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Chapter 25

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With his hands clenched into fists, Merle paced down the hallway. He had to play this cool. He didn't want anyone to know how pissed he was, because he didn't want anyone to try to stop him from what he planned to do.

"Hey, Merle. Did he wake up? You get a chance to talk to him yet?" The young nurse from before wondered.

"Yeah... Um, do you know a nurse named Donny?" Merle asked in as calm a voice as he could manage.

"Why?" The nurse's smile fell. "Did Glenn say something about him? I caught him in Glenn's room earlier and they both looked somewhat startled... I asked Glenn about it. He said nothing was wrong... That Donny just scared him into thinking something was wrong with his leg or something. Donny's got a reputation around here for not really having a way with words... Glenn didn't seem too upset, so I let it go... but maybe he felt more comfortable talking to you about it?"

"No, it's nothing serious," Merle answered. "Just wanted to talk to him. Glenn said that was the last staff member to really talk to him about his progress, so I wanted to talk to him to see if he can tell me anything Glenn forgot to mention. Just wanna stay informed."

"Oh," Madeline frowned. "Well, he's not really Glenn's nurse. Don makes everyone's business his own. Really shouldn't have ever been talking to Glenn in the first place. You should talk to me or his doctor about that."

Merle exhaled. "No offense, lady, but you look like you're fourteen years old. I'd rather talk to someone more competent. I'm sure the doctor's busy, so where's this Donny guy?"

Madeline frowned. "I'll have you know I'm perfectly qualified and probably know more about Glenn's case than anyone."

"I'll find him myself," Merle exhaled and walked past her.

"He's probably on the roof," she finally told him. "He takes frequent smoke breaks up there."

"Perfect," Merle muttered to himself. "How do I get up there?"

"Take the stairs all the way to the top. The door's marked. Usually locked, but not when he's out there. He's got the key," the nurse explained. "I still know more about Glenn's progress than he does though. I guess you can ask me once you want to know more than whatever that lunatic rattles off." She turned and stomped away.

Merle laughed. He really didn't have a problem with that particular girl... He just needed to talk to the other nurse. She couldn't know why, so Merle had had to be a bit rude. He didn't necessarily regret it though. He enjoyed pushing people's buttons.

He turned and made his way up the stairs and toward the door which was marked with a sign reading: 'Roof Access. Authorized Personnel Only.' He pushed the door open and stepped outside, squinting slightly in the sunlight.

As Merle walked over the flat surface, a man standing near the edge and looking out over the street turned and glanced at him. He was wearing scrubs and had a short beard and mustache combo and a receding hairline. He wore a name tag that confirmed that his name was in fact 'Donny.' Merle swallowed bile in his throat, thinking about this gross creep trying to grope all over Glenn and act like it was normal. That kind of person was very dangerous, which was quite apparent judging by the fact that he had Glenn confused about what exactly had even happened. In a way, people like this guy were even worse than people like Tim. At least with Tim it was obvious he was a sick bastard. This guy Donny had his victims wondering if he even did anything wrong.

"Hey, you probably shouldn't be up here, man," the guy said as he noticed Merle. "You lost? Waiting on someone or looking for a doctor or something? I can help you find where you're supposed to be."

"Nah. I came out here for some air. Figured it'd be better than pacing around in the street and getting eaten alive," Merle offered a raspy laugh. "You got any extra cigarettes?" he asked, nodding toward the half-burnt down cigarette in Don's hand.

"Sure," the nurse smiled. "So, you come in here for medical treatment or you waitin' on someone?" he asked while fishing a carton of cigarettes out of his pocket and handing one to Merle. "Need a light?"

Merle nodded, letting the man light the cigarette for him before taking it. "Waitin' on that kid I brought in yesterday," Merle told him. "He's sleepin'. Guess they have him on pretty strong drugs."

Don nodded. "You mean Glenn. Yeah, he's a sweet kid. Everyone around here loves him. He's the only child patient here at the moment, so he's getting all kinds of attention."

"Yeah..." Merle fought the urge to punch the guy in the back of the head as Don looked back out over the street.

Glenn's description of his encounter with this man had nearly convinced Merle that there was no way anything Don did was at all innocent, but he had to make extra sure, and knew it would be easy. Predators like that tended to be more open when they thought they were in the company of their own. Merle had heard some pretty sick confessions from men who assumed he was like them. He didn't always hang around the most reputable people.

"Found him all by himself earlier this week," Merle noted. "Totally alone. Nobody else around at all."

"Yeah?" Don looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Bet it wasn't hard to convince him to stick around with all the risen out there wreaking havoc. Poor little kid was probably scared half to death all on his own."

"He was," Merle went on, swallowing and feeling sick just thinking about the things he was about to say in order to get a better read on this guy. "I told him he couldn't stay with me at first. He got real desperate real fast. Said he'd do anything."

