Santana rushed out of the bus holding a baseball bat at the ready, Puck and Will followed closely at her heels. The rest of the group, stared intently out of the window seeing no reason to risk their own safety by getting involved.
"Did it bite you?" Santana demanded, the grip on her bat tightening, just in case she had to move fast. "have you been bitten? Rachel answer me or I swear to God, I'll whack you regardless"
"N-no. No! I'm okay, I was just so scared" Rachel lamented, as she calmed down, cradled in Finn's firm embraced.
She didn't see the point in telling them about the scratch, the Undead left on her arm, as she fought it.
It was only a scratch. just a tiny little scratch. Papercut sized, really. There was no sense in stirring up trouble when Santana had that look in her eye, Rachel reasoned to herself.
She shakily wiped away the little trickle of blood as well as the dirt, and hid her face in Finn's comforting chest.
"Oh. Well that sucks" Santana said sounding extremely disappointed at the prospect of not bludgeoning a zombified Rachel.
"Santana, that's enough. Rachel, are you sure you're okay?" Will questioned, filled with genuine concern for his star. She nodded, her eyes wide with unshed tears.
"Will you all just get your butts back on this bus? What are you waiting on? More of those things?" Sue yelled out, having had enough with the love fest,Will was about to start up.
She shook her head in disbelief at his lack of regard for the well being of the rest of the glee club. "Idiots"
A piercing scream rang through the air, startling everyone back into the reality of their predicament. They could all be killed by Zombies. For real, Permanently Killed.
Their eyes instantly landed on the bashed in corpse, and panic set in. Santana, Puck and the others quickly hustled back on the bus, the door slamming behind them with a quickness and Sue peeled out of the parking lot.
"Geez, there's alot of Military around right now" Sue muttered to herself as she surveyed the scene on the congested Highway.
"What's the hold up,Sue? I want to get these kids back to the house before it gets dark"Will said sidling up to the front of the bus, peering out of the windscreen.
"It looks like the Army's beginning to cordon off the highway. Looks like we couldn't go to back home to Lima, even if we really wanted too" Sue mused, her eagle eyes never wavering.
"What? They're sealing off traffic? Will we be able to get back to the house? "He asked worried at what they'd do if that was the case.
"It looks like they are, but we'll be able to get back to the house. Our turn off is within the contained areas. But,We're going to have to find another vehicle if we're going to be doing these excursions. Something more inconspicuous than this giant cheese mobile or we might end up attracting some very unwanted attention" Sue ruminated, turning on the left turn signal.
Will paled at the thought, finally realizing just how out of his depth he was.
Sam had just finished turning on the mains for the gas and water, and lit the pilot for the hot water heater when he heard the bus pull up. Jogging up the basement stairs, he called up to Mercedes to let her know that everyone was finally back. Mercedes excitedly met him at as he opened the front door.
"Artie is going to be in heaven! While I was looking for the fuse box, I found more proof that Uncle Lucius was Batman!" She chirped to Sam, who grinned back at her.
He was happy that she was still in a good mood. And if getting it on helped make her happy, then dammit, he was more than willing to continue putting out.
"Hey guys, did you get everything we'd need?" Sam inquired, wrapping his arm around Mercedes' shoulder.
" Some people were being totally worthless….Finchel" Sugar supplied as she skipped past them into the house with several bags in her hand.
"yeah, Rachel didn't even pick up the majority of her list and then had the nerve to get attacked by a zombie" Tina added, with distaste.
"WHAT?.. is she okay?" Mercedes asked, her brown eyes wide with concern.
Rory and Mike half shrugged,half nodded while bustling by with their arms full of sleeping bags and pillows.
"We could use some help over here, Evans!" Puck called out as he dragged out packaged tents out of the back of the bus.
"So did you kill the zombie or did you just run? " Sam asked
'Surprisingly, Finn killed the zombie and saved his woman. I was almost impressed."Artie said wheeling up with his lap full of assorted bags.
Sam eyed Finn skeptically as he watched the taller boy help his girlfriend out of the bus.
"Rachel? Are you okay? " Mercedes questioned " you look a little off?"
"I was very frightened. I think I'm still in shock." She replied, indeed looking pale and blood splattered.
"you should go rest for awhile in one of the guest rooms." Mercedes offered and Rachel readily agreed.
"Finn, I can't even imagine how you must be feeling right now. What you had to do today was...indescribable. but it had to be done." Will said, squeezing Finn's shoulder in consolation. The Tall boy looked positively haunted in response.
"You should go take a nap too. You look even worse than Rachel does at the moment" Emma added, apologetically.
He barely nodded as he trudged away with his girlfriend looking all the more like a massive Eeyore.
"uh..so what did you two get up to while we were gone?" Artie asked eager to move away from the trauma talk.
He smirked as he took in the glow radiating off of Mercedes and Sam giving her an inappropriate amount of sex-eye, especially given the previous topic.
"just talked and stuff" Sam said bashfully, his ears reddening when he caught the looks of amusement from their friends.
"talked? Really? Is talking the new word for boning?" Puck asked loudly.
