Bad things always happen when you least expect them. You'll get that phone call pulling you out of a peaceful sleep telling you that a loved one has passed or the news will be playing on the background as you bustle around the house getting ready for the day when you hear about the latest crisis. They catch when you're off guard, and this was no exception.

"Guys, I think that number could take us to Nationals!" Mr Schue announced as he clapped loudly. We all slumped back into our chairs in exhaustion with prideful smiles. We'd been practicing that dance heavy number for the past two hours and finally had it down. The other teams would have to seriously bring it to have a chance at beating us.

"Mr Schue can I run to my locker?" Finn asked. "I need to grab my water bottle before we do anything else."

"Yeah sure thing, how about we all take a ten minute break then run through the number once more before calling it a day?" Mr Schue asked us and we all nodded in agreement. Finn sluggishly got up and left while the rest of us were perfectly happy to stay in our seats and rest while we could.

"Hey," Brittany twisted her body until her head was on my shoulder and she was giving me a sort of side hug.

"Hey," I said back with a contented sigh, burying my nose in her hair and reveling in the comforting scent of her strawberry shampoo. "You did really good with the choreography."

"Thanks, I worked really hard," she said with a yawn, burrowing closer to me and making me wish I had a blanket I could drape around her.

"You always do, B. You always do," I mumbled, deciding to close my eyes and indulge in the most rapid power nap humanly possible. For a second I thought I'd actually be able to sleep briefly, but a blood-curdling scream caused both me and Brittany to jolt up and find ourselves completely awake as a result of the adrenaline that quickly filtered into our systems.

"What the hell was that?" Sam asked, trying not to sound as alarmed as he clearly was. His eyes were darting back and he was breathing heavily. "Was that Finn?"

"Calm down guys," Mr Schue said shakily, obviously just as startled as we were but trying to keep his cool for our sake. "Someone probably just got slushied by surprise, I'll go check it out."

Mr Schue quickly made his way out of the choir room, leaving the rest of us in an uneasy silence as we listened intently for any other noises of distress. As we listened, I couldn't help but feel that the lack of noise was eerie. Something wasn't right, I could feel it.

"Guys I don't like this," Mercedes said quietly, shuffling her feet in discomfort. "No one shouts like that when they get slushied."

"I didn't wanna say it but I'm thinking the same thing," Kurt agreed, beginning to worry his lower lip. "I've been slushied enough times to know that gasping is the only thing you can do when that kind of cold hits you."

I felt Brittany tense beside me at Kurt's words. We all knew he was right and that whatever had happened was probably worse than a slushy. Besides, who would've had a slushy? Everyone except us should be gone by now, even sports and other clubs would've been done an hour ago.

"It's okay," I whispered against the shell of Brittany's ear and grabbed her hand tightly. She leaned into me and I could feel her hand shaking in mine. "It's probably nothing but if it is you know I'd never let anything happen to you."

Before we could feed each others worries any further, Mr Schue came back into the room and quickly closed the door behind him. He looked pale, maybe with a tinge of green. One thing was certain, he'd seen something far worse than a slushy victim.

"Guys," he gulped and ran a hand through his hair, completely disregarding the obscene amount of gel and work it obviously took to get it looking the way it did. "I need you to listen to me very closely and do exactly as I say."

We all gave our word and waited for Mr Schue to speak again. He took a deep breath to try and calm himself before resuming speaking.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen," he said in what I'm sure was trying to be a firm tone but his nerves were just making him sound terrified. "You guys are gonna follow me and not say a word. We're gonna head to the parking lot and get onto the Cheerios bus and drive somewhere safe."

"Wait, safe?" Tina asked. "What's going on? Is there some sort of criminal in the school?"

"No," Mr Schue exhaled heavily. "Guys if I tell you what's out there now you have to stay as calm as possible so we can get out of here."

"Just tell us Mr Schue," Puck dead-panned. "You can't just lead us out their blindly."

"Okay, I know this is gonna sound crazy," Mr Schue laughed a little and scuffed his foot against the floor. "But I think there's been some sort of disease outbreak that's really serious. Like, human rabies or something."

"Excuse me?" Sugar asked in utter disbelief from the back row.

"In the halls there are people just," Mr Schue waved his hand in the air while thinking of the right word. "Dragging themselves around and moaning. They're discolored and they bite people."

