𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊
she was just another broken doll, dreaming of a boy with glue

OCTAVIA sat on a crate, sharpening her machete when the barn doors opened, and in came Maggie and Sasha.

"Everyone," Maggie called out, stepping to the side and waving for someone to follow her inside. "This is Aaron. We met him outside."

"He's by himself," Sasha claimed quickly, seeing everyone grab their weapons and look at him with worry. "We took his weapons and we took his gear."

"Hi." He smiled, waving his hand slightly to them all. He should of felt the fear of these people against him, but Aaron was prepared for it.

With Judith in his arms, Rick looked him over with narrowed eyes and noticed Octavia grab the man's gun and backpack from Maggie.

"It's nice to meet you," Aaron added, looking around to see everyone on edge with his sudden presence.

That was when Octavia handed Rick the pistol and dropped his bag down on the ground between them before Rick looked it over and then back to Aaron. "There's something you need?"

"He has a camp, nearby," Maggie said softly to Rick. "He wants us to audition for membership."

"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." Aaron chuckled, then noticed that no one laughed so he quickly cleared his throat. "Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community and I think you all would make valuable additions. But it's not my call."

Of course, everyone was suspicious of this man because they hadn't had the best of luck when it came to the living. But Michonne and Octavia stood there watching each other and then Aaron as he spoke, both finding themselves surprisingly convinced.

"My job is to convince you all to follow me back home. I know, if I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into." He nodded and then stepped slightly toward Octavia and then stepped back when Daryl held his bow closer to his head. "Uh, Octavia, can you hand Rick my pack?" He asked, being extremely careful with the weapons turned on him.

Octavia froze upon the guy knowing her name, but then squatted down, and grabbed the bag again, and handed it over to Rick carefully.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope," Aaron told him. "There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those."

When Rick pulled the yellow envelope out of the pocket, he dropped the bag back down to the ground, and pulled it opened.

"I apologize in advance for the picture quality." Aaron shrugged once he watched their leader pull the black and white photos out of the envelope. "We just found an old camera store last—"

"Nobody gives a shit," Daryl shut him up and Aaron nodded his head.

"You're absolutely 100% right," Aaron said and then moved his eyes off the bow and back to Rick who was shifting through the photos with Michonne and Octavia looking over his shoulder. "That's the first picture I wanted to show you because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe. If you join us, you will be," he told them, watching their eyes scan the photo.

"Each panel in that wall is a 15-foot-high, 12-foot-wide slab of solid steel framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through that without our say-so."

Octavia took the photo from Rick and held it in her filthy fingers and showed Glenn who furrowed his brows. If was just a more intense version of Noah's home.

"Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival. The people," Aaron continued and Rick lifted his eyes and turned to look over everyone around him. "Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger. The next picture, you'll see inside the gates."

Aaron kept talking and Rick dropped his eyes to Octavia and she shrugged back. He nodded and walked up to the man with his fist clenched.

"Our community was first construc—"

When his body dropped to the ground, Octavia rose an eyebrow.

"We got to secure him." Rick waved someone forward as he fired off more orders. "Dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is."

"Rick." Glenn sighed, watching Abraham walk up to the man as Octavia tossed Carl the bag.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction," Rick said pointing to the windows of the barn. "They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are."

"Sasha and I, we didn't see him," Maggie told them, stepping closer to Rick as the others looked through the windows. "If he had wanted to hurt us, he could've."

"Anybody see anything?" Rick asked, ignoring her.

"Just a lot of places to hide," Daryl called back, his eyes scanning the mess of trees and walkers from the storm the night before.

"All right, keep looking." Rick walked back over to Carl. "What did you find?"

"Never seen a gun like that before," Carl said holding up a orange flare gun in his hands.

"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron chuckled, gathering himself from where he laid on the dirt covered ground.

"Sit him up," Rick ordered, waving his hand.

Octavia sighed before helping him up and over to a banister. She pulled his arms behind the wooden pole and tied them together quickly as he spoke to Rick, "You're being cautious." He clenched his fists as Octavia pulled the ropes tighter. "I completely understand."

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick then asked him. But for the first time, Aaron was quiet. "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

"Does it matter?" He sighed, lifting his head to meet his stern gaze.

