Author's Notes: Once again, a big thank you to all of you who added my story to your favorites, put alerts on my story, or wrote comments! It's wonderful to know that there are other's out there embarking on this journey with me.

Now, one comment was confused as to whether or not Quinn would make it to New York by Friday like she was supposed to. I hope this chapter cleared everything up. She is late in getting to NYC, but do not worry, we will have a Faberry reunion next chapter.

Lastly, I still do not own Glee or Chernobyl Diaries, so do not sue me. All I own are my characters Hunter, Daniel, Sophia, and Thomas. I hope you all like Thomas! He was a lot of fun for me to write! Until next time everyone!

Back to the Present -

Daniel and Sophia were completely engrossed in the story being told by their mommy. This was actually the longest time that either child has spent sitting still since they started to crawl. When Rachel took a break from speaking, Daniel interjected. "Mommy, what was New York like, and why did you freak out over your voice?"

Rachel didn't expect for the question to bring the onslaught of emotions that it did. She thought that she had dealt with all of this a long time ago, but apparently the scars of the dreams she once held were much deeper than she liked to acknowledge. Quinn felt her wife's body tense up and silently offered her comfort by using the arm that was wrapped around the petite form to pull the woman closer into her. Rachel appreciated the sentiment, and swallowed the lump in her throat in order to speak. "Well sweethearts, do you know how your mommy teaches English and Music at school?" When she got sight of both children nodding, she continued on. "Before the outbreak, I wanted to be a star on this big stage called Broadway in New York. I even got into a special school for singing and acting which was in the city."

Sophia being much more of the quiet observer noticed that her mommy was starting to get a little sad which she never liked. "You have a pretty voice mommy. All of my friends think so." Just like her mom, the young girl was one of very little words, but those words were meant to tell her mommy in her own way that she was still a star. There may not be a Broadway anymore, and the reservation didn't have anything that even came close to it, but anyone that has had heard Rachel sing still was in awe of her voice. Quinn and Rachel's dreams had to take a drastic change when the virus spread. For Rachel there was no Broadway, and for Quinn there were no more TV shows or movies for her to act in, and even though these things still struck a bit of a nerve deep within them, they knew that they were lucky to just be alive. Rachel decided to become a teacher, which one evening lead to a small fight between the two women when Quinn thought it funny to sarcastically compare her to Mr. Schue. If Quinn remembered correctly, Rachel was insulted that Quinn would compare her to a man that although seemed to have good intentions, was still a horrendous teacher on many accounts who displayed obvious favoritism and used his students as a way for him to live out his failed attempts at stardom. This of course ended with a perfect diva storm out from bedroom with Quinn trailing not far behind to try and calm down the frustrated woman. Quinn, on the other hand, became a photographer. It was a small hobby that she loved and decided to make a career out of since they didn't have college degrees, and there were little things that they could do in their small reservation. Plus, her job gave the other survivors a small sense of normalcy and allowed people to create memories.

Rachel smiled at her daughter in her lap and quickly kissed her temple. "Thank you Sophie." Daniel always one to not be left out of the loop took this moment to bring up his next urgent question. "Mommy, where was mom?" Daniel then looked to Quinn as if she held all of the answers which caused the blonde to giggle. "Patience Daniel. Your mother will tell you the beginning of her story," Rachel responded. The brunette could practically hear her wife's voice in her head pointing out to her once again how similar Daniel was to her younger self. Of course, she would never outwardly admit that Quinn was right. Although she has grown and matured over the years, she was still quite stubborn. If anything, she would just say that Daniel has only acquired her best personality traits.

Quinn knew that was her cue to begin her tale. The tale of how sheer determination and honestly luck brought her back to Rachel all of those years ago. She couldn't take all the credit though. If it wasn't for her wife's "sixth sense," she may not have ever found her, and then, well, she didn't like to think about that. Thinking about what could've happened if she had never found Rachel was something that she strayed very far away from. Anyway, she was getting ahead of herself. It's always better to start at the beginning. "Well, in Connecticut, we didn't have any word on the infection at all…"

The Day of The Outbreak, New Haven, CT -

Quinn was in the campus library doing some research for a paper that was due at the end of the semester when she heard some screaming coming from one of the lower floors of the library. It must have been quite a lot of racket for it to have been heard on her floor since the only way the sound would travel would be through the vents and stairwell. She tried to ignore whatever was going on for the time being until she had to reread the same sentence five times due to her concentration now being elsewhere. "For Christ's sake," Quinn whispered to herself as she exited the tab on her laptop. It was obvious that she was not going to get any work done until the campus's public safety finally decided to get to the scene and break up whatever was happening, so she called it a day. There was packing that she needed to do for the weekend anyway.

