◆Together◆ (Book Two of: I Made It.)

Chapter 1: Connections

It's been six months since Alexandria was overrun, and things have been slowly progressing back to normal. Rick's leadership abilities were questioned a lot during the beginning, but the surviving citizens of Alexandria finally warmed up to him. Under Rick's new rule, every citizen must carry a weapon at all times. I began carrying Daryl's pistol in a holster, and I even kept a small knife in my boot for back up. Unfortunately, Alexandria was only down to fifty-four members, and most of us had to take on multiple jobs. My day was pretty hectic. Sunday mornings I would play the piano at Gabriel's church. I took the job because I needed to try to keep my faith, and it gave me a reason to sing. After church, I would be put on babysitting duty. I mainly watched over Judith, but every once in a while I'd have to watch some neighbor kids. Every other day I'd work on the farm. I actually enjoyed working the farm now. It was peaceful. Then, if they needed an extra hand, I'd be put on watch on top of the barriers. I barely had time for myself, but I liked to be a part of the community.

I wasn't the only one with major job changes. Aaron offered Daryl to join his scouting crew after the loss of Eric. Daryl and Aaron seemed to be pretty good friends, and I was glad Daryl was opening up to this place. I barely get to see Daryl anymore, and sometimes I miss him like crazy. We spent a lot of time together while we cleaned up Alexandria a while back, and he became one of my closest friends. It was like after the prison all over again. Daryl was on a run right now, and I didn't know when he'd be back.

With a larger availability of houses, after expanding our walls a little further, I was able to move into a nice house by myself. Most of the time Rosita or Maggie would come stay the night, since I often woke up in panic after a terrible dream. Ever since the attack, I'd been having dreams about the people we lost. Images of Noah falling to the ground flooded my nightmares, along with Issiac's crying in the distance. Things have been hard since then, but I've managed to push foward.

Today was Saturday, and thankfully, it was one of my few days off. I decided to go over to Maggie's place for dinner, but first, I went to visit the graves of my fallen friends. I layed flowers by all of them. Abraham, Noah, Eric, Tara, Issiac, Jessie, Ron, and I even placed one by Walter's. I didn't stay long, fearing the memories would take over me, and I headed towards my sister's house.

It grew very chilly, so I decided to put on my wool beanie that Carol made for me. I wore a tiny jean jacket and brown pants along with it. I much prefered this weather over the heat, especially on the days I worked the farm. The sun was starting to set as I approached my sister's house, and I noticed Carl walking in my direction.

"Hey, Carl!" I smiled.

Carl walked by me without saying a word. He barely survived his head wound, and he hasn't been the same ever since. It took two months until he was up and walking again, and he suffered quite a bit of memory loss afterwards. He's been doing a lot better recently, but his anger has started to overtake him. He's been getting into fights with his father and he even beat up one of the others kids in the community. He now has half of his face wrapped up, and he expressed his feelings towards it to his father. He feels weak without his eye, and in a way it reminded him of the governor. I understood his emotions, and I shrugged off his avoidance of me.

I knocked on Maggie's door, and I was soon greeted by the smell of spaghetti. "Come on in!" Maggie waved me through the door.

"Dinner's just about ready." She told me. "Take a seat!"

I placed myself at the end of the table, my usual spot, and removed my hat from my head. I removed my gun from my holster, and I placed it onto the ground so it wouldn't get in the way. A few minutes passed until I was greeted with a warm plate of spaghetti in front of me.