Elide had woken up that morning without many expectations of the day, apart from the party in the evening. But when Glenn came into her current room and told her that she was coming on tour with him, she was incredibly happy to finally be able to go out again.

No sooner had Glenn, Noah, Tara and Elide arrived at the arranged meeting point where the two young men were standing there, the small group already knowing Nicholas.

"Glenn, Noah, Tara and Elide?" the man enumerated questioningly and then pointed to each of them. It surprised Elide that he already knew them all and could even match the names correctly.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Aiden," he introduced himself and smiled confidently at each of them. "You met Nicholas pulling gate duty." Aiden pointed briefly at Nicholas who gave a simple 'Hey' which Glenn returned.

"You're deanna's son?" Glenn asked, making sure he was getting the right information.

"That's right. I heard you got experience making supply runs," Aiden said, eyeing Elide critically, which made her roll her eyes inside. Seemed like the young man had a problem with Elide, which she couldn't relate to at all. She may have been young, but she wasn't stupid.

"I saw your pantry. You guys seem to do pretty well," Glenn returned impressively, which made Aiden smile.
For a short while Noah and Aiden talked about his dad and Aiden's previous job when he stepped forward, snapping Elide out of her thoughts.

"Come on I will show you the ropes," he said as he walked.

The girl looked at Tara who also just shrugged slightly and now turned to Aiden.
"We're doing a run today?"

Aiden turned fully towards the group and put his hands on his hips, pushing his light brown shirt a little to his side.

"Just a dry run. Weigh each other's sack a litte, you know."

Tara's eyebrows shot up in confusion and scepticism at the same time. "No, I don't but cool." She grinned innocently, which made Elide smirk. Tara was just cool and for sure, she had been before all the shit here.
Elide could see herself getting along well with her, though the two didn't talk much yet.

Elide looked down at her white sweatshirt when Glenn asked Aiden another question. "What about guns?"

After all, it was obvious that neither of them could go behind those walls without weapons.

"We pulled out some sweet-ass biscuits for today," Aiden grinned proudly and nodded to Nicholas, who handed all four of them a gun. Tara and Elide were given normal black weapons, which, at least to Elide, reminded her very much of her own. Why couldn't they just choose their own weapons?

"Now that that's settled, we can go," Aiden clarified, gesturing to the group of his right hand to follow him as he was already running.
Nicholas close on his heels.

Glenn looked at Elide again. "If you don't want to go after all, you can say so now," he whispered to her.

Elide snorted and grinned at Glenn. "And miss all the fun? Surely not, Glenn."

Grinning, Glenn shook his head and put his hand against Elide's back as the two of them started walking. The feeling of Glenn's hand on her back triggered a feeling she hadn't felt since her brother; safety and security.

__

For a while, the group ran after Aiden. Finally, as they walked through the forest for another few minutes while Aiden explained everything they needed to know, they apparently eventually got closer to where Aiden wanted to go.
He also told them that their last group hadn't made it, so Tara apologised for their loss.

"When we're out here, you do what I tell you," he clarified, looking each of them in the eye, which didn't suit Elide, Glenn or the others. They already understood that Aiden seemed to be in charge, but for him to act out like that was beyond annoying.

They walked a little further when Aiden continued to speak. "Managed to snag one of the deadheads that took them down. Strung it up there."

Elide couldn't believe her ears and drew her eyebrows together in disbelief and confusion.

"What? Why?" she asked now, unable to hide her slightly hysterical voice.

"Now we have a little pregame ritual, get our heads on straight," Nicholas explained, pretending it was something perfectly normal and understandable.
"Remind us what we're up against," Aiden added, but faltered as the two men were in rage.

"Son of a bitch! Help me find it," Aiden ordered harshly, while Nicholas suddenly started whistling loudly, causing the four of them to turn to him in panic and anger at the same time. "Hey, shshh! He's gone!" Glenn whispered to Aiden, his eyes widening with adrenaline.

"It took down one of our friends!" Nicholas retorted just as loudly and angrily as the walker the two had been looking for suddenly appeared behind Aiden.

