Sasha and Maggie brought back some..guy. Maggie opened the doors first, introducing the new guy as Aaron and it took all about two seconds before half of them armed themselves with their weapons. He had his hands raised and looked like the least threatening person that Jasper had ever seen but here they were, with guns pointed at his face. Jasper noticed that Alice, Nate, Noah and Carl all had their guns drawn too. Although Alice and Noah were both holding shotguns. Jasper's hand hovered above his at his side, ready to grab for it if it was needed but if this guy was really a threat to them then surely he would've been dead already. Maybe that's why they were all hesitating too.
Daryl went to glance outside for a sign of other people and then patted Aaron down as Maggie hurriedly tried to explain that they already took his weapons and gear. The others settled, lowering their weapons but still kept their attention on Aaron.
"Hi." He said. Judith started to squirm in Rick's arms and he gently handed her over to Carl. Alice had moved with Tara to the front of the barn, behind Aaron and held her shotgun low with both hands. He was completely surrounded and the longer Jasper looked at him, he noticed that he was..clean. He didn't have a speck of dirt or blood on his face or his clothes. He wondered if the others had noticed yet but he wasn't going to be the one to mention it.
Rick asked to see his weapon and Maggie walked over to hand him his gun. Rick took it and placed it securely behind his back.
"Is there something you need?"
"He has a camp nearby." Sasha started to explain. "He wants us to..audition for membership." Jasper's heartbeat quickened, just the idea of them finding a camp that wasn't already filled with bad people sounded..impossible, especially after he'd been to a place like Terminus. Audition made it sound even worse. He glanced over at Nate and tried to see if he could see how he was reacting but he just continued to stare at Aaron with a blank face as he processed what they were saying.
"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on friday nights." He tried to joke but no one laughed and Nate turned to Carl with a questioning look. "It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions, but that's not my job. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home." Jasper raised an eyebrow, he wondered what the catch was.
"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?" He looked over at her and she hesitated for a moment before walking over and handing Rick the bag. Rick pulled out an envelope and inside were pictures. Nate craned his head over Rick's shojlder to peek at them and as Aaron started to explain what they were, his gaze flickered over to Daryl just on the other side of Aaron's left shoulder. He had barely moved but he still made eye contact with Nate.
"The next picture, you'll see inside the gate-" He started as Rick began to walk forward with his head down. Nate turned his head with a sigh as he realized what was about to happen. Aaron crumpled to the ground as Rick threw a punch at him.
Daryl turned Aaron's shoulder to see if he was really passed out. As Nate bent down to Aaron's pack and started to dig through it, Carl walked towards him and Nate began to hand him Aaron's stuff and he laid it all out on the table.
"Just so we're clear, that wasn't a 'let's attack this man' look, it was a 'he seems like an okay guy' look." Nate heard Michonne say to Rick who promptly ignored her and turned back to Nate. She then moved to where Glenn and Jasper were standing.
"Did you expect anything less from him?" Nate barely heard Jasper ask her and he rolled his eyes as he pulled a bottle of water out of the pack.
"You find anything?" Rick asked them. Nate shrugged but Carl handed Rick the orange gun.
"Never seen a gun like that before." He told him as Rick turned it over. He didn't say anything even though Nate had a feeling that he already knew what it was and Rick walked back to stand in front of Aaron to wait for him to wake up.
"That's hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron said, smiling a little as he worked his jaw.
"Sit him up." Rick said, Michonne and Maggie were sitting next to Aaron with Tara and Rosita behind them.
"I think it's better if-" Maggie started but Rick cut her off.
"It's okay." Aaron said while he adjusted his jaw.
"He's fine, sit him up." Michonne quickly grabbed Aaron's arm and pulled him up. Aaron groaned but he went without a complaint otherwise.
"You're being cautious, I completely understand." Rick immediately began to question him, asking him if he had anyone else with him and Aaron instantly knew that whatever he told Rick Grimes, it wouldn't have mattered. Once he mentioned that he was the one who left the bottles of water in the road, the majority of them tensed and looked at each other with concerned looks.
"How long you people been following us?" Daryl asked.
"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. Long enough to see that even without food and water, you never turned on each other..You're survivors, and more important than that, you're people." Nate looked off to the side, to stare at the wall so he wouldn't have to look at anyone else. He didn't like that a stranger already knew so much about them.
