ch.39

the distance

i opened the barn doors after patting him down, introducing him to the others as we walked in.

"hey" maggie started, stepping to the side, revealing aaron to the others, "everyone, this is aaron."

   i walked behind them, watching the others reactions when their eyes landed on him. daryl quickly raised his crossbow stepping to the opening of the door.

   i grabbed his arm, making his face turn to mine, "it's clear." i whispered, assuring him we were good, earning a nod in response.

   "we met him outside. he's by himself." maggie informed the rest as they pulled their weapons out, unsure of him too.

ricks gaze drifted to mine, tilting his head slightly at me. i shrugged my shoulders, stepping beside aaron.

"we took his weapons and his gear." i stated, causing rick to look away from me and back to aaron.

   i felt glenns gaze from beside me, watching as he inches closer, pulling me away from aaron. i gave him a small smile, knowing he was trying to keep me safe.

   "you said he had a weapon?" rick asked, earning a nod as i motioned for maggie to hand rick the weapon she took.

once he grabbed ahold of it, he checked the amount of bullets before shoving it in the back of his jeans.

   "there something you need?" rick questioned him, raising a brow.

    "he says he as a camp nearby. he wants us to audition for membership." sasha informed, looking to rick, making sure audition was emphasized.

   "i wish there was another word. audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe." he started, still raising his hands, "that's only on friday nights"

   we all shot him weird looks as the words left his mouth, causing him to shake his head in embarrassment.

"um, and it-it's not a camp. it's a- a community." he stuttered, looking around at all of us.

   "i think you all would make valuable auditions. but it's not my call." he stated, causing me to step forward.

"who's call is it then?" i gritted through my teeth, causing glenn to pull me back.

   "well, deanna and her daughter. um, my job is just to convince you all to follow me back home." he stated, turning away from my gaze and back to ricks.

   rick shifted uneasily, his eyes never leaving aaron's. "sasha, can you hand rick my pack?" he questioned, turning to face sasha.

   she hesitated before moving to rick, handing him the backpack off her shoulders.

"front pocket, theres an envelope. theres no way you would come with me, just by talking about our community. thats why i brought those, and i apologize for the picture quali-"

   "nobody gives a shit" me and daryl scolded in unison, our heads shot in each other's direction, shooting a little smirk to each other.

   aaron blinked a couple times, turning is head to me and daryl who stood unamused by what he was talking about.

"you're absolutely 100% right." he mumbled, slowly turning back around.

   glenn nudged my shoulder a bit, warning me to try and be nice with his eyes. i threw my hands up, giving him a playful sorry look.

   "our community was first const-" my eyes widened as i turned back to where aaron stood, watching rick throw a punch across his face. _____________

   a groan came from aarons mouth, when he awoke. maggie and michonne kneeled by him, patting the sweat off his face.

   he grinned, looking up to where me and rick stood, "you and your people sure do like to throw punches, rick."

   rick look to sasha with a questioning look, thinking it was her. she threw her up her hands, eyeing me up. rick looked to me before shaking his head.

   "how many of your people are out there?" rick questioned, watching aaron as michonne pulled him up into a sitting position.

   aaron looked rick up and down, pausing when rick showed him the flare we'd found from his pack.

"you have a flare gun. you have it to signal your people." rick pointed out, raising the orange gun.

   "does it matter?" aaron asked, glancing between the both of us.

    "yes, it matters." i sneered, crossing my arms over my chest.

   "i mean of course, it matters how many people are actually out there..." he started, pausing like he was contemplating if he should say what was on his mind, "... but does it really matter how many people i tell you are out there?"

   "eight. thirty-two, four hundred and fourty-four, zero— no matter what i say you're not going to trust me."

   "well it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." rick stated, making aaron snap back.

   "how about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?"

  everyones eyes widened, turning around to see the bottles of water. i already had an idea that it was him who put them in the road.

   "how long you people been following us?" daryl hissed, stepping close to where glenn was, sending him a serious look.

   "long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. long enough to see that despite the lack of food and water, you never turned on each other." he started, looking around at all of us, "you're survivors and you're people"

   i dropped my head, starting to actually feel bad for the dude. "just answer me honestly, and things won't have to be hard." i stated, stepping closer to where he was kneeling.

   "how many others are there?"

