A/N: I still own nothing.

Battle: New York

Chapter Four

Rachel's heart was pounding as they drove back across the bridge into New York. They could see the explosions in the distance. The flashes of light were smaller than the other night, but the sounds were still startlingly loud.

Finn was in the driver's seat, studiously ignoring any and all traffic laws since no one else was on the road. Puck was in the back of the truck, tensed and ready to jump out at any moment.

Rachel could feel the weight of the gun in her pocket. The pocketknife that Finn had given her was clipped onto her waistband. It was hard to believe that the Rachel Berry that was currently possessing dangerous weapons was the same Rachel Berry that used to not condone violence of any kind. It used to be incredibly difficult for her to sit in the crowd at Finn's football games during high school knowing very well that those boys wanted to hurt each other.

She'd grown up since then.

She wasn't sure what exactly they were up against, but she knew that she would try her best to hurt them before they could get to her or Finn. Maybe even Noah. He did creep her out with the way that everything he said was usually an innuendo. But he also welcomed her into his home and supplied her and Finn with weapons. That counted for something.

Rachel looked over at Finn. The look on his face was one of intense focus and determination. She had never seen this side of him before. The other night when he snapped back into "army mode," she had been a little startled. But now, she was grateful that Finn had his army training. He would know what to do in almost any type of situation. Since Rachel had no clue what was going on, she was very reliant on Finn.

"It's quiet now," Finn said as they continued speeding toward the middle of the city.

"What?" Rachel asked, breaking out of her reverie.

"I haven't heard any gunfire or explosions for at least two minutes," Finn said.

"Could that be a good thing or a bad thing?" Rachel asked nervously.

"We'll find out when we get there," Finn muttered.

Less than five minutes later, they drove through the part of town where some fighting must have taken place. Windows were shattered and a few cars were still ablaze. However, there were no people around, so Finn wasn't quite sure if it was over. He still didn't hear anything, but he remained on high alert.

Finn pulled over and put the car into park before shutting the engine off. He then looked over to Rachel. She looked a little nervous, but determined as well.

"I need you to stay behind me until I know what's going on, okay?" Finn asked. Rachel nodded fiercely. "Turn the safety on your gun off, but keep it pointed at the ground away from your feet in case you need it."

Rachel's hands were shaking a bit as she pulled the gun out of her pocket and turned the safety off.

"Ready?" Finn asked.

"I think so," Rachel said. Finn nodded and climbed out of the car. He could hear Rachel doing the same. Finn put his keys in his pocket in case they needed to get away quickly. The truck was kind of old, but it was capable of going at least sixty miles per hour, which was faster than any of them could run.

Puck jumped out of the back of the truck and had his gun at the ready.

"Help me keep an eye on Rachel," Finn whispered to Puck quickly.

"I've got you, man," Puck replied just as quietly. Finn then walked around the back of the truck and went over to Rachel's side. To their right was an old building. Further down the block, there was a bit of an open space which Finn wanted to check out.

The power was out in the entire city, so the only light came from the cars that were currently on fire. This lack of vision left Finn, Puck, and Rachel on edge. With Finn in the front, Rachel in the middle, and Puck bringing up the rear, the three of them formed a procession and walked down the sidewalk. The three of them listened out for any kind of sounds, leaving all of them tense.

They finally reached the end of the street. Finn peeked around the corner of the building and looked down the street. There were more things on fire and even some debris lying in the middle of the road. Some sort of fight definitely made it through there, he figured. He also noticed a larger mass lying near a red car that was parked on the street. He tried squinting, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. It wasn't moving, so Finn figured it was safe to proceed.

"There's something in the street. Keep an eye out for any movement and stay behind me," Finn said to both Puck and Rachel.

Puck nodded in agreement and Rachel just stood there nervously.

"Let's go," Finn said before stepping around the corner. Puck had to nudge Rachel a little before she started walking. Once she did, she was right behind Finn. Puck kept shifting his gaze all over the place, not wanting to be ambushed by God-only-knows what.

