"What the fuck?" Santana's voice came clearly from behind them. Quinn pulled away from Rachel so fast Rachel barely had a second to feel hurt before Santana stalked into the room and stood in front of her.
"Ugh," Santana sneered at Rachel, "Gee, thanks Berry. You just got me doing Brittany's chores for two weeks. She's probably going to give me her laundry duty, it's the worst."
Likely Santana saw the look that was currently on Rachel's face -shock, confusion, and a bit of hurt, because with a snort and a glare, Santana added, "Brittany was worried about you single people being lonely. One thing lead to another, and we…well, mostly me, were betting on how long it'd take for you guys to try to hook up with each other. I bet that you and Sam would first, in another monthish. Didn't figure you'd go for Quinn. Wanky," Santana grinned at Rachel, her face instantly softening and Rachel let go of the slight fear she had of the other girl a moment ago. Santana wiggled her eyebrows, "It's 'cause she's in charge isn't it? Couldn't resist the allure of power could you? Well, you're barking up the wrong tree -I mean, sure, Quinn's totally snunk peaks at me and Britt's in the locker room, but who hasn't? We're hot. " Santana laughed, then with a mean smirk at Quinn, added, "She's totally still hung up on that big oaf you both dated."
Rachel closed her mouth -just now realizing it was open, and stared at Santana for a moment, trying to figure out what to say.
Could Santana really have no utter idea about Quinn?
"I was not attempting to…hook up, with Quinn, Santana," was all she could finally mutter.
Quinn remained silent, torn between staring out the window, and staring at the pair of them, a look on her face the clearly showed she was scared Rachel was going to tell Santana what had actually happened.
Santana cocked her head to the side, she drawled, "Then what happened? You tripped and fell onto her lips?"
A mean, horrible, selfish part of her just wanted to blurt out what had actually happened -the pair were in a quasi relationship, and Rachel had kissed her to comfort her.
The more rational, giving side of her took over, and she simply sighed, then said lightly, "Finn had once remarked that Quinn was a better kisser then I am. Curiosity and free time lead to me asking Quinn, purely for knowledge's sake, if I may kiss her. She agreed -I can only assume my request shocked her into saying yes. Then you walked in."
Santana laughed, "You are such a weirdo Berry. With …way too much time on your hands." Santana's second sentence got quieter, and Rachel assumed it was because the other girl remembered why, exactly, Rachel now how much more free time. Voice normal, Santana added, "For the record? Brittany's the best kisser. I mean, I haven't kissed Quinn, but no way is she better then Britt's."
"And I am sure Kurt would say Blaine is the best kisser. Perhaps we should organize a tournament?"
Santana laughed, "Nahh, Britt's would win, hands down. Anything Kurt knows, she taught him. Now come on you two, dinner's ready. Tina and Brittany think we should all eat together. And you'll never guess what we're having."
"Oatmeal?" Quinn asked flatly, not looking at Rachel.
"Oatmeal and fruit and tuna," Santana amended, then added, "I would totally kill Blaine and Kurt for some pizza. Extra meat, extra extra bacon."
Quinn flinched at Santana's words as Rachel allowed the pair of them to walk back to the apartment in front of her, her thoughts racing.
She hated that one part of her still thought she should have just admitted to Santana what had actually happened. And another part of her was wondering if perhaps they should talk about what they'd done…no one had, as far as she knew, except for what Quinn and her had just discussed. Perhaps the others were feeling the same as Quinn, and it would behoove them to talk about it.
It would give her something to think about besides Quinn's rejection, or Christopher's death, anyway.
Later that day, Rachel was attempting to be casual as she leaned against the wall, attempting to read, but mostly trying to catch Quinn's eye, when Sarah nervously came up to her, the poodle puppy. The brown haired girl looked down, then shyly looked up at Rachel -not that she had far to look, at almost ten years old Sarah Puckerman was only a few inches shorter then Rachel, and said, "You're Jewish right Rachel?"
"Well, yes..?" Rachel set aside the book she hadn't been reading on the counter next to her -the light was too dim, and she couldn't stop herself from sneaking glances at Quinn, hoping to catch her eye and get her away from the others so they could have a much needed talk.
"And you had a bar mitzvah and stuff right?" The girl toed the carpet with a sock covered foot, biting her lip.
"A bat mitzvah, yes. Bar mitzvah's are what boys have." Rachel gently corrected, staring at Quinn as she read a picture book to Abby, Beth, Tiffany and Lord Tubbington. It was silly, but it seemed like the cat was actually listening.
Sarah winced, "Sorry. Do you know Hebrew? Puck only learned enough to get through his bar mitzvah, and he messed up a lot."
"I know Hebrew yes. I am quite fluent, Daddy insisted on it. I know far more then Spanish or French, I am only passable in French, and my Spanish…well, it could certainly use work..." Rachel trailed off and finally looked at the other girl, waiting for her to say where she was going with this line of thinking.
"Mom," Sarah whispered, then louder said, "Mom was learning Hebrew? She was on a learning her -our, roots kick. Said she wanted to learn Yiddish after she'd mastered Hebrew. And I thought…well, it'd be nice to learn it? Since she…can't any more. I've got her books with me, if that'll help? I wasn't going to bother to even have a bat mitzvah before, since Puck's was kinda a disappointment for him and Mom and really expensive too I think. I was little but I remember there was only like a couple dozen people there, so he was upset he didn't get all the presents mom said he would, and Mom was mad because he'd messed up a lot and didn't take it seriously. Mostly I remember because we were eating the leftovers for a few weeks, and they argued about it a lot."
Rachel's own bat mitzvah had been attended by nearly 200 people, and the money she'd collected from that night was a very large sum- a sum that had been significantly raised as her few elderly relatives had died off in the years following, leaving just her and her parents, and a cousin in Washington state that they did not see very often at all after he moved.
She'd planned on using the money for her first year's tuition and expenses after she graduated high school, to lessen the burden on her father's -less the cost of the car she'd been leasing. They had elected not to have Rachel drive it behind them because some part of them had thought things would go back to normal eventually, and hadn't wanted to risk damaging the car. And, of course, it was an electric car and had a limited charge range. Rachel had been thoroughly spoiled and refused to "damage" the earth by using gasoline in her car, and had actually argued about using gasoline with her parent's vehicle.
Of course, that money was now as useless as her car.
How foolish and naive she had been.
"So…" Sarah continued, "Can you teach me? Please? And maybe we can do a church thing too? I..want to try to…mom really wanted us to embrace our Jewish side."
"Temple. And I would be happy too," Rachel smiled at Sarah, who grinned at her back and snuggled the puppy in her arms.
It would be nice to do something besides pine after Quinn and mourn. It would not hurt, either, for Rachel to reconnect with her spirituality -a connection that had been severely lacking since that horrible first day.
Kurt frowned carefully at the window -he had this way of doing it that he swore ensured he wouldn't get frown lines when he was old.
Santana figured they had bigger things to worry about then frown lines, but whatever.
"It's really starting to snow pretty hard out there," he said, turning from the window and looking at all of them gathered in the living room. "We should move our vehicles to the garage."
When Quinn didn't answer, Santana drawled "Why?" as she tossed Beth's favorite stuffed animal against the far wall, and watched Beth toddle after it. When the toddler came back to Santana holding the bear out to Santana, she simply tossed the bear again.
Playing fetch with Beth was fun, and it annoyed Quinn (who was reading on the couch next to her, and begrudgingly letting this happen). Win win.
"Because it'll be a lot less work for me when the snow stops?" Kurt snipped, rolling his eyes, he faced them both, "There's just a bunch of things that could go wrong, and might not be able to fix easily given, you know, the zombies…like needing a new battery? Or spark plugs? Sooo…" he stared at Quinn.
"Next time you and Blaine go to work on the bus, take enough people with you to take all the cars? You're the expert, if you say we should then we will," Quinn looked up briefly from her book, nodding at Kurt, then rolling her eyes at Santana as Santana tossed the bear again, almost hitting Tina in the face.
"We'll need to figure out how to get inside the garage door since there's no power…" Kurt muttered.
"How's that bus coming along anyway," Santana asked, tossing the bear with a little extra strength and watching as it flew across the apartment, and bounced off of Blaine's head. Blaine gave a little sigh and a small shake of his head as he looked reproachfully at Santana.
Five points.
Kurt shrugged, and a light blush covered his face as he answered, "Fine."
Santana smirked at him, "I just bet it's coming along…loudly."
"Santana leave Kurt alone. And stop treating my baby like a dog," Quinn looked up from her book again, "Isn't there something you could be doing right now?"
"I bet I could teach Abby some interesting words." Santana grinned at Quinn.
