Warning for chapter 14: Violence
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee
This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English
Chapter 14
Santana and Rachel were running for their lives. They could hear the zombies running after them and neither of them knew what they could do to escape them. The group had been too big to try to kill and that was the reason they were running away in the first place. The problem was that they had nowhere to hide, because everywhere they looked there were only trees. They could probably try to climb up in one of the trees to get away from them, but Santana was afraid that they wouldn't make it up in time before one of the zombies got a hold of either her or Rachel. So they just kept running.
However even that quickly became increasingly dangerous for them to do, because it was getting darker by the second. Still they had no other choice than to run as fast as they could, they just had to hope that they wouldn't run straight into a tree. Something a few of the zombies already had done, judging by some of the noises coming from behind the two fleeing girls.
The worst part was that some of the zombies didn't seem to have any problems following after them. They were even as fast as the two girls in front of them, which meant that Santana and Rachel didn't have a big lead. Santana was really concerned about the fact that those monsters chasing them probably weren't getting tired, like her and Rachel would be if this continued for much longer.
So when Rachel shouted "Is that a light?" All Santana could think about was to get to the source of that light, as fast as possible, in hopes that they could find a place to hide. The strange thing was that the light was moving too and when they came nearer, they heard a deep voice calling out "This way!" Santana wasn't overly trilled about the fact that it was a man, but right now she preferred to follow him rather than being eaten alive. She just hoped that he wasn't like one of those assholes they had encountered earlier.
It wasn't an easy task following after the little light in front of them, because of the many trees and the dwindling daylight. When the stranger suddenly took a sharp turn to the right, Santana feared that the guy in front of them was planning a trap for the two of them. That thought did however quickly disappeared when they a moment later reached a little cottage, where someone quickly opened the door the second the guy in front of them shouted out for them to do it. The three of them barged into the cottage and sank down to the floor, breathing heavily. Only a few seconds later they could hear the zombies outside banging and scraping at the door, trying to get in to kill them all. Though it appeared like they had no chance getting in, because the door looked to be made of hardwood and all the windows had been boarded shut, to prevent them from breaking in.
When Santana finally got her breathing under control, she quickly looked around the little cottage and saw three other people, besides the guy that had saved them, staring right back at her. Santana guessed that they probably were a family, since the people in the cottage consisted of one woman and two kids. Santana quickly looked away when she saw how frightened the two children looked, because of the constant attacks from the zombies outside. She decided instead to concentrate on Rachel, who was shivering in fear. So she carefully hugged her to calm her down and after a while Rachel relaxed into the hug and started breathing easier.
Three hour later it finally seemed like the zombies had given up and stopped their assault on the cottage. The guy that had saved them, looked at Rachel and Santana and quietly whispered.
"You can stay for the night, but tomorrow you have to go. We can't keep you here and we have no food for you." They both nodded their agreement. At least they would be safe for the night.
The little family went to sleep in the bed they were all sharing, but the guy, which Santana guessed was the father, stayed up. He obviously wanted to keep an eye on the two girls, who were sitting huddled together in one of the corners of the cottage. Santana tried to stay awake too. She didn't know if she could trust him and it looked like he didn't trust them either. So she whispered to Rachel that she should try to get some sleep and it didn't take long before she drifted off. Santana was fighting a losing battle herself and eventually she dosed off too.
Early the next day Santana was woken up, by someone kicking her in her left boot. She quickly grabbed a hold of her gun, that was laying beside her on the floor, but quickly lowered it again when it was only the guy from yesterday who was trying to wake her up. It looked like he was the only one awake, because his family were still sleeping. When he had gotten Santana's attention. He whispered to her while he pointed at Rachel, who was still asleep in Santana's arms.
"Wake her up and come with me. The zombies are gone for now, so we have to move before they come back. I'll follow you for a while, but after that you'll have to continue on your own." Santana nodded and carefully waked Rachel up.
Rachel didn't look particularly happy about having to go outside again, but she didn't protest and quickly followed after Santana out the door. Santana was relived that the guy had been telling the truth, because there really wasn't any zombies outside. They quickly followed after the man in front of them and they ended up following after him for two hours, before he finally stopped and looked at them.
"This is where I have to leave you. I need to get back to my family. I'm sorry that I couldn't let you two stay, but I have to put my family first and I hope you understand that." Both Santana and Rachel understood, so he continued talking. "If you keep walking in that direction." He pointed somewhere to their right side. "You'll come to a little community with several houses that I know are empty, but I do have to warn you that it isn't safe. There are a lot of those things roaming around here. So it's up to you if you want to go there. If you decide not to try your luck, there are many hunting cabins inside this forest, but they won't be so easy to find." He tilted his head up at the sun, before he looked back at the two girls. "Well, it's time for me to head back. Good luck!" He was about to turn around to leave, but Rachel quickly stopped him when she spoke up.
"Thank you for saving us!" He looked at Rachel, before he gave her a half-smile.
"It was the least I could do." Then he turned back around and left them standing there all alone.
"Good to know that it's not only douchebags that has survived." Santana looked at where the guy had quickly vanished behind some trees. She smiled, before she turned to Rachel.
