A/N: Hello! It's taken a while to get this chapter written-because I am lazy, and this chapter was hard to write. No, really, but the main reason is because I'm lazy. Sorry. It started at 12k-and then editing brought it up to 13k-oh. it's 14k now.. okay, at least it's not 20k! Yes! Anyways, sorry for the delay. I'm trying to get the story back on the track I had originally planned, but it's taking a while. I'm also still deciding how I want to take this-but here's a fair warning, this story may not end up having a happy ending. Or, at the rate that I'm writing, it may not end up having an ending, at all. Ha!

Anyways, zombiekiller09, you are hilarious. You could drink a cup of zombies but that sounds disgusting, so please, don't!
Heads up to River Kirby, thanks for those super long reviews :) and for your camaraderie!
Thanks, YinYangTwin1 for your interest in this story! It was enough for you to msg me about it which is crazyyy. Yes, I don't get many messages so that was a welcomed surprise!

Thank you really, for all the reviews, you guys totally know who you are! I'm so glad people enjoy reading, because this has too many words. I'm really sorry I haven't updated! It would be awesome to finish this story before the new year, but I can already tell you that I most likely won't update until, January. Unless I can convince myself otherwise and finish other things to somehow accommodate time to write. And maybe if I could shove lazy away. That would be something.

Also, apologies if this chapter just doesn't make sense. I've gotten tired of editing and any mistakes are due to me just wanting to publish this chapter already.
hm. also thinking about making a new summary, but maybe I'll think of that later. :\

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It's amazing, how unpredictable time can be. Hours can easily disappear in seconds, minutes can suddenly turn into days.

Night is leaving already, slinking back, it's another day.

6am.

An hour before sunrise.

Five and a half hours until they figure out if Kurt—will live or die and live again.

And then die, once and for all.

The singing has stopped, tapered and traded off for dreams and nightmares, and the only ones still awake at this point are Quinn, Rachel, and Kurt.

The watch on Quinn's wrist has its alarm set to 7am, and when that sounds, she'll wake the others and they'll wash up, doll up, for that group picture that Rachel wants to take.

But, there's still an hour to go until daybreak and Quinn finds herself slowly nodding off as the gentle, faint scritch scratch of pen on paper lulls her into a restless, troubled sleep.

The light in the room is waning as the charge from the solar lights fade, and all three are huddled, sitting side by side, drawn to the remaining luminescence as Kurt and Rachel jot down their thoughts, their memories, their dreams.

(Their wills.)

Five minutes, and Quinn finds herself losing the ongoing fight. Her body slowly tilts to the side and Rachel pauses, pen midway through a loop, when she feels a now familiar weight leaning against her. A quick glance for confirmation, a small, gentle quirking of her lips before her pen is finishing the l and moving on.

Kurt remains lost in his own notebook and the room is quiet as Quinn and the others slumber.

Pages, paragraphs—thirty minutes and a nightmare later, Quinn finds her eyes opening as fear seizes and grips at her heart. She's half asleep, taking in deep breaths and the movement informs Rachel that she's awake.

The fervent writing slows, stops when she feels Quinn shifting and then the blonde is burying her face into the singer's shoulder. Rachel can tell, the same vulnerability is there—the same, that was present mere hours(days?) ago, when Quinn had first asked her about God.

She brings Quinn close, because she knows that a hug always makes things better. She takes it as a good sign when the blonde doesn't pull away. It's a tentative friendship they've developed—fragile at most with entirely too much baggage, but it's honest and one of the few good things they've somehow managed to find, trapped in a place like this.

Finn had told her that Quinn can't be trusted, that she's bad news and a bad idea, and maybe a week ago, she would've believed him.

But this Quinn, this Quinn that she knows—she's different, no longer the cold Queen Bee of McKinley High but rather the leader of this ragtag team. She's real, human. Someone with hopes and fears, just like her, just like everyone else.

She hopes that Finn will get over this, because friends are something that Rachel Berry never gives up on.

Even if they give up on her.

Kurt keeps quiet, noticing the two only because he had stopped writing to stifle a yawn. He can only just make out their dark figures leaning together in the weak light. Whether intentional or not, he has a feeling that this whatever that is developing between them is not going to end well.

Kurt returns to his journal, not wanting to dive into the middle of all this drama. There's enough on his plate at the moment. Like dying, for example. And, if he survives and Finn and Rachel break up… well. He flips through to an empty page and starts writing down a few notes.

Eventually, Quinn feels her thoughts settling and, although she can still feel the prickle of fear from her nightmare lingering on, it's disappearing, replaced by the warmth from the other girl besides her. There's a moment longer before she's sitting up and moving away, offering Rachel back her personal space with a silent thanks.

Quinn's embarrassed, because it's the second—third(?) time that she's shown Rachel weakness.

Both girls intentionally ignore the loss of comfort from the abrupt lack of contact.

Knowing that her words will merely push the blonde further away, Rachel picks the pen up once more.

Quinn leans back against the wall as Rachel continues to write. Hazel eyes adjust to the even dimmer lighting and with a lazy glance, she takes note that two of the lamps have already gone dark, leaving the visibility very low and just barely there. They'll need to charge them soon.

Shadows dance and there's a flicker, and then three is down to two. With a barely audible protest, Rachel and Kurt place their pens down because that's the indication to stop. At this point, they'll strain their eyes even further and will need to bury their noses in the paper if they want to be able to see their written words.

Their notebooks are closed, shut and packed away.

Quinn won't admit it, but she's curious, wondering what's in either of their journals and entertains the thought of asking to ease her curiosity. She decides though, to let the idea go; maybe one day, they'll trust her enough that they'll show her without her asking.

(Maybe one day (today), they'll have to pry the journal from Kurt's cold hands.)

With their diversion gone, the tiredness that they've been battling filters in and Kurt yawns loudly as Rachel rubs at her eyes.

Less than half an hour to go before the alarm goes off.

Almost four and a half hours to go before Kurt—

/-/

7:45am.

Everyone's up and awake and complaining because they're all assembled outside, on the roof, and freezing in the chilly morning air.

Santana glares grumpily at Rachel but the smaller girl easily turns a blind eye. She's excited and is letting the idea of a simple photograph distract her thoughts for the time being.

"Are we taking this photo or whats?"

"Yes!" Rachel responds enthusiastically. "Just as soon as I figure out the best arrangement to ensure that this will be the absolute, perfect picture! Now, Santana, would you consider your left or your right to be your best side?"

Santana slaps her forehead exasperatedly. "Ay Dios Mio."

Finn is still yawning when Kurt suddenly grabs him by the arm.

"Finn! Your hair! Here, let me fix it for you," he tells the taller boy before pulling out a can of mousse from his belt and popping off the lid.

"Whoa—what?" is all Finn can get out before Kurt pulls him down and starts styling his hair.

Puck manages to avoid all this and has promptly passed out on the floor. His mohawk is practically maintenance free anyways, and he'll just need to wipe away the drool from his mouth and he'll be ready.

"We could've slept a bit longer," Brittany whines as she leans sleepily against Quinn.

Quinn merely responds with a yawn of her own. She then swipes at her eyes and with nothing better to do, looks over to the southwest. The cloudy sky makes it hard to tell if the lights are still on or not.

She makes a mental note to check later tonight, when a darker sky is a better contrast to the bright, artificial lights.

\-\

Still morning.

Same roof.

8:15am.

It's still cold, still windy, and with the sun still remaining behind those layers of clouds, it's just turning out to be one of those kind of days.

There's no doubt now, that a storm has rumbled in and by early or mid afternoon, parts of Ohio, Lima included, will be drenched in heavy rain.

Quinn shivers lightly and when Kurt sneezes right after, everyone takes an involuntary step back. Pictures aside, distractions aside, Kurt's situation is still on the forefront of their minds.

Is he turning?

No answers as they all watch him warily.

"Let's just get this over with already," Santana complains after a moment. "I'm tired and I'm freezing my bits off here."

Puck, awakened by a nagging Rachel, gives Santana a lewd grin. "I can warm those right up for you," he tells her as he wiggles his fingers invitingly.

There's a hard elbow shoved at his stomach and he's doubling over as Santana merely reaches over and pulls Brittany closer for warmth.

There's that normalcy here that still makes this an ordinary, any other, every kind of day.

But, not.

"Alright!" Rachel claps twice and five pairs of eyes turn to her direction.

Santana doesn't bother and buries her face into the crook of Brittany's neck, causing the taller blonde to giggle softly.

"Finally," her voice is muffled but the annoyance is crystal clear.

Rachel gives an uncertain glance before continuing. "Please follow my instructions as I delegate your designated spots for the picture! This formation was made, taking into consideration the differences in heights and facial bone structure. After much deliberation with Kurt, we have determined which side will entitle us to look our best!"

There's a pause, when no one moves despite Rachel's earnest instructions because her enthusiasm this early in the morning is frightening. Especially, well, considering.

Surprisingly enough, Santana's the first to walk to her assigned spot as she drags Brittany with her. Rachel wants to protest, because Brittany looks better on the other side—but a glare stops her short. She gives Santana a nervous smile before calling out to Finn and Puck.

One by one, Rachel points and fusses as the formation slowly comes together.

