I looked at myself in the mirror barley recognizing the person standing before me. My hair was dark, curly, and looked a little dirty. I don't even remember the last time I cut it. My face seemed thinner than I remembered but more defined now. I'd gotten taller, I'm taller than my mom now. My body was much more toned than it was before, but still quite thin. My eyes were still as bright and blue as they were when this world went to shit. This is the first time I had the chance to actually stop and look at myself in months. Things aren't quite the same since the dead started walking.
My mom and I were held up in this little house less than 5 miles away from the city. We've spent months trying to get here to D.C. and now were almost there. We've been traveling for so long and now we've almost reached our goal. We've sacrificed a lot to get here and now we're just a couple hours away.
I walked down the stairs to find my mother eating something that looked like death itself out of a can.
"You want some Andrew?" She asked me.
I could see the the roots of her dark hair begin to grey. She herself was thin with a slight tone to her muscles. She'd aged so much since this began. She too had bright blue eyes once but now they seemed so dark. We've both been through so much and it's taken a toll on both of us but she just isn't the same anymore.
My mother used to spend her time helping the church, she ran Sunday school and organized charity events. She was always full of hope and saw the best in people. She always saw the best in me. Now she cries her self to sleep, if she ever sleeps, and barely talks anymore. Life just isn't the same.
"What is that!?" I asked looking at the can.
"I have no idea and it tastes horrible" She said.
"You know what I miss? Pizza! I could use a slice of pizza" I said while I packed my bag up.
"I miss a lot of things too." She said quietly without looking away from the can.
I did't mean to darken the mood but I could tell she was thinking about them.
We started out of the house and that's when we saw him. A man, in his late 30's, who looked quite clean, especially compared to us, dressed nicely, and stepped forward with his hands up.
"Hi I'm Aaron." He said with a small smile.
Both my mother and I pulled out our handguns and pointed then right at him. Neither of us said anything. We just watched as he slowly made his way closer to us. We hadn't seen someone living since we got close to the city. He stopped about teen feet in front of us.
"It's just you two right?" Aaron said to break the silence.
"What do you want" My mother said coldly.
"I just want you two to come back with me to my community and audition." Aaron stated plainly as if this what he said was common knowledge.
"What? Audition for what?" I asked him, completely confused.
"I want you two to audition for a spot in our community. It's only a little while from here. If we left now we could make it by lunch." Aaron said smiling a little more.
My mom looked back at me then back at Aaron. I could tell in her eyes that she wanted to believe him.
"What kind of community?" She asked, still pointing her gun.
"It's safe. We have walls and about 50 people. I've a been watching you and your son for some time. Anyway, I've seen how you guys act. You're good people well at least as far as I can tell. Now I'm just rambling. " Aaron said laughing a bit to himself.
"You've been watching us!?" She raised her voice and stiffened her grip on her gun.
"Uh yeah. I've got to make sure you're decent people before I approach you. There's a lot of bad people out there you know." Aaron said a little defensively.
"That makes sense… How can we trust you though? How do we know you're not lying." My mother asked. She lightened her grip on her gun.
"Well, you're just going to have to. If I wanted to kill you I could've done will you slept last night or any night since you got close to the city, but I didn't. I could have but, I did't." He said to her.
I could tell she was starting to give in. It didn't seem like she was going to put up a fight with him. I just hoped we could trust him.
"Fine. First you've got to give us any weapons you have before go anywhere with you. When we get there we'll give them back." She said to him lowering her gun.
"That sounds reasonable." Aaron agreed to her terms.
"Wait mom are you sure?" I asked her. We haven't had the best luck with people but I think she just really doesn't have the energy to fight anymore.
"Not really. What other option do we have though? If he's telling the truth then we can be somewhere where we can finally stay. We haven't stayed somewhere in so long. It's just an offer we shouldn't pass up." She said putting her hand on my gun and lowering it. I agreed with her.
Aaron took out a small hand gun and a knife and handed them to us and began to lead the way to his community.
"You're Andrew right" He said looking back at me as we walked down the road.
I said nothing back.
"I never caught your name" Aaron said to my mother.
