Something To Fear | Glenn Rhee

[둘] What Comes After Part 1

"I care more about her than I do about me"

~Glenn Rhee

The other woman who was next to Daryl in the lineup continued to stare at the ground as tears rolled down her cheeks. A pair of boots come into her line of sight, causing her body to be racked with uncontrollable sobs.

"What's wrong now, honey? You're too pretty to be crying like that," Negan mocked. "It looks like you've got a little stain on your face. Actually, it's a big stain," he snickered.

Before he could continue on his taunts, something else called his attention away from Rosita. The tortured cries of a broken man.

Negan gave Glenn a look of pity as he crouched down beside him with Glenn returning a look of pure hate. "You shouldn't be mad at me. I don't think ya would've wanted to see her as one of those things, now would ya?"

Glenn broke his staredown with the sociopath, choosing instead to get Dwight off of him. "Don't even think about it," Dwight muttered as he pressed Glenn back down to the ground.

"I'm going to kill you," a deep voice spoke.

Negan grinned at this, clearly amused by this defiance. He already knew who the voice belonged to.

"Not today. Not tomorrow. But I will kill you," Rick seethed as Negan slowly approached him. "With what? Dwight's crossbow?" Negan gave his signature smirk at the disobedient "leader" who was ready to lunge at him. Preventing this, he roughly yanked Rick up and dragged him to the center, facing the lineup.

"I did warn you all," Negan gestured at Carl while making eye contact with Dwight. The burnt man grimaced at this, but followed orders. He grabbed the teenager by the arm and threw him beside his father. With no time to process what was happening, Negan already had a blade circling Carl's eye.

"He moved," Negan motioned to an appalled Glenn.

This immediately caused a stir from the remaining members; the yelling and crying started up again. Carl wiggled frantically in Negan's grasp, seeking to get away from this monster before he completed his dark intention.

"Don't do this! Kill me! Kill me instead!! Please! Kill me!" Rick begged, hysteria evident in his tone.

"Dad," Carl responded, keeping his voice calm. "No. I'd rather be blind than have you die."

"No! I'm the one who disobeyed! Don't kill him! Let me die!!" Glenn screamed and did not stop. His thoughts raced violently in his head, but none were clear enough to understand. His incoherent voice drowned out any idea. 

Negan scoffed at this pathetic display in front of him. Nevertheless, he released Carl, who then huddled close to his dad.

"It's a good thing the man moved when his girl was dying instead of when Lucille came to feed," Negan joked. But his mood abruptly turned threatening. "Let this be known. If any of you defy me again, this will all seem like preschool," he eyed Rick at the last half.

Rick nodded his head furiously while sweat, tears, and mucus covered his face. "We work for you now."

"Okay, boys. Looks like we're through here. It's already dawn and I am exhausted! I cannot wait to get back to my warm bed!" Negan signaled for his men to pack up. Rick remained in the same spot, staring blankly ahead of him. One of the Saviors went to Daryl's body and snapped a Polaroid of what remained.

Negan climbed into his truck and adjusted the rearview mirror to see the group. He had never seen such devastation since... since this whole world ended. The truck is started and Negan drove off without smiling or laughing for once.

Finally able to move without fear of repercussion, Glenn dropped at his wife's side, clutching her damaged body. His sniffles turn into loud wails as this whole night replayed in his mind. He did not care about how noisy he was. He wanted the world to know what it had done to him.

Sasha rubbed her eyes free of tears and pushed herself to her feet. She was not going to let some hyper-masculine nutjob break her. She was going to fight... for Daryl... for Maggie. Alongside Abraham and the rest of her family, they would end Negan. She promised that to herself. She noted how she was the only one on her feet. Eugene covered his face with his hands. Aaron stared at his knees. Michonne had a hand covering her mouth. Rick and Carl had not moved at all. Rosita wiped the blood off her face and examined it on her fingers. Sasha carefully went toward her and held out her hand.

Only one thought could escape her lips, "We have each other."

She felt waves of sadness about to consume her if she spoke more. Rosita took Sasha's hand and hugged her tightly. And they wept: they wept for who and what they lost, for the remaining survivors, and for what the future held.

Glenn continued holding onto Maggie until he felt a pair of arms embracing him. He glanced to his sides and thought for a moment it was Maggie's spirit comforting him. But it was only Sasha and Rosita who was beside him. He did not push them away and allowed them to grieve with him.

It was a moment that required minimal speech. Carl stood up and tugged at his dad to do the same. They walked over to Daryl and mourned once more for their brother. They would cry to their grave over what had happened.

One of the first indications of what this new world would be like was repeated in Rick's head as he envisioned what life could have been like.

Everyone eats dinner in Alexandria around a large table. Maggie and Glenn dote on their son as Daryl and Carol flirt with each other. Rick is the happiest he has been in a while as he watches everything unfold. Rick allows himself to be grateful.

But the day has come when he won't be. When he will never be. When they will never be.

Rick's thoughts were interrupted when out of the corner of his eye he saw Glenn lift up Maggie's body. Rosita, Sasha, Michonne, Carl, and Rick offered to help him, but Glenn firmly denied them.

"She was our family, too," Rick pointed out.

"Just let me... do this..." Glenn replied, already walking off. He started the long trek back to Alexandria with his wife's bloody and damaged body, inverting the famous sculpture of La Pieta.

Rick and Michonne held Daryl's body as they followed Glenn down the beaten path. Glenn led this funeral procession back home; back to an uncertain destination with only one notion in his mind: vengeance.