Another short chapter; but its up earlier than normal so... well you can thank TrustInFaith she came up with an idea that's coming up, that's a catalyst for something else so I'm feeling a little more inspired, and HOPE to have more chapters up soon.
Thanks to those of you who reviewed the last chapter: a-real-boy, SoFlaComet, cressey, aquarius127, LittleWriter11, xtreme, General Mac, TrustInFaith, Rediclufied, Blue-Portrait, amazinglife81, Wolflikeme, twistarwanabe, RandomOtakuFromTumblr, anon and thatdamnyank
I really appreciate all your questions and suggestions. I would answer the questions but I don't want to give anything away ;) and as for the suggestions of describing more of what's around them, I am trying to add more description but as for the terrain I really have no idea what to write, I've never been outside Europe and I don't want to get it wrong and upset people :/
Thanks though, I'll keep trying, there's only so much research I'm doing
Also how's my American English going? I can't help but only hear my own English, Kent accent when I write anything lately :/
Sorry, anywho here's the chapter
Posted: 29/5/12
Blame
This time Santana woke up first, seeing that Rachel was still in her arms made her smile. 'Maybe I could have a chance with her' she thought to herself 'or am I reading too much into this, is she just seeking out protective comfort... what kinda words are those, your Lima heights adjacent Lopez, and Rachel Berry reduces you to this, second guessing yourself all the time' she rolled her eyes at her own thoughts 'What does it matter if Lima heights adjacent Lopez is fading, you're not in high school anymore... that's all gone, so why are you hesitating... cos I could really fuck this up' she sighed with disappointment in her own conclusion
She then felt Rachel stir in her arms "Morning" she smiled
"Morning" Rachel muttered sleepily, before tensing. She must have realised where she was.
"Did you sleep well?" Santana may have smirked a little bit with her words; confident Rachel did sleep well, or at least better than without her.
Rachel relaxed again, probably because Santana was calm and seemed unaffected that Rachel had chosen to sleep so close to her again. The truth was it was making the Latina's heart swell; this simple, almost innocent closeness and contact could make her feel so much.
"Yes I did sleep well" she again muttered sleepily "We should get up" she groaned as she reluctantly pulled herself out of Santana's arms
Santana sighed sitting up so Rachel had space to stand up "What's wrong?"
"People" she pointed upstairs "might see, we don't want them thinking we need some sort of support, that we're weak when we're the ones they look to"
Santana stood up, with a furrowed brow and tried to get the other girl to look her in the eye "Rach?"
Rachel just looked to her feet as she folded her arms. The sleeves on her oversized hoody were too long and covering her hands. Santana thought she looked adorable all bundled up in the grey clothing as she stood there shuffling her weight form foot to foot.
"You don't have to be strong all the time" she ducked down to try and meet Rachel's eyes again
"But I should be it'll reassure them that they really can put their trust in me" she muttered
"Yeah you could do that" she agreed in a sense but "But you could show them you're just as vulnerable as they are" 'then you might stay in my arms longer'
"I could" she finally looked up "But it's better for them to think I can handle this"
"If anyone can handle this it's you Rach" she smiled weakly "I know that"
And there was a Rachel Berry smile; it warmed the Latina's heart "Thank you Santana; that means a lot to me"
Having Santana trust her... maybe that would be enough to get her through this
...
Meanwhile in one of the rooms upstairs, a boy with a Mohawk lay on the floor; his daughter slumbered on a folded duvet next to him. On the double bed beyond his daughter a girl with short blonde hair lay asleep facing him. She didn't know because it's not how they fell asleep but the taller blonde was spooning her with an arm wrapped round Quinn's middle. Lord Tubbington found himself stretched out against his friend and owners side.
As Puck watched them all sleep he smiled to himself; he was beginning to see this mess of a small group as his family. There was the child, the mom and the dad, the moms girlfriend and the fat cat; yep a very odd family but a family indeed.
Beth started to stir getting Pucks immediate attention. Brittany had been clinging to Quinn's side... sometimes quite literally, and they'd both been taking on responsibilities for the rest of their glee club associates so he decided to give them a little more time to sleep.