"It's Kristie, Kristie Harvey. This is Andrew Harvey." She said to him.
"Hello I'm Deanna Monroe and welcome to Alexandria." Said and older women surrounded by a group of people. She must be their leader I thought. There were two people wearing what looked like police uniforms one a guy who looked just a few years younger than my mom and the other was a dark skinned girl with dreadlocks. Next to them was a boy only a couple years younger than I. He was kinda pale and had long brown hair and blue eyes like myself. There were more people further back all watching as my mother and I walked through their gate.
Their community was full of big, nice houses. The walls around them seemed sturdy enough. The people seemed happy too. I could see kids playing down the street. People were talking and laughing. They seemed happy.
"So why don't we begin with the interviews? Oh but first you have to hand over any weapons. They're still your weapons and your more than welcome to check them out whenever you leave these walls but as long as your in here no weapons are needed." The older lady said to us.
My mother nodded to me and I knew what she meant.
We handed our guns and Aaron's weapons to the older guy cop and the pale boy.
"I'm Rick Grimes and this here is my son Carl. Welcome to Alexandria." Rick said as he patted us down for any other weapons we might have hidden. We didn't have anything to hide.
"Nice to meet your Rick. I'm Andrew Harvey and this is my Mother Kristie." I said back with a smile and shook Rick and Carl's hands. I could already tell I was going to like it here.
"And this is Michonne" Rick said motioning to the dark skinned women who walked up.
"Her and I are the constables here. We're here to help keep the peace. If you have any trouble you can come find us. Anyway it's time for the interviews, Andrew you're first, you can follow Deanna, she'll be conducting them." He said motioning to the older lady.
"So why don't you begin by stating your name and where your from?" Deanna asked me.
We were in her living room, sitting on her couch with a camera pointed at me. I never thought I'd see a camera working again. This community felt like somewhere time had frozen and the dead never had started walking. They even had running water too. Everything here seemed so perfect.
"Uh yeah. I'm and Andrew Harvey and I'm from Washington." I said to her.
"Ohh so you're from around here? D.C. is a wonderful place isn't it?" She said smiling.
"No. Sorry I should have been more specific. I'm from Washington State." I said to her. Her face filled with shock.
"Woah. You're from the other side of the country! That's astonishing! Tell me, how did you and your mother make it all this way." She nearly yelled with excitement.
"Well in the beginning it was my Mother, Father, me, and my older brother, . We were all told to get to the big cities but my father was convinced we needed to make to Washington D.C. to really be safe. He had the notion in his head that this would be the only place the military would put real effort into protecting. So we got in the car and started driving. For awhile it was just the four of us, and the dead, but eventually we started meeting actual living people and they joined us. At one point we had up to 60 people traveling with us. My father lead us all but, the dead just kept attacking us but even worse the living had attacked us too. We kept going though pushing through any obstacle in our way. Focusing on the goal of getting somewhere, that we all hoped would be safe, seemed to keep most of us sane." I stopped talking and saw just how intrigued she was.
"Continue please." She said eager to hear more.
"Well when we made it to Illinois the number of roamers grew and grew. I guess that since the east coast was more populated the amount of roamers was higher too. Anyway we kept going but we were losing people everyday. My father managed to keep our spirits up but, once we lost my older brother he changed. He lost all hope. Once he did there wasn't much holding our group together so eventually it was back to just my mom. dad. and I. We lost my father only two weeks ago he got bitten."
"I'm so sorry for your loss." She said in what seemed to be a genuine tone.
"That's alright. My mom didn't take it too well though. She hasn't really been the same since this all started. Anyway after we lost my father my mother and I just didn't stop we kept going. Now we're here."
"That's an amazing story you've traveled so much." Deanna said while she digested everything I said.
"Yeah we haven't really stopped since this all began. We just kept moving." I said trying to smile so I seemed nicer. I wanted to stay here now. I was done moving. I wanted her to like me so my mother and I could stay. I could tell already that we needed to be here.
"Well that's a lot for someone your age… You're what 16? 17ish?" Deanna asked.
