Heyy, so this is set in the summer after season 2 before Sam moved away. So he is currently still living in Lima. This is a Faberry centric fic, but will also feature a lot of Santana as well. There is also an OFC that is also included from the very beginning of the fic. NOTE: As this is a Zombie Apocalypse AU so there will be character deaths, whether that be minor or major.
Anyways enjoy.
Rachel's favourite thing to do was to perform. Of course this wasn't the most suitable thing to be thinking of during a zombie apocalypse, but it got to the point where if she wasn't thinking of the small trivial things then she would likely go insane. Even if it might be the end of the world Rachel would still like to keep her psychological state sane, or as sane as it could be. As much as it hurt to think about her life before everything went to shit, it helped to block out her life now. Her life consisted on just surviving until the next day. That and sometimes a whole lot of running. Rachel couldn't believe she ever enjoyed running before. Now Rachel runs to get away from those things.
Her nightmares use to consist of losing her voice or not making it on to Broadway, now though Rachel saw the faces of those she has lost. Their flesh rotting away, blood covering their mouths and neck, growling as their usually blank, soulless eyes lighting up as they see their next meal. Those were the things that plagued Rachel's nightmares, and unfortunately they didn't just stay in her dreams. The dead were walking and it took too long for Rachel to come to terms with it. She swallowed back the sudden wash of guilt that came with thinking that and kept on walking, her hand clenching a little bit tighter around the hilt of her machete. Don't think about it. It's happened, nothing that I can do to change it. Rachel nodded once to herself before walking faster, her steps more determined than they were before.
The supply run that she had just been on was nothing but unsuccessful, only managing to find a couple of cans of food and half a dozen walkers. It probably wasn't even worth it due to the close call that she had just by getting them. However food was scarce and Rachel couldn't be sure when the next that time she'll be able to find some will be. So stocking up while they could was always a good idea. She passed the knocked over bin that had become familiar to Rachel these past few days as she is reminded of the fact that she didn't have that much further to walk till she made it to the shelter that they had been using.
Turning right at the alley, she noticed three zombies blocking the other exit. Thankfully she wouldn't need to deal with them at the moment. Rachel walked towards one of the basement windows and knelt down beside it, pushing it so there was a large enough gap for Rachel to squeeze through. She took off her bag first and dropped it inside of the room, freezing when it made a louder sound then Rachel was hoping for. She held her breath as she glanced at the zombies hoping that none of them noticed her. They didn't and Rachel released the breath she had been holding in before dropping down landing next to her bag before closing the window behind her. Rachel knew that there wasn't any zombies lurking around in the basement as they had already dealt with it, but it didn't stop her from being on the alert as she walked through the darkness towards the door.
Even though she could kill them, she hated doing it. Rachel remembered at the very beginning how she refused to kill any of them, she thought that the people were still inside there. Not being in control of their bodies and waiting for someone to save them. How wrong she was. Rachel knows now that it's either them or her. That if she hesitates then they will get to her, and Rachel is determined to keep on living, she made a promise to do such that. But when she shoved her blade into one of the zombies head, the image of who they once were flashes before for her eyes and Rachel feels nothing but guilt for what she had just done. It was kill or be killed now, Rachel knows that now.
She pushed the loose strands of hair that had fallen out of her braid away from her face, before opening the door. It was dark except for the small glow from the candle that was placed in the corner, she breathed a sigh of relief as she shut the door slowly behind her. Rachel shrugged off her bag and dumped it onto the mattress pushed to the far wall, not even caring about the grinding noise the springs made. Before Rachel would have never allow a mattress in this condition anywhere near her, believing that sleeping on anything that wasn't specifically modified to her in case it ruined her perfect posture. Placing her machete next to her bag, Rachel was just thankful that she managed to find a mattress without blood on it.
The basement was filled with silence and Rachel couldn't find it in herself to break it like she would have done in the past. As much as she hated silence, Rachel knew that the silence was better than the sound of gunshots or the groans of those zombies. Silence usually means safety and safety was always a good thing in this word. Rachel sat down on the worn down mattress and allowed her body to relax. It wasn't often that Rachel allowed herself to relax, always on the alert for any signs of danger, now though she still had her machete in arms reach just in case. She yawned into her hand and tried to keep her eyes from closing. She couldn't fall asleep just yet no matter how exhausted Rachel was.
