Hi everyone! This is my second Gleggie fic I'm posting! I have another in the works that is much longer but I needed a break from it. Let me know what you think!
I don't own TWD
Escape from Reality
Glenn was awake, leaning heavily against the wall of the train car. It was dark, around midnight, and everyone around him was sleeping soundly. He was slowly slinking further down the wall of the car, his mind far away from the present. Rick had been on the other side of the car, awake, and keeping watch, but Glenn hadn't heard anything from him in over an hour. The group had settled into a routine after being trapped in the car for two days and were taking six hour shifts at night to make sure nothing happened while they were sleeping. Glenn could bet that Rick hadn't even noticed he was awake, as he had so much on his mind the past few days, leaving Glenn to believe he would rather be left alone during his watch.
Glenn pulled his watch out of his pocket confirming the late hour and leaned forward putting his head on his knees, letting his arms fall to his sides. Many of his nights in the last few months turned out this way. He would doze for an hour, listening to Maggie's even breathing just inches away from him. It would calm him enough until his thoughts roused him and he would be awake for the rest of the night.
His thoughts ranged from finding Maggie when they were still separated, to his aching stomach that hadn't been filled fully in many weeks. He considered the nights when he focused on his hunger the "good nights". If that was his biggest problem that day, he would be fine. His worst nights, when he was separated from Maggie, were ones he didn't like to think about even though they had ended less than a week earlier. Those nights he wouldn't even close his eyes giving him no break from reality. He would try to focus on the breathing of the people in his group, Abraham, Tara, Eugene, but it wasn't the same as being near his wife so he gave up trying.
A headache was forming in his skull now, pounding and pulsing until he lifted his head off of his knees. He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at his right to watch Maggie sleeping near him. Anger, jealousy and love ran through him as she lay on her stomach, her arms folded underneath of her head providing her something other than the floor of the car to put her head on. He was angry that she was in this position, locked away in a train car awaiting who knows what and he was the one who lead her here. Jealous, because even in these terrible times she could still find a way to sleep, escaping their personal hell. Love topped them both, temporarily muting the headache for him as he reached his arm out to touch her. He pulled his arm back forgetting that his selfish need to touch her would pull her out of her mini vacation from reality for a moment. He had taken so much from her already, he couldn't bear to take one more thing no matter how small.
Someone in the corner of the car snored loudly and Glenn glanced up first in the direction of the snoring and secondly in Rick's direction, to see if he responded to the noise. Glenn couldn't see Rick and there was no movement so either he was still deep in thought or had fallen asleep. It didn't matter. The past few days they had been at Terminus they found that everyone except for their own one guard went inside to sleep and didn't come out until dawn. It gave the group the smallest sense of security, but not enough to stop their own night shifts for guarding. Glenn was scheduled to guard the next night, assuming they were all still alive and in the car. After telling Rick he would do it, Maggie and him argued about it. She wasn't oblivious to his insomnia and couldn't understand why he would exacerbate it in that way. He saw it as that he was going to be awake anyway, so why not be of good use?
Glenn stood up a second later, a weird feeling coming over him, almost like he needed to be ready to defend himself. He walked to the small hole in the side of the car where Rick was. Rick's head was on his knees like Glenn's was minutes earlier.
Outside of the car, Glenn could make out figures in the dark moving back and forth through the gate the separated Terminus and the outside world. Shouting from one person drew Glenn's eyes over and he could see walkers, around ten of them, being forced into a makeshift pen for holding. One person who Glenn couldn't make out was holding the door to the pen closed and every few minutes a group would bring another, shove it into the pen and closing it behind them.
Glenn couldn't help but stare at the sight, understanding that he had experienced collecting walkers like this before to be used as a weapon. It had been used by the Governor against the group when they were still at the prison.
"What possible enemy could they have here except…?" It hit Glenn a second later when a voice told the people that they had enough walkers for the next evening. They locked the pen and made their way back into a building.
"We're the enemy." He whispered. Stunned he watched the walkers in the distance, unable to count the exact number but knowing that without weapons, the group would have a terrible time fighting off any number of them.
Inside, he was panicking, but Glenn held it together, walking back to where he had been sitting. He felt adrenaline rushing through his body but fought it off. He had to wait. There was no point in waking everyone up now, making them panic when they were stuck in the car anyway. The guy had said "tomorrow evening", so they had all of tomorrow to come up with a plan.
He tapped his fingers nervously against his thighs and looked at Maggie again. She had shifted in her sleep, now laying on her back with her head on the steel floor of the car. Glenn moved to his knees, crawling a couple of feet over to her. Lifting her head and back carefully with each hand, he swung her around so that her head was now closest to him. He laid her head on his lap and watched as her eyes fluttered open, worriedly looking around. He brushed his hand through her hair.
"Glenn, what…?" She asked, her voice sleepy and hoarse. He leaned down to whisper in her ear softly.
"Nothing's wrong. I'm making you more comfortable." He kissed her cheek and she nodded, closing her eyes. Glenn felt the weight of her head on his lap as she fully relaxed again, falling back asleep.
She was so beautiful, laying there before him. Her legs were tucked underneath of her, one arm curled into herself, the other resting on his leg. He saw her engagement ring on her finger, looking up at him and he lightly ran his fingers over it. He moved to her arm, then her shoulder, her neck, her cheek. He was mesmerizing himself as he touched her, oblivious to the world around him. She sighed and moved again when he ran his fingers over her closed eyes. It brought him back to earth and he settled for curling one arm around her head and back and letting the other drape across her legs. The adrenaline had left his body and he was feeling drowsy enough to let his head lean back and shut his eyes. He tried it, relishing in the cloud of sleep that hung over him but he couldn't keep it up for long. He wanted to keep his eyes on Maggie, making this moment between them last for eternity. Tomorrow he would let Rick and the rest of them know about what he saw outside of the car, but right now, he was creating his own escape from reality and was too selfish to end it.
