In The Pines. (Rick Grimes/TWD FanFic)

Eyes on Fire.

"There it is." Rick spoke up after looking at each of us. We were outside of Terminus, watching from the woods. "We split up, check the perimeter, we'll see what they're about. If there's anything shady goin' on, then maybe we'll see it." With the end of Rick's sentence, we stood in silence for a second. "Right." Daryl said, breaking the silence before he walked away. Michonne nodded and motioned for  Carl to follow her, they headed off in the opposite direction of Daryl. I stood quietly at the fence, inspecting the seemingly perfect area again. "I'm sorry." I spoke softly. I could feel Rick's eyes burning against my skin, his blue eyes must having been piercing into my flesh. "What you did was really brave. I didn't expect it." I turned my head, looking to my right where Rick stood beside me. "Neither did I." he replied. My teeth bit into the side of my cheek, tearing a piece of skin off; my nerves were getting out of control, or maybe it was the fact that I wanted to say so many things, but I knew I couldn't. My thoughts were interrupted from the noises that came from behind me. Rick was putting a bag of weapons into a hole. I watched as he hid the bag, then as his eyes shifted from the dirt to me. He opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by the sound of footsteps. I looked down at my feet, knowing that in a few moments we'd step into Terminus; things would go really well or really bad. We could be killed by lunatics or welcomed by normal people,  normal people like us. Maybe the rest of the group would find Terminus too. Maybe, just maybe this community was full of hopeful people. "Lets go." 

"Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive, survive." A woman said in a robotic voice. The five of us followed the voice of woman, it was easy to find her since it was only a small hallway that we had walked through. As she went into her second repeat of her chant she stopped mid-sentence when Rick began to walk up to her. "Hello." Rick said loudly. I only realized once he spoke up that there was a room full of people. I blinked a few times, then joined the four in stance toward the people. I examined the room. "Well, I bet Albert is on perimeter watch." A tall man replied as he came closer to us. "You here to rob us?" he asked, looking at Rick. He must know he's the man in charge. "No. We wanted to see you, before you saw us." Rick answered him as he stepped forward. "Makes sense." the stranger said, slightly looking to the people behind him. He began to walk closer as he spoke again, "Usually we do this where the tracks meet," he coughed, "welcome to Terminus. I'm Gareth.... Looks like you've been on the road for a good bit." I watched his eyes shift toward me. He licked his lips, which made me feel uncomfortable. "We have." Rick looked at me, then turned his focus back onto Gareth. "Rick. That's Carl, Daryl, Michonne, and-" I stopped him before he could introduce me. "Danielle." Gareth smirked at me. I gave a small, but uncertain smile, watching then as he waved at us. I turned my head toward Daryl, giving him the same unsure look I had before. This time without the smile, but full uncertainty. "You're nervous! I get it. We were all the same way." Gareth spoke again, this time he walked directly up to us. "We came here for Sanctuary. Is that what you're here for?" He asked. "Yes." Rick replied. "Good. You found it." Gareth smiled. "Hey, Alex." he called for the shorter man. "This isn't as pretty as the front. We have nothing to hide, but the welcome wagon is a whole lot nicer. Alex will take you, ask you a few questions. Uh, but first we need to see everyone's weapons. If you can just lay them down in front of you." I squinted my eyes, feeling really unsure about laying down my weapons for strangers. Rick nodded "Alright." he laid down the gun he held. "I'm sure you understand." Gareth said. "Yes, I do." Rick replied as he crouched down, leaving his weapons on the ground. The rest of the group began to lay theirs down, but I stood in the same stance with my eyes on Gareth. Of course it seemed normal for them to see our weapons, but I didn't trust these people one bit. I really didn't want them to see what I had. Gareth had a smug look on his face, his eyes were on me. I crossed my arms and stood quietly. "Oh come on, Danielle. Take one for the team. Just lay your weapons down, so we can see them."  My eyes went to Rick, who gave me a 'just do it' look. I huffed, feeling somewhat defeated. I laid my gun and the two knives I had been carrying down onto the ground in front of me. I watched Gareth's arms demonstrate how he wanted ours. I rolled my eyes, but complied with what he said to do. I felt Alex's hands feel on my body, frisking me to check for weapons. I felt extremely uncomfortable by his hands feeling in areas they shouldn't have been on. "Hey!" I semi yelled at him after feeling his hand grip at my ass. He quickly let go, smirked, and went to his next person to violate. "Just so you know. We aren't those kind of people, but we aren't stupid either. And you shouldn't be stupid enough to try anything stupid. As long as everyone's clear on that, then we shouldn't have any problems. Just solutions." Gareth warned. We all nodded our heads. "Okay." Gareth said as he backed away. One by one, Alex picked up our weapons and gave them back to us. Rick glared at our tour guice while tucking his gun back away. "Follow me." Alex said with a smile on his face. I listened as Alex answered Daryl's question. My eyes adjusted to the lighting from the sun, then I fixed them onto the woman who stood with a bowl in her hand.