As Finn got closer to the large object lying in the middle of the street, he realized that it was a person.

"Man down!" Finn yelled out of familiarity before jogging toward the person. He was surprised when Rachel ran faster than he did. She made it to the man and dropped to his side, placing her gun on the ground. She then reached her hand out and felt his neck, searching for a pulse.

She couldn't find one in his neck, so she grabbed his arm and tried to find one in his wrist. Then, her stomach dropped.

"He's dead," Rachel said. She looked up and saw both Finn and Puck standing there, looking down at her.

"We need to keep moving," Puck said uneasily, moving around.

"Shouldn't we move him?" Rachel asked, looking down at the man whose face was splattered with blood. Whether it was his blood or someone else's, Rachel didn't know.

"Puck's right, Rach. We have to keep going," Finn said. Rachel looked back up at Finn and saw that his face was emotionless. She guessed that's how the army trained them.

Rachel glanced back down at the man sadly before reaching for her gun and getting to her feet. "Lead the way," she said quietly to Finn. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, trailing it down her arm, before turning and walking down the street.

"We can't save everyone, Berry," Puck said as they followed Finn. Rachel thought back to the little boy at the bombed hospital.

"I know," she replied quietly.

-glee-glee-glee-

They hadn't seen any other signs of life until they turned onto Eighth Street.

Then they wished they hadn't seen anyone at all.

Finn wanted to tell Rachel not to look, but she already ran past him, toward all of the people that were on the streets. Most of them were lying there, unmoving, and Finn knew what happened.

They were all dead. He and Puck didn't have to check.

But Rachel did.

Finn and Puck just stood there, watching as Rachel ran from person to person, frantically trying to save someone. They knew they couldn't stop her.

Rachel couldn't believe it. All seventeen people on this street were dead. Some of them were wearing uniforms like Finn's; others were wearing plain clothes. Regardless, they were all dead.

She stood up and walked away from the last person, starting to feel dizzy.

What in the world happened? she wondered.

She stumbled over to a trashcan and threw up noisily inside it. Tears were also streaming down her cheeks as reality slapped her in the face.

They were in a very dangerous situation and could die.

Rachel could die before she even knew what was happening.

That thought scared her more than anything.

She jumped when she felt a hand on her back, rubbing it soothingly. Then, she relaxed only a little, knowing it was Finn.

She heaved three more times before her stomach was completely empty of its contents.

"It's gonna be okay," she heard Finn chanting once she could hear again.

"How is anything going to be okay again?" she groaned. Finn couldn't answer that.

-glee-glee-glee-

Rachel lay next to Finn in the strangers' bed. After spending another half an hour scouring the streets of New York, Rachel, Finn, and Puck had only found more dead bodies. They still weren't sure what attacked everyone, but they knew that there was a serious fight ahead of them.

Finn and Puck had broken into a house that had been abandoned. Rachel couldn't force herself to eat, but the boys ate plenty of the food in the fridge of the empty house.

Finn had his arms wrapped firmly around Rachel as they lay in the bed, but for the first time ever, she wasn't completely comforted by his presence. The faces of all of the dead men and women, and that little boy from the hospital, kept flashing through her mind. Some of them had been in the army, like Finn and Puck, and they didn't survive. They had the same exact training that Puck and Finn had, but it didn't protect them.

Could they actually survive this? Whatever this is?

It wasn't until the sun started rising that Rachel fell into an uneasy slumber.

-glee-glee-glee-

"I almost prefer going out at night," Rachel said as she watched the guys get their things back together.

"That makes it easier for something to sneak up on us, Berry," Puck replied, shoving some food into his backpack.

"But it also makes it easier for us to hide if we have to," Rachel replied. "I feel like a walking target moving around in the daylight now."

"We're moving targets no matter when we go out," Finn said in a dark voice.

"Thanks for being so optimistic," Rachel replied sarcastically. "It's very comforting."

"Don't mind him, Berry," Puck said, just as Finn was about to apologize. "He forgets to turn his asshole mode off sometimes."

Finn chuckled harshly. "Look who's talking," he muttered.

