THE BARN DOORS swung open. A stranger came walking in with his hands held up in the air to deflect everything and to make himself appear more harmless than what he could have been with Maggie and Sasha walking behind him with their guns pointed at him. Maggie walked in front of the stranger, glancing at everyone who was mostly working on cleaning their weapons up. "Hey, everyone, this is Aaron." she introduced. Ella dropped the cloth and stood up, pointing her gun at him and followed her instincts. He was a stranger. Someone they didn't know. Someone they never met before in the past life or the life now. And the group definitely the same as she did.
Maggie continued on, stepping forward with the stranger. "We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear." she explained. Daryl patted the man down to the bone.
The man smiled. "Hi." Rick handed a crying Judith off to Carl. "It's nice to meet you." the man stepped forward. Daryl put his crossbow on him.
"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked. Maggie nodded and handed him the strangers weapon. Rick placed it in his waistband. "There something you need?"
"He has a camp nearby." Sasha informed. She glanced between Aaron and Rick. "He wants us to audition for membership."
Ella stared at the man, looking him up and down.
Aaron sighed. He slowly looked at Rick. "I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe," he laughed. "That's only on Friday nights," he laughed again. No one moved or said anything. Ella lifted an eyebrow. "Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home," he looked at Rick who seemed to be in disbelief that he even suggested that. "I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into," he turned around. "Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" he asked. Sasha handed him his pack. "Front pocket. There's an envelope. There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those."
Rick pulled out photos from the envelope of their community.
"I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last-" Aaron stammered a little.
Daryl gruffly said, "Nobody gives a shit."
Aaron nodded. "You're absolutely one-hundred percent right," he looked at Rick who threw the envelope to the ground and was looking at the photos. "That's the first picture I wanted to show you because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you'll be safe. If you join us, you will be. Each panel in that wall is a fifteen-foot-high, twelve-foot-wide slab of solid steel framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through without our say-so. Like I said, security is obviously important," he looked at each and every person standing in the barn. "In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our communities survival. The people. Together we are strong. You can make us even stronger. The next picture, you'll see inside the gates. Our community was our first constructed-" he was cut off.
Rick sent a punch across Aaron's face before the poor man even knew it was coming. He fell to the ground. Daryl bent over him and shook him. He was definitely out cold. Ella snorted and turned away for a moment, shaking her head. She caught a glimpse of Brandon's face. It seemed like he was really wanting to go to that community. She didn't blame him. It was better than sitting in this pile of horse shit. Just to take a look at it would be nice. But she wasn't sure about it. No one really was. It was risky.
Glenn took the pictures Rick once held, flipping through them in curiosity and in intrigue. Ella stood right behind him to look at the photos as well. Ella didn't even listen to what Michonne and Rick were saying. The photos were living proof that the community could be a wise choice instead of staying here and thinking of their next move to get to Washington DC. She wanted to go there and live there for the rest of her days. It looked very peaceful where he came from. No fighing, no looting as much, no bad people, no walkers, just somewhere that was safe and sound, somewhere where they would be sitting in the hands of someone else.
Ella bent over, her jacket falling to the sides, she picked up a photo off the ground when Glenn was done looking at the particular photo. She smiled when she saw the many houses sitting there, untouched and not ruined. "These are legit?" Ella questioned Aaron. She forgot he was knocked out by Rick. She folded the picture in half to take with her wherever they went next from here. "Wow, nice." she nodded. She stuffed the picture in her jacket pocket. Ella noticed everyone taking positions in different places of the barn.
"Anybody see anything?" Rick questioned everyone looking through cracks or through windows.
Glenn replied with, "Just a lot of places to hide."
Aaron started stirring awake pretty fast. Maggie had approached him to watch him, towering way above him as he was laid up in the hay. His eyes were still closed when there was a smile on his face. "That's one hell of a right cross, Rick." he commented, or it might've been a compliment.
"Sit him up." Rick demanded of Maggie.
Maggie protested, "I think it's better if-" she stopped speaking.
