75. to build a home

MILO

     WHEN HE WOKE THE RAIN HAD CEASED and the silence it left behind was almost eerie. He blinked against the sunlight that came falling through a crack in the wood and directly on his face. He sat up, stretching his aching arms. Sleeping on the floor wasn't something he had trouble with, the only downside was his body feeling incredibly sore every morning. He looked around the shed, noticing most of the group were already up and getting ready. The very little food they had was being divided by Rosita and Tara. It didn't go unnoticed by him that they gave Carl and Judith a little bit more.

He stood up and accepted his food with a small smile. Upon looking around however, he failed to see Quinn and his smile faltered. He'd seen her last sitting down next to Daryl to keep an eye on the door and so he made his way over towards the front of the shed. On his way he passed Judith, sitting next to her father on the ground, a bright smile on her face. Unlike the rest of them she wasn't worried about anything. Her presence always managed to put a smile on his face and he reached down to pat her head, earning a small laugh from the baby girl. He grinned at her before walking on towards where Daryl was seated against the wall, his hands working on fixing his crossbow. Quinn was still seated next to the redneck, her eyes closed as she slept peacefully. At some point during the night her head must've fallen to the side, because it was resting on Daryl's shoulder. It somewhat surprised Milo that the man had made no attempt to push her away. Instead he moved his left arm as little as possible while working on fixing his weapon.

As if he felt someone looking at him, and Milo was pretty sure that he could, Daryl looked up from the crossbow on his lap, staring in silence at Milo, silently daring him to say something. But he simply offered the redneck a knowing smile before turning on his heels and leaving the shed.

The sun was already out and shining, forcing him to close his eyes against the light. He could tell it was going to be another warm day. Though the warmth felt different than it had yesterday. The rainstorm had taken the edge off and given the earth a little bit of life again. Carefully he opened his eyes and blinked against the light. Once he could see again he froze in his movements, eyes wide and heart beating wild. He knew they were lucky they had survived the storm, he didn't know that they had been this lucky.

Numerous trees had fallen down. It was a miracle none of them had hit the shed. They had, however, hit the walkers that had been pressing against the doors. Body parts lay scattered on the ground. Bodies were impaled by trees and branches, their teeth snapping hungrily at the sight of food but they were unable to move. The storm that had endangered them so much had saved their life at the same time.

Footsteps pulled him out of his thoughts and he quickly turned, reaching for the gun behind his belt and pointing it at the person behind him. It couldn't have been a walker, for the steps were purposeful and steady. He frowned when seeing a man walking up to him, his hands raised in surrender. Behind him were Maggie and Sasha, holding the man at gunpoint as well. Frowning Milo took in the sight of the stranger and what surprised him most was the fact that he was clean. There wasn't a bit of dirt on his face of clothes.

'What the hell?' He questioned, turning his eyes to Maggie and Sasha.

'He says his name is Aaron,' Maggie said, like that explained everything, 'he wants to talk to Rick.'

Milo raised his eyebrows. 'He said that?' How the hell did he know their names?

Maggie nodded, her face serious while Sasha had her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the back of the stranger his head.

For a second they just stood there, all three of them holding their guns up and pointed at the man his head. Milo was thinking too much to move. Who was this Aaron? Why was he so clean? And how did he know their names?

'Look I know trust is a lot to ask for these days,' Aaron spoke, breaking the silence. 'But if I wanted to harm you I would've done it while you were sleeping.'

That did not make Milo feel even the slightest bit better but it seemed to convince Maggie of something because she stepped forwards and gave the man a nudge towards the doors. While Milo and Sasha kept their weapons pointed at Aaron from behind, Maggie stepped in front of him, opening the doors of the shed.

'Everyone,' she called out, stepping inside with the stranger right behind her. 'This is Aaron.'

Immediately the entire shed came alive. Everyone moved to stand on their feet, weapons were raised and pointed at the man. Milo saw Quinn out of the corner of his eye, she was awake now, holding daggers in both her hands while her eyes were narrowed at Aaron. He couldn't help but notice how she was keeping a small distance from Daryl. For a second he wished he could've seen her wake up and see the awkward silence that would've followed but his attention was taken back to the situation at hand when Daryl stormed towards the doors to throw a look outside for any other possible strangers. When he couldn't seem to find anything he closed the doors.

'We met him outside,' Maggie explained. 'He's by himself. We took his weapons and his gear.'

But her words didn't seem enough to convince Daryl as he frisked the man completely, all while keeping an angry scowl on his face that would've sent any sane person running for the hills but Aaron kept standing perfectly still, taking it all in.

'Hi,' he said when Daryl finally stepped away from him.

