A/N: Hey, remember when I said I wasn't going to write any more multichaptered fics? Look how much of a liar I am! :)

This is obviously based in The Walking Dead TV show, though not so much in the plot but the general universe of it. So yes, it's not going to be as fluffly and happy as the rest of my fics. At all. This is going to be intense and dramatic and rough and yes, there will probably be some major character deaths (though not Blam, I promise you that).

So if I haven't managed to send you away yet with all those warning, please read and enjoy! :)

CHAPTER 1

The first thing Sam noticed as he woke up was silence. Even the beeping machine at his side –what the hell was that?– was not enough to hide the absorbing stillness of the place. The place. Where was he? He could tell he was not on his bed by the bumps of the mattress and the thickness of the sheets. Maybe opening his eyes would be a good way to investigate a bit further.

He tried lifting an eyelid and he immediately had to shut it back down due to the amount of light that was invading the place. Ok, so it was the middle of the day. What the hell was he doing in bed then? As much as he tried, he didn't remember going to sleep the night before. His mind felt like it had been invaded by a thick fog that didn't let him think. Maybe he was hungover? Maybe that was why he didn't remember anything from the night before?

He knew he had to try to see his surroundings again, or he would never know a shit about how he had ended up in that situation. Very slowly, he opened one eye again and resisted the urge to close it while waiting to adjust to the light. It wasn't so hard this time, and soon he could see he was in a room full of white. Absolutely everything was white. Maybe… a hospital? It surely looked like that when he looked at the beeping machine at his side and realized he was being monitored. What had happened to him? And why was he alone?

Except that he wasn't, he realized as his heart seemed to burst with relief. One look at his other side and he could see there was someone sitting on a chair there. Blaine. His dear friend Blaine, who seemed to be asleep even if his muscles were on tension and he was holding something in his hand so strongly that his knuckles were white. What was that and why it was so important? Was that… a knife? What the hell was Blaine doing with a knife while visiting him in the hospital? What the hell was happening? He needed some answers and he needed them now.

"B?" Sam softly said, his voice hoarse and painful because of lack of use.

Blaine didn't react at first, and Sam noticed he was looking quite pale and there were dark bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't gotten that much sleep for days. He was also free of any gel –his curls funnily spread all around his head– and he even had some stubble on his chin that Sam had never seen on him. Sam couldn't help but to smile fondly at his worrier of a friend: he probably had been unable to sleep or care about his usually impeccable looks while Sam was not alright. He was kind and bighearted as that.

"Blaine?" Sam tried again, and this time he sat up and straightened his arm to be able to shake his friend awake. The smallest touch, though, and Blaine jumped awake, his eyes popping out of his head as he raised the knife in front of him. It was difficult to say which one of them had been more frightened at the reaction, but Sam recovered first. "Hey, hey, easy, it's just me" Sam tried to calm his friend down, gently grabbing his wrist to make him lower the weapon, but Blaine still had to find his voice. He looked utterly terrified. "B?"

"Sam?" he finally managed to speak, and Sam sighed in relief that he didn't appear to be in shock anymore.

"That's me" Sam even managed to joke, purposefully smirking at his friend in an attempt of getting him to relax because something was really screwed up with him and Sam didn't like seeing him like that.

"Are you really awake?" Blaine asked, as if his eyes being open and the fact that he was talking weren't prove enough of his consciousness. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, a little dizzy but I'm okay" Sam answered in complete honesty, still unable to decipher what the hell was going on in Blaine's head –and what the hell had happened to him that got him to the hospital–. "What happened to me?"

"You don't remember?" Blaine asked, his voice shaking and impossibly soft.

"No, not really. I just remember…" Sam started, but he was brusquely silenced when Blaine jumped from his chair and embraced the blond with all his forces as the most terrifying sobs shook his whole body. "Hey, B, what's wrong?" Sam asked, squeezing Blaine strongly to his chest as he seemed to need all the comfort he could offer.

