After zipping up the backpack full of cans and snacks, Daryl went back through the living room, down the hall, and to Rosie's bedroom again. She was standing on her mattress, pulling off the pictures that were taped up on the wall.

"Ro, you ready to go?" Daryl asked, stopping in the doorway. Rosie looked back at him and almost nodded, but then stopped.

"I got somethin' in the closet that I can't reach," Rosie said, getting off of the bed and going over to the closet. Daryl followed and she pointed up to the shelf, which was out of her reach. "There's a book up there. Used to read it lots when I was little. It can be Judith's now," Rosie said, stepping out of the way so Daryl could reach the book. He pulled it off the shelf and saw that it was a purple hardcover book titled The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon. Rosie took the book and stared at it for a moment before putting it in her backpack. "Fraser said my momma used to read him a story from this book every night."

"He ever read it to you?" Daryl asked, starting towards the doorway. Rosie followed.

"Maybe. I don't remember that much," Rosie said, chewing on her lip. The two of them walked down the hallway, glancing over each room they passed once more, just in case they missed anything useful, until they met Rick at the door. He had a big backpack on his back, stuffed with all sorts of things, and he was carrying one of the storage containers from the basement.

"Sure you got everything you want?" Rick asked, his eyebrows raised a little. Rosie looked at her shoes for a moment, thinking. Clothes, hat, Jessie, Lucy, Bear, book, pictures, hoodie.... She nodded and Daryl opened the front door, holding it there for Rick to walk through with his hands full. Rosie was about to follow right after him, but Daryl held his hand out, stopping her.

"Hold up a sec," Daryl said, so Rosie did. He chewed his thumb for a moment. "I was talkin' to Carol and she was tellin' me that I gotta let myself feel it. She was right. Same goes for you," he said. Rosie didn't say anything, but nodded slightly. "I was tellin' you it didn't matter, but it did. And I'm sorry."

"I'm not mad," Rosie told him.

"Still was a shitty thing to say. I've been bein' shitty for awhile."

"You were sad," Rosie reasoned, tugging on the straps of her backpack.

"Don't matter. You're my responsibility and that doesn't jus' change whenever somethin' bad happens. Can't jus' push you away like that, or else nothin's ever gonna get any better," Daryl told her. Rosie was his responsibility. She had never really thought about that before, but it made sense. He took care of her. "So next time I'm bein' shitty, call me out on it."

"What if ya get mad?" Rosie asked. She hated when people got mad at her. It made her stomach hurt, so she always tried to avoid it. But sometimes she seemed to piss people off without meaning to, anyway.

"I won't. Not for that. You're a kid and you need someone lookin' out for you. And I've been bad at that since we left the church. That hurts the both of us, so call me out on that shit. Ya hear?" Daryl asked, shutting the door and starting to walk down the front steps.

"Yes, sir," Rosie said, following after him.

"Quit callin' me sir."

"Yes, Daryl."

Rosie climbed into the back seat, next to Rick and Daryl's full backpacks. Rick got into the passenger seat this time, and was Daryl's turn to drive. Rosie held her backpack in her lap and pulled out the picture of her and Fraser. She looked at it for a few moments. It had been awhile since she'd seen or heard Fraser or her dad when they weren't really there. She wondered why that was. Maybe it was because she found new people now, but she wasn't really sure. Either way, she thought that it was probably a good thing.

The car started moving, pulling out of the driveway, and Rosie put the picture away, watching out the back windshield as they drove away from her house. One thing she'd learned by going back there was that it was her house, but not her home. Those were two different things, somehow. It was melancholy, driving away from there, knowing she'd never go back.

When they turned the corner and the house was out of sight, Rosie sat back in her seat again. She took her dinosaur stuffed animal, Lucy, out of the bag. It had been Fraser's when he was a baby. Their momma gave it to him. But once Rosie was born, Fraser gave it to her, and it had been hers ever since. It was a brachiosaurus with a brown back and a white stomach. She also had a teddy bear that she named, very accurately, Bear. Apparently her momma had bought it for her before she was even born. And, last but not least, Rosie had her Jessie doll. One of the few movies that they had on DVD was Toy Story 2, and Rosie had watched it every day when she was little. On her fourth birthday, Fraser gifted her the Jessie doll, and she carried it around with her everywhere.

