Disclaimer: I don't own Glee…Shocking, I'm sure! Enjoy!
Prologue
Zombies. Fuckin' zombies. Seriously. That shit made for great movies and even better video games but to happen in real life…that shit ain't fair. For anyway the world to end, it probably would have been better if it had been a natural disaster (like a tidal wave, or a comet or that fuckin' hole in the ozone finally fryin' everyone to a crispy treat)…or even a nuclear bomb cause at least once it happened it was done...either everyone was dead or people could rebuild shit and move on. But zombies? Nope, those fuckers stick around and are just as dangerous from day one until they eat your ass. People could try to move on but unless you get rid of all of the sick fucks, nothing is going to change and considering there had been almost six billion people in the world when the zombie disease struck…forget it, not happening in his life time and he was only seventeen with a will to survive until he's eighty.
There's a reason why zombie movies never truly end…Resident Evil…nope zombies still walking around even after the fourth movie not to mention the gazillion video games that started it all. 28 days later…nope had to make a movie about 28 weeks later and there was probably one for 28 months later in the making before that shit became real. Shawn of the Dead...best zombie movie EVER...dude has his zombie best friend locked up in his garage or some shit. The Return of the Living Dead? Um, title speaks for itself. Zombies don't stop…they don't lie down and give up. They don't even fuckin' sleep, how fucked up was that. His only question? Do the fuckers age? Will they at least grow old and die? If so, than all they got to do, is out last the fuckers. But if they don't…if the zombies just keep goin' and goin' like that fuckin' bunny…than they were fucked.
He had to admit though, in his case, he had it pretty easy in comparison to the rest of the world. His sleepy little town, the town he was so desperate to leave and not become another Lima loser, banded together fairly quickly. There had been a few people (one really) in the town who had seen the panic spreading across the major cities and had reacted. Making decisions, ordering, blackmailing…whatever it took to lock the town down, allocate resources and getting needed supplies to make sure what was happening to the rest of the world, would not happen here. Before the rest of the world even knew what was goin' on…she knew. How? Bitch was crazy (maybe in her craziness, she saw zombies when it could have been anything else like swine flu or another terriost attack and just happened to be right) but effective so who gave a flyin' shit. He still wasn't sure how she did it, all he could think of was that she was so used to giving orders, and most of the town was scared of her anyway, that they just followed along…including him. Who would have thought that Sue Sylvester would be the one to save Lima, Ohio?
He didn't know if the rumors of Coach Sylvester being in the Marines/Navy/Air Force elite were true but after having seen her in action these last few months, they were easier to believe than before everything went to hell. With her dreaded fuckin' bullhorn in hand and her sidekick Cherrio Becky next to her, she had the high school quarantined within a few hours, than the grade schools and slowly moving outward until the whole town was zombie free. She didn't hesitate in first bashin' heads in with the baseball bat liberated from the sports closet and later blowin' them from the guns and rifles liberated from several locations throughout town of her former neighbors if they were infected; something a lot of those following behind her had trouble with. But after seeing what the 'sickos' did and what could happen to someone if they were bitten or even got some of their blood/saliva/mucousy shit in them, those troubles soon disappeared. You don't usually get a second chance when a zombie is close enough to bite you. It became about survival and keeping the healthy…zombie disease free. As for nicknaming the zombies, he figured it was their way of separating them from people they used to know. Putting a bullet into Mr. Darcy's head, the guy who used to give out free tootsie rolls when he was a kid, could seriously fuck with your head. Putting a bullet into a 'sicko' that was tryin' to eat you like you were a yummy tootsie roll, much easier for the brain to handle. Sure, sooner or later, the fallout from killing people you knew will happen, but for the time being…'sickos' it is.
