"I cannot believe you, Finn Hudson!" Rachel whisper-yells. She is pacing back and forth in the basement with one Finn Hudson sitting on a chair in the corner looking like someone had maimed his puppy. He has that stupid aloof air to him, too. He doesn't seem phased at the fact that he had cost a life; he seems more afraid of a furious Rachel Berry. Her eyes are like fire right now, and shit, even I'm a little frightened.
"This is why I wanted you to stay behind. You're.. talents.. " I snicker because she seemed to have stumbled upon that word. Talents? What talents does he have? "..they would be more useful at Home Base. Had I even been awake during this morning's salvage run I would have strongly insisted ..no.. I would have demanded that you remain behind."
Rachel pauses her pacing and faces away from the boy. She takes a few deep breaths before turning around and is suddenly strangely calm.
"Who approved of your addition to BetaRogue?" BetaRogue is the secondary team. Finn had originally been a part of AlphaSlushie but he almost ruined our entire mission. How? Let me break it down for you.
Here is how we work:
First, we have a few "scouts" to check perimeter and surrounding area. They don't go far…just up. They find the nearest, highest point while we remain below for back-up. Once we gather around for the report, we analyze the best way to go about our run. If there are zombies near by we analyze even more. If there is a group of five or more, we attack from afar first with range weapons. Puck managed to score a crossbow and a normal archer's bow. It took a while for her get used to the normal bow, but Rach has that thing down. I'm beginning to think she had, at one point, taken lessons. Anyway, we get the archers to hit a few of the zombies to hit them one by one. If they head toward us we still have the advantage. The melee weapons are next and they bonk them on the head with a bat or something. That's how we work.
Our first salvage run was a disaster. Finn ignored our orders and didn't wait for the archers to give the OK for them to work. The man-child just ran at them with his bat, screaming like a loon. We all had to run to save the fucker because there was no way Puck and Rach would fire an arrow in that mess. So we booted him out and had him on Laundry Duty for the guys.
"S-Sam approved." Oh, Trouty is gonna get it!
Rachel does a hair-flip to get the hair out of her face and ran her tongue angrily across her top lip. Swear to God, she totally does this when she gets pissed off. Totally hot.
"All orders go through me! Everything is planned out and you have turned organized plans into chaos, again! Don't you understand that when you input yourself into a solid, well-thought out plan you shift the dynamics."
My girl stands impossibly straight and crossed her arms, waiting for him to answer her.
"Look Rach, I just wanted to prove to you that I can do this. You just keep me here to do girly stuff while you go out there! It's dangerous and I'm bigger and stronger." He says indignantly.
I want to get up in his face for putting down my girl and for not trusting her reasons, but I know better than to interrupt Rachel's interrogation. Besides, Rachel can take care of herself. She's got a black belt to prove it. So I just stand here and watch it all play out before me.
"Don't you pull that misogynistic bullshit with me, Finn. And how could you say that after what you've caused! Mr. Shue was eaten because you couldn't stay with the group and you yelled out, attracting a horde of zombies. We have walkies for a reason, and you tagging along messed it all up. You aren't assigned a walkie because you aren't supposed to have one." Tears start to pool again and she's closing her eyes to gain composure. Finn's eyes darts around, looking for someone, anytime to come to his aid. Surrounding him are Rachel, me, Sam, Quinn, and Puck. The rest of the glee members are upstairs, crying for the loss they had just experienced.
Puck steps up and gives Rachel this look like he's asking permission to talk. She nods in response.
"What are we going to do with him?" Finn's eyes widen. "I mean, he can't just get away with this. This was a human life!"
I was wondering the same thing. I'd be all up for booting him out Survival style, but I know my hobbs won't allow that. She's too kind and wouldn't dare put someone else's life in danger. He didn't mean to get killed. Kicking him out would be like kicking a puppy after he ate your pillow, or something. He's clueless.
Quinn speaks next, "We could have him spend the rest of his time locked in the basement."
"I'll be right back." And with that, Rachel disappears into the room above us and returns a few minutes later with a book in her hand.
"You will read this book, front to back. You will summarize each chapter about what you've learned. After you're done I expect you to write a ten page essay about how to go about the scenario in which you've gotten Mr. Shue killed." She places the book on his lap. More like tosses.
"The Art of War by Sun…Tzu?" He quickly flips through the pages. "Rachel, I don't even understand what some of these words mean," he whines.