The boys end up being in the back—mainly due to their heights and Finn is placed on the far right, Puck in the middle, and Kurt is on his best side (left).

A quick rearrangement of the middle row, and Brittany now stands in front of Finn and Puck, with Santana right next to her.

Finn fumes and drowns in his jealousy when he realizes that Rachel and Quinn are in the front. Rachel gives him a pleading smile—and it's an automatic, force of habit kind of thing when she ends up giving him a kiss to placate him.

She pulls back suddenly, barely managing to disguise her horror because she's actually still mad at him.

It's the first kiss she's given to him in days though and because he's Finn, he thinks this means that she finally understands and forgives him. He accepts, smiles and steps back into line.

With her endless supply of charm and elegance, Santana gags and chokes in response and only stops when Quinn turns around and raises an eyebrow at her. They exchange a look and Quinn can almost see the gears turning in Santana's head as she reads so much more into this than she should.

There's that slight narrowing of brown eyes, and Quinn knows that the first chance she gets, Santana's going to ask her some very annoying questions.

Rachel collects herself, deeming the task at hand to be more important than this...altercation with Finn and double checks to make sure that everyone looks perfect. She then rushes over to set up the camera(property of one JewFro) and the tripod a few feet away to finally get this show on the road.

As soon as her back is turned, Puck shoves himself in between Santana and Brittany and poses with a huge grin on his face.

"Hey!"

Santana's protest has Rachel whirling around immediately. "Noah!" she points to him. "You can't stand over there just because you want to be surrounded by girls! Get back in line!"

He gives her an obscene gesture because he's Puck and Santana pushes him back when he's distracted. She scowls, he smirks. Finn claps his hand on his friend's shoulder because he's trying to impress Rachel and Puck isn't helping.

A shrug and then he moves back into place.

"Is everyone ready?" Rachel calls out as she looks them over with critical eyes.

Kurt, the only other person who's really taking this just as seriously, nods encouragingly and when Rachel seems satisfied with what she sees, she quickly pushes the button for the automatic timer and power walks to the others. She's kneeling down and scooting over next to the crouching blonde, and Finn tries his best to ignore it because it means nothing; Rachel is his girlfriend and he trusts her.

Quinn on the other hand…

"Smile!" Rachel reminds them because the camera's going to go off any second now.

She chances a quick glance at Quinn, knowing that the blonde tended not to smile in pictures—and she's not disappointed when she sees Quinn staring impassively at the camera, captain of the Cheerios façade on full display.

Any protests that she makes will bring suspicions, so Rachel lets this go and smiles for the camera. She'll show enough optimism for everyone. She's had her whole life to practice this, after all.

A flash alerts them that the picture is done and Rachel's on her feet and dashing to the camera in a split second.

"Everyone, please stay in your positions while I ensure that this is possibly the perfect picture!" she calls back to them as she eagerly reaches for the camera.

Santana turns around and smacks Puck on the arm.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"I totes know you sabotaged this picture and now Speedy Gonzalez over there," she points her thumb towards Rachel's general direction, "is going to make us retake it."

"I like Speedy Gonzalez," Brittany adds in. "Lord Tubbington keeps licking the screen whenever he's on though."

Right on cue, there's that sound of indignation from the girl behind the camera and everyone groans in response.

Santana places a cap on the maximum number of pictures they can retake and luckily for Rachel, third time's the charm and the last one has everyone framed and posed perfectly.

Or, as perfect as they could possibly be.

Unfortunately for Rachel, Figgins had either donated or confiscated all the computer equipment within the school when he left two weeks ago. The only computers and printers they still have access to are the super archaic ones in the library, which are as good as useless and they had agreed that they would hold off on printing copies for now. Fortunately, Santana had found (stolen) a Polaroid camera in one of the lockers yesterday and as an alternative, they will be using that to take a picture of the picture on the camera screen.

The quality will be shot to hell, but it's the best they have.

With eight Polaroid photo sheets (Puck had wasted two testing it out yesterday by taking pictures of Santana's chest) everyone will be able to get a copy and they'll have one extra, just in case.

Despite the cold, they remain outside on the roof to make use of the natural lighting as Rachel excitedly starts making copies. The first photo is hers, naturally, and she smiles happily at the memento before slipping it into her front pocket for safekeeping. She makes four more and hands them out to Quinn, Kurt, Puck, and Finn.

Before she can make another one for Brittany, Santana stops her and grabs the camera.

"Santana!"

"Calm down, hobbit!" Santana tells her as she bats away the shorter girl's hands before pushing her away. "Go soak up some sun for your daily photosynthesis or whatever leprechauns need to stay green; I'm just gonna borrow this for a second."

Rachel looks offended and glances around to see what else she can do. She can see Finn, Kurt and Puck joking about something and decides to start disassembling the nearby tripod and camera instead of joining them.

Quinn's showing her copy of the photo to Brittany and Santana merely grasps the taller blonde by the shoulder and twirls her around.

Brittany lets out a small laugh and wide blue eyes light up when she faces Santana. "What's up, San?"

Santana points to the camera, ignoring Quinn's amused stare."Nada, babe. I just need your cute mugshot to make my life complete."

Tilting her head, Brittany debates for a moment before she shakes her head and reaches for the camera. She tugs at it until Santana finally lets go and without missing a beat, she turns expectantly to Quinn.

"Q, take a picture for us?"

Giving them a knowing smile, Quinn agrees and Santana rolls her eyes.

"Sure."

The two girls pose with wide grins and no space between them.

"Say cheese."

There's a click and just like that, the memory is captured and stored. Quinn hands the developing photo over and Santana and Brittany watch as their smiling faces slowly appear on paper.

It's low quality and a bit washed out but it's perfect and Santana kisses the photo once before she slips it into her jacket pocket.

Brittany places a kiss of her own to Santana's physical cheek before she pulls the other cheerleader with her and slides in right besides Quinn.

"Rachel? Can you take a picture for us?" Brittany calls out to the smaller girl who's busy going through the contents in the digital camera. She would have asked one of the boys but they seem busy, leering over something—well, Finn and Puck were leering and Kurt was merely looking.

The short brunette jumps when her name is called. She looks up and Brittany holds up the Polaroid in question.

"O-of course!" she squeaks out, almost guilty like and shuts off the device before stuffing it back into its original bag. She then makes her way towards the other girls.

Quinn watches her carefully, wondering what she's hiding but before she can ask, Brittany pulls her in and Rachel is ready to take the picture.

"Okay, on the count of three! One, two, three!"

Quinn manages to smile when Brittany tickles her right before the shot is taken. The three cheerleaders look like best friends and Rachel barely keeps her envy in check as she hands the sheet over to the group.

She turns away from them, just in case, and is surprised when she almost runs into Finn who has somehow sneaked his way next to her. He's usually a lot more clunkier than that and he gives her a dopey smile when she looks up.

"Hey."

"Finn!"

"Uhm, so, like there's one more photo sheet in there, right?" Finn asks as he points to the Polaroid in Rachel's hands.

She plasters on an unsure smile. "Yes, Finn. Each person so far has one photo, excluding Noah, due to his rather inappropriate means of assessing the operational quality of the camera yesterday. I have printed out five copies and Santana and Brittany each have one."

"Uh, yeah," Finn says as he nods slowly, mentally calculating the numbers in his mind. "Right, so there's one left. Anyways, I was thinking maybe you and me could take a picture, you know? I'd like to have one of us together. As, as a reminder, or something like that."

When Rachel doesn't respond, Finn's confusion is apparent; he had really thought she would have been a lot more excited. Especially with how gung ho she was about the group photo.

"Sure, Finn," she recovers quickly and smiles enthusiastically, because she's good at pretending, and his expression clears in relief.

"Yeah?"

"Yes, Finn! It's a splendid idea!" she turns, in search of a photographer (anyone but Quinn or Santana, please) and locks eyes with the first person she sees. Her smile falters and drops momentarily when Kurt looks at her in understanding.

"Kurt, would you do the honors?" She gestures helplessly to the camera.

Finn's so oblivious and Kurt makes a split second decision.

"I refuse," he says snootily and crosses his arms across his chest.

Rachel blinks, not knowing what she has done to offend him but he gives her a quick wink that disappears just as fast.

Kurt saunters over to Finn and when he passes Rachel, he taps the camera before grabbing Finn by his arm.

"I'm the one that might be potentially dying here and there's only one sheet left in that camera. I've been very selfless, you know, these past few days. I even let you take the lead yesterday during our little sing-a-long. There's a high chance we'll be able to find more photo paper when we go searching for more supplies soon. And there's a higher chance that I won't be here to use it."

Finn's obviously lost. "Uh, am I missing something here?"

"Just smile for the camera, Finn," Kurt tells him.

Rachel feels the burn of eyes around her and she knows that Kurt's little performance has attracted attention.

So there's nothing else to do but to concede to Kurt's rather whimsical last minute wish. She steps back and takes the picture.

When she lowers the camera, she ignores the relief she feels.

It's unwarranted, unwanted, and dangerously perplexing.

Because…

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9am.

Breakfast will always be the first, most important meal of the day.

