TITLE: 28 Days Later ... The Slayer's Story

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INTRODUCTION: Buffy the Vampire Slayer fights to survive in the world of 28 Days Later. Set somewhere in Season 8 of Buffy the "infection" breaks out (I still have a hard time with Season 8 being canon) and spreads quickly to Scotland and the castle housing the slayers-in-training. It has already devastated London and the countryside. Buffy has to struggle with the loss of friends and loved ones, as well as, the constant insanity of a world "infected" with the rage virus. She finds love, lust, and loss all along the way.

If you watch the movie 28 Days Later then you know the story is dark. People die. It gets rather ugly. I also have a distinctly suggestive and naughty theme in the storyline here and there. Nevertheless, from what I see in the rating scale, I feel comfortable giving it a solid "M" rating.

As I said, people die, so character death is all over the place; however, the story has hope built in it. You will see what I mean if you read it. Anyway, as we all know … dead isn't really dead-dead in Buffy (or Star Trek for that matter). Also, we have a thirty-one year old Buffy (the story is set in 2012 and since she was born in January 1981 that makes her a sexy and beautiful 31 years of age).

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DISCLAIMER: The writing here is strictly fan fiction without intent for profit. If imitation is the highest form of flattery then may I do my little part to pay honor to Joss Whedon and his genius and creative spirit that started and continues the story of the Slayer. Everything here Buffy related is the property of Joss and Mutant Enemy. The story for 28 Days Later was written by Alex Garland and produced by Andrew McDonald, and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. All rights, credit, and characters related to the movie belong to these sources.

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"There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again."

Anne Frank

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Buffy felt emotionally and physically drained beyond belief. She was exhausted after hiding out with Dawn in a forty foot commercial shipping container, in a rail yard storage area, on the outskirts of London. It had been four days now, living … existing … surviving in the container. This was more than she could handle. She felt like she was on the edge of completely falling apart.

This was hardly the purpose for which she had come to the London area. She came to save Giles and Faith, instead she found herself hiding like a scared animal since the world had literally gone insane. People were killing each other. The Rage infection was everywhere. The feeling of emptiness, total, absolute desperation, fear, guilt for not doing more, was beyond overwhelming. She thought seriously about ended it all a few days ago if it were not for Dawn. Dawnie, her sister, needed her, now more than ever. There was no way she would leave her sister alone in this world gone mad.

The rage infection had spread all over the UK, maybe the world, for that matter. There was no way to know really. Back before everything fell apart, her sources told her that the infection started as a covert science experiment that went horribly out of control. That was just two weeks ago. "How could it have spread so fast? How could it be so devastating?" It was not supernatural; she was good at fighting that kind of thing. It was biological, man-made, and very contagious. She had little to mount as a defense against it. She was no longer a hero in this world. She was just trying to survive like anyone else out here who managed to avoid being infected thus far.

Even Vampires were not immune. Of course, that was completely understandable since they were creatures that thrived on blood, and the "Rage Virus" was transmitted by blood. Since blood is the only real nourishment for vampires, the rage had an easy and willing host. The infection controlled them, or maybe ... it just let out the demon within each vampire. In any case, the results were the same. Even the most powerful vampires and demons fell victim to the infection. Who knew that a simple virus could destroy all the "Big Bads" in England? Buffy thought for a moment longer and came to a sobering conclusion, "Who is left alive to care anyway if all the vampires are dead?"

Snapping out of her self-absorbed thoughts, Buffy focused on Dawn. "Dawn honey, listen, I need you to pay attention to me, okay?" Buffy sat in the heap of cloth and rags they had been calling a bed. She cradled her sister in her arms. Dawn had fallen from a roof top while running from a group of infected. She hit her head pretty bad in the fall. She also broke her right arm in two places. That was six days ago. Dawn had not been totally with it since. She acted dazed and confused all the time now and her arm was swollen and badly bruised.

Dawn opened her eyes. It was evident that she was weak and tired. "Buffy," is all she said with a raspy voice.

"Listen, I, I, gotta go out and get some food and water for us while it is still daylight and I can see." Buffy wiped the dirt from her sister's face as Dawn looked up into her eyes.

"Buffy, I don't want you to go. Don't leave me, please." Dawns eyes welled up with tears just as Buffy's did. "I'm so scared," Dawn said softly as her lower lip started to quiver.

"Dawn, you know I love you. You know it, right?" Buffy hugged Dawn tight.

"Yes, I know."

