The Next Day
//Tess's POV
I watched Carl as he traced circles in my forearm with his thumb as we sat against a log in the woods.
"Have you been working on it?" he asked solemnly, referring to my problem.
Sniffling a little, I nodded. "Yeah," I lied.
"What about you?" I asked, lightly brushing the bandage that covered his eye with my thumb. "Have you showed anyone else?"
He shook his head, suddenly finding his work boots really interesting.
"Carl, it's nothing you need to be insecure about," I reminded him.
He nodded a little, sighing.
After a moment, he chuckled.
"I guess it would be kinda hard for me to be a writer now," he noticed.
My eyes widened. "You wanted to be a writer?" I exclaimed in surprise.
Cracking up, he nodded. "Stupid childhood dream."
I laughed with him. "Don't worry," I told him. "I wanted to be an actress."
I could almost see tears coming out of Carl's eye from how hard he was laughing.
I shoved his arm playfully. "Shut up," I got out in between laughing.
Finally, we were both able to calm down, and that's when I heard crackling coming from my walkie talkie.
I picked it up as I started to hear a voice coming from it.
"Tess," the voice that I recognized to be Beta's said. "You there?"
"Hey, Beta," I responded. "Yeah, what's up?"
Carl watched me curiously.
"You should probably come back," Beta said. "Your mom's getting worried."
I sighed in disappointment. I could see Carl's face fall slightly, too.
"Yeah," I finally consented. "Okay. I'll be back in a few."
I looked over at my boyfriend as I put the walkie talkie away.
"I'm sorry," I told him sincerely. "My mom can be a real dick."
He breathed out a laugh. "It's not you fault. Can I walk you back?"
I smiled a little. "Yeah," I responded. "Sure."
He got up and offered me his hand, which I took.
We started back to my camp when we heard a loud explosion coming from behind us.
I covered my head as an automatic reaction before Carl and I both turned around in shock.
We were stunned to see Alexandria starting to catch on fire. All I could hear were gunshots and screams.
I looked to the entrance to see trucks pulling in. The one that really stood out to me was already parked and black.
"Negan," I breathed in horror.
Carl looked at me sharply. "Negan?" he repeated.
As I stared up at him, I could see him put the pieces together. Why I came to Alexandria and wanted to see the armory. Why I met with Negan yesterday.
Anger covering his face, he scoffed at me before bolting towards his home.
"Carl, I didn't tell him anything!" I shouted. "Carl!"
When he didn't listen to me, I sighed in frustration and fear, I took off after him.
I was 4 or 5 yards away from the gate when I felt something hit the side of my head, causing me to fall to the ground.
My ears ringing from the blow, I struggled to get up, but a hand pressed down on my back, keeping me on my stomach.
I felt the cold barrel of a gun be pressed against my temple and soon felt hot breath waft my face.
"You screwed up," a voice whispered.
I recognized the voice to be Negan's.