A/N: I do not claim to own this story-line. This was inspired by the awesomeness of Stephen King and his book THE STAND. I thought it would be fun to make my own Buffy version of it, so here it is. This is not intended to offend anyone, but for entertainment purposes only.

The Plague:

Prologue May 19, 2010

It was very early morning in the California desert, only five, but it was already a scorcher. Parker Abrams really wished he'd been stationed somewhere else. He was at a government research facility in the desert, where the doctors in the compound did tests on all sorts of things, including viral weaponry. He hated having his wife and baby so close to the danger, but he didn't want to be without them either. It wasn't as if they were in harm's way really, they weren't technically in the compound. Parker was just assigned to the main gate so that all visitors were announced. His biggest job of all though, was to close the gate and everyone in if something were to leak out. It was a gravy job, but still…his nerves were always on the verge of breaking into tiny little pieces. His wife, Molly had their baby, Carrie, only fourteen months ago. He was standing around like normal, checking the cameras and making sure there were no unwelcome visitors in the area. It was approximately five fifteen in the morning when the alarms started going off everywhere in the compound. Parker froze when he saw the code red appear on his computer screen. All of the people in the compound were screaming and clawing at the doors that automatically shut then into whatever department they were in. The head doctor, Dr. Marshall, ran over to the intercom and buzzed to the main gate.

"Parker, you have to close the gate, we have a code red. Project Blue has escaped and we're dropping like flies! Close the gate, Parker; you have to close the gate!" Parker pressed the button and acknowledged that he understood. He didn't want to die like the people on the screens, they were literally were dropping like flies. He took a deep breath and pressed the button that sealed the gate…only nothing happened. Parker knew it was stupid, but he couldn't help himself. He took it as a sign that he wasn't supposed to die like that. He ran from the security hut and ran towards his house that was just inside the gate. All of the houses were eerily silent because everyone knew what the alarm meant. Parker ran into the house and stared at his wife, who was shocked to see him.

"Molly, grab the baby, we don't have much time." Molly gasped and rushed to pick up Carrie. She grabbed the diaper bag and stopped in the doorway as she continued to look at him.

"Parker, what is it?" Parker grabbed her hand and started dragging her to the car.

"Don't ask, Molly, you know what it is! Just get the baby in the car now!" Molly only froze for another minute.

"Oh God no." She quickly jumped in the front seat, not bothering to put Carrie in the car seat. Parker was glad that she was taking this seriously and he jumped into the driver's seat and floored the gas once it was on. He was horrified to see that the gate had somehow fixed itself and it was coming to a close right before his eyes. His family couldn't die like this, they just couldn't. He stepped on the gas more, ignoring the frantic calling of his wife, begging him to slow down. He closed his eyes as he shot past the gate, both sides of the car scraping loudly against it. He saw in the rearview mirror that the gate had screeched to a halt…only a few feet from closing completely. He focused his eyes only back on the road only to bring his eyes back to the rearview mirror. There was a man sitting his backseat smiling at him. His smile made Parker sick to his stomach, but when he turned to check the backseat, it was clear of anything but the baby's seat. Parker didn't know where he was going to go or even if they'd gotten out in time, but he knew that he couldn't stop until he was as far away from the compound as possible. The images of the dying people were glued to his eyes and he kept seeing them fall in heaps.

Back at the California compound, everyone died within twelve minutes. Several people had grabbed the gas masks to try to keep the bug out, but it was too late…it only prolonged the inevitable. It was as easy as a worker dropping the vial they'd been working on and it leaked out into the air vents. Shutting the gate and sealing them in would have prevented any further infection from spreading…if only Parker had closed the gate.