The five of them rushed through the doors of Terminus, Rick and Daryl leading the pack. Nothing met them on the other side, so they continued on down a hallway, following the sound of a woman's voice. She spoke calmly and clearly, reading off the same words over and over. Daryl peaked around the corner and began to lower his weapon.
"Those who arrive survive," the woman's voice was saying as Daryl, Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Rosie trailed into the room. "Terminus. Sanctuary for all, community for all. Those who-"
"Hello," Rick said, stepping to the front of the group. The woman jumped a little and pulled her headphones off. "Hello," Rick said again, but this time louder. Rosie stood in between Carl and Daryl, her eyes scanning over the large building. It looked like some old, empty factory.
"Well, I bet Albert is on perimeter watch," one man said with a sigh. The man put down what he was holding and walked closer. Rosie took one step back, without even thinking about it. "You here to rob us?" the man asked.
"No," Rick said. He started walking forward, closer to the people from Terminus. "We wanted to see you before you saw us."
The man laughed a little, but Rosie didn't get why. He shook his head. "Makes sense," he said. He started walking closer again, which made Rosie nervous, but she didn't move away this time anyway because nobody else was. "Usually we do this where the tracks meet," he cleared his throat and opened his arms out wide, "Welcome to Terminus." His arms dropped back down. "I'm Gareth. Looks like you've been on the road for a good bit."
"We have," Rick said, nodding his head. "Rick. That's Carl, Rosie, Daryl, Michonne."
Gareth waved his hand at the others, but they didn't wave back. "You're nervous. I get it. We were all the same way," he said, like it was funny. Rosie didn't like him, she decided, but that was something she was going to have to get over if they were really going to stay. "We came here for sanctuary. That what you're here for?"
"Yes," Rick said.
"Good. You found it. Hey, Alex," Gareth said. He turned to look at another man from Terminus, who had curly, brown hair. Alex started approaching, too, with a big smile on his face. "This isn't as pretty as the front. We got nothing to hide, but the welcome wagon is a whole lot nicer. Alex will take you, ask you a few question. Uh, but first, we need to see everyone's weapons. If you could just lay them down in front of you."
Rosie looked over at Rick, wondering if he was going to do this. If Terminus was bad and these people were going to kill them, now would be the time. After a few moments, Rick nodded and pulled his gun from his holster, placing it on the ground. "Alright," he said.
"I'm sure you understand," Gareth said.
"Yes, I do," Rick said, keeping eye contact with Gareth as he unloaded all of his weapons out onto the floor in front of him. Soon, Carl, Daryl, and Michonne followed. Rosie would have to, but she didn't have any weapons on her. She didn't know where her knife was. She figured it was still on the belt of one of the dead Claimers, but she couldn't be sure.
Gareth approached Rick, and Rosie watched as Rick held his arms out. She didn't know what he was doing it for at first, but it made more sense when Gareth started patting him down like a police officer would.
The curly-haired man, Alex, approached Daryl and did the same thing. "I'd hate to see the other guy," he said as he patted Daryl down. Rosie had heard that expression before- it was something people said when you had a black eye. Daryl had one. The Claimers gave it to him. Daryl didn't look Alex in the eye. He didn't like Alex, Rosie could tell.
"You would," Rick said, his voice deep and serious. He was warning them- threatening them, in a way.
Alex moved on to Rosie. Rosie didn't hold her arms up like Rick and Daryl did. She knew she was supposed to, but she really didn't want to. Without her control, her arms squeezed in close to her body as she visibly tensed. Her heart rate picked up.
Alex seemed to notice her anxiety, because he hesitated. "I just need to make sure you don't have any weapons on you, sweetie," he said, as if Rosie didn't already know that that's what he was planning on doing.
"I don't have any," Rosie told him, looking at the gray, cement floor behind him.
"I just have to make sure," Alex said, lifting his arms to search her.
"But I don't have any," Rosie said, taking a single step back.
