Notes: Again, dialog lifted from episodes three and four from season one, so here's your warning.
Sorry for any structural/grammatical errors.
Glenn's pulled the white cube-van to a stop at the railroad tracks that crisscross one another on the outskirts of the city. He's used this as a way into and out of Atlanta before and thankfully the abandoned railroad station still remains blissfully geek-free. "Sorry," He says as he reaches down to unhook his seatbelt before looking back at T-Dog and Daryl who are seated in the back of the truck. "We have to go on foot from here."
The four men clamor out of the jeep and begin checking over their various weapons, or in Glenn's case his trusty backpack (the last trip into the city was obviously disastrous, so if he sees anything useful, he'll try to bring it back to camp), and equipment before turning to face the desolation that is now Atlanta. He takes a fortifying breath and turns to face the group just as Rick speaks up, "Which first—the guns or Merle?"
Glenn forces down a groan and shoots a quick glance over at Daryl, swearing that the man's hand just twitched towards his crossbow. Lovely,Glenn thinks, thanks for that, Rick. He manages to keep all of his opinions about Rick's judgment and character to himself, though, and tries to appeal to him through logic: going for Merle makes the most sense, not only because it would be the more humane thing to do, but because if they went for the guns first, it would mean they would have to double back in the end.
Rick blessedly doesn't argue over Glenn's advice and T-Dog tacitly agrees so soon they're on their way; they slowly make their way on foot under the overpass and proceed into the city without any incident. As they begin to leave the outskirts of the city and actually progress into Atlanta itself, walkers start appearing but the men manage to maneuver around them without drawing attention unlike last time. While Glenn certainly feels safer this time around with Daryl at his back, he only feels the tension he's been carrying around in his shoulders ease when the department store they left Merle at finally comes into view.
A quick perusal of the area reveals that the majority of the walkers from before have cleared out of the area (and thinking back on this, Glenn should have realized that this should have been a clue) and the group moves as quickly as it can without attracting attention to itself toward the entrance of the store. Daryl takes out a few walkers on the way with his crossbow to open up a path and snags the arrows back up as he passes by (ammunition is a precious commodity nowadays, after all). Once inside, the four men continue on their way through the store's main floor, killing an additional pair of walkers so that they can reach the stairs in the back. Finally, after what seems like an eternity to Glenn, they arrive at the door that T-Dog chained and padlocked shut to find that it remains undamaged and intact.
Rick pulls out the bolt cutters that he previously negotiated away from Dale before they left camp and makes quick work of the barriers preventing them from exiting out onto the roof. Daryl forces his way past the other three and out onto the roof first, quickly followed by Rick and then Glenn and T-Dog. Glenn wants to let out a breath of relief that they've finally gotten back to Merle without a problem, but he is interrupted by a shout of distress from Daryl; shoving Rick to the side, he darts over to his husband to see what's wrong. However, once he gets there, he immediately wishes that he really hadn't.
Instead of finding Merle safe and relatively unharmed like Glenn had hoped they would, the only sight before them is a bloodied pair of handcuffs still hanging from the piece of metal to which Rick originally cuffed them and an equally bloodied, severed hand that sits off to the side. Dale's hacksaw, which he'd loaned to T-Dog along with several other tools, lies nearby.
He suppresses the urge to vomit before turning his attention to Daryl who is quite honestly quickly losing his shit; Rick and T-Dog can't do anything but look at him helplessly—it isn't as though any of them predicted that Merle would cut his hand off before they could get back to him. Granted, this is probably something Glenn should have considered—it's not as though they had given Merle any hint that they would actually be coming back for him.
As Daryl becomes increasing more upset, Glenn moves forward and wraps his arms around his husband, attempting to murmur soothing nonsense into his ear. Daryl allows him to hold him for only a few moments before his distress quickly turns to white-hot rage and he slips from his arms only to heft his crossbow up into T-Dog's face. To T's credit, he doesn't flinch, merely stares back at Daryl unblinkingly.
"Dar—" Glenn starts to protest, but cuts himself off as Rick pulls his revolver out and points it at Daryl. "I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." Rick warns. The next several seconds are tense until Daryl finally relents and both men lower their weapons. Daryl turns his attention back to T. "You got a do-rag or something?"