Like she was given a cue, Judith started crying and Milo believed that should be taken as a sign. If the little girl didn't like him, then he wouldn't either. Rick handed the girl over to her brother, keeping his eyes on the stranger while doing so.

'It's nice to meet you,' Aaron said, taking a small step forwards but freezing immediately when the group moved in on him. Someone even took off the safety of their gun. They weren't taking any chances, not after everything.

'You said he had a weapon?' Rick asked, his eyes going to Maggie.

She walked up to him, handing him a small black gun. Rick checked the amount of bullets before putting the weapon behind his belt, eyes still narrowed at Aaron. There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes and Milo realised it took a lot of guts to walk up to them like Aaron had. They didn't exactly look friendly.

'There something you need?' Rick questioned.

'He has a camp nearby,' Sasha explained, then sighed as if her next words were hard to say. 'He wants us to audition for membership.'

'I wish there was another word,' Aaron quickly added, realising it probably sounded crazy. Which it did. 'Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on friday nights.'

No one responded.

'And, eh, it's not a camp,' he continued, '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. I know, if I were you, I wouldn't go either.' He chuckled nervously. 'Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into.' He turned to the brown woman on his right. 'Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?'

The fact that he knew their names put Milo on edge. It meant he had been following them for a while, watching them and they hadn't even noticed. Even when they thought they were in control, the world still surprised them. And it annoyed him to no end, knowing that he could never truly protect his family.

Sasha stepped forwards, taking the backpack off her shoulders and handing it to their leader.

'Front pocket, there's an envelope,' Aaron instructed.

Rick narrowed at him once again, before setting the pack down and reaching for the envelope.

'There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community.' Damn right. 'That's why I brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old-'

'Nobody gives a shit,' Daryl interrupted him.

Aaron turned to him, nervously playing with his fingers. 'You're absolutely 100% right.' Then he turned back to Rick was was studying the pictures closely. 'That's the first picture I wanted to show you,' he said, 'because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe. If you join us, you will be. 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. Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival.'

He let a short silence fall for dramatic effect but Milo wasn't even slightly surprised by his next words.

'The people.'

Rick shared a small glare with Michonne, who was wearing the same angry scowl on her face as he did. Both were unreadable and Milo felt it was making Aaron nervous, still he kept on talking.

'Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger.' As he went on talking about the next picture, Rick walked forwards and Milo took a step back to avoid Aaron dropping on him. Because he could read in the man his eyes what he was planning to do and he did exactly that. He raised his fist and hit the stranger straight across the face, making him fall down on the ground, out cold.

Maggie knelt down next to him to make sure he was okay while Rick walked back towards Michonne, who frowned at him. 'So we're clear. That look wasn't a let's-attack-that-man look. It was an he-seems-like-an-okay-guy-to-me look.'

'We gotta secure him,' Rick simply replied. 'Dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is.'

'Rick!' Michonne scowlded but it was useless.

'Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are.'

'Me and Sasha, we didn't see him. If he wanted to hurt us, he could've,' Maggie defended the stranger while Carol and Daryl bound his hands.

'Anybody see anything?' Rick shouted out to the people who had moved to different corners of the shed, completely ignoring Maggie her words.

'Just a lot of places to hide,' Glenn responded.

'Keep looking,' Rick ordered before walking up to Carl who was still going through the pack.

Milo stared at the unconscious stranger on the ground, his brain hurting from the many thoughts that were filling his mind. All his instincts were screaming that it was a trap but his heart wanted to believe the man. He wanted to believe there were still places out there that were safe. After the disappointment of Washington, he needed to know there was hope. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, not with Terminus and Atlanta so fresh in his mind.

A groan left Aaron his lips and his eyes fluttered open. He looked a little dazed, his eyes slowly focusing on his surroundings. 'That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick,' he mumbled.

Rick tilted his head in that I'm-not-impressed-by-you way of his, standing with his hand on resting on his weapon in the middle of the shed. Milo knew he wanted to be careful and after everything they'd been through he had every right to be but hearing this guy out, just listening, couldn't do any harm.

'Sit him up,' Rick ordered.

'I think it's better if we-' Maggie started but Aaron interrupted her, telling her it was fine as he slowly tried to sit. Groaning in pain he managed, with Michonne and Maggie's help. 'You're being cautious, I completely understand.'

'How many of your people are out there?' Rick demanded, using his cop voice. He was officially done playing games. 'You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?'

Aaron took a deep breath. 'Does it matter?'

'Yes,' Rick said sharply. '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? Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say...8, 32, 444, 0. No matter what I say you're not going to trust me.'

'It's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face,' Rick replied.

'How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you on the road?' Aaron countered, finally seeming to grow tired of playing nice.