She disappears again and returns with an even bigger book.
"Here's a dictionary. Consider this the easiest punishment known to the history of man. If I left it to the rest of my officers, you'd be out of here in a flash. Come to one of us when you need to pee, or shower, or eat. We're watching you, Finn Hudson. Think about what you've done. Really think about it. Next time you screw up badly, you're out."
Once we are all upstairs, Rachel takes Sam to the side. "Sam, don't think you aren't to blame in this, too. You bypassed my orders and undermined my authority. You may have planned out the basics of survival, but I know what I'm doing. This is your only warning. Undermine me again and your punishment will be far worst than what I gave Finn."
She locks eyes with me and she hugs me like there's no tomorrow. "San, that could have been you."
"Baby, I was here in your arms the whole time."
"But, still." She sniffs.
"I know, shortcake. I know." I kiss her forehead and revel in the warmth her body provides.
"We need to do a run for more firewood. It's getting really cold. Our current supply will last a week, but we're going to be busy."
"Does that brilliant brain of yours ever shut off?"
"If only.."
A few days have passed since Mr. Shue died. We had a tiny memorial for him and even sang a few songs in honor of him (in the basement, of course). Everyone started getting back to normal, accepting the death far faster than I had anticipated. Dead is going to be a common place here.
Alpha Slushie is going to town! Guess where Rachel want's us to go. I don't have a clue because she won't tell me.. So we all hop into one of Rachel's trucks and head off.
To an office supply store….
An office supply store.
"Uhm, Rachel why are we at a Staples?" Mike whispers.
Rachel smiles sweetly as she kept her eyes open. "Well, Mike, as you know Puck and I are the archers of the group with Quinn well on her way to be combat ready. We had less than two hundred arrows to begin with and only ten remain."
Mike scrunches his face and interrupts her, "You think we're gonna find arrows at Staples?"
"No, Mike. I doubt we will be able to find any of those this day in age. We are going to supplement our weaponry with pens," she said confidently.
Puck shifts his weight and asks, "Pens? How?"
"Noah, I assure you that pens will suffice. Trust me."
Okay, so I had all the trust in the world in my midget, but seriously? Pens? Okay, now I'm a little worried that she's going crazier than normal.
"Baby, are you sure this will work?"
Rach just lifts her eyebrow but says nothing. Ugh. I'm not getting any tonight.
So, the pens worked. Who fucking knew? We have thousands of pens, now. The trip to staples also supplied us with snacks and cords. Rachel also took a few of the electronics to do God knows what with them.
Everytime we go somewhere, Puck siphons gas from cars. Rachel starts taking the car batteries out. And an alternator? The fuck?
As Puck siphons the gas, she jumps to attention, slaps her head, and say to herself, "I cannot believe I didn't think of that before!"
We now have about twenty car batteries. It takes us two trips to get all of our shit to the house.
Rachel's got some hardhat on with Sam outside. Artie is sitting near them, watching their efforts and offering his advice. There's a huge metal tank attached to a few things. There are about five different parts to it.
As per Rachel's orders, Puck and Mike take apart the washing machine. There are also a bunch of wires with metal ends. God knows what else.
"YES! We have power! We have power!"
My genius gave us power. Fuck yeah.
It's my turn to be on perimeter watch and I can't think of anything more boring. There's not much to see. Right now Britts is picking flowers and dancing happily. I'm glad she still has some spirit in her to find joy in the little things. Once she sees me she comes running over to throw her arms around me.
"San! Aren't these super pretty?" Her smile totally lights up the world and it can't help but smile back at my best-friend.
"Yeah, B, they are really nice."
She nods at my response and swishes her hair from side to side. "They're going to be on my tiara when I win Prom Queen."
I blink at her and tilt my head.
"Um, B, there's no more school remember?"
"Oh yeah, I remember. But we're having a prom here, silly. Berry Spectacular Sword is what it's called."
"Sword?"
"Yeah, you know, like a party."
"Oh! It's soiree, B. What do you mean we're having a prom here?"
"I was talking to Rachy this morning and she said she's planning a prom and she called it Berry Spectacular Soiree. Aren't you excited, S?"
She bounces off to collect more flowers and all I can do is rub my temples for the on coming headache.
A/N: It got a bit darker here than the other chapters. It wouldn't necessarily be a zombie fic without someone dying. I didn't make it graphic.