As always,
Angellovercriss: Hahahaha, Ryder flirting with Blaine? Where did that come from? :) Don't worry, there are going to be a lot more holding hands and kisses and stuff from blam. A lot! Thank you so much!
THEMoDePo: I'm so glad you liked it, I was so insecure with that chapter! Blaine is indeed a BAMF, and he's going to be that even more in this chapter! I know, blam is so sweet amongst all the tragedy! Well, there you are, now you've got more ;) Thank you so much!
Myan: Thank you so much! :)
Gleeville: Pero bueno, qué exigente! :) Thank you so much!
Darrinia: I'm glad you did! Blaine is indeed a real action hero. I agree he doesn't think about himself enough, but about Sam? All the time! Muchos besos para ti también! Y muchas gracias!
Dosqueen67: You might not be that far from your feeling that this is going to be a sad chapter... Though lots of action first! Hahaha, don't worry, Sam will have a lot of chanches to respond to that kiss ;) Thank you so much!
Midlifecrissis: Oh, please, you're making me blush! I'm glad I made you appreciate The Walking Dead then! ;) Well, I can't help it with the cliffhangers, most of the time I need to end the chapter in that exact moment so they happen. But don't worry, I'll always be back. Yes, in this story I wanted Blaine to be the strongest one, to show the leader he had in him and that we could see in the show every now and then. Plus he is very intelligent, I could really picture him finding every solution in a time like this. And no, blam is never one-sided for me, even if sometimes one of them might take longer to realize (depending on wich one of my stories is either Blaine or Sam). Hehehe, don't worry, Santana will have to ask for forgiveness after that ;) Puck has a crush on Blaine? I didn't see that one coming! XD Now seriously, thank you so much for your comment and your support, they came in a moment when I really needed them. I hope you keep enjoying it! Thank you so much!
Me-me157: Well, I guess that in times like that panic and selfishness are very easy to appear, don't you think? Santana was at the fence with them, and she didn't run away! She was one of the ones carrying a gun, remember? And she was listening to Blaine this time. I'm so glad you're liking this! Thank you so much, dear!
A/N: Wow, this one is really long!
CHAPTER 8
Sam left his hiding place as soon as he reacted and ran after Blaine, hoping he would be able to stop him before it was too late for him.
"Blaine, stop!" he yelled after him, wishing that for once his best friend wouldn't be his usual stubborn self and would listen to him.
But no chance of that happening. Whether he didn't hear him –which Sam seriously doubted, as the distance between them was not that big– or he simply ignored him, Blaine continued running towards the entrance of the building, apparently not minding it was infested by a good portion of the walkers that had crossed the fallen fence and which were trying to tear the door down.
Sam felt immediately guilty for thinking it, but he suddenly felt grateful for the wound and the pain in Blaine's leg that were keeping him from running at his usual speed. Sam knew there was no way he would catch him on normal circumstances; but those were not normal circumstances and Blaine was injured, so in the end Sam ended up been faster than him for once and grabbed the upper part of his arms in a desperate attempt of keeping him from danger.
"Stop it, dammit!" Sam ordered as he grabbed him with all his forces, even throwing an arm around Blaine's chest from behind to make sure he was able to keep him in place.
"Let me go" Blaine protested, struggling against Sam's arms even if he knew it was a lost cause, as Sam was stronger than him even at the best of times –which those weren't, as he was injured and still weak from the ordeal of the night before–. Maybe words would work better; after all, Sam had the biggest heart ever, it would be easy to appeal to his goodness to convince him. "We have to help them!"
"We'll do it, but let's do it right, ok?" Sam angrily whispered on his ear as he tried to reason with him, surprising Blaine as he thought Sam only wanted to stop him. "Or are you planning on just jumping on those walkers trying to tear down the door?"
"No" Blaine admitted, noticing the grip Sam was keeping around his torso starting to relax, though he still wasn't letting go completely, just in case.
"Then let's be sensible, for God's sake" Sam protested, giving Blaine a final squeeze before letting go of him as a way of warning that he was not going to put up with any more nonsense.
"Guys, what's happening?" Puck asked as the rest of the group that had been at the stands reached them after having been able to avoid most of the walkers around.
"Blaine, you're hurt!" Sebastian exclaimed as soon as he saw the blood on Blaine's leg.
"I'm okay, my wound just reopened" Blaine answered in a rush, as he didn't want to lose any more time on explanations as several people were depending on them. "Guys, some of these people went inside, we need to get them out"
"Tina?" Mike asked, his heart in his throat.
"No, no, Tina is alright" Blaine hurried to explain, knowing how much the girl mattered to Mike so he decided to avoid how close she had been to being bitten. "All the glee members are hiding and running. It was the others: they left the fence and ran inside"
"They left the fence?" Marley repeated, as if she would have trouble believing they could have done something like that.
"They panicked" Blaine answered, with a sad nod. "We're not going to leave them in the lurch for that, though, right?"
"No, we're not" Sam relented, knowing that if they didn't help Blaine, he would do it on his own. "Damn you, you stubborn mule" he muttered to himself, although Blaine couldn't help the smallest smile when he heard it anyway.
"Ok, as Sam pointed out" Blaine rushed to explain, feeling the need to give Sam the credit he deserved, "we need to take care of those walkers at the door before anything else. I know some of you haven't fought any of those walkers yet so… if you think you can't do it, just run and hide. We'll understand"
"We'll fight with you" Jake said as he looked at Marley for confirmation and she nodded her head as confidently as she could manage.
"Do any of you have a gun?" Blaine asked because, as good as knifes were in short distances, guns would prove very useful to start killing those damned walkers before they were on them.
As it turned out, Puck, Mike, Sebastian and Kitty all had guns, plus the one Trent had given to Sam the night before at the gas station.
"In fact, I've got two guns" Puck said as he handed Blaine one of them. "Do you know how to use it?"
"I think so" Blaine said as he firmly grabbed it, turned around and shot twice, making two of the walkers fall instantly.