"You're awful."
Santana stood up carefully, handing the bear back to Beth who looked confused on why Santana wasn't throwing it, "It's not my fault your kid got some weird dog genes from Puckerman that made her like playing fetch."
Quinn merely rolled her eyes, and Santana walked over to where Stevie and Kyle were sitting playing chess on a tiny travel board they'd found in one of the apartments, the lab puppy sprawled in between them. She ambled over there, and sat next to Kyle, gently pulling up the blanket that'd fallen back up his shoulders.
"Hey Squirt, how you feeling? And who's winning?" She leaned back, and patted the puppy on the stomach.
"I am," Kyle mumbled, "And okay I guess. I'm glad they found asthma medicine, I was getting scared."
"He was really scared about not being able to breathe Santana, and I let him have Midnight at his feet when we went to bed and that helped, " Stevie muttered, frowning with concentration as he used his queen to take one of Kyle's pawns.
"You do realize that dog is not black, right? That Midnight is a ridiculous name for her?" Santana reached over and moved Kyle's queen before the red haired boy could move it on his own.
"I was going to do that Santana," he grumbled, "And Midnight's a cool name. Sarah named the poodle Bacon."
"And Brittany named the lady German Sheppard Churchill," Santana said, shrugging, "But giving the dog a color name they aren't is just…lame."
"Stacy always wanted a dog named midnight," Stevie quietly said, looking down at the board and not meeting either of their eyes.
Santana felt like an ass. "Did I say lame? I meant cool. And if we find another dog you can name that one Midnight too."
She was bad with kids, point blank.
When Stevie didn't answer, Kyle said, "Wouldn't that get confusing having two dogs named the same thing?"
"Nahh, we could just name the new one Midnight Jr. or Midnight the second. That has a certain ring to it, doesn't it? Or we could just eat one of them."
"You are so weird Santana." Stevie said after both boys finished making it clear how gross eating a dog would be.
"And you, little Evans, are lucky you didn't get the lips your brother inherited from your mutual fish ancestor."
The snow fell.
And very quickly, they were snowed in.
One day turned into two, turned into three, turned into four. Finally, they'd been snowed in for five days.
They were low on firewood; they used a lot in order to keep them properly warm, fed, and watered.
They were worrying low on food. They had finally broken into Mack's emergency stash, and while really bland, it was food.
A few times during the long days, she caught herself looking at Abby, and wanting to go care for the girl.
Between Brittany and Quinn, Abby was now well taken care of. There was no reason for Rachel to take over Abby's care.
It was simple selfishness...and Rachel being pathetic.
Christopher was dead. Dahlia was being cared for exclusively by Kurt and Blaine (as it should be). Quinn would not even look at her, and whatever they had was quite clearly over, even if Rachel had yet had the chance to speak to Quinn and confirm it.
Rachel was sad and lonely and wanting affection, even if it was from a stolen child.
She was simply utterly pathetic.
She made herself keep busy -she had taken to preparing the lunch time meal, usually gathering the snow needed for the day too if Sam had not gotten to it first, and lugging up bundle after bundle of firewood from the first floor to the fourth.
And she made lists.
Obsessively.
Most of them were useless (although she did inspire a group conversation that lasted for a few hours when Santana saw her 'Celebrities likely Alive' list) -but a few weren't. Like the one that was a simple wardrobe overhaul from her current collection of clothing to items that would be useful during both the winter and summer -likely they would have to track down a specialized sporting goods store. If they managed to, she would only keep a few items in her wardrobe, and replace most.
Or books.
It would be extremely helpful if they tracked down a bookstore or three -she had lists and lists of what books they needed. It ranged from books on helping deal with death, to needed survival books, to schooling for the children.
She felt so old, so weary. Especially when she found herself in the kitchen, looking at their dwindling food supplies lower itself day by day.
They were all incredibly sick of oatmeal.
For an early Thanksgiving celebration, unable to wait till the actual day, they had killed two of the chickens and managed to make a weird type of bread with the last of the flour and corn meal. As Santana's birthday present, she got to split the last slice with Terri.
Rachel could begrudgingly admit that the chicken has been the best thing she had eaten in a very long while, even if she could not stop wondering if the other chickens missed the two they had killed.
It had been almost three weeks since Christopher had died, and Rachel hated how she had become, once more, used to being alone.
Used to death.
Used to the constant gnawing fear as their food supply steadily grew lower and lower.
Despite the efforts made by Brittany, Tina, and even Santana to be friendly to her -and of course there were her tentative fumbling friendship renewal with Blaine, she longed for Quinn, even their unsatisfactory relationship would be better than being so alone. Pity was no match for a true connection.
They were all worried. An unvoiced worry that interrupted sleep, and made those with children to think about spoon a few bites of their food into the kid's bowl. Rachel had even caught Brittany putting some of her food into Santana's bowl when the other girl wasn't looking. Quinn looked weary and tired, and Rachel had wondered more than once if it was concern about their food, or about their relationship that kept the pink haired girl up...then had felt incredibly selfish about thinking that whatever they'd had but clearly no longer did would keep Quinn up at night where there were much more pressing concerns.
She had been surprised to see Santana spooning food into Kyle's bowl as well as Sarah's, taking turns with Sam to give the red haired boy, who was still rather weak, in giving the child extra food.
Rachel found herself spending quite a bit of time with Sarah, which helped the loneliness greatly. Every few days or so, when one of them had an inkling, Rachel would read from the Torah to Sarah, and teach the girl a bit of Hebrew -moving slowly, clumsily using three books that Sarah had taken from her mother's belongings to help. It made Rachel realize that they should definitely implement some sort of school for the children, but that was not really a huge concern at the moment.
Not that she knew for sure, well, anything. Quinn wouldn't look at her, wouldn't answer her unless someone was paying attention (because heaven forbid they suspect Quinn of anything) and when she did, it was monosyllabic answers.
Granted, Quinn was speaking to everyone like that, so perhaps it was worry about their food situation, and how they were going to find more when the snow constantly falling, and being so deep it covered the front door of the building. The few times Rachel had looked outside, she had not seen anything besides whirling falling snow. She had no doubts the smaller houses had snow up to the roofs.
Surely the zombies had to have frozen by now? Surely there was no earthly way possible they had not frozen -if it was a person out there, not a zombie, they would have frozen ten times over by now.
Rachel was a little envious about her lack of someone to care about that she'd sacrifice a few precious bites of food for them.
It was rather messed up. She had thought about slipping Sarah a few bites of food -but, selfishly, she reasoned she needed every meager bit for herself, and Sarah was in no more danger then the rest of them.
They were already well into Mack's supply of dehydrated food and jerky -Rachel had at first refused the jerky, silently giving it to whoever was nearest to her with it was doled out, but had eventually caved, and with visions of helpless baby cows mooing at her accusingly dancing in her eyes, had eaten it.
They had joined her nightmares, lately usually devoured by her zombie parents, still mooing at Rachel accusingly as they got bloody bites ripped out of them.
"Santana please stop drawing on my sister," Blaine sighed weary. Kurt, added snippily, "Really Santana?"
"Don't get your panties twisted with Blaine's, Kurt. Unless you two are into that. She looks cool and it's nontoxic and washable. "
Kurt tisked her, "You drew a barbed wire tattoo on her arm."
"Yeah, it's ironic. Can't wait till Terri's spawn is old enough to draw on -I've got plans for a wicked back tat."
Rachel stirred the big pot of oatmeal carefully, with even measured stirs. The fire threw out a merry looking light that, combined with the heat, almost made the living room cozy, and a small smile, amused at Santana's antics with their second youngest member slipped through even as she carefully watched the spoon.
It would not do for her to waste a single drop because it went over the side of the pot onto the floor.
(Speaking of the floor, it was filthy. It needed a good sweeping, and the tile could use a mopping as well. Likely no one had thought to do so. She would after lunch. It was not as though she had anything else to do today. Sarah and she had already had their lesson, -she simply could not attempt to read again, still unable to concentrate on the words with just the dim light provided by the few candles Quinn had allotted for their use.)
The oatmeal had been carefully rationed out. As well as the baby formula that they had taken to adding to their meals to give everyone some extra calories and fats.
Apparently, baby formula did not have a long shelf life once opened, and considering a good portion of the formula they had found in the home day care downstairs had been opened, it had been decided to only give what they opened to Dahlia just in case.
(Terri had, surprisingly, and rather, in Rachel's opinion, uncharacteristically, offered to breastfeed Dahlia in addition to Theresa as long as she had the milk so that they would be able to stretch out the formula they had for Dahlia. Likely because she got a bit more extra food on top of the extra she was already receiving, but perhaps she had bonded a bit with the baby, or it was mothering instincts coming out. Who knew.)
