Beyond Terminus (Book Two)

Chapter 36: Aaron

Hope's POV

Everyone else wakes up, and we remain silent as we go about doing little things. Daryl cleans and fidgets with his crossbow, and others just sit around.

"Hey," Maggie says, opening the barn doors. We all look up. "Everyone, this is Aaron."

Instantly, everyone has their guns and knives out. Daryl races to the door, checking outside for any other people. I remain on the ground, feeling lightheaded and weak.

"We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear," Maggie continues as Daryl pats him down roughly.

He finishes, shutting the doors and locking it. The man, Aaron, looks at all of us nervously.

"Hi," he says, a small smile appearing briefly.

We just stare at him. Judith starts to cry and Carl takes her from Rick, shushing her softly as Rick keeps shooting daggers at this guy.

"It's nice to meet you," Aaron tries, taking a step forwards.

Our weapons click, and he stops, stepping back again.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asks. Maggie moves forwards and hands him a small pistol. He examines it briefly before putting it in his own belt. "There's something you need?"

"He has a camp, nearby," Sasha explains with a skeptical tone. "He wants us to audition for membership."

"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." Aaron stops and waits for our laughter, but we all remain stone faced. He smiles awkwardly. "Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home." We still don't reply, and he bites his lip briefly. "I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into." He looks to Sasha. "Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?"

I raise an eyebrow. How does he know Rick's name?

She sighs and grabs it, moving towards Rick and handing the backpack to him.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope. There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community," Aaron starts as Rick pulls out some photos from the package. "That's why I brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last-"

"Nobody gives a shit," Daryl growls.

Aaron lets out a breathy laugh, fiddling with his hands as Daryl's icy glare remains fixed on him. "You're absolutely 100% right." He turns back to Rick, who looks at the first picture. "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. If you join us, you will be. Each panel in that wall is a 15-foot-high, 12-foot-wide slab of solid steel, framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through that without our say-so. Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival." He looks around at all of us fleetingly. "The people. Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger." He pats his thighs a little, preparing to deliver the next piece of info. "The next picture, you'll see inside the gates. Our community was first construc-"

Rick silences him with a hard punch to the jaw, and I jump a little. Aaron crumples to the ground, prompting Maggie and Sasha to check on him.

"So we're clear, that look wasn't a 'let's attack that man' look. It was a 'he seems like an okay guy to me' look," Michonne says to Rick in a hushed tone.