It all started with a headache.
We'd been travelling for a while now. Probably over a year. For my 17th birthday, Carl got me an old calendar, and since I estimated when the year began, I've been counting the days. I figure that since no one else is counting, I'm allowed to start time over and begin whenever I want to. That's how that works, right?
Time has changed us all. We hadn't seen much action since Terminus, we found a place not too long after that, but it was overrun within a few months and we've been on the road ever since. We meandered around northern Georgia for a while until we got a new lead, a new place. It was far, way up in Virginia, Alexandria they said. But it was real close to Washington D.C., which was where Abraham, Eugene, Rosita, Tyreese, Sasha, Bob and Tara were headed. But who knows if they're still alive. We parted ways back when we found that place I mentioned before. Some of us wanted to stay, but Abraham had a mission. And the others, they wanted to save the world too, or something like that.
The rest of us, Carl, Rick, Daryl, Beth, Michonne, Carol, Judith, and I, stuck together. Well, until Carol got bit 6 months ago, it was a sad loss, but I had mourned her death a long time ago, before it happened, foolishly assuming what I was hearing was right. The second time around the pain was sharper, but I felt it for a shorter period of time. A couple days ago, we were around the Virginia border when we found a couple cars with some gas and now we're only a couple miles outside of Alexandria.
Personally, I don't have high hopes for the place, I've been wary of 'safe havens' ever since Terminus turned out to be a cannibal feeding ground disaster. I carry a Glock 19 now, along with my knife. I decided I was tired of being pretty much helpless when it came to long distance situations. I run my fingers over the gun in efforts to try and settle my uneasy stomach. We're less than an hour away from Alexandria and I still don't know how all this is gonna go down.
I'm in a car with Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Judith. God, Judith's gotten to be big. I mean, small for a four year old, but she's not a baby anymore. She's talking in pretty full sentences and walking around quite easily. She's got thin, soft, dirty blonde hair to her shoulders and has managed to sustain her baby fat in her face. Though her little arms, legs, and torso are unacceptably skinny. We've tried to keep her a happy child, she smiles a lot and I can only hope she won't become hardened and cold. But in this world, that's next to impossible. She wears these dirty, black and white polka dotted leggings, with a tunic kind of shirt that too is dirty and white, with a big flower on it. The tunic is too big for her small frame and the leggings are probably a size too small. It's hard to make this small child's life good in this world.
She's seated in a car seat between Carl and I, Michonne and Rick are in the front seat. Carl's entertaining her now, he's changed too. He's gone from cute and hot, to seriously handsome and sexy, I kind of think it's not fair. He's shot up half a foot easily, and is around Rick's height now. I've managed to grow a couple more inches, but he's got a serious height advantage on me now.
Around a year ago, his hair was resting on his shoulders and it was really getting too long, so when we ran across a pair of scissors one day while ransacking a store, we made a deal. I cut his hair if he got to cut mine. Mine ended up pretty uneven and jagged at around my shoulders and his was only a little less jagged up on his ears. Neither of us would've had careers in the barber industry in the old world.
Now his dark brown mop is covering his ears again, the sheriff hat rests in his lap because he's too tall to wear it in the car anymore. He's filled out a little, but is still incredibly lanky. The freckles that used to dot his cheeks have faded to near nothingness, but you get him in the right light and there they still are. His face has matured quite a bit, but his eyes are still that same reliable blue. Just along his jawline, there's just the slightest bit of facial hair trying to crop up. I admittedly have been teasing him about his lack of ability to grow said facial hair, but he always just plays it off. It's kinda cute really. He still wears flannel over a t-shirt and cargo pants.
I've changed some too, but not as much as Carl, like I said I've squeaked up another couple inches, and my hair is about to my armpits. I'm still an unhealthy, malnourished kind of skinny, but somehow I've gotten this little curve in where my waist line is, which frankly I don't understand. I'm wearing a faded purple and white striped 3/4 length shirt and some ripped up skinny jeans, which are baggy on me. I'm glad my feet haven't grown, but the soles of my Doc Martens are sadly beginning to wear thin. My old, faithful beanie sits comfortably on my choppy mess of dull honey hair.
I look at Carl and smile, he still loves his little sister as much as the day she was born, if not more. She's giggling at him as he plays dolls with her. That's right, Carl Grimes is playing with Barbie's, and it's adorable and hilarious.
