Dark Red ✶ Carl Grimes

𝟬𝟭𝟲, welcome aaron

daryl aggressively started patting down aaron, causing the man to flinch and close his eyes shut.

"hi..." he murmured with raised hands.

judith suddenly started crying before rick handed her over to carl, who began shushing her. "its nice to meet you," he took a step forward and stretched out his hand for rick to shake but stopped when hearing a gun click.

"you said he had a weapon?" rick inquired.

maggie walked towards the grimes and handed him aaron's weapon. "there something you need?"

"he has a camp nearby. he wants us to audition for membership," sasha explained.

"audition?" riley chuckled.

"i wish there was another word. audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. that's only on friday nights."

everyone stood quiet, still glaring at him. "um, it's not a camp. it's a community. i think you all would make valuable additions. but its not my call. my job is to convince you all to follow me back home."

"do you guys eat people?" riley blurted out, causing everyone to whip their heads towards her.

aaron's eyes widened, "god no. we have perfectly healthy and amazing food. animal meat, pasta, chicken, you name it we have it."

the brunette sent a smile to the stranger while rick kept staring him down. "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?"

sasha walked over to rick and handed him the backpack. "front pocket, there's an envelope. there's no way i could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. thats why i brought those. i apologize in advance for the picture quality, we just found an old camera store last–"

"nobody gives a shit." daryl rudely interrupted. riley rolled her eyes and smacked the archers arm, him turning his head at her taken back.

"you're absolutely 100% right," aaron murmured. rick scrolled through the pictures, "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-hight, 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, theres only one resource more critical to our community's survival. the people. together we're strong. you can make us even stronger."

riley glanced at carl while aaron continued and rick began walking towards him. "the next picture, you'll see inside the gates. our community was first construc–"

suddenly, rick sucker punched aaron that he fell unconscious on the ground. the smith girl flinched at the action and walked towards the body.

"rick, what the hell?"

"we got to secure him. dump his pack. let's see what this guy really is."

"rick." michonne's voice was firm.

"everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. they're coming for us," the man announced. "we might not know how or when but they are."

riley helped maggie with aaron as he woke up a few minutes later. "that's a hell of a right cross there, rick."

"sit him up."

"i think it's better if–"

"it's okay," aaron groaned.