A/N: Hey guys! Sorry about the delay, but I've been really busy with college. Anyway, here it is and hope you like it! Oh and I didn't have time to proof read it so I'm sorry for the mistakes.
Once they all sat down, nobody let out a word.
"Okay, I'm gonna start," Tina said after moments of stressed silence. "I want to know what's happening and how did you three," she pointed to Quinn, Santana, and Brittany, "knew that something was wrong outside."
Santana explained everything with Quinn's help, now and then. From Quinn's phone call to the announcement of the President on the TV. What made them go outside, what they saw there, and why they decided to stay right where they were.
"So what do we do now?" Hailey asked for what felt the thousandth time in the last hour.
"Don't know, kid…" Santana sighed. "I suggest we stay here until things outside are a bit calmer."
While they were between four thick walls, they could still hear the loudest noises made outside through the air duct on the ceiling.
"We need protection," Quinn said. "I don't want to be and feel helpless."
"Protection, what do you mean?" Rachel furrowed her brows. In her opinion they were as safe as they could here.
"We need weapons. Guns, stuff like that," Santana deadpanned.
"How are we supposed to get them?" Quinn asked with a concerned expression. "The closest thing to a weapon in this house is a baseball bat."
"We have the kitchen knives too," Mallory murmured.
"We'll think about it when the time comes," Santana hushed them. "More important than that is how we're going to move outside."
"You want to go outside?" Brittany asked in a small but surprisingly steady voice.
"We have no choice, Britt," Santana smiled sadly at the blonde. "Sooner or later, either to find means of defense or to get food, we'll have to go outside."
"I suppose..."
"I could teleport there," Hailey suggest quietly.
"There's no way in hell you're going out there, do you understand me?" Brittany glared at her daughter, who cowered in her place.
"Just suggesting…"
"I don't care! You're not going anywhere outside these walls."
Quinn nodded her agreement, "I agree. None of you will be going outside. It's not safe."
"But you're allowed? That's not fair, we wanna help," Matt said with confidence in his voice.
"This is not up for discussion, young man!" Quinn silenced her son.
"Does anyone even know how to kill a zombie?" Elle asked, followed by Rachel's frantic nod.
"Well, the theory in every movie and video game is to finish their cerebral activity," Mallory started hesitantly. "They're already dead; the only thing keeping them going is the brain. In order to kill a zombie, we need to destroy the brain."
"Make sure to keep that in mind, everyone," Santana said steadily. Maybe it was from her years in the army or just the need to protect all these people, but her leading facet was kicking in more than ever. "Our first priority is, without a doubt, to find food and weapons. However, we also need to find out if there's a way of getting out of here. Supplies will disappear, eventually."
"James said he would get us out of here," said Quinn.
"And how is he gonna to do that?"
"I don't know, he said to have my phone accessible," Quinn looked down at her hands shyly.
"The one you shattered on the kitchen floor?" Santana asked calmly.
"I'm sorry," the guilty blonde wiped a tear that fell from her eye.
"It's okay, Mom," Mallory rubbed her mom's back comfortingly. "Could happen to anyone."
"Yeah, no one's blaming you Q," Santana offered her an understanding smile. Really, she didn't blame Quinn at all. If someone had basically said that we're all going to die – or worse – Santana would have done the same think, if not worse.
"I think we should really dig into our abilities," chimed Hailey, looking nervous when all heads turned to her. "They might be really helpful outside."
"Or get in our way if we don't know how to control them," Mallory added, smiling at Hailey who shot her a small bashful smile back. "Imagine if we panic and do something weird that keeps us from running."
"You guys talk as if you're going out there yourselves," Santana snorted.
"I just think we could be really helpful –"
"It's not worth it, punks," Brittany asserted, her lips twitching slightly upwards.
They continued to organize and list thing that they needed to do and get, neither of them keeping track of time. Only when Lily approached them informing that the rest of the horde was hungry, they realized it was past 8 pm.
