Quinn spent all night looking after Joe. We locked ourselves in the same house as the night before, so we knew she didn't have anything very useful. So, she did her best to at least stop the bleeding and hope that Joe would pull through. And he did it.
The next morning, the men left the house where we had taken shelter to search the rest of the village. There wasn't much left. We had already dried what fuel was left in the cars, we had cleaned most of the houses. There were the houses immediately next to the stinking church, and a few further away that looked as if they had been abandoned since before the apocalypse. The guys put cloths on their faces and went to inspect the two houses next to the church. One of them was clean, and we signaled for the others to start picking up what they had. The second house had four reapers squatting asleep in one room. Mike took advantage of the military rifle and strafed the four. I think it was some fetish of his wanting to imitate an actor from these testosterone-filled action movies from de 80's, or maybe he recreated taking out his frustration on something: better on the reapers than on us. Mike ran out of ammo in the process, and dropped the gun into the room along with the bodies of the reapers. Without ammunition, that military assault rifle was of little use.
As soon as the men had cleaned up what they thought was worth the risk, they returned to our shelter with the provisions. Food for three or four days, a shotgun, some ammunition, cutting knives that could also serve as weapons, a little cleaning and hygiene material. A bottle of vodka was the main item they found out, not to drink, but because we finally could clean Joe's wound.
"San, can you help me?" Quinn asked.
Daniel used to be the doctor and Quinn his most frequent nurse. I also helped when he asked, but Quinn was his first option, always. Daniel was no longer with us, so Quinn became the doctor of the house. She removed the cloths wrapped around the wound with the help of a little water. The bullet grazed it, but it still left a nasty hole in Joe's shoulder. That would leave a pretty nasty scar since there was no plastic surgeon around.
"Can we sew?" Quinn asked.
"With a needle and thread sewing fabric? I don't know, Quinn."
"You have a better technique than mine at this."
"Quinn, my dad made me practice on bananas, like I was an intern. I'm not sure if I can sew this. Maybe cauterizing is safer. It's medieval but it's fast!"
"It can infect the wound."
"Both options can infect it."
"Joe?" Quinn asked. "What do you prefer? We can sew it up or we can put gunpowder in the wound and light it."
"What will hurt the most?"
"Both."
"Sew it."
Quinn took the vodka bottle and cleaned the wound. Then she disinfected the thread and the needle. I used some to wash my hands and we gave the rest of the vodka to Joe to drink. It was his anesthesia. I threaded the needle and sewed a person's skin. Poor Joe was struggling not to scream. I sutured the wound in four spots. It was the first time I had done this on anything other than a banana. It was a mess, and a little scary. That reminded me why I never wanted to follow my dad's steps.
"And to think my dad did that almost every day." I said as soon as I finished.
"Wouldn't you like to have followed his steps?"
"Although he pressured me to learn to do these things, I never wanted to know about medicine much further. My dad wasn't at home much, Quinn. He had a great salary, which gave us material comfort and a hell of a health insurance, but that was the price: he was hardly ever at home with us. I would never want that for my family. I would rather earn less than not be part of my children's lives."
"Have you thought about having children? With Brittany?" Quinn looked surprised. Hell, we've never talked about these things before to anybody.
"Yes, if the apocalypse hadn't happened. I think I would have married Brittany with a white dress and a big party. We would start working to buy a place of our own, so we would have three children: two biologically ours, preferably with the same donor, and one adopted."
"Santana Lopez, I never thought you were a family woman."
"I think this is super cute." Joe said half drunk. "Jesus would approve."
Joe broke the conversation, and I left the room we were in. It was time for Carole, Brittany and Tina to distribute the meal of the day: a portion of canned corn and peas and a few units of biscuits. I took my plate and sat down on the floor with my legs crossed next to Blaine and Sam.
"What do we do?" Carole was exhausted. We all were tired and sad for all the loses we had: human and material.
