Part XXVIII

"Where is Lauren?" Puck asked as soon as they were out of the car. Kurt was close to him, a hand on Puck's arm and his gun in the other.

"Second floor, hallway window looking to the backyard" Santana answered a bit surprised. The other car got there just when Puck was starting to walk away from the girl. "Why?" she asked before he went away.

"Are you sure this is the right time for this?" Tina asked, looking around the street where, slowly but surely, some guys seemed to be walking towards them.

"We need to know if she is dangerous or not. We could be killing zombies outside without knowing we have one inside" Puck said, taking Kurt's hand and walking fast with him to the door. "You'll come with me, right?"

"Of course"

The house was dark, lit only by a few well-placed candles in each room, most of them near mirrors. It wasn't difficult to find Lauren, as she was just turning the corner after the stairs, and they weren't exactly surprised to find her with a rifle in her hands, but if the tighter grip on his arm was any indication Kurt was a bit worried to be talking with her while she had a weapon.

"Lauren, leave the gun for a second" Puck said, trying to look as nonchalant as he could. It wouldn't do to scare her and freak her out if that was going to speed up her turning, as it seemed to have happened to Stanley "We need to talk"

"What about?" asked the girl not really leaving the window but letting the rifle leaning against the wall as she was being told to do.

"We think that everyone in this town has turned into zombies" Puck said.

"That makes sense. Go on"

"And we found your mom at the hospital, she was one of them" he continued, getting a bit closer to the girl no matter how much Kurt tried to keep him by his side by clinging to his jacket.

"But… I thought I had killed her" she commented looking confused.

"She was one of them, Lauren"

"What is that supposed to mean?" she said, her eyes getting smaller and smaller until she wasn't just looking at them but glaring.

"That means that everyone we don't behead or make sure their brain is done for, is probably going to come back" Puck said, throwing caution to the wind and hugging the girl, to comfort her and keep her still if she started to get crazy. "… And that everyone bitten has the chance of turning into one of them" he added to her ear in a whisper.

He could see in the window's reflection the way that Kurt had tensed, how his shoulders were straight and his hand was gripping the gun close to his stomach, trying to look as harmless as he could but not really making it.

"What are you trying to say, Puckerman?" the girl asked. He could see her scowling in his mind, and he knew that if he didn't say it all he wasn't going to get her to admit to what might have been the problem, if it was a problem. They didn't even know if it was going to be one.

"You were bitten, weren't you?"

"You think I'm going to…"

"We don't know, but maybe… Who knows how this infection is working"

"I don't want to turn into one of them" the girl said, letting go a little and looking at him with such despair that Puck felt his heart crumbling for her. She was Lauren Zizes, she was a badass, and yet all he could see in front of him was a scared girl that didn't know what was happening to her, who had just lost her parents and who, by all means, might be losing her mind without her even knowing.

"We don't want you to turn into one of the either" Puck said, lifting his hand to clean her cheeks of tears.

"Staying calm seems to help, though" Kurt said, speaking for the first time in a shy voice. "Maybe, as long as you keep calm you'll manage to avoid turning for a while longer"

"Are you sure, Hummel?" she asked, a light of hope in her voice.

"No, not really, but it's worth a shot" he said. "There was a kid at the hospital, he was fine in the beginning, but he started going crazy when he panicked"

"You'll have to tell us if you feel any difference in yourself, though" Puck said, looking into her eyes. "You need to realize that you are a danger to everyone right now, and really, the only reason we aren't abandoning you it's because we know you and love you. But you are a danger"

"You know… if I had to be a deathly creature I would have been a vampire, or a werewolf, never a zombie" she said with a mock laugh. "I'll tell you as soon as I see myself getting stir-crazy like my mom, I swear, as long as you don't kill me until I'm gone, man"

"Girl, if we are telling you this is because we don't want to kill you. It would kill me to have to do it, and you know it. So don't laugh about it" Puck said, throwing a hand down his Mohawk in desolation.

"Puckerman, you won't have to. I swear you won't" she said, looking at him straight in the eyes with such certainty that Puck felt a shiver roll down his spine. He tried to talk, but she got such a grip on his face that he couldn't even nod. He swallowed. "Now, how about you two get the windows from your room and we get this party started? Santana gave us precise instructions about what she'd do with us if one of them entered the house, and while I don't fear her… I do kind of fear those guys."

And just like that she dismissed them; she took the rifle and, looking out of the window with a pensive look on her face, she closed them off her world while she inspected the backyard and her thoughts.

Puck took Kurt's hand and walked him into his room, where the kid just took a look around before sitting on the window sill and waiting for Puck to close the door.

"Will she really be ok?" he asked in a whisper when they were sure that she wasn't going to hear them.

"I can only hope" Puck said, sitting down on the bed while holding his head in his hands.

"Rest first. I'll wake you up in a couple hours"

"Are you sure? It's not like you had a better day than I did"

"I won't be able to fall asleep being this stressed" Kurt answered, shrugging. "Sleep, I'll wake you up in a while"

"Thanks, Princess" Puck said, with a small smile. "Just kick me if I snore"

"Oh, believe me, I will" he answered, with a small smile of his own. For a moment tried to imagine that this was normal, and he didn't had a gun in his hands.

And for a moment it worked.