As always,

THEMoDePo: Sorry I left you there, I'm a bit slow! :) Yes, poor Blaine, he always get the worst of it (can't help it, I love it so much when he's hurt and Sam takes care of him). And I'm soooo glad you like the action because it's so difficult to write and to get ideas! Thank you so much, dear!

Blamsturbation: OMG, thank you so much for telling me this is one of your favorite stories, means the world to me! I'm glad you gave it a chance, because it's not really that scary or even action-filled... just an excuse to put blam in dangerous situation in which they have to save each other XD And I also appreciate you telling me it's easy to read, because I'm always so insecure about my writing (english not being my first language) and about people not getting what I'm trying to say... So yeah, let me tell you that your review really made my day (and week, and month) and that it arrived in the moment when I needed it the most! So thank you sooooo much! Hope you keep enjoying it!

Darrinia: Cariñín! hehehe, sorry to make you worry ;) I don't know if you're getting all the answers to your questions yet, but well... ;) Gracias, preciosa! Un besazo!

Mildlifecrissis: omg, thanks! Poor Sam, he was only trying to help... hahaha, I guess you're right about Cooper. And yeah, of course Blaine is going to be veeeery worried about his Sam. Thank you so much, sweetie!

Guest: I won't quit if you are nice to me ;)


CHAPTER 29

Cooper only raised his gaze from his brother's unmoving form after what felt like hours when he heard the special code at the main door in the form of a knock that they had agreed on, and Sugar rushed to open it for those outside.

"Have you found anything?" Cooper asked as soon as Puck, Jake, Marley, Santana and Brittany crossed the threshold and took their hoods off while trying not to drench the place too much with the rests of the pouring rain in their clothes.

"Not a sign" Santana answered with a sadness in her voice that reflected in the others' faces.

"Fuck!" Cooper exclaimed as he pulled the blanket covering his brother higher up his chest to tuck him more efficiently, just to have something to do with his hands.

"Are the others back yet?" Puck asked, but he hadn't even finished his question when Mike appeared right behind him, along with Sebastian, Trent and Kitty.

"We're here"

"Anything?" Puck asked, although he perfectly knew the answer he was going to get by the desolation on Mike's face.

"Not a thing" the other boy answered, almost in a whisper.

"Maybe Blaine will be able to tell us something, anything, that will help us find Sam" Trent said, trying to sound optimistic for the sake of everybody.

"If only he would just wake up…" Cooper lamented as he unconsciously caressed the curls on the top of his brother's head, careful to avoid the deep gash he had found there when trying to clean the blood, after he and the others had managed to bring him inside and get him dry and comfortable on the couch again. "He's going to be devastated when he wakes up and finds out Sam is not here"

"What do you think happened to them?" Marley finally made the question everybody had been wondering on their minds. "How did Blaine got hurt? And where the hell is Sam?"

"There is no way Sam would have left Blaine alone with a blow like that if it was in his hands" Unique added, her eyes shiny with tears at her friend's more than probable fate.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Marley asked, afraid of what her friend seemed to be implying.

"That maybe Sam has…" Unique tried to explain with all the pain in her heart, but she interrupted herself with a sob before she could finish.

"Died and turned into a walker?" Puck bitterly finished for her, noticing the reproach in all the eyes suddenly turning to him. "What, not saying it won't make it less true or painful. There is no way Sam is alright if that meant leaving Blaine injured and alone, and the sooner we assume we've lost him, the better for everyone"

"We don't know for sure yet" Cooper tried to be reasonable, his heart breaking at the possibility that his brother had lost the love of his life just like that. "And it wouldn't explain why Blaine was unarmed when we found him, even if we fully know he wasn't when they left the farm"

"Which means it wasn't an accident and he was attacked" Mike added.

"Yeah" Cooper agreed with a serious nod of his head. "We won't know anything until Blaine wakes up anyway. Until then, there is nothing we can do for Sam"

"I think Blaine is regaining consciousness" Sebastian, who had remained silent until then while intently watching his best friend, announced to everyone in the room.

