"Hey. Everyone?" Maggie called out as she entered the barn. Eloise, who was slumped against one of the wooden pillars, slightly lifted her head up and watched as Maggie walked in with Sasha and a man she didn't recognize.

"This is Aaron."

Eloise slowly reached for her knife as everyone else was practically ready to shoot the man on spot.

"We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear." Maggie said as Daryl walked up to the man, patting him down before nodding his head once he knew Aaron was clear.

"Hi. It's nice to meet you." Aaron said as he went to step closer to Rick. Everyone put their weapons up higher making Aaron stop as Rick quickly handed Judith to Carl.

"You said he had a weapon on him." Rick said and Maggie nodded, handing him a small gun before he turned to Aaron again. "There something you need?"

"He said he has a camp nearby. He wants us to audition for membership." Sasha said, obviously annoyed as Eloise tried to cough back her chuckle. Tara quickly shoved Lou's shoulder and she finally composed herself.

"Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights."

Eloise quickly tried to bite back her smile but it kept growing as she leaned over to Carl. "Is he serious?" Carl shook his head, an aggravated sigh coming out of his mouth. "God, I hope not."

Aaron, realizing Eloise was the only one liking his jokes, he shook his head and turned to Daryl. "Um. It's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would be valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home." Aaron explained.

"I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into." He said once he realized still no one believed him.

"Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack? Front pocket, there's an envelope." Sasha slowly handed to bag to Rick as he searched for the envelope. "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. We just found an old camera store last-" "Nobody gives a shit." Daryl quickly interrupted, growing annoyed with the man.

Eloise looked over Rick's shoulder, looking at a picture of what looked like huge gates. "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."

"This walls are huge." Carl let out in awe as he leaned over to look at the photos with Eloise. Rick, hearing the two, looked up at the and handed off half the pills to the two.

They quickly leaned in closer to each other, flipping through all the photos of a town. It has huge walls to keep away walkers, a pond filled with water and nice two story houses that you can only really picture in movies. Eloise turned to Tara, confusion taken over her face as she gestured the photos to the woman. How could this place still be around?

Eloise hadn't been listening to the conversation happening in the barn, she was too entranced with flipping through the photos as if she examined them fast enough, she could see a sign telling her the photos are fake.

POW!

Eloise quickly looked up at the loud noise. Right where Aaron was once standing was now Rick standing over him while the poor man laid unconscious. "Well, damn. You knocked his ass out." Eloise breathed out, only a few people hearing her words yet Carl and Tara were the only ones finding them amusing, both of them putting their hands over their mouths to cover their giggles.

"So, we're clear, that look wasn't a "let's attack that man" look. It was a "he seems like an okay guy to me" look." Michonne seethed to Rick. "We got to secure him. Dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is." Rick said, handing Eloise the bag a little too roughly making her grunt as it hit her chest.

Carl let out a little airy laugh but quickly shut up at the harsh glare Eloise sent him. Carl took the bag from Eloise and leading her to the table to empty the bag. After emptying out a few bottles of water, cans of food and some loose paper, Carl pulled out an orange gun. "I've never seen a gun like this before." Carl mumbled and Eloise shook her head, taking the gun from him.

"That's cause it's a flare gun." Eloise whispered as Carl's brows furrowed. "How did you know that?" Eloise felt a faint smile come onto her lips, it always seemed to happen when she thought of her brother. "Jasper was a deputy. Before all this. He kept telling me not to mess with it. But then he told me it was like a big firework and I wanted to use it more."

"I hope I can meet him someday. Jasper." Carl muttered and Lou felt her smile grow wider as she nodded her head. "Yeah. Me too." Eloise looked up at Carl and they instantly locked eyes, blue meeting blue, as if for the very first time.

"What do we got?" A gruff voice, broke them apart. Eloise quickly shook her head to compose herself before handing Rick the flare gun. "We found a flare gun." Rick nodded his head, taking the gun and opening the chamber to see if it was empty.

Aaron started to wake up and Rick marched his way over to the man. "That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron dreamily said, not fully conscious. "Sit him up." Rick demanded.

Maggie and Michonne gently sat him up as Carl and Eloise crept over to the scene, not knowing what Rick was going to do. "You're being cautious. I completely understand."

"How many of your people are out there? You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?" Ricky growled but it didn't scare Aaron. "Does it matter?" "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?" Eloise scrunched her face up in confusion, not understanding what he was saying.

"I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say... eight... thirty-two... four hundred forty-four... zero. No matter what I say, you're not gonna believe me." Aaron said and Eloise let out a shaky breath.

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." Rick snapped.

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?" Aaron retorted quickly.

Eloise slowly turned to the waters they had emptied out, now filled with rain water. She snapped her head to Aaron in shock. "That was you?"

"How long you been following us?" Daryl grumbled and Aaron turned to face Eloise and Carl before looking at everyone else. "Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. To see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other. Your survivors and you're people."

"Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is most important resource in the world." Eloise looked down at her feet as she shifted her weight.