"I know, but I have-"
"You're fine, Ro," Daryl's gruff voice interrupted Alex. Rosie looked over at Daryl and he was already looking back at her. "We're right here," he reminded her, giving her a reassuring nod.
Rosie took a deep breath. They're not going to do anything bad, she told herself, stop being stupid. So, Rosie slowly lifted her hands above her head. She squeezed her eyes shut and chewed on her bottom lip as Alex quickly patted his hands down the sides of her torso, and then down her legs. It felt like forever, but in reality, it was only a few seconds. In fact, Alex made it particularly quick.
Then he moved on to Carl. "They deserve it?" Alex asked, looking over at Rick for a moment as he referred back to the other guy.
"Yes," Carl said harshly as Alex finished patting him down. Rick stared at Carl for a moment, not saying anything.
"Just so you know, we aren't those kind of people, but we aren't stupid either. And you shouldn't be stupid enough to try anything stupid," Gareth said. The way all these people spoke- with smiles constantly plastered across their faces- made Rosie feel uneasy, but she tried to tell herself that they were just trying to be friendly. "As long as everyone's clear on that, we shouldn't have any problems. Just solutions. Ok."
After Alex patted down Michonne, he bent down to pick up her sword. What none of them expected to see, though, was Alex putting the sword back into Michonne's hands. Then he moved on to pick up Daryl's crossbow and give it to him, but Daryl beat him to it, Rick and Carl following after.
"Follow me," Alex said. And so they did. Rosie stuck close to Daryl's shadow as they followed Alex towards a heavy-looking door. She felt nervous not having any weapons on her, but even if she did have any, she wouldn't have anywhere to put them anymore.
As Alex led them outside, the heavy-looking door squeaking behind them, the sun burned into Rosie's eyes, so she squinted them and looked down. "So how long's this place been here?" she heard Daryl ask.
"Since almost the start," Alex said. Her eyes now somewhat adjusted to the light, Rosie looked up again, her eyes scanning over the surrounding area. There were a lot of fruits and vegetables planted in little gardens, but Rosie liked the potted flowers a little better. "When all the camps got overrun, people started finding this place. I think it was instinct, you know? Follow a path. Some folks were heading to the coast, others out west or up north, but they all wound up here," Alex explained.
They stopped when they reached a large grill, where a red-haired woman was cooking. "Hi," the woman said, looking around at them. "Heard you came in the back door. Smart. You'll fit right in here."
Rosie stood on her tiptoes, trying to look over the grill and see what exactly the woman was cooking, but she couldn't tell, so she decided to look around instead. There were lots of tables and even more plants.
"Hey, Mary," Alex said. Rosie guessed that Mary was the red-haired woman's name. "Would you fix each of these new folks a plate for me?"
Her face scrunched up to protect her eyes from the bright sun, Rosie's eyes caught onto a man who walked out into the area full of tables. Rosie guessed that that was the dining area, like in a restaurant. She noticed the large orange backpack that he placed at his feet. It looked familiar, but she figured that plenty of people had orange backpacks.
Hoping to figure out what Mary was cooking, Rosie looked towards another table where a woman was eating. Rosie tried to see what was on her plate, but she became quickly distracted by the poncho the woman was wearing. It looked like Daryl's poncho. But how would that random lady have Daryl's poncho? Rosie stepped forward and tugged on Daryl's sleeve. He looked down at her and she pointed at the woman wearing the poncho. She watched for his reaction, and his eyebrows furrowed.
Suddenly, a loud noise came from behind Rosie, and she jumped, turning around to see what was going on. Rick was holding Alex at gunpoint now, so Daryl, Carl, and Michonne all got their weapons ready, too. Rosie felt useless with no weapon, but there was nothing she could do, so she just stood by Daryl, tense and ready to run.
"Where the hell did you get this watch?" Rick asked roughly, his gun pressed hard into Alex's temple. It was only then that Rosie noticed Rick was holding Glenn's pocket watch, which had been passed on to him by Hershel. The thought of Hershel- kneeling out in the grass- made her stomach hurt.
