No Escape: Chapter 7
by Creedog VanDrey
Category: Glee
Genre: Mystery
Rating: T
Language: English
Summary: Kurt's dead, but Mercedes might have a chance. The remaining glee clubbers must now decide what to do.
Spoilers: Through Episode 1x13: "Sectionals"
Chapter 7: One Day Too Late
The choir room was empty. Tina's body was still on the floor and the air smelled vaguely of pineapple, leaving a metallic taste in Santana's mouth and an annoying burning in the back of her throat. Brittany wasn't there, which means the other glee clubbers took her with them, but now Santana didn't know where to take the oxygen tank which she'd dragged from the nurse's office.
She hadn't seen or heard them on the way there, so she started off in the opposite direction, looking for any sign of her fellow classmates.
She got a sign after turning the first corner. There was a smoky haze surrounding the Spanish room. As Santana got closer, she noticed the orange flickering in the door's window. She looked in, but couldn't make anything out through the smoke lit only by a few flames.
"Santana!" she heard a familiar voice whisper, barely loud enough for her to hear. Puck had stuck his head out the door of Schuester's office and was beckoning her over. So relieved to see a friendly face, she forgot the cart in front of the door and joined the group inside the cramped office.
Quinn was clinging to Puck near the door, leaning heavily on him with one arm and holding her second trimester-distended belly with the other. Brittany's still-unconscious body was laid on Schuester's desk while Rachel and Finn performed CPR.
This angered Santana. "Why is Frankendolt repeatedly crushing my bestie's perfect abs?"
Quinn answered delicately, "We lost Brittany's pulse about half an hour ago."
Santana looked about ready to collapse, but composed herself and asked, since it was about anything else, "You realize Schue's room is burning down? Where're Elton and Oprah?"
"He got them," Puck sneered, "threw a Moscow martini—"
"Molotov cocktail," Santana corrected. Off the confused looks, she commented, "I know these things. I watch a lot of action movies. Why does this surprise anyone?"
"Weren't you with Mike?" Rachel asked, "And Matt went after you two."
Santana looked over at Rachel to answer her question, but her head shot back away the instant her eyes fell on Brittany. "He got them, too."
"You saw him?" Rachel asked, shivering despite herself.
"I was hiding," Santana shamefully admitted, "He came looking for me, but then he was gone."
"Yeah, this kind pulled that ghost trick on us, too," Finn remarked.
Santana's eyes settled on Quinn, who was grimacing as she pressed into her side again. "What's up with you, Juno?" Santana asked with genuine concern.
"Something's wrong with her," Puck explained unnecessarily. "That's it; I'm taking you to the nurse's office," he told Quinn, before looking up at Santana, "Do you think you could do something for her?"
Santana wanted to respond with some scathing remark, but seeing the earnestness in his eyes, she replied charitably, "Look, I'm not a doctor, but there were a lot of books in the nurse's office. We'll figure it out." She looked over to Brittany again and added, "But first I've got to go get the oxygen tank. I left it in front of the other door."
"We can't stay here," Rachel admitted, staring at the door leading to the Spanish room, which was allowing wisps of smoke to enter the office.
Santana said, "Figgins' office is just around the corner. I know that route by heart."
Quinn groaned in pain loudly, almost doubling over. Puck scooped her up and announced, "I'm taking you to the nurse's office now. Santana, meet us there, okay?"
"Yeah," she agreed, and then told Rachel and Finn, "Get to Figgins' office. I'll drop by with the oxygen tank before I head to the nurse's office."
At once the group exited the office, splitting up, Rachel and Finn with Brittany turned one corner, Puck with Quinn turned the other, and Santana made her way over toward the adjacent door.
Before she made it halfway, the door opened and Mercedes stumbled out. She was leaning heavily on the door and when she tried to take a step away, she fell forward, grabbing onto the plastic cart with the oxygen tank.
Finn and Rachel had already turned the corner, but Puck paused to watch. Santana called back, "Go! I got her!" Puck complied.
Mercedes, trying to take another step forward, misjudged the leverage provided by the cart, and fell forward, causing the cart to roll past her, partially into the smoke-filled Spanish room. She remained on the ground, awake but weak.
Santana was two steps away when a powerfully loud boom and bright flash rocked the hallway. At first, she wondered who'd used a flash grenade, but once she was able to pull herself off the floor, she saw the broken pieces of the cart strewn across the floor. They oxygen tank had burst.
Santana felt her stomach drop. Mercedes was lying across the hallway, her head and neck pressed at an unnatural angle into the base of the far wall. Santana ran in the other direction the moment she noticed the blood pooling around Mercedes's head.
The majority of the objects on Figgins' desk, including his computer monitor were lying in a pile at the foot of his desk. Instead, a near-dead Brittany was lying on it, and on top of it, Finn and Rachel trying to keep her alive.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" Rachel asked.
"What?" Finn asked, too absorbed in his task.
"Do you think it's possible to see someone and just know in your soul that the two of you are meant to be together?" Rachel asked, giving Finn a meaningful stare.
Casually, Finn replied, "I don't think so. I mean, when you see someone, you can think they've got a smokin' body, but that's not love. It's like hormones." Rachel's face dropped. Finn, who hadn't looked up yet, continued, "But I guess I think you can fall in love in high school. I mean, I was totally in love with Quinn." Rachel actually stopped giving Brittany rescue breaths. "But now I'm not so sure." This didn't make Rachel feel better, but it did break her trance long enough to remember to continue blowing air into Brittany's mouth. Finn looked up but Rachel was concentrating hard on Brittany, so he just watched her, searching for words.
Out of the corner of his eye, Finn noticed a shadow sitting in the anteroom. "Santana?" he called out, turning his head. The shadow was too tall and man-shaped to be the Latina, though. He had his arm raised, almost as if it were holding a—
The unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out and the glass front of Figgins' office shattered.
A/N: So, my cliffhangers are getting much more brutal. Not to mention the murders. Now, Tina getting blown up wasn't pretty, but frankly the last few murders have been pretty gruesome. I'm very excited about the next chapter, for reason you'll discover soon.