Alyssa Chávez has felt alone for most of her life. She was never good at making friends. She always felt a distance between her and her family. So when the apocalypse happened, her social life didn't take much of a hit. After losing her family, Alys...
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ChapterNineteen Alexandria
The storm had picked up in the night. The barn felt like it was gonna fall apart. It was terrifying, but the group handled it. It had calmed down again in the morning. Maggie and Sasha were gone when Alyssa woke up. Carl was sitting up, smiling at her.
Alyssa furrowed her eyebrows. "What?" she asked, half mimicking Carl's smile.
Carl shook his head lightly. "Nothing. You just....It's nothing," he answered. Alyssa sat up. She wanted to say something, but the barn door went open.
"Hey," Maggie called out as she pushed open the door. There was someone else other than Sasha with her, a man with curly hair in a blue jacket. "Everyone, this is Aaron." Everyone grabbed their weapons in an instant. Daryl walked up to them and shut the barn door.
"We met him outside, he's by himself," Maggie explained. "We took his weapons and we took his gear." Despite that, Daryl patted him down.
"Hi," Aaron said, holding his hands up to let them know that he was not a threat. Judith started crying, so Rick handed her over to Carl. "It's nice to meet you." Aaron stepped forward to shake Rick's hand, but Daryl stopped him.
Rick chose to ignore him entirely and focus on Maggie. "You said he had a weapon?" he recalled and Maggie handed over the gun. He turned his attention to Aaron. "There something you need?"
"He has a camp nearby," Sasha explained. "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 joked. No one found it funny, except Alyssa, who started snickering until Carl nudged her with his elbow.
Aaron gave her a nod. "Thank you. Uh...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," he explained. "I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" he asked and Sasha obliged. "Front pocket, there's an envelope. There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old-"
"Nobody gives a shit," Daryl cut him off.
"You're absolutely 100% right," Aaron agreed as Rick reached into the envelope and pulled out a bunch of pictures. "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 recourse more critical to our community's survival. The people."
