As always,
Darrinia: Cariñín! I'm sorry for making you sad... But I couldn't really help it. You don't have to thank me, I know how hard things can get sometimes. We'll if everyone else will be fine! Thanks for everything, darling! Un besazo, preciosa!
Mildlifecrissis: I'm so sorry for causing you pain... I know it's so sad, it was for me too, but... it had been planned for the beginning, to change it would have meant betraying the essence of the story, does it make any sense? I'm glad at least you enjoyed the way it happened. And yeah, another cliffhanger ;) Oh and wait, another one after this chapter too! XD Thank you so much, darling!
Blamsturbation: OMG, i'm so sorry :( But I'm so glad you understood my decision to go along with the original plan! Yeah, I know those people are dumb (remember they build a wall that didn't stand and they hardly know how to fight), but for them Blaine and the others are just some people that came and destroyed their heaven and are still dangerous, so of course they're going to want to kill them... Sorry again for the tears ;) And thank you soooooo much for the support!
THEMoDePo: I'm sorry for making you sad, but I'm soooo glad you liked the way it happened... Cooper deserved an heroic death and I wanted it to be the most emotional scene in the whole fic... I love that you got to appreciate it ;) Thank you soooooo much for your constant support!
Me-me157: I'm so sorry I broke your heart... :( And yeah, I know most of you knew it was going to be Cooper, but I'm glad you did because that way at least you were kind of prepared for it. I'm glad you liked it! Thank you sooo much!
A/N: Finally! As usual lately, sorry for the delay :(
As some of you might know, due to some personal issues I haven't been able to write or been around much lately, but hey, at least I finally put something together! I did it! So allow me to be a little bit proud of myself for once, yay!
I didn't mean to finish the chapter here but, as it usually happens, it was getting too long so I had to divide the action into two different chapters. Hope you like it and you haven't completely lost all interest in the story after so much time! Thank you for your support and your patience!
CHAPTER 32
"What the hell is that?" Sebastian practically yelled as he desperately tried to get a glimpse of the action through the window he was glued to when an unexpected burst of bullets could clearly be heard.
"These are more shots" Puck answered, not sure he was understanding the question –they had been firing and hearing shots for a long while after all, right?– even if he could feel there had to be something wrong to get Sebastian so agitated again.
"But what are they shooting so insistently at all of a sudden?" Sebastian insisted, half excited, half terrified. "The boys must be near!"
The others immediately understood Sebastian's reasoning, knowing he was probably right and they weren't too surprised when the tall boy got his weapon out of his pants and got ready to go outside.
"It's too dangerous to go outside, some of us are injured!" Unique tried to warn him, but Sebastian didn't have the time –or the energy– to try and convince them, so he just made sure there wasn't any walker near the door and ran outside, willing to do anything to help his friends.
"Stay here and take care of them!" he yelled at his back, and he thought he was going to cry with relief when he noticed Trent and Mike following him.
"Damn it" Blaine complained under his breath as the bullets started ricocheting on the ground –and thank God those people were so unprepared to fight and seemed to be mostly bad shooters– all around them.
And even if those bastards weren't good shooters, he couldn't risk staying there because they could get lucky anytime –they already had on Sam's knee just a second ago, after all–, so he reinforced his grip on Sam's waist and pulled him as fast as he could under the porch of the nearest house.
Sam tried not to protest at the movement because he knew Blaine was only trying to save their lives, but couldn't help a wince when his boyfriend helped him to sit down on the porch and perch against the wall, hoping they would be impossible to be seen from the roofs and praying none of the shooters decided to come down and face them right then.
"Let me see it" Blaine said as he kneeled at Sam's side and lifted the leg of his pants to check the wound that was bleeding so profusely.
"It's ok" Sam protested, trying to get Blaine's hands away from him because they didn't have time for that, but one look at his angry face and Sam knew he was not going to let it go.
"Stop it!" Blaine furiously reprimanded him as he moved Sam's hands out of his way with what could almost be considered a slap. "I need to make sure you're alright!"
