you took a polaroid of us,
then discovered,
the rest of the world was black and white,
but we were in screaming color,
and I remember thinking
are we out of the woods yet?
••••••••••••••••••••••••••...
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FOUR WEEKS LATER (25 weeks pregnant — 6 months)
Many things had happened in the past four weeks, and many things had changed. Gregory had stepped down as leader of Hilltop, giving the title to the one and only Jesus, who quickly proved himself to be a capable and compassionate leader.
Under Jesus' guidance, Alexandria and Hilltop had worked together as allies, the two of our communities working together and even trading. Hilltop had become more organized and cohesive, which was nice to see.
The moment that Jesus stepped up as a leader, some of our people such as Rosita, Abraham, Sasha, and Michonne traveled to Hilltop, gifting Jesus and his people some weapons as well as extensively training them about self-defense and how to handle a gun as well as a knife properly.
Rosita and Abraham at first had a hard time working together considering he had left her for Sasha, but the two began to rebuild their friendship. However, their relationship issues were the least of our problems at the moment.
While Hilltop hasn't yet dealt with the Saviors, they were almost ready to fight against Negan and his people– who were unaware of our plan. But in addition to Hilltop being our ally, we had forged alliances with other communities who were under the same treatment as Hilltop.
The Kingdom, led by the charismatic and expressive King Ezekiel, brought many disciplined soldiers as well as weapons of their own. Ezekiel discovered Hilltop's struggle with the Saviors as well, and he immediately joined the fight, knowing he could easily defeat Negan and his people with Hilltop's help.
Yet, we had run into another community that was once under the control of the Saviors, the community going by the name of Oceanside. It was Tara who told us about them, and due to that knowledge, we visited the community and told them about Hilltop's and The Kingdom's struggles.
Oceanside, of course, was hesitant at first, not wanting to get into a war after they'd lost so much already. But after a long heated discussion between Cyndie, Jesus, Ezekiel, Rick, and me, she had finally agreed to join the war with Hilltop and The Kingdom and agreed to trade with Alexandria.
Back in Alexandria, life had found a new rhythm. The community was bustling with activity, from securing the wall to expanding our gardens and creating more space for living as more people found our community.
Alexandria was growing stronger every day, and I couldn't be happier to see it happen. We weren't struggling like we were weeks ago, we weren't starving, we weren't weak, we weren't afraid. We were finally living like we were meant to.
Every day for the past four weeks I had been outside taking care of the growing garden with Maggie by my side, the two of us would talk about the past and the future, just having the best time as we tended to the plants.
