Surviving Alexandria (BOOK THREE IN THE SURVIVING THE WALKING DEAD SERIES)

Orientation Day

I think I might've gotten a few hours of sleep before I heard a gentle knock at the door. My eyes felt heavy, I felt like I was drunk. I rose to my feet and staggered to the door, opening it to see a cheery faced Aaron looking back at me. "Good mor- whoa." Aaron's face instantly dropped. "Wow, you look, uh, well rested."

"I haven't been sleepin' well." I groggily responded.

"Should I tell Pete today isn't a good day?"

"Nah, I was up walkin' with Rick last night until I got tired, he saw me, don't think it'll look good on my end." Aaron backed up, giving me space to exit the house and shut the door before following me over to my house.

"Deanna had Spencer bring you some clothes for work last night."

"Great." I groaned.

"He left them on your bed."

"My bed? But we haven't even picked out rooms yet."

"It's just a few sets of clothes, you can exchange rooms later if you want." I gently nodded and climbed the stairs, searching the rooms until finding the room with my clothes piled onto the bed. "I'll go make you some coffee." Aaron began to walk away before turning back to me. "Fingernail polish remover is in the bathroom, you might want to wipe Abraham's revenge off your face." I looked at the vanity mirror that sat in front of my bed and groaned as I observed the large handlebar mustache and giant monocle written on my face. Touché, Abraham.

After scrubbing my face clean and getting dressed, I came down stairs and joined Aaron in the kitchen. The entire bottom floor smelled like freshly brewed coffee, amazingly, the smell was enticing. "Hungry?" Aaron asked, grabbing a small plate.

"Ya cooked?"

"It's not much, just some eggs and toast, figured you'd want to eat before you left. I did wake you up a little over an hour early."

"Douche."

"Fine, I'll just eat it then."

"Gimme the damn plate." I smiled. Aaron smiled back and handed me the plate and a fork, watching me satisfyingly as I scarfed down the food.

"Good?"

"I haven't ate eggs or toast in a long time." Aaron handed me a cup of coffee and watched me chug it down quickly.

"By the looks of it, you haven't ate anything in a long time."

"We struggled, but we always stuck together. If we found a little bit of food, we'd give it to the kids and go hungry."

"A very admirable thing to do." Aaron smiled. "Come on, let's get you to the infirmary." I followed Aaron in silence as he led me down the street, I watched everyone as they got to work doing their jobs for the day. Some people took care of the small farm we had, some people worked on keeping the town clean, and then an elderly couple sat on a porch, sipping their morning coffee.

"Does everyone here have jobs?"

"Yep, well, not the kids at least. Their job is to go to school until they reach the age of sixteen."

"What about the elderly?"

"They too have jobs, just nothing too laboring. For example, Natalie Miller works as the librarian, and her husband collects the chicken eggs every morning, afternoon, and evening."

"Deanna said that she's tryin' to find Daryl a job."

"Yeah, he didn't talk too much about himself to her, so she has to figure him out. Maybe you could help her."