"Staying here is not an option." Burt was sure about it. He didn't even have to say it because there was a silent consensus on this issue. "We are too close to that hell hydroelectric plant. This village has nothing left, it's dead. We don't even have anything to grow, since those bastards also took the seeds."
"But we can't go very far either." Carole pondered. "We barely have fuel to go to Pittsburgh, which is literally 30 minutes from here."
"We can try taking that road that follows the creek. Let's see where it goes." Finn suggested.
I looked at Mike, and he was quietly huddled in a corner supported by Tina. I felt sorry for him. We were following the big plan he laid out and we ended up with almost killed by a sort of militia. Worst of all, we lost two people from the group. Fewer people can mean more food, right? The equation is not that simple. Less people also means less security, not to mention the bonds we make. Daniel wasn't important to me, but he was to Quinn. He became her mentor of sorts and maybe a little more. Quinn had complex emotional issues, perhaps Freudian parenting issues. She liked older men. Remember when I said that Quinn hesitated between staying with Daniel or with us? I honestly didn't know how Quinn was going to survive this apocalypse without freaking out.
We decided to wait for the day to pass, because if we stayed on foot, the chances of finding some shelter would be greater with more time of daylight. So we close the house, protect the doors and windows and sleep.
…
We set off towards the road that follows the course of the river at daybreak. Again I had my revolver in my leg holster, but it was a weapon that I would only use in an emergency, as it only had two bullets. We packed all our few provisions into backpacks and climbed into the truck. Following the creek road, we pass through roads between farms. It didn't take long, something like 30 minutes later, Burt stopped the truck next to a fortified farm that was incredibly well structured.
"Stay in the truck." Burt instructed. "I'm going to talk to these people. Finn, please come with me."
"I don't like this." Mike complained, in part because Burt chose Finn over him to talk and, maybe, negotiate to those people.
"At least the place looks good." I observed and pointed to the various vegetables that were planted there. Lacking a market, those producers used their skills to plant what they needed to consume to survive. There was a fence around the house and the barn, the kind that remind you a lot of prison. It also had a small wind engine, in a clear sign that they were generating electricity.
My friends, or rather my family, were visibly tired. Rachel had the most exhausted and depressed expression I've ever seen on her face. Brittany was also blue. I pulled her so that she lay against my body and I hugged her so that she was safe next to me. Usually it was the opposite: I snuggled up next to my girlfriend's body, also because Brittany was taller than me and that way we fit better. But even if that snuggle was a little awkward, I did my best to give some comfort to the person I loved most in that disillusioned world. Tina held Mike's hand. Quinn and Joe were also holding hands, and it was visible on Joe's face that he was in a lot of pain after being treated basically with vodka, sewing thread and a needle. Sam was sitting with his head down, and you could see how depressed he was. Carole waited apprehensively outside the cabin, her hands shielding her from the sun, while her husband and son negotiated with the farmers.
It took half an hour before Burt and Finn returned, accompanied by two men: one older in his fifties, maybe, and one younger who must have been in his thirties. Both were armed.
"These are the Olivers." Burt explained we were introduced to two relatively tall and handsome men. The eldest was gray, the youngest had long black hair and a short beard. "This is Jake and this is Thomas, his son." Then Burt pointed gently at us. "Jake, this is my wife, Carole." Carole held out her hand to shake the patriarch. "These are the kids I told you about. They all went to the same school as my sons, and they were together when it all fell apart."
"And your other son died?" Jake asked, as if he needed to make sure.
"Yes, Kurt was taken by a reaper. About two weeks ago, more or less." Carole explained, as the subject was too painful for Burt.
"Reaper?" Thomas asked.
"That's what the kids started calling infected people. They become reapers."
"It's a good name." Thomas smiled a little sideways, but more confidently than Finn could ever do.
"Burt, I'd really like to help. I see that you are one of the good people who survived this ordeal from God, but my family cannot afford so many people. I can help you with a meal, I can make you a map, and maybe I can get you some gas, enough to get you as far as nearby Winterville, but that's all we can do."
"I understand, Jake, and I accept your offer."
