Mi Amor ~ Daryl Dixon

Chapter Fourty-One

"Hey." Maggie called out as she peeked her head inside the barn. "Everyone. This is Aaron." She walked in with the man behind her and the two other women, Adrianna kept her gun raised and Sasha immediately went to close the door.

The group inside tensed up as they raised their weapons. A questioning look fell onto the women.
"We met him outside, he's by himself. We took his weapon and we took his gear." Adrianna spoke, lowering her gun slightly. The man smiled and waved. "Hi. It's nice to meet you." His voice was soft as he spoke. "You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked Adrianna. She nodded and brought him over a small revolver that she retrieved from his waist. Rick checked the chamber and shoved it in his holster. "There something you need?" He questioned the man harshly.

"He has a camp near by." Adrianna scoffed as she repeated what he told them. "He wants us to audition for membership."

"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe." Aaron gave them a smile. "That's only on Friday nights." The group fell silent at his joke. "And it's not a camp, it's a community. I think you would all make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home." The group looked to him unsure. "I know, if I were you I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into." He nodded in understanding.
"Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" He asked

"Front pocket, there's an envelope." Rick kneeled down and opened the pack. He brought out a stack of photos and came to a stand. "There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about the community. That's why I brought those." He explained as Rick flipped through the photos and turned some to Adrianna. "I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera-"

"We don't give a shit." Daryl cut him off.

"You're absolutely one hundred percent right." Aaron said cowering under the man's gaze. At the a same time Rick pulled out a picture from the stack, there was tall walls that surrounded a bunch of houses. "That's the first picture I wanted to show you because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe. If you join us, you will be. Each panel in the wall is a fifteen foot high, twelve foot wide slab of solid steel, framed by cold rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through that without our say so." He assured. "Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival. The people. Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger." Ricks gaze fell to Adrianna's for a moment as the man kept speaking. "The next picture you'll see inside the gates. Our community was first-" A punch straight to the face knocked the man out, an angry Rick stood in front of his unconscious body.

"So we're clear, that wasn't a let's attack that man look." Adrianna said holstering her gun. Rick turned back to them and then to his son. "We got to secure him. Dump his pack, let's see who this guy really is." Carl nodded and dumped the bag out. "Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction." Rick ordered. "They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are."

"The three of us, we didn't see him." Maggie spoke up. "If he wanted to hurt us, he could've."

Rick ignored her. "Anybody see anything?"

"Just a lot of places to hide." Glenn sighed out.

"Keep looking." He called out and then turned back to Carl. "What did you find?" He asked as Carl handed him a small orange gun.  A flare gun, Rick raised his gaze to Adrianna's and their hearts sank. There was more out there, wherever this man came from, there was more to come.

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The group stayed on edge and kept a good look out for anyone they could see out in the trees.