Brittany was surprised that the kids had lasted this long without whining about being hungry. They must have been really entertained with whatever game they'd been playing all afternoon
Tina, Quinn and Mercedes walked to the canned food on the shelves, asking what which of them they wanted to eat. As Brittany went to pick up Aaron from the bed where he'd been playing and cooing to a blue octopus plushie, she realized that she didn't have anything to heat the milk for her baby. With the hurry to come to the panic room, she'd forgot to bring down the milk warmer she'd bought when she got here because she'd left hers at home.
"Everything's okay?" Santana asked upon seeing Brittany's face turn even more worried.
"Not really."
"What's wrong?" The brunette frowned, switching gazes between Brittany and the boy in her arms.
"There's nothing for Aaron to eat here. I need to boil water to make his bottle, and also bring the bottle warmer for later."
"That's okay, I'll get it."
"You can't go upstairs," Brittany whispered sharply. "You don't know what's lurking up there, Santana."
"I'm sure it's fine, Brittany," Santana rolled her eyes slightly but was beaming inside because Brittany still cared a little about her. "We haven't heard anything from upstairs and I won't let Aaron starve."
"I can see if he eats some mashed peas from the cans or something. I don't want you or anyone to go there because of me."
"Brittany, it's settled," Santana declared, looking pointedly at the blonde. "Besides, I won't let you feed him that canned crap. It can't be good for him."
"But…"
"No buts. I'll be back in a second, just boil the water and come right back." And Santana turned back, heading in Quinn's direction, before Brittany could say anything.
"Quinn, I need to go to the kitchen," Santana said bluntly.
"What? What for?"
"Boiled water for Aaron's bottle."
"Crap, totally forgot about that. Let's go then."
"You don't need to come, Quinn. I got it."
"You're not going alone and unprotected, Santana," Quinn glared at her. "And you need to get in again."
"I'm not completely unprotected, I know how to fight," Santana frowned. "I've spent my live in the army."
"I don't care, you're not going alone. Now, come on."
Quinn went to let the others know where they're going, leaving a huffing Santana behind.
Once outside the panic room, they were met with darkness. They took several seconds to adjust their eyes to the dark. Having kind of a silent agreement to not turn the lights on, both women climbed the stairs, almost blindly, placing their hands on the wall for leverage. They made their way to the kitchen aided by the faint moonlight coming from the windows. Guttural noises could still be heard faintly from outside. Nothing like in the afternoon though, where the commotion had reached its pinnacle. At least here in Lima, Ohio. Santana supposed it was because there was no one left to feed of. They were still out there, nevertheless.
Quinn's actual house was far from the gates, so they should be shielded from unwanted eyes by the tall trees in the long driveway and the walls surrounding the entire residence. Santana closed the kitchen blinders as quiet as she could muster anyways. They could be quiet sons of a bitch, prowling right outside the window, for all that she knew. The thought made her uneasy. Now that Santana thought about it, it had been kind of reckless coming upstairs without even the baseball bat Quinn had mentioned. Well, they'd have to come up unarmed in order to get it, so.
While Quinn poured water in the kettle, Santana undressed her jacket and rolled some of the sharp knives from the knife stand in it.
"Hey Q, do you have a radio? Maybe we could get some information on the rest of the country. Don't know if anyone's broadcasting, but I think it's worth a try."
"Hmm, maybe in the garage," said the blonde uncertainly, obviously disliking the idea of having to go there.
"You don't have to go, Quinn," Santana reassured, sensing Quinn's reluctance. "I'm the one who wants it so…"
"Nonsense, we're in this together. If you go, I'll go. Besides, the baseball bat is in there too."
The kettle beeped softly, announcing that the water was ready. Quinn rummaged through the cabinets and fished a thermos to where she poured the boiling water, leaving out a portion ready to use.
"This way the water will stay warm if the power goes out and the milk warmer won't work," Quinn explained seeing the other woman's brows furrow in confusion.
"Oh… clever Quinnie," Santana teased playfully.
"Are we ready to go?"
Santana just nodded, grabbed the milk warmer and secured her jacked with the knives under her arm, and the pair made their way down the stairs again, only this time Quinn turned to a door Santana had failed to notice the only two time's she'd been down there. She supposed it was the access to the garage and she felt her heart start to speed up again. The garage had a direct connection with outside. If something was inside, it was highly probable that this had been the way in. No immediate noises seemed to be coming from the other side of the door, but who knew. They had no idea how zombies behaved in real life.