The group has finally moved inside, away from the frigid stormy air and into the teacher's lounge. The cloudy light filtering in from the windows provides sufficient lighting and the room is small enough that it gives off a feeling of safety. Even though it's unsettling, being exposed behind the clear glass, they at least have a clear view if anyone (or thing) approaches.

The solar lights have been placed outside by the front doors and Quinn hopes that there's enough sunlight for them to charge properly. She adds lanterns and more batteries to her growing list of things that they need, just in case.

The tables are pushed together and chairs are moved and they manage to cram seven seats for seven people with only two tables.

The girls (and Kurt) sit down to dig into their meals while Puck and Finn scrounge around the room, looking for supplies. With their search ending in the AV room yesterday, there wasn't a chance to look inside so they're hoping to find something useful here.

But mostly they're eager to see if they can sneak a peek and find some dirt on their teachers.

Quinn actually already knows what they're going to find because she had gone through here on her hunt for a lighter. It's also why the room is in slight disarray (but she doesn't tell them that).

There's coffee creamer, salt, ketchup, and many, many pamphlets shoved into the back of all the cabinets. It's as if all the fliers that Miss Pillsbury has ever passed out to any of the faculty somehow found its way there.

Deliberately.

"Hey, I found some creamer!" Puck holds up the container.

"Ketchup and salt too!" Finn cheers.

Quinn shakes her head and tunes them out, concentrating instead on her meal because after they figure out Kurt's condition, it'll be time to get back to business.

The two football players find the pamphlets and not much else and the search is officially over. Disappointed, Finn takes his seat next to Rachel and Puck drops into the chair besides Kurt. They start devouring their meals with gusto because they're the only ones still not disgusted with canned food.

Conversation is scarce as each is lost in their thoughts because there's less than three hours to go.

\-\

They remain in the teacher's lounge as the hours, minutes, tick by and every single action that Kurt does has them on edge.

When he rubs his eye due to a stray eyelash, Finn ends up pointing his rifle at him. Luckily, the safety is still on and he manages to avoid a misfire from his shaking hands.

It doesn't help though, that Kurt continues to fidget and he's twitching and there's so much nervous energy that Quinn's this close to just tying him down. Rachel continues to monitor him intensely and she's tempted to bite her nails due to the anxiety of the wait.

And when the alarm beeps—everyone jumps.

But there's a loud shout as Puck whoops and slaps Kurt hard on the back.

Time's up.

And Kurt's doing fine.

It's a collective sigh of relief.

They know now that it takes time until the infection spreads to the blood; that man had been attacked by a zombie but his blood had not affected Kurt. Meaning, that if they ever had a cure, there's still a chance to save someone, even after they've been bitten.

A hypothetical cure though, is useless because it doesn't exist.

Quinn clears her throat to gain everyone's attention.

"I'm glad, Kurt," she gives him a small smile, "that you're okay, and you're not a zombie. I have the perfect way for us to celebrate this."

Santana groans because she already knows what the blonde is referring to.

"Seriously, Q?"

"Yes, S. It's zombie moving time."

/-/

They head back to the shelter for a quick break, giving Brittany a chance to feed her cats and the boys help to lug Kurt's cot and their sleepover gear back inside. Any necessities are taken care of and supplies are gathered before they climb back outside.

Santana makes sure that Quinn knows just how much she hates this idea and Quinn makes sure that Santana knows just how much she doesn't care.

They walk cautiously past the few dead bodies in the back, note the absence of zombies by the generator and then they step once more into the school and start gearing up to get ready.

Less than an hour later and four of them are assembled in the hallway just outside the front doors. They've all suited up in multiple layers of clothing, enabling them to shed the first layer and just dump it when they're done. All the girls also have their hair tied up in high ponytails—out of the way and away from potential grabby hands. They'll put on their gloves from the storage room and janitor's closet when they're ready and flu masks from the nurse's office are on standby as they wait for Quinn, Puck and Finn to return. The boys have traded in their regular shoes for some football gear found in the locker room and Rachel is wearing one of Coach's boots. When this is over they'll throw these shoes away too; they're going to try their best to keep contamination out of the shelter.

Better late than never, right?

Rachel adjusts her safety goggles taken from the chemistry lab and is about to pull them off to retie the knot but stops when she feels a tug on the rubber band. She glances back and Brittany winks at her from behind her own goggles before the blonde gives her a pat on the shoulder, signaling that she's done.

Quinn, Puck and Finn finally reappear from the hallway, arms laden with shovels, rakes, and an industrial broom and the equipment is passed around until everyone has one in their hands.

"Okay, so this is going to be really simple," Quinn starts explaining as she tests her broomstick to make sure it won't break under pressure. "We're going to try and clear a path, starting from the school and working our way out towards the street if time permits. The bodies will be moved towards the side, if possible against the barricades so they're out of our way for good. Any questions?"

She glances around and she doesn't know if it's the goggles, but everyone looks a little pale.

It's not like she herself is okay with body moving; it's just—it needs to be done.

Santana opens her mouth and Quinn cuts her off.

"Yes, Santana. Everyone will participate. We'll leave our rifles by the front steps and put those handguns to use. They're lighter, less mess and it'll be good training too, for close combat. Especially after what happened yesterday to Rachel and Finn. I want one person as a lookout though, to provide backup and to keep an eye out for those random zombies hidden in all those bodies."

The loss of their rifles has everyone on edge, but they agree that it's for the best. The bulky guns will just get in their way and at least the amount of zombies outside will be minimal. The idea of being able to avoid the grueling task gives hope though, and a small rock-paper-scissors tournament is held immediately to determine who will be the winner and become the guard.

Quinn steps back and watches as Brittany dominants the games. Kurt moves to stand besides her and Quinn gives him a curious look that he answers with a shrug.

"I'm not much of a good shot anyways," he tells her. "And, I'm horrible at rock-paper-scissors. It's not my fault that scissors always appealed to me. Must be why I like sewing so much."

Puck loses the last round and Brittany grins in triumph.

"San, do you want to be guard?"

Santana looks at her in surprise when she realizes why Brittany had even played. She doesn't know whether she should be insulted (which she is) or flattered (which she also is).

She shakes her head. "You totes earned that, babe. Plus, it's the perfect job for you, you're the best sharpshooter we gots."

Brittany smiles. "Yeah. I am, aren't I?"

"Knew you wouldn't let me down," Quinn tells her and that's when everyone realizes that this was a set up.

"...You knew that Brittany would win, didn't you?" Kurt accuses her and Quinn shrugs.

"Maybe, but Brittany won fair and square though, so she's the guard. B, take my rifle instead. Everyone else, grab your gear, and let's mosey."

"…Geez Q, you better be careful there. I think your inner dweeb is starting to show up. Can't you say 'Move out!' or something cooler?"

"…Bite me, Lopez."

\-\

They divide into pairs that's decided by balancing their strengths, placing Finn and Rachel(he insisted, despite their obvious height difference) together, Puck with Kurt, and Santana and Quinn as the last duo. Brittany has set her own extra protection (gloves, goggles, that extra layer of clothes) aside, right next to the rifles and the boots, and is keeping watch on the front steps as each team splits off to cover more ground and to become less of a warm target. She keeps the mask on though, because the smell outside is absolutely rancid.

Despite the cold weather, a collection of dead bodies festering together does not smell like candy and roses.

Each person has two handguns in their belts with extra ammo and each team has one radio for communication. Quinn hopes to find more professional walkie-talkies with a greater range tomorrow(?) so that everyone can have their own.

The shovels, the rakes, the mop, are to be used as defense and to prod the body first—to make sure it's really dead, before they start moving it over to the side.

Quinn pokes at the first body as Santana watches on, clear disgust evident on her face.

"This is totes vomit worthy, Q," Santana tells her from behind her flu mask. Even with it on, the smell is overpowering and her eyes keep watering in response.

"Too bad Coach didn't think to stock the storage with gas masks," Quinn answers her absently. She's actually surprised that there weren't any.

Not to mention really disappointed.

A few more jabs and when it's guaranteed that this zombie and the ones surrounding it are dead, Quinn gestures to Santana, telling her to grab the feet and they both prop their tools against one of the nearby walls to free their hands.

Quinn reaches down, grabbing the corpse from its arms and promptly learns, that that's a big mistake. Decomposition has done nothing good to the bodies and some of them, like this one, are falling apart with the slightest touch. She misjudges and tries to lift with a good amount of strength and one of the arms rip out from the brittle socket. Santana watches as the one appendage is thrown aside and Quinn tumbles back, almost twisting her ankle as she trips over another nearby body.

"Q!"

It's Coach's crazy training that saves her (again) from landing back into a pile of dead zombies and she barely manages to find solid ground to regain her footing. Santana is there, in another second and Quinn grabs onto her for support.

They stare at each other for a moment as Quinn catches her breath.

"Thanks, S," and they let go.

"Yeah. Be more careful, geez."

*Static*

"Q! Are you okay?"

They both turn and see Brittany waving to them from the steps.

*Static*

"Everything okay there, O Captain, my captain?"

Quinn rolls her eyes when she hears Puck's voice. She didn't think that he would even know that poem. She gives Brittany a thumbs up before she tugs off her glove to grab the radio.

"Yeah, everything's fine and dandy. Just—be careful lifting these things—the bodies are a lot more fragile than they look. Over."