" Did you atleast put on some Keith Sweat like I advised?" Artie said when he saw the shared guilty looks.
"Keith Sweat?" Mercedes questioned, in spite of herself
"you seem like a 'babymaking music" kind of girl. so I offered, Vanilla Swirl here, some pointers" Artie responded, shrugging like this was normal conversation.
"I don't even have the words" Mercedes announced to noone in particular, before walking away to dish with the girls and Kurt.
"I put on Gerald Levert. Worked like a charm" Sam confided, as soon as he thought Mercedes was out of earshot.
"SAM, I HEARD THAT' Mercedes yelled from the other room.
"Damn. I'm so screwed" Sam muttered, while Artie, Puck and Mike died of laughter.
By Nightfall, Everyone was fed and washed and preparing for their first night in a Zombie Apocalyptic World.
"Everyone? Hello? Hi. We're going to be needing your utmost attention" Artie called out amidst the slumber party chatter.
"Artie and I want to be on guard duty, so we're staying upstairs." Puck announced, standing in shorts and a black tanktop. Since Will squashed his attempt at only wearing his briefs to bed.
"um we're all going to stay in the basement where steel doors protect us, so I'm not sure what you guys will be guarding?" Tina asked,perturbed.
"ok to be honest, and I can be honest with you ,can't I, Tina?" Artie asked condescendingly as Tina rolled her eyes. "We don't want to hear the muffled moans of all the couples getting it on in their little tents."
"Exactly. I could put up with everybody else, but Mr Shue and Miss Pillsbury? No Thankyou. Arturo and I will be upstairs watching porn and enjoying ourselves, and at the first sign of trouble, we'll be down here. Deal?" Puck said, moving to stand behind Artie.
Noone looked overly convinced.
"Okay lets try this again. What if after we resurface in the morning, the whole place is swarming with the Undead, and we don't realize it and we go upstairs and BOOM, human jerky! We need to keep a watch on the perimeters, people. Damn" Artie said baffled, that nobody else saw the sense in this.
"Wheels is right. We need 2 people on watch at any given time. And we should never go outside alone. Pick a damn buddy, cretins." Sue said before looking back down at her Ipad.
Artie and Puck looked shocked at Sue's agreement before quickly putting back on their game faces.
"See even Coach Sylvester agrees. So we're doing it. Okay bye" Puck said getting ready to lift Artie out of his chair.
"ooh I almost forgot. But this is the perfect time to mention what I discovered earlier" Mercedes said standing up in her dark pink nightie.
Sam looked up, eager to hear the discovery. But his eyes never made it past her rear, and the enticing hem of her nightgown.
"Well earlier today, I wandered into the walk in closet of the Master bedroom. And guess what I found behind Uncle Lucius' odd addiction to seersucker jackets?" She asked everyone excitedly.
The room's attempt at curiosity was tepid at best.
"Just get on with it, Aretha" Sue mumbled loudly, her eyes still stuck on her screen.
"I found my uncle's security camera setup! its basically like an entire wall of the closet" She called out to Artie in particular.
"WHAT? WHERE? Does it cover the entire property?" Artie question, finally showing the enthusiasm Mercedes was hoping for. The rest of the group followed suit when they realized the implications. That they were even safer than they thought.
"It was off and I didn't want to turn it on just in case I broke it. But I'll show you where it is." She replied, quickly putting on her slippers.
Mercedes never liked walking around the cabin barefoot (or anywhere outside of her bedroom, really) since the time when she was 8 and accidentally stepped on a worm that wiggled its way inside. Forever traumatized, she envied people like Sam and Puck who could wander around, enjoying nature, footloose and fancy free.
Sam quickly followed them, grabbing Artie's wheelchair. He wanted to see this surveillance system. It was only an added bonus that he was behind Mercedes as she climbed the stairs.
Thankfully the wheelchair kept his hands occupied or else he might have done something very un-gentlemanly.
Mercedes showed them the overly large closet. Once she removed the jackets still occupying it.
"And look, it doubles as a kind of panic room if necessary." She said with a flourish, pointing towards the reinforced accordion style doors.
"I think I have a man-crush on your dead Uncle" Artie said in awe.
Puck nodded gaping as the 6 screens booted up.
"I'm just happy that you guys will be safe, even while you're up here on sentry duty" Sam said, eyeing the screen that showed black and white footage of all angles of the property.
"me too. I think you both should share this room. We could trade that king-sized bed for the 2 full sized beds in the guest rooms tomorrow? And Artie you could probably set up the alarm system again.." Mercedes suggested, looking around.
"Already working on it. I could probably rig up an alarm to alert us of a perimeter breach, if there isn't already one." Artie said distractedly, as he fiddled around with electronic things.
"and an intercom system. We need that. So we can alert the people in the basement about whats going on up here without having to expose ourselves" Puck added rather smartly.
"Wanky" Santana called out from the staircase as she walked into the room.
"what? Brit forgot her bag in the living room and I overheard you" She explained when she caught the looks of confusion as to why she was up there. "I couldn't let a perfectly good innuendo pass"
"In your end-o" Sam mumbled, as Mercedes giggled and rolled her eyes. Even Santana smirked, when Puck highfived him.
