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Do They Know It's Christmas?
There's a world outside your window and it's a world of dread and fear.
It was one of the worst winters that Santana had seen before all hell broke lose. The ground is covered with a thick layer of pristine white snow. She used to love the snow as a child, they didn't get it often maybe three times in her lifetime, but it always seemed to have a magical quality to it. She blames all of the Christmas movies that she watched growing up; a perfect Christmas was always a white Christmas. They even wrote songs about it.
As she trudges through the snow Santana wraps her arms around herself, trying to keep as warm as possible against the icy breeze. The snow that once had a magical affect is now just another hindrance to her. Another obstacle in her quest for food.
Rachel was back at the place they have been calling home for the past week or so. They tended to try and travel as much as they could, but the snow had made that impossible. They had managed to find a place they both considered safe, it was a house that was hidden. It was perfect for staying off the radar, but that caused a problem in itself.
The fact that it was so secluded meant that Santana had to walk a mile or two in the freezing temperatures to scout the local town for food. Usually she would have Rachel with her, they never liked to be separated, but Rachel had been feeling slightly unwell for the past few days.
Santana had left her with the warmth of the fire. Rachel tried to convince her that she was fine, but Santana didn't want to take any chances. She just hopes to god that Rachel is right and that she's just got a cold from the wintery conditions. Santana doesn't want to think about the other possibility.
Santana can see the houses in the town start to appear as she makes her way up the small incline that she assumes is a hill underneath the snow. She hopes that this trek is worth her time and her energy. She's not sure she has much left of either.
There are only a few houses for her to search, so hopefully it shouldn't take long. The weather could turn worse and she doesn't want to be apart from Rachel for too long.
The first house she approaches is slightly over grown with ivy; the door is open so Santana has little hope that there will be any supplies left in the house.
She reaches for the gun that's hidden in the belt of her jeans, just in case there are some less than pleasant people around. She's heard the stories of what people have resorted to; she's even witnessed some of the horrors herself. She doesn't take chances, not anymore.
She slowly walks through the doorway, she treads as quietly as possible as not to make her presence known if there is anyone in the house. As she scouts the area, Santana notices an empty can on the floor. She has an idea, it could be risky but she decides to take that chance.
She kicks the can as hard as she can against the wall opposite her, it makes a noise, it's not very loud but it's enough. She raises her gun in anticipation and waits.
She waits for a couple of minutes, listening as intently as possible but all she hears is silence. Happy that the coast is clear, she puts her gun back into her belt and heads into what looks like the kitchen.
Santana searches through the kitchen cupboards, but isn't surprised when they turn up bare. The place looks like it's been ransacked. There's probably been a few people searching through these house just like she is, searching in hope that they'd just find one thing to stave on the hunger for one more night.
The rest of the houses she searches come up with the same results where food was concerned, however, she did manage to find a few bottles of medicines and bandages in one of the houses' bathroom. She has just two more houses to search and then she's out of luck for this trip. They had two cans left over that would probably see them through tonight and the morning, but then they would have to search further afield and hope that they find something to eat eventually.
The second to last house is set out much like the first. The kitchen was at the back of the house and also like the first it has been picked clean. Not one to leave with a stone unturned Santana does her compulsory sweep of the second floor of the house too.
She checks the bathroom first and finds a bottle of disinfectant that she adds to her bag. The room next to the bathroom contains a crib, so Santana completely avoids that room. She doesn't want to even think about what had happened to the poor child that once slept peacefully in that room.
Santana decides to enter the next bedroom, it's covered with posters of movies and bands so she assumes it must have belonged to a teenager. She checks all the drawers and cupboards but comes up empty. Her next thought is to search under the bed, when she does she pulls out a small box and finds that it contains a bottle of alcohol and a few candy bars.
She isn't surprised by what she finds, she was a teenager once and she often had a box under her bed that contained things she didn't want her parents to find. It had been a long time since she had thought about her parents. She hadn't seen them since the outbreak and she couldn't do anything else than assume that they had died, just like everyone else she knew. It's a miracle how Rachel and herself managed to survive for so long, how much longer they'll be able to keep it up is anyone's guess.
Santana adds the bottle of whiskey and the candy bars to her backpack, they're not the most nutritious things, but at least it's something and she hasn't tasted chocolate in months. Plus if she doesn't find any food, at least she can get drunk and forget about it for the night.
The last room in the house Santana guess is the parents' room. There was little to find in here too, she searches through all the drawers but when she gets to the wardrobe she see's something interesting. It's a shopping bag from a well known fashion store.
Santana takes the items out of the bag and to find that it's a set containing a hat, scarf and gloves. Usually they have a rule to only take things that are of a real necessity but with the snow and Rachel's cold, Santana can't miss the opportunity to be able to give Rachel something that is useful, but also might put a smile on her face.
She doesn't give the fact that the set was meant as a gift for someone else a second thought. This is how the world worked now; the age old saying of finders' keepers has never been truer, so Santana puts the set into her backpack next to the other items she found.