Lima, Ohio…zombie free zone. They were lucky. Lima was close enough to a major city to attract big business like Walmart and Bass Pro where they were still reaping the benefits from (hell even Sheets n' Things provided the luxurious bedding that he now slept on…it was lavender but had a thread count of over 1000, he was still a bad ass, just a really comfortable bad ass now) but also far enough away to have their own dedicate power and water sources. And with Coach's quick thinking, the people to run all that crap survived. She still had all that shit on mandatory rations…nothing lasts forever no matter how careful they are but at least for the time being, while things are still royally screwed up…they had the necessities. Somehow she found the few geeks that had come close to being arrested for being a threat to national security cause of their hacking hobbies, and got them to hack into every viable government and private organization that would even remotely help them out. Hell, those geeks, the very same ones he used to throw into dumpsters, hacked into a few of the defensive and communication satellites and currently had them floating above Lima, giving them access to aerial views where they could keep their eye on things without even leaving home. He would never admit this out loud, but nerds have taken over the world and Sue Sylvester is their queen. Her palace…McKinley High.
Don't get him wrong…they had lost a lot of people. As good as Coach had been, only about an eighth of Lima's population had survived. One of the good things about Lima, is the same as a bad thing. Columbus was the nearest big city…about 40 miles but still close enough that a lot of people still commute whether for work or to enjoy things that Lima couldn't offer. And with the recession, and the limited jobs available in town, lots of people went to the surrounding cities to work. Most of Limas population was out of town when everything went to hell on a freakin' Tuesday. Also, Lima is just big enough for an airport meaning people who were about to become 'sickos' got in before they could do anything about it and that added to the rampage of 'sickos' and infecting others before anything could be done.
By the time the dust had settled, and they had cleaned Lima up, only a few hundred survivors remained; mostly teenagers like him who were at the high school at the time to take orders and kids from the grade school where Coach had aimed their efforts as soon as the high school was on lock down. About eighty or so 'adults' survived. Mostly teachers like Mr. Shue and Ms. Pillsbury (to Coach's constant irritation) but also some were saved before being infected.
The moment he decided that he would follow Coach Sylvester until he died, was the moment his mom had walked through the gym doors with the last band of survivors coming in about two days after everything started. He had been gettin' a quick bite to eat before heading back to kill some more of the 'sickos' and looking for anyone that may have been hiding out when he heard his name…not his bad ass nickname…but his first name. He had dropped his plate and started looking around for the hysterical voice he recognized over the heads of all the others in the large packed gym. Sobbing and running towards him with his little sister in her arms, his mother continued to yell his name. He cried like a pussy and didn't give a flyin' fuck who saw him while they just stood there, the three of them, wrapped up in their own bubble surrounded by shell shocked 'victims'. Holding his cryin' mother and sis, he had looked over her shoulder and saw Coach just standin' there watchin' them with an unreadable expression on her face. She nodded slightly in his direction before bringin' that damn bullhorn to her mouth and called him a pansy ass, and to hurry it up cause he was wastin' daylight or some shit like that.
Lucky. In comparison to the rest of the world, he was lucky. Finn. Kurt. Lucky. Their parents made it too. Mrs. Hudson had been visiting with Mr. Hummel at his garage when things started. He threw her into the tow truck, ran over a few 'sickos' and booked it to the high school with the idea of looking for their kids and getting the hell out of Dodge (Lima, whatever). Seeing that Finn and Kurt were fine and that the high school was rapidly becoming the safest place to be, Mr. Hummel joined the rescue effort while Mrs. Hudson stayed behind to help look after the little kids.
Another set of parents that had come to the school looking for their kid. The Berries.
She was supposed to be in school that day. She was supposed to be in a classroom along with the rest of the student body when shit went down. She had texted him earlier that morning letting him know she didn't need a ride because she was coming down with some dreaded disease that not even her perfect attendance could convince her to attempt to rally enough energy to come to school or some weird shit like that. That should have clued him in right there that something was off. After losing her voice and her freaking out about it freshman year…she still managed to come to school (dressed in cute PJs and bunny slippers with her hair all messy braided…that shit was hot). She would literally have to be dying before she would give up on her perfect attendance and if she had been, she sure as hell wouldn't have had the energy to text him that long ass message. At the time, he figured he would stop by with some canned soup and a slushie to make her feel better but that never happened.
