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T W E L V E

The next day

A L E X A

My body rolled over, my eyes fluttering open. I had waken up next to Carl, which I was very happy about. The sun was barely up, I realized I never went home.

We were still cuddled up on the rooftop of this store. I sat up slowly, stretching my limbs.

"Well good morning." Carl's exhausted voice spoke. I smiled and looked down at him. "My dad is going to be pissed that I didn't come home." I chuckled.

"My dad probably thinks I'm dead." Carl sat up. He gave me a quick peck on the lips before standing up.

"Would you like me to walk you home?" He held a hand out to help me stand up. I placed my hand in his gently, standing up, my chest on his.

"I would love that." My feet leaned on my tiptoes, our lips touching one another again. The kiss went on for a few seconds until I pulled away.

"Words cannot describe how much I missed you." As I said this, his beautiful blue eye caught my brown ones.

"You are so beautiful, Alexa." Carl softly said. I grinned smally.

"Let's get going before my dad comes looking for me."

I moved to the edge of the roof, tight rope walking the small line of cement. I grabbed onto the sign that we used to climb up, and slid down it, Carl following my actions.

Once we were both on the ground, my hand slipped into his, our fingers lacing in between one another.

It was absolutely hushed the entire way down the long long road. It wasn't until we reached the woods I spoke.

"How's Maggie?" I questioned as we started to walk through the woods."I don't know actually. I haven't seen her. She's been staying at the hilltop recently." Carl shrugged.

I still felt so bad for what happened.

"Anything eventful happen lately?" I asked."No... everything has been- it's been silent. It's weird." He said softly.

"That's how it would be if the world was normal. I don't think I'd be able to handle it." I admitted.

"Me either... I'm so used to just- just being on edge. On alert. The smallest things would set me off into killer mode in the normal world." The leafs crunching under our feet were very loud.

"I'm just trained... my first instinct to footsteps would be to pull my gun out. It's like I want this to end, but I don't because I would be- I would be like a soldier coming home from the war... only worse... fucking severe ptsd." I mumbled.

"I get it. That's how we would all be." "I don't think I'd be able to get over the things I've done... the things I've seen." I confessed.

"We're killers." Carl muttered unhappily."We all are." I nodded softly.

My eyes only stared ahead. I had Carl's hand in my right, my knife in my left.

I heard extra crunches of leafs and I immediately turned my head to the source. 3 walkers.

"I knew it." I rolled my eyes. Carl and I let go hands."Let's do it." Carl pulled his knife out.

"Hey, over here!" I kicked some leafs up so they would turn their attention to us.

They snarled and started to stumble over.

"That's right... come on." Carl taunted. As one got close I grabbed its neck and sunk my blade into its skull.

Carl got the other one that got closer. The third one targeted me, limping towards me.

I slowly backed up, Carl then shoving his knife into its temple.

"Can't get enough." I sarcastically said."It's not like we have a choice." Carl breathed out.

It grew inaudible again.

It was that way for about 30 minutes until we drew closer and closer to my sanctuary, but we walked hand in hand, not daring to let each other's hand go.

"You should stop here, if my dad sees I didn't come home last night because of-" my voice was cut off by whistles.

Those whistles.

"Shit." I clenched my teeth, turning my head back and forth, seeing my people appear from the trees. I knew I was too late.

I grabbed Carl and put him behind my back, holding him there, even though it did nothing since we were surrounded.

"Alexa, you knew better. We had this discussion when you decided to cut things off with Alexandria. We had the agreement that it was no more of anyone from Alexandria since you cut the ties. That meant no more Carl." Dad had us surrounded.

"Dad this was the first and only time I saw him we just happened to run into each other. Let him go, he was just making sure I got home safe." Once I noticed he had Lucille, I began to panic. His intentions weren't to let him go.

I looked at Carl and noticed the glare on his face. Dad turned to Carl and slowly walked towards him, laughing.

"Oh man did your people just kill a few of mine last night? Did you know about it? You were distracting my daughter, weren't you? So your people could kill more of my people." He stared down at Carl. My brows furrowed, glancing over at Carl.

"I don't know shit. They don't tell me anything. You know that, I know that. We ran into each other when I was looking for clothes for my sister. I didn't know shit nor do shit, you just want trouble." Carl spat and put his chest out, buffing himself out.

"Rick won't be all too happy with me. Alexa, honey, it's time you learn something... something about loss." Dad grabbed Carl's shirt and forced him to his knees. (Get ya mind out of the gutter)

"Dad stop it. This isn't funny."The nervousness in my voice was present.

"Bring rick and the rest out."

Soon, rick, Daryl, michonne, Rosita, Tara, Aaron, father Gabriel, and Eric were brought out, ties around their mouths.

"You know rick, I really thought I was cutting you a break! It's been months and you just came back." Dad never once laid his eyes off of Carl.

"Alexa, we stick to our word, don't we?"Dad looked to me."Yes always but-"

"Then you understand... boys!" Dad snapped his fingers. I felt strong hands on my upper arms.

