As always,

Darrinia: Cariñín! I know, I don't know why I keep hurting them so much... and you have seen nothing yet, wait till the next chapter! ;) Un besazo, preciosa!

THEMoDePo: So glad you liked it! I know the others were a bit selfish, but most people would be in theri situation, I think. Thankfully they rectified just in time. Blaine is lucky to have Cooper, indeed! :) Thank you so much!

Guest (blamsturbation?): Wow thanks! I know I make a lot of mistakes (I see them later if I reread any of the stories) but well... it's the best I can do ;) Well, of course Sebastian rectified, you know how much he adores Blaine and he could have never lived with himself if he wasn't there for him when he needed him the most. Sorry for taking so long! Thank you so much!

Mildlifecrissis: No, please, I'm the one who's sorry for taking so much time to update! Yes, Blaine is back to being the hero now that he's mildly recovered, and especially now that Sam needs him. Yeah, I can't help it, I love the anderbros relationship, next to blam is what I live for, and I love the idea of Cooper supporting Blaine no matter what, even if he doesn't think they stand any chance. Thank you so much!

A/N: I can't keep apologizing, right? ;) At least is long!

Especially dedicated to ALEX J, who so kindly asked me to continue ;)

CHAPTER 30

"Coop?" Blaine softly said at the same time that he shook his older brother's shoulder to wake him up, but not even his precautions were enough to keep him from jumping in surprise.

"What? What's wrong?" Cooper asked as he abruptly sat up, as he had obviously been having a very light sleep.

"Easy, it's just me, nothing is wrong" Blaine reassured him while sympathetically rubbing his shoulder, feeling sorry he had scared him in the first place. "But it's already light and we should get going"

"Alright" Cooper immediately agreed, knowing that Blaine had been patient enough during the night. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better, my head hardly hurts anymore" Blaine answered in all honesty.

"Did you sleep at all?" Cooper asked, not failing to notice the dark bags under his brother's eyes.

"Not much…" Blaine admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. "But I least I rested, right?"

"Yeah, I guess it's something…" Cooper answered with a sigh, hoping they had at least something to eat so his brother wouldn't have to go on with an empty stomach, but all they had was water, so they would have to do. "Ok, let's go"

They resumed the path they had been following the day before, hoping Cooper would be right and they would eventually find some footprints that would tell them those men had gone that way. But nothing. They probably had had a good start ahead of them and maybe they had even reached their destination before the rain finally stopped. So they would have to keep trusting their luck and hope those men hadn't left the main trail they had been following since the day before.

There had been walking for a couple of hours, with practically no conversation between them, when they got to a little elevation of the terrain and they found themselves mere yards from of a wooden structure they didn't know how to define.

"What's that?" Blaine asked in a whisper, not wanting to be too loud in case there was anyone around –after all, he was sure there had to be people living there.

"I don't know…" Cooper answered, equally soft. "Looks like a fortification to protect the people inside, even if it doesn't look too secure"

"Look!" Blaine exclaimed a little too loudly, pointing at some purple glimpse next to the wooden wall.

"What is it?"

"I think it's another one of Sam's candies!" Blaine exclaimed in exhilaration before trying to run towards it, leaving the safe place behind some trees behind which they were hiding without him even noticing.

"What the hell are you doing?" Cooper angrily muttered as he grabbed Blaine's arm and unceremoniously pulled him back to their hiding place. "There is a woman up there, can't you see her?" Cooper asked, pointing at a woman on top of the wall at the far side of it, who was quite obviously on watch. "If she sees you, you are a dead man"

"Sorry, Coop" Blaine immediately apologized, even blushing a little about how thoughtless he had been. "I didn't think"

"You don't say!" Cooper sarcastically answered, finally letting go of his little brother's arm now that he knew he was not going to escape. "We need to be careful"

"At least now we know Sam is there" Blaine answered with a little smile, daring to be hopeful for the first time since they had found the other wrapping the day before.

"Yeah" Cooper answered while putting an arm around his brother to squeeze him to his side in understanding, though he wasn't so optimistic because that they had brought Sam there didn't necessarily mean he was still alive –they had brought him there for a reason after all, right?

Sam woke up with a start, because he hadn't even realized he had fallen asleep. But apparently he had been so tired when those men left him there in the dark the night before that he hadn't been able to resist. Even considering he was sitting up and his hands were tied up to the wall behind his back.

"Morning" a voice sounded nearby, and Sam gave such a jump at the unexpectedness of it that he even hit his head on the wall. "Relax, I'm not one of them"

Sam looked at the woman sitting a few feet from him and whose presence he hadn't noticed until that second. It had been completely dark, after all, when they arrived the night before, and that woman seemed to be part of the corner in which she was sitting, so crouched in there she was. And then Sam had fallen asleep, and that woman apparently had respected that and had refrained herself from making any noise until she was sure that Sam was awake.

"Then who are you?" Sam asked, not even thinking about his usually impeccable manners.