"Ok, Doc Holliday, calm down" Puck half joked as he watched his petite friend starting to walk decidedly towards the entrance, gun in hand as if he had been doing it all his life.
"I was just lucky" Blaine answered as he himself was surprised at what he had done. But Sam had explained to him how firearms worked, and he had always been a fast learner. "Ok, let's go!"
Sam gulped before he drew his own weapon and followed Blaine towards the door. He could see what Blaine was doing: for starters, he had tried to look confident and reliable so the others would trust him; he had always hated to look weak, so in a situation like that, when everybody was starting to turn to him as the leader he had always been, he needed to give a strong appearance. And in second place, which angered Sam to a big extent, he had shot so quickly so that the rest of the walkers would react to that. That way some of them at least would leave the door and go to their encounter. And that way they would be forced to take part in it and Sam would not be able to stop him again. What a clever little shit he was… He would admire him if he wasn't so angry.
"Come on!" Blaine yelled as an encouragement as he started shooting again, this time not stopping as he was glad to hear the rest of them following his instructions.
Everyone with a gun started shooting, even though most of them didn't know what they were doing –as they never had used a gun before– and most of the shots didn't each any target. Even Blaine, who had just experienced beginner's luck only a moment before, was very aware of how many of his attempts were not reaching their destiny, and he was becoming more and more frustrated. Apparently only Sam really knew how to shoot, and it was mostly thanks to him that they were keeping the walkers at bay.
"The door is opening!" Marley shouted to make herself heard above all the noise, but the others had already seen it.
"Shit, they haven't been able to hold it anymore" Blaine answered as he turned around and placed his gun on Marley's hands. "It's time to fight"
"Blaine, what…?" the girl asked, but the latter had an answer ready.
"I've got more experience fighting them hand-to-hand" Blaine explained as he took his knife from his waistband and held onto it. "You'll need this to protect yourself"
"Can you just worry about yourself for once, even if it's only for a second?" Sam angrily reproached him in a whisper as Blaine accelerated his pace towards the walkers coming to them.
"I wasn't getting a single one right anyway" Blaine joked, trying to erase that frown on Sam's face that he hated so much. He understood that Sam's annoyance at his actions only came from his worrying, but he still didn't like for Sam to be angry at him.
And apparently Sam didn't like it any more than he did, as he chuckled in spite of himself.
"Right in the brain, guys!" Blaine yelled at his back before he started running towards the first walker with an encouraging cry of war, hoping against hope that none of them would end up hurt –or worse, but he didn't even dare to think about it.
Any fear any of them might have had was put aside as they fought for their lives. Sam soon discovered that Blaine was right and knives were pretty more useful at short distance, and both of them would have been a nice spectacle to watch in other circumstances as they effectively killed a walker after another, in just one move most of the time.
Of course Sebastian also knew what he was doing, and Puck, Mike and Kitty were doing better than they would have expected, moved by a strong instinct to survive and to help the others do the same. Marley and Jake were not as skilful, and more than once one of the others had to step in and help them, but even they were giving the best of themselves.
Out of the corner of his eye Blaine saw someone running towards the entrance, with no weapon in hand and apparently so desperate she didn't seem as if she gave a damn about her own security. A better look at the girl told Blaine it was Santana, and she took advantage of the fact that almost all the walkers had already been killed to run to the door himself and stop her before she went inside.
"Santana!" he yelled as he grabbed her arms, but she was struggling so hard against his grip that for a moment he thought she was going to escape, so he just held more strongly. "Santana, stop! What's wrong?"
"Brittany and I got separated while trying to escape and I saw her getting inside!" Santana answered, crying and sobbing so desperately that it was hard for Blaine to understand what she was saying.
"Ok, we're going to get her, alright?" Blaine promised her in a calm and reassuring tone, trying to stop her from panicking. "You just need to calm down"
"Alright" she answered as she nodded, bringing her hands to her eyes to erase the tears as she prepared herself to follow Blaine's instructions.
"Do you still have your gun with you?" Blaine asked, needing her to be ready to defend herself if it came to that.
"Yes" she answered as she nervously took it out of the waistband of her pants.
Blaine looked behind him, where he had left the others, and was glad to see Puck killing the last walker as Sam and the others were already coming towards them.
"Santana, you alright?" Sam asked, his big heart making him forget about her harsh words towards Blaine from only a while before.
"Brittany is inside" she answered, more calmly than a second ago but still clearly upset.
"Then we've got no time to lose, right?" Sam answered, as he obviously still cared about the blond cheerio even if they had broken up a long time ago.
Very carefully they crossed the threshold of the door the walkers had managed to open only minutes ago, and a collective cry and horrified murmurs broke along the group when they saw all the blood and what looked like pieces of flesh on the floor. The students had probably been holding the door, and when the walkers, who were more than them, finally managed to open it, they didn't have the time to escape and died at their hands. And the only reason there were no corpses there just meant…
"They are walkers now, right?" Sebastian said, putting in words what everyone was thinking.
"We don't know how many of them were… killed" Blaine reminded them, trying hard to find the right words until he realized there was no other way to say it. "Some of them might have escaped in one of the classrooms or something"
"Is anybody there?" Jake yelled without thinking as he walked a little down the hall, too overwhelmed with the loss to realize what he had done.
"No, Jake!" Blaine tried to shush him with an expression of horror in his face.
But it was too late: two walkers who were still near, in the first classroom, came quickly out of their hiding place at the sound and turned to attack him. He wasn't quick enough to turn around to defend himself even if he tried, and the walkers bumped into him and made him fall against the lockers. Unfortunately, he hit the edge of a locker with his head, and was left stunned enough to be unable to react.
Seeing what was happening, Puck ran towards his brother and emptied his gun on the two walkers until they were effectively put down before they could hurt his brother even further.
"Jake?" he said as he kneeled down next to his brother, gently slapping his face in hopes of getting him to react.
"I'm alright" Jake answered after a few seconds, though his wince as he drove his hand to the injured area said a completely different thing.