T-dog wordlessly hands one over and to Glenn's utter dismay, his husband gingerly picks up Merle's hand and places it into his backpack. He tries to suppress his wince—he doesn't care if it was once attached to his brother-in-law, that is a severed hand!—but is pretty sure he fails when he feels Daryl press his forehead briefly to the back of his head before moving away. As he's hoisting the backpack further up onto his shoulders, he notices a trail of blood on the ground that leads away from the area where Merle would have amputated his hand; he turns to point it out to the others, but it seems Daryl's already taken care of that so he dutifully follows after him. The trail winds around the roof top and leads over to another entrance down into the building; T-Dog pauses long enough to pick up Dale's tools that he'd left behind before then follows.
The trail takes them down into the lower levels of the building, past several dead walkers (whom must have been killed by Merle), into a kitchen area where they discover evidence that leads them all to conclude that Merle at least survived long enough to cauterize his wound. Glenn makes a disgusted face as Rick lifts up a flat-iron that has crusted-skin remains on it and inspects it, humming thoughtfully; Daryl raises an eyebrow before commenting, "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."
"Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood." Rick remarks. Seriously, Rick. Glenn despairs internally.
"Yeah." The blood splots on the floor that they've been following lead from the kitchen over to a window that has been smashed out. Leaning out the window, Daryl notices that it lets out directly over the fire escape. It seems likely that Merle's no longer in this building. "Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap."
T-Dog makes a strangled noise. "He left the building? Why in the hell would he do that?"
"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do. Surviving."
Scoffing, T-dog counters with: "You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?"
Daryl whirls on him, "No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks." Then he turns to Rick. "You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard."
"What about 1,000 dumb dead bastards?" Rick asks, "Different story?"
"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want, I'm gonna go get him." And with that, Daryl turns to move past Rick.
However, Rick reaches out to stop and push him back, "Daryl, wait!"
Incensed once again, Daryl snaps at Rick, "Get your hands off me! You can't stop me!"
Glenn watches the exchange worriedly in the background, chewing on his lower lip. Regardless of what Daryl chooses Glenn's going to follow after him.
"I don't blame you," Rick begins, "He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel." Rick then surprisingly offers to help Daryl search the streets surrounding the department store once it becomes clear that Daryl isn't going to just give up on his search for his brother. "He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head." When he turns to look at Glenn, Glenn merely offers him a flat look in response and shifts closer to his husband (wasn't Rick listening to Daryl talk about family?) so Rick doesn't even bother asking after all, just continues onto T-Dog instead. T's more hesitant in his willingness to help.
He scoffs. "Only if we get those guns first. I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?"
Not that Glenn can actually really fault him for that; they could all use the extra protection that those guns and ammo would provide and now that they know that Merle isn't actually in this department anymore, his earlier arguments no longer apply. With that in mind, the four head upstairs to an abandoned office where Glenn snatches up a dry erase marker and reviews the outline of the city in his head. He goes through several scenarios and discounts each one as he considers his mental map until he finally settles on an acceptable plan.
He brings the marker to the floor and quickly sketches out a crude outline on the floor while Rick and T-Dog murmur quietly behind him over the best way to go about getting the guns, not really paying attention to him; Daryl's a warm, yet silent, presence at his side watching him work. When he's gotten everything figured out, he turns to call Rick and T over to explain.
"You're not doing this alone." Rick automatically protests.
"It's a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out." Glenn argues back. "If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast. Look." He picks up a binder clip and places it on the corresponding place on his map. "That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now." Then he drops a crumpled of piece of paper in front of it. "That's the bag of guns. Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl and I will go."
"Why Daryl?" Rick asks.
"His crossbow is quieter than your gun." Glenn responds. Amongst other things.
Rick concedes the point with a quick nod. Glenn drops a small sliver of post-it tabs on the map where an alley is supposed to be. "While Daryl waits here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag."
Kneeling down, Rick looks over the map, "You got us elsewhere?"