"I'm sorry, it's just…" Blaine tried to explain, though the sobs or the anguish in him didn't let him find the words.

"Blaine, please" Sam said, tracing comforting patterns on Blaine's back, horrified to see him like that, so far from his usual even-tempered and controlled self. "Whatever happened, I'm alright now"

"I'm sorry, it's just…" Blaine said once he was able to speak, as he broke the embrace and sat on the edge of the bed, next to his friend. "It was hard"

"It's okay, I get it" Sam understandingly answered, even reaching to dry some tears from Blaine's cheeks with his own thumb. "Hey, I'm flattered you look so happy to see me" he even dared to joke, trying to lighten the mood of the place, but Blaine didn't even react –there was something seriously wrong with him and Sam needed to know what that was. "Hey, B, are you alright?"

"Yeah" was the only explanation Blaine offered, though Sam could almost see his brain swirling with everything he needed to explain, even if he couldn't find the way to do it.

"What happened to me?" Sam asked, hoping at least that was something Blaine could answer.

"We were having lunch on the stand on the hockey teams as they played, and one stray puck hit you on your temple" Blaine explained with the steadiest voice he could muster. "You've been in a coma for two weeks"

"Two weeks?" Sam repeated in surprise. No wonder he had had so much trouble connecting back with reality.

"It was my fault" Blaine confessed, lowering his face, clearly wanting to avoid Sam's gaze. "I insisted on going there instead of the cafeteria because it felt too crowded. You didn't even want to go there"

So that was it? Maybe Blaine was acting so strange because he felt guilty about Sam's accident? He knew Blaine had a high tendency to punish himself when he felt he had done something wrong, so it totally made sense. Poor thing, what a struggle those two weeks had to be for him.

"That's no one's fault, B" Sam immediately tried to absolve him from his guilt, lifting his face with a finger under his chin so he would feel obliged to look at him. "How were you to know something like that was going to happen? And hey, I'm alright now, so no regrets, okay?"

"Okay" Blaine agreed, but he still didn't look comforted at all –in fact, he looked as if he could burst into tears again any second, even though he was managing not to.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Sam insisted. "You look horrible. How long have you been here with me?"

"Two weeks, I told you" Blaine answered.

"No, I meant here, in the hospital without going outside"

"The whole time" Blaine answered hesitantly, as if he didn't want to share that piece of information with him.

"What?" Sam asked, astounded. He knew Blaine was the best of friends, but that was too much even for him, right? No wonder he looked so pale, having been indoors for two whole weeks. "You didn't leave at all for two weeks?"

"No. Someone needed to watch over you" Blaine answered with a shrug of his shoulders, as if the answer should have been obvious to Sam.

"Where are my parents?" Sam asked, because even if they lived in Kentucky, there was no way they wouldn't come if he was in a coma, right? And they had had two weeks to arrive.

"I… I don't know" Blaine confessed, his voice getting softer with every word.

"Ok, Blaine, what's happening here?" Sam asked, because he was starting to get really scared. "Why are you acting so strange and where is everybody? Why is everything so silent?"

"We don't have time for this" Blaine answered, and all of a sudden he was like a tornado, putting everything around him into a bag in a rush without stopping to look at his confused friend. "We need to get out of here now that you're awake"

"What? What are you talking about? I just woke up from a coma, Blaine" Sam answered, because how did Blaine think they were going to let them out in his situation? And why should they leave in the first place?

"Sam, I know, believe me" Blaine said, suddenly standing in front of him with a determined look in his eyes, as if he knew he needed to be in charge and the natural leader he had in him was taking over him. "And I know you don't get this and I will tell you all about it later, I swear, but… now we need to leave, before it gets dark. We're not safe here"

"What do you mean we're not safe?" Sam asked, because every little piece of information just added to the terror that was starting to grip his heart.

"Here are your clothes, the ones you were wearing the day of your accident" Blaine ignored his question, leaving next to Sam some clothes he immediately recognized.