"I'm no one" the woman answered with a sad grin. "Just like you from now on"

"Where are we?" Sam continued, desperately needing some answers now that he was part of the world again.

"No idea. It seems like some kind of town, but I don't really know" the woman explained. "I haven't been out of this room since they brought me here three days ago"

"It looked more like a fort to me. A pathetic fort" Sam answered, his voice full of disdain towards the people that had kidnapped him and Blaine.

"Yeah, but there are at least forty or fifty people here. An entire community"

"So the apocalypse…?"

"Is that how you call it?" the woman asked with a chuckle, already liking the boy in front of her. "Well, yes, the apocalypse arrived here too, but those ones survived. And apparently they're not willing to accept it yet and they continue living the same way they did before… as far as possible"

"But so many people have to make a lot of noise, and even smell… That's why there weren't any walkers around. They are all attracted here" Sam said, almost as if he was talking to himself as he started putting two and two together.

"That's right" the old woman answered, glad to see the boy in front of her was clever and a realist.

That boy, though, started all of a sudden frantically trying to free himself from the wall behind him, even though it was completely impossible considering he was being held by shackles and chains that were really strong. She knew, she had tried that herself before giving up when he realized it was in vain. Something that boy hadn't realized yet, judging by the angry red his wrists were turning into and the trickle of blood starting to fall from one of them at all the pulling.

"Son, you're hurting yourself" the old woman tried to warn him, but Sam ignored her and continued trying.

"I can't stay here" Sam answered, almost as if he was talking to himself while still pulling, until he let out a frustrated and painful groan when he realized there was nothing he could do.

"You think any of us wanted to be here?" the woman asked him with a humorless grin.

"Us?" Sam asked in confusion, as there was only him and that woman in that room.

"Oh, people come and go all the time. I came here three days ago and you're the fifth person I meet"

"And where are the others?"

"Probably looking for some brains to eat out there" the woman cryptically answered, though Sam perfectly understood.

"You mean…"

"Yeah. Either they're dead or have turned into one of those monsters"

"How?" Sam asked, horrified at everything he was discovering about that sinister place.

"Why do you think they bring us here?"

"I don't know"

"To use us" the woman answered, and by the dull tone of his voice he really sounded like someone who had already seen it all even if she was talking about being killed. Sam hoped that, whatever happened, he would never get to care so little. "To protect themselves and this thing they have created"

"But how?" Sam insisted, desperate for answers.

"There is not just one way, whatever they might need: throwing us to the walkers if they need a distraction, using us as shields if they should fight them…"

Sam had to fight the urges to vomit at what that woman was implying. So they had caught him and Blaine to use them, to have them killed to save their asses? It was possible that human kind, or what was left of it, had degenerated so quickly when put to the test?

"They can't be so evil" Sam exclaimed, appalled at the news.

"What would you be willing to do to save your loved ones?" the woman told him in a serious tone, looking intently at him as if willing him to deeply think about what he would do for the people he loved. Like Blaine, who had been left unconscious in the middle of nowhere, within range of any stray walker or even other people as devious as those ones. And yes, he would do anything for Blaine. Like escaping that place to get to him if it wasn't too late yet.

"I have to get out of here" Sam said as he tried again to rid of the shackles encircling his wrists.

"You can't" the woman tried to make him see.

"There has to be a way out of here" Sam desperately said even if he couldn't help a wince at the pain he was causing to himself with all the pulling. "I need to go"

"With these chains?" the woman sarcastically replied, which only helped to anger Sam.

"Then we'll have to think of something!" he yelled in frustration

"There is no way out of here, and the sooner you accept it, all the better for you"

"You just gave up?"

"Son, I lost all my family… I have nothing left to fight for"

"How…?"

"To those eaters out there. At least here I don't need to see them and be reminded of what I've lost"

"Well, I'm not going to accept it, I need to go" Sam protested, but he was forced to stop pulling when he could see his wrist starting to bleed again and no advance made so he ended up yelling in frustration.

"Why?" the woman asked, because that young man looked really desperate, as if he had more reasons to escape.

"Because I was not alone" Sam answered with a shaky voice because of the effort made and the desperation when thinking about his boyfriend's possible fate. "Those men took me and my partner"

"And where is she now?" the woman asked, as she knew the boy had arrived alone.

"He" Sam corrected her in a proud tone.

"Sorry, where is he now?"

"They left him to die in the middle of the woods" Sam answered, feeling his eyes starting to fill with tears as he remembered how he had felt at having to leave Blaine there like that.

"How?" the woman asked in an understanding tone, feeling sorry for that boy that seemed to be suffering so much for his boyfriend.

"He was still recovering from a very serious wound from a few days ago and he was kind of slowing those monsters down. They hit him on the head and just left him there, unconscious, in the middle of nowhere" Sam explained, his voice getting softer and softer with each word.

