Brittany's Land rover sped down the road not stopping for bumps and bends. She had to get back to Perfection quick, call the sheriff and stop this situation from potentially reaching the town. Well, reaching Santana actually. And the others she supposed. Quinn was all right but no weird shit had better happen to Santana.
Brittany slowed down warily when it came to the section of road Finn had been working on. The tyres slid on the gravel and dirt as she braked to a stop at what was once the entrance to Perfection valley. The road was now gone. The telephone wires that had followed alongside the roadway were buried. A wall of boulders standing over twenty feet high now encompassed the pass, the cliff walls somehow having tumbled down. Brittany stared aghast, she had to get back to town and the road into Perfection was thoroughly blocked.
Everyone in the local vicinity knew Finn had been working to widen the road but this was the total and utter opposite of that. The question 'Could Finn really be that stupid?' crossed Brittany's mind for a second as she jumped out of the rover and began shouting furiously for the contractor.
"Goddammit Finn, what the hell?" she yelled. "I have to get to town, you fucking moron. Finn, are you there?"
Santana, Puck, Quinn… Rachel, they were all trapped in the valley with a possible murderer. Frantically Brittany grabbed a hold of Lord Tubbington, much to his displeasure, and began to climb over the landslide.
Once up on top of the pile of rocks a wave of relief ran through her at the sight of Finn's truck parked safely further on up the road. She'd still be able to get to town. Channelling Santana she shouted as she scrambled down the far side all whilst wrestling the bewildered cat.
"Finn, you fuckwit, answer me! If anything has happened to Santana, for your own sake, you'd better be buried under those boulders already."
What would have perhaps taken a minute or two was complicated by Lord Tubbington and after a scramworthy struggle Brittany finally reached the concrete road. To their mutual relief she put the disgruntled cat safely on the ground where he turned and glared at her indignantly.
Looking around it was clear there was no sign of the man at his worksite. Brittany eyed the boulders distrustfully. Sure, Finn was stupid, but stupid enough to be under a landslide? Even an unintentional landslide? Checking his truck she was glad to see the keys were still in the ignition. Lord Tubbington was once more unceremoniously hoisted up and then thrown onto the back seat. Brittany paused once more, one foot in the cab and surveyed the carnage. What the hell had happened here? Where was Finn?
"Hudson, you'd best not be hiding. I know you didn't mean to blow up the road but Schuester's dead. I gotta get to town. Finn! Fucking hell!"
She slammed the door and made her way over to the trench he'd been working on earlier that morning. The jackhammer was standing upright three quarters of its length in the ground. An orange liquid surrounded the hammer, almost like Hudson had hit a pipe or something and the contents had bubbled up to the surface. Next to the discarded machine was a lone work boot. Brittany dabbed her finger on the liquid and cautiously sniffed it.
"Finn!" she shouted again. "What the fuck? I'm taking your truck," she yelled angrily, "and I'm going back to town."
Next to the truck she wrote in the dust with the toe of her boot. 'Truck. Town. Britt.' And an arrow just in case the fool didn't know the way. With once last wild glance around Brittany started the engine and headed off.
The truck bombed along until Brittany reached Puck's sheep farm and slowly the truck rolled to a stop.
The enclosure which had been not even an hour ago been full of sheep was empty. Now only pieces of the flock remained. Parts of sheep lay scattered across the ground. Wool, blood and limbs were all that was left. Brittany slowly climbed out of the truck struck with horror.
A hoarse shout made her jump and her head whipped around searching for the source of the noise.
"Up here!"
Halfway up a telephone pole sat Puckerman. Brittany almost fell over with relief as she began to move toward him.
"Get off the ground," he croaked. "Britt," he called, his voice ragged. She ignored his unusual request and ran to the pole, climbing up to him.
"Puck," she gasped for breath. "What's happened?"
"They're in the ground," he sobbed, feebly reaching for her and gripping her dusty jacket.
