"Kids like us?" The girl echoed, confused. "Are you saying, that if we were other kids, you wouldn't have any problem with us being out here alone?" Rick faltered at her words, but before he could say anything-
"Think he lets kids do his dirty work? Sends them off like Hansel and Gretel?" The boy's voice became higher pitched as he talked, throwing his hands up dramatically.
"He totally does, look, he's got that gleam in his eyes." The two adults were at a loss for words, looking at each other helplessly. Clearly, they didn't want to harm, or scare the children. "The gleam of a madman, next thing you know, he's gonna have a hook for a hand." At exactly the same moment, both kids broke into a fit of laughter, leaning on each other for support.
"Hi, I'm Ren, and this is my sister Sophia." Ren introduced himself, grinning wildly. His hair was just as crazy, sticking up in twelve different directions. He had amber eyes, hidden behind goggles. The girl was a lot different looking than the boy, she had blonde hair, pulled back into a braid of some sort, grey stormy eyes, and a familiar demeanor that Rick couldn't place.
"For the record, we're fine on our own. Kicking butt, taking names." Rick exchanged a look with Michonne, before looking back at the kids.
"Where are your parents?" They couldn't be any older than Carl, he realized. They couldn't be out here all alone.
"Dead."
"Disappeared." Ren and Sophia spoke at the same time, before the pair sighed. "Now, we gotta go take care of the crazies, wanna help?" They didn't even give Rick or Michonne a chance to respond, before they took off running, straight towards danger.
"If they want the guns, we're going to have to work something out. We need all of them, Rick." Michonne turned to her lover, worry in her eyes. Not only about the gun issue, but what were they doing out here, alone?
"We'll worry about that later. Let's clear this place out."
**Sophia**
Sophia grinned, drinking a water bottle as quickly as possible. This was exactly what they were looking for, the building held thousands of food and water packets. Last night, Sophia and Ren had drank their last water bottle in their traveling rations.
Out in the field, Michonne was sitting down, and Sophia felt kinda bad for her. She had thought that Rick had fallen to his death for a little while. Clearly they loved each other, and when Rick didn't immediately wake up from his fall, her shriek of horror and complete sadness filled the compound. Luckily, that wasn't the case, he was fine. If that had been Ren, she would have probably had a similar reaction.
Rick was collecting guns, and idly, Sophia wondered how many people were in his group if he could use all of these guns. There was a huge crate that Rick had pulled together where he placed all the guns he could salvage.
"Oooooo. Sophia. Look what I found." Her friend suddenly came running straight at her, holding up a box.
"Lovely box Rennie-poo. Five stars." Giving him a slow round of applause, she should have known what was coming. She deserved it.
"Sophie! Phe-phe! Phe-phe should go pee-pee." Her cheeks burned in embarrassment at the familiar 'song'.
"Alright, stop with Grace's song. What did you find?" Ren carefully put the box down, revealing colorful stuffed animals.
"I was thinking these would be perfect for back at home. Plus I found this!" Excitedly, he showed off a couple of new books, ones that hadn't been exposed to the elements, thankfully.
"Those are perfect Ren, nice." The dark haired boy sat beside her, and gladly accepted a water bottle from Sophia. Looking out over the cleared land, Sophia sighed sadly. "Did you ever go to one of these things? You know, before?"
"A couple times. One time I won a fish from one of these, I named him Gerold. But the games were rigged, and the rides always were dirty." The sun shown down brightly on all the steel and plastic, fading the once vibrant colors. "You didn't miss anything." Ren didn't need to ask, and Sophia didn't need to tell, Ren knew a bit of her past, of before. He knew that she would have never been allowed at one of these places.
"Gerold is a good name." Admitting with a silly grin, Sophia hugged her leather jacket closer to her body. "Do you think, that they're part of that one group? The one always kneeling?" It was quiet for a while after that, bad memories flooded their minds.
"Not sure. Can't say I've seen them before. But, there always seem to be more of them." Eventually breaking the silence, Ren didn't want to believe that they were part of it. The two adults began walking towards them, carrying their load with them. There had to be more than 50 guns in their new stash, and if they were in fact part of that horrible group, there was no doubt in his mind that Negan might find them soon.
