Chapter 16.) The Distance
When everyone is finally awake and doing their own things, Maggie and Sasha return, followed by a stranger...
"Hey," Maggie greets, "Everyone. This is Aaron." Aaron is followed by Sasha and the name alone has me taking a step back against the wall as everyone else rushes to get their weapons and point it all at the stranger.
"We met him outside."
Daryl walks past them, looks around outside of the barn.
"He's by himself," Maggie continues as Daryl walks over and begins frisking the man. "We took his weapons and we took his gear." Sasha and Tera close the doors behind Aaron as Judith starts fussing.
"Hi," Aaron greets, stepping forward seemingly to shake Rick's hand.
Everyone cocks their guns except me as I can't seem to step away from the wall, my world starting to spin slightly.
"It's nice to meet you," Aaron continues, despite the response from our group.
"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asks, and Maggie walks forward to give Aaron's weapon to Rick, who checks it and then puts it in his belt. "There something you need?"
Sasha responds, "He has a camp, nearby. He wants us to audition for membership."
Mason makes it to me and gives me a side hug, when I look down I see that he, too is affected by this man's name.
"I wish there was another word." Aaron sounds nervous. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." No one laughs at his ill thought out joke.
"Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But 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 moves forward, takes off the backpack from her back, and hands it to Rick. "Front pocket, there's an envelope."
Rick starts rummaging and takes out a manila envelope.
"Now, 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." He chuckles nervously. "We just found an old camera store last-"
"Nobody gives a shit," Daryl interrupts him.
Aaron turns to face him, "You're absolutely 100% right." He turns back to Rick who has now since opened the envelope and started looking at the pictures. "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 i-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. I-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." Rick starts walking towards Aaron. "Our community was first construc-" Rick reaches Aaron and cuts him off with a punch to the face that knocks Aaron on his ass, everyone tightening in on the two.
I watch as Michonne approaches Rick and whispers something to him, Rick responds by pointing to Carl and saying, "We got to secure him. Dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is."
"Rick," Michonne says, sounding annoyed.
"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are."
I take my hand gun out and head for the door to the barn, Mason grabs my arm, "Mom, wait."
I shoot him a look that says we'll talk later, and continue heading to the door as Maggie speaks up, she, Daryl and Carol are restraining Aaron, who is now knocked unconcious.
"Me and Sasha, we didn't see him. If he had wanted to hurt us, he could've."
"Anybody see anything?" Rick asks, as I peak out the barn, and Glenn responds.
"Just a lot of places to hide."
"All right, keep looking." Rick approaches Carl, "What did you find?"
"Never seen a gun like that before," Carl responds, but I don't take my eyes off the outside.
"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron woke up.
"Sit him up," Rick instructs.
"I think it's better if-"
Aaron interrupts Maggie, "It's okay."
"He's fine." Rick says, "Sit him up."
I turn to look as Michonne and Maggie help him sit up with his restraints.
Aaron speaks, "You're being cautious. I completely understand."
"How many of your people are out there?" Rick shows him an orange flare gun, "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, thirty-two, four hundred and forty-four, 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." Rick responds.
"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?"
The water...
Daryl starts toward Aaron asking, "How long you people been following us?"
"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."
Its quiet as we all exchange looks.
Rick steps forward, "How many others are out there?"
"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?" No one answers. "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 17 of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in."
"We drove separately. 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?" Carol asks.
"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16. 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 says.
"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."
Michonne aoproaches Rick, "I'll check out the cars."
I step forward, "I'll go with her."
"There aren't any cars," Rick argues.
"There's only one way to find out." Michonne states.
"We don't need to find out."
"I have lost too many kids, Rick. I can't give up on an opportunity that could keep Mason safe." I but in.
"You know what you know and you're sure of it," Michonne says, "but I'm not."
"Me neither," Maggie also agrees.
"Your way is dangerous, mine isn't," says Rick.
Michonne shakes her head, "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 says. "I'll go."
"Abraham?" Rick asks.
"Yeah," Abraham says walking to Aaron, "I'll walk with them."
"Rosita, Sev?"
"Okay," Rosita says, standing up as Sev nods, also getting to move.
"If there's trouble, you got enough firepower?" Rick asks Glenn.
"We got what we got."
Daryl walks Aaron to the side of the barn and I open the barn doors.
"The walkies are out of juice," warns Rick. "If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come. Which might be just what they want."
Before I walk out the door, I look at Daryl, "Can you watch out for Mason?"
Mason starts to argue but with a look from me he stops. I look back at Daryl, who nods once.
I follow Michonne out the barn doors.
We make it to route 16 and Glenn says, "Eyes open, everybody. Weapons up. You see someone coming at us, you fire."
We all follow his instructions as we walk. Abraham stating, "Copy that."
"So if we see someone, we just shoot them?" Michonne asks.
"It's a good question." Maggie says.
"What if they're someone like us?" Michonne asks, "What if Aaron is telling the truth? What if they're someone who has nothing to do with this?"
"We're seven people walking with guns," Glenn states. "No one's coming up to say hello."
