As always,

Raiderva: Well, they said Blaine was a whiny bitch, right? :) Thank you so much for your support, really, means the world to me! I'll try not to apologize that much from now on :) Thank you so much!

THEMoDePo: Oh, wow, thanks! As usual, I love your enthusiasm! I'm glad you liked the silly scene about the sleeping... And the little hot exchange in the woods XD Don't worry, badass Blaine is just around the corner! Thank you so much!

SwissSlash: Yes, that was another cliffhanger! And yes, this story is different, though I'm afraid if you read any one of my other stories you will find out they're like all the other, with New York and everything XD So enjoy this one! And thank you for the support!

Darrinia: Cariñín! Yeah, I also love romance with a bit of action, that's why I started writing this madness in the first place! :) About them being fine... well... I can't make any promises ;) Gracias, guapísima, no sé qué haría sin ti!

Me-Me157: Yes, Blaine, finally, is starting to get better, now he's finally had the chance to rest (and the others helped XD). And yeah, even with all the apocalypse, Blam still have their needs! :) And of course there has to be more danger, otherwise it would get boring. Thank you so much!

Mildlifecrissis: thank you, sweetie! I'm so glad you liked the little details in that first scene, because I enjoyed writing it so much! I wanted a little happy something before all the drama started again. I hope it was soon enough :) Thank you sooo much!

John W. Black: I have to say I got very amused with your review, about how you praised me about how well I handled criticism... and then proceeded to criticize me again on the next line XD. I'm grateful this time your review wasn't anonymous, though! I don't handle it as well as you think, though, and those reviews from the previous chapter really hurt and almost got me to leave the fic... I only know how to feign very well XD. And yeah, I understood perfectly well what you meant about the secondary characters, I even agreed with you, remember? :) BTW I have no idea who Coral is, sorry! Thanks!

A/N: Hey, this one didn't take so long! ;)

CHAPTER 28

Sam doubted his heart could possibly beat any faster than how it was doing it at the moment with the fear of noticing there were at least five men –who knew if there were more of them behind the trees?– surrounding them, all of them pointing their firearms at him and Blaine and cutting every possible escape route for them.

He was about to squeeze Blaine's hand to communicate his fear to him and take reassurance in the fact that at least they were together, when he felt Blaine quickly letting go of his hand, the one he had been happily holding until then. Sam turned to look at him in surprise, but Blaine only slightly shook his head at him, as if silently asking him to let it go, and Sam wondered if there was any reason Blaine didn't want for those men to know they loved each other…

"Leave your weapons on the floor very slowly" The man in front of them ordered in a voice that left no room for arguments.

Sam looked at Blaine again in hesitation, as if asking him about what to do –Blaine might have been out of action for some time, but that wasn't going to make Sam forget about the reliable leader he had been until then–, but Blaine just nodded at him, telling him to obey as he himself was doing.

"Is that all you're carrying?" the man asked when Sam left a gun and a knife, while Blaine only parted with his gun.

"That's all" Blaine answered in what he hoped would be a convincing voice.

"Except for the knife so badly hidden in the waistband of your pants, right?" the man directly behind them announced, and Blaine winced at how clumsy his attempt of not leaving them completely unarmed had been.

"Oh, so we have a little hero here" the leader intervened, closing the distance separating them until he was standing right in front of the boy. "Give me that knife"

Blaine thought about trying to get that man by surprise and butt his head against his as hardly as he could now that he was so near, and if there weren't another four men pointing their firearms at them –at Sam–, he would have. But he was a sensible person and he knew there was no way he could go away with that, so in the end he slowly took the knife from his pants and handed it to the man in front of him.

"Good boy" the man sarcastically said and before Blaine had time to react, he slapped him in the face with the back of his hand with all his forces as a punishment for his disobedience.

Blaine felt an explosion of pain and a sudden stickiness in his bottom lip, so he guessed that man had split it, but he refrained from making any sound of discomfort when he saw Sam about to jump on that man; instead he just put a discreet hand to Sam's arm to stop him and sighed in relief when Sam seemed to understand and refrained himself from doing anything.

"Don't even try to fool me again, kid" the man said in a threatening tone while pointing his finger at him. "Do you have any more weapons?"

"No"

"Are you sure?"

"I don't, I swear" Blaine answered, completely honest this time.

"You two are not alone, are you?" the leader asked, looking all around the place as if looking for something.

"What do you mean?" Blaine asked, frowning in confusion. "There is only the two of us here"

"I mean there is no way two kids like you have managed to survive for so long on their own. Where are the others?"

"There are no others" Sam intervened in a rush, as there was no way they were going to lead those men towards their friends and put them at risk. Because yes, they knew how to fight and they probably outnumbered those men, but the surprise could run in those men's favor and someone could get hurt –or worse–, and he refused to lose anyone else.

