"Jesus," Faith muttered as they hit the lone cemetery during their patrols. "What do you think it was; vamps?" Half of the cemetery plots before the two slayers were nothing more than square, empty spaces.
Buffy was crouched beside an open grave, frowning. "No, these graves are too neatly dug." She straightened up quickly realizing something, "Faith, more than half of have no coffins in them."
Faith whispered, "Some of these look fresh, B!"
Indeed, some of them look fresh. It was the kind of fresh you couldn't mistake when you see the newly dug Earth pile; or the big scuff marks that were the tires treads of a Hearse.
"I don't like this, let's bail," Faith said, uncharacteristically nervous. 'We can always come back later-"
Buffy was hit from behind with a shovel – the shovel head bending easily as it connected with the Slayer's back. Buffy lay on her back, stunned by being taken unawares. The figure stood her, holding the shaft of the shovel over its head to impale it through her skull. She reflexively kicked out. The figure launched backwards under the impact of the Slayer's strength. It hit a grave monument, making spider-cracks across the marbled surface. Faith helped a still groggy Buffy to her feet.
"Someone ate their wheaties," Faith cracked, in regards the murderous figure.
Both Slayers stood over the now non-moving figure. It smelled rank, mostly an embalming fluid-like smell, but that could have just been the yellow gunk it was now laying in. It was dressed in a ratty, mold encased jumpsuit, and a gasmask. Without any wisecracks, Buffy hefted the mask off the figure. They gaped in shock at what they saw. It was a woman before she died. Her face looked funky – complete with the hackneyed 'bags-under-the-eyes'. At this range, the smell from the fluid was making both Buffy and Faith gag. They saw the gaping hole in her head caused by the impact of the gravestone. What was supposed to be red blood pouring out was not red at all; it was a yellow color. Buffy swore off eating anything with Mustard for awhile.
"What Demon do you think it is?" Faith asked. "Seen anything like it before?" The reason Faith asked was that it was known that Buffy faced off with Demons that Faith hadn't.
"I don't know- but if there are vamps in the area – they'll most likely know."
Later in the cemetery, Buffy found a vagrant 'pack' of Demon-spawned Vampires camping out on the outskirts of the place. From what the Slayers could tell from eavesdropping, the Vamps were enraged at the dead bodies being taken and evidently destroyed. Buffy and Faith waited until a Vampire wandered too far from the little nest.
"Tell me what you know about the bodies being destroyed." Buffy demanded, "And I'll make it quick." She trained the stake over the vampire's heart. "Tell us nothing, or lie to us and I swear; I'll still dust you but I'll be slow with the stake, real slow."
"They say the bodies are destroyed, but not really." Seeing both girls' look of not understanding, the Vampire added, "It ruined them as food to us! The ones who were changed and brought back to life - they're no longer human! Once this happens, they cannot come back as one of us!"
"Thank god for small favors," Faith replied dryly. She added, "Not human – some Demon changing Humans then?"
The Vampire shook its head, stating, "I don't know." Faith started digging the point of the stake slowly into its skin. It was panicked now. "I don't know man! All I know is some dudes in gas masks come in here late at night and dig up corpses. They see ones too far gone and cremate them. The vamps that were going to rise- this guy slew them even before they arose."
"Guy," Buffy demanded, "What guy?"
"I don't know- The guy doing the slaying is fairly young, tall and wears a suit. I've seen a tall old guy too. The older one is real arrogant – keep an eye for that one." Buffy and Faith thanked the Vampire for the information.
"Can I go now?"
They dusted it. "I don't like this," Buffy cut in. "People are slaying vamps like it's a fun show- a game. Vampires are scared of them too, and this whole Human-into-something-not-vampire paints more Big Bads. I thought relocating to Oregon would have helped – being as was assured not to lay on a Hell-Mouth."
"There was movie that took place in Oregon. All these small towns got pretty much totaled." Faith explained as they resumed patrolling in the cemetery – scouting for Vampires, or shovel people. "There was a real bad space Alien who couldn't be stopped and loads of people died just for finding out about it."
"I am not blaming anyone, but this weirdness didn't start until Willow came back from her special trip. Willow came back from her travel… wrong." Buffy explained to Faith. They could relax on the patrolling, but not entirely. Just because there was anymore creature-feature sightings didn't mean anyone had to be careless. "Not wrong as major injuries, but wrong upstairs."
"Willow flipped out?" Faith asked, amused at the sight of locals flipping out over Dark Willow.
"It wasn't funny-"Buffy replied as she dusted a fledging vampire. "She didn't tell us what made her edgy. All we know is that any cars that slowed down past the Magic Box at night she got ready to-"Her speech was cut short when something small, brown and low to the ground slammed into her. Whatever ever it was making these disgusting growling noises.
The sounds of thuds and smacks resounded through the clearing as the duo quickly grabbed, smashed in and backhanded a lot of small brown figures. More Grave Diggers rushed them too. Buffy stood over the last corpse of the brown things. Faith stood with her looking down at the form and the thick viscous yellow fluid pooling around it.
"Um, yuck," Buffy muttered as she wiped her yellow covered hands on her summarily covered blouse.
The battered form wore a dark brown robe. Besides only being Hobbit sized, it made her heart sink. She knew a group that wore brown robes – Glory's Minions. She pulled back the hood and jumped slightly. It was a person's face, not one of the minions. This didn't make her feel better though, the face was mutated into a visage that almost resembled a Demon Spawn Vampire.
"I think we need to grab it and bail," Faith almost pleaded. "That was too many – even being Slayers that was too much. With zombie monks and mutants in hazard clothing, I'd hate to think of what the backup is."
Even as she felt deathly cold fear twist around in her gut, Buffy stated, "We bail – we need Giles's input." While she hoisted the corpse, she felt like she was being watched. Far off, she could hear a noise that could only be described as a hacking, disgusting cough. Some other cried rang out in chorus that sounded like a twisted version those Raider things from Star Wars. Andrew would have known the name, if he was on patrol with them.
Faith swore, "Move, now!"
They bolted out of the cemetery, and past some Vampires who'd just crawled from their graves. Faith happened to glance back and see them yanked backwards by the evil Hobbits. The vampires indignant roars were heard fading behind them as they hit the main streets.
As they moved quickly, creature in tow, Buffy spotted two figures gracefully making their way past headstones. Lamplights from the nearby street illuminated the two figures, giving them an even further ghastly look. A vampire jumped the duo, thinking them an easy meal. The tall, elderly man caught it by the throat and hoisted it up with one hand. Both women could see the old man give the errant vamp an angry scowl, as if it was nothing more than an unruly child.
"How dare you assault us – CREATURE," The man yelled. He snarled the last word.
The Vampire just laughed and spit in his face. The old man threw the Vampire back. The Slayers realized that this man was not normal, not since the vampire hit a tree with an impact that would kill a Human. It leapt up, and other tall man, a younger one, with brown, long hair, led the older man to it. The other man held the Vampire in place long enough to point out where its heart was to the old man. Suddenly, the other man staked the vampire, making it dust. The older man staggered back a few steps, eyeing the dust pile that had once been an unruly creature.
They both then walked on, discussing something, but neither woman could hear what.
They saw both tall men had grim, set looks as they came to the pile of Hobbits, as well as the corpses of the unlucky Grave Diggers.
"Faith, you see that?"
"Damn B, they look like straight from that horror movie!" As if he had heard them, the older man looked around quickly. Both Slayers heard more disgusting barking yells far off, and they ran away from the cemetery. Both Slayers stopped running once they hit one of the main streets filled with shops.