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

67 ~ Sorry

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I'm so tired of bein' the girl that I am

Every good thing has turned into something I dread

And I'm playin' the victim so well in my head

But it's me who's been making the bed

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Judith's cry echoes in the woods. Every twig snap. Every gust of wind. Every sound. Amplified.

She won't stop crying. Maybe she's teething. Maybe she's hungry. Maybe their impromptu diapers aren't cutting it.

Daryl's on edge. Rosanna is too. She's still feverish. It's been a day since the incident on the road. He hasn't spoken a word to her.

In a way she understands. All his life... all he's ever known were addicts. She knows it's hard for him. She didn't want to accept it. She didn't want to admit the fact that she was addicted.

Now, it's too late. The pills are gone. Daryl is too. Even though he's still by her side, he's gone too.

Rosanna feeds the last of the berries to Judith. She stops crying. She was just hungry.

A few hours later, she's crying again. Diaper.

Daryl returns from a brief scavenge with a dead rattlesnake. He cooks it over a fire, giving half to the redhead.

She takes it, gnawing on it. It's chewy. It's salty. All the runs that she's been on with Daryl, and they've never had snake. It's new. It's different.

She cuts tiny chunks off of the cooked snake and lets the baby chew on it, with her tiny, still-growing teeth.

It seems to calm her. At least for now.

After they eat, Daryl packs up their camp. He says nothing as he walks in a new direction. She follows quietly. Judith rests her small head on Rosanna's shoulder.

They walk for hours. There's no sign of their group. Eventually they make it to a clearing. It's a graveyard. Just beyond that is a funeral home.

They walk across the graves and make it to the door. Daryl opens it and bangs on the frame. No noises.

Inside is clean. Contained.

There's a room downstairs where they do embalming. Daryl opens a cabinet and finds some bandages. "Let's get that ankle wrapped."

She recoils at the sound of his voice. They've been walking in silence for ages. She looks down at her foot. She almost forgot that she injured it in her escape from the fallen prison.

She sits on a table and lets Judith chew on her pinky finger.

Daryl wraps the bandage around her ankle. When he's done he searches the other cabinets. "Thank you." She mumbles.

He grunts in response.

Suddenly he pauses at the contents of one cabinet. "Got some more pills if you want them." He spits, chucking a bottle to the ground.

Judith flinches. Rosanna cradles her head. "Daryl." She warns.

"What? No problem exposing her to druggies." He says.

He starts to walk out of the room but she grabs his arm. "Daryl!"

He turns around to face her.

"I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. It was dumb. I've made dumb choices. But the thing is, if I didn't take those pills, I'd probably be dead right now."

He clenches his jaw.

"When Lori died... it stung. That was on me. I couldn't save them both. And T-Dog... It got even worse when Archer died. When my brother died. My mother, even after she held a gun to me. My dad. Even Amy and Andrea." She feels tears form in her eyes.

"I tried to stop. I did. I wanted to do better. I was trying to get better. Instead I got sick. Really sick. Hershel-" She takes a deep breath. "Hershel told me that I had to stop. For myself. For everyone. What you saw back there... that was the deciding factor. I know I need to stop. I have to."

He stares at her for a moment before nodding. "Don't do it again."

She huffs. "I won't."

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"Holy shit."

She admires the stocked shelves in the kitchen of the funeral home. There's rows and rows of canned goods. Water. Peanut butter and jelly. Soda. She almost cries out when she spots the baby food.

She picks up a jar, smiling wide. "D, come look at this."

He walks up and huffs. He picks up a jar of jelly but hesitates. "Hold up. Ain't a speck of dust on these. Someone just put it here."

She nods. "This is someone's stash."

He thinks. "All right. We'll take some of it and leave the rest."

She nods again and they pick a few things off the shelves.

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Rosanna lays Judith down on the comfortable cushions. She's lying in an open casket. It's the only secure place for a baby her age to sleep in this place.

Daryl sleeps on the floor and Rosanna takes a small sofa in the same room. They secured the building, sealing it up tight so that they can rest easy.

The next morning, they sit at the table, enjoying the first semi-real food they've had in days. Rosanna spoons out some peas and carrots from one of the baby jars for Judith. She gobbles it down.

Daryl starts to munch on the pickled pigs' feet, much to Rosanna's disgust. She sticks with peanut butter.

Suddenly the self-made alarm consisting of cans on string that Daryl hung up outside, makes noise. He quickly grabs his crossbow and rushes to the front door. Outside is just a white dog.

It runs away when Daryl tries to pet it. He shuts the door. "Maybe he'll come back."

She shrugs, bouncing Judith on her leg. "Maybe."

It's nighttime again when the cans rattle. Barking is heard outside. Rosanna smiles and pinches Judith's cheek. "Wanna see the doggy?"

Daryl goes to open the door and immediately slams it shut, screaming out. "Red!"

She jumps up and hands him his crossbow, gripping her sword in the hand not holding Judith.

Behind the door, are dozens of walkers. He takes the crossbow and points. "Run!"

She doesn't hesitate as he swings open the door. She books it down the hall. Daryl shouts from somewhere inside. "Pry open a window! Get your shit!"

She does as he says but shouts back. "I'm not gonna leave you!"

She can barely hear him over the loud groans of the walkers. "Get out to the road! I'll meet you there!"

With that, she climbs through the window and rushes across the graves back to the main road. She huffs and bounces Jude, trying to keep her happy.

Suddenly she hears a car approaching on the gravelly road. She quickly hides behind a tree and sees a black car circling the area. It has a white cross on the back.

Once the car drives away, she takes one glance back at the funeral home. Daryl isn't there yet. She wants to wait for him but can hear more walkers. She gets cut off. The only way to go, is forward, away from him.

The decision is simple. Save Judith. She heads forward, away from the funeral home.

Away from Daryl.

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