Aaron looked terrified. "I lied. Okay? I didn't want you guys to hurt him. I saw that flare go up and I got scared for his life. I'm sorry I didn't bother to tell you about Eric." He explains.

Eric turns towards him and then kisses him, which took us all to suprise. The last time I saw a gay couple was my parents. Yeah, never mind. It was nice to see that they even found love in a hopeless place.

Rick declared that we stay the night here and then make it to the community by tomorrow morning. Nobody objected as we found various places to fall asleep at. I ended up in the small main room thing where most the group was sleeping. Some of the others *cough* Abrham and Rosita *cough* had gone into a small storage space to sleep, heavens only knows why.

Carl laid next to me and wrapped his arm around my torso, instantly falling asleep. Unfortunately I couldn't do the same. I laid there, staring at the wall next to me, thinking about this Alexandria.

Did I really want to give up the life I've become accustomed to only to have to act civilized agian?

Was it ready to start a normal life again? To go over to someone's house and "hang out"?

These questions swirled around in my head for hours till sleep took over and turned these thoughts into a dream.

I'm walking somewhere on a sidewalk with a backpack on my back with my friends walking next to me. They too have book bags and look clean and showered. I look at my hands, expecting them to be clean, but they're covered in mud and walker blood. My dreaming self doesn't seem to notice the difference as I keep walking.

"We had homework?!" Austin exclaimed and the rest of them laughed.

I look to my right to see a house. "We should clear that house." I point to it, but my friends don't seem to hear me. I follow them till we get to a bulding. I follow my friends in and it looks like an old high school. We walk into a room with a chalkboard on one wall and desks in facing it. My friends sit down and I stand there in disbelief.

"We have to find the others guys." I say. Carl walks in and kisses me on the cheek and sits at a desk. He has on an ACDC short sleeves with jeans and some converse, his normally messy hair is combed and clean and his hat is missing.

"Trust me, those things hurt when you have to walk for miles in them." I inform him. He just laughs.

"Walk miles? I live literally five houses down. Sit down, school's going to begin." He gestures towards the seat in front of him. I unwillingly sit down.

"Here's all the supplies I have." I say and pull out some cans, a knife, a flashlight, and my axe.

"Lauren, you'll get suspended for that stuff." Carl looks at me in shock.

"What?" I ask confused.

"You can't bring knives to school." He says and shoves the knife back into my bag.

I reach down and grab it back out of my bag. "What are you-" I look back up to see my friends sitting at their desks as walkers and look behind me to see Carl's walkerish hands grab my hair and sink his teeth into my neck.

I jolt up in a sweat. All I can see is the haunting images of my friends as walkers imprinted on the back of my eyelids every time I close my eyes. Carl's back is to me so I didn't disturb his sleep.

"You okay?" Daryl whispers from his sitting position against the wall.

I just nod and lay back down, knowing that going back to sleep isn't an option. I pick my head up and look at the shadowy outline of Daryl. "Daryl?"

"Hm?" I'm tempted to tell him about my dream but second guess it.

"Good night."

"Night."

I dose in and out of sleep until people start to get up. I'm grateful that it's finally sunrise and I don't have to fight sleep anymore.

I escape outside and sit against the building, mulling my dream over and over in my head.

What could it mean?

I'm interrupted by Daryl standing against the wall next to me smoking a cigarette. "Don't you know those things'll kill ya?" I joke.

He glances down at me before taking another puff. "It's better than walkers."

"Any things better than walkers." I agree.

We both sit in silence, both not really being the talkative ones. I'm only really talkative when I'm around my friends, other than that I'm pretty silent.

Zainab comes outside to look for me. "I guess we're leaving." She informs me and Daryl. Daryl stomps out his cigarette and then heads towards the cars. "I can't wait till we get there." Zainab squeals with excitement.

"Well then let's go!" I say and race her to the cars.

I don't have to sit on the floorboards now since we have the RV Eric brought. It's been so long since I've been in an RV.

Rick, Michonne, Carl and Judith are in a car that Rick found with the keys. They acted so much like a family that it hurt. Daryl, Carol, Maggie, Glenn, Sasha, Aaron, and Eric all ride in the other car while the rest of us shove into the RV.

I explore the RV as Abrham drives. Austin and Dylan fight over a can of ravioli even though there's like ten other cans in the cabinet with Morgan between them trying to get them to stop, and Zainab draws on some paper that she found while Oscar annoys her by trying to get her to mess up.Kennedy and I end up tossing a ball to eachother that he found in one of the drawers after we scavenged through them. Eugene watches the lot of us with an annoyed look on his face. Gabriel sits there praying.

"I forgot what teenagers were like." Eugene comments to us with the same look on his face. I roll my eyes at him and somehow this starts up a conversation between him and Morgan about science.

The RV sputters to a stop and we all get out to see the problem. Glenn comes over from the car infront of us to see what the problem is and lifts up the hood.

"Look at that." Abraham says smiling and puts his hand out in front of him, gesturing to the Washington Monument peeking out behind some low trees in the distance. "That might be the closest we get to it." He glances at Eugene who puts his head down in shame.

Glenn comes back over from the hood. "It looks like you're going to need a new battery." He informs Abraham.