"Let me help you" Puck said as he and Marley grabbed him under his arms and brought him to his feet, where he quickly realized he was too unsteady to stand on his own.
"Shit, he can't go on" Puck announced the others, who were circling them to protect them while keeping watch all around them for more intruders.
"You need to get him out of here" Blaine advised them, as it was too dangerous to stay for anyone in less than perfect health –his own injury didn't even come to his mind–. "I think we should all hide in the sports hall when… when this is over"
"Do you think we'll be safe there?" Mike asked.
"It's a whole different building and only has one door that we can easily block from inside, I think we can make it through the night" Blaine explained. "Puck, why don't you and Marley take Jake there and wait for us? Lock yourselves in and don't open the door unless one of us gets there"
"I think it's a good idea" Puck answered as he put his brother's arm around his shoulders. "Guys, be careful" he warned them as he offered his fist to Sam to bump onto it.
"You too" Sam answered with a silent promise to reunite in a while.
The remaining group only lost a second to see Marley and Puck go with Jake firmly held between them before they decided to start down the corridor to look for any possible survivors. They had learnt their lesson and knew it was wiser to keep quiet, so Sam gestured with a finger to his lips for them to walk as silently as they could.
Most of the classrooms had their doors open, so they didn't even bother entering and having a quick look around was enough. Trying to be quicker, they alternatively got in each of those apparently danger-free classes, with their weapons ready, just in case. And that worked until they reached a classroom with its door closed. Blaine tried to open it, but was surprised when he discovered it wasn't locked, but yet he seemed to be finding some resistance, so he decided to bump into it with his shoulder. And, as he had been expecting, the door opened under the force applied and a hand with a knife appeared and moved dangerously close to his face.
Fortunately Sebastian had been standing next to him and his reflexes were good enough to grab that hand around the wrist with force and stop it before he came close enough to Blaine's face to hurt him.
"Be careful, it's us" Sebastian angrily said as he pulled at the hand and a very frightened girl appeared, followed by two boys in very much the same state.
"I'm sorry, we thought…" she tried to apologize once she realized how close she had come to kill Blaine, his sobbing intensifying by the second.
"It's okay" Blaine immediately reassured her, knowing it was wiser to keep people calm and avoid a panic attack. "The path is clear to the door, stay together and get out of here. Go to the sports hall and knock on the door, there are people there waiting for you"
"Thank you, guys" One of the boys they had seen in class sometimes said before they obeyed.
"Well, if we're going to get killed by our own mates…" Kitty murmured angrily as they continued with their job.
"They didn't know it was us, Kitty" Mike answered conciliatorily.
They continued going through every classroom on the first floor. Sometimes they stumbled upon other frightened students and they sent them towards the sports hall as they had done with the first ones. Other times they just found blood stains and other signs of terrible things happening, but no one dared to say anything when that happened.
They silently went upstairs to the first floor and they covered it just as they had done on the ground floor. They happened to encounter some more walkers this time, but they were quickly becoming experts about how to take care of them and they always stayed close together so they could help each other in case they need it. Both Mike and Sebastian received minor injuries in one of their fights, but fortunately they were just scratches done against the walls or with their own knives and nothing to worry about.
The second floor was another whole thing. Apparently most of the students had gone up there in their run and the walkers had followed them, and the corridor was infested with those monsters wandering around, still looking for more victims.
"We need to shoot at them from here so there are not so many of them when they reach us" Blaine suggested at the top of the stairs, as they hid behind the banisters. "There's no way we can fight so many of them in a closed space"
"And how do you plan to shoot, Blaine?" Sam sarcastically asked him. "Because I feel obliged to remind you you gave your gun to Marley. Who is not here anymore, by the way"
"Shit, you're right" Blaine lamented, slapping at his own thigh in frustration. "It doesn't matter, I'll just…"
"Yes, exactly, you'll just stay here and wait for us to tell you it's okay to get out" Sam finished for him as he firmly pushed him down until he was sitting on one of the stairs.
"What?" Blaine replied, clearly indignant. "No, I'm not going to…"
"Yes, you are. You are hurt and you need a rest, don't even think I haven't noticed you are limping" Sam seriously said, as Blaine was clearly hurting and that was something Sam clearly hated.
"But…" Blaine tried to protest, but he was too surprised that Sam had noticed how much he was hurting to say anything else.
"Glad to see we've reached an agreement then" Sam joked as he patted Blaine's shoulder comfortingly, knowing how much he was going to hate to just sit down and let the others take care of the situation for once.
"Or you will have me to deal with" Sebastian added as he playfully punched Blaine's arm on his way up. And before Blaine could say anything else, they had all disappeared and the loud noise from their guns filled the place.
Blaine followed all the action with his eyes from behind the banister, hoping against hope that Sam and the others would remain safe, or he would never forgive himself. Fortunately they seemed to be making a great job, and it wouldn't be long before they finished all those walkers off. At least the ones on the corridor, because they didn't know if there were any others around. But suddenly something else caught Blaine's attention, and amongst all the noise he seemed to hear a voice asking for help behind the door in front of him.
Forgetting in an instant he was supposed to stay at the stairs, Blaine ran the few steps separating from that door and urgently knocked onto it.
"Hello? Is there someone there?" he asked, trying not to raise his voice too much.
"Blaine? Is that you?" the voice from the other side of the door asked, and Blaine sighed in relief at her friend's words.
"Brittany! Are you okay?"
"Blaine, you've got to get me out of here!" she answered, practically yelling, and Blaine could tell that something was clearly wrong with the girl.
"What the hell are you doing there, Blaine?" Sam's angry voice made Blaine jump out of his skin as the blond guy came back to him, followed by the others after killing all the walkers. "I thought I told you to stay put!"
"It's Brittany, she's here" Blaine rushed to explain, and even had to step aside as Santana forgot about everything else after his words and ran to the door.
