Good evening all! So it's finally here! But I warn you, it's only been three quarters edited so there may be errors...although half the time there is still errors even when I full edit it...I really need a Beta reader! Anyway without further adieu!
The next morning, Anna woke up feeling happier and more hopeful than she had in a long time, although looking around the room, she saw that she was the only one feeling that way. Everyone around her looked downcast and defeated as they went about cleaning their weapons or just staring off into space. Even Abraham, while more uplifted than the rest of them, seemed down cast.
Heavy footsteps that stopped in front of her, made Anna look up from where she sat cleaning her assault rifle, the only weapon she had with bullets still in it. When she looked up, she saw that Merle was standing there, looking down at her with his hunting rifle propped on his hip, with a cigarette that he'd bummed off his brother in his mouth.
"Get up. Let's see if we can find some chow. These people ain't got no steam left in 'em." Merle said, none too quietly.
"I'm coming with you." Daryl volunteered as he strung his crossbow across his back.
"Sure." Anna agreed, sliding the last piece of her rifle into place then picked up the bow she still carried.
The three of them, followed by Juno, had just started for the door when it cracked open and Maggie stepped inside. "Hey." She said as she walked in with a man Anna didn't remember seeing, right behind her. "Everyone…" She continued but Daryl must've seen the man at that moment and slid his crossbow off his back and aimed it at the new man's head in one swift motion.
"This is Aaron." She continued as Sasha followed closely behind the man with her assault rifle pointed at the man's back.
Satisfied that Sasha had the man under control, Daryl moved passed Maggie and Aaron, followed by Rosita, and they both looked outside for more intruders before closing the doors.
"We took his weapons and we took his gear." Maggie continued, this time to Rick as he approached with a murderous look on his face, which contrasted severely with the baby on his hip.
Daryl gave the man a quick pat down to be certain, then stepped back as the man looked around the room, trying to hide his fear. The man had essentially walked into the wolf's den and he had no way of protecting himself, even Anna was feeling uncomfortable in the suddenly very tense air that filled the barn. Everyone stood with their weapons either pointed at the man or firmly in their hands ready to aim if they felt threatened.
"Hi." The man said, managing to keep his voice steady.
Right then, Judith started crying as she sat on Rick's hip, probably sensing the tension in the room, so Rick nodded to his son. Carl stepped forward and took his sister from his father and tried to calm her as Rick looked back at Aaron.
"It's nice to meet you." Aaron said putting his hand out and stepping towards Rick but stopping when the aggression level stepped up several levels.
"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked, still glaring at Aaron, presumably speaking to Maggie.
The difference in welcome from when Anna and Merle had arrived and when Aaron had arrived, was completely different. While there was some initial hostility when the two of them showed up, they were quickly accepted by the group…even though there were plenty of disgruntled glares shot off towards Merle. But they had the benefit of having family already apart of this group, Aaron didn't have that.
Maggie walked from to Aaron's side to Rick, holding out the pistol that Aaron had had on him. Rick inspected the small six shooter, checking the chamber for bullets then looked down the barrel. When he was done his inspection, he looked up at Aaron once more as he stuffed the gun in his belt.
"Is there something you need?" Rick finally asked the man.
"He has a camp nearby." Sasha said, her expression somewhat hostile and suspicious. "He wants us to audition for membership."
"I wish there was another word." Aaron said. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on Friday night." Anna snorted slightly at his joke but she was apparently the only who saw humor in what he said. "Um, and its not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But its not my call. It's my job to convince you all to follow me back home. I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" Aaron finally asked, looking back to where she still stood holding her rifle on him.
Sasha seemed unhappy with being told to do something, but she stepped forward, pausing to hand her weapon to Noah before sliding the pack off her back and handing it to Rick. Once she'd handed the backpack to Rick, she reclaimed her weapon and resumed standing guard over Aaron. Rick knelt down and started rummaging through the pack as Aaron continued speaking.
"There's no way I could convince you to come with me to my community. That's why I brought those." Aaron said as Rick pulled out a brown envelope. "I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old picture store last…"
"No one gives a shit!" Daryl growled.
This whole time Merle had just been leaning back against a post, watching events with a look of boredom but he slowly straightened up, grabbed Anna's elbow and pulled her back and whispered in her ear quietly.
"I don't like this, or these people. We should jus' get our brother's and cut our loses."
Anna looked back at the group, Rick had a bit of a mad, murderous look in his eye that made Anna more than a little uncomfortable, but she didn't get that sense from the others. They mostly just looked hungry and demoralized.
Anna looked back at Merle. "Not yet." She whispered back. "If this guy is for real, then we need to help these people get to his community and if he isn't, well they'll need our muscle. Besides, your brother doesn't seem inclined to want to leave his friends, nor will mine."