Cooper's gaze turned immediately towards his little brother and noticed that Sebastian was right: Blaine's face was timidly scrunching and there were little grunting sounds escaping from his split lips –the blow to his head was obviously not the only one he had received–. Not wanting to rush the younger man into consciousness before he was ready, Cooper perched on the edge of the couch next to him and refrained himself and the others from talking to him, just waiting for him to wake up on his own.

Only when Blaine moaned more loudly and his head moved to the sides a couple of times, as if trying to escape the sleep that had taken him prisoner in such a deep way, his brother dared to speak.

"Blainey?" he whispered in a tender way, and he couldn't help a smile when he was rewarded with the image of Blaine's huge and open eyes at last.

"Coop?" Blaine said, his voice barely audible, as he tried to fix his blurry gaze on his brother's familiar face.

"That's me. How are you feeling?"

But before he got any answer, Blaine suddenly jumped from his sitting position, only to wince at the immediate and obvious pain that the abrupt movement elicited in his battered head.

"Easy, little brother" Cooper kindly but sternly said as he put a hand on Blaine's chest to stop any further movement. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Where's Sam?" Blaine asked, his voice suddenly louder, his eyes now filled with fear along with confusion.

"We… we were hoping you could tell us that" Cooper tentatively answered, not wanting to lie but not wanting to directly tell his brother they didn't have a clue about Sam's whereabouts.

"We have to go find him" Blaine answered as if he was talking to himself, already resting his feet on the floor to stand up, but his brother stopped him again.

"Blaine, wait, you're hurt, you need to…" Cooper tried to say, but Blaine's anger interrupted him.

"I'm not going to rest, so don't even dare" Blaine answered in obvious rage at the fact that his brother didn't seem to understand the seriousness of the situation.

"Ok, but let's be sensible" Cooper patiently answered, changing tactics so as not to enrage his brother even further. "Let's trace a plan. Why don't you tell us what happened so we know how to proceed?"

Blaine stopped for a second to look at his brother's worried expression, the same one all his friends around him were wearing, and he understood he was not the only one affected by Sam's absence –even if he doubted their chests felt as constricted as his did at the moment, barely letting him breathe with worry–. And besides, Cooper was right: it was probably for the better to stop for a minute and think about what to do, instead of just going crazy.

"We… were ambushed, I think" Blaine explained more calmly, but the rubbing of his fingers on his temple told everyone else how hard he was trying to made sense of his memories of the incident after his more than probable concussion.

"Was it… walkers?" Puck asked, unable to stay silent any longer at the possibility of having lost his best friend to those monsters.

"No" Blaine continued with a furrowed brow. "It was people"

Everyone winced at the revelation. Walkers were dangerous, but they knew how to fight them. With people… they had already had a taste of what people could do. What they were willing to do. And it was surely something they didn't want to experience again.

"They attacked you? Is Sam…?" Mike tried to ask, but he couldn't bring himself to finish the question –the loss of Tina at the hands of other people still too fresh in his mind.

"No, he was alive last time I saw him" Blaine perfectly understood what he was being asked and he didn't want to leave the tiniest doubt about Sam's chances. "There were five of them, but they were probably part of a bigger group. They were armed to the teeth and they took us hostages and they were leading us somewhere, they never said why or what the hell they wanted from us, but I was slowing them down and… I don't remember anything else"

"They must have hit you, you took a hard blow to your head" Cooper explained as he sympathetically rubbed the back of Blaine's neck with his hand, hoping to offer some comfort both to the pain in his head and his heart.

"They could be miles from here already if they were in such a hurry" Puck lamented, shaking his head in desolation.

"If he is even alive, because they obviously wanted something from him…" Santana added in a whisper, though some of the others heard her and lowered their gazed in sadness.

"Coop, we've got to find Sam" Blaine begged, suddenly desperate as he grabbed the lapels of Cooper's jacket and looked pleadingly into the eyes of the person he trusted the most at the moment. "I don't know what they wanted from him, we have to save him"

"But Blaine, we already looked for him…" Puck intervened, knowing it would be more difficult to refuse for Blaine's brother.