Fifty-two days until the world ended. Rachel thought it was important to make sure that she knew exactly how many days has passed since it began. She refused to allow the days to blur into each other and it comes to the point where Rachel doesn't even know whether it's a Wednesday or a Saturday. When she first started to mark down how many days has passed it was because she still had hoped that it wouldn't take long for the government and the military to take control of the whole situation. Rachel stopped believing that would happen on day twenty-nine.
The sound of the window that Rachel had came through earlier, caused Rachel to tense up and grip the handle of her machete. The door opened and a figure walked through, shutting it gently behind them. They turned round and Rachel immediately recognised who it was and her grip loosened.
"Alex" Rachel said offering her companion a small smile. "Are you okay?"
"As good as I can be," Alex said smiling through the blood drying on face, and Rachel hoped it wasn't hers. " Find any good shit?" Rachel didn't even bother reminding Alex on her inappropriate language.
"Five cans of food, what about you?"
"Less then you" Alex said taking off her bag and dumping it next to Rachel's. "Lost my bat as well getting out" Sighing she took a seat next to Rachel and the two sat in silence both allowing exhaustion to take over.
Rachel had been with Alex since the very start. They were both in New York when it happened and she was just thankful that they had met otherwise, well Rachel doesn't really like to think of the alternative. The only thing that really mattered is that she trusted Alex and she was the only person Rachel had left in this world, and that had to count for something. Rachel tried not to think about it, but she couldn't help but think wonder about what the rest of the Glee club were doing back in Lima. First Rachel believed that the outbreak was only in large cities, and that Lima was safe, her friends were safe. But after the thirty sixth day, Rachel just had to hope that they were still alive.
"We're running out of food here" Alex mumbled under her breath, but it was loud enough for Rachel to hear. "We need to leave the city"
Rachel knew that Alex was right. The city was barely safe to begin with, and Rachel was amazed that they managed to survive for as long as they had. Throughout the weeks there seemed to be more walkers then people, Rachel wasn't so sure whether that was a good thing or not. The supply runs were getting more dangerous each time they went out, especially when they return with barely anything.
But leaving was just as scary to Rachel as staying seemed to be. She had no idea what the rest of the country was like. She didn't know which places were worse and which places were safe. Rachel didn't know how long the two would last out there. What she did know was that if they were to stay, the possibility of them surviving were close to none. She looked over at Alex, who was looking at her and Rachel knew that even know it was her that suggested it, the decision landed purely on her. If Rachel wanted to stay, Alex would stay. If she would leave, Alex would go with her. The decision was easy for her to make knowing that.
"Where would we go?"
"Anywhere you want," She said softly and Rachel knew she meant it. "Preferably not another city"
Rachel smiled at Alex's attempt on trying to add a little light on the situation. She was grateful for the others girl humour, it stopped Rachel believing that everything in the world was dark and depressing.
Alex stood up and took off her jacket putting it next to her bag, before walking back out of the door to set up the sound alarm for the night. It was something that Rachel had thought of after the first couple of nights sleeping in this basement. They were supposed to sleep in shifts, so one of them was always on guard. Rachel had to put a stop to that when she discovered that Alex had decided to keep watch for the entire night. So she had made a trip wire that was attached to bells, so if anyone decided to enter their basement while they were both asleep, Alex would know about it. The girl would wake up from a deep slumber just by a single cough.
Rachel took off her plaid shirt, leaving her in a grey t-shirt and faded pair of blue jeans. Clothes that weren't even hers to begin with. Skirt and tights were apparently not suitable for a zombie apocalypse. Rachel didn't dare take off her combat boots though, the fear of having to make a run for it in the middle of the night always made sure she slept with them on. She moved over to the mattress and laid down on the side closest to the wall, her machete in reaching distance.
As she waited for Alex to come back, Rachel's mind drifted back to her friends in Lima. Even though they weren't the best of friends with each other, Rachel still cared about them. She thought about Kurt and Mercedes and how they would be handling the end of the world without hair products and fashionable clothes. She thought about Tina and Mike and whether they were still in a strong relationship. Whether Artie was managing with his wheelchair. If Puck and Sam were putting their video games skills to good use just like they said they would have. She wondered whether Finn was thinking about her. The two had just started their budding romance again at the beginning of the summer, deciding to work out their problems seeing as they both two loved each other. Rachel even thought about Quinn, Santana and Brittany and if they were okay.
Rachel just wished that they were all still alive.
