Hope || Glenn Rhee x Reader

8 || hands

Glenn saw your eyebrows furrowing and grabbed your hand, like you always did to him when you were upset or worried. You glanced at him. He nodded like he knew and turned his gaze back to the screen.

"Vi, scan forward to the first event," Jenner said loudly.

"Scanning to first event," the robotic voice answered. Beeping ensued and the screen was different again.

The once-blue brain stem, and much of the brain branching off from it, was black.

"What is that?" Glenn asked in shock.

"It invades the brain like meningitis," Jenner answered. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, then the brain goes into shutdown. Then the major organs."

The brain turned fully black very quickly.

"Then death." Jenner looked at the floor as he concluded. "Everything you ever were or ever will be... gone."

Your face dropped. Everything? Just like that? You didn't want to believe it. But this was reality now.

Andrea's tears started falling. Yours, too. Maybe your sister didn't come back as one of them, but she was still gone. You felt Glenn squeeze your hand tighter. You looked up at him.

"It's okay," he whispered so quietly that only you could hear. You halfway smiled at him.

"Scan to the second event," Jenner said.

Vi answered with, "Scanning to the second event."

"The resurrection times vary wildly," Jenner explained. "We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds..."

Jenner trailed off, like this was painful to him. Like this was a personal loss. And it may have been.

The brain stem started to glow red.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.

"No, just the brain stem," Jenner answered. "Basically it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive," Rick said.

"You tell me," Jenner concluded, gesturing to the screen.

"It's nothing like before," Rick pointed out. "Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead..." Jenner continued for him. "The frontal lobe, the human part, doesn't come back. The you part."

You squeezed Glenn's hand to make sure it was still there; to make sure you were still you. As long as he was there, you knew where you stood-- beside him.

"Just a shell, driven by mindless instinct," Jenner whispered, almost wistful. You knew you were missing a part of the story.

Something suddenly struck through the brain, leaving a trail.

"God, what was that?" Carol questioned.

"He shot his patient in the head," Andrea answered. You looked at the floor.

"Didn't you?" she asked Jenner.

"Vi," he ordered. "Power down the main screen and the workstations."

The screen and lights on the computers powered down.

"You have no idea what it is," Andrea stated. "Do you?"

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal-"

"Or the wrath of God?" Jackie cut him off, tears in her dark eyes.

"There is that," Jenner concluded.

Your hands started shaking. Suddenly, your visions of a cure and a world without dead people walking disappeared. All hope was lost.

"Somebody must know something!" Andrea stated, loud and clear. "Somebody, somewhere."

"There are others, right?" Carol asked. "Other facilities?"

Your breathing became faster and your blood pumped harder, the sound of your pulse drowning out the white noise. There was no cure. And there was never going to be one.

Glenn's hand wasn't in yours anymore. His arm was tightly wound around your shoulders. He rubbed his hand up and down your arm. You started to calm down. You saw him smile at you out of the corner of your eye.

"Everything went down," Jenner said to Rick. "I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"There's nothing left anywhere?" Andrea phrased her question like a statement, like she knew the answer. She was obviously angry.

"I'm gonna get drunk again," Daryl said as he walked to a corner, head in hands.

Tears stung your eyes. The world was over. Life itself was over. Everything was over.

"Doctor Jenner," Dale started. "I know this has been taxing for you, and I hate to ask one more question, but that clock is counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators run out of fuel," he answered.

"And then?" Rick asked. No answer.

"Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" he yelled loudly.

"When the power runs out," the voice started. "Facility-wide decontamination will occur."

Rick darted down a set of stairs. You and Glenn followed. Shane and T-Dog also came.

"Decontamination-- what does that mean?" Glenn questioned.

Shane, who was behind you, started speaking. "I don't like the way Jenner clammed up; how he just walked off."

"Me neither," you agreed. "And I don't like the way decontamination sounds. It freaks me out."

"In there," Rick announced, speed-walking into a room. Everybody followed.

Rick opened the door and turned on the lights to reveal the basement's generators and fuel.

Rick looked at you and Glenn. "Check that way. Shane. T-Dog."

He gestured for them to go with him. You and Glenn went the opposite way.

You walked around, looking for where the fuel was connected to the generator.

The lights went off.

Then back on.

"Emergency lights on," Vi announced.

You whimpered. This was the beginning of something big and the end of something hopeful.

-
A/N: short chapter kinda. i wanted to end it here though. i like suspense.

thanks for reading! <3