After packing her Macbook and other materials into her shoulder bag, Quinn got up and headed towards the stairwell that seemed to be the most quiet. Little did she know that her low tolerance for bullshit would be what possibly saved her life that night. After she walked down the five flights of stairs to the first floor, Quinn's eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she turned the corner and saw what appeared to be a riot of some sort in the main lobby. She quickly went back around the corner and rested her back against the wall. "What is going on?" Is all she could think to herself in that moment. There wasn't a cause being rallied for around campus to her knowledge, and it wasn't like Yale was a school where this would be a common occurrence. When a few seconds went by, the blonde knew that she would not get any answers if she continued to hide against this wall like a coward. She at least needed to look and see what appeared to be happening. Careful to not draw any attention to herself, Quinn peaked around the corner again, and for the first time took a closer look at what was happening just a few feet away from her. Upon closer inspection, she realized that there was no way that this was jus your normal riot. There were students running away from other students, and people were biting into others. It was like looking at a car accident. Quinn knew that she should look away and find a safe way out of the library, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene.

As she continued to look, Quinn noticed something about the people who were doing the biting. Their skin was pealing and there was something, besides the whole them biting other people ordeal, that looked wrong about them. They looked ill. Quinn began looking around to see if she could come up with an exit strategy. The only exit that she could see besides the main entrance doors was on the other side from where she was. She would have to sneak her way across the main lobby to the other side without being detected. It was either that, or stand frozen in her current position and hope that she somehow wouldn't be detected. The second option seemed rather stupid, so she decided to brace herself and briskly walk the distance.

Quinn placed one foot in front of the other and got about ten steps away from the sanctuary of her corner before she was spotted. "Shit" she cursed under her breath as she saw one of the sickly land his eyes on her. For some reason, Quinn was frozen in place as this diseased man made his way towards her. When he got about two feet in front of her, she closed her eyes and prepared herself for the impact. What she ended up feeling was the complete opposite of what she expected. Someone grabbed her left arm, yanked her away from the jaws of the man, and into the safety of the library's computer lab. Her body collided into the arms of a strong build, and when she looked up, she almost cried from relief. The man who had just saved her life was her close friend Thomas Avery.

"What the hell, Quinn? You just stood there and offer yourself like a turkey on Thanksgiving day?" His southern drawl was always something that made Quinn's lips curl up into a smile. Even though the situation they were both in was serious, she was glad that she could still find even the tiniest hint of amusement in the little things. "Thank you Tom. I don't know what happened back there," Quinn quietly spoke. The tall man, who was easily at least six feet tall, just rolled his eyes at the girl and gave her a quick hug. "No need to mention it, sugar. Let's just focus on gettin' out of here." Thomas, went back to the door to see if there was anyone nearby to stop them from making their escape. Quinn couldn't help but think that his ginger hair might make it a little bit more difficult for him to be stealthy, but her musings were immediately halted by Tom's deep southern voice once again. "Alright, it looks like we're going to have to make a break for it and hope for the best. You run in front of me, and I'll be right behind ya. We'll head straight for your dorm since it's what's closer." The seriousness of his voice caused Quinn to nod in agreement without even thinking twice. "Alright, on come over here then." Quinn walked towards him and stood right in front of the door with Thomas behind her holding his hand on the door handle. "On the count of three Quinn, I'm going to open this door, and you're going to run out of her faster than a scalded dog, do ya hear me?" To say that she never understood some of his southern sayings was a very large underestimate. She assumed that he meant for her to run really fast, so once again, she nodded in agreement. The former head cheerleader made fists with her hands and forced herself to remember exactly who she was. Yes, she has changed for the better in many ways in the last year, but deep down she was a girl who excelled in trainings given by Sue Sylvester, and those things out in that lobby had nothing on that woman. With a new determination, Quinn got herself ready and only faintly remembered hearing Tom scream three. As soon as that door opened, Quinn took off in the direction of the exit with her friend hot on her heels.