"If he was unconscious out there…" the woman didn't need to finish his sentence for Sam to understand what she meant.

"I need to go and look for him" Sam insisted, even if he could there was really nothing he could do as long as he was trapped in that basement.

"Son, when did that happen?"

"Yesterday"

"There is no way you're going to find him now, son. I'm so sorry" the woman honestly said, full of compassion for the young man in front of him.

It took a whole minute for Sam to react to that woman's words. He had refused to even consider there was a big chance that Blaine hadn't survived out there, but now that someone else had put it into words… He knew she was right: what chances did Blaine have in the open, wounded and unconscious? That considering the blow hadn't killed him anyway… And all because Sam had been unable to keep his mouth shut. Because he thought he knew better.

"It was my fault" Sam lamented as he finally broke down in pitiful sobs he couldn't –or didn't care– to control.

"Why do you say that?" the woman asked, feeling the young man needed to let it all out.

"Because he didn't want me to tell those men they needed to slow down when he started faltering, and I did it anyway…" Sam continued, even if it was hard to understand him because of how hard he was crying. "If I had listened to him… He's like the smartest guy ever, he always knows what to do, why did I think I knew better?"

"You were only trying to protect him" the woman tried to reassure him, her maternal instincts kicking in at the obvious suffering in the kindhearted boy in front of her.

"And I got him killed instead" Sam lamented, his sobs intensifying at the thought he would never see Blaine again… and it had been all his fault.

And this time nothing that woman said was enough to make him feel better.

"We need to find a way in" Blaine urgently said after a couple of minutes of them just standing behind those trees that were hiding them from view, as if they were waiting for something to happen that would change their situation. Though it didn't.

"I know" Cooper admitted with a frustrated sigh. "Maybe we could jump up the wall, but not without a distraction"

"Maybe I can go in while you…" Blaine tried to suggest, but his brother didn't even let him finish.

"If you think I'm going to let you go in there alone you've got another thing coming" Cooper answered almost angrily, as if that was the most stupid thing he had ever heard. "No, whatever we do we're doing it together"

"But how?" Blaine insisted, almost desperately.

"I don't know, let me just think for a minute" Cooper answered. "If we could just…"

Cooper continued talking, but Blaine stopped listening when his heart stopped because a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder in a strong and unexpected grip. But he recovered quickly enough –he had a lot of experience by then, anyway– and lifted his knife in front of his face in a quick movement, ready to attack if it was necessary.

"Stop, Blaine, it's me" a familiar voice reached his brain just a second before he was going to use it, and thankfully stopped him before it was too late.

"Geez, Sebastian, don't ever do that again, I was close to embedding this in your head" Blaine answered in a shaky voice as he saw his friend in front of him, covering his face with his hands for protection, and realized how close he had been to killing him.

"I'm sorry, Killer, but we saw the fort, we saw you hiding and we were trying to be silent" Sebastian tried to excuse himself, uncovering his face now that he could see he was safe.

"Well, you did it very well" Cooper protested, also lowering the weapon he had raised when he had felt his brother was in danger.

"I'm sorry" Sebastian repeated, awkwardly smiling in embarrassment.

"You're all here" Blaine suddenly exclaimed when he looked behind Sebastian and he noticed all of his friends were there. "You all came"

"Late, but you know what they say, right? Better late than never" Puck joked when he noticed how moved Blaine was.

"But guys…" Blaine tried to protest, but he couldn't find the words to express his gratitude.

"You were right: we were behaving like a bunch of cowards" Sebastian added, accompanying his words with a reassuring squeeze to Blaine's arm, hoping to make himself forgiven for failing him and to make Blaine understand how much he still cared about him.

"Thank you" Blaine told his friend with a honest smile before turning to the rest. "Thank you all"

"You shouldn't be thanking us. It's us who should be apologizing" Trent, also quite visibly ashamed at their behavior, intervened.

"You're here now and that's all that matters" Blaine answered, before turning serious again: he knew it had been him encouraging them to come, but he needed them to understand it was not going to be easy. "You know the risk you're taking, though, right?"

"Right" Santana answered with no hesitation. "The same risk Sam or you have been taking for the rest of us from the beginning. What a poor way of repaying you, right?"

"We're not going to leave Sam alone" Brittany intervened.

"We're not going to leave you alone in this" Sebastian added, looking intently at his friend.

"Hey!" Cooper jokingly protested.

"I meant you two!" Sebastian corrected himself, blushing with embarrassment until Cooper laughed.

"It's okay, I'm still glad you're here" Cooper reassured him with a friendly pat to his back that made Sebastian smile in relief.

Their presence there was not noticed by the woman keeping watch on top of the entrance to the fort, but what she did notice was that all the walkers around seemed to be getting kind of nervous and more and more of them were gathering around. Of course they were being attracted by the new presence of Blaine, Cooper and the rest, but she didn't know that. The only thing she could see was how there were more of them than just a few minutes ago and how they were all pushing into the door. And yeah, well, the wall had stood until then, but she couldn't take any risks: the whole community depended on her.

