A zombie apocalypse was something that the general population had never seen coming, nor had they thought possible. It was something that had been made up for science fiction, for novels and movies. It was nothing more than something made up for entertainment value. Until it happened anyway... Now, four months in, it was a different world around those still raging war against the undead. Or, just trying to survive day to day.

Buffy Summers would have to say she fell into the second category on that. One day she had been just a regular seventeen year old who was worried about school and boys and the next she had her entire life turned upside down when the news broke and the world began to change. Given she was an avid fan of horror films, she had been amused by the first reportings as she thought it was all just some prank or practical joke. But it wasn't, as she became painfully aware of soon enough. In the following weeks, she would watch as the world fell apart all around her.

Sunnydale was left behind her now. The town, her home, her school, her life was in ruins when she ran for her life. She had witnessed both her mother and younger sister's deaths, and Buffy had no idea how her deadbeat father was fairing. Her best friend, Willow, had died the night she left the once sleepy little Californian town and countless other friends, neighbors, peers, teachers, and more had met their end before and after that, too.

She had fled Sunnydale with several others but that had dwindled down quickly to just her, her friends Daniel "Oz" Osbourne and Alexander "Xander" Harris, and Xander's girlfriend Cordelia Chase. Buffy still couldn't believe the fact that Queen C was still alive and kicking but she was thankful for it, quite surprisingly. Cordelia had actually even come in handy a time or two-which was even more of a shocker. Their group joined up with a lone British man named Wesley Wyndam-Pryce before they crossed paths with a military group that called themselves The Initiative. The Initiative had been helping take care of them and anyone else they happened to stumble across since. It hadn't been a piece of cake by a long shot but there was no denying that having them around had made life a little easier.

The Initiative was run by an older woman named Maggie Walsh who Buffy felt didn't like her by any means for whatever reason. She was smart but very cold at times. Her son, Adam, had been second in command until they lost him in a large attack just a week or so ago so now it was one of the Army guys, Riley Finn. They had managed to set up a pretty good safe facility just outside of Los Angeles, which was where they were still using as home base. The Army guys had taken everyone under their wing when possible, trying to teach them how to fight, kill, hunt, and survive.

Buffy still wished she could just wake up and it all be some really awful dream.


"Fucking zombies," Angelus thought as he roaming the streets of downtown LA. It was mostly dark now, sirens always going off in the distance, moaning from the damned filling the night air. Annoyed, he pushed one of the decaying bodies out of the way then kicked at another. This action earned him the attention of a few of the other biters around him. Angelus held up his arms. "What?" he asked the creature closest to him and he stared at each of them until they lost interest and continued their slow shuffle forward.

Zombies didn't care for vampires like himself, these members of the dead didn't even acknowledge their existence. They were only interested in the live ones. Vampires had never felt any warm fuzzies for them either, they were useless for the most part and tore into their food supply, that was it. Until recent times though, the zombie population was relatively small so you knock one off and just go about your life. But then this shit went and happened. Now, the vampires and other creatures of the night really hated the band of brainless biters. Angel wasn't even entirely sure how things changed, not that he assumed it really mattered at this point.

It had been over a week since he'd had a decent meal and that made the legendary vampire a tad cranky. Growling, he tried to focus and see if he could sense anyone other than the undead nearby but came up short. With a growl, he decided to trudge on for awhile.

It wasn't ideal, but the large German shepard he eventually found fit the bill to keep him going. Zombies had no interest in animals, so at least there was that. He knew he could always take from the zombies if they had any to spare but that was even worse than animals if you asked him. Utterly useless, they were.

Deciding to head back home, Angelus played Domino's with a few more zombies and laughed wickedly as he waltzed through the otherwise empty streets.


Buffy was doing her best not to panic. Somehow she had gotten separated from the group she'd come out with on a food run and was left alone to fight off the horde coming for her. "Get it together, Summers," she said in a whisper, wiping her sweaty forehead with the sleeve of her shirt and quickly getting into position to fight. She had her trusty knife in one hand, using into to plunge into the faces of the undead around her. When there were too many coming up, she fought her way out of the forming circle around her and pulled out the gun from her bag, firing a few shots as she ran. Her lungs hurt as she whipped around one building after another, putting distance between her and whatever creatures she could see still moving. She hated going into the city and avoided it whenever possible. Something bad always happened here, this time was obviously no exception.

There were just too many and Buffy didn't know what to knew she couldn't take all of them down on her own. Buffy ran and ran and wound up jumping into a large van after kicking a member of the undead out then hurrying to lock all the doors and windows. It was a stupid move but she was running out of options. Her body shook, her fingers grasping a couple of her weapons as she watched the car start to become surrounded by the walking dead. "Oh, God," she whispered in a chant over and over. "I'm not ready to die," she whispered as tears slowly trailed down her face.

Buffy jumped as bodies went flying backward. She had no idea how much time had passed as she realized her watch had been lost somewhere along the way some time ago but it'd felt like forever as far as she was concerned. She was almost convinced she was seeing and hearing things before but now she was sure someone was out there. More bodies fell away and she tried peeking through the open spots from around the van, not missing the other slowly moving dead bodies heading for her in the not so far away distance. She jumped back and let out a yelp when a loud thump was heard as well as felt and she could see big black boots land on the front hood of the van. She watched in awe as the stranger took down zombie after zombie, basically effortlessly. She couldn't see so well through the dirty windows but it didn't seem like the undead cared one bit about the guy who was taking them down, it was like he didn't even exist ninety-nine percent of the time. No one was trying to bite him or attack him, just every once in awhile it seemed he earned their attention for a moment and that was it.

Knuckles knocked on the window and she debated opening the door but after a moment she went to unlock it and together they opened it enough for him to lean his head down. "You okay?" her savior asked. "Any of them get to you?"

