found lands → the walking dead ³

[ 026 ] stories told in the dark.

FOUND LANDS.

chapter twenty-six, stories told in the dark.
[ season six, episode eleven ]

"ODESSA." A VOICE WAKES her. Her eyes peel open. Her brows furrow when she sees the outline of Carl's silhouette standing at the foot of her bed. "Someone's in the house."

She is instantly more awake. Her eyes widen. She grabs her gun. She and Carl creep out of her bedroom. She's see the two strangers sitting on the steps. They're looking at a painting.

The siblings round the corner at the same time. Each has a gun pointed at the strangers. "What the hell are you doing in our house?" Carl hisses.

"We're, uh, sitting on the steps, looking at this painting, waiting on your mom and dad to get dressed." The man answers. "Hi... I'm Jesus. And this is Cori."

Jesus is probably in his mid twenties. He has long hair, a beard. He wears a beanie. Cori looks to be no older than Odessa. She has striking red hair and piercing blue eyes.

"What?" Odessa asks. She's so confused. Mom? Lori's dead. They have no mom. Rick's bedroom door opens. Both Carl and Odessa turn around.

Her eyes widen. Her jaw drops.

"Carl, Odessa, hey, um...." Rick says awkwardly from behind them.

"What the..." she whispers. This is... this is definitely more scary than two stranger sitting on their steps.

Her father is shirtless, Michonne is in a tank top. Her jaw remains dropped as Abraham, Daryl, Maggie, and Glenn all come rushing up the stairs. Theo comes from his bedroom a second later.

"What the fuck?" He asks. Rick and Michonne turn to him. "No way!" Then he sees the strangers. "Who are they?"

"It's okay," Michonne says to the others on the stairs.

"You said we should talk. So let's talk." Rick says to them.

By the time the sun rises, everyone is gathered in the dining room. Cori and Jesus sit side-by-side at the end of the table. Rick, Odessa, Carl and Maggie all sit around the table as well.

"So, how'd y'all get out?" Rick asks the two.

"One guard can't cover two exits or third floor windows. Knots until and locks get picked. Entropy comes from order, right?" Jesus says.

"Right." Daryl says from where he stands by the wall.

"We checked out your arsenal. We 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. Fifty-four?" Cori looks around them all.

"More than that." Maggie speaks up.

"Well, I appreciate the cookie. My compliments to the chef." Jesus says. They had given both Jesus and Cori a cookie. She didn't want to eat it but she figured they wouldn't poison them if they wanted to talk.

"Yeah, she ain't here." Daryl says, becoming defensive.

"Look, we got off to a bad start." Jesus starts.

"Yeah, considering Asshole broke my nose and knocked me out," Cori glares at Rick. His eyes narrows but she grins at him, showing she means no harm whatsoever.

"Shut up, Cori. Look, we're on the same side— the living side. You and Rick had every reason to leave us out there, but you didn't. We're from a place a lot like this one. Part of our job is searching for other settlements to trade with. We took your truck because our community needs things and both of you looked like trouble. We were wrong. You're good people. And this is a good place. I think our communities may be in a good position to help each other." Jesus looks around at everyone in the room.