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Chapter 21

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Glenn groaned and blinked his eyes as he came out of what felt like a dream. He didn't remember dreaming anything though. He breathed in small, steady breaths as he stared up at the ceiling, at large, rectangular lights similar to the ones at his old school.

Frowning, he looked around the room. Where was he? There wasn't school anymore... Not since the world ended. There weren't even lights anymore. He heard a faint beeping sound and noticed he was lying in a bed with a curtain pulled half-way around it. It was a hospital bed.

Glenn felt his breathing increasing as his mind and memories put this all together. He remembered running toward the sounds of screaming. He took down several walkers, and his arm hurt so bad every time. He had planned on not using that arm for the next several days, because the man who'd tried to hurt him - the man who killed Sam, had pulled it too hard and had dislocated it.

But that wasn't why he was here... There was something more. The throbbing in his leg reminded him of that. He'd been shot.

He looked down. His legs were covered in hospital sheets and his injured one was propped up on a pillow. He wiggled his toes slightly, happy to see that they were indeed still down there.

"You're awake," a smiling man noted as he paced over to Glenn's bed. "I'm Allan. I'm a nurse here. I've been keeping an eye on you, waiting for you to wake up. How are you feeling?"

Glenn swallowed. His throat felt dry and he felt very cold. "What-" He paused, swallowing again as he tried to articulate whatever fuzzy thought was buzzing around his head. "Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital," Allan explained.

"What- Am I okay? Did I have surgery? I feel really confused..." Glenn mumbled, feeling close to falling asleep again as he exhaled and closed his eyes.

"You did have surgery. It went well. That's why you're feeling so tired. You were under anesthesia. You were shot in the leg. Do you remember that?" the man asked.

"Yeah," Glenn answered in a small voice that was barely above a whisper. "We were trying to help people... Some bad men were attacking them, making them kill gee- er... walkers... Is Merle here?"

The nurse nodded. "He and a couple women brought you here."

"Women? Are they okay?" Glenn wondered. Those were the people he had been trying to help when this happened.

"They're alright," Allan told him. "I have a couple questions I want to ask you before we let any visitors back here. First, are you comfortable? Any pain?"

"My leg hurts," Glenn shrugged. "And I'm cold... and thirsty."

"Alright. Scale of one to ten. How bad does your leg hurt right now? Ten would be that it's so bad you can't even stand it - the worst pain of your life. One is just a little annoying."

"Mmm... Maybe a... um... Five?" Glenn wasn't really sure how to use this scale. He supposed the pain could be a lot worse. It was tolerable.

"Do you know how to swallow pills?" Allan asked.

Glenn frowned. "Yeah...?" That was a weird question. Didn't everyone know how to swallow pills?

"Some kids find it difficult." Allan shrugged, sensing Glenn's confusion.

"Oh... Well, I know how to do it," Glenn reaffirmed.

"I'm going to go get you some water, pain meds, and another blanket. I'll be right back," Allan smiled and stepped back into the main room.

Glenn swallowed as he looked around some more. He noticed he was wearing a hospital gown and not much else. He frowned and pushed the sides and bottom of the gown down to make sure he was fully covered. Did this mean the doctors saw him naked? Glenn felt his cheeks growing hot. That was embarrassing...

He lifted the blanket up away from his left thigh, which was where he'd been shot. It was wrapped with a white bandage. He couldn't even see the injury. He looked at his hand, where an IV was stuck. He shuddered. He really didn't like needles and hadn't ever had an IV before.

He looked up toward the end of the bed where a television was set up, somehow hooked up to the ceiling. It wasn't turned on though. There probably weren't any stations still broadcasting.

"Here we are," Allan's voice was cheerful as he made his way back into the room, placed a styrofoam cup of water and a small cup with a pill in it on a table near Glenn's head and draped the blanket carefully over his legs and stomach. "Warm enough now?" He wondered, closing the curtain around the bed and sitting down on a chair next to Glenn.

Glenn nodded as he swallowed the pill and took a cautious sip of water. He looked down at himself again. "Does this mean the doctors saw me naked?" He asked in a small voice.

Allan smiled slightly. "Don't worry about that, Glenn," he assured him. "Doctors and nurses don't think anything about stuff like that, so don't worry. They were just focused on fixing your leg and keeping everything clean."

"Okay..." Glenn reluctantly accepted that answer. It wasn't like he could do anything about it.

"Alright, so these are just a couple questions and concerns we had while we were treating you... Do you know your blood type first of all?" he asked.

Glenn shook his head. He'd never been asked that. He bet his parents would have known.

