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The sun was low in the sky as it was still the morning. The group slowly advanced towards the front gate of Alexandria as it was gradually opened. Jason continued to hold Carl's hand as they got closer as an act of reassurance. They had finally found a safe place to stay and he was ecstatic inside to know that. Aaron led the group towards the gates, supporting his boyfriend, Eric, as he limped with his broken ankle. The gate let out a loud bang as it was finally fully opened. Carl took a moment to watch their surroundings, surprised by the lack of walkers. His eyes locked onto the window of a burnt out house. A girl about his age stood at the window, watching them. Michonne passed between him and the window and in that time the girl had vanished. He studied the window in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked him, tugging his arm as the younger lad had stopped walking.

Carl studied the window for a few more moments before shaking his head and turning back towards the gate. He felt Jason's gaze on him before he even looked at his older lover and shrugged.

"I thought I saw someone." Carl confessed. "In that house."

Jason looked over at the same house and at the same window. There were no signs of life.

"Whoever it was, they're gone now." Jason told him before pulling him along.

The group stopped at the threshold of the gate with their weapons at the ready. Carl and Jason both had their hands resting on the handles of their holstered handguns. A sudden rustle to their left alerted them as a trash can fell over. Daryl instinctively fired his crossbow and killed the cause of the sound. An opossum. He picked up his kill and turned back to the gates where a bewildered looking man stood next to Aaron.

"We brought dinner." Daryl told him sarcastically, not approving of the staring.

"It's okay." Aaron said, more to the doubtful man than to the group. "Come on in, guys."

The group did as instructed and followed Aaron over the threshold and into the walled community of Alexandria. It had grown very quiet, with nothing but the birds chirping overhead. The sounds of children playing had faded away into silence. Once they had all passed into the community, the large metal gate was slowly shut behind them.

"Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons." The man with black, curly hair told them. "If you stay, you hand them over."

Rick took a step towards him. "We don't know if we wanna stay."

"It's fine, Nicholas." Aaron reassured him.

"If we were going to use them we'd have started already." Rick added gruffly.

"Let them talk to Deanna first." Aaron told Nicholas.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham barked over them in curiosity.

"She knows everything you'd wanna know about this place." Aaron answered. "Rick, why don't you start?"

The snarl of a walker made Rick turn back to the gate. Next to the vehicles they had arrived in, a lone undead corpse stumbled down the road towards them.

"Sasha." Rick commanded.

Sasha turned around and aimed her rifle before pulling the trigger and putting a bullet between the eyes of the walker, ending its undead life. A large, covered up chain link fence closed behind the original gate behind her as she faced the group again.

Rick realised that Aaron had been telling the truth the entire time. What disturbed him was their total lack of visible defence, apart from the walls and the guard at the gate, they had no snipers or spotters. They were sitting ducks in a walled community. Time was ticking for everyone inside. Rick knew changes would have to be made to make the place truly safe.