Hope//C.G *Finished*

Remember

Silence surrounded us. We stood at the tall gate as we waited for something to happen in nothing but silence. Suddenly we heard an animal squeal and like a snap of our fingers we all turned and pointed our guns at it. Daryl then shot it with one of his arrows. The gate opened and we turned to see a guy giving us a skeptical look. "We brought dinner." Daryl called out holding up the dead possum. Aaron just looked from us to the guy.  "It's okay. Come on in, guys." Carl and I looked at each other and did the eyes-on-you gesture before nodding and going fore ward.

 We went inside the gates, and they closed only for the same guy who opened them called out "Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons. Stay, you hand them over." Rick just walks up and says "We don't know if we want to stay." Aaron quickly diffused the situation "It's fine, Nicholas." That's when I snarked out "If we were gonna use them, we would have started already." Aaron looked from us to this Nicholas, "Let them talk to Deanna first." From behind us Abraham called out "Who's Deanna?" Aaron just says "She knows everything you'd want to know about this place." Suddenly hearing a walker behind us Rick turned and called out "Chloe." I nodded and turned aiming and shooting the walker in the head. "It's a good thing we're here." Rick said and we followed him to who knows where.

From then on we were supposed to be 'Interviewed' by this lady named Deanna. When it was my turn I walked in cautiously. "You're Chloe right?" She asked and I nodded. "Yeah." I told her. "Why don't you come in and sit down" She said and I hesitated but walked over and sat on the couch. "I'm Deanna Monroe." Deanna introduced herself. "Chloe Greene" I told her. "You mind if I film this?" She asked and I raised an eyebrow "What?" I asked and Deanna just restates her question "Do you mind if I film our talk?" I shook my head, "Go ahead." Deanna went over to her camera and started to set it up, "Why film this?" The camera beeped, as Deanna called out "We're about transparency here." I nodded, as Deanna started the questions "How long have you been out there?" I bit my lip thinking back to life on the farm. "Since the beginning." I told her. "How did you all find each other? Did you know each other before or--?" I interrupted her, "I knew my family, but everyone else... We didn't know each other before." 

"I was a congressperson. Ohio, 15th district. Do you know what your family did?" I gave her a weird look and said "I don't think it matters anymore." Deanna just smiles, "Oh, I know it does." I continued with the weird look, as I asked "What is this place?" Deanna just says "This is the start of sustainability. That's what the brochures we found say. This was a planned community with its own solar grid, cisterns, eco-based sewage filtration. Starting in the low 800,000s... " Deanna laughed, "if there is such a thing. And they sold them all." I nodded and asked "How did you end up here?" Deanna smiled softly at my curiosity "Well, my family and I were trying to get back to Ohio so I could help my district manage the crisis. And... " Deanna trailed off sighing, before saying "the army stopped us on a back road and directed us here. They were supposed to come later. They didn't. But there were supplies here and we made the best of it." I nodded and asked "You put up the wall?" 

 "Well, there was this huge shopping mall being built nearby. And my husband Reg is a professor of architecture. And who he was mattered quite a bit. He got the first plates up with our sons. And after a few weeks, more people arrived and we had help. We had a community." I just then asked "You've been behind these walls this entire time?" Deanna nodded "We need people who have lived out there. Your group is the first we've even considered taking in for a long time." I stayed silent for a second, as the governor came to mind. "You should keep your gates closed." Deanna gave me a look and asked "Why?" I bit my lip and said "Because it's all about survival now. At any cost. People out there are always looking for an angle. Looking to play on your weakness. They measure you by what they can take from you. By how they can use you to live. So bringing people into a place like this now--" Deanna cut me off "Are you telling me not to bring your people in? Are you already looking after this place? Aaron says I can trust you." I scoffed.