Author's Note: Hi all. I'm sorry this one took me so long. Unfortunately my gamer side got the better of me and my PS4 has been getting all my attention lately.

As always, thanks to those who've taken the time to read this, and for those who've followed and favourited it. Thanks especially go to my reviewers. I appreciate you for taking the time to let me know what you think.

Darrinia: Unfortunately this is a situation where Blaine cannot help Sebastian. As for the 'if he's dead or not' thing... You'll just have to wait and see. Hope you like it.

Before I start with this chapter, just a small FYI... I thought I should clarify what my characters are dealing with. In my head this zompocalypse is populated by both the traditional, slow-moving zombies and the more dangerous faster moving type. The former I'm sure you all know quite well. The latter... something similar to those in World War Z... If you're not familiar with those you can either check out the ones from the movie or even google the gameplay trailer for Days Gone (which is what was the original inspiration for this fic, if I'm honest). In this story they are called 'Shriekers' and they are anything but good news. (Side note: I'm gonna play the hell out of that game :P)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy Chapter 4


It had become clear to him later that Kurt had been doing his very best not to be upset by the strength of his reaction to the news that Sebastian was gone. Thinking back on it now, Blaine knew the reaction would have hurt the other man; Kurt had always been a little extra sensitive when it came to his relationship with the tall, former-Warbler, and seeing a strong reaction like he had...

Then again, he supposed jealousy wasn't going to be an issue anymore, the thought making him miserable again as he thought of the fleeting time he'd been able to spend with his friend; how great it had been to catch up with the man, see how he'd changed... just relax with someone for the first time in a long time before he'd been lost to him forever.

It was hard to think about even now.

Still, it wasn't fair to Kurt to be treating him the way that he had been, distancing himself like he had, so pulling himself together the next morning he'd gone to find his boyfriend, holding the other close and simply enjoying for a long moment the company of the other guy. Because yes, he'd lost Sebastian but Kurt was still alive, still here with him, and he had to be thankful for that.

Of course, telling Lyssie that Sebastian wasn't coming back was probably one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do in his life. Kurt had offered to do so for him, of course, to give the young girl the news given his connection with what had happened but Blaine knew it would be better coming from him.

She'd never really warmed to Kurt.

Just the way those big dark eyes looked up into his after he'd told her what had happened, as if begging him to admit that it was all just some horrible joke... It had broken his heart and although he'd desperately wanted to remove that look from her eyes, he'd been unable to do anything but shake his head. "I'm sorry, Lyssie. He's not coming back."

She'd thrown herself into his arms at that point, sobbing loudly into his shoulder and holding him as if she'd never let him go. If there had ever been any doubt at all that the little girl loved Sebastian the way she might have loved her own father it was put to rest in that moment. Feeling so helpless and more than a little inadequate for the situation, Blaine had hugged her back, shooting Kurt a look of what he supposed might have been panic over the little girl's shoulder.

His boyfriend had merely shrugged his response, just as out of his depth as Blaine had felt apparently.

Neither had ever been any good with kids.


Things around the camp became particularly sombre after losing Sebastian. Sure the guy was a relatively new addition to the group; even the others in the small group that had joined with their own didn't know him very well, but losing someone – anyone – they'd become used to seeing around... well it hadn't happened in this group for a long time, not since the early days after the outbreak and it had hit them really hard. Similarly affected were Blaine and Lyssie who had known him best; Kurt of course tried to be supportive but outside of the guilt he felt for losing Sebastian 'on his watch' he simply couldn't miss the other guy on a personal level.

Blaine tried not to hold it against him.

Still, that left him without anyone to talk to when it came to his feelings regarding what had happened; the way he suddenly felt as though he didn't have anyone to talk to. Unfair really, because he had Kurt, but the feeling wouldn't go away no matter how much he tried to push it down.

He found that spending time around Lyssie helped him miss the former-Warbler a lot less. The stories she told about his lost friend... well he couldn't help the way they made him smile, reading in between a lot of what Lyssie told him to find the young man he'd known back at school. He'd changed significantly of course; certainly he was a hell of a lot more responsible if he'd managed to look after Lyssie for as long as he had, but sometimes, shining through those stories, were flashes of the guy he'd known back at Dalton.

For Lyssie, he supposed the chats were a little comforting; indeed he managed to coax a small smile out of her on only the second day after Sebastian's disappearance, her dark eyes sparkling for just a moment before remembering what had happened and that right light dimmed once more.

"I miss him," she'd cried softly, burying her little face in her hands, her small shoulders trembling gently with her sobs, and he'd been unable to resist pulling her into a gentle hug.

"I know, Lyssie. I know. I miss him too."

Of course, the world didn't stop for one guy, and the business around the camp continued as it always had. Sure, they hadn't lost someone in a while, but they'd lost someone before and would without a doubt lose someone in the future, and they couldn't all just stop moving forward; surviving. Presently Kale was standing before a small group of them, reading from a small scrap of paper the assignments for the week. As always, Blaine found himself on maintenance with Elena and knew better than to argue the position.

Sure, it was nice to remain in the safety of the camp, but at the same time the same task day in and day out was becoming a little boring. Not that he didn't understand of course.

He had been told multiple times by multiple people around the camp that he should consider himself lucky. That working maintenance with Elena was the dream gig. Certainly Tyler was interested in the woman... he was forever pestering her with questions and compliments (not necessarily in that order), though from what she'd explained to him, she didn't exactly enjoy the attention. And of course Tim seemed to be interested in her as well, though he wasn't overly forward with his feelings, keeping his distance and certainly not going out of his way to speak to her.

Indeed, Elena didn't seem to think he had any for her, at least from what Blaine could tell.