Sam didn't even try to move again as Blaine fumbled with his pants, shocked as he was at Blaine's anger, so difficult to elicit in different circumstances. But he shouldn't be that surprised: Blaine was a mess, he had just gotten out of a shock after losing his beloved brother in the worst possible way, of course he was going to be unable to control his emotions. Especially if Sam was injured and still in danger and Blaine was terrified to lose him too. It was more than he could deal with at the moment, and Sam making it more difficult wasn't helping any.
"Hey" Sam said in the most understanding voice he could muster as he cupped Blaine's cheek to make him raise his face, taking the opportunity to dry some of the tears there, already forgotten, with his thumbs in a gentle motion. "I'll be alright"
Blaine nodded, not too convinced, before his eyes turned again to the wound on the side of Sam's leg and inspected it more closely.
"It looks like the bullet just grazed you" Blaine explained before he unceremoniously ripped a piece of his undershirt and used it to press on the wound. "But it might have nicked some small vein or something because it won't stop bleeding"
Sam was about to tell him not to worry again when a shot sounded so much closer than before and impacted on the railing just behind Blaine, just mere inches from his head. His heart about to burst with the fright, Sam took Blaine's hand and pulled him strongly towards him until the latter was sitting against the wall at his side, efficiently getting him out of the eye of the shooter in the roof of the next house and relatively more secure. Because Blaine might be terrified to lose him, but it also worked the other way around and Sam was not going to allow him to risk his life for him.
"Don't move" Sam begged, keeping an arm in front of Blaine's chest to act as a barrier when the latter tried to stand up again.
"We can't stay here, they know we are cornered here and they can come to get us!" Blaine desperately answered.
"Blaine, that bullet passed by mere inches of your head! If you move, you're dead too!" Sam yelled back at him, not realizing what he was saying until the words had made it out of his mouth.
But of course Blaine realized in an instant and froze. He remained stunned, feeling as if a giant fist was squeezing his heart, so badly it was hurting. He still hadn't had the time to process he had really lost his brother, and Sam putting it into words just made it more real. His brother was really dead, and nothing they did was ever going to change that.
"I'm sorry, babe" Sam immediately apologized as he held Blaine close to him and glued his lips to the latter's forehead in an undying kiss to try and make him react, hating himself for the unfortunate choice of words and the pain they had elicited. "I'm so sorry. Forgive me, please"
Blaine closed his eyes real tight for a second at his boyfriend's words, trying to stop a breakdown he knew they couldn't afford at the moment, not while they were still in danger. Not while Sam was still in danger. And Blaine wasn't going to lose him too.
"I'm going to try and fight them" Blaine whispered because he wasn't able to find his voice to speak any louder. "We can't wait here, if the shooters don't find us the walkers will"
"No!" Sam practically yelled as he reinforced his grip on the smaller boy, both for comfort and to keep him from flying when he knew he couldn't follow him. "We don't know how many shooters there are!"
"I'll be back for you" Blaine promised as he tried to stand up, but the grip Sam was keeping on him made it difficult to even move.
"Don't do this to me, babe, come on" Sam begged as he urgently cupped Blaine's neck and kissed him with love and desperation, needing for Blaine to know how much he understood his pain and his need to do something, but how he couldn't risk letting him go when he positively knew it was highly probable he would never come back. "Stay with me, please"
"I can't lose you too, Sam" Blaine answered with a heartbreaking sob that made Sam's grip lose its intensity for just a second, but it was enough for Blaine to take advantage of it and free himself completely to stand on his feet.
"Blaine, no!" Sam yelled at his retreating back as he unsuccessfully try to stand, his eyes filling with tears at the possibility that he was seeing him for the last time, but Blaine ignored his plead –otherwise he would never be able to leave.
"Blaine!" a different voice caught his attention, and he was forced to turn around to see where it came from –and he was relieved to see his good friend Sebastian, along with Trent and Mike, standing in the porch of another house, just at the other side of the street.
The small distance between them now that Blaine had turned around allowed Sam to take Blaine's hand in his to stop him if he decided he was going to go in search of the shooters in spite of the very opportune apparition of their friends, even if he hadn't done a movement to indicate so.