"You guys can have all the guns, if we get some of the food and water." Rick seemed to think over the deal, observing her and Ren. She guessed that the guns were what they were after in the first place. If it had been food, they would have been gone already, seeing as the couple had spent the last night in the building with all the food. Hopefully that was enough incentive for the adults to leave them alone.
"Deal. But, I have another offer for you." Rick didn't make a move towards his gun, so Sophia took that as a good sign. "You, and, if you have any others in your group, can join us. We have walls, food, the numbers." Strange. Sharing a glance with Ren, he shrugged, clearly this was her decision.
"Um…" Searching for words, Sophia didn't even know if they would accept her 'group'. "Michonne, do you think it's safe?" The woman looked surprised when Sophia called her name, she was still out of it, from the situation before. But, Sophia needed more than one opinion.
"Right now, we're having a little trouble with another group. But, with these guns, we will be okay." The woman seemed to believe her own words, so, Sophia decided to take it into consideration.
"We'll have to think about it. If we decide to join you, where do we go?" The older man seemed happy to have them on his side, before he pulled out a map.
"It's called Alexandria, tell the person at the gates that we've sent you."
**Sophia**
Now with more food than she has seen in a long time, Sophia grinned as she slowly drove down the dirt road. Miles from the carnival, miles from any other humans, Sophia and Ren parked the car under a canopy of trees. There were three walls made out of logs tied together, hiding the majority of the car.
Stepping out of their makeshift garage, Ren and Sophia locked the car, and covered the last wall with a wall of leaves and sticks, enough for prying eyes to ignore. The scent of the woods was a welcome sign that they were safe again.
"This is the heaviest wagon I have…ever…moved." Ren wheezed as he pulled, Sophia pushing, the forest floor making it even more difficult.
"Just gotta…get it…into the cave." Sophia urged her friend on, wishing they were twenty yards further already. The load was laughably five times bigger than what the wagon should be able to pull.
"Phe-phe?" Sophia peered around the boxes, to find a four year old, her hair tied in a frizzy pony tail with a purple ribbon. "Rennie!"
"Hey, Grace. Could you run and get Gabe? We need help." Ren smiled and waved at the girl, and Sophia was too tired to even greet her in words. Grace nodded exaggeratedly, before turning around, running the direction she came from.
They barely made it another ten feet before a familiar face came walking through the woods, with Grace on his heels.
"Took you long enough. Glad you guys are back." Gabe was only a year older than Ren, but was easily half a foot taller. They had met a few months after they lost Bella, he was on his own.
"Glad to be back, now make yourself useful, and grab some of this." Gabe gladly walked up to the pair, kissing Ren on the cheek in passing, before grabbing a small box off of the cart, and gave it to Grace.
"Would you be amazing and bring this inside Grace? We'll see you in there." Obediently, she ran off, already spotting the stuffed animals within the box. "Run into any trouble?" He easily took half the load in his arms, making it much easier for Ren and Sophia to push the rest.
"Nothing we couldn't handle. Although, we did run into a couple people. Think they might be part of a group that isn't those idiots." Gabe nodded absently, leading them ahead. "Any trouble here?" Gabe snorted, shaking his head.
"Unless you want to call hide and seek trouble, no. We were fine. It's your turn next time Sophia for babysitting duty." Gabe walked up to what seemed to be just another part of the huge rock formation they had been walking around, instead, he pulled the bushes aside, to reveal a doorway of sorts. Inside, they only had to walk a short distance, before the cave opened up to let in sunlight.
Inside, a camp was set up. Two tents, a fire pit, as well as a couple crates held the rest of their supplies.
"Ren! Look! I can hit the tree now!" Another kid came running up to them, his hair was a carrot orange, his freckles the same shade, holding up a slingshot that Ren had made him.
"Home sweet home." Sophia smiled softly, and the third, and final kid came running up to them, proudly showing off a worm he had found.
**Sophia**
Far off, miles away, Rick shot up in his seat, he had finally placed why that girl was so familiar. She was Sophia, as in, Sophia, Carol's daughter. The one they had lost long ago, before even reaching the farm. She was alive.