"You didn't look good enough" Blaine protested, starting to get really annoyed at the little help or understanding he was getting, and he stood up in such a rush that for a moment all the room seemed to spin and he swayed on his feet.

"Slowly, you must be pretty dizzy" Cooper gently admonished him as he hurried to stand up to and put his arms around the smaller boy to steady him.

"I'm not" Blaine answered as he extricated himself from his brother's supporting arms, so confidently that Cooper couldn't honestly tell if he is being honest. "Who's coming with me?"

"Blaine, it's been heavily raining for hours, there is no way we can find any tracks to follow" Cooper explained, his voice and his heart breaking at having to ruin Blaine's hope, but he had to stop him from any foolish movement before it was too late.

"All the more reason to go as soon as possible, it's not going to be easy" Blaine retorted, as he obviously wasn't going to be convinced to let it go.

"But is it going to be worth it?" Cooper insisted, having to avert his eyes from his brother's at all the pain he could see in them.

"What the hell does that mean?" Blaine asked in a whisper, though it sounded more terrifying than if he had just screamed it.

"What Cooper is trying to say is… I don't think there is anything we can do for Sam" Sebastian answered, trying to save Cooper from breaking his brother's heart.

"What?"

"Even if he was still alive, which seems unlikely… You said those men were leading you somewhere. What if they have a fort of some kind? What if there are a lot of them? You said they were heavily armed, weren't they?"

"We can't just enter their place like that" Puck intervened. "We will be massacred"

"Are you really telling me you are not going to even try?" Blaine asked, the tone of his voice showing them how he could not believe what he was hearing. "That you're not willing to fight for Sam after everything he's done for all of you?"

"We can't fight them, Blaine. You know what happened the last time" Mike added, the expression in his face a mixture of fear, shame and pain –the image of Tina's dead body still too vivid in his head.

"We can't risk thirteen lives to save one…" Santana tried to reason with him, even if just one look at Brittany made her perfectly understand what Blaine was feeling. "Especially when… it would probably be for nothing"

"We don't even know where they are, or how to find them" Brittany added, her eyes full of tears.

"I can't believe it…" Blaine muttered as he took a couple of steps backwards, wanting to avoid several hands reaching for him, trying to offer some physical comfort –or to restrain him, he couldn't be sure.

"Blaine, you have to understand…" Sebastian said, trying not to get offended when Blaine slapped his hand away before he could effectively grabb the curly-haired boy's forearm.

"I won't understand anything" Blaine answered in complete rage, even if his voice didn't rise even one bit –although that made it all the more terrifying–, before turning around and starting moving towards the door. "I'll go on my own if you won't come with me"

"Blaine, wait" Cooper rushed to him and grabbed onto his brother's arm to stop him, which he immediately could see was the wrong move when Blaine seemed to go crazy at that.

"Let go of me!" Blaine almost screamed while he struggled to extricate from his brother's grip.

"Not until you stop and listen to me!" Cooper answered in the same loud voice, though he lessened the grip as soon as Blaine's struggles ceased –after all, thanks to their age difference, Blaine had never been able to disrespect his brother, Cooper knew that and he had taken advantage of it. "It's too dangerous, Blaine, and they probably…"

"Don't you even dare, Coop" Blaine muttered under his breath in a threatening tone, obviously refusing to even think Sam might already be dead.

"I'm sorry, but it's a chance you have to face… The most probable one" Cooper tried to reason with him, even if his own heart was breaking at having to cause his little brother more pain.

"And what if he's still alive? We can't just leave him there, Cooper, they will kill him"

"But Blaine…"

"Coop, please. I won't stop trying while there is the tiniest chance to save him. He is my life" Blaine pleaded, and Cooper noticed how his eyes shone with tears that he stubbornly refused to share –that would feel too much as surrender. "There is no way you can stop me, Coop. Even if you tie me down I will find my way out of it and you know it"

"I won't try to stop you, Blaine" Cooper reassured him with a tired sigh, the grip on his little brother's arm moving to his shoulder for a reassuring squeeze. "I'll go with you"

"But Cooper…" Sebastian tried to intervene, wanting to make the brothers reconsider their decision.

