Buffy followed Chris for a few minutes until she realized that he was going in the wrong direction. "Wait, you're going the wrong way."
"No I'm not. There is no way that the two of us are going to be able to stop the virus without destroying the source even if we find your friends. All we'll do is get ourselves killed. We need to find a way into Umbrella's underground complex and destroy it."
She grabbed his arm stopping him in his tracks, "I'm not just going to let my friends and family die. I'm going after them with or without you."
"They didn't answer when you called which means they aren't home. Are you planning on searching all of Sunnydale for a chance at finding your friends? And what are you going to do when you find them and they've been infected? Are you prepared to kill them?"
She wanted to deny his words, but the truth is that he was right. What would she do? Could she kill her friends? She hated him at that moment. He watched the emotions play out on her face and he knew how she felt. "Look, if you help me, I'll help you find your friends."
"Fine. Where do we go?"
He began walking again with Buffy on his heels, "We have to get back to Lowell house. The entrance is supposed to be there. That is what I was doing at the party tonight. I was looking for a way in." He realized that she wasn't following and turned to see why.
"Willow was at the party. I left her there."
"Then she may still be there. Let's go."
They reached the frat house without running into any trouble and discovered why. The lawn was covered with zombies eating the flesh off of the party goers and the house was packed full of the infected. They were trying to get to the top floor where it looked like there were some survivors. Buffy hoped that she would find Willow among them.
Chris regretted not retrieving his other guns. The gun he had with him only had nine bullets with two extra clips. They wouldn't be able to fight their way through the house, but he spotted a tree next to it that might give them access to the second story. He motioned to the tree and Buffy gave a nod.
She was off before he could stop her. In a matter of seconds, she had climbed the tree and leapt to the house grabbing one of the window sills. On the ground, the infected noticed her and began getting up from their student body buffet. Chris rushed to make it to the tree before the way was blocked. Only one got in his way and Chris lopped its head off.
When he reached the window that Buffy disappeared into she was fighting with a couple of women who had been infected. She was incredibly graceful in her movements and handled the sword she carried with ease. It was obvious that she was well trained. She was finished with them before he could pull himself all the way into the house.
"Nice moves."
She faced him, "Thanks. If there are survivors then they should be down the hall to the right."
He gestured toward the door, "Lead the way."
Buffy poked her head in the hallway. There were infected people filling the corridor blocking the room where they believed the survivors to be. There wasn't much time. The force of all of the bodies pushing against the door was too immense. They had to find another way to get to the people in there.
She heard Chris whisper, "Buffy" and quietly shut the door before joining him. "We can make it to that room walking on this ledge," he pointed out the window.
"I'll go first and make sure it's safe."
He pulled her back from the window, "I'll go first. I'm heavier. If it can't hold me then we're going to forget them and look for the entrance underground."
"What!? We can't do that! Those are people in there! Willow might be in there!"
"You need to learn how to make the hard choices for the greater good. What if we get killed trying to rescue them? Who is going to stop Umbrella from getting away with this?"
There was a pounding on the door behind her. Time was up. She gestured to the window, "Go."
Chris made his way across the ledge finally reaching the room where they believed the survivors to be. He peered in to find seven people very much alive and trying desperately to keep the undead tide from smashing the door in. He tapped the window to get their attention. A tall, blond man holding a bat nearly smashed the window and his face but was stopped by a girl with short, bright red hair.
The blond man opened the window to allow him in, "Sorry. I thought you were infected."
He jumped in the room and turned to let Buffy know it was okay, but she was already on her way. When she reached the window he helped her in and her eyes went straight to the red headed girl behind him. "Buffy!"
There was a blur of red as the girl ran past Chris and embraced Buffy. "Oh thank god you're okay Will. I was so worried."
"What's going on Buffy?"
"Some really bad virus got released and it's turning everyone into flesh eating zombies."
Chris noticed the look that passed between the blond guy that almost hit him and two of his buddies when Buffy mentioned the word virus. "You know what's going on." It wasn't a question.
The three men looked at him, "Don't know what you mean." The look they gave him told him that they were lying.
Buffy realized who Chris was talking to, "Riley? What is he talking about? Do you know what happened here?"
Chris regarded Buffy, "You know this guy?"
"He's the TA in one of my classes."
It was obvious that Riley and his friends had no intention of talking so Chris decided that it was time for persuasion. He kicked his left foot out catching Riley in the gut then spun on the man to his left with a right cross. The last of the three came at him but was thrown back into the wall by Buffy. He yanked the bat out of Riley's hand, grabbed him by the throat, threw him down on the ground and placed the bat against the man's throat. "I know you work for Umbrella and I know that the entrance to their underground complex is in this house. Where is it?" Riley answered by punching out at Chris's face. Chris released one of his arms from the bat and flung it around Riley's catching it and holding it against his side then grabbing the bat once again. He then pinned Riley's other arm in the same fashion.
Willow was confused, "Buffy?"
"It's okay Will. Riley, just answer him."
It wasn't Riley that answered, "The entrance is behind a mirror in the hall."
The man Buffy was holding back tried futilely to get away, "Graham!"
Graham stood up to his full height, "Those are our friends out there Forrest." He turned back to Chris, "They told us that we were catching demons to stop them from hurting people."
Buffy looked at Chris then back to Graham, "What were they actually doing?"
"I'm not sure. There was a section of the complex that we didn't have access to. Dr. Walsh and a few others were the only ones allowed in there."
"Walsh! As in Professor Walsh!?"
"Yes."
Buffy was so confused. Her strange life had just gotten a lot stranger. "How do we get to this entrance?"
Graham looked to Riley. Riley answered, "Half way down the hall on the right hand side. You need us to get in." Chris let Riley up and Buffy let go of Forrest who began rubbing his neck.
Buffy was getting frustrated, "So we have to fight through an army of flesh eating monsters to get to this door thingy?"
Riley nodded, "If we can make it to the door then we'll need a full minute for the retinal scan to open it. Once we get down into the main chamber we can make our way to the weapons cage."
Chris was thinking, "So not only do we have to fight through dozens of infected people without getting infected ourselves, but we have to keep them away from you for a minute so you can unlock the door. Do you have anything in this room that we can use as a bomb? I could make my way back to the room we came from and incinerate the ones immediately in front of the door. We would have to fight through the rest though."
Willow, who had been listening to this whole conversation intently, spoke up, "Maybe I can help."