Rick spoke over her. "He's fine." he stated as Aaron groaned a little bit from moving a tiny bit, rubbing his face. "Sit him up." Rick stared at the man and stayed wary of his movements and what he said. "How many of your people are there?" he asked, Aaron didn't oblige to say anything. Rick glanced at the orange gun he had. "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?" he asked again.
"Does it matter?"
"Yes, yes, it does."
Aaron sighed. "I mean, of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there?" he asked the man who was once a sheriff in another life. "Because I'm sure no matter what number I say. . . eight, thirty-two, four-hundred, fourty-four, zero. . . you're never going to trust me or my word." he shrugged.
Glenn walked over to Ella and held her hand. He gave it a squeeze. After looking at those photos together, he knew she wanted to go there. It could be safe there, sure. But they thought the same thing with the prison and look where that got them. It was hard to know how long the community Aaron came from would be there when they got there. It was hard to know how safe and happy they would be before someone evil found it and wanted to take it over after they killed everyone in the place.
"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." Rick responded. You've smiled before, Ella thought.
Aaron sighed. "How about a guy who leaves a couple bottles of water for you in the road?" he asked Rick.
The tension in the barn suddenly grew, especially when Daryl stomped towards him in anger and caution. Ella could sense the tension from a mile away if she wasn't here in the barn with everyone. "How long have you people been following us?" he demanded an answer.
"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. Long enough to see that despite the lack of food and water, you never turned on each other," he answered dryly. "You're survivors and you're people," he glanced at Rick, who was seemingly more wary of him more than ever now. "Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world." he nodded.
"How many others are out there?" Rick demanded of him again.
Aaron sighed. "One," he replied. Rick turned away, scoffing. "I knew you wouldn't believe me. If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is real?" he asked Rick. Everyone turned to Rick to see what his answer, his decision would be. He was the one to call the shots now. Not a council. Nobody but him. "What if I took you to the community?" Aaron suggested. "All of you. We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."
"I'm not sure how all twenty of us will fit in the car that you and one other person drove down here in." Rick retorted, placing his hands on his hips.
"We drove separately," Aaron informed. "If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us." he assured.
Carol spoke up, she wasn't believing him either. The only two people who probably believed him was Ella and Brandon. "You're parked just a couple miles away, right?" she asked.
He nodded. "East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route Sixteen. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it." he said.
"Yeah, you really thought this through." Rick sighed.
"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here. You know, light the barn on fire while you slept. Pick you off as you ran out the only exit." Aaron painted the uncomfortable picture for them. Ella shifted around, letting go of Glenn's hand to bring her hands up to her arms to rub them nervously. Glenn placed his hand on the small of her back. "You can trust me." Aaron spoke to them, assuring them.
Ella glanced at Rick. This was the best shot they had to be safe and live for another day. It was probably almost like the place they wanted to live in; Richmond. But there was too much ruin, too many walkers that could get in. It was dead end there and they never would've prospered, knowing that a herd of walkers would take it all away from them in a single flash of their eyes. This would be good for them. "I'll go, Rick."
Rick opened his mouth. Michonne spoke before he could. "I'll go with her, check out the cars." she nodded.
"There aren't any cars." he shook his head.
She argued back. "There's only one way to fnd out."
He shook his head again, snapping at her. "We don't need to find out."
"We do," she yelled. She then took a deep breath to calm down. "You know what you know and you're sure of it, but I'm not. Ella's not."
"Me neither." Maggie spoke.
Ella was relieved to see two people were on this with her. If only her, Aaron's buddy, and Aaron went, they might've died on the way there and not a soul in the group would've known what the community was like. Not even Ella would've known to tell them what it was like in spirit.
"Your way is dangerous," Rick looked up from the ground. "Mine isn't."
"Passing up someplace we can live? Where Judith can live?" Michonne scoffed, narrowing her eyes at him. "That's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do." she replied.