"Hey, Rob!" she yelled at someone at the ground. "We need a distraction!"

"Lucy, we've been using distractions too freely lately, we only have two of them left!" the man complained.

"The wall will fall if we don't do anything about it, perhaps you'll want to explain it to the Major when that happens" Lucy replied from her place at the top of the wall, already feeling how it was starting to shake under the pile of walkers' weight.

"Alright" Rob finally relented, not wanting to be the one to confront the Major. "I'll bring one of them here"

Rob rushed his way back to the house in which their prisoners were being locked up, nodding in salute at the man keeping watch there as he passed him by. He wasn't looking forward to telling the major there was only one prisoner left –they had had up to six at the same time only a few days ago, they surely needed to be more careful with them–, but as Lucy had said, having their fort falling down was surely a worse option. And they could always go out in search of more prisoners anyway, even if last time they had only been able to bring one.

"Ok, you" he said pointing at Sam as soon as he opened the door to the basement in which they were being held, as he was the one closer to it. "You're coming with me"

"Where?" Sam asked as his legs starting shaking, a million thoughts going through his mind about what that man wanted to do with him.

"You don't need to know" Rob answered as he took a key out of his pocket and moved closer to Sam, to which the latter instinctually recoiled more closely to the wall.

"I'm not going anywhere with you" Sam answered, trying to sound confident and not as terrified as he was really feeling but to his surprise, that man only laughed at his insolence.

"It's not like I asked for your opinion, did I?"

"Hey, you" the woman suddenly intervened. "I've watched people come and go since I arrived three days ago, I think it's my turn"

"What?" Rob turned to her in surprise. "You wanna trade places with him?"

"Yes" the woman answered with no hesitation, feigning to do it for selfish reasons. "I'm tired of waiting here to die, it's not my fault you tied me up so far from the door and I want to be the next one"

"What do you think of that, kid?" Rob asked, turning to Sam again. "Should we just let her take your place?"

Sam was unable to find his voice to answer. He wanted to say no, that she didn't need to take his place, as he didn't want any more deaths on his conscience. But he was so scared… He was trembling so badly he was sure they had to see it, but he couldn't stop himself from doing it. He wanted to be brave, like Blaine always was. But he couldn't. He didn't want to die like that.

One look at that woman, though, and Sam understood that he had to let her go. She quietly looked at him and nodded, as if telling him that it was alright, that she was willingly taking his place. As she had said before, she didn't have anything to fight for, and he still had the tinniest chance of finding Blaine…

"It's not his decision, it's mine" the woman intervened, not wanting to make Sam decide whether or not she was going to die. "I'm begging you, I'm going crazy in here and you don't even care who you take, right?"

"Right" Rob admitted, finally letting himself be convinced and moving to the woman instead. "The eaters don't care about the menu, you know?"

Sam felt like throwing up again at that man's comment, as it meant two things: that they were really going to throw that woman to the walkers and that he didn't have even the tiniest regret about it, if he even dared to joke about it. Sam couldn't believe people could get like that even if circumstances like those. After all, he and his friends had suffered just as much and they would never do something like that. Or at least he hoped they would never get to that point.

"Thanks" Sam said, almost in a whisper, just before the woman disappeared from his sight forever. After all, she was giving her life for him, and even if she wanted to make them believe it was for selfish reasons, he knew better.

"Stay strong, son" were her last words from her to him. And then she was gone.

"So what's the plan?" Puck asked, raising his gaze up to have a good look at the fort.

"We were trying to come up with one" Cooper answered. "We think Sam is in there"

"We know he's in there" Blaine corrected him, looking at his brother almost defiantly.

"Of course" Cooper reluctantly agreed, even if he wasn't as confident about it as his little brother. "Blaine and I were going to try and break in over the wall, but of course we needed a distraction or that woman up there would see us even before we reached it"

"We can provide that distraction" Mike immediately answered, getting his gun out of the waistband of his pants.

"Yes, but… it could be dangerous" Blaine warned them, not wanting for anybody to get hurt when trying to help him.

"Not necessarily" Puck intervened. "I mean, we are not looking to conquer the city or anything, even if they deserved that for what they did to you and Sam. We only need to keep them busy, right?"

"We can shoot at them from behind the trees and make sure to stay hidden" Kitty added, confidently nodding at her friends.

"It doesn't have to be that dangerous" Marley agreed confidently.

"And once you both and Sam are back with us, we'll just disappear and they can stay here with their ridiculous fort and their dirty consciences" Puck finished with a shrug of his shoulders, as if he wanted to prove he was not worried at all about the situation.

"What do you say?" Blaine asked, turning to his brother as his was the opinion he cared about above all the rest.

"It sounds reasonable" Cooper admitted, even if he knew it was not an ideal solution by any means and it was not as danger-free as they wanted to believe.