Suddenly I felt myself freeze up and my eyes widen. I never thought this would happen but I knew what this was. My dad had told me about the project he'd been put on at the hospital a while back, he'd been vague but it sounded like they were developing some sort of biological weapon. He couldn't say much since it was top-secret and government regulated. They had thought Lima, Ohio would be a perfect location because who the hell would think to check here for anything? It could be easily kept under wraps.

I didn't like that my dad was working on something that the government was obviously planning to use as a weapon but there wasn't anything I could do about it. My dad was honored to have been chosen for such a project and the hefty paycheck hadn't hurt either. For weeks he was coming home happier than he had ever been before, he was genuinely proud of what he had accomplished.

But a few months ago things had started to get weird; people had started coming to do renovations on the house. It was definitely weird, our house started to feel like more of a bunker than a home with the heavy duty walls he'd put up outside as well as state of the art gates. He'd also expanded the basement somehow but he'd been very clear that it was off limits to me and I was never one to cross my dad when he was being that serious about something. But, every time something got added to the house he'd just smile and say you can never be too careful.

Then two weeks ago he'd stopped coming home as often and when he did he looked... different. He looked miserable, angry, and scared all at once; haunted. His hands would shake and he jumped at every unexpected noise. Works just getting stressful, was all he'd ever say to me. But I'd overheard him in his office one day, talking on the phone and telling someone that they had to kill the project before it killed them. Something had obviously gone wrong and it had been wearing on him.

No, I don't care how much money they've been giving us it's our moral responsibility to stop this! Do you even understand the gravity of this situation? How many people could die? This thing can't easily be contained and we don't know how to cure it. If it gets out, that's it. It's gotten out of hand and mutated in ways beyond our comprehension. It's too dangerous and too many people working on the project have already had to have been handled because of it. I refuse to sit by and watch something I helped create destroy innocent people.

He'd slammed down the phone after that and I ran to the kitchen before he could find out I'd been snooping. I sat down at the kitchen island as quickly as I could and grabbed my phone, pretending to text just in time for him to come out and give me a tired smile.

You know this place is safe if anything bad ever happens, right? He'd asked me and I'd nodded. Good, now I've got to head back to work. Love you. I'd told him I loved him back before he walked out.

"Mr Schue," I raised my hand shakily. "I think I know what's happening."

"What?" He and just about everyone else asked at once.

"The government was funding a project to build some sort of biological weapon here and my dad was working on it," I explained, feeling the intense pressure of everyone's scared eyes boring into me. "I think something went wrong and that's what this is. I overheard my dad talking about his project going really, really wrong and that it could kill a lot of people if they didn't stop it."

"Did he ever say anything to you about what to do if this thing got out?" Mr Schue asked.

"Not explicitly, but I think this might be why he'd been renovating the house so much; it's like an army base there now and I think he dropped hints at me saying that I should stay there if anything bad happens," I said, creasing my brow as I tried to remember anything else he might've said to me.

"Well that's just great but what about our families?" Rachel asked. "I'm sure that if what you're saying is true that you're house is a very safe place but we can't just all go there and be left to wonder where our parents and siblings are."

"Rachel's right," Artie agreed. "But maybe we could use Santana's house as a base and call our parents and tell them they should head there."

"Fine, do whatever you guys need to but tell your parents to bring food if they can because if we get stuck in there for a long time the fridge isn't stocked enough to support all of us," I said before standing up and heading toward Mr Schue. "But I seriously think we should get going because I feel like we're just sitting ducks here."

"Right," Mr Schue nodded vigorously. "Guys come one we have to get out of here, stick together and move fast."

Thankfully, everyone was too freaked out and tired from rehearsals to object as Mr Schue opened the door slowly and signaled for everyone to head down the hallway that leads straight to the parking lot where all the buses were. Poking my head out the door, I saw nothing in the hallways and grabbed Brittany's hand tightly before moving to follow Mr Schue towards the exit.

Luckily, things seemed to be going our way so far and we made it out of the school without encountering any of the... whatever these things were. Mr Schue had apparently grabbed the Cheerios bus keys when he'd first gone out to see what had made that noise and we were able to climb on quickly, feeling slightly at ease when the doors hissed shut as the last person got onto the bus.

"Is everybody here?" Mr Schue asked as he slipped into the drivers seat of the bus. Everyone looked around and did a count and found we were all there except for Finn.

