Apologies in advance for any errors.
Time has passed the New Directions by like never before: Too quickly. They've established rhythm and routine with their day to day lives. Everyone has a job and everyone has no problem completing it.
That's how Quinn finds herself actually able to relax next to Sam on this warm day. Sam and Quinn have taken to watching Brittany and Santana return from their 'Perimeter checks'. Though really everyone knows they simply poke at the fences then find a secluded place to consummate their marriage over and over and over again.
"Dammit." Sam mutters from the lawn chair next to Quinn. Sam bet Quinn that the girls would return in 15 minutes. It took them a whole 45 to surface from wherever they had been hidden.
Things had been quite slow at the 'New Directions Penitentiary' as Puck liked to call it. Well, as slow at it can be during a Zombie Apocalypse.
They had taken the prison without any loss of life on their side. That had been thanks to Rachel and Santana really, Quinn hadn't been quite the same since she hacked off Sam's leg. She hadn't been the same since Brody, if she was being completely honest. Now that she had time to abstain from violence she was doing just that.
Rachel on the other hand, was quite up for the fight. Finally being able to move her body without any pain got her up and moving around. As soon as the prison was fortified and secure, Rachel and Puck were off on supply runs, searching for any and all supplies for the baby on the way. Santana and Kurt often joined them, while the rest opted to stay behind to really make a home out of the prison.
Quinn wasn't too keen on the idea of letting Rachel go out on these runs, but she knew she couldn't stop her girlfriend from doing anything. And she trusted Puck, Kurt and Santana to keep Rachel out of harms way.
"Look who's back." Sam points out to the gate, squinting in the sun light. Quinn's eyes locate the figure almost immediately.
Puck and Rachel are back. Quinn's smiles grows exponentially.
"Don't think I've forgotten. You owe me your pudding cup." Quinn tells Sam before launching out of the lawn chair to meet Rachel and Puck just inside the prison walls where they have the rest of their vehicles parked.
"C'mon Samuel It's time for your afternoon walk." Quinn hears Santana call out to the boy.
"Sam's like our puppy!" Brittany squeals excitedly.
"He's definitely my Bit-" Santana is unable to finish her sentence, for she has been whacked in the shin with Sam's crutch.
"You're lucky I don't hit cripples" Santana mutters, a scowl on her face. Quinn laughs at her friends antics. That's one thing she never thought she was going to be able to do freely in a while; laugh. She catches herself doing it a lot lately.
Marley has just closed the gates behind the Prius Puck and Rachel were able to snag on their last run. Daryl stakes a few Walkers through their skulls, his arrows poking through the gates to keep them from pushing down on their barrier.
Rachel is just stepping out of the passengers seat when Quinn launches herself into the brunettes arms. She had been gone for half a day, and that was enough for Quinn to long for the girls embrace.
"Hey there." Rachel's laughs, pulling away from the embrace only slightly to leave a short kiss on Quinn's lips.
"Everything run smoothly while I was away?" Rachel asks her arms wrapping around Quinn's waist.
"It's better now that you're here." Quinn tells Rachel before placing another kiss to her lips.
"Aw gross, get a room you two." Puck teases as he opens the trunk to the Toyota.
"Puckerman, just because I don't carry a gun anymore, it doesn't mean I can't still kick your ass." Quinn reminds him with a raise of her brow.
"I believe it." Puck doesn't argue. He simply pulls out a large box, a triumphant grin plastered on his face.
"Score anything good?" Quinn questions, tugging Rachel towards the trunk of the car to get a look at their haul.
She takes a look at their haul of the day. There lies only one thing; a crib. Quinn squeezes Rachel's hand and smiles at Noah. What was once looked as a burden is now a welcome light to this dark world. Sure, they still have their worries, but now they have a safe place and a doctor.
"You think Finn will put down that Radio of his to help me out with this?" Puck asks.
"I think he'd be happy to." Quinn pats her friend on the back.
"Have you seen Maggie?" Puck asks, looking around the open field. He looks over to their growing section of crop is. Maggie, Quinn, and Sam have taken to farming lately.
There he spots her, kneeled over in the dirt. Maggie points out constantly that just because she has that growing baby bump, doesn't mean she can't still get her hands dirty.