"But…" Sam tried to protest, but Blaine took his hand in his and stopped him.

"Sammy, do you trust me?" Blaine asked, and there was so much courage and determination in his voice that it was impossible to contradict him.

"Yes" Sam answered with a nod of his head and a gentle squeeze to Blaine's hand.

"Then come on. We've got to get out of here" Blaine said, again turning into action as he carefully unstuck the electrodes from Sam's chest and helped him get into his clothes with the greatest delicacy Sam had ever experienced even in his rush, as if he was afraid Sam would break any moment or as if he was so glad Sam had come back from the dead that he didn't want to risk sending him there again.

"Are they going to let us out just like that?" Sam asked, already more than a little dizzy with all the movement after two weeks of complete stillness.

"There is no one to stop us" Blaine answered matter-of-factly as he took Sam's arm and threw it around his shoulders, ready to hold his weight as much as he needed. "Now careful, you must be really weak after so many days"

Sam tentatively leant his feet on the floor and, with Blaine's help, he rised from the bed and tried to hold his own weight. It was not an easy task, and the growing dizziness would have made him fall if it wasn't for Blaine's arms quickly closing around his waist.

"You ok?" Blaine asked, looking worriedly at him as he held onto him even more strongly. "You think you can walk?"

"Well, I'm not ready for a marathon, but I think so" Sam answered, trying to erase that offending worried frown of Blaine's face.

"Ok, then let's go" Blaine encouraged him as he threw the bag he had been filling over his shoulder and started half holding, half pushing Sam towards the door of the room. "You're going to see a lot of horrible stuff out there" Blaine tried to warn him, even if he knew the shock would be awful anyway. "You're going to think we're in hell. And we probably are, I don't know. The thing is… try to keep calm, ok? I'm going to keep you safe, I promise you"

"Blaine, you're really scaring me" Sam said just before Blaine opened the door.

"Good. Fear and prudency are almost the same thing" Blaine enigmatically answered as they finally got out of the room and to the corridor.

As soon as he got a glance of the outside of his room, Sam felt about to faint even if that didn't have anything to do with his weakness: everything had been abandoned at mid-use, there were papers and instruments and other things all spread around, like their owners had just thrown them in his escape. There were dark stains on the floor and on some of the walls, of what looked like blood to Sam, and the odor was next to unbearable. But what made Sam's knees buckle was what looked like a corpse in the middle of the corridor. A body disemboweled and apparently half-eaten.

"What happened to him?" Sam asked, trying to overcome the nausea he was feeling.

"Not now, Sam" Blaine answered, reinforcing his grip around Sam's waist when he noticed Sam's pace getting weaker –though Blaine knew it could be because of what he was seeing, and not because of his current lack of strength. "We need to find a back door. They've been piling up on the front entrance for hours now"

"Who are they?" Sam asked before he could stop himself. "Looters? Terrorists?"

"No" was the only answer Blaine offered as he practically dragged Sam along the corridor as fast as he could manage. "Think you can manage the stairs? I don't want to risk getting trapped on an elevator"

"Yeah, I guess so, if you help me" Sam answered, trying not to make any more questions as he could see the troubled expression on Blaine's eyes as he tried to get them to safety –whatever the hell that meant.

"Well, I'm not planning on leaving you here, so let's go"

They descended the stairs much more slowly than Blaine would have liked, and Sam could practically hear his friend's pounding heart, so fast and strongly it was beating because of the fear of being caught in that vulnerable situation. Thankfully, they had been staying on a third floor, and they made it to the main floor before Sam collapsed with exhaustion.

"Just give me one minute and I'll be alright" Sam asked as he tried to regain his breath, and he was grateful when Blaine helped him sit on the bottom stair.