The sound of Quinn pushing open the exit door echoed through the building, but the duo didn't care. In their minds, they were scot-free. That mindset quickly disappeared when they got a look at outside. It appears that the disease was spreading much faster than the news report Quinn heard Rachel give her originally stated, and now it was taking over her campus. This thought immediately shook the blonde to her core because if her campus was now under attack, then what was happening in New York? All that thought did was cause Quinn's legs to move impossibly faster. She ran like a bat out of hell towards her dorm. Within ten minutes she arrived at her destination and swiped her ID card to grant her access into the building, but she didn't stop there. Quinn continued at her pace up the two floors of stairs that led to her room. The only time she finally stopped running was to reach in her bag and pull out her keys to her room. Her breathing was labored and her hands were shaking a bit, but she finally opened the door and hurried inside. Tom closed the bedroom door behind her, and put his hands on his knees to try and catch his breath. Thomas was the first one to break the silence. "Well, butter my butt and call me biscuit! I had no idea that a lady such as yourself could run like that." Quinn finally looked up from trying to catch her own breath and just smirked. "Goes to show you and any guy that cheerleading is a sport." Tom shook his head and remembered that now was not the time to get into an argument about how when comparing cheerleading to something like football, there was no way they were on the same level. "Whatever you say little lady. Right now, I need you to grab a bag and pack as much clothes and necessities in it as possible. We need to get out of here. Oh, and I wouldn't pack many little numbers like the one you've got on now. Dresses like that won't do you much good now." Quinn sighed and only nodded.

Quinn walked to her closet and grabbed one of her old cheerios duffle bags. She stuffed her bag with some jeans, tanks, t shirts, sneakers, jackets, and some pictures. Everything was moving so quickly that she didn't really have time to think and absorb it all which she was in a way thankful for. She didn't have time to think about how her roommate Sarah wasn't in the room, or if her mom back in Lima was alright. It wasn't until her eyes caught the sight of something on her desk that she froze. There sitting on her desk was the confirmation of her train schedule to New York for tomorrow. She could feel Tom's eyes looking as her curiously which caused her to look up and lock her hazel eyes with his green. "I'm going to New York. I doubt I'll be able to get there tomorrow, but that's where I'm going." Something about the sternness of her voice and fury in her eyes made Tom not question her declaration. "Whatever you need to do darlin'. I'm sure we'll be able to find you an abandoned car or something. I'm just not letting you leave until I teach you how to handle yourself out there." Quinn did one of her signature eyebrow arches which allowed her to ask for clarification without even speaking a work. Luckily, Tom picked up on this after being around the blonde for half of a semester. "I'm a typical southern Joe, Quinn. I'm going to teach you to at least shoot some guns before I let you go off on your own. Then, you can go to New York while I head back to my own kin in Texas." Although the idea of taking time to do everything that Tom just listed, Quinn knew he was right. She wouldn't do Rachel any good if she got to New York only to get herself or even worse both of them infected. No, she needed to learn what she could so she could protect them both. Then, she would make her way to Rachel. "Alright. How are we going to get the guns though?" Quinn asked. Thomas smirked before responded. "Just grab your things and follow me. I'll get us what we need."

The rest of the day from that moment on was all a blur for Quinn. They had left her dorm room and headed quickly to Tom's before making their way to his truck. Even though she was not as big about her religion as she was in the past, Quinn still silently thanked God for giving her the luck to be friends with one of the few freshmen on campus with a car. From there, Tom quickly drove them about thirty minutes into town. Things in Connecticut were already looking dark. There was absolute chaos everywhere. Windows into stores were broken, cars on fire from colliding into trees, poles, or other vehicles, and there were even a few dead people on the roads. Quinn guessed that some of the civilians that haven't been infected were already beginning to protect themselves.

