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» KNOTS UNTIE «

I've Never Been Safer, I Swear

Carl stood by the door, a hand on his gun as I reached for mine. I peeked through the crack, seeing a man sitting on the top step before pulling back and sighing.

"He's the guy Rick and Daryl brought back today. He probably escaped." I whispered, watching Carl take another look. "We don't know a lot, he could be dangerous."

Carl nodded, stepping out the door quickly and I had no other choice but to follow him, the hammer of my gun clicking into place.

"What the hell are you doing in our house?" Carl threatened, placing his gun against the strangers head. I stepped around to his other side, keeping my finger close to the trigger.

"I'm, uh, sitting on the steps, looking at this painting, waiting for your mom and dad to get dressed." He replied. I shared a confused look with Carl, my lips pulled into a frown. "Hi, I'm Jesus."

My head snapped up at the sound of a door opening, hurried footsteps following. My eyes went wide when Rick and Michonne stumbled out, half dressed and completely caught off guard.

"Carl, hey, um..." Rick stuttered, zipping up his pants as Michonne followed. I had to hold in my gasp. They seemed just as surprised to see us here as we were, and then I suddenly realised how it looked. It's like all our brains worked to figure out why we were all here. It really didn't help our situation when more footsteps came up the stairs, the wide eyes of Glenn, Maggie, Daryl and Abraham appearing with it. Maggie looked at me with her eyebrows furrowed, a million different questions in her expression. I knew they would all be along the lines of 'what the hell are you doing with Carl in the middle of the night?', which isn't something I wanted to tell her about.

"It's okay." Michonne told the group, prompting us to put our guns away. There was a strange man sitting in the house who could've been a danger to our lives, but all I could think about was how embarrassed I was right now.

"You said we should talk. So let's talk." Rick said to Jesus, who had remained weirdly calm this whole time.

We sat around the dining room table, me standing behind Carl's chair. I could feel Daryl's stern expression as he glanced at the two of us, and it was becoming difficult to ignore. I sighed with relief when Rick started talking.

"So, how'd you get out?" He asked Jesus, who sat at the head of the table.

"One guard can't cover two exits, or third floor windows. Knots untie and locks get picked. Entropy comes from order, right?" Jesus confidently stated. He was outnumbered here, I didn't understand why he wasn't more scared. "I checked out your arsenal. I haven't seen anything like that in a long time. You're well-equipped, but your provisions are low. Very low for the amount of people you have. 54?"

"More than that." Maggie said, her arms wound protectively across her stomach. Jesus seemed to understand, giving the woman a warm smile.

"Look, we got off to a bad start. But we're on the same side- the living side." He turned to Daryl. "You and Rick had every reason to leave me out there, but you didn't."

I assumed they brought him back because he was completely knocked out and they didn't want to leave him vulnerable. He didn't seem like a bad person, and he had a way of talking that seemed so encouraging.

"I'm from a place that's a lot like this one. Part of my job is searching out other settlements to trade with. I took your truck because my community needs things, and both of you looked like trouble." I held back a scoff. He wasn't wrong. If you got on the wrong side of Rick or Daryl you were in danger, put both of them together and you'd wind up dead.