"And this one isn't that important for your medical care, but just so we have it on record - we've used this stuff to reunite friends and relatives a couple times in the past... What's your last name? The people you were with didn't know it."

"Oh," Glenn laughed. It never occurred to him that he'd never told Merle his full name. "Rhee," he answered, spelling it out for the nurse.

Allan shook his head. "Don't think we've had any other Rhees around here."

"They're from Michigan," Glenn shrugged with a frown. "I was visiting my uncle and cousin. They're both dead."

"Oh... I'm sorry," Allan frowned.

"Well, I mean, I think my uncle's dead. His name's Henry Rhee... He's maybe like thirty five or forty years old... He's Korean. Maybe if anyone brought him in and he was unconscious or something you wouldn't know who he is? Did you guys have any people like that?" Glenn felt a slight twinge of hope.

Allan offered a tight smile and shook his head. "Sorry..."

Glenn smiled slightly back. "That's okay... It was a long shot."

"So there are a couple other things we were wondering about... These people who brought you in, how do you know them? How long have you been traveling with them?" Allan asked.

"They didn't tell you?" Glenn frowned. "I've known Merle for five days. I moved in with him after my cousin died. The ladies, I don't know. We found them in the street being attacked by bad people and we helped them. I guess they came with us when I got shot. There was a man with them too, but he got... eaten."

Allan nodded. "So Merle invited you to stay with him?"

"Yeah, I mean kinda... I asked him, and then he said no, but then he changed his mind. We've been living together at a f-" he stopped. Merle hadn't wanted anyone to know where he lived. "A factory..." Glenn corrected his near mis-step.

"Is he nice to you?" Allan asked.

Glenn shrugged. "I guess. Mostly."

"What do you mean, mostly?" Allan wondered.

"Well, he makes mean jokes and swears and stuff. Yells sometimes," Glenn answered, feeling his shoulders slump as a frown showed up on Allan's lips. "He's nice though... I like him. He's okay. He saved me lots of times and gives me pop tarts... I mean, he brought me here... He could have let me die and he didn't."

Allan nodded. "That's okay. I'm sure he's nice. I'm not trying to say he isn't. Don't worry. I'm just asking you questions I ask everyone. It's nothing to be concerned about, okay?" He finished with a rather forced-looking smile.

"It seems like maybe you don't like Merle and think he's mean to me, but he's not," Glenn frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "He lets me stay with him, and even gave me a blanket and a pillow last night."

"He doesn't usually give you those things?" Allan asked.

Glenn opened his mouth to answer, but wasn't sure what this man was trying to do. "Well... I don't need those things... Why are you asking me all this?"

"Has he ever hurt you?" Allan went on.

Glenn pouted. He didn't want to answer that, because this man would just turn it around. Merle had hurt him, but only on purpose that one time, and it was after Glenn had hit him first, in the heat of the moment, and Merle apologized. Allan wouldn't understand.

"There's no reason to hide anything or cover anything up. If you're scared of him, we won't make you leave with him. There are enough staff here-" Allan began.

"No!" Glenn interrupted, feeling his breathing rate increasing. "He's nice... I want to stay with him. Please let me stay. He didn't do anything!"

"Can you explain what happened to you to leave all of those bruises?" Allan nodded toward his wrists and then looked at his covered torso. "Whatever that was, it looks like it was pretty violent. I'm only trying to make sure you're alright."

"I'm fine," Glenn frowned. "Those bruises are from someone else."

"Go on," Allan stared back at him.

Glenn swallowed and bit his lower lip. He didn't like this guy anymore. He was too demanding. Glenn didn't want to talk about this, especially not with this random stranger. "I don't have to tell you," Glenn finally said.

Allan looked back with raised eyebrows. "I don't have to let Merle visit you back here either, and I'm not going to if I think he's been hurting you."

"He hasn't!" Glenn insisted. "Please!" He felt tears stinging his eyes and his leg started to hurt even more. "Merle didn't do anything... Some guys-" His breath hitched in his throat. This was really the last thing he wanted to talk about.

"Yes?" Allan looked back. When Glenn took a few minutes to keep going and sniffed back tears instead, Allan's tone softened. "I'm really not trying to be the bad guy, here... You understand that, right? This man brought you in here, doesn't know your blood type or even your last name... He knows nothing about you... You've got dark bruises all over your arms, on your chest and stomach... A split lip... It doesn't look good. I just don't want to let a man who's been hurting you come back and visit you. I've talked to lots of children in my years at this hospital - children with injuries a lot like yours... and it was their parents or coaches or babysitters - people who brought them here... And even when they were scared and didn't want to tell me what happened, I had to make sure not to let their abusers come into the room and make things worse. I just need to know what's going on. There may not be laws or prisons or much of any sort of order in the world anymore, but if I can use the number of people we have here to prevent a child abuser from keeping his hold over a child, I'm gonna do it... Was he the one who hurt you? Has he ever hit your or threatened you? Do you feel scared around him?"

