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

15- The traitor

"Shouldn't we tell Jesus what we're doing?" Alden asked as he stepped on top of the box with a hammer laxly in his hand. He used his other hand to hold the wooden pole up right.

"If he wants to know what we're building he can come here and take a look," Maggie replied as she held the pole in place.

He let go of the pole and strengthened his grip on the hammer. "I can go over and tell him, it's really no bother at all."

"You know my answer," she replied. "Now get going."

He sighed and raised the hammer up, before he could plummet it down he was stopped.

"Wait, Maggie, you shouldn't be doing this," Aaron began as he stepped up. "Let me."

To Alden's surprise she took a step back and let him take her place. He narrowed his gaze, not quite understanding what Aaron meant by 'shouldn't' or why Maggie agreed with him so easily. Maggie had never been the type of person that let other people tell her what to do. This was just as weird as Maggie not joining the others to take out the outposts. The hammer was now lax at his side again.

"You gonna swing that thing, or what?" Aaron asked as he looked up at Alden after he hadn't moved for a couple of seconds.

"Right." He swung his hammer down and continued doing so until the pole was firmly stuck in the ground.

"So, you worked construction before?" Aaron asked as they moved on to get the next pole in the ground. "Maggie told me some about you."

"Yeah, it was a summer job I stuck with out of highschool. I enjoy making things. That's why I did some jobs on my own, under the table. I guess that's what kind of made me a jack of all trades." He replied as he stepped down from the box back down. "But you're quite capable at, well, everything. What did you do before?"

"I worked for a NGO. Communications specialist," he replied. "It has helped me recruit new people to Alexandria."

"About recruiting people, I still haven't thanked you." He switched the hammer to his left hand and extended his right hand out.

Aaron frowned at him. It took him a second to understand what he meant. "No, you don't. It's fine. Eric he-" He stopped himself immediately and tears welled up in his eyes. "I keep forgetting he's gone," he added in a broken voice.

Alden reached for his shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss. He seemed like a good man."

"He was," his voice was still broken. "He was a better man than me."

They continued working silently till all the poles were firmly in the ground. They followed through by wrapping the barbed wire around the pole in a continuous string to create the pen. After they'd finished, they turned in to get a couple of hours of shut eye before the sun came up and the next day started.

With all the hostages locked up inside the pen there were less people needed to guard them. This left Alden with nothing to do but to wander around Hilltop. It wasn't long before he stumbled across the graves. Sasha had told him about them and he'd stayed clear of them. He wasn't ready for the confrontation of seeing people he knew dead and buried. He stared at the stacked stones and couldn't pull his eyes away.