"Dawn, I can't let you starve. You need food … and, and water to survive. We're gonna survive Dawn, I promise!" Buffy let a tear fall on Dawn's forehead.

When the rage broke out in London, they all watched it on the TV from the seeming safety of the Slayer castle. They called Giles, who was in London with Faith, to see if the two of them were okay. At first the virus seemed controllable but then it rapidly started to spread. Reports that the infection spread over to Scotland and Ireland within a day blasted across the TV. Dawn was there when Buffy gave one of her motivational speeches about how everything would be okay, how we would all be safe. All those people were dead now and Buffy hadn't been able to do a thing to stop it.

"Please come back. I don't want to die in here alone! I'm scared Buffy." Dawn closed her eyes and weakly hugged Buffy's arm for a full minute.

With those words, Buffy was overcome for an instant with the emotion of losing all she had known. She buried her face in Dawn's hair and started to cry. After a few minutes Buffy regained herself and gently laid her sister back down on the rags and cloth matting that acted as their bed. It wasn't much but it was better than under a bridge or somewhere on the cold dirt.

Buffy looked at her sister and searched her own mind for a word … any word of encouragement. Only one thought came to her so she decided to share it, "Dawn remember what I said to you a long time ago when Glory had you on top of that tower? I said it right before I jumped."

Dawn nodded, "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it." That thought seemed to provide Dawn with some small measure of peace.

Buffy covered Dawn up in surrounding shipping blankets and packing material. The bed was in the corner of the container, hidden from sight behind boxes and stuff. That way, whenever the door had to be opened, anything outside would not see Dawn.

As Buffy walked by the two candles that provided the only heat and light in the container, she snuffed them out so as not to attract attention from anything that might see her leave the container. Since the shipping container was full of vehicle parts that made handy weapons, she grabbing a truck crank-shaft from one of the boxes as she made her way to the container door.

She slowly cracked open the door and peaked outside. It was cloudy, overcast, a faint drizzle was in the air. All she had to protect herself from the weather was a ratty old sweater and some torn jeans with some well worn tennis-shoes. She carefully looked around for movement but didn't see anything, so she quickly stepped out and placed the padlock back on the door to the container. She knew if she did not return, Dawn would die in there, starving to death, all alone. There are worse things that could happen to her. Locked in there, at least she would not become one of them, one of the "infected." She had no choice but to lock her in. Within a few seconds Dawn was secure and Buffy was hunkered down by the container looking for a good route to take to get to the nearest source of food and water.

In short order she had her route planned out and started moving, running, from container, to rail car, to guard shack, to pile of debris, and finally to the fence line. The rail yard was not too close to any housing area … but those … "things," were everywhere. She could kill them easily enough but the infection spreads through the blood and overwhelms its victims in seconds. If she were cut or the blood got into her system in a fight, she would turn into one of them, just like all of her friends and loved ones back at the castle.

As Buffy walked cautiously along the fence line she thought back to when this started, just twelve days ago, everyone was glued to the news. The reports on the radio were dire, and then the report just went to fuzzy static. She called Giles to find out what was going on. He said that some kind of infection was spreading and to have Willow look into some kind of protection spell. He said he and Faith were "hold up in the apartment" but were "relatively safe." Giles was always the one for an understatement.

Buffy remembered hearing Faith's voice in the background saying, "Hey G, I think we got a problem." After a few minutes of silence, the phone went dead. That was the last time she heard from them. That is what prompted "Warrior Buffy" to go hunting for them. What a disaster that turned out to be. As Buffy walked warily along, she thought about she could have done differently. "Should I have stayed back at the castle and died with the rest of the slayers?" Buffy muttered to herself more to break the empty silence than anything else.

She found the opening in the fence that she had been using to slip into the woods near the rail yard. If she was lucky and did not get attacked, the little trail in the woods would lead to a small road, and then to the abandon farm house she had been raiding the last two days for supplies.

"God, how I miss Sunnydale ... mom," she said to herself as she walked along, observant of any movement or sound. She wished she could go back to a simpler time when she could at least fight the "Big Bad." Even Glory was easier than this. Now, everything was dead or lost to her forever. Even if she and Dawn survived, "Nothing would EVER be the same," she thought.

For what seemed to be the hundredth time since all this began, tears filled her eyes. She recalled how Xander was the first of her friends, loved ones as it were, to go down. An infected slayer-in-training had made it inside the castle. Nobody knew what to expect. She started biting people and vomiting up blood all over the place. Before we realized it, five more slayers were infected. Eventually Buffy and the rest of the slayers killed those who were infected but not before one jumped on Willow.