Glenn swallowed a lump in his throat. He wasn't going to tell Allan about the times Merle had threatened or scared him. He wouldn't say that Merle hit him or held onto him tightly and forced him to kill walkers. He wasn't going to tell Allan about the time Merle threw vases and knocked over shelves on purpose while ranting about wanting to break Glenn's bones. In a way, Glenn felt like he had grown to understand Merle a lot better than most of the world did. The man had a very tough exterior, and wanted people to be scared of him, but deep down, he was kind.

Even though Glenn really didn't want to explain his injuries, he figured he probably had to. The only other alternative was having Allan believe Merle was responsible.

"It was three guys I ran into... They grabbed me and pushed me against a counter top..." Glenn sniffed and felt his lower lip trembling as he looked away from Allan's eyes. "He was trying to take my pants off, so I fought back and then he hit me, on my mouth and in the stomach until I couldn't fight anymore. He-" Glenn inhaled and looked down at his lap. "He was going to hurt me... he even said so... but Merle found us and stopped him."

"Why did he stop them?" Allan asked.

"Because he knew they were bad," Glenn answered. "Merle and I are friends... We didn't get along perfectly at first, but we're friends now. He wouldn't let someone do something like that to me."

Allan looked confused. "So that's when you met?"

"No," Glenn shook his head. "Those same people killed my cousin a few days before, and tried to hurt me then, but I got away. That's when I met Merle, when I was running away from them. I ran into Merle in an alley. And then he does trades with people with supplies they find. Those were one of the groups he did trades with. He sent me to give them the stuff and get the stuff they brought. He didn't know they were bad. He came to check on me and saved me from them."

"Okay," Allan nodded. "So he didn't cause any of these bruises. Those guys did."

Glenn nodded quickly. "That's right. Merle wouldn't hurt me. He kind of adopted me... maybe..."

Allan narrowed his eyes. "And those women? You just met them?"

Glenn nodded. "They can visit too if they want... If they're still here."

"Alright..." Allan seemed almost unconvinced. "You're probably going to have to stay here a week or two to heal... Maybe as long as a month. We can let Merle and even Nora and Tracy stay too if they want. We have so many empty rooms these days. We try to have people who stay here and aren't patients help out with work around here if they can. Mostly just cleaning or supply runs. If they don't mind pulling their weight, we've got plenty of nice rooms."

Glenn nodded. He wasn't sure Merle would really want to work for these people in exchange for a room. He frowned as he looked down at his leg. "How bad is it?" He wondered. "Will I be able to walk still?"

Allan nodded. "I think so. We'll have your doctor check in and give you updates. From what I understand, you'll probably need crutches or a wheel chair for a week or so and then we'll see if we can't get you walking again. "

"Oh... Good." Glenn exhaled and leaned back. He couldn't believe he'd been shot. He wished Sam were still here, in a bed right next to him. His wound was too serious... and he'd been bitten already. Glenn would have given anything for Sam to have been as lucky as him, for them to be in this together, recovering and making jokes about bullet wounds when they felt frustrated or in pain, to make themselves and each other feel better.

"I'm going to have you fill this form out." Allan handed him a clipboard with two sheets of paper on it as well as a pen. "For now, we'll do with verbal consent - which of the three people who brought you in are you okay with being told your health information? Normally we'll share info with a parent or guardian... There aren't exactly consequences for us sharing health information with the wrong people anymore..." He trailed off.

"You can tell all three of them. I don't care," Glenn answered as he looked down at the sheet. There were a lot of questions, including asking his birth date, social security number, place and address of residence. "I don't know all the answers to these questions," Glenn looked up with a frown.

"Just do your best. We're trying to keep track of everyone who comes through here, so the more information the better. There could be other people with your same name, maybe even the same birthday and age... The more information we have, the more likely if someone you know ever shows up here, we can try to reunite you. It's happened before."

Glenn looked back down at the paper and started filling it out. The only people he knew in Atlanta were Sam and Henry. Sam was definitely gone. Henry probably was too. He supposed it couldn't hurt though. His parents knew he was coming here to stay with Sam. Maybe one day they'd make it down to Georgia and try to find him.

