All of Us (The Walking Dead)

Chapter 3

"No," I said, feeling my heartbeat slamming in my chest with nerves. Glenn looked shocked by my answer and looked to Rick, who scrunched his eyebrows together.

"No..?" Glenn repeated, as if unsure he heard me right. I looked to the man behind me, who still had an unreadable expression.

"You're sure?" Rick asked me slowly.

I nodded my head. "I'm sure," I replied, waiting for their next move. Glenn and Rick both sighed.

"She doesn't wanna come," the man suddenly said behind me as he turned and walked towards the door, like he had already forgotten about me.

"If you're sure," Rick said one last time. I nodded again.

"We'll just leave you then," Rick said as they started to back away.

"It was nice meeting you, Sloane," Glenn said as they reluctantly retreated towards the door. They even turned their backs on me. Huh, I thought. So they weren't going to force me to go with them. I was free to go.

They exited the building, letting the door close behind them. I grabbed my bag from the floor and threw it on my shoulders, and then picked up my knife and tucked it in my belt. I ran after the three men.

"Wait!" I said as I ran after them. They were standing around a car, looking like they were about to leave. All three of them turned their heads to me as I jogged towards them. I saw the man I didn't know the name of tighten his grip around his bow.

"Okay," I said when I reached them, my heart beating fast. "If your offer still stands, I'd like to come with you to your community." My palms were sweating so much, I clasped them together, waiting for a response. Glenn and Rick just looked confused.

"I thought you didn't want to come with us," Glenn said.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I said no just to make sure that you'd let me go if I didn't want to come..." I trailed off. "Just, uh, making sure you weren't lying to me about it being a good community."

Rick's eyebrows shot up. I think my answer stunned them. After a moment of silence from the three of them which made me question my choice, Glenn cracked a smile and started to laugh lightly. "That's smart," he said.

Rick was smiling at me too now. "We're leaving now to head back. It's about a half hour drive. That good with you?"

I nodded my head in reply and tentatively smiled back. I trusted them a little more now, but not enough to let my guard down completely.

"We'll have to take back the knife you have until you talk to the council and they make their decision," Rick told me. "If they decide you can stay, you can have it back, and if they decide that you can't stay, you can get it back also when you leave," he said, emphasizing the world leave, probably to make me feel more comfortable after the stunt I just pulled, assuring me that they would, in fact, let me go.

I nodded and handed over my knife. I heard the man with the crossbow, who I still didn't know the name of, clear his throat and nod to the back of my jeans.

"That one too," he said in a deep, intimidating voice.

My shirt must have been bunched up in the back, showing off my knife tucked in the back of my jeans.

"Right," I said, throwing them a guilty smile as I pulled that knife out of its hiding place in my jeans and handed it over to them. I decided to leave out the fact that I had a third knife in my boot. I trusted them slightly, but I wasn't about to be completely defenceless with three guys I didn't know. Not in this world.

"You can sit in the back with me," Glenn said. I handed him my backpack that stored everything I owned so he could keep it until after the council meeting too, and I jumped in the backseat. After a moment, the three men got in the car and closed the doors, and I flinched at the noise. I really hoped I was doing the right thing and hadn't just gotten myself into trouble. 

Glenn sat down beside me in the backseat. I sighed and looked out the window as the car started up and we made the journey back to their community. They talked among themselves for a bit, but I tuned them out and watched the stores pass by. I hadn't been in a car in a long time. I hadn't been in a group in a long time either, or with anyone for that matter. How did this happen? One minute I was on my own thinking that was how it would always be, because I had been with groups, and it had always ended badly. I told myself that I wouldn't do it again, so then why did I run out after them and say yes? I thought that I was better on my own, but for how long? What kind of life was there for me on my own? I just hoped that this group was what they said they were. If not... I was in trouble.

We had been driving for a while, and must have been getting close, because Glenn started to talk to me about what I should expect when we got to their community.

"So, we'll take you straight to where the meeting will be held. You'll stand before the council and they'll ask you questions- where you're from, how you got here, what you did before all this-" Glenn said, listing random questions they might ask, "and you just need to answer them honestly. Then they'll decide," he finished. I nodded, taking it all in and preparing myself.

I couldn't believe they had a council. It made sense that no one person should make a decision like this that could affect their whole community, but I hadn't heard of a council since all this began. With the groups I'd been in, there had always been one person who made all the decisions until eventually they made the wrong one and the group fell apart. Maybe this was a sign that I had finally found a group like the one my friends and I had always been hoping for. My heart squeezed in my chest at the thought, but I had to remember not to get my hopes up or let my guard down.

Soon the car slowed and we came up to a large wall. We stopped in front of the gates. Everyone started to get out just as the gates started to slowly open.

I squinted my eyes as I read the sign that was on the front of the walls. "Alexandria...?"