Part XXIII

A growl stopped them when they were just about to turn the corner that took them to the stairs. They spun fast to look at the place where it had come from; knowing that the only thing in that direction was the room where Stanley was currently locked. The door had been shaking even more than before, with a lot more strength that a few seconds ago, and the sobs had stopped while the kid screamed in rage.

Now… there was only silence and that awful growl from behind the door.

Kurt aimed the gun to the hallway, instinct winning over the worry about what might have happened to Stanley.

The door shook one last time before the table that was jamming it gave away under the force of whatever that was pushing it. A second later a kid wearing a hospital robe pushed the door open with a shove.

It was the first time they saw Stanley, and they really wished that they had never seen him.

Stanley was a normal kid, a bit shorter than the average with a hair that looked like it could have been dirty blond when it wasn't matted with blood. His eyes had that weird crazy yellow tint that all the zombies they had met until then had had, and his mouth was open showing more teeth than they felt comfortable with. His skin was awfully pale and his hospital robe was covered in blood, possibly his own.

It was Stanley who was growling.

And he didn't look sane at all.

The kid was walking slowly, leaving a bloody trail after him as blood appeared to be dripping down his back. His surgical wound must have been pretty serious for the amount of red that seemed to follow him.

"Stanley, dude, are you alright?" Puck asked, his voice a thin shadow of what Kurt knew, so full of fear that he instantly got even more than ready to fire.

The kid didn't really answer, but it was obvious that he wasn't alright at all. He just came closer and closer while they walked back, until the wall stopped them.

"I'm hungry" Stanley growled. "I'm really hungry"

"Puck, let's run" Kurt said, trying to get Puck's hand and shake him out of the stupor that he seemed to have fallen into.

"Ok" the boy said, but did nothing to actually move.

"Puck, let's move!" he said again, pushing him in the direction of the staircase. He barely moved. "Fuck, Puck, move your butt! We are not dying here because you are too shocked to run!"

Puck eventually listened to him, albeit reluctantly, and began to walk quickly to the stairs with Kurt. It seemed, however, that Stanley wasn't injured enough to be unable to run, as he was soon behind them screaming about his hunger and how they had left him there to die. Kurt kept pulling Puck to make him go on faster, but the boy was still a bit too shocked to do anything more than follow him, as fast as he could, but running was kind of out of question when he was too dazed to think about tripping into things.

"Puck!" he cried when the man stopped completely.

Kurt turned, ready to bit his head off for not doing as he was told, when he noticed that Stanley had caught up with them and was currently holding Puck's wrist in both his hands. The crazy look in his eyes was still there, even worse than before, and his mouth was open in what was obviously going to be a bite.

He was salivating; looking at the arm in his hands like it was the tastiest piece of meat he had ever seen.

And that was it for Kurt. That was the moment he just stopped caring that this poor kid was dying and had no idea, the moment he just didn't care about how the kid was going to famish or the way that Stanley had stayed two long nights alone in the hospital, scared about monsters that they hadn't really faced yet. He just stopped caring. How could he when he had Puck there, his friend, his partner, about to be bitten and infected. Puck was more important to him than Stanley could ever be and that was it, he wasn't going to lose Puck over a stranger.

He aimed and shot.

Three bullets, right in the face; that's all it took for the kid to go down and finally let go of Puck.

The explosions were loud enough to wake Puck out of his daze, and he turned to Kurt completely out of his mind. He had blood on his face, Stanley's blood, but it didn't matter to him. Puck was alive, that was all that mattered.

"What the hell, man! Why! How could you!" he shouted.

"I'm not losing you because of the kid. You are not getting infected, you hear me? I'm not losing you. I'd rather shot an innocent than lose you" Kurt said, swallowing when he saw the way the kid had fell on the floor, all limbs and blood. His face was completely unrecognizable because of the explosions, no trace of the cute boy he must have been before. He couldn't picture what would happen to him if Puck was bitten and he had to shoot him… "I'm not losing you"

"Kurt…"

"No, there's nothing to talk about" he said, straightening his back and looking directly to Puck's hazel eyes. "It's done… and we knew if it came to it that was the way we should have acted from the beginning"

"Kurt…"

"No, Puck, I don't want to hear it" Kurt said, turning, going back to the staircase, to Hiram and Tina, but Puck's arms stopped him. He hugged him from behind, one of his hands steady over his fast beating heart. The boy pressed his forehead to Kurt's shoulder and exhaled loudly and warm over his back, as if he had been holding his breath for the last minutes.

"Thank you"

"Let's go back" Kurt said, blinking fast to stop the tears from running down his cheeks.

"I'll talk with Lauren; when we get home I'll go and talk with her… But I need you there with me"

"I'll be there"