And then they had gotten low on food, and it was decided to use it.
Well, Brittany had decided -and no one had noticed until she had mentioned it.
Rachel had certainly felt a bit less hungry after their meager meal had been pumped up a bit with the formula; everyone else had certainly seemed to feel the same, because no one voiced an opinion one way or another about it.
So whoever's turn it was to make their meals that day simply added a few scoops per person. They were racing against the clock on how bad the formula went, already a few cans were starting to brown.
It was another thing in the long list of everything going wrong.
The snow's continuous falling would likely be number one on everyone else's list, since it impeded their attempts at fixing number two on the list -low food supply. And while, yes, it was worrisome that the snow had fallen enough that the front door to their building was blocked, and they were running incredibly low on food…but Rachel was selfish enough to admit her number one was simply Quinn.
As silly was it to be concerned about relationship matters. Or in this case, lack of relationship.
Quinn still would not look at Rachel. She avoided Rachel. And oh how it stung every time Rachel did catch her eyes, Quinn would look away.
"Shit."
Shocked that Sam was cursing, she almost dropped the spoon in the oatmeal before turning and watching as he came in, stomping snow off his boots. Everyone was looking at him as he set down the buckets with fresh snow for their water in it, then took off his coat.
"Sam?" Quinn asked, clutching Beth to her.
"There's…there's zombies outside. Under the snow." Sam scowled, the look was rather off putting seeing on his face, "We're going to have to get our snow off the balconies now. Or the roof? Somehow."
"Under the snow? How…they didn't know we were here." Kurt spat out, then leaned against Blaine, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths.
"We…" Blaine said softly, "When we left the house and came back, there was a…gaggle of them surrounding us. I didn't…I didn't think they'd follow us here, or stick around. I'm sorry. I-"
"You were sick." Quinn cut him off, and stood up, Beth on her hip. She looked at Beth, and Rachel could practically see the wheels turning in her head, "We'll draw them away. Next break in the snow we'll leave, and only travel when it's not snowing. We need to get food anyway."
"That could take days," Tina whispered, "When was the last time it stopped snowing for longer than twenty minutes?"
"I know. Tomorrow morning if it doesn't stop today. Volunteer only." Quinn nuzzled Beth, wrapping her arms tighter around the toddler.
Rachel did not know who she was most envious of -Quinn, or Beth.
She set the spoon down carefully, and grabbed the pot by the handles, carried it to the kitchen, where she set it neatly on a trivet next to the stack of bowls ready to be filled.
Licking her lips, she turned and said, "I am going."
She looked Quinn straight in the eyes.
Quinn didn't look away.
And Rachel felt a little spark of hope.
Quinn Fabray was not going to continue ignoring her -one way or another, they were going to talk. Even if it was just to get confirmation that their seed of a relationship was dead before it could even really sprout.
It did not stop snowing by the time the children were in their beds, in that small slice of time before the rest of them went to sleep as well. They went to bed fairly early, which wasn't a huge surprise. It was difficult to get anything done in the candle light, and they were all rather tired by then anyway.
Rachel looked around at everyone gathered in the living room, surrounding the low fire, and stood up from where she had been perched on the couch.
She had been musing that those who were not at the Veterinary Clinic likely did not know what had happened. And it was likely still on Quinn's mind, and perhaps it was fair to tell everyone what had happened, what they had done, just to clear the air.
Hopefully it would make Quinn feel better about what had happened, if it was indeed still on her mind.
"I believe we should speak about what happened when we went out for medicine," she said, her voice low but clear, looking at everyone one at a time as she spoke.
Sam looked ill at the thought, Kurt looked bored, Brittany looked sad, and Quinn looked anywhere but at Rachel.
Tina, Santana, Terri and Blaine looked confused.
Blaine broke the silence, "What exactly happened?" he asked quietly, eyes darting from Rachel to look at Kurt. Prompting Kurt to drolly explained what had happened to the quartet, who listened to every word.
"We did what we had to do. And no one, certainly not Quinn, can fault us for that," Kurt finished, tossing a glare at Quinn.
"Kurt," Rachel said forcefully, "Leave Quinn alone. It is not…it is not the same situation at all."
Kurt turned his glare to Rachel, "It's not? How exactly is it different? Why are you defending her? She killed your mother. I'd never forgive any one of you if you'd murdered my dad. Not even Blaine."
"We…" Sam clutched Churchill, who was half on his lap, closer to him, "We killed those people and took their stuff. And we have to live with that. Rachel's right -what Quinn did to Shelby isn't the same thing at all."
Santana looked at Brittany, "All of you?" Her voice had gone higher looking at Brittany.
Brittany nodded, "Me too. I shot her in the stomach...You were so sick Sanny. Tiffany too. And Christopher had died…they wanted to trade for food, but we didn't have enough for what we needed," Brittany set down her knitting, "I don't like hurting people, and I really don't like guns. There was so much blood."
"They…implied we could trade…sexual favors," Quinn said quietly, "Or at least, the leader…looked Brittany up and down…I don't know if I saw what I thought I saw..."
"I…did not get that impression," Rachel said carefully, "but I doubt it was off the table."
"Well, I don't care what you had to do to get it, I'm just glad you did," Terri said tiredly, stroking the top of Theresa's head lightly as she carefully held the baby.
Theresa would have almost certainly died without the medicine. Dahlia too.
They had done the right thing.
"We could have traded most of the chickens," Quinn said softly, staring at the fire, "It didn't have to happen like it did. It shouldn't have happened like that."
"They tried to trick us, trade our weapons for everything we needed, just so they could kill us because we couldn't give into their ridiculous trade wishes." Kurt spat.
"We don't know that. They could have legitimately decided to trade us what we needed," Quinn said softly.
"I…I don't get how you can be upset about this Quinn," Tina said tentatively, "You..you did kill Shelby. I don't know if you have the…right? To be upset about what happened…Rachel, yes, but you?"
There was a pregnant pause, no one wanting to address the elephant in the room that was Shelby's ghost. Not even Rachel. Finally, she sighed, "I believe that as soon as we stumbled upon them, one group was going to die. It was inevitable. Either it was all of us, or all of them. That is…that is simply the world we live in now, as sad as it is. Perhaps, should the situation arise again, we attempt a more…diplomatic approach first, but at that moment, we were desperate and running on fumes."
"And they had everything, and wouldn't budge an inch," Sam muttered, "I've dreamed about the man I killed every night since. And I don't know if I'll ever stop dreaming about him. I…I hope I won't ever have to do something like that again -but I had to protect Stevie…Kyle..Terri's baby, everyone. So…I hope I never have to do it again, but..if I have to, I will."
Rachel looked at Sam, really looked at him -and saw the bags under his eyes, the slight scruff on his face that hinted at the light brown beard he may one day be old enough to grow properly. Sam even looked..smaller, somehow.
But that could be explained by the lack of a proper amount of food for a teenage boy. A summer being a constant presence at the Hudson-Hummel household with three or four or more teenage boys in attendance (even Kurt seemed to eat massive amounts) had showed Rachel just how much a growing boy could eat.
Quinn was looking unseeing at the fire, and Rachel, as upset as she was with Quinn, felt a stab of sympathy.
"Please…please," Rachel said clearly, "Please remember how upsetting and traumatizing that first day was. I know most of us lost our families then, but some of us," she looked pointedly at Kurt, "did not until later. Now try to imagine that on top of losing your family in a traumatic and awful way, you have had issues over the past year that centralized on one person in particular, who came back suddenly into your life. It is no wonder that Quinn was a little crazy that first day. I have forgiven Quinn, and think it is quite unfair of any of you to throw Shelby in Quinn's face. That is only my right -either you respect Quinn enough, as a person and our leader, to allow her, her own opinions without bringing Shelby up every time you disagree with her or you do not. In that case, we shall, right now, vote someone else as a leader. Who shall it be?" When no one spoke up, Rachel softly added, "I for one do not want that burden on my shoulders. And I admire Quinn for taking it when she has her daughter and niece to think about."
If she was being truthful, strictly speaking she would gladly wear the mantle of leadership but so far Quinn had done a decent enough job, and Rachel very much doubted anyone would really listen to her anyway.
Another longer, pregnant pause, before Santana laughed, "You know for sure it's the apocalypse if Rachel freaking Berry doesn't want to be in charge."
"Indeed," Rachel said, smiling at the other girl. She did not think that was funny enough to laugh at, but no one else laughed either so there was that too.
