A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful day. Just wanted to stop by and deliver this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy! Don't forget to review :)
Flashback:
It was the beginning of the outbreak and military services were getting overrun one by one. The public, of course, had no choice but to panic. Their beloved city of New York had fallen.
Finn and Puck had arrived at the hospital that Santana had been in, only to see tanks and military helicopters surrounding the entrance. The two carefully snuck in and went up the stairs to the floor number their friend was settled in.
"Let's get her and go. We need to leave the city now." Finn says as Puck nods in agreement. As the two arrived on the second floor, they were instantly greeted with sounds of gunfire through the walls of the cafeteria.
"We need to hurry. What was her room number?"
"Hold on, Quinn gave me the slip. It's.. room 214." Puck says as takes the lead and starts finding her room number. "Found it."
"Puck, do you think you can get her and I'll find a way to get out of here?" Finn asks as he peaks around the corner and sees doctors and patients trying to exit.
"Shit!" Finn says as his eyes widen as he sees soldiers shooting doctors and patients as if they were walkers. "Puck, I'm going to clear this hallway out and draw the soldiers away from here. You get Santana and we'll meet where we parked, okay? Good luck brother."
Puck enters Santana's room and looks around, seeing what else he needs to bring.
"Okay San, I'm gonna get you out of here." Puck says as he lifts her up, but is prevented from moving any farther due to the wires and tubes connected to her. Puck looks at the monitor tracking Santana's heartbeat and oxygen levels and gently sets her down. He walks over to the monitor to see what tubes he can disconnect without killing her.
"What do I do? What-?" Puck says but hears the door open. He quickly ducks under the hospital bed and looks at the person's shoes from below. It's a soldier. The soldier looked around the room for a while. He aims his gun towards Santana, but decides to save the bullet and leaves, closing the door on his way out.
"Listen to me, if you are going to wake up, I need you to do it now. Okay? Now!" Puck says as his voice breaks. "Please San, just show me a sign. Please San, anything-"
A loud bang hits the hospital causing it to rumble. The hospital was being bombed. The lights and monitors in Santana's room had shut off. The room was now silent.
"No. Did she just.." Puck thought.
He moved closer to Santana's chest and laid his ear to her chest to hear a heartbeat. To hear anything that lets him know if she's alive. But nothing.
Tears started falling down his face as he had just lost his best friend. The one that helped him through everything, to him finding himself. The one that truly loved him and treated him like family, like a brother. Santana was gone.
"I'm going to protect them, Santana. They'll be safe. I promise." Puck's voice shakes as he grabs Santana's hand and kisses it. Puck then placed a kiss on Santana's forehead and walked toward the door. He looked back at the lifeless body of his friend and walked out. He made sure the door was closed shut and pushed a hospital bed by the door to avoid walkers from getting her. Puck looked around the hallway to try and find an exit, but noticed how quiet it was. Finn had cleared it, leaving Puck to start running for the exit and find Finn and finally leave the city, once and for all.
End of Flashback
The next morning…
"Good morning, mi amor. How'd you sleep, beautiful?"
"Good morning love. I slept okay, how about you?" Quinn says while sadly looking into her wife's eyes.
I need to tell her. But how? How does one bring up something like that? How do I tell Santana that it was Puck?
"Could have been better without this hangover. I think I will never drink again. Are you ready to go down for breakfast? I'm pretty sure Lucas is already there." Santana says while rubbing her head, causing Quinn to come back from her thoughts.
"I'm not feeling so good Tana, do you think you could bring some up for me, please?" Quinn says as her voice cracks.
"Of course my love. But, what's going on? Is it something you ate? Was it what we did last night?" Santana says as she sits next to Quinn and holds her hand, caressing it.
"No no, nothing like that. I think I'm just really tired."
"Oh okay preciosa. Just let me know how I can help. I'll be right back, okay?" Santana says as she gently kisses her and heads over to the cafeteria.
"Hey, everyone." Santana says as she enters the kitchen and prepares two plates for her and Quinn.
"Good morning mami." Lucas says as he gets up and hugs Santana.
