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

22- Alone

Maggie and Alden settled the horses in a ransacked electronics store. All the big, large appliances had been stolen, meaning it had probably happened at the beginning of the outbreak. Before people realized that canned goods were the only loot worth a damn. But they were in luck because most of the batteries hadn't been swiped. They quickly put the unopened packages into their backpacks and continued further into the Mall, using their flashlights to see where they were going. They were quiet and careful because they didn't know what was in here.

"Right here," Alden whispered as he shone his lantern onto the board above the store's entrance. "King's Sleep Emporium. These kinds of stores never seem to be able to have a normal name." He shone his lantern into the store. "Yeah, there should be enough bedding and stuff for the whole of Alexandria here."

Maggie aimed her lantern at the lock in the glass door. "Think you can pick it?"

He shook his head, "all I know is a little trick for locks that weren't installed right in the first place. Now, I can try it but I'm gonna guess that this lock was installed properly." He tapped on the glass with the bud of his gun. "But this is not bullet proof glass."

The gunshot rang out as soon as he'd finished his sentence and the glass shattered to pieces. Alden jumped back out of shock. He shuddered to drown out the ringing in between his ears.

"No, it's not," Maggie confirmed.

He rubbed his hand over his ear. "That was one way to break in."

The sound of low growling pulled their attention away.

"I'll get them, it's only a few by the sound of it," Maggie said as she pulled her knife free.

"No, I'll do it," he objected. "You stay here. I take the risks, remember?"

"Never agreed to those terms." She brushed past him and headed towards the growling. "They're probably pinned somewhere since they're not getting closer."

He followed closely behind her. It was better to give up on trying to protect her because she simply didn't let him. He spotted the walkers first. They were trapped behind a metal store gate. Their rotting broken fingers clawed at them through the gaps in the gate. Their soft teeth bit aimlessly on the metal wire of the gate, only messing their bloodied faces up more.

"Maggie, don't look!" he blurted out as soon as he saw the smaller figure near the ground, a toddler, just as hungry for them as the other two.

He was too late, she'd already seen the small undead toddler. They were so young that they had barely learned to walk before they died.

"Oh god," Maggie whispered, frozen in place. Eyes fixed on what she could only call a thing now.

Alden squeezed her shoulder slightly as he stepped past her. "I'll do it."

He maneuvered his knife through the gaps in the gate and stabbed both adult walkers in their heads. Then he crouched down and took out the small one, his heart dropping as he did. He couldn't tell if it had once been a boy or a girl because there was so much old dried blood caked on their little form and half their face had been eaten, leaving bloodied flesh. At least their suffering was truly over now.

"Thank you," Maggie said. "I don't think I could've done it this time."

"No problem." He smiled sadly."It's only what I hope someone will do for me, after," he added softly. "I'm gonna see if I can bury them."

"I'll help."

"No, Maggie, there's... you shouldn't have to see." He was blocking her view of the corpses with his body the best he could. He really didn't want her to see that toddler corpse. It was haunting enough for him and he wasn't pregnant.