TARA didn't die during the night. She didn't ever get a fever, either. She wasn't infected, and she immediately let me know that when we woke up this morning.

"Dwight shot me with a clean arrow," she deduced, smirking. "I'm not going to kill him anymore, Tess. He saved me the other night when he could've just killed me, got it over with. But, he didn't. That's gotta mean something. Don't you think?"

I smiled, almost crying tears of joy that she was still alive, and caressed her cheek. "He is a really good guy. I have had my doubts, but after this, no more. I... I love him, Tara."

Believing that she was going to be upset by my confession, she actually grinned and agreed, "I think that he really loves you, too."

EVERYONE was pretty much gone today, absent and separated from Hilltop. It seemed to me the only people that were left was Paul and myself, and I didn't feel like just sitting around here today, either.

I decided rather quickly that I wanted to go out today, just like Rick and Morgan had done, and I wasn't completely sure if I wanted to go alone, though. I probably wasn't trusted to go off anywhere by myself anymore.

After packing my backpack, I headed over to Paul, who was out on the picnic table by himself, and I slowly approached him. "Hey, Paul," I smiled, starting off as welcoming and warm. "I kinda don't wanna be here today, so I'm gonna head out on a supply run. I'll be back soon."

"Wait... Tess, wait-"

I spun around on my heels after walking away from him to skip the lecture. He had stood up with his arm out and said, "Hey, I'll go with you. Just hold on and let me go grab my stuff."

Even though he couldn't see it after he had walked away, but I had a huge grin spread across my face. The way that he immediately stepped-up and would chase after me. Brie told me about how Paul reacted after I was gone. I love my twin brother more than anything else in this world.

It only took him half of a minute to grab his stuff as we were allowed to leave through the front gates and out to where we wanted to go. It didn't take long until we were in the woods, falling over ourselves, and trying to use our matching machetes to get through the high vines coming off the trees.

I heard a Walker and, before I could mentally prepare for it, it snuck out from hiding behind a tree, so I struck it through the head before it could ambush us. It was like my body was ready, but I didn't understand what I had done until it was over. Crazy.

"I can see that you like the machete, getting the hang of it," Paul smirked, now walking right beside me. "Morgan taught you well."

I slowly nodded and agreed, "Yeah, he did. He's a good teacher. But, I don't know... Maybe I just wanted to be like you, with the machete."

He smiled, slowly nodded, and noted, "Well, we are twins. Our parents always basically had us wearing the same clothes when we were growing up. Yours was just more girlier than mine."

I chuckled under my breath and added, "Yeah, but Mom was starting to question who she should've gave the girly clothes to after you hit your teen years and let your hair grow out. You never did let her cut it."

He laughed, but tried to keep it quiet, though. "She even threatened to cut it while I was sleeping."

"Yeah, well," I sighed, slightly looking down at my feet than directly at him. "If she was still alive, she would still be threatening you, seeing it as it is now. But, I don't know. I've always liked it better long than short."

"Why? So, we would look even more relatable, Patricia?" Paul chuckled and I flipped him off, which made him smile even wider. "I wonder, if we held a vote, who would get Best Hair?"

I chuckled and shook my head, not believing that we were out here cracking jokes with one another, while also bringing up our dead mother, too. Nevertheless, we didn't look back with sadness, but with an acceptance that she is gone and there isn't anything that we could've done about that. We had to move on, so we did. Together.

"So, I was thinking," I began to say after a moment of silence had passed by, "we head out to that old outlet down by..."

I suddenly cut myself off when I started to feel dizzy, almost falling on my back. I had to place my hand on the tree next to me to regroup, as Paul came immediately to my aid, placing his hand on my back and leaning down to see my face.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, wide-eyed. "What's wrong? What happened?"

I quickly threw my machete in the shiv for it that was on my side, as I now needed my two hands. My right was on the tree and the other wondered to my forehead, taking a few deep breaths. "I'm... I'm fine."

"Tess, really?" Paul questioned, as if, he didn't believe me the first time that I said it. "W-We could just go back. C'mon."

"No," I growled out, just as he was about to make us go back. "I just got a little dizzy. It's nothing. Let's keep going."

"But, Tess-"

"I'm just a little thirsty," I tried telling him, now trying to get to my backpack to retrieve my water bottle. Before I could get mine, however, Paul handed me his with an encouraging nod. I took it and took a big gulp, before handing it back to him and wiping my mouth with the back of my sleeve afterwards. "Thank you."

He nodded and squeaked out, "No problem."

IT didn't take us very long at all to get to the outside outlet that was made up with five little shops into one big building. There was one for jewelry, clothes, shoes, and, of course, there was one made for guns. Well, once upon a time, that is, before the world went to shit.

We headed that way with only two lost Walkers waiting for us in the parking lot. Paul and I took care of them, one for each of us, with our machetes. They didn't have a fighting chance, going down quickly to slashes to the heads.

"Here it is, Paul," I called to him, heading to the door of the old gun shop. I went to the door and jerked on it, feeling that it was locked-up from the inside. "That's weird."