"Britt! You alright?" Santana said as she grabbed the door handle and tried to open the door, to no avail. "I can't open the door"
"Santana, this girl and I got here in the laboratory to hide and we pushed this big cabinet to block the door, but I fell coming up here and I think I broke my arm, and now I can't move it on my own to get out!" Brittany explained in a rush.
"And why can't she help you?" Santana asked, trying to remain calm even when she could feel the fear and desperation on the other girl.
"Because she was bitten and now I think she's dead" Brittany explained, tears very obvious in her voice.
"What? Brittany, is she moving?" Blaine asked, terrified about the implications of what Brittany was saying, as he turned around and exchanged a worried look with Sam.
"No, she's not yet, but what if she transforms? I don't have any weapons" Brittany answered, obviously very frightened.
"How could she not say anything and let Brittany lock herself up with her?" Kitty asked, horrified at how someone could be that selfish.
"That's not important now!" Santana interrupted her. "We need to get her out of there!"
"But how?" Mike asked with a worried frown.
"Let's try pushing the door. Maybe between all of us…" Sebastian offered, even though he knew it was not a good idea.
"The door is not that big, we can't all push at the same time" Sam answered in a grave voice.
"Plus it wouldn't help, that piece of furniture needs to be moved from the inside, the door is not heavy enough to move it" Blaine explained with a sad shake of his head.
"If we could break that door on the top she could jump over the furniture" Kitty suggested. "What do you say, Brit, do you think you could climb on it?"
"I don't know, but I could try" she answered between sobs.
"I'm going to try and find something, an ax or a meat cleaver from the kitchen or anything from the maintenance cupboard so we can chop the door" Kitty announced.
"They are on the ground floor, it's going to take you too long!" Sebastian tried to reason with her.
"Well, unless you've got some better idea, it's the only thing that we've got" she complained as she started running down the stairs.
"I'll go with her" he said, not wanting for anyone to be on his own in such a dangerous territory.
"We can't wait, we need to find another solution" Blaine suggested, afraid that the dead girl would turn into a walker before they got Brittany out. "If I remember correctly, there is a small window on the laboratory on that wall, right?"
"I think so, but what's the use of that?" Sam asked, already afraid that Blaine was going to come up with a dangerous idea he was not going to like. "We're on a second floor, it's not like we can get Brittany out through it"
"I could climb out through the window on the classroom next to it and then try to go into the laboratory through it, so I can help Brittany move that cabinet from inside" Blaine explained, already walking to the classroom next door before anyone –mainly Sam– could convince him otherwise.
"What? Are you nuts?" Sam yelled behind him, as clearly he was not going to stay quiet about it. "You will fall!"
"I won't" Blaine answered, trying to sound completely confident for Sam's sake. "I know I can do it"
"What the hell, Blaine? You're injured, I'm not letting you do that" Sam said as he grabbed Blaine's arm and tried to move him away from the window. "I will do it"
"Sam, we all know I'm the only one small enough to get through that tiny window on the laboratory" Blaine said, knowing even Sam wouldn't be able to refute him that.
"I can do it too" Santana intervened, not sounding very convincing, but she would do anything to get Brittany out of there.
"Santana, no offense, but you're not as nimble as I am" Blaine answered, and it broke Sam's heart to admit he was right, and Blaine was really the only one for the job. After all, he had never seen someone as able to jump around and move like a cat like Blaine was. And he had always found that very funny until right then. "Can you honestly say you can do it?"
"Blaine…" Sam tried to stop him again when Santana didn't answer, although he knew it was already a lost battle: Blaine would never stay still if there was a way to save a life. Especially if it was the life of a friend.
"Sam, we can't let Brittany down…" Blaine tried to reason with him as he squeezed Sam's shoulder comfortingly. "And we don't have any more time to lose"
"If you manage to fall down I will kill you" Sam threatened him, not aware of how absurd it sounded until Blaine chuckled at him.
"I'll be alright" Blaine assured him before putting a chair next to the window and climbing on it so he could reach the window.
If it wasn't for all the blood marrying his pants, nobody would have ever said he was injured with the grace and the speed he moved. In one swift movement he was standing on the window sill, and Sam sat down on it too, his body out of the window too so he could hold on Blaine's legs and see what was happening and offer Blaine whatever support he might need.
Sam looked at him, his heart in his throat, and then looked at what he had to do and he knew he was right: only Blaine could do that, thanks to his size and his athletic skills. But that didn't make him feel any better. If he had to see Blaine fall down…
Blaine stopped for a second, not really knowing how to proceed. He unconsciously looked down for a second and he had to gulp at what he saw: three or four walkers looking up at him, as if waiting for him to fall. And Blaine realized that not making it to the other window was not an option, because if he failed he was doomed: if the fall didn't kill him, the walkers would surely do.
"Blaine, is there something wrong?" Sam asked as he held onto Blaine's legs, noticing his friend's hesitation.
"No, it's just… the laboratory's window is a little further away than I expected" Blaine answered, trying not to let his fear show in his voice.
"Ok, you tried, nobody can blame you for that, now please, go back inside" Sam pleaded.
"No, Sam, I can do it" Blaine assured him, shaking his legs slightly as a sign for Sam to let go of him.
"Blaine, no, just…" Sam said, but before he could even finish the sentence Blaine had already made the dreaded jump and was hanging from the other window's sill.
Not waiting until he would lose all his forces, Blaine used his feet to rest them on the wall and help himself rise enough to climb through the window. Sam hadn't even realized he was not breathing as he watched his friend fight with all his forces to cover the final distance up, and when one of Blaine's feet slipped from the wall he thought his heart was going to burst with fear, but Blaine recovered quickly enough and with one last effort he drew his body through the window and a couple of seconds later he was inside the laboratory.
"He is inside!" Sam yelled at the other two as he tried to run towards the door of the laboratory again, though his knees buckled for a second and Mike had to help him so he wouldn't fall.
"Sam, you alright?" he asked worriedly, but Sam quickly disentangled himself from his arms.