"I'm going to go show her." Puck tells them, lugging the large box in his arms. "See you ladies later."
The girls watch the grown man waddle over to his 'baby mama' as he has so affectionately dubbed Maggie.
"Anything out of the ordinary out there?" Quinn asks Rachel as they make their way back to the prison.
"I mean, there's a bunch of the undead walking out there. Pretty weird." Rachel jokes, then takes on a serious note. "There's more of them out there."
"Do you think the gates can handle a herd?" Quinn asks her girlfriend, taking a look at it as they walk. Their are definitely some spots that could be stronger, but they have made some major improvements.
For instance, the South entrance has large, pointed stakes pointing towards the tree line. Walkers have impaled themselves on them. There are 3 currently caught on them.
The whole east area has been booby trapped for the dead, anyone living could easily maneuver around it.
"I think we need to reinforce some of the walls and…." Rachel hesitates to bring up the next part of her plan.
"And?" Quinn prods her to continue.
"And we need to send four teams in each direction. We need to set up sound traps to lure them away. It needs to be far enough out so it doesn't bring any unwanted visitors and also we don't want to lure anymore Walkers to the area.
Unwanted visitors. They haven't had any yet, but the New Directions Penitentiary has grown exponentially. They've cleared out the entirety of the prison so lack of space isn't an issue. D Block is obviously full, and C block is almost at capacity as well.
28 new members. All of them look to Rachel and Quinn for guidance. Or any of the New Direction members really. Even Daryl falls into that category, much to his annoyance.
"How far out?" Quinn asks, positive she will not like the answer.
"At least two days out." Rachel tells her, grimacing slightly. Quinn is already shaking her head.
"2 days also means 2 nights and we agreed no one would go outside the fence at night."
"Quinn we have no choice."
"We always have a choice Rachel. The answer is No." Quinn lets her hand slip from Rachel's. She doesn't want to start a fight right now. She better see what Finn is up to.
The stench of the dead is pungent, there is no escaping it. It comes from every direction. At this point, death is imminent.
They've been running for two hours now. No escape. Their ragged breaths are enough noise to lead the walkers in their direction.
"There's no way out!" Aiden hollers at Sue Sylvester as they round yet another corner of the city.
"I had cheerleaders with better stamina!" Sue spits back at the paramedic.
They enter an alleyway hoping to maybe catch their breath, but instead find themselves blocked by a gate, one they have absolutely no time to climb.
"Sue, get up there!" Aiden hollers at the woman breathlessly. A group of about 12 walkers has them cornered in the alley, they have absolutely no time.
Aiden does the only thing he can think of, he stuff his hand into the back of Sue's pack and produces the vial of Quinn's blood.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sue asks the man, horrified. Before she can stop him, Aiden throws the vial against the cement wall, just a few feet away of them. The glass shatters, splattering a small amount of blood on the wall. The smell of the blood is enough to get take the walkers' focus away from them.
"GO GO GO!" Aiden orders, shoving Sue roughly towards the fence. They scale it just in the nick of time.
They reach a metal door in the adjacent alleyway and hope with all their might that it opens because another hoard is heading their way. Sue tries with all her might to jimmy it open, but it's absolutely no use.
Aiden and Sue turn to look at one another just as the Walkers are about to reach them. In fact one of them has it's arm outstretched towards Sue when a gun shot rings out. It has blown off the head of the walker.
The duo turn around to face their savior. The metal door that they had just tried to break into is open and standing their is a face they recognize.
"Sue?" The girl states all too calmly, even as the hoard makes it their way. Another figure approaches the one with the gun, this one, wielding a Katana.
"Well if it's in't Kitty Kat." Sue grins, stepping inside the building, pulling Aiden in as well. "Looks like you found yourself the ideal apocalypse partner."
Sue grins at the older woman as she stores her weapon.
"Sue Sylvester, I am not the least bit surprised you're still kicking." She laughs. A sound that brightly contrasts the guttural moans and the pounding on the door.
"You two know each other?" Aidan asks, wincing at the sounds of the undead. He scoots away from the door uncomfortably, though it seems none of the women are afraid.
"Holly Holliday and I go way back." Sue chuckles. For the first time in quite some time, Sue feels like she has a competent ally. Maybe they can make it through this after all.
