Natural Born Leader (Carl Grimes x OC)

Chapter Two: Alexandria?

"Ashtyn! Ashtyn get up!"

Somebody is shaking me and I'm pulled out of my dreamless sleep so fast that I knock heads with whoever is trying to wake me up. I open my eyes to see Linee in front of me. I bring my hand up to rub at the sore spot on my head.

"Ow. I said get up not butt heads with me." She opens her mouth to say something more but I cut her off.

"What's wrong? Is everyone okay?" I reach my hand that was on my head down into the bag sitting next to me, immediately searching for my weapons.

"Woah woah woah woah. Everyone's fine, Ash, I just wanted to tell you that Kendra got the radio working and there's a signal. I heard noise coming from her tent next to mine this morning."

My shoulders relax and I take my hand out of my bag, not before grabbing my pocket knife. "I'll be there in a few minutes," I tell Linee. She nods and leaves my tent,

I throw the blanket off of me and grab my ripped up blue jeans from the floor, stepping into them and pulling them up. I fold my blanket and place it back on my bed, craving some sort of normalcy that comes from making my bed. Hooking my knife onto one of my front belt loops, I grab my jacket off of my stool and step outside of my tent. I pull my jacket over my arms and zip the tent back up.

I see my breath make billows of smoke in the air around me as I walk to Kendra's tent she shares with her brother, Kai. Virginia is to be expecting snow soon, seeing as November is well on its way as September comes to an end. Snow is when things get real rough, but our group is in no state to travel again, too comfy with where we are at the moment.

I peek inside the unzipped part of Kendra's tent to see Linee and Kai inside. I walk inside and everyone looks at me.

Sometimes I feel like I really am an army general.

"What have y'all heard?" I start off the conversation first, making sure that everyone gets straight to the point.  If what Kendra's picked up on the radio is bad news, I need to know immediately.

Kendra turns up the radio nozzle.  "It's the same thing.  Over and over again."

Everyone's quiet while a female voice says the same words over and over again on the device.  "Alexandria.  Military guarded safe zone for all survivors," the voice says.  "Alexandria-"

"Alexandria?  Military?" I question, knowing that all military bases are gone at this point.  However, just because there is no military doesn't mean there are no survivors who have taken over this place called Alexandria.

Linee speaks up.  "It's obviously an old message." She makes eye contact with everyone in the room, stopping when she meets my eyes.  "However, we are running extremely low on ammo.  A military base could be one hell of a hit."

I press my lips together in concentration.  "We need to speak with Jeremy first. He's part of the council, too."

Linee nods her head in agreement and so does Kai.  Kendra, however, looks upset.  "I personally think it's a stupid idea to march into a military base for some ammo.  We can find plenty in the town around us."

"Since when are you a part of the council?" Linee says.  Kendra and Linee have never really gotten along.  Someone always has to be mediator between them, but in this case, I agree with Linee.

"We've been looking in the town around us already.  We're out of plenty of things," I comment.

"So we move," Kendra says in response.  "We've moved before.  A military base is bound to have hundreds of infected people that all died at the start of this hell."

She's right, but she doesn't understand that I've got people to feed and walkers to kill anyways.

"I appreciate the input, Kendra, I really do.  But this isn't your call," I point out.  "You don't ever go on runs, so you have no real idea what we're missing out there.  The base could be worth it and we can all handle our own."

There's silence.  Everyone seems to be satisfied with my answer.  "Okay.  I'll get Jeremy and we can meet in your tent, Ash," affirms Linee.

I give Kendra one last glance before walking away back to my tent.  I reach into my backpack and pull out the map Malik found on one of his supply runs that shows most of Virginia.  Washington, D.C. is already marked on the map with a circle surrounding it, since we've already searched around there for supplies.

Linee and Katie walk into my tent, joined by Jeremy.  I place the mat down on the foldable table in my tent, using a flash light and a box of matches as paperweights.

"I think I know about Alexandria," Jeremy says, taking me by surprise.

"What do you know?"  I'm curious.  I've never heard of Alexandria, and most things around camp reach my ears.

"I've seen some papers in houses around here.  Important people.  They were meant to go to Alexandria as a safe zone for the outbreak.  Seems like the military was going to run it."  Jeremy peers down at the map.  "It's about six miles outside of Washington, D.C."

"Why didn't you say anything to me?  We've been camping out in what's practically the backyard of what could be an infested base."  I'm not angry with Jeremy, just a little confused.

"I didn't say anything about it because we had finally found a place to settle around here."

I hum in a response.  Then I reach down into the outside pocket of my backpack and take out a marker, using the map scale to draw a circle around Washington, D.C. that's six miles out on each side.  "We need to start searching soon.  We can only kill so many walkers without using our guns.  What happens when a horde decides to take a turn and cut through here?"  I hesitate, just for a second.  "I won't have another repeat of Charleston."

Nobody has ever really referred back to the event in which we lost several of the kids in our group.  Where we lost Linley.  Back in South Carolina, we got to cozy and too confident in our surroundings.  Walkers came through our quiet little town overnight and busted through windows, turning kids into the monsters that I had to put down.

There's a solemn moment in my tent where no one says anything, everyone just stares at the map.

"I say let's get a group and head out today," Linee says, breaking the silence.

I shift where I stand and fold up the map, shoving it back into my bag.  "I'm going with.  Linee, grab Rodrigo and Naomi.  Tell them to pack their weapons and the ammo we have left.  We head out in thirty minutes."

"Aye-Aye, captain," Linee salutes before leaving my tent.

"You know I don't like her going out without me," Kai says once she's left.

Kai and Linee have been a "thing" for a little while now.  If you ask me, it's adorable, but if you ask me again, it can be quite irritating at times.  Like now, when Kai thinks that Linee can't hold her own.  Though, I can admit I understand where his worry comes from.  Linee can be a bit of a loose cannon sometimes and Kai is a very reserved person, so they cancel each other out.  But still, I like to think of Linee as my right-hand-woman and Kai, though he's on the council, likes to think he's in charge of her.

I put my hand on Kai's should.  "I know, but I need her." I pat his shoulder once before I leave the tent, slinging my backpack over my shoulders.

In around thirty minutes, the small group and I are exiting our cap through the entrance posts and on a mission to find this placed called "Alexandria".