"Hey buddy. How'd you sleep?"
"Good mami, the bed was sooo comfy," Lucas says with a big smile, "Where's momma?"
"She's still in bed. She's still a little tired from yesterday, so I am bringing her some food. Don't worry though, she'll come down soon. Go eat your breakfast bud, before it cools."
As Lucas runs back to his seat, Puck enters the kitchen.
"Hey, good morning Puck," Santana says as she grabs a plate for him. "Dude, what happened to your neck?"
"Oh. I think I must have done it in my sleep."
"I think there's some ointment that Quinn packed for that. I can try and find it for you, if you'd like." Santana states, but leaves Puck feeling jumpy once she mentioned the blonde.
"Thanks, San. Hey..um.. where is she?"
"She's still in bed. I think she's a little bit tired from everything." Santana says as she moves to the dining room and sees Dr. Jenner made his way to the kitchen too.
"Hey doc, I hate to ask you a question this early in the morning, especially about the outbreak. But I was wondering about how it started and if you possibly made some sort of cure for it." Dale says stopping Jenner.
After breakfast had ended, the group made their way over to Jenner's laboratory where he was going to explain the outbreak in much more detail.
"Give me a playback of TS-19," Jenner says to his computer, then looks at the group behind him, "Few people ever got the chance to see this. Very few."
An image of a head with a very detailed brain is then displayed on the big screen.
"Is that a brain?" Lucas asks Dr. Jenner
"An extraordinary one," he replies, "Display internal view."
The screen then zooms in on the brain and starts to display the nerves and neuron impulses from the brain.
"What are those flashing lights?" Puck says
"It's a person's life. Experiences, memories, it's everything. Somewhere in all that wiring is you. The thing that makes you unique and human. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth… to the moment of death."
"This person died? Who?" Andrea says as she walks closer to the screen.
"Test Subject 19, someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process." Jenner explains, "Scan to first event."
The screen then shows the brain, specifically the midbrain and brain stem turning dark, then spreading to the rest of the brain.
"What is that?" Glenn says
"The brain is shutting down, then the major organs, then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be, gone."
"Is that what happened to Jim, papa?" Ella asks Blaine, who nods sadly.
Andrea begins to start crying and moves over to a chair to sit, drawing Jenner's attention.
"She lost somebody three days ago… her sister." Quinn says as she looks over at the other blonde.
"I lost someone too, I know how devastating it is. My condolences." Jenner replies, "Scan to the second event."
"The resurrection time varies, we have some reports of it happening in as little as 2 minutes, the longest at 8 hours. In the case of this patient, it was 2 hours, 1 minute, 7 seconds."
The screen then shows the brain begin to light up red, but only in the brain stem.
"It restarts the brain?" Quinn asks shocked
"No just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."
"But they're not alive, right?" Santana joins
"You tell me."
"It's not like it was before, most of that brain is dark."
"Dark. Lifeless. Dead. The neocortex.. the human part, that doesn't come back. The "you" part. Just a shell of it."
The screen then shows a bright light piercing through the brain.
"What was that?" Kurt says
"He shot his patient in the head, didn't you?" Andrea says.
"Power down the main screen and work stations." Jenner says to his computer.
"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asks
"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal. We just don't know."
"But there's others, right?" Santana says, "Someone has to know."
"Maybe, but all communication systems stop functioning, there's just no way of knowing anymore."
"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been draining for you and I hate to ask one more question, but, that clock. It's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asks
"The uh, the basement generators, they run out of fuel."
"And then?" Dale says, but sees that Jenner has walked away, so he asks the computer once more, "What happens when the power runs out?"
"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."
Santana, Glenn, T-Dog, and Finn had gone to the basement to check on the generators, while they told the rest of the group not to worry until they had found something to worry about.
Quinn was in the rec room with Kurt, watching their kids playing tag. Until she felt the air conditioning stop. She signaled Kurt to come and check to make sure she was right.
"It's off. That's weird." Kurt says
"I'm going to find Santana, do you mind watching Lucas for a bit?"
"No, not at all. We'll be here."