Elide flinched and ran back a few steps as she pulled out her knife while her heart suddenly started beating up to her throat.

"No! Stay back!" Aiden harshly roared, trying to hold the bloody, rotten and disgusting walker back by the arms while Nicholas tried to put him back on the chains.

Elide looked helplessly and desperately at Glenn, who also stood there idly watching the situation with sweat on his brow. But deep down they were all bloody furious. How could anyone be so stupid and irresponsible?

"Fuck!" Aiden screamed as the situation got out of control and the walker ran towards Elide. Groaning and gasping, the undead tried to reach for Elide. Her breathing quickened as she stretched out her arms and tried to push this disgusting creature off her with all her might.

Glenn and Tara were about to run to her and help her when Nicholas shoved them both to the ground, yelling that Aiden had everything under control. But Elide didn't see it that way at all, as her strength gave up and the walker moved closer and closer to her face with its chattering teeth.

Hissing, Elide tried to push the walker further away when suddenly a shot rang out and it fell to the ground, dead.
Shocked and relieved at the same time, Elide fell to the ground from the sudden push and luckily came up with her hands at the same time. Noah had shot the walker and thus saved her damn life.

Elide took a shaky breath in and out and got up again, very angry, before Glenn and Tara could help her.

"What the hell?!" Aiden screamed  loudly and reared up in front of Glenn, his breathing loud and clear.
Noah stood next to Elide and made sure she was okay, but except for her blood soaked shirt and bloated hands, she was fine.

"Yeah, what the hell!" Glenn and Tara yelled back as well. This situation had escalated so quickly, with each of the four knowing it from the start.

"You almost got her killed!" Glenn shouted, pointing in rage at Elide, whose arms were still shaking with excitement and anger. She had calmed down, but the shock was still deep in her bones. Never had she been so close to being dead and that they even didn't want to help her, at least Aiden and Nicholas.

"I told you all to stay back!" Aiden replied, seriously trying to talk his way out of this situation and blame the others.
"I told you to listen to all the damn things I say!" he added, roaring, and moved a little closer to Glenn, who didn't move a bit and made himself even taller as well.

Shaking his head, Glenn was the first to back away and turned to Elide with concern. "You okay? Are you hurt?"
He took her hands in his, trying to make out any wounds on her body. "No, no. I'm fine," she breathed assuringly, glaring angrily at Nicholas and Aiden.

"Let's go," Tara whispered.

_

When the four arrived back at the community, they walked ahead in quick strides, all of them clearly hearing the footsteps of the two men.
Elide was still angry, she had been pressing her fingernails into the inside of her hand the whole way here to keep her anger in check. God, what was wrong with these people?

"You four need new gigs," Aiden said loud enough for even some people to overhear this situation. "You're not ready for runs yet."

Elide laughed sarcastically. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure you got that backwards."

"Hey, hey!" Aiden tapped Glenn aggressively on the shoulder, causing him to turn around and get very close to Aiden. Aiden knew he couldn't mess with a teenager, which was why he just went for Glenn.

"Look, we got a way of doing things around here," Aiden said with a threatening undertone, but before he could continue Glenn interrupted him. "You tied up walkers!"

"It killed our friend!" he shot back immediately, snorting a sarcastic laugh as he took a step back.

Elide crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at Aiden sceptically. How could he still think he was in the right when Elide was the one who almost died a few minutes ago.

"Look I'm not having this conversation. You obey my orders out there."

Elide rolled her eyes as she saw Deanna approaching from a distance with a clueless look on her face.

"Then we're just as screwed as your last run crew," Glenn stated surprisingly calmly, looking Aiden straight in the eye as if it was an obvious fact that was definitely true. Elide was the perfect example.

"What did u say? Say that again," Aiden demanded menacingly, shoving Glenn back a few times. Tara and Noah warned Aiden and tried to keep him away from Glenn as casually as they could.

"No one's impressed, man. Now walk away," Glenn calmly replied to Aiden's taunts. Elide saw that Deanna was now there and Daryl had also joined the group with his crossbow in his hand.