"They're going to help us!" Sam said excitedly as he pulled of Blaine's arm to bring him closer to him again after the tension of almost having to see him go. "Babe, they came for us"
"Boys?" Sebastian yelled in a questioning voice, failing to understand what were they doing there instead of trying to find them and why Sam was sitting down and keeping such a strong grip in Blaine's hand –and where the hell was Cooper?
"Seb, we can't move, they're shooting at us from the roofs!" Blaine explained in a loud voice to be heard, immediately understanding his friend's confusion.
"Make a run here, we'll cover you!" Mike suggested, already getting his gun ready and pointing it up towards where Blaine had said the shooters were.
"Sam is injured, he got shot on the knee, he can't run!" Blaine answered, even if Sam knew he wouldn't have given it a second thought if he had been the one to get injured –but of course he was going to worry about him, especially after what had just happened with his brother.
Sebastian sighed with frustration, but he didn't stop to wallow in their misery before he made the decision: he would run and cross the street to them while Trent and Mike covered him and then he would help Blaine bring Sam to their hiding place. He knew any of them would do that for him, so there really wasn't anything to decide.
"Cover me!" he yelled just before he started running, and Mike and Trent barely had time to react before he was out of cover and in the middle of the street, becoming a very easy target for the shooters of the roofs.
But they reacted and started shooting without a stop, not giving the snipers the chance to reciprocate until Sebastian was safe at the other end of the street.
"Come on, boys" Sebastian said as soon as he arrived to the same porch they were in and he was about to ask about Cooper's whereabouts when one look at Blaine's face stopped him.
Or more accurately, the absolute desolation inside his eyes, the palpable pain emanating from those dull and reddened orbs that seemed to have been emptied of any drop of happiness. And even if he wasn't crying at the moment, there were so many still fresh paths of tears in his cheeks and even in his clothes that Sebastian knew something terrible had happened. And if Cooper wasn't there with them…
"Blaine…" Sebastian tried to said, his own voice struggling with the knot of tears forming in his throat as his hands moved to touch the desolated boy in front of him, trying to offer some comfort he knew he couldn't offer, but Blaine moved just enough to avoid it and crouched down to help Sam, all the way evading Sebastian's pitiful gaze.
"Help me with him, please" Blaine implored for him to let it go, not feeling strong enough to even hear Cooper's name without breaking down –which was absolutely the last thing they needed right now.
Sebastian seemed to understand the plea and imitated his friend's moves, grabbing Sam's other arm and pulling of it until he was standing up. Then he threw it around his shoulders, so he could comfortably hold part of his weight that way, and looked at Blaine in a silent way of asking if he was ready, to which Blaine confidently nodded.
"We're ready!" Sebastian announced to the other two friends waiting at the other side of the street, and he only waited until he could hear the first shot before he nodded back at Blaine and they both started running, strongly holding Sam in between them, who did as much as he could to help.
The fact that his injury was in the knee prevented Sam from bending it in order to move correctly, but at least he knew it was not extremely serious when he discovered he could lean into it more than he had originally thought. And that meant not being such a burden to the others, especially to Blaine, he thought as he reinforced the grip he was keeping around his shoulders more to comfort him than for his own support. Because they had found the others now, and the time for explanations and to face the crude reality was coming; and if there was something he could do to make it a little easier on him, however small the gesture was, Sam would gladly take it.
They were quicker than expected in making it to the other side of the street, but Trent and Mike didn't stop shooting until the other three were way ahead of them. Fortunately they didn't have to come out in the open anymore until the house they were using for shelter, so they didn't stop –as Sebastian knew that Blaine would want to take care of Sam's injury as soon as possible– and before they knew it, the tallest boy was strongly knocking on a door.
"Guys, it's us, let us in!" Sebastian hissed as loudly as he dared without really yelling, hoping not to attract too much attention towards the place where they were supposed to be safe for a while –both from the other people and from the walkers wandering around–, at least until they had taken care of the injured.
It was Puck who opened the door for them, and the surprise of seeing Blaine and especially Sam there was almost comical. Of course he immediately realized Sam was hurt if they were helping him walk, so he moved out of the way and allowed them in, not closing it until Trent and Mike had also made their way inside.
