Her words hung in the air, whirling through the thick tension. The two girls introduced themselves as Maggie and Sasha. While Sasha remained with her gun pointed at the two, Maggie came over, patting them down, and taking their stuff.

Maggie searched Aaron first and then she came over to Lorelei. She patted her down, taking her pack, removed her gun, Lorelei had to keep her breathing focused, and maintain herself when Maggie removed the hunting knives that were strapped around her thigh.

She felt exposed and naked. She was defenseless, she hated being this, it made her feel weak. However, she told herself this was the job, if things go as planned they'd be alright.

After disarming the two Maggie and Sasha led them over to the door of a rickety old barn. The place wasn't much, it smelled of the rain and the dead, It was unpleasant as dried blood was visible in red patches, soaked into the wet, splintering wood.

"Hey. Everyone... This is Aaron and Lorelei. We met them outside. They're by themselves. We took their weapons and we took their gear." As Maggie spoke guns cocked, and the people shuffled around in the barn, pointing their weapons in the direction of a possible threat. Lorelei was not happy. She felt cornered, deep breaths.

The hunter looked to them, quickly moving to peer outside to make sure there weren't any looming threats. Once he did so, he turned to Aaron and Lorelei, he went to Aaron first patting him down.

Lorelei internally scoffed. The female tended to be the overlooked individual when accompanied by a man. Men were known as the faster and stronger threats. However, out of the two, Lorelei was the bigger threat. In a way, it was good to be overlooked, it gave her an advantage, if things went South she would have the element of surprise. The chance of using her fighting skills, as a while back she had been taught by a friend. 

She also did well with knives, specifically throwing knives, it had been a pre-apocalyptic hobby. The good thing about paranoid people in the Apocolypse, they tended to guard themselves with their guns, usually leaving their knives free and open, just begging to be snatched from their belts. After the man was done searching Aaron he did the same to Lorelei, although he did hesitate in certain regions, at least he was a gentleman.

The barn door closed, and Aaron spoke up, "Hi" immediately after, the small child let out a shriveled cry. That couldn't be a good sign. The young boy took the baby from his father's arms, allowing the man to focus his full attention on the strangers. "It's nice to meet you." Aaron continued, making the mistake of taking a step forward which made the others around them switch into attack mode.

Lorelei grimiced "Aaron stop!" She hissed in warning.

"You said they had weapons?" Rick asked as Maggie handed him their guns. "There's something you need?" He questioned, thoroughly confused by their presence.

"They have a camp, nearby. They want us to audition for membership." Sasha stated while Aaron tried to quickly correct her in nerves and embarrassment.

"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..." He joked, getting no response in recognition.

"Aaron," Lorelei spoke calmly

"Yeah?"

"Please stop talking."

"Okay."

"It's not a camp. It's a community." she added, turning back to focus on Rick and his group, "Our job is to convince you all to follow us back." She could feel the Skepticism coming from around the crowded room. "Look, I know. If I were you, I wouldn't trust me either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. So for that reason, Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack? Front pocket, there's an envelope." Sasha did as asked before Aaron spoke again.

"There's no way we could convince you to come with us just by talking about our community. That's why we brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last..."

"Nobody gives a shit." Daryl cut him off sharply.

"You're absolutely 100% right." Aaron said in agreement, before directing his speech at Rick, "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. 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."

"We need people. People are what make those walls matter, they make us strong." Lorelei added.

"The next picture, you'll see inside the gates. Our community was first construc..." Aaron was sent straight to the floor when Rick stomped over and gave him a punch straight across the jaw.

"What the hell," Lorelei muttered looking at the group around her, dropping to Aarons side to make sure he was alright.

A few moments later, the dark-skinned woman started to speak to Rick, "So we're clear, that look wasn't a 'let's attack that man' look. It was a 'he seems like an okay guy to me' look."

"Yeah, " Lorelei continued, "I kinda thought we were getting somewhere here before your friend went all Indiana Jones and punched him out." she spat.

They ignored her comment, "We got to secure him," he pointed in Lorelei's direction, "her too."

Daryl came up to her, binding her wrists together "Oh no punch for me?" she questioned in fake surprise, "Thanks for your generosity," she said sending the man a glare.

Rick fixated his eyes on the woman for a moment as he tried to figure her out, sarcasm and jokes weren't usually what people did after being restrained. Michonne's voice soon broke him out of his trance, "Rick." she warned in caution.

"Dump there packs, let's see who these people really are," Rick instructed.

"The only thing your gonna find out is what snacks I like," she grunted in annoyance, she understood their doubtfulness in her and Aaron. That part was understandable, in the world that now existed people didn't trust easily, and they had reasons why.

That fact didn't stop her from making sarcastic or witty remarks. That how Lorelei managed, all her life she used it as a defensive wall, whenever she was sad or nervous, or scared, the words just fell out of her mouth, trying to ease the tension in her body.

Rick ignored her once again, barking out more orders, "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 them. If they had wanted to hurt us, they could've." Maggie quickly defended the two strangers.

Lorelei concentrated her focus on him, looking straight into his eyes, "We just wanna help." she spoke sincerely.

"People don't just help anymore."

"Yeah, your right," she agreed sadly, "I can't make you trust us, but for your sake, I hope that you will."

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VOTE & COMMENT PLEASE <3

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