"Yes, yes, it was just… the fright, I guess" he answered as he recovered –after all, he had just seen his best friend almost fall from a second floor just like that– and ran to the door of the laboratory.
"Blaine!" he yelled through the door. "Blaine, you alright?"
"Yes, I'm alright!" Blaine answered, even if it was pretty clear that he was panting with effort. "We're going to try moving this thing now"
"Ok, hurry up, please" Sam nervously answered, knowing they were not out danger yet by any means with a dead body trapped there with them.
"Shit, it's very heavy" they heard Blaine say after a minute. "How the hell did you two move this?"
"Well, there were two of us pushing it with our bodies, but pulling it is harder I guess, especially since I can't help you with my broken arm" Brittany reasoned with him.
"What's happening, B?" Sam impatiently asked.
"I can't move it on my own, I'm going to empty it a bit first so it won't be so heavy" Blaine answered, trying to feign he was very calm for Sam's sake.
Mike, Santana and Sam waited impatiently next to the door as Blaine emptied the cabinet blocking the door, with Brittany helping as much as he could in her condition. They weren't going as fast as Sam would have liked, and he paced nervously up and down even though he never moved too far from the door.
"Blaine, I think she moved!" Brittany suddenly yelled, getting the attention of the three people waiting outside.
"Blaine, what's happening?" Sam asked, knocking impatiently at the door.
"She's turning into a walker" Blaine answered, the fear in his voice belaying his apparent calm stance.
"Ok, don't panic. Just kill it, you can do it" Sam tried to encourage him from the other side of the door, his heart racing with fear for his friends and the fact he couldn't help them.
"Fuck, I don't have my knife, it must have felt when I climbed through the window" Blaine exclaimed, trying very hard not to panic, as he knew Brittany was still depending on him –and he needed to keep Sam calm.
"Oh my God, Blaine!" Sam yelled, very far from the calm version of himself Blaine was trying to keep. "You need to get out of there right now!"
Santana started crying again as Sam banged on the door continually as if that could be of any help. They could hear Blaine and Brittany at the other side of the door making the biggest efforts to move the damned piece of furniture, but they weren't fast enough and by then the girl had fully turned into a walker.
"Blaine, watch out!" Brittany yelled in warning, and when Blaine screamed a second after that, Sam's world crumbled and he felt as if he couldn't draw a breath nor move a muscle. His eyes filled with tears and when he regained the ability to move, he started banging on the door like a madman again, even louder and more desperately than before.
"Blaine!" he yelled, the name of the most important person in his life the only thing he could bring himself to say. "Blaine!"
Blaine screamed again –at least he was still alive– and this time his voice was followed by the sound of a blow that seemed to indicate that he was at least fighting.
"Blaine, please, what's happening?" Sam asked, encouraged by the fact that Blaine seemed to be fighting with the walker.
Blaine didn't answer, but after he screamed again –and this time it seemed as if it was from the effort– there was a loud dragging noise and the next time Sam banged on the door it opened slightly, but enough for him to get his hand in and help push the cabinet away.
"Mike, help me with this!" Sam begged to his friend, who immediately came to his side and joined him in the task of moving the piece of furniture until the door could open enough for the people inside to go out.
Brittany got our first, and immediately fell in Santana's arms to melt into an embrace with her, both of them crying desperately. But just when Blaine was about to follow them, the walker, who was on the floor, grabbed Blaine's ankle and pulled until he made him fall to the floor.
"Blaine!" Sam yelled as he watched him fall, but he was not going to stand and watch him get in danger this time, so in a quick movement he grabbed Blaine's wrist and pulled him in the opposite direction, so strongly that the walker had to let go of him and, as soon as he was dragged outside the room, Mike closed the door behind him and trapped the walker there.
Sam let himself fall on his knees and helped Blaine to the same position before he engulfed him into the strongest embrace he could muster, almost afraid of suffocating him even if he couldn't bring himself to stop.
"Please, tell me you weren't bitten" Sam begged as he squeezed Blaine impossibly close to his chest, tears falling unnoticed down his cheeks as he feared the answer he was going to get.
"It didn't bite me" Blaine immediately reassured him, his fingers getting lost between the locks of blond hair in the back of Sam's hair in a comforting gesture. "It didn't bite me, Sam"
"Are you sure?" Sam asked, breaking the embrace to cup Blaine's cheeks into his hands, wanting to read his eyes to make sure he was telling the truth.
"Yes, I'm sure" Blaine again tried to reassure him, covering Sam's hands with his own.
"But when you screamed…"
"I hit its head on the wall and it fell, but it was not enough and it grabbed my leg from the floor and got me in my wound" Blaine explained, wincing slightly as he tried to move his leg, as being on his knees was only making the pain worse. "And then it hurt again when I tried to kick its head. I'm sorry I scared you"
"I'm just glad you're okay" Sam answered as he quickly erased the tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt and helped Blaine get up, having noticed how being on that position was hurting him. "But don't ever put a stunt like that again or I'll kill you myself"
"Alright" Blaine answered, even managing a little smile for his friend.
"Thank you, Blaine" Brittany said between sobs as she embraced Blaine once he was on his feet and clung desperately to him.
"Don't mention it" Blaine tried to dismiss it, as usual not comfortable with the attention, especially when he knew he hadn't been able to save all the people he felt had been depending on him.
"Guys, we should get going" Mike suggested, feeling bad for rushing them but knowing they were not safe there.
"No" Blaine immediately opposed. "We haven't checked this floor yet. There could still be survivors"
"But Blaine…" Mike tried to change his mind, but Sam interrupted him.
"Don't bother" he warned him, shaking his head in frustration at his best friend's stubbornness, knowing Blaine wasn't going to leave the place until he was sure there was no one else inside. "Let's just do it and then we'll get the hell out of here"
"Ok, but let's be careful" Mike insisted. "It looks like there were more of them in this floor, and I can hear their hissing somewhere"
They continued with the same strategy they had used on the other two floors after Sam and Santana gave Blaine and Brittany their knives, respectively –they had their guns, after all–, so none of them would be left completely defenseless. They were not finding any more survivors, which clearly was bringing their morale down, but they had to fight a few walkers along the way.