"Sam!" Brittany exclaimed, and Sebastian hardly had the time to let go of Sam before he was replaced by the emotional girl jumping to embrace the injured boy. "You're alive!"
"I am" Sam gratefully answered as he also put his arm around the girl, even if his other arm remained around his boyfriend, not feeling able to let go of him now that the questions were about to start.
"They told us you were dead" Puck explained in a relieved voice as he waited for his turn to embrace their recovered friend.
"Well, they lied" Sam answered with a sad smile as he reciprocated his old friend's hug.
"Where's Cooper?" the dreaded question finally came, and it was from Marley's mouth even if Sam could see everyone was expectant at the answer.
An answer that never came. Blaine's face just sank down even lower, completely incapable to find his voice or the courage to meet anyone's gaze and the pity he knew he was going to find there, and Sam didn't know how to put what had happened into words without hurting his boyfriend even further. In the end, the only thing Sam could do was to shake his head in negation, hoping everyone would understand that Cooper hadn't made it.
And they did. A few gasps and more than a few sobs could be heard amongst the youngsters, who started crying at yet another loss and in sympathy for their friend Blaine. Because they had been a direct witness of the close and special relationship between the two brothers, and they didn't know how Blaine was going to overcome something like that.
"I'm so sorry, Killer" Sebastian said, his voice not more than a whisper as his hand tenderly rested on Blaine's shoulder and squeezed it in reassurance, his heart breaking at the confirmation of what he had already guessed.
"Thanks" Blaine politely answered, his voice full of tears even if his eyes were dry for the moment, but he didn't seem ready to talk because he immediately moved to other things. "Can you help me move Sam to that armchair?"
"Sure" Sebastian immediately complied and took his position as Sam's support again, even if he was surprised that Blaine could still be functioning in a time like that instead of breaking down as everybody was expecting him to.
"Blaine…" Mike tried to catch his attention, wanting to help him as Blaine had done for him after Tina's death, but Blaine just ignored him.
"What happened to Kitty?" Blaine asked as they passed the still unconscious girl, who was lying on the couch while Unique tended to her.
"A bullet grazed her, but it's only a superficial wound" Unique answered while trying hard not to cry for the boy's sake, because Blaine seemed to be so lost that she didn't know how to address him.
"Blaine…" Mike tried again for him to stop him, but Blaine didn't want to listen.
"Can I have some bandages and maybe some alcohol to take care of Sam's wound? He got shot too and he's still bleeding" Blaine continued his tirade, purposely ignoring Mike, but the latter was much more stubborn than that.
"Blaine, stop!" Mike practically yelled at him.
"No, I'm not going to stop!" Blaine screamed back in rage, finally turning around to face his friend. "Sam is wounded!"
"And we're going to take care of him" Mike answered in a calmer voice, now that he had Blaine's attention. So yeah, maybe it was not the right moment to get him to talk, but at least he could be at his side, right? "Just let me help you with Sam"
"He knows what he's doing, babe" Sam intervened tentatively, almost as if he was afraid of Blaine's reaction, but he knew he had done right when Blaine's angry expression slowly softened.
"Ok" Blaine finally relented with a sigh. He didn't like leaving Sam's wellbeing in some hands that weren't his, especially in a moment like that, but he knew if there was someone who had the slightest notion about how to take care of wounds, that was Mike.
Mike sighed with relief when Blaine accepted his presence, and he hurried to crouch in front of Sam as soon as Sebastian helped him into the chair and moved a bit backwards to give them some room. Blaine copied his actions and kneeled on the floor, and Mike thought he could cry at the tenderness with which he again lifted the leg of Sam's pants so as not to cause him more pain.
Mike took a close and exhaustive look at the wound, knowing that keeping Sam healthy was the best way to help Blaine at the moment, and was immensely relieved when he realized it was not life-threatening by any means. Because if that happened, he was sure they wouldn't just lose Sam: there was no way Blaine could survive after losing him too.