'How long you people been followin' us?' Daryl questioned.

'Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail.' He sounded scared of the thought alone. '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. Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world.'

Milo took a deep breath as silence settled over the group. Everyone seemed to be thinking about his words and no one wanted to decide what had to be done now. If he was telling the truth and they refused to believe him, they would die. Without question. They had no resources and couldn't stay on the road for much longer. But if he was lying and they choose to go with him, who knew what would happen. They'd seen it all, so if he turned out to be a cannibal, Milo wouldn't be surprised at all.

But, if he was telling the truth and they decided to go with him, they could have a home. They could start rebuilding their lives, finding hope again in a world that had shown them time and time again that hope was a very fragile thing.

If there was one thing Milo wanted, it was for his family to have hope again. To feel happy again. To be able to laugh without worries. And he was willing to ignore his instincts and trust his heart to find out if that was possible.

'How many others are out there?' Rick asked again, breaking the silence. His voice was demanding, promising consequences if his question remained unanswered. Clearly he wasn't willing to take a leap of faith. And Milo couldn't blame him for that but he was afraid that his choice could mean the death of them, no matter how much good Rick thought he was doing.

'One,' Aaron replied.

Rick gave a small shake of his head making Aaron sigh. '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? 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 18 of us are going to fit in the car you and your friend drove down here in,' Rick countered, sounded tired of the bullshit he believed he was being fed.

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

'And you're parked just a couple of miles away, right?' Carol questioned.

'East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16. 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,' Rick sighed.

'Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here,' Aaron said, sounding truly desperate now. 'You know, light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you ran out the only exit. You can trust me.'

His words echoed through the air like a promise Milo wanted to hold onto with all the energy he could muster in his tired body. But he was beginning to realise that Rick wasn't planning on listening to this stranger that promised salvation. And if anything made him afraid, it wasn't the possible trap waiting for them, it was turning away an offer that could save their lives, simply because they couldn't be human enough to trust someone.

If that was the case, Rick his words from last night were indeed true.

They were the walking dead.

'I'll check out the cars,' Michonne spoke up and Milo almost released a shaky breath of relief. He wasn't the only one who believed they couldn't let this opportunity pass.

'There aren't any cars,' Rick said, sounding almost angry for her suggesting otherwise.

'There's only one way to find out,' Michonne countered.

'We don't need to find out,' Rick told her.

'We do,' Milo spoke up, no longer able to keep quiet and when Rick's eyes turned to him he believed he could see betrayal in his gaze, but he refused to let that stop him. 'I know you believe what you're doing is right and with everything that has happened you have every reason to walk away from this. But if you're wrong, if this is real and we turn away, we die. And I can't let that happen.'

'Me neither,' Maggie joined in, offering Milo a small smile.

Rick took a moment to let their words sink in, shaking his head all the while. 'Your way is dangerous,' he finally said, 'mine isn't.'

'Passing up someplace where we can live, where Judith can live, that's pretty dangerous,' Michonne corrected him, her voice filled with determination. She was going to do this with or without Rick his permission. 'We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do.' Her eyes were stern, daring him to say otherwise.

'Then I will too,' Glenn spoke up, nodding at Milo and Michonne. 'I'll go.'

Rick shook his head once again but when he called out Abraham's name, it seemed like he had pushed aside his personal opinion, choosing to trust in the group instead.

'Yeah,' the soldier agreed. 'I'll walk with 'em.'

'Rosita.'

The woman nodded. 'Okay.'

'If there's trouble, you got enough firepower?' Rick questioned, raising his eyebrows at Milo.

'We got what we got,' Milo replied, shrugging. They could fight just as well without their guns. They were almost out of bullets so all they could do was hope this wasn't a trap.

Rick took a step forwards and handed him Aaron's gun. Milo took it wordlessly, nodding at the man. He was going to take care of the others, that wasn't even a question. Rick nodded back at him, reading the promise in his eyes and believing him.

'The walkies are outta juice,' Rick said. 'If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come.'

'Alright,' Milo agreed.

'Which might be just what they want,' Rick sighed.

'Hey, I know you're not okay with this, but it's the right call,' he promised. Then he turned and headed towards the door. At the last moment though, he was stopped by Quinn, who pulled him into a quick hug.

'Be careful,' she whispered in his ear, 'I don't like this one bit.'

Slowly he untangled himself from her embrace, smiling softly. 'It's going to be fine.'

She frowned, not seeming one bit convinced.

'I promise.' He squeezed her hand and then turned to leave with the others. He had no idea what was waiting for them but he did know what he wanted. He wanted this to be real, he needed this to be real. And if his heart told him that it was, he choose to believe it.