She took a good look at the farmer. His work clothes were completely covered in the dirt from the valley floor. The thick coating of dust on his face and hair was broken up only by splatters of blood. She stared at the makeshift tourniquet he had made out of his belt above his right knee. The bottom half of his leg was missing, the flesh tattered and dusty.
"Puck?"
He slumped into her arms sobbing.
"It took my sheep. They were screaming… it took my leg, I nearly didn't get away."
"What did?"
"The thing in the goddamn ground. It came up under my feet," he sobbed.
Brittany thought back to Schuester, only his head had been visible with the rest of his body presumably under him in the ground, and Finn, he had been using a pneumatic drill which had hit something and been pulled into the ground.
Puck slumped heavily against her with the sheer relief of being found overcoming his exhaustion and knocking him unconscious. Brittany manged to manoeuvre him over her shoulder into a fireman's lift and began to slowly descend to the ground. She lay him in the flat bed of Finn's work truck covering him with Finn's big work jacket then took another look over the sheep farm.
Something had eaten those sheep. And Puck's leg.
She started up the truck and pushed down on the throttle. The truck juddered but didn't move forward. Leaning out the window Brittany could see the back wheel spinning in the dirt but could feel the truck trying to move. She flipped the lever into four wheel drive and tried again, reversing then shooting forward. Finally, with a sudden jolt, the truck shot forwards without any further resistance and sped off. Brittany didn't even give the farm a backward glance as she pulled out onto the road again.
"I know you're out of it, Puck, but I'm going to get you to Santana's. Quinn's there and we'll get help. The army, the air force, NASA, the flying doctors, I don't care. You're going to be okay"
Santana and Mercedes were on the porch deck outside of the store watching the dust trail from Hudson's truck bear down on them from the horizon. They stepped back warily as it screeched to a halt with the hood touching the deck. Brittany jumped out and had Santana in her arms in two bounds.
"Britt? What's wrong?" Santana gasped in alarm flinging her arms around Brittany's neck to steady herself.
"Are you okay?" Brittany frantically ran her hands over Santana's face, down her arms and her hands then spun her around inspecting her for damage.
"Am I okay? Are you okay? Britt, what's wrong?"
A groan from the back of the truck caught Mercedes attention and she gasped at the sight of Puck writhing in the back.
"Where's Quinn?" Brittany asked, not taking her hand away from Santana as Mercedes clambered onto the truck and inspected Puck.
"Santana, first aid kit," Mercedes ordered unceremoniously, "Now."
"Where's Quinn?" Brittany asked as Santana went to bring the stores first aid kit out to Mercedes.
"She went back to her plot," Santana said, grimacing as she peered into the back of the truck. "What's happened? Did he have an accident? Why are you driving Finn's truck? Where's Finn?"
"The phone lines are down. The road is blocked," Brittany blurted out, her voice shaking. "Schuester's dead and Hudson is missing. I found Puck up a pole. They're- hell, get off the ground!"
Brittany dragged Santana back to the doorway of the store holding her tight against her body then leant down and put an arm under Santana's knees scooping her up bridal style.
"What?" Santana squeaked, staring up at Brittany.
"He's lost a lot of blood." Mercedes grimaced at Puck's leg. "But it looks like the bleeding has slowed a lot. Oh, god. This needs cleaning."
"We need to get everybody off the ground," Brittany muttered. "Where's Rachel and Kurt?"
Mercedes and Santana exchanged a worried glance. "I got this," Mercedes said determinedly.
"Rachel, Kurt! Someone here wants your autograph!" she yelled down the road to the cottage the three were staying at. The women watched the door to the cottage fly open with a crash and Rachel and Kurt scuttled on their way to the store trying not to look like they were running.
"Britt," Santana said softly. Brittany turned her head slightly to look her in the eye. "You can put me down now."
Brittany's arms tightened around her then loosened. She let out a shaky sigh. "Oh, yeah." She carefully put Santana down then ran a grimy hand across her tired face. "I have to go get Quinn."