Xander was close to Will, and kicked the super-slayer-zombie off of her. Then, he stood his ground with nothing more than a candle holder and an eternal love for Willow, his childhood best friend. He bought time for Willow to run up the stairs and get away. Buffy remembered the look on Willow's face when she turned around just in time to see him get ripped apart by two of the infected slayers.

Willow cried for days after Xander died. Unlike when she lost Tara, this didn't turn to anger ... just lonely, deep, incredible hurt. As Willow cried to a point of empty gasping, everyone else boarded up the Castle and tried to make sense of what was going on. In the end, Buffy decided to try to find Giles and Faith. Six slayers, Willow, Dawn, and a couple of the new Watchers decided to come with Buffy on the quest. That was how the journey began. Now, all that remains of the valiant team are Dawn and Buffy. Even Willow, with all her power as a witch, couldn't stop the rage from spreading. Willow used her last breath to save Buffy and Dawn's life.

After twenty minutes of walking through the woods and along the empty country road, still packing her weapon of the day, a crank-shaft, Buffy was at the farm house. It wasn't really much of a farm, just an old house with a little extra ground around it. She had managed to dodge any contact with the infected thus far but just looking at the house made her skin crawl. Although it had been just yesterday when she was here getting canned food from the kitchen, it seemed even creepier than before.

As she cautiously walked in the backdoor, she could tell something was amiss. The place had been cleaned up a bit. On her last visit, it appeared clear the original inhabitants destroyed the place. Now, the kitchen was reasonably intact. She stood absolutely still in the doorway and listened for a full minute before she even exhaled. It looked okay as she glanced in every direction. From where she stood, it looked safe. "Luckily the infected do not think about eating canned food as much as they do about just … well … killing," she thought.

She brought her crank-shaft up to the ready position as she made her way to the kitchen. "Nothing so far," she thought. Putting her weapon on the counter she grabbed a bag from under the sink, she remember them from her last stopover. As she filled the bag with canned fruit and a couple bottles of soda she heard a noise behind her that made her jump and reach for her weapon.

"That's enough miss." A tall, gaunt looking boy stood in the doorway pointing a rather large shotgun at her. "I don't want to hurt you but that's our food," he said in the Queen's English. He looked to be no more than sixteen. He wore jeans, a grey flannel shirt and a light jacket. His curly blond hair reminded her of someone she once knew, and cared for a long time ago.

Buffy was just a little surprised to see another person. Other than Dawn, she hadn't talked to anyone in four days. After a moment of staring, she spoke up. "Oh, no, I am sorry. I, I mean, when I was here last, it was empty. The house I mean."

"Me brother and I just got here yesterday," he said. He lowered the gun as he spoke. She could see the strain of the last few weeks of world apocalypse in his eyes. She knew that he did not have the heart to hurt her. She could see it in his eyes.

"My sister is hurt and I am just trying to get a few things and get back to her. I can't leave her too long. She's all alone in the rail yard."

"Injured," a voice exclaimed, "are you sure the lass isn't infected?" A man in his late twenties said as he stepped in the room from behind the boy.

"Oh no, no, no, she fell … we were running from them. She's not infected." Buffy's thoughts ran to Dawn as she spoke. "Look, I just need a few supplies … please. I can't go back …," she started to chock up with emotion, "back, with nothing. She needs me to … take care … of her." Her eyes again began to drip tears as she wept softly.

The three of them stood there in the kitchen for a full minute, lost in their private thoughts. Finally, the boy spoke, "I'm William and my older brother here is Liam. We lost our mum a week ago to the infection. I know how you feel."

Buffy looked up and wiped the tears from her face. In actuality all she did was smear the dirt on her cheeks. She smiled her first smile in three weeks. "I knew a couple guys once. Their names were William and Liam."

"Did they get infected? Are they dead?" The boy, William, asked.

"I don't know for sure if they got infected. I guess you could say they died a long time ago." Buffy thought of how she wished Spike or Angel could be here to help her, hold her, and tell her it was going to be all right somehow.

After moment to contemplate Buffy's somewhat cryptic response, Liam spoke, "You can have no more than one bag can hold. I'm sorry but this is survival and I want ta live too ya know."