A sudden sharp pain in my head makes me wince, and I hold my head in my hands, trying to make it stop. When that doesn't work, I bite my tongue as though to distract myself from the pain. It feels like my brain is pushing up against my skull. After a moment it resigns to a dull ache, which is uncomfortable, but not unbearable.
Carl gives me a look when I sit back up, he's obviously trying to keep Judith happy, but there's a certain look of concern that refuses to vacate his expression. I shake my head at him signifying that it's nothing. It's probably nothing, right? I mean headaches are nothing new, it probably has something to do with my dehydration, we haven't had any water for a couple days now.
"Cawl," Judith says, "I'm thirsty." she sticks out her lower lip at him and he looks pained.
"I'm sorry Judy, we haven't got anything to drink, but we'll be somewhere with water soon, I promise." Carl comforts her. His expression makes my heart hurt, because I know there's nothing he wouldn't do to make his baby sister happy. I look sadly at him, and he looks back at me, and I know we're thinking the same thing. We hope it's not like Terminus.
Judith nods and they go back to their game of dolls.
"We're real close now," Rick says.
My hand settles over my gun again, it's going to be ok. I reassure myself, it's going to be ok.
We've entered Alexandria about 10 minutes later, and we're just looking around for actual life. We don't really have an idea as to where in Alexandria this 'safe haven' is. We've heard it's on the river, but there's a lot of Alexandria on the river so it's hard to say where to go. Michonne uses a map to navigate us to the river, and from there we drive around until we see a wall. It's not really like the walls at Woodbury, composed of trucks and tanks and anything else to keep the walkers out. It's more like a gated community kind of wall, we drive around until we get to the gate of the place. From inside the car, I can see activity through the gate. Rick stops the car and he gets out. Carl and I look at each other, exchanging glances. Judith looks up from her doll playing.
"Why we stop?" she looks at Carl and then at me
"Because we're here!" I smile excitedly at her
Her eyes widen eagerly, "Yay!" she giggles
"Hey Judy, maybe there'll be other kids so you can play dolls with someone else." Carl teases, tickling her stomach. Her feet kick in the car seat and she squirms all around.
"But Cawl," Judith protests, "I like when you play with me! You the best at dolls." there goes that bottom lip again, man that kid knows how to work it.
I smile at him and Carl bows his head, frowning slightly.
Michonne looks back at us, she's smiling, but the smile soon drops, "Come on, let's get out. Judith, I want you to stick with your big brother, ok?"
Judith nods and Carl helps her get out of the car seat. She wraps her little fingers around his much bigger hand and he gets her out of the car. I open up the door and get out, carefully shutting the door behind me. The presence of the ache in my head is still there and hasn't risen in severity. I step up and stand next to Michonne.
"So now what?" I ask her, trying to sound as nervous as I feel. I turn around and Daryl and Beth get out of their car behind us. Once Daryl and Beth reunited after Terminus, they became inseparable, and I was right all along. Daryl loved her.
Michonne shrugs, "I think Rick's waiting to see if anyone notices." she turns towards me and half whispers.
I nod, I press the heel of my hand against my gun, nervous air sputters past my lips and then I see a man walk up.
The gates open and the man introduces himself as Douglas Monroe, he asks what our purpose is and Rick tells him he's heard of a place called the Alexandria Safe Zone, and then he asks if this is it. The man nods and Rick tells him we're here for sanctuary. The man nods, his eyes run over all of us cautiously. He asks Rick a few questions that I can't quite make out and Rick answers in the same way. I grit my teeth, slightly frustrated I don't know what's going on. I look back and over at Carl, I can't see Judith, because the car shields her, but he's looking down at her and smiling. I look back to Monroe and I see another man come up behind him. I'm surprised, I recognize this man. His immaculate, carrot colored, handlebar mustache could identify him from a mile away. It's Abraham Ford, what the hell is he doing here?
"Douglas?" I can hear Abraham from here, his notable, military loud voice cuts through the air.
Monroe turns around, "What is it Abraham?"
"I know these folks, they're good, you can trust 'em," he says immediately, making eye contact with Rick.
"Is that so?" Monroe turns back to Rick.
Abraham tells him, "Yes sir, we split up a while back, I had a mission to get Eugene to Washington and they wanted a place to settle down. Ain't nothin' wrong with that."
"Mhm, and you know all of them?" Monroe confirms.
Abraham nods, "I'd trust them all with my life."
Monroe looks at us one last time, "Come on in, we'll get you settled."