Buffy tried to swallow, taken back by the man who had just saved her life. There was no question to the fact he was hands down the sexiest guy she had ever laid eyes on with his dark brown eyes, strong nose and jaw, long lips and dark brown hair. He was tall, athletic, and looked really good in leather. He had zombie blood and guts on him, though not a lot, but he looked otherwise "clean." He was close shaven, his hair all in place... back with The Initiative camp they had their share of good luck with showers, some clean clothes, food and shelter and all but he he almost looked better off than any of them ever had. "Uh, no... I mean, I think I'm okay. I jumped in here before anyone could get me, not that it was the smartest idea..." she told him after forcing her brain to put some words together so she wasn't just sitting there staring at him.

He straightened up, his head disappearing before coming back down. "There's more coming. We should go." The stranger stepped back, holding out a hand for her.

"G-go? Go where?" she asked, feeling nervous. She didn't know what else she could do, though.

"Somewhere safe," he answered her. "Come on."

She hesitated for a moment, then put her knife in its holster and let him help her from the van. She took in a deep breath as she got the full scope of the guy who had come to her rescue then again when she looked around them. It was like they were always never ending in the city, dead just everywhere all the damn time. "Are you sure we can make it anywhere?" she asked.

"I'm sure. Come on."

It didn't seem like the best idea, but neither did any of her other options.


It didn't take long for Angelus to lead the girl back to the place he'd been calling home as of late, for the most part the brainless biters hadn't been an issue either. he knew they weren't interested in him and being close to her had seemed to cloak her somewhat, too. He helped lead the girl inside, locking the door behind them and sealing it off anyway. He went around the room and lit a few candles before letting his attention fall back to the blonde. She looked uncomfortable, her eyes taking in the place. She had taken her knife back out, holding it tightly in her hand.

"Do you want me to check you? Just to make sure nothing got you?" he asked her after a moment passed.

She looked all the more uncomfortable but she nodded. "O-Okay," she said shakily.

He closed the space between them slowly, bringing a larger candle over and sitting it down on nearby for better lighting. Angelus knew he could have smelled it on her if she'd been bitten by now but he had his reasons for this. He slipped off his duster, folding it down into a chair then began to look her over. She stiffened when his hands first touched her, blushed when his eyes roamed her face, her breathing went ragged when he looked her body over. She was young, probably only sixteen or seventeen years old, long blonde hair that was pulled into a tight ponytail, short stature, curves in all the right places. She was beautiful, even dirty and worn out as she was. "You seem to be fine," he said once he was through.

"What about you?" she asked him and he realized he didn't mind the sound of her voice none either.

Angelus smirked. "I'm fine," he told her. She didn't look too convinced so he began stripping off his dirty clothes and let her look him over. "See? I'm good as new."

"How is that possible?" she asked, taking a step back. "How are you barely banged up at all, taking out all of the zombies like that, all on your own? Why don't they seem to be interested in you?"

Angelus shrugged. "Maybe I'm just not their type," he answered. "I'm going to go take a shower. There's a second bathroom over there if you want to do the same. It's not perfect but for now it still works. Not for long, though." And with that he walked around her and down to the main bathroom to get the stench of the dead off of him. While in the shower he let his mind stay on the pretty blonde girl who was mere feet away. It'd been by chance he'd found her. He had gotten up early as he had been restless for days and being cooped up wasn't helping so he headed out. He heard the screams of a male and went to go check it out, though was't surprised to find him tore to bits by the zombies by the time he got there. He walked a few blocks then got the sense of the girl and tried to figure out where she was, eventually saw the endless horde and put two and two together. He took the undead out and was pleasantly surprised by the present waiting inside the dirty van. He knew it'd been a female but didn't know what to expect beyond that.

The hungry demon inside of him wanted to just wanted to get to the door, opened it and tear the human open to feed but then he thought there might be a better way to handle this. If he drank them alive he would be alright for awhile but who knew when the next meal would come along. There had to be a way to make this work in his favor. He just had to figure that part out.

"How did you wind up here?" Angelus asked when he came out of the shower. She had obviously taken him up on jumping into one her own self but she was out and sitting in one of the chairs before he'd joined her. He took a seat nearby as she began to tell her story, starting from where she had been when the craziness started on through today. He had seen those military groups around a couple of times, but hadn't gone after any of them as he was trying to figure them out. He'd heard of The Initiative before so he wasn't going to be acting reckless-until he had all the facts anyway. She told him about how she had joined up with them and was out on a run today when they got separated and how that led to her jumping into the car that he had found her in.

She ran her fingers through her wet, tangled hair and it didn't take long for her to turn the tables, asking him more questions about who he was and how he had found this place and again about why the other type of undead didn't seem to have any interest in him. He answered most of her questions then offered to help get her back to her people.

"I'm not sure if I could actually remember the way," she said with a sigh. "Not to mention it's just the two of us and that's basically a suicide mission at this point."

Angelus shrugged. "We could always try. If and when you want anyway. Until then... you are more than welcome to stay here. Either way is fine by me."

She grew more uncomfortable all of a sudden-not that he blamed her. He was a stranger with something "off" about him, she was a young and beautiful young woman, they were strangers alone together with no one else around to help. It was exactly the type of setting he liked, though her not so much. "My name's Angelus by the way. I should have properly introduced myself long before now so I apologize for that. I'm sure this is pretty terrifying for you."

"And it isn't for you?" she countered.

He shrugged. "I'm just trying my best to get through it, as we all are. Maybe I'm better at handling it, I don't know."

She was quiet for a long time. "Buffy," she said suddenly. "My name is Buffy Summers."

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Buffy Summers."