"Quinn, wait a minute."
Santana lowered the milk warmer to the floor and unrolled her jacket revealing the big knives. She took one to herself and extended another to Quinn, who started to breathe even heavier than before.
"What do I do with that?" The blonde whispered nervously, not making any real movement to grab the weapon.
Santana shrugged her shoulders, "Just in case."
After Quinn wrapped her shaky fingers around the handle, Santana slowly turned the doorknob and opened the door. Every sense in Santana's body was enlightened. Her eyes were wide open, trying to find any movement in the partially dark room, her ears ringed with every quiet step her and Quinn made into the room, and her knuckles turned white from gripping the knife like her life depended on it. Well, she guessed it kind of did. Yes, the kitchen knife was a poor weapon if they really encountered a zombie, but still, it was better than being empty handed.
Santana breathed a little lighter when all signs pointed that she and Quinn were the only moving beings in the garage, yet she didn't let her guard down. She couldn't deny that the she was getting creeped out by the damn shadows from the slow movement of the trees outside, visible through the row of small opaque windows on the top of the garage gate.
"Come on, let's find the radio and the bat, and get out of here."
Santana basically just backed Quinn up. It was her house after all. She would know where she kept her stuff.
They found the baseball bat right away, but even though it only been a couple of minutes, it seemed hours later when Quinn finally found the radio and they were able to get the hell out of the garage. Why did everything seem much scarier at nighttime? The undead wandering outside sure don't help either, Santana thought to herself.
Quinn locked the garage and pocketed the key as Santana once again wrapped her coat around the knives. With a press of a fingertip to the fancy device, they were able to enter into the panic room where everyone was happily munching on whatever food they were having. Everyone except Aaron, who was fussing in his mother's arms, crying his lungs out.
"Are you alright?" Brittany practically ran to them, looking a little desperate but also relieved that both women had returned safely. "Did you get it?"
"Yeah, here," Quinn handed her the warm water and told her to reserve the one in the thermos for later, before going to check on her kids.
Brittany handed the crying baby to Santana, who panicked visibly. The blonde just smiled in amusement
"I'll be back in a second," Brittany chuckled slightly, turning her back to the pair, getting the powdered milk that Quinn had put on the shelf. She then opened a bottle and filled half of it with the hot water. Opening a new bottle of water, she finished filling Aaron's bottle in order to even out the temperature. Finally, Brittany added a dose of powdered milk and shook it a little to homogenize the mixture, all the while looking at Santana and Aaron from the corner of her eye.
Santana's efforts to comfort the boy were kind of adorable, even though they didn't seem to be working. Santana was being so sweet that Brittany couldn't help but linger back a little, watching Santana snuggling Aaron against her chest, rocking him softly, and whispering sweetly in his ear. A grin spread involuntarily across Brittany's face. She would have stared a little longer at the endearing sight, but her baby was hungry and she really didn't like when her children cried.
Brittany checked the milk temperature again by pouring a few drops on the back of her hand. She nodded her head approvingly and Santana handed Aaron back to his mom.
"Go eat something," Brittany smiled up at Santana as she sat on the bed. "Oh, and Santana? Thanks. A lot."
The brunette just nodded and smiled back. The truth was, even if they didn't part in exactly good terms in the past, Santana still cared for Brittany more than anything. She'd do anything for her.
After dinner, Matt and Mallory had found a fantastic way to entertain everyone before bed, since they obviously didn't have a television to watch a movie, like usual. The twins had divided them in four groups, giving each one a specific sound. There was clapping, snapping fingers, clicking tongues, and patting on the knees. It took a while to the younger ones get the hang of it, but once they got it, they were happily singing along to the familiar tunes they were reproducing with body parts.
Santana found herself clapping and laughing along, grinning like a mad woman, momentarily forgetting the chaos outside, until an occasionally weird sound made its way thought the air duct. Nevertheless, she was having great fun. Matt and Mallory were great at entertaining. It seemed to Santana that they'd done this a bunch of times before. And maybe they had, with all the younger siblings, it was actually quite probable,
Soon they decided to call it a night and went to bed. That was another headache. Sleeping arrangements were proving to be more difficult than they'd anticipated. The four little girls stubbornly demanded that they all sleep together or paired up. There weren't beds for everyone so they would have to fit several in each bed or mattress. After much discussion Eleanor, Lily, Tori, and Zoey all laid down in one of the bigger mattresses. They laid with their heads to the side of the mattress, instead of the top, so that they all fit in it.