Either way, both men considered his constantly being assigned to work with Elena more than a bit of good luck. As did Elena, because it kept the other men of the camp out of her hair.

"Seriously, Anderson, you're doing me a favour."

Blaine looked over at that, smiling ruefully. "Actually I think you have Kale to thank for that... he's the one doling out the assignments."

"I'll keep that in mind next time we have a chance to chat." She studied his face for a moment, her blue eyes sympathetic. "How're you holding up anyway? Sebastian was your friend, wasn't he?"

He just nodded at that, finding that he had to swallow heavily before he found the ability to speak again. "Yeah, he was. And I'm fine. I'll get through it. Just another day in the life, right?"

"Guess so." Elena too had lost her fair share of people when this new world had destroyed the old, though despite that she seemed to have a light-hearted outlook on life.

You could always count on her to find the silver lining.

"How's Kurt holding up?"

"Hmm?" Blaine was surprised by the question. "He's fine. He didn't really like Sebastian."

"Yeah but..." and she hesitated a moment, suddenly uncomfortable. "He was with him at the time... that's bound to mess you up. Guilt, horror... God I can't imagine having to witness something like that again."

"What do you mean?" and he was frowning. "Kurt wouldn't have witnessed anything... they'd split up to get past them. He wasn't there."

"Oh!" and she seemed a little surprised by this for what reason Blaine wasn't sure, but he wasn't one hundred percent sure he wanted to know.

Regardless, he couldn't help asking, "Why?"

But she quickly shook her head. "It's just... I mean Kurt said that it was the shriekers that got him. The minute someone sets those bastards off, everyone else just has to freeze. They're too bloody alert to risk moving. Kurt would've had to stay exactly where he was when Sebastian set them off... he wouldn't have had a choice. And sure, he might not have seen anything, but he would have heard everything." And she swallowed heavily at the thought, shaking her head. "It's just... it's not easy to shake something like that off, is all."

Blaine had never even considered that; had never thought that Kurt would have had to just wait, listening to the sound of shriekers tearing Sebastian apart before making his way back home. He'd simply assumed that his boyfriend had gotten the hell out of there whilst they'd been distracted, but Elena was right. Moving after someone had alerted a swarm of shriekers was just far too dangerous.

Everyone knew that.

It had been on his mind all day after Elena had bought it up; he couldn't help but be horrified that his own selfish misery had prevented him from seeing what Elena had... that Kurt would no doubt be struggling with what had happened just as badly as he was. For different reasons, maybe, but that didn't make Kurt's struggle any less awful than his own.

He made a point of hunting him down after his boyfriend had returned from hunting with Kale and Tyler, wordlessly walking up to him and wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm sorry, Kurt."

Kurt was obviously surprised by the gesture, patting him almost awkwardly on the back initially before really committing and hugging him back a moment later. "Hey... are you okay? Sorry about what?"

"About being so insensitive... about thinking only about how I'm feeling and not about you." He hugged him even tighter, hating to imagine what Kurt might have seen and heard that day. "I'm really sorry."

He felt his boyfriend shrug against him, felt the rise and fall of the other's shoulders as he buried his face against his neck, the warmth of his breath dusting his skin. "It's fine, Blaine. I get it, I really do." And when Blaine nodded, Kurt continued. "I'm not jealous or angry or anything like that, I promise. Take as much time as you need, okay?"

For a moment Blaine didn't understand what he was talking about, pulling away a moment to get a good look at Kurt's face. "I'm not talking about that. You saw – or at the very least – heard what happened to Sebastian. I can't imagine what that must have been like..."

When he finished speaking, Kurt looked uncomfortable, his blue eyes refusing to meet Blaine's, and he frowned at the other guy. "What?"

"We split up."

His frown deepened at that. "Yeah, you mentioned. There was a swarm, so you guys split up to get around them."

But Kurt was shaking his head. "No, we, uh... split up. Earlier in the day. Before the swarm."

"I..." but then he was frowning, trying to understand what this meant. "What?"

"We split..."

"Yes, I know, I heard you." And Blaine didn't know why he was being so snappy with the other guy; why he couldn't seem to let this go. "Why? Why did you split up? You're supposed to watch one another's backs out there. That's the whole point of sending two people."

Kurt nodded. Still uncomfortable obviously, as if assuming that Blaine would start blaming him for what had happened. "I know. Sebastian..." and he swallowed heavily. "Sebastian didn't want to be anywhere near me. He said we should split up and meet back where we started." He shook his head. "Whenever Kale would send us out together we'd split up. Always have."

"But..." and he was struggling with this new information, trying so very hard not to blame Kurt for any of this. This wasn't his fault. He knew how Sebastian could be; knew how much he didn't like Kurt. He shouldn't be surprised that Sebastian had insisted they not spend any more time than they had to together. Really if anyone was to blame for this it would be... "But how do you know..."

And so Kurt told him the whole story, told him everything that he'd asked for and realised later that he never really wanted to know about that day. He gave him the whole story and didn't leave a thing out. How he'd been unable to save his friend; how there was no way that he could have survived. That Sebastian was very definitely...

Here.

But no... No... He couldn't possibly be here. He had to be seeing things; had to be imagining the tall, former-Warbler as he strode into camp, had to be imagining the looks of shock on the faces of those around him as he passed them.

Because Sebastian was dead.

For a long moment he stared at the tall man striding through the camp; bruised and battered yes, utterly filthy but very much alive. Then he was running; without thinking for even a second he was racing the short distance to the other man with every intention of throwing his arms around him – filthy as he was – and hugging him half to death. He didn't get the chance however, because Sebastian had caught sight of someone behind him, shouldering his way right past him with a snarl as he threw himself at Kurt, his fist connecting with the smaller guy's jaw with terrific force and sending the other guy crumpling to the ground.