These were toys that she had almost forgotten about, but now that she had them again, they felt more important than they ever had before. She pulled her velociraptor out of her pocket and lined all of the toys up on the seat next to her, just looking at them, appreciating that they were still there. Those toys couldn't die.

•

Rosie's eyes flew open at a loud boom of thunder. She sat up quickly, looking around. She was in a barn. How did she get here? The last thing she remembered was sitting in the car. She must've fallen asleep.

Everything was dark. Light flashed again and there was another huge crackle of thunder. Rosie jumped without meaning to. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, giving them a moment to adjust to the lack of light. There was a loud squeaking noise that was already driving her crazy, even after only a few moments.

Once her eyes adjusted, Rosie could make out everyone else. She was back with the whole group. Daryl was standing up, pacing back and forth with his crossbow in his hand. Everyone else was either asleep or trying to be, scattered around the barn. Rain was slamming down onto the roof. It was so loud that Rosie didn't even know how she was able to stay asleep before.

"Daryl?" Rosie whisper-shouted, not wanting to wake anyone up. "Why're we in a barn?"

Daryl turned to Rosie upon hearing her voice. "Why do ya think? It's rainin' buckets," he said, momentarily stopping his pacing.

"When'd we-"

"We all holed up in here when we got back. Didn't wanna wake you up," Daryl told her. Falling asleep hadn't gotten any easier, and staying asleep was even harder. She definitely needed the rest, and if he would've woken her up, there was no telling if she'd be able to go back to sleep, so Daryl and Rick decided they'd just let her sleep.

The doors to the barn suddenly swung open a little bit, the only thing keeping them from swinging all the way open being the chain that held them together. Daryl approached the door, peaking out through the opening. Rosie jumped a little when Daryl suddenly lurched forward, slamming himself up against the doors. That's when Rosie heard the hissing and growling. Walkers.

Rosie jumped up, running towards the doors to help keep them shut, even though she knew she wouldn't be much help. "Get them up," Daryl whispered, his voice strained as he fought to keep the doors shut.

As quickly as she could, Rosie did as she was told, going through the barn and shaking people awake. First Maggie, then Sasha, then Rick, Michonne, Rosita, Abraham, Carl- everyone, until they were all pressed up against the door of the barn. The walkers snarled, fighting to push the door open, but they all fought back.

Almost two years ago, the walkers were in the barn, pushing against the doors to get out. Now they were in the barn, and the walkers were outside, trying to get in. They weren't gonna let that happen. They weren't going to let those walkers take away anyone else.

•

To no one's surprise, Rosie wasn't able to fall back asleep after the walkers stopped trying to push through the door. So, while everyone else slept around the barn, Rosie passed the time by drawing in the dirt with a stick. Daryl was up, too, keeping watch, but he was tired and Rosie figured he probably didn't feel like talking much because of that. Whenever she was tired, the last thing she wanted to do was talk, so she thought Daryl might feel the same way.

Aside from drawing in the dirt, Rosie spent some time climbing around in the rafters of the barn- anything she could do to keep herself occupied without bothering anyone else. She'd also eaten some of the food they brought back from her house, considering she fell asleep before she was able to eat any of it last night.

When Rosie saw Maggie waking up, she considered jumping down from the rafter she was sitting on in order to scare her, and maybe make her laugh, but she decided against it. She didn't want to accidentally wake anyone up, and she wasn't sure if Maggie even wanted to laugh. So she stayed put and picked at a chip in the wood.

"You should get some sleep," Rosie heard Maggie say quietly. She looked down and saw that Maggie had sat down next to Daryl, both of them leaning their backs up against the wall of the barn.

"Yeah," Daryl agreed, but stayed put anyway.

"It's ok to rest now," Maggie told him. Daryl nodded slightly, but still didn't make any move to go to sleep. He stayed there next to her, neither of them saying a word. Their heads both turned and Rosie followed their eyeline to Sasha, who was asleep against another wall.

"He was tough," Daryl said. Rosie knew they were talking about Tyreese, because Tyreese was tough, and they were looking at Sasha. Tyreese was good. He was a good person. Along with Sasha, Ian had taken his death pretty hard. He'd gotten a bit attached to Tyreese, considering he'd escaped the prison with him. Tyreese took care of him and protected him, because Tyreese was good like that. He was strong and he was brave and he was kind. Rosie missed him, too, but she knew Sasha was missing him the most. He was her big brother. Rosie knew what it was like to lose a big brother. And it hurt. Really bad.

