Deadland

Chapter 102- Murder Mystery

(TW!! Mentions of Bolemia and drug usage!!)

"I have an idea." I announce to Alyssa, sitting in front of her on the picnic table. 

She and Inejra look at me confusedly, "Oh god." Alyssa whispers, setting her spoon down. 

I grab my backpack from the ground and set it on the table, their confused faces becoming even more confused. 

"Y'know how I've always wanted to be covered in tats?" I start, smirking gently. 

Alyssa narrows her eyes, "Mhm?" 

"Well," After rummaging in my backpack, I find a folded-up sheet of paper and hand it to Alyssa. "Y'know how you're a freaky good artist?" Her eyes widen when she opens the paper and sees the picture she drew of us when I took her hunting for the first time. 

She scans each pencil line, as if trying to memorize it so she never forgets it. "You kept this?" 

"Hell yeah, I did." I say with a straight face though my muscles are loosened. She smiles widely and allows me to continue. "Well, back at the prison, before I became a fuckin' amputee," 

She sighs, "Before you lost your leg doing something for the rest of the group." 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I use my hand to wave her words off. "Michonne found this," I pull out a packaged, battery-powered tattoo gun with seven ink casings. "On her run and gave it to me. Haven't been able to use it." 

Alyssa raises her eyebrows- attempting to raise only one like I do but ultimately failing. "You want me to tattoo this picture onto you?" 

I shake my head, "No- well if you want. But, whenever you feel like purging, you can doodle on me with that. My only request is that you do something related to Glenn or Abraham at least once." I poke the tattoo gun. 

Alyssa quickly looks at me, "What if I mess up?" 

I tilt my head in annoyance, "You actually think I would give a fuck?" 

She smiles and shakes her head, looking back down at the picture. "You really need to clean out your backpack." 

I scoff and grab the picture and the tattoo gun back, "I know, and it's a deal." 

Inejra scoffs and sets her eggs down, "Shit, Adri, 's a commitment there." 

I shrug, "I've made worse commitments. I'd rather have her doodles tattooed on me by her hand than anyone else here." I sling my backpack over my shoulder and stand up, "You better come to me now." 

She nods, "Pinky promise." When she holds out her pinky, I wrap mine around her's and we both kiss our thumbs to "seal it".

"Inejra, you can do it too." I smirk at Inejra's nonchalant face. 

She rolls her eyes, "Only if I'm that bored." 

I scoff, "I've seen the drawings you and Anne have made..." My voice trails off as I see Maggie walking up to the group, her steps strong and purposeful- something's heavy on her mind. 

Damn it.

Without excusing myself, I quickly walk over to her. "Dude, what's up?" 

She sighs and puts her hands on her hips, "Someone killed a Savior, Justin." 

I straighten up at her words, "You know it was murder?" 

She nods, "Shot in the back." 

"Damn, that's not gonna go over well. They're not gonna be happy."