Fighting to Survive: The 3rd installment to Daring to Feel

Chapter 14: Taking Caution

"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron comes to and comments out loud for him and the rest of us to hear once he's fully conscious.

Rick looks at him as if he just hurt his son, his eyes wide, "sit him up." He directs us, clearly not amused.

"I think it's better if..." I try to keep him laying down.

"It's okay." Aaron mumbles while squinting his eyes trying to get himself up.

Rick gestures his hand towards us, "he's fine. Sit him up." His tone is thick with disdain.

Aaron groans as he sits up with my help, "you're being cautious. I completely understand." He says to Rick as he gets up on his knees.

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick asks him. Aaron gives him a strange glare and Rick responds, holding up his arm, "you have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

Aaron's face registers something, it looks like fear. He sighs, "does it matter?"

"Yes. Yes, it does." Rick says coldly.

"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, 444, zero. No matter what I say, you're not going to trust me." Aaron says back with defeat in his voice. This is not how he thought this would turn out, he's lost and he knows it.

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." Rick argues him.

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?" Aaron counters.

Most of our eyes find the still sealed water sitting in the barn. Daryl steps closer to him, his voice husky and low, "how long you people been following us?"

Aaron responds instantly, "long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail" he starts off, "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?" Rick grits though his teeth again, wanting an answer.

"One." Aaron reluctantly returns, "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?" He asks. No one answers, so he thinks about it then continues on, "what if I drove you to the community? All of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

Rick returns flatly, "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." He explains, eagerness in his tone.

"And you're parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol hums back to him, not believing what he is saying.

"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." Aaron tells us all. I look to Daryl, whose eyeing this guy with something ugly. He doesn't trust him, and I get that but part of me wants to believe everything he is saying, wanting to get off the road and find something more.

Rick spits out, "yeah, you've really thought this through."

Aaron shakes his head a little, "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." He tries to convince us, but mostly Rick.

"I'll check out the cars." I comment to Rick lowly, wanting to help.

"There aren't any cars." He hums out in one breath.

Michonne comes over to my side, "there's only one way to find out."

"We don't need to find out." Rick disagrees still.

"We do." Michonne pushes him. Michonne doesn't let up, "you know what you know and you're sure of it, but I'm not."

Maggie agrees, "me neither."

"Same here" I throw my arm up for good measure.

Rick shakes his head. He goes to say something but shakes his head again, "your way is dangerous, mine isn't." He finally says looking at Michonne.

"Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live?" Michonne triggers, "that's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves." She insists, "so that's what we're gonna do."

"Then I will, too." Glenn decides to come along, "I'll go."

Rick turns his head away, "Abraham." He calls to the large man.

"Yeah. I'll walk with them." Abraham nods his head.

"Rosita?" He asks.

She agrees as well, "okay."

"If there's trouble, you got enough firepower?" He asks Glenn.

Glenn answers, "we got what we got."

Rick reaches behind him and hands his loaded gun to Glenn, "the walkies are out of juice. If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come. Which might be just what they want." He says to us. I nod, understanding how important it is for us to be back in an hour. Michonne leads the way out. "If we're all in here, we're a target." I hear him tell everyone else.

"I've got the area covered." Daryl says. He follows me out of the barn and pulls me to the side, "stay close to them, iight?" He asks and tells lowly.

"I will" I say back quickly, pushing my lips to his. I pull away just as fast as I laid them on him and I follow the others away from the barn.

We walk down the road, the way Aaron told us too, "eyes open, everybody. Weapons up. You see someone coming at us, you fire." Glenn speaks to us as the sun shines down on us, drying out the rain from the night before.

Abraham returns, "copy that."

"So if we see someone, we just shoot them?" Michonne spits out.

Glenn tilts his head towards her with squinted eyes, "it's a good question." I add on, wanting an answer as well.

"What if they're someone like us? What if Aaron is telling the truth? What if they're someone who has nothing to do with this?" She furthers.

"We're five people walking with guns. No one's coming up to say hello." Glenn explains.

"But that's exactly what happened." Michonne reminds him.

"If it's someone like us, we should be afraid of them. He said he was watching us, right? It means he saw us yesterday. And after everything we've done, why would he want us to join his group?" Glenn tries to persuade her, and whomever else of us to think the way Rick is.

"People like us saved a priest." I remind him now.

Michonne adds on, "saved a girl who rolled up to the prison with the Governor."

"Saved a crazy lady with a sword." I smirk at Michonne, "he saw that."

"I don't know what he saw." Glenn spits back instantly.

We get to the place the stranger told us about, where the two vehicles are parked, "he was telling the truth." I say in awe, happy it turned out that way. The rustling draws our attention behind a bush

"Not one step closer, asshole!" Glenn snarls, ready for Aaron's friend to come out.

The dead head snarls out from the woods, another one behind him and Abraham steps in front of us, "I got 'em."

"We got 'em." Rosita clarifies and steps around as well. The two of them take them out and I go off towards the car, to see what I see inside.