Merle pursed his lips as he looked over her shoulder at the group while Rick and Aaron still conversed. "Fine but no more than a couple of days."
Anna never got a chance to answer as Rick suddenly walked towards Aaron and decked him, knocking him unconscious and shocking everyone. Merle and Anna walked over and stared in shock as Aaron laid in the dirt, unconscious. A couple of them stepped forward, pulled Aaron's hands behind him and bound them before sitting him up against a post.
Merle scoffed mirthlessly. "Well Officer Happy is dead, ain't he? You're turnin' into the thing you've been turnin' your nose up to. Shit, I think yer worse then me now."
Rick glared at Merle. "He's a danger to everyone here, including you, Merle." Rick said then marched away but Michonne stopped him.
"Just so you're clear, that wasn't a 'let's attack the man' look." Michonne said, obviously as unhappy as Merle and Anna. "It was an 'he seems like an okay guy', look."
"We got to secure him, dump his pack." He replied to Michonne, much less angry when addressing her then when he'd addressed Merle. He turned to his son. "Let's see what this guy really is. Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction, they're coming for us. We might not know when or how, but they are."
Anna opened her mouth to say something, but Abraham was suddenly at her side and turned her towards one of the walls. Abraham peered out between the cracks in the wall looking for a threat while Anna just stared at her brother in disbelief.
"This guy is nuts!" Anna hissed as she pointed to Rick.
"That wasn't his shining moment, I'll admit but we've been through some seriously bad shit recently. They lost a whole community of their own before I met them, then we ran into a community of cannibals. He has reason to be suspicious. Quite frankly, I'm surprised he hasn't directed that suspicion at you."
"Well he can be suspiciously all he wants, we've been honest with him." Anna growled, still not happy.
Abraham sighed. "I know, I believe you. Just trust me, okay?"
Suddenly Aaron groaned and when Anna looked over at him, he chuckled. "That's one hell of a right cross there, Rick. You're being cautious, completely understand."
"How many people are out there?" Rick demanded then, when Aaron didn't immediately answer, he held out an orange colored gun. "This is a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"
Aaron sighed. "Does it matter?"
"Yes." Rick responded firmly. "Yes, I do."
"I mean, of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there? Because no matter what number I say…eight, thirty-two, four hundred and forty-four, zero…no matter what I say, you're not going to trust me."
"Well, its hard to trust anyone who smiles after being punched in the face." Rick retorted
"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you on the road?" Aaron asked.
Almost everyone looked over at the bottles of water sitting on a stack of wooden crates. "How long you people been following us?" Daryl demanded as he marched towards Aaron.
"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your tail. That family means something to you." Aaron said nodding towards Anna and Merle as they stood together once more, obviously they'd seen their little reunion. "Long enough to see that despite the lack of food ad water, you never turned on each other. 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."
Everyone stared at the man for a moment then looked at Rick as he debated.
"I can get Juno to track his scent." Anna offered. "Lead us back to where he came from."
Rick looked from Anna's face to Juno, who stood staring intently at Aaron, ready to attack if she ordered him too, letting out a low growl. Rick looked back at Aaron.
"How many others are out there?" Rick asked stepping closer to Aaron.
Aaron blinked slightly, his eyes starting to get moist. "One." He said quietly then after a moment he shook his head slightly. "I knew you wouldn't believe me. If it's not words, if its not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is real?" Aaron asked looking around the room. "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 all of us, are going to fit into the car you and your friend drove down here in." Rick replied somewhat snarkily.
Aaron shook his head. "We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us."
"And you parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol asked.
"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route sixteen. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it."
"Yeah, you've really thought this through." Rick said still sounding skeptical.
Personally, Anna thought the man was telling the truth and she could see that some of the others were wanting to believe him also but were too scared to let themselves feel hope.
"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd have done it here." Aaron said firmly. "You know, light the barn while you slept, pick you off as you ran for the only exit."
"Strategically speaking, he has a point." Anna said finally speaking off. "Or when they left the water in that cross-road. They could've easily surrounded you, killed you in the cross fire. Taken Daryl out when he separated from the group."
"That's right!" Aaron exclaimed, gratefully for at least one person's support. "You can trust me!"
"I'll check the cars out." Michonne volunteered.
"There aren't any cars." Rick said skeptically.
"There's only one way to find out." Michonne persisted.
"We don't need to find out." Rick countered.
"We do." Michonne disagreed firmly. "You know what you know, and you're sure of it, but I'm not."
"Me neither." Maggie added.
"I want to go with them." Anna said. "Juno and I can detect hostiles and explosives."
Rick shook his head. "Your way is dangerous, mine isn't."
"Passing up some place where we can live? Where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous." Michonne replied. "We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do."
