Abnormality || Glenn Rhee [1]

31| Familiar Faces

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE » FAMILIAR FACES
"We need you."

♔

It was early in the morning when I stepped out of the cells, noticing Glenn and Hershel stood talking in the corner. I made my way over, standing beside Glenn. "Hey, what's going on?"

"We were discussing Rick," Hershel replied, his eyes flickering back to Glenn's momentarily before resting on mine. "Glenn's thinking of going to find him again."

"Yeah, I'll go too," I said, glancing behind me at Carl, who was sat, staring at the table again. I exhaled heavily, turning back around again. "I spoke to Carl yesterday and he needs his dad. I'll bring him back this time. You good with keeping people calm round here?"

Hershel nodded, a gentle smile on his face. "That's what I do best

"Oh, and would you mind checking on Olivia?" I asked, my mind wandering back to my friend, who, despite everything, i'd missed yesterday. I wanted to check up on how she was doing, I just hadn't had the time. "I don't think she left her cell yesterday."

"Of course," Hershel smiled again, and I wondered how he could be so calm. I was freaking out. There was so much to do, so much to deal with. I honestly had no idea how Rick did it.

"Thank you." I nodded as we parted ways, taking Glenn's hand in mine, the two of us silently making our way to dark corridors.

"You reckon he's still down here?" Glenn eventually asked as I reached for the flashlight in my pocket, turning it over in my hand.

"Definitely. He's probably not far from here. Just follow the walker trail." The two of us continued walking, the light guiding us as much as possible. I did my best to avoid treading on and corpses and body parts. It looked and smelled revolting down here.

"Rick?" Glenn called out, the both of us pausing momentarily to listen out for any movement. "Rick, you down here?"

There was no response.

Glenn reached for my hand again as we began heading further, me scanning the flashlight around us in hopes of spotting our leader. "Wait-" Glenn stopped me, taking the flashlight and shining it in a corner I'd just glanced over. Sure enough, I spotted Rick's figure knelt down on the floor.

The two of us crept cautiously towards him, unsure of the reaction we were going to meet. Hopefully not the same one I was given.

"Rick?" I said softly, stopping in front of him and kneeling down. He was staring at the ground, his face emotionless. I placed my hands on his face, tilting his head, hoping to make him look at me properly. "Rick, please."

"You should go," he said, his voice low. "Go back to the others."

"Rick, come on man-" Glenn said, sounding defeated from seeing his friend, his leader, in this state.

"Listen, I know you're hurting, we all are. I know that you're grieving the most and that you need time and space, which I gave you yesterday," I started, lifting his head up a little more so he'd look me in the eyes again. "But it's time to come back now."

Rick said nothing in reply and I turned to Glenn, hoping he'd be able to say something to change Rick's mind. He came closer, stopping beside both of us. "At least come back for a while. Go see Carl. Just let everyone know you're okay. Please."

Even after Glenn's words, he still didn't move. He wouldn't even look at us anymore. I wasn't sure if we were ever going to get through to him.

"Listen, I can't even imagine what you're going through right now. I suppose maybe it feels like your whole world has come crashing down. But what I do know for sure is that you've got Carl and the baby now. So you need to keep going, to keep leading us. You need to keep being Rick Grimes. The Rick Grimes that I know. That Carl knows. That we all know. Don't lose yourself. Please. We need you."