"So what do you think we should do? Do you want to go find one of those cabins or do we try to get past those zombies to find a house to stay in?" Rachel looked deep in thought.
"Well he told us that those hunting cabins would be hard to find and if we're so lucky as to find one, there might not be any food there, which we desperately need more of. Also If we try to find one of those cabins, we could end up not finding any of them and then we have to sleep outside again." She looked at Santana with pleading eyes. "I really don't want to try to sleep in a tree ever again." Santana looked back at her a little bit guilty.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I really thought you were a zombie." Rachel waved her off.
"Forget it. You saved me in the end, so we're good. I don't blame you. I should probably have tried to wake you up more carefully, since we were up in a tree in the first place. So let's instead just concentrate on what we should do right now. As I said I'm not fond of the idea of us going on a wild-goose chase to find one of those cabins, so I vote for trying to locate those houses he was talking about instead. What do you want to do?" Santana bit her lip and then sighed.
"I agree. This forest is starting to freak me out and I don't want to sleep outside one more night, at least if we can avoid it. So I think we should try to find a house to sleep in, but we do need to be really careful. If we find that it's impossible to get to them, we should try to find one of those cabins instead." Rachel quickly agreed with her.
The two of them started walking in the direction the guy had pointed out. After a while the forest started to thin out and not long after they were standing at the edge of the forest, looking at a little group of houses in the distance. They didn't see any zombies or people anywhere. Even when Santana brought out her binoculars, to scope out their surroundings, did she see anything dangerously looking.
"So do we take the chance and run?" Santana's voice sounded hesitating and Rachel wasn't so sure herself.
"Yes, I think so?" Santana nodded, even though she didn't have a good feeling about what they were about to do.
"Okay. Here's the plan. We try to get to one of those houses surrounded by a fence. There will be a lot less chances for them to catch us, if there's a fence between us and them." She looked sternly at Rachel. "If we should get unlucky and those monsters block our way before we get somewhere safe, we have to turn back and try to lose them in the forest." Rachel didn't like the sound of that and it showed. Santana sighed. "I don't want to go back there either, but if there's too many of them for us to kill or if we can't get around them, then we have no other choice than to run back. You do understand that, right?" Rachel nodded reluctantly, but Santana wasn't satisfied with her answer. "Rachel! I need to know that you will listen to me and turn around if I tell you to!" Rachel looked back at her, clearly irritated.
"Yes of course I'll turn around Santana! If you tell me to do something, I promise to do it. Happy?" Santana rolled her eyes.
"Extremely. Now let's go and keep your eyes open. We'll start slow, but if we see any zombies then we start to run, but only if we can make it to one of those houses in time. If not we turn around, especially if there's too many of them."
They carefully started approaching the group of houses in the distance, but it didn't take long before they could see one scrawny looking zombie coming out from behind one of the houses. Santana immediately whispered to Rachel that if it was just that one she could kill it when it came closer, but when the zombie saw the two of them it opened its mouth and a high snarl came out. Suddenly a whole bunch of zombies came running out from behind the rest of the houses, as if the first one had told them that dinner was served. Santana and Rachel quickly realized that there were way too many of them for Santana to kill on her own, even if Rachel helped her, they had no chance of making it to any of the houses in front of them. Santana didn't need to tell Rachel to turn around and run.
It didn't take the two girls long to reached the beginning of the forest again, but they could hear in the distance that the zombies had taken up the hunt and were running after them. So Santana ran as fast as she could into the ticker part of woods, hoping that it would slow down the zombies. What she didn't count on was for Rachel to trip in on of the tree roots and fall down to the ground.
Rachel had already been far behind Santana, because of the difficult terrain they had to run through. So Santana didn't hear her fall, but she hear her scream for help. She quickly turned around and saw one of the faster zombies approaching Rachel, who was still laying on the ground. Santana knew that she would be risking her own life if she ran back, but she didn't care. So she ran back as fast as she could and shot the zombie, as it was about to bend down to bite Rachel, before she quickly yanked Rachel up from the ground. Santana decided to hold on to Rachel's hand and used it to drag Rachel after her, while she tried to shot some of the closest zombies.
Since Santana had to shoot any approaching zombies, while they kept running and at the same time watch out for Rachel. She didn't notice that they were rapidly approaching the top of a ravine. Rachel did however see it. She desperately tried to warn Santana, but it was too late. When Santana finally tried to stop, because of the danger ahead, it didn't help. Her attempt only ended up with Rachel slammed into her, when she tried to stop at the edge of the ravine. The impact with Rachel pushed Santana over the edge and down into the ravine and as a result of Santana's fall, she ended up dragging Rachel with her because of their joint hands. Suddenly they were both tumbling down the steep ravine.
It didn't take long before they found themselves at the bottom of the ravine. Santana felt her whole body ache because of the fall, but luckily they were both still alive since the ravine wasn't too deep. Santana quickly looked up and saw a handful of zombies looking down at her. To Santana's relief not one of them tried to jump down after them, but it was clear to her that they were still looking around for a way to come down there. So even if they weren't stupid enough to run over the edge, they were still trying to find another way down and that scared her. So Santana quickly decided to get as fast as possible away from the ravine, to prevent the two of them from being trapped inside it, if those zombies were lucky enough to find a way down. She turned to Rachel, who was still sitting on the ground.