There was a bit of a pause then Glenn nodded his head slightly too. "Then I will too."
Rick sighed as he looked. "Abraham."
"Yeah." Abraham agreed, answering the unspoken question. "I'll walk with them."
Abraham gently grabbed her shoulder and the two of them headed for the door as Glenn had a quick conversation with Rick. First the six of them exited the building followed by everyone but Rick, who then made a perimeter around the barn. When they walked into the trees, Abraham let the others walk past them then took up the rear guard.
"How's your ammo?" Abraham asked as he watched Anna attach the leash to Juno's armor.
"Got nothin' for my pistol but I've got 'bout thirty bullets for my rifle and ten arrows." Anna answered as she kept her eyes moving.
"Since when did you know how to shoot a bow?" Abraham asked cocking an eyebrow, smirking ever so slightly. "I'm pretty sure the Navy never taught you that."
Anna chuckled. "Merle taught me. He can't really shoot one now, because he's short a hand but he used too. It's a better way to hunt."
"What's the deal with Merle?" Abraham asked a little more loudly, directing the question at the ones in front of them.
Michonne glanced over her shoulder then looked frontwards again. "He's first class asshole, to start."
"I won't disagree with that." Anna said chuckling again.
"Merle was apart of our original group." Glenn said sounding annoyed, just thinking about Merle. "He was a violent drug addict, who put one of our supply gathering missions at risk…so we left him on a roof in Atlanta."
"Which is how he lost his hand." Anna added. "And why he kinda hates ya'll."
"We felt bad and went back for him, but he was already gone." Glenn continued. "Later Maggie and I accidently ran into him, trying to find supplies for Judith when she was first born. He took us prisoner and him and his boss, the guy who destroyed our home, they tortured us."
"Merle just wanted to find his brother." Anna said, feeling like she needed to defend the guy after what he'd done for her. "He went about it wrong, but the Governor and his group were the only people he had at the time, and that was how they did things."
Michonne glared over her shoulder at Anna. "You sound like you actually like the guy."
Anna shrugged as they broke from the cover of the trees onto the road. "I didn't initially, but the guy grows on you after a while. He's trying to change, you know, but he's lived one way for so long that he finds it hard to live any other way. He's trying to be more like Daryl."
"He hasn't really said all that much, which is a first for Merle." Maggie added.
"Merle left your group because he didn't fit in and knew he never would. He thought he was holding his brother back, so he left." Anna said, still keeping her eyes moving.
"Taking me hostage as he went." Michonne growled.
"And he willingly let you go." Anna said with a nonchalant shrug. "He regretted it, but like I said, he's trying. I don't think you understand the level of awfulness that him and his brother lived through before this all happened. There's a reason they're so good at surviving, because they've never stopped."
"I find it hard to believe that Merle would tell you something like that." Glenn said skeptically.
"It was like pulling teeth to get Merle to share anything but when there is just two of you and when you can be just as big of an ass hole as him, you eventually get people like him to open up. He actually trusts me quite a lot."
Abraham laughed. "So he got to see your firey side, did he?"
Anna smirked as she smacked her brother. "Shut up and focus, all of you."
Abraham chuckled again. "She's right, eyes up, guns up. We need to focus on what we're doing. You see someone coming at us, open fire."
"That's a little extreme ain't it?" Anna asked frowning which in turn made Abraham frown.
"You've obviously had a completely different experience then the rest of us, haven't you?" Rosita asked from the front of the pack
"No, it's fair question." Maggie said. "We see someone, and we shoot them?"
"Yeah, what if they're like us? What if Aaron is telling the truth?" Michonne asked, adding her own question. "What if they have nothing to do with this?"
"We're six people walking with guns." Glenn said. "No one's coming up to say hello."
"But that's exactly what happened." Michonne said, giving Glenn proverbial tweak in the nose.
"If it's someone like us, we should be afraid of them." Glenn said. "He said he was watching us, right? Which means he saw us yesterday."
"What happened yesterday?" Anna asked confused.
"We had a pack of walkers on our six, we ignored it for most of the day but then we came across the bridge with deep ravine, so we decided to take care of them there, the easy way." Abraham explained.
"After everything we've done, why would he want someone like us joining him?" Glenn continued.
"Maybe they haven't had to face reality yet, and they think you can protect them." Anna suggested.
"We saved a priest, didn't we?" Michonne added, giving him another tweak, Anna was really starting to like her. "Saved a girl who rolled up with the Governor. Saved a crazy lady with a sword."
They finally came into view of a fallen tree with a car and an RV parked on the road just beyond it. They all raised their guns, looking for attackers but Juno was mostly at ease, casting the occasional look towards a field but Anna chalked it up to being a deer or some other kind of animal.