"I'm sorry, guys, but he's my brother" Cooper explained with a sad shake of his head as he started putting on his jacket and grabbing his weapons, sounding so dejected and hopeless that it hurt. "Reasonable or not, I can't leave him alone on this. And I already told you once, I won't leave anyone behind"

"Even if he is dead?" Puck almost yelled before he could stop himself.

"We don't know that!" Blaine retorted back at him in a equal loud voice.

"They left you to die without giving a fuck, Blaine. What are the chances that they didn't do the same with Sam once they got whatever the hell they wanted from him? The only thing you're going to accomplish is to make us lose you too" Puck added in a desperate attempt to stop them, even if he knew it was probably not going to make any good.

"Go to hell, Puckerman" Blaine spat at whom he had considered his friend until then, feeling enraged at how selfish he could be that he was making it about himself while Sam was probably fighting for his life right in that very moment. "If he was here and it was one of you there, he would never give up on you. On anyone of you! And you know it! You're all a bunch of cowards!"

"Blaine…" Sebastian tried, but Blaine didn't even look back this time and he was out of the door before anyone else could say anything, his brother close at his heels, and the slam of the door resounded in their hearts as if suddenly they were empty.


"I think…" Blaine said while rubbing his temples, as if he was trying to get rid of that fog in his mind that didn't let him remember clearly about the moments previous to the blow on his head. "I think we hadn't reached the pond yet when those guys ambushed us. Maybe if we follow this trail…"

Cooper had taken him to the exact place where he had found him, hoping the familiar surroundings would make him remember something, anything, about what had happened before those horrible men had given him a serious concussion. Something that could help them find a way to get to Sam. But judging by the pain and the desolation in Blaine's face, the oldest Anderson could see he was not being successful.

"There are no tracks, buddy, we already checked when we were looking for you both" Cooper answered.

"Then we just need to retrace the way I came after they injured me, right? Maybe we'll eventually find some tracks or something that tells you where they went"

"And you think you can remember?" Cooper asked, trying not to sound too doubtful. But if Blaine wasn't even sure when or where they had been ambushed, it was highly improbable he would remember where he was coming from when he was already injured.

"Yes, I think so" Blaine answered as he confidently started walking in what Cooper knew what not the right direction.

"Blaine, you were not even coming from that way" Cooper stopped him, his heart breaking at having to contradict his very upset little brother.

"Shit, I can't remember anything…" Blaine lamented as he hit his forehead with the palm of his hand and then proceeded to rub his face in guilt and frustration.

"Don't blame yourself" Cooper said in an understanding tone as he rushed to him and put his arm around his shoulders in a half embrace. "I'm quite sure you've got a concussion. It's only normal you're confused"

"Normal or not, it's keeping us from getting to Sam" Blaine said, full of regret, as he gratefully rested his painful head on his brother's shoulder for a second, just before extricating himself from his arms and starting walking in the opposite direction. "So was I coming that way when you found me?"

"Yes" Cooper answered, feeling sorry for his brother but proud at his unbreakable determination at the same time.

"Then let's go, we don't have any time to lose"

Cooper had to run to catch up with his brother, so quickly he was walking in the direction he had pointed out for him. And it was not that he was surprised, because he knew Blaine was the most stubborn person in the face of the Earth at the best of times, so in a situation like that and with his boyfriend's life at stake… But he was still injured, with more than a probable concussion and still convalescing from a bullet wound, he shouldn't be so strong, right?

But Cooper guessed what they said was true: love can do anything.

"Any chance you know if I was following that path or just going cross-country?" Blaine's question after a while took him out of his reverie.

