Rachel squared her shoulders and nodded at Blaine to open the door. As he did so she took a deep breath and walked through it heading quickly and quietly to the end of the short corridor, pressing herself against the wall and bringing her gun up in front of her. Once the blood rushing in her ears reduced to a dull roar and she was sure there were no sounds of movement she chanced a quick look around the corner. The next corridor was dark but empty so she raised a hand behind her to beckon the others forward.
Blaine walked past her quickly and she watched him dart up to the next corner, pausing briefly as he got to a doorway on the right hand side before moving on when he was satisfied that it was clear. She turned back to see that Sam was behind her.
"Clear." She whispered to him. "Doorway on the right. Hopefully not occupied."
He nodded to her and turned the corner. She watched him as he walked up to the door and pressed his ear up to it for a moment before turning back and shaking his head at her. She nodded and he continued on to join Blaine at the end.
"Are we good?" She heard Mercedes whisper from behind her. As Blaine gestured back to her that it was safe to come forward she nodded back to the girl and waved her on, Ryder, Jake, Tina and Mike all following behind.
Mike carried on to the next junction and Rachel quickly joined him at his signal, followed by Tina and Jake. They all knew that this was the riskiest part of plan. The next corridor was by far the longest in the compound and the stairs leading down to the holding cells were right at the other end. There were several corridors branching off along the way and about twenty doorways that could potentially hold guards, and they didn't even know if Santana and Puck would be down there.
She indicated to Jake to go left and check out the turning at the end and when he gave the all clear she headed the opposite way towards their goal at the far end, stopping at the first door to listen for sounds within. Satisfied she glanced back up towards Jake to make sure they were still okay and carried on towards the next door, about twenty feet up on the opposite wall. Again she listened outside it until she was sure and then gestured back for Tina to join her. She aimed the gun into the room and held her breath as Tina slowly opened the door, keeping her aim steady as they carefully entered the darkened room and checked that it was empty. Once happy she backed out and nodded at Mike, checking nervously up and down the corridor until her friends were safely inside.
"Alright," Rachel started quietly. "Ryder, cover the corridor we just came from, if any of those guards are discovered or wake up I'm sure they'll just sound the alarm but I want to be sure. Jake, you keep the far end covered and the two of you look out for each other, any movement get back in this room and stay hidden, okay?" The pair nodded and headed quickly back out of the room to take up their positions.
Rachel looked up at her five old friends and continued. "We go on. Sam, take the next corridor, I'll follow and cover the doors. When it's clear Mike take the next one with Tina, then Blaine and Mercedes find a clear room in the next section. We cannot go too far without cover. If the alarm is raised, it's over, understood?"
They all nodded and Rachel followed Sam back out the door. As she listened at each room and again heard nothing she began to grow nervous, even as she gestured her friends on. It was too quiet. Where was everyone? Everything was going according to plan, and it was the middle of the night, but it still felt too easy. Could they really be that lucky?
As if on cue Mercedes began to gesture at her frantically from her position up ahead, Blaine facing away from them with his gun raised in preparation. Rachel grabbed Sam and gestured back to Jake and Ryder to get out of sight as she pushed forward to the room Mercedes had checked out just in time.
Throwing a look over her shoulder to make sure Jake and Ryder were safely in the first room, Rachel followed Sam through new door to join the others and Blaine gently closed it behind her just as they heard hurried footsteps approaching, then stop as a shot rang out very close to their position.
"Shit!" She heard Mercedes cry quietly and looked back to see Tina wrap an arm around her. Her friends looked as terrified as she felt and Rachel would have given anything to get them out of there. A shadow moved past the door and Rachel quickly moved forward to stop Blaine as he opened it a crack but suddenly he yanked it open wider and was through it before she could reach him.
Without thought she raised her gun and followed him out into the corridor, her mind racing to take in the scene as he swung the butt of his rifle into the head of a guard. She span back around as she sensed movement behind her, relieved and overwhelmed when she saw Tina, Mercedes and Sam covering the corridor behind her and Mike falling into position behind Blaine. She turned back to him as the guard fell to the floor and that was when she saw the redheaded girl dropping to her knees just beyond the next corridor. Cara. What was she doing here?
"Blaine?"
Rachel's eyes looked up towards the sound of the voice, desperately hoping she hadn't imagined it, her heart soaring as the locked onto the source of it.
