Title: All Those Who Wander Are Lost 10/10 - Epilogue
Rating: PG-13
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Kurt Hummel/Sam Evans (with other pairings thrown in along the way)
Author Notes: Last chapter, guys. LAST. FREAKING. CHAPTER. It had to end sometime even though I didn't want it to. This has been just awesome and you Kummers have been amazing and personally, this fic has to be the best thing I've ever written and I'm so glad you all liked it. : D
Warning: language, sexual situations.
Disclaimer: I don't own. Maybe a good thing. There'd be gay sex every where. With Kurt. Everywhere.
Montréal turned out to be the safe haven they'd been forever searching for. In the center of the vast city was the Montréal Military Base. Inside, they were keeping tabs with areas registered safe. There was a map that covered the entire wall. Blue pins meant safe. Red pins meant unsafe. Yellow meant undetermined.
Most of the map seemed to be covered in reds and yellows across the board. Boston was marked red. There were more blues that people had expected: Paris, France, Toledo, Spain, San Diego, California, Sydney, Australia, Santiago, Chile, Jacksonville, Florida, Houston, Texas, Montréal, Canada, Iquitos, Peru, Pueblo, Colorado, Little Rock, Arkansas, Alexandria, Egypt, Cape Town, South Africa, Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Xi'an, Guiyang, Nanchang, and Kashi, China, New Delhi, India, Oslo, Norway, and Samara, Russia.
The base kept in contact with all of them.
Sue would never tell anyone how she cried in the privacy of her room when spoke to survivors in Iquitos, Peru. In a world where she expected to be the only one left in the near future, to hear people and their voices, to hear hope from elsewhere on the planet – it could bring anyone to their knees. And it brought Sue Sylvester down with it.
Montréal was a lively city despite the snow and the world outside their walls. People still went on with their daily business. There were patrols that were observed of course, but hunters also went out and retrieved what food they could to help keep shelves stocked and people fed.
People worked, but they didn't work for money anymore. There was no point. They worked for self-satisfaction and for the goodness of others. They cleaned houses, they patched pipes and repaired electrical lines, they educated children, they took care of the sick, they shoveled streets, they did everything.
It was as if the apocalypse had brought with it the world's greatest collaboration.
Slowly, so very achingly slow, more blue pins were tacked to the board.
The radio contacts were becoming stronger.
It's another two months when the snow's becoming less and the air is less biting. Christmas passes with eggnog (spiked with god only knows what, courtesy of Puck) and new friends and they sing as a group for the first time in weeks upon weeks.
Christopher was learning to crawl when Boston's red pin was replaced with a blue. Sam was seated across from the infant, clapping his hands and urging the child to come to him. Kurt was doing dishes in the hotel sink from lunch (which Christopher happened to get all over his new Marc Jacobs shirt – yes, Montréal had a top designer store, he nearly died) when Sue Sylvester came into their room. Their was stunned silence for a moment before Sue handed the large, boxy hand-held radio to Kurt. She smirked.
"It's Aretha. She wants to know if you're Malibu Barbie is keeping you too busy, or are you free to talk?"
The plate smashed into a million pieces all over the floor.
They talked for eight hours straight.
About five months later, Rachel went into labor. She's been teaching choir lessons with Mr. Shuester to the children who attend the makeshift school that was designated inside the military base. She's pulling a Julie Andrews "Do Re Mi" with the children when the odd tightening sensation starts under the weight of her belly. She's about two weeks from her due date, so she pays it no mind. She's back in the hotel room, and Finn's talking absently to her stomach, rubbing a hand over it as they're laying on the bed, watching Victor/Victoria when her water breaks all over the bed.
She's taken to the hospital. Electricity is shut down inside the building unless there's an emergency to be performed so as to save power if it were to ever go out. The halls are lit with encased candles. It gives the halls an warm, orange glow. Rachel's screams on the other hand, are not as sweet. They can be heard through each hallway in the building.
She's crying because it's hurts so much, and all she really wants is for this baby to be out. Finn's pretty sure his hand is going to break because Rachel's squeezing his hand so tight and won't let go. On her opposite side, Rachel's turning Kurt's shirt into a v-neck as she twists the collar into her fist with each contraction. He's hushing her quietly as Finn reassures her softly about what a great job she's doing, and that he loves her and it's going to be okay.
It takes hours, and she's sweating and sore and tired and all she wants to do is sleep –
"It's a girl." The midwife smiles tiredly as there's a sudden wailing that's filling the room and a pink, writhing, wet baby girl is place on Rachel's chest. Rachel's crying again, but this time, not from pain. It's from pure joy. Beside the bed, Finn is hoping up and down as he watches his daughter – his daughter – be taken and cleaned and weighed beside the bed before she's given back to them. All the while, Rachel's still holding his hand.
About an hour later, they're all gathered within the hospital room, beaming at the newborn.
