✧ sugar 彡 glennrheexfem!reader ✧

✧ 19 ✧

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"watch for walkers." shane says and you nod at him keeping an eye out for any more walkers coming at you. "hello?" a disembodied voice says from the building and you join the rest of your group inside the building. you see a white man, probably in his mid thirties. he was holding a shotgun, but not pointing it at any of you. "anybody infected?" he asks and rick and he shakes his head "one of our group was. he didn't make it." he says and the man narrows his eyes at rick "why are you here? what do you want?" he says and rick shrugs "a chance." rick replies and the man looks like he was thinking.

"you all submit to a blood test. that's the price of admission." the man says and rick nods "we can do that." the man gestures to the vehicles outside "if you have stuff you need to bring in do it now. once this door closes, it stays closed." he says and no one leaves the building since everyone had their bags in their hands or on their shoulders. seeing that no one was moving to leave he speaks again "vi, seal the main entrance. kill the power up here." he says and the doors close by themselves with a clang. rick approaches the man and holds his hand out. "rick grimes." he says and the man takes it "dr. edwin jenner." the man, or dr. jenner replies.

after they introduce themselves the doctor leads you and the others to a large elevator. you were standing next to glenn, who looked excited. he catches your glance and smiles, you dont smile back and stay silent during the ride down. once the group exits the elevators t-dog approaches dr. jenner "doctors always go around packing heat like that?" he aays and the doctor shrugs "there were plenty left lying around. i familiarized myself. but you look harmless enough. except you. i'll have to keep my eye on you." he replies, looking at carl as he said the last part. everyone, except you and andrea chuckle.

as you walk through the well lit hall way you see that there are no windows and assume you were underground. carol voices your assumption "are we underground?" she says, looking a bit nervous. dr. jenner turns to her "you claustrophobic?" he asks and she nods slightly "a little." she answers and the doctor shrugs "try not to think about it. vi, bring up the lights in the big room." he says as you enter a large conference room with a large screen on the wall facing you. there were white desks scattered around and you see a clock ticking down on the right wall. you make a not to question the doctor about that later. "welcome to zone 5." dr jenner says and rick looks around, "where is everybody? the other doctors, the staff?" he says and the doctor shrugs "i'm it. it's just me here." dr. jenner answers and dissapointed and defeating looks wash over the group.

"i'm all that's left. i'm sorry." he says, before leading us into a lab looking room. we get into a line and rick is first to get his blood sample taken. "what's the point? if we were infected, we'd all be running a fever." he asks and the doctor sighs "i've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. let me just at least be thorough." he says, obviously frustrated with the group already. "alright, next." he says and jacqui replaces rick in the seat. this process repeats until he gets to you. he gives you a cautious look as you sit down. you ignore it and pull your sleeve up to him him access to your wrist. he inserts the needle into your arm ans extracts some blood. you stand and wait by the doorway with everyone else. after andrea's turn she stands but starts to fall. you catch her and jenner looks at you. "whats wrong with her?" he asks and lori answers him "she hasn't eaten in days. none of us have." she says, and jenner looks empathetic.

★

you were seated next to glenn at a large dinner table. some wine was brought to the table at some point and dale was trying to convinve lori to let carl have some wine. "you know, in italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. and in france." he says and lori shakes her head "well, when carl is in italy or france, he can have some then." she says and dale continues pleading "what's it gonna hurt?" he says and she shrugs, giving dale permission to poor carl bit of wine. "there you are, young lad." he says, chuckling. carl takes a sip and his face immediately twists into disgust "eww." he says and everyone laughs, except for you and andrea, once again.

you were concerned for her, she hasnt been acting like herself since amy's death, understandably. lori pats carls back "that's my boy." she says and dale stands from his seat, obviously intoxicated "it seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly. hear hear!" dale says and others join in, filling your ears with the sounds of glasses clinking together. you ignored them, continuing to eat. you we skeptical of the food at first but once others had eaten it withou any problems or symptoms you started to eat as well. once your stomach was full you sat back, watching how the rest of the group handled their alchohol. you didn't partake, wanting to keep your mind sharp. glenn, on the other hand was hammered, his cheeks bright red.

"so what happened here, doc? all the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" shane says and rick turns to him. "we're celebrating, shane. don't need to do this now." he says and shane shakes his head. "whoa, wait a second. this is why we're here, right? we were supposed to find all the answers. instead we found him. why?" he says and dr. jenner shrugs "well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. went off to be with their families. and when things got worse, when the military got overrun, the rest bolted. or, if they couldnt handle seeing the horrors outside, they... opted out. there was a rash of suicides. that was a bad time." he explains, taking a sip of his wine.

at this point you were now interested in the conversation "why didn't you leave, or opt out?" you ask and the doctor turns to you "i just kept working. hoping to do some good." he says and you nod. glenn looks at shane "dude, you are such a buzzkill." he says, and shane looks down. after you all had finished eating dr. jenner leads you through another well lit hallway. "most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. the couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. there's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. just don't plug in the video games, okay? or anything that draws power. and if you shower, go easy on the hot water." dr. jenner says and t-dog and glenn exhange looks. "hot water?" glenn asks with a grin. t-dog shares his expression "that's what the man said." he replies and they both start running towards the bathrooms.

you, on the other hand, calmly walk to the closest bathroom. you lock the door and look at yourself in the mirror. you narrow your eyes as you trace your scars. in a way you were thankful for them, they reminded you to get stronger and never let anyone hurt you in such a way again. you sigh, sick of seeing yourself and turn to the shower. it takes you a bit to figure out how to turn it on but you get it and take your backpack and weapons off, carefully placing them on the counter next to the sink. then you undress quickly before getting into the shower. you sigh as the warm water runs down your body, cleansing your skin. you relish in the warmth for a bit, then start to actually shower, washing your hair and body with what was already available to you. after about twenty minutes of bliss you turn off the water and dry off then get into some clean clothes and your gear then grab your backpack and exit the bathroom.
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