"How many others are out there?" Rick asked again. Aaron didn't take any time to think about an answer.
"One." Nate flickered his gaze back to Rick again who clearly didn't believe him but Nate thought he still had good reason to. They couldn't afford to lose anyone else. Aaron shook his head.
"I knew you wouldn't believe me." He said. "If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real?" He kept glancing around at them, making it clear that he wasn't only speaking to Rick. None of them spoke up. Maggie stood back up and Nate started to pick at the dirt in his nails. He kind of wanted Rick to punch Aaron again. The guy was starting to get on his nerves. "What if I drove you to the community? All of you. We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."
"I'm not sure how 18 of us are gonna fit in a car that you and your one friend drove down here." Rick told him while staring down at the ground.
"We drove separately. If we found a group we wanted to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us." Nate's mouth fell slack, he tried to do the math in his head and still didn't understand how he had enough room.
"And you're parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol asked. He nodded and explained the route that he had taken but they couldn't clear it because of the storm.
"Yeah, you've really thought this through." Rick replied.
"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here." Nate suddenly furrowed his eyebrows, letting his hands fall to his sides as Aaron continued to talk. "You know, light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you ran out the only exit." The description made each of them tense and Nate took a few steps forward to stand by Rick. "You can trust me." Rick slightly shook his head.
"I'll check out the cars." Michonne told him.
"There aren't any cars." Rick insisted. Nate sighed and moved to walk back towards Carl. He stared at Judith, a new community would be good for her. He thought as Rick and Michonne talked to each other.
"Your way is dangerous, mine isn't."
"Passing up a new place where we can live? Where Judith can live?" Nate snapped his head back towards them as Michonne mentioned Judith. "That's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do."
"I'll go with her." Nate quickly said, stepping back up to Rick's side. He turned to face him and Nate could immediately tell from the look on his face that Rick was about to protest and Nate wasn't going to fight him on it because it wasn't about him specifically going, Rick didn't want either of them to go.
"I will too." Glenn spoke up, glancing over at Rick. "I'll go."
"Abraham." Rick glanced back at him.
"Yeah, I'll walk with them." He said and moved towards them with his gun placed comfortably in his arms.
"Rosita."
"Okay." She replied. Nate stood up straighter and made sure his handgun was loaded. He had put it back to his hip but he also picked up one of the ak's and tightened his grip around it.
"You got enough firepower?" Rick asked him and Nate nodded and went to the door to stand by Michonne. "The walkies are out of juice, if you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come. Which might just be what they want." They left and on their way out, Nate could still hear Rick talking to the others.
"I'm surprised you wanted to come this time." Michonne told him as they walked. Nate glanced over at her and shrugged.
"I needed to get out of that barn." He told her. He let his ak rest between his arms and close to his chest. His forehead was already sweating due to the humidity, maybe he should've stayed behind.
"Keep your eyes open. If you see anyone coming at us, you fire." Glenn told them.
"Copy that." Abraham replied.
"What if they're someone who has nothing to do with this?" Michonne asked him.
"We're six people walking with guns. No one's coming to say hello." Glenn insisted.
"What if Aaron's telling the truth?" Nate suddenly asked.
"After everything we've done, why would he want us to join his group?"
"People like us..saved a priest. Saved a girl who rolled up to the prison with the governor." Michonne replied.
"Saved a crazy lady with a sword." Nate interjected. Michonne let out a snort and then nodded.
"Yeah, that too." She said. "Aaron saw that."
"I don't know what he saw." Glenn replied reluctantly.
They found the cars. Well, a car and an rv. Nate understood what Aaron had meant when he said he had enough room.
"He was telling the truth." Michonne told Glenn. They took a couple of steps forward before they heard rustling in the bushes and they all raised their guns.
"Don't take another step, asshole!" Glenn shouted and then Nate heard the groans of walkers and let out a sigh. He dropped his gun to his side as Rosita and Abraham took care of them. Glenn still kept his gun raised and Nate gazed towards him. He knew he was right to be cautious but he didn't like that this was how they were supposed to be towards new people.
