"Why would you do that? We shouldn't even be messing with these people." I whispered to Sena as we trailed behind the men, our guns ready in case of one of them had any ideas.
"We need food." She says, "besides, you ran with the ball too." She says figuratively
"I only did that because Judith is going to need something to eat-"
"Well, you're as guilty as I am." She says. I stayed silent for a moment, my mind racing, I was angry at myself that I had let this go on far enough to where we were going somewhere we didn't even know existed.
"I shouldn't have done this... Rick is going to go look for us and we're going to be here with strangers-"
"We're here. Don't be alarmed when if you see people inside. We gotta whole group." Pete says. Despite what we've been doing to them, he still was polite, even if it was out of fear.
"We only have just enough to provide for our people." The other one tried to reason that we shouldn't take more than we needed. Sena and I didn't say anything, so he started to go inside, he expected us to go inside with him.
"We can't go in there... One of you bring the food out here for us." Sena says. Pete and the man look at each other, puzzled but Pete decided to go inside and retrieve our share. The other guy stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, he looked pissed off. I couldn't blame him, I would be too, but all of this was for Judith.
I couldn't help but keep my eyes on the guy. He was attractive, like I said, he was around my age, maybe a little older. He resembled Rick somehow, thick, light brown hair but brown eyes. He was about as tall as Rick, he was fit like he was too. I then snapped from my gaze when I heard a screen door shut. I looked up and saw Pete coming over with a box full of many jars inside, Sena looked satisfied. Pete let her take the box, she looked through it. I saw different jams and canned vegetables inside.
"I hope we didn't suck you dry." I say in an impersonal way. I wasn't good with sounding sincere when I really wasn't. I thought they'd do just fine without a box full of food, besides, they don't have an infant hanging around them.
"Whatever." The cute guy says. I give him a glare, I was turning around to leave when I heard yelling come from the woods where we had just met the two men. I then saw Rick exposing himself when he pushed through some branches to a pine tree. He looked forward and saw the four of us standing there. He looked stressed, I knew he went out to look for us, and I knew he was going to be pissed when he finds out that we were talking to strangers just after Terminus.
Rick yelled back to whoever was with him, he then came out fully, he aimed at the two men with his gun, Glenn was right next to him, doing the same.
"Max, Sena, get over here." Rick growled, he still had his aim on them.
"Rick-"
"There is no argument to be made... Come here." Rick interrupts. I started to get angry, I could handle myself
"Do you know those people?" I heard Pete ask behind Sena and I. I was surprised to hear this out of him, we had just met and he was still kind enough to ask if we were okay. I started to feel bad about taking their food, I looked at the box that was still in Sena's arms.
"Max, I'm tired and it's dark, let's go." Rick says.
"These people are good, they gave us food." I told Rick, I then heard muffled talking from behind me. I turned around and saw people emerging from inside the house, they were transfixed on us, probably wondering who the hell we were.
"Hey- who are these people-" I start to hear someone shout from inside.
"Nick, calm down- Luke, tell him to keep his mouth shut." Pete ordered the cute guy. His name was luke.
"Nick, I swear to god if you get us killed because of your dumb ass..." Luke starts to say. The people in the doorway were just watching but then a tall and lengthy white guy with a hat came out with a shot gun. I covered Rick by stepping in front of him and aiming at Nick, Rick stood next to me with his gun up to Nick as well. Sena and Glenn kept their aim on Luke and Pete.
"I want you to go back to camp." Rick stated in a low voice to me.
"Shut up." I told him. I kept my stance. Nick saw that he was two against one. I knew he wasn't that bright when he actually started to load the shotgun anyway. He was threatened by us, his hands shook and his lips quivered, he didn't know who the hell he was dealing with.
"Nick, I suggest that you put that shotgun right down." I told him in a calm and steady voice. I sounded like a cop trying to get an innocent person from the shooter's hostage, like in the movies. Nick looked up at me,
"Dad, who are these people and why are they takin' our food?" He looked at the box of goods on the ground. I assumed Pete was his dad,
"Son, I want you to put the gun down on the ground and put your hands up-"
"They're going to kill us-"
"Dammit, Nick, put it down!" Pete yelled, I was surprised to hear him shout, he seemed level headed at least the time that I've known him. Nick was standing there almost debating whether he should do anything with the gun or to just set it down. I watched him, I stared him in the eye, trying to make him feel like we had trust between all of us. Something that would assure him that we wouldn't hurt him. He kept his eyes locked with mine, he slowly put the gun down. Once it was down, he watched us, wondering what was next.
"How many people you got in the house, Pete?" I asked. I looked at them, all of them were in the doorway and the others who were scared of being shot peeked through the windows.
"We've got four in there... One is pregnant and there's a child. We have a doctor too." Pete tried to persuade us to save them. My intention wasn't to kill them,
"How many weapons do you have in the house?" I asked
He then started to think about it, a few seconds later he answered that there were three guns including the shotgun.
"Tell one of your people to bring them out, and if they try anything I'll shoot all of you so damn quick you won't know what killed you." I ordered. Pete nodded, he then turned his head slowly to the side to holler to the people inside.
"Carlos, go get all of our guns, and place them out here for the people to see... We have nothing to hide." He turned his head back to look at us. We waited patiently for Carlos to come out with the guns. He placed two handguns out on the grass, he stepped away from them.
"Okay... Lemme give you a deal here... Our group is going to stay here tonight, and we're going to keep your weapons for the night just in case any of you guys get smart." I told them. Luke scoffed, Sena shuffled when she heard him, the sound caught her slightly off guard. I could tell Luke didn't like the idea,
"You have anything you wanna say?" Rick challenged him, I liked when he backed me up on things like this.
"That's some deal... What's in it for us?" Luke asked,
"We spare all your lives." Sena says. Luke looks at her then back at Rick and I.
"How many in your group?" He asked, knowing there wasn't a way out of this. I looked back at Rick, consulting him for a specific number,
"About fifteen, including a baby." Glenn says.
Luke sighs, we dismissed him and the rest.
"You go get the group with Sena, I'll stay here to make sure nothing goes downhill." Rick told glenn. Glenn nodded, Sena joined him, they left to retrieve the others. Rick and I stood there with our guns slung across our front, we watched the three men standing there in the dark. They stood still except Luke who was shuffling on his feet anxiously.
"Let's go." Rick says, he touches the small of my back to guide me with him, he picked up the three guns on the ground, the three men led us inside.