"It doesn't seem too deep, and it's already bleeding more slowly" Mike rushed to explain, not being able to keep a little smile out of his face at the fact he was able to deliver some good news. "Keep pressing here, see if you can get the bleeding to stop completely"
Blaine obeyed and let Mike's hands lead his towards the exact point in which he was supposed to make pressure to stop Sam's bleeding, and his heart broke when he elicited a wince on his boyfriend, even if Sam tried to hide his pain behind a calm expression on his face so as not to make things even harder on him.
"I'm sorry" Blaine whispered with guilt, though he didn't diminish the pressure one bit.
"Hey, it's ok" Sam immediately forgave him, even stretching his arm to reach the curls on Blaine's forehead, in that familiar gesture that always comforted them both so much, even if he doubted it was going to be of much use this time. "I know you're only trying to help and it wasn't even that bad"
"He's going to be alright" Mike intervened in a reassuring tone as he rested his hand between Blaine's shoulder blades, wishing there was something he could do to make the younger boy feel better.
"See?" Sam said with a comforting smile as he raised a hand to tenderly cup Blaine's cheek with it. "I told you it was nothing"
Blaine didn't answer and only nodded his head to show Sam he had heard him, even if he was not going to be as optimistic as him yet.
"Now we only need to clean it with some alcohol if we can find any to make sure it doesn't get infected and getting it bandaged as you said and he'll be as good as new in no time" Mike suggested.
"I'll try and find some alcohol around the house" Sebastian immediately offered, desperate to help his dear friend Blaine in any way he could, just before practically running upstairs in search of such a treasure.
"So…" Puck spoke after clearing his throat, not really knowing how to put into words what was going through his mind without hurting the vulnerable boy any further. "Can we maybe… retrieve… you know…"
"No" Blaine answered, immediately understanding what Puck was offering to do –to go in search of Cooper's corpse so they could bury him, as they had done with everybody else–, but even if he was immensely grateful, he didn't want to put more lives in danger. "It's too dangerous"
"We will be careful, as when Mike and the others went to get you"
"No, it's…" Blaine tried to explain, but his voice was shaking so much that he couldn't continue until Sam's hand closed around his bicep to offer his silent support. "It's more dangerous. He… he will probably still be surrounded by all the walkers"
"Surrounded?" Jake repeated, not understanding what Blaine meant, and he continued asking before he knew what he was doing. "What happened to him?"
"Can we leave it for later?" Sam interrupted in what could be considered an angry tone at Jake's lack of tact, especially when he noticed Blaine's hands, still pressing on his wound, starting to shake involuntarily.
"Sure, of course" Jake immediately apologized when he understood how insensitive he was being. "I'm sorry"
"It's ok, they got the right to know" Blaine intervened in what could be considered not more than a murmur, but it was enough for his boyfriend to hear it.
"Blaine, we don't have to talk about it now" Sam answered, even raising Blaine's face with a finger under his chin to make him look at him, and all the grief he could see in his eyes was enough to make Sam forget whatever he was going to say.
"I can do it" Blaine calmly responded –even if Sam knew how he was dying inside–, though he lowered his face again because he didn't feel able to see the pity in everybody's eyes when he told them what had happened. "We got Sam out of the basement where they were keeping him just before the walkers got in the fort. We got trapped by them so we tried to hide in a tool hut but there were too many of them and they were tearing the house down, so we were all going to die there"
"Blaine, I can…" Sam tried to offer himself to continue, not wanting for Blaine to have to say the words, but his boyfriend was much more stubborn than that –or maybe he just needed to let it out of his system, Sam didn't honestly know.
"And then Cooper decided that his life wasn't worth it as much as ours so he gave it up to save us. He…" Blaine's voice finally broke and he had to breathe more deeply a couple of times to keep himself from collapsing right there and there, his heart too battered to even beat correctly.
"He sacrificed himself as a distraction to give us the chance to escape" Sam finished for him, before trying to put his arms around his boyfriend for an embrace, though Blaine didn't let him because he was not willing to stop pressuring on Sam's wound and risk for it to start bleeding again.
