philophobia|| the walking dead

sixteen.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN,
little moments count.

"Open the gate! Open the gate!" Everyone outside their homes heard two men yell. Aiden and Aaron looked at each other before rushing to the gates. Everyone was frantically moving to the gates to get them opened for Rick and Payton.

The two men got in just in time.

Walkers pushed themselves against the gate, reaching for them. Aiden gaped at the hundreds of walkers that had broke off from the herd.

She turned her eyes to Rick and Payton, both who were covered in sweat and blood. They had fallen and were sitting against the wall.

She kneeled in front of Rick and he looked at her, "Aiden-"

"Rick." She quickly cut him off, "I don't wanna hear it. You're alive, you're still breathing. That's all that matters."

Rick nodded gratefully at her, her hand patted his leg before she moved to Payton.

She brought him into her. His arms gripped her body like a life-line. The two finally pulled back and Payton kissed Aiden's forehead. He looked at Xavier and pulled his little brother into him. "You're both okay."

»

"You can hear it. Some of you saw it." Rick said as he approached the large group of people standing around the walls. Aiden stood back beside Xavier and Payton. "They got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us twenty deep. Look, I know you're scared. You haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this. But we're safe for now. The panel the truck hit seems intact. We reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall's gonna hold together. Can you? The others are gonna be back." Rick spoke to them all.

"They're gonna be back." Rosita said quickly. Her worry for Abraham evident to them all.

"They will be. All of 'em." Aiden nodded her head.

"Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're gonna lead 'em away, just like the others. And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk through that gates after. They know what they're doing, and we know what we need to do. We keep noise to a minimum. Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out.  We'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on."

"This place is a graveyard." Francine spoke up.

"Only if you want it to be." Aiden said to her.

"The quarry broke open and those walkers were heading this way. All of them." Aaron stepped forward, "the plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away. I was out there recruiting with Daryl. I wanted to try and get into a cannery and scavenge, and Daryl wanted to keep looking for people. We did what I wanted... and we wound up in a trap set by those people. I dropped my pack. They must've followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us... they found they're way back here because of me." Aaron said.

"There'll be more to talk about." Rick stated.

"Deanna?" Tobin asked and everyone turned their attention to the woman. "Deanna?" She just kept walking.