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

6- Sanctuary

Settling in at Sanctuary proved to be a lot more difficult than expected. Even after weeks it still felt as foreign as it did on the first day. The rules put up by Negan, their leader, were strict. The punishment for small infractions were swift and severe to serve as a deterrent. It kept people in line with fear.

To Alden this place was still a relief. They no longer needed to fight and struggle to survive from hour to hour. They had enough food and a roof over their heads; they were safe. He trusted that if given enough time they would eventually settle in properly. Alden was one of the lucky ones. His background in construction made him a valuable asset. Because of his position he and Rose had a small room, an old broom closet, that belonged to them. It was a lot better than having to sleep in the main hall like almost all of the other workers and their families had to.

The walls were a dirty off-white color. Three small windows near the ceiling on the wall opposite of the door let in light. It was only big enough to fit two stretchers with a small path between them about the width of the door. All of their other belongings were shoved underneath the stretchers, still in their bags.

Rose stared at the small crate of fresh produce Alden had brought into their room. "Where'd you get all this?" she asked as she picked through it. She knew that none of this was grown on the grounds surrounding the factory.

"Who knows," he shrugged. "They didn't say," he added as he sat down on his own stretcher. The old thing creaked beneath his weight. He knew exactly where the produce came from; it came from a community called Hilltop. But he didn't want her to know about everything the Saviors got up to because he wanted to keep her as carefree as possible. The way life for a child was supposed to be. "I think it might be from one of the outposts. Who knows what they have there."

It wasn't a complete lie. The outposts were the ones that extorted the surrounding communities on Negan's command. He'd take half, even more most of the time, of everything they had in exchange for not attacking them. Protection, that is what he called it. Alden was sure there was worse out there than Negan's arrangement. That thought made him shudder and reflect back on himself. It made him realize how he'd changed for the worse, everything he'd done just to stay alive. He could barely think about the fact that he allowed extortion to happen because he wasn't affected by it. If he thought about it for too long he felt sick for taking the food.

"Like a farm? I'd like to stay on a farm," she sighed. She frowned and stared at the floor. "I don't like it here."

"It's not perfect, but I think it's the best we're going to get." He began to untie his laces. "Did you like that book Dwight got for you?" He wouldn't call Dwight a friend, but an ally of sorts. He didn't have any friends here

Dwight followed Negan's rules; he knelt. He'd been here since the beginning. He used to believe in Negan, but not anymore. But he was too tired and beaten to do anything about it or fight. Yet he'd taken notice that Rose rarely seemed to leave the small cramped room and every couple of days or so he would drop off a new book.

She held the book up and hummed, "could you tell him I like it?"

"You can tell him yourself," Alden said. These days he took any excuse to get her to leave this room. "You've barely left this room in the past week, let alone spoke to someone else than me," he sighed and leaned back against the wall. "I know that this place is nothing like the prison. I know you liked it there, but you can't stay here all day, everyday."

She shook her head firmly. "No. There's nowhere to go outside. It's too loud in the hall and the balcony smells bad." She scrunched her nose.

She wasn't lying. The main hall was large and every sound echoed back from the high ceiling and concrete walls, filling the hall with loud whispers that buzzed constantly. The only place to go outside was the balcony, but the air there was thick with the smell of death and decay.