R.F.Y.L. - Prologue, Levi

Levi Ackerman was nineteen years old when the world stopped turning. Fresh out of high school as a graduate still donned in his cap and gown, the girl he had been seeing on and off told him that she was pregnant. At the time he was working part-time at a auto shop downtown, not even making enough to support himself, let alone another little life.

Just a little under nine months after that frightening afternoon a beautiful russet haired baby girl came into the world at a whopping 6 pounds 2 ounces. The man himself had never been one to be religious, but her mother insisted that her name be 'Isabel Magnolia', for 'God's promise'. He wasn't sure what the promise was supposed to mean, but just the sheer sense of purpose in the little girl's name alone had given him faith for their future ahead of them; the obsidian would have never anticipated that the name alone would be the extent of the woman's involvement with the little life they had made together. Three days after birth of their baby girl and she had disappeared without the baby, and neither ever saw her again.

The older just couldn't understand how easy it was for her to leave and resented her for quite some time. While he stayed in the town he had been raised in, scraping pennies to make ends meet, he could only assume that the latter party had left them because she wanted to get on with her life. It had been her plan from the beginning, it had been foolish to think that her life would change for them. Just go and forget it all; him and this sleepy town, go off to school, earn that degree she wanted, find someone better for her and finally get that life she believed she deserved - and in a way he really couldn't blame her. But for him, just fazing out hadn't been option, it hadn't even crossed his mind. What could he do? Unknowingly little Isabel had him wrapped around her finger from the moment she was born. He couldn't see himself going through life just tossing their baby aside in the same way his ex had.

Her mother certainly didn't seem to want the small child back. There weren't any calls lighting up his cell from her all too familiar number and there wasn't a time or day that Levi had been able to get a hold of her just to talk, let alone to arrange visits. Despite his efforts that wasn't enough to keep looming grandparents from the other side and warrants of empty threats for the CPS.

Things were hard. The temporary position he had taken up for the summer had all of the sudden become a full-time affair, and what time he wasn't with the baby was spent learning the tools of the trade and getting all the hands-on experience he needed in order to be a successful mechanic. He couldn't quit and go off to school, there weren't any better paying jobs available that were willing to hire him while his hands were tied up with diapers.

Luck just hadn't been in the cards for them their first year. Even with the financial graces afforded sparsely in between hopping to and from his parents, Isabel had been quite sick as a little baby and had been in and out of the doctors office several times in her first months of life - let alone when she started frequenting daycare centers and interacting with other disease-ridden children. Needless to say, the man couldn't afford the growing stack of medical bills and after his first bike accident at age 22 something had to give. The pains in his shoulder had made it hard for him to keep them financially steady while waiting on his injury to heal, and he had to think fast to find quick alternatives to keep them afloat.

It had all started out so simply. Selling just one of his painkillers a day equaled pack of diapers and maybe dinner on a tight budget. However, keeping on the pain killers, scouting for potential customers in alleyways, and making the proper connections to expand his stock equated to numerous new possibilities; rent money, fuller meals, better clothing and care for his little girl.

Levi had met a business partner for the underground in his lapse of time on leave from the shop, and even after he had returned to work at the mechanic it was hard to come up with reasons to stop selling on the side. Farlan had moved in with him while Isabel was still young and made it possible for them to settle into an apartment in a nicer part of town. They made what they could at home, found ways to obtain what they couldn't, and split the cash they made off of the drugs cut and dry 60/40; and in exchange for free rent the blond had started watching over and caring for the little girl in Levi's absence while he was off at work. It wasn't a perfect life, but it was theirs. They weren't rich but they had a comfortable amount of money to float on. Isabel was getting older, she was needing different things...and they could amazingly afford it. They were able to give her all the things a girl her age could have wanted; her own bedroom, a small pet, a pink bike with tassels - those were the things that made her smile the most, and the things that made working on the side so much more worthwhile. Who knows how well-off they would have been had he not started selling drugs, he wasn't even willing to think about it.

He had really been mistaken the first time. The world had really stopped turning a few years later when he had gotten into his second accident. A person had walked out right in the path of his motorcycle while the obsidian was heading into the city on an errand, he and the vehicle flipped and tumbled across the pavement so fast it could have been missed with a blink of an eye. Upon waking the male thought he had been hallucinating when the person he had hit started growling and dragging itself in his direction with snapping teeth...It had to be some sort of trip, right?