"What's her name?" Asked Quinn. Inside of her, her heart suddenly aches for Beth and she prays that somewhere in the world, Beth and Shelby are safe and that she'll someday see them again. Rachel's face splits into a smile and beside her, Finn's grin is identical. Their eyes are on Puck who's watching the newborn with curious eyes.
"Sarah," Rachel says quietly. Puck's eyes snap upwards and meet her face. He blinks several times, as if he didn't hear right, and Rachel repeats the name once more, "Sarah Renana Hudson. Renana's Jewish for 'singing joyful sounds'." Puck looks torn between dropping to his knees and crying or hugging the life out of them. His eyes look back at back at Sarah and his eyes are beginning to water. He rubs at them with a chuckle.
"Thank you."
To almost no one's surprise, Rachel and Finn get married nearly a year after Sarah's birth. It's small and simple and quick, and Rachel's not even wearing a wedding dress. It's a white skirt and white shirt and Kurt's made her a bouquet of flowers from different colored fabrics. Her smile is honestly the best part of the ceremony and when they kiss, it's electric.
About two years after the outbreak, Kurt sees Mercedes again. Sam's gone with him to Boston, and the roads are clear the entire way through. There's even people at the gas stations who don't charge them money to take a full tank. Christopher's walking and babbling when they step from the car at the camp. It's nothing like they'd left it. It's larger by miles. Sam's got Christopher on his hip as they step from the car and the high-pitched squealing nearly knocks him off his feet as he watches Kurt and Mercedes collide into a bone-crushing hug and never let go.
Sue doesn't stay in Montréal. Her fame in undead ass-kicking (or so she calls it) is highly worshiped. Becky promises to look after Jean while Sue goes and helps those still in need. Jean tells Sue she'll pray for her and Sue smiles. She hugs both of them before she takes the guns and slings one over her back, another on her hip and a last in her ankle. She's got war paint under her eyes and Kurt finds that it completely clashes with her outfit, but the woman's locked and loaded, so he says nothing. They don't see Sue for another year, but the stories of her paths of destruction left across the United States shoot her into the category of a legend.
Mr. Shuester continues to be a teacher. It was what he was best at and soon, he's coaching in a glee club even his original club could be proud of. He still teaches Spanish to this day. Though, sometimes, he does get a bit carried away when some of the kids ask what it was like out in the middle of the hell it once was and he doesn't mind bragging just a little bit to watch their grow into saucers.
Quinn never forgets the day when Shelby Cochran walks through the gate. There's a young girl strapped to her back with hair that's dark and in messy pigtails and her smile and eyes are identical to Quinn's own, and her nose and ears are like Puck's. Shelby smiles, and ushers to girl to her who doesn't recognize Quinn, but hugs her anyway and pats her back when Quinn begins to cry. Puck watches with a crooked smile as the girl comes and hugs him to and he squeezes her tight.
They tell her someday.
"Hey Kurt?" Kurt looked up, head cocked slightly. They'd just arrived back in Montréal the night before. Christopher's asleep in the opposite bed, and it felt like it was the first time they'd gotten time to themselves in a while. Sam's hands are up under Kurt's shirt and Kurt's hands are running through Sam's hair over and over again as their mouths are crushed together and he's simultaneously trying to get Sam out of his pants.
"Yes Sam?" Kurt pants, slightly breathless. Sam smiles down at him and gently brushes their noses together
"This whole... thing that's happened, has to be the worst thing that's ever happened to me," Sam watches Kurt's face becomes confused and almost worried, "But, is it weird that it's given me the greatest thing to happen to me?" The confused expression melts and Sam can't breathe because Kurt's kissing him too hard.
"And hey, wait–" Sam gasps and pulls back and Kurt looks up at him expectantly.
"If you're trying to woo me with more words, you've already done so. Now. Shirt off." Kurt laughs softly as Sam sits up and pulls off his shirt and tosses it aside. They're kissing again, but Sam pulls back.
"But okay, seriously. You know how Finn and Rachel are Finchel? And Santana and Brittany were Brittana?" Kurt sighs, playing with the game and he nods and Sam continues, "What does that make us?" Kurt contemplates it quietly for a long moment, before shrugging.
"Kum?" He offers and Sam's lips pull into an amused smile.
"I knew I loved you for a reason."
"Shuttup and kiss me, Sam."
It takes years for the world to right itself again.
However this started, no one is sure, and even moreso, if anyone does know, they're not telling. They never did find a cure, but the survivors are careful until it becomes safe to step outside into the sun beyond the walls of their safe havens. The military personnel who are left are assigned to training the able-bodied and slowly, across the continents of the earth, the world-wide decontamination starts. Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, the population of wanderers shrink until there's none left.
Then, the noise begins to start again. There's people talking, birds are chirping, cars are passing by and driving distances, trains are sounding horns, the wind is blowing, the leaves are rustling, phones are ringing, music is playing, laughter is loud –
The world is no longer silent.
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