"He was," Maggie agreed.

"So was she," Daryl added a few moments later. Now he was talking about Beth. Rosie's eyebrows furrowed, remembering Daryl carrying Beth's dead body out of the hospital. She pushed her hair out of her face, thinking back to when Beth had asked to braid it for the first time. "She didn't know it, but she was," Daryl said. Rosie looked down at the two of them, seeing small smiles on their faces. Smiles that were sad, but somehow happy and proud. Sad because Beth was gone, but happy and proud because she existed and she was strong and tough and good.

The smiles disappeared again after a few moments, though, the sadness sinking back in. Rosie wished that she could take away everyone's sadness, because she liked their smiles a lot better than their frowns.

Daryl picked something up from the ground next to him and handed it over to Maggie. It was a jewelry box that Carl had given to Maggie. It didn't work before, but Daryl had spent some time fixing it last night. "The gearbox had some grit in it," Daryl said.

A small, sad smile returned to Maggie's face as she looked at the jewelry box. "Thank you," she whispered out. She looked at Daryl again, and they gave each other the same sad smiles. Sad smiles that said I understand and I'm here. After that, Maggie went to wake up Sasha, and Rosie began climbing down from the rafters.

When she climbed down, she was originally going to follow Sasha and Maggie, but then Judith cooed and an idea popped into her head. Carefully and quietly, Rosie stepped around the sleeping bodies on the barn floor until she reached Judith, who was next to her father. Making sure not to wake Rick up, Rosie picked up Judith and carefully carried her over to where her backpack was. After sitting down, Rosie put Judith in her lap and unzipped the backpack. She pulled out the purple book; The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

She flipped to the first page, holding the book in front of both herself and Judith. "'One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight'," Rosie read off of the page, making sure to be quiet enough to not wake anyone up, but still loud enough for Judith to hear her. She wasn't sure if Judith could even understand what she was reading, but she liked the idea of reading to her anyway, so she continued. "'There wasn't any moon, and Harold needed a moon for a walk in the moonlight'...."

Rosie wished that she had a purple crayon like Harold's. Her crayons were all still at the prison, and even if she did have one, she wouldn't be able to live in the world she would draw for herself. She couldn't draw herself a moon to stand beneath, or a path to walk along, or a forest with only one tree, or a frightening dragon to protect that tree. Rosie had to live in this world. But she was content with that, because in this world, she had Daryl and she had Judith and she had Maggie and Sasha and everyone who was still sleeping in that barn. That was good enough for her.

By the time Rosie finished reading the first story to Judith, everyone else had woken up. No one was in a very good mood, but what else was new? Since no one else seemed to want to do much of anything, Rosie tried to teach Judith how to play rock, paper, scissors, but it wasn't going too well. Playing rock, paper, scissors with someone who doesn't even know how to say rock or paper or scissors isn't the easiest thing, apparently.

"Hey," Maggie's voice said, opening up the barn doors. Slowly, she opened one of the doors and stepped inside. "Everyone... this is Aaron," she said. Everyone's heads quickly turned to the door. Rick, Daryl, Rosita, and Abraham all shot up to their feet, their weapons ready. Everyone else soon followed- except for Rosie, because she was holding Judith, and Judith was too heavy for her to hold very long while standing up.

Daryl stepped around the strange man in the doorway, looking out behind him just in case there was anyone else. It didn't look like their was. The man named Aaron had on a blue, plaid shirt and a dark blue jacket over top. He had short brown hair and looked very nervous.

"We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear," Maggie told everyone, trying to calm their nerves. It didn't work. Daryl started patted the man down, making sure he truly had absolutely no weapons on him. The people in this barn were too important to him to not double check. Once he was done patting Aaron down, Daryl picked his crossbow back up and stood behind the man, ready to stop him if he tried anything.

"Hi," Aaron said, his hands raised. He didn't seem very threatening, but there was no way of knowing for sure. No one said hi back. "It's nice to meet you," Aaron said. He tried to step forward to shake Rick's hand, but as soon as he lifted his foot off the ground to take a step, everyone's guns pointed back up at him. So, he stayed still.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked, not coming any closer to the strange man. Maggie stepped forward and handed a small handgun to Rick. Rosie's eyebrows pinched together, eyeing the man warily. He was out there on his own with nothing but a handgun? And he wasn't dead? Rick stuck the weapon in his waistband. "There something you need?" he asked.