"What?" Glenn snapped, relaxing his hold on his gun but Nate still tensed his shoulders at the tone and gave a quick shake of his head.
"Nothing." He replied. He ended up heading towards the car while Abraham and Rosita searched the rv. He opened the door and slid halfway into the driver's seat. He kept his feet on the ground and he didn't see any keys as he pulled down the visor and looked in the glove compartment. Aaron's partner most likely kept them. He leaned forward and rested his arms on top of his knees.
"Anything?" Michonne asked him, with her fingertips on the handle of her sword that rested on her back.
"No." Nate replied with a shake of his head. He got out and shut the door and looked up just in time to see Abraham and Rosita climbing out of the rv.
"It's clear." Rosita told them.
"Aaron was telling the truth." Nate said, a little surprised at the fact. Strangers didn't tell the truth anymore. Glenn was still watching the forest, even after they had killed the few walkers that had come out of it.
"There's food." Abraham mentioned and Nate snapped his head back towards him and glanced down at the cam in the man's hand. He held it out to him and Nate took it.
"Enough for everyone?" Abraham slowly nodded and for the first time in awhile, Nate allowed a grin to stretch across his face.
They took the rv and car back to the barn. They made it back in just under an hour. Daryl was outside, keeping watch and Nate had scooped up more than what he could carry to bring back into the barn.
"Were we low on food?" He asked loudly as the others swarmed him. Maggie quickly took some cans from his arms and helped him place them on the table.
"Woah." Carl said with wide eyes. Rick slowly grabbed the last can of spaghetti-o's from Nate's hands to stare in shock.
"This was all with the rv?" He asked, Nate nodded.
"There's more than this." He replied. Abraham and Rosita entered the barn next, Rick quickly glanced their way and saw they also had armfuls of cans as well. Both were carrying more than Nate was and Abraham had even dropped one can on accident. He looked down at it and shrugged. Rick placed a hand on Nate's shoulder which the boy immediately brushed off but with a smile still on his face. He held out his arms towards Carol who was holding Judith and she gladly handed the girl over.
"This..this is ours now." Rick turned back to face Aaron, who was still sitting tied up on the floor. Aaron reluctantly nodded.
"There's more than enough." He told them.
"It's ours, whether we go back to your camp or not."
"What do you mean, why wouldn't we go?" Carl asked as Rick turned back towards them. They had all gathered around the food after bringing even more from the rv. Rick slightly tilted his head at Carl's question but before he could say anything, Michonne started to talk.
"If he were lying, or if he wanted to hurt us, he would but he isn't and he doesn't. We need this. So we're going, all of us. Someone say something if you feel differently." She looked around at them, at each one of their faces and Nate gazed down at Judith, slightly bouncing her in his arms, he softly started to hum a song that he was sure he had heard from Beth at one point in time.
"I don't know, man. This barn smells like horse shit." Daryl said to Rick from where he was sitting. Nate heard a snort that he was sure was from Jasper and he rolled his eyes at the statement.
"Yeah. We're going." His eyes finally landed on Carl, Nate and Judith, the boys standing shoulder to shoulder. Judith's fist was in her mouth but her eyes were on her older brother. He stopped humming once Rick started to ask Aaron where his camp was and the man was reluctant to share directions. Rick changed the route that Aaron initially wanted to take and told them to rest before they left at sundown and then he walked out of the barn. Michonne ended up following him and Nate handed Judith over to Carl as Jasper moved closer to them.
"Do you think it's real? His camp?" Jasper asked him quietly, leaning back against the table, Nate's eyes flickered across his face and he quickly shrugged his right shoulder.
"I dunno, but what I do know is that this barn does smell like horse shit." He replied with a twirl of his index finger and Jasper laughed and shook his head at his statement. If he thought about it, this was probably the first time in a long time that he's seen Nate in such a good mood. He wondered if him being there when they brought back the food had anything to do with it. Jasper gazed down at the few cans that Abraham had placed on the ground. His eyes landed on a can of peaches and he quirked up an eyebrow as he saw it and then he bent down to pick it up.
"You should eat something." He said softly, placing it on the table between them and sliding it over to Nate. Nate bent his head down to watch his hand and then Jasper left. Nate quietly tsked and tried to brush his damp hair out of his face and then picked up the can and let it rest against his stomach as he faced forward again. He was going to open it..as soon as a can opener became available.
