philophobia → the walking dead ³

eight.

CHAPTER EIGHT,
when we get to
alexandria.

Aiden sat beside Rick and Judith. "Hey. Everyone... this is Aaron."

Aiden shot up and aimed her gun at the unknown man. She glared at him and he looked at her while Daryl patted him down. As if he knew her. She noticed he was abnormally clean. His clothes were nice and clean. His face was shaved and his hair was cut.

"We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear." Maggie stated. Aiden and Aaron kept their eyes locked until he moved his eyes to Rick.

"Hi." The stranger said. Judith started crying and Carl took her from his dad, "it's nice to meet you."

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick quizzed. Maggie walked forward and handed him a small hand gun.

"That's all he had?" Aiden asked with furrowed eyebrows. Maggie nodded.

"There something you need?" Rick asked him.

"He has a camp nearby. He wants us to audition for membership." Sasha said.

"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." Aaron tried to make a joke but no one laughed, "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. 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?" Aaron asked. Aiden's jaw dropped a little bit at the fact he knew Rick's name.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope. There's not 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 cut him off.

"You're absolute, one-hundred percent right. That's the first picture I wanted to show you 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 fifteen-foot-high, twelve-foot-wide slab of solid steel framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing dead or alive gets through that without our say-so. Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival. The people. Together we're strong. You would make us even stronger. The next picture, you'll see inside the gates. Our community was first construc-"

"Rick!" Aiden called when Rick swung his fist and hit Aaron square in the temple. The man crumpled to the ground, knocked unconscious.

Aiden stared down at the man, "he looked at me like he knew me." She stated. Tara looked at her.

"What?"

"Did you not see the way he stared at me before rambling? He stared at me like he knew me."

He woke after about a minute and grinned, "that was one hell of a right cross, Rick."

"Sit him up." Rick demanded. Maggie tried to say no but Aaron said otherwise, "he's fine. Sit him up."

Maggie and Michonne sat him up. "You're being cautious. I completely understand."