"Ok, then let's do it" Blaine encouraged them, and they were about to look for a good place to hide when Jake noticed some movement on top of the wall.

"Hey, look!" he caught everyone's attention, pointing at the place where the guard have been alone until now, where now there was another woman and a man.

"What are they doing?" Brittany asked, looking at how the man seemed to be pushing the second woman.

"Could they be more guards? Maybe her shift ended" Trent suggested, also looking intently at the scene.

"No, that one is in chains" Brittany answered, pointing at the woman who had traded places with Sam, unbeknown to them all.

"What are they…? Oh my God!" Marley exclaimed horrified at the scene unfolding in front of her.

And what had horrified all of the youngsters so much was the fact that the man was pushing the woman towards the edge, even if she was trying to resist. They fought for a few seconds, the woman being in clear disadvantage because of the chains, until the woman that had been taking watch until then intervened and helped. The shriek the prisoner produced as she fell from the wall was something none of them would ever forget, unlike the thump of her body on the floor which never happened: she landed amongst the larger group of walkers standing right at the door, and the agony of her screams didn't leave much to the imagination of the friends about what was happening.

They remained unmoving, quiet, unable to tear their eyes off the grueling scene for whole minute, too shocked about what had just happened. They couldn't believe that's what they used their prisoners for. So that meant…

"Oh God" Blaine exclaimed as he started trembling without even noticing. "Cooper, what if…?"

"Schhhhh…" Cooper tried to stop his brother from even thinking about the possibility that Sam had ended the same way as that woman, and tried to put his arm around him in a comforting gesture, but Blaine refused the contact.

"Coop, Sam…" Blaine tried again to form a coherent sentence while his eyes filled with tears and anguish.

"We don't know if they did that with Sam, Squirt, they probably didn't even have the time" Cooper again tried to reassure him.

"Coop…" Blaine repeated as he grabbed the front of his brother's shirt in desperation. Didn't his brother understand how serious the situation was?

"Ok, you have to calm down, okay?" Cooper said in the most comforting and calm voice he could muster under the circumstances, trying to keep his brother from going into panic as he took one Blaine's hands in his. "Sam is somewhere in there, and he needs you. You've got to keep a cool head, same as you've been doing until now, ok?"

Blaine gulped and breathed deeply a couple of times before he nodded at his brother. Cooper was right: what they had just seen didn't change anything, and Sam was probably still somewhere inside and he was depending on them. And of course he didn't have any intention of failing him.

"Good boy" Cooper praised him with a reassuring smile as he tried again to put his arm around his brother, and he was glad this time the contact wasn't refused. "Ok, this changes nothing. Get ready and look for a good position to hide, guys. The battle starts now"

Even if most of them were still pretty affected by what they had just seen, they put their feelings aside and rushed to comply with Cooper's orders, moving amongst the trees towards a safer and closer position to the entrance of the fort. They knew they had to be really careful, because as soon as they started shooting they would have to fight against the walkers too, so that's why Puck motioned for them to jump on the trees, so that way they would be able to avoid them more easily.

Cooper and Blaine patiently waited until everybody was in their place –except for Sebastian and Trent, who would accompany them at the beginning to help them jump to the other side–, ready to make a run towards the wall before they could be seen. And then, Puck nodded at his friends and fired the first shot towards the fort, which was immediately followed by those of his friends.

Blaine only waited until he could clearly see the woman and the man on top of the wall turning to the shots in surprise, ready to fight, before he started running like crazy. Cooper was caught unaware by the unexpectedness of it, but he quickly recovered and followed his brother, just as the other two boys did.

They ran to the other wall of the fort, even if it was a bit far, so they wouldn't be seen even if the guards turned to them, and only took a second to recover their breaths before going along with their plan.

"You've got your guns with you?" Trent asked the two brothers, even if he knew them enough to know they would never do anything without being fully ready for it.

"Yes, so come on, let's not waste any more time with conversation" Cooper answered as he motioned for Trent and Sebastian to join their hands so he could climb on them and they could lift him enough for him to reach the edge of the wall.

It wasn't that difficult for the two of them to lift Cooper enough, and he soon disappeared behind the wall. Blaine was about to do the same when Sebastian stopped him with a hand to his shoulder.

"Please be careful, Killer" he pleaded him in a serious tone that made Blaine see how much his friend appreciated him and how much he was going to worry.

"I'll see you in just a little while" Blaine answered as he took Sebastian in his arms and embraced him as strongly as he could, with the implicit promise that they were going to reunite again, to which Sebastian only nodded before he and Trent also helped Blaine jump to the other side of the wall.

Sebastian felt empty for a second, terrified that this was the last time he was going to see the two brothers, but Trent gently pushed him towards the trees again and he knew the only thing he could do for them at the moment was to take his place and start shooting.

