ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ\\ ʀɪᴄᴋ ɢʀɪᴍᴇꜱ ✔

Trust

"Everybody, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are." Rick demands. I cross my arms. "Rick, are you serious. He didn't do anything that would make us think that he is dangerous. I think he's telling the truth." I argue.

"Do you really want Judith to be in danger and let him take us somewhere where they'll kill us." Rick protests back. I roll my eyes, "Do you want Judith to live out here the rest of her life. Without a safe place to sleep at night. Always having to sleep with one eye open with the fear of getting your neck ripped open by those things." Rick opened his mouth to say something but I turn around quickly and walk away without saying another word.

I help Sasha, Maggie, and Beth take care of Aaron. He was tied up just in case he tries something. I can see Rick glance around me once in a while. I get how he's just trying to be safe for everyone. But we need to at least try and trust him. Aaron opens his eyes and puts his head up while laughing. "That was hell of a right cross there, Rick." He continued laughing. This guy had a lot of confidence.

We stood him up so we could talk to him better. "You're being cautious. I completely understand."

Rick interrupts him again "How many of your people are out there?" Rick pulls out a flare gun, "you have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of then are there?" He asks again.

"Does it matter?" Aaron asks hesitantly.

"Yes." Rick answered with a stern voice. I got up from kneeling and leaned against the wall with Andrea. Aaron starts making up random numbers. I roll my eyes in frustration. "Just answer the damn question." I say through my teeth. Everyone turned their head in my direction. Aaron confesses that he was the one that put the water in the road. He changed the subject quickly after I spoke. "How long have you been following us?" Daryl gets more frustrated.

Aaron keeps describing how we are survivors and how he hopes we come with him back to his home. Aaron's speech was convincing and motivating. But it wasn't enough for us. We still needed to know how many people were out there, or if there were any. Rick steps forward. "How many others are out there?" He asks again but in a more quiet tone.

Aaron sighs like he's going to regret saying it. "One...... 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 was begging at this point. I started to trust him more and actually think we should go. But I look into Ricks ocean eyes and see nothing. He wasn't having anything Aaron was saying.

"We leave now, we get there by lunch." He explains.

"I'm not sure how twenty of us are all going to fit in a car you and your one friend brought out here."

"We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us." Aaron says so confidently while trying to make us believe him and take us with him.

"And you're parked just a couple miles away from here, right?" I ask.

He turns his head to look at me, "East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route sixteen. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it."

"Yeah, you really thought this through." Rick continued. Aaron looked up back at Rick. "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."

There was a longing of silence as everyone looked at Rick waiting for an answer. Hoping that Rick would trust him. I walk up to Rick. He doesn't take his eyes off Aaron. "He's right, Rick." I say. As I walk past him to grab Judith as she got fussy. Michonne decides to look for the cars. Rick denies that there aren't any cars. I sit Judith on my hip while holding her. "Look, I know you're scared for all of us and I know all the stuff we've been through. If you give him a chance then we can all start over. Rick shakes his head in denial as everyone volunteers to go with Michonne. Everyone starts to get weapons and bags ready. Rick stops me, "stay here with me, please." He whispers in my ear. I sigh and put the bag down. "I know you're pissed at me, but I love you that's why I'm taking extra precautions.

My heart skips a beat when he said those three words. He closed the barn door. It's just the four of us now. "When the world was still the world, I worked for an NGO. Our mission was to deliver food and medicine to the Niger River Delta. Bad people pointed guns in my face every other week. You're not bad people. You're not going to kill us. And we are definitely not going to kill you." Aaron explains while looking at the both of us.

"Just because we're good people doesn't mean we won't kill you. If the nine of them aren't back in an hour... I'll put a knife in the base of your skull."

•••

Judith starts crying. I pick her up and try to calm her down so she doesn't track the dead to us. Nothing was working. She was starving like the rest of us. Rick grabbed a nut from his pocket and put it in a bowl. He starts to crush it with his knife tog eat it small enough for her. I start to sway side to side slowly, maybe it'll calm Judith down. "You did see the apple juice in my bag right?" Aaron speaks up.

Rick looks up from the bowl. "This isn't a trick. This isn't me trying to make you like me. It's a self preservation. Because if the roamers hear her and come this way, I know I'll be the first to go and then your daughter and wife will be in danger." Rick gets up. I look at him with wide eyes at what Aaron just said. Rick chuckles at me and opens the Apple sauce jar and scoops some on a baby spoon. He takes the spoon and walks over to Aaron, putting the spoon by his mouth. I follow behind Rick with screaming Judith.

"You think I'm trying to poison your baby daughter? I'm tied up and you've already expressed a willingness to stab me in the head. How would cruelly killing your daughter in front of you in anyway help the situation?" Aaron seemed shocked at what Rick was doing. "Rick," I try to speak over Judith's screaming. Aaron finally gives in and takes a bite of the apple sauce. I then pass Judith to Rick. Aaron keeps talking about the community as Rick takes more applesauce and feeds it to Judith.

A knock on the barn door gives my whole body a relief.

They're back.

(Edited)