"I think 16. I haven't really kept track of the time. 16 sounds about right though." I replied with a smile. She smiled back but it was more of a smile of sadness she felt bad for me. I could tell. I didn't need her too we've all felt loss and have had a hard time lately.
"Well, what did your parents do before this?" She asked.
"My mother was mainly a stay at home mom but she spent most of her time helping at the church. My father was in the military. He was working on base before this happened. When things got crazy, everything was so disorganized my father just came and got us and we left." I replied.
"Well, since we're short of open houses currently, you'll be staying here with me and my family" Rick told us as he led me and my mother towards his home.
His house was just as nice as the other houses here. When we entered, the pale boy from earlier, Carl, was there playing with a baby. Along with him were Michonne and a new person. She was an older women with short grey hair and she was dressed like the people my mom used to hang out with at church. They all stopped talking as soon as we entered. The older women came towards us with a big smile.
"Hi I'm Carol. Nice to meet you two. I heard you both are from Washington state! That's so far away. Any who I better be going I've got a party to help set up. Hope to see you there tonight!" She said it all too cheery and she walked out the door with Michonne in tow. It was strange that they stopped talking the moment we walked in.
"Thank you for letting us stay here tonight. I'm surprised your trusting us enough to let us." My mother said to Rick quietly.
"Well Deanna and Aaron both seem to trust the two of you an there isn't much room to put anyone else for a few more weeks." Rick replied.
I walked over to Carl and the baby while my mother and Rick went into the kitchen to talk.
"That's one cute baby" I said sitting on the couch across from him.
"Yeah." He replied coldly.
"What's her name? She's a she right?" I asked hoping I was right.
"Yeah. Her name is Judith." He replied again just as coldly.
"Well Judith is just adorable. I never thought I'd see a baby again! I've always been great with kids." I said a little cheery. I was trying to lighten the mood a little.
"She is quite the miracle." He said smiling to her.
"Is she your sister or…?" I questioned, trying to find out something about this boy.
"She's my sister yes." He answered. He hadn't made much eye contact with me he just focused on his sister. I got the feeling he didn't trust me unlike his father who had seemed to begin too. I still couldn't believe they are having us stay in the same house as the ones with a baby. I wouldn't let no stranger near my baby. Of course I knew that neither I nor my mother would do anything to her, it's still strange.
"So where's your mom?" I asked, again trying to find out more.
"She's dead. She died after she had Judith." He said finally making eye contact with me. His blue eyes looked right at me. He looked emotionless. I felt awful for bringing that up.
"Oh sorry. I lost my father. Just a couple weeks ago." I said looking down.
His stare lightened and I could see his face shift into a sorry look.
"I guess we've all lost something. I'm sorry for your loss." He said looking at me again. This time though he seemed genuine and nice.
Rick walked into the room and picked up Judith.
"Why don't you show Andrew here around the house and then you can show him around Alexandria too and maybe introduce him to the other kids around here." Rick said. Then he took my mom and Judith outside to show her around.
I followed Carl upstairs he showed me the different rooms until we got to his.
"It isn't anything special. I don't really have anything to put in a room." Carl said. His room was quite bare, other than furniture, all he had were a few comic books.
"It's nice though… So how long have you guys been here?" I asked him while we both sat on the edge of his bed.
"Just a couple weeks. We haven't been here long at all." He said.
"So do you trust all these people?" I asked.
"Well sort of. They're really nice people here. There are a few who are a little strange too." He said not looking at me again.
"Do you trust me?" I asked. What a stupid question of course he had just met me... He didn't trust me. Although other people here seemed to trust me. I myself have started trusting people here already.
"Well I don't know. You seem kind of normal but, you do ask a lot of questions." He said with sarcasm and a little laugh. Then he paused.
"Do you trust me?" He said looking at me. I could sense a little sarcasm in his question.
"Well yeah. You seem like a nice guy. Plus you seem to spend most of your day with a baby. How can you not trust someone with a baby as adorable as Judith!" I said smiling.
"True!" He laughed a little and smiled too.
I made him smile.
I hadn't seen him smile. He had a damn good smile.