"Rest a bit" Blaine kindly granted him, even if Sam could see his heart was telling him otherwise, as he wouldn't stay still and his eyes moved from one side to the other constantly, as if expecting somebody to arrive any minute. Blaine must have noticed Sam was watching him, though, as he hurried to explain. "I haven't been able to explore down here, I've got no idea how many open exits there could be"

"Oh shit, there is another one right there" Sam exclaimed, horrified to find another corpse in a similar state to the other one, just a few feet away from them.

"Don't look at them" Blaine advised him even if he seemed to be quite used to it, while he turned his gaze away from it in a sign of respect for the victim.

"What is that noise?" Sam asked as he seemed to hear some kind of hissing, a sound similar to what someone foaming on the mouth would do. Maybe there was someone still alive somewhere near them?

"Damn it!" Blaine yelled, his eyes filling with terror and determination as the same time as he reached for the big knife hid in his front pocket. "Don't move!" he ordered over his shoulder towards his friend as he decidedly put himself in front of him, acting as a shield.

Nothing could have prepared Sam for what happened next. A girl came charging at them, trying to attack them without even saying a word, just making that horrible sound that had embedded itself on Sam's brain. She had the appearance of a human, but at the same time there was nothing human in her. She was covered in blood, the tone of her skin was very pale, almost translucent, and her eyes had turned completely yellow. But what shocked Sam the most was how there were wholes in her body, how she was missing big chunks of flesh all along her yet she was managing to stand and move. And she looked quite dangerous, judging by the defensive position in which Blaine was standing while waiting for her to come close enough.

"Blaine…" Sam said, trying to ask what the hell was that girl, wanting to plead for him to be careful, but no more words came out of his mouth.

"Stay there!" Blaine yelled once again before he jumped from his place and embedded his knife on the girl's head in one swift and accurate movement.

Sam couldn't believe what he was seeing: had Blaine killed that girl just like that, right in front of him, in cold blood? Alright, the girl had look threatening enough, but he had never pictured Blaine as someone capable of doing something like that.

Blaine turned to him again, a different terror in his eyes this time at what Sam could possibly be thinking about him after what he had seen, but before any of them could say a word, another one of those disgusting people grabbed Blaine around the neck and pushed him face first into the wall.

"Blaine!" Sam yelled as he tried to stand up to help his friend.

But he didn't need to worry, as Blaine managed to elbow the other man so he could disentangle himself from his grip, and he angrily turned around and once again he expertly used his knife to put an end to the life of his aggressor.

Panting with effort and adrenaline, Blaine walked the corridor up and down, making sure there were no more intruders, before going back to Sam and grabbing one of his arms to throw it around his shoulders again.

"Let's get out of here" he simply said as he got Sam on his feet again and started pulling him to the door, looking decidedly ahead of him as if he was ashamed to meet Sam's gaze.

"Blaine…" Sam wanted to tell him not to worry, that it was alright, that whatever the hell was happening, he understood Blaine had done what he'd done for a reason, but Blaine cut him again.

"Not now, Sam" he repeated as he very carefully and slowly opened a bit the emergency door that would lead them to the street.

The first glimpse they got from the street was absolutely terrifying: dozens of those sick people –because Sam had assumed they must have some kind of illness– were roaming around, without a visible destination or objective. The city, though, seemed to be as abandoned as the hospital had been, and Sam couldn't possibly see anyone else apart from those monsters.

"Where now?" Sam asked, as Blaine seemed to have a plan formed in his mind.

"I say we try for one of those houses at the end of the street" Blaine explained, pointed at a row of semi-detached small houses at a distance. "They're a bit further away than I would have liked, but I think we can make it if I help you"

"We can make it" Sam assured him, knowing it was up to him to get a grip on himself and make it easier for Blaine. "Let's go"

"No!" Blaine immediately stopped him with a hand to his chest. "If we just walk out they will come to us"

"So what can we do?"

"We need to create a distraction" Blaine answered, already inspecting the entire street in front of them with avid eyes, and Sam could almost hear his functioning brain as he tried to find a solution. "You see that car with the open door? It looks like its owner just ran; I bet you a hundred dollars the keys are still in there"

"So?"