"No, thanks to the slight elevation of the terrain I didn't see you until you were practically on top of us" Cooper reluctantly admitted. "But since you were injured and so confused, I pretty much doubt you would have been able to find the way back cross-country. I say we try following the path"

"Alright" Blaine instantly agreed, thankful for Cooper's initiative so he didn't have to make all the decisions.


More than two hours later they were still walking and they didn't feel any closer to Sam or to even knowing anything about his fate. Cooper could see how his brother was getting tired, as they were keeping a quick pace and hadn't stopped to rest for even a second, but he restrained himself from commenting about it because he knew he wasn't going to get his brother to rest anyway and the last thing he wanted was to upset him any further.

Both their spirits fell even further when they ended up in kind of a crossroads that made it impossible to continue advancing without making a decision. But how? How could they choose what path to follow without any clue?

"What do we do now?" Blaine asked in a small voice, reminding his brother of when he was just a scared little child waiting for his almighty big brother to make it all better. And Cooper wished he could still fix every one of his little brother's problems. But he couldn't.

"I don't know" he admitted with a sad sigh. "There is no way to know which way they went" or even if they passed by here, Cooper finished for himself, not wanting to discourage his brother even further.

"If we follow the wrong path, we will lose so much precious time" Blaine lamented while his shoulders seemed to fall with all the weight of the world.

"I don't think we have another option than to try on one of them, though" Cooper answered.

This time it was Blaine the one to sigh, and for once he didn't even try to pretend he was not exhausted as he let his back fall against a tree at the edge of one of the paths, wanting to rest and regain his breath while trying to make a decision. If only his head didn't hurt so badly… His gaze fell to the ground, trying to avoid the pity he knew he would find in his brother's eyes, and it was then when some maroon paper on the dirt caught his attention and he crouched to take it.

"What's that?" Cooper asked, having noticed the change in Blaine's stance.

"Sam left this here" Blaine answered, completely unable to stop the huge smile breaking into his lips or the hopeful tears making his eyes glassy. "We had these sweets and he kept the wrappings on his pocket, he let this one fall to let me know he was here"

Cooper rushed to embrace his little brother with all his forces to let him know he shared his happiness and his relief. Sam was alive –or at least had been until recently–, and they were going the right way.

"You have a very clever boyfriend" Cooper casually commented, glad of the shaky chuckle he was able to elicit on his brother. "So he was telling us which path to choose, right?"

"Right" Blaine agreed with a enthusiastic nod, knowing that Sam was indeed very intelligent and that had been his way of telling him where they were taking him. And the fact that Sam trusted him so much that he knew he was going to look for him just made him fall in love with the blond boy all over again. And he wasn't going to stop until he was in his arms again.


Back at the farm, they had been absorbed into a very somber atmosphere: a tense and heavy silence had fallen upon the youngsters after Blaine slammed the door to show them their disappointment on them, and the pain at having lost Sam, plus probably Blaine and Cooper too, mixed with the guilt at their lack of action was becoming a burden too heavy to support.

Especially to Sebastian, probably the person closer to Blaine amongst those remaining in the house. Guilt and shame were eating him alive, and just the thought of never seeing his friends again, especially Blaine, with his warm heart and his dorky laugh, was enough to bring tears to his eyes every few minutes since he had caught the last glimpse of the petite boy.

Because he knew he had lost him, one way or another. Even if Blaine survived, and even if he managed to find and save Sam, the shorter boy would never forgive him for giving up on the blond. For being such a coward. For promising he was going to be his friend and then fail him when things got difficult. And Sebastian knew he wouldn't even have the right to protest, because Blaine would be right.

He still hadn't moved from the window from which he had watched Blaine and his brother walk away until they disappeared in the woods, and he felt the darkness outside mirrored the one in his heart too much. And suddenly he couldn't stand it no more, and a sob escaped his throat before he could stop it.

"Seb…" Trent said in a comforting tone as he moved to stand next to his friend, as he hadn't wanted to leave him alone.

"Don't even try" Sebastian tried to stop him, his raging guilt not letting him be comforted.