"Thank you," is all she said as she reached into the cabinet to get a few more cans, filling her bag. She turned to walk past them when they heard the glass window in the living room break. Her eyes went wide, "They must have found us!" She dropped her food bag, grabbed her crankshaft weapon, and ran toward the living room.

Three of the infected scrambled through the broken window just when Buffy and the two brothers ran into the room. The people that emerged from the window looked insane, gory, and filthy all over. At first she couldn't even tell if they were men or monsters. Their hair tangled wildly about their faces. Clothes were shredded along with some of their skin. Every ounce of blood dripping from them was laden with the infection. It made hand to hand combat, Buffy's specialty, very dangerous.

William fired the shotgun pulverizing the head of one of the infected, luckily the blood splattered on the wall behind the other infected attackers. One more shot rang out but Buffy was not waiting for more of those things to come running to the sound of the gunshot. Her slayer instincts kicked in.

A kick to the chest of one and a swing with the crank-shaft to the face of the other cleared some room to move. Two more infected were crawling in the window as Buffy's crank-shaft weapon shattered the skull of the infected guy she had just kicked in the chest.

"Run!" Liam yelled. He grabbed William by the arm and headed for the door.

Buffy grabbed one of the intruders that crawled in the window and tossed him like a ragdoll into several others that were trying to get in the house. She ran for the door too, following William and Liam. As she stepped out on the porch, a snarling female figure leaped out at her from seemingly nowhere. She dodged the attacker at the last second. With a quick backward kick to the side of the infected woman's knee, Buffy heard the cracking of bone as the woman fell to the ground. The broken leg only slowed her down but that was enough for Buffy to get away.

Liam and William were about two-hundred feet from Buffy when they took their last shot with the gun. It downed one more of the infected, splattering blood all over the yard. At that point three more of the infected where practically on them, escape seemed impossible. Buffy ran toward the fight swinging her crude weapon over her head. Even before she got to the fight, she had her attack plan down in her head.

Liam grabbed the empty gun from William and started using it as a club but the infected were too fast. He hit one but the other two tackled him and started biting and ripping at him with their hands and teeth. William kicked one of the infected that attacked his brother. The kick was solidly between the legs with little result. They went tumbling on the ground as William made a desperate attempt to not let the thing get the advantage.

Buffy could see that it was too late for Liam. She ran by the bloodbath and made it William before the wild-eyed attacker could infect him. She swung the crank-shaft with all her strength and connected with the infected man's right shoulder. He went flying off William and tumbled to the ground. She ran toward the dazed man as he began to stand up, the rage almost making his eyes seem to glow.

For a minute she wondered if he could be a vampire because of the look in his eyes, but the rage cleared vampires out pretty quick. The instant a vampire got infected they went all crazy and usually ran out into the streets ... which usually meant they burst into flames seeing how they seemed to not care if it was daylight or dark. She also learned quickly that these infected could be easily hurt, but they just didn't seem to care. They had a single focus. Pain meant nothing to them.

As she jumped up and landed behind her opponent, she could see his shattered arm hanging useless to his side. He just did not seem to notice. However, her next swing to the base of his skull had a more permanent effect. He fell lifeless to the ground.

She looked at William with pleading eyes. He was standing now, looking at several of the infected actually eating his brother. "He's gone! Come on! Don't stand there and die for nothing!" She was relieved when William turned and ran toward her.

They both ran from the farm house while most of the infected were still distracted by what was left of Liam. Those with the rage infection did not have much of an attention span but getting out without any of them following was nothing short of a miracle.

They ran until they made it back to the woods where Buffy knew her way to the container with Dawn in it. William was visibly shaken. He had to stop and catch his breath. He also took a moment to get sick. He fell to the ground and threw up the contents of his stomach. "That was my only brother," he finally muttered, his voice cracking under the stress and shock. "In the last couple weeks, I lost my whole bloody family to the infection."

Buffy put her hand on his back and patted him gently. "I know how you feel. I lost my mom a few years back. I still miss her so much. I lost all my friends to the infection, all the people I know. Since this thing started, everybody I care about is ...," her voice tailed off. For a minute they were alone with their own thoughts. Finally, Buffy spoke up again, "All I have is my sister now. She's what keeps me going."

"I, I, have nobody," William sniffled as he spoke.

"That's not totally true. Right now, you've got me," she said tenderly, "and I have Dawn. We sorta all have each other …," realizing how that sounded she added her own disclaimer, "in a so ... not ... like naughty way." She stood there allowing him a few minutes to calm himself again.

