Jessamine Dixon lives in the apocalypse

The Distance

Everybody else was awake and Daryl only took a short nap. It was a very short lived peace.

It was quiet, except for the sound of the people working on there weapons.

"Hey. Everyone...this is Aaron." Maggie said and we all stood up. Daryl was the first one look out the door to make sure nobody else was near.

I walked next to this Aaron.

"We met him outside. He's by himself." Maggie said and Daryl walked back to check Aaron for his weapons.

"We took his weapons and we took his gear." Maggie said but Daryl still aggressively checked him all over.

They shut the door and I looked back at Aaron. Then I looked at the group watching him with snake eyes and holding him at gunpoint.

"Hi." Aaron said and Judith started crying on cue. Carl took her from Rick and we looked back at him.

"It's nice to meet you." Aaron said and he went to shake Rick's hand but the way everybody else acted, he stopped before he got shot.

Aaron looked very clean, very nice. Almost like he had some walls to hide behind. The rest of us, you could tell we've been on the road for awhile.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked and Maggie walked forward to give him the weapon. Rick looked at Aaron for a minute and then put the gun by his back.

"There something you need?" Rick asked.

"He has a camp nearby." Sasha said and I looked back at Aaron.

"He's got more than a camp." I said while looking at him. He looked like he was from the old world with no flesh eating walkers.

"He wants us to audition for membership." Sasha said and I looked at her then back at Aaron.

"Oh, so it's like a play?" I asked sarcastically. That was the stupidest thing to say to us. Audition? Really? With all we've been through we don't need to audition for anything.

"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." Aaron said and I was the only one to smile. While everybody else gave him these cold dead eyes.

"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 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?" He asked her and Sasha hesitantly walked towards Rick.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope." Aaron said and Rick put the backpack down so he could dig around in the front pocket.

While he was doing that I turned towards Aaron and stuck my hand out.

"I'm, Jess." I told him and he gladly grabbed my hand.

"You already know who I am, but it's nice to meet you, Jess. Is that short for something?" He asked and I nodded my head.

"Full name is Jessamine." Daryl said and he didn't looked thrilled at my actions.

"I have a lot of different nicknames from that whole one. If you find one that fits, chances are I'll respond to it." I told him and he shook my hand one more time before dropping it and looking towards Rick.

"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 told him and Aaron looked towards him. As did I.

"You're absolutely 100% right." Aaron told him and looked back at Rick who was taking the pictures out of the envelope.