"I…I'd like to say that I'd be with Kurt on this," Santana shook her head, "But I wasn't there so I can't really say. I hope things go peachy keen for us and no one has to make a choice like that again. How have you guys not mentioned this since it happened?"
"To be fair," Blaine pointed out, "The first few days we were all rather sick or just too busy."
"Killing people is bad, but they were killing us first by not helping," Brittany said quietly.
Rachel did wish that Brittany had not killed anyone. There was something about Brittany that should be protected, the same as the children. Even if Brittany was her elder.
"So now that we have all their medicine and first aid supplies, enough to last us a few years, even after handling whatever we were all sick with, if someone finds us and they need medicine, we should give them some right?" Quinn asked, meeting everyone's eyes.
Rachel shook her head, "If they have children, proof of those children, then of course…anyone else….I believe we would have to handle it on a case by case basis."
"And …trade maybe?" Kurt added.
"So we're really no better than them, are we?" Quinn pointed out.
"We're alive." Kurt shrugged, "I don't like that we had to kill them. Who would? But I'm not going to cry about it or anything. We did what we had to do -anyone else would have done the same thing. We aren't saint's, we shouldn't be afraid to get our hands dirty to protect ourselves. I think…I think even my dad would say the same. He was a good guy -but he would have put me, us, first. "
"I think you are correct Kurt -perhaps at first he would be more generous…but he would have learned, eventually. As we have." Rachel put her hands over the fire, warming them for a moment, before interrupting the silence in the room by adding, "We should have talks like this regularly, I think. It is important we do so." She couldn't put into words just at the moment, why it was important, but everyone seemed to be on the page if the quiet agreements that followed her words were any indication.
The next morning, they'd rushed through their morning tasks, Beth and Abby safely held in the playpen, while Terri watched over Dahlia as the baby sat on a blanket on the floor making grabby hands at Churchill, who would occasionally nose the baby, making her giggle, but seemed to be keeping a watchful eye on everyone.
Rachel didn't know if she'd spent too much time around Lord Tubbington or not, but she was starting to think Brittany was some sort of magic witch when it came to training animals. The blonde girl spent the most time with Churchill, but …Bacon (she strongly suspected that Quinn had a hand in naming that dog, even if Sarah insisted otherwise) and Midnight spent time with Brittany each day as well and it showed.
Once Sam opened the front door, back up from checking on and taking care of their chickens, Quinn put a hand drawn map of the area around their building on the table.
Unsurprisingly, everyone except Terri had volunteered to go out in search of supplies.
Rachel suspected it was more of a case of cabin fever than anything else.
Quinn waited until Sam had finished taking off layers of clothing and hanging them up, joining them at the table, to start talking.
"Alright, here is, given everyone's memories before the snow turned it into a winter wonderland, a very basic map. There is a lot of houses we haven't checked out," She pointed to the buildings crossed off, "and here's the one's we have. We're going to go outside, and draw away the zombies surrounding the building. We'll try to kill them, if we can, otherwise, someone's going to go walking for a while with the snowshoes then fire a gun, and hopefully that'll get them away."
"Maybe they shouldn't go alone..?" Tina suggested.
"Two someone's will walk a while with the snow shoes then fire a gun, drawing them away hopefully," Quinn corrected herself, "While the rest of us take the houses in pairs. Go in, stuff your bags with food first. If there's room, toilet paper, diapers. Anything else we might want -blankets, clothes, books, whatever, put in the kitchen. Then get out, and unload at the sled, and go back in if there's more food to get. If not, move on to your next house. Each pair gets two houses, hopefully that'll be enough food to last us a while, and we won't have to go out again until the snow isn't as deep."
"How shall we pair up?" Rachel asked, carefully looking at Quinn.
"I don't know yet -we'll see. Anything else?" When no one answered, Quinn said, "Well, then get dressed, get your weapons, and let's go."
Santana fiddled with the baseball bat slung across her back, and double checked on the gun she'd claimed as her's and triple checked she had extra ammo stuffed in her pockets, that her flashlight worked, then she messed with the straps of her backpack, adjusting it as she waited for everyone else to finish their own adjustments and checks.
It was probably really messed up she was looking forward to killing zombies and going through houses.
She just hated feeling so useless, and depending on everyone else to make sure they had food and protection -to make sure Brittany, Brittany and Tiffany, had food and protection.
That was Santana's job -to protect and take care of her lady. She'd always planned on taking care of Brittany once they'd graduated, had been doing her damnest to make sure Brittany graduated, and it was like a thorn under her skin to not be able to take care of her and her sister until now.
And finally, after what seemed like for freaking ever, she was able too.
After Brittany had freaking killed someone.
Frankly, learning that had made her want to cry. And she'd done so, in the privacy of their bed later that night -big blubbery embarrassing tears while Brittany comforted her.
She could put up with a lot -zombies, her injuries, death, whatever, but Brittany killing someone because they needed what those people had?
That was going to take some getting used to.
"Are you lameos ready yet?" Santana drawled, unable to keep the grin off her face as she looked at the window they were forced to climb through since the door was way too blocked to try to open.
She was seriously messed up.
"Yeah, I think we are," Quinn rolled her eyes.
"I call first out the window," she grinned, and shoved the curtain aside to the open window. The snow had fallen so much that it was nearly level with the windows.
They were on the second floor. Santana was trying really hard not to think about how freaking scary that was. Like, sure, she'd lived in Ohio her whole life and they'd had some nasty snow storms before...but nothing like this.
She stepped out of the window, and stood next to the window, leaning in and calling, "Hurry up slow pokes."
She stepped aside, taking a few tentative steps away from the building. Grinning, because even though it was cold as heck, despite her being bundled up, it was nice to be outside, she started walking backwards away from the window, calling out to Tina and Rachel, who were peering through the window looking around, "Hey hurry up, sooner we get down, sooner we get bac-"
She fell through the snow, unable to finish her sentence. Stupid of her to assume it was solid enough.
She hit the ground with a thump, and was stunned for a moment, the breath knocked out of her.
She was in a freaking snow tunnel.
Unable to breath, and not quite sure what she was seeing, she tried to stand up, but ended up settling for leaning against the wall.
She heard a low moan, and a zombie stumbled towards her.
Then the zombie grinned at her, black goop falling out of its mouth.
In its hand, it clutched a shovel.
No way.
No fucking way was this zombie smart enough to dig a freaking tunnel to eat their brains. She had hit her head when she fell in a soft spot of the snow or something. And this was an awful hallucination
No way was this real.
It swung the shovel at her head, and she barely managed to avoid it.
She could hear the other's calling her name, and couldn't let out a single scream as she tried to breath, and dodge the zombie's attack.
The gun. She had a gun. She fumbled, trying to find it -she'd dropped it when she fell.
Crap.
Low moans seemed to answer the zombie with the shovel, and Santana felt fear curl up inside of her, the likes of which she hadn't felt any time lately if ever.
Hoping that she just hit her head really hard, and that the zombie wasn't smart enough to organize the other zombies to dig tunnels to get up to their windows and eat their tasty brains, she scrambled towards the building, barely dodging the zombie and it's shovel as she did so.
She just needed to get to a window, or at least the hole she made when she fell in.
"Santana?" Tina's voice said, before the girl herself hopped down through the hole Santana was rushing towards.
"Zombie with shovel." Santana gasped out, fumbling for her bat as Tina raised her own.
Thumps answered her, and she turned around to see the zombie on the ground, the shovel useless by its side.
She didn't know if it was really dead though, and there wasn't time to see before a zombie shuffled towards them, Tina taking care of it before Santana could react.
And then the second.
And the third.
At the fourth, the others were prying to nearest window open, and calling for them to hurry up and climb in.
Santana had to grab Tina's arm, and drag her towards the window, tossing her bat through she scrambled through it, the others pulling her, then Tina through.
Quinn slammed the window shut, and they all watched as zombie after zombie came forward.
There were so many.
Santana could only lean against the wall, still trying to catch her breath as she stared out the window -she only had a second of that before Brittany had her arms wrapped around Santana.
"Thank you Tina." Brittany finally said when she deemed Santana hugged enough.
"Yeah, thanks Tina Warrior Princess*, Xena's got nothing on you," Santana manage to gasp out, "My gun's down there somewhere."
"Yes. I do not believe we will be recovering it anytime soon. There is…quite a few zombies." Rachel said frowning.
That was an understatement.
"Did you get the freaky one trying to shovel me?" When Tina nodded, Santana added, "It's totally dead right?"
"Is it possible there's people out there who dug the tunnels and filled them with zombies? I mean…you had quite a fall. And, well, it's a zombie that used a shovel and lead the others…that sounds...?" Blaine asked.
