping my motivated to write this rollercoaster of a story.

I 10/10 recommend you all go read her book All For One.  It's amazing and it has zombies, so you should totally read it :)

author's note

I want to thank all of you so much for reading this entire thing. I know it's not the best TWD fanfiction out there but it's mine. I am so proud of myself because this was the first complete story that I have finished on here.

I never thought I'd put this much effort into a story or that I would grow this connected to a character as I have Nicole.

When the Natural Selection series came into my head, it was just a saying. The SERIES INTRODUCTION was something I came up with sometime in one of my classes almost 2 years ago. I procrastinated writing this for so long; I was scared of committing to yet another book.

I remember writing the prologue for CG with no name in mind for Nicole. Hell, I didn't even start writing it until January 2019. Yeah, I procrastinated that long.

I remember wanting a complex character who wanted nothing more than to keep her daughter safe. A character with strict morals and even stricter loyalties. A character with a jacked up background who didn't let that entirely define her. A character that was a product of drastic mistakes. A character who made mistakes. A character who just wanted to protect the people she grew to love.

Nicole wasn't intended to become such a broken shell at the end of Common Ground. I remember brainstorming with umbreonender and I asked her what could I do to expand Nicole's development. She gave me some ideas and then I shot out with: what if I took away the one thing she loved the most. Obviously, that's what happened.

I never thought I would make Nicole Allegro. Her development, in my opinion, was phenomenal. She reminded me that everyone has a breaking point. She reminded me of myself in a lot of ways.

Nicole became my child so quickly. She didn't want to hurt anyone. She was so innocent in the sense of morals. She didn't want to believe that humanity could be cruel for the sake of her daughter. But she lost that will to believe.

Nicole dug herself into a drug-induced grave from the pressure of her parents. And after that, she was trapped under the shadow of her obsessive husband. It all changed when Cheyanne came. Her entire life changed. It was changed until she lost it all. Nicole always seems to have everything on her shoulders and is always trying to lessen blame for other people.

Nicole has changed so much since the first words of this book. I never expected Nicole to emerge as a broken survivor. I never meant for all of this to happen.

In this book alone, so many things happened to Nicole. She's been shot and had bones shattered. She's been pushed to her limit and still comes out acting okay. She tried desperately to keep her family all alive but in the end, she lost the thing she loved the absolute most. I'm so sorry for all of it Nicole. 

Things will get better for you but they will also get worse. And I'm sorry for the bad times to come.

Thank you all again for reading. You all are the reason I write. Thank you.

With love, Erin.