"So if I can turn the radio on and loud enough, I could create a distraction. The noise really attracts them, you know. Wait for me here" Blaine ordered as he was about to run towards his goal.

"No!" Sam practically yelled, roughly grabbing his arm to stop him. "They will get you!"

"They won't, you know I'm very fast" Blaine explained, trying to reassure his friend before he disentangled himself from his grip and left before Sam could stop him again.

"Blaine, no!" Sam yelled behind him, but Blaine was already gone and Sam could only watch, his own fist in his mouth so he could bite into it instead of screaming, as Blaine made the run of his life.

He was fast, that was true. Sam already knew that –after all, he always won when they spontaneously raced anywhere to see who got there first–, but that was amazing even for him. With the knife in his hand, just in case, Blaine ran like the devil towards the car and got in it before any of those creatures could get to him. So the first part of his plan had been a success, Sam told himself, trying to calm himself down. But the most difficult part was yet to come.

Inside the car, Blaine almost burst into a relieved laughter when he noticed his assumption had been right and the keys were indeed there, so he only needed to turn the engine on. The radio immediately went off, so knowing it was just a question of seconds until some of the nearer walkers arrived, he turned the volume as loud as he could and escaped as fast as his legs would carry him.

Sam held his breath as all those creatures turned to the sound of the car and slowly started walking towards it. If they managed to circle the car before Blaine could get out… But Blaine was smarted and faster than that, and he was already running for his life back towards him before any of the monsters were close enough to trap him inside.

A couple of times in his run Blaine had to kill one of those creatures that tried to get to him, but he didn't hesitate to embed his knife into their skulls in a way that told Sam he had probably been forced to defend himself a lot of times in the past two weeks and had gotten used to it. Fortunately, he didn't have the time to dwell onto those thoughts before Blaine was back in front of him and grabbing him again.

"Let's go" he suggested as he pulled Sam out of the building with an arm around his waist. "We don't have much time until they realize that noise won't lead them to anything"

"How did you…?" Sam wanted to ask how he knew all that before the words got stuck on his mouth with the admiration he was feeling for his very determined friend.

"Experience, Sam" Blaine answered as he rushed them towards their destination, practically supporting the totality of Sam's weight. "Experience is everything now"

They made it to the line of little houses they had spotted from the hospital in record time with no more incidents, although by the corner of his eyes Sam could see some of those monsters were already turning and walking towards them. Luckily, they didn't seem to be that fast.

They tried to enter in a couple of those houses, but they were locked and they didn't want to break any windows to enter, as that would only diminish their safety once inside. Fortunately, the third house they tried was unlocked, and Blaine unceremoniously pushed Sam inside and closed the door behind them, putting the door-chain on immediately and moving some nearby furniture to block it.

"We made it" Sam commented as he lent against the wall, wanting to praise his friend and erase that frown of his face that apparently had lately become a part of his usually sweet and jovial face.

"I promised I'd keep you safe, didn't I?" Blaine answered, even managing a small smile only for Sam.

"You surely did" Sam answered, squeezing Blaine's shoulder for comfort, as he looked as he could use some.

"I'm going to check there is no back door. We can't be cautious enough" Blaine said before disappearing, apparently not ready to receive any appraisal yet.

Sam looked around the living room he was standing in. Fortunately it seemed like none of those creatures had made it there, as nothing seemed out of place and there was no blood of smell that indicated they had been there. There was only silence.

"Looks like this sofa can be turned into a bed" Blaine said, having returned to the room unannounced –which made Sam realize he needed to be more cautious too, as he couldn't always relegate in Blaine to keep them safe.

"We're going to sleep here?" Sam asked, completely trusting Blaine's decisions.

"Yes, I think it's better if we stay down here. If we went upstairs and they managed to enter, we wouldn't know until they were upon us" Blaine reasoned with him as he maneuvered the couch until it was made into what looked like a nice comfortable bed. "Let's get you comfortable"

"I'm alright" Sam tried to protest even if Blaine was already holding and manhandling him again, this time towards the bed.