"Santana!" She yelled, setting off into a sprint towards her, her whole body buzzing with relief and panic as she took in her bruised face, her blood stained clothes and the way she dropped to her knees as she saw her.
"Rachel, wait!" She heard as a shot rang out somewhere on her right. She felt a sharp pain in her back and skidded slightly off course, losing her balance and falling just in front of her girlfriend. She shook it off quickly and crawled the last few metres, throwing her arms around Santana and kissing her head, her face, her lips, caring about nothing else in the world at that moment except for the fact that she was alive and here and hugging and kissing her back. The moment didn't last long though, as suddenly Santana was pulling at her, dragging her from their position on the ground to a standing one and pushing her against the wall. Rachel looked at her in confusion until she registered the sound of gunshots and alarms filling the space.
Cara was a few feet in front of them, firing blindly down the turning Rachel had just run past. Blaine was on the other side doing the same with Mike facing towards her yelling something she couldn't hear and pointing down the corridor. Slowly the fog in her mind lifted and she turned around, just in time to see four guards turn the corner at the end of the hall and begin running towards them, weapons raised. She fired at them whilst moving in front of Santana, who she realised was unarmed, and began to move them both quickly back towards Cara. One of the guards dropped, quickly followed by another as her friends began firing at them, and the two remaining guards dropped back behind the cover of the wall.
"Move! Now!" She heard Mike call out as Santana grabbed her arm and pulled her quickly down the hall, Blaine and Cara laying down cover fire as they crossed the opening. Mercedes was gesturing wildly from the next turning, gun pointed back the way they had come and she was relieved to see Jake and Ryder sprinting towards them as Tina covered their approach. They covered the distance to the door at the end quickly, Sam already there and giving the all clear, and burst through the door out into the night.
"This way." Cara pointed and took off across the space, keeping as low as possible as she followed the path to the left. She raised her gun and fired a shot in front of her, kicking the now unlocked gate open as she reached it and turning back to cover the others as she gestured them through. Once on the other side Rachel and Santana dropped down behind the wall and scanned the area for signs of life.
"You're bleeding!" Santana said in alarm. Rachel turned to see who she was talking to and realised with some surprise that it was her. "Jesus, Rachel, you're shot!" Rachel looked at her in confusion as she ripped the bottom half off her shirt and began to wrap it around her shoulder.
"I'm shot?" She asked dumbly.
"Yes! Lift your arm." Santana replied quickly, worry filling her eyes. Rachel did so and winced as a sudden pain shot through her shoulder. When the hell did I get shot? She wondered as her girlfriend carefully wrapped the fabric under her armpit and over her shoulder, pulling it tight once she had wrapped it a few times and knotting it as best she could. "It's not too bad, it looks like it just caught you." She said, kissing her gently. "Be careful."
"We have to keep moving." Cara whispered urgently once all of them were through the gate and she had pushed it closed behind them. "It won't take them long to figure out where we've gone."
"And where is that exactly?" Rachel asked, remembering Sebastian's story. The fact that Cara seemed to know her way about Sue's compound so well was doing nothing to convince her that it had been a lie. But the girl had just saved their lives, again, and it appeared that she had rescued Santana. She wondered suddenly if Santana knew and one look at her face told her everything she needed to know. She took hold of her girlfriend's hand and pointed the gun at Cara, registering the shocked reactions of her friends but pushing them aside for now. Explanations would have to wait. "Where are we going, Cara?" She spat out the girl's name with extra emphasis and took note of the quickly covered look of recognition.
"To Puck." Cara said through gritted teeth, locking eyes with her and squaring her shoulders. "We're going to find Puck."
"And how is that you know where to find him?" She asked, cocking her head slightly.
"Look, I know you think you know the answer to that question, Rachel, but you don't understand…"
"So explain it to me then."
"We don't have time for this!" Cara hissed, glancing quickly behind her. "Jesus Christ, please just trust me!"
"I'm running a little low on trust right now, Cara." She spat back, emphasising the girl's name once more.
"What the fuck is going on?" Sam whispered at her anxiously.
"Look, I'll explain later but if we don't move now we're all dead." Cara moved towards Santana and handed over her gun. "Please, Santana, we need to get to Puck."
Santana took the gun from her and nodded tightly at Rachel. Cara let out a relieved sigh as Rachel lowered her weapon and she moved off along the wall, keeping to the shadows and staying low.
"Are you sure about this?" Rachel whispered. "You know who she is?"
