Shambles- The Walking Dead [Alden x Maggie] [1/2]

19- Pretend

"Alden?" A soft and broken voice asked. It was Rose, her face, shirt and right hand were drenched with blood. She was clutching a rough jagged rock in her hand, also covered in blood.

"It's me. It's me." He was barely able to get the words to leave his throat over the storm of emotions he was feeling. He pulled her close in a hug, not caring that the blood stained his clothes. Only now did he notice the dead body laying beside her with his head smashed to bits. Not much further did he notice her knife laying on the leaves covering the forest floor. The body didn't smell of rot, that's why he hadn't noticed it first. He pulled back from her.

"Are you hurt?" He asked, checking her over for any signs of a bite or scratches in the mess of blood.

"That's not mine." She muttered half absently, eyes glassy. She pointed to the corpse, "it's his." The rock was still tightly clutched in her trembling blood covered hand.

"You can let that go now." He eased the rock out of her hand and tossed it aside. Immediately he noticed a cut on the palm of her hand, surely caused by the jagged rock.

Rose only noticed it now too and looked at her hand, perplexed. "Oh."

Tara and Jesus kept their distance for obvious reasons. She was clearly in shock and they would probably only make things worse.

"Was it a walker?" Alden asked, concerned. The recent attack got him fearing for what walker blood might do to her if it came in contact with that cut.

"N-No." Her bottom lip quivered and tears rolled down her cheeks. "He came for me. Henry and I split up then, I told him to go."

"Where'd he go?" He asked. She pointed to the side and Alden looked back at Tara and Jesus, who both gave a nod. "Let's get you back to Hilltop."

"No, we need to find Henry."

"We'll go look for him." Tara promised her. "You just get back to Hilltop with Alden."

She nodded slightly, "Okay."

"Is she alright?" Maggie asked when Alden finally made it into her office.

"Siddiq said it was just a sprained wrist and a cut on the palm of her hand." Alden replied. "She's exhausted though, fell asleep right away." He paused and shook his head. "She had to bash a guy's head in with a rock. She shouldn't have to do something remotely like that just to stay alive. Part of why I stayed at Sanctuary was because at least she didn't have to do stuff like that. She still saw them happen, but she didn't have to do it herself. And now I don't know anymore. I feel lost."

"When I shot that Savior after Simon killed Nial and sent his body to Negan, I did so to anger him. I wanted him here. I wanted to be the one to kill him, for Glenn." She spoke. She'd started to realize how much easier it was to speak about certain topics with Alden than with others, like Sasha and Jesus. His perspective came from an opposite side and his opinions tended to reflect that, sometimes even to her annoyance. Her shoulders dropped, "I never considered the cost."