We weren't allowed to approach with our backpacks, in a pact of trust. We got out of the truck and walked to the fence that surrounded the house.
"My neighbors are gone. Some because of that illness, and others because of bandits." Jake explained. "You can occupy one of the houses, but I guarantee you will find them without resources. We survive because we anticipate this shit. Thomas with his wife Kimberly and my granddaughter Olivia luckily were here visiting me when it all happened. We saw the news and rushed to ask George to sell all the fence footage he had available. We put this fence together in a week using a task force. As you can see, we've fenced in the house and barn, plus a good chunk of land. We set alarms, William understands technology and he came to take refuge with us. He was the one who refined that security part. I can't explain how it works, you know, for security reasons."
Jake ordered us to get behind the fence and wait. We got a closer look at the growing area, which was outside the house. But there was also a smaller growing area inside the fence. We saw a pair of Labrador retrievers barking at us. It was possible to see that they also had a corral with some cattle, perhaps they were dairy cows. They probably had a chicken coop. The fence had notice that it was electrified, but I didn't know how far that was true or not. You could see solar panels on the roof of the house and barn, but I also had no idea how long these panels could generate energy to power an electric fence. An hour later, Jake, Thomas, three other women and two men reappeared at the fence with three pots of food and plates.
One older woman, and I think that must be Ms. Oliver, was with the lunchboxes piled up. The other two were younger. One was really gorgeous, and the second one was a cute afro-american chick. The guys were also the same age as the chicks and Thomas: one was blonde with glasses, not attracted enough, and the other one was an Asian guy.
They opened the fence, distributed the lunchboxes and served us the food: boiled rice, half an ear of fresh corn also boiled and a few slices of tomato and a leaf of lettuce each. All seasoned with a little salt, pepper and parsley. It was simply delicious. For dessert: one apple each. I haven't eaten an apple since the apocalypse started. On the island, there were bushes of blueberries that were sometimes enough to eat a quantity to fill a hand. I saved my apple for dinner. I didn't eat the whole tomato. I took the seeds from my tomato slices and put them in a tissue. Quinn made a disgusted face, but one of the women looked at me curiously.
"You're smart." The gorgeous woman complimented me. "These seeds can be useful if you find a minimally stable and protected place to stay."
"That's what I thought." I smiled to her.
That woman was stunning, the Quinn Fabray stunning type of beauty. Small and thin, like Rachel, but with brown hair, a face with delicate features, and a slightly square chin, which also gave her the appearance of strength and determination. Even with Brittany by my side, I had an instant crush on that woman in the pink blouse and green coat. She was hugged by Thomas, and I connected the dots: that must have been Kimberly.
"I'm sure you'll get a good place." Kimberly said, giving me a confident smile.
"I wish I could be as optimistic as you."
"You have to rely on your own strength. You'll make it."
As soon as we finished our meal, they collected the lunchboxes and spoons to eat (yes, they gave us spoons), Jake handed Burt a five gallon can of diesel and a map. He showed us where we were and how to get to Wintersville, which was a dangerous little town because of the reapers, but which they knew still had resources. Another alternative was Cadiz, which was also abandoned by humans, as reapers and zombies circulated there.
"Or you could take a chance on one of the abandoned farms." Jake advised. "It would be nice to have honorable neighbors like you, and we could help in any way possible. But be careful. Our region is visited sometimes by what you call reapers. Sometimes travelers like you arrive, and not all of them are friendly like you."
"Have you ever received visits from people who claim to be from the army?" Mike asked.
Jake frowned, and everyone seemed to know what it was.
"We know what you're talking about. It's the hydroelectric guys, right? They really were in the army, until they weren't. I served in the army with their colonel. He was a great friend and I saved his life a few times. That's the only reason he doesn't come here and bother me. I heard that they are little by little cleaning up all the towns and cities on the banks of the Ohio River. That's why we don't worry too much: they are not interested in the old farms and they are having a lot of work there."