Santana looked at her and shrugged slightly. "I know who she's not." She whispered back. "But I don't think she's lying about Puck."
"Okay." She nodded before turning to the others. "Let's go."
They followed Cara's route quietly and turned the corner of the building to see her crouched at the top of some steps. As they reached her she pointed to her left and whispered to them.
"That is an access gate. The code is 151209. If any of you guys want out now is the time, it only gets worse from here."
Rachel looked around at her friends and watched as they all stayed silent. She turned back to Cara and nodded, then followed her down the stairs and watched as she entered a code on the keypad, the lock clicking open as she did. They followed her inside and headed down a darkened corridor until she pushed open a door and waved them all through it. Rachel shot her a questioning glare as she realised they had walked into some sort of kitchen area but Cara ignored her and turned to Santana instead.
"We need to tell them the truth before we go any further, Santana."
Rachel's heart clenched uncomfortably in her chest at the statement and she turned to face her girlfriend. Santana's eyes widened at the look on her face and she stepped quickly towards her, taking her hands and shaking her head.
"Don't think that." She said quietly. "Please, baby, don't ever think that."
Her chest eased a little but she knew something bad was coming. She nodded gently and squeezed her hands. "Tell us what's going on."
"After Puck and I were taken we got locked up." Santana started. She turned to face the group but kept hold of Rachel's hand. "We were left there for a while then the guards came for us. Seperately. I was taken to Sue but Puck…" She squeezed Rachel's hand tighter and finished with a shaky voice. "They took Puck to Russell Fabray. He's been behind this whole thing."
"Who the fuck is Russell Fabray?" Jake asked angrily.
"Quinn's father." Mercedes answered quietly, looking up at Santana with a sadness Rachel could not remember seeing before. She ran her hand up Santana's arm gently as she tried to process this new information, her head spinning in confusion. All this time they had been focussed on finding Sue, and suddenly she was not a threat? Were they just supposed to forget about her? It didn't make any sense. And if Quinn's father had been behind the whole thing then why had he kidnapped Beth? Surely he wouldn't have put his own daughter through that, unless Quinn had been involved somehow. She had not been close to Quinn in high school, Santana and Brittany had been, obviously, but so had Mercedes for a time. A very important time. Rachel knew very little about Russell Fabray except for the fact that he had thrown Quinn out when he found out she was pregnant, and that he had left his wife shortly after. But the way Santana and Mercedes were looking at each other led her to believe that there was much more to the tale and that didn't bode well for them.
"He was Sue's backer in the campaign." Santana continued. "Once she got elected he was behind her, pulling all the strings. He took Becky Jackson and used her to control Sue, he took Beth and used her to control Quinn, he put a mole in our house and she found out that Sue also had someone in there." She snapped her eyes up at Cara. "Russell told Quinn to flush out Sue's mole and kill her. Fortunately for our friend here we killed the wrong spy."
All eyes in the room turned to Cara, whose face coloured as she shifted her feet uncomfortably.
"Wait a minute," Tina said. "You? And Sue? You've been lying to us this whole time?"
"Yes." Cara said quietly. "But not like you think."
"Well what else are we supposed to think?" Tina yelled, taking a step towards her before Mike held her back. "I trusted you! We all trusted you!"
"Tina…" Mike said gently.
"No, Mike!" She snapped at him. "How can you be so calm? She's been spying on us this whole time!"
"I haven't…"
"Don't even fucking start, you two faced…"
"Tina!" Santana said firmly, shocking them all. "Believe me, I know how you feel. I was ready to murder this bitch two hours ago, but a lot can change in two hours." She laughed sadly and shook her head. "I certainly don't trust her like I used to, and I doubt I ever will again, but I believe what she is telling us and I believe that Russell Fabray is the threat here, not Sue."
"I agree with Santana." Mercedes said quietly. "You didn't know the man, T. He's a monster."
"So if Sue wasn't involved, why did she have a spy in the Cheerios house?" Ryder asked.
"To protect them." Cara said quietly, earning a snort of derision from Tina.
"Look, at this point I really don't care about what she's done, all I know is she is the best shot, right now, to save my brother's life so can we please just get moving?" Jake asked angrily.
"Jake's right." Santana nodded. "We need to go. You have a plan?"
"Um…" Cara looked up at her with a slightly panicked expression. "No. Not really. No."
"Good to know some things don't change." Santana shook her head sadly. "Let's go."