Chapter Text
[Kurt]
Kurt's first thought after hearing Sam mutter about zombies is, I love that boy, but he's so fucking weird. His second thought is, I really should hang out with the girls more. Watching the guys play xbox has stunted my vocabulary and made me vulgar. His third thought is, Sam needs to hurry up and get off the damn phone. I'm cold.
After that, Kurt does his best to press himself close to Finn and wait until Sam stops having the dumbest conversation he's ever heard. He'd only heard Sam's part of it, of course, so who knows what the other person was saying, but it sounded like they were egging him on and Kurt just wants to scream at them not to encourage mental illness. Believing in stupid shit like the zombie apocalypse should be a mental illness. They'd listed homosexuality as a mental disorder once, so it's not like it'd be that out of the box. He'd write a paper on it, except he's not in school anymore and he doesn't have to do stupid crap like that ever again.
He'd been a high school graduate for a whole week. Now all he had to do was figure out where the hell to go from here. He'd started working at the Lima Bean, and he had vague plans to move to New York at some point, and reapply for NYADA. Rachel had already been shipped off and was loving it, even if she and Finn were still heartbroken. Luckily Finn doesn't report for basic training for a few more weeks. Kurt will get to enjoy one last summer with his brother before he runs off and gets himself killed by attempting to use a gun for anything other than self-harm.
When he shivers, Kurt glares over at Finn's soft chuckle. "Shut up." He knows the rule. If Sam doesn't hurry the fuck up, I'm turning it off. When Sam had moved in, Kurt had been officially overruled. He and Finn had been fighting tooth and nail over the thermostat since their parents got married. Being an overly large jock, Finn got hot easy and always wanted the air on as high as it would go.
But Kurt didn't have the layers of muscle and fat that protected Finn. They'd made a deal that if Kurt let them blast the air, he got to use the guys as heaters. Since they were all pretty used to Kurt's habit of snuggling during movies, they'd agreed easily. Puck had been calling him a reptile for months, after being used as a pet heating rock all last summer.
Without comment, Finn just wraps his arm around Kurt, pulling him tighter into his side, going back to watching a re-run of Supernatural. Just as Kurt is about to embarrass himself by whining, Sam finally chokes out, "L-love you too, Dad. I will."
When he hangs up the phone he just sits and stares at it for a few seconds. Before Kurt can get a chance to yank him back onto the couch to heat his other side, Sam pulls up another name on his phone and calls it. Hearing his huff, Finn laughs again.
"Just go get a blanket, dude. He's obviously gonna be awhile." Sighing in defeat, Kurt gets up. "I wasn't really listening, I wonder what's up?"
Kurt shrugs before heading upstairs. "Apparently his dad is trying to prepare him for the zombie apocalypse or something."
Kurt goes up to his room and grabs a fleece throw out of his closet. Noticing that his phone is finally charged, he grabs it. As he's coming down the stairs already wrapping the thin blanket around himself, Sam hangs up. Sitting back on the couch, Kurt watches as Sam starts to pace the room. He seems to have moved from calm disbelief into full blown panic. What the hell did his dad say?
Almost like Kurt had spoken out loud, Sam turns to Finn and Kurt. "My dad called. He's at work, and he can't get home. He locked himself in the foreman's office, but it's not secure enough to last. He can't get through to my mom, so she's probably gone. I called Stevie and Stacey. They understand what's going on, apparently they can see some of it going down a few streets away, so I told them to lock the house down and cover the windows. Stevie, at least, should know what to do. It's still chaos there so they don't have to worry about being quiet or anything. Yet."
Finn opens his mouth to ask a question, looking really confused. Kurt cuts him off before he gets a chance. "Sam, sweetie... what the fuck are you talking about?"
Sam turns to him and watches him quietly for a few seconds before sighing. "You aren't going to believe me. I can tell. You're the type that you'll have to see it. What you need to know is that I've been preparing for this sort of thing for most of my life."
Not any less confused, Kurt goes to ask again but it's his turn to be cut off.
"My dad is one of those survivalists you hear about in jokes and shit. He keeps a Sheldon-Cooper-type survival kit in his car. He's been teaching us how to shoot guns and survive without technology for most of my life. Even Stacey can shoot."
"Uh, that's great, hun. Thanks for the trivia, but what's going on?" Kurt is starting to get frustrated. Either explain what's happening, or calm the hell down, jeez.
Sam sits heavily in the chair across from them and drops his head in his hands. Looking up at them, he says, "You won't believe me, but apparently there's zombies in Kentucky. Before Dad knew what was going on a horde of them had swamped the job site. He doesn't know how it happened or anything, just that they looked like zombies, didn't stop when hurt and that they were biting and trying to eat people. He managed to lock himself away and call us, but mom works in Florence and he couldn't get through. If the disease made it that far, to the tiny little town five or ten miles away from a city... most of Kentucky has probably already been hit."
Finn speaks up before Kurt can really process. Well, he was right. I don't believe him. Zombies aren't real.
"But- how- I-if zombies attacked, wouldn't it be on the news or the internet or something?"