"Aiden! What is going on?" his mother wanted to know and looked at everyone scrutinisingly, her gaze lingering in shock over Elide's now no longer white top.

"This guy's got a problem with the way we do things," Aiden replied, his eyes still on Glenn. But then he turned to his mother and bowed his head. "Why did you let these people in?"

And then Glenn responded with something where Elide already knew this situation was going to escalate even more than it already was.
"Because we actually know what we're doing out there."

Aiden turned abruptly and tried to punch Glenn in the face, but he ducked and punched him in the face instead. "No, Aiden! That's enough!"

Elide looked to the side and realised that Nicholas was about to jump on Glenn, but that was when Daryl beat him to it, as he threw his crossbow to the ground with a loud noise and then jostled Nicholas to the ground, knocking the air out of him.

Elide didn't even know where to look, let alone where Rick suddenly came from. He lunged at Daryl from behind and whispered things in his ear that only he could understand.
If Rick had to be here, Carl was here too, Elide thought to herself, turning to the gate in surprise. Carl stood there and at that moment also looked at Elide in complete confusion. As his gaze wandered over her body, a rage formed deep inside him that he hadn't felt for a long time.

Elide didn't want to listen to any more of this or have anything else to do with it, so she decided to walk to the house. On the way there, she looked down at her hands, which were full of blood and coughed-up skin. She still couldn't realise this absurd situation. They hadn't even been here two days and already she was almost losing her life because of two incompetent idiots, even though she was fighting so hard for it?

"Elide!"

She turned and slowed her steps when she saw Carl jogging towards her. When he got to her there was a worried expression on his face as he looked her over again thoroughly. "What happened?"

Elide sighed and put her hand to her forehead in exhaustion as she then pushed her hair back. The sweat on her forehead was dried by the wind and the sun's rays, so Elide now felt quite uncomfortable and dirtier.

"Those two idiots nearly killed me, that's what happened," she hissed, giving Nicholas and Aiden a scathing look from a distance.

"What did they do?", he wanted to know, his voice sounding very sceptical and deeper than before. His hands clasped in front of his chest and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Hung a walker who killed a friend of theirs. Well, he was free and attacked me and those assholes stopped Glenn or Tara from killing it," she laughed incredulously. "Noah killed it though."

Wide-eyed, Carl wanted to retort something, but he just didn't know what. It was incomprehensible to him why someone would do such a thing and above all, why they would sacrifice the life of a young person for this shit.

He wanted to turn around and run to Aiden and Nicholas, who were about to hand over their weapons to Olivia. Elide noticed his intention and held him by the arm as he took a few steps forward. "Carl, stop. What do you think you're doing?"

He looked down at Elide and shook off her arm. "Giving those assholes a piece of my mind," he growled.

Elide laughed out loud and shook her head. "Why? I'm still alive, as you can see."

"You would have been bitten though if it wasn't for Noah!", he shot back immediately, his hair blowing in his face from the wind.
"I know, Carl, thank you. But I'm good at minding my own business," she said in a firm voice.

"Why do you even care?"

Carl ignored that sentence from her and watched as Daryl ran angrily to the house while all the people made their way back to their homes and affairs.

Elise watched Carl closely and sighed. She didn't feel like arguing with him anymore, let alone fighting, now that they were getting along.

"Sooo, are we going together tonight?" Elise asked finally, inwardly giving herself a facepalm.

Carl's eyebrows shot up in surprise as his anger fizzled out and he grinned slightly.
"Like a date?"

Panicked, Elide wrenched her eyes open. "No! God, no. Not like a date. I just meant the two of us going together, like we discussed," she talked herself out of it, stuttering and playing with the blood on her palms.

"Okay. I think Dad wants us to go together with Carol," he explained to her, biting his lip to keep himself from grinning.

Rolling her eyes, Elide lifted her head and rested it on the back of her neck to get a better look at Carl.
"Okay, cool."

Carl nodded as well and eyed Elide, which she of course noticed immediately, after all he was standing right in front of her.

"But seriously, Elide. You're okay, right?"

No, no she was not fine. Absolutely not. But still she nodded. "Gotta be."