The younger boys, Zach, Jaden, and Sebastian, also took one of the big mattresses. Tina shared one of the beds with her two twins, Mercedes and Rachel shared another, Quinn took Abby and Matt offered to sleep with them. The rest of the girls made their to the two joint mattresses; Johanna on the far left, Mallory next to her on the middle, followed by Hailey, also in the middle, and lastly, Elle, who took the right end of the big makeshift bed, leaving a bed to be shared by Brittany, Aaron, and Santana.
No one had brought pajamas so they basically took off their shoes and jackets, and got under the blankets.
Brittany laid down on the left side and Santana on the right with Aaron in between. Santana was on her back with her eyes closed, allowing her brain to take a break from the grueling day. It was unbelievable the amount of crazy stuff that could happen in twelve hours.
"You okay?" Brittany asked quietly, her voice slightly muffled by all the hushed talks and giggles around the room.
Santana opened her eyes, turned her head to the side and felt the corners of her mouth lift up in a smile. Brittany was lying on her side, eyes closed, rubbing slow circles in Aaron's belly.
The brunette just shrugged, "Are you?"
"As far as possible, given the situation."
They stayed quiet for several minutes. The murmured conversations subsided as people were falling asleep. Santana wondered if the other adults were also sleeping, and if they were, how could they? She certainly couldn't. At least not really fall asleep, she was too alert for that. The noises from the street were almost inexistent now. It seemed calm even. The calmness did nothing to soothe her, that's for sure.
"Do you think we'll make it?" Santana heard Brittany's soft voice when she thought everyone had fallen asleep.
Santana turned to her side, facing Brittany. The blonde's fearfully eyes were gazing directly into hers. In a bold moment, Santana lifted her hand and placed it upon Brittany's, still in Aaron's tummy. She half expected the blonde to shrug her hand off, but Brittany didn't even twitch. She just stared deeply at Santana.
"I wish I could say yes, Britt, but I really don't know," Santana sighed. Her fingers seemed to have mind of its own since she couldn't help them from tracing feather light patterns on the back of Brittany's hand. "But I'll do everything I possibly can to keep you and everyone safe. I promise."
Santana watched as Brittany dropped her gaze to their hands, and when she looked back up, tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
Santana tried to control the urge to get closer and comfort the other woman. She was being successful until Brittany slammed her eyes closed and a tear made its way down her cheek. In that moment, she couldn't take it anymore. She reached up to cup Brittany's cheek and wiped the tear with the pad of her thumb.
"Please, Brittany, don't cry."
"I'm sorry," Brittany turned her face slightly into the pillow to muffle her sobs while Santana ran her fingers through her hair. "It's just… I'm just so scared. So scared of what might happen to my babies."
"Shhh… I understand. I fear the same thing, but there's not much we can do about it. The only thing we can do is to just be strong and stick together."
"Yeah, I know." Brittany looked back at Santana as her sobs subsided. "It's still scary, nevertheless."
Santana just nodded, still running her hand through blonde hair, occasionally grazing her cheek. Brittany's breathing eventually turned deeper and even, letting the brunette know that she'd fallen asleep. Santana didn't sleep. She remained the rest of her night on her side, looking at Brittany's features. At some point of the night, several parts of her body went numb from being in the same position for so long, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Brittany looked so peaceful sleeping, so untroubled, so beautiful that all Santana could do was continue to stare, memorizing every dip of her face, every soft wrinkle that now adorned her face.
It was still early in the morning when Aaron stated to stir, diverting Santana's attention from his mom. Santana got up as quietly as possible, snuggled a still sleepy Aaron in her arms, and went to check the temperature of the water in the thermos. It was still perfectly warm, so she retrieved everything she needed from the shelf and made a bottle for the baby.
