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CHAPTER FIVE: SURFACE PRESSURE
( tw! mentions of assault & self harm )
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WITHIN THE PAST few days, tensions had been rising within the walls of the Alexandria Safe Zone. There had been an incident on another run that Margot seemed incredibly angry at. Both Aiden and Noah had been killed while on the run. Aiden had been impaled on a giant pole and left to die. Melanie and Margot both knew that even though everyone wanted to save him, he was dead as soon as he hit the pole. He would've bled out within seconds and died if they took him off the pole and even if they brought him back to Alexandria, he would still die. Noah's death, however, could've been prevented. Margot had told Melanie that it had been Nicholas's fault. Margot told Melanie a long time ago that Nicholas was a coward and he didn't belong on runs.
The whole community was on edge. Melanie knew that this was all eventually going to happen. The Alexandria residents were so naive and had no idea what the world was like outside the walls. They would die if the walls ever came down. Most people blamed Rick's group, all the new people but Melanie knew that they weren't the problem. Everyone else was the problem. People like Nicholas and Aiden were the problem. People like Deanna and the rest of Alexandria who chose to ignore what was happening and chose not to make the hard choices were the problem.
Margot was on Rick's side. She thought the people of Alexandria needed a huge wake-up call. They had gotten so lucky and the Briar sisters still had no idea how they had gotten that lucky but their luck was going to run out sooner or later. If they didn't change now and accept the way things are then they would all die whenever that day came.
All the Alexandrians looked to Deanna but she was grieving the loss of Aiden, so she wasn't a good person to turn to at the moment. She also refused to accept the way the world was now. She refused to accept that sometimes you have to kill. It wasn't fun and it didn't feel good but it was right, and sometimes the right thing to do doesn't feel good.
Melanie had been trying to distract herself from all of it. It was starting to feel like pressure was building and it was only a matter of time before everything exploded. Melanie could feel it coming and maybe that was why she had been choosing to spend more time outside the walls. She and Enid had tried to spend as much time out there as they could for the last few days but due to the run that had gone miserably, everyone was on edge and paying more attention to things, including Margot, so Melanie had to sneak around and not stay out too late.
It also didn't help that Carl kept following the two girls whenever they left Alexandria. Melanie didn't understand what his deal was. She didn't know if it was because he hadn't seen teenage girls in a while or if he was just a crazy stalker but it was annoying and at the same, Melanie didn't exactly hate it, although, she didn't want to admit that to herself. It had been a while since someone had wanted to talk to her even after she was cold towards them.
