Chapter Thirty-Four

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Carl and I stood guard at the front gate, most of the Alexandrians left to the bunker for the night, including Judith. I looked at Carl, "You're sweating." I commented, "Yeah, It's really hot out here at night." I wiped the beads of sweat off of his face. Michonne walked up, "I'm leaving to go get Rick, Tessa come here." I climbed down the ladder, she looked at me, "I've noticed that I'm the only ones using the pads." She whispered. I looked at her, "What?" "How late are you." I looked down, my heart racing, "I don't remember, it's been a bit." I whispered, my voice cracking. She handed a box to me, I looked at it,

FIRST RESPONSE: PREGNANCY TEST. KNOW IN JUST 5-10 MINUTES.

I swallowed thickly, "I'm no-"

"Just incase." She whispered. I stuffed the box in my jacket, nodding. She drove out of the gates, quickly, shortcutting throw the path we made. I shut the gate behind her. "I'll be back." I yelled to Carl. He nodded. Quickly I ran behind the nearest house, my hands grew clammy as I looked at the box. "It'll be fine, Tess." I whispered to myself, opening the box. I took the pregnancy test out of it.

Tears brimmed my eyes as I pulled down my pants. I heard the metallic clambering against the fence. I quickly hurried up, stuffing the test into my jacket pocket. I ran quickly over to the gate, "You may be wondering why the hell your lookouts didn't sound the alarm." My heart pounding until I saw Carl ducked down. I climbed the ladder, "I-I thought-"

"See, we are polite. I mean, I don't know when they're gonna wake up from that kinda shot, but they should wake up. So let's just cut through the cow shit, you lose." I gripped his face, "Carl you're burning up."

"I'm fine, Tessa. I promise." He whispered.

"It's over." Negan continued, "So you're gonna line up in front of your little houses, and you're gonna work up some apologies and then the person with the lamest one is gonna get killed. Then I kill Rick in front of everyone and we move on. You have three, count 'em, three minutes to open this gate, or we start bombing the shit out of you!"

The Alexandrians rushed to the sewers, or the bunker as we liked to call it. They began to whistle. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. Carl and I stood up. Negan chuckled. "Oh ho ho holy shit! Everybody hold your fire." The gun that we're once pointed at us, were pointed down at the ground. "It's Carl and Tessa."

"Look at you two. Answering the door like a big boy and a big girl. I am so proud. Daddy's not home, huh? Well, I guess he's gonna get back to a big old smoky surprise."

"We have children here, Negan. We have babies, mothers expecting. We have families." I said.

"Well, that shit just breaks my heart. There's kids at the Sanctuary. You two must've seen them. Even had a little baby at one of the outposts. I wonder what happened to her." He paused, "None of this shits fair, kids. Hell, you know that. You had to kill your own mom." I gulped, harshly. "That is screwed up. Ergo, we need someone in charge who's willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that shit doesn't happen."

Negan chuckled, "Oh-ho, wait. That's me."

"Bad stuff does happen but we can figure this out." Carl said weakly. I gazed at him. "We can stop this."

"Oh, now you want to talk? See, your dad has it that I died, no matter what. He gave my people a choice. Not me." I began tearing up, "That's Rick, we're not Rick." I said.

"Well, either way, we're gonna need a new understanding. Apologies, punish-"

"Kill me." Carl said. I looked at him. My heart sinking. I couldn't imagine a world without my Carl Grimes in it. There was a long pause.

"What did you say?" Negan asked.

"If you have to kill someone, if there has to be punishment, then kill me." "No," I whispered.
"I'm serious." Carl ignored me.

"You wanna die?" Negan asked. My heart pinging. Everything hurted. "No, I don't, but I will. It's gonna happen and i-if me dying could stop this, if it can make things different, for us, for you, for all those other kids, it'd be worth it." A single tear fell from my eyes, dripping down my face.

"I mean, was this the plan? Was it supposed to be this way? Is this who you wanted to be?" I asked Negan, I looked down, shaking my head, wiping the tears, looking back up at Negan.
Cars whipped around turning out. Carl quickly took my hand and we booked it down the ladder. "Go to the bunker, Tessa." He said, "No, Carl, I'm going to help you." I argued back. He sighed, "You're a real persistent pain in my ass, you know that right?" I pressed a quick peck on his lips, "I know. Split up and meet at the sewers. I love you." I whispered. "I love you." As soon as we split away from each other bombs bursted through the air, hitting the houses.

I began throwing smoke bombs on the ground. The church engulfed in flames. I gulped. Throwing more smoke bombs, tears brimming my eyes as I watch Alexandria go up in flames. I heard a growl, a walker. I gripped my knife, looking around at every pin point. Next thing I knew it came out of nowhere, throwing me to the ground. I grunted, holding it away from me with one hand as I gripped my knife, plunging it in the walkers skull. It's blood splattered onto my face. I quickly pushed it off of me. Scanning the ground and I saw it. The test laid on the ground. I picked it up, examining the tiny screen.

PREGNANT

I gulped harshly, tears fell from my eyes. I tucked the test in my pocket. I felt myself getting queasy. I wanted to scream and cry but I continued to the sewer. Killing Negan's men on the way. I watched as the Maggie's House exploded. Tears flooding down my cheeks as I screamed, "No!" I yelled. Everything was falling apart. Everything was ending.

I found myself outside of the sewer entrance, quickly I went down the ladder. I smiled. I saw Daryl holding Judith, tears brimming his eyes. My smile fading when everyone refused to look at me.

It's like it happened in slow motion. I slowly walked further into the sewers to see Carl, laying on a cot, sweating like crazy. His face pale. I rushed to his side, "C-Carl?" I asked, "Did you get shot?" He shook his head, "No, I-." He coughed violently, "No." I whispered, tears dropping from my eyes. "No."

He lifted his shirt, a bandage wrapped around is abdomen. He pulled the bandage down a bit, a bite mark. "No." I sobbed. "No." "Hey, Hey, Hey." Carl said, "I'm fine, I'll be fine." I was crying uncontrollably, he put his hand on my cheek. "Tessa Ann, I love you." He whispered.

"Carl Grimes, I love you." I whispered back, sniffling. My hand reached into my jacket pocket, I scanned for the test, handing it to him. He read it, a smile appeared on his face. "I can't do this without you." I whispered, "I know, I can't do this without you."

"You'll have my dad, Michonne, Maggie." He whispered back. Rick and Michonne walked up behind me, "Carl." Rick said, his voice cracking. Carl tucked his hand in my pocket, placing the test back in there. His hand never letting go of mine. His breathing began to shallow. Rick sat on the other side of him.

"When Tessa and I went back to get Siddiq, That's how it happened." He said softly, showing Rick and Michonne the walker bite. My eyes tested up. Michonne dropped to her knees, letting out a shuddered breath. Rick looked unsure of what to do. Carl weakly smiled at us. I let out a shaky breath.

Rick and Michonne broke out into sobs.

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