Blaine landed on his feet and then fell down on his butt, such was the force of the jump. His brother had already recovered, and he rushed to take his hand and pull him upright before someone could see them. Fortunately they had fallen in a pretty secluded place, just behind a little wooden hut that looked like those ones especially created for storing tools, and Cooper motioned for him to remain quiet with a finger to his lips.

They only dared to poke their head around one of the corners of the hut and they were not surprised to see more than a few people running towards the entrance of the fort, weapons in their hands, to fight that unknown enemy that had started shooting all of a sudden. That meant their plan was working and a great diversion had been created. But it also meant that their friends were in danger, and they hoped everyone would be alright and no one would end up hurt –or worse, or Blaine would never forgive himself.

"Stay there!" they heard one of the people running yelling at someone else who seemed to be keeping watch in front of a house, and the latter, though reluctantly, obeyed.

"They must be keeping Sam in there, if they feel the need to guard the house" Blaine whispered in his brother's ear, daring for his heart to hope they were not too late and Sam would still be alive.

"You're probably right" Cooper answered with a smile, feeling hopeful for the first time that they would indeed succeed in their mission of saving his brother's boyfriend.

"Then let's go" Blaine answered, full of excitement, and he was about to make a run now that everybody had passed by when his brother grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Not so fast, little brother. Let's see if there is something in here that can prove useful" Cooper said, pointing at the hut with his head.

Blaine, although reluctantly because he was so impatient, nodded and followed his brother carefully around the hut so they could get in. Cooper couldn't help the biggest smile at what he could find inside as, amongst seeds and all kinds of tools to work the land, they found an ax, a machete and a couple of knives that would surely be very useful.

"Uh, I like this one" Cooper said with a mischievous grin as he took possession of the ax and handed the machete to his brother, to replace the one he had in the past and that he had lost in one of his battles to survive. "You keep the machete, it suits your eyes"

"You're so funny" Blaine protested even if he couldn't help a small smile breaking into his lips at his brother's inopportune jokes.

"It's time now" Cooper said, more seriously, as he barely lifted the curtain in one of the windows to look outside. "We'll have to reach the house from the back if we don't want that man to see us until we're there, but then we'll have to fight him if we want to get in"

"We'll do whatever it takes" Blaine answered, trying to sound more confident than he really felt, because he had been forced to kill a human being before, that man about to shoot Sam and Puck at the roof of the prison in what felt like a lifetime ago, and it was something he was not looking forward to repeat –as he still had nightmares about it sometimes.

As Cooper had predicted, it was easy for them to go all the way to the house in which Sam probably was from the little alley behind without being seen. Then Cooper was about to go first, but Blaine overtook him and, in complete silence, he made it to the man from behind and covered his mouth with his hand so he wouldn't be able to alert anyone of their presence.

"Say a word and you're a dead man" Blaine murmured to the man's ear, directly pointing his gun to his temple.

"Do it, Blaine" Cooper encouraged his brother as he reached them when he saw the hesitation in his eyes.

Blaine tried to pull the trigger, he really did, but the thought of killing someone in cold blood, someone who was defenseless in his arms, was bigger than him, even if he knew said man was partly responsible of taking Sam away from him.

"Come on, Blaine, do it" Cooper pressured him again.

Blaine was shaking with indecision and guilt, and when his finger refused to obey him again, he grabbed the gun more strongly in his hand and hit the back of that man's head with the gun's handle, letting him fall to the floor when he immediately fell unconscious.

"He might bring us trouble later" Cooper reproached his brother while looking at the unconscious man on the floor.

"I just… I couldn't" Blaine tried to justify himself, looking imploringly at his brother to be forgiven, to which Cooper only sighed, understandingly.

"Let's not waist any more time" Cooper suggested with a reassuring squeeze to Blaine's shoulder and then he ran into the house, closely followed by Blaine.

Meanwhile the others were doing a great job at keeping the people in that community busy. They were not shooting a lot –they didn't want to run out of ammunition, if that was possible–, just enough for those people to worry. If the situation wasn't so serious, it would have been almost comical to see them so frantically searching for that invisible force that was shooting at them, as they couldn't see them in the trees. They just shoot back to where they thought the shoots were coming from, so it would be practically a miracle if they managed to hit one of them.

"Great, guys, we're doing great" Mike praised them, as he observed how more and more people were climbing on top of the wall to fight them, which meant they left the path clear for Blaine and Cooper to move around inside.

"What do you say we reinforce our attack, so we get absolutely everyone up there?" Santana suggested. "We need to give the guys more time and make it easier for them in case they don't know where to find Sam"

"Plus it's funny to see them so lost" Puck added, only half joking. "They're forming a shooting gallery without even noticing"

"Ok, let's make sure we give Blaine and Cooper a chance" Sebastian said, and he started shooting more conscientiously.

The others did the same, and it wasn't long before they realized Puck's plan was working and the people up the wall kept calling on the others to help them. The walkers were piling on the entrance again, attracted by all the ruckus, so they couldn't go out and they were forced to fight from the top of the wall.

