Chapter 98) Out

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"The others, they're gonna be back." Rick tells the people standing around.

Rosita squeezes Y/N's hand reassuringly. "They're gonna be back."

Rick continues. "Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're gonna lead 'em away, just like the others. And Glenn is gonna walk back through that front gate after. He knows what he's doing. And we know what we need to do."

He wipes his forehead. "We keep noise to a minimum. Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out. We'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on."

A woman speaks. "This place is a graveyard."

Others murmur.

Aaron steps forward. "The quarry broke open and those walkers were heading this way. All of them. The plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away."

He pauses for a moment, considering something.

"I was out there recruiting with Daryl." He says. He glances at Y/N with sad eyes. She knows what he's about to do. She shakes her head at him.

Instead of stopping, Aaron continues.

"I wanted to try to get into a cannery and scavenge, and Daryl wanted to keep looking for people. We did what I wanted... and we wound up in a trap set by those people. And I lost my pack. They must've followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us... they found their way back here because of me."

Silence follows.
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"You're going out?"

Aarons voice echoes in the small armory room. Y/N doesn't turn around to face him as she puts bullets into a magazine.

"The flashlights, the rebar, the rope." He lists off things near her pack on the floor. "You lower them off the wall a good distance apart, maybe spin them. That way, the walkers are drawn to each one and you open up a path."

She can tell by the tone of his voice that he doesn't approve. Nobody would. She's a little over four months pregnant.

She shouldn't be going anywhere.

"Now you're gearing up. Just waiting for dark, right?"

She still doesn't turn around as she loads more guns.

"What happens when you twist an ankle jumping down?" He now moves to lean against the counter she stands by, in direct view of her. "Hmm? Or you just get slowed down by one of them and then you have to deal with all of them?"

She bites her inner cheek.

"I can't let you do this."

She moves to put her pack on her shoulders. "You can't stop me."

He holds out his arm. "I'm going to help you. And I know a safer way out."
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The two now walk along the barrier of Alexandria.

"I thought you said we weren't going over the wall?" Y/N asks him.

"We're not." He leads her up to a small grate in the grass. "We're going under."

He bends down to it. "This leads to a sewer that was part of the old neighborhood that was here before they built this up."

He unscrews the bolts as he glanced around. "It'll take us under the wall... and hopefully past the walkers."

He removes the grate completely, setting it aside.

"Thank you. But i'm going on my own from here."

"Y/N-"

"No."

"Please." He takes a deep breath. "I can't watch more names go up on that wall."

And so the two climb down together, into the dark sewer tunnels below the settlement.

"If he's alive-" Y/N starts, as they walk around the tunnels.

"If?"

"He told Michonne he would've found some way to signal us if he got out. If he's alive or he's hurt or trapped, maybe taken. If he's alive he needs my help. That's why i'm doing this."

She stops walking. "And if he's dead... I need to find him. There's already one empty grave up there. I can't have another."

The thought of Noah brings back harsh memories from just a few days prior.

The days seem to drag on. Each one lasting longer than before. It feels like weeks, not days.

Aaron sets a gentle hand on Y/N's shoulder. It seems to wake her from her own thoughts. "Like I said. This wasn't your fault. You don't need to do this." She says.

"People are dead. I was a part of that. And I have to live with that."

After some silent walking, Aaron finally speaks again. "I haven't been down here since the beginning."

He groans at the site of a rusty, waterlogged ladder. "This must've fallen down a long time ago."

The two try pulling it up when it breaks off the wall, throwing the man to the ground.

"Aaron!"

He sits up in the murky water. "I'm okay. The ladder caught me." Blood now drips down his face from a small head laceration.

Suddenly a walker growls and Y/N spots a mossy, decayed walker under where the ladder was.

She pulls out her knife, stepping forward when another walker comes out of nowhere, pinning her against the concrete wall.

Her knife falls into the water and she grunts as she tries to push the walker off of her.

Aaron backs away as the first walker starts clawing it's way over to him.

Y/N's hand digs into the slimy flesh of the walkers forearm, making her queasy.

Suddenly a knife slams into the side of its skull, and she looks to see Aaron standing across from her.

"You okay?" He asks her.

She nods, out of breath. "Thank you." She notices his wound. "Your head. This could need stitches. You have to go back."

"No. I was just there for you."

"I know, but your head-"

"Just lead the way, please." He says.
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