Part XV

They burned their clothes on the backyard, on a small hole that Puck dug on the snow to get to solid ground. The mohawked boy had said that doing so could be like a ritual, a purifying act to mark the point where their lives got screwed up. There was no way things would be the same after what they had just witnessed and they needed to cleanse themselves from it in any possible way.

They burned all the wet clothes they found in the bathroom, including Sam's. The white smoke that rose from them mixed defiantly with the black smoke of the houses on fire around the city.

Puck was currently throwing his Dior shirt into the pyre when Kurt finally spoke up.

"We should check the hospitals. Maybe they got injured and tried to get help there"

"I went there on Saturday night. It was too creepy and I came back a bit spooked, really" he confided, looking sheepish. "It's a good idea, but I'm not going there alone, we need as much light as we can and people. Both hospitals are way bigger than a house. There's no way to check all of them if we just go in pairs"

"I was thinking we could try going in groups of fours. We could check in Lima Memorial while Rachel and Finn check St Rita" Kurt said, watching his precious shirt burn to ashes and tried to see his memories burning with it. "Hiram and Leroy could go with one of us each, and maybe we could see if Lauren and Brittany are up to it"

"Dunno man, I'd like to have Lauren, Britt and Sam to rest for a bit. They are in no condition to go outside and try to find someone. I think they'll freak out if they find someone dead"

"As if we wouldn't" Kurt snapped.

"Yeah, we would, but so far we haven't killed anyone. They are dealing with different stuff than us. And Britt is too… innocent to have to kill someone; I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if she has to do it" Puck answered, with a patience he didn't know he had.

"I know, I'm just irritable"

"It's ok, Kurt"

"We should wait until Rachel and Finn come back; maybe they found someone who could go with us" Kurt said, looking around the backyard. It was barely noon, but the sun was completely covered by the clouds and the smoke, so even if it was clearer than at night it wasn't nearly as bright as it should have been.

"You keep this fire up; I'll take some of my clothes to Sam" Puck said, handing him the stick that he had been using to move the clothes around to keep the fire alive.

When the door closed behind the mohawked teen Kurt realized that, for the first time since he got back to Lima and found Finn, he was alone. And suddenly all was ten times scarier.

The rustle of leaves in the trees was strange because there was no wind around, the howl of a dog far away was creepy because it seemed the animals had fled the place faster than the people could and… maybe none of that was real, maybe that was his head making up stuff, but he couldn't be sure of anything right now. He felt unsafe. He really hadn't felt that way since that time Karofsky had been in the closet.

And he really wished he had his gun with him, even if just to know that he had a way to protect himself if something happened.

He had never liked weapons before he felt a bit like Rachel, guns were dangerous and most of the times they were used against you before you could even aim it, but he had learnt to use them mostly to be able to go hunting with his father when he was a kid. He had a decent aim, but he didn't like it. He really didn't like their new imposed rule of shooting anything that moved weird first, rather than asking, but it was a necessity and he understood that. He understood it even more now, alone and scared in the backyard, even when he knew that there were people in the house who would help him if he really needed help. He was scared anyway and he really wished he had his gun.