"Yeah, right" the man sarcastically answered. "I'm kind of getting tired of you two and your lies"

"I'm not lying" Sam insisted, trying to keep a steady voice even if he was terrified about what those men wanted from them. "We are on our own"

"Look, you fucking punk, you're going to start talking right now or you will never do it again" the man said as he place the barrel of his rifle under Sam's chin, which made Blaine's heart skip a bit at the threat.

"Ok, we're part of a larger group" Blaine said, thinking as fast as he could to get the danger away from his boyfriend, ignoring the way Sam was looking at him in astonishment while he probably thought he was betraying their friends. "A much larger group, in fact. Maybe you'd want to meet them, we're very hospitable with small groups like yours"

Sam had to fight the urge to grin at his boyfriend's insolent reply, even if he hoped it wouldn't cause him more trouble. So that's what he was trying to do: not to guide those men towards their friends, but exactly the opposite, and that was keeping them away from the group by implying there were a lot of them, while trying to keep Sam out of trouble at the same time. If it wasn't so risky he would kiss him right there and there for being so clever.

"Are you playing with me, brat?" the man almost spat at him, turning the weapon towards Blaine's face this time, making Sam wince with fear for his lover.

"Stop it already, James" one of the other men intervened, getting impatient at all the time they seemed to be wasting. "He is probably telling the truth, can't you see how many bottles and canteens they're carrying? There has to be some of them. In fact they must have some kind of camp around because they're not carrying any supplies, so we better leave fast before we find ourselves outnumbered"

The man in front of them –James, apparently– seemed to hesitate for a couple of seconds, looking intently at them as if trying to read their souls and determine if they were tricking him or not. But in the end he couldn't find a reason to refute his mate's arguments, so he sighed and roughly pushed Sam to get them moving.

"Start walking, both of you" he said to reinforce his gestures.

"Where are we going?" Sam dared to ask while stubbornly refusing to take a step, all the while looking worriedly at how his boyfriend was cleaning the blood of his lip with his knuckles.

"You don't need to know that yet" the leader answered.

"But what do you want from us?" Sam insisted, resisting the urge to take Blaine's hand as they were roughly pushed again so they would start walking –if only because he felt that's what Blaine wanted him to do.

"Damn it, kids, start walking now or I'm going to get really angry!" James yelled at them, not really hiding how furious he was already, and Blaine nudged Sam's side as a petition for him to start moving, not really wanting to see what James was capable of.

And Sam reluctantly obeyed.

That was not the idea Blaine had of a peaceful walk when he had suggested it back at the farm: he and Sam had been kidnapped, they had no idea what those men wanted from them, they were now unarmed and he was starting to get tired –he had not been wrong about needing some training before attempting a strenuous activity…–. After all, he guessed they had been walking for at least half an hour, if not more, at a very quick pace, and his still weak system was starting to protest.

It must have showed on his face or his stance, because the next time his boyfriend looked at him he instantly could see something was wrong.

"Blaine" Sam whispered, trying to get closer to his lover without it being too obvious.

"I'm alright, Sam" Blaine answered, equally low, when he immediately guessed Sam was going to ask him how he was.

"Do you think you can hang on for a while?" Sam asked, and there was so much worry in his voice that Blaine's resolution to hang on grew even more, if only so he didn't have to see that distressed expression on Sam's face again.

"Of course, Sam, don't worry about me" he answered, hoping he sounded convincing enough. But of course Sam knew him better.

"I will tell them to slow down" Sam suggested, but he was stopped with a strong grip of Blaine's hand in his arm.

"Don't do that" Blaine hissed, terrified that his weakness would end up getting him or Sam into trouble –he didn't trust those men, he didn't think they were going to be very understanding to his physical state–. "I can keep going, ok?"

"Shut up, you two" the man directly behind them ordered, even pushing Sam a little to reinforce his words and his authority.

Sam and Blaine obeyed for a bit and stopped talking, knowing they had to do what those men told them if they wanted to stay safe. Maybe it was a bluff, but after the last time they had encountered some people –back at the prison–, they very well knew they couldn't trust anybody.

Of course that didn't mean Sam was going to stop worrying about Blaine. He looked tired and his face was flushed and sweaty. He hoped he wasn't getting a fever of top of everything. Sam worried he wouldn't be able to keep with the fast pace much longer, and his heart ached to see him struggling.

"Let me help you, at least" Sam suggested after a couple of minutes, keeping his voice even lower than before, so the men wouldn't hear them.

"No" Blaine blatantly refused, not even daring raising his gaze towards his boyfriend's face so he didn't have to see the fear in his eyes.

"Why not?"

