"I'll go with Quinn and Rachel," Santana insists to the others as we circle around our two vehicles. Fortunately, we found a small black Audi abandoned down the block. Nobody else seems to want to volunteer, I can tell that by their facial expressions. They all agree silently and open the doors of the chevy.

"Don't you want to go with Brittany?" I ask as the others climb into their vehicle.

"I thought you might want some help, " Santana whispers back. "My mom will take care of Britt, I also want to figure out the deal with Rachel. I'll drive, you can sit in the back with Rachel.""

She pulls open a door and offers the seat to Rachel, who looks at me doubtfully.

"Go on Rach," I encourage as I walk around to the other side of the car so I can sit beside her. She looks afraid, so much that I feel the need to reassure her.

"It's okay Rachel, we're going to get help, and make you better."

She frowns, but stays silent. In the front of the car, Santana changes gear and begins to follow the already moving Chevy in front of us.

"Oh here," Santana says, throwing back a can of tinned fruit to Rachel, "I almost forgot about this."

Rachel frowns at the object, unsure of how to open it. I take it from her hands and open the tin lid with her pocket knife, I am conscious of her eyes on the knife,, I will give it back but just not yet, I don't think she would be able to handle it properly. As I yank the lid off the tin, Rachel snatches it out of my hands almost immediately. She knocks the can back and devours the whole can's contents in seconds. It didn't even look like she chewed the food, she just swallowed.

"Wow," Santana breathes, "she really is hungry."

"Are you thirsty Rachel?" I ask, she nods eagerly. I reach over to my backpack and fish out one of the few bottles of water I had filled in the hardware store before we left. I wish we could have returned to the hardware store, but I think that by now we'd encounter the horde and even if we didn't, they told us not to return. I just wish there was someway of contacting Shelby, to let her know that Rachel was okay or to know if she was okay herself. I don't want to have to tell Rachel that we've left her mother behind.

I take the cap off the plastic bottle, handing it to Rachel who grabs it with two hands and swallows it completely. I am glad I have more otherwise we'd probably end up dying of thirst in this heat. Rachel lets out a satisfied sigh, the food and water seems to have her a bit more relieved.

"You feel better?" I ask. She nods and rests her head against the seat and closes her eyes. She's surely exhausted. I sit in silence as the car travels, I look at Rachel, even with her changed face and skin and her messy hair, she is still beautiful to me. From her distressed facial expressions it looks like she's having a nightmare but almost an hour and a half passes before she opens her eyes. She turns to me with a wide, troubled gaze and frowns.

"Hot," she moans. "Too hot."

"Santana what time is it?"

"Almost midday, it's probably getting to hot for her, can you take off some of her clothes?"

I reach over and tug on the red Cheerios jacket that Rachel is wearing, stripping her down to just the t-shirt I had also given her. I grimace a her bony, translucent and pale arms but something catches my eye. A fluorescent blue light runs through her blood vessels at from her shoulder right down to just past her elbow.

"Santana," I whisper, "Are you seeing this?"

"Shit," Santana curses. "What is that?"

I shake my head. "I don't know, I guess it's what ever she was injected with."

"It's so bright," Santana replies.

"Sp-read," Rachel begins to mumble.

"What is it Rachel?" I ask. "Tell me what you mean?"

"Sp-read," she repeats but I shake my head, I don't know what she means.

"It most be getting too hot for her," Santana suggests. "Maybe we can pull in somewhere ."

"Is it too hot Rachel? How do you survive at midday?"

Rachel looks at me blankly as though I have spoken a completely foreign language to her. "Hot," She mumbles, beginning to groan again.

"I think that's a good idea," I fret, answering Santana as I look at Rachel, she seems so hot and flustered. I don't want her to burn up or black out because of the sun.

Santana continues to follow Puck's vehicle while I, continue to watch Rachel. I wonder what she's thinking or how much she's able to think. I don't even know how much she can understand. I want to tell her how I feel, how much I've missed her but I'm afraid I'll upset her or confuse her and I don't want to say anything with Santana in the car. Rachel sits silently, watching me observe all the changes she has gone through. I can't seem to be able to take my eyes away from the blue light underneath her skin, I've never seen something so luminous.

Santana blows the horn before pressing down on the brake and stopping the car at the side of a country road, surrounded by evergreen trees, which looks like a small shopping mall in front of us Puck's vehicle halts too. The driver's door of the Chevy opens and Puck makes his way out, looking impatient.

"What?" He demands through Santana's open window.

