"So what do we do now?" Chris asked quite some time later, after they had found more or less secure shelter in the woods lining the street to the asylum, "walk back to Sunnydale and report this?"
"We'd have to walk almost thirty miles", Vivien protested, prompting the attention of the others to shift from the quarterback to her, "and walking might be dangerous, what if there are more like that one guy out there? Did you see what he did to the driver?"
"Yes", Chris muttered, glancing back into the direction of the bus uneasily, the images clearly still fresh on his mind, "what the Hell was he, anyway? He looked like he had some kind of sickness."
"You guys never watch any horror movies?" Brad threw in, making them all look at him now, the tint of hysteria in his voice not unnoticed by Willow and the rest of them, "that's just like The Hills Have Eyes or something. Crazy creepy incest hillbilly mutants, out to eat all of us, cause we're so tasty."
He let out a high-pitched laugh, wrapping his arms around himself, his giggling turning into sobs half a minute later, prompting Willow to place a calming hand on his shoulder, her voice surprisingly steady and calm when she spoke up, despite how uneasy she felt and how queasy her stomach was.
"It'll be okay", she told him, making him look at her with tears glistening in his eyes, "we'll figure out how to get away from here. We all got phones, right? We'll call… the police, and tell them what happened."
She gave him a moment to nod, then smiled reassuringly at him before she dug out her phone, her face falling seconds later though as she looked at it and saw that she had no reception, disappointed noises from the students around her telling her that they were facing the same problem; still, she tried to dial 911, telling herself that emergency calls should get through even then, her frown deepening when she merely heard a recorded voice telling her that her call couldn't be put through and that she should try again later.
"No luck", Sylvie muttered, having tried the same thing with her own phone; the rest of the students gave it a try as well, their dismay showing on their faces when none of them fared any better.
"So what now?" Willow wanted to know as soon as she had put her phone back into her pocket, fighting down her fear at the thought of being unable to reach anyone, especially her partner and best friend, knowing that Pat and Buffy would have made short work of the creepy man, "walk back to Sunnydale after all?"
"Perhaps we should head to the sanatorium instead", Rimmon gave back after thinking about this for a moment, "it's up on a hill, so we might have luck about the reception there, and we can use it as shelter from this… man."
"Or any friends he might bring", Chris mumbled, nodding his agreement to the professor's words, even though the redhead suspected he was mostly doing this to not side with her suggestion, "good idea. I'm for the sanatorium."
"Me too", Vivien agreed, a few of the other students voicing their approval, as well; nodding, Rimmon came to his feet again and glanced around, then dug out a small pocket knife and used the built-in compass to help him orientate himself, gesturing south a few moments later.
"This way", he told them, "and make sure you stay together. The last thing we need now is one of us getting lost."
Huddling together, the students started following him as he took the lead; clearly still afraid, Brad made sure to stay close to the redhead, looking as if he wanted to hold her hand, but not daring to, his gaze darting left and right nervously.
"Some profiler you'll be", Chris immediately took the chance given to be a douche again, snickering slightly, "you'll faint the first time you see a dead guy."
"Don't tell me you're not afraid", Willow was the one to answer, glaring at him over her shoulder, "we all know your tough guy act is just that, an act, a façade to keep yourself from freaking out."
"No squabbling", Rimmon threw in before the quarterback could come up with a response, giving them both a strict look, "we need to stick together now, you hear me? You can fight all you want once we are safe and sound back in Sunnydale."
"Just wait until he's not around anymore to protect your ass", Chris hissed at Willow the moment the professor's attention was elsewhere again, making sure to keep his voice down so Rimmon wouldn't hear, "then I'll show you how much of a tough guy I really am."
Not even willing to dignify this with a reply, the witch merely rolled her eyes in response; next to her, Brad gulped while Janine told her boyfriend to "leave this silly nerd alone", making the quarterback chuckle audibly.
"What a jerk", Brad whispered to the redhead, making sure Chris wouldn't hear him, "why can't he just leave you alone?"
"Never mind him", Willow gave back at once, pulling her phone out again and checking the reception, just to make sure, suddenly longing to hear her partner's voice, the confidence with which Pat would tell her that she'd come and that everything would be okay; the phone still couldn't connect to the network though, and with a small sigh, she put it back into her pocket.
"Stupid phone", she grumbled to herself, making Brad nod empathically; and that was when up ahead, a loud snapping sound echoed through the quiet woods, giving both the young man and her a second to wonder what it had been – before the metallic smell of blood hit their nostrils and the screaming started.
