Part XXII

"And what do you propose we do?" Puck asked, looking at him as if he was crazy. "Maybe we can take him with us and keep feeding him until we know for sure it's not going to eat us in our sleep"

"No, I mean, we can't leave him running around like that… infected" Kurt said, because they were on the same page here, even if they were both a bit scared about actually doing what they should.

"It's just a kid… I don't think I can kill him" Puck said, looking uncomfortable. "I don't even know how you got the guts to kill Lauren's mom and she was already lost… I can't kill a kid to whom I just had a conversation with"

"That boy is turning, it's only a matter of time until he is really dangerous" Kurt said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I won't kill a kid. I'm not that gone yet to be able to do it and live with myself later"

"I don't think I can't either… but we can't have him going around the city infecting others… I dunno…"

"Maybe we can lock him in there. If he can't get out he isn't going to be a danger, right?" Puck insisted. "I just don't want to have to kill him"

"I'll go to the counter and search for the key, but if he has been locking himself there to protect himself, I think it's safe to say that he has it" Kurt said, shrugging. Sure enough, there wasn't any key to any room in the floor. He came back with his hands empty and watched the way that Puck just seemed to be even more defeated than before.

"I don't want to kill him… I don't want to have to kill the infected ones" he said, looking at Kurt in anguish.

"This isn't about the kid, is it? This is about Lauren" Kurt said, looking serious.

"Of course it is. If we have to kill this kid… if he really needs to be killed because he was bitten, then we'll have to kill her at some point… she is my best friend. I can't do that" Puck said, letting his arms drop to his side. Kurt couldn't do anything but go there and hug him close, before pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"Look, we'll take care of what is going to happen to her later. Right now we need to figure out what are we doing with the kid before we do anything else"

"Close the door, I'll go find something we can use to jam it" Puck said before taking a breath, straightening his shoulders, and going inside one of the other rooms to find something suitable.

Kurt took the doorknob with one hand while the other was aiming the gun in the bathroom's general direction. He closed the door softly, trying not to make any sound that could make the child realize what was happening. Soon enough Puck came with something that looked like one of those tables next to the hospital beds.

"Couldn't find anything else with the right height" he said as an excuse, before jamming it under the lever lock and taking a couple of steps back. It wasn't the best solution in any possible way, but he just couldn't find anything else he could carry fast enough.

"Guys… are you coming back?" a scared voice said after a few minutes. Both Puck and Kurt felt guilt for the first time when they heard the kid again.

But it was the only way, they understood that, possibly more than Hiram and Tina would have if they had been there. Until now the others had been subjected to an enemy that they had heard of but that remained unseen, Puck and Kurt had seen it instead, twice if you counted Lauren's mom. They had seen the way those crazy eyes searched around looking for something else to eat, and the way the skin seem to peel in those places that had been bitten or wounded. They had seen the blood clinging to the woman downstairs and the way that, even if she was obviously human, you just couldn't seem to relate them to anything but monsters.

They knew fear in a way that Tina and Hiram didn't know yet, and that gave them the strength to leave that child there, locked away; locked until the disease took over.

"Guys… where are you, are you coming back? Guys?" said the kid voice, sounding even more scared by the minute.

Puck grabbed his hand, and Kurt took it, squeezing hard.

"I can't open the door… guys? Help me! I can't open the door! HEY! GUYS! Don't leave me here!" Stanley screamed from inside the room.

Kurt took a step back and tried to get Puck to follow him. He just couldn't stay there and listen to the anguished cries of the kid. He pulled the hand until the other man gave up and started walking behind him, never losing sight of the way the door shook as the kid tried to open it.

"Don't leave me here alone! Please! I'm hungry! I'm going to die here! Please! Guys, please!" Stanley sobbed in his room, and the sounds carried down the hallways freezing Kurt's heart.

He felt like crying. He couldn't believe he was actually doing that, that he was letting a kid locked when it seemed that the city was the most dangerous place in the world right now. But he had to; he knew that there was no other way if killing him wasn't an option.

He looked at Puck and the way the man was blinking tears away, like he knew it wasn't the time to break down, and realized that he just couldn't break down either. Not now. Not while Puck was so vulnerable. It was going to have to wait.