"You've made a big effort after so many days of total inactivity, you must be dead tired" Blaine answered as he carefully lowered him down until he was sitting against the backrest and put some pillows behind his back. "Are you okay? Are you comfortable?"

"I'm alright" Sam tried to convince him as he took Blaine's hand and pulled until he was forced to sit on the edge. "Stop worrying about me, please"

"You look pretty pale" Blaine replied, and Sam could feel how much he was craving the contact of their joined hands by how he entwined their fingers together.

"But… that's not because of my injury" Sam confessed, admitting how much seeing all that had affected him.

"I know, it's a lot to take in such a short time" Blaine replied with a sad smile, squeezing Sam's hand comfortingly before letting go of it. "Just rest, I'm going to see if I can find us something to eat, you must be starving. At least I am"

"Have you not been eating?" Sam asked, as it would not be a big surprise to know that Blaine had neglected himself while taking care of his friend.

"Of course I have! How do you think I would have survived for two weeks?" Blaine answered with a humorless chuckle.

"How long since you ate the last time, though?" Sam incisively asked, as he always needed to do when he knew Blaine was purposefully avoiding answering a question.

"Mmm… three days ago" Blaine finally confessed.

"You haven't eaten for three days?" Sam asked in astonishment.

"I… couldn't leave you alone. The last time I left the room there was one of them in your door about to come in when I got back, so I never left again. It was too risky" Blaine tried to make Sam understand.

"Blaine, I… I really need you to start talking" Sam begged as every piece of information he received only left him more and more confused.

"Let me find us some food first and then I'll tell you all about it" Blaine promised, as he knew he couldn't avoid it anymore. And it was not that he didn't want Sam to know but… he wished he could spare him for the horrific truth just for a while longer. "You just rest. We're safe here but…" he said as he handed Sam the knife he had been carrying the whole time, though he had previously cleaned it. "Just in case"

Sam hesitated before taking the weapon from Blaine. He had never in his life felt as he needed anything to defend himself, and he didn't like feeling threatened at all. But he knew Blaine would never ask that of him if it wasn't totally necessary. And he needed Blaine to stop worrying about him, so if by having that knife with him he could keep Blaine calmer, it was the least he could for him.

It didn't take Blaine long to get some food together and brought it to Sam so they both could share it. Sam hadn't realized until now, but he was pretty hungry even if he had been fed artificially while in his coma. And judging by the speed which with Blaine was ingesting his part, he was really starving.

"Don't eat so fast, B, or you'll end up sick after so much time without any nurishment" Sam warned him with a warm and protective smile, that was reciprocated with an embarrassed smirk from the curly-haired boy.

"Sorry" he apologized, though he was already finished.

"Don't apologize" Sam answered with a chuckle as he watched Blaine pick up the leftovers and take them to the kitchen before taking a seat in front of him with a grave expression on his face.

"Ok, you can ask me anything you want now" Blaine finally conceded with a deep sigh. "I'll answer all of your questions"

"What are those?" Sam asked without preamble, not feeling the need to beat about the bush with his best friend. "They didn't look like humans"

"And they aren't" Blaine agreed with a shake of his head. "At least not anymore. They're walkers. Well, I call them that"

"But they were…"

"Yes, they were people. Nobody knows how it all begun, but somehow they just started appearing" Blaine explained, his gaze seeming to get lost in the horizon as he reminisced about what had happened. "Or more like… people started turning into them"

"You killed them" Sam said before he was able to stop himself. He was not really reproaching him of anything –he knew Blaine like the back of his hand and, if he had done something like that, Sam was sure he really didn't have an alternative–, but he felt he needed some kind of explanation.

"It was either them or us" Blaine explained, and Sam could see he was feeling ashamed about it, though he didn't really regret it. "They bite, they will eat you alive if they get to you, you saw those corpses. You will turn into one of them with the smallest bite or even a scratch from them. It is either to kill or be killed"

"And… the whole city…?" Sam tried to ask, although there was no easy way to ask if everyone around you had been killed.

