𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝗼𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧

𝟏𝟖

narrative

aurora closed her eyes and slowly raised her hands as the gun was pushed harder into the back of her head.

"what do you want." the voice was oddly familiar to her, but it was scratchy and deep like they had been yelling for quite some time.

"i— i, was looking for someone." her heart was racing and breathing hard. she knew she shouldn't have come here, but curiosity got the best of her.

"who?"

"my best friend, this was her house." the gun slightly pulled away from the back of her head, before finally dropping.

"rory?" she felt like the world was spinning and her knees were wobbly. she didn't answer the person but let out a small whimper as they gripped her shoulder and spun her around.

she was going to punch the man in the face, and run back to her brother when her eyes met the familiar grey ones. another whimper let her mouth, but it was more relieved.

"jaden!" she cried, pulling him into a bone crushing hug. she noticed that he was skin and bones. he was in need of a shower and a new pair of clothes, which she could give him.

"oh rory." he hugged her back. she was quite the opposite. she had some meat on her bones, and was clean.

"thank god." she was still shaking a little, but once her adrenaline wears off, it should stop.

"i didn't know it was you! i'm so sorry." jaden pulled away and placing his hands on her shoulders and looked her over for wounds.

"it's fine, i understand." she shakes her head slightly.

"are you ok? are you hurt?"

"no, no. i'm not hurt." she looked behind him and too the house. "is, de in there?"

"yes! yes! come on!" he grips her hand and pulls her into the house. everything was almost the same, except the walls were bare.

"babe, it's ok to come out." a door from upstairs opened and footsteps descended them. a very tired looking deja appeared at the bottom.

"de." aurora let go of jaden and walked towards her best friend. just like jaden she was skin and bones, in need of sleep, food and a shower.

"i was so worried." deja said into her shoulder.

"everything happened to fast, i didn't get to stop and see if you were ok." rory told her.

"it's fine, we're fine." deja pulled away from her, a small smile creeping onto her face.

"are you guys ok?" aurora looked between the two. "when was the last time you ate something?"

"about a week ago." jaden tells her. auroras smile turns into a frown.

"are you guys alone?" deja nodded her head.

"you guys have to come with me. we have food, shelter, showers... they're cold but work, and everyone looks out for each other." she told them.

"you have a group?" deja asked.

"yeah, some of us are from the night everything happened and others are some we met recently."

"where are you staying? how far is it from here?"

"we're staying at the prison."

"the prison?"

"yeah, we cleared out a cell block and we're staying there."

"the prison is a little far, to far to walk." deja and jaden couldn't make that walk.

"it's ok, you don't have to walk. we have a car."

"who's we?"

"me, carl, rick and michonne."

"rick is ok?"

"he's fine. i will explain everything to you guys on the way there." she looked between the two once more. "if you guys are coming, of course."

"we're coming." jaden looked to deja, who nodded her head in agreement.

"great! get your things and we can go!"

aurora, deja and jaden slowly walked back to where rick was at with morgan. "be careful. he has boobytraps everywhere." she told them as they got to the entrance of where rick was left.

"i'm not going to kill you. i don't think that's what's supposed to happen. i think you're supposed to come back with us."

"who's he talking too?" deja asked, following rory up the steps.

"morgan, maybe." she guessed. "watch the wire." she told them, opening the curtain to reveal the axe hung up.

"after all that? after me trying to blow your head off, stab your heart out, happily ever after together." auroras eyes widened at morgans words.

"stay here, please." she told jaden and deja.

"you couldn't kill me, i couldn't kill you. i'll take that as a sign." aurora entered the room, seeing rick wrapping his chest and around his shoulder.

"you're back, where's carl and michonne?" he said.

"uh- yeah, well, about that." she scratched the back of her head.

"rory, you did go with carl and michonne? right?"

"uhhhh." was all she said. rick sighed, standing fully up. he walked to where his sister was standing and looked her over.

"what did you do?"

"what makes you think i did something!" he gave her a 'are you fucking kidding me' look. he moved her to the side and walked out of the room, seeing deja and jaden standing there. his eyes widen and he lets out a sigh.

"we'll talk about this later, ok." she nods a little, and watches as rick greets the two before going back to his conversation with morgan.

"why am i not surprised that you went off without telling him." deja laughed slightly.

"because it's me." she tells them. they stood there for a couple of minutes before rick called rory back into the room.

"here." he holds out a duffel bag full of guns and ammo to her. "i'm not mad, or disappointed. i understand why you did it, but don't do it again please. you don't know what could have happened, or who you could have ran into."

"i understand, and i'm sorry." she tell him.

"it's ok." he pulls her into a hug before grabbing three more bags.

"is he coming back with us?"

"no, he's staying here."

"ok, we better get going. deja and jaden haven't eaten in about a week." she tells him. rick nods and the four of them walk out of the building, a couple seconds later morgan walks down and goes over to a table with wheels.

"hey, i was just about to look for you." carl and michonne walking up with a playpen and some things in it.

"deja!" carl drops his end of the playpen and runs towards deja, wrapping his arms around the older girl.

"carl!" she returns the hug, squeezing him tight. "i missed you."

"i missed you too."

"oh, it's nothing." michonne eyes the fresh blood on ricks shirt.

"is he ok?" carl asks, looking to see morgan loading up dead walkers onto the table.

"no, he's not." carl pick up his end of the playpen. they watched him for a couple of seconds before walking off to the car.

"deja will have to sit on your lap jae." aurora helps lifting the playpen into the back of the car.

"that's fine." carl sits in the middle while aurora sits behind rick. jaden gets in the car, lifting deja onto his lap.

you know how many times i rewrote this fucking chapter- so many times, and it still sucks complete ass.