"Anything, hm? Like what?" Don wondered, taking another drag of his cigarette.

Merle shrugged. "Just anything. A little kindness and protection goes a long way with kids. Especially these days. Give him a roof over his head, promise not to let him get eaten alive, and he'll do whatever I want."

"Oh," Don nodded as though guessing at what Merle was getting at. "Yeah... I'll bet."

"He's a soft little thing," Merle went on, wanting to get more of a solid confession out of this guy. "Fragile, but can still do what I need him for. You got anything like that worked out around here? I'll bet lots of kids get brought through here."

Don shrugged. "Not as many as you'd think. Most of 'em don't survive, and many of the ones that do live this long and make their way over here come in with a parent, so I kind of hang back. I had a kid once, back when I worked here as an actual job - in the old world... this kid told his parents all this shit about what I did. Almost got me fired. I just had to keep to my story that it was just a medical thing and the kid misinterpreted it. That was too close a call. I don't mess with the ones who still have parents. Not that I could really lose all that much these days... What, are people gonna put me on a sex offender list?" The nurse laughed.

"Yeah, I hear ya," Merle forced a laugh. "Glenn'll keep quiet."

"I should hope so," Don laughed. "I haven't spent much time with him, but did a little test drive today."

"Did you? What did you try?" Merle tried to appear interested.

Don shrugged. "Not much. He was scared, and one of the nurses came by before I got far. Just ran my hand up his leg, ran his hand up mine. Working toward something better. I think I scared him enough that he won't talk. Not that anything would happen anyway. What, are they gonna fire me? Put me in jail?" He laughed.

Merle shook his head and watched Don turn back around to look out over the city. "No. Probably not..." Merle agreed, staring at the back of the guy's head. "You gotta deal with people like you different these days," he added as he reached out and shoved the guy quite forcefully so that he stumbled forward.

"What the hell!?" Don gasped as he tripped and fell against the short cement wall between him and the ground four stories below.

Merle felt a growl in the back of his throat as he lunged forward and grabbed the guy by the front of his shirt. "Ain't so tough when you're not molesting little boys, are you?"

"What?" Don seemed legitimately shocked. "You said-"

Merle shook his head as he hauled the man up precariously near the edge.

"Wait!" Don screamed, obviously frantic. "Let me up! I-I didn't-" He stuttered. "I didn't really... I mean..." He inhaled and exhaled loud, deep breaths. "I didn't do anything... You said you did... I was just playing along... I..."

"Shut your damn mouth," Merle growled, pushing the guy even further up over the small cement ledge so that his entire torso was over nothing but air. "This is for all the little kids who came here expecting you to fucking help them, only to have you grope all over 'em instead. Glenn's here because he was fucking shot... Shot while trying to help people... And sick cunts like you think a kid like that exists only to feed some disgusting sexual urge? How can you see an injured child and want to do that to him? Why would you do that?"

"I didn't hurt him! I wouldn't-" Don breathed out. "Please... I never hurt anyone. I love kids. I would never hurt a child. I swear. It was only ever small things. I scared him is all, but it was harmless."

"Ain't nothin' harmless about that," Merle growled, dragging Don even further over the ledge so that he was practically sitting on it, gripping Merle's arms tightly to keep himself from falling. That wasn't going to work. "Glenn and I are staying here for the time being. That means there's no place for you. I brought him here so he'd be safe and so he wouldn't have to feel scared every fucking day. People like you scare kids. You don't need to fucking exist. I won't have him sleep under the same roof as you."

"I'll go," Don exhaled. "Just let me up... I'll tell the others I want to go look for my family. I'll just leave. I-"

Merle shook his head and hefted the man the rest of the way over, letting go and staring at him with narrowed eyes as Don screamed for what was probably the longest single second of the man's life before thudding heavily against the sidewalk below. Merle stared down at the man as Don groaned loud enough for Merle to hear him, looked down at his legs, and started screaming - likely noticing bones protruding from broken limbs. Merle frowned. Don wasn't supposed to survive that.

"Help me! Oh my god! My legs!" Don screamed, probably hoping some of his fellow hospital staff would come to his rescue. They were on the back side of the building though. As far as Merle knew, there weren't guards hanging out back there. Probably no one could see him. They might be able to hear him though.

Merle couldn't help but grin as he noticed a couple nearby walkers react to the sound of Don's screams and start making their way over. Don continued screaming as the walkers crowded around him. Merle smirked and flicked his cigarette off the roof toward the man. He turned and made his way back inside. Problem solved.

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Chapter 25 Random Trivia:
I love violently killing off the villains in my stories. That's another reason why I love writing for The Walking Dead fandom, and for characters like Merle - in a lot of other fandoms, and when dealing with a lot of other types of characters, horrific vengeful murders just don't fall into my lap like this... Merle would violently kill someone... So this has been really fun having him kill people who deserve it and take out all his rage on the undead.

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