Daughter of the Fallen

The Distance

I was sitting with my dad while everyone was cleaning their weapons when the door opened.

"Hey," I heard Maggie's voice call. "Everyone..." A stranger was following her. "This is Aaron."

I immediately stood up and pointed my gun at the newcomer while Rick went up to them.

"We met him outside," Maggie explained. "He's
by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear."

Daryl started patting him down anyway.

"Lower the gun, Bree," my dad whispered next to me. I shot him a surprised look before hesitantly listening.

Tara closed the doors and all eyes were on Aaron.

"Hi," he greeted awkwardly.

Judith started crying in Rick's arms so he handed her to Carl.

"It's nice to meet you," Aaron continued and tried to step forward but I got closer to him and put my gun up again.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked Maggie. She gave him his gun. He turned to Aaron. "Is there something you need?"

"He has a camp nearby," my mom explained. "He wants us to audition for membership."

"What the hell does that even mean?" I asked, keeping my gun on him.

"I wish there was another word," Aaron agreed, a little chuckle in his voice. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights."

None of us laughed.

He gave up on the joke and continued. "And it's not a camp," he corrected. "It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you to follow us back home."

My dad and I exchanged suspicious looks.

"I know," Aaron agreed, reading our minds. "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?"

My mom glanced over at me and my dad. The looks we gave her read utter confusion.

She sighed and slowly walked up to Rick, taking off the pack and handing it to him.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope," Aaron explained. Rick kneeled down and opened it. "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 store last-"

"No one cares," Daryl cut him off, his voice gritty and dangerous.

Aaron looked back at him awkwardly. "You're absolutely 100% right."

Rick opened the envelope and I walked over to stand behind him so I could see the picture, too. It was a picture of a wall surrounding what I could only assume to be the community.

"That's the first picture I wanted to show you," Aaron explained. "Because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe. If you join us, you will be. Each panel in that wall is a 15-foot-high, 12-foot-wide slab of solid steel framed by cold-rolled steal beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through that without our say-so."

Rick slowly rose to a standing position again as Aaron continued.

"Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one other resource more critical to our community's survival. The people. Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger."

Rick started to walk towards Aaron as he continued to explain the next picture. Rick quickly cut him off by punching him in the face and knocking him out.