Nodding, Glenn continues with his explanation, "You and T-Dog, right. You'll be in this alley here." Once he finishes speaking, he places down a pink eraser in the designated alley for illustration.
"Two blocks away? Why?" Rick questions confusedly.
"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to Daryl. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here."
"Hey kid, what'd you do before all of this?" T-Dog asks, throwing an incredulous look at him.
Glenn snorts, looking over his shoulder to meet Daryl's eyes; he holds his gaze as he thinks back about that part of their life and the resulting arguments that came from that. Daryl had never really liked his job has delivering pizzas, he had wanted him to focus on school, but Glenn hadn't had a problem with both.
[Glenn slips out of the classroom, carelessly shoving papers into his bag as maneuvers his way past fellow students and heads toward the quad and where he left his bike. While he generally enjoys his classes, he's definitely glad that this is his final semester and he'll be graduating in the spring. After that? Well, that's a whole other problem that he just doesn't want to think about right now. He picks up his pace slightly when his bike comes into view; as Glenn comes to a stop beside it and kneels down to undo the lock, he glances at his watch to gauge whether or not he has enough time to run by the garage where Daryl works before his evening shift starts. Biting his bottom lip in indecision, he mulls it over for a few moments before finally just deciding that he can manage it if he makes it a quick visit.
Ten minutes later, Glenn finds himself biking to a stop outside the locally owned garage where his boyfriend works. He dismounts and walks the bike over to lean it against the fence before heading inside through one of the open doors in the back, waving to a few of the guys that he recognizes. He doesn't see his boyfriend anywhere but he does hear one of the guys in the back call out, 'Dixon! Your boytoy's here,' and he's sure he turns an absolutely horrifying shade of red. To prevent further embarrassment, Glenn quickly hurries in the direction that the guy called out toward, the man's laughter trailing after him.
After that, it's not hard for Glenn to spot the familiar mess of brown hair amongst the others in the shop; Daryl's not facing him when he first approaches, but turns around before he even gets close (Glenn's gotten over how freaky his hearing seems to be by this point). "'Thought you were in class?"
"Well, I was. And then I wasn't….because class ended. I just wanted to come say 'hi,' and tell you that I won't be home until late tonight because I switched a shift with Jared, and what's with that look. Stop with the look! We've already had this argument, many, many times. I like my job. I need my job. Plus, think about how fit it keeps me with all of the delivery bike riding!" Glenn teased, flexing the muscles in his left arm only to have to glare in mock outrage when Daryl snorted at his less-than impressive display.
"Don't mean I have to like it." The older man snarked in reply, before leaning past Glenn to pick up a towel from the bench to begin cleaning the oil from his hands.
"I suppose that's fair. I'm not quitting my job, Daryl, but I commend you on your personal growth in taking steps toward accepting that fact."
"You should—"
"Mm-hm." Glenn agrees, leaning forward to cut Daryl off with a kiss. "There are lots of things I should be doing. This is one of them." Thankfully, Daryl gives up with the arguing (for now, he never really gives up on arguing; he merely lets it go temporarily and lies in wait until he can catch Glenn off guard. Particularly when he's half asleep—God, the things Glenn's agreed to while sleep-stupid.) The duo spend the next ten minutes necking like a pair of teenagers outside of the garage before Glenn catches sight of the time and has to rush off to work.]
"Glenn?" Rick questions.
Glenn jerks out of his reminiscing at the sound of Rick calling his name and breaks his gaze with Daryl, a faint blush staining his cheeks. He turns back to look at Rick and T-Dog, finally answering: "Delivered pizzas. Why?"
"No reason." T-Dog shakes his head in disbelief and Rick tilts his head and gets this look on his face as though he's wondering if Glenn is just fucking with him or not. Glenn can't be sure, but he thinks Daryl just suppressed a snort in the background.
After peering over the side of the building and finding the alleyway clear of geeks, Glenn and Daryl use the ladder that he and Rick previously used on their escape route to climb down to the street below and settle behind a dumpster to keep out of sight. He only hopes that, as according to plan, Rick and T-Dog are moving into position a few blocks ahead. Glenn gets ready to move after Daryl finishes loading a bolt into his crossbow but before he can take a step onto the street, he feels his husband's hand wrap tightly around his bicep and tug him back. Before he can utter a sound, a biting kiss is pressed to his mouth and is quickly followed by a warning.