"Thanks Kurt." Quinn says as she makes her way out to the hallway, where she runs into Puck. She quickly turns around and tries to make her way back to the rec room.
"Quinn, wait. Please, we need to talk."
"How could you do that to me?" Quinn says as tears run down her face, "I don't want to be anywhere near you. I don't want to listen to any of the bullshit that comes out of your mouth. You are dead to me!" Quinn spits out
"Quinn please, let me explain. I don't know what I was doing. I was drunk, I'm so sorry. You know I would never do anything to hurt you."
"Are you really trying to find an excuse? Trying to find another lie to throw at me, like the one where you told me my wife was dead?! There's no way I will ever talk to you again, ever." Quinn says angrily as she turns her back and continues walking towards the room she was in a few seconds ago.
"Do you know what it was like there? Things were falling apart, they were slaughtering people in the hallways, it was a massacre. There were walkers everywhere."
"So you left her there."
"Everybody else ran, there were no doctors there, it was just me. She was hooked up to machines and I did not know what to do. I even took my ear and put it on her chest to listen to a heartbeat, and I did not hear one. And I-I- I don't know why, maybe it was gunfire, but there was no way she could have survived that, no way!" Puck cries out.
"But she did."
"Yeah, but then I had y'all to think about. Finn was out worrying about the rest of the group, but I focused on the both of you. You and Lucas. If you thought for a second, she was still alive, would you have come? No, right? So I saved your life, you and your little boy's. See, that's what I did. And if I could have traded places with her, I would have. I would trade places with her, right now, because I love you."
"I don't, Puck. What you did last night was not..it wasn't love. Nowhere near it." Quinn sobs, "Don't ever talk to me ever again."
And with that Quinn left Puck alone in the hallway and rejoined Kurt and the kids. But as she re entered the room, Kurt could tell something was off.
"Are you okay Quinn? Did you talk to Santana?"
"No. I'm not." Quinn says looking down at her ring.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I-um not right now." She says as looks at Lucas who was playing a new board game with Ella.
As the lights and air conditioning started shutting down, the group started to worry. They started directing their questions to Dr. Jenner, who started roaming the hallway of the housing unit to reach his laboratory.
"Energy use is being prioritized."
"Air isn't a priority. Nor the lights?" Dale asks.
"It's not up to me. Zone five is shutting itself down."
"Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl says to Jenner, who continues to ignore him, "Hey man I'm talking to you, what do you mean it's shutting itself down?"
"Tana?" Quinn says as she sees Santana with the others, making their way towards Jenner.
"Jenner, what's happening?" Santana say as she finally reached him
"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computer running to the last possible second." Jenner looks over to Santana's group, "The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean, how stupid is that?"
"Let me tell you something stupid-" Daryl says as approaches Jenner and is ready to beat him to death.
"Daryl, that's enough. Quinn grab our things, everybody, get your stuff now." Santana says holding Daryl back.
Alarm blares. The clock is now set to 30 minutes.
"Everybody, you heard Santana. Get your stuff and let's go now!" Finn says as Dr. Jenner approaches a keypad and swipes his card, locking all doors.
"Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn shouts
"Jenner, open that door now." Santana says, making her way towards the doctor.
"There's no point, the main entrance is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."
"Well, open the damn things." T-Dog says
"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you, once that front door closes, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." Jenner says pointing to Santana. "It's better this way."
"What is? What happens in 25 minutes?" Santana growls as she looks up at the ticking clock. "What happens in 25 minutes!?" She says, raising her voice.
"You know what this place is! We protected the public from very nasty stuff. Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country. Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Jenner shouts as he takes a seat to readjust his lab coat.
"In the event of a catastrophic power failure, HIT's are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."
"HIT's?" Santana questions
"High-impulse thermostatic fuel-air explosives." Jenner answers, "It sets the air on fire. No pain. An end to sorrow, grief, regret. An end to everything."
Once those words were released, the group started sobbing. Kurt and Blaine began to hug their daughter tightly. Tina and Mike held each other as tears ran down their faces. Finn held Rachel close to him, afraid to let go. And a crying Quinn kneeled down to hug Lucas, who was confused on why his momma was crying.
