A/N: Sorry my lovelies, I've had band and work lately, I'm working on it. Plus I suck at planning myself, so it's hard to write my characters doing it(:
Also, sidenote, I'm not sure if they still hung people in this era, but whatever, the town the Warblers are in obviously still does. Maybe they're behind the times, I don't know.
It was early the next morning when Finn and the other sheriff stalked to the cell holding the Warblers with keys and ropes, preparing to escort them to their death. The ten men were sitting in two lines of five back to back, facing the walls on the left and right.
"Hey!" Finn called. Ten heads snapped to face them at the same time, ten pairs of eyes glaring darkly at him. Finn had seen plenty of prisoners in his time, and he'd seen quite a few hangings, but he'd never seen them like this. He'd seen prisoners walk quietly and submissively to their deaths. He'd seen them walk tall, keeping their heads high until their last breath. He'd seen them struggle and thrash in the ropes, taking all of his strength to hold. But the Warblers looked...menacing. Their eyes burned, and as they stood all at once, they just looked strong, like nothing could sway them. Finn could honestly say he was a little worried. After all, they were the most famous group of ruffians in the States.
He took them by the wrists one by one-his back to a wall so none of them could catch him unaware-and tied them tightly enough that he couldn't fit his fingers beneath the ropes, let alone a knife (or some other rope-cutting device). He then roped them all together and began to lead them to the noose outside, where all the town had gathered to watch the hanging that would go down in history as the death of the leaders of the Warblers, the thieves who had terrorized hundreds for years. No more. Today was the day it would all end. The Warblers were nothing without their fearless leader.
Kurt could see the town square from his window. A wooden palette was set up in the middle, a pole holding ten nooses. Next to them stood the hangman, his hands clasped calmly in front of him. It was a big day for him. He would be the one to pull the lever that killed the Warblers.
The one that killed Blaine.
Directly below his window Kurt saw the crowd that had gathered outside the jail. The entire town had to be present. His parents were even going. Kurt had told them he wasn't going because it brought back unpleasant memories of being captured. In reality, he didn't dare go in case Blaine's plan didn't work.
No.
It was going to work. It had to. Maybe they were already gone.
Despite telling himself over and over that Blaine could handle this, his stomach still somersaulted when he saw the crowd part to let the line of ten men through, roped to each other. Kurt spotted Blaine's curly head at the back of the line. But...something was odd. The Warblers didn't look like prisoners being led to their death. They didn't have that look of hopeless resignation that most prisoners had. They looked...determined.
It wasn't over.
Kurt told himself to get away from the window, to stop torturing himself by watching. But something kept him there.
Blaine stood taller, sneaking glances at the crowd surrounding them. He knew there was no way Kurt would show up to what could very likely be his death if this didn't work, but he looked anyway. Then, something caught his eye; a figure standing in a window. A brown haired boy with eyes so blue Blaine could see them from the street.
Kurt. He felt his eyes widen a little and he turned his head quickly to the front, remembering the plan. Intimidate. When they were led up the stairs to stand in front of their individual nooses, he started the chorus of a song they all knew in his head.
So raise your glass if you are wrong
In all the right ways
All my underdogs
We will never be, never be
Anything but loud
And nitty-gritty
Dirty little freaks
They waited as their sentence was read. Blaine began to sing under his breath.
Won't you come on and come on and
Raise your glass
Slowly, the Warblers began to lift their tied hands in unison.
Raise your glass
Someone in the crowd noticed, then, pointing wildly and crying "Hey, what're they doing?"
The hangman stopped and looked at them. That same moment, Blaine yelled "GO!" And in one fluid motion the Warblers leaped into the air, grabbing their nooses and swinging feet first into the crowd. Finn and the hangman desperately tried to catch them, but every man in the town carried a gun on his person, and in just a few seconds every Warbler was armed. Every person in the crowd froze, many moving in front of their loved ones.
"Don't move," Wes snarled. "And don't try to follow us. We'll find you. I swear to God we will. I don't care who I kill, and I don't care if anyone dies today as long as it's not one of us." Slowly, the Warblers began to back away, their guns still pointed at the crowd.
They slipped between two of the buildings and they were gone.
But just before they disappeared, Blaine turned back to the brown-haired boy still watching from the window and raised his hand.
"Where do we go now?" Thad gasped as each Warbler worked frantically to untie himself from the other. "How do we get out of here? There's just desert on all sides!"
"We need horses, Wes," Curt hissed. "We can't escape on foot."
"Relax. All we need is a place to light a fire."
"A fire? Are you serious? There's no way we can get away with that, Wes."
"We'll wait until we're deep in the desert and send up smoke signals. If I've taught the Warblers anything about getting captured, they followed us at least far enough to know our general location."
"What if they didn't, Wes?"
"Then we starve and die," Wes growled. "Just shut up and trust me."
Blaine wasn't listening. He was thinking about Kurt. They would wait for the cover of nightfall to leave. Would there be time to say goodbye?
"Shhh! Listen!"
"Everyone, get in your houses! I assure you we will have them captured before sundown. Until they are caught, I need every able-bodied man with a gun to aid our search. Everyone else, stay inside until I give the all clear. No exceptions."
"It's the sheriff!" David whispered.
Wes snickered. "He doesn't know that by clearing the streets he made it much easier for us to escape. We may not even need to alert the other Warblers if we can get some horses."
Blaine felt his stomach twist guiltily. He wasn't sure why, he'd never felt this way about stealing before. He'd always been able to do it without a thought.
"Look, over there!" Wes pointed a hundred yards away to a cellar behind a nearby house. "We can hide there until nightfall."
Wes leaned around the corner of the building they were hiding behind.
"Coast is clear. Go!" They flew across the alleyway one by one, dragging their ropes behind them to erase their tracks in the dust. Wes and Blaine lifted the lid of the boxlike structure while the others slid into the darkness. They followed after them, leaning against the shelves of canned goods and cooking supplies. Wes sighed, the only sound in the heavy silence.
"Now, we wait."
So, I meant for this to be the last chapter, but obviously that didn't happen. I have a problem with ending stories. Welp, hope you liked it anyway. You guys are awesome, mwah. 3
