A/N: This is what happens when I stop writing for 3 months and then drunkenly decide to start writing at 4 in the morning. Don't hate me.
Ear muffs.
That's what Rachel was experiencing as her vision slowly started to come back to her. Everything seemed so loud yet so dull and soft. She could hear her friends screaming out, she really could. But she wasn't able to understand a word they were saying.
It was like wearing ear muffs.
Her head slightly swayed back and forth as she fought to regain consciousness and tried to understand where she was exactly. A sharp pain shot through the left side of her head and she slowly reached her arm up, wincing when she felt the still bleeding cut. Rachel saw her vision begin to blur again, not noticing how her body slumped backwards and hit the wall behind her. She barely heard the dull sound of Mercedes' brother screaming out to her to 'stay with them' as the world around her turned to black once again.
"First floor cleared" Rachel spoke into her handheld. She readjusted it to lie back on the shoulder pad of her police vest before placing her gun down on the living room table.
"Second floor is clear" Noah replied as he made his way up to the third floor. Two minutes later Rachel was able to let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as Quinn and Santana's voices cut through the silence in the room.
"Third floor cleared."
Rachel walked towards the front door of the house they had stumbled upon and yanked it open as she grabbed her handheld from its spot on her shoulder.
"The house is clear guys, come on in."
She stepped onto the porch that stretched out around the house and brought her hand up to her face to shield the early morning sun. Blindly reaching for her sunglasses, she frowned when she realized they weren't hooked to the front of her muscle shirt.
"Looking for these?" Quinn asked as she walked out onto the porch, side stepping Kurt as he walked into the house with a bag of clothes. She didn't allow Rachel to fully turn around, opting to wrap her arms around her girlfriend and placing the aviators where they belonged. A soft chuckle escaped her lips when Rachel quickly grabbed them and put them on.
"I swear you love those things more than me" Quinn joked as she pressed a light kiss to the back of Rachel's head. She felt the air leave her lungs when Rachel quickly spun on her heel and pressed her lips against her own. Her chest burned with a need for oxygen but she didn't allow herself to give in to the pain and instead focused on Rachel kissing her. Cool air swept across her lips and she opened her eyes to see Rachel staring back at her with an unreadable expression.
"I will never love anything or anyone as much as I love you."
Noah fired bullets into the seemingly never ending sea of zombies as he desperately tried to seek out his friends. He shot off another head before whipping his own head to the left, spotting Santana standing behind a teller's booth. He watched as she readjusted her gun and began to fire away at the front door of the bank. He snapped back to attention when he heard his gun click, the sound of an empty clip bouncing off the stone walls of the bank.
"Keep shooting!" He yelled out to Santana as he noticed the extra gun strapped around her shoulder. She tossed him a quick glance and nodded to let him know she heard him. As knees bent, adrenaline shot into strong hands causing them to shake as they reached down to unzip an overstuffed duffle bag full of ammo, and Noah asked himself why the hell things had to be the way they were.
"We're leaving tonight guys, so rest up. It's just under 8 hours to Los Angeles so we're only stopping for gas refills. We'll eat on the way there or something" Rachel instructed to her group of friends. She began to pick up the plates from their late breakfast that were scattered around the room as everyone began to head upstairs in search of a bedroom. As she moved around the room she noticed Mercedes' still sitting on the couch staring blankly at the floor. Before she was able to say anything though, Quinn's soft voice graced her ears.
"Baby?"
Rachel placed the plates on the coffee table next to her and walked to her girlfriend who was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Quinn grabbed the brunette's hand and tugged her towards the second floor silently asking her to join her in bed.
"Give me a second" Rachel said while cocking her head back in the direction of Mercedes. Quinn simply nodded her head and leaned over the stair railing to place a gentle kiss on Rachel's lips.
"I love you" Rachel softly called out as Quinn ascended the stairs. She stopped at the top stair, turning around to face her girlfriend with a questioning gaze. "I love you too" she replied cautiously. "Are you ok Raspberry? Well… you know. As ok as you can be?"
"Yeah babe…" Rachel replied while nervously fixing the aviators hanging off her muscle shirt. "I'm fine."
Quinn paced back and forth in a small convenience store across the street from the bank that she saw her friends drag her unconscious girlfriend in to. Mercedes had hung old blankets that she found in the back of the store over the windows so that the undead wouldn't see movement and head their way. Just as Quinn reached for her handheld on the shoulder pad of her police vest, Blaine appeared next to her and stopped her hand.
"I know you're freaking out. So am I, I mean… she's my sister" he choked out. Quinn squeezed his hand in support as her eyes took in his frightened face and moist eyes. "But they need to clear the area before they can answer us. Yelling at them via radio isn't going to help them concentrate."