After talking to the Berries, come to find out that Little Miss Perfect, the girl who could do no wrong and wouldn't even think about breaking a rule, she picked that day...the one fuckin' day that zombies take over the world to skip mother fuckin' school. It made him so mad just to think about. Never mind the fact that she should have just told him so he could do the same…preferably with her…but out of all the days to ruin her perfect attendance she had to pick that day.
The Berries had no idea where the fuck she went or even why she would even think to do something like. They were devastated to find out she wasn't there and no one even knew where to even look for her. They still held out hope though, her dads. They started spouting off shit like, how she is a strong resourceful young woman, perfectly capable in protecting herself. That between dance class and voice lessons, she had also taken a few classes of karate or tae kwon do or some shit which in his mind, he could only grimace at the idea that a few classes would make all the difference when it came down to her midget self and a group of zombies. As the days went by, the Berries became less and less convinced that their little girl had made it. If she had, she would have made it to the high school by then. Puck's worst nightmare, one day he would be out hunting 'sickos' and come across her and having to shoot her to put her out of her misery. He wasn't really sure if he could separate her from a 'sicko'. He just might let her bite him and get it over with.
Yeah, so he's lucky. His mom and little sister are safe and sound at the school. And while most are depressed about their losses, he still had most of his friends. Plus, now he is playing the live action version of Resident Evil and with the cool techy toys the AV club members put together, Call of Duty. That was another 'coping' mechanism of his...pretend it was just a big video game. Sometimes it was the only way he could get out of his bed.
But he still felt…sad? Depressed? Angry? Over all the losses but most especially hers as well. Part of him, the badass, was pissed cause he just got to the 'under the clothes but over the underwear' part of their relationship. Hell, there had been a time where it was him in his boxers and her in a matching bra and panty set. Everything was still over the clothes but still probably one of the best nights of his life. The sexting was helped him get through the 'no sex until Rachels ready' self-imposed dry spell…Holy Moses, put that big vocab to good use, and she had a dangerous weapon on her hands. His phone almost melted with her hot texts.
The other part of him, the Noah part, knows that what he felt for Rachel was more than what he felt for any other woman…even more than the wealth of emotion that had caused him to say yes to Quinn on the day his daughter was born. He hadn't said it in so many words but he tried to show it with a bunch of little shit that he knew girls liked and for the most part he thinks she got that message because her eyes would light up just a little more than usual, her smile would be impossibly bigger and the kisses would be just a little sweeter. And he knew that she loved him back even though she never said the words either. She never talked down to him, always encouraged him to apply himself in school and in everything. Hell, even before they started dating (the 2nd time at least), he knew she cared about him. She was there for him during one of the most difficult times in his life despite having to deal with the loss at Nationals and losing her mother.
The day after Beth was born and he and Quinn were still at the hospital, Shelby offered to adopt his kid. He flat out refused to sign any papers handing Beth over to her even with Quinn pleading with him. Quinn started spouting off how this was best for their daughter, how Shelby planned on retiring so she could become a full time mom. How this woman would be able to offer all the things their daughter deserved. Puck wasn't listening, he hadn't been directly involved with the whole Rachel/Mom Shelby thing but he knew enough and if she could do that to her own kid, what the hell would she do with his.
It was Rachel that had talked him into it much to his shock. Quinn and Beth were still at the hospital while he had gone home to change and grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to spend more time with Beth. He already made the decision that giving Beth up for adoption would be the best thing for her and after talking to 'Daddy' Berry who was a lawyer, he knew he wanted an open adoption. One thing he learned from the Shelby/Rachel thing, is that he never wanted his daughter to wonder who her dad was and why he decided to give her up. He wanted Beth to always know that he would be there if she ever needed him, and that by letting her go, it was only because he loved her so much that he wanted everything for her, which at sixteen he wouldn't be able to give her. He never wanted to have to worry that one day his daughter would feel that her biological parents didn't love her or that something was wrong with her for them to give her up. He had written a four page letter (with Rachels help) to the prospective parents that would be given to Beth if she ever wanted it. He planned to always keep the adoption agency updates on his whereabouts so that if she ever came looking, all she would have to do is ask. He did request that the adoptive parents occasionally send him pictures and news but according to Mr. Berry, this was optional on their part. They didn't have to send him shit once he signed the papers, that was it…he would be dependent on the adoptive parents to keep him updated. He could only hope that who ever took his little girl would give her the life that he hoped for her. Either way, he only had a few more days before Beth would be taken from him and he wanted as much time as he could to be with her.