"It's dead Santana. Blaine, I saw it too. It had a shovel in its hands." Tina closed the curtain and wrapped her arms around herself.
"We have to assume there is tunnels filled with zombies leading from Terri's house," Rachel mused, "As crazy as that sounds."
"So what do we do now? We can't check out any of the houses on the map now." Kurt grumbled, "We can't even go back to the garage."
"First we put what we can against the windows on the first floor, then try fill the tunnel in a few feet from the building, hopefully that was the only freaky smart zombie," Quinn said, "Then we grab the phone book and the actual map, and see what's close enough."
"I suppose it is too much to wish that there will be a grocery store that is untouched and empty of zombies just a mere blocks away?" Rachel sighed as they starting lugging bookcases towards the window.
Santana held Brittany's hand the entire way back up to their apartment.
There was a small elementary school within a mile of their location.
They had utterly missed it when they had gone out in search of medicine as it wasn't relevant at the time.
They were awash with the possibilities -none of them were quite sure how much food a school kept on hand at all times, but at the very least it should be enough to last them a while, hopefully until the snow was more manageable. Rachel sincerely hoped there was enough food that it would require multiple trips to gather it all.
They took the sled again, as well as everyone equipped with backpacks. Blaine had reluctantly stayed behind with Terri after Quinn had insisted -it was quite possible they would be gone a few days, and no one had wanted to leave her totally alone with two babies, two toddlers, and four children. As it was it was well past noon when they'd left after repacking their things, so at the very least they likely wouldn't return until tomorrow.
At first, Sam, Quinn, and Brittany wore the snowshoes, and pulled the sled. The rest of them rode on the sled -it wasn't ideal, but them walking behind the sled just did not work.
It took five hours to get to the school -five long, cold, hours -they had to constantly stop and dig out street signs to check and make sure they were going the right way, and Rachel insisted roughly the halfway point that Sam, Quinn, and Brittany take a turn riding. Tina, Kurt, Rachel, moved far slower pulling the sled then the original trio.
Brittany left yarn tied somewhere visible every time they stopped, to hopefully guide them easier on the way back.
The snow was falling lazily by the time the school was visible. Rachel lead the way to the covered front of the school -it was barely visible between the snow piled on the roof, and the snow in front. As Kurt and Sam started digging a path down and under, the others started a small fire with tiny bits of wood they'd brought with them, using themselves as best they could to protect the little fire -they'd brought stacks of wood for night time, even though it took up precious space on the sled.
None of them wanted to freeze to death during the night.
Sam and Kurt finished digging the rough stairs down to the school by the time the snow was done boiling -Rachel handed them both a mug of hot water she'd set in the snow to cool, taking care to protect it from the snow still falling, and both boys drank deeply as they followed the girls down the stairs into the covered area.
They all took turns sipping their hot water, before Quinn spoke, "Cafeteria first. We get everything we can. Everyone fill your bags up until you can barely carry them, and pile on the sled. Then hit the nurses section. If it's not too late- we can look through teacher's desks, whatever. Maybe they've got some snowshoes or hell, tennis rackets we can use. We stick together -one person on watch at all times."
"Do you think they'll be zombies?" Santana asked, twirling her bat.
Quinn shrugged, "There's zombies everywhere."
"I hope we don't see much more than a zombie cafeteria lady," Tina said.
"Surely there will not be many children, if any?" Rachel asked. She did not want to see another zombie child ever again. Brittany's face had paled, and Rachel was sure the tall blonde girl was in agreement.
"God, I hope not considering this is a freaking elementary school, but ….maybe?" Quinn shrugged again, and stood in front of the large glass doors that lead to the school. She pulled at one, then said, "Locked. That's a good sign, I think? Everyone have their bags, weapons, and flashlights?" After a chorus of yeses, Quinn nodded, "Alright, Rachel, do the honors."
She was certain that was the first time Quinn had said her name since Santana had caught them kissing. Rachel, with the help of Sam, pried open the doors with her crowbar.
Quinn stepped through the doors, snapping on her flashlight. One by one, they followed her.
"Remember, no guns unless there's no choices," Quinn muttered as they walked through the dark halls, occasionally checking the fire exit route maps to make sure they were on the right path to the cafeteria.
There were posters and drawing all along the walls. As they walked, Rachel wondered if Ione was alive, or if she'd died along with her dreams of being 6th grade class president.
Finally, they stood, breathing out foggy, icy cold breath, in front of the doors that lead to the cafeteria.
Quinn gripped the door, double checking it was unlocked, then pulled it open, allowing Sam and Tina to go through first. Santana opened the other one, and the five of them followed. Rachel propped them both open, reasoning it would make things easier if the doors just remained open.
It was dark and cavernous in the cafeteria. Sam was snapping on his flashlight when a growl came from their right.
"Zombie lunch lady," Tina grinned, and headed towards the sound as Sam pointed his flashlight towards the area.
"Uh, that's weird," Sam said, stepping to join Tina as they all stared at the fort made of cafeteria tables.
"Do you think we are perhaps not alone here?" Rachel asked, snapping on her flashlight and shining it at the fort as well.
"Well, 48 hours ago I would have said of course not, zombies can't freaking build….but, well…" Santana turned on her light too, she shined it around, "Hey Britt's, look, Snapple machine."
Kurt stepped away from where he'd been staring at the odd fort, and joined the pair, asking "Is there peach flavor? It's Blaine's favorite…"
That left Rachel and Quinn alone. Her very cells seemed to vibrate standing so close to Quinn. She looked at the pink haired girl, telling herself it was not appropriate to try to speak to her right now about anything not related to their task.
"Let's go check out the kitchen," Quinn called.
"I'm going to take care of this one first," Tina said, "No sense in leaving it at our backs, right?" The light from Sam's flashlight cast odd shadows on Tina's face as she grinned at Quinn.
And suddenly the world was a roar of activity.
There were so many tiny forms streaming out of the fort, growling, it was so loud, there had to be a hundred, although it was so difficult to tell with only flashlights.
Rachel could only stand there in shock as Sam's light went out, barely noticing Santana pull Kurt and Brittany out a side door, as Quinn grabbed her hand and pulled her away and out another door.
Santana let out a growl of frustration, "Did either of you see what happened to Sam and Tina?" she whispered harshly, clutching her bat tightly.
They'd ran the way they'd come from, up and out of the makeshift snow stairs, and to a nearby house.
They were safe. And it sucked, because Sam, Quinn, Rachel, and Tina were still in that school. Santana had tried to go back, but Kurt and Brittany both had pulled her away, Kurt whispering roughly that there was too many zombies, and Brittany adding a number that was her best approximation, that Santana had already forgotten.
"Nooo…I just saw Quinn pull Rachel out of another door." Kurt shook his head, and resumed trying to coax the small fire to life.
They'd really lucked out on the first two story house they'd went to had been empty of zombies, but had enough wood inside they wouldn't freeze to death tonight.
"I didn't see anything after Sam's light went out," Brittany said, she looked at Santana with sad eyes, "Do you think they're all dead?"
"I…I don't know," She admitted, "Quinn and Rachel might be okay, if they can make it through the night. Sam and Tina..probably?"
She swung her bat, and sent a lamp flying against the wall.
It shattered in dozens of pieces.
Dropping her bat, she walked into the kitchen, and opened one of the cabinets, and grinned toothily when she found the one with the plates. She smashed each and every plate, and was reaching for the bowls when Brittany carefully made her way through the carnage, Kurt hovering nearby, and stopped her.
"Sanny." Brittany's voice was low and gentle.
Breathing heavily, struggling against the tears that wanted to fall from her eyes, Santana turned, "Tomorrow. As soon as we can, we go back. I don't care how many creepy little kid zombies are in the building, we're not letting any of them walk around trying to eat the people. We owe them that, at least."
Kurt didn't look like he agreed, but wisely he simply nodded rather then risk her anger. Brittany simply wrapped her arms around Santana, pulling the her close.
That night they all cried together -Santana didn't even bother to threaten Kurt into not telling anyone she'd blubbered like a giant baby.
Quinn closed the door behind them loudly, then pulled Rachel away, grabbing the other girl's hand again after she'd been forced to let go in order to make sure the door was shut. She didn't think about where they were going -just that they had to get away from all those zombies.
She'd seen enough to know that there was too many of them to even think about taking care of.
Finally, Quinn pulled them into a room that turned out to be a small nurses office. The only window was large, and almost completely blocked with snow. Silently, the pair pulled the desk and cot up against the door.
Then they sat quietly for several minutes.
Quinn knew she should say something trite, like "Everyone's okay."