   "one" he muttered, not hesitating to answer this time.rick shook his head from behind me causing aaron to panick a little.

"what if i drove you to the community? all of you?" we leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

   i turned to rick, who was glancing around the barn. "i'm not sure how the fifteen of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in." he stated, throwing his hand up at aaron.

  "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."

   i looked around the group, watching some of their faces look uneasy, calm, some looking restless.

   "you can trust me." aaron assured, causing my eyes to flicker to his, only seeing something genuine.

"i think we should check it out, give this dude a chance." i mumbled, turning around to face rick.

he paused staring at me while i stood near aaron. michonne and maggie both nodded their heads in agreement.

"your ways dangerous, mine isn't." rick argued, causing me to roll my eyes.

"passing up some place where we can live?" michonne started, giving rick a death glare, "where judith can live?"

i stepped closer to rick, folding my arms over my chest, "we need to find out what this is. we can all handle ourselves."

there was a long pause as everyone stood, wondering who's side they should take. "so that's what we're gonna do." michonne stated, breaking the silence.

i nodded my head looking to where glenn was staring at me, he hesitated a little before speaking, "if melanies going, then i will too."

rick shifted uneasily when glenn spoke, turning to face abrahman, calling out his name. abraham nodded, glancing between the both of us.

"yeah. i'll walk with them." he stated, moving away from the barn window. rick turned back, looking to where rosita stood, "rosita?"

   she fastened her gun in her belt loop before nodding her head, "okay." she replied, heading for the barn doors.

   my eyes shifted to my sister who was walking over to me. "i'm coming with you, we're bot getting spilt up again"

   "okay" i replied, earning a smile before i led her to the door, meeting with the others.

   "eyes open, everybody. weapons up. you see someone coming at us you fire." glenn instructed, walking along side of me.

   "copy that." davina and abraham said in unison, causing them to shoot smiles at each other.

   michonne looked over at me and glenn, an unsure facial expression spread across her face.

"so if we see someone, we just shoot them?" michonne started while glenn kept his eyes on the road, "what if aaron's telling the truth? what if they're someone who has nothing to do with this?"

   i scoffed, messing with the gun in my hand, "we're five people walking with guns. no ones coming up to say hello." glenn responded, a hint of attitude in his voice.

   "he's right. in this world, it's either us or them." i stated, squinting from the sun that burned down on my body.

   "he said he was watching us, right?" glenn started, sweat beads rolling down his face, "it means he saw us yesterday. and after everything we've done, why would he want us to join his group?"

   michonne shook her head slightly, making her hands raise a bit, "people like us saved a priest. saved two girls who rolled up to the prison with the governor." she scoffed, "saved a crazy women with a sword."

   i nudged glenns shoulder making him look at me, "you saved two dumbasses from a tank"

glenn sent me a small smile, nodding his head, "yeah, i fell in love with one of those dunbasses too."____________

   we walked slowly, stepping over branches as we moved closer to the rv and car aaron had been talking about.

   "he was telling the truth." michonne mumbled, looking over to me and glenn.

    i brushed it off, walking away from the two, gun still in hand.

   i stepped closer to my sister who stood next to rosita, just as i was about to open my mouth, a noise caught my attention.

    a rustling sound came from the woods causing me to raise my gun in the direction of the sound came from.

   "not one step closer, asshole!" glenn shouted from behind me, the others paused, waiting with their guns raised.

    i let out a breath in relief, watching walkers appear from the woods.

   "i got um." glenn uttered, raising his gun. causing me and rosita to shake our heads, "we got um." she mumbled, setting her gun down.

   i did the same, pulling my knives from my holster, while davina and the others stood behind us, watching the scene happen.

   i walked, grinning as the walker limped closer to me. "come on now" i whispered to myself, watching the walker stumble over itself.

   when it got close enough, i swung underneath its chin, shoving the knife up through its jaw. i didn't even bother turning back to the others as moved straight to the rv, abraham in front of me.

   he whipped the door open, entering with his gun raised, soon i followed behind in the same manner.

   "clear" i informed, after checking the front. he appeared from the back giving me a nod, checking the cupboards.

   "gracious ignatius" he mumbled, pulling out canned foods.

   rosita soon entered, carrying a conversation with abraham about the spaghettiOs he was holding. i exited, letting them have their privacy before we took had to take off back to the barn.

   _______________________________3/11/2021