"What are you talking about? You have to stay here, don't be stupid." Kurt's brow was furrowed with an odd concoction of concern and confusion, but Blaine just smiled, taking Kurt's hand in his own.

"I'm coming with you. I'm not going to let you run off without any way of letting me know that you're ok." A hot blush flashed across Kurt's face in the split second it took him to regain his control. He nodded and, hand in hand with Blaine, followed after his former schoolmates. They had to jog a bit to catch up, but they soon found the others milling around the entrance hall, trying to figure out just how they were going to get out of Dalton.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Puck asked, eyeing Blaine as he and Kurt approached.

"Look, I'm coming with you. I know my way around here pretty well, I might be able to help a little." Puck eyed Blaine suspiciously for a moment before shrugging and turning back to the large windows facing the sprawling front gardens of Dalton academy. Everything looked so calm, so…normal. Blaine wasn't sure if that made the whole situation better or worse. The topiaries were perfectly landscaped and a deep, rich green that hid the fact it was well into winter (how the gardeners managed no one quite knew). There was a quiet blanket of snow covering the crisp, frozen grass, as if the land were napping, momentarily dozed off while waiting for something or someone to come along. The drive was pitch black and smooth as ice, rolling on for an obscene distance before reaching the gates. The gates, Blaine noticed, which were very closed, very locked, and very solid looking.

"We're locked in?" Finn gasped, voicing the thought that had been kicking around everyone else's brain for the past moment or so. The group stood, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, whatever, facing the large, steel, blockade keeping them from where they wanted to be. And their cars, the things their whole plan revolved around, were locked inside the gates. With them.

New Directions may have been dead-set on leaving Dalton, but their cars were staying put.

After a minute or two of silence, of standing and staring and feeling the crushing pressure of despair settle on them one by one, someone spoke.

"We'll walk."

Everyone turned as one to face the source of the voice and Mike Chang found himself the focal point of some very intense stares.

"We have to get back, right?" he started, trying to explain himself fast enough that the others might hear at least part of the plan before writing it off completely. "We walk until we hit that town we drove through. It wasn't that far. Once we get there we can figure out a ride." Silence. Deadening, echoing, thick silence. They knew it was risky, infected could be anywhere and authorities were advising everyone to stay inside, out of the way, away from windows, with doors locked.

But.

But they had to get back to Lima somehow, and they couldn't break down the gates, so their only option seemed to be to walk. Realization hit them one by one; some with a sigh, some with a terrified, then determined look spreading, one or two with a poorly-masked sob. They were going to have to walk. Blaine, ever the outside, broke the tableau first. Untangling his hand from Kurt's, he quickly evaluated the motley group before him and turned towards the west corridor.

"Finn, Puck, Mike, and Sam, come with me, everyone else go back to the common room. We'll be back in 10 minutes." Kurt looked confused, wondering where Blaine would be leading the boys. What was he thinking? "Kurt, can you take them back there? I need you to stay with them, in case anyone needs anything." He quirked an eyebrow but nodded slowly before quietly corralling the remaining New Directions back towards the abandoned common room and the still rambling news broadcast. Blaine watched for a moment as Kurt's Dalton jacket disappeared down the corridor, not wanting to turn away just yet, before facing the boys before him. "C'mon, follow me."

One by one they shrugged and paced off after Blaine, who was practically jogging out the opposite door. His footsteps were quick and sure, right, left, right, left, almost robotic, leading him where he was going without even having to think about it too much. Which was good, really, as his mind was currently in the common room with one Kurt Hummel. After a few minutes of what must have seemed like pointless wandering Finn decided he had to speak up.

"Hey, uh, Blaine?" Blaine glanced at him as a means of inviting him to continue. "Wh-where are we going?" Puck, Mike and Sam made various sounds of agreement and turned their attentions full-force on Blaine, who couldn't be bothered to stop long enough to answer in a full sentence.

"Gym. Supplies." Well, it was an answer, but it still didn't entirely clarify things.

"Supplies?" Puck questioned, "Like, what kind of supplies?"

"Don't be stupid, Puckerman," Sam said, "like water bottles and shit, right?"

"That," Blaine said, turning the final corner before reaching the sports equipment storage locker, "and protection."

"What the hell good are condoms going to do at a time like this?" Puck asked. Finn blushed bright red at the thought of Blaine with his step-brother, but Blaine just laughed.

"Not the kind of protection I meant," Blaine chuckled, opening the door and stepping inside. "I was thinking more along the lines of those," he said, pointing to the various sports paraphernalia – baseball bats, cricket bats, lacrosse sticks, hockey sticks, even fencing rapiers. "If we're going to walk, we're not going to walk unarmed."

"You don't have a shooting team, do you?" Puck asked. Blaine couldn't tell if he was serious, but he figured he might as well answer just to be safe.

"Unfortunately, no." He grabbed a bunch of equipment bags from a pile in the corner and passed them out. "Grab something that can be used to hit, like the bats. Maybe grab a few baseballs, too, those could come in handy. I'll get some of the Gatorades and sports bars we have hiding in here somewhere," Blaine instructed before disappearing behind a row of lockers. Sam exchanged a quick glance with the others before shrugging and grabbing for the cricket bats. The worked in silence, packing their respective bags with whatever they thought might come in handy.