Burt and Jake shook hands, and we walked back to the truck with some diesel and an abbreviated, hand-drawn map. It was good to meet decent people, and it gave a little hope to think that not only cretins survived this new hell.
...
We didn't go to Wintersville because it was a town on the Ohio River, and we didn't want to meet anyone in uniform. So, we went towards Cadiz, and we smiled at our luck: just when the truck was choking due to lack of fuel, we found a fuel reservoir. There were fuel haul trucks, a gas station, and a fuel tank that just seemed to have been forgotten about. There was still enough left for us to fill the tank and maybe much more.
"We should get a car. It would be more comfortable." Finn was excited.
There were even some abandoned cars around and I didn't think that was such a bad idea. Finn and Burt were mechanics and they knew how to make such a direct connection. Finn checked an SUV that was pulled over and quickly checked the mechanics. He showed Mike and Sam how to fix some things, and smiled when he found that the car didn't have any serious defects, to the point of rendering it useless. All he needed to do was revive the battery. They put gas and some water in, connected the SUV's batteries to the truck's for a few minutes, then turned the ignition on, and the car started. Finn was overjoyed and soon got behind the wheel, accompanied by Rachel, Blaine and Sam. The trip itself was pretty short. As soon as we entered the village, we saw a small horde of zombies walking aimlessly through the streets. Burt ran over them, while we held on to that bodywork, and we saw that Finn complemented opening the way with the SUV right behind. The rest of the horde tried to run after the car, but we lost them. We practically crossed the city for this, and based on the number of cars abandoned in the streets, we found that there was a disaster there as well.
We stopped in an alley with nice-looking houses, probably belonging to middle-class families. We couldn't hesitate, because there was a horde of zombies that could still following us. Burt pulled up in front of a two-story house. He took the stolen rifle from the military and handed the shotgun to Mike.
"Santana, you watch our backs. Everyone stays in the car in case zombie time comes." Burt ordered.
Mike and Burt entered the house. We heard gunshots and five minutes later they signaled us to go inside. There were three reapers there, and they were all found in the basement. We helped to remove the three bodies and throw them across the street. So we did what was already familiar to us: we locked and barred doors and windows.
We saw through the window some of the zombies approaching. Burt signaled for silence. We were quiet, practically immobile, as the zombies just walked around the house, like they did with all the others. Then we saw an absolutely grotesque scene: the zombies smelled the freshly killed bodies of the three reapers we threw across the street and started eating them. With that we stuck one more pattern: zombies could attack and eat a reaper. The sun went down about twenty minutes later, and we watched through the windows for another interesting pattern: reapers hit zombies but didn't bite them. The zombies, in turn, ran after the reapers in the hope of having meat.
"This is fascinating and disgusting at the same time." Quinn whispered.
I had to agree with her.
...
The house we were had been hastily abandoned. We could see it through the open cupboards and drawers, pieces of clothing on the floor, the rummaged pantry. In the apocalypse, nobody remembers to take cleaning and personal hygiene products. The people who lived in that house, which contained at least one teenager, left behind soaps, toothpaste, shampoos, hair conditioners, bleaches, body wash. Everything that, six months later, we knew to be of great value.
"These zombies never seem to go away." Mike complained. "I wanted to check out the houses soon."
"They are attracted to noise, right?" Burt looked out the window. "I'm going to lure all these zombies out of here. Mike and Blaine get ready to scour, Santana, you take the back. Finn and Sam, you gather nails, hammers and wood to seal the windows."
"Burt..." Carole was apprehensive.
"I shoot better. Shouldn't I be the one at the boys back?" Rachel questioned and she had a point. I hit the target, but never on the bullseye. I would trust Rachel my revolver with only two bullets. Well, I already did.
"I'll get my thick jacket and a steak knife. Rachel keeps the revolver... for now Hobbit!"
"You shouldn't take that risk, Rachel. I should do the search with Mike." Finn was sulking about everything these days.