They likely weren't though. Sam and Tina, at least, were dead. Santana, Brittany, and Kurt might or might not be.
She wondered what Blaine, Terri and the kids were going to do if none of them came back.
She snorted quietly to herself, she knew what Blaine would do. He'd go out by himself, and go overboard trying to take care of everyone until he died. Then it'd just be Terri, Beth and the others.
And Quinn was pretty sure Terri would try to take care of everyone as long as she could, but Quinn had no doubts one day, Terri would have enough of worrying about other people's children, and the kids would wake up and she and Theresa would be gone.
She was pretty sure Sarah, Stevie and Kyle could manage to take care of Tiffany, Beth and Abby, but Dahlia was probably too little. Maybe. Sarah was almost 10, maybe she could manage. And that's assuming Kyle and Stevie even listened to her. Stevie was still being a jerk to her, clearly not coping with his sister's death well.
They needed some books or something, none of them had any idea how to help a kid through that. Maybe there would have been something in the library here, but obviously that wasn't going to happen.
Beth. She wished she didn't have to leave Beth -taking care of her was hard, yes, and worrying over her and Abby and the other children was harder, but now that she had her daughter back…
God, why did she always say it like that to herself?
Because it was easier then saying, "She murdered Shelby and kidnapped Beth."
She was delusional.
And it wasn't helping that Rachel kept defending her.
Even after Quinn had been fully ready to leave her to Santana's possible wraith alone, coward that Quinn was.
"I'm sorry," she muttered quietly, her eyes looking anywhere but at Rachel.
She'd dropped her flashlight somewhere, but still had on her backpack. At least the Glock was still firm in its holster, alone with her machete.
Rachel had her flashlight, her rifle slung across her back, the crowbar clutched tightly in her other hand, and her backpack still on. Even in the dim light, Quinn could see Rachel looked perfectly put together, besides the faint flush in her cheeks.
Rachel started looking around the room with her flashlight, taking a moment to do so before replying, "I hardly think it is your fault the school was swarming with zombies, Quinn."
"No," Rachel wasn't going to make this easier for her, and she shouldn't, "No, for leaving you to Santana's mercy. I'm glad she was just annoyed she lost some stupid bet…but if she had, I don't know, attacked you? I would have let her. I'm an awful person, and I'm so sorry. You deserve better. If it wasn't for me…." Quinn couldn't even finish, a long held back sob escaped her throat.
"Quinn?" The thread of concern in Rachel's voice, instead of just the cold politeness that had been their earlier made Quinn cry harder, "Quinn please cry quieter, you are likely attracting unwanted attention."
Then Rachel set about gathering things off the shelves into neat piles.
When Quinn finished sobbing, hiccuping slightly, and annoyed wiping at her eyes, feeling awful and embarrassed, she turned back to Rachel.
Rachel finally looked up at her, from where she'd been stacking tongue depressors and cotton balls next to the small metal trashcan, and said softly, "Do you feel better now?"
"A little." And she did -she still felt crappy but not as much.
Rachel nodded, "Good. Now, please open the window, I am going to attempt to make a small fire, but only if we are able to get the window open a bit to ensure we do not suffer from carbon monoxide poison. Assuming you have Mack's lighter on you."
"I always have it on me," Quinn said, taking it out of an inner pocket in her jacket and handing it to Rachel, their fingers brushing, before stepping the two steps towards the window, picking up Rachel's crowbar along the way.
They worked quietly, before Quinn knew it she had the window open enough they wouldn't die in their sleep, and Rachel had a small fire crackling in the trashcan.
It was almost cozy, if you ignored the fact that they could hear the shuffling and moans outside the door, that they were trapped, and that at least a two of them were dead.
Maybe, maybe they could get the window open all the way and then dig their way out, but that'd have to wait until morning -there was no way they'd survive outside during night time.
They'd been sitting in silence, the flashlight propped up on the counter casting a dim glow through the room, sipping hot water (Rachel had a small pan in her bag, they all had a mug in their backpacks, and they gathered the snow as best they could from the window) and occasionally eating one of their five allotted lollipops from a jar on the counter, when Rachel said quietly, "Do you really want to be with me Quinn? Truly? Because your actions thus far say otherwise from your words."
Quinn swallowed the water in her mouth, and stared at Rachel, "I do. God, I have for a while. When you were with Jesse, I must have listened to Jesse's Girl hundreds of times."
Guilt every time she'd turned on the song, self loathing, nothing new. Once, she'd even daydreamed about keeping the baby, and raising her with Rachel, in a world where magically everything was okay with two teenage mother's raising an infant in high school by themselves while still somehow achieving their dreams.
"I am glad to hear that, truly, but….I cannot do this Quinn. Life is too fragile, too precious, and I refuse to have another dream that does not get a chance to flourish. Either we are together, or we are not. One more chance, Quinn, is all I am willing to give you, even if it means being alone." There was a thread of sad finality in Rachel's words.
"I…I can't help but wonder if I hadn't killed Shelby, if you and the others…wouldn't have been so quick to kill those people. Even Brittany…I'm just awful. I don't even know how you can forgive me for that…" Quinn said in a rush, not meeting Rachel's eyes.
Rachel sighed, "I am so very tired of Shelby's ghost hanging over us, of you using any excuse you can grab onto. What happened with those people would have happened no matter Shelby's fate, Quinn."
"You look so much like her, sometimes it's hard to look at you," Quinn whispered.
"I am not her. Perhaps we share some similarities and characters, but…" Rachel set down her mug, and scooted closer to Quinn, taking her cold hand that wasn't holding the mug, "Look at me Quinn. I am Rachel Barbra Berry, and once upon a time I was a future Broadway star with two loving parents who thought she was going to live happily ever after with Finn Hudson, somehow. Now I am simply a survivor. I wish to be yours, and have you be mine in kind, but I cannot do so with you hiding yourself as you are. There is enough going on that all this is quite silly to devote energy and time too."
Quinn stared at Rachel, unsure if Rachel meant her words, if Quinn was brave enough. Maybe it'd stop the nightmares she had of Shelby -she invaded her already horrible nightmares of the kids starving to death, of Beth turning into a zombie.
"We might not even get out of here alive, Rachel, and you're right."
Then Quinn kissed her.
She was already pretending to know what the hell she was doing being the leader of their little group, what was wrong with pretending to accept herself, faults and all?
At dawn, they were up. They'd shoved all the food they had found into Kurt's bag, which was the largest, and the rest into Santana's and Brittany's, along with the other things they wanted, like toilet paper or some toys for the kids.
"I'm so glad Rachel made us dress extra warmly," Santana muttered as she zipped up her snow coat. She hadn't wanted to wear it -it was hideous, but Rachel had insisted they dress for the weather. Mostly Santana had argued just to annoy Rachel -she wasn't an idiot, obviously they had dress for snow, not for looking hella cool.
Kurt was zipping up his own hideous snow coat, and sighed loudly, then said, "Brittany do you know what song you want us to sing?"
After their crying fit, they'd tried to sleep, but instead ended up talking about their plan of action for today. Eventually, after much arguing, it was decided that they'd dig a shallow hole that hopefully the zombies would be lured into by Brittany and Kurt singing a song. Then Santana would simply put down as many as she could until they found the others, and after they were put down, they'd go back to the apartment -stopping to loot a few places on the way to hopefully get enough food they could not worry about that for a while.
It wasn't the best plan, but it was the best they could come up with.
"A rock song?" Brittany said zipping up her boots.
Kurt rolled his eyes, before he could answer, Santana snapped, "Figure it out later, we've got a hole to dig."
It took them a bit to get back to the sled, where the shovels and snowshoes waited, covered in a few inches of snow.
It took much longer to dig the shallow trench, fix up the stairs, prop the doors open, build a snow wall, and move the sled away to the back of the closest house.
"Alright," Santana nodded at them once all three were strapped into the snowshoes, "Fire your guns if they don't fall in or enough of them aren't coming."
"Be careful Santana," Brittany whispered softly.
Santana reached a gloved hand up, and gently caressed what bit of Brittany's face showed between her hat, hood, and scarf. "I will. You too -don't be afraid to shoot Kurt in the kneecap and run if you need to."
Kurt huffed, "That's not funny Santana."
"Don't worry Kurt, I wouldn't do that." Brittany said serenely, "Blaine would be sad. You start singing first!" She shouted, then took off skipping…somehow, in the snowshoes, ignoring Kurt's protest that they hadn't decided what to sing yet.
Rubbing her knee through the thick clothe covering her legs, she watched as the pair went away from the school. Once they were far enough away, she stood at the top of the snow stairs, and fired her gun to the side. It seemed to echo, and it was probably her imagination, but she was pretty sure she could hear faint growling already.