"I don't really know. I couldn't move from the hospital, you know? When everything started they promised they would evacuate all the patients from the hospital, but… they never did" Blaine lamented with the saddest smile Sam had ever seen on him. "The ones who could move escaped; the ones who didn't… they died"

"Why didn't you run?" Sam asked, even if he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"Why do you think?" Blaine answered with a confused frown, as if that had been the most stupid question he had ever heard.

"You stayed for me?" Sam insisted, eyes huge with amazement and gratitude.

"You didn't have anyone else" Blaine replied, as if that justified everything, as if he was not even aware of how amazing his actions were. "Your parents were warned when you were injured but… it all started before they could arrive. Maybe we are under some kind of quarantine and they don't let anyone else enter the area, I don't know. All communication has been broken, as well as electricity. The hospital had its own generator, that's why the machines were still working"

"You've been fighting these monsters for two weeks to protect me?" Sam continued, as if in a trance, still unable to believe Blaine would sacrifice so much just for him.

"Of course, Sam" Blaine reassured him, once again taking Sam's hand in his, and Sam wondered how many times he had done that while he was in a coma. "I… you're my best friend. I couldn't bear the thought of you turning into one of them"

Sam used the union of their hands to pull Blaine towards him and he engulfed Blaine in a strong embrace, knowing it didn't really show how unbelievable grateful he was and how much he felt for the other boy, but still needing to do it. He buried his face in the crook of Blaine's neck and closed his eyes, giving and taking comfort from the other boy at the same time, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened. At least, if you had to be in a situation like that, he wouldn't want to be in it with anyone else than his beloved Blaine.

"You're amazing, Blaine" he said, his voice shaking with emotion as he squeezed the smaller boy even more strongly to his chest in a sudden urge to feel him as near as possible. "I'll never live enough to thank you for what you've done"

"I don't want you to thank me" Blaine seriously answered as he broke the embrace and looked intently at Sam. "You being alive is enough for me"

"So you think my parents are alright?" Sam asked before they got too intense. After all, his emotions were a tornado right now, and he didn't want to risk losing control of them. He knew how much Blaine worried about him, and he didn't want to be a burden to him anymore if he could help it.

"There's no reason for us to think that they are not" Blaine tried to reassure him as he fondly rubbed Sam's thigh. "They just couldn't get here, they must be dying with worry somewhere out there"

"And you were alone the whole time?" Sam asked. Two weeks were a long time in a situation like that.

"Not the whole time" Blaine answered, clearly trying to play down the importance of what he had done. "Some of the guys were there with us when it all started, but… they wanted to make sure their families were okay, or that's what they said. They never got back"

"They left you alone?" Sam asked in astonishment: how could they do something to that to Blaine when he was only trying to save Sam's life?

"It's alright, they had to do it" Blaine quickly dismissed it.

"I can't believe it, Blaine. I always knew you were an extraordinaire human being, but this is…" Sam tried to praise him, but Blaine was obviously not in the mood for that.

"It's what anyone would have done" Blaine answered in a rush as he stood up and started covering Sam with a blanket he had found, in an obvious need to change subjects and get the spotlight off him. "We should get some sleep now. I put some pots and pans in every door and window so they will wake us with the noise if they manage to enter, which they shouldn't. Fortunately, they're pretty stupid, you know"

"Why were you in such a rush to leave the hospital, by the way?"

"Because it wasn't safe. I managed to block our floor in the end, or at least I think so, but… too many entrances to the building. We couldn't watch every one of them. The only reason I didn't get us out of there before was because there you could still get serum and the machines told me your heart was still working. But as soon as you were awake, we needed to find a way out of there. And a small house with no back doors was the best option"

"You seem to have it all figured it out" Sam praised his friend in complete awe.

