The Hunter's Prey

Chapter 1

"He wants us to audition for a membership." Sasha continued, as Aaron looked at her.

"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." Aaron paused seeing if he had caused anyone to laugh, but the room stayed dead silent. "It's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions, but it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home."

By this point our weapons were slightly lowered, but we were ready to attack if needed. The way Aaron spoke showed no signs of him wanting to kill us, but his choice of words made me question his intentions. Rick seemed to feel the same. He took a step towards Aaron.

"I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into." Aaron continued, then turned to Sasha. "Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?"

Sasha did as asked, and handed the backpack to Rick.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope." Aaron said, and Rick began to open the pack. "There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community."

Rick pulled out an envelope, and the papers that it held.

"That's why I brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last-" Aaron was cut off by Daryl who was just as annoyed by Aaron's rambling as I was.

"Nobody gives a shit."

Aaron turned to look at Daryl, then he glanced over at me. He returned his look to Daryl, before he spoke.

"You're absolutely 100% right." Aaron turned back to Rick, as Rick pulled the pictures out. "That's the first picture I wanted to show you 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. 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. The next picture, you'll see inside the gates."

Rick moved forward towards Aaron as he spoke.

"Our community was first construct-" Aaron was cut off by Rick's fist colliding with his face.

Aaron fell to the ground unconscious. Rick turned back and walked to Michonne. Michonne and Rick both followed each other's lead. They always fell onto the other when they didn't know what to do. Michonne said something to him before he turned to Carl and told him to go through Aaron's pack. Daryl and I worked at tying Aaron's hands.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are." Rick said.

"Me and Sasha, we didn't see him. If he had wanted to hurt us, he could've." Maggie spoke.

"Anybody see anything?" Rick asked.

"Just a lot of places to hide." Glenn answered as he scanned outside.

"All right, keep looking." Rick went back to Carl as he searched the bag.

Aaron didn't stay unconscious for long. He groaned as he came back to his senses.

"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron spoke as a smile spread across his face.

"Sit him up." Rick looked towards me.

"I think it's better if-" Maggie started to protest, but Aaron cut her off.

"It's okay."

"He's fine. Sit him up." Rick looked back at me.