Rough Waters

Adam had never felt so poorly in his entire life, but his friends kept telling him he had to keep going or they’d never make it. He didn’t want to complain or make things any more difficult, but every so often a moan or groan or a similarly pitiful sound would escape him. He was so weak, and every inch of him was screaming.

He kept stumbling, and it took all the strength Kurt, Elliott, and Sebastian had to keep him upright and moving forward. Moving forward, walking a straight line, basic balance and coordination, it was all such a hardship. More than it should have been.

The zombies were a bit like that, weren’t they? Always staggering and stumbling all about. Always moaning or making some sort of animalistic sound. Maybe it felt this awful to be one of them. Maybe… Oh God.

No… Adam stumbled again, and this time he went all the way down. He could feel tears forming in his eyes. Did zombies cry?

“Adam!” Kurt was trying to help him up. “Come on, baby, we have to keep going. We’re so close now.”

Did zombies understand English? Did zombies understand anything? Did zombies know they were zombies?

“Adam,” Kurt kept repeating his name. He rolled Adam onto his back and placed a hand on his face. “Adam, honey, can you hear me? Look at me.” He kept repeating Adam’s name.

Adam’s eyes finally found Kurt’s. “Kurt,” he cried in a small, weak voice, almost like a child’s, “Kurt…”

“Oh, Adam, oh thank God, oh my God, you scared me so bad. You scared all of us so bad. Can you move? Can you get back up?”

“Kurt, I don’t wanna be a zombie,” Adam continued, crying pitifully.

Kurt looked at him strangely. “What? Why are you saying that?”

“I don’t,” Adam answered simply, shaking his head.

“No, honey, I mean why are you saying that right now. There aren’t any zombies, and you haven’t been bitten by one.” Kurt’s voice was so reassuring, and Adam wanted so badly to believe him.

“He’s out of it, Kurt,” Sebastian’s less reassuring voice cut in, “He’s out of his gourd; the fever is frying his brain. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

Adam couldn’t follow everything they said to each other in the ensuing argument, but he responded to the one thing he heard that stuck, “I do so know what I’m saying.”

“Adam, honey, shhhhh,” Kurt responded, trying to settle him down.

“I do though,” Adam protested weakly, “Please, Kurt, you have to help me.”

“What do you want me to do, Adam?” Kurt asked.

“I’m turning into one of them, or I am one of them already…” Adam was so tired; speaking was becoming more difficult. Thinking straight was almost impossible.

“‘One of them’? Adam, I don’t understand.”

“One of them… one of them— zombies. Kurt, please…”

“Adam, listen to me. Look at me. You’re not a zombie; you’re not becoming a zombie. You got hurt, remember? You got hurt, and now you’re very sick, and we’re trying to get you to the hospital.” Kurt was crying. Oh God, how Adam hated to see him cry. “Do you understand?”

“Kurt, no. No, love, please don’t cry.” He needed to hold Kurt in his arms and make whatever was wrong okay.

“Adam, what are you doing?” Kurt fell on top of him. Well, he hadn’t meant to do that, but he could still hold onto Kurt like this, even if it hurt his own achy body a bit.

“Don’t be upset, love,” Adam said, “I’m sorry.”

“Kurt,” Sebastian said in a surprisingly gentle tone, “I think we need to have a talk.”

Yes! Perfect! That might improve everyone’s spirits! Have a chat, a nice little chat, and perhaps some tea. Now where had he put that tea…? As Adam began to mentally rummage through his old apartment, he faded out of consciousness.

--

“Kurt, I don’t think Adam’s gonna make it,” Sebastian said, “I promise I’m not trying to be an ass here, but there’s just no better, non-blunt way to put that.”

“No! No! We can’t— we can’t give up on him! No!” Kurt cried hysterically, “He’ll make it! He’ll make it! We can’t leave him! We can’t give up! We can’t!”

“Kurt, I don’t think Seb was saying anything about giving up or leaving Adam,” Elliot said, “Were you?”

“I, uh, yeah, actually,” Sebastian responded a bit sheepishly.

“No!” Kurt disentangled himself from his unconscious lover’s arms and sprang at Sebastian.

Sebastian took several hurried steps back, holding up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, okay? I really, really am. I liked Adam, and I don’t want—”

“Don’t you dare,” Kurt cut him off. “Don’t you dare start talking about him as if he isn’t still here! He’s still alive, and as long as he’s still alive, I will do whatever it takes to keep him alive, even if I have to drag him to the hospital by myself!” Sebastian looked down at the ground and seemed ashamed. Kurt continued, “Now, am I gonna have to do that or are you two gonna help me? Because I swear to God, I will do it alone if I have to, and if that’s the case, I don’t ever want to see either of you ever again, especially you, Sebastian Smythe.”

Elliott approached Kurt with raised hands, and Kurt could see now in his eyes that he had been crying. “I’ve got your back, Kurt,” he said, “And Adam’s.” He offered an embrace and Kurt was briefly torn between taking it or continuing to glare at Sebastian. He made his decision and pulled his friend tightly into his arms.

“You’re right, Kurt,” Sebastian said finally, “We have to try, I guess. Adam would do the same for us, so it’s only right... I’m sorry for even suggesting it.” After a poignant pause, he looked over at Adam’s prone figure and added, “But Goddamn, if one of us had to go down, why did it have to be like the biggest guy?”

