Beyond Terminus (Book Two)

Chapter 40: Clean

Awesome Fanart by Trigger_Finger <3

The gates slide open, allowing Aaron to help Eric inside. We remain cautious, our weapons ready.

Something crashes behind us and we all jump. Daryl shoots the thing and it lets out a squeak. He moves to it and grabs it by the tail, revealing the creature to be a possum. His arrow remains impaled in its furry body.

There's another guy at the gate now, and he eyes us with distaste.

"We brought dinner," Daryl says, lifting his catch a little.

There's another pause, and Aaron pipes up. "It's ok. Come on in, guys."

We slowly head into the gates. Once we're all inside, they slide shut with a metallic squeak.

"Before we take this any further, I need all of you to turn over your weapons. You stay, you hand them over," the guy from before says.

"We don't know if we want to stay," Rick says.

"It's fine, Nicholas," Aaron whispers.

"If we were gonna use them, we would've started already," Rick points out.

"Let them talk to Deanna first," Aaron suggests.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham asks.

"She knows everything you'd want to know about this place," he replies. "Rick, why don't you start?"

A growl sounds from behind us and we look back.

"Sasha," Rick says.

Sasha nods, raising her gun and taking out the lone walker with a small popping sound. The second layer of the gate is slid shut, and Rick looks around again.

"Good thing we're here," he murmurs.

----------

We're led to a house, where Rick is sent inside to talk to Deanna. Aaron looks to each of us, smiling pleasantly.

"If you'd like, we can show you to the houses," he offers. We all glance to each other, shrugging. "We'd like each of you to talk to Deanna too, so we can set up jobs for you to do...if you plan on staying, that is."

"We'll look at the houses once Rick comes back out," I say.

Everyone else nods, and Aaron clasps his hands together.

"Then, just relax. I'll help you out then."

We wait until Rick comes back, and we head to the building where the weapons are held.

"You're allowed to keep knives and bows, but the guns are kept in a separate place. Just a precaution," Aaron explains as we walk.

A cart is rolled out once we arrive. A pleasant looking woman stands beside it, giving us a tight lipped smile.

"They're still your guns," she says as we place our various weapons on to the cart. "You can check them out whenever you go beyond the wall. But inside here, we store them for safety."

I put my pistol on the pile, keeping my knife at my side. Everyone else follows suit, and I almost laugh at how many guns we actually have. Carol places her large gun on the pile last, and the woman adjusts her glasses and lets out a breathy laugh.

"I'll need another bin for that one," she comments jokingly as she rolls the cart away.

Carol smiles at her, and Rick nods to all of us. Aaron leads us away to check out the houses.