Destruction ||| Glenn Rhee (BEING REWRITTEN TO OC)

21 ~ Goner

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On the road again

Goin' places that I've never been

Seein' things that I may never see again

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Rick shakes his head. "There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody, somewhere—"

Andrea scoffs, cutting him off. "What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?"

"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner says.

Carol wipes tears from her face. "This isn't right. You can't just keep us here. My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."

"One tiny moment—a millisecond. No pain. Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate just to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner says to Carol.

Suddenly a gun cocks and Shane walks up holding his shotgun. Rick shoves Shane, yelling at him to calm down.

"Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way! Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?" Shane shouts at Jenner who doesn't flinch.

Rick holds a hand against Shane's chest, backing him away. "Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here."

Shane yells out and starts shooting at computers and the ceiling.

Glenn shields Rosanna from some metal debris that fall down around them. Archer grabs Shane by the shoulders, glancing at over at Rosanna.

He faces Shane. "Chill out, man."

Rick snatches the gun out of Shane's hands. "Are you done now? Are you done?"

Shane sighs and stops resisting. "Yeah. I guess we all are."

Rick looks to Jenner. "I think you're lying."

Jenner cocks his head. "What?"

"You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

Jenner waves his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter."

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"

Jenner sighs. "Not because I wanted to. I made a promise." He points to the blank screen. "To her. My wife."

Rosanna takes a small step closer. "Test subject 19... was your wife?"

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just... Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me." He says sadly.

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's—that's all we want—a choice, a chance." Rick says.

Glenn nods. "Let us keep trying as hard as we can."

Jenner stands. "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." He presses a few buttons then the security door opens.

"Oh my god." Rosanna exclaims.

"Go, go, go!" Daryl shouts.

Jenner pulls Rick close and whispers something into his ear. The color drains from his face as he processes the words being said.

Glenn calls out. "We have 4 minutes we have to go now!" He grabs hold of Rosanna's hand and they run towards the door.

Rosanna glances back when she hears T-Dog yelling something. They pause and Jacqui tells them that she's staying. Everyone says their goodbyes and rushes toward the lobby. 

Once there, she notices that Dale and Andrea aren't with them, but she has no time to question it. The clock is ticking down by the second.

Glenn and T-Dog bang on the doors. "Get those doors open!" Glenn shouts.

Daryl and Shane run up with the axes from before and start hitting the doors. The keypad doesn't work either.

T-Dog grabs a metal chair from the lobby and runs to the window, smacking it against the glass. It doesn't budge.

Shane loads up his shotgun. "Dog! Get down!" T moved out of the way and Shane shoots several bullets at the glass. Still, nothing works.

Sophia looks to Rosanna who wipes an angry tear from her face. "The glass won't break?"

She shakes her head sadly.

Carol thinks for a minute and then reaches in her bag. "Rick, I have something that might help."

Shane rolls his eyes. "Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Rosanna shoots a dirty look at him which he returns.

"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket." She pulls out a grenade.

Rick pulls the pin and places the grenade next to the glass, sprinting away.

"Get down!" Archer shouts.

"Duck!" T yells.

Everyone ducks out of view and the glass shatters loudly. They all start shouting and running towards the window, climbing out and making a run for the cars. Walkers start appearing due to the noises coming from the building.

Daryl and Shane take some down with their axes.

Everyone piles into cars and starts the engines. Lori speaks out. "Wait, wait, wait, here they come!"

Dale and Andrea are climbing out the window. "Get down! Dale! Andrea!"

They duck as a large fireball explosion erupts from the C.D.C. It's a deafening sound as glass shatters. They can feel the heat from their cars as debris sprays across the streets.

Once the initial heat is over, people start peeking their heads up above the dashboards. The building is gone. 

Dale and Andrea run towards the RV and hop in. Andrea glares at him as a tear falls from her face.

After a silent pause, the cars drive off, as more walkers cluster to the remains of the building.

Archer reaches for Rosanna's hand. She glances at him, giving it a tiny squeeze before moving to the back of the RV.

Those inside sit silently, as they mourn the loss of not only Jacqui, but their hope and the little safety they had.

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