Wilted

f i v e

I listened as the gates closed behind me. Looking around, I felt as if I was in a dreamlike state. Everybody else seemed to have the same feeling also. There were 16 of us crowded next to the gates as a new man began to speak to us.

"Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons." He told us and I clutched my crossbow. After all we'd been through as a group, could I really just let myself surrender my weapon? Even after Terminus? "Stay, and you hand them over."

"We don't know if we want to stay." Rick says seriously. He looks threatening, even with Judith squirming around in his arms.

"It's fine Nicholas." Aaron says turning to the man thats now known as Nicholas.

"If we wanted to use them, we would have started already." Rick tells him raising an eyebrow towards Nicholas who still seems hesitant. Judith coos from her place in his arms and babbles quietly to herself.

"Let them talk to Deanna first." Aaron tells Nicholas.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham yells from his place on the other side of Carl.

"She knows everything you wanna know about this place." Aaron tells us a whole. "Rick, why don't you start?"

Rick looks around at us, almost as if he's hesitant to leave us on our own. It's that moment when I realize a walker is nearing the gates of the community.

"Cherokee." He says since I'm the closest to the gate.

"On it." I tell him turning around and firing a bolt into the walkers head without a moment of hesitation. The walker falls to the floor as the second gate rolls to a close.

"It's a good thing we're here." Rick says before following Aaron to Deanna's house.

___

"My names Deanna Monroe, and you are?" The woman who runs Alexandria asks.

"Rose." I tell her, hesitant on telling her my real name. "Cherokee Rose Dixon."

"It's okay for you to sit." She says nodding towards the chair.

Hesitantly, I sit on the chair across from her, wearily eyeing the video camera sitting behind the couch she sits on. I sit on the very edge of the chair, doing my best to not get it dirty. Compared to this woman I look like I'm insane. She's freshly cleaned, and her hair is nice and orderly. Meanwhile, I have layers upon layers of dirt and blood on me, not to mention the frizzled mess that is my hair.

"Your hesitant, I can understand that." She says. "How old are you?"

"15, no I'm 16." I say slowly. "I don't know anymore. My dad does."

"I'm assuming he's the one with the crossbow?" She asks and I nod. "What about your mother, is she out there too?"

"Yeah, she is. Things between me and her, they're;" I hesitate. Why am I telling a complete stranger about my life? "things between me and her are complicated. But I will tell you this, blood or not everyone out there is a part of my family and I would die for each and everyone of them a million times over. Especially my dad, he's my hero, and my world and probably will always remain the most important person in my life."

"Sounds like I'd want to be a part of your family then." She smiles gently. "You''ll be safe here Cherokee, no one will hurt you."

"I hope so." I say fiddling with my thumbs that are caked in dirt and grime. "We need this, to work out. I don't know how much longer we could've stayed out there. Carl and I, we've done things, we've seen things that no teenager should, and things have happened to us, bad things and Judith; Judith deserves a roof over her head. The road is no place for a baby to grow."