What's Next

Chapter Nineteen 🦋

Val's POV:

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction." Rick instructed.

"They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are." I rubbed my growing belly for comfort, as I listened to my brother's instructions, watching Daryl and Carol search Aaron. Maggie I could tell she wasn't impressed with Rick. How he handle the stranger. I know Rick is on edge, but so is everyone else. "Me and Sasha, we didn't see him. If he had wanted to hurt us he could've." Maggie stated in Aaron's defence.

Rick ignored her, ignored what any reasonable thing that was said to him. Hell I'm his sister, the one he would usually listen to, but he wasn't listening to me. "Anybody see anything?"

"Just a lot of places to hide." Glenn replied, looking through the gaps in between the boards. "Alright keep looking."

**

Aaron finally started to come back to it. Probably with a sore jaw to go along with it. "That's a hell of a right cross there Rick." Aaron remarked with a slight smirk on his face. I took one look at my brother, I could see the annoyance written over his face. I stayed by Daryl, holding his hand tightly while keeping the other on my bump. "Sit him up." My brother demanded.

"Rick, I think it's better if-" I began.

"It's okay." Aaron reassured, cutting me off. "He's fine, sit him up." Rick instructed once again.

"You're being cautious. I completely understand."

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick questioned immediately.

"You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people."

"How many of them are there?"

"Does it matter?" Aaron asked through slightly gritted teeth. 'Oh if only you knew' I thought to myself.

"Yes."

"Yes, it does."

"I mean, of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there?"

"Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say..."

"Eight,"

"Thirty Two,"

"Four hundred and forty four,"

"Zero... No matter what I say, you're not going to trust me."

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." Rick remarked.

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you on the road?" Everyone was already on edge, but now that didn't put anybody at ease. I could feel Daryl tense up even more than he already was, turning to look at some of the bottles filled with water that weren't too far away from us. "It's okay, we're going to be okay." I muttered in his ear, as a way to try and reassure him. It worked. I mean only a little bit, but with everything that might be going through that man's head right know, easing his thoughts wasn't going to be easy no matter what the situation was right now. "How long have you people been following us?" Daryl questioned, pulling away from my grip but tightening his on his crossbow.

"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail."

"Long enough that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned in each other."

"You're survivors and you're people."

"Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world." Silence fell across the room for a short moment. I had hoped that maybe Rick was listening and willing. Christ I'm pregnant and with how big my bump is, I most likely conceived this baby months ago and I was much further along when I finally tested. Yet my brother is willingly letting me starve, become dehydrated, knowing what happened to Lori. I just wanted him to think this through like how Michonne and I wanted him to before he punched Aaron in the face. "How many others are out there?" Rick interrogated once again.

"One." Aaron answered finally. I took a second, reading into his body language, just the way he said it. He was hesitant, but I could tell he was telling the truth. Rick on the other hand didn't believe him one little bit. You could see it written all over Rick's face, even Aaron could see it. "I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real?"

"What if I drove you to the community? All of you?"

"We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

"I'm not sure how the 16 of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in."

"We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us."

"And you're parked just a couple of miles away, right?" Carol questioned.

"East on Ridge road, just after you hit Route 16. We wanted to get them closer but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it." Aaron explained, almost frantically.

"Yeah, you've really thought this through." Rick grumbled.

"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here. You know light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you ran out the only exit." Aaron stated. 'he's got a point' I thought to myself. Rick was being paranoid. After everything we've gone through I get it, completely. But is it really worth risking all of our lives, including his unborn niece or nephew over paranoia. That's what is really going to get us killed. "You can trust me."

**