They carefully climbed over the fallen trees and just as they made it to the car, there was a rustling in the trees and they all instantly took cover, pointing their guns at trees. Eventually two walkers broke from the cover of the trees, making everyone sigh in relief.
Abraham lowered his gun. "I got 'em."
"We got 'em." Rosita added as she too, lowered her gun.
Anna lowered her gun and watched as Abraham approached the closest walker and grabbed it by the collar as Rosita walked passed them to the other walker. Abraham suddenly lost his grip on his walker and fell on his knees, giving Anna a heart attack but Juno was all over it before any one could do anything, grabbing it by the neck and thrashing around. Abraham recovered quickly then pulled Juno off the walker and plunged his blade into it's skull before it could get to its feet.
"That's one vicious dog." Glenn said, eyeing him cautiously as Juno trotted over to Anna and watched her.
"He is a war dog. Don't worry, he won't attack you without me ordering him too. Walkers are a whole different beast." Anna said as she gave him a good scratch.
"He can tell the difference?" Rosita asked, shocked.
"Can't you?" Anna asked sarcastically.
Rosita's expression darkened. "Of course." She growled.
"A dog has forty times greater sense of smell than us. If you can smell them, a dog most certainly can smell them and Malinois are quite smart, although I'm sure any dog can tell the difference." Anna said as she picked up his leash and walked him over to the car which was nearest. "Search." She commanded him as she tapped the tires.
"What are you looking for?" Maggie asked, clearly fascinated.
"We suspect this might be a trap, right?" Anna asked as she let Juno guide her around the car. "They might've booby trapped the vehicles. If there's any explosives, Juno will find them."
When Anna and Juno finished with the car, Glenn started searching the car as Juno did a quick circuit around the RV. When she was done, Abraham grabbed the door held up his hand, fully intending on going in first but Anna was okay with that. By now she was almost certain that there was no booby trap waiting or any person laying in way to ambush them, Juno was just too relaxed.
She let Abraham and Rosita enter without any protest and, instead, stood with Maggie as she kept watch outside. When Abraham came out of the RV, he was grinning ear to ear as he stared at a can of food. When Anna saw what he was staring at, she just rolled her eyes, he was still such a child. He always claimed he bought the cans of the s'ghetti rings for his kids, but he'd loved those things since they were kids and practically lived off them before he met Ellen.
"Glenn, can you handle this rig?" Abraham asked as he finally looked up from drooling over the can of food. "I wouldn't mind a moment a lone with my sister."
"Yeah, I can drive it." Glenn said, climbing out of the car.
After everyone helped clear the massive tree, Glenn followed as Maggie and Rosita climbed up into the RV, and Abraham climbed into the still open driver side door. Anna opened up the back door to let Juno jump into the backseat before joining her brother in the front. Abraham put the car into gear and drove for the barn.
"So really, what's up with you and that Merle?" Abraham asked, looking so serious that it made Anna crack up.
Anna wiped a tear from her eye as she settled herself down. "We're just friends, you dolt. Fellow survivors. And what about you?" Anna asked cocking an eyebrow.
Abraham looked at her confused for a moment then it suddenly dawned on him. "Oh you mean Rosita."
"Yeah, of course I mean Rosita." Anna said as she rolled her eyes. "When I threw my arms around and saw how happy we were to see each other, she looked like she was ready to shoot me."
Abraham cleared his throat awkwardly. "I…she was the first woman I met…only woman I've met until I met Rick's group. I thought she was the only woman left, for a while…and I got lonely."
"Uh-huh." Anna said cynically.
"She's a good woman. Once you get to know her, I think you'll like her." Abraham continued, sounding a little nervous.
"Why do I get the impression that none of them know that you had a family once." Anna asked. It actually bugged her a little that he seemed to have moved on so quickly. He lost his wife, his children, he shouldn't be hooking up with other women.
"I know this will sound awful but, it was easier to continue on, forgetting them. It's too painful to think about them. I loved them, and I miss them but if I hold on to their memory, I'll never be able to move on. So, I filed the memory of them away."
Anna shook her head, annoyed. "That's wrong. You could be the only person left on this planet to remember them and you refuse to."
Abraham's face flushed with anger. "You did lose the love of your life! The two best things I ever made! Don't tell me what's right and what's wrong!" He shouted at her angrily.
Whenever Abraham shouted at her, it was a knee jerk reaction to yell back but, in this instance, she decided it was better for her to remain calm. So, Anna took a deep breath and let it out slowly then shushed a growling Juno.
"You're right. I don't know. I just…just forget it."
I thought about ending this chapter with them travelling with Aaron to Alexandria but it felt like it'd make the chapter too long, so I decided to make that its own chapter. I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter and sorry for the wait!
-Shockra