"They're going to regret the moment they decided to attack one of us" Puck murmured before he shot again.

Blaine and Cooper ran desperately all around the house, carefully opening door after door in case there was someone there ready to attack them. But the house seemed to be empty, and there was no trace of any person being there –including Sam.

"Shit, I was sure he would be here" Blaine lamented as he covered his face with his hands to rub it in frustration.

"So did I" Cooper admitted, letting his hand rest on the back of his brother's neck for comfort. "But he's not here. Unless…"

"Unless what?" Blaine's attention immediately perked, and he even uncovered his face to be able to look questioningly at his brother.

"Unless there is a basement"

Blaine didn't even wait to see if his brother was following before he ran outside the house again, and only when he turned around the corner he was able to see an entrance to a basement half hidden under some scruffy bushes.

"In here!" Blaine yelled triumphantly before his brother shushed him, just in case. "I don't know how we didn't see it before"

"Because we were not looking for it" Cooper answered.

"It's locked with a chain and a padlock" Blaine explained, his hopes shattering once again as he unsuccessfully tried to open it.

"Let me" Cooper ordered while gently pushing his brother aside so he wouldn't get hurt.

Cooper grabbed the ax he had collected from the tool hut only a few minutes ago in a fierce grip and let it go with all his forces on the chain. He missed the shot by more than a few inches, hitting the metallic door instead, and looked guiltily at his brother.

"Ok, this is not as easy as it seems" he tried to justify himself, before he tried again and succeeded this time. "Now careful" he advised his brother as soon as he was able to open the door. "There could be more people inside"

Blaine tried to control his impatience as he started descending the stairs to the basement, his gun extended in front of him just in case he found someone ready to kill him in there. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the semidarkness and it was then when he could decipher a figure looking tentatively at him, probably blinded by the light coming from outside, but Blaine only needed a second look to recognize that blond hair he loved so much.

"Sam" he said, almost in a sob, as he made sure there was no one else in the room that could mean danger.

"Oh my God, Blaine" Sam exclaimed, immediately recognizing the voice of the person he loved so much, even if he couldn't see him against the light. "Is that really you?"

"I'm here, Sammy" Blaine promised as he hurried the last of the steps.

But what Blaine wasn't ready for was the way in which Sam broke down at his mere presence, desperate sobs ripping through his chest in a way that broke his heart, so he quickly put his arms around him and held him more strongly than he had ever done before, even if Sam couldn't reciprocate with his arms chained up to the wall.

"It's okay, Sammy" Blaine whispered comfortingly into his ear, his hand immediately moving to caress the hair on the back of his head. "We found you. We're going to get you out of here"

"Don't move, Sam" Cooper warned him as he showed him the ax which with he intended to cut his chains.

Cooper breathed deeply to encourage himself, knowing he couldn't afford to miss this time if he didn't want to hurt Sam, and with one clean blow he was able to efficiently cut the chains immobilizing Sam. Of course, as soon as he was free, Sam threw his own arms around Blaine's frame, still holding him, not even bothering to regain circulation in them first.

"Sam" Blaine whispered when Sam continued sobbing and clinging to him for a longer time than expected, worried about his mental state –he couldn't even imagine what he had been through to be so affected. "Easy, Sammy. You're free now"

"I thought you were dead" Sam was finally able to talk, and Blaine almost broke down in sobs himself when he finally understood it was him whom Sam was crying for so desperately.

"Well, I'm not" Blaine assured him with a smile when he broke the embrace and cupped Sam's cheeks so he would look at him. "Not while you depended on me, you know"

"I'm so sorry, you hear me?" Sam desperately apologized as he clung on Blaine's arms. "It was all my fault, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you"

"Hey, it doesn't matter" Blaine reassured him in the calmest voice he could muster, knowing Sam needed him to stay level-headed in order to calm down. "I'm here now, ok?"

"But they could have killed you or you could have been found by walkers… and it would have been my fault" Sam insisted, not ready yet to be forgiven. "You said you could go on and not to tell them to wait but I didn't listen"

"You were just trying to protect me, as you always do"

"And I was so arrogant to think I knew better"

"Sam, you were right, I couldn't go on" Blaine admitted while his hand moved again to Sam's hair, this time to lovingly move it out of his face. "If we hadn't stopped I would have probably fainted a couple of steps later and they would have left me there anyway. It didn't change a thing"

"But I almost got you killed. That blow you took…" Sam explained, still shuddering at the reminder of how they had hit him and left him there to die.

"Sam, listen to me: it's okay, alright?" Blaine insisted, cupping Sam's face again and gently shaking it to make him react. "I'm here. I'm alive"

Sam nodded and breathed deeply a couple of times to try and calm himself, and he even managed to smile when Blaine so lovingly dried the tears in his cheeks with his gentle thumbs. It was alright: Blaine was there. He was alive, and he had come to get him. Just as he knew he would do.

