Part XXXVI

AN: First I'm going to go ahead and say sorry for taking so long, I just had a lot of things to do, and I went and wrote a Puckurt Big Bang... so... yeah, I'm not that good at multitasking I guess...

This is also a friendly reminder that this is a Zombie!Universe fic, so... there will be deaths, and a sad ending is more than probable...

That being said, I hope you enjoy the chapter and don't hate me too much.

The hallways were dark, much darker than they were used to, but that was a given because the clouds that had covered the sky soon after they got inside the building, and there was no moon to filter through the windows; it was difficult to be cautious about their surrounding as everything was covered in shadows. Snow was starting to fall around the building, and for once they felt a bit more at ease being inside if only because there the cold didn't bite as hard on their skin.

They had to go through the main entrance, as the other one had that bus blocking it, and now that they were inside the hallways, in all its darkness, the school looked scarier than ever. To the right the hallway lead to some classrooms and teacher offices, on the left it lead to the cafeteria and janitorial rooms, closets and storages.

Both of them looked frightful under their flashlights.

"Where to?" Puck asked, checking to see if his gun was loaded.

"Cafeteria?" Kurt suggested. "It seems like the safer bet; it has fewer doors and rooms to check"

"More glass though, and there's the courtyard on the other side" Puck said, shrugging and walking ahead of them.

"I don't really feel like going to the other floors, though" Kurt winced, he put the bag higher on his back and started walking ahead, flashlight first just to see was he was shooting. He didn't want to hurt one of their friends because he was too scared.

They were about to open the door to the cafeteria when a voice stopped them.

"I thought I heard some losers in a car" the voice belonged to no other than Coach Sylvester, who was pointing a shotgun at them. "I'd get far from that door if I were you, boys. We have something blocking the way from the cafeteria, but let's not tempt it"

Coach Beiste motioned them to get closer, and lowered her own gun.

"Did Finn and the others get here alright?" Kurt asked, letting go of the door handle and walking to the teachers.

"Yes, they did. They came here, with enough house appliances to get comfy in the gym while they wait to be rescued" Sue laughed; it was an awful and scary sound, empty of hope and full of despair.

"Is it safe here then? We weren't sure if it wouldn't be overrun by creepers by now" Puck asked, walking with the women on the way to the gym.

"Not yet. We have some cleared zones, but there's still a good part of the building that's too risky to go at night" Beiste answered.

The hallways were still dark here; no emergency lights available after so long without electric power, the fuel for those had probably been used in the first days. The lockers were all opened, probably in search of something useful while being in a difficult situation; it was so weird to see them open and dark, empty.

"The classrooms on this building are clear, so are the gym and the changing rooms. We've tried to clear the kitchens and the cafeteria, but the cook had a gun before he turned. He is extremely dangerous, and we chose not to risk it" Beiste answered, while Sue kept protecting their backs.

There was a bit of wind coming from somewhere, carrying with it the cold of the night and the snow outside. Puck pulled Kurt closer to him and wrapped him in a one-armed hug as soon as he noticed the clattering of teeth.

"We are staying at the gym. That way we can make sure everyone is ok" Beiste continued. "If you need to go to the little boy room, or get out of the place for whatever reason, you need to go in pairs or a group. Never, under any circumstance, alone"

"Oh, Shannon, I'm sure these two are going to forget anything you say as soon as they see one of those zombies out there. Kids nowadays are selfish, when it's their own life what is in danger they are going to go away running with the tails between their legs" Sue sais, startling Puck enough to look back at her. She didn't seem to notice that someone, other than Beiste, was looking at her. "And you know what? They'll be doing the right thing. In a situation like this you are alone; it's run or be eaten. You can't be a hero"

"Why are you here then?" Kurt asked. "You seem the type that would run out on her own and keep going killing everything on sight"

"And leaving you, nothing more than kids, to stumble upon hell and expect you to survive? No, thank you, you can all be grateful when we get out of this alive, but until then you are going to listen to your betters" Sue said.

"We found Quinn on our way out of the city, she kept asking us to turn back to McKinley, see if some of you were still alive" Beiste said, turning the corner in front of Spanish classroom. "We found other kids here, and decided to stay"

"Quinn is fine?" Puck asked, surprised and a bit hopeful. Kurt joined him in the surprise, after all they had been the ones to go to her house and find nothing but proof that she wasn't alive.

"Q is alive, but she was seriously injured as she tried to escape. We are trying to do what we can, but there isn't much" Sue answered. Her tight jaw and the tense eyes betrayed her worry.

