Finding Sophia (The Walking Dead Fanfiction)

Forty-Five: Right Cross

"Daryl." I said, looking over to the barn, "They're back." My eyes were wide, "Who the hell is that?"

Daryl grabs my arm and watches as Sasha, Maggie, and a stranger go inside the barn. I look up at him, unsheathing my knife and he says, "C'mon." His crossbow is ready as we approach the door. I prepare to open it and he nods. I pull it open, he prepared to kill. Peering inside, all eyes are on us now.

"Hi." The man says as if he has any jurisdiction here. Judith starts crying from Rick's arms and Michonne takes her. I furrow my eyebrows. "It's nice to meet you." The man says.

"Who the hell is this?" Daryl swears.

"This is Aaron." Maggie says. I walk over to the man and pat him down, Daryl locking the barn door. 

"There's something you need?" Ricks asks.

Sasha answers for him, "He has a camp, nearby. He wants us to audition for membership."

Aaron chuckles, "I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." No one laughs. "Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home. I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" She pauses, but then hands it to him. "Front pocket, there's an envelope." Rick pulls it out. "There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last - ." 

"Nobody gives a shit." Daryl says. I hand him the lighter I found in his pocket and he examines it. 

"You're absolutely 100% right." He goes back to Rick. "If you join us, you will be safe. Each panel in every wall is a 15-foot-high, 12-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. 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. The next picture, you'll see inside the gates. Our community was first construc-." I step in front of the guy and punch him, sending him in a mound to the ground.

"Andie!" Maggie and Sophia call. Carl wakes with a start, finally. Daryl gives me the lighter back and I turn it over, seeing the initials "A E". A flower is below the two letters, actually really pretty on the stainless steel. Sticking it in my pocket. I look to Rick, who keeps his poker face intact.

"Dump his pack." Rick orders. Glenn dumps it as Rick continues, "Let's see what this guy really is. Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are." They find a flare gun in his pack, but otherwise it's just food. I keep my eye on the wood, my rifle my eyes and ears.

"Anybody see anything?" Rick calls.

"Just a lot of places to hide." Glenn answers.

"All right, keep looking."

Aaron wakes up, groaning, and mutters, "That's a hell of a right cross there, miss." He chuckles and I turn from the window, staring at him.

"Sit him up." Rick orders.

"I think it's better if -." Maggie says.

"It's okay." He groans, sitting up. "You're being cautious. I completely understand."

"How many of your people are out there? You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?" Rick asks, getting angry.

"Does it matter?" He asks incredulously.

"Yes. Yes, it does." 

"I mean, of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there? Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say eight, 32, zero, no matter what I say, you're not going to trust me."

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." I pipe up, resting my rifle on my hip.

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?" My eyebrows furrow and I look to Rick.

"How long you people been following us?" He asks, almost angrily.

"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. Long enough to see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other. You're survivors and you're people. Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world."

"How many others are out there?" Michonne asks.

"One." Everyone obviously doesn't believe him, "I knew you wouldn't believe me. If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real? What if I drove you to the community? All of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

"I'm not sure how the 15 of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in."

"We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us."

"And you're parked just a couple miles away, right?"

"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it."

"Yeah, you've really thought this through."

"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here. You know, light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you ran out the only exit. You can trust me. We have doctors."

"I'll check out the cars." I tell him.

"Me too." Michonne says.

"There aren't any cars." Rick says.

Michonne says, "There's only one way to find out."

"We don't need to find out."

"We do. You know what you know and you're sure of it, but I'm not."

"Me neither." Maggie chimes in.

"Your way is dangerous, mine isn't."

"Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do." Michonne's tone doesn't change, showing she means business, not afraid of what Rick says.

"Then I will, too." Maggie says.

"I'll go." Glenn volunteers.

"All right, groups of two, find somewhere safe within eye shot." I run a hand through my hair and nod, Michonne and I heading into the woods.