"Momma what's wrong?" Lucas says in a sadden voice, but Quinn doesn't answer. She instead hugs him tighter and kisses his cheek.
It was over. This was now their ending.
"Get out of the way." Finn says as he grabs a pickaxe and starts hitting the sealed doors. He was then joined by Mike and Daryl.
"You should just leave it alone. It would be so much easier."
"Easier for who?"
"All of you. You know what's out there." Jenner responds looking at Kurt and Quinn, who held their children tight, "A short, brutal life and an agonizing death."
"Your sister..what was her name?"
"Amy."
"Amy. You know what this does, you've seen it."
"Is that what you really want for your wife and son?" Jenner redirects his attention to Santana.
"I DON'T WANT THIS." Santana shouts
"I can't make a dent." Finn says as he returns back to where Santana and the rest of the group were.
"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."
"Well, your head ain't." Daryl says as he runs after Jenner with his pickaxe.
"Whoa Whoa, Daryl. That's enough. Back up." Santana yells out
"You do want this." Jenner to Santana, "Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."
All eyes were on Santana. Quinn looked at her wife with a shocked look as others were betrayed by their so-called leader.
"What, you really said that? After all your big talk." Puck spits out
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Santana pleads looking at her group.
"There is no hope. There never was."
"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here. But somewhere. Somebody, somewhere." Santana cries out
"What part of 'everything is gone', don't you understand?" Andrea says annoyed
"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down, our extinction."
"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Kurt pleads
"One tiny moment… A millisecond, No pain."
"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Kurt cries out as Puck runs out to retrieve something from the back.
"Wouldn't it be kinder? More compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"
Gun cocks
"Puck, no!" Finn says
"Out of the way Finn." Puck says as he aims his shotgun to Jenner, but is stopped by Santana, "Stay out of my way Santana, I mean it!"
Santana doesn't budge, leaving Puck to push her out of the way, causing her to fall down.
"Open the door or I'm going to blow your head off. Do you hear me!?"
"Puck..Noah listen to me. This is not the way. You do this and we will never get out of here." Santana says as she stands up and approaches Puck.
"Noah, you listen to her." Rachel says
"He dies, we all-" Santana starts to say but is cut off by Puck screaming and shooting the computers near Jenner. Santana has no choice but to take the gun from him, but Puck continues to shoot his gun. Santana pulls the gun away from him and hits Puck in the chest with the back of the gun causing him to go down.
"Are you done now? Are you done?" Santana says as she threatens to hit him again with the gun.
"Yeah, I guess we all are."
Santana slowly backs off and looks around the group shocked faces. She gives the shotgun to T-Dog and looks into Quinn's eyes trying to figure out what to say.
"I think you're lying."
"What?"
"You're lying about no hope, because if that were true, you would have bolted with the rest. You would have taken the easy way out. But you didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter, it always matters." Santana states, "You stayed when others ran, why?"
"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise…to her." Jenner says as he points to the screen where TS-19 was. "My wife."
"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Tina says in shock.
"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying…It should have been me on that table, I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world." Jenner looks around, "She ran this place. I just worked here… She could have done something about this, not me."
"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's all we want.. A choice…A chance."
"Please, let us keep trying as long as we can." Quinn speaks up. Jenner remains quiet as he ponders on what to do.
"I told you the main entrance is locked down, I can't open those." he says making his way toward the keypad and swiping his card.
The doors of the laboratory open and the group start to make a run for it.
"Let's go! Come on! We have five minutes left, come on!" Glenn yells out as he carries some of the group's bags. The group starts making their way towards the exit, well everyone except Santana.
"There's your chance. Take it."
"I'm grateful."
"The day will come when you won't be." Jenner says as he shakes Santana's hand and whispers something in her ear, leaving Santana motionless.
Quinn runs back to where Santana and Jenner were and starts to pull her away from him.
"Tana come on, we need to go!"
"Hey! We got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn shouts.
"Let's go Andrea, come on." Dale yells out.
"No no, I'm staying."