She scurried to go a bit behind the trench, where they'd made a crappy snow wall that would hopefully keep the zombies from seeing her, instead letting them go towards Brittany and Kurt, towards the trench, then Santana's bat.
"He left no time to regret
Kept his dick wet
With his same old safe bet
Me and my head high
And my tears dry
Get on without my guy
You went back to what you knew
So far removed from all that we went through
And I tread a troubled track
My odds are stacked
I'll go back to black
We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to…"
Kurt's voice came through loud and clear as he started singing once she was safely behind the snow wall.
A brief pause, then Brittany started singing,
"I'm gonna fight 'em off
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back
They're gonna rip it off
Taking their time right behind my back
And I'm talkin' to myself at night
Because I can't forget
Back and forth through my mind
Behind a cigarette
And the message comin' from my eyes says, "Leave it alone.""
Santana grinned. A mash up. Okay, sure that'll work. Mr. Schue had to be grinning down at them right now (there was no doubts in her mind he was in Heaven, he was a good if somewhat misguided dude.)
"I love you much
It's not enough
You love blow and I love puff
And life is like a pipe
And I'm a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside"
"Don't wanna hear about it
Every single one's got a story to tell
Everyone knows about it
From the Queen of England to the hounds of hell
And if I catch it comin' back my way
I'm gonna serve it to you
And that ain't what you want to hear
But that's what I'll do
Santana stood up straighter, and started paying more attention as first one by one, zombies came pouring out of the school, but it slowly evolved into twos and threes then finally, as the first zombie tumbled into the trench, she stepped out from the snow wall, and started smashing brains with her bat. A few she simply jabbed through the eye socket with one of the long bread knifes they'd take from the house.
She was doing her damnest to ignore the fact that she was getting covered in gore from the children she was putting down.
And the feeling coming from my bones says, "Find a home.""
"We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to…
We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to...
Black, black, black, black, black, black, black,
I go back to...
I go back to…
She still hadn't seen any of them. Just a lot of kids, and a few adults that were likely teachers, and exactly one lunch lady.
We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to…"
"I'm going to Wichita
Far from this opera for evermore
I'm gonna work the straw
Make the sweat drip out of every pore
And I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding
Right before the lord
All the words are gonna bleed from me
And I will think no more
And the stains comin' from my blood tell me, "Go back home.""
The trench was getting full by now, but there was more zombies coming. A lot more.
"We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to black"
After the last lyrics, that Kurt and Brittany sang together, the pair rushed forward to her.
And they started firing their guns at the zombies coming towards them.
Santana was damn sure they didn't have enough bullets to kill all the zombies pouring towards them.
"I'm out!" Kurt yelled, dropping his gun in the snow and running starting to desperately jab his bread knife into the small forms.
Tears were streaming were falling from Brittany's eyes as she fired, before also dropping her gun and resorting to the knife.
This was a crappy idea, and they were going to die. How many kids did this school have anyway.
Santana fired her last bullet, wondering if she shouldn't have saved three, wishing she had time to reload, before she started swinging the bat with every ounce of strength she had left.
Maybe Brittany and Kurt could run for it if she distracted the zombies long enough.
She was about to suggest just that, before a rifle fired, dropping a zombie that had been about to take a bite out of Kurt's bare neck -his scarf was laying near Brittany's gun.
At the noise, a few of the zombies turned towards the figure standing on top of a tall pyramid shaped climbing structure, the only visible part of the school's playground. Santana had no idea just how tall it was, but considering how much snow there was, enough to go up to the apartment building's second floor windows, that pyramid must have been really freaking tall that there was a good fifteen feet from the top of the snow to the top of the pyramid where the small figure was balanced, firing her rifle.
Santana had never been happier to see Rachel Berry, especially as more and more zombies started heading towards her as she kept firing.
"Grab your guns, we're running for it," she shouted to Kurt and Brittany. She hoped Rachel somehow heard her, and had a plan, because Santana had no idea how they'd rescue her if she didn't.
Kurt stumbled as he grabbed his gun, and Brittany didn't even bother trying to get hers. Santana grabbed her own, the feeling of the cold metal leaking through her wet gloves as the trio took off running.
Quinn watched as the zombies poured out of the open cafeteria door -their plan, after a lot of arguing, was that Rachel would crawl through the window they'd dug the snow away from with the mugs, and fire her rifle to attract attention of the zombies.
Quinn would go inside, and open every door, including the front ones, and hope that'd draw them out of the building enough for Quinn to have enough time to get some food from the cafeteria.
A lot of arguing.
But eventually, Rachel, with a hopefully not final kiss, had agreed to the plan, and taken her bag full of everything from Quinn's bag, as well as what they were taking from the nurses' office, and finally crawled out the window.
It still felt weird and wrong to openly kiss Rachel like that. But there was a lot wrong with this world.
Quinn had been surprised to hear gun fire so soon as she had carefully opened the office door and stepped out into the hallway, and she realized it wasn't Rachel.
Three guns, it was probably Santana, Kurt, and Brittany. A flush of relief and happiness had gone through her at that realization -now it was just Tina and Sam to worry about.
She'd crept towards the cafeteria, getting lost and having to hide in a bathroom once, before finally hiding out in a classroom a few feet from the open cafeteria doors. She hadn't even realized someone had propped them open, but thank goodness they had.
The gun fire stopped, and Quinn wondered if they were okay, before a single gun started shooting.
That was Rachel -at least she was okay for now.
When a zombie hadn't stumbled from the cafeteria doors in several minutes, Quinn carefully opened the door and crept towards it, risking turning her flashlight on when she was in the huge room.
The first thing she saw was a flashlight on the ground, covered in gore.
Sam's.
Swallowing heavily, wondering how she was going to tell Stevie his brother was dead, she made a beeline for the kitchen.
Rachel had insisted on vegetables, so that's where Quinn went to first -the huge cans of vegetables, before faltering -her backpack was only so big, she'd only be able to get so much in it.
There was a good sized kitchen cart in a corner, and she stared at it for the moment.
She had no idea how they'd get it home.
They'd figure something out.
She started packing things on it, dumping out a few boxes that she found to fill with food, and keep everything tidy.
Bags of flour, yeast. Apparently this school made their own bread instead of ordering it. She wrapped the clothe bags of flour in plastic wrap, hoping to protect them from the snow.
If she could just get the cart to the sled, they'd be fine.
She kept her ears open as she stacked things onto the cart.
Frowning, she stared at the large industrial trashcans. They all had wheels on one side. If she took the bag out, she could put food in them, and somehow get both the cart and the trashcan to the sled without getting dead.
She'd figure it out.
There was a walk in freezer a bit further back, and she wondered if anything in it would be good -she'd found canned meat, but even freezer burned meat would be fine. It just depended on how cold it was once the power went out. Maybe she could grab some, and if it smelled off they could give it to the dogs and Lord Tubbington?
She could see what was in there, anyway.
Shining her flashlight along the path -there was stuff all over the floor, she reached the door and pulled open the freezer, shinning her light in.
The first thing she saw was Sam and Tina huddled together under their clothing, "Quinn?"
"Sam? Tina? You're alive," she grinned at them, a warmth rushing through her.
"Barely. We barely made it back here. And the door only opens from the outside, so don't come in." Sam said, sitting up and shivering.
"I'm so glad you came in here..how?" Tina asked, "And is...anyone?"
"I think everyone's okay, it you two we were all worried about. I'm so glad you guys are…you know, alive." Quinn looked back the way she had came, and frowned, "But I don't hear Rachel shooting anymore, so you guys should get dressed and come help me gather food, I think we'll have to leave quickly."
Propping the door open, she set the flashlight down so all three them would have a little light.
In no time at all, the trio were going through the darkened halls of the school, Quinn wincing with each step as the kitchen cart Sam was pushing only made slightly less noise then the trashcans Quinn and Tina were pulling. All three of them wore heavy backpacks.
The plan was for Quinn to go back to the nurses office, where Rachel would hopefully be waiting with the sled at the window.
And she was. Along with Santana, Kurt, and Brittany.
There was no time for words, while Sam started blocking the door with the cot and desk again, Quinn and Tina started lifting things up to Santana, Kurt, and Brittany. Rachel stood guard.
"That's a fuck load of food," Santana muttered as her and Kurt hefted a fifty pound bag of flour onto the sled.
"It is quite a lot, yes, but we should still stop and gather more on the way home," Rachel stated as she clutched her rifle, "The more we have, the better. Next time we need it we may not be able to go out at all."
"Rachel's right, there's still backpacks to be filled." Quinn said, grunting as she hefted a gallon bottle of vegetable oil up to Brittany.
