» Time Is Dancing « | » Carl Grimes «

» THE DISTANCE «

An All Too Familiar Feeling

"Hey," I heard Maggie's voice from outside, the door opening, "Everyone...this is Aaron."

We wasted no time in pointing our guns at the door, watching as Maggie and Sasha walked in with a stranger. Daryl paced over, checking the surroundings of the barn before shutting the door.

"We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and gear." Maggie insisted, but Daryl patted him down anyway. I watched the man, Aaron, down the barrel of my gun. You could never be too careful these days.

"Hi." Aaron held his hands up.

Judith started crying and Rick passed her over to Carl, taking her to the back of the barn. I stood in front of them, shielding them from Aaron's view.

"It's nice to meet you." He stepped forward with an outstretched hand, prompting all weapons to turn back to him. His face wasn't as nervous as I expected.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked, ignoring the man completely. "There something you need?" He finally addressed him.

"He has a camp nearby. He wants us to audition for membership." Sasha answered for him.

Aaron stuttered a response. "I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troop. That's only on Friday nights."

I held back a scoff. Did he really think he was in the position to be making jokes?

"Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions." He continued.

A community? Like Woodbury? Terminus? I wasn't convinced.

"My job is to convince you all to follow me back home. I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?"

Sasha complied, holding a bag in Rick's direction. He reached into the front pocket, retrieving an envelope.

"There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those." Aaron told us. I peered over Rick's shoulder as he opened a pack of photographs, flipping through them before landing on one.

"That's the first picture I wanted to show you, because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe." I saw high walls in the picture, thick metal sheets standing in the ground. It looked safe, but it said nothing about what went on inside.

I was starting to get tired of this. If he said community one more time I thought I would shoot him where he stood. It sounded like a nice place, if any of it was even true. It sounded too good.

Rick seemed to have the same idea as he swung his fist in Aaron's face, knocking him out cold. He was tied to a wooden beam, his head hanging down. Carl emptied the bag onto the table and I sifted through the items, finding it all to be normal. Some apple sauce, a pocket knife, some clean socks.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us." Rick called across the barn. I stood by Carl, checking out the object in his hand. It was a bright orange gun, the barrel much bigger and shorter than usual.

"Never seen a gun like that before." Carl said, handing it to Rick.

"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron blinked awake on the ground. "You're being cautious. I completely understand-"

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick interrogated. "You have a flare gun, you have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

"Does it matter how many people I tell you are out there? Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say - eight, thirty two, four hundred and forty four, zero - you're not going to trust me." Aaron calmly said.