Kurt wants to cut off this conversation. It's stupid. This can't happen, so why talk about it? Instead, Sam responds, "It's the middle of the day. I don't know where it started or how fast it spread but the news won't come on for a few more hours. It's not really the sort of thing people would think, 'I should tweet about this!' If you're being attacked by zombies you're either dead or not real fucking worried about what your facebook friends have to say about it."
Kurt giggles, "So there is a limit?" Sam just blinks at him. "I've been wondering for awhile if there was something important enough to happen that people wouldn't immediately run to social media about."
Sam glares at him. "My little brother and sister are trapped in our house by things that want to eat them. My mom is dead and my dad is probably being eaten right the fuck now. I don't find this very fucking funny, Kurt."
Kurt's smile drops off his face completely at how deadly serious Sam sounds. "Sam, I-"
"Just drop it, Kurt. I knew you wouldn't believe me. I know I joke around a lot, but my dad was really freaking out. He made me promise to go get Stevie and Stacey. Not today, it's too risky, but as soon as I can. Luckily he freshly stocked the house a few days ago, so they should be fine for a couple weeks if they're smart. But they won't make it if they leave the house." Sam's voice cracks. "He's only nine. Stacey doesn't turn eight for another four months. They need help, Kurt."
Still refusing to believe there are zombies out there eating people but realizing that Sam does, he gets up and hugs him. "Okay, hun. Okay. What do you want to do?"
Sam sniffs back a few tears that tried to escape. After a couple minutes, he pulls away from Kurt and get his phone back out. "First thing we have to do is get as many people here as we can so we can warn them." When he looks over, Finn has changed the TV to the local Fox channel, figuring if anyone would jump on a zombie story, it's Fox News. Finn turns the volume on low and then gets out his own phone, calling his mom.
As Kurt listens to Finn freaking out that his mom won't answer, he starts to wonder what the hell is going on. It can't really be zombies, right? Maybe there was just a group of really sick people that were being weird or something. Or a joke, maybe some assholes were playing a joke that got out of hand? Carole is probably just busy or in the shower or something... Dad should be past the meet and greet and in the conference by now. As Kurt is wondering if he should try to call him, his phone beeps.
When he pulls it out he sees that it's a mass text to all the members of glee club that are left in the city. Mercedes had already gone out to LA, Rory had flown home, and of course, Rachel was in New York. If this is really happening, there's nothing we can do for them.
Sam: Everyone meet at the Hudmel house! Like, NOW. It's really important, please humor me. Bring as many clothes as you can shove into a backpack or suitcase. Bring anything you think you can't live without, pretend you're never going to see your house again. PLEASE listen to me.
The blonde sighs. "I wish I could ask them to bring any guns or ammo their family has, but that's taking it a bit too far. That might freak them out."
Kurt snorts. "Ya think?"
Sam just huffs at him before saying, "I'm going to go see what all canned foods we have. Let me know if anything else happens."
Watching him leave the room, Kurt flops backward on the couch, glancing at the tv. Nope. Still Everybody Loves Raymond.
Hearing another beep from his phone, Kurt pulls it out, expecting a 'wtf?' type text from someone in glee. When he sees the text he cocks an eyebrow.
Dave: Uhh... u hear nething weird abt... nething?
Kurt: Wow. That's pretty open ended there Dave.
Dave: I just um... may have heard something rly strange and I was just wonderin if neone else had heard nething.
Kurt: Well, unless you believe in zombies, nope, not a thing.
Dave: Shit! You heard about it too? Whatd you hear?
Blinking at his phone, Kurt yells out, "Saaaam... I think something else happened!"
When he comes skidding into the room, Sam says, "Oh god, what now?" All Kurt does is show him the phone and he starts cursing. "Shit! God damn it. It might already be here, call him! That's Karofsky right?"
Kurt just nods, hitting the call button. It picks up on the first ring. "Hello? Fancy?"
"Hey, Dave. I'm gonna put you on speaker, it's just Sam and Finn though."
"Uh, okay."
When Kurt holds the phone out between him and Sam, the blonde boy speaks up, "What happened?"
A few seconds of silence pass before Dave says, "Well, a friend of mine got a call from his dad awhile ago. He's out of town and apparently... he got attacked in D.C. … by zombies. 'Course, my friend didn't believe it, but I figured it was worth calling someone about, just to make sure. His dad really isn't the joking type."
"Shit. They got Maryland too. At least we know what direction it's coming from. Finn! Try to text Rachel. Kurt, you can tell him what's up. Where does Burt keep the guns? And uh... call him when you get off the phone."
Sam runs back out without another word with Finn leading the way to the guns. A few seconds go by before Dave coughs, "Fancy?"
"Sorry! I spaced out."
"Uh, no problem... so what's going on?"
Kurt sighs, taking the phone back off speaker. "Sam's dad called, he lives in Kentucky and apparently he got attacked at work, said it was zombies and now Sam is freaking out. He even sent out a text to the entire glee club to meet up here. He's actually been preparing for something like this, according to him. His dad is one of those nut jobs you see on tv."
"Oh. Well... shit. So this could actually be going down? Or uh, something like it at least? I mean, if you guys heard about it from Kentucky and we heard it from D.C. then this could be real, right?"