Paul finally caught up to me, with eyebrows together, and asked, "What is it?"

"It feels like it's locked," I began to say until I looked up to meet his matching eyes, "from the inside."

"Let me see," he advised, now stepping in front of me. "May just have something blocking the doors."

I didn't say anything, just stood back and let him try to break in by himself. However, it didn't take long until he realized that I wasn't wrong before. "Hm," he hummed, jerking at the handles. "What the hell?"

"Maybe somebody is living inside of it," I suggested, not knowing what else to say. "There is legitimately no way it has been locked-up since Walkers took over."

"No, of course not, but," he paused with a sigh, finally stepping back from the door in defeat, "we'll just have to break the glass to get through, I suppose."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I ejected, shaking my head in disapproval. "I mean, if it's not Walkers inside, it could be someone that could take our hands off when trying to come inside."

Before he could let what I said sink in, he went over to where a big rock was in the parking lot and returned with it, holding it high above his head. I took a few steps back and prepared myself for glass to shatter, as he threw it towards the front glass with all of his might.

Sure as shit, glass shattered and flew everywhere, almost getting in my eyes if I hadn't turned my back on it. With that said, I looked slightly over my shoulder and Paul shrugged. "It's open now and we're coming in." I loved his enthusiasm.

Somehow, he got the doors to slightly open, but we would have to squeeze through, though. So, we did, allowing myself to enter first. I went in and held it open, from the inside, for Paul next.

Immediately, I noticed how empty the shelves and display cases were, and the glass shattered everywhere inside from the display cases and what Paul had just done, too. There were sounds of breaking glass under our feet when we walked, having nowhere else to walk.

I went to what was left of the display cases and looked over them to see if anything was over there. Nothing. Paul had wandered to the other side of the room while I tried to look for some kind of luck here that we could actually bring back some weapons to help us in our next battle with Negan. Hopefully, it will be our last when he - and the rest of those fuckers - die.

"Hm. Hey, Tess," I heard Paul call for me and I spun around to see that he was now at the EMPLOYEES ONLY door. "Mind giving me a hand here?"

While making my way over there, I taunted: "Sure you don't need that rock again, to break the door?"

"Har-Har," he faked-laughed, rolling his eyes. "Why is it locked for?"

"Don't know," I shrugged, now standing next to him. "Someone probably once lived inside of here."

"Doubt that," he claimed and, when he couldn't get it down, he sighed. "Dammit."

"Paul, just kicked the fucker d-"

Then, just like that, he did just that. He had to back up first before he kicked that damn door down, like he the police trying to get a criminal inside. The ugly brown-colored door was done and that's when I heard something underneath it, gurgling.

With Paul's help, we got the door up and out of the way, and that's when we saw the Walker down on the ground, with barley any fight left in it. While I kneeled down and slashed it through the head with my machete, Paul slowly said: "Tess..."

I looked up and saw what he was pointing to, which were a bag of guns in the corner of the room. I could see at least three rifles poking out. "I'll be fucking damned."

Paul walked over to it, now trying to see what's really inside. It appeared to be three rifles, like I said, and two handguns. It was something and, somehow, that was enough.

Paul and I looked up at each other, through our eyelashes, and smiled. It was better than nothing.

AFTER we did another quick sweep around the shop, we left without finding anything else. Though, the bag would definitely impress Rick and Maggie, according to Paul.

As we neared the Hilltop, now coming out of the woods and close to the dirt road, Paul suddenly admitted to me, "I had fun with you out there today."

"Really?" I squeaked out, now stopping and looked over my shoulder before he finally caught up to me. I looked him up and down. "How so?"

He smirked and claimed, "I always have fun when I'm with you. You're my sister, after all. My best friend."

It took me a minute to process that, slowly blinking, and feeling my heart warm up. I nodded and confessed, "I had fun with you, too, like I always do. You're my best friend and my hero, too."

He slowly looked down at his feet before adding, "I was so scared the other day, when I woke up and you were gone. And, God, when Maggie mentioned suicide, I..." He gulped, looking away for a moment to regroup, but I could see the tears now in his eyes before he faced me with them. "I cannot ever lose you, Tess. Ever. You mean way too much to me."

"But, Paul, I can't ever lose you-"

"Yes, you can," he quickly claimed, cutting me off completely. "And you will, Tess. You will outlive us all, but that's not a bad thing. It's a good thing, because... You're shaping the future."

I rejected and inserted, "Well, you are, too. Everyone is. That's what we're fighting for here."

"You're so much stronger than you would like to believe," Paul suddenly said and that's when I remembered what was written in Carl's letter that was similar to that effect. You are so much braver than you think and so much more amazing than you would like to believe. "You will survive everything, Tess. I know it."

He started to walk pass me and I had to ask, "How do you know?"

He stopped and looked over his shoulder, with the wind sweeping his hair out of his face. "I just know."

And, with that said, he started to walk again as I just stood there in disbelief. How did he know?

• I'm back and that's it, folks! I've had this written since the weekend, but couldn't publish it until now! 💕 All the love .xx •