Shit.

Jake set it off early and now most of the horde had avoided the explosion so they were still walking around. Puck sighed to himself, if his little brother thought he was trusting anything like this with him again he was going to be sorely disappointed. Loading his weapon, a very nice, sleek black, AK-47 with a red base, he started to climb to stand on the flat bed of his truck, pointing his weapon out over the mass of heaving bodies, aiming for their heads and firing.

He could see from his vantage point that the rest of the guys had started to open fire as well, trying to get rid of the rest of the massive horde, Sam had taken up position on Puck's right, about 10 yards ahead of him, Santana on his left, 3 yards difference between them.

Sam was reloading his weapon when suddenly the horde shifted its direction to him, Puck noticed first.

"Sam! Get down!" He shouted in warning before not a millisecond later he opened fire just over Sam's head to the oncoming threat to his friend.

Sam had only just managed to duck out the way after Puck's shout of warning, avoiding being hit by the first bullet as he felt it graze past him to bury itself in the brain of the next target. Finally done loading his own weapon Sam walked backwards towards Puck's truck, opening fire on the rotting bodies before him, and as the numbers began dwindling he turned to admonish his friend.

"Puck, you almost took my head off!" He shouted over the sound of the still firing guns around him, slinging his gun over his shoulder to rest against his back.

"I warned you first, you ducked." Puck said as he shrugged and slung his gun over his shoulder, climbing down from the truck bed and fixing Sam with an amused look.

Sam just scoffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest, glaring at Puck a little as they both started walking to get inside the truck.

"Because I was quick. What if you had got me?"

Puck smirked a little and shook his head as his friend pouted at him from around the truck, picking up the empty rucksacks next to his drivers side door, Puck started to climb in, Sam following after him and sliding into the passenger seat himself.

"Would have been a lot better than those things getting a hold of you." Puck explained quickly as he started the engine.

Sam kept his arms crossed and stared out of the window as they drove along, Puck's words ringing inside his head. Would it have been better to have his brains blown out than turn into one of those things? Maybe then Puck would have done him a favour, if Sam had been even a fraction of a second slower to react to Puck's voice, he wouldn't be sitting here questioning this right now.

He kind of owes his quick reactions to the amount of time he has spent out here with Puck and Santana, all of the rotting, filthy creatures always in the near vicinity had always managed to keep them all on high alert for action.

They were the roving team, sometimes called the scavengers, it was their job to go outside the compound and collect things that they would need, but also to take out any threats that they encounter along the way. They had came upon the horde a couple miles south east of their compound, and it looked like the horde of rotting creatures were slowly walking back that way so they planned to get rid of them, Jake messed up the charge of explosives but it was done now.

Santana had collected the most in her bags, following behind the truck on her motorcycle. Puck always drove without any lights on, so that they never attracted unwanted attention around their shelter. Santana only had a very tiny red light on her bike, but usually she stayed right up behind Puck's truck when they went out so it wasn't really seen.

Puck took the long way around the trees, moving back down the darkened roads, back to their compound home. Driving along with the moonlight was calming in a way, everything looked serene, just bathed in the moon's glow. There was something about night time that seemed to make Sam feel better, it hid the horrible parts, made things look normal, provided a certain amount of safety, if you couldn't see what was chasing you, then chances are they wouldn't see you either.

But they used smell and their hearing mostly, their sight was sometimes pretty useless.

They had lost quite a few of them in the beginning because of their ignorance about the world now. They had to learn how to move undetected and how to fight, survive in a world designed to kill them now.

It was hard but now it only seemed to get harder every time they ventured out, but they had to, to find food and things to use in their sheltered compound. They were also on the lookout for more people, trying to do the right thing by saving people and bringing them back with them, but the more people who showed up and stayed, the more and more they had to go out and scavenge.

Puck and Santana have been a great help to Sam, he relied on them for everything. Puck was good with guns and fighting, Santana had an eye for picking out random junk that could be turned useful back home.

Home?

Sam missed home, he missed his family. His mom and dad and his brother and sister.

Children younger than 16 didn't really stand a chance in this world now, no matter how smart or how strong they were. It was difficult to even keep yourself alive and healthy, let alone protect anyone younger than you. Puck's little sister had been the first one to be bitten in their little group. Santana had already lost her parents and she didn't have any young siblings to look after. Her girlfriend Brittany refused to believe the world they were living in was dangerous, she left one night on her own and never came back. Sam and Puck had both been witness to many of Santana's break downs from that.

Although she refused that Brittany was dead, it was hard to see her close herself off from everyone.

Sam's parents had tried their hardest to protect everyone in their small group, being the adults they felt it was their responsibility. Their group had existed of Puck's and Sam's families and a few friends, Mike and his girlfriend Tina, Santana and Brittany, and Jake's girlfriend Marley.

But then after Sam's little brother Stevie got eaten, his mother kind of went off the deep end. No matter how much they had tried to help her, her mind had completely shut down. She wasn't careful so she was next to go.

As much as the group had tried to keep everyone safe, there was no way to protect them all at once. They had come upon a horde, out of nowhere, they were ambushed, Sam's sister had been dragged into it, and Sam's dad had made the mistake of trying to keep hold of her, so they got him too. Tina had been bitten pretty badly just before they got away, it didn't take even 24 hours before she was gone.

Mike had decided to stay with her, and wouldn't listen to reason, he refused to abandon her. They never saw him again either. So the group had just been Sam, Puck, Santana, Jake and Marley after that, when they stumbled into the gates of the compound.

Only a few people had been staying inside, no body they knew, but the people were nice enough to let Puck take over to assume command and make plans for their continued survival. They needed food, clothes, equipment and medicine, the compound had nothing but a well and an old vegetable garden.

But somehow they made it work, Puck assembled the team and they began scouring nearby for things, he had given a few tasks and jobs to the others there too, finding weapons and putting up sentry points, a guy called Harold and his son Harrison took up those, a couple of the women, Sylvia and Georgia, had become cooks. When Puck had brought back medical books he had asked somebody to learn how to be a doctor, because they needed one. Marley had offered to learn, she was now the compound's emergency doctor.

Then after a few more weeks, other people had started turning up and Puck had to make more jobs for people to earn their keep there. It was only fair that everybody do their part for helping them all survive. They now had about 23 people there not including themselves.

There was one pregnant lady, her name is Lara, but they didn't think she would survive very long. She arrived to them very sick, her husband begging them to do something, but with only Marley as a learning doctor, there wasn't anything they could really do but make her comfortable.

But the roving pack brought back any baby stuff that they managed to salvage from nearby houses and schools and clinics. So even if by some miracle she managed to get through the pregnancy and the birth without it killing her, the baby would be ok.

Sam liked her, he was going to go and see how she was doing when they got back, she reminded him a lot of his mom, she was still so optimistic even the face of death.