"You can't go back out there. Did you say Schuester's dead?"
"I only saw his head," Brittany murmured, then looking around said decisively. "We need to get everyone together and if we can't get Puck to a hospital then Quinn's the next best thing."
"What's going on, guys?" Rachel asked brightly. Her face turned an interesting shade of pale as she sighted Puck in the back of the truck.
"Help get him inside," Mercedes ordered and everyone scattered to assist.
"What happened?" Kurt gasped as they laid Puck out on a table inside the store.
"The road is blocked and the phone lines are down, the explosion took them out." Brittany explained. "I need to get Quinn and we need to contact the outside world."
"Explosion?"
"Finn was working on widening the road. He had explosives."
"Someone gave Hudson explosives?" Kurt look bewildered.
"How do we get out of the valley?" Rachel looked horrified. "How do we get Puck out of the valley?"
"Something killed Schuester and caused Finn to set off those explosives. And attacked Puck."
"And we're trapped!" Rachel shrieked. "No, no, no, no, no." She pulled out her mobile phone and hurried outside even though she was well aware the nature of the valley meant satellite reception was unreliable, infrequent and when it did appear lasted for eight minutes. Having caught more than enough of an eyeful of Puck's mangled leg Kurt hurried out after her.
Almost immediately a scream rent the air.
Brittany and Santana ran outside onto the deck to find Rachel with her face hidden in Kurt's shirt. Kurt, looking even more green around the gills, was staring at the back of Finn's truck where a strange snake-like creature was hanging onto the rear axle. What remained of it was about three feet long and the rear end of it was missing like it had been torn in half. It dripped orange blood onto the road.
Lord Tubbington sniffed it.
"Puck kept saying 'They're under the ground.' I don't know, I thought he was delirious but I saw … he might be right. It's so small though," Brittany frowned.
"We have to get out of here," Rachel whimpered. "We need to get a message out."
"I've got old CB radio," Santana offered. "And a, uh, ahem… police scanner." She led the group back inside and pulled them out from under the main counter.
Kurt grabbed the CB radio immediately and started setting it up. Santana reached back under the counter and pulled out her favourite shotgun.
"Try them all and keep trying on your phones. We might be lucky and get a passing satellite," Brittany called over her shoulder as she headed out of the doorway for Finn's truck.
No sooner had she settled in the driver's seat then Santana hopped into the passenger side, her shotgun cradled in her arms. "You're not going on your own."
Brittany stared at her, her mouth opening and closing slowly but no sound came out.
"I'd make a witty quip about calling shotgun but I'll refrain," Santana quirked her brow expecting resistance.
Mercedes stuck her head through the window making Santana jump. "Hurry."
"Don't do that when I've got a gun and there's a weird murderer thing on the loose!"
Santana leaned over and eyed up the three amigos looking scared but determined.
"Look after Puck. Try and get a hold of Sue, she'll have ninja medical training or something. And watch my store. I'll know if anything goes missing. Don't go in my office, Kurt or Rachel. It's booby trapped. Mercedes is in charge," Santana said specifically giving Rachel some stinkeye.
"'Cedes," Brittany said. "Can you…? Lord Tubbington."
"I'll watch him, Britt." Mercedes picked up the disgruntled looking cat from where he'd been wailing and scratching at Santana's door wanting to be let in with Brittany.
"Get everyone on the roof and make sure they stay there. Puck too. That's how they get you, they come out of the ground."
"What about the others, Schuester and Finn?" Mercedes asked quietly.
"Schuester's dead. Finn's… I don't know."
From inside the store they could hear Kurt begin his call for help.
"Sue? Come in, Sue. Dammit, anyone, can anyone hear me? Mayday, mayday. This is Perfection at Lopez' stores, we need medical assistance."
Mercedes and Rachel watched as the truck pulled away. Rachel shuffled backwards into the store her eyes on the dusty ground, muttering to herself.
ps. this chapter was a lil bitch but we should be on to the good shit now so itll be easier and quicker from now on