Silence fell upon the group because no one knew what to say. They weren't really surprised that Cooper had given his life for them –after all, they had been direct witnesses to the love that man had for his little brother, considering he had crossed half the country just to find him–, but to know he had experienced such a terrible death…
And if that didn't pain them enough, they only had to look at Blaine to have their hearts shattered to pieces. Because Cooper's love for his brother had been totally reciprocated, and they didn't know how Blaine was going to be able to overcome such a tragedy. They just hoped it wouldn't completely destroy him.
"Cool story, huh?" Blaine sarcastically added when the silence became too unbearable as he furiously erased a tear from his cheek that he had been unable to stop. "Can someone please get me some fucking bandages now?"
Sam looked as his boyfriend moved his attention towards his wound and the pressure he was keeping on it, even if Sam suspected it wasn't bleeding anymore but Blaine hadn't even realized. And Sam's heart had never felt as heavy as it did in the moment. And afraid. He was so scared about how Cooper's death was going to affect his boyfriend… What if Cooper's efforts hadn't been enough? What if Blaine didn't have the strength to keep fighting any longer? The world they lived in was as dangerous and screwed up as before –if not more, with each passing day–, and it would be impossible to survive in it unless you fought every step of the way. Like they had done until now. Like Sam wasn't sure Blaine could keep doing from then on. And even if that thought scared the hell out of him… he couldn't bring himself to even blame Blaine for it if that finally happened. Though of course he was going to do whatever it took to bring that fighter part of Blaine he loved so much back. Whatever it took. It was the least he could do for him.
"Blaine…" Sam tried in an understanding tone, even trying to lift Blaine's face with his finger again, but this time the latter refused to obey.
"I'm alright, Sam" Blaine answered in a tone he knew wasn't very convincing to neither one of them, but he refused to lift his gaze –too afraid of breaking down before they could afford it if he got to see all the pity he knew he would find in Sam's eyes– and continued pretending he was working on Sam's injury. "Where the hell is Sebastian with that alcohol?"
But Sam didn't have time to reply before the most unimaginable sound broke the silence of the room: a knock on the front door.
Everybody remained rooted to their places as they exchanged shocked glances: who the hell was so politely knocking on their situation? They very well knew walkers didn't do that –Sam and Blaine very well knew the kind of noises they made when they were trying to get somewhere, they had experienced it in their own skins only a few minutes ago–. So it had to be a person. But who would risk their lives like that, considering the amount of walkers wandering around the place? And what the hell would they want from them?
Everyone turned questioningly at Blaine, as he had always been kind of their leader –especially now that Cooper wasn't there anymore– and they respected his opinions and decisions above everyone else's. But Blaine was too overwhelmed and just as confused as everyone else, so he just shrugged his shoulders, in complete loss about what to do or think.
Fortunately Puck took pity on him and decided to take the matter into his own hands.
"Who is it?" Puck tentatively asked as he neared the door.
But he didn't get any answer. Whoever was at the other side of the door didn't seem to have any intention of speaking, and instead they just knocked on the door again, more insistently this time.
Marley ran to the window next to the door and took a peak outside, trying to learn more about their unexpected guess. It was not easy to see them from there, as whoever it was, they were right behind the door. But she caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a shoulder, a man's shoulder, except that… it was covered by blood?
"It looks like a man but…" she tried to explain, but her boyfriend immediately noticed her hesitation.
"But what?" Jake encouraged her to continue.
"Whoever it is, it's covered in blood and… flesh" she said with a voice full of disgust.
"It can't be a walker" Puck contradicted her, understanding the girl's confusion. "It can't possibly be a walker knocking on our door"
"I don't know if it's a walker, I'm just telling you what I saw" Marley answered.
Puck sighed, knowing the girl was neither lying nor making a mistake, and got his gun ready in front of his face before moving to open the door.
"Everybody get alert" he motioned for the others to get their weapons ready, and Unique didn't even protest when Blaine stood up and walked to her to take the gun she had left next to Kitty while taking care of her –after all, she knew Blaine would give it a much better use than she could ever do.
Very slowly, and with all the caution in the world, Puck half-opened the door, just enough for his gun to fit through it and point directly at their visitor's head.