--

Kurt knew the others were probably getting tired. Hell, he knew by all rights he should have been, were it not for the adrenaline coursing through him. They couldn’t stop though, not now. Adam was counting on them, his life was literally in their hands.

Between the three of them, they had managed to carry Adam a great distance. Adam drifted in and out of consciousness, occasionally waking up in a confused state. It absolutely broke Kurt’s heart to see him like this.

They had reached what appeared to be a residential area in the limits of a city when night fell. They paused, setting Adam down as gently as they could on the sidewalk. They each drank their share of water, which they were now running dangerously low on.

Kurt placed a hand on Adam’s forehead to find he was still burning up. They had to cool him down somehow or he wouldn’t… Kurt’s mouth formed a tight line and his brow knitted. With speed and determination, he began removing Adam’s clothes until he was down to his boxers.

“Uh, Kurt?” Sebastian began.

“Don’t even start,” Kurt cut him off, assuming there would be some kind of lewd remark coming, “We need to get him cooled down. We should’ve done this sooner.”

Elliott grabbed Adam’s clothes and put them in his bag. “Good idea, Kurt. We should probably see if we can get some water in him, too, before we start moving again.”

Kurt nodded. He leaned down and whispered to Adam. “Adam, honey, wake up.” Adam stirred but didn’t otherwise respond. “Please wake up, Adam.”

With a groan, he slowly opened his eyes. “Mum, I don’t wanna go to school today. Can I please stay home?” His brow furrowed in confusion when he found himself to be a grown man lying on the sidewalk wearing nothing but his boxers instead of a young boy in bed in his childhood home. Kurt helped him as he tried to sit up. “Where am I?” He shivered. “I’m so cold.” He looked down at his own body. “Where’d my clothes go?”

Kurt placed a hand on Adam’s face and directed his gaze towards him. “You’re burning up actually. You’ve got a fever. I know it feels like you’re cold, but really you’re not. Now, you need to try to drink some water, okay? Are you thirsty?”

Adam nodded, and when Kurt pressed the water bottle to his lips he drank from it slowly. “Thank you,” he said.

“We should probably get going again,” Sebastian said, “Can he walk at all?”

“I dunno, Seb. I think we moved faster just carrying him, to be honest,” Elliott remarked.

“I don’t think it made that much difference, but my arms could use a break, if that’s at all possible,” Sebastian responded.

“I don’t think there’s any way,” Kurt said to them. Still, he asked Adam, “Do you think you could get up and walk with us if we help you?”

Adam was staring off and hadn’t seemed to hear the question so Kurt made sure to get his attention before repeating it. Finally, Adam nodded and said, “I wanna get up. I’ll try to.”

With great effort on all of their parts, they had managed to get Adam on his feet again, albeit on very wobbly legs. Kurt and Elliott were supporting his weight on each side, Kurt on his right and Elliott on his left. Sebastian followed behind them with his weapon in hand but his arms hanging loosely at his sides.

There didn’t seem to be anyone, living or living-dead on this particular street now. Kurt wasn’t sure whether he should be relieved by that or not. People could be trouble, but then again they could also be help. And they desperately needed help.

Although, at least there were no zombies. That was definitely a blessing.

“Hey, Kurt?” Elliott asked, breaking through his thoughts, “You know a lot about cars right?”

“What? I, uh, I guess so,” Kurt responded, confused and caught off guard by the randomness of the question, “I mean, I don’t know if I’d say a lot—”

“Well, compared to me, Seb, and I’m assuming Adam. You’re an expert,” Elliott continued, “I was just wondering if you maybe knew how to hotwire a car.”

“Just because my dad’s a mechanic doesn’t mean I know everything about cars,” Kurt responded, a bit more harshly than he probably should have.

“Okay, but do you?” Sebastian butted in.

Kurt sighed. “Dad showed me how to, but I’ve never actually tried to do it myself. I have no idea if I can or not.” Still, if he could. An automobile would be an absolute godsend.

Elliott stopped and almost sent Kurt and Adam stumbling. “Sorry,” he said, “It’s just—look, in that driveway, there’s a car just sitting there… Maybe we could…?”

Elliott was quite possibly a genius. Kurt couldn’t believe they hadn’t thought of trying to do this sooner, even if he was highly suspicious of his own abilities to even do what Elliott had in mind. Something else potentially wrong with the plan came to Kurt’s mind. “How do we know no one’s living there or using it?”

“Well, there aren’t any lights on anywhere in that house,” Elliott responded, “At least, none that I can see.”

“I’ll go check it out,” Sebastian volunteered, “In the meantime, get to hotwiring, if there is anyone home, I’m sure I can persuade them to let us borrow it anyway.”

That lead back to problem number one. “You guys are assuming I can actually do this at all,” Kurt said, “I mean, I’m willing to try, but I’ve never actually done this before. My dad just showed me how like forever ago.”

“Kurt,” Adam said, “You can do anything you set your mind to. I believe in you.”

Well, if his sick, delirious boyfriend was trying to give him motivational speeches he certainly had to try hotwiring that car, even if he wasn’t entirely sure Adam knew what exactly he had been trying to help motivate Kurt to do. Besides, if he could manage to do it successfully, having a vehicle would help them tremendously. “Alright, alright,” Kurt said finally,” C’mon, let’s take a look at it.”