State of destruction- The Walking Dead [Alden x Maggie][2/2]

4- Cold

"No! You don't have to do this!" Maggie yelled as she watched her boys being forced into a car with tinted windows.

"Oh, but I do." The Croat shot back, followed by more laughing.

Adam and Hershel's voices overlapped as they desperately tried to break free and run to their parents. They screamed and cried. They tried to find some grip in the loose gravel. Adam remembered everything that had ever been taught to him. Without any hesitation he clamped his jaws down on the man's hand and broke free. He tried to run towards his parents. Another of the Croat's men stepped forward and looped an arm around his waist and hoisted his feet in the air. Adam's freedom had barely lasted one second and now he was left kicking in the air.

Maggie and Alden pleaded for them to stop, but no one listened. The boys disappeared into the car. They had lost. The Croat walked towards Maggie with a folded up piece of paper in his hands. He pushed it into her hands and whispered something only she could hear into her ear.

Then they left without any further warning. Parents embraced their children, but everyone was too shocked to speak.

Alden was the first to speak, "check on your families, be with them. Everything else can wait till tomorrow." He wiped some of the blood from his face with his sleeve. It was the shock keeping him from breaking down and crying. He pulled Tara and Mike aside. "I need you to take care of the deceased, I don't think I-"

"We'll do it. Go to Hope," Tara said and Mike nodded.

Maggie clenched the paper tightly in her hands, like it was the only thing keeping her grounded. Alden tapped her arm and she snapped out of it. She slipped the paper into her back pocket. She knew what was on it, but that was something she would deal with tomorrow. For now no one had to know yet.

"Hope," she said, softly. "She's still in the barn." They ran towards it and slammed the door open. "Hope!"

"I'm here," her teary voice replied from the hayloft. "I hid. Even when they opened the doors, I didn't move. They didn't see me."

"You did everything you were supposed to. You did well," Alden replied, choking on his own tears. "Come down here, I need to hug you."

She sniffled, "I need a hug." She climbed down the ladder and let herself fall into her mother's arms because she was standing the closest. Alden simply joined in on the hug. It lasted for a while before Hope turned away. "Where are Hershel and Adam?"

Neither Alden nor Maggie had the strength to tell her what happened, but when they started to cry Hope had her answer. She fully believed something horrible had happened to her brothers, she believed they were dead.

"They took them," Alden finally said.

"As hostages?" Hope asked, the tiniest slither of hope in her voice.

"Yes."

More hope.

"Then they're alive."

After another long hug Alden stood up. Hershel and Adam should've been safe in the cellar. They had a hiding spot in a fake wall behind one of the shelving units. He needed to see what had happened. He needed to know what he did wrong and got his sons taken away from him. When he made it to the cellar he heard Tara down there. It sounded like she was trying to soothe someone.

Alden set his foot on the first step down. The metallic smell of blood hit his nose. Then he heard soft, low toned whining. It sounded so painfilled; it was heartbreaking. He rushed down the rest of the steps. He found Bear lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Tara was right beside him, scratching behind his ear to comfort him.