For You // R.G.

Chapter 91

"You think Aaron is telling the truth?" Sena asks me quietly as she watches him carefully in front of us. He was next to Rick.

"Maybe... I hope this community is legit. I want to take a shower." I say. Sena looks at him again but Rick turned back to look at me and her,

"Max, Sena, can you keep an eye on Aaron? I'm gonna scope out the two vehicles now that we're close enough." He says. I nodded, he then took Derek and Michonne with him to check the vehicles. Glenn, Sena, and Abraham stayed with Aaron and I.

"Hi." Aaron says to me, everyone but Abraham had stayed close to me, the rest kept watch along the road. Aaron had a little smile on his face, not anything smug but just friendly.

"Hi, I'm max." I introduced myself to him, I held out my hand for him to shake, which was hard because his hands were tied up in a rope.

"I really hope your group can grow to trust me. The community would appreciate your way of survival out here. Alexandria is kind of protected in a way that most people who live there don't ever go outside. They don't know what it's like." Aaron explained to me. I watched his body language and his facial expressions closely. He looked genuine, he looked me in the eye.

"I can see that you and your people are good."

"How?" I asked, "you don't know what we've done to make it out here." I was getting a little touchy about him assuming things about us.

"I worked for an NGO, delivering food, medicine and help to people in places like South Africa. I've dealt with bad guys who've pointed guns at my face... You aren't like them." He explained. We locked eyes for a few moments until I heard Rick yell,

"No one's inside, he was telling the truth."

I looked at Aaron, he smiled a little, bowing his head.

"I hope this all works out." I told him. He nodded. Rick came up to us,

"I can take you to the community tomorrow morning-" Aaron started to say, but Rick interrupted him.

"We do it tonight."

"I can't do that. I can't put my people in danger like that-"

"I can't put mine in danger either." Rick growled, he was intimidating Aaron by standing over him. I was getting a little angry at Rick.

"He's the one who is trying to help us, Rick. We can at least follow his one condition on taking us back. You'd do the same if you were him." I told Rick. Rick looked at Aaron after he locked eyes with me for a moment,

"We take Highway 23-"

"My people haven't cleared that road yet, we have Highway 16 cleared. Tomorrow morning I will give you directions on how to get to Alexandria-"

"We can't do that." Rick snarls. I then finally had enough,

"Rick, do you even want to go to the community? You're making this difficult for everyone and it isn't helping."

"I don't want another terminus to happen-"

"This isn't terminus! The fact that he doesn't want to bring us back tonight to protect his people tells anyone that he cares about his community! The people at terminus were not like that." I reasoned with Rick. He looked over at Aaron who had no idea what we were talking about but looked nervous as to what Rick was going to do now.

"Fine." Rick says in a defeated tone, he took Aaron with him to one of the cars.

"Max, Abraham and glenn, come with me. Sena, Derek, and Michonne go in the car." Rick ordered from afar. I looked at Sena, she nodded at me, a reassuring gesture. We parted our ways.

.

It had been just under a few minutes in the car, the sky was turning grey and dark because of the clouds and it was getting late. Glenn was driving, Rick was in the passenger seat, Abraham kept an eye on Aaron who was in the back with him, along with myself.

"Why'd we put so many people in here?" I complained, shifting uncomfortably around Abraham's large shoulders and build. Abraham chuckled at me. Rick glanced at us in the rear view mirror, we caught eyes but he looked away. No one said anything.

I looked out the window and watched as we passed by the endless woods. I then jumped when I heard Rick say in a loud tone, "what the hell?"

I turned to see what he was getting worked up about, I saw him holding a car radio, like ones the truck driver's use to communicate with one another. Rick was fuming,

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Rick yelled,

"What is going on?!" I yelled at him, getting annoyed that he wouldn't spit it out.

"His group has been listening to us the whole time with this-" Rick starts to say but Aaron intervened,

"That doesn't even work anymore! We used to use it for communications up and down the road if we were clearing an area-" Aaron explained with an urgent tone, Rick scared him, I couldn't blame him.

"You expect me to believe you?" Rick yelled,

"Guys!" Glenn yelled, he had been trying to get our attention throughout this yelling session but he was too quiet. But now that he yelled, we averted our attention to him,

"What?" We all yelled in sync. And before we knew it, the car hit a walker which caused everyone to be thrown forwards by the force. I felt the seatbelt dig into my ribs, this knocked all the air out of me. Once the car was still, we all shifted in our seats, wondering if everyone was alright. Rick and I looked at each other, we both were embarrassed when this happen so we quickly looked away. It wasn't long until Glenn's panicked voice was heard.

"Guys..." He says, he was staring in front of us. We saw many walkers roaming around the car, we were in the midst of a herd. We all stayed silent. We then whipped our heads to the side when we saw a red light fly up in the sky, it was a flare.

"Did the RV have flares?" Abraham asked out loud, wondering who it was. Speaking of the RV, where was it?

"Let me out." I heard Aaron order. He was struggling to open the car door open.

"Hey, knock that off, you're gonna kill us all-" Abraham says,

"No, I need to get out- now!" Aaron yelled. Something was bothering him, it must've been important. I then looked back out the window, maybe it was the flare.

"Aaron-" I started to say but I heard the car door open and Abraham yell. I saw Aaron run past a few walkers with his hands still tied, he ran in the woods, towards the general direction of the flare. Abraham closed the car door,

"Dead man." He mutters. I watch as Aaron disappeared behind the brush, I felt adrenaline pump through my veins and my heart beat quicken. I knew I should do something about it. And my nervous breathing was worsened when Glenn couldn't get the car to start. Rick, Abraham and Glenn started arguing about how the car should be handled when I opened the door and bolted. I heard Rick yell my name, I couldn't stop now. A walker was in my way and I didn't have enough time to move, so I shoved it down with all my force, leaving it on the ground.

As I ran into the woods, I began to regret the decision once I couldn't see shit. I heard yelling, they must've come out of the car too because I wouldn't be able to hear them from this far away. I stopped, I turned around and ran back to the yelling to make sure they were alright. I then ran into someone, it was a human- and it was Glenn. We both groaned in pain as we got up from the incident.

"Why'd you run off like that?" He asks as he brushes his shirt off.

"Something about him makes me think that there is a future for us. We need that- we can't stay out here forever. And if he's gonna die out here, we can't get there. So he isn't going anywhere." I say to glenn, I was interrupted when Rick and Abraham run up to us.

"Max!" Rick yelled at me, he was angry.

"No time- we have to find him or else we came out here for nothing." I say. Rick had his eyes on me in the most intense way but we all looked behind us when we heard growling. Some of the herd followed us, we all looked at one another.

"We have to go." Glenn says this time, and we all ran the same way Aaron did.