Once the sun was set, they packed up the RV with their things and newfound supply of food and it was decided that Aaron would ride with Rick, Glenn, Michonne and Jasper. It was going to be a tight fit, but they had to work with the space they were given.
They took the route Rick had insisted on earlier and Nate sat smushed between Carl and Maggie on one bench by the window. Judith was being held securely by Carol across from them with Alice and Tara sitting next to her. Abraham decided to drive and Rosita had taken the passenger seat. Eugene and Gabriel had chosen to sit on the floor with their backs against the cabinets. Daryl and Sasha were standing, doing their best to not fall over and Nate thought it was going pretty well. Most of them were quiet. Alice kept staring at Nate from across the table but it wasn't like they could say anything to each other with everyone breathing down each other's necks.
At some point, well into the drive, Nate heard Abraham curse from up front and he tried to turn his head to look but then the brakes were slammed and Daryl and Sasha went lurching forward. Daryl managed to catch himself on the counter and Sasha tripped over Eugene, her arm went slamming onto the floor as the RV turned. She had looked up with a very irritated look in Abraham's direction. Eugene pulled his legs out from under her.
"What's going on?!" Maggie shouted, she moved her legs to the side of the seat so she could reach down to help Sasha off the floor.
"Walkers!" Abraham yelled back and most of them turned towards the windows to watch as they drove through dozens of walkers. "Think Glenn cleared a path already but-goddammit!" The van turned again and Judith started to cry loudly as Carol clutched onto her, trying to keep the baby from hitting her head on the table. Nate's heartbeat quickened as he looked back at her and then over at Carl who seemed just as scared with the amount of turns Abraham was taking. Rosita kept hurriedly talking to him which made him shout back at her in a string of colorful curse words. Nate couldn't see what was going on in the darkness. Daryl had started to move towards the front, using the counters and walls to help himself stay balanced.
Once Abraham and Rosita thought it was safe, they had parked the rv, and Rosita, Sasha and Daryl got out to circle the area. Sasha jumped back inside and Carol quickly stood up and handed Judith over to Alice so she could talk to him.
"What's going on?" Nate asked, pushing his knees up onto the seat. They could hear Daryl arguing with someone but it didn't sound like Abraham or Rosita. Sasha's eyes flickered over to him but she didn't respond.
Eugene and Gabriel had stood up from the floor but had pushed themselves to the back so the others could stand up.
"We think we found Aaron's partner..just-Stay here!" Sasha replied, with her hand out as Carl and Nate attempted to leave. Maggie had come up behind the boys and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. If Nate wasn't so worried, he might have relaxed into it. They could hear the others killing walkers just outside. Sasha exited the rv again, closing the door behind her and once the slicing sounds quieted, Abraham came back and gave them the okay to leave.
They filtered out and saw they were by some kind of wearhouse. Rosita and Daryl were standing by the door and beckoned them inside. They settled the place and then Nate saw an unfamiliar man laying on a couches bloodied and injured.
"He knows Aaron?" Nate had turned to ask Rosita and she nodded.
"So he claims." She replied with her arms crossed and her gaze turning back to him. The man awkwardly smiled back.
"Hi." He softly said. "I'm Eric." Nate raised an eyebrow, but he didn't respond otherwise. He was just as polite as Aaron had seemed. He exchanged a look with Carl who had been standing behind the couch that Eric had been resting on. It turned out, he had been waiting for Aaron to bring them back and in the confusion of seeing Abraham, Daryl, Sasha and Rosita first with no Aaron, he had panicked and sprained his ankle while fighting off walkers. Once they had got out of the RV, Maggie had helped wrap it correctly.
Once the rest of them had settled, Nate had started to pace not far from the door, still worried about how long it was taking the others to find them. He had hoped that they would decide to follow the flare that Eric had so graciously offered. He suddenly remembered that Rick had the other one and told him as such.
"Stop worrying so much." Maggie said to him, Nate snapped his head towards her and froze in place. Eric had been watching him, his eyes tracking each move that Nate had made. "They'll be fine." He allowed himself to drop his shoulders. He didn't feel that reassured but Glenn was out there too and she was probably just as worried as he was.