He looked up at her with a yielding look on his face. "I don't want to be alone. Can I come with you?"

"None, of us want to be alone William. That is why we have each other for now." After a moment of silence she said, "It will be dark soon and I have to get back to Dawn. She is all alone in the big metal box we are using as a hideout."

"Metal box," he said with his strongest British accent so far. "My Brother and I had a flat about five kilometers from here," he offered.

"Why did you leave then?"

"We ran out of food, and really, two blokes with nothing to do … we got a little stir crazy I guess after mum died."

"Well, for tonight, I think my metal box is closer. I really need to find some food and something to drink for Dawn. I dropped my bag of food back at the farm house." Buffy looked down at the ground wishing just once something could be easy.

"I have a few things." He reached in his pocket and pulled out four candy bars, some mints, nuts, and half of a bottle of Pepsi.

Buffy smiled again for the second time in as many weeks, "That'll do just fine for now. Let's get going before we're stuck out here in the dark. No telling what bad things lurk in the dark around here."

They stopped only once on the way back when they spotted a roving band of infected wondering through the train yard. The group moved on rather quickly. She thought she saw some unlucky German Sheppard trying to evade them. Buffy thought that they seemed hungry and less energetic than the group at the farm house.

William noticed it too. "I wonder if they will starve like the rest of us."

"Let's hope they starve first. I vote we don't starve," Buffy commented.

They made their way back to the container with Dawn in it, just a few minutes after the sunset. She removed the lock and opened the container. Dawn had a candle burning and she was sitting up with her back against the wall.

"Buffy, you're back!" Dawn was a little too loud for Buffy's comfort.

Buffy quickly closed the container door and made the hush sign with her finger over her lips. "Dawn, this is …," she said as she began to introduce him.

"Spike?" Dawn was squinting and looking confused. As he approached, Dawn reached out and touched him. "You're warm … and, and, do you still have your soul?"

William thought her comment was a little strange but gladly picked up on the conversation and continued the dialog with her.

Once Buffy finished securing the container door as best she could, she replied to Dawn's original question, "No Dawnie, not Spike, this fine young man is William. Sorta like the Prince but without all the royalty stuff." Buffy turned to William and inquired, "You aren't the royal guy are you?"

He laughed softly, "No, I am definitely not Royal blood."

Just realizing what Dawn said about Spike, Buffy address the topic. "When she fell a week ago she hit her head. I think she got a concussion but I'm not a doctor." Buffy's emotions quickly changed back to somber as she spoke. "When I got to her she was bleeding through her nose and ears. She was unconscious for two days. I don't know wha ...," her voice shuddered. She stopped and started again, "I don't know what else to do for her."

"My brother and I," he too stopped for an instant to regain his composure, "we heard bout a place on out the M1, this side of Luton."

Never being good with directions and driving, all Buffy could manage was, "Huh?"

William giggled. "Don't give it another thought, we'll figure it out later." He handed out the goodies in his pocket and everyone gladly started eating and sharing the slightly warm drink. Each seemed to sink into quiet thought until William again broke the silence. "You're from the States I gather?"

"What was your first clue?" Dawn said managing a smile to show that she was just trying to lighten the mood and not being bitchy.

"Well, for one, you all butcher the Queen's English," he said with a smile. "What are you doing over here anyway? If you're tourists, you picked a hell of a blood bad time to do a holiday to merry ole England."

"It's … a long and complicated story," Buffy said with a weary voice.

"My sister's a vampire slayer! Oh … not any vampire slayer, she's Buffy, THE Vampire Slayer." Dawn concluded with a goofy smile that eluded to her younger days when she was around his age.

"Dawn, do we have to go there?" Buffy did not want to explain the whole story.

"A what? You said a slayer? I don't think I understand." William leaned back against the container wall and settled in for a listen.

Well, okay, okay, it's like this," Dawn began her long story of the history of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She told, an ever more interested William, about how Buffy burned down her High School gym, dated vampires, destroyed the Sunnydale High School, killed the mayor who turned into a snake, defeated a god, died twice, and eventually destroyed the entire town stopping an apocalypse.

The story lasted for three hours before the story teller and the one person audience drifted off to sleep. Buffy had long since drifted off to sleep. In sleep, she could once again see her family, her friends, and her loved ones. In sleep, she was free of the total chaos of the world around her. As she touched on their memories she felt warmed inside. In sleep all was okay again.

Buffy woke to the noise of something scrapping along the outside of the container. She instinctively clamped her hand over Dawn's mouth to prevent her from making a sound.