"No, that's insane." Dale
"It's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim or…Amy. There's no point in arguing, not if you want to get out. So go, please."
"Andrea, please, this isn't what Amy would want for you."
"She's dead and you need to leave."
Outside of the Laboratory:
The rest of the group start to run out the stairs toward the main entrance of the CDC. T-Dog runs straight to the doors and pushes them, but nothing. Finn and Daryl both grab pick axes and start to break the windows, but nothing happened, not even a crack.
T-Dog then runs out and grabs a chair to try and break it, but nothing happens.
"T-Dog, get down." Puck says as he grabs his shotgun and aims at the glass and fires. But nothing, just a small indent. "Damn it!"
"The glass won't break?" Ella says frighten
"Sanny, I have something that might help." Brittany says as she digs into her purse.
"Brittany, I don't think a nail file is gonna do it." Puck barks
"When you got back, I washed your uniform and I found this in your pocket." Brittany says as she hands her a grenade.
Santana looks at it and grabs it with her trembling hands.
"Everybody, back up." Santana says as she runs to the window and begins panting. She carefully places a hand on the grenade's clip and pulls it. She quickly drops it and starts running to where the rest of the group was hiding.
BANG!
Back in Jenner's Lab
"Okay. You win." Dale says to Andrea as he goes over to an open seat and sits.
"What are you doing?"
"I said okay."
"Don't pull this, Dale."
"I'm not pulling anything. If you're staying, I stay too." He says looking into her eyes. "He's right. We know what's waiting for us out there. I don't want to face it alone."
"Dale. Get the hell out. I don't want you here."
"Too bad. You don't get to do that. You can't come into somebody's life, make them care, and then check out…I'm staying, the matter is settled."
Outside the laboratory
"Hey, hey, is everyone okay?" Santana says as she tries to stand up but stumbles down to the ground, "Louie? Luce?"
"I'm here Tana, j-just hold my hand." Quinn shakily says as she sees the injured Latina. "I'm right here, okay love?"
The rest of the group started to make their way towards the RV and the rest of the cars, while Quinn struggled to help her hobbling wife out the broken window carefully.
"Lucy, where's Lucas?"
"He's with Finn, they're in the RV. Come on Tana, we are almost there. Keep holding my hand."
"QUINN GET DOWN!" Finn shouts honking the horn
"MAMI! MOMMA! NOOO!" Lucas cries at the top of his lungs. He tries to exit the RV to save his mommies, but Finn quickly stops him and carries him away.
A huge fireball builds up inside the C.D.C until it fills up the entire place, leading up to a loud explosion.
BANGG!
The building they were once safe in, was now disintegrated. Everything was gone. Quinn peaks over the sandbag wall she and Santana hid under, and sees the remains of the building.
"Oh my gosh." Quinn voice breaks
"Don't look, Luce. Let's get out of here." Santana says as she slowly gets up, avoiding putting any weight on her ankle.
Quinn helps Santana up and guides her to the RV, where a sobbing Lucas ran to them hugging them tightly. Santana, who sat in Dale's driver seat, looked up at a terrified Quinn holding a sobbing Lucas, then looked at the destroyed C.D.C. She looked back at those she had lost. Dale and Andrea.
Her hand starts shaking as she tries to start up the RV, as thoughts begin to race in her mind.
I failed them, all of them. I almost killed everyone. I almost killed m-my son…my wife. I can't..I don't know what I would do. What do I do?
Santana looks at Quinn once more and recollects herself before beginning to drive away. The four other cars then start to follow the RV back up the road they'd come down on. Only hope can guide them now, if it even exists anymore.
Ahh that's the end of the first season! On to more exciting things. Don't worry, this story is not over! I really really hope you enjoy this story so far. It's been really fun to write this. Anyways, I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. Take care!
Mancey98: Thank you so much for your review! Much appreciated, I absolutely love reading them! To some degree, something similar did happen in the show, but it wasn't as much as I wrote it to be. I did skip over some major things in the beginning that I later on thought needed to be included. That was where I was debating on some things, but I'm hoping that last chapter wasn't too bad.