She felt the mattress dip beside her and the creak of the springs, Rachel turned over to her side to face Alex who was staring back at her, the dried blood still on her face.
"You've still got the blood on the face" She pointed out, watching as her friends lips curved upwards.
"Leave it. There's no point in wasting the water"
"Cleanliness and hygiene is just as important-" Rachel started to say before she was interrupted.
"As it was before the world went to shit" Alex said, her smile turning more into a grin.
"I hate you" Rachel said, with no malice behind her words.
"And I love you" She said as she nudged her nose against Rachel's. The two lied down in silence for a few minutes before Alex spoke again "Have you decided where we're going?"
"Lima" Rachel said immediately. She didn't realize how much she was craving to see her home town till she had just said it out loud. She needed to know what it was like and who was still alive.
"I'll see if I can find car that works tomorrow, I don't know about you but I do not fancy walking all the way to Lima" Alex said, and Rachel was thankful that she didn't say anything about the destination, she didn't really want to explain why she was so desperate to go back. Especially when she didn't really know the answer herself.
Alex stifled a yawn behind her hand making Rachel remember how tired she actually was. It seems like she was always tired these days, and sleeping peacefully throughout the night was something that Rachel tried to advantage of that opportunity whenever she could. Alex turned over so that she was facing the door and Rachel could tell that she was already falling asleep, Rachel smiled softly before shutting her own eyes.
"We'll find your friends Rach" Alex mumbled, and Rachel drifted off to sleep with the thought that maybe she will meet up with the people that she cares about again.
A hand grabbed Quinn's shoulder and began to shake her quite violently in an attempt to rouse her from her much needed sleep. Her eyes blinked open and she groaned when she realized that whoever woke her up decided to do so in the middle of the night.
"Get your lazy ass up" The familiar voice said that Quinn recognized as Santana's. Quinn wished she cold just go back to sleep instead. "If you don't wake up I will spit on you"
"I'm up" She said unconvincingly, but sat up anyways. It was always best not to keep Santana waiting.
Quinn peered over at Santana, her eyes still a bit blurry from sleep. The Latina had an impatient look on her face with her hands placed on her hips, who huffed when she finally saw Quinn sit up. "Fucking finally, waking the dead is easier then waking you up" Quinn didn't really find her words amusing, not with the current situation they were all in.
"Why were you waking me up?" Quinn said, not bothering to hid the frustration in her voice. She had known the other girl for far too long to even bother with trying to play nice.
A smug look made its way onto Santana's face as she spoke, "It's our turn to keep watch, thanks to me"
"Seriously?"
Santana nodded, "Hells yeah, so get your ass up. I'm not letting this opportunity slide" Quinn, shoved the blanket off of her and went over to her bag of clothes that was by the foot of the bed. This was the first time, since they had gotten settled that her and Santana have been allowed to do something like this.
Even though, the two girls had managed to survive the beginning of the outbreak, once what was left of the Glee club and a few adults had finally set up a secure base, Quinn, Santana and all of the girls hadn't been allowed to do anything that was deemed 'dangerous'. Like living in an apocalypse wasn't dangerous at all.
It wasn't as if Quinn hadn't tried to help. She was one of the first to volunteer when it came to going out to get supplies and clearing the make shift wall that they had made. Except every time she did, Mr Schue and Burt always ended up refusing. The two men had decided that they would be the 'leaders', something both Santana and herself had both pulled faces at. Both were very opposed to the idea of sending any of the teenagers out or even hold a weapon. It wasn't until that there had suddenly become more teens then adults had they suddenly relented, allowing only the boys to be able to help. Quinn really did feel safe when Finn and Puck were the ones walking around with guns while she was left defenceless.
Quinn had pulled on her jeans and shoved on a baggy shirt, before pulling out some work boots that she had grabbed from a building site, they weren't the most fashionable but they would do. "How did you manage that?"
"Some of the idiots that had went out today had got themselves injured. Either a sprained ankle or wrist, and Burt thought it would be best for them to rest rather than do their watch. And no one else was going to volunteer to do it so I said we would," Santana explained as Quinn was lacing up her boots. "Honestly thought they were going to say no, but I told them it had been calm for the past couple of nights now. So they agreed. Reluctantly though"
Quinn nodded as she stood up, thankful for her friends good timing. "Do we get guns?"
