In a world ruled by fear, survival comes with a price.
When her brother's attempt to overthrow the Saviors fails, Tessa finds herself under Negan's watchful eye-protected, controlled, and dangerously close to the man she should hate. As violence, po...
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The door closed behind her, and the echo followed Tessa all the way down the hall. She didn't look back. She didn't let herself. The Sanctuary corridors were dim and cold as dawn finally broke outside. She kept her head down, weaving past Saviors who stared but didn't speak.
By the time she reached the loading bay exit, her chest felt too tight. She pushed open the heavy metal door and stepped out into the early morning air.
The world hit her all at once.
Growls. Moans. The sickening drag of rotted limbs across asphalt. Walkers still crowded the yards outside the Sanctuary, pressing against the fences, crushed against barriers, crawling over one another. The night's chaos hadn't cleared them. If anything, more had wandered in.
Her breath hitched.
Maybe she should've stayed with Negan.
That thought slammed into her harder than she expected—sudden, unwelcome, embarrassing. She pushed it away immediately, jaw tightening.
No. She left. She made her choice.
And she wasn't going back.
Tessa skirted the outer fence, avoiding broken gates and loose walkers reaching between bars. She moved quiet, fast, slipping through a narrow gap on the side where the chain link was bent upward. She crawled under, ignoring the scrape of metal against her back.
Once she was out, she didn't look back at the Sanctuary. She didn't let herself picture Negan opening the door behind her. Didn't let herself imagine him watching her leave. Didn't let herself admit a part of her hoped he had.
She headed toward the woods, keeping low, keeping quiet. Frost clung to the grass, crisp under her boots. Her breath fogged in the air. Every sound felt too loud. She made it ten minutes before the first walker found her.
It stumbled from behind a fallen tree, arms out, jaw hanging by a strip of flesh. Tessa lifted her knife but hesitated—not out of fear, but exhaustion. Everything from the 24 hours slammed into her all at once.
Negan's voice ran through her mind unexpectedly.
"Don't die out there."
She gritted her teeth, grabbed the walker by the collar, and drove her blade up through its jaw. It crumpled. She wiped her knife on her jeans and kept moving. Another minute. Another two.
Her heartbeat slowed. Her breathing steadied.
Maybe she shouldn't have left.
The thought came quieter this time, threading into the cold air. She shoved it down hard.
She didn't leave for him. She left for Rick. For Carl.
The trees thinned, turning into a narrow trail. She followed it for an hour before reaching an old wooden bridge. The boards bowed under her weight. Water rushed beneath, dark and cold.
Halfway across, she heard the moans.
Walkers crawled out from underneath the bridge, clawing at her boots. One grabbed her pant leg and she nearly fell.
"Shit—"
She sprinted, boots slipping, legs burning. She leapt over a gap and crashed to her knees on the other side. A walker lunged up behind her. She rolled out of the way and scrambled up the embankment, grabbing dead grass and roots until she reached solid ground.
Her chest heaved.
She almost wished Negan were here.
Almost.
She pushed that down too.
By afternoon, she reached the road. The sun crawled across the sky while she trudged through mud and gravel. Her stomach growled. Her throat burned. Her cut arm throbbed. She found an overturned car and climbed inside to rest. The interior was stale, cold, suffocating. She leaned back in the passenger seat and closed her eyes for a moment.
Her mind betrayed her instantly.
Negan grabbing her jacket. Negan's hands ripping the walker off her. Negan yelling her name like he meant it.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
"I don't have time for this," she muttered.
A soft clicking sound made her freeze. She turned her head and nearly cursed. A walker was wedged between the front seats, pinned under the steering wheel. Its jaw snapped inches from her leg.
She scrambled out the back window, slicing her arm deeper on a shard of glass. Blood ran warm down her skin.
"Perfect," she hissed under her breath.
She wrapped her sleeve around it and kept going.
Hours passed. The sky darkened.
She reached a wide field—open, exposed. Of course. A small herd of walkers shuffled across the grass.
Of course.
She crouched, looking for a way around.
Her fingers trembled again—cold, exhaustion... and that creeping whisper of regret.
Negan would've gotten us through this.
She cursed under her breath and shoved the thought back where it belonged.
She was not going to depend on him. She was not going to think about him. She was not going to need him.
She smeared mud mixed with old rot across her coat. The smell made her gag.
"God, this is disgusting."
Still, she stepped into the herd. Walkers brushed her arms, grazed her coat, moaned inches from her ear. Her heart hammered so hard it physically hurt.
Just keep walking.
She made it to the trees on the far side and almost collapsed, but forced herself onward. Every muscle burned. Her stomach cramped. Her vision blurred around the edges.
But she didn't stop.
She walked until the sun dipped just below the clouds.
Then—finally—
She saw the tall metal walls of Alexandria.
Her breath hitched.
She was home.
By the time she reached the gate, her legs were shaking. Her arm was bleeding again. Mud and walker guts dried on her jacket. A silhouette appeared on the guard tower.
"Tessa?!"
Tara's voice broke through the quiet night.
"Holy shit—open the gate! Open it now!"
The metal doors groaned as they swung open. Tara rushed toward her.
"Oh my God—Tessa—what happened? Where were you? We though you were—"
Tessa swallowed hard.
"I need Rick," she rasped. "Now."
Tara nodded and sprinted toward the houses. Tessa stood alone in the dark, chest aching, clothes filthy, hands trembling.
Alive.
Barely.
And for one stupid, fleeting second, she wondered if Negan was still pacing around his room... worrying she hadn't made it. She shook the thought off violently.
No more thinking about him.
Not now.
Not when everything was about to fall apart. She took one final breath and walked deeper into Alexandria, ready to face whatever waited inside.
Ready to face the world she was terrified she'd left for too long.
