Forever ~~ Carl Grimes Love Story (Sequel)

Chapter 22

"How many others are out there?" Rick asked for the third time.

"One," Aaron said. He looked dead serious, too. Rick shook his head. "I knew you wouldn't believe me. If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real?" Aaron asked. Suddenly, he looked like a light bulb went off in his head. "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 fifteen of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove here in," Rick said.

"We drove separately. if we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us," Aaron explained.

"And you're parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol asked.

"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it," Aaron said.

"Yeah, you've really thought this through," Rick nodded slightly.

"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here. You know, light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you ran out the only exit. You can trust me," Aaron said, and for once, I believed him. Maybe my instincts were wrong, but I knew that Aaron was telling in the truth. Everybody fell quiet once more, staring at Aaron.

"I'll check out the cars," Michonne said.

"There aren't any cars," Rick said immediately.

"There's only one way to find out," Michonne said.

"We don't need to find out," Rick argued.

"We do. You know what you know and you're sure of it, but I'm not," Michonne shot back quickly. Rick stared at Michonne before looking over at Mom when she began to talk.

"Me neither," Mom chimed in. Rick shook his head, looking at the ground.

"Your way is dangerous, mine isn't," Rick said.

"Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do," Michonne said. She didn't really give him a say in her decision. 

"Then I will, too," Dad said, looking at Rick. When Rick met his gaze, Dad added, "I'll go."

"Abraham," Rick called out. He turned to look at Abraham.

"Yeah," Abraham nodded. "I'll walk with them."

"Rosita?" Rick looked at the woman.

"Okay," she nodded.

"If there's trouble, you got enough firepower?" Rick asked Dad. I turned towards Carl and hugged him.

"You're not coming with us, are you?" Carl asked when we pulled apart.

"Nah, I'm going to stay here and look after Judith," I said. Carl nodded and gently kissed my forehead, then Judith's. I walked over to Dad and Mom. 

"Hey, ready to go, baby?" Mom asked. 

"Actually, I was thinking of staying here with Rick and Judith. You know, to help protect them and stuff," I explained. Mom and Dad nodded.

"Alright."

"Stay safe," I said, hugging Dad than Mom.

"The walkies are out of juice. If you're not back in sixty minutes, we'll come. WHich might be just what they want," Rick said. The group began to exit the barn. "If we're all in here, we're a target."