"One wrong move and you are a dead man" Puck said in a threatening tone before he had even been able to see if he was talking to a living human. "Mine is not the only weapon pointing at you at the moment, just so you know"
"I'm unarmed" the person outside the door whispered, letting everybody know that he was a man and that he was, obviously, alive.
"Who are you and what the hell do you want?" Puck asked, resisting the urge to just put a bullet in his brain after all the suffering his people had caused them –but he could be a prisoner, as Sam had been, so he needed to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Maybe you could let me inside?" the man whispered again. "There are hundreds of these monsters around and it's not safe out here, you know?"
Puck hesitated for a second, even turning around to ask for a silent permission from everyone to let that man inside. And after a couple of nods from his friends, he finally opened the door fully, carefully keeping the gun pointed at his head.
"We've been deceived before, so don't even try anything or you won't even have the time to regret it" Puck warned him, wanting him to know they were not that gullible and were not going to fall into any trap, as he motioned for his brother to frisk the man.
"I come in piece, guys" the man said once he was inside as he got to the full group staring intently at him, but he didn't ask them to lower their weapons because he could perfectly understand their lack of trust.
"Have you been bitten?" Blaine immediately asked when he saw all the blood covering the man –as Marley had said–, worried about what that could mean to them if he transformed.
"No, this blood isn't mine" the man hurried to explain, understanding the image he was giving. "I smeared some blood on my clothes from one of those monsters so I would smell like them and I wouldn't be detected. If you're really quiet, you can pass by them"
The rank of expressions on the faces of the youngsters went from disgust to admiration. It took a lot of courage to walk among the walkers even if you were disguised… and to have a strong stomach to just get your hands inside one of those creatures to take their blood and their guts and rub them on you.
"Who are you?" Mike asked in complete mistrust at the intelligent man in front of him, also standing up from where he had been crouching down next to Sam to feel less vulnerable.
"Are you a prisoner from that people?" Trent asked, hoping against hope that was a good man and they wouldn't need to fight him, because heaven knew they had had enough of that for the day.
"No" the man confessed tentatively, knowing the reaction he was going to get from them. "I'm the person in charge of this community. They call me the Major"
No one was fast enough to stop Blaine for making all the way to the man and pointing his gun right to his temple, pressing it so hard they knew it had to hurt, such was his anger at the discovery. Even if the man never complained.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Blaine practically spat at him, his anger so vicious that he seemed a completely different person than the sweet and understanding boy they were so used to.
"Blaine" Sam called him from his place, trying to calm him down and keep him from doing something he might regret later, hating his injury for preventing him from being able to walk to him and physically restrain him and offer him all his support.
Blaine seemed to perceive the warning and the understanding in his boyfriend's voice, though, so he tried to calm himself down even if his grip on the gun didn't falter one bit.
"I made you a question" he repeated, looking intently at the man.
"I came to offer you a deal" the Major answered with surprising calmness, especially considering there was a gun pointing at his head and held by a very angry young man.
"You've got to be kidding me" Blaine retorted with a sarcastic snort.
"I'm not" the man replied. "I know we've all done some questionable things, but we can be stronger together, you guys and my people. Let's fight the real enemy together, alright?"
"Some questionable things, you say?" Blaine repeated in a voice that showed how he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Look, I can see you're good people and you know how to defend yourselves" the man explained, looking around in hopes of finding some sympathy amongst the youngsters. "We can do a lot of great things if we unite our talents. I think we can all put those things behind us and…"
"Never" Blaine promised as he threateningly increased the pressure of the weapon on the man's forehead, to which Sam hissed in fear of what he might do –because it sounded as Blaine wouldn't like anything more than to kill that man right there and then, even if he hadn't yet. "We're never going to ally with monsters like you"
"I'm sorry, I think there has been a confusion here" the Major retorted as he inexplicably smiled wickedly at the boys. "It was not a suggestion"
"Everybody get their weapons down or he gets a bullet in his brain" another voice behind them caught their attention and made them turn around.
And their bloods ran cold when they discovered another man going down the stairs of the house, with a similar smile on his face and what was worse: holding Sebastian with an arm around his neck and pointing his gun directly at the side of the boy's head.