"There was nothing we could do for Sam, Seb" Trent tried to reason with him, hating to see his friend so upset, but of course Sebastian was not going to make it easy for him.

"But how can we be sure?" Sebastian finally dared to make the question everyone had been wondering about. "And even if that was the case, and we couldn't do anything for Sam, what about Blaine? We could have been there for him"

"Blaine should have realized it was hopeless, he wasn't thinking clearly"

"All the more reason not to leave him alone then, don't you think?" Sebastian sarcastically retorted, as if Blaine being upset was a reason to abandon him, instead of the other way around.

"We would have just been giving him false hopes" Trent insisted, although by the tone of his voice Sebastian could see he was slowly caving in. After all, Trent had the biggest heart and he loved Blaine almost as much as he did.

"So instead we just left him to his fate, right?" Sebastian insisted, and Trent's guilty silence only encouraged him to continue. "Do you remember when we found Blaine and Sam in the first place, and how we were so angry that their friends had abandoned them in that hospital? We couldn't believe it"

"Yeah" Trent admitted with a guilty expression, guessing where Sebastian was going to.

"How is this any different? Didn't we fail them exactly the same way?"

"It's not the same"

"No?" Sebastian asked with a sarcastic chuckle. "Isn't Blaine alone again because his friends were too afraid to fight with him?"

Trent didn't know what to answer to that. He knew Sebastian was right; deep in his heart, he had known it from the beginning. But they had so much to lose if they decided to fight those people… Yet it wasn't fair to abandon Sam like that. Nor Blaine. They had fought like warriors for everyone else, didn't they deserve the same?

"Trent?" Sebastian took him out of his stupor, practically begging him to agree with him even if he was only saying his name.

"We're going no matter what I say, right?" Trent asked in a joking tone, perfectly knowing how stubborn Sebastian was and how he was going to end up doing whatever his taller friend asked him.

"Blaine is our friend… Our leader in a way" Sebastian insisted, even if he already knew Trent was going to support him. "And now it's him who needs us"

"And Sam could still be alive, right?" Trent finally dare to admit, now that he had let himself be convinced of giving it a try. "We're not going to leave him there to die, after how he's fight for everyone"

"Exactly" Sebastian agreed with a smile before enveloping Trent in a grateful hug, knowing he could count on his loyal friend whenever he needed him.

As Trent started getting their things ready, Sebastian tentatively walked back into the living room, where all the others were –most of them doing nothing, just sitting around, lost into their own thoughts–. He knew his words were not going to be well received, but well… he cared more about Blaine, Sam and Cooper than they did about their opinions.

"Guys, Trent and I are going after Blaine and Cooper" he announced in a soft voice, almost afraid of their reaction.

"I thought we had agreed…" Jake tried to say, but Sebastian didn't even let him finish.

"We were wrong" he interrupted the younger boy. "We should have never let them go on their own and we intent to correct our mistake. We understand if you still feel like staying here, but anyone willing to fight will be welcome to come with us"

"I'm going" Mike surprisingly offered. After all, he had never been the same since Tina died so they didn't expect him to be the first to offer. Yet he did. "I lost Tina and no one knows more than me how Blaine must be feeling. And yet I failed him"

"Mike, we're never going to find Sam alive" Puck intervened, even if his heart was breaking at putting his biggest fear into words.

"Even then I'm going… if only to be there for Blaine in case we can't save Sam" Mike added as he left his place in the sofa to get ready to go. "He will need someone who understands what he is going through"

"We're going too" Santana said, looking at Brittany for confirmation, which she gave her in the form of a nod. "Blaine risked his life to get Brittany out of that laboratory when McKinley was attacked, even if he was injured. I owe him the same"

Sebastian smiled at the unexpected supports he was getting amongst the friends. It almost seemed as they had been waiting for someone to take the first step, as if they couldn't stand the guilt anymore. And he couldn't feel prouder of them when Kitty, Sugar and Unique also agreed to go.

