Author's Note:

So sorry that this is late, guys! I meant to have this up yesterday, but for some reason I thought I had decided to upload these chapters on Tuesdays on my schedule when I meant to put Mondays. So yeah. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Chapter Two

"Kurt!" Rachel cried as they embraced each other, neither letting go. Time seemed to pass by ever so slowly as each reassuringly held each other. Neither of the two wanted to budge. After all that had happened, after everything that they had been through, the presence of the other was like a godsend. Each feared that if they did let go that the moment would be over, or perhaps that this was an illusion and they'd realize that they never found each other and were still very alone.

Rachel was the one who broke their embrace first by pulling away slightly, just leaving a few inches of space between themselves. She was smiling and crying, a hopeful gleam in her eyes.

"I'm so glad you found me, Kurt," she said. "I was beginning to think that I was all alone. What happened? Where is everyone?"

Kurt opened his mouth, but once again, the words were stuck in his throat. It was worse now, though. It was like he couldn't even make a simple sound with his voice.

"Kurt?"

He pointed at his throat and made a gasping motion, which Rachel understood immediately.

"Kurt, your voice…," she said, concerned and worried. "Don't try to talk, okay? Look, we'll stick together and find everyone, alright? I'm guessing I'm the first person you've found, huh?"

Kurt nodded rather depressingly, and Rachel sighed. She moved back instinctively, trying to concentrate and control all her scattered thoughts. How had this happened? Kurt couldn't speak, and from Rachel could tell, it didn't seem like he knew much more than she did. They had to try and find the others. Someone would know what to do.

"Kurt," Rachel began, turning back to face him. She grabbed his arm and looked at him, the determined Rachel Berry face taking over her expression. "We're gonna get through this, okay? We're gonna find everyone, I promise. Now let's go, okay?"

The boy simply nodded. The two felt their hands going for the other and intertwining, clinging to one another so that fear couldn't take them.

"Does this look like the station to you at all?" Sugar piped up. She, Blaine and Joe were walking down the street, looking around at their surroundings. Nothing seemed familiar. Then again, the sky was covered in grey, thick fog, and everything looked like a warzone instead of the simple small town atmosphere of Lima.

"No. I don't get it. We should be at the station…" Blaine replied absently.

"You don't think that the station… you know… disappeared?" Joe began. "I mean, in whatever it was that happened… How else could we be lost? There's no way we could have been blown away this far from the station."

"It can't be gone," Sugar argued. "It just can't. We must have been blown away, somehow. I don't know what happened, but that's the only explanation. If something that bad did happen to the station… If something happened to our friends…"

"Sugar-" Blaine interrupted.

"No!" she squealed. "I refuse to believe anything happened! Our friends are okay, alright? We just have to find our way back to each other somehow!"

The group fell silent, and as Sugar began to feel a sense of hopelessness coming over her, she felt a hand on each of her shoulder. She turned around to see Joe and Blaine smiling at her.

"You're right," Joe replied. "No matter what, we gotta keep believing, right? Whatever happened, it doesn't matter."

"Question is, where do we start looking?" Blaine asked aloud. "I mean, I don't exactly know where we are, do you guys?"

"I don't really know either," Joe admitted.

"Maybe we should ask someone?" Sugar suggested. "I mean, maybe someone can point us in the direction of the station… Wherever it is."

"Yeah, okay," Blaine nodded in agreement. "Let's go see if anybody else might know something."

Nobody seemed to be listening to Tina. She had ran into a nearby pharmacy, hoping someone there could help her, or that maybe there could even be a doctor somewhere around, but everyone was running around in chaos or crying in the corner. This was getting her nowhere. Meanwhile, Puck was still waiting on that bench for her, badly injured, possibly getting his wound infected or worse.

And with the way people were acting, who's to say that maybe someone wouldn't try to attack Puck? Puck was too stubborn to say no, Tina knew that much. If something like that were to happen, she knew that Puck wouldn't back down, hurt or not. Better to finish up here as soon as possible. Maybe she could find something to at least patch it up or make a cast with. Surely there were even some crutches somewhere around here, right? Or maybe even a wheelchair, though she wasn't sure how Puck would react to using one.

As Tina began to run to the back, she saw a man standing in the hall as a light began to flicker. He was facing away from her toward the door that lead to the stock of pills and other equipment that Tina was going to search for. She had hoped maybe she could find some pain killers. As she looked at his outfit, it looked like it very well could be the uniform of someone who worked here. She practically sighed with relief.

"Excuse me, sir," she began, "do you think you could help me? My friend got hurt out there, and it's really bad. I was hoping maybe I could get some pain killers, or maybe you're able to help my friend-"

The man slowly began to turn around, and as he did, Tina found the words in her throat stop. His skin was grey, a sick grey, and he looked old, but like he was supposed to be on his deathbed. He stared at her, his eyes completely white and his mouth hanging limp. The sight made Tina recoil. The man noticed the girl's shift in movement, and began to seize. As he did, his eyes began to glow white as his entire body became embodied by a black liquid, and he fell to the floor. As the black liquid completely covered him, he grew claws in his hands, and his form began to change to that of a panther, but black tentacles were growing from the top of his head, shaking violently. The creature shrieked at her, hissing, and Tina turned around and began to run. The other residents of the store noticed and too began to flee, panicking even worse than they had began.

The creature leaped forward towards Tina, its claws extended and its fangs bared.