"Aye aye captain! Over."

Quinn's expecting Rachel's voice through the radio any second, but she's surprised when that's the end of the transmissions. Concerned, she takes a quick look around to determine her location.

A shout and everyone turns and winces as they watch Finn fall back onto some dead bodies.

Guess he didn't get the memo.

Quinn swallows hard as Santana suppresses the urge to throw up when Finn clambers to his feet and his back is stained with dark maroon. It also doesn't help that they're surrounded by the smell of death.

"Okay, we'll need to do this another way."

Santana gives her a look. She's feeling sick but her sarcasm's still doing fine. "No, really? What gave you that idea, Q?"

/-/

"Ugh." Finn is glad that Quinn has ordered them to layer up, because from the expression on Rachel's face, he knows his back is covered.

Rachel wants to respond to Quinn's message but her conscience wins out and she places a hesitant hand on Finn's arm, making sure to avoid the wet dark stain. "A-are you alright, Finn?"

He shakes his head in frustration because he really wants to take a shower now. He's a guy, so he's used to being dirty, but this is all kinds of gross.

"Y-yeah," he stammers out before taking a deep breath and regrets it almost immediately. The mask is a weak barrier and it's like the smell is lingering on him which is only confirmed when Rachel turns her head away.

"This sucks."

\-\

"Ouch," Puck comments when he sees his best friend take the fall.

"I can't do this," Kurt says shakily as he prods one of the bodies with his shovel. "It-it's too disgusting and I'm too delicate for this."

Puck turns to regard him. "Listen man, you know, I don't care that you're gay or anything like that, right?"

Kurt looks at him and nods hesitantly.

"Because you seriously need to man up," Puck tells him as he gives him a light shove. It's enough to send Kurt stepping back and he utters a squawk of protest that Puck ignores. He knows that Brittany's on the lookout, watching their backs so the noise isn't an issue. "Look where we're at, what we're doing. Man, you freaking survived being splattered on by someone and you're telling me that you're delicate? You're Kurt Hummel, dude. A survivor. Rachel's over there, shaking in her oversized boots but she's trying her best. Tell me at least you still have your pride in being a guy even though you play for the other team?"

Kurt glances over to where he can see Rachel offering a hand to Finn. He turns and watches as Quinn points to the floor and tells Santana something.

Everyone's doing their part and trying their best.

He takes in a slow breath to brace himself, making sure to breath through his mouth because the smell will just set him off again. "Al-alright. You're right, Puck. I can do this. I can do this."

"Hells yeah," Puck psyches them up with his enthusiasm and Kurt finds himself smiling despite the situation.

"Any tips, to get through this?"

"Just pretend it's jello, or ketchup, or something."

"...Oh God, I'll never be able to look at food the same way again."

\-\

Quinn and Santana are now using their tools to shove and push any bodies that are too decomposed to carry to the side. After that one mishap, no one wants to end up like Finn and they're being extra cautious to make sure it doesn't happen.

Instead of carrying the bodies by their entirely too fragile arms and legs, they've figured out that the clothes they're wearing are a lot more durable and they've been hauling zombies in this way. For the most part the clothes have held up and they haven't had to deal with anymore torn body parts.

Minus the ones that just fell off even without any prompting whatsoever.

There's plenty of trial and error and only a few close encounters, but soon, there's an established method to this madness, and a good portion of the front of the school is already cleared within two hours.

The smell though, is something they still can't get used to.

Lunch is bypassed because everyone's appetite, including Puck's and Finn's, is reeling from all the gore surrounding them. They just want to finish and never deal with this, ever again.

Brittany's there, still on the front steps, keeping an eye out for any moving zombies and she has already re-killed ten in that time frame.

Just as Quinn stops to catch her breath and Santana takes another break to keep her meager breakfast down, the radio buzzes and Rachel's voice is cutting through the stillness.

"Finn and I, found something rather…disconcerting. Over."

They can hear the nervousness in her voice.

Quinn pulls off her now stained glove and grabs the walkie-talkie with her clean hand.

"What is it?" she asks tiredly. She's hating all these horrible curveballs that are being thrown their way.

"I…well, I think—it's something you should see for yourselves."

Quinn and Santana share a look and they scan the area and spot Rachel and Finn over on the other side. Their attention is focused on something lying on the floor in front of them.

Quinn turns and signals to Brittany, telling her to join them and her and Santana start making their way cautiously across the emptying lot.

When they reach the couple, Rachel gives Quinn a worried look but her eyes are drawn to Santana and there's an unreadable expression on her face.

Quinn gives a mental sigh, preparing herself before she places her attention to the ground.

There are two bodies, sprawled and laid out. They are well into the decomposing phase and the worms and the rotting flesh just accentuates the death lingering in the air. Their clothes are torn and covered with blood and dirt and guts and gore—but even with all that, even with the original colors dyed and stained a dark red, the particular jackets that they're wearing are something that everyone can recognize with a closer glance.

Quinn looks over to Santana as dark eyes take in the sight. Finn, and even Rachel are quiet as they watch the cheerleader struggle to rein in her emotions.

"Rachel?" the blonde breaks the silence and turns to the shorter girl. "Do you recognize any of them?"

A shake of the head is given as an answer. Quinn doesn't want to ask, but she needs to know so she looks back to Santana who's just staring, transfixed, at the prone bodies on the ground.

"S?"

The Cheerio doesn't respond and closes her eyes instead. Brittany and Puck and Kurt have now wandered over to see what's wrong. One look to Santana's grim expression and Brittany walks to her and places a comforting hand on her back; it's one of the few still clean spots on her.

As if sensing the blonde's presence, Santana steels herself before she opens her eyes. "Yeah," she eventually croaks out harshly. "I recognize—the guy on the left." Brown eyes glare at the incriminating evidence offered to them. "He was a new transfer to the hospital from New York. Came in around three months ago; was in the same department as my dad."

Even with his mask on, Puck lets out a soft whistle because this is the kind of stuff that horror movies (real life) were made from.

"Was he there?" Quinn presses on. "That day when your parents were leaving to volunteer?"

There's a pause, as Santana tries her hardest to remember. Rachel remains silent, because her parents also work in that same hospital and this is just another hard blow to her confidence that maybe her parents aren't so innocent in this after all.

"No, he wasn't there," Santana answers eventually. Her voice conveys the relief she feels. "Dr. Miller—that's his name. He had to leave earlier—for some kind of meeting in the East Coast. My dad had to pull a few double shifts to take care of some of the work Dr. Miller left behind."

Bang!

A sudden gunshot interrupts their impromptu meeting and Brittany lowers her rifle. "We shouldn't all gather in one place," she tells them worriedly.

"Yeah," Quinn sighs. "We'll discuss this later—and what it might mean. Let's get back to clearing the path for now—although I have a feeling it's going to rain any minute. Rachel, you and Finn can just leave these two here and work on another area. Britt, Puck, Kurt, back to work. If anyone else sees another body with a doctor's coat or nurse's uniform, tell us."

"What are you planning to do with them, Quinn?" Rachel asks before they split up.

Quinn tightens her gloves, inspecting for holes and making sure that she's fully covered before she casts a stoic expression to the shorter girl.

"I'm going to check these bodies and see if we can find anything on them."

/-/

Quinn knows better than to ask Santana to help her and has assigned the other girl to keeping watch as added insurance instead because the last thing that she wants is a zombie sneaking up on her when she's digging around.

Santana readily agrees and arms herself with a handgun. As she keeps an eye out, she's trying her best to avoid looking directly at Quinn because she can just imagine what the blonde is seeing as she searches for whatever.

Quinn struggles hard not to gag when she has to brush aside some of the bugs to search through the pockets of the coat and only half succeeds before she's pulling back for a breath of less stale, decaying air.

She takes a few breaths, counts to ten, and attempts once more.

It's empty.

Next, shirt pocket. She pries off some of the dried, caked blood that has adhered the cloth together and rummages through. She's half relieved, half surprised when she hears a jangle. Her bulky gloved fingers manages to grab the item and then Quinn pulls out a pair of keys.

Coughing over her shoulder, she holds them up for Santana to see.

"Ten to one*cough*, Dr. Miller is hid-*cough* hiding something somewhere."

Santana merely shakes her head because it's taking all her effort to avoid throwing up her half digested breakfast. She'll admit though, that her respect for her captain just shot up by 10,000 points; it takes a really strong person to frisk a dead body.

Just the thought though, has Santana finally losing it and she's the first to throw up all day.

"Yup, couldn't have said it better myself, S," Quinn tells her in agreement.

\-\

"You okay?"

Rachel makes a noncommittal noise as they start moving another body, female this time, judging by the tufts of long hair, towards the side.

This whole ordeal has been filled with silence, and Finn had assumed Rachel was merely avoiding being noisy, not wanting to attract undead attention, but he's starting to have his doubts.

They deposit the body to the side and before they can go after another one, he tries once again.

"Hey, if you ever need me, or whatever, you know I'll be there for you, right?"

Rachel finally looks to him but the mask covering her face prevents him from making sense of her expression.

"I'm just tired, Finn," she lies. "I didn't really have an opportunity to sleep last night, and it's catching up to me at the moment."

"It'll probably rain soon and we can stop this," Finn tries to console her and she nods.

