❛ now daryl, daryl was gray. he always seemed to be bitter and emotionless with no other dimensions to himself; his mere presence was the only one. gray was intriguing, almost acting like an acquired taste, but it had the potential to be beautiful t...
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fourty eight.
I was at the back of the barn next to Carol, scraping and plucking out the caked up mud underneath my boots with the tip of my sword. Daryl was across from me with his crossbow slung over his shoulder, biting his thumb nail like he usually did out of habit. The barn doors creaked open, Maggie stepping back in from being outside with Sasha.
"Everyone," she smiled nervously. "This is Aaron." A man walked in after her, Sasha following behind him with caution. We all jumped to our feet and snapped our weapons up at the outsider. We couldn't take any risks now, not after Terminus. Daryl hustled over to the door and peered outside to see if anyone else was out there possibly lurking in the cover of the trees. "We met him outside. He's by himself," she informed us. Daryl pat Aaron down as Maggie handed his gun over to Rick. "We took all his weapons and his gear." Rick shoved the gun into his back pocket. I already knew Rick was about to treat him with the same disdain as he did Gabriel, but perhaps even worse since he snuck up on us.
"Is there something you need," Rick asked Aaron, raising his eyebrows at him challengingly.
"He said he has a camp nearby. He wants all of us to audition for membership," Sasha said with suspicion.
"I wish there were another word for it. Audition makes it sound like we're some sort of dance troupe... that's only on Friday nights," Aaron chuckled hopefully, waiting for a few laughs. He got none as we all stared at him with straight faces, analyzing his every move. "It's not really a camp, it's a community. I think all of you would make valuable additions and my job is to convince you to follow me back home." He briefly paused his little spiel, observing our skeptical faces. "I know... if I were you I wouldn't go either, not until I knew what I was getting into. Sasha, hand Rick my pack." Sasha obeyed him, handing over Aaron's backpack to Rick. He aggressively opened it and started to rifle through it. "In the front pocket, there's an envelope. I brought pictures for everyone to look at." Rick stared at the first picture unimpressed. "If you join us, your safety will be ensured. Each panel in the wall is a 15 foot high, 12 foot wide slab of solid steel. It's framed by coal rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through our gates without our say so. There's only one source critical to our community's survival though: the people. Together, we're strong and you can all make us even stronger," Aaron rambled on. Rick began to approach him. "Our community was constructed—" Rick punched Aaron in the face, knocking him to the ground. Daryl tied Aaron's hands behind his back and with that, I shoved my sword back in its sheath as the threat was temporarily neutralized. I eyed his unconscious body suspiciously. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but my trust had been continuously trampled. I didn't want us to be led to slaughter again.
"We need eyes in every direction," Rick commanded. "They're coming for us. We don't know how or when, but they are."
"Sasha and I didn't see him. If he wanted to hurt us, he could've," Maggie explained in defense of Aaron. Rick ignored her, him and Carl sifting through more of Aaron's backpack just as he began coming to, the tension quickly rising again.
