The Girl Next Door • Carl Grimes

Chapter 61: Parents

Grace

I steadily held my gun out at the man who began to take closer steps toward us.

"I mean no harm. I'd like to talk to you guys actually. Can I talk to your leader? Rick?" He asked.

What the hell? How did he know who Rick was? I looked over at Carl and my brows furrowed. This was really weird. We all shared a few glances, confused as to what we should do. It's been so long since we've seen another living person that wasn't already in our group.

I was skeptical, I've never trusted people easily. Especially not since the prison or Terminus. Carl has always been trusting though. I mean, any time we heard someone call out for help he would immediately rush to their aid. I sometimes think that it's stupid and careless. But I also wish that I could have the same amount of compassion that he does.

I looked over at Maggie who still had her gun raised but didn't look too disturbed. "We'll take you to Rick. How do you know us though?" Maggie asked as she gave us all an 'it's okay' signal. Maggie and Beth led the man to the barn but Carl and I walked behind him. I wasn't sure if he would try anything, and I didn't feel like taking any chances.

"My name's Aaron by the way. You guys are Grace and Carl, right?" The man smiled softly as he turned around and looked at us.

I just looked over at Carl with a confused expression on my face.

"Don't wanna say anything to the random man? It's okay. I get it. But you guys don't need to be scared anymore." He gently laughed.

"Yeah. I'm Grace. How'd you know that though?" I asked, starting to feel uncomfortable with the silence.

"I'll explain all of that once everyone is together." He said.

"We need all your weapons now." Maggie stopped in her tracks as she turned around and stood in Aaron's way.

"Sure thing." He said as he handed Maggie a knife from his pocket.

"That can't be all." Beth said, stepping in.

"It is. You can look through my pack if you'd like." He said as he handed his backpack to Maggie.

Maggie shuffled through it and then put the bag under her arm rather than giving it back to him.

"Alright. Let's go in." Maggie said as we opened the barn doors.

"Everyone, this is Aaron. He's cool." Maggie said as we entered the doors.

Rick immediately freaked out and started yelling with his weapon in the air.

"Woah, woah. Please, I just want to talk. I have a proposal for you." Aaron said, putting his arms up defensively.

"Rick, he doesn't have any weapons. We took them and searched him. This was all he had." I said as I held up Aaron's knife.

"We have a community. We've been watching you guys for a while. We know you're survivors. You guys have been struggling for quite a while but you never turned on each other. That's rare. That's something we want, we need in our community." Aaron explained.

"Watching us?" Rick said angrily, taking a step toward the man.

"Yeah, and leaving you guys water. We want to help." He explained.

I felt confused, but I didn't feel scared or worried. After all that we've gone through it was hard to believe that there were still good people in the world. Especially after Terminus, how could we believe that not everyone was out to get us?

"We have walls. Safety is a big priority. We have food, supplies. All of it. But the most valuable resource nowadays is people. We need people like you." Aaron said, making his point.