Sam was bracing himself against the door, "It's not going to be filled here, they're out there and they want in."
"We're almost done," Tina said quietly.
"Good," Sam muttered, starting to slide a few inches in.
Quinn started to breathe deeply.
Funny, she hadn't had a problem when it was just her and Rachel, but she was definitely starting to have an issue now.
Taking deep breaths, in and out, trying to focus and calm herself, she and Tina passed up their backpacks, then Sam's who had luckily taken his off before he went to deal with the door.
"Go up ahead of me, and start pulling the sled," Sam grunted out, "I'll make a run for it. I'm fast, I'll be fine."
"I don't like this idea," Santana snarled.
"Tough, do it anyway," Sam said, "Preferably now."
Not wanting to waste time arguing, Quinn followed Tina up the window.
They were all walking -there was no way any of them were fitting on the sled now. It was heavy enough it needed most of them pulling it anyway, even if only three of them had snowshoes.
They started walking away.
Quinn was still taking deep breaths, in and out, trying to focus on anything but her rising panic -she was just about to call for Sam, when he burst through the window, shoving as much snow as he could to cover the hole, before taking off towards them, not going near as fast in the deep snow as anyone would have liked, so they stopped to let him catch up.
"You okay?" Santana asked when he did.
"I'm okay. Let's get away from here," Sam grabbed a bit of the rope they were using to pull the sled, and started walking, tugging a bit until the rest of the followed.
"Hopefully when we come back, they've wandered away," Kurt sighed dreamily.
"We're coming back?" Tina asked, shivering as she stepped particularly deep into the snow, requiring Sam and Brittany to help her out.
"There's still more food, so yeah, we will eventually," Quinn shrugged, her breathing now back to normal, now that they were all there and okay.
It had taken them around five hours to walk from the apartment building to the school, it became clear after an hour that it was going to take much much longer.
"Crap, let's take a break? Look," Santana pointed to several two story houses, and even on that was three, a few blocks or so away from their path, "Let's go loot and take a lunch break."
Before Quinn could answer, Rachel did, "Good idea." And there was several muttered agreements.
"Fine by me," Quinn shrugged. They were all cold and wet, so after the looting they could make a fire and try to warm up a bit.
Quinn hovered near the kitchen door, trying not to intrude on Sam and Rachel -they were discussing something, and while Quinn was dying of curiosity, she knew Rachel would tell her if she wanted to know.
It was a nice feeling.
She was still freaked out about the others knowing, but there was a certain peace she had now she didn't have last time.
It was probably because she realized Rachel was serious about this being her last chance, and that was super messed up of Quinn to take comfort and strength from that.
Santana, Brittany, and Tina were taking the three story house that was set apart by a block from the cluster of houses that included the one Quinn, Kurt, Sam and Rachel were in right now, they had the sled, but Santana hadn't even argued about the extra work it would take to carry everything to them, so intent she had been on looting the three story house.
Kurt came down the stairs, holding a large grey sheepskin rug triumphantly, "Look Quinn, real sheepskin! And there's a lot more I want to grab, I'll shove it in pillowcases and carry it Santa style over my overstuffed backpack if I have to, but I am not leaving any of this behind."
Quinn raised an eyebrow, "If you can carry it too in addition to the important stuff, fine. But I get to grab what I want first if it's as good as you say."
Kurt frowned, then sighed painfully, saying "Okay," as if Quinn has asked for his kidney, before he hastily added, "But don't touch the…" he trailed off as Quinn started climbing the stairs to him, "do you hear motors?"
Santana pulled Brittany to her closely, kissing her hard. It hadn't taken them long to get what they wanted from the kitchen -it had been well stocked, and they'd dumped out boxes of stuff they'd found in the garage to put what wouldn't fit into their backpacks into. It was going to be a bitch to get it all to the sled, but it was so so worth it to find a crap load of stuff, then have some alone time with Brittany.
Tina had clearly read the writing on the wall, and had muttered she was going to see what books she could find upstairs before Santana had a chance to tell her to scram for a few minutes.
She had needed this, she had needed Brittany.
And Brittany needed her too.
"That was nice, Santana. I love you," Brittany smiled at her, finally pulling away from their last lingering kiss, "But we really should get Tina and get back to the sled."
"I love you too, Brittany. I wish we had more time," Santana sighed, and started pulling her clothes back on.
"When we get back, I doubt anyone would object if we took our baths together," Brittany said mischievously.
"Last time we tried that, Tiffany wanted to take a bath with us," Santana grumbled.
"Yeah, but that had been fun hadn't it?" They'd crowded into the tub together, wearing their underwear, and using way too much bubble bath to create a mountain of bubbles. Tiffany had been utterly delighted, had insisted on them all remaining even after the water had moved from lukewarm, to icy cold.
"It was fun, just not the kind of fun I was expecting," Santana gave Brittany a sly grin.
"Can I come down now," Tina called quietly from the top of the stairs.
"Yeah, we're done, thanks for waiting," Brittany called back.
Tina had three books her arms, "I hope we can find some room for these," she set them on the counter, "With the four we have at the apartment, that's the complete set."
Santana cocked her head to the side, reading the titles, "Is that the rest of the Shadow Children series?" When Tina nodded, Santana grinned, "Hell yeah, Sarah's going to be thrilled we have them all now, she wanted to read the ones that came out this year, insisted I memorized the titles in case we get to a bookstore. Pretty sure she made Rachel memorize them too, just in case."
It took them several minutes to don their backpacks, and drag all the heavy tote boxes up the stairs to the huge window they'd entered the house through. Santana stuffed the books in her pants, because they didn't fit in any of the backpacks, and kept falling off the totes.
"This is going to take a while," Santana muttered, eyeing the distance between them, and where she knew the sled was, even if she couldn't see it from here.
"At least it's not snowing?" Tina offered. Which was true, the only snow so far today had been what was already on the ground.
Brittany cocked her head to the side, "That sounds like an engine."
"We should go back in the house and hide?" Santana said, already starting to pull one tote backwards towards the window
The noise grew louder.
"I think it's too late for that," Brittany said, pointing at the figures coming towards them.
At least it was the opposite side of where the others were, Santana thought as the snowmobiles parked.
She had her gun out and pointed at them by the time the first figures were stepping off.
"Look what we found," one figure said -a woman with red hair.
"You can take the totes, but we're keeping our backpacks," Santana said evenly. It'd be a pain in the ass to take back, and the really good stuff was in their bags anyway.
The woman put her hands on her hips, whatever she was about to say was stopped as the final snowmobile came up to them, but instead of stopping at a slight hill, went over it, flipping over and landing upside down.
A woman, wearing a yellow stocking cap and the things stacked neatly behind her in plastic totes, flew to the side as the totes flew everywhere else.
"I hate this stupid thing Rhonda, I told you the breaks need work," she muttered from the pile of snow she was stuck in.
The red haired woman ignored her, and turned back to Santana, "We'll take everything, actually. And isn't this a great find."
"Fine, backpacks too," Santana said. She didn't want to have to kill anyone over stuff they didn't really need -the haul from the school and hopefully what the others found would be good enough.
The woman grinned, "Nope, everything."
And strong arms grabbed Santana.
Brittany and Tina yelped as they were grabbed too.
They must have dropped them off and had them sneak into the house through another window.
Next to her, Tina and Brittany went limp.
"Brittany!" Santana shouted as started struggling against the arms, someone else grabbing the gun from her hands and tossing it into the snow.
"Should we flip the snowmobile back," the shortest woman asked, as another helped the yellow stocking capped woman up.
"No, leave it and the stuff on it. The girls helpfully grabbed more than enough to make up for it," the redhead said.
Santana struggled against the arms that held her harder, gritting her teeth and desperately glancing at the gun, watching as Tina and Brittany's limp forms were carefully put on a sled pulled by one of the snowmobiles.
Along with all three of their backpacks, the totes, and their weapons. One of the women even carefully picked up Santana's gun, giving Santana a quick emotionless glance first.
"This one too?" The husky voice of one of the women that held her asked.
The redhead frowned, "Really Bethany? Obviously she's too…ethnic. Shoot her up and leave her for the demons, if the cold doesn't get to her first. Take that coat she's wearing, she's not going to need it and Erica needs a new snow coat."
Santana struggled harder as she felt a pinch hit her neck, she managed to shout out Brittany's name one last final time, before she was dropped to the ground as everything went black.
A/N: *Originally Tina was called this by Sue in season 5. I figure Santana would totally think of it on her own given the situation.
Songs sung are Back to Black by Amy Winehouse, and Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. Don't own obviously.