"What the fuck? Let go! What are you doing?" My body struggled to break free from this grasp. Simon and Dwight.

"Dad please, stop." I begged, trying to break free still. "I've got to teach you about great loss. What it's like to lose someone you love.. how to deal with it... I've got to teach rick a lesson." He grabbed Carl's hat and threw it to the ground.

"You and I both know I already know so much about it. Don't do this." He knew I knew. We lost everyone.

He wasn't going to kill him. I wouldn't allow it. I fought again and felt my eyes sting."Dad! What the hell is wrong with you?!" I raised my voice, I could feel a lump grow in my throat.

"I'm going to kill Carl now, rick. You can't stop me. You fucked up once again! Hell, I even left you alone! But you always have to fuck shit up for your people, don't you rick?"

"Dad stop it! Don't you dare!" I yelled. Carl's eye peered up at me. I could see he wasn't scared.

"It's okay." He mouthed. "Negan, Stop!" I screamed. Dad knows I'm super incredibly pissed when I call him that. I used all of my might to try and get to Carl, but Dwight and Simon were just too strong.

Dad looked at me with a look of sympathy. He was going to feel guilty.

Rick let out a muffled cry, trying to get to his son. My attention turned to him, seeing the tears falling from his eyes.

"Don't do it, negan. We don't kill kids. We- we- what would Mom say about this?!" I screamed out. Once I mentioned Mom, Dad gave me the look. The guilt look.

I knew he could see the worry on my face. Dad knew how much I loved Carl, he knew how much pain I'd be in if he was taken away from me.

"Please, don't do it, dad... p-please." A tear slipped down my cheek. I knew Dad felt guilty, but I also understood he needed rick to know.

Rick needed consequences, I just didn't want Carl to be one of them.

"Close your eyes, honey. I love you and hope you'll forgive me. I'm sorry, but rick has fucked up for the last time." He raised Lucille above Carl's head, cocking his arm back.

"Stop!" I screamed a high pitched, ear-piercing scream. Dad just raised Lucille higher... he was stalling. He was contemplating whether he was going to do it or not.

"I said stop!" I gritted my teeth.I grew the strength to push Dwight and Simon off, grabbing my gun quickly and shooting over dads head to warn him.

Dad didn't have enough time to react because out of nowhere, there was a loud roar, a fucking tiger pouncing on 2 of our men. My eyes widened.

"The Alexandria group will not fall! Not on this day!" I heard a shout and gunshots.

"Scatter!" Dad instructed, taking a gun out. Dwight and Simon tried to grab me again to take me to safety but I just pushed them back.

"You both are dead!" I yelled.

The kingdom and the hilltops had came to rescue alexandrians. Maggie and carol included.

I ran quickly and stealthily, hiding behind a tree. My heart was pounding, everything happened so fast.

I shot at people I didn't know, ones I knew I wouldn't have any remorse of killing.

"A fucking tiger!" I heard Dad call out.

As much as I was angry and upset that Dad tried to kill Carl, I still was scared for him, so I tried to look around for him through all of the mess.

I shot at anyone who got in my way.

Bullets flew through the air and I dodged any of them that came my way. I glanced over and noticed Carl was no longer on the ground, which gave me confidence that he was still alive.

But I was more worried about getting to my father. I sprinted towards another tree, but felt an excruciating pain in my left thigh, causing me to trip harshly and stumble to leafs, sticks, and dirt with a scream. My head forehead hitting a rock, but that wasn't the pain I focused on.

I rolled onto my back and dropped my gun next to me, looking down.

I let out a yelp, feeling my thigh throb. I knew I had just been shot, and it did not feel good.

My breathing turned rapid and rattle-y.

I whined, lifting my left thigh up a bit, seeing an area of my jeans absorbing and soaking up blood.

My eyes located the entrance wound, seeing blood just gushing out. I grabbed my thigh above the wound, feeling my body tremble.

My shaky hands ripped my sleeve off, tying it tightly on the wound. I let out a sound of pain, but I tried to tough it out. Bullets were still flying through the air and I knew this was far from over.

I wasn't done fighting. I needed to find my dad.

I pushed my body to try and stand up, but as soon as I put weight on my left leg, I just fell back down with a cry of agony.

I was losing blood quickly, and it was painful. I grabbed my gun, shooting at the people I had never seen before so I didn't feel bad when they died.

I tried to army crawl, but there was no sign of Dad and it was useless at this point. I was just dragging my blood on everything on the ground.

All I could focus on was the amount of pain I was in.

The blood hadn't stopped pouring from my body, but I could just feel myself getting lightheaded.

The sleeve helped a little, but it wasn't doing much and would become worthless here soon.

I gave up on crawling, letting my back touch the ragged floor.

My vision started to blacken and my senses started to cut out. First it was my hearing, everything sounded muffled.

Then everything had felt numb except my thigh.

I was losing too much blood, I needed to stop it, but I just couldn't.

The black took over most of my vision before my eyelids decided to just fall.

I literally suck so bad. Thank you so much for the idea gotfan9566!