At the end of the corridor there was only the library left to check. Sam was so glad to finish their mission that he had a smile on his face when he crossed the threshold of the open door. But that smile froze at the image in front of them: the library was infested with walkers, there was blood all around the place, and there were three different piles of them, which meant they were probably eating some students they had managed to catch. At least, fortunately, they didn't seem to be alive anymore, as they couldn't hear a sound from them.
They all took their hands to their faces to muffle any possible sound elicited by the terror they were experiencing. And with a move of his head, Sam signaled to the door again, telling the others to just turn around and leave the place.
All of them obeyed and silently got out from the library, but before Sam closed the door behind him, he noticed some of the walkers had seen them and were starting to move.
"We need to get out of here now!" he urgently said once outside the library. "I'm sure they'll manage to open the door very soon, run!"
No one felt the need to argue at that, and all of them started running down the corridor towards the stairs, knowing there wasn't anything else they could do now, and that everybody that had gotten inside was already out or dead. Now it was up to them to make sure they could survive too.
Blaine's injury had become very painful since the fight with that walker in the library, which meant he could hardly run and he was inadvertently being left behind at each step. He never complained, not wanting the others to be exposed to danger for longer than strictly necessary, but of course Sam noticed: as soon as he saw that Blaine was not running in front of him, he looked back and was appalled to see him a few feet behind them, his face drenched with sweat at the enormous effort he was making to follow them.
"Blaine, come on" Sam encouragingly said as he stopped running, making his way back until he could meet his friend again to help him, his heart breaking at all the pain, both physical and emotional, that he could read in his eyes.
But before Blaine could say anything, someone appeared behind Sam. The blond saw it from the corner of his eye, but when he turned around to face whatever that was, he was relieved to see a McKinley cheerio uniform that told him it could only be one of his former classmates.
"Shit, girl, you scared the life out of me" Sam said as he looked into her face and discovered it was that girl that had been on the cheerio team with Blaine. Bree, was it?
"Sam, watch out!" Blaine yelled as Bree caught Sam unawares and jumped on him until he made him fall.
Only that it wasn't Bree. At least it wasn't anymore. Blaine felt tears forming in his eyes as he realized the girl had died and already transformed into a walker, like the girl in the laboratory and who knew how many more. He had failed: she had only been a girl in panic and he hadn't been able to protect her.
But he didn't get himself fall into despair, at least not yet, because she was trying to bite Sam, and the latter had lost his weapon in the fall. So Blaine jumped from his place and with a quick and strong push to her side he was able to get her away from Sam, so strongly that it might have been able to break her neck with the brusque movement. But he knew that was not enough, so from his place on his knees he grabbed the knife Sam had given him and crawled to her, he raised his hand as high as he could, the knife strongly held into his fist, and let his arm fall until the weapon embedded itself with force into her skull. And then all struggle ceased.
As the first time he killed a walker, Blaine looked down at the corpse and marveled at how it didn't look like a monster anymore. Just as the body of a person who had died in terrible circumstances. And this was not any body: this one belonged to a classmate, to a girl that had been in the cheerio team with him, to someone who had been close to a friend. And she was dead. And he had been the one to finish her.
He felt as if the world was crumbling on him, as if everything had gone darker all of a sudden, and the room began to spin around him as he found himself unable to breathe. He just let go of the knife as if suddenly it burned and slowly brought his hands to his head as if he wanted to hide behind them forever.
He didn't know how much time passed as he tried to draw a breath, but suddenly Sam was kneeling in front of him, one hand on his shoulder as the other one tried to uncover Blaine's face, and he seemed to be talking even if Blaine couldn't make any sense out of his words.
"B? B!" Sam tried to get his attention, and he looked very worried.
"Sam" Blaine whispered as his voice didn't seem to work, but at least he was breathing now.
"Are you with me?" Sam asked as he rested his hands on Blaine's shoulders and gently shook him to get him out of his shock.
"Yeah" he answered after what felt like a whole minute, shaking his head himself as he tried to reconnect with reality and make that worried frown on Sam's face disappear.
"We need to get out of here" Sam urged him, trying to avoid saying what they both knew: that there weren't any more people they could help, and that they would be the next victims if they didn't run.
Sam stood up and offered his hand to Blaine, who still needed a second to comprehend what he was being said. But when he finally took Sam's hand and tried to move his injured leg, a stab of pain ran all along it and he whimpered pitifully.
"B, what's wrong?" Sam asked at the distress in his friend's face and voice, while a noise at the end of the corridor got his attention and he discovered the walkers inside the library were managing to open the door.
"It hurts too much" Blaine answered with a sob, as he seemed to have lost all the fight in him. "I can't go on"
"The hell you can't" Sam answered angrily as he let go of his hand to grab him around the waist and pull him upright in one swift movement in spite of his resistance. "If you thought for a second I was going to leave you here…"
Blaine didn't want to run anymore, he felt as if he nothing mattered anymore and any movement he made meant too big an effort. And yet he started moving, he managed to put one foot in front of the other and let Sam guide him down the stairs as fast as they could. Because there was no way Sam was going to leave without him, he knew that much, and he was not going to let those monsters get Sam if there was a way for him to stop it.
There were tears in Blaine's eyes when they took the last flight of stairs from the effort and the pain, and yet he didn't complain, not wanting to burden Sam with any more worries. But he felt his strength diminishing with every step, and he wondered if he would be able to make it outside as much as he wanted, or Sam would have to see him fail.
His answer came in the form of Kitty and Sebastian coming back to meet them. They were carrying that cleaver they had been looking for, though it wasn't necessary anymore.
"Blaine!" Sebastian exclaimed as he saw Sam practically dragging him the last of the steps. "What's wrong?"
"Help me with him, Sebastian" Sam begged the warbler, though there was no need for that as Sebastian was already throwing Blaine's free arm around his own shoulders and supporting half of his weight.