"But that's exactly what happened," argues Michonne.
"If it's someone like us, we should be afraid of them." Glenn argues. "He said he was watching us, right? It means he saw us yesterday. And after everything we've done, why would he want us to join his group?"
"People like us saved a priest." Michonne makes her point. "Saved a girl who rolled up to the prison with the Governor. Saved a crazy lady with a sword. He saw that."
"I don't know what he saw," Glenn argues.
We keep walking.
We approach a white camper and a white car, blocked off from fallen trees due to the storm.
"He was telling the truth," Michonne says.
We all keep our guns at the ready, and as we all prepare to step over a fallen tree branch, something snaps next to us, and immediately we're all on high alert, adrenaline rushing through my brains. One word repeating itself through my head, Ambush.
"Not one step closer, asshole!" Glenn warns, but whoever it is keeps moving. It's two of the dead.
Abraham steps forward, placing his gun around his back saying, "I got 'em."
Rosita glances at Sev then to Abraham stating, "We got 'em."
After the three take out the two dead, Abraham thanks Sev and Rosita.
Rosita and Abraham start looking through the RV.
"All clear?" Glenn calls in.
"All clear," Rosita responds.
We bring the RV and the car back and show the rest of group what we found.
Rick stands up with a can in his hand and says to Aaron, "This, this is ours now."
"There's more than enough."
"It's ours," Rick repeats. "whether or not we go to your camp."
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't we go?" Carl asks.
"If he were lying or if he wanted to hurt us... but he isn't, and he doesn't. We need this." Michonne says. "So we're going, all of us. Somebody say something if they feel differently."
"I don't know, man." Daryl speaks up, and my stomach twists. If he doesn't go, I know I'd stay with him, meaning Mase will still be out in this. But he continues, "This barn smells like horse shit."
"Yeah," Rick amends. "We're going." He turns to Aaron. "So where are we going? Where's your camp?"
"Well, every time I've done this, I've been behind the wheel driving recruits back. I believe you're good people. I've bet my life on it. I'm just not ready to bet my friends' lives just yet-"
"You're not driving," Michonne says, walking towards him. "So if you want to get home, you'll have to tell us how."
"Go north on Route 16."
"And then?" Michonne asks. "I'll tell you when we get there."
"We'll take 23 north?" Rick disagrees. "You'll give us directions from there."
"That's- I don't know how else to say it... That's a bad idea. We've cleared 16. It'll be faster."
"For our safety, I'm with Rick. Like you said, you cleared 16... less of a chance of an ambush if we go an unplanned way," I speak up.
"We'll take 23," Rick says after glancing at me. "We leave at sundown."
"We're doing this at night?" Michonne asks, incredulously. "Look, I know it's dangerous. But it's better than riding up to the gates during the day. If it isn't safe, we need to get gone before they know we're there."
"No one is going to hurt you," repeats Aaron. "You're trying to protect your group, but you're putting them in danger."
"Tell me where the camp is," Rick says. "we'll leave right now." Silence. "It's going to be a long night." Rick addresses us all. "Eat. Get some rest if you can."
Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Sev and Aaron all pile into Aaron's car whilst the rest of us go in the RV.
When we saw the flare shoot into the air and we'd lost sight of the car, we assumed it was Rick who'd shot it.
So we drove that way, met a man named Eric and ended up hauled up on some off the alley shack thing.
When Daryl knocks on the door, Sasha opens it and Carl runs out.
We all hear Eric's name being called, and he answers, "In here."
"Eric!" I'm sat next to Eric who has his leg elevated. "Eric?" Aaron asks as he runs into the room.
"I'm okay," Eric reassures. "It's like a volleyball injury. It's a broken ankle. At least that's what Sev said. I like her.
It's not a big deal." After a few moments of silence and Aaron leaning down to look at it for himself, I pick up on the fact that these two, are a couple.
"Oh, my God." Aaron whispers.
"I'll just go to the infirmary when we get back."
Aaron kisses Eric in relief, and I turn my head trying to give them some privacy even though I'd been tasked to watch Eric.
"Oh When I saw that flare go up, I-I thought-"
"You were worried, were you?"
"Yeah."
"This is your fault, you know?"
"Is that so?"
"Because I love you. And because when I'm worried, I do stupid things. And when I do stupid things, I wind up underneath a rust bucket surrounded by roamers who roll a rear passenger tire onto my left ankle. Hey, something good came out of today. While I was waiting for you, I searched through the neighborhood. I found that," Eric exclaims happily, handing Aaron a blue licence plate much to my confusion.
Aaron frowns, so Eric asks, "You lost the license plates."
"I lost the car."
Eric laughs, "Maybe it's for the best. That monstrosity out front can run. It's so ugly, it'll scare the roamers away." They both laugh.
Rick walks in just then and Eric introduces himself. Rick does the same.
Aaron gets up anf walks out, Rick and I exchange glances. And Rick walks out behind Aaron.
We take off the next morning, all piled into a van.
When the RV breaks down, I get off of it and take my blade out a little ways from the group and start hacking at a tree, swearing under my breath, over and over again until strong arms wrap their way around my arms and hold me back into a hard chest.