"You want answers? You want anything else? You get 'em when you put down the gun," Alex said, his voice shaky and high-pitched. His southern accent wasn't very strong until he was afraid, Rosie noticed.
"I see your man on the roof with a sniper rifle. How good's his aim?" Rick said threateningly, turning to look up at the man on the roof. Rosie hadn't even noticed the people on the roof until then; she'd been too focused on the people on the ground that were pointing weapons at her and her family. "Where'd you get the watch?" Rick asked again. Alex still didn't answer. "Where'd you get the watch?!" Rick shouted.
"Don't do anything! I have this! You just put it down. You put it down!" Alex screamed up to the man with the sniper rifle on the roof. The man reluctantly did as he was told. "You wanna listen to me. There's a lot of us," Alex said to Rick.
"Where did you get the watch?" Rick asked again.
"I got it off of a dead one. I didn't think he'd need it," Alex said. Rosie didn't believe him, not for one second. No way was Glenn dead. He couldn't be. Glenn was strong on his own, but Maggie was strong, too, and Maggie had gone to go and get him, right? They couldn't be dead. They couldn't. Or maybe Rosie just didn't want to believe it.
"What about the riot gear?" Rick asked, turning Alex to look out at the other people from Terminus. Rosie hadn't even noticed the riot gear until then. "The poncho?" Rick added, confirming Rosie's suspicion of the poncho belonging to Daryl.
"Got the riot gear off a dead cop," Gareth's voice said. Rosie turned around to see him standing there with his hands out as his sides. "Found the poncho on a clothesline," Gareth said casually.
"Gareth, we can wait," Alex said. Rosie scrunched her face up again, but this time it wasn't because the sun was too bright. It was because she was angry and confused. What was he talking about? Why did Terminus have their stuff? What was this place?
"Shut up, Alex," Gareth spat.
"You talk to me," Rick growled, his eyebrows raised at Gareth in a threatening manner.
"What's there left to say? You don't trust us anymore," Gareth said calmly, his hands clasped together in front of himself. Alex started talking again, but Gareth was quick to shut him down. "It's ok. It's ok. Rick, what do you want?"
"Where are our people?" Rick asked.
"You didn't answer the question," Gareth said, his hand held out in front of him. Rosie didn't know what it meant, but she knew she didn't like it. Suddenly, Gareth's hand closed into a tight fist, and Rosie now knew what the hand meant. Rick spun himself around, using Alex as a human shield as one of the men started firing at him
The five of them started running. Rosie could hear Rick shouting things to her and Carl, but she couldn't tell what he was saying over the gunfire, so she just kept going, following Daryl's lead. For whatever reason, the people on the roof seemed to have terrible aim. None of the shots came even close to hitting any of them. Rick turned in to one of the buildings, planning to run out the big garage door on the other side, but the door started closing before they got even remotely close to it.
Rick pointed to a door on the other side of the room, which was labelled A, and that was where they ran next. Shots were still being fired, yet none of them had managed to hit any of them. As they ran, Rosie kept looking all around her, making sure no one was going to pop out and stop them. But as she looked to her left, she saw a big, blue tarp behind a chain-linked fence. On top of the tarp were a bunch of large, bloody pieces of meat, along with some bones. However, these weren't animal remains. These were human remains. Rosie slowed down a bit, staring at the remains, but Rick put his hand on her back, pushing her to run faster, so she did.
"Help! Let us out!" Rosie heard a woman's voice shout. They passed by a bunch of big, red containers. They looked like train cars or storage units. People were banging on them from the inside.
"What the hell?" Rosie heard Daryl say.
"Keep going!" Rick yelled. The five of them ignored the people crying for help and ran around a corner. They pushed through another heavy-looking door. When they entered, they saw a lot of candles. Rosie was sure that there were more candles in this room than she'd ever seen in her entire life.
Never again. Never trust. We first, always, Rosie read off of the wall. It was painted on in big, black letters, just like the Terminus sign on the side of the building.
"What the hell is this place?" Daryl asked, catching his breath.