"We had some pharmacy stuff in the cars" Kurt tried.

"Yes, Hiram told us. It's helping control her pain, but I doubt it will do much in the end" Beiste answered.

"How bad it is?" Puck asked, worried.

"I'm no doctor, but it's pretty bad" Beiste answered.

"She is too fragile to be moved, and yet she needs medical attention as soon as possible" Sue said.

"The doctors at St. Rita were all zombies already. We only found two alive, and both were patients" Kurt supplied.

"See? This is why you should leave this is the hands of people trained for this kind of things. Only you fools would run to a hospital during zombie apocalypse, when every handbook tells you is the first place to avoid" Sue exclaimed "We didn't have the time to make that kind of mistakes when I was a sniper for the marines, back when we were fighting with Russia for the dominion of Africa. You knew that there was nothing like going back for the wounded"

Kurt just looked at Puck, and maybe the shared a bit of a smile for the old times, listening to Sue ramble away on things that were neither true nor important at the minute. It was so strange to feel that predictability now, when everything seem to be upside down, that it was impossible not to feel like they had stepped in a place and time when things were just as always; like you could walk into the chorus room and expect Brad and Schue, waiting for them to start a class; or have Figgings in his office, thinking of ways to spend less money on the school.

It filled a hole in their hearts that they hadn't realized that was, slowly, being created, and at the same time, it made them realize how precious those moments were, and how difficult it would be to have them back; if not impossible.

The hallway next to the gym wasn't as dark as the others; for starters there were two guys from the football team on the door, both with flashlights and some bats, pointing at them with the lights when they heard the noise.

"Guys, you're alive!" Anthony Rashad exclaimed after a while. Kurt barely knew him, but he was one of the few guys who hadn't bothered them for being in Glee, so there wasn't that much interaction between them anyway.

"We are Nelson and Tinsley?" Sue exclaimed, pointing to the other door, which stood unguarded.

"They went to get some desks and chairs to block that hallway" Azimio answered, pointing to the hallway ahead of them.

"Go inside, I'm sure you want to talk with the other misfits or something" Sue said, loading her gun and going with Beiste in the direction that the guys had pointed. "Though, before I forget. Did you find any ammo or guns in your quest?" she asked, looking pointedly to the bag Kurt carried with him.

"We did, coach" Kurt answered.

"Give some to these idiots, will you? We can't have the guys that protect the door armed with just some bats" she says, before slapping them over the head for their stupidity.

Puck looks at Kurt, and he notices the hesitation in him as he takes off his bag. When they thought about going back to McKinley, they never thought that there would be living people there, not really. He doubted that Kurt had actually thought about what would it mean to share everything with more people now, he knew he was. He could already see the way they would eat less each day and the way fight would end up happening more often, what would they do when they ran out of water, and how long it would take them to decide on things of importance like going back to town to get more food or what would they do if they ran out of ammo.

"Do you even know how to shoot?" Kurt asks, his voice firm and sure, even if the hand holding his own gun it's trembling with how hard he is gripping it.

"Do you need to see my NRA card or something, man? It's not like we have the time to learn how to shoot here, do we?" Azimio asked looking menacing.

"We can't waste ammo. If you don't know how to shoot it would be better to have someone else guarding the door" Kurt answered, bitch face in place.

"I'll teach him as soon as we get those guys back, but we can't have people unarmed here" Beiste said, trying to calm Kurt down. For once, he listened.

Kurt opened one of the messenger bags, managed to keep everyone from peeking at what might be inside, and took two glocks which he passed to Anthony; he didn't even bother to look at Azimio. It took Puck a couple of seconds to remember the way that Azimio had bullied Kurt the year before and that it might be the reason for the animosity between them.

"I'm keeping the ammo with me, so don't waste the clips inside them". Kurt said, closing the bag and letting it hang behind him again.

"Come on, man, give us a few more just in case" Azimio complained.

"Dude, we went through hell getting more ammo, and you don't even know how to shoot" Puck replied, understanding where Kurt was coming from if the grateful look sent his way was any indication. "The more ammo you have around you, there more ammo you'll lose. Just be careful and shoot to the head"

"Coach, you can't let them-!"

"Porcelain and the man-child with the squirrel on his head are right. Adams, Rashad, you two are going to have those weapons as a precaution, and you are not to use them unless you smell the rotting smell of zombie breath on your faces, you hear me? Are we clear? Good" Coach Sylvester said, shooing Puck and Kurt inside the Gym.

