Torn Apart • TWD

Chapter 31 - cookies

"How are you feeling?" Martinez approaches the child lying on the sofa and snuggled under a blanket, she has just finished her third cup of water and second sandwich — an actual sandwich, not one of Merle's pathetic creations.

About an hour has passed since Martinez had carried her to the Governor's house and so far, the girl has not spoken a word. Everyone is set on finding Michonne and luckily they're too preoccupied with searching than asking the hostage what happened.

The man has visited her three times so far, always checking in between his tasks. He hasn't found someone to watch her yet since she has spent most of the hour catching up on some well-needed sleep, which is when he had draped a blanket over her, and now he's asking around for someone to sit with her.

"Wanna talk about it?" He falls back on the other end of the couch by her feet, tired from the day and doing his best to keep awake.

Tessa shakes her head and he accepts the answer without pushing for a verbal response. She's trying to seem traumatised by what happened, so the longer she doesn't talk the longer she has to make another plan.

But so far no ideas have come, this town is going to be more secure than ever before since Michonne's escape, they probably won't let the child out of their sight again since they have assumed she ran off during the fight and got herself held hostage.

"Doctor Stevens tried to come by earlier when you were asleep, but we didn't want to wake you. She's busy now, but can she take a look at that arm later?" She nods at the request, bringing her arm out from under the cover at the reminder. It is still red and stiff, but the pain has dulled, Martinez looks curiously at the swollen wrist, "Did that woman do that?"

She shakes her head and he easily finds another answer, "Merle?" He drops his head once she nods, the man has far too much to deal with today.

He takes a deep breath and rubs his face, the list of tasks that need to be done before he can even think of rest is overwhelming. "Do you want another sandwich?"

"Full," she shakes her head then her eyes widen at the mistake. Apparently, she's not very good at staying quiet.

Martinez smiles at her, relieved that she said something as he was starting to worry. A knock on the door interrupts him when he opens his mouth to speak, so he tiredly gets up as Tessa scolds herself at the slip-up.

She sits up from her lying position and puts her legs up to her chest then wraps the blanket around her whole body, with only her face visible as the same lady who pissed off Michonne walks in behind Martinez.

"Hi," the woman smiles, "How are you feeling?" She takes a seat where Martinez previously was as the man plops onto the chair across from them.

The child just shrugs her shoulders and the woman sympathetically looks at her, thinking of how scared she must be after what happened.

"I'm Andrea. And you're Vega," she states, "I've heard a lot about you." Tessa frowns and narrows her eyes in confusion, to which the woman shrugs, "Philip told me about you when you arrived."

The use of the Governor's name still sounds wrong, and this woman must be important to Woodbury if not even Martinez and Merle call him that, despite the two being the first he goes to for trouble. She hasn't met Andrea before, the girl is wondering where she has been during the time she has been here and how this woman fits in with Michonne, she can't be that high up if she didn't even know Michonne was a prisoner.

Andrea had a gun in her holster earlier so she could be one of the soldiers, but Tessa dismisses that since she hasn't seen a girl soldier yet and probably would've noticed her in the doctor's office when they were all clustered in together.