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

51- Scrapes and bruises

They made it back to Alexandria with a small group of survivors from Meridian. Carl and Kelly had indeed had more luck than them. And by the end, after coming through the whole woods again, they'd found 14 more survivors besides Elijah and Cole. Despite having saved so many lives their moods were still pressed because a lot of people still lost their lives on their watch.

It wasn't until they got close to the gate that they noticed one of the wall panels was down. The whisperers had destroyed everything. And not just trampled the crops like Aaron and Alden had seen. If it just would've been the trampled crops they would have dealt with that easily. He looked further past the wall and realized that it was more than one panel that was down. They all laid broken and rusted on the ground.

Carl got the new people set up spread over two houses. Elijah had finally dared to take his mask off completely once they were somewhat safely inside the walls. And he seemed to stick close to Kelly most of the time.

Alden headed for Maggie right away. She was working on the wall by clearing the debris away. He hadn't taken the time to even clean himself up or even change his clothes. Not that he could because he didn't know where he was supposed to go. He didn't know where they lived now.

"Maggie, we're back." He greeted.

She turned towards him, tossing the piece of scrap aside, and studied his clothes. "That blood... You didn't have that much on you when you left. And it's fresh." Her eyes grew big and she clutched his hand tight. "You ran into trouble. Is everyone alright? Are you?"

"Just the one. Some military looking guy." He replied holding up his injured hand. "Had a goddamn sniper rifle. Took out a lot of people from that group."

"But you're alright?" She cradled his head.

"Just a couple of scrapes and bruises. Nothing to worry about." He replied and she immediately kissed him.

When they pulled back from each other he looked back at the walls. "I didn't know the damage was this bad."

"Yeah, we have some tough times ahead of us." She sighed.

"Oh, come on." He bumped his elbow into her side. "We've faced worse. You know, like a tank shooting missiles at us by some crazy pirate man. We can deal with a trampled harvest and some broken down walls."

Even if he didn't fully believe his own words, he had to keep the spirits up for the both of them.

"Let's get you cleaned up." She smiled, wiping some stray locks away from his forehead. "Because you look like an absolute mess. And I want to see those scrapes and bruises you mentioned for myself. The kids are at Aaron's house."

"Oh, okay." He chuckled like a giddy teenager as he followed behind her.

Rose scoured through the trampled plants for any produce they could still use by some minor miracle. They were starting to run low on food and at this point any edible scrap would help them out.

"You know, kid, I didn't recognize you at first." The voice of someone she'd never hoped to be near again spoke up behind her.

"Negan." She sighed as she turned around to look at him, without getting up from her knees because he wasn't worth it to stand up for.

"Your face... It looks like it was pulled through a meat mincer."

"You're making a joke about a gigantic scar on my face? And you didn't stop to think about who did that to me?" She tilted her head slightly. "I don't think you care because you helped Alpha destroy my home, you ass."