"He has a camp nearby," Sasha answered before Aaron could. She had a sharp tone to her voice and her eyebrows were slightly raised, as if she didn't actually believe what she was saying. "He wants us to audition for membership."

"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," Aaron said, smiling a little bit. Rosie was pretty sure that that was supposed to be a joke, but she didn't understand it. She didn't think anyone else understood it either because not one of them laughed. It was painfully silent and Aaron shook his head to himself. "Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable auditions. But it's not my call."

Daryl was standing behind Aaron, so Rosie could see his face, unlike Rick's. Daryl had a fierce look on his face as he stared at the back of Aaron's head. Rosie could only assume Rick's face looked the same. He was facing away from her, though, so she couldn't be 100% sure. Either way, Rosie didn't think they'd be going to whatever community this guy was suggesting they audition for.

"My job is to convince you all to follow me back home," Aaron told everyone. He worded it badly. At least, that's what Rosie thought. His words weren't convincing her to trust him at all, but maybe it was because she didn't trust anyone new very much anymore, especially if it was obvious that Rick and Daryl didn't trust him either. She'd learned that lesson. "If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?"

Stiffly and reluctantly, Sasha did so.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope," Aaron said. Rick took the bag and set it down in front of him before crouching down to open the pocket. "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," Daryl interrupted, voicing everyone else's thoughts.

Awkwardly, Aaron turned around to look at him. "You're absolutely 100% right," he agreed, his body tense. Rosie watched as Rick pulled a stack of photos out of the bag, but she couldn't quite see the photos themselves. "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," Aaron said.

Curious to see the pictures, Rosie stood up and passed Judith off to Carl, who took her gladly. He was much better at holding her while standing up, anyway. Rosie went to stand behind Rick, peaking over his shoulder to see the picture. It was in black and white. There were big walls that looked like they were made out of some kind of metal, and they were reinforced by beams.

"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," Aaron explained.

Rosie stared at the pictures for a moment. She wasn't sure if she believed him. What if it was like Terminus? What if they were trying to convince them to go there in order to kill and eat them?

"Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only once resource more critical to our community's survival. The people," Aaron went on. Rosie watched Rick and Michonne look at each other, saying something with their eyes. She was getting better at reading people's eye words, but she couldn't figure this one out. "Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger."

Rick looked down, and for a moment, Rosie thought that he was actually considering going to this place. But then he started walking towards Aaron, his pace quickening the closer he got. Aaron started a new sentence, but only got halfway through it, because before he could finish, Rick punched him hard on the side of the head, knocking him out cold.

"So we're clear, that look wasn't a let's attack that man look. It was a he seems like an ok guy to me look," Michonne said, scolding Rick. Well, in Rick's defense, Rosie didn't get he seems like an ok guy to me from Michonne's eyes, either.

"We gotta secure him," Rick reasoned. He turned, gesturing to Carl and Rosie. "Dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is."

Being as curious about the Aaron man as she was, Rosie didn't hesitate to do as she was told. She opened the big pocket and started to turn the bag upside down, but before all of the contents could fall out onto the ground, Carl snatched the bag, holding it right side up.

"He didn't mean to actually dump it. You'll break everything," Carl told her. Rosie huffed, but didn't argue, and the two of them crouched down to the ground to start emptying the backpack, Ian joining them seconds later.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us," Rick said, and everyone did as they were told. "We might not know how or when, but they are."

Carol and Daryl worked together to tie Aaron's hands behind his back while Maggie crouched down a few feet away. "Me and Sasha, we didn't see him. If he had wanted to hurt us, he could've," Maggie said, defending Aaron. Rick didn't even acknowledge her words.

"Anybody see anything?"

"Just a lot of place to hide," Glenn answered, looking out through the cracks in between the wood panels the barn was made out of. Rosie, Carl, and Ian unpacked the bag on a chest nearby. There was an orange gun inside that Rosie was pretty sure was a flare gun, a jar of what looked like applesauce, and a few other items that didn't seem as important.