Nodding in agreement, Quinn silently headed towards a covered window with Blaine's hand still in hers. She pulled back the blanket and tried, but quickly failed, to hold back a sob as she saw what must have been hundreds of zombies trying to fight their way in to the bank. She quickly sent off a prayer, hoping that somehow the big guy upstairs was listening to her. When they heard movement behind them, they quickly spun on their heel to see Brittany carrying a rather large milk crate filled with bottles and rags to a staircase that was tucked away in the back. She saw Blaine and Quinn staring at her with their teary eyes and questioning gazes, and smiled weakly at them.
"Those fuckers are getting in there over my dead body" she said with conviction.
"Mercedes? Are you ok?" Rachel asked as she sat on the couch facing the other girl. She watched as Mercedes continued to stare blankly at the coffee table, twirling her cell phone in her right hand.
Twirl.
Blink.
Twirl.
Blink.
Sighing, she reached out and stopped Mercedes from twirling her phone again. It caused the darker girl to meet Rachel's eyes for the first time since they arrived at the house.
"I promise you, we'll find him."
Brittany didn't hesitate to light one of the Molotov's she made in the store the second she stepped out onto the roof. She threw the first one at the large group of zombies outside of the bank and smiled in triumph when it landed smack dab in the middle. Quinn and Blaine were quick to join her, their anger and fear being directed at throwing the fire bombs at the undead. Sam, Mercedes, and Kurt all stood behind the trio watching the flames cover the street below them.
Across the street in the bank, Noah jumped when he saw an explosion of fire out on the street in front of the bank. It caused the zombies that were crowded at the front doors to lose interest in the group that was in the bank, and soon enough Noah and Rory were able to close the doors to the bank but not before seeing a tall blonde waiving frantically at them from across the street, a Molotov in her hand.
"Santana?!" Puck called out as Rory and Finn pulled down the shades of the wall length windows. He saw Santana jump over a counter with both of her guns strapped around her shoulders and let out a sigh of relief before allowing a smirk to settle on his face.
"What is it Puckerman?"
"I need to marry Brit. She's a fucking genius."
"Take a left on the next street. It's the last house on the right" Mercedes instructed. She watched through the cracked screen of a laptop as Rachel and Noah pulled up to her uncle's house. They turned the truck off, and then Rachel's voice cut through the silence of the living room that everyone else was seated in.
"Camera off" they heard her say to Puck through the video feed. Just a few seconds later, the screen turned black and her voice was heard through every handheld radio in the house.
"We'll see you guys in a little bit."
Noah shielded his eyes from the morning sun as he carefully made his way towards the house they thought belonged to Mercedes' uncle. Making his way across the lawn, he motioned for Rachel to join him. They slowly walked down the side of the house, cautiously approaching the barn in the back that was supposed to be housing Mercedes' little brother.
"Puck" Sam called out through his handheld as he watched the bank from across the street.
"Go for Puck" Noah responded quickly.
"Body count. Everyone good?" the blonde asked. When Noah didn't reply, he stepped away from the small group he was with and asked again if everyone was ok.
"Yeah… we're all here. We're… ok."
"…but?"
"We're just waiting for Rachel. She's still out cold. Artie thinks she has a concussion but if we wait it out she'll be up soon. Just don't tell Quinn ok?"
Sam jumped as he heard Quinn's voice behind him.
"Don't tell Quinn what?" she asked as she placed her now powered on handheld on the shoulder pad of her police vest. She eyed Sam curiously and was about to question him again when Kurt appeared behind them and ushered them into the store.
"Brittany is a genius. Too bad we don't have an enormous bottle of Lysol to overpower the hideous stench of rotten flesh burning" Kurt stated.
"Don't move!" Noah barked out as he stood in the entryway of the barn behind the large house they pulled up to. He aimed his gun at the younger boy's head, waiting for Rachel who was a few steps behind him.
"I'm clean I swear. I wasn't bit or scratched or whatever from those things" Damian rushed out.
Rachel smiled apologetically at him from behind Noah's raised arm. She placed her hand on his bicep silently asking him to bring down his weapon. When he did, she stepped in to the barn and looked around. In the corner to the left was a makeshift bed and a book bag with a baseball sticking out from it.
"Have you had to use that?" Rachel softly asked as Noah looked over his body making sure he was in fact untouched.
Damian followed her line of vision and immediately closed his eyes as flashbacks started to cloud his train of thought. "A few times" he answered. "I was at boarding school most of them time. I don't know if Mercedes told you. But they kept us on lockdown there. We didn't know what was going on until it was too late. I had to use it a few times when I was trying to come back here."
Rachel nodded to let him know she heard him and turned around as she saw Noah checking his legs for any bite marks. When he cleared the younger boy, she grabbed her handheld from the shoulder pad it was on and called in to the group that was 3 blocks away.
"Mercedes?"
The reply was instant.
"I'm here. What's going on girl?"
"We found him. He's clean. We're on our way back now."
She turned back to Noah and Damian after placing her handheld back where it belonged.
"Let's take the solar panels with us. We may end up needing them."
