I scoffed at his words.

''Good news? Sorry to say I'm a little 'sceptic' about that.'' I told him, observing him for the first time.

He had curly light brown hair that had been cut short. He didn't have any stubble whatsoever, which suggested he came from a safe place. He didn't necessarily seem like he was going to do hurt me, but that didn't stop me from being cautious.

''I understand that.'' He said, his hands still raised in the air and a good few feet away from me, although he did take a step forward. But it didn't look threatening.

''We have a community and we're looking for people to take in. People like you.'' I didn't really know how to answer to that. A community. A place to live. After tonight it almost seemed to good to be true.

''We'd like you all to 'audition-''

''You can stop right there.'' I told him, waving my hand to signal him so he'd stop talking. I wasn't going to keep listening to him without the group. What if he wasn't alone? What if I'd suddenly have a gun pressed against my skull.

I walked over to him and softly grabbed him by the collar. Not enough for it to hurt, but strong enough so he'd know running away wasn't an option.

''Do you have any weapons on you?'' He nodded at my words and pointed at his belt. I saw a small pistol and swiftly grabbed it, before he had any chance of using it. ''That's it?'' I asked and he nodded again. My eyes traveled up and down really quickly to see if he wasn't hiding anything and when I saw nothing I started pulling him with me, towards the barn.

''Let's go.''

When we arrived at the shed I slowly opened the door a little bit so I could stick my head out. Everyone was silent, most of them lost in their own heads.

''Guys?'' I spoke up. Everyone's heads turned over to me, eyebrows raised and full of suspicion.

''Don't freak out but-,'' I opened the door a little more and pulled Aaron along with me so we stepped into barn. ''This is Aaron''

Everyone's guns cocked immediately and within seconds they were all pointed towards the man next to me. Daryl almost ran forwards searching the man forcefully before shutting the door behind me.

''You okay?'' He asked me, placing a hand gently on my neck. I nodded at him before turning to the rest of the group.

''He was alone, as far as I know. I took his weapon.'' I said handing the small pistol to Rick. He examined the weapon quickly before putting it in his pants.

Aaron looked extremely uncomfortable, probably not expecting this much caution from our group. I kind of wanted to defend him, since he hadn't done anything bad so far. But I also didn't trust him myself, I guess I only trusted him a bit more then the group.

''He has a community nearby and wants us to-'' I stopped for a few seconds, cringing a bit as I said the words. ''Audition.'' I saw the rest of the group frown at his choice of words, or my choice of words.

''I wish there was another word for it. Audition makes it seem like we are some sort of dance troupe.'' He started rambling, and I put my head in my hands trying to refrain myself from sighing. ''That's only on Friday nights.'' I think that was an attempt at a joke. I hoped so.

''Anyways, in the front pocket of my bag is an envelope.'' He said as Daryl, almost ripped, the bag from his back and handed it over to Rick. ''There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community, so 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 interrupted him and I shot him a look, which he didn't see. Being rude wasn't going to help anyone. Aaron looked behind him at Daryl and awkwardly nodded, agreeing with him.

''The first picture is one of our walls, because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe. If you join us you will be.''

''Each panel in that wall is a 15-foot-high, 12-foot-wide slab of solid steel framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through that without our say-so.'' He was rambling again by now, and this time nobody stopped him, but I bet none of us were really listening either. I was watching the reactions of the rest of the group, wanting to see what they thought of the situation.

''Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival. The people. Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger.'' I saw Rick exchange a glance with Michonne, who seemed quite okay about this whole idea.

Aaron was still rambling while Rick started walking forwards. '' The next picture, you'll see inside the gates. Our community was first construc-'' Aaron stopped talking by a hard punch in the jaw. Aaron's head snapped towards the right, towards me and he fell down on the ground, unconscious.

''Rick!'' I yelled at him, a bit astonished that he'd just done that. Daryl and Maggie, who were closest to Aaron, knelt down to check up on him.

''Tie him up.'' Rick ordered us, but I refused to cooperate at this point. I crossed my arms over each other and watched as Maggie and Daryl tied him up. I looked at Olivia, who had said nothing so far. She was just staring at Aaron, frowning. I wondered what she was thinking. She was still very hard for me to figure out sometimes. I think she even thought that about herself.