"I don't want them to see you helping me, I don't want them to know about us"

"Why?" Sam asked before he could stop himself, because it was not the first time Blaine had hinted it was better to keep that information to themselves.

"Because if they know they can use it against us" Blaine muttered in explanation.

And gosh, sometimes Sam hated when Blaine was right.

Cooper sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time as he looked through the window which he hadn't moved away from for the last half hour. He had known letting Blaine and Sam go alone was not a good idea even before they set a foot outside. Where were those two now and what the hell was keeping them so long?

"Relax, Cooper, they will be here in no time" Brittany said, feeling bad for the obvious struggle to keep calm going on inside Cooper's head.

"They've been gone for too long" Cooper answered, for once not even trying to look strong and letting everybody know how worried about his brother he really was.

"Yeah, I was starting to think the same" Sebastian hated to admit.

"Maybe we should go looking for them, they might be in trouble" Cooper suggested.

"Come on, don't be such a worrier, maybe they just got a little playful and are taking advantage of their alone time" Puck contradicted them, hoping to calm the oldest Anderson brother down a bit. "I mean that's why they left in the first place, right?"

"They wouldn't do that out there in the open, they're not stupid" Sebastian intervened, knowing how responsible those two were about safety nowadays.

"And Blaine knows I would worry" Cooper added, his expression turning more and more sober by the minute.

"You guys are freaking out, they're two teenagers with raging hormones, I'm sure they just lost track of time with their loving actions" Puck tried to convince them, but even he could see he was not going to be successful.

"They might be young and horny, but I know my brother and he would never risk his life, and much less Sam's, for a screw" Cooper answered, almost angry at Puck for implying that Blaine would act so foolishly and at how he was trying to diminish the importance of their absence. "Plus it looks like it's about to rain again, there is no way they can't see it. I'm going after them. You can come with me or stay here, but I'm going"

"Come on, Cooper, you really want to walk on them while shagging?" Puck tried for the last time, even if he was starting to let himself be convinced instead of the other way around, the worry on those two starting to get contagious.

"I'll take the risk" Cooper retorted with no trace of joking in his voice, and it was then when Puck understood he was really –and understandingly– worried. He just hoped he wasn't right about his fears.

"Ok, let's go find them" Puck finally relented as he stood up from the couch and followed the others towards the door.

After an hour of walking, Blaine could hardly keep putting one foot in front of the other, so much his legs were shaking from exhaustion. The pace of the group hadn't slowed down one bit even when the pouring rain started, and Blaine was dragging his feet so much he wondered if his shoes would survive such a torture. He was very aware of how Sam's eyes were permanently on him, watching his every step, but it wasn't until his knees buckled for a second that Sam finally forgot about being cautious and put his arms around Blaine to hold him upright.

"You can't keep going, you are exhausted" Sam said as he held Blaine more strongly to his side in an attempt of helping him.

"I'm not" Blaine unsurprisingly replied, extricating immediately from Sam's side-embrace. "I'm tired, but I can go on"

"You seem about to faint, you were not ready for a walk like this" Sam insisted, respecting Blaine's wishes and letting go of him even if he didn't move too far away, in case he needed to stop his fall again.

"It's not like we have another option, right?" Blaine retorted in frustration as he resumed his walking as graciously as he could.

"Yes, we have, I will tell them to slow down" Sam said in a resolute tone that told Blaine that he wasn't going to obey this time.

"No, you won't" Blaine hissed at him in a desperate attempt to stop him.

"Excuse me" Sam raised his voice so some of the men surrounding them would hear him.

"Sam, no" Blaine begged as he pulled on Sam's arm, but his boyfriend ignored him in what he thought was the best for him.

"Please, can we stop for a minute? My friend is hurt, he needs to rest" Sam announced, finally succumbing to his instincts and putting his arm around Blaine's waist to help him stay upright.

"Hurt? How?" one of the man asked, as they hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary in the boy.

"He got a bullet on his shoulder only a few days ago and he is not completely recovered yet" Sam rushed to explained, encouraged by the fact that the man seemed willing to listen.

"Well, we don't have time to lose, so he'll have to make a bigger effort" James, the leader, intervened before any of the others decided to show any mercy. "Now move"

"He can't" Sam insisted.

"Sam, leave it, I will try" Blaine said, extricating from Sam's embrace once again so he could properly pretend he was alright.

"No, B, you can't keep going on"

"I said move!" James yelled, making both Blaine and Sam jump with the ferocity of it.

"He can't!" Sam energetically protested in response, as his boyfriend's welfare was above any fear that man could elicit on him.

"Don't make me repeat it again"

"Can't you see he can barely keep himself standing?"

"Then we don't need that kind of a burden" James answered with a sardonic smile that made Sam's hair stand on end, even if he didn't know why.