Without speaking, Rachel got up and walked out of the kitchen. She then went to the living room and stood in front of the bay window with her arms wrapped around her midsection. She looked outside and knew that kids should have been on their way home from school right now. But the streets were quiet.

"You okay?" she heard Finn's soft voice ask from behind her.

"Not really," she murmured.

Rachel could hear Finn walking toward her. Her eyes closed in contentment as he wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her close against his chest. She felt his cheek pressing against her hair.

"I always wanted a bay window, you know," she murmured.

"I remember. You told me that a while ago,' he replied just as quietly.

"But I changed my mind now," she said. "If all that window's going to show me is a destroyed city, then I don't want it."

"This will all be over before you know it," he replied. "Then you'll get that window you want. I'll install it myself. And then we can sit there and watch the neighborhood kids running around like you like to do."

"Don't make me any promises," Rachel replied after a moment. "We're just walking targets, remember? It's just a matter of time before we're hit."

Finn abruptly turned her around to face him. "You know I didn't mean that. We're gonna make it, Rach," he said firmly.

She looked into his almost cinnamon-colored eyes. The amount of concern and love she was there was overwhelming. "Just promise me that you won't do anything that will take you away from me," she said before placing her hands on his chest. "I know you, Finn. You'll sacrifice yourself in a second for someone else."

"I can't promise that," he said. "Especially if you're the one in danger. You better believe I'd sacrifice myself to save you then."

"But I don't want you to!" she said, slapping his chest lightly. "The whole point of wanting that bay window is so that I can sit there with you. So we can watch our kids run around one day. I want this future with you more than anything else I've ever wanted."

"Even Broadway?" Finn asked with a smirk.

"Yes," Rachel said firmly. "Hell, Broadway might be destroyed right now. But us? We're still here with each other. And I don't want to ever lose you. This might sound a tad bit melodramatic-"

"I'm used to that part of you already," he murmured with a smile. Rachel slapped his chest again but ignored him.

"Like I was saying, this might sound melodramatic, but I honestly don't know how I'd go on without you," she said. "It would cripple me."

"Even more than when the revival of Funny Girl was cancelled before you could see it?" Finn asked half jokingly.

"Yes, Finn," Rachel said, rolling her eyes. "When will you realize how much you mean to me?" she said more seriously.

Finn shrugged. "I know you love me. I mean, it's kind of obvious… But I know how far I'd go for you, to save you. I bet it's farther than you would go," he said with a smile.

"Are you challenging me to prove that I care about you more than you care about me?" Rachel asked incredulously.

"You'd lose no matter what," he said with a smile.

"You're underestimating me, Finn," Rachel said with a blinding smile. "And the best part of being underestimated is proving someone wrong."

Finn chuckled before reaching down and pressing his lips to hers quickly and yet sweetly. His hands ran down her back before cupping her ass and squeezing gently. "We'll see about that, babe."

"Yes, we will," Rachel replied confidently. Finn smiled at her once more with that grin that she loved so much before letting go of her and walking out of the room. Rachel turned back to the window and looked out at the abandoned street. All of her worries returned.

"Damn, he's good at distractions," Rachel murmured to herself.

-glee-glee-glee-

Minutes later, she was sitting on the bench in front of the bay window with her knees drawn up to her chest. Finn and Puck were in the kitchen, studying the map they found, crossing off the destroyed streets they'd already been to. As she sat there, lost in her own thoughts, she started hearing a funny clinking noise the same time that she felt the seat under her starting to vibrate slightly.

Her brows came together in confusion and she sat up a little bit straighter, peering out the window.

Then, she felt like screaming in terror.

Walking down the street toward the house they were in was some sort of robot thing. Rachel had never seen anything like it before. But she just knew that this might have been one of the things that killed all those people. That is what scared her.

It looked tall from where she was sitting and it walked with a smoother walk than she was expecting for something made out of metal. Its head was rounded with two shapes like eyes that were currently scanning the area around it. She could see the redness of the beams as it scanned for something.

