Destination Life or Death

15.5

I didn't go back, I was angry. I felt like they shouldn't trust me just as much as they didn't trust him, but that's when I ran into Eric. He was by a large stash covered by a tarp. "Hey!' I spoke loudly keeping my gun pointed to him, he put his hands up. He was scrawny, and small. "You have Aaron?" he asked quickly. I lowered my gun and stood with him, ducking quickly as a small part of my group walked past the street I met him by. "Don't, they won't trust you," I said, shaking my head. "We gotta go," I said, looking around and then ducking into the forest. We walked all day, but ended up surrounded by walkers. Eric ended up with a tire rolling onto his ankle, most likely breaking it. Maggie, Carl, Daryl, Abraham, Rosita, Carol, and Eugene found us. It had been nighttime and at that point, I thought I was going to die. Maggie and Beth both helped Eric with his ankle, they said it was broken but he told us about an infirmary at their community. We ended up in this abandoned little area, while we waited for Rick, Michonne, Glenn, and Aaron. Carl and I walked off into an empty room Daryl had already cleared. "Why didn't you come back, Dez?" I could hear the hurt in his voice. I knew I should've gone back, I was just being too stubborn. "Carl," I paused before adjusting to stand in front of him as I had been leaning on the wall next to him, "I hate that we can't trust people," I looked to the ground while shaking my head. "He gave you more reason to trust him then I ever gave, and it was that easy for Rick to just punch him square in the face." I said shrugging and then taking a deep breath, "But I get it. We just can't trust unless we know," I said smiling slightly and then hugging him. "I'm sorry" I said, before pulling away and walking over to a large window that I could sit in front of. He sat down next to me and sighed, "Seriously Dezzy. Don't do that again. Don't leave alone and not come back." He sounded almost angry in a way, but more scared. Before I could answer we heard Daryl knock on the door for us to come out. We got up and walked out, Carl ran up to Rick while I stayed by the door. I was embarrassed. I was stupid. Michonne and Glenn looked at me at the same time. They had the look of surprise but they also looked at me as if they thought I died, they probably did. They both walked up to me and wrapped their arms around me. "Kid," Michonne said, shaking her head. "Why are you so stubborn?" Glenn asked, hitting me upside the head. I laughed and then shook my head "I had to learn it somewhere" I said, looking over at Glenn. "Where were you guys?" I asked, looking at both of them again. "We drove into a herd and saw the flare go up, Aaron ran and we got stuck walking back here." Glenn said, looking at Michonne then me. I nodded. "Eric," I said smiling, "That's his boyfriend. He's in there," I said smiling and then pointing to the door. Rick must've overhead because he walked it, and stood by the door. I waited, I listened for whatever Rick was going to say. "Hi, I'm Eric." I heard his voice first. I knew he would speak, he was much nicer than Rick. "Rick." His voice was eerie, scary almost. It was silent, completely quiet. Aaron walked out and started talking to all of us. "Thank you. You saved Eric. I owe you, All of you. And I will make sure the debt is paid in full when we get to our community." he paused while taking a deep breath and sighing "When we get to Alexandria".

Michonne, Rick, Carl, Judith and I all drove in the same car together when pulling up to Alexandria. The walls were huge, and the gate had a thin layer of material stopping us from seeing inside. I looked at Carl with a raised brow and then back at the gate. I closed my eyes and listened, I could hear kids playing and people talking. Something that I never heard walking up to Terminus. We all smiled at one another. "You ready?" Michonne asked, putting her hand on Ricks. Rick nodded, almost unsure before getting out, with us following him. It was me, Rosita, Sasha, Glenn, Maggie, Carl, Daryl, Abraham, Eugene, Carol, Rick, Michonne, Tara, Aaron, Eric, Gabriel, and Noah, a kid we met after the hospital. Noah had been there with Beth. Daryl shot at the ground making us all jump, he pulled up a possum he had just shot while the gates opened. "We brought dinner," Daryl said, holding it up to the man who opened the gate. We all walked into the community slowly, unsure of what was coming. "Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons. To stay, we need you to hand them over." A man with brown curly hair spoke sternly to us. "We don't know if we want to stay," Rick said back quickly. "If we were gonna use them, we would have already," Rick said, looking back at the group behind him and then back at the man. I rolled my eyes but knew better than to say something in this setting. "Let them talk to Deanna first," Aaron spoke to the man quickly for us. "Who's Deanna?" Abraham asked loudly. "She knows everything you'd want to know about this place." Aaron said before talking again, "Rick, why don't you start?" he asked, looking at Rick and not moving his stare.