CHAPTER TWO,
gabriel and his
church.

The group had been walking until nightfall. They stopped and made camp. A small fire was roaring. Aiden was sitting by Daryl holding Judith when Rick approached her.

"Did you ask them the questions?" He asked her.

"All three of 'em." Aiden replied. Judith cooed and placed her hand on Aiden's cheek, "They've all killed a shit ton of walkers, I mean so have the rest of us. Payton's killed three people. Said he couldn't let one turn and the other two tried stealing from their camp. Nathaniel's killed one person. He asked him too. Macy's different." Aiden said.

"How so?" Rick asked.

"She's killed eight people, Rick. That's more than all of us. She said they deserved it. It's the way she said it. It was so... emotionless." Aiden looked up at him.

"We'll keep an eye on her." Rick nodded and turned his head to look at Macy. The brunette woman was sharpening her knife on a rock she found, "a close eye on her."

Rick stalked off and eventually Carl came and sat by Aiden. Judith had fallen asleep on her chest, "go to sleep, Carl." Aiden said to the boy.

"What if something happens?" He asked.

"I'll wake you up." She replied. Eventually the young boy drifted off while resting his head in her lap.

Daryl and Aiden sat talking for a couple minutes before they heard a branch snap a couple feet to their left. Aiden's head snapped in that direction while Daryl stood with his crossbow rose, "what is it, Dare?"

"Nothin'." Daryl replied, "ain't nothing here." He replied. He sat back down beside his wife. She eventually drifted off into a light slumber.

Daryl looked over at the three. He saw that Aiden had also fallen asleep with one hand holding Judith and the other in Carl's hair where she was playing with it to soothe him to sleep.

»

"We surrender." Daryl said to the group once he walked out of the woods with several squirrels. The group lowered their weapons and continued walking. Aiden walked with Payton, who held Judith.

The group walked for a couple minutes before they heard someone yelling for help, "help! Help, anybody! Help!"

"Dad, come on." Carl said to Rick.

"He have to help, man." Nathaniel said to Rick.

"Come on! Come on." Carl said and finally they took off running in the direction of the screaming. Aiden pulled out her Bowie knife as the ran up to the scene.

A man was into of a rock with maybe five walkers surrounding him. Aiden grabbed one that was pulling on his ankle and stabbed it in the head. It dropped to the ground. "Woah! Woah!" Daryl fired a bolt into one approaching her.

"Thank, Dare." She said. The walkers were dead and the man was breathing heavily. He was dressed in a priests clothes.

"We're clear. Keep watch." Rick said to the rest of the group. "Come on down." He said to the man. The man slowly got down and looked sick, "you okay?" Rick asked him.

The guy held up one finger before throwing up, Aiden gagged and turned her entire body away. Her pregnancy and the man throwing up driving her to throw up herself. Aiden dry heaved while Maggie rubbed her back. Aiden stared down at the mess in disgust. "I don't even know what that is." She said to Maggie. Maggie rolled her eyes in disgust and pulled away from Aiden.

"Sorry." The priest apologized, "yes. Thank you. I'm Gabriel."

"Do you have any weapons on you?" Rick asked him. Aiden stepped toward the two men with a terrifying glare in her eyes, daring the unknown man to make a stupid move. His eyes shifted from Rick to Aiden before his fear filled eyes moved back to Rick.

"Do I look like I would have any weapons?" He said back to Rick.

"We don't give two short and curlies what it looks like." Abraham spoke up from the back. Aiden glanced over at him with a smirk.

"I have no weapon of any kind. The word of God is the only protection I need." Gabriel said to Rick. Aiden scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Sure didn't look like it." Daryl spoke from beside Carol. Gabriel smiled.

"I called for help. Help came." The man looked around nervously, "do you have- have any food? Whatever I- I had left, it just hit the ground." He said. Aiden gagged at the thought of him throwing up again. Daryl looked over at her with concern filled eyes.

"Hey, you good?" Nathaniel asked her.

"This baby is kicking my ass." She responded.