Elle woke up to small clinking noises. She lifted her head from the pillow and saw her mother feeding Brittany's baby. It was like a punch to the stomach. The image before her seemed to physically pain her. There was her mother, holding Aaron in her arms with a look of absolute adoration in her face. Doing something her mother had never done for her. Elle honestly didn't know what was wrong with her. Why didn't her mother love her? Was she not pretty enough? Not smart or funny enough? Was she not special enough? Elle had always wondered where she'd gone wrong at such young age. What flaw made her mother practically loathe her.
She used to wonder if the problem wasn't herself, and her mother was like this to everyone. But now, seeing her mother's loving eyes looking at someone else's child, she couldn't help but feel that all those thoughts had been right. She was, in fact, the problem. And to make things even worse, more real, she could feel the doubtless happiness radiating from her mom at that moment.
Elle felt herself about to cry. All her mother felt towards her was uncertainty and nervousness. She turned to her side as quietly as she could and let her silent tears hit and wet the pillow.
She must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing she knew, she was being gently nudged out of her sleep. She opened her eyes and met Hailey's blue ones looking back at her.
"You okay?" The blonde asked almost inaudibly, noting the redness and small bags under Elle's eyes.
Elle just nodded slightly.
"You can count on me if you need to talk," Hailey smiled a small smile, not wanting to pressure the other girl.
"It's nothing, but thanks," Elle returned the smile, feeling that Hailey's concert was genuine.
"If you need me, I'm here. Now, let's get up. Everyone's already having breakfast."
Indeed, everyone was already up, either eating breakfast or taking their turn on the shower. Elle wondered how the hell she was able to sleep through all this noise. Now that she was awake, she was rapidly gaining a headache from all the screaming and screeching over breakfast.
The whole day had passed by rather slowly and uneventfully. The kids soon became restless and bored from being confined into the four small walls for so long, making them into little brats.
Santana on the other hand had spent part of her afternoon in the farthest corner from the door, with her back against the wall, fumbling around with the small radio they'd brought from the garage the night before. She went from frequency to frequency but wasn't successful. No one seemed to be on the other side. She didn't give up, though. She continued to change stations, hoping somewhere, someone would give them some king of input.
It wasn't until after the little kids fall asleep that Santana was able to find something.
"Finally," Santana mumbled under her breath.
Upon hearing the unknown voice of a man fill the room, everyone awake made their way to Santana's side.
"You did it," Quinn breathed out.
"Yeah, yeah, shhh."
"… situation is getting chaotic. The virus is qui … spreading, people are in utter panic, unable to fly or ride out of the country. The number of infected indiv … uals is multiplying like crazy. In just 24 hours every state east from the origin, Ohio, is … pletely infected. To west, last thing I've heard, Kansas was already about 80% infested. I don't know if anyone's listening out there or not, but I don't know how long it'll take to reach us all. It seems… the more people are aff … ted, the faster it spreads. It could be hours or it could be … inutes until the rest of the USA is completely taken by the undead … ish whoever's still aliv … re the best of luck. Until the next broadcast."
The male voice that'd been speaking was cut off and the radio went silent.
"Find another station," Quinn said, reaching forward to grab the radio.
"No!" Santana shouted, moving the radio out of Quinn's reach. "It took me the entire fucking – "
"Language!" Mercedes reprimanded.
"Fine, it took me the entire afternoon to get something. At least we know someone's broadcasting from this station. If we change it, we may not be able to find it again."
"Whatever."
"Kansas, can you believe it?" Brittany muttered.
"And New York, my home, my neighbors… god, my husband," Rachel broke down. Mercedes rubbed comforting circles on Rachel's back, but wasn't better herself. All of their husbands were worse than dead by now.
"What're… we g-going to… t-tell the children?" Rachel managed through sobs.
"I don't know if we should tell them," Brittany said. "It's going to be so hard on them. I saw how my kids got when their father died," she looked at Hailey, who nodded her head in agreement, her eyes glassy. "Their friends are gone; practically everyone they know is gone. Frankly, I don't know how to deliver news like this."
"They're just children, I think we should shelter them as long as we can," Tina said. "This whole thing could be severely traumatic. They shouldn't be forced to deal with this."
