Look Where We Are (1/?)
Title: Look Where We Are (1/?)
Pairing: Rachel/Santana
Length: 4,138+
Spoilers: Up to season 3
Summary: It was the end of the world and Rachel had no idea what to do, who knew she would fall in love with the unlikeliest person while trying to figure it out? Unbeta'd. Zombie apocalypse AU.
Rachel supposed she should have seen the signs earlier, looking back now it was rather obvious, but she doubted that anyone would have expected what had happen to, well, happen.
She certainly didn’t.
It had started out as a regular day. She was thinking of the things she usually did, Glee club and since it was her senior year she was thinking about NYADA too, with the only difficult choices she had to make were of what song selections to nominate without anyone hating them. Though she thought she had gotten better at that by now, at least they could stand her now.
Rachel was sitting in the library when she heard someone sitting next to her start coughing hard. She frowned slightly, it seemed like everyone was getting sick lately. Was a cold going around? Sighing, she tried not to think about it while she went back to her work.
The rest of the day was pretty normal, aside from more students getting sick, but Rachel just figured a cold was going around. The day ended with Glee Club, like usual, and she spent it in front of the room like usual. She looked around the room at the faces of everyone, who looked either annoyed or bored. She looked at Finn, her supposedly boyfriend, and even he didn’t look interested.
With a sigh she went back to her seat next to Finn, and Will walked up to the center of the room to talk about more selections. Finally the bell rang and everyone began leaving like usual. The rest of the week went by normally, though by the middle of it Rachel had noticed that it seemed people’s colds were getting worse.
Though Rachel didn’t think that much of it. Later that day, she watched the news with her father Hiram, who had just gotten home from the hospital. As she watched, a report came up about a “rabid” person biting people in a store before being escorted away. When she saw what hospital the people who were bit stayed at, which the hospital Hiram worked at, she turned to Hiram.
“Are they fine?” She asked and he smiled and nodded.
“They just got a few bites, the guy was probably on drugs.” He said and Rachel didn’t think much else about it. It wasn’t until the next day when she mentioned how sick some of the students at her school looked that Hiram had told her that he was going to take her to the hospital the next day to make sure she was okay.
Rachel thought he was being too worried, after all she felt fine and was in perfect health like always. When she tried to tell him that, though, he kept saying he was going to take her anyway, not even Leroy could talk him out of it. Rachel gave up and headed to her room, knowing he had his mind set on having her taken to the hospital for a checkup.
The next day she was called in sick and Leroy took Rachel to the hospital, since Hiram was busy working and couldn’t do it himself. As she walked in, she expected it to be relatively quick, however once they got to the waiting area, she realized it was going to be far from quick. Apparently the hospital was extremely busy, and once Leroy finished checking in, they went to wait in the long line.
Once they sat down Rachel looked around, there were people much more sick than her and she could see doctors and nurses running around. Rachel frowned and tried not to think about it, after all, whatever was going around couldn’t be too serious. After an hour or so of waiting, Leroy left to use the bathroom, and Rachel closed her eyes and leaned her head back, hoping she would be called soon and get this over with.
Suddenly, she heard a commotion from somewhere down the hall and she opened her eyes to see what was happening. A nurse had come out of the farthest room away from her, slamming herself to the wall in her rush. Rachel furrowed her eyebrows at the fear on the nurse’s face, confused at what could cause her to be that afraid.
She didn’t have to wait long to see why, though, because soon she heard scream and yelling from inside the room, making everyone turn their heads. A woman came out holding her arm, which had blush gushing out, and it seemed the entire skin was gone.
She looked at the nurse with an equally fearful expression and took a step forward, but the nurse quickly pushed herself in the opposite direction, away from the bleeding woman. The woman slowly walked to the wall and slid down it, crying. A man came out of the room and kneeled in front of her, calling out for help.
Then suddenly a boy in a hospital gown came out of the room. He seemed to be around Rachel’s age, and she watched as he limped towards the man and lunged at him. Her eyes widened as she watched him bite into the man’s neck, ripping the skin off completely.
Everyone watching was quiet, mostly due to shock, before realizing what they were seeing erupted in frantic screams as they ran away from scene. Rachel, who was still in shock, was quickly knocked down. She grunted in pain as a foot collided her face and she brought her arms up to cover it. She felt the steps of everyone’s frantic run around her, and felt a few more kicks in her stomach.