The next morning, Mercedes decided to check on Finn and Rachel, who were oddly quiet all evening. She poked her head into their green and blue tent and gasped when she saw how green tinged and awful Rachel looked curled in her blanket. Her bangs were stuck down with sweat and Finn looked even more lost than usual.
"Finn, whats wrong with Rachel?" Mercedes questioned softly, not wanting to disturb the sickly brunette.
" I don't know. She was burning up all night and I thought maybe that was a symptom of shock. But she's even worse today" He admitted, looking utterly terrified, as he stroked his girlfriends hair.
"you should have told someone. I'm going to get Mr Shue and Coach Sylvester. She fixed me up when I was sick during Nationals so maybe she has a remedy for this" Mercedes said quickly, squeezing Finn's hand in comfort before exiting.
She quickly explained the situation to everyone and moved aside when Will raced to his favorite star's side.
Mercedes didn't even roll her eyes this time. Rachel really didn't look too good.
"Do you think she's been infected?" Tina asked when she realized noone else was going to ask the obvious.
"She said she wasn't bitten" Santana answered quickly
"That's not what she asked" Mike remarked
"Maybe some of the blood got into her mouth?" Rory pondered
"that's true, she was screaming a lot, so some might have got in"Joe guessed
"In Resident Evil, all you needed was just a scratch to get infected" Sam said, and that stopped all the guessing games short.
"Shit. How do we ask without making Finn get all defensive?" Puck queried
"Finn wouldn't get defensive" Kurt said, slightly offended
"uh yea he would. Just look at him, he's a ball of nerves and he probably wants someone to blame" Santana said quite astutely. And even Kurt couldn't argue that.
"maybe we should just tell Mr Shue, and let him deal with the fallout" Blaine offered up and everyone agreed that was a damn fine idea, since Mr Shue was always on somebody's shitlist anyway.
When Quinn suggested it to Mr Shue that Rachel might have accidentally been scratched and that's what might be causing her mysterious illness, He didn't even let her finish before he rushed to find the offending wound.
"If we find it,we just need to clean it properly with some kind of antiseptic" He was saying after he had explained the situation to an irate Finn and a frantic Emma.
"I have antiseptic in my bag. I bought some more in Walmart yesterday too" Emma said eagerly, more than happy to finally be of help.
No one had the heart to tell them that Zombie infections couldn't be disinfected.
Sue watched on silently as Finn located the scratch on Rachel's arm. And she kept quiet as she watched Emma thoroughly cleanse the wound and put a band-aid on it.
But when they started to tell the rest of the Glee club that Rachel would be right as rain by the next day, she knew she had to say something.
"Will, either you are a complete moron or you're in denial. Either way, you are trying to put everyone here in danger for selfish reasons" Sue stated as she turned off her Ipad and stalked over to the center of the room.
"Sue, what are you talking about?" Will asked irritably, looking at Emma as he rolled his eyes at Sue's would be antics.
"I'm talking about the fact that anyone with half a brain can see that girl no longer needs a damn tetanus shot. She's been infected by a Zombie, therefore she will become a Zombie too." She answered calmly.
Will looked around in shock and outrage thinking he'd see the same look reflected in the rest of the group. But he found none.
They all looked away guiltily and a tad sullen. Because they knew. And they had really hoped that he knew but apparently that wasn't the case.
Only Finn felt the same righteous indignation that Will was hoping for.
"Rachel is not a Zombie. She's just sick right now. You guys wouldn't understand. You never had to kill anyone or have someone be killed on top of you. And she's a Vegan! This is what shock looks like!" Finn yelled defensively.
Kurt looked thoroughly miserable as he watched his Stepbrother's meltdown.
Anyone else would have backed down. But not Sue Sylvester. She wasn't going to stick her head in the sand like Will and Emma. She wasn't going to die stupidly because one man and his downright unrealistic relationship with 2 kids, couldn't deal.
The rest of these kids needed a leader and she was more than prepared to be that leader for them.
"You don't have to believe me, Will. Lets pretend that she's not halfway to Zombieland. what if 'whatever' she has is contagious. Put her into a separate room, with a locked door. And then see what's what. You owe it to ALL of your students to put them first. Especially the healthy ones. Christopher Reeve could stay with her if he wants" She said shrugging at the end.
There was a tense minute as everyone anxiously awaited Will's response. He finally agreed, rather reluctantly.
"We can put her into one of the guest rooms upstairs. She'll be more comfortable in a real bed, Finn. I promise." He said trying to ignore the constricting of his heart as Finn judged him harshly.
Hell, he judged the whole damned room, so very hard.
Finn finally relented, realizing both the futility in fighting the decision and the truth that Rachel would be more comfortable in a cozy bed, in a proper room than on the floor.
"Fine but I'm staying with her" He said through gritted teeth as he carried his barely conscious girlfriend up the stairs.
The rest of the gleeks looked at one another, when Will and Emma followed Finchel out.
"Is it wrong that I hope Mr Shue gets bitten next?" Britney asked the room. Weary eyes regarded her warily.