But before he could even wonder what those words meant, James covered the small distance between him and Blaine and hit him on his temple with the butt of his rifle with such a force that Blaine fell to the floor, unmoving, without uttering a single sound.

"Now we don't need to worry about that anymore, right?" James sarcastically added, laughing at Blaine's immobile body.

"Blaine!" Sam yelled as he tried to run to him, his fear only growing as Blaine's face got half covered with blood trickling from a wound on his head, but two pair of arms immediately grabbed him from behind and didn't let him come any closer to the fallen boy.

"You brought that on yourself" James told him, even if there was no need because Sam was already regretting having opened his mouth on the first place.

"Let me get to him" Sam begged, trying to free himself from his captors to no avail.

"Stop struggling and start walking now!" one of them said as he held onto him with renewed strength.

"Let go of me, you bastard!" Sam yelled as he continued struggling. "I need to check if he's okay!"

"He's breathing" James announced with a quick look at Blaine's unconscious form. "Let's go!"

"No! We cannot leave him there unconscious, if the walkers come they will devour him!"

"Yeah, that would be a very bad case of bad luck for him"

"Please, let me take him" Sam pleaded, trying not to burst into tears of desperation, and he would have even fallen on his knees if the arms holding him had allowed it. "I'm strong and he's small, I'll carry him over my shoulder, he won't slow me down, please"

"I said no, and now start walking" James said as he nodded to the men holding Sam to get him walking, but once again he refused to move.

"Please, I'll do anything, I won't complain anymore, I swear, just let me take him" Sam begged, his voice breaking at the end, which elicited James' curiosity.

"Ok, what is going on here? What is he to you?" James asked, looking intently at Sam, but the latter just looked down and refused to answer, remembering how Blaine hadn't wanted for them to know about their love –and finally understanding why–. But it was too late now. "Ok, here's the deal: either you start walking right now or I'll stop caring about wasting bullets and I'll put one in his brain and then you won't have to worry about those things eating him"

"Please" Sam whispered, not caring about the tears rolling down his cheeks anymore because he knew there was nothing to hide anymore and what Blaine had been fearing, that they would use their love against them, was happening.

But instead of answering, James only pointed his rifle at Blaine's head and loudly unlocked the weapon's safety so Sam would understand how serious he was.

"No!" Sam yelled as he finally stopped struggling under the threat of that madman shooting at his beloved boyfriend. "I'll go with you. Just… don't hurt him. Please"

James smiled that wicked grin of his again before chuckling and moving his rifle away from Blaine again. Sam, true to his word, kept his promise and started walking away from his lover as soon as the two men let go of him, knowing what would happen if he didn't. He felt a physical and stabbing pain in his chest as bitter sobs shook his whole body and guilt and regret filled every corner of his heart. Blaine had tried to warn him about letting their feelings show; he had tried to warn him that there was no room for weakness and that he could go on. But Sam hadn't listened. Sam had been arrogant enough to think he knew better.

And now Blaine was hurt and he had been abandoned to his fate. And it was all his fault.

"Ok, let's cover the path again" Cooper suggested even if the three of them were already panting from the effort, as they had been walking non-stop for a couple of hours.

"Cooper, we've done that three times already" Sebastian hated to remind him.

"We must have missed something!" Cooper almost yelled, and Sebastian knew it was not only because he was trying to be heard over the pouring rain, but out from frustration and fear. "They can't have vanished into thin air! There has to be some tracks!"

"If there were any tracks the rain already erased them, Cooper" Puck patiently explained, his heart breaking at the desperation he could see in the older man's face.

"I don't care!" Cooper screamed, not even trying to restrain himself anymore. "They have to be somewhere, and I'm not going back until I know what happened to them!"

Without even waiting for an answer or even turning around to see if they were following him, Cooper started walking towards the pond where Sam and Blaine were supposed to be going the last time they had seen them. The other two looked at each other and sighed, also worried about their friends and about Cooper's sanity if they failed to find his younger brother, but in the end they followed him, not wanting to leave him alone in his state.

They were already making their way back, again with no luck and their hearts feeling heavier than ever, when they heard some rustling of leaves at some trees a few yards ahead of them.

"Careful" Sebastian whispered as he motioned for the others to get their weapons ready.

"Who's there?" Cooper shouted, his heart beating with fear and impatience. Who was there? Did they have anything to do with his brother's disappearance? "Show yourself!"

They were left speechless when the person appearing behind those trees was Blaine himself, his face half covered with blood and apparently hardly able to keep dragging his feet towards them anymore.

"Help me, Coop" he weakly said, and without any more sound he finally lost the last of his forces and fell to the floor, unconscious.

A/N: And now I'm over 200.000 words, so this is officially my longest story ever!