They start heading over to pick up another body and she remains unusually quiet.

Finn knows that this is Quinn's fault and he vows to protect his girlfriend from whatever she's planning.

/-/

"Quinn's something else," Kurt states as he and Puck lift and throw another body into the growing pile.

Puck rolls his shoulders before turning the shorter boy. "What? You turning straight now?"

Kurt shakes his head. "No, but, I mean, Finn's a great guy, super cute, super hot," he ignores Puck when he fake vomits, "but, I'm kind of glad that Quinn's the leader."

Kurt knows that Puck has his loyalty to his best friend and he's surprised when the football player merely agrees.

"Yeah, she's a pretty cool leader. And I'd rather follow behind her than him, if you know what I mean," he waggles his eyebrows and Kurt rolls his eyes.

"Heterosexuals," he says with a scoff.

\-\

Brittany does another sweep around the school yard and when she's content with what she sees, she lowers her gun until it's hanging by the strap around her shoulder. With her hands free, she yawns and stretches to work out the knots in her back from using and holding the gun for such an extended amount of time.

It's nothing she's not used to though, because Coach loved to hang out at shooting ranges for hours. There were also a few field trips where Coach had her and Quinn hiding in some bushes from dusk till dawn for sniper training.

But, that's another story for another day and Brittany finishes her stretch and quickly reaches for the rifle to continue her assigned task.

Just as she brings the telescope to eyelevel, she feels a flicker of something cold and wet on her nose and blinks. She tilts her face upwards, towards the dark clouds and another droplet hits her face.

The rain has finally reached Lima.

/-/

When she feels that first drop of rain, Santana nearly drops to the ground in relief. She doesn't though and instead offers a silent prayer of thanks to the sky above and promptly lets go of the body she's holding.

"S!" Quinn almost pitches forward with the sudden added weight and she gives Santana a glare when she straightens up.

"It's raining, Q! Time to pack it up and get back inside!"

Completely ignoring the blonde, Santana starts moving to the front to meet up with Brittany and to pick up her rifle and shoes.

As Santana half jogs, she makes a path of clothes and equipment as she sheds off her ruined gear. She's clean by the time she reaches Brittany and slips off her ruined shoes for her new ones before helping the taller blonde grab the bag full of solar lights. She picks up her rifle and the two are the first to head to the shelter.

Quinn shakes her head at Santana's sudden burst of energy and pulls off her gloves, throwing them to the side before pulling off her mask and reaching for the walkie-talkie.

"In case the water falling down didn't give it away, it's raining. Stop whatever you're doing, get your rifle, trade in your shoes, and start moving to the shelter. Don't forget to ditch your dirty clothes before you grab your gun, you might get the strap dirty."

Pause.

"This especially means you, Finn."

*Static*

"Agreed! Over."

*Static*

"I'll make sure he gets rid of them, Quinn. We're on our way. Over!"

After abandoning their soiled clothing and materials, they collect their items and hurry over to the shelter before the heavy downpour can fall. One by one they quickly start clambering up the ladder.

Quinn ushers them inside and then she's pulling up the side ladder and moving to the entrance.

She's already soaked thoroughly before she can even draw herself into the opening. A quick survey of the area and then the hatch is closed and she's sliding down. Her clothes are slick from the water and she almost slips but manages to catch herself at the last moment.

Her landing is barely passable and a towel covers her vision as soon as her boots touch base. She reaches up and pulls it off and Santana's there, greeting her with a wide smirk. The other two cheerleaders have managed to avoid most of the rain due to their rush and she's smug because of it.

"You totes look like a drowned rat, Q."

Quinn pulls off her hair tie and deliberately flips her wet hair to the side. Santana scowls when the water hits her and Quinn gives her a grin of her own.

"Thanks, S. I don't know how I would live without you," she responds before she starts toweling dry her hair.

Santana opens but closes her mouth when a voice interrupts.

"San, can you help me? I think I have water in my ear."

She wants to insult Quinn but there are more important things at hand.

"I totes get mines back, Q. Remember that." And then she's making her way over to the taller blonde.

With the towel covering her head, Quinn stops drying her hair and sighs. A thought occurs to her and she really hopes that the rain isn't contaminated.

And if it is, well.

\-\

There's a small queue for the shower room as they all wait their turn to wash with soap and the rest of the peroxide but, eventually everyone is clean, dry, and making their way back into the Main Room wearing a change of clothes.

They all take their seats at the table as Puck(surprisingly) mans the stove and prepares their food.

It's a special treat today, in celebration of Kurt's diagnosis.

The coffee maker has been switched on and the cups are filled and their late lunch is served.

Quinn's the last to emerge, familiar side braid in her hair and dressed in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt covered by her McKinley hoodie. As soon as she practically collapses into her usual seat, a plate of pan fried tater tots and a fresh cup of coffee is pushed her way.

"Thanks."

She foregoes the ketchup just like everyone else because and they all dig into their meals. They're all surprisingly hungry despite everything and when Quinn's the first to finish her portion, she sips at her coffee and waits for the others.

One by one, the forks are lowered and Puck announces his satisfaction with the food with a loud belch, earning him disgusted looks once more for his outstanding table manners.

The creamer in the coffee helps dull the bitterness and Quinn makes a mental note to find some hot chocolate mix before she places her cup down.

Expectant eyes are looking towards her because she's leader and there's that usual fear that overwhelms her because she still doesn't like holding their lives in her hands. She ignores it though, because she's really good at that and straightens up in her seat despite her weariness.

Meeting time.

"Alright, as you guys know, we've been here for five days now. First day was the setup. Second day," she glances at Santana and Brittany briefly as she taps the table with her fingers, "was gathering supplies. Third day was when Kurt was possibly infected and the fourth day is when we found the tunnel. Today's the fifth day; Kurt's fine and we've managed to clear out most of the school yard, which is good. What we need to do now though is list out our priorities and figure out how we're going to get out of here. We've wasted a lot time even if we had good reasons to."

She looks around at their worried expressions because it's been five days. Five, very short, but very long days. The longer that they're here, the higher the chance that their window of finding a way of escaping is closing, fast.

"Well," Rachel says after a moment. "Our highest priority is to procure a working vehicle that will enable us to make the travel to Indiana."

Puck nods in agreement. "Second would be to keep the shelter well stocked—we don't know how long we'll be here and we need supplies to stay alive."

"What about finding survivors?" Brittany asks.

No one responds and Quinn turns to the other blonde.

"If we see anyone and if it's safe enough, we'll help. But that's no longer one of our worries. The few survivors we've run into have placed us in danger every time, even if it wasn't on purpose. It's harsh, I know, but if we want to survive we'll have to put ourselves before anyone else."

It's a dose of the unforgiving world that they've stepped into and Quinn locks eyes with Brittany because she knows, that out of everyone in the group, the taller blonde is the most sympathetic.

"Don't be a hero unless you're willing to sacrifice your life."

Quinn lets the message sink in before she brings up the next topic.

"We don't have much to work with and, judging from everything we've seen, I think it's safe to say that those lights are from the hospital. And unfortunately, it's our only lead at this point."

"Are those lights even still on?" Kurt questions.

No one's sure.

"It's hard to tell during the day, even with the clouds," Quinn answers. "If the rain lets up tonight we can double check. I've been thinking though, even if those lights are on, it doesn't mean that whoever turned them on is still there. Five days have passed—plenty of time for them to leave. Question is, did someone go inside to turn them on, or was someone already there? And, what's exactly providing the electricity? Power's down for the whole city, and I'm sure I've never seen any lights on in the southwest until the first day we were left here. Did they switch on an emergency generator, or..." she trails off, because she doesn't know.

"Further more," Rachel says nervously, "if the lights were turned on sometime during the day of the evacuation, how did they gain access to the hospital in the first place? Even if they were originally inside, the southwest area was and actually still is, thriving with zombies."

"It had to have been the military!" Finn declares. "Who else has that much firepower and guns and stuff to defend themselves against zombies?"

"Maybe," is Quinn's response. It makes sense, even if Finn was the one who said it. "So, say, most of the military is assigned the task to help protect the city, while there's another group at the hospital for some reason. Maybe, because they know the city is going to be abandoned, they go in, find the generator or whatever and turn on the lights...so they can find something that was left behind?" She shrugs her shoulders, not sure where to take this.

"Maybe...maybe someone left their diary in there?" Brittany suggests because she remembers how sad she had been when she couldn't get hers.

"Had to be something special if they were willing to step into the hotspot for that," Puck tells them. He remembers how many zombies they saw on their way towards the southwest.

"What other information do we know? Oh! Quinn," Rachel looks to the blonde, "were you able to acquire anything of significance while searching those bodies earlier?"

The cheer captain merely reaches into her sweater pocket and pulls out the set of keys (soaked and cleaned with soap and peroxide, twice) and lays it on the table as an answer. "Only these."

Puck grabs them and holds them up for examination. "One of these are for a padlock of some sort. It's different than keys used for homes or buildings."

Quinn points to the second key. "What about the other one?"

"A commercial building, something with heavy doors," he determines. "It's a four sided key—those locks are harder to pick open and the keys are hard to duplicate. It's not impossible, but the extra time it takes could deter any possible amateur thieves."