"We've got some pecans." Carl handed over the pecans.

"Thank you." Gabriel replied. Judith cooed from Tyreese's arms. Gabriel's eyes moved to the baby and Aiden narrowed her eyes.

"That's a beautiful child." Gabriel said. Everyone went silent and watched Rick. Aiden was ready to stop the man from doing something stupid. "Do you have a camp?"

"No. Do you?" Rick replied.

"I have a church." The pries responded.

"Hold your hands above your head." Rick said to the guy. He obliged while Rick patted him down, "how many walkers have you killed?"

"Not any, actually."

"Turn around. How many people have you killed?"

"None."

"Why?"

"Because the Lord abhors violence." That was his response.

"Oh, my God," Macy scoffed.

"What have you done? We've all done something." Rick stated.

"I'm a sinner. I sin almost every day. But those sins, I confess them to God, not strangers." Gabriel said to Rick.

"You said you had a church?" Michonne piped up. Gabriel nodded.

»

The group arrived in front of a small white church called St. Sarah's Church. "Hold up. Can we take a look around first? We just want to hold onto our squirrels." Rick asked Gabriel.

Gabriel allowed some of them to enter the church and look around, Aiden was one of them. Her Beretta was in her hand as she walked down the isle between the pews.

Her eyes scanned the church and the light reflecting from the stained glass windows made her eyes look red.

Maybe the church knew that Gabriel just let a demon under its roof.

After a couple minutes Rick whistled, calling the others back to the front of the church. Aiden made her way to the front behind Michonne, Glenn, Carol, and Daryl.

"I spent months here without stepping out the front door. If you found someone inside, well, it would have been surprising." Gabriel said to the lot of them.

"Thanks for this." Carl spoke.

"We found a short bus out back. It don't run, but I bet we could fix that in less than a day or two. Father here says he don't need it. Looks like we found ourselves some transport. You understand what's at stake here, right?" Abraham said to Rick.

"Yes, I do." Rick responded.

"Now that we can take a breath-" Michonne was cut off.

"We take a breath, we slow down, shit inevitably goes down." Abraham said.

"We need supplies no mater what we do next." Michonne pried.

"Yeah, and for God's sakes man, we got a baby, a kid, and a pregnant woman. We need to take a breather. Aiden needs to get some rest." Payton stepped up.

"That's right. Aiden needs a break. We need food, water, ammunition. Short bus ain't going no where." Rick said as the group filed in.

Aiden walked into the church and set her bag down on a pew. She laid her M16 down and sat down. Her feet were killing her, her entire body ached.

She closed her eyes and felt the pew sink in beside her. She opened one eye and saw Payton.

Aiden sighed and laid her head on his shoulder, "you good?"

He looked down at her with furrowed eyebrows, "of course I am. Gotta be. Are you?"

"Yeah. My body aches though." She replied.

Payton chuckled, "that's how mom was before she had Xavier. She complained for hours about how she hurt." Payton frowned. "I miss her and dad."

"I wonder if Xav is alive." Aiden mumbled, "if he is, he'd be nineteen." Aiden sniffled.

"I should've never let him go visit Aunt Regina. He would be with us right now." Payton grumbled.

"Hey," Aiden sat up straight and looked at him, "he was a smart kid. He had always had his wits about him. Remember? He wanted to be like us. He's alive."

"Man, Aunt Regina lived all the way in Virginia." Payton stated.

"And we're going for DC. We'll find him. We found each other after two years. We'll find him."

________________________________

word count: 1,438
episode: strangers

and there's number two of edited chapters in philophobia!! also below it says that xavier was last minute add on, yes, he originally was. but since editing i introduced him way earlier and everything below this paragraph is from when i first posted this chapter.

yes. payton has/had a brother named xavier. he'd be four years older than carl. he's never been mentioned before because he was a last minute add on to this chapter.

but now xavier reed is a must find for payton and aiden. and once she tells rick he may still be alive, his finding will be a main priority for the grimes' too.