Things had only gotten progressively worse on his return home. People were violently  rummaging and rioting in the streets, hoarding what they could hold in their arms and destroying what they couldn't. Amongst all of this, more infected creatures had infested the road, biting, tearing, and clawing at whatever person they could grab and what flesh they could consume. Just what the hell was going on? He had managed to hurry through all of the chaos and found his baby girl cowering in fear under the table of her 2nd grade classroom sobbing and curled up in a ball. All the other children had either ran off or been rescued by one adult or another, but she had been overlooked by the last authority to sweep over the room. As he lifted her and started running in the direction of home he noticed a bite on her forearm that was the result of one of her classmates, and he couldn't help but harbor the disbelief that all that was happening was even real.

It had been immensely difficult to get into his own apartment, his roommate already struggling hard to board up and secure their small living premises long before they had arrived. Upon entry Isabella had immediately been laid down on the couch as her body burned up with a fever. Levi watching helplessly as she coughed and writhed as her body went through a series of violent tremors. Confusion tore and wracked his brain as live news of the event played quietly in the background.

What Farlan had been saying was insane. Zombies? That sounded crazy! Sure, that's what it had looked like while he was out there...but that didn't make any sense! Surely this had to be some sort of prank, maybe a terrorist attack, or a bad trip that several people were experiencing all at once. How could thousands of people all hallucinate the same thing? Or rather, what and how could turn what was a healthy human being into the flesh-starved monsters raiding their town?

He had nearly lunged at the younger man when he started talking nonsense about Isabel. He was spouting so many things so far and fast. How they had to 'get rid of her' before she 'turned' into one of those monsters on the street, that if they didn't kill her now they would be as good as dead themselves. How could he even say such a thing, especially right in front of the girl? What had he been talking about? What did this all even mean? 'You're crazy!' He shouted, pushing the roommate back away from the sofa and the child. Amber eyes had widened in terror at the two men as they shouted and shoved at each other, silencing only when the sounds of their argument had caught the attention of the rabid creatures scratching and stumbling through the hallway outside.

They waited in silence. A quarter of a pill had been cut and given to the little girl to knock her out, if anything to try and induce sleep to help break the fever. It was all they could do considering the conditions of the world outside. Who could say that the hospitals were boarded up and safe or that they'd even make the trip? It was the obsidian's decision that they stay inside and make due with what they had for as long as they could. Farlan had seemed displeased.

While drowsiness had drooped Isabel's eyelids Levi had tucked her in with a kiss to the forehead and the promise things would be alright in the morning. He was sure to make these last moments he offered his daughter forever engraved within his mind, fearing the worst as he stepped out to survey the chaos looming just beyond their apartment's bolted door.
He had only just begun raiding their neighbors for canned goods when the sound of gunfire had drawn him back to his own apartment, competing with stumbling walkers as the tight hallways all resounded with the echo. As he stumbled back into the living room on heavy feet he was stunned to see no zombie threat invading their space, but Farlan standing completely frozen over Isabel; a gun shaking and letting off a steady stream of smoke in his hand as innocent blood spilled down the couch and onto floor.

The way he had slammed Farlan into the wall and beat the boy into the ground had been the closest Levi had ever come to killing a man; rage and grief wracking his body as he cried and pounded his fists into the roommates crumpled body. He cried and screamed why as the victim below groaned and just barely managed to attempt to protect himself from the harsh blows. Just the sound of their scuffle and the breaking of things around them had been more than enough to attract all of the walkers in the vicinity, but by the time they had arrived at the doorstep the obsidian had blacked out and wasn't fully aware of his surroundings until sometime the next day.

Cold and alone, Levi had left Farlan unconscious in their apartment, escaping down the fire escape with the clothes on his back, a small bag and a crowbar in his hands.

The little bit of faith he had held for humanity and this word before seemed to come off like the rising smokestacks looming high above the vacating city, leaving hot clouds of pain and ash to gather and suffocate victims below as fire consumed all in it's path. Boots clicked on the pavement as he made it down to the first floor, cold iron shifting in his grip as a paper medical mask was pulled gingerly over his face.

It was just day one.