"We need to get out of here, before those bastards find a way down and trap us inside this ravine. Because if they do, we have no chance of surviving." Rachel didn't respond, she was furiously rubbing one of her ankles instead.
Santana didn't feel that they had any more time to waste, so she quickly yanked Rachel up to her feet, but that only resulted in Rachel screaming out in pain and falling down to the ground crying in agony. She was desperately clutching her ankle and sobbed out.
"I-I think I hurt m-my ankle when I landed." Santana immediately felt her heartbeat speed up.
She quickly crouched down and inspected Rachel's, now clearly swollen, ankle. It didn't take long before Santana had determined that Rachel had a severely sprained ankle. Santana was relived that it wasn't broken, but she still knew from her own experience, as a former cheerleader, that Rachel had sprained her ankle so badly that she couldn't walk or run on it any time soon. This was really bad news for the both of them.
Rachel knew that too, because she had years of ballet classes behind her. She had herself seen that this type of injury had benched some of the other dancers for a long time, some even as long as three months, so she immediately knew that they were in big trouble. Because there were no way she could walk and if they just stayed there, the zombies would eventually find a way down. Then they would be trapped inside this ravine and that would surely mean that they would be doomed, they would both die. So she looked up at Santana with tears in her eyes.
"Go! Run! You can still get away. We both know that I can't walk any more and if you stay, we're both dead and if you die it would be my fault. So please go. Save yourself, before it's too late. Please! Just leave me here and go!" Rachel had refused to look up at Santana, while she desperately begged for her to leave her there and save herself. She had finally let her tears fall and if she had dared to look up at the other girl, she would have seen that Santana was crying too.
Eventually Rachel heard that Santana started moving away from her side, but she still didn't look up at her. She couldn't bear to see Santana leave her behind all alone, because the sight would for sure break her heart. What Rachel didn't expect was to suddenly be lifted up from the ground. She squeaked in surprise.
"Santana what are you doing? Put me down!" Santana didn't listen and started walking down the ravine with the injured girl in her arms. Rachel tried to squirm out of Santana's grip, so the other girl puffed out in irritation.
"No way am I leaving you behind Berry, so stop moving and shut up! I need to concentrate, so I don't drop you down on your ass."
Santana was suddenly thankful for all those years of grueling training, that her old cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester had put her through. Because it felt like that had been a great preparation for the situation she suddenly found herself in right now. She was also grateful for the fact that Rachel didn't seem to weigh that much, even with her backpack on. Santana almost felt like teasing Rachel about the fact that her being tiny finally came in handy, but at the moment she had more than enough with trying not to trip or drop Rachel. She knew that she couldn't do this for too long, but she still wasn't giving up so easily. What really helped Santana get the needed motivation to make it out of that ravine, was the fact that she was still angry at Rachel for even thinking that she would just leave her behind to die, without even trying to save her. That in itself certainly helped her when she felt like giving up, because she really wanted to prove Rachel wrong about the fact that she obviously thought that Santana would just leave her behind to die.
They both breathed a sigh of relief, when they finally reached the end of the ravine. Santana quickly put Rachel down and stretched her sore muscles. It seemed that they had come to the beginning of a little lake and they both smiled, when they saw a tiny boathouse on the other side of it. If they could just get over there, then maybe they could spend the night inside it.
Santana just hoped she had the strength to carry Rachel around the lake and that she could do that without any zombies popping up to try to eat them. She still didn't know if those things would manage to find a way down from the top of the ravine, but she wasn't going to wait here to find out if they did. So she quickly grabbed Rachel again and lifted her up and kept walking forward, as fast as she could. To Santana's dismay she still had to take a couple of breaks to catch her breath, but they finally made it to the boathouse without any zombies trying to kill them.
Santana carefully tried to opened the boathouse door, with her gun ready in case of any danger, since the door wasn't locked, but the only thing inside was a little white rowboat and some fishing equipment. So she quickly got Rachel inside and closed the door behind them and locked it from the inside with a cabin hook. The hook didn't look too sturdy, so she decided to try to block the door with the row-boat, just to make sure that no one could get in. When she finally was satisfied with her work, she dropped down beside Rachel. It had been a long day and she was totally exhausted.
The second Santana sat down, Rachel flung her arms around Santana's neck and hugged her so tight that Santana had problem breathing. Rachel just kept clinging to her for dear life, while she cried in misery. She kept sobbing out "Thank you for not leaving me." over and over again, till she finally cried herself to sleep in Santana's arms.
It took Santana a lot longer to fall asleep, even if she was utterly exhausted. Because she kept looking at Rachel and contemplating what she had to do. Everything had become so much more complicated now, since Rachel couldn't walk on her own anymore. Sure they were safe for tonight, but they barely had any food left. So they couldn't stay there any longer, they had to move, but that wasn't possible when Rachel was hurt. When Santana finally came to a decision, she quickly fell into a restless sleep, dreading how Rachel would react to what she had to tell her when she woke up tomorrow.