She swallowed deeply when she realized that it was probably scanning for human presence. She then saw its arms. They were both different. One seemed to form into a gun bigger than anything Puck had. The other looked almost like a cannon.

It would have looked kind of cool if it wasn't murdering people.

Rachel couldn't take her eyes away from it. She was a mix between amazed and terrified. Those feelings kept her wordlessly rooted to her seat.

The seat shook more as the thing came closer. Its red beams were coming closer and closer to her, but she couldn't move. Is this what it was like to come face to face with death?

Then, the beams ran across the house and Rachel broke out of her state of panic. The red beams swooped back across right where Rachel was sitting. She watched as the robot thing raised up its right arm. The cannon thing was turning red, getting ready to fire.

Rachel threw herself to the ground, screaming Finn's name. She covered her head with her hands just as it sounded like a bomb hit the house. A second later, Rachel felt searing pain crawling up her left arm, making her scream again.

"Rachel?" she heard Finn shout.

"It's here!" she sobbed.

Finn ran into the room and saw the entire from of the house blasted off. He looked outside and saw a fucking weird ass robot thing standing there, getting ready to fire again.

"Get down!" he shouted to Puck, who was right behind him. They both dropped just as the thing fired again. Finn could hear Rachel's sobbing even over the sound of the house being blown apart. "Grab our stuff," he shouted to Puck. Puck army crawled back into the kitchen as quickly as humanly possible. "Rachel!" Finn shouted. She looked up and he could see her dirt and tear-stained cheeks from here. Seeing her so scared literally broke his heart. "Crawl to me, baby! As fast as you can!"

He saw Rachel nod before attempting to pull herself forward. She screamed in pain and he could see her badly burned arm from where he was. "Push through the pain, Rach!" he shouted. He watched as a look of blazing determination formed on her face. She then crawled, only letting whimpers escape.

Finn had never been more proud of his girl than at that moment.

"Hudson! Let's go!" he heard Puck shout from the kitchen just as Rachel reached him. Finn kneeled on his knees before grabbing Rachel around the waist. He impressively climbed to his feet before shifting so that she was being carried bridal style.

He then looked toward the street and saw the robot about to fire again. He ran into the kitchen, feeling the heat coming off of the blast as it just barely missed him, making the wall behind him explode.

Puck was ready with all of their bags and guns, standing right by the back door. Puck opened the door and Finn ran outside with Rachel in his arms.

Puck and Finn then ran as fast as they could away from the thing. They dodged under trees and hopped over bushes as they tried to put as much distance between themselves and the robot as possible.

Finn could hear Rachel whimpering, and he knew that she was cradling her left arm, but he couldn't stop to take care of her until he knew they were a safe distance away.

It wasn't until Finn's lungs started burning that they stopped. He wasn't sure exactly how far away they were, but he knew that it took him a while to tire out, so they must be pretty far from that damn thing.

"Let's stop here," Finn breathed heavily, motioning toward a brick building with a nod. Puck and Finn, who was still holding Rachel, walked around to the side of the building and found a door. With another burst of adrenaline, Puck rammed the door with his shoulder and it flew right open. "Nice one," Finn commented. He then walked inside with Rachel and Puck followed them, closing the door behind them. He looked around and found a heavy chair, placing it in front of the door.

Puck then smiled when he realized that they had broken into a bar.

"Nice choice, Hudson," Puck commented, smiling even more widely at the sight of the bottles of alcohol that filled the shelves.

"Now's not the time, Puck," Finn commented. He set Rachel down gently on one of the tables at the back of the bar, away from the windows in the front.

"Oh God it hurts!" Rachel sobbed, still cradling her arm.

"Puck, give me the first aid kit," Finn ordered. Finn then went behind the bar and grabbed a stack of clean rags, jogging back over to Rachel. "Let me see it, Rach," Finn said gently. Rachel took a deep breath before extending her arm palm side down. A nasty and painful looking burn covered the area from her hand to almost her elbow.

"It got you good, baby," Finn murmured.

"What do you need, Hudson?" Puck asked from the table next to him with the first aid kit open.