He was just on his way out the door when he spotted Rachel standing by her car. "I know you want to get back to the hospital but can I give you lift? There's something we need to discuss."
He only nodded, a little concern by the look on her face. "I want you to meet Beth anyway."
The dark look disappeared as she smiled, "I would be honored."
The two got into the smaller car, with Noah having to move the seat back to accomadiate his longer legs. "Alright, Berry, s' up?"
She drew a deep breathe, "Quinn called me."
Noah leaned his head back, "She shouldn't have called you…I'm not letting Beth go to that bit…her."
Rachel pulled over, they were still a few blocks away from the hospital. Turning towards him, "Noah, this is your decision. I won't take that away from you, but I don't want you to factor these last weeks into that decision.' Noah was going to interrupt but she put her hand up, 'Wait, please let me finish. What Shelby did was wrong, very very wrong. She shouldn't have sent Jesse in to trick me into finding her. But after thinking about it, I can't really say that I blame her. Knowing that there is someone out there that has a little bit of you in them and not being a part of their life…that has to eat away at you even a little." Noah remained quite, similar thoughts had been floating in his head just moments ago. Rachel continued, 'I can even understand why she didn't want me, it still hurts a little but now that I've had time to think it over, I kinda understand."
"How?" Noah asked angrily, not at Rachel but at the woman who had hurt her.
"Because she's right. She's not my mom…she could never be my mom because she wasn't there all the times that I needed a mom. My dads were, there my family. The truth is, there is no room for 'mom', my dads are everything I need and could want in parents. And even if one day, I learned that neither were my biological father, they would still be my dads. No one can take that away from me…from us. Its not about who made me, but about who was there for me growing up. They were there whenever I truly needed them and I know that they will always be there for me. Does that make sense?"
He nodded, "Yeah, but I don't get what that has to do with now?"
"I want you to reconsider letting Shelby adopt Beth."
"Are you crazy?" Noah almost shouted.
"Noah, she may not have been a mom to me, but she can be to Beth. I've seen her working with Vocal Adrenaline, she may push them but she also really cares about them. Did you know that Jesse, who thought himself so perfect, was actually failing History? If he had failed, he would have lost his scholarship. Shelby got him a tutor, cut all his solos and threatened to kick him out of VA until he got his grades back up. And that's not the only thing. I've done some research…talked to some past members of VA and found out that she was like that for all those kids since she took over their coaching. About five years ago, she found out that one of her girls was being sexual abused by her father, she helped the girl see a doctor, go to the cops, got lawyers to get the dad put away and even took guardianship of the girl until she graduated high school and went to college. She keeps track on all those kids…even ones that she coached in her first year. Shelby may not have been MY mom…but she has been a mother figure to a lot of these kids…kids who didn't have two dads who loved them unconditionally.' Tears have been escaping from her eyes at this point. She reached over, running her hand over the soft hair of his Mohawk. 'She would be a great mom to Beth. I know this is a hard decision for you especially knowing Shelby like we do but I just wanted you to keep thinking about it and not totally rule her out."
He nodded and with that, Rachel had driven the rest of the way to hospital and was finally able to meet Beth for the first time. Watching her hold and feed Beth, he saw that even though Beth wasn't hers, that she would probably never see this baby again in her life, Rachel loved her. Maybe because Beth was a part of him or maybe just cause Beth was a little baby and new to the world but it was easy to see in Rachel's shiny brown eyes the love. Rachel had described herself as 'wanting everything too much' but Noah realized at that moment it was because she felt everything too much. Holding a baby that wasn't even hers didn't matter, she loved it because it was a baby, it was new to this fucked up world and would need that love in order to get by.