Ella looked at Rick again. "If this is dangerous, then we've done pretty dangerous stuff before," she sighed. "Five of us went up against an entire herd and survived, that was dangerous. Starting a war with the Governor, that was dangerous. Clearing the prison out, that was dangerous. Going against that huge ass herd at the farm, that was dangerous. Going to Washington, that was way dangerous. Killing my father. . . that was dangerous. What makes going to this community and finding out what it's like any different than what we've done before?" she asked him.
He sighed in defeat, his body stiffening. "It doesn't."
"I know it doesn't. That's why I'm going."
Glenn tapped his fingers on his gun. "Then I will, too," Rick looked at him. "I'll go."
"I'll go as well." Gerard pulled his lips into a tight line, biting his cheek on the inside.
Rick shook his head. He looked behind himself. "Abraham."
The ginger nodded his head after staring for moment. "Yeah. I'll walk with them." he got ahold of his gun and walked to everyone else.
Rick turned to Glenn. "If there's trouble, you got enough firepower?" he questioned him.
"We got what we got." Glenn told him.
Rick handed Glenn a gun from his waistband. "The walkies are out of juice," he turned to everyone else who was going. "If you're not back in sixty minutes, we'll come looking. Which might be just what they want." everyone started to leave.
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THEY FOUND THE car and an RV. They walked a long way to try and find it. Glenn told them to shoot anyone they came across and luckily, they didn't see anyone. Ella didn't really want to shoot anyone who might've been with Aaron. That would be bad for them if it was decided they'd go to that community, and the rest of his people questioned where everyone else he left with were. Bad impressions were the worst when first meeting new people.
Michonne almost laughed. There was lots of trees in front of them that would've been blocking Aaron and his friends way of getting closer to the barn. "He was telling the truth." Michonne said.
"Yeah." Glenn whispered.
Gerard and Abraham stepped over the trees that was cutting them off from the two vehicles. In that same moment, some bushes rustled. They all aimed their guns at the bush. "Step out, asshole!" Glenn yelled. The bushes rustled some more before something stepped out.
Two walkers.
The two undead beings were growling at them. Abraham and Gerard stepped towards the two and brought them down in a second. Abraham got blood all over his arm from accidentally ripping off the walkers arm. Gerard was basically completely untouched by the walkers blood. "Thanks." Abraham spoke.
"Yeah." Gerard sheathed his knife, putting it away.
The pair, along with Maggie, walked towards the RV while the other three walked to the car. Ella opened the back of the car abe looked inside while Michonne looked in the drivers and passenger seats up front and Glenn looked in the trunk to find some supplies, anything that would tell them something about the community being real in some way or another.
She picked up a magazine and flipped through it. It was mostly models advertising products they never actually used before. Or ads about the news, jewelry, clothes. She hated magazines for that reason but her mother somehow loved them for that reason. Ella frowned. She wish her mother was here with them and her father, too.
Michonne held up some sneakers to Ella from the drivers seat, they once were sitting on the passenger side. "Are these your size? Carl's?" she asked Ella.
"Um, what size are they?" she questioned.
"Size eight in men."
"Those are probably not my size, maybe Carl's size. But just leave them here. I don't really see the point of taking them." she sighed.
Michonne tied the laces to her belt loop. "I do. Rick will see how untouched they are. They could be from this community Aaron's talked highly about."
"I guess," Ella shrugged. "Do you think the community is safe and friendly?"
Michonne sat in the seat, staring at the trees. "I do. Those pictures tell us everything we need to know. I think it'll be a good place for us to live. Why, do you not?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. I wanna go live there but I'm also kind of scared of it."
"Aren't we all."
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THEY WENT BACK to the barn with a lot of Aaron's supplies to show Rick that maybe Aaron was telling the truth from the start. Rick held the can in his hand, flipping it over side to side in his hand as he stared at everything else on the ground in front of him. Shoes, cans, water, a couple shirts. It told him everything he needed to know. He stood up and turned to Aaron. "This, this is ours now." Rick spoke.