"Where's Brittany?" Kitty asked even if she started running next to the trio.
"Blaine got her out" Sam answered proudly. "They are already out, and we need to hurry because there is a whole army of walkers coming down behind us"
With Sebastian's help, they managed to make a much better time, as he and Sam were practically carrying Blaine between them. They ran the rest of the corridor and were out in what seemed like an instant, and Kitty closed the door behind them, hoping that one, much stronger and more secure that the one on the library, would hold them in for a bit longer.
There was still a long way towards the sports hall where the others were waiting for him, and Sam and Sebastian didn't hesitate to make a run towards it, feeling a great need of being able to stop and feel safe for a while.
"Wait, the others…" Blaine said as they passed by the area in which he had told the ones who had held the fence with him they would reunite later.
"Let's worry about you for a second, ok?" Sam tried to divert his attention as they continued running, as his main priority right now was to make sure Blaine would be safe and able to rest.
"No, but I told them we would meet again right there" Blaine insisted, trying to disentangle himself from the other two, obviously to no avail thanks to his increasing weakness.
"I'll get them myself as soon as you're safe" Sam promised, as he would do anything to make sure Blaine was alright and he was not going to try any other stunts like the ones he had done that day.
It was not much later than Blaine was sitting on a mat in the sports hall. Most of the survivors were already there, and they had made a few controlled bonfires in hopes of warming up the enormous place a little. Everyone seemed to have a task to do except for him –of course no one dared to ask anything out of the exhausted and injured guy– and after Artie insisted to check his leg, he had been left on his own to sit next to one of the fires, waiting impatiently for Sam, Sebastian and Puck to come back after going out again to collect their friends from the place Blaine had indicated.
He was feeling numb, and not just physically. They had lost a lot of people that day and, even if most of them weren't real friend, they were still classmates and familiar faces who now were gone. And he felt responsible for those deaths, as he hadn't been able to stop them from happening. Wasn't he thinking he knew better only a few hours before? Wasn't he complaining that those guys weren't being careful enough? What had he done better than them? Why the hell had he thought he was better than them?
He felt his chest lessen the pressure that was keeping him from breathing when he heard Marley opening the door and Sam and the rest of his friends made their way into the sports hall. At least no one else had died, Blaine thought as he rested the side of his face on the knee he had raised to his chest –as his injured leg lied unmoving on the floor– and wished he could at least close his eyes and sleep for a while, so he could escape from that awful reality, if only for a little while.
"Hey" Sam said as he came to sit next to his friend a couple of minutes later, gently patting his good leg to get his attention.
"Hey" Blaine answered as he lifted his face from his knee if only because of his impeccable manners, as the only thing he really wanted was to be left alone to wallow in his own misery.
"You should take care of that leg" Sam reminded him with a compassionate smile as he pointed at the leg that Blaine kept unmoving and stretched in front of him, as if only the slightest move would cause him a great pain.
"Artie already helped me clean it up while you were out" Blaine answered with a neutral tone, though Sam knew Artie had probably had to force him to do that.
"May I…?" Sam hesitantly asked, knowing how much Blaine hated to be reminded of his weaknesses, even if they were in the form of injuries, but he couldn't bring himself to stop.
Blaine sighed, knowing Sam would never rest easy unless he was able to see for himself how his leg was faring, so he nodded almost imperceptibly and waited until Sam knelt at his side and very carefully lifted the leg of his pants –though it still hurt enough to make Blaine wince.
"I'm sorry, B" Sam immediately apologized.
"It's okay"
But it was not okay. Sam could have cried at how painful Blaine's leg looked now that he had the chance to have a good look at it. No wonder Blaine had felt like throwing in the towel just a while ago. How he had been able to do everything that he had done that day was beyond him.
"Look how swollen your leg is" Sam commented, his frustration taking once again the form of anger, a feeling much easier to manage for him than pain or sorrow. "I thought I told you to stay out of that leg"
"Oh, I'm sorry, next time I'll just sit down and watch how the rest of you are eaten alive" Blaine answered sarcastically before he could stop himself, feeling just as frustrated and angry as his friend.
"I'm sorry, B" Sam lamented, immediately repentant as he moved again to sit next to his friend and threw a comforting arm around his shoulders. "That was stupid of me to say. I just… I hate to see you in pain"
"I know. I'm sorry too" Blaine answered as he, for once, let his guard down and rested his head in Sam's shoulder, desperate for physical contact and a comfort he knew only Sam could provide.
"When the fence fell and you weren't there I thought…" Sam tried to explain, but his voice faded out before he could finish his sentence.
"I know" Blaine repeated, perfectly understanding what Sam meant by the intensity of his grip around him.
But it was not enough. Blaine's heart was breaking, it felt too heavy with despair to work normally and he once again felt as if he couldn't breathe. He turned to his best friend, the only person in the world he was going to let him see like that, and wrapped his arms around his neck so strongly that he was afraid he was going to hurt him, even if he couldn't bring himself to stop. And when Sam's arms closed around his own torso just as strongly, suddenly it was too much and he let his sorrow flow through bitter tears that he tried to hide on the crook of Sam's neck. But he remained silent, without not a single sob or sound that revealed his inner turmoil, still stubborn that no one knew how broken he felt.
"Schhh" Sam shushed him, knowing. He always knew. But suddenly Blaine didn't care that he knew. Sam could know everything about him, good or bad, and Blaine wouldn't care. "We are okay, Blaine. We made it"
"I failed, Sam" Blaine whispered in Sam's ear, instantly bringing tears to his eyes too at the pain his soft voice emanated, even if it remained stoic.
"What?" Sam asked as he broke the embrace and held Blaine at arm's length, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"I couldn't save them" Blaine answered as he furiously wiped the tears that kept spilling unwillingly from his eyes.
"Blaine, you saved all of our lives!" Sam tried to make him understand, even shaking Blaine's frame slightly as if he was trying to physically get that idea out from his head.