"Don't be messin' around out there."
Glenn rolls his eyes (this isn't the first time he's done this-well, not this actually, but whatever—after all), presses a kiss to the underside of Daryl's jaw in response and moves back to the edge of the alley to peer around the corner of the building. He meets Daryl's eyes briefly one last time before finally just going for it. As he steps out onto the street, he dodges behind abandoned cars and uses them as shields to hide behind as far as he can. When he runs out of cars, he thankfully has the option of diving behind a pile of shored up sandbags that have been barricaded in the street. Taking a deep breath, he peers over the barrier to see where the guns are—thankfully, lying exactly where they're expected to be—and one more deep, steadying breath and Glenn's up and moving. Mere seconds later he's reaching down and grabbing the bag and starting to move only to realize that Rick's sheriff's hat is still back there on the ground. Dang, Rick probably would have enjoyed having that back.
He looks around the tank and notices a larger group of walkers having taken interest in him, curses under his breath, swerves back around to scoop up the hat (Guess Rick will be getting it after all) and takes off in the opposite direction, back toward Daryl. His relief that he's made it back to the alley only lasts a split second as he discovers that there are three other guys aside from Daryl in there and they are currently beating the crap out of his husband. Glenn stands there frozen in shock. However, two of the guys look up and notice him and unfortunately what he's holding, "That's it. That's the bag, vato. Take it! Take it!"
Shit! Freaked, Glenn turns to run out of the alley as the unknown men start to advance on him; however, they only give chase and quickly catch him. He doesn't even make it to the entrance before they're on him, one of them hitting him with a metal bat; Daryl, by this point, has managed to recover enough that he's grabbed his crossbow and shot one of them in the ass. Unfortunately, it doesn't give Glenn enough leeway to get away. Fortunately, it does force the man who'd grabbed the bag of guns from Glenn's hands to drop it back onto the ground. Glenn hears the sound of a car approaching and un-shot thug forces him to his feet, inching him back toward the entrance. Struggling, he starts screaming for Daryl, but it's no use as they quickly force him into the car. By this point, walkers have heard the commotion in the alley and have swarmed the entrance, forcing Daryl to pull the gate at the alley's entrance shut. The last thing he sees out the window the car before it pulls away is Daryl screaming something through the fence as Rick and T-Dog come running up behind him.
Glenn thinks he must have the shittiest luck in the world as the two thugs from the alley force him out of the car once it comes to a stop outside of abandoned factory building. He vindictively hopes that that arrow shot to the ass is hurting like a bitch as he's manhandled in through the entrance and marched back through the building. As he gets further into the building, however, the more confused he becomes as he takes in the sights around him. He's left to ponder what he has just seen once one of the thugs—Felipe—has bound his hands and duct-taped his mouth closed.
He doesn't know how long he's sat there in that little dark room until the door's suddenly being jerked open and he's being yanked to his feet. Before he knows it, he's standing on the top of a building looking down at his husband and Rick and these people are threatening to toss him off the side if they don't give up their guns. What in the hell, Glenn thinks, I am so very, desperately confused. He wonders if that's coming across in his expression or if he's just looking terrified—after the things he's seen these people doing, he doesn't really think they'll throw him off of this building. Come on, these people are taking care of little old ladies and little old men for crying out loud! He's even pretty sure he saw some fluffy little Chihuahuas running around.
He watches and strains to listen as Rick and this group's leader—Guillermo—bicker on the ground below and eventually come to a stalemate. Apparently, if his friends want him back, they have to hand over the bag of guns. Then Rick and Daryl are leaving and dragging a kid, whom Glenn thinks might have been from the skirmish back in the alley, with them, and once again Glenn finds himself back in the storeroom. He sighs dejectedly, wiggling around a little in attempts to free his hands.