"Keys to a hospital?" Quinn throws out the suggestion that everyone's thinking.

"Possible, but," he shrugs, "we can't know for sure unless we find the lock that fits this key."

Puck slides them back to her and she's about to slip it into her pocket when Rachel holds out her hand from across the table. Quinn raises an eyebrow at her and deposits it into her outstretched hand.

Rachel starts turning the keys over as Quinn continues their discussion. "If we can figure out where these keys go, maybe they'll also give us some answers, like why Dr. Miller was even here in the first place? New York is a pretty good distance away and unless his zombie somehow shambled its way many, many miles across numerous states, I think it's safe to assume that he died here. The fact that we also found another doctor's corpse too, right next to him means that they were at least working together when they died. Working in the hospital maybe. Maybe, they were the ones who turned on the lights."

Kurt rests his chin on his propped up hand and looks around. "Maybe, this Dr. Miller went to New York, but he came back to Lima when the meeting was over and Santana didn't know about that?"

Santana crosses her arms across her chest, almost defensively before replying. "It's possible. Contact with my Dad was pretty rare before they evacuated and even then it was mostly a hi and bye kind of thing."

"Maybe," Finn interrupts suddenly, "maybe Dr. Miller had to fly back to Lima, because he's the one in charge of this super secret zombie project that they have running in the hospital. And they have a secret lab underground where they—"

"Do you even listen to yourself when you talk?" Santana asks him as she gives him an angry glare.

"That, actually might be a possibility Finn," Rachel says as she gives Quinn back the keys and everyone looks at her in disbelief. Quinn merely pockets them as Rachel confidently receives their stares.

Santana scoffs. "Listen, I know you're trying to be, I don't know, supportive of each other, or whatever you want to call it, but—"

"No, Santana, it's—" Rachel pauses, takes a deep breath and exhales, "hear me out first. Please." Her voice is almost pleading.

Quinn shoots Santana a pointed look and she sighs. "Ugh, fine."

Rachel shifts in her seat before she begins voicing her thoughts. "I'm merely taking everything into consideration. From the information that we have gathered about these zombies, we already know what attracts them to a certain area."

"Blood and heat," Finn responds confidently. He seems almost proud he knew the answer.

Rachel stops herself from huffing in annoyance at his interruption before continuing. "Correct, not to mention noise as well. Think back to when this whole situation first began: the southwestern area has been labeled as a 'hotspot' almost since day one. The initial infections were also reported to have occurred there as well. But, it was never explained how the infections came about, merely that some citizens were falling ill to a new disease. And, taking into account on how we now know that zombies are attracted to blood, and, to the very nature of a hospital, let's say that it would have been the ideal environment for a fresh, new zombie to...hunt, I suppose we'll call it. This will explain the main reason why the southwest was a hotspot: the hospital itself. The main problem with this is that the numbers of infections should have declined as soon as the hospital was evacuated."

"But it didn't," Quinn recalls. "There were more infections and that's when they started adding in more barricades. They also added in those guard posts to keep the zombies from bleeding into other parts of the city."

Bad choice of words, and she sees everyone swallow lightly.

Rachel purses her mouth into a grim line. "Exactly. Which doesn't make any sense, unless there was still something there, attracting them, or..." she hesitates, knowing that Santana won't take this lightly. "Or...the zombies themselves originated in the hotspot."

There's a hush when they realize what Rachel's implying.

Blink, and then Santana is diving forward, trying to reach the smaller brunette even with a good distance of table and dishware between them.

"San!"

"S! Calm down!"

Both blondes grab the angry cheerleader and pull her back into her seat.

"I will freaking cut you, you hobbit!" Santana snarls out as she pushes against strong hands. "'The zombies themselves originated in the hotspot,'" she repeats in a condescending manner. "My dad was the one helping to heal those infections! He was there, putting in extra hours, trying to find a goddamn cure, trying to save miserable lives of ungrateful people like you!"

Rachel looks almost calm, like she was expecting this, and Finn doesn't notice and puts a comforting arm around her shoulders before turning to the cheerleader. "Hey! Back off, alright?"

The singer shrugs off his heavy arm and clears her throat. "Santana, I wasn't trying to deliberately antagonize you. I apologize if—"

"Apologize? Apologize?" Santana tries to stand once more but Quinn and Brittany both hold her down.

"S, calm down," the shorter blonde orders her.

Dark eyes swivel to glare at Quinn. She's ready, a sharp retort on the tip of her tongue, but hazel eyes meet her stare dead on. It's a battle against wills and Santana steps down, grudgingly.

She grumbles angrily and leans into Brittany, feeling almost hurt that her captain was defending someone else.

Defending Rachel, freaking, Berry.

Gross.

"Rachel," Quinn turns to the other girl who nods gratefully.

She fidgets with the zipper of her jacket before she starts speaking once more. "Everything is mere speculation, of course, but when we consider all the facts, all the possibilities, there's no real explanation why there were still zombies and why they were still attracted to the southwest. After the hospital was evacuated, the southwest was also sealed off and any residents were expelled and businesses were closed. The area was abandoned, leaving the zombies with no one new to hunt. The utilities were also shut off in the area, rendering any possible heat, given off from equipment or any electrical substations, cold. Most importantly, with the military stations established the amount of infections should have been contained and should have eventually tapered off. There shouldn't have been any new victims falling into this disease because we were supposed to be protected."

"Well," Puck says after a beat. "Okay I totally get that, but what if, those zombies are from the other cities? Like Columbus or whatever, was overrun and they kept moving into our area because of fresh blood?"

"We would have heard it on the news," Kurt reminds him. "I mean, the infections were being covered 24/7. All the TV stations were giving updates by the minute; I would remember, I was so annoyed they cancelled all my shows."

Rachel nods. "That's a good point, Noah. But, say the reasons that they barricaded the city was to ensure that the zombies from outside could only enter in through the southwest and not because they wanted to keep the zombies inside from escaping—"

Santana moves to interrupt, but Quinn glances to Brittany and the taller blonde places a calming hand on Santana's arm. There's a noise that sounds dangerously like a growl but she keeps her mouth shut.

Rachel shifts a bit, so that she's further away from grabbing range of the taller brunette before continuing. "As I was saying, if the zombies were coming from the neighboring cities and those cities were already deemed a lost cause, our close proximity of such a dangerous area should have resulted in Lima being evacuated weeks ago instead of them merely adding in more barricades. We already had military at our disposal and the hospital had been evacuated previously; it would have been the simple task of rounding up all the remaining civilians and moving us to Indiana. But, they didn't."

"Think about it, Berry," Santana cuts in. She ignores the look Quinn gives her and presses forward. "Maybe, they didn't want to evacuate us to Indiana yet because the state couldn't accommodate everyone yet. They made room for the people in the hospital but enough room for another city? That would have been tough. Not to mention, what if other cities had also been evacuated to Indiana? No ways could they handle that many people at a time. They already had military here, so maybe it was easier for them to just defend the city rather than moving us. Save on resources, or something."

Quinn drums her fingers on the table. "Possible. But, that still means that they were hiding information from us. The authorities kept telling us that 'everything was under control.'"

"Duh, Q," Santana looks at her cheer captain exasperatedly. "If they told everyone the truth, there would've been a city-wide panic and riots and yada yada."

"Not like we could've left on our own anyways," Kurt adds in. "They started confiscating vehicles and everything to make those barricades. They emptied out my dad's whole workshop, equipment, the whole shabang. And then if we wanted to leave we had to book tickets with the military buses."

"I had tickets to leave this week actually," Puck confesses.

Finn turns to him, almost looking upset. "Hey, you never told me that."

He shrugs. "My mom was scared so she wanted to leave."

"Like I said," Santana interrupts readily, "the barricades were easier to put up rather than evacuating everyone and they might as well use stuff that's right there to make them; that's economical, very green. Something I know you'd appreciate, Berry. And, they probably didn't want to split their personnel between handling zombies and making sure that people didn't drive their cars into the barricades, so that's why they took away the vehicles. The buses? There's just too many losers in Lima and they obviously didn't have enough buses to move everyone at the same time, so they were moving people in small groups. It also gives whatever city the people are going to time to prepare shelters or whatever. It's not like we weren't able to leave! You just had to wait."

Rachel nods hesitantly, but it's obvious she's not convinced. "It still doesn't explain the increasing number of zombies that kept appearing in the city. The city's population was decreasing—why weren't the number of zombies decreasing in correlation? And, even though we were still allowed to leave, everyone was also required to go through a 'pre-screening' before they would actually hand out the tickets."

"The pre-screenings were to make sure people weren't infected so they wouldn't spread the disease! And more and more zombies were coming from the other cities!" Santana yells at Rachel while standing. "All this stuff that you're 'pointing out', doesn't exactly scream government conspiracy to me, Berry."

The singer doesn't back down and merely lifts her chin. "Then, explain to me why the lights in the hospital are on. And, the tunnel that we discovered."

Here, Santana falters because that's something that she can't explain. She doesn't know.

She falls back into her seat.

"Maybe, when they turned off the city's electricity, it accidentally turned on the emergency generator in the hospital?" Brittany points out. "Q mentioned that the generator here, turned on by itself when they cut the power."