"Yes." Octavia nodded. "Yes, it does." 

"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?" Aaron clarified quickly. "Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say eight, zero, forty six. No matter what I say, you're not going to trust me." 

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." Rick shrugged, squatting down and becoming eye level with the man. 

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?" Aaron countered back, causing everyone to turn back and look down at him. 

"How long you people been following us?" Daryl asked, stepping from the window with a furrowed brow. 

"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. Long enough to see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other. You're survivors and you're people," Aaron said sternly before he turned back to Rick. "Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world." 

"How many others are out there?" 

"One;" he said and watched Rick shake his head and stand up.

Octavia glanced back at the werewolves who nodded, telling her that he was saying the truth. He did only have one person with him.

Aaron sighed. "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 for real?" He asked and then shifted on the floor. "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 the twenty-so of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in." Rick scoffed, slipping his fingers in the belt loops of his jeans. 

"We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home," Aaron assured them. "There's enough room for all of us." 

"And you're parked just a couple miles away, right?" He asked, scratching his beard. 

"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16." Aaron nodded, taking a breath. "We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it." 

"Yeah, you've really thought this through." Octavia crosses her arms, getting a little suspicious.

"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 shrugged. "You can trust me." 

"I'll check out the cars," Glenn said nodding to Maggie who was next to him. 

But Rick stopped them. "There aren't any cars." 

"There's only one way to find out." Michonne sighed, grabbing her sword back up in her hands. 

"We don't need to find out," Rick tried to convince them all, but no one wanted to follow his lead on this one. 

"We do," Octavia told him sternly at him. "We can't pass up someplace that might be safe for all of us, for Judith." She sighed. "We stay out here or go with him, but either way, we have no clue what is in store for us. We need to take this risk, Rick."

Octavia knew that even though he was extreme most of the time, Rick was right. They had to be careful; these days the living were more terrifying than the dead.

Abraham, Derek, Michonne, Cora, Maggie, Glenn, Rosita, and Daryl then left to go find the other person that was with Aaron.

"THIS — this is ours now," Rick told Aaron as he looked over the table of canned foods that the group brought back from the RV.

Nodding his head, Aaron said, "There's more than enough."

"It's ours whether or not we go to your camp," Rick clarified, causing Octavia to look to him abruptly.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't we go?" She asked him and then when Rick went silent again, she approached him and sighed. "If he were lying or if he wanted to hurt us—but he isn't, and he doesn't. We need this," Octavia stressed and then turned to look over the rest of the group. "So we're going, all of us. Somebody say something if they feel differently."

Rick removed his eyes off of Octavia and turned to those around him.

Shrugging, Daryl spoke up first. "I don't know, man." He sighed and scratched his head. "This barn smells like horse shit."

"Yeah." Rick chuckled slightly when he saw everyone else nodding their heads with Octavia's call. "We're going."

"So where are we going?" Glenn asked, turning his head down to Aaron. "Where's your camp?"

"Well, every time I've done this, I've been behind the wheel driving recruits back," Aaron explained and took a breath. "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."

"You're not driving," Rick clarified sternly. "So if you want to get home, you'll have to tell us how."

Seeing there was no point to argue, Aaron sighed. "Go north on Route 16."

"And then?" He asked.

"I'll tell you when we get there," Aaron said sternly, not giving in with Rick just then.

WHEN they stopped in front of a large gate, everyone got out of their respected vehicles, and down to the street that led them to the community.

Octavia turned her head and saw Rick standing there by the truck still, so she walked up to him. "The fight's over, Rick." She sighed and grabbed his attention. And maybe she was saying this because she needed to hear it herself, too.

He nodded and they turned to where their people were waiting on them. "You ready?" 

"Yeah." He sighed and leaned in the backseat, and grabbed Judith in his arms. When he turned back to Octavia, she smiled. "This is a new chapter for us, Rick."

They walked up to the gate, and stopped and listened.

Children laughing.

That's what they heard firs — genuine and fun laughter coming from behind those walls. 

Raising his brows, Rick looked down at Judith and smiled. "Should we go?" He whispered, stepping forward towards the community.