Ch. 1 Moving in and Greeting the Neighbors

It's a bright and sunny morning in King County. It's in the middle of the summer of 2009 and the city is already moving.

A man is driving into town in a truck. His brown hair is slicked back except the front that is unkempt. A shirt doing barely anything to hide his muscular and toned muscles. Years of service in the military and years of sports in high school kept him in great shape that only got better with time. This man is Lucas Meyers

Lucas has dog tags hang around his neck and a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. It was a gift from his younger brother when he left to serve. He had left them in a safe place and picked them back up years later after getting time for himself. He knows they make him look like a prick, but it's a gift from his little bro and nobody will stop him from wearing them.

He's 24 and going to his first home that he owns, well not technically own but it's still his place he will be living for a while that he has to pay for. And he plans to work as a mechanic in town, he would have joined the sheriff department but he wants to avoid pointing guns at people after his time in the military.

The county isn't fancy and it has several farms and crops. It's on the outskirts of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Lucas didn't want to go home to his parents and brother in Atlanta, but being this close made him feel a bit better. He didn't want to show them what happened to him.

The early morning air felt great, the truck's radio playing barely loud enough for him to hear.

*Weeee* *Woooo* *Weeee* *Woooo*

Lucas looks in his rear view mirror and sees the red and blue lights. "Fuck me"

He pulls over to the side of the road. He barely made it into the city and he's already in trouble.

Lucas shuts his truck off and takes the key out, his window is already down. He leaves his hands on the steering wheel.

The police car pulls up behind Lucas and the driver gets out and walks up to Lucas. He's a cleanly shaven man that looks to be at the end of his 30s maybe? The officer walks up to the driver side window after touching the back of the truck near its tail light.

"Good mornin'. My name is Rick Grimes, and I'm the sheriff's deputy of the King County Sheriff Department. Do you have your listener and registration?" The man asks.

Lucas smiles stiffly. "Drivers license is in my wallet in my back pocket. Proof of insurance is in the glove box. Can I remove my sunglasses and grab them for you?"

Rick puts his hands on his hips. "Please do"

Lucas takes his glasses with his right hand and sets them in an empty cup holder. Then he grabs his license and insurance and hands them over to Rick.

As Rick looks them over he starts talking. "Do you know why I pulled you over?"

Lucas thinks for a few seconds after placing his hands back on the steering wheel. "No, can't say I do"

Rick looks at Lucas. "You were going a little fast here into town. And by a little I mean 45 in a 25"

Lucas look in his rear view mirror in hopes to see a sign with the speed limit posted. "No shit. That's my bad then. Can I ask where the sign is with the speed limit is posted? I'm new to town and am moving in"

Rick shrugs and motions down the road. "It's a ways down the road and kinda hidden. I've tried to get it moved but obviously I've met a little resistance on that front" He sighs and hands the license and registration back to Lucas.

Lucas takes them and placed them in his other cup holder for now and turns back to the officer. "So what's the verdict sir?"

Rick shrugs. "You gonna go speeding anytime soon?"

Lucas shakes his head. "No, can't say that's on my to do list"

Rick smiles. "Then I'll leave you with a warning and I'd like to welcome you to King County"

"Thank you, for the warning and the greeting separately" Lucas smiles in relief. Would have been his luck to get a ticket as soon as he gets to town.

"No problem. And where you heading?" Rick asks. The house next to him had recently been cleared and Lori was talking about somebody moving in for the past 2 days.

"Uhhhh, I've got the address written down here" Lucas grabs a slip of paper from his cars driver side visor. "Here" He points at the address.

"Would ya look at that" Rick lifts the brim of his hat. "Looks like you're my neighbor"

Lucas blinks twice. "Dang, guess that means I won't be having any parties"

"Hahaha, if I'm at home I'm not on duty so you should be fine. Just don't break any major laws" Rick stands back up after leaning over to look at the address.

Lucas puts the paper back in his visor. "Didn't plan on doing that either. Say…" Lucas looks at Rick. "Can you give me some directions? Not entirely sure where I'm going, was gonna ask some people once I got here and you're a person y'know"

"I'll do you one better, I can escort you there and you'll just have to follow me" Rick offers.

"That'd be great. Can't say I've been escorted by a deputy before" Lucas hasn't had an escort of any variety before.

"Before I lead you to your home…" Rick lifts his chin towards Lucas. "….did you serve?"