Just as she wondered if she was going to be trampled to death, she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms pull her up and at first she thought Leroy had come back, but when she looked up at the person she realized it wasn’t Leroy. Instead, it was another doctor, covered in blood, and she looked down at the name tag, which said Lopez.
“Run,” He said quickly, making her look back up at him. He looked behind him, where the boy was, and Rachel followed his gaze. The boy was gone, but they saw the man and woman getting up, looking exactly as the boy had, with skin hanging off them. The doctor looked back at her and began pushing her before she could say anything. “Go.” He repeated, giving her one final push into another hallway before running in the opposite direction.
She stopped and turned around to look at him and opened her mouth to say something to him when she noticed the man and woman running towards her. She gasped in surprise, making the man turn his head and look at her. She looked at the man staring at her, at his eyes that looked… dead and pale. She looked at his neck wound, which was dry by now but it was clear he had lost a lot of blood. Too much to be walking now.
He began walking towards her and she quickly turned around and ran away. As she ran, she saw other people running and more of those… things. Where they even people anymore? She saw one of them latch onto someone running and Rachel looked away as she heard the scream. She didn’t need to see to know what was happening. She rounded another corner, to a more deserted hallway and looked behind her to see a different one of those things chasing her.
She looked around and saw a wheelchair in the hallway and grabbed it. She pushed it as hard as she could to the thing running towards her, and it wasn’t much but at least it slowed him down when he ran into it. It gave her enough time to run away from it to another hallway, which unfortunately had one of those things in it.
It looked up at her and she skidded to a stop. She couldn’t go back, that thing was there, but she couldn’t go forward either. As it stood up from its meal, another person with its insides ripped out, she looked around for a place to hide. She ducked into one of the nearby hospital rooms and just as she began closing the door, it moved to the door way with its arm extended, effectively stopping her from closing it fully.
She jumped back in fear when it began swinging its arm, and she immediately regretted it as she watched it push open the door. She frantically looked around for something, anything to defend herself with, and her eyes landed on the IV pole. She ran to it and grabbed it and looked at the thing before her. He looked at her and snarled at her before running to her and she instinctively raised the pole and swung as hard as she could to its head, making it stagger to the side.
“I-I’m so sor-” She began, forgetting that it wasn’t exactly human anymore, and lowered the pole as she did so. She stopped suddenly when it regained its footing and charged at her again, walking straight into the pole. Her eyes widened as it went through its stomach, making it pause a little, but it still went forward.
As she watched it still wave its arms, determined to try to reach her, she knew there was no way it could be even a little human still. A human didn’t bite people’s skin off, a human wouldn’t be able to survive having a pole through its stomach and move around like it wasn’t even there. A human wouldn’t look so dead.
The thing began swinging its arms more she leaned back, afraid to get in its grasps. She began looking around for something else to hit it with, since stabbing it through the stomach didn’t work. Finding nothing, she began panicking and looked back at the thing. Suddenly an idea came to her, and pushed the thing down onto the floor as best as she could. Once it was laying there, she pulled out the pole and raised it over her head.
She paused for a few seconds, looking at it, reminding herself that it wasn’t a person anymore. It reached up towards Rachel and she brought the pole down before it could grab her. She watched as the end of the pole smashed into its head with a sickening sound. She brought it back up before smashing it down again, squirting blood everywhere. She repeated the action until her arms burned and she pulled it out one last time.
She was breathing heavily, dazed, before realizing what she had done. She dropped the pole and backed up until she hit the wall and slowly slid down it, hidden by the bed. She was staring at the face, or rather lack of one now, when she heard gunshots in the distance.
Were they there before?
She decided not to think about it, instead she brought her knees up to her chest and brought her hands up to her ears, but she could still hear it. She shut her eyes as if that could make it go away, and that she would wake up in her bed from this nightmare.
____________________________________________
Rachel groaned as she slowly began opening her eyes, when had she passed out? She stayed on the floor and looked at her surroundings, confused. She noticed a foul smell and looked in the direction of it and gasped.
Laying not far from her was the thing from earlier, and as she stared at its head everything came back to her and she quickly forced herself to look away. Suddenly she realized how quiet it was and she slowly leaned up and looked over the top of the bed.