"Are we ready?" Blaine popped his head back around the row of lockers behind which he'd disappeared moments earlier. Once everyone confirmed that they had everything they thought they might need the boys filed out of the equipment room one by one, in a silent single file, and returned to the entrance hall as quickly as they could manage. Blaine disappeared again for a moment, running off to fetch the others before returning. Taking control was something Blaine was good at, and he was just happy he could be helpful at the moment. Hopefully he'd proven that he was worthy to tag along for this little expedition through Ohio. He just wanted to help Kurt.

The others had been briefed by Blaine on the trek back to the entrance hall and when they were reunited once more they hesitated only a moment before Sam reached out and pulled open the door. The cold, crisp air bit at them instantly, thousands of tiny, stabbing pains coloring their cheeks, and noses, and encouraging them to turn around, turn back, retreat. But they were determined, and on they pressed. Down the grandiose front steps, along the perfectly trimmed drive way, and up to the imposing, menacing gates. The boys passed out bats and sticks, the various weapons they'd collected, and then turned their attentions to the gate that stood before them.

"They're locked," Puck said, shaking the small door that stood to one side of the massive steel frame.

"No shit, Sherlock," Santana replied, rolling her eyes, "didn't we know that, like 20 minutes ago? How are we getting out of here?" She turned to Blaine and Kurt as she asked.

"There's a code," Kurt said, stepping up to the little gatehouse and punching a five digit code into the keypad. There was a moment, then a buzz, and the door popped open. One by one they filed out, Sam in the lead, Blaine and Kurt in the rear, before closing the door behind them and setting on their way.

"There's a town if we just keep on this street for a bit, can't be more than an hour or so walking," Blaine said, squaring his shoulders and pushing forward. Kurt nodded his agreement and set off after him. The others didn't look as sure, but they weren't about to stand around waiting for someone to find them.

The walk was slow goings. They were a large group, and the road wasn't the smoothest. Artie's wheelchair kept getting stuck in rivets or ripples and needing to be forced out. Once or twice someone tripped, and a few of them ended up with skinned knees and elbows, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. What was worse than the pace was the eerie silence that seemed to have settled over Ohio in the past few hours. Nothing moved; no wind blew, no birds took off in the distance, no hidden creature shifted unseen in the grass. It was as if everything was gone. As if there were nothing left. And it was quiet. Deafeningly quiet. They tried making idle chatter at first, catching Kurt up on the latest gossip, talking about Vocal Adrenaline's newest soloist and how she was maybe-not-so-secretly-anorexic, but soon that, too, died out and they were left marching in silence, like a bad clich� from an old war movie.

The sun, Blaine couldn't help but noticed, had started it slow but certain descent into the abyss that was the horizon. They couldn't stay out after dark; it wouldn't be safe and they didn't have any provisions that might be helpful, like flares or even flashlights. He only hoped they found the town, or, really, anything, before it got too dark to continue.

That was the most disconcerting thing, really; the absolute lack of anything. There was no sign of life from anywhere around them as they walked on and on, right, left, right, left, footsteps echoing into the nothingness. The roads were deserted and none of them could remember seeing any sign of anything since leaving Dalton. Finally, after what felt like years but in reality had only been about an hour and a quarter, they reached the edges of the small town towards which they were headed.

Puck's original plan had been to reach town and steal a car or two, so they could continue on and drive the rest of the way to Lima. That, however, was not going to happen. As they walked through the town, the empty fields giving way to rows of seemingly empty houses, there was not a car in sight. So they kept walking, with no more than the occasional "pass a Gatorade" or "watch that pothole" exchanged between them.

Things were not looking good.

Until. Until, about thirty minutes after hitting the edges of town, they found a Meijer. It looked abandoned, no one was around and the parking lot was empty, but the lights were on and at least one set of doors was unlocked. A rash of smiles broke out on the faces of the group as they each individually made the decision that this was somewhere they needed to stop, if only to gather more supplies. Blaine readjusted the sports bag on his shoulder before following the rest through the doors, pausing, turning, and locking the doors behind them.

"Just in case," he whispered, voice almost scratchy from the prolonged silence.

"I think we should stay here tonight," Artie said, rolling next to Blaine and looking out the doors at the ever darkening sky. "It's getting too dark to keep going, and there's food and sleeping bags and stuff here. We'll stay here tonight, and then get an early start back to Lima in the morning. I'd rather bunk indoors tonight, and it's not looking like we'll make it all the way back any time soon." Blaine nodded, as did Kurt, who met Puck's eyes. Puck, too, nodded and called out to the others, telling them the new plan.

"Grab some food, and whatever supplies we might need tomorrow, and we'll meet in the camping section. I think I saw a sign for it towards the middle of the store." Puck set his jaw, looked at Blaine, Kurt and Artie, and set off in what Kurt assumed was the direction of the grocery section. Artie rolled off after him, claiming to be looking for Brittany.

"At least we'll be relatively warm in here," Kurt said, turning to Blaine, "c'mon, let's get away from the doors. Do you think they have any designer sleeping bags?" Blaine laughed, but rolled his eyes and followed Kurt towards the camping section. It was going to be a long, interesting night.