"Welcome to Terminus. Home of the weak, death of the brave." Everyone's' eyes began searching the dim train car for the source of the voice. Sitting in the corner, you could barely see the outline of a girl, but her bright orange shirt seemed to glow in the dark. She rose from her small dirty cot to greet them "I'm Alexandria, but you can call me Alex if you like." Rick turns to Glenn and Maggie "Was she with you, too?" Glenn answers as Maggie shakes her head "She was already here when we came." "How long you been here for?" Daryl asks. "72 days and counting" Alexandria replies with an almost wistful tone to her voice.
The group share an apprehensive look, as she approaches them slowly, there is a slight limp to her step. "I'm not bad, I'm not like them. I haven't killed any of the living just the undead-" Carl cuts her off "Walkers, we call them walkers." Alexandria only gives him a look of confusion. "You know, like the dead is walking, so, we call them walkers." he explains. "Oh," a tiny smile spreads on her face "Well I've only killed walkers. I believe that since the number of living is limited, we should preserve any life we find." Her words hang awkwardly in the air, and so she turns to limp back to her cot in the corner. The back of her shirt has crooked letters and numbers painted on the back.
"Acts nineteen, what's that suppose to be? A bible reference?" Daryl questions gruffly. Alexandria and turns around, a smile on her face that's more proud than happy "You like my shirt? If you survive you'll get one. It stands for A Criminal of Terminus Sanctuary. I am number nineteen in level orange. Each shirt is a different level, the color shirt they give you represents how dangerous you are. That way, if you leave the box car, Terminus citizens will know." "What are the different levels?" Rick asks curiously.
By now everyone's attention is on the girl. "Um," Alexandria rubs the side of her arm, not use to being the center of attention after being in solitude for so long, "Well, the lowest you can be is a yellow shirt, it means you stole something. Next is blue, that means you killed a terminus civilian. Then purple, I think that is when you joined the sanctuary then killed someone important to Terminus. The next level up is orange, that's where you have committed treason to Terminus, which means giving out confidential information, and sabotage to the sanctuary. Finally there's red. That means you came in with your weapons blazing, killed people, didn't trust them. The worst of the worst. Oh! And there is white. That just means you haven't done anything particularly bad, you were just an accomplice, or didn't trust us and drew you weapons, but did not kill."
"Why are people who didn't trust and sabotaged worse than murderers?" Abraham barks. Eugene, with a smile plastered to his face as if he solved a brilliant puzzle, turns to him "Easy, here, they find power in intelligence." The was a brief silence before Rick asks Alexandria another question "How did they get these shirts?" "They robbed a nearby store on a supply run. I'm not sure who came up with the let's color code our criminals idea, though." Michonne leans over to Carl and whispers "She seems to be around your age." Carl just scowls before speaking up " So if you're in orange, you use to be one of them?" his voice is filled with venom.
"Yes, but I betrayed them, on That Day." Alexandria speaks softly then she turns and limps lightly back to her cot, signaling that she is done talking. "How long have you been trapped?" Rick asks his group. "About a week." Sasha informs him. "So, what happened?" Rick inquires, wondering what happened to his friends post-prison.
A/N: Hi thanks for reading! I am hoping to post chapter one tomorrow or later today. All of my updates will be on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Also, please not that That Day is capitalized on purpose in the story. It's as though she is referring to a holiday of some sorts. So it's capitalized, like how you'd capitalize Memorial Day, or Christmas.