She stared at the doorway and waited for someone to walk past it. However, after a few seconds of seeing nothing, she slowly pushed herself up on her shaky legs and grabbed the IV pole. She walked around the body in the room and slowly walked to the doorway. As soon as she reached it, she poked her head out and looked down the hall on both sides, only to find it empty.
She walked out of the room and walked down the hallway, intent on finding her dads. They would know what to do, at least, she hoped they would have some idea. They definitely had to have more of an idea than her. As she walked, she looked around the hallway at the mess it had become so quickly. There were blood trails and splatters everywhere, with things knocked down and a few dead bodies laying around here and there, but she kept an open eye for her dads.
They had to be alive, they needed to be alive.
“Dad? Daddy?” Rachel called out, half-whispering. It was so quiet that even that seemed to be loud. Just as she turned the corner she saw one of those things, and she quickly backed up and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes to compose herself before opening them again and poking her head out to look at them more closely.
There were two of those things down the hall, facing away from her, and kneeling down. Rachel could see the third person’s legs sticking out past them, and she knew they were busy eating. As she looked at the two eating fleshing, she noticed one had a doctor’s coat and the other had patient’s gown on, and she wondered if that was the same boy that she had saw first.
She shook her head, trying to get the image of him out of her mind. She needed to find her dads anyway, and then she could finally feel safe. She looked back out in front of her, where the hallway she was in extended. Taking a deep breath, she took one last look at the two eating flesh before sneaking past them as quiet as she could. When she finally passed that corridor, she let out a sigh of relief and walked forward.
“Dad? Daddy?” She called out again when she still didn’t find them. When she was met with silence she called out to them again, but was met with silence again and she continued walking forward until she heard a sound coming from behind her.
She stilled and gripped the IV pole as she looked behind her, where the groaning was coming from. As she stood and waited, she raised the pole, ready to swing. One of them rounded the corner, the one with the hospital gown, and charged at her.
Once it was close enough, Rachel swung, and she watched as the pole connected with its head, making it jerk to the wall and slide down it. She looked at it for a few seconds, waiting for it to get up, and when it didn’t she looked back up and started to walk forward slowly towards the other one.
As she took small steps she heard the groaning of it slowly coming towards her, clearly it was slow to pick up on her presence. When the groans got louder, she stopped walking and held up the pole, ready to swing as soon as she saw it. Finally, it turned the corner and her eyes widened.
There, standing in front of her, was her dad Hiram.
His medical coat was ripped and covered with blood, and as Rachel looked at it she saw the nametag that still clung to it, with his face and name on it. She slowly looked back up at his face, and he tilted his head a bit as he stared at her.
Rachel gulped as he stared at her and she felt her heart still and her body shake. He stared at her for a few more seconds, and Rachel thought that maybe he would recognize her. However, it became clear that he didn’t when he bared his teeth at her, skin hanging from them, and charged at her.
She shook as she raised the pole, watching in fear as he charged at her. She forced herself to think that it wasn’t him, it wasn’t her father who helped raise her. It was a thing using his skin. That was it.
Just as he was close enough, she screwed her eyes shut and swung. She knew she connected with his head by the sound of bone crushing. She heard a smaller thump, and then nothing. Her arms suddenly seemed heavy and she brought the pole down, letting it hit the floor with a resounding thump. Her body began shaking and it wasn’t long until sobs escaped her throat and she finally opened her eyes to look at the body at her feet.
As soon as she saw it, the crushed in skull, she looked away. She dragged her feet and walked past him, to where he… it was eating someone else. Surprisingly, she had to walk longer than she had thought, it seemed those things could hear pretty well. Either that, or she was too loud. She wasn’t sure but she didn’t have the energy to figure it out.
Finally, she reached the hall she had snuck past and walked down it, to the body that laid there. She regretted it as soon as she did, because laying there was her daddy, Leroy, with his stomach ripped open and its contents either gone or spilling out of it. Her eyes stung with tears as she backed up with her hand covering her mouth, feeling sick to her stomach.
Rachel kept backing up, but she couldn’t look away from the gruesome sight. She ended up backing up until her back hit the wall again before sliding down it. She sat there, crying and she didn’t care if those things heard her, why should she? Her parents were dead, she had hit one of them in the head herself. After some time she finally stopped crying, and she sat there just staring at the body. She still felt heartbroken that her parents had just died, but she was too tired to feel anything else. She felt numb.