"I killed Bree" Blaine answered so softly that Sam had to strain to hear it.
Letting his breath out slowly as he suddenly understood, Sam took Blaine into his arms again and held him as close to his chest as he could manage, rocking their bodies in unison as his hand moved to the back of Blaine's head on its own accord to bury itself in his soft curls and hold it in place against his shoulder. He desperately tried to find the right words to say to his devastated friend, but what do you say to someone that had been through something like that? Because yeah, okay, Blaine had had to kill a lot of walkers before, all of them had. But it was the first time he knew the person that walker had been. And, on top of that, he felt responsible for her death in the first place.
"That wasn't Bree anymore, B" Sam finally said as he rubbed Blaine's back in comforting patterns, knowing it was the only thing he could do to try and make him feel better.
"Then why do I feel so bad?" Blaine asked with a broken voice even if he still didn't let himself break down, and Sam admired him even more for the fact that in a time like that, with his heart as broken as it was, he would still remain strong for the sake of the others, even if Sam knew better.
"Because you have the biggest heart ever, and not even this hell we're living is going to change that" Sam honestly answered as he rested a long kiss to Blaine's temple, hoping he'd understand that he was there for him.
"I don't know how long I can keep doing this, Sam" Blaine confessed, his voice completely void of his usual determination and strength, in a way that Sam needed a couple of seconds to breathe and keep any tears at bay before breaking the embrace and facing him again.
"Don't give up, Blaine" Sam begged him, cupping his face in his hands again while joining their foreheads together, knowing perfectly well what he needed to say to make Blaine react. "I can't do this without you. We need to do it together"
Sam saw Blaine closing his eyes for a second, as he tried to put his thoughts and feelings in order, and he knew his words had done their work: if Blaine couldn't find it in him to keep fighting for himself, he would do it for Sam. Maybe it had been a dirty trick, but Sam would take anything that would erase the desolation he had just seen in Blaine's eyes.
"Come here, you're shivering" Sam said as he rearranged himself until he was side by side with Blaine again and put his arm around his shoulders to bring him to his side, just before his hand lovingly rubbed on Blaine's bicep to keep him warm.
Then he picked the blanket that had been lying forgotten on Blaine's legs and threw it around both their bodies, more as an excuse for them to keep in their embrace than anything else –though he very well knew he didn't need any excuses–. And his heart warmed more than any blanket could have managed when Blaine sighed and let his head fall on Sam's shoulder.
"Thank you, Sammy" Blaine said, his voice still soft but with a tiny hint of a strength that hadn't been there just a second ago.
"Anytime, buddy" Sam answered with a smile as he rested his own head on top of Blaine's.
They remained in silence for a while, just like that, the only movement in them Sam's hand still stroking Blaine's arm comfortingly. Just the reassurance that they were there for each other under any circumstance was enough to the point they didn't even need words to communicate.
"Boys?" a soft voice got them out of their reverie, and both of them lifted their heads to look at Santana, though they made no move to separate.
"Hey, Santana" Sam answered, immediately preparing himself to attack if she dared to say even the slightest bad thing about Blaine.
"I… I wanted to talk to you both" Santana said in a conciliatory tone. "Well, mostly you, Blaine"
"You don't have to say it, Santana" Blaine answered in a defeated tone she didn't expect, and he didn't even lower his gaze from the fire to look at her, almost as if he was ashamed.
"Say what?" she asked in confusion.
"That you were right" Blaine continued in the same dull tone that pained Sam so much. "That I have no idea what I'm doing"
"No, Blaine, we…" Santana interrupted herself with a sigh, trying to find the right words to apologize for her hurtful words from before. "It's the complete opposite. All the people here right now are alive thanks to you"
"But I couldn't save the others" Blaine insisted, not ready yet to forgive himself even when Sam begged him to with a tender squeeze to his shoulder.
"Look, Blaine, I don't want to sound mean but… the others were as stupid as I was this afternoon" she explained as she knelt down in front of Blaine to be at his eye level. "They chose to do the wrong thing, and yet you tried to help them. Hell, you saved some of them"
"We all did" Blaine answered, looking proudly at Sam, who reciprocated with a wide smile.
"Because you've turned us into a team" she tried to reason with him, and Sam could have cried with relief at the perfect argument she was giving his friend. "We are lucky to have you. Both of you"
"Thank you, Santana" Blaine said, smiling for the first time in what felt like ages, as he offered his hand to the girl as a peace offer.
"No, thank you, Blaine" she answered as he took his hand and squeezed it between both of his. "I'm sorry about what I said before. You obviously knew what you were talking about"
"Not that much, I'm still trying to figure out a lot of stuff" he answered with a chuckle, although both Sam and himself knew he was only half joking, and that he wasn't always that confident and determined as he seemed.
"Hey, guys!" Santana yelled, suddenly standing and turning up towards the others. "Are you coming or what? You don't expect Blaine to go all the way down there with his injured leg, do you?"
Both Blaine and Sam looked at each other and chuckled at Santana's antics as all their friends started making their way to them to sit around the fire, making a big circle where everybody was accepted and comforted by the others' presence.
Sebastian sat at Blaine's other side and squeezed his knee as he smiled at him, which Blaine quickly reciprocated. Puck was not as gentle as he slapped Sam's back before sitting at his side, but the blond still knew it was his way of showing affection, so he smiled at him.
After all the tragedy and the sorrow from just a couple of hours before, Blaine thought it was nice and comforting to be surrounded by people who cared about him, by friends who trusted him and appreciated his efforts to keep them safe. Soon the jokes and the silliness found their way amongst the group as a way to compensate their grief, and even if Blaine didn't participate in them, he found himself smiling and even chuckling every now and then. And just by being there, amongst friends and with Sam's warm arms around him –and he could see how Sam would keep checking on him to see any signs of discomfort of grieve on his face every few minutes, even if he thought he couldn't see it–, he knew he was strong enough to beat anything. And he intended to do that.
A/N: Hey, no cliffhanger this time! Take a deep breath before the next one