"I say we drop this for now. We'll just keep them away from outside. We have more important matters to deal with, like surviving for an undefined period of time," Santana said while carefully placing the radio aside.
"Are we going to get out of here soon?" Mallory asked, looking around the room.
"We planned to go upstairs tomorrow if it's safe."
"Good, I don't think I could take another day of screaming in a confined space."
"Don't be a drama queen," Quinn rolled her eyes, but let out a chuckle. "You screamed a lot when you were a kid and I still love you."
They talked for a while before heading to bed. It was late and everyone was tired from another day stuffed inside the same room.
After checking every inch of the house and verifying that nothing had passed the gates, they breathed in relief. The kids were more than happy to be out of those four halls, even if their moms made them promise to never go outside without an adult or warn them first. Luckily Quinn's house had lots of entertaining stuff to do.
Santana had been fidgety ever since they came out of the panic room. They idea of being practically out in the open without solid protection was unnerving her. She was used to have her guns with her at every time. Especially if she was in a dangerous situation. She had to get some weapons. And fast. She couldn't get them alone, that would be a suicide mission. She needed help, but that meant that others would be exposed to danger as well, and Santana couldn't fathom the idea of someone getting hurt at her expense.
"What's wrong? You've been off since we've came back upstairs," Brittany said to Santana after lunch, when the kids had wandered to the playroom and they were the only ones left in the kitchen.
"Hm? Nothing's wrong," she lied lamely.
Obviously Brittany saw right through her, "Santana… You don't need to lie to me. Something's clearly bothering you. Well, besides the whole zombie thing."
"It's nothing, really. I'll find a way," Santana shrugged.
"We're a team now. We need to start behaving like one," Brittany stated sternly. "Now, what's bothering you?"
The darker woman sighed, "I feel unprotected, we have nothing to defend ourselves with."
"Then we have to get weapons somewhere."
"It's not that simple, Brittany. We have to go outside, to encounter whatever is out there in order to get them."
"I know that. Sooner or later we have to leave the house. We'll need food soon, and that's a thing that we can only get by going out there."
"You're right, but I don't want anyone to get in danger," Santana admitted, lifting her eyes up to meet Brittany's.
"Is that what this is about?" Brittany asked incredulously, making sense of Santana's previous words: I'll find a way. "Santana, you cannot be serious. You're not going anywhere outside this house alone. That's pure insanity."
Santana was a little taken aback by Brittany's perceptive skills. She's never mentioned wanting to go alone. "You don't understand. I've seen so many friends be killed right in front of my eyes. I don't think I can take losing one of you."
"And don't you understand that we feel the same way about you?"
Santana didn't say anything back, just lowered her gaze down to her hands folded in her lap.
"No one's leaving this house alone. That's the law, starting today," Brittany said firmly but with a small smile ghosting her lips, placing her hand briefly on top on Santana's. "Now, get up and let's go. We need to work on these powers; some of them could be really useful out there."
Brittany was right so Santana sighed and got up from her seat. They made their way up the stairs towards the rooms they used to practice. When they neared the doors they could already hear people inside. All the teens were there, some paired up, others alone, but there they were increasing their skills.
It seemed that they'd taken this ability stuff pretty seriously. And now that Santana really looked at them in action, she had to admit that they'd grown so much these past days. Matt and Mallory were doing awesome patterns with fire and water, mixing the two elements each could control. Mallory was creating a spinning water cyclone, while Matt raised an overwhelming fire wall that warmed the whole room. Santana hoped nothing would catch fire, they certainly didn't need more stuff to add to their problem list. Hailey was appearing and disappearing here and there, carrying objects in her arms. Sometimes the bigger ones would fall on the floor the moment she teleported, making the blonde teen visibly frustrated. She didn't quit, though. She would walk decidedly to the fallen object, pick it up, and try again over and over. Johanna was exerting the same tactic as Hailey, only instead of teleporting, she was trying to make things turn invisible with her. Elle seemed to be meditating, sitting cross-legged in the most secluded corner of the room.
Santana didn't know how or when they'd turned so good. She hadn't seen them practice. Maybe they're more focused than her. Or it could be that they'd had more time to train since she'd only found out about her ability a couple of days before and didn't have the time to work on it. Either way, she better work her ass off if she wanted to reach these kids level.