"You ok?" Sam asked after a few seconds, his fingers gently tracing the ugly-looking cut near Blaine's hairline that those men had done the day before.

"I'm ok now" Blaine answered with a reassuring smile as he took Sam's hand from his forehead and held it in his. "What about you? You ok?"

"Yeah, they didn't do anything to me" Sam reassured him, bringing Blaine's hand to his lips to kiss it, almost as if he couldn't stop touching him to make sure he was real. "How are you even here?" Sam asked in amazement, now that the initial shock of seeing him alive had faded.

"You knew I would come" Blaine answered with a smile, proud of his boyfriend's intelligence and of the trust Sam had always deposited in him. "That's why you left those candy wrappings for me to follow, right?"

"Well, I knew if there was someone able to do a miracle like that, that was you"

Blaine smiled at him again, and Sam couldn't help it anymore and captured his lips in a slow kiss, meant to reassure them both of the love they still shared and of the fact they were fortunately alive and together again.

"Boys, we should get going, we don't know how long the others are going to be able to hold them up" Cooper said, hating to interrupt but knowing they didn't have much time before those people realized it had all been a trap.

"You're right" Blaine admitted, blushing in embarrassment as he reluctantly separated from his boyfriend and stood up, offering a hand to Sam to help him up.

But before he took a step, Sam also made sure to put his arms around Cooper for a moment, wanting to show him how grateful he was to him too.

"Thank you for coming Cooper" he said, and Cooper immediately understood he was not only thanking him for coming to save him, but also for not leaving Blaine alone on that.

"Of course" Cooper answered, awkwardly reciprocating the hug for a moment, feeling silently grateful that his brother had managed to find someone who cared about him so much. "And now let's go"

"Wait, there was a woman here with me, we've got to help her" Sam said, suddenly remembering about that woman that had saved his life.

"Was she wearing a red shirt?" Cooper asked, dreading the answer he was going to get.

"Yes! Yes, that's her" Sam excitedly answered when he realized the brothers had seen her. "You know where she is? We've got to help her"

"There is nothing we can do for her now" Cooper lamented.

"She's dead?" Sam asked even if he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"They threw her out of the walls and to the walkers… as a distraction" Cooper explained, still trying to come to terms with what they had just seen.

"She saved my life" Sam explained with a sad sigh, willing himself not to cry again for the woman that had just given her life for him. "She made them pick her instead of me"

Blaine shivered for a moment at how close he had been to watching Sam being the one to be fed to the walkers, but Sam noticed and took a moment to put his arm around him in a half embrace and kiss his temple, wanting to reassure him that he was alright.

"Come on" Cooper gently encouraged them with a pat to both their backs. They didn't have any more time to lose.

Meanwhile outside things remained more or less the same: the McKinley students kept shooting from their hiding place and the community kept trying to defend themselves from the top of the wall they had built to protect their city.

"They are really stupid" Mike commented after a while. "They don't know what to do, and the only thing they're achieving is for more and more walkers to gather at their door with all the noise and their presence"

"We should just kill them for their own good" Puck answered, only half joking.

"I think they're going to manage that themselves" Kitty seriously intervened. "Look at the wall"

What Kitty was pointing at was the fact that the added weight of all the people up there, plus the constant pushing of the increasing group of walkers on the ground, was making the wall tremble dangerously.

"Oh my God, it's going to fall!" Sugar practically screamed.

"Stop shooting!" Santana ordered. "We don't want for the walkers to enter while Blaine, Sam and Cooper are inside!"

Everyone obeyed, but it was too late: the wall suddenly crumbled to the ground in the entrance, sending all those people down. Some of them were able to escape, but most just fell on the walkers, which quickly took advantage of the situation to do with them the same they had done with that woman only a while ago, ending up in a horrific concert of crying and screaming that terrified them to the chord.

The friends stood petrified in their hiding places for a few seconds until Sebastian's terrified voice and the thud his feet made when he jumped to the floor got them out of his reverie.

"Come on!" he screamed. "We've got to get them out of there!"

He didn't even stop to see if they were obeying before he started running towards the entrance, but by the sounds behind him he knew they were following him. He clutched his weapon more strongly in his hand and breathed deeply a couple of times before he started running even faster. It was time to fight.

Sam had to cover his eyes when they made it outside, after being so many hours in almost complete darkness, but he didn't need to worry, as Blaine's hand was strongly holding his and guiding him every step of the way.

"It's not going to be easy, but we should try jumping in the same place we…" Cooper began to say, but a horrible gurgling noise that he knew so well interrupted him.

They only had to turn around to see an enormous hole in the wall that had protected the place until then. And coming through it, there was what looked like dozens of walkers walking steadily towards them with nothing standing in their way.

"God…" Cooper exclaimed, gulping noticeably. They had no way out.

A/N: Well, I don't know when they next chapter is going to come out, considering how much effort it takes me to write this and the fact that I'm going away for a few days, but... I'll try not to disappoint you too much!