"Nope, they thought it would be unwise to let us have them. They said it's either without the guns or not at all." Santana huffed. She hated the whole 'system' just as much as Quinn did. "Which total bullshit as the guns that they use were the ones that Britt had brought with her. So they should belong to her"
It was a point of argument that Santana had brought up many times and Quinn always agreed with her. Brittany's dad was a very big fan of collecting guns meaning he did have a very, very wide range of them including a lot of ammo, and it was Brittany that had collected them all from her Dad's safe for them all to use. However they had been confiscated very quickly, with the argument children shouldn't play with guns.
"But we do get our weapons that they had taken off us ages ago," Santana said as they made their way to entrance of their so called base. They walked towards the gate, that they had positioned near the tallest building that overlooked the outside. The base was nothing special, and Quinn was surprised it had lasted this long. It was an abandoned motel that was barely big enough to fit them all in, with their walls only recently been replaced from the mixture of bins and cars to sheets of metal. Quinn had refused to unpack her things, she didn't believe this base was as sturdy as it was made out to be.
The two girls had entered the building and had made their way up the stairs that led to what they called the lookout room, where Sam and Burt were supposed to be still on watch. Once they had entered the room, Burt glanced over at them and gave them a small nod.
"Sam the girls are here now" He said, as he stood up from his chair putting the rifle over his shoulder. "Are you girls sure you're capable of keeping watch?"
Quinn could feel Santana tense before her, they both hated how they were treated as though they were scared little girls but she was better at hiding it.
"I'm sure we can manage" Quinn said her voice sharp and Burt nodded again before handing over their weapons. Quinn's hunting knife and Santana's metal bat.
"You're shift ends at dawn, if you see any people do not react come and get an adult," Burt told them and Quinn had to fight the urge to roll her eyes. "If Will and the others come back earlier than expected then come and get me. Understood?"
Both Santana and Quinn nodded and Burt left the room as he concealed a yawn behind his hand.
Sam walked over to them and gave them an apologetic smile, he hated it just as much as they did. "I tried to persuade him to give you guns, but he was very unrelenting"
"It's fine Sam" Santana said, neither girl could find it in their heart to be mad at the boy. Not after what had happened at the outbreak, not after everything that they had lost.
"I hope you won't be as bored as I was, Burt barely talks and when he does it's something about cars that I just don't care about" Sam sighed and Quinn only felt a little bit of sympathy for him. With one last smile, Sam left the room leaving the two alone.
"At least they had the decency to clean it after they took it from me" Santana commented after they had sat down, breaking the silence. Quinn smiled a little, before it fell from her face. After everything that Quinn had lost, she was grateful that Santana was not one of them. She didn't know whether she would be able to cope if the Latina wasn't by her side.
The first two days were something from a nightmare. Quinn chose not to remember most of it. There was blood and bodies everywhere. The dead wasn't bad enough, the people had made it worse. People had murdered each other over things like cars and food. All in a desperate attempt to flee the town. Many had done so. They had managed to escape before the military came and had blocked off all the roads. By that point no one was allowed to leave or enter the town. People fended for themselves, the dead still roamed the streets, corpses littered the paths.
The military had left two weeks later, leaving them all on their own.
A lot of the Glee club members were already holed up together in Santana's house, and it was only after those two weeks did they decide to find who was left of their friends. Whether they were successful or not was up to debate.
Quinn kept a list, of all the people she cared about and whether they were dead or alive or unknown. It made keeping track of people a lot easier when they were finding them, but after that there wasn't any use for it. Except she had felt like she had needed it, these people were her friends and she wanted to remember them because they deserved to be remembered. Even if it was just names on the dead column. The list was always on her, and she had pulled it out of her pocket to stare at the names.
Alive: Santana Lopez, Brittany Pierce, Noah Puckerman, Mike Chang, Finn Hudson, Sam Evans , Mercedes Jones, Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson, Stacey Evans, Mandy Pierce, Sophie Puckerman, Will Schuester, Burt Hummel, Carol Hudson
Dead: Artie Abrams (turned), Emma Pillsbury (Suicide), Tina Cohen Chang(bitten)
Unknown: Rachel Berry*
Quinn stared at the names of Artie, Tina and Emma on the dead list. It had been her, Puck and Mike that had gone to go and find Artie in his house. They didn't know whether he had left with his Mom or not like many of the people in the city. His Mother's car was gone but that didn't prove anything, a lot of peoples car had been stolen since the outbreak. They refused to go into the house at first after seeing the familiar wheelchair that had belonged to Artie turned over on the grass outside the front of his house, and the trail of blood that had led from it to the house.
