TWD - Chapter 510: Shut Up, Spencer! (Patreon)

Deanna slowly raised her eyes. Her gaze moved first across Sasha and the others, then to Aaron’s still-shaken expression, and finally settled on her two sons.

“Captain Sasha, thank you for risking yourselves to search for them and bring this news back.”

After several moments of inner struggle, her instinct to preserve the community’s stability and prevent panic ultimately won out. She did her best to maintain the composure expected of Alexandria’s leader.

“Kenny and the others’ deaths are a tremendous loss for Alexandria. We’re all grieving.

“But... isn’t it too hasty to conclude from one horrific incident that there’s an extremely dangerous, organized group specifically threatening us?

“Virginia is enormous. Accidents can happen anywhere.

“Maybe, as Aiden said, this really was an extremely unusual accident. A walker horde, or perhaps some small group of drifters that had gone completely out of control?”

Sasha’s brow tightened sharply. The last trace of hope she had still held for this leader shattered in an instant.

She was about to speak when Tyreese gently put a hand on her arm and stepped forward.

“Ms. Deanna, I understand that you want to protect the stability of this community and keep everyone from living in fear.

“But we’ve come all the way from Georgia, and we’ve seen too many survivor settlements disappear. Walkers you can see are never the greatest threat. Turning a blind eye to danger before it reaches you is what gets people killed.

“What happened in that warehouse was not the work of crazed drifters or walkers. If you ignore this warning, the price could be all of Alexandria.”

Deanna was still wavering. “But...”

“Deanna, there is no ‘but.’” Aaron stepped out from behind Sasha. Dark brown stains still marked his jacket. His face was pale, but his eyes burned with emotion.

“I saw it with my own eyes. It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a walker horde... it was a massacre! Someone trapped them in there, slaughtered them like livestock, and then... then arranged their bodies!”

His voice grew more agitated with every word. “Those people took every weapon and left only the bodies. Sasha is right. That place... it’s only ten miles from us!”

“Aaron, I understand that you’re shaken,” Aiden said with a frown. “But under extreme fear, people can misinterpret what they see. Those marks might have been a coincidence...”

“It was not a coincidence!” Aaron’s voice suddenly rose. “Aiden, I know the difference between wounds from walker bites and wounds made by people with blades! Kenny was cut more than a dozen times. Pieces of him were everywhere! Do walkers kill people with knives?!”

Spencer clicked his tongue. “So what? Aaron, even if everything you said is true, what does that prove?

“Virginia is huge. Is it really that strange for one or two lunatics to be wandering around?

“Maybe they’ve already moved on. Maybe they don’t even know this place exists.

“Are we supposed to scare ourselves half to death and turn the community into a concentration camp over a ‘possibility’?”

He looked at Deanna and shook his head in exasperation. “Mom, Aaron’s a good guy, but he trusts people way too easily.

“These Rock Fortress people show up, and suddenly he’s running around with them. Now he believes everything they say.

“If you ask me, he got scared out of his mind and now he just wants some powerful group to hide behind.”

“Spencer!” Aaron’s face flushed red. “You...”

“Am I wrong?” Spencer cut him off. He sat up straight and slapped his palm against the coffee table. “You keep talking about crazed raiders outside. Where’s the evidence?

“Besides the few of you backing up each other’s story, what do you have? A photo? A weapon you brought back from the scene?

“Nothing!

“And based on a few frightening stories, you want the entire community put on alert, wasting manpower and supplies reinforcing walls that are already solid?”

His gaze swept over Sasha and Tyreese before settling on Aaron’s pale face, a mocking smile pulling at his mouth. “And with all of you so eager to play up this threat, it’s hard not to question your motives.

“When your ‘Ms. Calista’ arrives, are you going to tell us, ‘Only we can protect you,’ and then conveniently take over Alexandria’s supplies and manpower?

“That plot has been done to death in movies.”

Reg had always been easygoing, but listening to his son go further and further finally pushed him too far. He raised his voice sharply.

“Shut up, Spencer!”

Only then did Spencer grudgingly close his mouth.

Aiden, who had been somewhat shaken by Aaron’s outburst, stiffened again after hearing Spencer’s argument.

He glanced at Spencer, then lowered his voice as he spoke to Deanna. “Mom, Spencer isn’t entirely wrong. We do need to be careful.

“Aaron is a good man, but he’s too emotional, and...”

Aiden glanced toward Sasha’s silent squad. “We barely know these people.”

Deanna closed her eyes in pain and pressed her fingers to her temples.

Aaron’s testimony terrified her, but her sons’ doubts were not completely baseless either.

She was afraid to admit that the horrifying possibility might be real. More than that, she was afraid that the moment she admitted it, the “normal life” she had worked so hard to preserve would collapse.

As a mother, she could even understand Spencer’s almost cowardly refusal to accept it. He simply did not want to face what the world had become.

“Aaron.” When Deanna opened her eyes again, her voice had softened. “I believe you saw some... terrible things. But as Aiden said, we need more concrete evidence. We have a responsibility to the entire Alexandria community.

“How about this? We wait until Rock Fortress’s leader arrives. Then our two sides can hold a formal meeting, put all the information on the table, and assess it together.

“Until then, we’ll quietly increase the night patrols, but we won’t make this public yet. I don’t want to cause a panic. All right?”

Aaron opened his mouth. Then he saw the avoidance in Deanna’s eyes, Spencer’s smug expression that seemed to say I told you so, and Aiden sitting straighter again, already preparing himself for a “rational negotiation.”

A deep sense of helplessness washed over him.

He remembered the horrific state of his companions in the warehouse, took a defeated half step back, and said nothing more. He only gave Sasha an apologetic, helpless look.

Sasha stared at Deanna for a full five seconds. Then, without saying a word, she turned and walked out.

The others followed close behind, their boots leaving a trail of muddy prints across the polished wooden floor.

As the door closed, Spencer’s lazy voice drifted out from inside. “See, Mom? The moment we exposed what they were really after, they got angry and stormed off. What can these people do besides scare us?”

Then came Reg’s exasperated voice. “Enough, both of you!”

Aiden had already started trying to persuade Deanna. “Mom, when that ‘Ms. Calista’ gets here, we need to talk seriously about trade terms. I’ve heard Rock Fortress has a lot of supplies. Maybe we can trade some of our excess stock for...”

Spencer cut in. “Aaron, you and Eric know Sasha and the others. You should be there too. Stay calm this time. Don’t let your emotions take over.”

Aaron did not answer.