Don't Let Me Go ~ A Carl Grimes Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-One

We divide the strawberries and nuts evenly, leaving some for Sasha and Maggie when they come back. After we've eaten, everyone's spirits seem a little higher, even though we each only had one strawberry and little more than a handful of pecans. We decide that we should be ready to leave tonight. I throw all of my possessions into my pack in a few seconds and then I take Judith from Carl as he's struggling to get her to eat the strawberry, rather than use it as face paint. I sit and pull a small part off of the piece of fruit, and I hand it to Judith, who grips it in her tiny fist. I then take out my own strawberry and bite into it, so that the flavour spreads across my tongue. Judith copies me and puts her own piece in her mouth and chomps on it contentedly. She holds out her hand for more, and soon, both of the strawberries are gone. I pass Judith to Rick, and he mumbles a "thanks" in my direction.

There's a tugging at the door and out of habit, I reach for my knife. I then remember the Beretta that I have tucked into my belt. I see Maggie come through the door with a wary look on her face.

"Hey! Everyone," she says. A man comes in behind her. This time I draw my gun, and I'm not the only one. "This is Aaron," Maggie adds cautiously. No one moves. Sasha enters the barn behind him, carrying a bag she didn't have when she left. Daryl runs and looks outside. "We found him outside. We took his weapons and we took his gear."

"Hi," Aaron says. Judith starts to cry and fuss in Rick's arms.

"Ssshhh," Carl coos, as he takes her from Rick.

"It's nice to meet you." Aaron moves to shake Rick's hand, but decides against it when Noah, Carol, Abraham and I train our guns on him.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asks. Maggie moves forward and gives Rick a revolver. Rick tucks it into his belt. "There something you need?" Rick says to Aaron.

"He has a camp. Nearby," Sasha says. "He wants us to audition for membership." There's a hiatus, a pause short enough to hear everyone draw in a sharp breath.

"I wish there was another word. 'Audition' makes it sound like we're some sort of a dance troupe," Aaron says. He smirks. "That's only on Friday nights." There's silence as he shakes his head. "And it's not... it's not a camp. It's a community, and I think that you'd all make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is 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 asks. Sasha walks over and hands the bulky knapsack to Rick. "Front pocket. There's an envelope. There's no way I could convince you to come with me, just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those. Now I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store—" Aaron is cut off.

"Nobody gives a shit," Daryl says.

"You're absolutely 100% right." Aaron said and this time I speak.

"Ass-kissing ain't going to help you. Spit it out," I say. I don't mean to, it just falls out of my mouth. Aaron gives me a shocked look, then a curt nod. The only sound is Rick leafing through the photographs. Aaron turns his attention back to him.

"That's the first picture I wanted to show you..." Aaron says, and he then goes into some speech about how big the walls of his community and I share a look with Carl. We're clearly both thinking about the prison. We had two enormous fences that didn't keep us safe and I don't trust this guy as far as I could throw him. Then a familiar feeling hits the pain of my stomach. Do not throw up, I tell myself. It doesn't work.

"Excuse me," I say as I break into a run out of the barn. I double over as a wave of nausea makes me lose everything I've eaten today. I hear a growl and spin around with my gun raised. Ten yards in front of me, three walkers stumble at me. I almost laugh, as I tuck my gun into my belt. Removing my knife from my belt, I wipe the corners of my mouth. Taking out the three walkers is easy. I look over the bodies to see if they have any weapons on them. None, but I see one of them with a 'W' carved into the rotting flesh of it's forehead. As I head into the barn, Daryl stops me.

"You alright?" he asks. I nod. "How many?"

"Three," I say as I close the door behind me. I walk over to Carl. "What happened?" I ask and I nod at Aaron who is being sat up by Maggie and Sasha. He has a faint bruise appearing on his cheek.

"My dad." Carl simply says. I nod.

I see Michonne speak to Rick. "So we're clear, that wasn't a 'let's attack that man' look. That was a 'he seems like an okay guy to me look'," she says.

Rick turns to Maggie and Sasha. "Secure him." He then turns to Carl. "Dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is." Carl passes Judith to me as he empties the contents of Aaron's bag onto the hay covered ground. I jiggle Judith up and down in my arms and I kneel down beside Carl. He pulls a red gun from the pack. "I've never seen a gun like that before," Carl says.

"It's a flare gun," I say absentmindedly. "Rick," I call, "Come here a sec." Rick joins us.

"What is it?" he asks. Carl hands him the flare gun.

"Why would he have one of those? There have to be more of them." I say. Rick nods and gets up as he goes to interrogate Aaron. Judith starts to fuss and I walk the floor with her. We don't have any food left and she's clearly hungry. We all are. The only thing I can think of is to sing and I do so as softly as possible.

"We'll do it all

Everything

On our own

We don't need

Anything

Or anyone

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me

And just forget the world"

When I finish, Judith is letting go of little soft snores and several members of the group have their eyes on me and they all have different expressions on their faces. I feel blood rush to my cheeks and I turn away, blushing.

I sit and rock Judith in my arms for a while, and I listen to what everyone is saying. Rick has them all convinced that more of Aaron's people are coming. If they wanted to take us out, they would have. We were in a confined space. A few of us left and we all came back.

Aaron tells Rick that there is only one other person out there from his 'community'. He tells us that they drove down separately in an RV and a car. Rick sends Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Rosita and Abraham out to look for the vehicles. I leave Judith with Rick and Sammy stays with them too while Rick keeps an eye on Aaron. The rest of us take watch around the barn. Carl stands next to me and I feel his hand entwine with mine.