Everything Changes (Sequel To Daryl's Girl)

Chapter 12

As we approached the gates, they slowly started to open. Aaron was at the front helping Eric into the gates with the rest of us following with guns to hand.

Someone then came into view and took Eric from Aaron. He then stood in the opening of the gate for a second. We all stopped and waited whilst he stood there. Both him and our group staring at each othe when all of a sudden there was a crash next to us.

We all spun to the source of the sound as Daryl fired his crossbow. The gates before us then opened fully as Daryl picked up the possum. "We bought dinner." He mocked, reducing the tension.

"It's okay." Aaron looked at another man who stood at the gate after a moment of us all looking at one another. "Come on in guys." He gestured.

Reluctantly we lowered our guns and slowly entered the gates where they were then closed behind us. From what I could see it looked like a hallucination. The houses looked untouched from the world beyond the walls. I had no words.

"Before we take this any further. I need you all to turn over your weapons." The new man ordered. Non of us moved. "You stay, you hand 'em over."

Rick walked to the front with Judith and stood in front of him. "We don't know if we wanna stay." He barked back.

"It's fine Nicholas." Aaron looked between us all and back to the man.

"If we we're gonna use 'em. We would've started already." Rick told them.

"Let them talk to Deanna first." Aaron reasoned.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham shouted from the back.

"She knows everything you wanna know about this place. Rick. Why don't you start." Aaron looked at us all.

Rick turned to us all for reassurance but stopped. "Sahsa." He looked through the gate.

We all turned and looked at the lone walker that was approaching the gate. Sasha raised her gun and shot the walker as the other man started to close the second gate on us to stop anything seeing us inside.

"It's a good thing we're here." Rick joked and followed on after Aaron.

We followed Rick as he walked on ahead with some of us holding back for a while to take in the beauty of the place. Those who followed walked down what seemed to be the main street and I looked around me. It was like we were going back in time. Going back to before. Remembering my dads dream. My dad would've loved this place.

Aaron walked us up to one of the main buildings where we were then greeted by a woman with short light brown hair. She looked at us before walking inside where Rick then handed me Judith and walked on inside after her.

Judith seemed a lot heavier than I remember but then again the last time I held her was on the road to Terminus and that was quite a while ago. Carl then walked in along with everyone else who had stopped to look around and I handed Judith to him.

We waited outside in the shade of the bushes and the wall that separated us from the road. It was like some sort of courtyard but a lot smaller.

Rick then returned a while later with the woman and someone else wheeled in a trolley of some kind. "This is Deanna. She runs this community." Rick informed us.

"I'd like you to turn over your guns." She announced.

Rick nodded down to us from the porch and slowly walked down. He hesitantly placed his gun onto the trolley and looked back up at Deanna. After a seconds thought we all started to do the same. "They're still your guns. You can check them out when ever you go beyond the wall. But inside here we store them for safety." She walked down the steps.