"It's getting too hot for Rachel, we need to take shelter!" Santana explains.

"And what will happen us when we have to leave in the dark of night, when it is most dangerous?"

"Please let's just stop for an hour," I ask. "We can take shelter under those trees where it's shady, we can all rest and eat, we'll be safe once we all stay together and stay beside the vehicles."

"Fine!" He hisses. He walks back to his car and we climb out of ours. Once I open Rachel's door, she shields her face with her hands as though she can't bear the brightness of the sun. "No," she cries. "Too hot!"

"It's okay Rach," I soothe "We'll get you out of the sun."

We walk under the cool shade of the trees where there are rocks big enough for us to sit down on. The relief in Rachel's face is instant. "What's that in her arm?" Kurt shouts as the others come over to join us.

"It's the cure," Santana explains. "Well we think it is."

"It's so blue!" Blaine exclaims as they come to sit near us but still at a slight distance. The adults and Puck with Beth on his shoulders, however, completely keep their distance and choose rocks about a hundred meters away.

"Gosh it's warm," Kurt points out as Puck begins to take cans of food from his bag, eyeing Rachel all the time.

"Here Noah, let me open them," Carol offers, taking a knife and can from Puck and tries to cut the lid off. I turn my attention back to Rachel,who is sitting beside me silently, she has stopped groaning, I'm glad to see her a bit more relaxed.

"Crap!" Carol shouts, drawing my eyes back over in her direction. A shade of red blood runs down her hand and the knife that has fallen to the ground is stained with the same color.

There is a sudden growling beside me which turns into a hiss, I turn my head around to find the horrifying sight of Rachel, in complete zombie mode. her eyes are burning with thirst and her teeth are bared, ready to attack.

"No!" I scream but it's too late, Rachel has already started in the direction of Carol. "Rachel! Stop!" I shout, chasing after her. I hear Beth wailing in terror as Rachel begins to growl hungrily. Carol's eyes fill with fear. I jump, catching hold of her ankles and we both hit the dirt ground below us with a thud.

Rachel's head whips around to face me and she gives me a vicious growl. "Let go!" She screams, trying to claw her way out of my grasp. "I need it!"

"No Rachel!" I say sternly. "This is not you! You are not a monster!"

"I'll get the gun," Puck shouts ina panicked but bitter tone. Rachel begins to kick her legs to free herself, I have to use all my energy to hold on tighter to her.

"No!" I cry at him. "Rachel! Stop please! For me!"

Her eyes lock on mine and her face falls. "Quinn," she croaks.

"That's it Rachel, just come back to me," I pant breathlessly. She sits up and stops trying to escape, I let out a breath of relief and release her, so I can brush the dirt out of my hair and off my face which is covered in the dry mud.

"I told you! I told you she was dangerous!" Puck shouts angrily, clenching his gun. "We need to kill her, before she attacks one of us Quinn."

"Puck, she's under control now," Santana replies in my defence as she stands beside an unsure Carol. "Everything's fine."

"Will everything be fine when she bites one of us in our sleep Santana?" Puck shouts. "I can't have her around, she's too much of a threat! This group is not staying around her, Shelby did not give me Beth just so she could be killed! I'm taking her away from this monster!"

"That's not fair!" protests Santana who is proceeding to wrapping up Carol's cut hand in bandage. "Shelby left Beth to you and Quinn! You can't split this group up."

"Oh really?" Puck rolls his eyes. "I'm not splitting the group, those who want to be fools can stay behind with the zombie because they are only putting the group in danger by staying, and if I recall correctly Quinn never wanted to be a mother and she sure hasn't tried to be one either."

I narrow my eyes at him, how could he say that? After all we had been through, but I guess he's right, I've had the chance to bond with Beth and I didn't take it, but that's probably because I only see Beth as Shelby's daughter now. I can never be half as good a mother to Beth as Shelby was. It would be an insult to Shelby if I began to mother that child now.

"Sstop!" The sudden faint voice makes me jump. "don't fight!"

Everybody fixes their attention to Rachel. "You can't sep-ar-ate, I'm sssorry! Me, leave."

"No," I whisper, before turning back to the others. "Please, let her stay! Look she's improving, she hasn't spoken that many words before now."

"Look at her arm!" Santana shouts, and I look back to my girlfriend again to see what Santana is pointing out. Rachel's whole arm, from the tips of her fingers right across to the centre of her chest is all blue, it's not as bright now but this can only mean one thing, I think I understand what Rachel was trying to say back in the car, the cure is spreading.