A Hard Lesson to Learn

Chapter 31

A few weeks had passed since they were at the Hilltop. Everyone was on high alert looking for anything or anyone that seemed suspicious. Alexandria received word about a week after they left Hilltop that they had captured a girl, who appeared to be apart of this group that walked with walkers. They had started to call them the whispers for how they communicated. Daryl went to Hilltop to try and get some information from the girl but from what Kali heard she was too scared to talk.

There was a buzz around the communities about the upcoming fair at the Kingdom. Everyone wanted to be excited about it, but at the same time, they were scared of the threats that were out there. Rick was excited about getting all the communities together so they could all start to help each other with food and resources again. Michonne seemed eager to get to the Kingdom to see the king, the two apparently had a connection. Judith and Carl were excited to be able to go have fun with some other kids that they haven't seen in a while. Kali on the other hand was dreading the whole ordeal. There was this gut feeling in the stomach that everything was about to go extremely wrong for the communities.

"Are we sure this is a good idea," Kali asked as she helped Rick load supplies into one of the wagons in the convoy for the Kingdom. One wagon was full of fresh garden-grown produce that took Alexandria a couple weeks' worth of harvest to get enough for everyone. The others were mostly empty, allowing room for people to ride.

Rick turned to look at her. The morning sun already had him sweating. His eyes winced looking into the sunlight behind Kali. "Yeah," he said shortly. "It will be good for everyone to come together and help each other after everything that's happened."

"Are you not concerned about the threat of the whispers? What if they try something when we're gone here?"

Rick took a deep breath. "I've come to learn that you can't let the fear of fighting keep you from living life. This place will still be guarded, it's not like we are all leaving for good. We'll be back."

"But what about-"

"He'll be fine," Rick said cutting her off. She had tried to convince Rick to let Negan go to the fair, but he even refused to think about it. "We won't let these people stop us from living. We are stronger than them."

Still, Kali had a tugging in her gut that after everything was said and done, everything would not be alright. She had tried to ask Rick if she could stay behind a couple of times, but he insisted that she came along.

She gave him a meek smile. "I hope you're right," she said quietly.

"I'm right about this," he replied quickly. He reached out and brought her into his body. Gently he placed a kiss on the top of her head and just held her there for a minute before easing away. "Can you go get Judith and get her loaded up? It's about time we head out."

Kali shook her head and pulled herself from Rick's arms. The feeling in her gut making her nauseous.

She made her way to Rick's house that he still shared with Michonne to retrieve the girl and see where her brother was. She found Carl and Judith in the living room. The boy was lounged back on the couch reading a comic while Judith was busying herself drawing a picture when Kali walked in. "Are y'all ready to go," she asked breaking the silence in the house.

Carl dropped the comic and looked up at her from the couch. "Yeah," he said quickly standing to his feet. Ever since he heard about the fair, he wanted to know if Enid was going. He tried to deny the fact that he had a crush on the girl, but it was obvious.

"Aunt Kali," Judith screamed in delight. "Look at my drawing," she said proudly picking the picture up and shoving it towards Kali.

Kali smiles at the little girl. She had really grown up a lot before her own eyes. She noticed there were four people in the center of the page, with a man standing off on his own over on the edge of the page. "Jude who is this," she asked pointing to the man standing alone.