It hadn't taken very long before Nate heard Daryl whistle. He darted from the room to outside and saw Rick and the others walking towards them. Glenn's arms were covered in blood and they looked like they had just come back from fighting in a war but Nate didn't care what had happened. As long as they were safe and unharmed, that's all that mattered. His eyes landed on Jasper's face and the boy was holding his crossbow at his side and his hair looked like a giant mess and Nate really hoped the blood on his face belonged to a walker.
"Dad!" He heard Carl exclaim and turned just in time to see Carl jumping at Rick for a hug. Rick kissed the side of his head.
"Is your sister okay?" Carl nodded against his chest and pulled away, however Rick still kept a hand on his son's neck and then with Carl still glued to his side, he headed towards Nate to pull him into a hug too. Rick's hand reached back to ruffle Nate's hair, and Nate pretended to be annoyed by it and let out a groan and Carl laughed. Maggie had run out after the boys to hug Glenn and Aaron was frantically searching for his partner as the rest of them filtered out to greet the others. He ran into the wear house as Eric called out to him. Nate pulled himself out of Rick's hold so Rick could hug Carol and allowed himself to walk over to Jasper after Rosita had moved on to Glenn and Maggie.
"Please tell me that blood belongs to a walker?" He asked, pointing at the blood splatter on Jasper's jaw. Jasper stared at him and then immediately put a hand to his face to brush it away.
"What? Oh, yeah. Yeah." He replied. His hair was slicked back, seemingly wet, almost like Rick's was and Nate decided that he liked it that way.
"Good." He eventually told him. Jasper reached out and placed his hand on Nate's arm, he almost jumped when Jasper decided to squeeze it. He hadn't realized how close he had gotten to him and then the hand was gone within seconds as Jasper turned and followed the rest of the group inside the building. When they walked in, Aaron had just barely walked out of the back room where Eric was and started speaking to the group as a whole. Nate had found himself standing comfortably between Noah and Tara.
"Thank you. You saved Eric. I owe you. All of you. And I will make sure that debt is paid in full when we get back to our community. When we get to Alexandria. Now, I don't know about you but I'd rather not do anymore driving tonight and maybe we can hit the road tomorrow morning."
"That sounds fine." Rick said, Aaron turned back towards him. "But if we stay the night, you're sleeping over there." He said, gesturing towards a corner.
"You really think we gotta do that?" Maggie asked, and Nate furrowed his eyebrows, feeling slightly confused, wondering why Rick was still persistent in keeping Aaron and Eric separated. They were the least threatening people they've come across so far.
"It's the safe play, we don't know you."
"The only way you're going to stop me from being with him right now is by shooting me." Aaron told Rick, and Nate's eyes widened as it finally clicked. They were together. Together like Glenn and Maggie were. The way Aaron acted when they came back..it made sense to him now.
Aaron tried to take a step forward but Glenn held his hand out to him and started talking to Rick. Nate's gaze flickered around the room and eventually landed back on Jasper, standing in the corner with Daryl. He hadn't seen him staring yet, he was still focused on the conversation happening in front of them.
He still wasn't sure how he was supposed to handle his..feelings for the other boy. This was becoming a problem, it's been a problem.
They ended up letting Aaron and Eric spend the night together. Most of them were exhausted, they slept for a few hours until the sun came up and then they squeezed everyone into the rv. It wasn't ideal but Aaron had assured them they wouldn't be traveling for much longer after they figured out where they were on the map.
They had let Eric take the bed because of his ankle while Aaron watched over him. Eugene had pulled out the playing cards and betting chips and divided them out to whoever was sitting at the table and Nate was sitting on top of a counter, trying his best to read a comic book over Carl's shoulder. He barely noticed as Noah got up from the other counter to give Aaron some pills and a water bottle.
Shortly after they passed DC, the RV died and they waited to see if Glenn and Abraham could fix it. Carl and Nate were still reading the same comic book, leaning against a rusted car while Nate held Judith. The Rv eventually came to life after Glenn found a replacement battery and the car ended up turning on as well.
When they finally pulled up to the gates of Alexandria, Nate had pushed himself to the front, right behind Abraham's seat so he could see out the window, and the gates were unlike anything he had ever seen. He really hoped that they were ready for this.