Quinn brought the bandana that was hanging around her neck up to cover her nose and mouth. Kurt wasn't kidding when he said it smelled horrible outside. She was crouched down in an alley next to the convenience store they had just been in and was looking around the wall to the flames in the street. The flames had covered the main entrance to the bank which led to them having to find an alternate way of getting in.
"Quinn..." Sam called out lowly as he tugged on her arm. When she turned to look at him, he pointed to another narrow alley way in between a flower shop and the bank. "There's gotta be an entrance to the bank in the back" he offered.
She nodded and looked down the street once again. The flames were still covering most of the street and if they moved quickly enough, they could go undetected to the other alley. Grabbing Sam's hand in her own, Quinn made sure everyone was joined at the hands before taking off in a low sprint across the street.
"We have to help them. I promised them I'd be back for them" Damian begged.
Rachel threw her hands up in frustration as the group sat in the school bus waiting for more instructions. Her heart was torn with the situation they were currently in. An hour ago, the group had reunited with Damian and ten minutes later, he told them about the little boy and girl who were hiding out in an old flower shop by themselves.
"I ran to the convenience store to see if I could get some food on my way to the ranch when I saw them. They wouldn't come with me no matter what I tried so I told them I'd be back for them. I don't know if they were with people or alone but they were alone in the store…"
"Show of hands. Who thinks we should go look for them?" Rachel asked as her own hand went into the air. Everyone looked around and one by one hands started to rise. "Ok then its settled. Let's go." Everyone got out of the bus and made sure to lock up their cars as they began the short walk to the outside of downtown LA. The group walked down a main street and headed straight for the flower shop that Damian pointed out. Sam pulled on Quinn's hand and nodded in the direction of the convenience store. Brittany, who's arm was looped through Quinn's, followed closely with Kurt and Mercedes on her trail as they made their way across the street.
"We're checking the store" Sam spoke into his handheld. When they reached the doors and hadn't received a reply, he chanced a look behind causing his face to turn pale. The four that were with him turned also and froze when they saw their friends backing away from two zombiefied children no older than 9. The little boy grabbed onto Rachel's wrist and Quinn felt herself being held back as she failed to reach her girlfriend. She watched as Rachel stood frozen in place not knowing what to do. They all watched as Finn quickly pulled on Rachel's free arm too roughly, sending her flying back and head first into an old newspaper stand. They all missed Finn shooting the young zombies in the head. They missed the horde of undead that rounded the corner due to the gunshots that had been fired. They missed their chance to escape as the street quickly filled with zombies, effectively separating the friends into two groups. One group being chased into the bank, another being untouched as they entered the small store in front of them.
Quinn rounded the corner of the large building and began pounding on the back door as she heard Kurt speak into the handheld radio that belonged to him. Looking to the left, she spotted their cars all lined up along the side of the road about a quarter mile away from where they currently were. A few zombies were walking by the cars but luckily weren't interested in them. She was about to start pounding on the door again when it swung open and they were quickly pulled inside by a nervous Santana. When she was sure they were all inside, she looked around trying to spot all of her friends. Mike and Tina were taping newspapers to the bulletproof glass doors at the front of the bank, Brittany was wrapped in Santana's arms as the Latina fought to hold her tears in, and Sam, Kurt, and Mercedes were walking over to Finn and Rory who were mopping up what looked like blood by the entrance of the bank. Puck walked out of what appeared to be an office and called her over with a wave of his hand.
"She just came to a few minutes ago. There's a cut on her forehead but Artie said it's nothing major so we don't really have to go ape shit over it" Puck explained as he walked towards the office with Quinn and Blaine in tow. She whispered a small 'thank you' as he held the door open for them.
"Rachel?" Quinn called out.
A tan hand flew up from behind a dark wooden desk, and Quinn smiled as she walked around it to sit next to her girlfriend. Artie had just finished covering the cut on her forehead when she turned to look at Rachel. A dopey smile was aimed in her direction and Quinn couldn't help but smile back as she took a hold of Rachel's small hand. She gave a questioning look to both Artie and Noah and laughed when Sugar explained she had given her some mild pain killers from the first aid kit that was strapped to Artie's wheel chair.
"Are you okay?" Quinn asked when Rachel shifted to lay down with her head in Quinn's lap. She threaded her fingers through Rachel's hair waiting for the other girl to answer. Tears instantly poured down her face when her fingers touched blood on the side of Rachel's head. It seemed to pull Rachel out of her drugged daze and she reached up a hand to wipe away the tears on her lover's face.
"Baby stop" Rachel pleaded. "I'm ok. See?"
She gave Quinn her best mega-watt smile and then genuinely smiled when Quinn laughed through her tears and shook her head at her girlfriend's antics. Rachel readjusted her head on her girlfriend's lap and allowed Quinn to start cleaning her hair with the things that Blaine handed her.
"Are you sure you're okay Rachel?" Blaine asked from his seat on top of the desk.
"Peachy" Rachel replied with a smile on her face. "What's a war if you don't have a couple of scars to show for it anyways, right?"