"Did you want just one visitor for now? Or all three?" Allan wondered.

Glenn shrugged. "They can all come if they want... Do the ladies really want to visit?" He wondered. They didn't even know him.

"They've seemed very worried about you, and have been waiting out there for hours. Meanwhile Merle's been pacing around impatiently... I might have to send someone down the hallways to track him down. Last I checked, he wasn't in the waiting room," Allan explained.

Glenn looked up from the paper. "He didn't leave, did he?" He frowned. Maybe this was the last straw. Glenn couldn't deny that he'd caused a lot of extra trouble for Merle. Merle had specifically told him not to follow the sounds of screaming, and he'd ignored the man...

"I'm sure he's around somewhere," Allan answered.

"I hope so..." Glenn looked back down at the paper.

"I doubt he would have left. He brought you all the way here. He's got to care on some level... I'll fill them all in on everything and bring them back. Keep filling that out," Allan instructed.

Glenn nodded and looked down at the paper, writing in his full name, birth date, and his family members' names. It looked like they created this form specifically for the end of the world, because it asked him to list people or groups he'd been traveling with or living with too, as well as a space for a current parent or guardian next to the space where he'd written his parents' names. He guessed a lot of kids weren't living with their actual parents these days.

Glenn frowned and stared down at the paper. Was Merle his guardian now? He left that space blank for now and filled out the rest, but didn't include where he and Merle had been living. He did mention his living situation with Sam and Henry, but didn't know their address.

He went on to fill in his medical history as best as he knew it - which wasn't all that well, wrote that he wasn't allergic to anything that he knew of, and tried his best to remember what sicknesses various family members of his had suffered. He was pretty sure one of his great grandmas had some kind of cancer, but didn't die from it. It was hard to remember, especially right now while he still felt fairly tired and groggy.

He went back to the blank for his current guardian. He could put Merle's name there... it wasn't like there was anyone else in the world who was more of a guardian to him than Merle was... but their relationship may have been more of business partners than anything else. He didn't even know the man's last name. Just writing down 'Merle' would look ridiculous.

With his pen still hovering over the empty space, Glenn looked up from the form as he heard the curtain being pulled carefully open, revealing Allan with the two women from the street.

"Where's Merle?" Glenn frowned.

One of the women, Tracy opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it quickly and looked nervously toward the other woman, Nora. Glenn did remember their faces, now that he was seeing them again. They both looked like they knew something they both wanted to tell him and wanted to keep from him at the same time.

"He left, didn't he?" Glenn could feel tears in his eyes.

Nora shook her head slightly as Tracy finally spoke up. "We're not sure... He left us a note... It's, uh... Kind of unclear..."

"Can I see it?" Glenn asked.

The blonde woman handed him a folded up paper with a yin-yang doodled messily on the front. He wasn't sure what that meant. Why would Merle draw that?

"Ignore who it's addressed to... It was... um..." Nora exhaled. "A joke, I guess..."

Glenn unfolded the paper and read it:

'Yin Yang Rug-Munchers,

If he lives through this and wakes up, tell Glenn I'll be right back. If I don't come back, assume I'm dead and let him stay with you once he's recovered. Take better care of him than I did and don't drag him all over the city. Keep him safe like he's one of your own kids.'

Glenn frowned. That sounded an awful lot like he was leaving on purpose and didn't plan to come back. "Is he mad at me?" Glenn looked up from the note.

"What?" Nora frowned. "Why would he be?"

"He told me not to run toward the noises when I heard you guys screaming. I didn't listen, and I got us into trouble. It's my fault I got shot. He warned me..." Glenn sniffed back tears.

Nora shook her head as she shuffled past Tracy and Allan and sat down next to the bed, gripping Glenn's hand in hers, "Honey, if he's mad at you for risking something to help other people, let him be mad. I for one am really glad you decided to help us, and I'm never going to look at you as anything less than a hero for doing what you did."

"You can stay with us if we don't hear from Merle again," Tracy chimed in. "Even if we do hear from him again, you can still stay with us - he's not your father. I'm not your mother... It'll be up to you. You can still choose to stay with him even, but you're welcome to stay with us."

Glenn sighed and looked down at the clip board still in his hands. He looked at the blank space next to the question asking who his current guardian was. He didn't have one. He left it blank and handed it back to Allan.

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Chapter 21 Random Trivia:
I really do have fun thinking up offensive things for Merle to say. He's not even in this chapter, but his presence is strong with just that little letter he wrote. I don't condone the things I have him say... I'm channeling the character. You know how he is...