There's so many of them, all of different sizes and ages, elders, adults , kids. Many are missing limbs and some have had all their flesh either eaten or rotted away, but they all have that same hungry look in their eye. Not one of them will turn away from fresh meat. Either we have to make the first move or they will.
"Run," Puck hisses. Brittany catches my eye and glance at each other with uncertainty for just a split second before we take off with the others, what choice do we have?
Zombies continue to emerge from buildings as we pass, they're beginning to close in on us. They must gave come here looking to eat those trying to pass through and I have no doubt that some of them are the people that tried to pass through here.
The group unexpectedly freeze, causing me to run into Santana.
"what's-" I begin but my eyes give me the answer, we've reached a dead end. Ahead of us is a huge crowd of them advancing on us, while the zombies we've passed are closing in from behind.
"Oh my god," Santana shrieks, "where's Brittany?"
I gasp and look around, she's gone. This doesn't make sense, she was here two minutes ago.
"Brittany!" Santana screams and Puck begins to fire his gun at the growling creatures around us.
"I'm over here San!" Brittany calls back her voice coming from my right hand side. There's a small and narrow alley way, leading onto another street or road. "Come on it's safe!"
"Go!" Puck hisses. "Quickly! I'll keep shooting until everybody is safe."
"I'll help you," I offer. Since I am not rushing to the border, it's only right that they are all safe.
I take out my gun and shoot, Santana who is still waiting for the others to get through the alley , helps too. Zombies fall down, causing others to trip over them but they don't stop coming towards us.
"Santana, come on!" Blaine calls, but Santana keeps shooting, killing five in a row.
" Go Santana!" Puck orders as we keep shooting. There's more of them than I thought, I must have killed twenty by now, but I feel so uneasy. What if they're just like Rachel, misunderstood?
Some of them seem to have begun to retreat , I've never seen this before, but some still continue to lurk towards us. I pull my trigger to shoot an advancing zombie but it doesn't fire.
"shit," I shout in panic. "Puck I'm out of ammo!"
"Me too!" He says, "just hold them off with your knife!"
I take Rachel's knife from my pocket and uncover it. I hear a squeal from beside me as Puck stabs a zombie right through the forehead. I copy, quickly pulling my knife back out to kill the next. It's about ten versus two, we have to act quickly.
"Shit!" Puck yells, I glance over, he has fallen to the ground. Zombies are coming closer, their hands clawing for his flesh. This is bad, I have to help him but I am too busy fighting other zombies.
"Puck!" I cry in a panic, I don't know what to do.
"Quinn just get out of here!" He cries, I can hear the fear in his voice. There is a sudden flash of red and suddenly, a zombie with long untamed hair is crouched before him, hissing, with her back turned towards me but I recognise her instantly. I am breathless and terrified.
"Mine!" A dark and low hiss escape the zombies mouth, sending chills up my spine. The other zombies understand. They begin to back away, their faces filled with anger and disappointment.
Puck looks back at me , genuinely terrified. And that's when her colourless eyes meet mine. Her expressionless face is covered with streaks of red and black blood. She opens her mouth, so as if to speak.
"Quinn," she breathes.
"You left me," I stammer.
She shakes her head. "We have to get out of here," I am surprised at how fluently she speaks, her stammer is gone, her voice is almost recognisable except for the hiss at the end of each sentence. "now!"
She leads us down the alley way which the others have passed through and onto a smaller, deserted road where the others are waiting for us, Santana is holding Brittany, crying into her shoulder.
"Santana, they're here," Brittany whispers.
"you guys are okay ?" I ask, counting to make sure they're all here.
"Yeah, Rachel pulled me into that alley, she saved us," Brittany explains, Rachel looks to the ground.
"Thank you Rachel," Puck breathes, but his words are sincere. "And I'm sorry for everything. I want you to come with us to the border, I'll help make it clear to the guards what happened to you. Please come with us?"
"okay," she whispers,her eyes fixed on me.
"Let's rest for a few minutes, I need time to reload the guns and recover," puck whispers.
I walk away from the group, trying to take in what has happened.
"Quinn I'm sorry," Rachel whispers behind me.
"you told Santana you didn't want to be with us anymore, is that true?"
"To protect you Quinn, didn't want you to chase me," she replies.
"your stammer is gone," I point out.
"look," she whispers, taking off her jacket and revealing her pale and translucent skin. All her veins in both arms are now a bright blue , the cure has spread again. "spread to my legs too, I'm faster now."
"How did you get here and why?"
"I wanted to make sure you were safe. This town, its dangerous. The zombies are different, they can think, and understand. I think it's because they together, have to communicate."
"Rachel," I whisper excitedly. "please, stay with me, you can't leave us again, not now, we're so close."
"I'm not human," she replies sadly. "Am still a zombie Quinn."
I look at her face and remember what's staining it, "Rachel, did you kill somebody?"
She looks away, shame washes over her face. "Not a person."
"An animal?"
