"Can you talk to Lopez? We need to move out soon." An impatient voice shook me out of whatever pleasant daydream I was focusing on. I turned to look at the wooden frame where, a dark brown door stood. I knew Santana was sitting behind that door, surrounded by as much darkness as she could manage at this time of day, most likely contemplating another suicide attempt. Puck waved his hand in front of my face.
"Q?"
I shook my head. "Sorry," I took a breath and looked back at him after sparing another glance at the doorway. "Look, just give her some time, okay. Besides I'm probably the last person she wants to talk to."
"If she doesn't quit moping soon I say we leave her."
"Puck!"
"She's a liability and besides…" he gestured around our makeshift base. Kurt was bandaging Finn's arm as the ex-quarterback checked ammo with his uninjured appendage- Carole and Burt didn't survived the first wave. Across the room, Sam sat loading a rifle- Mercedes hadn't been fast enough. Next to him, Tina was cleaning a pistol- she and Mike got split up and she gave up hope for him. Blaine was peeking out the boarded up window- yes he still had Kurt but he had seen Dalton burned to the ground, with all his Warbler buddies in it. Puck saw Artie's wheelchair get stuck and he still blamed himself for not getting to him quickly enough. "…we've all lost people we care about" he finished up.
It wasn't as if he needed to tell me that. He didn't need to remind me of seeing her ripped into pieces by the undead.
"We've been here for two weeks Fabray, staying in one place this long… it isn't safe."
I got up suddenly and turned towards Santana's cave. In as threatening a tone as I could muster, I whispered "Give me fifteen minute, if she doesn't want to go, we leave without her."
The door wasn't more than five feet from me but it might as well have been five miles. I was hesitant, after all the last time I had entered that room I was greeted with a sight I'd rather soon forget.
I knocked on the doorframe. "San, Britt come on, Blaine and Tina found some food" I yelled into the dark room. I remember hearing some clanks and I swore there was the faintest of growls. Looking back, that should have been the first indicator that something was amiss.
"Guys?"
The growls got louder so I reached for my flashlight and glock- two things I never thought I'd accessorize with. As I clicked the button on my flashlight, there was a whisper, so quiet I thought I imagined it- "Don't" it said. It was too late though as a beam of light shot onto the bed where Brittany, sweet, innocent, occasionally ditzy Brittany lay chained to the bed post. My first thought had been, shamefully, 'all hell breaks loose and these two still get kinky' but it was quickly extinguished when I noticed the exact reason she was locked p. Her skin was rotting and her eyes, once so full of energy, were hungry, so hungry. The growling, I realized, was coming from her while the whispered plea had emerged from Santana who sat on the desk next to the bed, looking about as lifeless as her girlfriend.
"When?" I whispered fearfully
"When we first found this place, the guy we blasted, he bit her before I could get the shot off." She took a shaky breath before continuing. "I told her I wouldn't kill her so she made me chain her up," she shot up like a dart, "Please Q, don't tell the others. They can't know. They won't understand."
I wish I could have done that. I wish I could have just turned around and gone back to the other room but I had to be so damn logical. That wasn't my friend thrashing around on the bed. That was the monster that invaded her body. I swallowed hard before raising my gun.
"I'm sorry." I don't know whether I was talking to B or S. "Please forgive me"
"Quinn, please!"
I fired. The bullet hit Brit- hit the zombie in between the eyes.
"You bitch!" Santana lunged for me and took my gun. If I'm to be honest, I let her have it. The others rushed in to see just what the hell was happening. Santana aimed the gun at my head. "Dammit Fabray! She was your friend! She was my- she was Brittany! I'll fucking kill you." At this point I was saying ten hail Mary's under my breath, praying to a God I didn't even fully believe in anymore. Finn was the first to react as he reached for the .9 mil and ended up taking the bullet meant for me in his forearm. He cried out in pain as the Latina dropped the weapon. She soon followed its path as she fell to her knees, wracked with sobs. I went to her as Tina and Kurt attended to Finn. She kicked and thrashed around when I put my arms around her but I just held tight as her screams died down. I'm not sure what Puck and Sam did with Britt's body and frankly I don't want to know but when Santana finally settled, it, she was gone. We haven't spoken since.
I knocked on the doorframe, luckily it was daytime so I could see small slivers of light through the curtains instead of having to walk into the dark abyss once more.
"San?" I called, "We're leaving soon."
She sat, staring blankly at the bed where her lover had spent her last hours. The sheets were still bloody, though it had dried significantly. In her left hand she held a ducky stuffed animal that she had given Brittany when they were twelve. The girl had promptly named it Sugar and carried it everywhere, even in high school.
In Santana's right hand, there was a plastic fork. It was currently digging into her thigh.
"San!" I ran over and pulled the fork from her grasp. It had actually managed to draw blood, which I quickly wiped away with my sleeve. "San, come on! Talk to me!" She didn't say anything as I found a bandage to apply to her wound. We sat in silence for a bit and I honestly didn't think she was ever going to speak again, at least not to me.
"Did it feel this way for you?"
I turned to her slowly.
"What-?"
"Berry." A stabbing pain shot through my heart. Why did she have to bring that up? How did she even know? How-
"I saw the way you two looked at each other and I could practically hear you heart break when she- when they got her,"
I can't stop the tears from trailing down my cheeks. "Don't," I unconsciously echoed her words from before. She apparently noticed too and shot from her seat, shoving me against the wall. "Don't! Don't what? Don't talk about you and Berry's secret affair?" She took her hands off me for a moment to produce air quotes for the word 'secret', before restraining me again. "Did you really think I didn't know?" she laughed angrily, "Or are you so obsessed with your image that even when the world's gone to hell you can't admit that you were fucking Manhands!"
I pushed her off of me and the slap that followed could probably have been heard in the next room, but if it was the others didn't care. She fell to the ground and I advanced on her, slowly.
"Don't talk. Don't you say a fucking thing about her Lopez or I'll-"
"Or you'll what? Shoot me too?"
I stopped for a moment. I knew what she was doing. She was trying to provoke me, trying to get me to end it all. Her latest suicide attempt. "No, San. Just no." I helped her up and sat her on the bed. "I'm not going to kill you." She looked at me with her watery brown eyes- so much like Rachel's. I wondered if she thought the same thing when she saw my hair or Sam's. "Please, I can't this do this. I can't live here anymore. Not without her." I grabbed her by the arms and shook her violently. "You're pathetic!" I was disturbed by the venom in my own voice. I started pacing the room. Running a hand through my hair and kneeled in front of her. "This isn't the Santana Lopez I know," My tone softened. "This isn't the Santana the Brittany loves."
"Loved." I'd never heard her so defeated before.
"No, loves. She may not be with us anymore but she still loves you with all her heart." I stood up. "She would want you to keep living. To live on for the both of you." I kissed her forehead and turned to go, glancing at my watch. "We leave in five minutes."
I was almost to the doorway when I heard, "Ber- Rachel still loves you too," When I turned back around, she was picking up the duck- I didn't even realize she dropped it- and grabbing her and Britt's backpacks.
"I'm ready to go whenever you are,"