He thought about what she said about Shelby later that night. He couldn't help comparing New Directions to Vocal Adrenaline. He knew for a fact, that Mr. Shue had helped every one of them in one form or another this past year despite his own personal issues with his crazy wife and divorce. Noah knew that Mr. Shue cared about them and there were only twelve of them.
If what Rachel had learned were true, Shelby had about twice that many kids in VA at one time to worry about, care about, whatever. And the fact that she had been coaching VA for over five years…that was a lot of kids to worry about. Quinn said that Shelby planned on quitting VA, maybe just giving voice lessons or something but otherwise, she would stay at home to raise Beth. He wondered, if Shelby was capable of caring…maybe in loving all those kids she coached over the years…how much love would there be if she concentrated it on one kid? Before he realized it, he was crying. That's what Beth deserved, someone who cared about her, loved her so much that she was the center of their world.
The next morning, he watched as Shelby held Beth and he could already see it, the all encompassing love that she held for the tiny figure in her arms…she didn't hide it and even knowing that there was still a chance that she wouldn't get the chance to adopt Beth, she still loved the tiny baby. He knows that Rachel believed that she is more the result of her environment and being raised by her two dads and he would agree with her 99% of the time but at this moment, when he watched Shelby feeding Beth, he saw Rachel from the night before. He only had to squint his eyes a little and the picture would be identical.
A light bulb struck, Rachel and all her crazy antics and wanting things her way...does the apple really fall that far from the tree? And if Shelby adopted Beth, wouldn't that mean in some way he was entrusting the life and well being of his daughter to someone who was like Rachel. Yeah, what Shelby did to get to Rachel was wrong...but he knew at that moment that that Berry would have done an equally crazy stunt to get her way (though he doubted very much, Rachel would have sent someone like Jesse to 'seduce' or would have left in the end, probably due to her environment upbringing or something). Yeah, sometimes Berry drove him crazy ('light himself on fire' crazy) but he had to admit that her drive, what made her unique among her peers, was also something to be in awe of. Her dreams of Broadway were practically a fact and if Shelbys dreams were even one tenth as driven at being a mom, then he knew that Beth would be in good hands.
He called Mr. Berry and asked him to bring the papers that very day. It still killed him to sign them but he did. There were no promises from Shelby that she would keep him updated but Noah was somewhat okay with that because now he knew that his little girl would grow up happy with someone who would love her unconditionally.
He wasn't surprised when he came to school the next week that Rachel and Finn were now an item. He was okay with that. Too much shit had happened for him to feel…anything about it. Plus, he was thinking that he and Quinn would give it a shot. He still loved her but as a few months went by they both realized that the feelings that they had for each other was each of them trying to hold onto the memory of their daughter and not something separate. They broke up amicabilly and remained friends. Finn and Rachel dated for almost the same amount a time as he and Quinn despite the whole Santana thing but ultimately both had this version of the other in their head that didn't quite live up to the realtiy…her words not his.
He started hanging out with Rachel more and more whether because of some Glee assignment, homework (he really did want to get out of Lima at some point and he figured college would be his best bet), or just cause. Take out the Broadway, the craziness and gold stars and he learned that Rachel was a pretty cool chick to hang with even if she did suck at Call of Duty (she had an unhealthy habit of just running in and blowin' shit up without any backup…and she did it while smiling the whole time).
He still hooked up with random Cherrios and cougars but for the most part, he had changed. And the summer before their senior year (the summer after they finally beat the crap out of Vocal Adrenaline at Nationals even though he thinks it was partly do with their clumsy new coach than anything) he started seeing Rachel as something more. It started out with a few awarkard dates both of them trying to move away from a friendship to being asomething more but soon everything just clicked. There was a small part of him that thought that maybe why these feelings for Rachel had happened was because she was his only link to his daughter because her mother was now Beth's mother but those ideas stopped as time went on and he started thinking of Rachel as herself around the third or fourth date.