Michonne turned to Rick, ''That look wasn't a 'let's attack that man' look. It was a 'he seems like an okay guy to me' look.'' She stated, also a bit pissed off at what had just happened.

Rick just completely ignored what Michonne had just said, giving orders to everyone. He wanted to check Aaron's bag, he made Glenn and Abraham look outside for places to hide. I shared a look with Michonne, this wasn't going the way we both had expected it to.

''We need eyes in every direction, they're coming for us.'' He said, turning around to face everyone.

''Rick,'' I spoke up, ''I was alone out there, if he wanted to hurt me he could have. I didn't see him.'' This time Rick did listen to me, he turned so he was facing me.

''You shouldn't be out there alone.'' He scolded me.

''He's right.'' Daryl interfered from where Aaron was. I turned over to him.

''That's not the point.'' I just said, not wanting him to get involved in this. It would only end up in us fighting, and everything was finally working out at the moment.

''Rick maybe-'' I started talking again, but a groan behind me snapped everyone's attention over to the man laying on the ground.

''That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick.'' Aaron laughed. He actually laughed. That was- unusual.

''Sit him up.'' Rick ordered and I gave him an annoyed look as I pulled Aaron up a bit, so he could sit. Aaron opened his mouth to speak but Rick beat him to it, probably not really wanting more rambling.

''How many of your people are out there? You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?'' He said waving with the flare gun.

''Does it matter? No matter what I say, you're not going to trust me.'' He shrugged his shoulder and I had to give him that one. He was right about that.

''Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face.'' Olivia spoke up, she had been crouched down watching him. But now she stood up, glaring down at him. I guess she was with Rick on this one.

''How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?'' Even though no one said anything after that, a tense silence came over us. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt extremely uncomfortable after what he had just said.

''How long you people been following us?'' Daryl spoke up, taking a daring step forwards.

''Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. Long enough to see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other.'' He stopped talking and glanced over to me, and then to Sasha. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. He had seen everything.

I took a step towards him, daring him to say anything else. My eyes narrowed slightly as I glared at him. He realised his mistake and glanced down at the ground.

''Sorry,'' He apologised, before continuing. ''You're survivors and you're people. Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world.'' He continued.

''How many other are out there?'' He said, acting like he ignored everything the man had just said. But I knew Rick, he was taking everything into account. The wheels were turning in his head, every option or situation was displaying in his mind.

''One.'' Aaron said. One look at Rick's face and we all knew he didn't believe him. I had some trouble believing him too.

''I knew you wouldn't believe me.'' Aaron stated, ''If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real? What if I drove you to the community? All of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch.''

''I'm not sure how the 16 of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in.''

''We drove separately.'' Aaron explained, ''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 at Daryl, who was glancing from me to Aaron, also trying to figure out if he was saying the truth.

''I'll check out the cars.'' Michonne spoke up after a long silence.

''There aren't any cars.'' Rick objected, as if he knew it for sure.

''There's only one way to find out.'' Michonne retorted.

''We don't need to find out.''

''We do.'' As Michonne and Rick bickered with each other, I looked over at Aaron who was silently watching them, probably hoping they'd check out the cars and decide not to kill him. ''You know what you know and you're sure of it, but I'm not.'' Michonne said.

''Your way is dangerous, mine isn't.''

''Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous.'' That silenced Rick. He glanced over at Carl, who was holding Judith and sighed.

''Abraham.'' He said, Abraham looked over at Rick and nodded quickly, agreeing to join Michonne. Glenn joined too, just like Rosita, Olivia and Maggie.

''If you're not back in 60 minutes we'll come looking. Which might be just what they want.'' Michonne visibly rolled her eyes at Rick's remark and left with her group, searching for the cars.

''I've got the area covered.'' Daryl said giving me a look, asking me to go with him. I nodded at him, grabbing my machete and gun.

''All right, groups of two, find somewhere safe within eye shot.'' I gave a firm nod towards Rick, who nodded back as everyone left the barn. I quickly turned around and jogged a bit to keep up with Daryl, who had already started walking.

''You ready?'' I asked, which was a stupid question, but I didn't really know what else to say.

Daryl just nodded, ''Yeah,''


It had been an hour later when we'd all returned to the infamous barn. Everything checked out, they had found two vehicles. An old car and a camper, stocked with supplies that could last us a month. They didn't find the other person though. I guess he had hidden when they saw Michonne and the rest, which seemed logical.