Santana had sat down and tried the wall traveling thing again, but until that moment, nothing. She was sure her lack of success was due to her mind being thousands of miles away from the task at hand. The absence of means of defense was really bothering her and clouding her mind. That and Brittany, who was caressing some weird shaped plant – her work, for sure – making it grow and shrink whenever she pleased, throwing discreet glances – that definitely didn't go unnoticed – in Santana's direction every couple of minutes.
Not a minute later, Santana got up with a deep sigh and practically marched to find Quinn. She didn't have to go far. Quinn was practicing her shields in the other practice room, right in front of the one Santana had been.
"Quinn, a word?" she asked, not paying much attention to the other occupants of the room.
The blonde just nodded and headed Santana's way, who led them to the deserted hallway.
"What's up, S?"
Santana smiled slightly at the old nickname, but it quickly faded.
"I want to go outside," the dark haired woman said straightforwardly. "We need guns. I don't feel safe, like, at all. So, I don't care if anyone is willing to come or not. I'm only saying this 'cause Brittany made a new rule that no one leaves the house alone and I feel obligated to share, but I'm going. I don't want any of you hurt."
"Are you crazy?" Quinn hissed. "You're not going alone, that'd be a death sentence. I'll go with you, of course I will. And I think we should tell the others and give them at least a chance to choose if they want to come with us, too."
Before Santana could say a word, Brittany came through the door, "I want in."
"Were you listening behind the door?" Santana asked, more aggressively than she'd intended to.
"No," Brittany said pointedly, "but I know what you're about to do. It was plastered on your face, Santana, and I'll not be excluded from this. Like I said before, we're a team and we have to behave like one."
"Jeez, we're about to tell the others, no need to get all worked up."
"I'm sorry, but I know how you work, Santana. You like to do things by yourself, but this time, I'm not gonna let you."
Santana just rolled her eyes and huffed, "Fine, let's go."
No one had been especially happy with the possibility of going outside but all agreed that they needed protection, and if possible, some food.
After a quick conference between the adults – there was no way in hell one of their children would tag along – Santana had thrown the baseball bat to the backseat of Quinn's black jeep, before helping Brittany and Quinn rummage through the garage in order to find other possible weapons.
A few minutes later, a crowbar and a medium sized axe were joining the bat in the backseat.
It was almost four in the afternoon when the three of them drove towards the gates. Santana was driving with shaky hands, Quinn in the passenger seat, swallowing the lump on her throat, and Brittany on the backseat, pulling her hair in a tight bun before grabbing the handle of the axe, silently getting ready for confrontation. Not a single word left their lips.
Santana's clammy hands were clamped around the wheel, her knuckles white from the force of her grip. She was scared. Scratch that, she was fucking terrified. The gates were opening and her already shaky hands seemed to shake even more. They were going outside practically blindfolded. Santana was becoming surer and surer at every second that passed that this was all a mistake. A horde of zombies could jump them as soon as the gates opened. Even worse, they could enter the gates before they closed and go for the house, in their children direction. Santana was regretting her decision and she could tell she was not the only one.
For the corner of her eye, Santana could see Quinn fidgeting lightly in her seat and the tight grasp she had in the door handle. Brittany seemed to be strangely calm, only the clench of her jaw gave her away.
When the gates were apart enough for the jeep to pass, they let out a subtle but collective sigh of relief. Nothing was coming their way. In fact, not a single thing seemed to be moving, just the gentle sway of the plants incited by the light summer breeze. That calmness though, did nothing to sooth Santana's nerves. Don't get her wrong, she definitely did not want to have to deal with the repulsive creatures that she knew were out there, somewhere. It was that very fact that made her incredibly uneasy. Santana didn't know where they were. The zombies were lurking somewhere, waiting for the trio to make its unaware way to them. And if there's one thing that Santana hates, is feeling lost and powerless.
Even with that thought in mind, she figured they didn't have any other option – unless die of hunger or an attack – so Santana put the first gear and pressed the accelerator pedal lightly, pulling off Quinn's driveway as silently as she possibly could.