After some time passes, Glenn isn't exactly sure how long, the door is opening again, but this time it's a guy that he doesn't recognize who's asking him if he has any experience with asthma attacks; Glenn just sort of gives the guy a half-hearted shrug in response but the guy starts undoing his bindings and then leads him out further into the building (which appears to be some sort of nursing home and would explain all of the elderly folks) to where a group of older individuals are gathered around a man who is apparently suffering from an asthma attack-just great, now Glenn feels like a dick.
Not really knowing what to do, Glenn sits down quietly to offer his support in any way he can—even if it's only just being a comforting body to be nearby. Ultimately, one of the elderly women gets up and heads in the direction of the exit, but Glenn doesn't really pay much attention to her after that. After a while, she comes back, when Rick, Daryl, T-Dog and some of her people in tow. Daryl, upon catching sight of Glenn, rushes over to him and immediately begins checking him over for injuries. "What the fuck, kid?" He snaps.
Yeah, Glenn doesn't really know what to say to that, so he just shrugs sheepishly as he watches Felipe move to help the older gentleman with an inhaler. Later, Guillermo explains that he was just trying to protect the supplies—the food, medicine—for the elderly here because they've encountered other hostile characters before and didn't expect anything different. He talks about how the staff abandoned all of the patients here and they're unable to be transported or even take care of themselves. He ponders how he, a custodian, ended up becoming a leader to all of these people. Rick remarks that they're able to rely on him simply because they can and ends up leaving several guns along with ammunition behind in order to help them out.
Glenn stays close to husband on the return trip out of the city, almost tucked into his side once they hit the outskirts. He realizes that this probably isn't the safest approach as it limits both his and Daryl's mobility, but he just can't force himself to move away; today was horrifying for him in a number of ways and he just feels safer where he is regardless of the logic of it. In his defense, Daryl doesn't protest his nearness either, merely works around the addition of another body's mass in his space.
Still, once the group returns to the abandoned railway station, Glenn reaches over to squeeze Daryl's hand briefly before finally darting in front of the others to head toward the van. However, he stops in shock when he realizes that the van is actually gone, keys dangling uselessly in his hand.
"Oh my god." Glenn says.
Daryl looks over at him, "Where the hell is our van?"
"We left it right there? Who would take it?" Stunned, he turns to share a look with each member of the group before all four of them simultaneously let out a groan with an accompanied 'Merle!'
Daryl shifts uncomfortably in place for several moments before remarking that they should really hurry back to camp, predicting that Merle may very well be on his way there to rain down his own brand of vengeance for what happened to him-"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to the camp."
When a quick glance around the area reveals no other viable vehicle in the area, he, Daryl, T-Dog and Rick take off running towards the hills as fast as they can.
"Shit!" Rick lets out a curse at the sounds of gunfire and screaming that can be heard coming from the direction of the camp and the men attempt to quicken their pace in desperation. They continue to race up the winding path of the mountain side and eventually burst onto the campsite to see everything in disarray. Numerous walkers have made headway into camp and are grabbing and devouring people left and right; some of survivors of the camp have managed, as apparently directed by Shane, to congregate in the middle of camp near the RV, while others, such as Morales and Jim, are attempting to hold the walkers back with baseball bats and various other makeshift weapons.
Out of the Atlanta group, Rick is the first onto the scene, quickly blowing an approaching walker away with his gun. Daryl and Glenn follow directly behind him, Daryl firing his crossbow and Glenn unloading a rifle into the nearest remaining walkers; T-Dog brings up the rear with his own weapon, picking off any that they miss. Glenn catches sight of Daryl abandoning his crossbow in favor of smashing the nearest walkers' skulls in with the butt of his gun and hears Rick shouting in the night for Lori and Carl.
When it appears that all of the walkers have been put down, the remaining members of the camp gather around the RV, staring around the wreckage of what had been their home for the past few weeks with the distinct sound of Andrea's distraught sobs playing as a soundtrack in the background. Dozens of bodies litter the ground, sadly both human and walker alike. Glenn stumbles his way to Daryl's side, wrapping his arms tightly around his waist. Jim suddenly wanders over by Glenn and blurts out stunned, "I remember my dream now. Why I dug the holes." Glenn has no fucking clue over what holes he's talking about and he really can't deal with that now, so he turns away from the carnage in front of him and buries his face into Daryl's chest.