The drive to what ended up being the gun shop was filled with thinking on the blonde's part. Her mind was trying to wrap around how something like this could happen and realizing that her concern was only truly on a few people. She could see that Tom's immediate concern was on his family like most people's would be, but Quinn had lost the connection to her family long ago. Yes, things with her mother had been improved to some degree after she took her back in, but the same love and trust was never rekindled on Quinn's part. The first concern that was haunting her like a ghost within her mind was her daughter, Beth. In that moment, Quinn had never hated her decision to go so far away from Lima more in her life. How could she have left her baby behind? What if Shelby didn't have the capabilities to protect her? How could an innocent baby survive something like this? These were the thoughts that plagued Quinn's mind. These were the thoughts that made her weak. As a stray tear made it's way down her cheek, Quinn closed her eyes and made a decision. In that moment, she mourned the death of the memory of her daughter. Yes, most people would find that heartless and question her capabilities as a mother, but it was what she needed to do. Even though her heart so desperately wanted to hold on to the hope that she was alive, Quinn knew that this would only eat at her every second that she was away from her daughter. It would tear her focus away from her own survival, and she couldn't let that happen. The truth was that Beth was no longer her responsibility. That is why she left Lima, and that is why she gave her away in the first place. She choose Shelby to be Beth's mom because she knew that she could give her daughter everything that a sixteen year old Quinn could not, and she had to hope that carried over to this situation right now. Shelby took care of her baby. That is what she had to believe to get through this.

The truck came to a stop in front of a gun shop that appeared to be in a small town. Tom looked to Quinn as he cut off the ignition. "It doesn't look like this one has been raided as much as the others. Let's get in there, take what we can carry, and get out." Quinn wasn't going to be big on words for some time, so she simply nodded and moved to get out of the vehicle after checking to make sure no infected were around. She then followed Thomas into the store which was surprisingly in pretty good condition. Somehow most of the merchandise were still on the shelves and in the cases. Quinn was quick to grab everything and anything that looked like it could be of use. First, she followed Tom to grab some holsters. He handed her one that went around her back and shoulders, another for her waist, and then two for her thighs. "Aright sugar, go pick out guns that you think you can handle. Make it fast though. I don't want us here for too long." Silently, Quinn went to walk around the shop and pick out the guns that appealed to her, but also looked efficient. She ended up picking two Colt 911A1 .45 ACPs, two CZ 75s, one Glock 17 with chrome sides, one Beretta 92FS, and one Heckler & Koch MP5A2 with a strap to go over her shoulder. Once she selected her weapons, she walked back towards Tom who had quite the arsenal of his own. He smiled at her selection and began loading a bag that he had collected for her with as much ammunition as he could fit into it. It was apparent that she would not be running out of bullets anytime soon. Next, they both grabbed some clothing that appeared useful from the store as well. After they were positive that they had everything that they would need, they headed out back towards the truck. Tom held one of his AK 47 shot guns up and only had to fire two shots into two of the infected before they were safely back in their vehicle.

He started up the engine and began driving them to a remote location where they could spend the night. Due to the sheer exhaustion that the day's events caused, Quinn ended up falling asleep in the truck while Tom was driving. The southern gentleman didn't have the heart to wake her, so once he found what appeared to be a safe spot, he cut off the engine and tried to catch a few hours of sleep as well. The next three days flew by quickly in Quinn's mind. It didn't take long for Quinn to get the hang of shooting the guns or how to aim well, but Thomas would not agree to help her leave until he was sure that she was ready. A part of her was thankful that he was taking such precaution with her, but a bigger part of her was frustrated. Every day she spent learning how to shoot or combat, Rachel was on her own. Finally, on the third day, Thomas agreed to help her pick up an abandoned car and send her on her way. After searching for about two hours, Quinn finally landed her eyes on a black 2011 Jeep Wrangler Sport that still had the keys in the ignition. The car was parked in front of a middle school, which led Quinn to the conclusion that the owner of the car most likely ran inside in a hurry for his/her children.

Due to their surroundings, and the fact that they could be attacked at any moment, the duo didn't have time for a long goodbye. Quinn holstered her Beretta, and looked up at the friend that has become very dear to her over the past couple of days. Thomas looked down at her with a small smile before wrapping her up in his arms. "You be careful, you hear? I plan to see you when this mess blows over." His optimism was something that she would truly miss she thought as she returned his embrace. "You too, Tom. Thank you for everything." Thomas simple pulled at the top of his cowboy had that he had picked up along the way and bowed his head in response. With that Quinn hopped in the Jeep, started the engine, and gave one final wave before taking off. She was two days late, but she hoped that Rachel was still okay. The alternative was not an option. Throughout everything that Quinn has been through, Rachel has been the one thing that has stayed constant in her life even when she didn't want the brunette to be, and Quinn was not ready for that to change now. "I'm coming Rae. Just hold on, I'm coming."