There were small groups around the place, each with a candle and blankets. Some were keeping watch; others were sleeping for a while. Puck could see some new faces, which were all in the same group, bunching up over figure on the floor, which was covered with a blanket to her chin and looked lost in the candle light.

It was Quinn.

He took Kurt's hand in his and walked directly to her.

Quinn's hair was fanning out around her, her blond locks laced with maroon. He hoped it was a new hair dye. God, he hoped it was a new hair dye, he needed it to be.

Santana was besides her, holding her hand and keeping her bangs from her forehead, and holding back tears as she tried to smile for her friend. Brad, the guy that played the piano, was on the other side, looking in one of the bags that they had stolen from the hospital.

Quinn looked pale, so pale under the moonlight that came from the windows, and the light from the candle only helped to make her lost eyes look duller.

"Hey, Quinn" Puck whispered, kneeling besides her.

"Puck!" came her anxious gasp. She looked at him, only it seemed that she couldn't find him in front of her, and her eyes grew lost, looking around him in search for his face. He took her other hand in hers and places it on his cheek.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, noticing her sweaty hair and the way her eyes traveled around the place in search of something.

"Cool, dizzy, thirsty" she answered, licking her lips.

"What happened?"

"I took refuge in my church, but they came at night… I ran away on a car, and crashed because of the black ice" she said, gripping Puck's hand so hard that he remembered another occasion, so long ago, when she gripped hard while bring Beth to life. He could feel her fast pulse under her skin, her beating getting as fast as her breathing.

"Did you break something?" he asked, looking at Santana and Brad too for confirmation.

"No, I just hit the door really hard… I should be fine in a few days, I'm sure…" she said, trying to smile.

"You'll get better, Quinney, just wait" Santana said. "At least her fever broke a little bit ago" she added, looking at Puck and Kurt.

"Do you want me to stay here with you?" he asked.

Kurt put his hand on his shoulder, but he didn't feel it as a pressure to get away or to do something he didn't want to, he just took it as a form of showing support; Kurt was trying to be there for him, anchoring him to the ground when the pallor of Quinn skin told him that she was anything but fine.

"No, it's ok… You'll be more useful somewhere else… just… I'm so happy to have seen you safe…" she said, with a broken voice.

"So am I, Q. Now rest, keep your energy, ok?" Puck said, cleaning her forehead from the cold sweat, and trying to smile. He felt Kurt's hand on his shoulder give him strength to stand up.

Together they walked to the other side of the gym, where Finn could be seen with a gun on his hand and a flashlight pointing to one of the exits. Rachel was sleeping behind him, under a blanket. Her dads were with her, getting warmth from each other in that cold night.

Puck sat at Finn's left; Kurt at his right. They didn't need any light to notice that Finn was crying, his quiet sniffs and the way he kept drying his cheeks with the back of his hands were proof enough.

"Hey man, what's it?" Puck asked, throwing an arm around his shoulders.

"Puck, Kurt… guys, you're alive… God, you two are alive" he exclaimed, looking surprised. "For a moment I thought… I'm so glad you're alive"

"We're alive, Finn" Kurt said, placing his hand over his knee and patting it lightly. "Are you ok?"

"We found Schue and Figgings, and that math teacher that smells" Finn said as an answer. "Schue was missing an arm and half his face was hanging… Figgings was being eaten… I think I saw one of our neighbors, Kurt… the guy that washed his car like 3 times a day… and there was the mom of a girl I had a crush in middle school…"

"Schue?" Kurt asked.

"Coach Sylvester tried to kill him, but couldn't. He almost got Tina… Coach Beiste was the one to get him, she blew his brain… I saw his brain… it was pink. His brain was pink, like cotton candy…"

Puck looked at Kurt and saw the way his eyes grew sadder with every word that Finn said. He saw the way he took Finn's gun in his hand and took it when it was handed to him. He saw the way that Finn's eyes grew larger when he saw Kurt's face. He saw his friend being engulfed in Kurt's arms as he tried to battle with his tears and lost.

His friend was crumbling, and he couldn't do anything but watch.

"I saw Schue's brain. It was like cotton candy… I wonder if we're ever going to see cotton candy again… I don't think I'd be able to eat it…"

Puck rested his head on Finn's back, just under Kurt's hands.

Like this he could feel his quick breathing and the way his sobs just got stronger. One of Kurt's hands started to comb his Mohawk, and that was what it took to realize that, while Finn might have been shaken by seeing Schue's death… it affected everyone.

Death was getting closer, looming over their heads. The only people they could be sure that they were alive where those within eye sight. Those they hadn't found could as well be death by now…

And that included their friends.

That included their families.