The journey back towards the safe house is harder, the snow seems an extra inch thicker and Santana's muscles haven't had the chance to recover from the walk to the town. She rested after her search, but only for a couple of minutes as she didn't want to spend anymore time away from Rachel.
Santana's legs begin to get painful, a mixture of the long walk and the coldness spreading from her feet. Thankfully she can see a forest just up ahead, which means she's getting close. It's the thickness of the large trees that helps keep their safe house hidden.
They had almost passed it themselves if it wasn't for Rachel's bladder. The road was completely empty and they hadn't seen other people for weeks, but still Rachel wanted privacy whilst she relieved herself. They walk a couple of yards into the trees and after Rachel's bladder was empty they just about noticed the outline of a chimney poking out between the trees.
They decided to investigate and found a small wooden cabin hidden within the trees and it had been their home since.
Santana walks up the road that was surrounded by the large trees; she studies each tree as she passes until she notices one with a small gash in its trunk. It looks natural, Santana herself would assume that it was if she wasn't the one to have carved the line in the tree as a make shift signal.
She enters the forest at the tree and follows a path marked with other defaced trees. It's a good few minutes later until she's faced with the log cabin and the prospect of seeing her girlfriend.
Santana approaches the door of the cabin and swiftly knocks against it.
"Rachel it's me" Santana calls.
Santana hears the sounds of the door being unlocked and seconds later it's opened, an arm reaching out and pulling her into the cabin.
Rachel locks the door quickly before pulling Santana into her arms and greeting her with a kiss.
"I was worried about you. I should have gone with you."
"I'm fine; I promised that I'll always come back to you."
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep. You know the type of people out there, anything could have happened to you, from now on we only go out together."
"Okay, we won't split up again. How are you feeling?" Santana asks.
"Better, the cold isn't helping, but at least we have a fire."
"I could hardly see smoke from the chimney so that's good. I managed to find a few things, I have some medicine too so hopefully that will help your cold."
"We're lucky we found this place. Do you know what day it is today?" Rachel asks.
"I don't know. A Thursday?"
"It's Christmas day. I've been marking off the days in my notebook and I worked out that it was Christmas day today."
"Then we should celebrate" Santana says.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean there hasn't been much for us to be happy about recently. I think we should just have one day where we can forget about the world outside and just enjoy ourselves. Actually I have an idea, give me a second."
Santana picks up the bag that she had been collecting food in earlier.
"Alright close your eyes."
Santana pulls out the hat, scarf and gloves from the bag and places it on an old sheet of newspaper, she finds on the coffee table. She quickly wraps the items as best as she can in the newspaper, it's not exactly wrapping paper but it'll do.
"Alright you can open your eyes" Santana says as she hands over the messily wrapped parcel over to her girlfriend.
"What's this?"
"It's your Christmas present."
"Really?" Rachel asks with that smile of joy Santana hasn't seen for months.
"Yeah, open it."
Rachel tears at the paper like an excited child on Christmas day. The smile from earlier graces her face once again as she sees what's inside the newspaper.
"Santana they're beautiful."
"I found them this afternoon and I know that you already have some, but I wanted you to have something special, whether it's Christmas or not" Santana says as she takes the scarf out of Rachel's hands.
Santana gently wraps the scarf around Rachel's neck before placing the hat firmly on her head.
"It suits you. Hey, what's wrong?" Santana asks noticing the crestfallen look on her girlfriend's face.
"I haven't got anything to give you."
"It doesn't matter. I'll forgive you since you only found out that it was Christmas a few hours ago" Santana jokes.
"Thank you Santana. There hasn't been much to smile about recently, but you've managed to give me a little bit of happiness. You're the reason I wake up every morning, I never expected this to be our lives, but there is no one else I would want by my side during this hell we're in. You make the world bearable for me" Rachel admits, trying to hold back her emotions but failing.
"Please don't get upset, it's Christmas" Santana says wiping a tear from Rachel's cheek and replacing it with a kiss.
"I'm sorry."
"There's no reason to be sorry. Why don't I cook us something to eat? We can cozy by the fire."
Santana searches through their backpacks and pulls out a few cans, their labels are tattered, but she can still read what's in them. She selects two of the cans that she can make a decent meal out of and puts the rest back into the bag.
"So since it's Christmas, I thought we could have sort of a special meal tonight. We have chicken broth and canned potatoes and for dessert we have butterfingers."
"That sounds wonderful."
"It's not exactly turkey and all the trimmings, but it's close enough" Santana says as she puts the cans onto the outer edge of the fire to heat up.
"Considering what we have, you've done remarkably well to make up a decent meal."
"So if it's Christmas day that means that it's been ten months since the outbreak" Santana says, as she turns the cans in the fire.
"It seems longer than that."
"I know, it's been a bad year and I doubt it's going to get any better."