She nods. "I'm sorry , my head, it hurts bad. Only stops when I eat. That's why I had to leave."
"it's okay," I reassure her, "you need to eat Rachel, we'll be at the border soon, we'll get you proper help Rachel!"
I embrace her in a tight hug, I'm so afraid to let her out of my reach again,
" But Quinn, look at me, look at what I am, I don't even know who I am anymore."
" You're Rachel, my Rachel, and this is my fault. I know but Rachel I couldn't kill you and I'm sorry you've had to live like this but I promise that we will make you better, and I'm not giving up on this promise Rachel , because I want you to be beside me always do you understand me?"
She nods but I don't really believe, usually that would have brought a smile to her face, anytime I spoke about us she would smile this dazzling smile. I don't think she understands the extent of my love for her anymore.
"We just need to get to the border Rachel."
"Border is dangerous," Rachel announces, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Zombies are there, all hungry. You can't pass, unless you have protection."
"Protection?" Maribel questions.
"Puck," Rachel calls," come with me, others stay here. You too Quinn!"
I open my mouth to protest but she looks at me with those dark, empty eyes and I drop my argument. Puck follows her doubtfully and she leads him towards the alley through which we escaped the havoc of Main Street.
I'm getting fidgety just watching her walking away because I'm not ready to let her go again, even if she's supposedly coming back.
"So you found her," Santana whispers into my ear.
"No," I argue. "She found us and saved my ass, again." I really need to be a better girlfriend, I owe her so much at this stage.
"That's what Rachel does best, she saves people," Santana sighs.
The other two come back into sight , this time they're not alone. Pucks face is wrinkled in disgust as he carries something over his shoulder. A body and it smells even before he puts it down on the ground before us. There is a perfect and hollow hole straight through his head from where the bullet went through. He was one of the few zombies that had all limbs and some flesh left on his face,
"What's this?" Kurt asks on behalf of us all.
"We have to smear his guts on to us," puck announces.
"Excuse me?" Santana demands.
"to cover your scent, zombies at border won't attack you, can't tell you're human," Rachel explains.
"Come on let's just get it over with," Puck says, "Maribel cover Beth's eyes." He pulls out a knife and hacks into the zombies, revealing blood and guts.
"Ugh," somebody groans at the sight. Puck reaches into the dissected torso and begins to smear some of the black blood onto his arms and face. I want to get it over with so I do the same, Rachel thinks this is what we need to do then I trust her. It smells disgusting and I've never wanted a shower more in my life but this is going to keep us safe. The others slowly crouch down around the bod. And begin to cover themselves.
"Its just like face paint Beth," puck tells the squirming four year old. "We' 're dressing up see? We'll wash it off as soon as we can."
"Blaine, it's horrible!" Kurt squeals, wincing as he rubs it onto his neck. " I feel so disgusting."
"Its okay Kurt, you still look cute to me," Blaine replies, causing Santana and I to simultaneously roll our eyes.
I cover up every visible patch of skin that I can but I can't reach my back. Everybody else has someone to do it for them.
"I'll help you," Rachel whispers sweetly. I feel her cold,soft hands slowly rub the grunge down my neck and onto to my upper back. It's so comforting to feel her touch again.
"Now," she whispers. "You smell disgusting."
"thanks," I stifle a giggle.
"let's go," Puck announces, holding out his loaded shot gun.
"don't shoot," Rachel tells him. "Unless you have to. It will give you away."
Puck nods solemnly and proceeds to getting us out of this town, we must look terrifying all covered in organs and black gunge But we're so close to the border and now that I have Rachel again I have reason to cross it.
Santana and Brittany walk in front of me, I watch as Brittany slowly takes the other's hand, and Santana then squeezes hers in return Before placing a sweet, soft kiss on her left cheek. I sigh, it was only a matter of time.
"I'm sorry I left," Rachel suddenly appears beside me. "I didn't want to, but I had to."
"I understand, thank you Rachel."
"For what?"
I smile at the obliviousness. "For everything, for saving us, for protecting us, for putting up with me."
"I missed you," she whispers. "I didn't want to follow you, but I needed you safe."
"and I missed you Rachel, more than you'll ever know."
After three hours of walking without stopping, we can see it in the distance first, behind the original border made up of turnpikes, it's a concrete fortress, about a hundred feet tall and secured with sharp wire. It's just screaming "secure life inside".
I can feel the relief already beginning to kick in around me. "Can you hear that?" Blaine asks, "birds!"
He's right, there's birds singing and flying just beyond those walls. We just need to get there, but it seems like we're not the only ones with aims to get inside those walls, gathered Behind some clickable metal fences are hundreds of zombies, the most I've ever seen. There groans can be heard from where we stand.
All we have to do is walk past them, just like Rachel said we could, and we're there. I'm so overwhelmed , I don't know what to say or do or feel. this whole journey is almost over and I have the only person I have ever truly loved by my side, who knows what awaits us beyond that fortress but with Rachel there, it will be paradise.