Santana gives Brittany an appreciative smile and nods while pointing to the taller blonde. "See? Perfect explanation."

Rachel gives a small shake of her head. "You're forgetting, Santana, that they already turned off all the power in the southwest prior to the city wide evacuation. If the electricity shutting off was the trigger to turning on the emergency generator, it would have turned on weeks ago."

She pauses, waiting for Santana's rebuttal, but when there's no response, she continues.

"There's also no real explanation for the tunnel," she reminds them. "Which, points to the possibility that they're hiding something here, in Lima. Maybe even specifically, inside the hospital, and the school is a part of it. Think about it, issuing a sudden evacuation for a city would have drawn unwanted outside attention and would have raised some dangerous questions. They obviously wanted to keep up their activities without making it seem suspicious that the military was involved. Therefore, everything in the city is setup; the barricades, hospital evacuation, deliberate withholding of information. The fact that we had to rely on the military to leave the city is very telling of how they were trying to control every variable, at least towards the end. Which brings us full circle back to the lights that suddenly turn on after the evacuation and Finn's suggestion of some type of secret project, secret government type of hush hush."

"See!" Finn tells them. "Those video games are good for something!"

Puck shakes his head. "Dude, so not the time."

Quinn sighs and rubs at her eyes tiredly. "Okay, so, let's pretend—" she emphasizes this word as she quirks an eyebrow at Santana, "that they're hiding something in the hospital. Uhm, okay, we'll start with Dr. Miller. He's called in to be in charge of this 'secret project' or whatever they have here. His cover story is that...he's there to fill in a much needed spot in an understaffed area in the hospital; more specifically in the same department as Santana's dad. The same department that, eventually becomes the ones that help treat these infections. Him working besides them allows him to...I don't know, keep track of the zombies or whatever." Santana's sitting right next to her and she can just feel the heat from her glare. She ignores it. "He continues to work both jobs; hospital by day, secret lab by night. Infections continue to spread, but, it's not enough to be suspicious, so they continue. Then, he has to fly back to New York to report his findings and his supervisor tells him, stop working at the hospital, you need to concentrate 100% on this project now, so Dr. Miller goes back to Lima, but secretly."

"And then," Rachel fills in, "something even worse happens with whatever they're doing. They decide they can't continue to have the hospital operating; only half the staff are privy to this secret information and it's getting harder to keep their experiments under wraps. And that's, when they decide to initiate an evacuation of the hospital—getting rid of prying eyes and any chances that their whatever can be exposed. The ones who leave are the ones who don't know."

Here, she matches Santana's gaze and the cheerleader finally gets it; Rachel's trying just as desperately as she is to convince herself that her parents aren't involved in this zombie conspiracy. Santana's body language changes and she relaxes slightly against Brittany.

A nod of acknowledge and Rachel's eyes shine with unsaid understanding.

Quinn shakes her head and reaches for her cup, drinking in a mouthful of liquid to take away the bitter taste that's developing in her mouth. She licks her lips, reveling in the coffee flavor as this 'hypothetical' situation slowly comes together.

Rachel places her hands on the table and folds them to stop her nervous fidgeting. "They continue to experiment, but in complete secrecy this time. The infections continue to spread, and then...maybe something happens to Dr. Miller. They lose contact, and assuming the worst, decide to abandon the project and the military finally tells the Mayor to initiate an evacuation. But, not because of the zombie problem, but, because there's a possible contamination in the water source. It's their cover story in case anyone questions their motives."

"So they gather the rest of the people in the city," Quinn concludes. "And, most of the military goes to help with the evacuations while another team is sent to the hospital to find Dr. Miller, and..."

"What did they find, Q?" Brittany looks to her cheer captain anxiously.

Quinn remembers the bodies they had moved earlier. She gives Brittany a sad smile. "Nothing good, B."

Santana feels Brittany grabbing her hand and she holds on tightly.

The room is quiet as they all try to wrap their heads around this story. Even if this was a 'mere speculation' everything was starting to fit together perfectly.

"Man, I'm so on the fence about this," Puck says as he runs his hand through his mohawk. "On one hand, super cool conspiracy and for once we're in on the action and I feel like this is what my life has been building up to. On the other hand, we're surrounded by zombies and we're stuck in some government conspiracy thing without a way to escape."

"What about the tunnel in the school then?" Finn reminds them.

Quinn frowns as she thinks back to the day of the evacuation. There had been military personnel there, helping to force students to exit the school grounds. She doesn't know if the teachers were in on this, but, she remembers Brittany telling her that Mr. Schue wouldn't let her back into the school to get her diary—

Her eyes widen. "The school was under lockdown! Brittany wanted to go back inside to get her diary but she couldn't go back in—"

"Because they were using the tunnel to get to the Hospital!" Rachel finishes for her. "Maybe that's how they were able to enter the hospital to turn on the lights; the tunnel provides a backdoor in which they wouldn't need to worry about the zombies or about someone finding them out!

Kurt snaps his fingers suddenly. "Figgins must've been in on this somehow; it'll explain how he got the military to fortify the school before anything else. I always wondered why they would agree to that."

"Damn," Puck curses. "Okay, yeah this definitely sucks. If the school is in on this, then this situation totally blows. I knew teachers were evil!"

"It might also explain why Finn was able to find that fake wall in the AV club," Quinn says as she taps the table once more. "Considering how easy it was to gain access to it, JewFro would have found it eventually. That guy is super creepy, but I'll admit he knows how to dig for information. But, say that there's some type of special equipment needed to open the passage. The military uses it, opens it up, and they only temporarily fix the wall into place because they're expecting to exit that same way."

"The fact that they never patched up the wall again..." Rachel glances nervously around.

"They never made it out," Quinn breaths out. "The hospital is a definitely a bad idea. Even if it might be our only way out."

"Hey, wait," Puck sits up when he remembers something. "What if, they exited through that other part of the tunnel? Where it splits off? What if that's how they got out of the city! And it wouldn't have mattered if they left the wall like that; the city was being abandoned anyways!"

"It's a possibility!" Rachel says excitedly, brightening immediately. It's the best news, other than Kurt being not infected, that they've heard all day. "We should definitely investigate that section of the tunnel!"

"Calm down, hobbit," Santana looks at her, almost with a sneer. "We don't even know if any of this really happened. Not without actually going to the hospital and checking it out."

"It's a good lead though, S," Quinn tells her.

The taller brunette narrows her eyes at her captain, wondering if Quinn is saying this because she's trying to keep their hopes up, or if she's saying this to merely keep a certain person's hopes up.

"Yeah, the tunnel is the best lead we have so far," Finn adds in.

Santana rolls her eyes at that; Finn was definitely sucking up to Berry with that comment.

"Q?" Brittany looks at her cheer captain apprehensively. "Do you think, Coach was a part of this?"

Quinn pauses at the question. There's a lot of evidence stacking up against Coach at this point—the shelter, the fact that she has been teaching Quinn and Brittany marksmanship for a while now. The massive gun collection, the generator, the clothes. Even with all that though...

Quinn shakes her head. "No, zombies aren't Coach's style, B. If she had wanted people dead, she would have killed them herself. I think, Coach might have known that something was happening, but she didn't know what. And you know Coach, B, she was paranoid about everything. Even if nothing had happened she would have made a shelter just for fun."

Brittany seems satisfied with the answer and nods, obviously relieved.

"We should maybe try and leave before the lights in the hospital turn off," Rachel points out suddenly.

"Why?" Puck asks her.

"I think, there's a specific reason why our generator has attracted so little attention despite being an obvious heat source," Rachel explains nervously.

Quinn lets out a frustrated sigh. "And there's our time limit."

"Uh," Finn scratches his head. "What do you mean?"

Santana turns on Finn because he's the only one she can still target. Her words are biting and Quinn would have felt bad if she felt bad, but, she doesn't.

"You were the one who was looking all smug earlier, Finnept! 'Blood and heat'!" she mimics him. "To power a building that size, the generator would need to be like, as big as you and your hugemongous ego. Just thinking about it makes me feel cramped being in the same room as you. Bigger generator equals more heat. Do the math!"

"Oh," Finn looks abashed when he realizes what Rachel meant. He lowers his head, almost pouting.

Everyone waits expectantly for Rachel to step in and defend him or at least reprimand Santana for her ego comment, but when she remains quiet, Kurt clears his throat to break the awkward atmosphere that's developing.

"So, what will our plan of action be?" he asks while looking around the room.

Quinn thinks for a moment before answering. "First thing," she holds up her index finger, "even though there's the time limit, we still need to grab supplies. Bleach, peroxide, food, water, soap, clothes. Make those molotovs. Batteries, more bullets, lights, more weapons if we can find them. We want to be well stocked just in case anything happens. Next," she holds up a second finger, "the tunnel. At this point, it's all we have. We don't know where it'll take us, but hopefully we'll find something there."

"It might be a dead end," Kurt reminds her.

"Yeah, that's a possibility too," Quinn sighs out. "We're running out of time though. There's a third option, where we wait this out, stay safe, and hope that someone will find us. The problem with staying here is that, eventually we'll run out of supplies. Or," she pauses, "they'll overrun us."

Puck summarizes their situation eloquently. "So either way, we're kind of screwed."