"Alright, keep looking," Rick said. He walked over to the kids who were crouched around the chest. "What did you find?" he asked them. Carl picked up the flare gun, showing it to Rick. He nodded firmly before walking back towards where Aaron was passed out on the ground. Rosie got up, too, following him.

Aaron was waking up as Maggie dabbed a wet cloth on his face, where Rick had hit him. "That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick," he said.

"Sit him up," Rick demanded.

"I think it's better if-" Maggie began to argue.

"It's ok," Aaron insisted, stretching his jaw a bit.

"He's fine. Sit him up," Rick said again, glaring at Aaron. Maggie and Michonne did, and Aaron groaned in pain for a moment. Rosie didn't understand why he needed help sitting up, but she didn't say anything about it because it was yet another thing that she couldn't help but think about even though it really didn't matter.

"You're being cautious," Aaron said, looking up at Rick nervously. "I completely understand."

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick asked. Aaron didn't say anything. Rick held the flare gun out in front of him. "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?" he asked.

"Does it matter?" Aaron asked, his jaw tense.

"Yes. 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?" Aaron replied, his eyebrows raised.

"He ain't helpin' his case," Rosie muttered to Ian, who was standing beside her. He almost snickered, but held his hand over his mouth to stop himself.

"Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say- eight, 32, 444, zero- no matter what I say, you're not going to trust me," Aaron continued.

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face," Rick replied, slightly cocking his head to the side.

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?" Aaron asked. It took Rosie a moment to figure out what he was talking about, but then she remembered. Daryl had told her last night that, while they were gone, the others found a random pack of bottled water in the road. Aaron must've thought that this would help his case, but he was wrong.

"How long you people been following us?" Daryl growled out, stepping closer with his crossbow in hand.

"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. 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," Aaron said, his voice portraying nothing but genuineness.

"How many others are out there?" Rick said slowly and quietly, as if Aaron simply wasn't understanding him the first time.

"One," Aaron finally answered. Rick just stared at him with disbelief all over his face. "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?"

Aaron looked around the room, waiting for an answer that no one was going to give him. Rosie chewed on her lip. She wasn't sure if anything was going to make her trust him- at least not until Rick and Daryl trusted him. Maybe not even after that.

"What if I drove you to the community? All of you?" Aaron suggested. "We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

"I'm not sure how the 17 of us are gonna fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in," Rick replied, furthering the disbelief on his face.

"We drive separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us," Aaron said. Rosie looked over at Daryl again, waiting for any sign of trust, but there wasn't any, as far as she could tell.

"And you're parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol guessed, voicing her own lack of faith in the man's claims.

"East in 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 said, still not believing a word Aaron had said.

"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here. You know, light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you ran out the only exit," Aaron told Rick, his eyes wide and his voice tense.

He's really not making me trust him any more, Rosie thought.

"You can trust me."

Rick stared at Aaron for a few moments more. He wouldn't budge.

"I'll check out the cars," Michonne offered, turning to leave.

"There aren't any cars," Rick insisted, his jaw clenched.

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

"We don't need to find out," Rick said.

"We do," Michonne said. She looked over at Carl, Rosie, Ian, and Judith, then back to Rick. "You know what you and you're sure of it, but I'm not."

"Me neither," Maggie said. It was strange, seeing her like this again. Rosie had gotten used to Maggie seeming sad and distant, but now she seemed to have some sort of hope. She wanted this.

After taking a moment to think it over again, Rick sighed and shook his head. "Your way is dangerous, mine isn't," he said.

"Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live?" Michonne said, her eyes wide as she looked at Rick. "That's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do."

"Then I will, too," Glenn joined in. "I'll go."

Rick looked around the room once more before giving in and recruiting Abraham and Rosita to join Michonne, Glenn, and Maggie to check out the cars. Daryl lifted Aaron to his feet and propped him up against one of the posts in the barn.

"The walkies are out of juice. If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come. Which might be just what they want," Rick told the small group before they nodded and left to do their job. "If we're all in here, we're a target."

"I've got the area covered," Daryl said, slinging his crossbow over his shoulder. "Ro, you're with me," he said. Rosie took a handgun from the pile of weapons they brought back from her house and stuck it in her waistband before hurrying after Daryl, who was already out the barn doors.

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My gooooodddddd the barn scene with Aaron is so long