She contemplated just sitting there, letting one of those things get to her and put her out of her misery. After all she had no one now. As she looked at the body, she heard groaning and she looked in the direction of the sound and saw one of those things slowly coming towards her with a broken ankle.
As she stared at it, she couldn’t help but be angry at it. It killed the only people that cared about her, turned Hiram into one of them. She pushed herself up and went to where she had dropped the IV pole and picked it up. She looked at it for a second, thinking about what she was going to do, before gripping it tighter and walking to the thing coming her way. As she neared it, she broke out to a run and smashed its head, making it go down in an instant.
She looked at it laying on the floor before looking up and groaning. Apparently, it had rounded more of its kind and they were all walking towards her. She turned around and ran away before they had a chance to get to her, and suddenly stopped.
She had no way of getting home. She couldn’t run to her house, and walking was too far. She looked back at Leroy’s body before running to it and looking through his pockets, eventually finding the keys to his car. She got up and ran back to the corridor she had come from and looked over to see the things had gotten closer to her, and they looked up as she ran in front of them. She quickly ran down the corridor with them chasing her, and she kept going until she reached the lobby.
Once she made it inside, she looked around and thankfully saw none of those things, but in as she looked, she missed the body on the ground and she tripped over it, falling onto the ground rather ungracefully. She hissed in pain and looked down at the body and realized it was of a police officer and she felt her heart sink a bit. If a police officer couldn’t handle those things, how was anyone else supposed to live? She heard something fall and she looked up to see one of those things come from a different corridor and pass the counter, knocking over one of the clipboards.
She looked down at the body and spotted the gun a few inches away from the officer’s hand, and she bit her lip. She looked back up, the thing wasn’t that close yet, and she looked back down again. With shaky fingers, she began undoing the gun strap the man had, which was somewhat hard to do due to his weight. Somehow, she got it off, and she quickly grabbed the gun and aimed it at the thing in front of her.
She had never actually used a gun before, but she’s seen enough of movies to vaguely know how to use one. Plus, when she had dated Puck, she heard him talk about them and even agreed to let him explain to her how to use one. Rachel turned the safety off and she tried to still her hands as she aimed the gun at it, but knew she couldn’t. Remembering everything Puck had told her, she pointed it and fired.
The bullet missed its head and went into the chest area instead. Having heard the bullet, it started walking faster, and she could hear shuffling and moaning somewhere farther in the hospital. She fired again, only to miss, and she mentally cursed. The third time she fired, it was much closer, and she finally hit it in the head, making it fall to the ground in a second.
She didn’t waste any time, and grabbed the gun and it’s strapped, along with the IV pole, and ran out of the building with her arms full. When she made her way to the parking lot, she saw it was mostly empty and the cars that were remaining were obviously bumped into when everyone frantically left. She ran between the cars with those things chasing her, and eventually found Leroy’s car. When she had finally gotten the door unlocked, she threw herself inside and dumped everything to the back and closed the door just in time.
Almost as soon as she had shut it, those things caught up and slammed themselves onto the side. She felt the car tip a little bit, and she began panicking. She quickly started the car and slammed her foot on the gas, making it jerk forward and away from those things. She didn’t take her foot off the gas until she was out of the parking lot, and even then only slowed down a little bit.
The roads were just as empty, and Rachel wondered how long it took everyone to pack their things and leave town. Apparently, not that long, because there was still light out, and nearly half the cars were gone. As she looked at the houses she passed by, she saw some of them had doors left open and Rachel knew they were either dead or left town. After what she saw, she thought anyone would be crazy to leave their door open.
It didn’t take long to get to her house, and as soon as she reached it she slowed down and nearly forgot to put the car in park before turning it off. She just wanted to get home. She grabbed the things she brought with her from the hospital and jumped out of the car. She ran to the door as fast as she ever did before, and as soon as she opened the door and stepped inside, she slammed it shut again.
She leaned against the front door, and she stood completely still. There was no sound, nothing from outside, and nothing from inside either. Her dads were dead, they wouldn’t be home waiting for her anymore. As she thought about them again, she let the things drop to the floor and she slid down the door. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She covered her head and began crying softly.
She was home, but it sure as hell didn’t feel like home.
The world had gone to shit and there were those things, no not just things, more like the undead walking around lifelessly. This was no sick dream, as much as she wanted it to be, this was real life. This was her life now, and she didn’t know if she could handle it.