After a short debate, Michonne had cut the knot and decided we were all going. Everyone had agreed with it, some with a bit more hesitation then others.

Except Rick refused to drive unless it was dark and we were taking another route then Aaron was planning on driving. Which I was fine with, we still couldn't fully trust Aaron and who knows how the rest of the community will be. So when it was finally night, we packed up our stuff and left.

Glenn, Michonne, Olivia and Rick were taking Aaron with them in the car, they were up front and we were directly behind them in the camper.

I was sitting on one of the benches, Daryl sitting beside me. I felt the strong urge to lean against him and just fall asleep right there, but I knew that anything could happen every second. Plus, I wasn't sure if the other knew. Well I guess they knew, since I kissed him yesterday in front of everybody and I calmed him down after he freaked out. But still, nobody actually knew it officially.

Abraham was driving behind the wheels, Rosita sitting next to him. Noah was sitting in the far back, where the bed was, along with Carl and Judith. Tara was there too with Gabriel. Eugene was here sitting on the opposite side of us next to Sasha. Maggie was leaning over the seat, to talk to Rosita.

''I'll go check up on the kids.'' I told everyone, but mostly Daryl, as I left the bench and went over to the back, wobbling a bit as I tried to hold my balance.

''Hey.'' I said, shoving the curtain aside and looking at everyone. ''Is everything okay in here?'' They were passing a can off food to each other, each taking a bite before giving it to the other. My stomach grumbled as I thought about the food and I reminded myself to also grab something when I got back.

''Yeah, we're good.'' Tara said, ''How long is it gonna take?''

''I think about an hour? At the most?'' I questioned, shrugging my shoulders a bit, since I had no idea how far it was.

''Maybe we-'' Carl never got to finish that sentence, Abraham cursed and before we knew it the RV turned to the right, to another route. The turn made me grab the curtain and a quick motion, trying to hold on to anything, so that I wouldn't fall over.

I hit my head and shoulders against the walls, which sure was going to bruise, but overall I was fine. I was more worried about what had just happened.

''What's going on!'' I yelled, climbing back. I saw Daryl helping Maggie up, since she had fallen.

''Walkers, a shitload of them.'' Abraham yelled back.

''Where are the others?'' Panic rose in my voice as I thought of the other driving into them.

''They went right into the herd.'' Maggie said, as nervous as me.

''We need to do something! We can't just leave them there.'' I demanded, Maggie agreed with me but the rest thoughts differently.

''That's a suicide mission.'' Rosita told me, ''They're in a car, things could have been worse.''

''Glenn's in there!'' Maggie snapped back.

''And what if Glenn survives, but you die because you wanted to save him?'' Rosita retorted back. ''That'll be very heroic.'' I crossed my arms over each other, knowing she was right, but I didn't like it.

We all stopped what we were doing, when we saw a huge flare go up in the air, next to a water tower.

''That's where they'll be.'' Rosita mumbled, ordering Abraham to follow the flare.

There were a few walkers on the road, that Abraham had to swiftly avoid, making me sit back on the bench again, holding onto the table in the middle.

My hands clenched around the table, trying to think about anything else then what could be happening with Olivia and the rest right now. I swear to god if she dies I will kill god himself. My heart was pounding in my chest as the water tower came closer and closer.

Suddenly Abraham hit the breaks, making us all fly forwards.

''What is it?'' Rosita asked Abraham worryingly.

''There's someone under that car.'' He said and within a second we all rushed forwards, trying to see what Abraham was talking about.

He was right. There were about ten walkers surrounding him and he was trying to get out of reach, but you could clearly see he wasn't going to last forever. I checked the ammo in my gun and if I had my machete.

''Let's go.'' I said, ramming the door open. Daryl, Maggie and Abraham were all quick to follow me as I came charging towards the walkers. The first walker didn't even see me coming and I swung my machete at his head, splitting it in two. I cringed at the sickening crunch it made as I pulled back. Wasting no time at watching the walker collapse, I went for the second one. At this point, several walkers had noticed the commotion and started stumbling towards us, most of them forgetting about the man under the car.

I pulled my machete back so I could take a proper swing at the walker in front of me when it suddenly collapsed, an arrow in its head. I dropped my arm, turning around to look at Daryl. I gave him a look.