As he gently got up and picked Beth up too Quinn stirred. It was as if she sensed something was happening to her daughter and it disturbed her
She saw the boy watching her as he backed to the door 'Where are you going?' she mouthed
Puck just smirked and winked as he made his exit closing the door quietly behind him.
"Where did he go?" Brittany asked close to Quinn's ear startling her
"I didn't know you were awake" Quinn muttered, hoping Brittany wouldn't pull away soon
"I just did... thank you for saving lord Tubbington again. I didn't get to say yesterday everyone was a mess trying to find somewhere to stay"
"That's okay Britt... I like making you happy" she said sleepily letting her eyes drift shut again
Brittany just smiled brightly before wrapping her arm tighter round Quinn's middle and snuggling closer before allowing herself to sleep a little longer.
...
Later that morning and the group were settling in the front room, the curtains were still drawn but Rachel had kept lookout checking every few minutes and hadn't seen any of those things wandering around outside. Sam was trying to get into the computer that belonged to whoever was supposed to live in this house. He thought if they could get onto the internet maybe they could finally find out what was going on in the world.
"I just still don't understand how they got in. We checked the house the doors were locked. There weren't even any in the area when we chose that house to stay at that night; which is why we chose that house" Rachel thought to the group out loud while pacing up and down the room
They all sat in silence thinking, occasionally glancing each other or at objects around the room as they thought back to two nights ago and anything that could have lead the their abrupt departure.
"...Unless someone went outside" Puck said slowly as he equally slowly looked over to his supposed best friend. The tall boy sitting in an armchair was staring at his hands while twiddling his thumbs
"Finn, what did you do?" Rachel asked worried
He peered up slowly "It wasn't my fault" he told the short brunette trying to reassure her
"Oh hell no Hudson, what the fuck did you do!" Santana yelled before she charged toward him shoving him back in his seat. The action was so harsh it could have given him whiplash. She held him there by the shoulders as her fiery glare burnt into his own eyes
"I didn't do anything"
"You needed to pee and I said go somewhere else, where did you go?" Puck asked getting up and standing next to the angry Latina. Rachel came up and stood the other side arms folded and waited for the boys answer
"Please don't tell me he went in the sink" Quinn grimaced from her seat on the perpendicular sofa, with Brittany, Beth and Lord Tubbington
"Worse" Finn swallowed thickly; not daring to take his eyes off of Santana in front of him "I went outside, it was dark I heard something got spooked and rushed inside"
"That doesn't explain how they got in without making a sound"
"I-I might..."
"Spit it out" Santana shoved him again still leaving her hands on his shoulders "What the fuck happened?" she didn't mind her language round the impressionable little Beth.
"I might have not shut the door properl-" a fist stuck him across the face cutting off his words
"Santana!" Rachel yelled looping her arms around the furious girl and dragging her away from her target. Puck reluctantly helped too, but really he would have been more than happy to let her tear into the idiot "Calm down" Rachel said finally getting Santana to look at her "We can't turn on each other"
"But he could have got us all killed!" 'He could have got you hurt' Adding that reality with what Rachel asked of her the night before scared the usually fiery Latina to her core
"We're all okay that's all that matters" she said in the continuous calming tone, her hands on the Latina's shoulders so she was in between the Latina and her prey
"Yeah no one got hurt" he whined while holding the side of his face
"You" Rachel turned sharply back pointing at him "Don't even try and get out of the hole you've got yourself into" she scolded him the way a mother would a small child; it seemed the easiest way to get through to him sometimes.
"Thanks a lot Finn" a usually quiet Tina spoke up from the corner of the room where she had sat cuddled into her equally quiet boyfriend's side. But now she was standing both hands clenched into fists; she was definitely upset "We left Rachel's prepared and now, we've got half our stuff missing; I was lucky enough to leave the last place with clothes on my back, some of us were still in our night wear some didn't have shoes on our feet"
Mercedes, Sam and Mike had run in a blind panic grabbing their day clothes rather than trying to change before leaving. Mercedes and Mike had also forgotten to pick up their shoes. Kurt didn't have his shoes either he'd clung to Blaine as they evacuated.
It seemed in every pair there was one person supporting the other and the one being supported was beginning to rely on their other half.
In the week since Blaine had to shoot his family member and then with what happened to Will and Emma and him feeling partially responsible, he decided to focus on his boyfriend, maybe he could protect him like he couldn't his family.