"Antibiotics and a clean syringe, alcohol, gauze pads, and medical tape," Finn rattled off. "Rach, I'm not gonna lie. This is gonna hurt like hell," he said, looking up at her. Her eyes were red from crying and there were still smudges of dirt covering her face.

Rachel took a deep breath and steeled herself. Finn grabbed the bottle of alcohol from Puck's outstretched hand. He opened it quickly and held a rag to the top before turning the bottle upside down. He repeated this until the rag was sufficiently covered. He then set the bottle down.

"Ready?" he asked, looking into Rachel's eyes. She bit her lip before nodding profusely. Finn then winced as he pressed the alcohol-dampened rag to the center of the burn. Rachel held in a scream, but he could hear her sobs as she tried to pull her arm out of his grasp. "Baby, I know it hurts, but I have to clean it. It'll get infected."

Rachel's chest was heaving, but she knew that Finn was right, so she stopped fighting him. Finn then pressed the rag to the rest of the wound as strangled sobs escaped Rachel's mouth.

"That part's done, Rach," Finn said, throwing the rag to the side. Puck was right there, with the gauze pads in hand. "Thanks," Finn murmured.

Finn then carefully set the gauze pads into place before securing them with medical tape. "I just need to give you a shot and then you're done, Rach," Finn said.

"Okay," she whimpered. Her sobs were quieting, but Finn could only imagine how much that burn hurt. Finn took the antibiotics and brand new syringe from Puck. He read the bottle before filling the syringe with the proper dose of antibiotics. Remembering his first aid training, he cleaned the area on Rachel's arm where she would get the shot.

Rachel didn't even jump when he stuck her and slowly injected the contents of the syringe into her injured arm. He then smoothed a band-aid over the area.

"If it weren't for the fact that you just gave me antibiotics, I'd be concerned that you didn't put any gloves on," Rachel murmured. Finn laughed, unable to help himself. He heard Puck practically snort from beside him.

"How do you feel?" Finn asked sympathetically a moment later.

"I could really use a nap," Rachel admitted.

"I think there's a room in the back," Puck said. "I've been to this bar before. Bar manager used to live here."

Rachel looked up at Finn. "Will you come with me?" she asked.

Finn looked to Puck. "Go on, man. I can hold down the fort," Puck said.

"Don't drink too much, Puckerman. We need you sharp," Finn said with a smirk.

"You don't have to act like my dad, dude," Puck replied. Finn then helped Rachel down off the table before leading her to a door at the back of the bar. They opened the door and were glad to see a mini-apartment with a spacious bed.

Rachel climbed on to the bed first and scooted over, still cradling her arm to her chest. Finn lay down beside her. She then rolled onto her right side and laid on his chest. Finn wrapped his arm carefully around her midsection, not wanting to hit her burn.

They then laid there for a few minutes, settling down.

"It was a close one today," Rachel commented quietly.

"But you're okay," Finn murmured, kissing the top of her head.

"I honestly thought I was going to die, though," she said.

"I wouldn't let that happen," Finn said firmly.

Rachel reached up and kissed his cheek. "I know," she said before lying back on his chest. "I just can't believe we know what's been killing all of those people now."

"Looks like Puck and Artie were right," Finn commented.

"I was hoping it was just people doing this, you know. I mean, we can communicate with them and see what they want. With these… things, how are we supposed to know why they're here?" Rachel asked.

"I dunno, Rach. But we'll catch up with the army eventually and see if they know something," Finn said. "But for now, just don't worry about it. You're here with me and you're safe."

"I always feel safe with you," Rachel murmured.

"Looks like I'm doing my job then," Finn replied with a smile, making Rachel giggle quietly.

"I love you, Finn," Rachel said as her eyes started closing.

"I love you, too," he said, kissing her on the top of the head again. Exhausted from the day's events, they both settled into a deep sleep.

-glee-glee-glee-

TBC

A/N: The war has just begun. Please continue reading and leaving reviews. I appreciate every word you leave! Happy reading :)