"I guess, in theory. It seems like something's going on anyway. If you want to come, you're welcome to. God only knows who all will show up, or what will happen. It'd be nice to have someone to talk to if they devolve into screaming matches."
Dave seems to hesitate. Eventually he asks, "Uh, what about my friend? I can't really leave him here alone. And I don't think you want him in your house."
Kurt shrugs before he remembers they're on the phone. "I'm about to have a lot of people in my house that I don't want here. The more the merrier at this freaking point, as long as you can keep him in check."
"Sure, man. That shouldn't be a problem. Is there anything I should, I dunno, bring? Do? Somewhere I should stop?" Dave sounds like he's embarrassed to ask and Kurt can tell, He believes it. But he can tell I don't.
Instead of answering, Kurt yells out. "Sam!" When he pops his head back around the door, Kurt stands and turns to him. "Dave and someone else are headed here, they seem to believe you, he wants to know if there's anything he should bring."
Looking surprised, Sam says, "Uh, his clothes, like I said, and any guns, ammo, or weapons they have, since he believes us."
After relaying the message, Kurt turns back to Sam. "He said sure, but is there anything he should stop and get? Apparently money is no object, although I don't see how."
Smiling for the first time since he'd gotten the call from his dad, Sam says, "Uh... I'm not really sure. He shouldn't take too long, because I don't know when it will hit. Tell him to have his friend wait in the car but keep an eye on him in case he needs help getting out. But if he could stop by as many gas stations as he can and stockpile cigarette lighters, maybe buy those places out of toilet paper, because I'm pretty sure there will never be too much of that ever again."
"Did you hear that? Yeah. And he also told the glee club to grab anything from their house, like they're never coming back there. Oh! If money really isn't a problem, maybe buy out a bunch of pop from those gas stations and get a huge dinner from KFC or something. Wings, all of our guys love wings. Just get enough for like 20 people. I know there will be at least seven or eight of us. If Noah doesn't take the opportunity to pawn Sarah off on me, I'll eat a shoe."
"If you say so, Fancy."
Kurt sniffs primly. "I do. Thanks for offering."
"No problem, I'm gonna go pack a bag and get everything ready. We should be there in about an hour."
"Okay... Dave?"
"Yeah?"
Kurt bites his lip, making sure Sam has moved away before continuing, "It... might be true. It sounds like it is... but it's so freaking weird... just... be careful? Keep an eye out. If anything looks off, anywhere, at all, just go. Haul ass here. Okay?"
Kurt can hear the smile in his voice when Dave says, "I'll be fine, Kurt. I'll keep an eye out, and I'll have S- someone watching my back. We'll be there soon."
"Okay. Be careful!" After a quiet chuckle, the line disconnects. Kurt clenches his phone in his hand before dialing his dad's number. It connects on the third ring and Kurt sighs in relief. Maybe it's not actually true? Maybe we're all just overreacting?
When Burt answers, he sounds out of breath. "He-hello? Kurt?"
"Dad! Where are you? You wouldn't believe some of the crap we're hearing."
After a few seconds of silence, Burt responds, "Thank God you're okay... I'm uh, locked in a bathroom. I'm still in D.C. obviously. Kurt, there's something I need to tell you."
Kurt feels his stomach clench. No. This isn't happening. It's not...
"Kurt?"
Clearing his throat, Kurt sinks back down on the couch, "Yeah, Dad?"
"Have- ugh. Have you heard anything about what's going on? You sound normal, so I guess it hasn't started there yet."
"Wha- what are you talking about? What hasn't started?"
"Kurt... there's things here. Like, movie monsters. Zombies or whatever. At least, they look like people, but some of them have been hurt and don't seem to care, so maybe they're dead... I don't know. You know I don't watch that crap. But... they eat people, or try to. They... attack and don't care who it is. At all. You'd think that it would matter, or they'd somehow know... but no. They... don't. The only thing that stops them is being hit or shot in the head, just like the movies... Kurt? You there?"
"Yeah... yeah I'm here, Dad. So... it's real? What Sam heard from his dad? There are hordes of zombies attacking?"
"Yeah... started a few hours ago. I couldn't bring myself to call you... in case you weren't... It seems to take anywhere from 20 minutes to almost an hour for them to change. Depends on where they got bit, probably. Takes longer if they actually die, I guess. That or they got that part wrong in the movies... maybe they won't get back up?"
Kurt feels a sob rising in his chest. It's real. It's really happening. And Dad isn't here. He's already dealing with it. He's far away, I'll never see him again.
"Dad! You have to get home! You have to make it back here. I can't go there, not if it's already started. Maybe you can get back here before it spreads and we can go. We can just run and go somewhere safe, like in the mountains or something. Hide out in a cornfield in Nebraska. You just have to get home!" Kurt can feel the panic rising and hears Sam and Finn walking back toward the room. He wants to stop, to pull it back, and lock out the realization that it's not a joke, it's not fake. But he can't. He never gets a chance. Because Burt's next words are choked out, sounding weak.
"Kurt... I got bit."