"What's?" William sat up and whispered.

"Quiet, they're out there." Buffy whispered as she pointed to the door.

After a few minutes of random shuffling noises coming from outside the container, a loud pounding noise hit the container door.

Dawn jumped, "Buff …," she mumbled under Buffy's hand.

"In a whisper so quiet Dawn could hardly hear it, Buffy said, "Don't say a word."

The pounding continued and then increased in frequency. It sounded like two hands then three on the door. She could hear the infected shuffling around just outside the container. She wondered if they could smell them or if they somehow heard them snoring or something. Either way, they were just outside and didn't seem too interested in leaving anytime soon. Buffy had the door jammed shut on the inside but it would not hold for long.

She got to her feet and adjusted her grubby clothes. What she wouldn't give for a bath. "A bath. Listen to me. I'm probably gonna die here in the next minute and I am worried about a bath," she thought. She walked carefully over to the container door where the infected continued to pound. She grabbed her trusty crank-shaft as a weapon and stood ready by the door.

William stood as well and started for the door until Buffy motioned for him to stay put. He went back to Dawn and sat down beside her. She was trembling and buried her face into his shirt.

"I … I don't want to see it coming," Dawn whispered.

Just then Buffy heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot, then another and another. A hole appeared in the container and then another as high velocity bullets started penetrating the thin metal of the container wall.

"Get down!" she yelled as she turned toward Dawn and William. Just then, she felt a rock-hard stinging punch to her left arm. It violently knocked her into several stacked wooden crates near the container door. She fell to the ground with the boxes toppling over, burying her in splintered wood and crank-shafts.

She knew what it was instinctively, "I've been shot," she thought. Warren had shot her once before back when that worthless scumbag killed Tara. This time Willow wasn't around to pull the bullet out of her and magically fix things. Even if she was "Evil Willow" back then, she still saved Buffy's life. That was more than Buffy did for Willow this time around. Willow died trying to save Buffy one more time … loyal to the end, just like Xander.

As Buffy lay on the container floor in the wreckage of boxes and crank-shafts with the bullets flying all around, she thought about how she missed her friends. She missed Willow's whimsical, mousey, and funny personality. All they had faced together, all the battles, all the research sessions … now they are all dead, or worse. Her best friend's charred body lay in the ruins of Giles apartment.

Buffy and the others had been searching the Giles' apartment for anything he and Faith might have left behind for them concerning the infection. Without warning, a gang of the infected started clamoring up the stairwell and into the apartment. Willow and another slayer were in a far corner of the living room, separated from Buffy and Dawn. She knew she had no escape when the infected burst through the door. Buffy wondered when the exact instant Will knew it was over for her. When did she actually resign to the fact that she was going to die?

When the infected piled in the room, Willow looked at Buffy with those familiar pleading eyes. Three of them grabbed her and bite into her smooth white flesh. It was then, Willow started to convulse just before she mumbled a few words in Latin and the room exploded in fire. She had conjured up a massive fireball that destroyed the twenty or more infected attackers that flooded into the apartment. Buffy and a few others made it out a window and onto the roof of the adjoining building. They started running across rooftops as Giles apartment building began to burn.

Buffy retraced, once more in her fading consciousness, how that horrible day began with finding Giles' apartment. She recalled how the slayer team fought their way to the building. She remembered finding Giles bloodied jacket and broken glasses. She remembered how she and Willow and the others cried watching the video recording Faith had apparently made for them to document what was happening.

Giles and Faith had survived the initial assault on the building by the infected and had locked themselves in the bathroom. The recording was mainly of Giles rambling and speculating and proposing several ideas and solutions. She could hear Faith cussing in the background … then … 28 minutes later the video camera fell to the floor as the infected burst into the small bathroom.

Buffy's last thoughts before unconsciousness overcame her, where again of her friends, her family, and of days long since gone. As she slipped into unconsciousness, her last conscious words were, "mom … mom … mommy."

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A/N: As you know, everything was wonky in London based on the movie. I hope this first chapter sounded true to the feeling of horror in the movie. After being on a whirlwind trip around the globe this year myself (Afghanistan, London, Kuwait, Iraq, etc, etc) I decided to re-read my work with a fresh eye. It is amazing how much you catch and want to tweak and improve. Hope it reads a little better than before. Thanks for all those who like my writing. I really appreciate your comments!

Please R&R!

UPDATED 14 OCT 11