"I don't, but… you get to learn a lot about survival when you need it, you'll see that soon enough" Blaine answered with a sad smile as he tried to make himself comfortable enough to sleep in an armchair in front of Sam's bed.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked as he saw his friend trying to curl in an impossibly small space.

"Trying to sleep" Blaine answered with an implicit duh in his voice, because wasn't it obvious?

"Don't be silly, come here right now, there is room for both of us here" Sam immediately offered, raising his blanket for Blaine to get under it to make more of an impression.

"You need to regain your strength, you need to rest" Blaine refused, though Sam wasn't going to surrender that easily.

"So? Are you planning on jumping on the bed during the night or something?" Sam joked, and he felt his heart about to burst with fondness when he managed to make Blaine chuckle for the first time in what felt like forever. The smile really suited him, much more than the worried frown he perpetually had on his face now and that Sam was growing to hate so much. "Come on, it's not like we haven't shared a bed before"

"Alright, but no kicking" Blaine warned him in a mockingly warning tone as he obeyed and got under the blanket, lying on his side towards the other boy.

"I'm not making any promises" Sam answered, turning on his side too so they were lying side by side, looking at each other.

They remained like that, in silence, for a long time, just looking into each other's eyes –with the only light a small candle on the coffee table provided– and trying to be comforted by the other's presence. Because it was still too difficult for Sam to believe everything he had seen or what Blaine had explained, to accept they were alone in their immediate world right now and that they would need to fight for survival in every step of the way. Blaine seemed to have everything under control, but Sam knew him better than that and he knew he was only pretending for Sam's sake, that he was probably terrified in the inside. Terrified and something else… he looked almost devastated, as if he had lost something very important. Gosh, his family! Where the hell were they and why Sam hadn't realized about that before?

"B, I just… your parents?" Sam asked, and his heart was not ready for the reaction he got of his best friend.

Blaine's eyes filled with tears before he was even aware of what was happening and the tinniest sob escaped his lips, breaking Sam's heart with the sadness that emanated from him.

"Oh my God, Blaine, did they…?" Sam didn't dare to say the words as he let his hand rest on Blaine's arm in a poor attempt of comfort.

"I don't know" Blaine confessed, angrily sweeping a stray tear from his cheeks, as if he was embarrassed he had shed it in the first place. "I haven't had any contact with them since all of this started"

"Then they could be safe and sound, right?" Sam tried to reason with him.

"Sam, I've been in that hospital for two weeks, and they knew where I was, if they were alive they would have…" Blaine tried to explain before his voice broke and he finally succumbed to the tears that had been threatening all along.

"We don't know that, ok?" Sam rushed to say as he threw his arms around Blaine, unable to keep seeing him suffering like that, and held him strongly to his chest as Blaine sobbed his heart out. "A million things could have kept them from trying to find you"

"Sam, they are…" Blaine insisted, but Sam gently shushed him as he held Blaine's head against his shoulder and let his fingers get lost in the soft curls in comforting patterns.

"No" he contradicted him, his own eyes filling with unshed tears at his best friend's rough suffering. "We're not assuming anything, ok? Until we know for sure, everybody we know is alive. Ok?"

"Ok" Blaine half-heartedly agreed, breathing deeply a couple of times as he tried to calm himself down, already embarrassed about his outburst.

"I can't imagine what you've been through" Sam lamented as he forgot all about appearances and conventionalities and turned to lie on his back, bringing Blaine with him until he was nestling on his chest. They were suffering, and if the contact with each other could help them feel better, even if only slightly, he was not letting the chance pass.

"It's ok now, you're here and you're alive. I've missed you so much, Sammy" Blaine confessed with a shaky voice as he hid under Sam's chin and put his arm around the blond's middle, holding strongly onto him as if afraid that the other boy would suddenly disappear.

"You're not alone anymore, B" Sam promised as he kissed the top of his head. "We'll make it together somehow"

A/N: Ok, so what do you think? Does it look interesting?