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

56- Bloody mess

"Go. I can run." Rose told them after Carl hauled her back to her feet.

The three of them ran as a group when they saw Cole's throat get slit and the fountain of blood that flowed from the broad gash as he went down to the ground. Another throwing knife grazed Carl's arm as they dashed left and right to dodge the trees.

Duncan got hit by multiple projectiles in his chest, but they couldn't quite tell with what. Negan got a knife stuck in his leg. He screamed out in pain as he pulled it out and tossed it aside. The last the trio saw of Gabriel was when something slashed the side of his neck.

There was so much chaos. Nothing was clear. Nothing made sense.

A noose enclosed itself around Elijah's neck and he was hauled up. The last they heard of him was him choking as he went out of sight. And now only a duo remained.

"No! Elijah!" Carl yelled out but it was no use. Elijah was still gone. He was gone like everyone else. Everyone but the person running beside him; Rose. He didn't want to be alone in this chaos and he was sure she didn't want to either. So he reached out to her good hand, her right hand, and they both held on for dear life and ran without looking back.

—

"I think we lost them." Carl said as he peaked past the curtain in the abandoned house carefully. "We can't stay long, but we can rest up for a bit."

The sun had come up and it was early morning now. They were both exhausted, neither had slept in the last 24 hours.

"My fingers still hurt like a–" She held her hand up and froze. Where her pinky and ring finger used to be was nothing but a bloodied piece of cloth. "Carl, where the fuck are my fingers?"

"That knife sliced them clear off. I didn't see how telling you about whilst we were under attack would help." He ran his hand back through his hair.

"Okay, next time you tell me right away when someone chops a body part off of me."

He rolled his eye. "All right, next time I'll tell you." He sat down on the ground next to her. "They also cut into your middle finger. And your leg. Are they still bleeding?"

She held her hand up to look again and peeled the cloth back to get a better look. "No, it stopped. I think it's going to get infected." She looked down at her thigh and moved the fabric to get a better look through the hole the knife made. "Same here."

"Okay, that's good." He nodded. "That depot, it should have some medicine at least. Hopefully something against an infection."

"Then we need to get going again." She stood up. "And we need to find the others. We can't be the only ones that made it out."

"I didn't see anyone besides us get out." He insisted with a heavy sigh.

"And I didn't see everyone die either." She deflected.

"Cole got his throat slit and Elijah was strung up. That's two dead already." He continued, defeated. "And I saw about three others get injured, at least." He looked at her. "And you still wanna try to find everyone."

"They're not dead till I've seen their bodies." She deflected again. She wasn't ready to face that reality yet.

"We never found my dad's body and he's dead." He looked at her again. He needed to get the point across. It was just them now, but he could tell she wasn't planning on backing down. "Okay, let's find them."

—

Alden stumbled through the dark on his own. He was trying to make sense of where he was. His shoulder hurt like hell, something he would worry about later. The arrows and knives had stopped flying past his head had stopped a while ago. The sun was about to come up, which made the world around him seem a little less terrifying. He heard something shuffle behind one of the busted up cars he found himself coming past. The fear gripped his throat like a vice again and made it hard to breathe. He tipped the point of his spear towards the sound.