"These people, I don't think they're trying to kill us," Michonne said.
"No, they were aiming at our feet," Rick agreed, reading the words on the wall.
"There were bones," Rosie said, looking over at Rick with wide eyes. He had to have seen them, too, right? He was right behind her. Rick looked back at her and she could tell that he had seen them, too, just by the look on his face. She was getting a little better at talking with her eyes.
"There," Rick said, pointing to a door on the opposite side of the room rather than acknowledging what Rosie had said about the bones. They ran to the door, but just as Rick got close, the door was slammed shut with a loud creak. So, they ran to the next door; another one labelled as A.
How could there be two door A's? Rosie wondered. At her school, there was only one door for each letter. It made sense. This place, however, didn't.
The five of them ran out the door anyway, though. As soon as they stepped outside, the bullets continued to rain down on the ground, still hitting none of them. Daryl started running for the fence, but they all stopped in their tracks when people appeared from behind the bushes, guns raised and pointed right at them.
So there they were, surrounded as they stood out in the open. There was a person with a gun on each roof, behind each door, and at each exit. There was no escaping. Looking to her left, Rosie saw the letter A on one of the containers. Maybe A wasn't the label to a door.
"Drop your weapons! Now!" Rosie heard Gareth shout. She looked at Rick, then at Michonne, then at Carl, then at Daryl. None of them were dropping their weapons. "Now!" Gareth commanded.
Daryl threw his knife down and it clinked against the pavement. Rosie's stomach began to hurt even worse and her heart was beating hard against her ribcage. If Daryl was giving up, there really was no way out of this. Rick, Carl, and Michonne all let their weapons drop to the ground reluctantly.
"Ringleader, go to your left. The train car, go," Gareth shouted. He was standing up on a roof, like he was a king, above all. Rick didn't move. "You do what we say, the kids go with you. Anything else, they die and you end up in there anyway."
Rosie looked Carl, who was looking at Rick, who was looking back at Carl. Rick then looked at Rosie, and Rosie looked back at him. He nodded his head slightly and began walking towards the train car.
"Now the archer," Gareth said. Rosie looked over at Daryl. He was staring up at Gareth with a look of disgust and disdain on his face. But no matter how much he hated him, Daryl still had to do what Gareth said, because if he didn't, Rosie and Carl would be dead. That couldn't happen. So he walked towards the train car. "Now the samurai," Gareth said. Rosie looked at Michonne next, but Michonne was already walking toward the train car.
This left just Rosie and Carl, standing out in the open on their own. Rosie looked over at Carl. His lips were slightly parted and his eyes were wider than usual as he stared over at his dad. Scared, Rosie recognized his expression to be showing. She was scared, too.
"Stand at the door, ringleader, archer samurai, in that order," Gareth ordered. So Rick, Daryl, and Michonne all stood in a line by the door to the train car.
Rick stared over at Rosie and Carl, his heart beating hard in his chest. "Our kids," he shouted to Gareth, not taking his eyes off of the two children.
Everything was silent for a good five seconds, and those five seconds took so long that Rosie was sure she was going to be shot and killed right then and there. But she wasn't. And neither was Carl.
"Go, kids," Gareth finally said. So Rosie and Carl went. "Ringleader, open the door and go in."
"I'll go in with them," Rick replied, keeping his eyes on Carl and Rosie and they made their way to the train car. Rosie wanted to run towards it, but her legs were stopping her, so she just walked instead.
"Don't make us kill them now," Gareth threatened.
Having no other options, Rick opened the door and stepped into the dark train car, followed by Daryl, then Michonne. Carl reached the stairs to the train car first, Rosie being just two steps behind him, but he didn't go up until Rosie went first. When the two of them stepped into the train car, Rick was right there on the other side. He put his hand on Carl's shoulder and Rosie went to the corner of the train car to stand next to Daryl.
The door was pulled closed behind them, a lock sliding shut on the other side. They were stuck.
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Heyyyy I'm officially done with school for this year!!!! 🕺