My Damaged Protector

Chapter Forty~ The Distance

None of us got much sleep that night. We were all listening for walkers and waiting for the rain to completely die down. Eventually, Jasper had curled his way in between Daryl and I, only waking me in the early hours of the morning when he was sick of waiting for the rest of the group to get up. I sat leaned back against the wall of the barn with Jasper cuddled into my side, Merle and Daryl on either of our sides.

The barn doors slid open, making the rest of the group wake and look around. "Hey." Maggie announced. "Everyone, this is Aaron." Maggie walked in followed by a man slightly taller than here with curly brown hair, clean clothes, and worry in his eyes. Reactions ranged through the group, Judith was handed down to me instantly by Rick while Merle and Daryl got up and moved towards the new man. Most of the rest of us simply watched on, waiting to see what Aaron had to say as well as our leader. "We met him outside, he's by himself." Maggie continued while Daryl peeked out the front door. "We took his weapons, and we took his gear." Maggie continued, trying to help defend and introduce the new man.

Tara was the one to slide the barn door closed again when Aaron finally spoke for himself. "Hi." He greeted with a soft wave. Judith let out a loud cry, making me get up and prepare a bottle with the last of the formula we had. "It's nice to meet you." Aaron leaned forward slightly and held a hand out for Rick to shake. Others reacted quickly, knives and guns being drawn at the sudden movement. A huff left Aaron's chest, almost like he was prepared for our reactions but wanted us to like him.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked Maggie and Sasha, still ignoring Aaron. Maggie nodded, passing a small handgun over to Rick. "There something you need?"

"He has a camp." Sasha informed us. "Nearby. He wants us to audition for membership."

"I wish there was another word." There was a soft laugh under his words. "Audition makes it sound like we're some sort of dance troop." I appreciated the small joke, even if no one else did. He could tell we were untrusting of new people right off the bat and knew we'd need a lot of time, even if he didn't know what we went through in the last few months. "That's only on Friday nights. 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?" Sasha moved slowly, handing an obviously stuffed backpack over to Rick. "Side pocket, there's an envelope." Aaron instructed. "There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality, we just found an old camera and..."

Daryl cut Aaron off. "Nobody gives a shit."

"You're absolutely one hundred percent right." Aaron turned to look at the hunter, Daryl's eyes locked on the man.

I ventured away from Jasper, leaving him at Carl's side, to take a peek at the pictures. "That's the first picture I wanted to show you because nothing I say about my community will matter unless you know you'll be safe." The first picture was of incredibly tall walls, made of thick metal with heavy wooden beams adding extra support. "If you join us, you will be. Each panel in that wall is a fifteen-foot high, twelve-foot wide, solid slab of steel. Framed by cold rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing, alive or dead, gets through that wall without our say so." Rick moved away, letting the photos hang in this left hand at his side. "Like I said, security is obviously important, in fact, there's only one resource more valuable to our community's survival, the people. Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger. The next picture you'll see inside..." Aaron's voice trailed off as Rick started getting closer to him.

Once Rick was within reaching distance, his right arm pulled back, swinging forward, and landing a hard punch to Aaron's face, sending the new man to the ground. Merle had moved closer to Jasper and I when Aaron dropped. Rick moved back then, dragging the backpack over to me. "Can you go through this? Lay everything out and see what he's got."