Torn Apart • TWD

Chapter 16 - death wish

Tessa is looking at the three men before her in disdain, despite them just saving her from probably being killed. None of the adults know what to do, neither Glenn nor T-Dog know the girl or how to interact with her, and Daryl was under strict order from Rick not to be aggressive or Daryl-like with her, so they all just stay silent.

The girl didn't know how to react either, her natural reaction was to be hostile, but the guns made her second guess that decision. Still on the floor, she settles on just glaring at them with hatred.

"Why are you here?" The child asks in a rough voice while picking herself up, mindful of her injured calf.

Glenn's looking at the ground with his hands in his pockets, trying to be invisible, and T-Dog is looking around as if someone will suddenly appear and say everything that's needed to calm the girl. Daryl didn't even try to come up with a response, following Ricks's wish of not scaring her off.

"We've uh, been looking for you?" Glenn says unsurely after no one says anything for a moment, looking to T-Dog to help him but he only shrugs at the man's silent plea.

"Hijo de puto," Tessa curses under her breath, "Why? Because I know where your prison is? Should've just let them finish me off," she points to the bodies, one of them already coming back as a corpse leading to Daryl instantly shooting him in the face.

"We're not here to hurt you, we want you to come with us," T-Dog reassures,

"That's what they said too, now look at me," the girl says referring to his no harm deal, before she gestures to her left leg, giving them a view of the blood blemishing her jeans and falling onto her boots, luckily her shoes are too tight to let any of the blood fall in; Tessa would have gone on a rampage if it had gotten into her boots.

Upon seeing her injury, T-Dog tries to take a step forward to help, but the child instantly matches his step with an even bigger one backwards. Tessa is weaponless at the moment, her knife is in the chest of one of the men she killed while running and her arrows are scattered, they had fallen out her bag the first time she was tackled, and after hitting one of them in the face with her bow they had thrown it, making it land behind where the three are standing.

"If you come with us, Hershel can fix your leg," Glenn says in a soft tone until another one of the bodies rises, and Daryl once again shoots it.

With the crossbow taking her attention, she remembers the deal they made and how the weapon was a part of that deal, she may not have the food and medicine, but she can take the crossbow, "That's mine."

When the girl's finger points at the weapon in his hands, Daryl's grip tightens till his knuckles turn white, there is no way in hell that he is letting the little shit touch his crossbow again.

Once the two men see that Daryl is reloading his weapon, T-Dog quickly puts his hand where the bolt goes to stop the process while Glenn takes a step forward to become a human wall, stopping Daryl from shooting and stopping the girl from seeing Daryl wants to shoot her.

"We just want to help you," Glenn says to try to distract the girl from what he's almost certain she saw, and by the look on her face, she doesn't seem surprised at the hunter's actions.

"We have food and security," the girl doesn't look convinced, more annoyed. Glenn is starting to grasp at straws which makes him blurt out, "There's weapons for you to play with."

T-Dog just rolls his eyes at the man's tactic and starts talking about the one thing Rick said to tell her which Glenn had definitely forgotten, "Judith needs your help."

"Why should I care any of you need help?" Tessa questions, not knowing who the man is referring to.

"Judith is the baby," he rectifies. That made Tessa pause, first of all; Judith? At least it's not a boring name, pretty cute. Tessa can live with knowing that's not a bad name, then she won't have to take the baby from Rick for child abuse — yes, that is what Tessa thinks child abuse is, along with giving your kid a bad haircut, she was just waiting for the police to come when her dad wonkily cut her hair when she was five — secondly, she can't help wondering what kind of help the baby could need.