''I wanted that one.'' I pouted, all he did was smirk at me. Which earned him a playful glare. I saw an opening to the car, which I quickly took, the playful mood forgotten.

The man still had two walkers hanging around him, trying to sink their teeth into him. I was quick to take the first one down, but the other was already crawling under the car. I reached for it's feet, trying to drag him from under the car.

With one quick pull the walker appeared from under the car. I stumbled backwards by the sudden shift of balance, falling right on my butt. The walkers started crawling towards me and I leaned forward, balancing myself on my knees before taking a swing at the walker. The walker's movements ceased as my machete planted itself in its head. I pulled back, panting a bit.

''Are you okay?'' I yelled crawling over to the car.

''Y-Yeah.'' A shaking voice replied. I pressed myself against the concrete, trying to find whoever was lying underneath the car, trusting the group to have my back so that I wouldn't get eaten.

''Give me your hand, I'll pull you out.'' I said, extending my hand out towards him.

''I can't.'' He spoke up, ''My foot-'' He didn't have to say anything else. I looked over to his feet and noticed his left ankle was stuck under a car tire. Great, just what we needed.

I stood back up, opening the car door and climbing in the passengers seat. Lucky me, the keys were still in the ignition. I turned to keys, trying to get the car to start. Nothing was heard as I attempted to start the car. It was dead. So, we needed to go to plan B. I would need some help so I could move the car. I stepped outside again.

I looked around, trying to see if anyone could help. But more and more walkers were gathering around them, and getting closer to our car. We had attracted the attention from other walkers, apparently those on route 16. Nobody really had the time to go and help, they had their hands full.

I was going to do this by myself.

''You're gonna be fine.'' I told the man underneath the car, not fully believing it myself. ''Can I push the car forward? I won't hit you?''

''You're going to push the car on your own?'' He said, obviously worried.

''Can I?'' I repeated a little more urgent, ignoring his statement. We didn't have any time for that. There was a small silence and I was contemplating if he was alright.

''yeah,'' he said, barely audible. I took this as my que and started to push the car.

I had left the door open so now I only needed to push it forwards, but not too much because otherwise I'd tramp him. I kept my hand close to the hand break, in case the car would keep rolling.

''One, two, three.'' I whispered to myself and started to put all my weight onto it. These three weeks with minimum water and food hadn't really given me any advantage. I could feel my muscles shake as I tried to push the car. Within seconds I was panting, already out of breath.

The car wasn't moving. One more time. I told myself and this time I tried to put even more strength into it.

I almost stopped to do a little dance when I felt the car move slightly. The man's agonizing screams filled my head as I rolled the car off of his ankle. I shivered as I imagined the pain he must be feeling. When I knew I had moved the car enough I swiftly pulled on the hand break, making it stop. I shut the driver's door and crouched down.

The man was sweating and panting from the pain, but furthermore he seemed fine. I walked around the vehicle and grabbed the man under his elbows, pulling him away from the car and towards the RV.

I was only about two meters further when a walker appeared and I had to drop the man instantly. The man shielded his head as he fell to the ground in surprise. I tried to fumble for my machete, but the corpse had surprised me and I didn't have enough time to grab it. A shriek left me as he let his weight fall on mine, making me fall to the ground. I placed my arm on it's neck, keeping the teeth at bay. My other hand went for my machete, but before I even reached it, a shot rang out.

It seemed as if everything stopped for that moment. The shouting and fighting ceased as the walker on me collapsed and I let it fall on me, catching my breath.

I looked over to my left and saw that the man had his gun raised, still aimed at the walker in front of me.

''Thanks.'' I mouthed as I let my head rest against the concrete for a second, before pushing the walker off of me and grabbing the man again, this time hauling him up so he could stand on his one good feet. My clothes were covered in the walkers blood and I tried not to gag at the smell of it.

''We gotta go!'' I heard Daryl yell at the other and everyone bolted for the RV, getting away from the walkers. The man and I were the last ones to enter and even before the door closed the vehicle sped off, leaving the corpses behind.

I dropped to the ground next to the man beside me, leaning against the cupboards of the camper.

''Aubrey,'' I introduced, extending my hand out to him for the second time that night.

''Eric.'' He told me, shaking my hand.