"There's more than enough." Aaron quietly whispered to Rick, seemingly tired since he'd been sitting here doing nothing most the day.
"It's ours whether or not we go to your camp." Rick stated.
Aaron began stammering. "W-Well, what-what do yo-you mean-" he shook his head. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't we go?" Aaron questioned.
Michonne folded her arms across her chest and looked Rick in the eyes. "If he were lying or if he wanted to hurt us. . . but he isnt and he doesn't," her eyes began to flicker over everyone. "We need this. So we're going, all of us," she paused to wait for someone else to speak. "Somebody say something if they feel differently."
Daryl rubbed his knuckles. "I don't know, man. This barn smells like horse shit."
"No, we smell like horse shit." Ella corrected him.
Rick chuckled at Ella's comment, rubbing his sweaty forehead. "Yeah. We're going then," Rick turned to Aaron again. "So where are we going? Where's your camp?" he asked the man.
"Everytime I've done this, I've been behind the wheel driving recruits back. I believe you're good people. I've bet my life on it. I'm just not ready to bet my friends' lives just yet." Aaron explained.
Michonne carefully stepped away from the group. "You're not driving. So if you want to get home, you'll have to tell us how." she snapped.
Aaron sighed and looked at Rick who'd placed a map on the ground. "Go north on Route Sixteen."
"And then?"
"I'll tell you when we get there."
Rick placed a finger on the map. "We'll take twenty-three north. You'll give us directions from there."
"That's — I don't know how else to say it — that's a bad idea. We've cleared sixteen. It'll be faster." Aaron spoke, he sounded afraid.
"We'll take twenty-three," Rick raised his eyebrows. "We leave at sundown."
"We're doing this at night?" Sasha asked.
He began to fold up the map. "I know it's dangerous. But it's better than riding up the gates during day. If it isn't safe, we need to get gone before they know we're there."
"No one is going to hurt you!" Aaron raised his voice. "You're trying to protect your group, but you're putting them in danger."
Rick shoved the map in his back pocket. "Tell me where the camp is, we'll leave right now." Aaron went silent when the question popped up again. He shook his head and looked at the trees outside. "It's going to be a long night. Eat. Get some rest if you can." Rick and Michonne walked outside and closed the barn doors.
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NIGHT FINALLY CAME and they reached twenty-three by car in no time. Ella had filled herself up and slept most the night with Glenn to be able to stay awake most the night in case she'd be driving which she was driving the RV. Rick told her it was better for her to drive than anyone else since she got more sleep than anyone else in the barn, apart from Glenn who was also driving the car in front of her. Gerard sat in the seat next to her, looking inside of the glove box for anything cool to look at instead of falling asleep while they drove to the community through the night.
"Bored?" Ella asked him, her hands tight on the steering wheel. She hadn't drove in a long time not since before the apocalypse. When it happened, her father was always driving, Morales was driving if she went on a supply run, Dale was driving, Daryl was driving, Glenn was driving, or Rick was driving. She couldn't remember the last time she actually drove. It was nice to be able to drive again.
Gerard sighed deeply. "Yeah. It's boring just sitting here and waiting for something to happen or waiting to see the community. It's a pretty long drive in my opinion," he glanced back at everyone else. Mostly everyone was asleep back there, if they weren't asleep, they were pretty much out of earshot or not listening since they were talking amongst each other. "I think I know what we could talk about to pass the time." he nodded.
Ella chuckled. "Yeah? What is it?"
He glanced at everyone again. "When we get to Aaron's community, are you going to tell them?" he asked, referring to the mostly healed wound on her arm.
Ella tensed up. "I don't know yet."
"Why?"
"It just doesn't seem right yet, and I'm not sure if it'll be the right time when we get there."
"Well, you can't wait forever."
"I know."
"Good."
She nodded.
"It needs to be soon and before someone in that community finds out before your own friends do."
She nodded again.
He sighed and looked out the window. He couldn't help but ask another question. "If you have any children, do you think they'll be immune like you are?"