"I think you're all mental" Puck said when he realized only he, Jake and Marley were still sitting –though he guessed the other two had yet to jump from their seats only out of respect for him–. "But I'm not going to be the only one to stay behind. Let's fight" he added with an encouraging smile towards the rest of the group. Because yes, maybe they didn't stand a chance. But as Cooper had said, they were not going to leave anyone behind.

"Ok, then let's go" Sebastian said with the widest smile.


The relief and excitement slowly fell down as hours passed and they found no new sign that they were going to find Sam. It was already dark and very cold, and only the fact that it had finally stopped raining kept them from completely falling into despair.

Cooper watched as his brother dragged his feet over the ground, unable to lift them enough to walk properly anymore, so exhausted he was. And the constant shivering in him, caused by the cold and the dampness of his still wet clothes, only contributed to make him look as the picture of misery. There was no way he could go on like that, and Cooper had relented for long enough. It was time to stop.

"Squirt, do you see that little opening on the rocks right there?" Cooper casually commented as he pointed some yards away right in front of them. "I bet it's big enough for the both of us to spend the night. Maybe we can even light some fire, I feel the cold seeping through my old bones and I need to warm up"

"Cooper, I can see what you're doing, but I can go on" Blaine unsurprisingly refused, grateful for his brother's worry but not yet ready to surrender.

"Blaine, we can't keep going on in the dark and we need to rest" Cooper insisted. "I'm sure they will stop too if they're still walking, it's too dangerous to advance in the dark, with all those walkers around"

"We can't lose that much time, Coop" Blaine begged for his brother to understand. "And we haven't found a single walker since we arrived to the farm, and you know it"

"That doesn't mean we can't start meeting them again any moment" Cooper tried to make him see, and this time Blaine knew he couldn't refute the argument. "Please, little brother, just listen to me for a second. It has stopped raining, and the ground is full of mud, which means they're going to start leaving tracks now unless they hide them, which I doubt they will because they don't know we're following them. We won't see those tracks in the dark, and we don't want to miss them, right?"

Blaine remained silent, not wanting to admit how right his brother was and how much sense his words made. And he felt so tired… But stopping felt like failing Sam, right?

"Plus I know you don't want to admit it, but we both need to rest, especially you" Cooper went on, hoping he wouldn't send his brother in the defensive with that. "You can't keep going on forever, and if we rest a bit, you'll be refreshed in the morning and you will be able to endure whatever you need. And we're both going to catch pneumonia if we don't get warmed up soon"

Blaine sighed in surrender, knowing his brother was right.

"But as soon as the sun is up…" Blaine said as the only sign of resistance, letting his mind convince him even if his heart told him otherwise.

"At the first ray, I promise" Cooper answered, willing to compromise to anything as long as his brother let him take care of him a little. "And now come on, let's see if we can make ourselves comfortable in there" he said as he put his arm around his brother and gently guided him towards the little cave waiting for them.


Cooper woke up in a fright at a loud noise, and it took him a couple of seconds to understand they were not being attacked: it had just been a particularly loud crackle of the fire next to him, and he was quite surprised it was still going. After all, the ache on his back told him he had been sleeping on the floor for at least a couple of hours, so the fire should have died down by then. But he only needed to open his eyes to understand why that happened: Blaine had been keeping it alive because he was, and probably had been all along, very much awake.

"Hey, Squirt" Cooper whispered as he sat up, not wanting to scare his brother in the stillness of the place, in case he was too lost into his thoughts.

"Hey" Blaine answered, still jumping a little at the sudden interruption of his thoughts even with his brother's caution.

"You should be sleeping" Cooper gently admonished his little brother as he crawled over the small distance separating them to get closer to the boy, hoping to offer some comfort.

"I tried, Coop, I swear" Blaine answered, and he sounded so desperate to be understood that Cooper could only believe him. "But every time I close my eyes…"

"Yeah, I get it" Cooper gently interrupted him, not wanting to let his brother put into words all the horrible scenes probably going on in his head. "You can't stop thinking about him, right?"