"Stop." Daryl whispers in my ear.
I start crying and turn around, crying into Daryl's chest. "I can't have any more hope, I can't! It just- everything keeps going wrong! Everything!"
"Glenn's fixin' the RV."
I look up into his blue eyes, "What if he can't fix it? What if the community falls through?"
I'm cut off by the sound of the RV and Daryl says, "One step at a time, RV's fixed."
I nod slowly, and he looks back at the RV, before briefly kissing my lips and then walking away, ready for us to get back in and drive.
When we drive up to the walls surrounding Alexandria, I'm surprised to hear the obvioud sounds of kids laughing.
We get out of the RV and walk to the gate, Mason takes my hand as we approach.
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While Sing 3 is still developing can you think of the 5 things you want to see in that movie and the 5 thing you don’t wanted?
Thank you so much for the ask and I'm sorry for the delay in answering. I hope you enjoy and this properly answers your question! - <3 Gooseless
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Ok so, I'm personally a bit of a skeptic on if Sing 3 will come out soon (or ever at this point) due to the strikes likely halting all work on it. And obviously, if they worked through the strikes, I will not be supporting the movie in the slightest due to my pure hatred of crossing picket lines for no good reason and AI being used as studios want it to be. However, I do have serval things I do want to see if/when it comes out and a ton of stuff I don't.
Things I want to see (Please Illumination, Please):
Rynny being confirmed. That should surprise none of you. This blog was started as, and still primarily is, as Rynny ship blog. I love those two so much together and I feel like it would complete Johnny's queer allegory storyline very well (ie. familial acceptance, wider community acceptance, personal acceptance by allowing yourself to be yourself). My mutual have been spammed with numerous songs that I have choreographed duets to for these two already and I would just absolutely love to see it.
Noodlemoon being confirmed. I am very vocally a Noodlemoon truther and I adore those two together. Buster's chaos to Eddie's chill would work so well and it makes the most sense for me when it comes to potential partners for either of them.
More scenes of the troupe being a family. They act like a family already and I love the snippets we see, but I would love to see more of their group dynamic. Like Mrs. Crawly is essentially Johnny's grandma at this point, Rosita being the troupe mom, Gunter being a chaotic uncle.
The gang being a family. These boys are my absolute favourite characters. They're adorable together already but I really want Johnny to call Stan and Barry his uncles. Or have Marcus refer to Nooshy as Johnny's sister (feel like that one could be slipped in easily). Marcus is an amazingly good dad to Johnny after the whole disownment thing was patched up and it's clear that whatever mandated therapy they went to is working wonders so I want more scenes of them together (and hopefully Johnny doing more questionable things, like please, let the boy pick a lock).
Gunter getting a conflict. Now, I'm not saying drag Gunter through personal hell. He has done that enough in shorts. But he hasn't faced a personal conflict in any movie yet and is the only troupe member to not do so. I think it's about time we get more of an insight into his character and I think this would be an amazing opportunity.
Things I Don't Want To See (Please No Illumination, Please No):
I swear, do not kill off Nana, Hobbs, Clay, or Mrs. Crawly. They're the oldest cast members, I know. You want more character development, I know. If you kill any of them off however, I will personally lead the revolt. They are all immortal now.
Bring back Mike. I hate him. Just straight up. He bullies a kid!!! That goes for Klaus too and Jimmy. They are irredeemable villians. You bring them back, I protest in front of your studio offices. They all deliberately hurt people, two of which used abuse of power as well. Just NO.
Create a love triangle? Jail. I hate love triangles. Partially due to it typically actually being a lover corner (two people interested in one person instead of the actual intricacies of a triangle), mainly because it's stupid. It's overplayed, in nearly every film saga it seems, and are always pretty pointless. I just do not like them in the slightest and will cry if I have to sit through one.
Do not put Buster in jail. I know we joke about the amount of felonies that man has committed but at this point, if he goes to jail, the legal system in their universe will be busy for the next century. Also, none of the teens need extra trauma. Just leave them be.
If y'all destroy one of the best queer allegories I have ever seen by giving Johnny a canon female romantic partner, I will start a fucking revolution. I literally study cultures and films and character coding, ok? Like that's my whole field of study. Johnny's story being a queer allegory is so important to me. Not only is it incredably realistic in my opinion (I cry at the disownment scene because something very similar was said to me when I came out), but almost every other queer personI talk to how has watched these movies picked up on the allegory and loves it as well. It's very well written and not subtle in a good way. It's great for starting conversations about LGBTQIA+ characters in media. ...Also, he's apparently based on Elton John according to my friend that has the character book, and I'm pretty sure Elton John would be pissed if you fucked that up.
Though, I feel like I should make a disclaimer here. My first few fandoms that I was raised in have taught me how to be an expert at ignoring canon (special shout out to Supernatural in particular). Just because it happens in a movie, doesn't mean I'm going to put that in my works. I'm a fanfic writer after all. I write what I want to happen, not necessarily what does happen according to canon.
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