We all knew what had happened but no one was ready to talk about it. There was a time and a place for everything and we couldn't let our emotions take over until we got to my house where it was hopefully as safe as my dad made it sound.

The bus kicked into gear, the engine humming rather softly for that of a bus. Sue had always made sure her Cheerios had top of the line transportation and evidently this bus was no exception.

As we slowly made our way out of the parking lot and started down the street, I looked out of the window and caught my first sight of these 'things'. They looked like normal people at a glance, but when you looked again there was obviously something wrong; they had abnormal gaits, almost like they were drunk and their skin seemed to have some sort of sickly tinge to it.

Suddenly, I felt the bus pick up a slight amount of speed before a dull thud accompanied by a bounce of the bus was heard. Rachel shrieked from the back seat and Mr Schue could be heard cursing under his breath.

"Did we..?" Brittany's question hung in the air as she looked at me with wide and panicked eyes.

"Don't think about it, B," I said softly, starting to trace small circles on the back of her hand with my thumb. I wanted her to stay calm and was hoping that she wasn't picking up on the fear I was feeling.

"You're scared too," of course she would notice though, Brittany could read me better than anyone. There was no hiding from her.

"You should try to call your parents," I said, trying to get her to think about something besides being scared. "Everyone else is pulling out there phones so you should to. Tell them to come to my place if they can and bring supplies."

She nodded and pulled her phone out of her bra, the only place to hold a phone on your when your in a Cheerios uniform. Deciding I should probably do the same, I pulled mine out as well. Looking down at the screen, I saw I had one new voicemail from my dad. I quickly typed in my password and held the phone to my ear.

Santana, I need you to listen to me. Things at the hospital have gone bad and a whole lot of ugly is coming your way, hell everyone's way. You need to get to the house as fast as you can, it's the safest place you can possibly be. Make sure you keep the gates closed and the password for the metal door in the basement is 5724. In that room there are weapons, food, and water. I don't have any time to explain just try and stay away from them and aim for the head if necessary. I love you so much. I'm sorry.

I felt numb as his panicked, almost teary voice, cut off. There had been yelling in the back ground and alarms blaring. I knew then and there that my suspicions about what was happening would be correct and that my house was the safest place to go.

I also knew that I was never going to see my dad again; but I knew that I had to keep myself from freaking out over that fact for a little longer.

Next to me, Brittany looked like she wanted to cry as she stared dejectedly at her phone.

"They won't answer!" she stammered as she redialed yet again. She slammed her fist against the back of the empty seat of us with a cry of frustration as she was routed to voicemail once again.

"Hey," I said firmly, grabbing her wrists and making her look at me. "Calm down."

She just shook her head and her face scrunched in a way that meant she was fighting against breaking into tears. It broke my heart, the way I could feel her trembling.

"Don't go to the negative thoughts right yet, nothing is definitive yet. For all we know, they're totally safe and just have their phones on silent," I said in an attempt to reassure her. But I knew it was crap, who the hell would have their phone on silent at a time like this when family would be fighting to get in touch. But there was still a chance that everything would be okay.

"Okay," she exhaled heavily, trying to keep herself calm. "You're right, it's probably okay."

I smiled weakly at her and pulled her into a hug, letting her head rest against my chest. I looked around as I held her, observing the rest of the kids on the bus.

No one looked happy.

No one looked like they had good news.

In fact, I'd venture a guess and say that some of them had gotten farewell voicemails like I had by the way that hands were cupped over mouths to muffle sobs that were itching to break through.

I looked away, knowing that staring at all of my friends distraught faces wouldn't help me stay calm. I had to be strong until we were safely in my house, I was the only one who knew the codes to get in.

"Santana," Mr Schue called from the front. "Come up here, I need some directions."

I squeezed Brittany before reluctantly letting her go and standing up to make my way to the front. Looking out the large front window I knew that we weren't far.

"I know this is your neighborhood, but I don't know where the exact address is," he explained, exhaustion leaking into his otherwise dead tone of voice. He was worn, but was desperate to keep us safe.

"Just turn left here and keep going into you see that house that looks like a small army base," I joked weakly, anyone's first attempt at humor since this had all started not even an half an hour ago. I had to shake my head a little in disbelief.

Our world fell apart is less than thirty minutes.

As well pulled up to my large house I couldn't help but marvel over just how fragile things could be.