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

41- Not a damn thing

"Is it true?" Rose asked the second she saw Alden. "You guys found a mask and didn't think to tell me before you set out? Carl had to tell me."

"We had to move fast, to make sure it was something," he replied, calmly.

"And is it something?" She crossed her arms and tilted her head. She felt like she had the right to exact revenge on them, even more so than anyone else. Hatred and anger were a great way to keep yourself going in this world. But a dangerous one at that.

Before he could answer something terribly loud crashed from above. It drew their eyes upward to see a fiery ball fall from the sky. Chatter rose around as everyone else looked up as well to see whatever was falling from the sky. It quickly disappeared into the tree line

"Was that... Was that a meteor?" She tilted her head slightly.

"And this is how the dinosaurs must've felt," Alden sighed, setting his hands on his hips.

Jesus ran up to them. "It was a satellite. Eugene called it in over the radio. It crashed in the woods not too far from here, it's all on fire."

"Then we gotta go and put it out before it reaches this place," Rose insisted.

"Like hell you will. Stay here with the kids," Alden shot back immediately.

"Not made of glass," she bit back.

"I'm not saying you are but I'm still not letting you go into a goddamn inferno in the woods."

Ezekiel came up to them as well. "The fire's gonna spread fast in this drought," he said hastily. "We need to move fast."

"The kids. Now!" Alden commanded as he ran away with the others. Rose let out a heavy sigh and turned the exact opposite way, back towards the kids.

Although the fire had started in the late afternoon by the time they had mobilized it was dark.

"We can't do this!" Magna insisted desperately. "If we get caught on their side of the border that's it. That's war."

"It's a fire. Fire's spread. It could burn through our hunting grounds," Dianne shot back, as stoic as ever.

"Or take out Oceanside," Cyndie stressed.

"It sucks but we gotta do this," Maggie agreed. "Go now!"

The large group ran into the forest, across the border set up by Alpha. Most would have to spend the whole night digging trenches to stop the fire from spreading. Whilst others kept having to run back and forth with buckets to douse the fire in hopes of putting it out or slowing its spread.

It was a long night indeed. By the end of it everyone was coated in sweat and soot. Some were sprayed with walker blood from the inevitable walker attacks they suffered throughout the night. When morning came reinforcements from Alexandria showed up and they were finally able to get the fire and walkers under control. With the danger gone everyone was able to feel the exhaustion from the night passed. People sat down, some leaning back against trees. Some others collapsed. Luckily both Alex and Siddiq were there to provide the needed medical attention.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Alden asked Maggie with a worried frown. She had sat down against a tree and was coughing off and on. She'd been in the thick of it the whole time.

"I'm fine," she insisted with a rough jagged voice before she coughed again.

"Yeah, no. I'm getting Siddiq."

"I'm fine," she repeated, hoarsely. Another coughing fit followed, somehow it sounded even worse than the last round.

"I'm pretty sure that when 911 was still a thing you were supposed to call it when you inhaled smoke. And you inhaled smoke. You did so the whole night. We don't have 911 anymore, but we do have Siddiq," he spoke calmly and flagged Siddiq down with a wave of his hand.