Exactly.

/-/

By the time they hammer out all the details and plan their routes, teams, strategies, it's already time for dinner and the meeting is adjourned.

Tater tots and canned foods are again opened, cooked, eaten and their day is officially over.

From inside the Main Room, they can still hear the pitter patter of rain hitting the metal roof outside and they know it's not stopping anytime soon. Regardless, Quinn climbs up the ladder and, while using her jacket as a makeshift cover, she pokes her head through the opening and looks to the southwest.

She thinks it's ironic that this time she's relieved to find that the lights are still on.

She closes the hatch, slides back down, and rejoins the others.

\-\

They're all boned tired from all that body lifting, but none of them want to sleep yet, for various reasons.

Puck and Finn are feeling deprived of their games and as a last ditch effort, they've settled on some old fashioned Tic Tac Toe to pass the time. Maybe they can find some board games or something later. But, they're hoping they won't need them because they're anticipating leaving Lima soon.

Santana and Brittany are keeping busy, playing with the two cats and giving them some well needed exercise and pampering.

Rachel and Kurt are working their way through the material in the shelves, trying to determine exactly why Coach chose to have some of these magazines or books inside.

And Quinn? Quinn's now sitting at the table with all of their used weapons laid out in front of her. She's meticulously taking each individual rifle, gun, apart and cleaning them with a cleaning kit she had found buried behind the gloves in the storage room. Coach's gun collection is extensive enough that discarding any defective gun is nothing, but Quinn, still remembers that this was Coach's prized possession, left in her care.

She has already fixed the gun that gave Santana problems the other day, but the rifle that Rachel had used as a blunt weapon had been a lost cause—sentimental or not, even Quinn draws the line at cleaning off zombie brains.

Cleaning those keys had been bad enough.

Puck finally gets fed up from losing all the time because Finn cheats and decides that he's bored and tired enough to call it a day.

"'Night," he tells everyone.

He's the first to retire into the bedroom.

The yawning is infectious and one by one, everyone slowly caves into their boredom and exhaustion and they file inside to sleep.

The last three remaining, the only ones still awake this time, are Quinn, Rachel, and Finn.

Rachel is now sitting across from Quinn, reading "The Art of War" as the blonde continues her arduous task. She'll finish this gun and then go to sleep and it's obvious that Rachel is waiting for her. Finn is still awake because he doesn't trust Quinn and he's sitting besides his girlfriend looking bored and obviously very tired.

"Hey, uh," he finally says to her. Rachel doesn't respond, too absorbed in her reading. "Rachel?"

Quinn barely manages to hold back an eye roll as she runs the cloth over the barrel of the gun.

"Rachel!" Finn practically shouts in her ear and she jumps at the sound.

She almost throws her book at him in fright but stops just in time. "Finn!" she whispers out to him in a scolding tone. "The others are sleeping. If you wanted my attention you could have just whispered, quietly."

He has that weird constipated look on his face when he gets annoyed or confused and Quinn turns her face away, covering her mouth with her shoulder to keep the mocking laugh from escaping.

"But I did call you!"

"Shhh!" she shushes him and he frowns. "Now, what seems to be the problem?" She places the book on the table, marking the page and looks to him expectantly.

He grabs her hand, almost possessively, because he knows that Quinn's watching them even if she's pretending not to. "I just wanted to know when you were going to sleep."

"Oh, well." Rachel deliberately extracts herself from his grip and points to the book that she has set aside. "I wanted to finish this chapter first. I dislike stopping in the middle—the incompleteness bothers me and keeps me awake until I finally go back and finish it."

"Uhm, well, how many pages do you have left?"

"Well," she grabs the books and does a quick inventory of the chapter. "Ten or so pages, give or take."

"Cool. Uh, I'll wait for you then."

Rachel blinks, because it's unusual for Finn to wait for her for anything. She's also getting annoyed. "That's alright, Finn. It'll still take at least half an hour; I like rereading the passages to guarantee that I understand all the meanings and to make sure I didn't miss anything important that the author is trying to convey."

"Nah, that's cool. Like, I'll feel bad going to sleep first," he explains lamely and Quinn can't help it—she makes a noise that's a cross between a scoff and a snort before she can stop herself.

"Something wrong, Quinn?" Finn glares at her and she shakes her head.

"Nope." She doesn't even bother to look his way.

Rachel knows that Finn's jealousy is still there—and even though he believes that she has forgiven him, she really hasn't.

"Finn, I know you're tired, so I insist that you get your well needed rest. Don't worry, I will be along shortly; I just need to know how this chapter finishes first."

If it was anyone else keeping Rachel company, Finn would have easily agreed. But because it's Quinn, his gut instinct is telling him not to leave.

"It's cool, I'll wait. I'm not that tired anyways," he lies as he tries to disguise his yawn as a cough.

Rachel's too tired to argue right now, so she sighs, double checks the page that she is on and shuts the book close.

"Alright Finn, I'm going to get ready for bed now. So you won't have to wait." Her tone is almost hostile and it figures that Finn chooses to ignore it.

She stands up and glances over to Quinn. "Quinn—you should head to bed soon as well. It's been a tiring day."

Quinn nods in acknowledge before she starts reassembling the rifle that's in pieces in front her. "Almost done."

Rachel looks satisfied with the answer, and, leaving the book on the table, she heads over to the bathroom to start her daily bedtime routine.

Finn waits until she's through the doorway before he turns his attention back to Quinn. He leans forward and keeps his voice a whisper.

"I don't know what you're planning, trying to act like you're friends with Rachel, but I'm onto you."

He stands and gives her a threatening look that makes him look like an idiot before he walks over to the bedroom, almost strutting and giving off an attitude that would have made Santana deck him.

Quinn knows the fatigue is catching up to her because she can feel a headache developing, but whether or not it was also due to Finn's stupidity is anyone's guess.

With his back turned to her, Quinn points the now assembled, but still empty rifle at him and pretends to fire.

'Bang,' she mouths silently.

She doesn't know what she's done to receive his anger(that's a lie) but Quinn Fabray does not take lightly to accusations.

Especially from someone like Finn Hudson.

\-\

A good night's sleep has eluded Quinn since day one of this zombie world catastrophe that they've stepped into, so there's no surprise when she finds herself waking only after a few hours of rest. She's tired, but wide awake as she remains in bed, staring at the ceiling and watching the shadows that are cast from the lone solar light in the corner.

The cloudy weather had been enough to charge them, and they have been scattered around, serving their original purpose as nightlights inside the shelter.

She's listening to the sounds of the others sleeping; they're all just a mere breath, whisper away. She can feel the comforting embrace of Rachel's arms around her—if she closed her eyes, maybe she could pretend to lose herself in this feeling of safety. Forget the world outside—because zombies don't exist here.

Quinn though, is anything but a dreamer. She could have been, once upon a time, but a pragmatic father, grounded with extreme military discipline and almost evangelistic religious views have left her anything but.

Everything and nothing is slowly adding up, and what could have been a simple evacuation has turned into a deep sea of lies and they're drowning fast, with no rescue in sight.

And the scary thing is, one misstep, one mistake, one miscalculation is all it'll take for seven survivors to turn into six, into five—four,three,two,one.

She gently removes herself from Rachel's hold and sits up. A shift, a shuffle a few feet away, and Quinn knows that she's not the only one haunted by nightmares.

She sits and she waits, until she's sure the other two have fallen back asleep, before standing. Using the dim light, she navigates herself outside the sleeping area and into the Main Room. She sort of misses using her phone as a flashlight, but her phone is now on one of the shelves, powered down and useless because she didn't have the foresight to bring her charger.

She had set a few lights on the table earlier, knowing that she would wake up and she makes her way towards them before taking a seat across from her usual spot. She settles herself in and brings her arm up, holding her watch towards the light to check on the time.

It's 2:17am.

She releases a slow breath before lowering her arm and placing it on the table. Her arm brushes something and she glances down—it's the book that Rachel had set aside. She debates for a moment. It's been a while since she has last read "The Art of War" and decides that now's as good a time as any to refresh her memories.

Maybe she can pick up a few tips.

So, she grabs the book and moves the light closer.

It's quiet, save for the hollow sounds of rain, and that and the words of Sun Tzu are the only things keeping her company.

Quinn's not sure how much time passes, but she's well into the second chapter when she hears a soft whisper and then someone taking a seat besides her. She can't help it, she startles, snapping the book shut and is halfway to grabbing one of the rifles before she realizes who has joined her.

Noises tend to carry from the Main Room into the rest of the shelter, so she settles on conveying her annoyance to the other girl with a well placed glare. Rachel looks guilty—and Quinn almost feels bad.

They wait, making sure that no one else has woken up before they turn to each other.

"Sorry," the small brunette whispers quietly but Quinn shakes her head and shrugs.

Without asking, Rachel closes the distance between her and Quinn. A glance, and Rachel leans in and rests her head against the blonde's shoulder.

They remain close and Quinn opens the book once more. She deliberately readjusts so that the brunette has a better view of the pages. Rachel has already finished this chapter—but she doesn't mind rereading it. She could have missed something important earlier.

The storm outside continues to rage on.

And Quinn wonders how long they can keep their head up and above the water.