"Well where in damnnation are we going to find one?" He exasperates.

"Come here." Glenn walks over to the open RV door and opens a little compartment built into the cabinets of the RV. "Here's a spare."

Abrham scratches his head. "Where'd you learn that from kid?" He asks. Glenn just smiles and I can only guess that someone important to him taught him, like his dad or a friend or someone. He grabs the battery out and within half an hour we're back on the road following the other two cars.

Abrham swerves something and we all fall to the right side. I look out the window and see that we are in a crumbling town. Walkers roam around aimlessly and some of the buildings look burnt or the structure is falling down.

Soon we pull up to a gate and everyone stops and holds their breath to see if anyone's going to shoot us. A minute passes and Rick gets out the car, smiling a little.

Taking this as a good sign, we pile out. As soon as I step foot out of the RV something catches my ears. Laughing. Children actually laughing. I walk over to Carl.

"It's been so long since I've heard children laughing." I smile at him.

"Me too. Hopefully we can stay here." He says with a hint of excitment. My thoughts from yesterday come back and I frown a little. "What's wrong?" Carl asks me.

"Nothing." I lie.

The rattling of the chain link gate being pulled back is enough for us to grab our weapons. I scan what I can see of the town, there's actual homes, not houses, but homes where people live in and kids run down a street playing tag.

A metal bang ends with Daryl shooting his crossbow at something behind a garbage can behind him and he grabs up a possum. "I brought dinner." He jokes.

"Come in, come in." Aaron smiles at us and waves us into the gates. "We'll have someone bring in the cars in a moment." We advance towards the gate with hands still to our guns and weapons ready to strike. "Don't be afraid." Aaron assured us. "You can put your weapons away."Rick shook his head. "Oh right." Aaron remembers our trust issues. "Welcome to Alexandria."

He spreads out his hands and gestures to the houses behind him with children running around and people walking about. Someone was actually walking a dog! Nobody seemed to carry guns on them.

A middle aged lady with short dark blonde hair comes walking up to us. She looks formal with black dress pants and a white blouse with jewelry to go with it and some black flats. "I'm Denine Monroe, leader of this establishment. Who would be the leader of this group?"

We all look at Rick and he takes a step forward with his hand still at his holster. "That would be me."

"Wounderful." She smiles at him. "I know you must be terrified by all this, seeing you've been put there for so long. But you can lower your weapons." Rick looks at us and then drops his hand away from his gun. Soon Michonne drops her sword back into its holder on her back and Daryl lowers his crossbow. We all do the same. "Good, now if you'll come with me for the interview."

"Interview?" Michonne echos.

"It's just to see what jobs you will be given and see what type of people you are." Denine explains.

She leads us to an elegant white house that must belong to her. "If the rest of you would like to wait outside, I'll take each one of you in to be interviewed." She instructs and then leads Rick inside.

Ten minutes later Carl goes in, then Daryl. "How'd it go?" I ask Carl.

"Pretty good. I'm not getting a job, she only told me that all the kids have to go to school, and I guess that includes us." As soon as he said school I wanted to cry. My dream comes back in my head and I scold myself for being stupid.

There isn't any tall, school like buildings. I tell myself.

I'm called in after Zainab an hour later who went after Oscar. The only people left are Dylan and Austin.

I enter the house and Denine leads me towards the living room. I sit down in a chair opposite from the couch which has a camcorder behind it. Denine sits on the couch to the right of the camcorder with a pad of paper on her crossed legs.

"State your name please."

"Lauren." I answer and look around at the room from where I'm sitting.

"And where are you from?" She asks.

I look at her with furrowed eyebrows. "Does it matter?"

"Yes." She smiles at me.

"Um, Illinois."

"How'd you get here?" She asks curiously. I told her, we'll more the camera, the chain of events of how we got here. Starting from the gas station to meeting up with my friends who i thought were dead to the church and finally here.

"Good, your story follows along with the others." What, did she think we're lying?

"What are your dog tags from?" She asks me.

"My mom." I look down at them.

"What happened to her?" Alright lady, this was getting personal.

"She died in a camp attack along with the rest of my family."

"So sorry." She apologizes. "Since you don't have any family left, one of your group members will have to take you in to live with them. There is school every other day and it is highly advised for you to go."

With that I was free to go and Dylan was called in. Carl waits for me by the sidewalk. "How'd it go?" He asks.

"Ok. I'm confused on why half those questions had to be asked."

"Same." He agrees. "So they split us into houses and you're with Daryl, Carol, and Oscar. I'm with Dad, Michonne and Judy. Zainab and Dylan are put with Maggie and Glenn. Austin and Kennedy are with Father Gabriel, and Morgan is with Abrham and Rosita." He explains.

I take all this in. "Poor Austin and Kennedy. They have to be with 'the only weapon I need is God'."

He laughs. "I know, and Morgan is with a man who doesn't make a lick of sense."

We walk down a street where all our houses are next to eachother. Carol waits on the front porch for me. "Alright, see you in a little." I say and kiss Carl on the cheek.

"Bye." He replies and goes to the house across the street where he's staying.

I walk cautiously up to the house, old habits die hard.

It feels weird to be living normally again, we'll almost normally.