"I'm really, really sorry" he whined again, this time tensing as if expecting another punch to his bruising jaw
"it's too late for all that now" Rachel sighed "We need clothes, this house hasn't got everything we need"
"Well there's a bunch of houses here we could break in find what we need"
"I think we need to rest and regroup, for at least today" Santana told them, looking for Rachel for encouragement "and we need new things to defend ourselves"
"What about a sports store?" Quinn thought out loud
"What about it?"
"We passed one a couple of miles back; think about it, that would have sneakers and some clothes so we could replace that and I'm thinking... blunt weapons" she didn't like thinking about the violence and bloodshed with her daughter on her lap but it was a harsh reality they would have to face again and again.
"Like... baseball bats?" Santana asked
"That's what I was thinking" she offered suddenly unsure of what everyone else would think. They liked the guns it put distance between them and those things but they'd left many of those behind.
"That's actually a really good idea Quinn" Rachel nodded "We could resupply there, at least until we find a mall. I don't want to go too far off the planned route so this way we can hold off a little longer until we find a mall and somewhere to get firearms"
"So what now, assemble a team?" The Latina asked making this feel like a military operation
Rachel nodded "I'm thinking no more than four or five of us, leave a few with guns here just in case but I think as long as you're quiet and don't go outside, if there are any around they won't be attracted to the house. So I'll be going"
"And me" it was no surprise that Santana was quick to volunteer
"In that case, Quinn, can you take charge here? I know you've got a lot on your hands but-"
"It's fine, I can keep everyone safe" she nodded reassuringly
Rachel thought of Quinn as the other her. They seemed to have the same role when they were on the roads. They both sat in the front passenger seat (coincidentally with the girl they wanted in the driver's seat next to them) and they looked out for everyone in their vehicle. Also Quinn still had her guns and was a pretty good shot, they'd need a couple at the house just in case.
"Thank you" she then looked round at the rest of the current survivors "So Me, Santana-"
"I'll go" Finn was the next to quickly volunteer
"No, not you Finn, he shouldn't move from that seat, I don't want him fucking things up any more" she then shot a look to Quinn with the child on her lap "Sorry" she apologised for her use of language
Quinn just waved it off; with Santana swearing earlier Beth had already heard enough.
"I volunteer" the whole room turned to the girl in the corner who'd just climbed out of her boyfriends arms "I appreciate everything you've done Rachel and how well you've handled everything and got us this far. But I can't just sit around and wait for the next move; I want to take action, so I volunteer" Tina explained
"Then I'm going too" Mike stepped up behind her
The Asian girl turned back to her boyfriend and chuckled likely "Mike, you don't even have shoes" they both glanced down at his feet and Mike managed to smile at her, but there was fear and worry in his eyes "I'll be fine" she tried to reassure him
"You better be" he kissed her quickly on the lips "Or I'll never forgive myself" he muttered
She smiled at him again before turning back to Rachel "It's settled then, I'm going... I-if you'll let me"
"Actually Tina, you'd be a welcome volunteer. But you don't have your weapons anymore" she shook her head shyly "Take my revolver and rifle" she said before passing Tina the two of her family of weapons she hadn't told Santana she'd named.
"Thank you" she took them tucking the revolver into her belt and leaving the rifle cradled in her arms
"I volunteer too" Blaine said. Kurt turned to him a look of horror on his face "I need to do this for all of us" and for himself, he just needed to prove he was useful to them
Brittany was about to volunteer but she saw the way Quinn was looking at her, with the same worry she saw in Mike's eyes as he looked at his girlfriend.
Puck tried to volunteer too but Rachel told him she'd prefer for him to stay to support Quinn... and just in case
"I think just the four of us should go; we'll need to note sizes for who needs what; I don't want to carry too much excess; it might slow us down" Rachel explained
Santana started rooting through the belongings of whoever's house this was. As she was rooting through the draw of the door side table she found some paper and a pen. The group started getting requests for clothing (if they could find it) while Sam found some success with the computer
"I got it working" he announced triumphant with his own success "Maybe now we can actually find out what the heck is going on out there" he sat in front of the screen while the others all started to gather around.
Let me know what you think?
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