"No" Blaine admitted, and it was when his gaze fell again to his hands that Cooper realized that what the boy was holding was the candy wrapping they had found in the forest, almost as if that would keep him closer to the boy he loved.

"Want to talk about it?" Cooper offered, knowing there wasn't much more he could do for his brother right in that moment than to listen to him.

"He gave me those candies when we were walking to the pond, because he is the sweetest thing and he loves spoiling me" Blaine started explaining in a soft voice, almost as if he was talking to himself, and a sudden and fond smile erased the sadness in his face, even if it was only for a few seconds. "He hid them for me because he knew they were my favorite flavor and he didn't want me having to share them with the rest. He even took the wrappings so I didn't have…"

But Blaine couldn't even finish the story as his voice broke, and the tears he had been holding all day finally made an apparition. Cooper's heart broke at the very tangible grief emanating for his brother, and he was afraid that the young boy was starting to lose hope.

"Schhh, it's okay, Blaine" Cooper murmured while putting his arms around Blaine's upper body and making him lean against his chest in what he hoped would be a comforting way, but he didn't' try to stop Blaine tears because he know he had been holding them for too long.

"I can't live without him, Coop" Blaine confessed with a sob he couldn't stop, knowing his brother would never judge him for the intensity of his emotions, even if he was very aware of how little time he and Sam had been together and how hard it could be to understand how much he loved him anyway.

"And you won't have to" Cooper answered, understanding –always understanding. "We're going to find him"

"You said it was highly improbable" Blaine reminded him, and Cooper hated himself for creating those doubts in Blaine's head, even if he had just been trying to protect him.

"Yeah, but then you convinced me otherwise and now I believe we have to try" Cooper answered. "And he left that wrapping, right? Sam would never give up, and neither will we. You need to keep the faith"

"I'm not that strong" Blaine confessed with a sob that went directly to Cooper's heart.

"Yes, you are" Cooper contradicted him, squeezing him even more strongly to his chest as he used to do when Blaine was little and he needed to protect him from something. "Gosh, Blaine, I don't even know how you managed to find us in your state, but you did"

"I only knew I had to get you, because I knew you would help me"

"I know. You held on until you saw me and then, and only then, you fell unconscious practically at my feet, completely spent"

"Did I?"

"Yeah. You're a stubborn little cuss" Cooper said, and he knew Blaine was smiling even if he couldn't see his face, hidden as it was under his own chin. "You're strong, Blaine, the strongest person I know. You've always been. And if your massive strength isn't enough, then we can share mine, because I'm here for you"

"Thank you, Coop" Blaine said, more calmly now as he let his brother's words sink in and he also put his arms around him in a grateful embrace. "I don't know how I would survive this without you"

"You'd find a way" Cooper joked before kissing the side of Blaine's head in an affectionate way.


"So that's it" the man closest to Sam said with a tired sigh. "This is our final destination"

Sam raised his glance –he had been too tired to do it until then– and looked at what that man was proudly pointing at: their fort. Or what they believed to be a fort, because to Sam it wasn't more than a pathetic attempt to make themselves believe they were safe. But just a wooden wall around a few buildings? The destroyed and devastated houses outside the wall made Sam think those people had just managed to save the last of the buildings of a town and naively build a poor fort around them. As if that was going to be enough to stop the apocalypse.

Even if they seemed to keep watch at all times –if the four people stationed behind the entrance was any proof of that–, there was no way that was going to last long. How they had lasted until then, Sam didn't know.

"Come on, quick, the lurkers at the other side of the city are finishing with their prey and will be here soon!" one of the women on top of the wall rushed them as they opened the door for them, wanting them inside before it was too late.

The group immediately obeyed, and Sam didn't even care which one of the men were roughly pushing him anymore. He just made sure to get his hand into his pocket as furtively as he could manage and get the other candy wrapping still kept there. He let it fall right next to the entrance before letting himself be pushed, knowing that, if Blaine had managed another one of his miracles and had survived, he would find his way to him one way or another.


A/N: Probably the first chapter I ever wrote with no direct balm interaction... That was hard!