Lucas looks down at his dog tags. "Yeah. Military. Can't get into the specifics, some special forces stuff you know"

Rick raises his brows. "Ah, got ya. Well thank you for your service"

Lucas nods. "And I'll be in your hands from now on" He holds his hand out. "Names Lucas Meyers if you didn't read or remember it"

Rick shakes his hand. "Rick Grimes, if you didn't hear or forgot it"

Rick points towards his police vehicle. "I'll hop in and you can follow us. When we get there I'll introduce you to both my partners"

Lucas waves to Rick and starts his car. "Both his partners?" Realization dawns on Lucas. "Ohhhhh~, wife and officer partner"

Lucas follows behind Rick and they drive through the town until they get to a more residential area.

Rick parks in front of a house and Lucas looks at the address and realizes his own house is the next one. He pulls into the driveway and gets out. He stretches his legs and arms once his feet reach the ground.

"Holy shit man, what did they feed you? Some superhero serum?" A different man steps out from the police car.

"This is Shane. As a heads up, we've known each other since high school so that's why we're so close" Rick introduces his friend.

Shane walks around the car and meets Lucas halfway. "Shane Walsh"

"Lucas Meyers. Good to meet you" Lucas shakes Shane's hand.

Shane shakes his hand and turns towards Rick who walks up to them. "You weren't kidding, he's got one helluva grip"

Lucas smiles. "What can I say? I don't know how to control myself after that serum"

Shane smirks. "Nice one, so I heard you served somewhere you can't talk about. Did you get deployed?"

Lucas' face twitches faintly and his smile stiffens. "Yeah" His smile comes back. "I've was deployed a few times. Can't say where but I've seen my share of action"

Shane holds his hands up. "All I needed to know. So what made you decide on this place? Isn't exactly a tourist spot or anything"

Lucas turns to look at his house. "Didn't want to return to my family, and one of my buddies knows a mechanic here in town and hooked me up. That way I can be close to my family in Atlanta without having to be in Atlanta"

"I'd love for us to continue chatting but we're still on the clock. We'll see ya around Lucas" Rick says as he drags Shane away.

"We can meet up when we're off duty Lucas! We can show you around town! I know a few good spots!" Shane shouts as he gets in the passenger seat.

Lucas waves them off. "That'd be great"

They drive off and Lucas is left alone once again.

"What a way to start anew" He mutters to himself as he turns around and looks at his house.

It's nothing fancy. Just a two story house. One front door, one back door, a few windows. A bit big for just him but he would rather have extra room than not enough.

He goes to his truck and grabs the house keys and goes to the front door. He unlocks it and looks inside. It's fully furnished, kitchen table, couch, tv, beds, fridge, laundry machines, anything that should be there is there for him. He only needs to move his things inside.

Lucas starts moving his things in, one box at a time. He doesn't have much. It's mostly his clothes. And the heaviest things are his weights and giant toolbox.

Once he gets everything inside he dusts his hands off. "Phew! That took a bit" He wipes his forehead with the back of his hand. He wasn't sweating, it was just out of habit.

He saw the mechanic shop he will be working in back in town so he decides to visit the place before he starts work tomorrow. And he needs groceries to fill his fridge so he has to visit a store anyway.

Lucas hops back into his truck and drives away. Out of the corner of his eyes he can see a woman and small kid leaving Rick's house. "Guess that's his wife, and he's got a son as well. Way to go Rick"

In town, Lucas pulls into the mechanic shop and sees a two people working on a car. Both men are standing over the cars engine.

Lucas gets out of his truck and walks into the garage. "Hello, I'm Lucas Meyers. Friend of Damian Linman"

The older looking man turns around followed by a younger looking man. The first looking to be in his late 40s to early 50s. The second man being around 19 or 20.

The older man watches Lucas walk up. "Ah, right. You're supposed to start tomorrow right?"

Lucas walks up to the pair. "Yeah, just thought I'd stop by and get used to the place before starting though. And I need to grab some groceries"

"Right" The older man grabs a rag and wipes his hand off and offers it out to shake. "I'm Damian's father. Samuel Linman" He hands the rag to the younger guy. "And this is my youngest"

Lucas shakes Samuel's hand. "It's great to finally meet you. Damian respected you a lot and he talked about you even more"

Samuel smiles and puts his hands on his hips.

Lucas goes to shake the younger guys hand. "Lucas Meyer, I served with your brother"

The guy's face darkens a little. He shakes Lucas' hand briefly. "George Linman" He looks down at the ground. "W-was it quick?"

Lucas freezes.

Samuel tightly grips George's shoulder. "We already know the answer. Don't go digging up old wounds"

Lucas shakes his head. "No, it's fine" He looks into George's eyes. "It was quick. He didn't have to suffer"

Lucas remembers when he was with the rest of his unit and they were in deep shit. Bullets flying even though it was supposed to be a cover mission. They were fed bad intel and paid a heavy price in blood. Damian was part of that bill. Took a bullet through the face, closed casket sort of deal. But Lucas had a front row view to it and Damian died practically in his arms. Blood splattered over his mask, helmet, and uniform.

George wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. "Thank you, they weren't even able to b-bring his body back to us to put it next to ma's"

Samuel takes a deep breath. "Lucas, we're here for you if you need anything. Giving you a job is easy, but if you need to talk we're available"

Lucas smiles. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind"

Samuel takes his hand off his son's shoulder. "Why don't you show Lucas around here while I finish up on this guy?"

George shows Lucas around the garage. It's not much. Just a bunch of various tools. Since there aren't many mechanic shops in town the place is usually busy every day. And that works perfectly for Lucas. He needs something to take his mind away from itself.

Lucas and George face eachother.

George is better after asking about his brother, he kept apologizing and Lucas kept telling him it was a normal question to ask. George and Lucas said goodbye and Lucas said goodbye so Samuel as he left.

He went grocery shopping. The town wasn't super big and most people knew eachother so Lucas was kinda exotic to them. He met a few people and chatted with them about the town and what he will be doing here. Just some friendly conversations.

Lucas went back home and sat in his truck for some time. He closed his eyes and tightly gripped the steering wheel. He remembers the scene of people dying in various locations. Not just Damian. But other friends in his unit. Eventually the unit seemed more like new people than old friends by the time he left he didn't recognize anyone. But for every person they lost they took down many more.

"You okay?"

Lucas snaps his eyes open and jumps in his seat. He breathes heavily as he sees a woman with brown hair. It was Rick's wife.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya. You were just sitting here for a while. Are you ok?" She asks.

Lucas slowly lets go of the steering wheel. "Y-yeah. I'm fine, thanks" He nods to his house. "I just moved in today, got the jitters of being in a new place"

"So that's why you were here earlier, I saw you pull away when I took Carl to school" Lori pieces the things together.

"Yeah. Im Lucas Meyer by the way. I think I met your husband this morning. He showed me the way here. Rick Grimes right?" Lucas informs and asks.

Lori nods. "That's him. And if you met him you probably met Shane too, right?"

"Yeah. The three of us briefly talked. The two of them said they were friends since high school" Lucas says.

"Well, they might have been friends before I met them. But we were all friends until Rick and I fell for each other" Lori says.

Lucas feels for Shane. He's been in that situation a few times. He normally dips before he can third wheel for too long though. "High school sweethearts. Haven't heard of many of those. Just a lucky few, congrats"

Lori looks to the side. "Lucky huh?" She then looks back to Lucas. "Welcome to King County. We don't have much but I'm sure you'll fit right in"

Lucas gets out of his truck. "Thank you, feels like I've heard that all morning. Guess it's better than being ostracized" He jokes.

Lori smiles. "Most of us here are friendly. Some more than others. If you need help with anything just ask. I'm usually at home. If not then I'm out with Carl or out with the other stay at home moms"

"If something comes up I'll be sure to ask. This is my first time living on my own so be prepared" He jokes.

"Really? What did you do before? Moms basement?" She jokes.

Lucas shrugs. "Not exactly. I was in the military, can't go into the specifics but I've got some time away. I've come here because of a job connection through a friend"

Lori covers her mouth. "Oh my…. Im so sorry…"

Lucas waves her apology away. "Don't worry about it. I'd rather be able to joke around with people than have them tiptoe their way through conversations with me"

Lori holds her hands together and lets them go to her waist. "A-alright. I can understand that"

"Thanks" Lucas smiles. "I've gotta get my groceries in before something starts to melt so I'll talk with you later if that's ok"

"Oh, I'm sorry. And that's alright, I'll be inside if you need anything" Lori says as she walks backwards towards herself.

Lucas and Lori say goodbye and Lucas grabs his groceries and takes them inside. He sets them own the counter and takes a deep breath. "Cmon Lucas, let's get a move on" He says to himself and starts putting the groceries away.

After he is done he doesn't have anything to do, so he goes to his weights and starts working out. As he does so he remembers the people in his unit going through training together. How they would joke and make fun of each other. The competitions they would have for who could lift the most weights.

Lucas loses track of time as he continues to workout, going through his thoughts as he changes what exercises he does. After a while Lucas drops his weights next to his bench. He grabs a towel and wicks his sweat away.

He can't get out of his thoughts so he changes out of his jeans into a pair of shorts. He grabs his iPhone 4 and headphones as he walks out his front door. He plays his music playlist and puts his phone in an arm and so it doesn't bounce around in his pocket and he doesn't have to hold it.

Lucas stretches a bit as he walks to the sidewalk. He looks left and right and doesn't see a difference. He plans to get familiar with this area on his run. Three birds with one stone. He gets exercise, away from his thoughts, and learns the streets of his neighborhood.

And so he begins running down the street.