Finn has always been the leader by authority of the people who put him in the post, like mr. Schue. After the apocalypse, Finn became the supporting boy. He wasn't smart like Mike, he didn't have good instincts and coordinated steps like mine, he wasn't skilled like Sam and Blaine. To make matters worse, his girlfriend who was an arrogant five-foot-tall diva shot like nobody's business. Burt tried to support Finn, but when it came to action, he was counting on me and Mike. In Daniel's absence, Burt elected Blaine over Finn for these missions and this was killing Finn's ego. Finn had one good quality, however: he could fix cars almost as well as Burt. Finn also understood something about electricity which made him, yes, a useful fellow. But that situation didn't need a mechanic.
"Are you crazy?" I objected. "You can't take three steps inside the house without bumping into something."
"Unfortunately Santana has a point." Burt clapped a hand on his stepson's shoulder. "If you want to help, stay at the back, grab a knife and protect the girls."
I put on a denim jacket and a thick coat I found around the house. Then we coordinate the actions. Sam and Joe unlocked the front door and Burt ran into the truck. Some zombies were already attracted by his movement and ran after him. There was only one fast among the others who were already running slower. Burt kicked the fastest zombie and got in the car. He immediately closed the door, turned the ignition on and started honking like crazy. When the zombies that were around started to surround the car, Burt started to drive slowly, running over some zombies in the process. It was our cue. Rachel and I and the boys walked next door while Sam and Joe finished killing the run over zombies with shovels and gardening picks we found at that house.
The door was ajar. That was an indication that reapers were inside. A reaper no longer had the intelligence or care to close a door when entering a house. Doors could slam shut in the wind, obviously. But our little experience already said that the probability of finding reapers was much higher in open houses or with the door unlocked. If there were many, it was better to leave quietly and lock the door. But if there were few, the boys would shoot them. Unfortunately they signaled that our immediate neighbor's house was infested. Mike carefully locked the door and left with Blaine. A common lock wouldn't keep them in there, but it was a valid resource to slow them down if necessary.
The next house had its door closed. The boys entered, Rachel and I just stayed in the front door's hall and Finn stayed outside. We hear two shots upstairs, and we're on guard.
"We're okay. It's clean now." Mike said.
The boys finished their rounds downstairs before heading down to the basement. From there we hear three more shots.
"Three reapers. One upstairs and two in the basement." Mike warned. "We only have ammunition to inspect one more house. If we don't find guns and ammo here, we're going to be in trouble."
I gave the signal for Sam and Joe to remove the bodies from the house, while Quinn, Tina, Carole and Brittany scavenged the cleaned place for food and useful things. Mike chose another house on the same street that also had a closed door. Incidentally, that door was locked, which was unusual.
"Let's blast off." Blaine said.
"This house has an alarm system." Mike showed us cameras and the features of a number lock house. "My house was like that, with external cameras and an electronic lock. The good news is that there is no electricity. Unless the house has a generator, the alarm won't go off."
"Afraid of robbery in Lima?" I mocked. "Anyway, I know how to unlock a door like that without breaking it down."
"Seriously?" Mike grumbled. "You know how to break down doors, and my parents were paranoid?"
"The only upside to dating a guy like Puck was that he taught me everything that's wrong. If that piece of shit survived, I bet he joined a militia." I said as I worked on the lock using hairpins and the knife. "Puck was an occasional drug dealer, he knew how to break into houses, open certain types of locks, those things that every little criminal knows. He taught me how to deactivate certain types of alarms, the kind you put on clothes at the mall. I stole many pieces of clothing and accessories like that."
"Santana, the shoplifter." Rachel said, and I bet she was rolling her eyes.
"Yes, until Brittany forbade me to do it."
"Brittany? What about your mother?" Rachel was baffled.
"My mom got suspicious once because I had a lot of new clothes, and she didn't see the bills show up on the credit card. She questioned me, and I gave her a lame excuse. Brittany knew I shoplifted at the mall, and when we became exclusive, that was one of the conditions she set. No more stealing."
"And did you obey?" Blaine smiled.
"Of course I did. I've never stolen another hair clip... well, that is until the apocalypse happens."