"Oh God, oh God, help me!" the unfortunate student who had been the one to activate the – rather simple, but gruesome, Willow thought to herself – trap kept screaming, his eyes wide and full of pain; he stood straight-backed, as stiff as a soldier, kept from moving even an inch by the sharp wooden stakes which had snapped downwards from one of the trees when he had stepped on the trigger and had dug into his shoulders.
"Oh Jesus", Vivien whimpered a few steps ahead of the redhead, trembling from head to toe, "oh Christ…"
"Hold still", Rimmon told the still screaming student in a remarkably calm voice, even though his face had paled drastically, "we have to get these… things out of you… Don't move…"
"It hurts", the young man whimpered, tears streaming down his face, dripping down to the grassy ground along with his blood, "it hurts so bad, please help me, please…"
"We will", Rimmon promised, taking a closer look at the booby trap, at the crude wooden branch to which the spikes had been tied with rough rope, "I promise, just try to hold still or you'll make it even worse…"
He took careful hold of the branch, then asked the student nearest to him to untie the spikes; with trembling hands, the girl set to work, even the smallest movements of the wood making the impaled student cry out in pain.
"Did he put this up?" Janine almost whimpered, looking around fearfully and prompting Chris to put one arm around her in an attempt to comfort her, "the guy who ate the driver?"
"He, or someone like him", Willow muttered, making them both look at her, the quarterback thankfully for once not having anything dumb to say, "I doubt he's the only one."
"Way to cheer me up", Janine grumbled, giving her a poisonous look, as if it was her fault; not sure what to reply, the redhead just shrugged, then focused her attention on the injured student again, regretting that she had left her bag in the bus at their hasty departure, figuring that she could have used the ingredients she'd brought to work a bit of healing magic on him.
On the other hand, none of the guys here knows you're a witch, she then reminded herself, holding back the urge to grimace, who knows how they might react… Don't forget, they aren't a troop of people used to the supernatural, like your friends.
Another sharp crack distracted her from those thoughts, and for a second, she thought that somehow, another booby trap had been activated; this time, there was no screaming and no blood though, a shiver running down her spine seconds later as terribly familiar grunting and snuffling sounds reached her ears instead.
"Oh God", she heard Vivien press out next to her, while Brad let out a wordless and breathless whimper which probably should have been a scream; the noise was loud enough though to attract the attention of the two deformed men, both of them shifting slightly as they looked at him, one of them even licking his dry and cracked lips.
All around them, more of them appeared between the trees and bushes, men and women alike; the women looked just as bad as the men, wearing tatters and rags for clothing, exposing quite a bit of their bodies, and showing that they were just as covered in sores as their male equivalents.
"Run", Rimmon whispered, barely loud enough to be heard, "I'll stay here with Craig, the rest of you, run! We'll meet you at the sanatorium!"
Chris was the first one to follow those orders, taking off with Janine in tow, the blonde struggling to keep up; and even though Willow didn't like the thought of leaving the professor behind with Craig, she knew that staying and probably getting injured or even killed as well wouldn't help anybody, thus grasping Brad's hands and following the quarterback as fast as she dared on the uneven ground.
Behind her, she could hear someone follow them, then Vivien and Sylvie caught up to them, with Barrold right behind them; then, she realized that it might be smarter to pay attention on running and did just that, speeding up when she heard grunting and snuffling behind her.
Oh God, I wish Pat was here, she frantically thought to herself as she kept running, her stomach turning while another flash of bright white light momentarily blinded her, again prompting her to fear that she'd faint; telling herself that this was the last thing she needed now, she took in a few deep breaths, feeling Brad squeeze her hand as they kept running.
"Maybe they'll stop chasing us", Sylvie panted, glancing back at the men and women after them again and again, and once nearly falling flat on her face as she thus didn't spot a root and stumbled, "if they realize we're not easy prey…"
"Hopefully", Willow gave back, then saved her breath for running; she had a moment to ask herself if they were actually going into the right direction, then shrugged it off and told herself that they could orientate themselves once they were out of harm's way.
"Keep going", she added, now glancing back as well, at the four creeps following them, two men, two women; one of the men was already slowing down, and the other three started to look rather impatient as well, probably used to having their prey faster and easier.
Up ahead, Chris and Janine were running, the blonde already slowing though, clearly not used to this; her boyfriend kept urging her on, none of them bothering to look back at the small group following them, something which didn't really surprise the redhead though – so far, neither the quarterback, nor the cheerleader had seemed as if they cared much what might happen to any of them, only eager to save their own skins.
Trying to ignore how angry this made her at the two, Willow kept running; and finally, the sounds of their pursuers grew softer, then stopped as they gave up the chase and turned back, giving them all the chance to slow down again and catch their breath, something they desperately needed by then.