Animal Gone Wild [DISCONTINUED]

36

GIFT, TRAP, OR PLAIN STUPIDITY?

I was rudely awoken by being kicked lightly in the leg. I grunted before rolling over.
"What," I groaned, not opening my eyes.
Silence followed my question, causing me to become a bit ticked off. So I turned and glared at who woke me up, to see it was Carl. He then started signing away.
"New guy named Aaron. My dad and Daryl want you awake."
I huffed before sitting up and tasseling my hair. I grunted as I got up, grabbing my crossbow in the process. I turned towards the issue at hand, rubbing the tiredness from my eyes as they hardened over as I stood protectively next to Rick.
"You said he had a weapon," Rick asked Maggie.
I visibly tensed. Maggie and Sasha ran into this guy? I gripped my crossbow a bit tighter, unliking the idea of him near them. Maggie walked towards us and handed Rick the man's gun. A wimpy 6-piece. Rick handed it to me and I took it, keeping my eyes locked on the man as I slipped it into my jeans behind my back.
"There something you need?"
"He has a camp nearby," Sasha explained, "he wants us to audition for a membership."
I scoffed, "what is this, a school play?"
"Hey, hey, hey," Rick rushed, holding me at bay, "simmer...simmer."
"I wish there was another word," Aaron commented, "audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe, or as the young lady said...a school play. But, that's only on Friday nights."
Silence seemed to only answer him, and I saw him get more nervous than he already was when he walked in here.
"Um, 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 could tell that he could tell we didn't trust him. Not in the slightest.
"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?"
I let out a growl when Aaron said Sasha's name—much less Rick's. Rick's hand latched onto my wrist, causing me to stop my movements.
"Stay," Rick whispered, "I need you to focus June...don't get reckless now."
I grunted before standing straight as Sasha walked towards Rick and I with Aaron's pack.
"Front pocket, there's an envelope."
Rick got down on his knees and started opening the backpack. I stood guard next to him, keeping my eyes trained on Aaron—but my ears on the surrounding area.
"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-"
"Nobody gives a shit,"Daryl interrupted.
"You're absolutely 100 percent right."
Rick opened the envelope and I glanced down and up before doing a double take. My mouth opened partly at the first picture, drowning out everything as I stared at the poor quality photo but of...a community. Like he said.
Rick glanced back at Michonne as Aaron went on a rant. I looked up at Rick and sent him a quick message as I slipped my crossbow back on.
"Can I knock him out yet?"
Rick responded with a shake of his head. I rolled my eyes in response. Soon he started talking about the next picture and Rick nodded at me. I walked forward as he continued talking before I decked him in the face, knocking him unconscious expertly.
"Dumb prick," I grumbled.
I moved out of the way as Michonne spoke with Rick, who turned around.
"So we're clear," Michonne addressed, "that look wasn't a let's attack that man look. It was a he seems like an okay guy to me look."
"We gotta secure him," Rick commented, "dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is."
"Rick."
"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. June, I want you by my side."
I shot Daryl a raised eyebrow who shrugged in response.
"They're comin' for us. We might not know how or when, but they are."
"Me and Sasha, we didn't see him," Maggie commented, "if he had wanted to hurt us, he could've."
Rick completely ignored Maggie.
"Anybody see anything?"
"Just a lot of places to hide," Glenn informed.
"All right, keep looking."
I sat down and strained my hearing out, I listened to the surrounding area but heard nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing human. I snapped back into the barn. Rick was near the back talking with Carl. Rick returned to us with a flare gun. I cocked an eyebrow in confusion. Aaron soon awoke, to my disdain.
"She's got a hell of aright cross there, Rick," Aaron commented.
I rolled my eyes as Rick motioned me forward. I grunted as I got up and stood by his side as Rick ordered for him to be sat up.
"I think it's better if-"
"It's okay," Aaron comforted.
"He's fine," Rick aggressively commented, "sit him up."
Michonne and Maggie did as told.
"You're being cautious. I completely understand."
"How many of your people are out there?"
Aaron was silent as Rick showed the flare gun.
"You have a glare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"
Aaron sighed and seemed worried. I tilted my head in confusion, usually people get defensive or aggressive...not worried.
"Does it matter?"
"Yes. Yes, it does."
"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."
"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiled after getting punched in the face."
I scoffed before rolling my eyes. Signing to anyone who was looking.
"I do that."
Daryl gave me an eye roll, before signing back.
"We know. It's because you're different."
I gave him a sarcastic smile.
"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road," Aaron questioned.
I tilted my head.
"How long you people been following us," Daryl questioned.
"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trial. Long enough to see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other. Long enough to know you were glad that the red head returned unscathed. You're survivors and you're people. Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me in the face when I say it again, that is the most important resource in the world."
Rick moved forward and I did too, only a few paces to see Aaron's face.
"How many others are out there," Rick repeated.
"One."
Rick turned to look at me as I stared in utter shock and disbelief. Only one? Something clicked automatically. The worried expression, the comments, the fact that he just commented that only one other person was out there with him.
Rick turned back to him with disbelief, thinking I didn't believe him.
"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?"
I walked a few paces to stand in front of Rick. His attention turned back to me. I was moving my hands like it was nothing, but only slightly so he would notice. A silent conversation between us.
"Rick, he spoke the truth. There's only one other person out there that's waiting for him. The look on my face wasn't disbelief, it was shock that it was true."
Rick moved his hands back in response with a scowl.
"Alright, so what do you suppose we do?"
I gave him a roll of the eyes before responding.
"What makes you think I have a plan? You're the boss remember? I'm just the animal that follows willingly."
Rick gave me a stern look before aggressively signing.
"No. You're not just some animal. You're June. Our June. The June that survived anything thrown at her, you understand? Don't ever refer to yourself as an animal again. You hear me?"
I nodded only slightly before moving out of his way.
"What if I drove you to the community," Aaron offered, "all of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."
"I'm not sure how the 16 of us will fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in,"Rick commented.
Aaron shook his head.
"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."
"And you're parked just a couple miles away right," Carol sassed.
"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."
"Yeah, you've really thought this through," Rick growled.
"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."
After a moment Michonne  spoke up.
"I'll check out the cars."
"There aren't any cars," Rick denied.
"There's only one way to find out."
"We don't need to find out."
"We do. You know what you know and you're sure of it, but I'm not."
Silence.
"Me neither," Maggie commented.
"You're way is dangerous, mine isn't," Rick addressed Michonne.
"Passing up someplace where we can live," Michonne commented, "where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do."
"Then I will too," Glenn commented, "I'll go."
Rick sighed before turning to look between me and I believe Abraham.
"June," Rick ordered.
I shot my eyes up and made eye contact with Rick waiting orders. He glanced between my amber eyes before saying the next line that I needed.
"Fold up, you're goin'."
I nodded once before he called for Rosita and Abraham.
"Okay," she responded.
"Alright," Abraham agreed.
"If there's trouble," Rick questioned Glenn, "you got enough firepower?"
"We got all we got," Glenn commented, "besides that June's with us. What could go wrong?"
"June, gun to Glenn."
I pulled out the piece from my back and tossed it to Glenn as he caught it. I wasn't really careful with guns when handing it to people, but hey. Safety was on.
"The walkies are out of juice. If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come. Which might be just what they want."
Michonne started leading as Rosita, Maggie, Glenn, Abraham, and I followed.