Part XXXV

It was only a couple of streets, just about 700 feet from the barricade and the car, and yet it felt like a marathon. They had to run as fast as they could, and the promise of zombies about to get them was better than anything at making sure they wouldn't stop to take a breath.

Part of Kurt wasn't sure what to make of the zombies they had encountered till then, first one was Stanley who might have been a little more alive than the others because he was just infected; but then zombified staff in the hospital had been pretty fast too. He didn't really remember much of the ones he shot during the night, he knew they weren't exactly fast but at the same time those were pretty much roaming and not trying to catch someone.

Maybe that was the reason the zombies behind them were running at more or less the same speed as they were, because they were absolutely focuses on making them their dinner.

"Hurry up, Kurt!" Puck said, taking his hand in his and making him take the turn to the bridge and run faster, just when a zombie was about to grab the bag and take him down. "It's just a few feet, we'll do it"

"I think I might have to go back to the cheerios if running less than a mile has me like this" Kurt says, picking up the pace and running next to Puck no matter how much his legs burned.

"Well… that sure is a nice picture for when we get out of this thing" Puck said before looking back and shooting the fastest zombie that seemed about to get them.

The car-made barricade looked just so close now, just a few feet away, they only had to get there alive somehow. It was all a matter of running fast and staying alive, even if the zombies were less than 3 feet from them.

They got to the wall of cars in the middle of the bridge and started climbing; knowing that any second of distraction could be their death. Puck jumped over a truck first, holding his hand for Kurt to grab. Kurt did it, but something was stopping him from climbing.

"Shoot it, Puck, kill it!" Kurt shrieked.

"It's too close to you!"

"Doesn't matter, shoot it!" Kurt said, his grip on Puck's hand getting stronger to avoid being carried with whatever that had got a hold of the bag on his back.

Puck aimed directly to the zombie's head, the canon being way too close to Kurt's head for his liking, but it was the only way he saw of getting Kurt alive out of the struggle. The zombie turned to look at the shotgun in front of his face, his yellow eyes so sharp that Puck pulled the trigger just because he got so scared by them that he realized that there was just no other way.

Kurt turned his head to the side immediately when Puck aimed, avoiding the recoil of the gun but not the sound of the explosion. The side of his face and the back of his head felt warm with the blood of the monster that had tried to eat him and the explosion.

Puck was shaking the body and urging Kurt to move along before he could even fully comprehend what had happened. There was a ring in his ears and he felt dizzy, the side of his face was still hot and he couldn't understand what it was that Puck was trying to say, but he followed.

There was something pulling him forwards (it was Puck's hand he realized later) jumping car after car, taking care of not stepping on broken glass.

He was still kind of dizzy when they got to the other side, the night had fallen over them but they could still hear and see some of the zombies behind the barricade.

"Guess they can't jump over the cars" Puck said, looking to the cars.

"I think I need to lie down" Kurt said, before falling to the floor in a heap.

"Are you ok?" Puck asked, crouching besides him and cleaning the zombie blood out of his face with the sleeve of his jacket.

"Not really, I'm dizzy and there's a ring in my ear" Kurt answered, blinking a couple times and looking around them.

At least the car was still there, but it was all open, like someone had tried to see what was inside. He guessed that Ottawa wasn't completely death then, that there must have been some people alive and willing to steal what they could find inside a car.

"We should go, we don't know what else we could find now that it's dark" Kurt said, trying to stand up.

"More zombies?" Puck said, with a smile, while he offered his arm so Kurt could use it.

"I was thinking about people, like whoever killed the family in Wapakoneta" he said, getting up and walking to the car. The screwdriver was under one of the seats, so they couldn't use it to start up the car, but he wasn't in any shape to drive so he gave the tool to Puck before going around the car and throwing himself to the passenger seat.

Puck understood immediately and didn't comment on it. He just started the car and went in reverse until he could turn around, the fires in the city and the smoke of the city in flames getting smaller in their rearview mirror.

The fields around them and the snow falling on the road were creeping him out, mostly because there was no radio to listen to and no cars to get distracted by. All that Puck could do was focus on the road, on trying not to go so fast that he lost control of the car in the ice, and looking out if something tried to get them from the side.

In the sky around them, behind some hills and stuff, he could see smoke going up to the atmosphere and the fire lighting it up. It was a scary comparison to the way that city lights did the same things during the night.

He tried to keep his thought on the road, on the lack of music, on the things that could jump because it was easier than thinking about his family, about his mom and his sister, and the blood…

It was easier than thinking about Kurt's parents, about all those neighbors they weren't going to see again, about his rabbi and his nana. It was easier than trying to keep telling himself that they were alive and it was only a matter of time before he found them.

Though, if he had to be honest, he doubted that anyone was alive by now.

Each day that passed was another day of the odds getting thinner. It was another day where a ten years old girl would have no way of getting alive if she somehow had to fight one of those creepers.

He was losing faith.

It was easier to think about the road, about Kurt and their kiss which really wasn't even that much of a deal but kept his mind busy with images of what they could be doing if it wasn't for those motherfucking zombies. It was easier to get lost on those thoughts than it was to think about what might happen in the future because Kurt's words kept ringing in his ears… and what if there was no way back, no salvation, no cure.

They were doing what they could to survive, but there was going to be a point where surviving would be impossible. They were trying to hold back for now, but there would come the day when they'd have to run… and they couldn't run for ever. It just…

There was no way of knowing if that shit was going on everywhere or it was just America, what if it was a worldwide thing. What if all the fucking countries where like this, who would save them then?

Maybe there just wasn't going to be any saving.

And wasn't that a sobering thought.

They got back to Lima when the clock in Kurt's phone signed just about eleven pm. They rounded his house just to make certain than no one had gone there and left a message written on a wall "We are at McKinley" in big red letters with some ketchup.

Kurt was feeling better by then, asking to be left behind the wheel again 'cause he didn't really like to be the passenger if he could help it and telling Puck to take care of those scratches in his head because they didn't know what would happen if he got in contact with Zombie blood.

By the time they got to school it was around midnight.

The school looked intimidating in its darkness, and overwhelming in size. When there were almost no cars around and they had learnt to be scared of dark closed spaces the school looked like a death trap.

There was a school bus blocking the entrance and Kurt's navigator near it, a few other cars dispersed around, but nothing more in the parking lot. Kurt left the stolen car by the school bus, sure that at least would be another step the zombies would have to jump over if they wanted to get inside.

"Should we yell at them?" Puck asked, trying to find an entrance to the building.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea while it's dark" Kurt said, taking the bags out of the car and giving one to Puck. "Maybe we should just try to get inside and look for them"

"That sounds like an awful idea, man"

"Tell me if you have another, I'd rather not stay freezing here all night" Kurt said, before walking ahead of Puck, with his flashlight on and his gun at the ready.

Puck just followed. Hopefully their friends would be all in the same place, hopefully they'd be alive, and hopefully…

Well… he just wanted them to be alive.

AN: Thanks for all the reviews, I read them all and they make me the happiest. Really. Also, as "Coward Glee Lover" suggested I'm changing the story genre to horror. I really didn't though it would be this scary when I started writing, so... yeah. Thanks for the heads up!