It was two days later where they finally mustered up the courage to go in. Arties name was added to the list shortly after that.
She looked at Tina's crossed out name that was once on the alive column. She had gotten bit when they had been trying to build the wall a week ago. Quinn could steal hear Tina's cries and pleas for someone to kill her, how she didn't want to turn and become one of those things. It was the first time any of them were bitten, and no one knew exactly how it worked. Burt thought it was best to wait it out. See what happens in the morning. Later that night, all they could hear was a gunshot and Quinn knew it had been Tina that had pulled the trigger from the moment she had heard. Something had broken inside of Mike after that, his eyes became more distant, more harder just like Sam's and Puck's and Santana's. Just like everyone that had lost someone they cared about.
Emma had decided to end it her own way. Overdosed on pills just after the military had left. After she had realized that no one was coming to save her. All of them had thought that you only turn when you were bit, it was only when they saw the walking corpse of their guidance councillor did they realize how wrong they were. It had been Santana to be the first ones to act, her bat colliding with her skull until it was mush on the floor. Will was never the same after that, the hatred was clear in his eyes whenever he looked over at Santana having not realised that it was for the safety of the group, not murder.
"You still haven't put Berry on the dead list yet" She heard Santana's voice speak up. Quinn lifted her head to meet Santana's gaze and saw no malice in her eyes. Quinn doesn't know why the thought of moving the girls name without knowing what had actually happened to her made her feel sick. She was reluctant to add the girls name to anything but the alive list at first, till Kurt had said she was in New York with her Dad's when it all happened. It was only a week later where Quinn admitted her defeat and created a new column called unknown and added Rachel's name to it. Adding the signature star at the end of her name a few days later.
"We don't whether she's actually dead San" Quinn said, folding the list back up and putting it in her pocket. "For all we know, she's still alive"
"She was in New York Q! There was no way she managed to survive it" Santana argued with her, saying the same thing every time they talk about it. Quinn refused to hear it though. There was something inside of her that believed that Rachel Berry was still alive out there somewhere. There was one thing that Quinn was certain about when it came to Rachel, she was stubborn and fearless. If Rachel wanted to survive then Quinn was certain that the small girl was still alive. She just couldn't understand why Santana and the others couldn't see it.
A part of her understood it though. Everyone had lost someone that they had cared about. Santana had lost both her parents and her Abuela. Brittany had no idea where her parents were during the outbreak, but all Brittany had left was her sister Mandy. Puck had lost his Mom and only had his sister Sophie. Sam only had his younger sister Stacey. Mike had lost his parents. And Quinn had no idea where her Mom was. No one talked about the people that were no longer with us, or what they had lost. Everyone had come to the conclusion that we now live in a world where we can't afford to mourn.
Mourning them would probably get you killed. That's what Quinn had decided. Mourning the people that are dead or the life they had before, won't do anything to change the fact that the dead are walking.
The two sat together in silence, just staring out the open window that overlooked a road where they could clearly see who was coming towards them. Quinn had been turning the knife around in her hand until the walkie-talkie that was placed between two chairs sparked to life.
"Burt? Sam?" The crackling voice of Pucks came from it. Quinn looked glanced over to Santana, both the girls eyes were wide. "Holy shit! Someone pickup!"
Santana was the first one to move, dropping her bat onto the floor she grabbed the walkie-talkie off of the floor and spoke into it. "Puck? It's Santana"
The connection wasn't very good but they could clearly hear how panicked Puck sounded. "You guys on watch? Fuck, it doesn't matter. We're coming back earlier as planned"
"What why?" Santana said, as Quinn leaned closer to be able to hear better.
The voice on the other end was muffled and she assumed that Puck was talking to someone else. All Quinn was able to do was think of the worse. Someone had gotten bit.
"One of the guys panicked and shot someone"
"Mierda" Santana mumbled under her breath. "How far away are you?"
"Ten minutes" Puck panted into the walkie-talkie as Santana continued to mumble Spanish under her breath "Lopez! Shit! Rachel got shot. It was Rachel Berry"
And there was the first chapter. Please leave a review on what you think as it helps me out a lot. Give me your thoughts on whether you like Alex or not, which characters you want to see survive or to die. Also I am unsure whether to include Britana in this fic or not so leave me a comment if you want that. Anyways I'll see you all in the next one :)
