We'd cleared out the barn and stayed there to avoid the rain after we filled up as many water bottles as we could. We'd lit a fire and secured the doors. Abraham was in one corner, slowly finishing off a bottle of liquor he'd found, Sasha was in another corner wallowing in self pity (not that I could blame her after all she'd been through), Maggie was laying on the floor with her back to everyone. 

Around the fire was my dad, mum, Michonne, Mama Rick and Glenn. Everyone else was just kinda... Spread out. Me, Sophia and Carl were leaning against the wall closest to the fire. Carl had his hat over his face as he was trying to get some shut eye. Sophia's leg was shaking and she kept fidgeting with her fingers. "Hey, twitchy, what's up?" I asked her, keeping my voice quiet in the barn.

"Nothing. I'm okay." Sophia smiled unconvincingly.

Carl was now interested and concerned, putting his hat on his head properly as he scooted forward to look past me and at Sophia. "You can tell us if somethings wrong."

Sophia nodded and took a deep breath. "It's just... Barns and Peletiers don't mix, ya know."

I gave her a pitiful look in the silence, before Carl spoke. "Why?"

I slunk my head down before knocking the hat down his head so it covered his face. "I'm sorry, Soph. I'd offer for us to sleep outside but being struck by lightening isn't on my to-do list."

Sophia smiled. "It's alright. I just miss my brother is all."

Carl re-adjusted his hat. "Oh right, sorry... I didn't forget Jacob, I just kinda blocked the whole barn thing outta my mind."

Sophia nodded. "What came out of the barn wasn't Jacob. It was an empty shell of what used to be my brother. Jacob died in the woods, like me and El nearly did."

"Shouldn't you three be trying to get some sleep." Michonne called over.

"We are sleeping." Carl defended.

"With our eyes open." Sophia added.

"We tend to talk in our sleep." I nodded.

"You're all horrible liars." Glenn told us.

"You ever hear you shouldn't wake a sleepwalker, Glenn?" Carl asked.

"We could've woken up with a headache." Sophia shrugged.

"Or death. And not woken up." I raised my eyebrows.

"I don't think that's possible." Rick stated.

"I do. Now, we gotta return to sleep after being rudely awoken." I huffed before laying down. Sophia and Carl copied my movements. My head was on my bag as I stared up at the ceiling.

I'd seen my dad walk away. He did that a lot though so I didn't really react. Then I saw Maggie follow after him with a concerned look on her face. Once Maggie was followed by Sasha, I got up. I saw the three of them trying desperately to hold the double doors closed. Through the loud sound of wind and rain, I could hear the loud growling of walkers. I ran over and stood by my dad, pushing my entire bodyweight into the door I was against. Rick, Glenn, mum, Carl, Sophia, Michonne, Rosita, Abraham, Noah, Tara and even Eugene and Gabriel. Everyone was working together to keep those doors closed.

The next morning, I woke up sideways to how I'd gone to sleep. My head was on Sophia's stomach and we legs were across Carl's chest. He was awake and just slowly rubbing his hand up and down my calf. "Did I wake you?" Carl questioned.

I sat up. "If I could fall asleep while you were wheezing away, I can sleep through anything."

"Wheezing? I don't snore." Carl declined.

"Yea, you totally do." I grinned taking my legs back.

"Sophia, wake up." Carl nudged her.

She groaned tiredly and looked at us. "Morning."

"Do I snore?" Carl asked her.

Sophia pursed her lips together. "No..." She trailed off.

"She's lying to make you feel better." I shook my head.

"Either way, Sophia's my favourite sister now. She's nice to me." Carl teased getting up.

"Rude. Not my fault the truth hurts, buddy." I stood up as well. "Hey, Michonne, does Carl snore?"

"Absolutely." Michonne agreed without looking up.

"Ha, told you!" I said triumphantly. 

"But you sleep fight. I almost carried Carl and Sophia away I felt so bad that you were beating them up." Michonne glanced at me. I scoffed and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Suck it." Carl smiled before starting to walk away.

"You suck it." I tried to form a come back.

"What?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"It's early leave me alone." I grumbled walking over to Rosita and laying next to her, putting my head on her lap as she sharpened her knife.

"Morning, sunshine." Rosita grinned.

"Do I fight in my sleep?" I asked.

"Yes." Rosita deadpanned.

"Oh... Well, if anything you should be happy that I'm defending myself. So, boom. You're welcome." I smiled. Rosita laughed and shook her head.

"I think the reason your father is a strong as he is today is simply from defending himself when he sleeps next to you, little one." Abraham chimed in.

I pursed my lips together. "Yea... Well, you're ginger so..."

Abraham laughed. "Creative comeback."

"It's still to early. Who in this barn will be nice to me?" I wondered sitting up. "Rick dicky doo da Grimes, are you in a caring mood?"

"Is it about your sleep fighting?" He looked up to me. 

"Does everyone here think I fight in my sleep?" I wondered.

"I don't even know you and I agree with them from what I saw last night." Noah agreed.

"And I was over here thinking we could be friends." I crossed my arms over my chest with a fake upset look on my face. Noah just smiled at me before going back to what he was doing.

I looked around, everyone looked tired. I'm not talking need to go to sleep tired, I mean tired of fighting. Everyone just looked defeated... Even Sophia. Glenn came over and sat next to me. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Everyone looks so tired... Even though most of us had a half full night of sleep."

"Things will get better eventually." Glenn smiled down at me.

I sighed. "Where's Maggie and Sasha?"

"They went to watch the sunrise." Glenn responded.

"Are they okay?" I wondered.

"They will be. They've both lost a lot, just need a little time is all." Glenn answered.

Before I could say anything else, the barn doors started to open. "Hey, everyone... This is Aaron." Maggie stated before stepping aside and revealing a clean shaven man with a tartan button up on. Sasha was behind him with a gun pointed at his back. Everyone snapped into action, grabbing their weapons and pointing them at him. Dad peered outside, trying to see anyone else. "We met him outside. He's by himself." Maggie told us all before dad started patting him down. "We took his weapons and we took his gear."

Aaron looked around at us all. "Hi." There was an awkward silence as Aaron focused his eyes on Rick. "It's nice to meet you." He tried to step forward but when the guns moved in, he stayed still.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick questioned. Maggie handed the gun to Rick. "There something you need?"

"He has a camp nearby." Sasha answered for the man. "He wants us to audition for membership."

"Audition?" I scoffed.

"I wish there was another word." Aaron looked to me. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe... That's only on Friday nights." I laughed a little, but I was the only one so he gave me a small smile. "Uh... And it's not a camp. 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." We all looked at him suspiciously, so he continued. "I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" Sasha hesitated before handing Rick a backpack. "Front pocket, there's an envelope. There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community... That's why I brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last-"

"Nobody gives a shit." My dad interrupted causing me to laugh, I had to cover my mouth when Sophia shot me a disagreeing look.

Aaron looked back to my dad. "You're absolutely one hundred percent right."

"Nervous lad." I whispered to Sophia.

"And your laughing isn't helping." She reminded me.

"It was a little funny." I muttered causing Sophia to laugh quietly under her breath.

Rick had pulled out the photos from the brown envelope. "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 fifteen foot high, twelve foot wide, slab of solid steel framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through 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... The people. Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger... The next picture, you'll see inside the gates." Aaron rambled, Rick started walking towards him. "Our community was first constructed-" Aaron was cut off when Rick punched him across the face, knocking him out.

I ran a hand through my hair. "I thought he'd never shut up."