Of course I obeyed Brittany. How could I not do this for the love of my life? Brittany was my balance and my moral compass. She allows me to be exactly as I was, as long as I don't overstep certain bounds of decency. She didn't mind that I made fun of Finn and Rachel or called the other kids names. She love's that I can be very sassy. But Brittany would be very upset if I did something that would be characterized as criminal. No wonder she called Puck a stupid boy, and told me more than once that she didn't mind seeing me experimenting with other people, but that she hated seeing me with Puck because he was really a bad-influence.
The door opened. The first thing that struck me was that the door was reinforced with bars. Apparently, that house was absolutely undamaged and clean. If it weren't for the denser dust on the furniture and floor, you could say it was inhabited. There were no signs of zombies, reapers or anything, but there was a rotten smell in the air. The boys went down to the basement and that's when they found a body lying on the floor. Not only that: the hold was full of weapons and ammunition. For us, it was the seventh wonder of the world!
"This guy must have been one of those survivalists." Blaine said as he took a look at the body. "I think he had a heart attack or something."
"And it must have been during the day, because he didn't lock the front door with the iron bar." I speculated. "If he had passed the bar, we wouldn't have been able to get in."
"What I do know is that we have found the house we are meant to stay in!" Mike sentenced. "Let's get this guy out of here. This house is ideal for us to stay."
Mike didn't need to speak twice. Sam, Joe and Blaine removed the body and dumped it in the nearby woods. We explored the house and that was the basis of our dreams. The windows already had locking mechanisms with bars, the doors to the outside area too. The food supply was huge, as if the guy had robbed all the supermarket. There was wine, medicine, weapons, ham radio, everything. The house also had a generator in an appendix. We find keys and try to open the garage. Inside there was a truck and tools of all kinds. Finn tested the car and saw that the battery was functional, that it just needed a "pull", as he put it.
"It doesn't need a lot of repairs. Apparently not even on the generator. We can get gas at the gas station at the entrance to town, and we'll have electricity." Finn analyzed the systems.
Burt arrived and stopped the car in front of the house because he saw us moving around. The military truck was all dented and dirty because of the zombies. He entered the house and was surprised by the joy we were in.
"I think I lured all the zombies out of town, and ran over a lot of them along the way. I lured everyone more than 10 km out of town and came back. I took the opportunity and took a closer look at the city. It's really very small, but there's a pharmacy, a market and a school close by. We should explore more of what's here."
"Oh my darling. You have no idea what the kids found out." Carole hugged him.
Burt was awestruck when he saw that we found a house already reinforced, stocked with food, including flour and grain. We had medicine! We had a generator!
"This is beautiful!" Burt smiled excitedly. "I saw some fenced houses at the end of town. We can fence the land around a block, sheltering these four houses. We can reinforce it by stacking cars, we can block roads using all the material this city can provide. This fellow has thought of everything to survive on his own, so he must have a vegetable garden somewhere, or seeds. Here there are many water reservoirs nearby, and there is a fuel deposit."
"Are you saying we can stay?" Carole was beaming.
"Yes, I think we can stay. It will take weeks to surround the block, but it will be worth it."
It wasn't going to do any good to clear the block of reapers until everything was surrounded, so that night we just cleaned and locked the house. Carole, Brittany, and Joe took the time to make us a real dinner. We would go back to rationing the food the next day, but that night we wanted to fill our bellies with food. The trio prepared beautiful pasta with sugo sauce mixed with white sauce, seasoned with salt, dried parsley and pepper. It was the food of the gods. At night we saw reapers crashing through the house, but we didn't care. We had a functional bathroom, two bedrooms (Burt and Carole had the master bedroom), and the rest of us slept on mattresses that we moved into that house where we distributed them in the other bedroom and the living room. I slept clean, hair washed, belly full, hugging Brittany on top of a mattress in the second floor's bedroom. I didn't care that Finn and Rachel were also in the same room. I knew this would be temporary, that soon Brittany and I would have our own home, our own bedroom. It was a matter of time.