"How many others are out there?" Rick slowly asked, his voice low and threatening. "One." Aaron breathed out and laughed at Rick's bewildered face. "I knew you wouldn't believe me. What if I drove you to the community? All of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

"There's sixteen of us." Eloise quickly announced. "We drove separately. We wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us." Aaron explained as if he was ready for that question.

"And you parked a couple of miles away right?" Carol asked and Aaron eagerly nodded his head. "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."

Michonne walked up to Rick to decide what to do and it was finally decided.

The group would split up, half would go and look for the cars, the other would keep watch outside the barn in groups of two, each pair taking a side of the barn to watch over.

Carl and Eloise were partners, taking the back of the cabin. The two slumped up against the back wall, looking off at the trees staring right back at them.

"This looks like this campsite my dad took me and my mom to a few years back." Carl said as he looked at the trees. "My mom hated camping so when he suggested that that's what we do for Christmas, she lost her mind." Carl chuckled and Eloise turned to him, smiling at his big smile.

"I miss her." Carl muttered, tightening his jaw, making Eloise furrow her eyebrows. "You've never talked about your mom before."

"She was one of those school moms. Always volunteering to help in the class, baking cookies for a kids birthday, being friends with all the moms... She would've liked you." Carl smiled out and Eloise smiled back.

"She died though, back at our old place. There were too many walkers and we couldn't do a C-section in the place we were hiding. So we had to cut her open." Carl looked down and Eloise quickly scooted closer to him, gently grabbing his head and placing it on her shoulder. Carl pulled his knees into his chest and slowly brought his arm towards Lou's linking them together.

"Tell me a story." Carl mumbled but Eloise could barely hear him. "What?"

"You always tell me these happy stories about you and Jasper. Tell me another one."

Eloise smiled, resting her head on his and told him as many stories as he needed to hear.

...

By nightfall, the grow was on their way to Aaron's community. Eloise sat with Carl and Noah as they hit the highway. "Do you guys think this place is really all that? I mean... did you see the photos?" Eloise breathed out in astonishment.

"Lets hope so." Noah mumbled before getting more comfortable in his seat, drifting off into a sleep.

Eloise leaned her head back on the wall of the car and could hear moans of walkers on the other side. She furrowed her brows, walking towards one of the windows, the whole highway blocked with walkers. "Holy shit."

"Lou. Sit down." Rosita demanded from the passenger seat and Carol quickly grabbed Lou's wrist, pulling her into the spot next to her.

"Hold you asses. We're going for a ride." Abraham announced as the ride began to grow harsh and bumpy. Carol gripped onto Eloise shoulders to keep her from falling out of her seat. Eloise looked up, looking eyes with Carl and a now wide awake Noah.

"We're almost out!" Abraham screamed before a loud gunshot and a whizz went through the air. Eloise knew that noise, she shot out of her seat and gripped onto the back of the driver and passenger seat to see of she was right. A red streak from the flare gun went off in the sky. "Follow the flare." Eloise told Abraham. "What?"

"Trust me." Eloise said again and Abraham turned to Rosita who agreed with the girl. He grumbled a few curse words under his breath before following the flare.

Abraham pulled down an alleyway where a man stood by his car, waving around the flare to show he was the one that fired it.

One by one, the group walked out of the RV. "You with Aaron?" Daryl asked as he walked up to the man. He weakly nodded his head and Daryl grabbed his arm to pull him into the room but he hissed in pain, staring down at his foot. "Someone help me get this guy in." Daryl groaned and Tara quickly walked over to help him. "You got a name?"

"Eric."

...

Eloise waited by the door with Daryl and Carl for Rick, Michonne, Glenn and Aaron to show up. Daryl continued whistling into the alley, hoping to trail them over.

Once they got to the alley, Daryl turned to the group, telling them they're here and everyone quickly ran out of the room and into the alley.

As everyone hugged each other, Eloise noticed Aaron's nervousness. "Eric? Eric?" She slowly walked up to the man and gave him a reassuring smile. "He's inside."  Aaron gave her a quick smile before running inside. Rick seemed to notice Aaron's eagerness to go inside and walked up to Eloise. "Where's he going?"

Eloise felt herself cower under Rick's demanding glare. "Uh... the other person from his community, Erik." Rick nodded, placing a hand on Lou's shoulder as he walked passed her and into the room.

...

After setting up a sleeping bag on the ground, Eloise let out shaky breaths, keeping her eyes on the ceiling. "You okay?" Eloise turned her head and saw Carol watching her with concern.

"I'm fine. It's just... we're finding a new place. Not a house in the middle of the woods with only one room cleared but like a whole community." Eloise said, a huge smile on her face as Carol chuckled at her excitement, grabbing her hand. "Let's hope we are sweetheart."

—Alexandria shows up next chapter!!! sorry I just have to say ELOISE AND CARL ARE SO CUTE! and also ik Carol aint that nice to kids sometimes but we just gonna pretend. 🤚