Chapter Text
"374 Avenue Street!" Clair yelled over the loud chatter of the customers,"Two large pepperoni and a medium green pepper." She slid the three pizzas across the counter to Glenn's waiting hands.
"Got it." Glenn grabbed them and took off out the door.
It was 9 O'clock on a Friday night, and this was Glenn's last delivery before he got off. Friday nights had always been especially busy, but never this busy. He'd been out on 58 deliveries so far today, in the span of 5 hours. Glenn was fine with his rate of 11 deliveries an hour, it had gotten him transferred to better-paying pizzerias like he was a star NFL player or something. Only he was the star pizza delivery guy.
He knew every back road and alley, every little nook and cranky that Atlanta had to offer. Even on the outside of Atlanta, he had mapped out in his head. Blind fold him and put him in the middle of a brand new city and tell him to find a way out, and he would be out five minutes tops. He just knew these sort of things.
Jumping into his still running car, he slid the pizzas over into their designated place and took off to his next destination. With a quick turn through a back alley and broken speed limit later, he was in front of the black house.
Grabbing the pizzas, he headed out to the house and knocked on the door,"Pizza delivery!" He called out, in an all too fake voice.
A weird moaning noise came out from behind him. Curious as always, Glenn turned around to see a dark figure limping towards him. It sent chills up his spine. Was this some sort of sick prank?
"Uhm...hello?" He pulled out his mini flashlight and shone it at the figure,"Holy-"
Startled at the sight of a man with part of his cheek torn open and an eye hanging out, he dropped the pizzas at the door and raced for his car. Throwing it back into gear and taking off. He called in to let Clair know he was off shift and then headed back to his apartment.
The stairs murdered his thighs. Usually, he would take the elevator, but it was out of order. The only reason why he could afford this place was because the woman who owned the pizzeria he worked at, also owned this place, and had given him a discount that his income could afford. Barely, but it did the trick.
Glenn wandered into his apartment, it was a high rise, the reason why it cost him so damn much. 1100$ a month, and plus everything else left him pretty damn broke. But it worked, at least he made something. He walked over to the counter and sat on it, gazing out at the Atlanta lights and rushing cars.
What the hell happened out there at that house?
He got up and flopped onto his mattress, probably would never find out. He spent the next day just laying around the apartment. Studying for college, eating, playing on his phone. That was about it.
Early Sunday morning, he woke up to the noise of cars crashing together and people screaming. Instantly, he shot to his feet and ran to the window, peering out to see what had happened. He could see a bunch of cars crashed together on the highway, there were police cars everywhere, and he could tell that he was going to be hearing the racket for a while.
His phone buzzed with a new notification. He checked it, only to find that all of his classes for the week had been canceled due to Atlanta health issues. Furrowing his eyebrows, Glenn went to his laptop to figure out what the hell it was talking about...
"Shit!" Glenn darted from alleyway to alleyway, searching for an empty way out. Why were there so many?!
He finally found an empty alleyway and took off running. One of those..things, came swooping out at him, but Glenn was a little too quick. He heard the dark rumble of helicopters coming closer. Biting back a groan, he bolted for the streets, racing down them as fast as he possibly could.
Boom_
He heard the first bomb drop and detonate somewhere off behind him. Fire lit up his path.
Boom_
A closer hit to his right. He saw his apartment building go up in flames.
His feet carried him so fast he felt his right knee starting to give. That old injury was not letting up anytime soon. He kept going, using up every bit of energy he had in him. His lungs burned and the bag on his back was starting to hurt his shoulders.
He finally burst out onto the highway.
Boom_
Boom_
Boom_
Boom_
Boom_
Atlanta went up in flames. One strike was particularly close, the force was enough to knock him down, his knee popping at the impact.
"Hey!" He heard a man yell,"Hey kid! Get up!"
Someone grabbed his arm and pulled it over their shoulder. Glenn looked up, he couldn't see who it was, but whoever it was, was pulling him back to his feet and forcing him to run again.
"Come on!" Someone else yelled.
Glenn finally found it in himself to run again and tried for it again. He ran with the man until they got to a van. The van started moving as soon as he was inside, causing him to jolt in his seat.
"You alright kid?" The guy asked, gripping the wheel,"Names Theodore Douglas."
"Glenn Rhee." He sat up and pulled off his bag,"Tha-thanks."
"No problem kid." Theodore smiled,"By the way, call me T-Dog."
Glenn nodded,"Alright."
They ended up mixing with another group, a woman named Lori and an old man named Dale turned out to be the people he liked being around most, besides T-Dog. They stayed set up like that for quite some time until Glenn went out on one of his runs one day.
He was running, not frantically, but he was running. A backpack full of supplies bouncing on his back. He heard a faint rumbling and turned around just a bit to see if there was anyone behind him. He turned the corner without looking and came crashing into a wall.
"Fuck..." He fell back on his ass.
A loud growl came out from behind him. Glenn jumped, finally seeing the walker right behind him. He fumbled for his knife, but he couldn't get it out. His fingers finally clamped down on it and went to pull it out, just as an arrow went right through the skull of the walker and it went flying backward.
"You alright there?" A guy with a crossbow came walking towards him and pulled the arrow from the walkers skull.
"Y-yeah." Glenn got up and dusted himself off,"Uh...thanks?"
The guy nodded, bright blue eyes glinting.
"I'm Glenn..by the way..."
"Daryl."
Glenn nodded,"Well uh, hi Daryl." He looked back over towards the road he needed to take to get back to his group,"You um...have a group?"
'Nuh uh." Daryl shook his head,"Just with my brother."
Glenn was about to speak again when he heard Daryl's stomach growling. The man looked away like he'd done something wrong, and Glenn got the feeling that this guy had been scavenging for food for a while now.
"We've got food." He offered,"Well back with my group anyways. I can show you where it is?"
Daryl hesitated, looking over towards where another man was standing around."Dixon, come on! We gotta get movin!"
"Where?"
So Glenn gave him the directions, Daryl nodded and walked away. Glenn sighed in defeat and made his way back to the camp on his own. He was kind of hoping the man would follow him.
The next morning when he awoke, he saw two familiar guys and a new vehicle parked at their camp. He smiled, and Daryl snuck him one back.
"Hey, kid." He heard Daryl call out, as he walked into the woods.
"Yeah?" Glenn turned around.
"Listen. Don't tell Merle or anyone else about me savin' yer ass. You got that?" Daryl kept his voice low and firm,"Merle doesn't like anyone that ain't white."
"Oh." Glenn gulped,"O-okay."
Daryl nodded with a tight smile and pulled a familiar hat down over his head,"You left this too."