Invincible Ones [A Walking Dead Story]

Chapter 36- Newcomers

Glenn and that lady Tara are welcomed as highly honored guests since I have talked up a few glorious spotlight moments the group had (ha). At dinner, I sit down across from Tara and in between Joanna and Aviva.

"So how's life?" I ask Tara. My classic ice-breaker. It's better than how are you?

Tara shrugs. "Normal," Tara smiles tightly at me. She doesn't elaborate.

Define "Normal."

"Okay..." I eat my granola bar--I insisted that they don't have to give me a big ration.

"So you all were separated right?" Joanna says. Glenn nods. "Who specifically are you looking for now?"

"Well, I'm still set on looking for my wife Maggie," Glenn responds before he lifts a noodle-twisted fork to his mouth.

Aviva, not looking up from her George R.R Martin book, says, "I ship it...,"

Bewildered, Nate—who's sitting next to Aviva—raises an eyebrow. Aviva notices. "Oh, I mean the book. Daenerys is getting more ships for her army."

Nate nods. "Yeah, okay..."

"So have you encountered anyone else, Ember?" Glenn asks eagerly, leaning forward a little. I shake my head solemnly.

"Haven't seen any trace of them," I tell him and he slumps back against his chair and nods.

"It's fine. We'll find them eventually." He says, smiling. I bite my lip. He frowns, noticing. "What?"

"Well, this place is incredibly safe. They have a good thing going on here." I explain and everyone watches, including Aviva. "I want to become a permanent member. I want them to help recover the community center/high school fully and turn it into a safe haven. I want to stay here." I blurt out. The words tumble out of my mouth like an avalanche, and I'm afraid of its aftermath.

Glenn's mouth parts in shock. His eyes are wide. His entire face is a telltale of surprise, and maybe betrayal too. He shuts his mouth and stares at me with somber eyes. "That's fine. But I can't stop the rest of the group coming after you when we all reunite." He says and I nod. "Daryl will want to see you. I know he's not your brother by blood but he cared enough about you to now screw the group over when it all started. As far as I'm concerned, that's more than blood."

Aviva smiles and Joanna looks away, setting down her granola bar hastily. Nate frowns at Joanna out of concern. His friendship senses must be tingling or something.

"Okay," I nod and finish my granola bar.

Now I just want to get to teaching kids how to hunt.

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The next day...

Glenn and Tara are staying for a little while, then they'll be leaving to find the ghosts of our group. I'm not saying they all are dead, but what are the odds all of them will find each other? There was no Plan B to the prison. There was no safe house or meet-up point. There was no thinking ahead.

Aviva's brother, Kyler, told me that they have multiple spots marked on their map for all of their people. They divided them all into groups and assigned them pre-checked houses for if anything happened to the Legion. It was Aviva's parents' idea. I heard that should anything happen to their father, one of their children would take their place. The Legion trusts them already and sees them all as leaders. But it's a democracy for the most part.