Ella furrowed her eyebrows. She glanced over to him for a moment longer than she should've. She looked at the road to see walkers in the road. "Shit!" she yelled and hit the brakes immediately as Glenn was plowing through the walkers.
"Turn around, now!" Gerard yelled. Ella was staring at the walkers coming toward them. "Ella! Now!" she still didn't move. "Ella!" he screamed. She gasped and nodded. She put the RV in reverse and hit the gas, turning it around. Her eyes were filling with tears. "Head to Route Sixteen! Rick gave us the map in case we got separated. They have Aaron. They'll be okay. We'll find them. They'll be okay. Okay?" he told her as she drove down the road.
"Okay." she whispered.
Rosita made her way to the front of the RV. "What the hell is happening? Why are we-"
"Walkers cut us off! Glenn's hit the walkers before he could hit the brakes. We're going on a different route! Open the curtains to help keep a lookout for anything, okay?!"
Rosita nodded. She turned to everyone else. "Open the curtains!" she ordered. When the curtains opened, Harley saw something.
"Guys!" she yelled.
"What?" Gerard asked her.
"A flare! By the water tower!"
Ella looked at Gerard. "Could it be them?"
He nodded. "Possibly. Head over there. Now."
She hit the gas and made a sharp turn. She prayed to God they were alright, that none of them were hurt or bit.
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WHEN THEY GOT to that water tower, they found Aaron's friend. He was terribly hurt. He broke his ankle or something. They managed to kill the walkers near him and get him inside a building that had already been cleared. Ella wondered if their community had better medicine and other medical stuff to help him get better and fast before it got infected. So, now, even if it wasn't safe, they needed to get there before his ankle turned out for the worse.
She was helping Maggie make his ankle comfortable when Daryl knocked on the window to let them know that Rick, Glenn, Michonne and Aaron were outside and they were okay. Maggie told her it was okay, so she left Eric and ran outside to Glenn. She was relieved when she saw him. She hugged him immediately, holding him tight. When they pulled away, they kissed each other out of relief that they were both okay.
"Eric? Eric?" Aaron walked around the group. "Eric!"
"In here!" Eric called out from inside the building.
"Eric!" Aaron ran inside.
Ella and Glenn kissed each other again out of happiness. She pulled him into a hug. "I was worried you got injured," she spoke. She pulled away suddenly. "Wait, you're okay, right?" she asked him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." he smiled.
"Thank God." she whispered.
When Aaron and Rick got back outside, they turned their attention away from each other and to Aaron when he was speaking up. "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 to our community. When we get to Alexandria," he took a deep breath. "Now, I'm not sure about you, but I'd rather not do anymore driving tonight. Um, maybe we can hit the road tomorrow morning." he suggested.
Ella smiled.
"That sounds fine," Rick agreed. "But if we're staying the night here, you're sleeping over there."
Maggie sighed. "You really think we gotta do that?"
"It's the safe play," he shrugged. "We don't know you."
"The only way you're gonna stop me from being with him right now is by shooting me." Aaron clenched his jaw. He went to shove past Rick, but Glenn stopped him.
"Whoa," he whispered. "Rick, he told us where the camp is. And he really was only traveling with one other person," he sighed when Rick didn't answer. "They're both unarmed. One of them's got a broken ankle. I want us to be safe, too. I can't give up everything else. I know what I said, but it does matter."
Rick took a step back. "Alright."
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AFTER A VERY long night after Rick accidentally jinxed them, and after the RV broke down, they were finally closer than ever to getting to the community. She couldn't wait to have a house again and to have food and water and to finally be safe and happy again with all her friends, with Glenn. It would be pretty magical in her opinion when she saw the community with her own eyes. She could almost feel it in her bones that this was going to be good. So, because she wanted to sleep most the way there to make it go by faster, she fell asleep on Glenn's lap.
When they finally got there, Glenn woke Ella up. She stepped out of the RV and smiled when she saw Alexandria's gates. They were safe.