Smoke starts to drift from a small campfire. A group of survivors are seen doing chores and carrying firewood to keep the fire from dying.
"...anyone out there…if anyone can hear this, please respond…" Santana's voice, muffled through the static, is heard through a radio.
Rachel stops as her eyes begin to go wide. She runs and grabs the handset, "Hey! Hello?"
"...hello…can you hear my voice." Santana's voice transfers over. More survivors begin to gather around the brunette to listen.
"Yes, I can hear you! You're coming through! Over."
Santana continues driving as she hears nothing but crackles and static. "...traveling on Highway 80, if anybody reads, please respond…"
"Yes! Yes, I'm reading you!" Rachel says as she starts to move the dial trying to clear the signal. "My name is Rachel! We're just outside the city-"
She loses the signal in a storm of static. Rachel keeps moving the dial trying to get the signal back. "Hello? Hello!?"
After trying for what seemed like 20 minutes, Santana decides to give up and turns off the radio. She, however, continues driving up the abandoned highway to NYC.
"She didn't hear me. I didn't get a chance to warn her."
"Try and get the signal back." A man says to Finn as he returns from gathering wood. "Go on, you know best how to work this thing."
"Hello, hello. Is the person who called still on the air?" Silence. "Officer Finn Hudson here, broadcasting. Please respond. Over." Nothing, but static. "She's gone. Look, we'll try again later."
"At least there's others. It's not just us." A sadden Quinn says from a distance.
"We knew there would be. That's why we still have the radio." Finn says.
"But it hasn't done anything good. I've been saying for over a week that we have to put signs out on Highway 80 to warn people to stay away from the city. Look, if you're too lazy to do it, just send me." Quinn says, annoyed.
"Look, nobody goes anywhere right now. We have a group out scavenging right now. Be pissed at me all you want, but we can't."
Quinn becomes enraged and leaves the conversation, entering her tent. Finn decides to follow her in and talk some sense into her. "Quinn. I'm not putting you in danger, okay? If you wanna slap me, go right ahead. You can't just leave okay, for his sake." Finn says as he points to Lucas, who's helping gather wood. "He's been through a lot. He can't lose another mother too." Quinn silently plays with her wedding ring. She moves her thumb around the engraved initials on the ring, S + Q, as tears begin to fall down her face.
And with that, Finn leaves and joins the others. Quinn knew he was right, she can't do that to Lucas. After Santana was left in a coma, Lucas didn't leave her side. Lucas would talk to Santana about everything, such as, his first day, what he had done at recess, what he ate, etc. Her little boy missed the presence of the Latina.
Santana's POV:
Man it's so odd to see NYC this empty. I remember this highway always being in some sort of traffic jam. But, now, it's completely clear. A little too late, I would've loved this empty highway.
I start driving toward an exit that leaves me in the middle of Times Square and the infamous Madison Square Garden. Home of the New York Knicks, who've been one of the most cursed franchises in history.
"Thank god I never have to see another Knicks game again." I say as I look around at what used to be one of the busiest cities in the country. My eyes begin to gaze at the rows of stranded cars filling the streets for miles on end.
BEEP! BEEP!
"Ah shit. I ran out of gas." Santana says annoyed.
The car begins to slow down and ultimately stops, leaving me to continue my journey on foot.
Well this is great.
I take my duffle bag in my hand, exit the vehicle, and walk the streets of Times Square. As I walked, I noticed that the windows of many stores and cars were smashed, however, something else caught my attention. A Tank. Sitting in the middle of the street a few hundred yards from me.
Holy shit! Jackpot!
Its muzzle was aimed at the sky. Near the muzzle was a corpse of a soldier that had been bitten. I turned my head and saw that other walkers began to appear out the broken store windows and around the corner. They began to start following me.
"Shit shit!" I say as more walkers appear out of nowhere. Running towards me now. Everywhere I look I see them. I hear groans and moans that are becoming louder by the second.
I start sprinting toward the tank for security, but I lose my grip and drop the duffle bag. Fuck! I tried to go back and grab it again, but then saw that the walkers got to it first.
Forget about it, I'll grab it later.
I pull out my pistol and start firing at the walkers by the tank.
BANG! BANG!
I tried to jump on the tank and enter from the top, but I felt an intense pain on my side where my gunshot was.
AHH FUCK!
I grab my side and realize that I'm getting cornered by walkers from left to right. I crouch down and crawl under the tank when I feel something grab my foot. I start screaming and pull my gun out and aim towards the head.
BANG!
I take a deep breath as I'm fully underneath the tank. That all stopped when I noticed that some of the walkers began to crawl under the tank to grab me.
I'm so fucking fucked. I'm gonna die aren't I?
At that second I was debating on taking my own life. There's no way I'm gonna let those bastards pull me to pieces. I grab my gun and aim it toward my head until-
Creek!
The fucking door hatch underneath the tank. I quickly climb inside the tank and close the hatch. I sit by the corner of the tank for a couple of minutes as my heart starts beating like crazy, while my mind is racing. I look to my right and notice a dead soldier slumped over.
The soldier turned its head and looked straight at me. The soldier starts to lean toward me and I grab my gun and-
BLAM!
The sound of the gunshot vibrates and echoes throughout the steel walls of the confined tank. The soldier's head slumps down once again as blood covers the wall.
Oh fuck.
There's a loud ringing noise in my ears. I become extremely disoriented and dizzy. The sound gets louder as daylight fills the inside of the tank. I see that the top hatch is still open. I move to close the hatch, but I look around the tank and see walkers climbing and surrounding the tank.
Fuck me. There's no way I'm getting out of this one.
I quickly shut the hatch as walkers started to climb on top of the tank. My hearing starts to slowly return again as now I can hear my own chest rapidly heaving as I attempt to catch my breath.
I start to sit in silence and start to realize that this tank will now be my coffin. There's no way out. I'm gonna be stuck here, rotting.
I take out my magazine from my pistol and see how much ammo I have left.
Well great.
A soft crackle of static fills the walls of the tank. I look over at the noise coming from a small radio on the other side of the tank.
"Hey you. Dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank. Cozy in there?" A voice says through the radio.