"I'm just glad that I have you with me, I wouldn't have made it on my own" Rachel says.
"You're stronger than you think besides I don't think that I could have done this without you either."
"That's why from now on we stay together."
"Always" Santana agrees.
Santana picks up the cans from the fire with the fire tongs and places each of them on the floor. She grabs a can with a thick cloth she had found and starts to open it wit her knife. She can start to feel the heat coming from the metal can through the cloth, but she's become so accustomed to opening cans with her knife that it doesn't take too long.
She repeats the action with the second can before placing them both on the floor between herself and Rachel. They only have one spoon between them so they take turns in eating from the can of chicken broth.
Santana picks one of the potatoes out of the other can and places it in her mouth. It had been a few days since they had had a hot meal so she took the time to savor every moment of it.
"I wasn't expecting our first Christmas alone to be like this" Rachel says.
"I was hoping that this year would have been our first Christmas in our own home together. I wanted it just to be the two of us last year too, but then your mother wanted both of our families to get together and I couldn't say no."
"Last year was crazy, good but crazy. Especially when my mom and your dads broke the karaoke out" Santana says, smiling at the memory.
"It was fun, but you and I had just got our first apartment together and I wanted a special Christmas, we could have got together at night or New Years even, but I just wanted that day where the two of us celebrating in the home we had made together."
"I know what you mean, but at least we kind of have that now. The world is fucked up, but we're still spending Christmas together, even if it is in a crappy little shack in the woods and we're sharing crappy food from a can."
"We do have a white Christmas too, I haven't seen snow in such a long time" Rachel says.
"See even more positives to having a post apocalyptic Christmas."
"Is that what you think it is? An Apocalypse?" Rachel asks.
"Who knows? Hey, it could be the rapture, lost of people have told me that I'll burn in hell, maybe they were right."
"What did I do to make me be left behind?"
"You are a sneaky one Rachel Berry and other than having a lesbian relationship with the hottest cheerleader at McKinley, I can see nothing that would leave you burning in hell. So maybe it isn't the rapture."
"Why do you still like brining up the fact you were a cheerleader? It's been four years San, it isn't relevant anymore, let it go."
"Being a cheerleader will always be relevant and I will let it go, once you stop telling everyone that you were in a Nationals winning show choir."
"Touché, but don't think I haven't heard you telling people about the Glee club too" Rachel teases.
"It's where we met. I know that we kind of knew each other before that but that's what brought us together."
"I miss singing" Rachel admits.
"Then sing me something. We've had our Christmas dinner so isn't it like obligatory for a Berry to sing now? You sing me a Christmas song and I'll do the age old Lopez tradition and break out the alcohol."
"Alcohol?"
"Yeah I found a bottle of whiskey in one of the houses. I won't drink too much, I know that I need my wits about me, but just one or two shots just to take the edge off" Santana says.
Santana gets the bottle of whiskey out of her bag and takes a seat back next to the fire. Rachel stands in front of her and does a few vocal warms ups because no matter the situation, she has to be prepared.
Rachel sings the opening line to O' Holy Night, her voice is slightly crackly with the lack of practice and the cold she was suffering from but it eventually become as smooth as it always did. Santana takes a large sip from the whiskey bottle; she closes her eyes and lets her girlfriend's voice wash over her.
It feels like she's been transported back to last Christmas, they were all gathered in her parent's living room, the fire was roaring, the alcohol was flowing and Rachel was singing the exact same song.
She opens her eyes, trying to rid herself of the memory. That felt like such a long time ago now, she had tried not to dwell on the memories of the past, it was too upsetting. Santana moves her attention back to Rachel who had tears running down her cheeks, she must have had the same memory come to mind too.
"That sounded beautiful."
"You should sing something" Rachel suggests.
"I'm okay for now, come here" Santana says holding out her arms for Rachel to join her.
Rachel joins Santana on the floor besides the fire that is slowly dying out. They didn't want the fire burning through the night just in case their luck ran out and someone spotted it. They would have to huddle together for warmth, not that it would change if the fire was burning. They still sleep wrapped in each others arms every night whether it was for comfort or protection.
They lie on the floor on a tattered old blanked they had found in the cabin. Rachel coughs slightly, singing probably wasn't the best idea, but it made her happy even if it was just for a few minutes.
Santana pulls her girlfriend closer against her chest, her gun next to her head on the other side just in case it's needed.
It's a routine that they have come accustomed to in this world. There have been a lot of things that they have had to adjust too, all just to stay alive as long as possible. They're not stupid; they know that it's inevitable. One day one of them or maybe even both of them will catch the infection, maybe that day has already passed.
It's always a thought at the back of their minds. That's why they keep two bullets to one side, neither of them wants to suffer, neither wants to watch the other suffer. So when the day finally comes that the symptoms show and the infection takes hold they will leave this new world the way they entered it, together.
Song: Do They Know It's Christmas by Band Aid.