𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐒.
chapter fifty-five; Dance Troupe
" He wants us to audition for membership. "

WHEN VEX WOKE up she was still under Daryl Dixon's arm. Her neck was sore from the position she'd slept in, but the peace she felt waking up made up for it.

"Hey."

"Hi."

She smiled tiredly, greedily taking another moment of his warmth before retreating, stretching, standing.

"Everyone good?" Vex asked, glancing around the barn.

"Mhm. Maggie and Sasha went out," He informed quietly, "Zep and Carl'll have been scrapping firewood. Dean wants to go out hunting."

Vex sighed and nodded as she tried to shove her grogginess away. It had been a long time since she'd slept soundly, and it wasn't letting her escape easy.

"Well we can--"

"Hey."

The door creaked open, Maggie's face appearing in it.

"This is Aaron."

Every weapon was raised and cocked instantly at the sight of an unfamiliar man entering between Maggie and Sasha. He looked clean, in neat clothing, a bit on edge but otherwise fine and healthy.

Daryl approached first, scanning the area outside before shutting the door and patting down Aaron harshly.

"We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear."

The group stared.

"Hi," Aaron said.

Judith began crying, so Rick handed her off to Carl, before turning to Aaron.

"It's nice to meet you," He tried, stepping forward but pausing when the sounds of guns cocking sounded.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked.

Maggie approached, passing Rick the small pistol Aaron had. He inspected it briefly, before tucking it into the back of his waistband.

"Is there something you need?"

"He has a camp nearby," Sasha informed, "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 attempted to lighten the mood, but no one took the bait, "And, um, it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But, i--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. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?"

Sasha seemed to hesitate, but after a moment approached Rick and swung the bag off of her back.

"Front pocket," Aaron continued, "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."

Aaron halted, turning to face Daryl.

"You're absolutely 100% right."

Rick opened the envelope, retrieving a small stack of black and white photographs.

"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; the people. Together, we're strong. You can make us even stronger. The next picture, you'll see inside the gates, our community was first constru--"

Rick approached him rapidly, and before Aaron could react, threw a punch so hard the man passed out cold.

Vex was briefly in shock. She glanced around; trying to gauge the reaction of the group. It appeared she wasn't the only one, as Michonne began quietly speaking with Rick.

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

"Me and Sasha, we didn't see him," Maggie said as Daryl began binding Aaron's hands behind his back, "If he had wanted to hurt us, he could've."

"Anybody see anything?"

"Just a lot of places to hide," Glenn announced from the front.

"All right, keep looking."

Vex glanced at Daryl as she approached him, kneeling at Aaron's side.

He said nothing and his face was impassive, so Vex focused on the unconscious man at her feet.

Maggie had grabbed a cloth and dampened it, attempting to soothe the area Rick had landed. It was clear between them that this may not have been the best way to handle the situation, but neither said anything in the moment.

Aaron came to slowly, breathing out a smile.

"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick."

"Sit him up."

"I think it's better if--"

"It's okay," Aaron cut off Maggie.

"He's fine, sit him up."

Maggie glanced to Vex, both women working in sync to help Aaron sit up straight.

"You're being cautious, I completely understand," He said, "I--"

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick questioned quickly, lifting the bright orange gun he had found, "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

"Does it matter?"

"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? 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."

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face."

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?"

This seemed to set some of the group on edge.

"How long you people been following us?" Daryl said, approaching.

"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."

Rick paused before approaching.

"How many others are out there?"

"One," Aaron responded instantly, though Rick hesitated, "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 15 of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in."

"We drove separately," Aaron said, "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 miles away, right?"

"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16," Aaron said, "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, 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. You can trust me."

It was silent for a long moment before Michonne spoke.

"I'll check out the cars."

"There aren't any cars," Rick said.

"There's only one way to find out."

"We don't need to find out."

"We do," Michonne said strongly. "You know what you know and you're sure of it, but I'm not."

"Me neither," Maggie said.

Rick glanced to her, then to Vex.

He tensed his jaw when she nodded.

"Your way is dangerous. Mine isn't."

"Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live? 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 said, "I'll go."

"Abraham," Rick said.

"Yeah. . . I'll walk with them."

"Rosita?"

"Okay."

"If there's trouble, you got enough firepower?"

"We got what we got."

Rick passed Glenn Aaron's gun as Daryl moved the man further into the barn.

"The walkies are out of juice," Rick said, "If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come. Which might be just what they want. . . If we're all in here, we're a target."

"I've got the area covered."

"All right, groups of two, find somewhere safe within eyeshot."

"Dixon," Vex called, grabbing her rifle.

She pressed a kiss to Zeppelin's forehead, nodding as she departed with Dean and Carl.

"You know it, Willams," Daryl mumbled, tapping Vex's hip in passing.

He nodded as they exited the barn, Vex following his lead without question.