They had been dating for almost eight months. They would be graduating soon. He hadn't made it into any colleges (let's be realistic, even if he had been able to pull straight As his junior and senior year, he still had his past GPA and juvie record to contend with) but he was cool. Rachel had of course made it into Julliard on a scholarship and so he planned on moving to New York with her. They had already made plans that he would go to a local community college nearby, get his grades up and in two years he would transfer to one of the bigger universities in the area. The Berries already helped him land a job as mail boy (yeah, it sucked but pay was good) in a local law firm and it was still flexible enough for any classes that he would be taking. And since his mom didn't make a lot of money, most of his classes would be paid with grants. Rachel would still live at the student housing but he found some shoebox apartment he could stay at nearby.
Yeah, things were going great. But despite all this, there was still a part of him that missed his baby girl. Rachel was the only one who knew how much. Even before they started dating and on Beth's first birthday, he had shown up at her house and cried like a baby on her shoulder. He had been more angry (depressed) the whole week leading up to it, and he could see that Quinn was a little more subdued than usual. No word from Shelby had come in the past year so he knew his chances of it happening now were slim. There wasn't a day that didn't go by that he didn't think about his daughter but he always tried to imagine her being happy and healthy in her new life. Some days that was the only thing that got him out of bed. Sitting there on the Berries coach, crying like a little bitch, Rachel held him…for once, not really saying anything, just letting him cry. Even afterwards, she didn't try to make him talk about his feelings or anything like that, just let him talk about what ifs, would he have been a good dad, what was she like, was she walking and talking yet, does she look more like Quinn or him, all the shit that ran through his mind over the last year just came spilling out. He fell asleep on her couch and the next morning he was grateful when he woke up to the smell of waffles that Rachel didn't say anything. Just fed him and drove him to his house so he could get ready for school. He still missed Beth like crazy but being able to let at least some of that emotion and thoughts go, helped him to move on.
At least until the day of Beth's second birthday drew closer. Rachel saw the signs and tried to just be there for him but there was little she could do. Noah knew that it would probably be like this every year…maybe it would get better as time went marching on but there would always be a part of him that would just stop and wonder around this time of year. Maybe next year, with moving to New York, college and work…it would be easier since so much more would be occupying his brain but he felt pretty much the same this year as he did last year. And he had a feeling that he would probably do exactly the same thing, show up at Rachels house and fall asleep on her couch after crying his eyes out. He was okay with that.
And now, now that the world has ended, he feels the same as he did when signing those papers. Because he knows, despite the Berry's reassurance that their little girl is still alive, he's lost Rachel. There is no way she could have survived this on her own wherever she is. And while that fact alone is enough to bring him to his knees, knowing that his daughter, the little girl he gave up so she could have a better life than he could give her, was probably dead, too. His 1000+ thread count pillow case, are stained with his tears (he hides this from his mom by doing his own laundry).
He doesn't tell anyone about this, cause overall, he's lucky. Plus, he still has the image of BAMF to uphold and that image is even more important now than it ever was, not for his sake but for the others. The school was filled to the brim with kids, teenagers and adults who lost their parents/kids. He has his mom and his little sister. Most of his friends. He tries to think about that and keep going on that. They are the reasons that he gets up every morning, eats breakfast before heading out to the town's borders to keep the wandering zombies off their front porch. He has to protect his mom and lil sis and right now, that was his coping mechanism. Anything to get through the day.
Fuckin' zombies.
AN: How did this idea even start? I was watching Red Dawn and than learned that they were remaking it. I thought what if Glee was involved. Than I watched Walking Dead and Supernatural (sorry, it won't be a crossover) and it kinda stuck. Its already gone through a hundred different scenarios in my head but I'm really happy with the tone of this first chapter. However, I am in desperate need of a beta. I think some of my thought processes in this chapter kinda went crazy but I just wanted to get this down before I lost it. If interested please PM me. I am also currently working on the 2nd chapter which will hopefully be up soon (if I get a beta…hint,hint!). Thanks for reading.