Finn has always been good with his hands. Good with machinery to be more exact. He was no whiz like Artie was, but he was competent enough to put his Radio back together once (after he had kicked his chair at it).
Burt had also taught him a thing or two about cars, so whenever something broke down, they now took it to him. He actually had a garage set up. He, Blaine, and Brittany were the best at fixing stuff up.
But it was Finn who you would call the head of the department. He spent most of his time whole up in that garage. Calling it a garage was slightly exaggerating. It probably was once used for deliveries. Where they would drop off food or something for Inmates. Finn still isn't quite familiar with the prison system, but it was the only place that had a door big enough to fix a vehicle.
He had pulled a cot into the garage because he spent more time in their than he did in his cell. The cells felt too small for him, so he found it rather comforting to know he had a bigger space all to himself.
There was even a desk, which is where he found himself now, tinkering with the Radio. Or at least pretending to 'fix' it.
He, Brittany, and Blaine had fixed it the first month settled in the New Directions Penitentiary. No one knew this of course. They couldn't know.
A transmission had been coming in for months now. One that was too good to be true. So the three vowed to keep it a secret. Kurt wasn't to know. Neither was Santana. It took all Blaine had in him not to let Quinn know, but he wanted to carry some of the weight his partner was always carrying around, so they never spoke a word of it.
"Alright baby, I'll leave you with these idiots. Teach them a thing or two." Santana places on last kiss to Brittany's lips before leaving the garage with a parting flipping of the bird to Finn and Blaine. Both men ignore her, it is one of her kinder days after all.
"I thought she'd never leave." Finn sighs, exasperated.
"Hey!" Brittany protests with a scowl.
"Sorry, but with the camry in here the last few days everyone has been hovering." Finn explains as he connects two wires towards the back of the radio.
"He's right, it's been days since we've been able to work on this." Blaine agrees, pulling out a map that has all three of their scrawl written on it.
They found the map along with the radio hidden in the back of a storage room. It's definitely a decade or two outdated, but for now, it seems to be working fine.
Brittany flips the switch to the radio, sparking it to life. Loud, crackling static is the first thing they hear. Actually it's what they always seem to hear, but through some of the static they are able to make out the words.
"Broadcast….Safe….Survivors…." The words fade in and out, rolling in like waves.
"This could literally be anywhere." Brittany sighs, annoyed. She looks over the spread out in front of them.
"No, I think we can narrow it down to being in Ohio." Finn furrows his brow at the map.
"Not necessarily. If they have control over some kind of radio tower, it can be broadcasting from…" Blaine casts a look over at Brittany and smiles. "Literally anywhere."
"It's an argument they have been having since they first heard the broadcast."
"For all we know, they have it on a loop and no one is even on the other end." Brittany grumbles, blowing her hair out of her face. This is another argument they have been having for a while.
Blaine takes the outdated microphone and clicks down on the button.
"Is anybody out there?" He asks out into the static. Blaine release the button. The trio wait in silence, but all they hear is the static.
"I repeat, is anybody out there?" Blaine asks again.
Once again, all they hear is static.
"What in the hell is goin on here?" A deep, burly voice asks, startling the trio.
Their stands Daryl, crossbow in his arm. Everyone is about to sigh in relief at who has caught them, because Daryl could possibly be persuaded to keep his mouth shut. For the right reasons. And they definitely have the right reason.
"What he said." Quinn steps out of the shadows and into the garage. If the look on her face is any indication they are in for it.
"Shit." Brittany, Finn, and Blaine curse simultaneously.
AN: So, I am going to use the age old excuse of life getting in the way. I feel like they is 'my dog ate my homework' type of excuse, but it's the truth. I promise. I have a lot of set backs and also, lack of inspiration. Now, I won't promise regular updates, but I will promise that this fic will find it's end in a proper way.
Also, I would like to thank SalGersGirl for the constant support. Give her some love for this update, because she is the one who got me of my ass and back to writing.
I apologize for the length. I know it isn't very long, but I thought I would give you guys something.
To all of you who keep reading: I hope you like it.
To those of you who have left kind, encouraging words, thank you.
And to SalGersGirl: This one's for you.
What did you think?-A