The trek out of the Initiative complex was long to say the least, but Buffy and Giles were lucky enough to not run into any more trouble. In fact the only obstacle in their way was finding some sort of map. The place was huge. Buffy hadn't remembered it being this large before. After what had felt like a hours Buffy had seen something that looked familiar, something that was near one of the exits if she remembered correctly. Of course when they passed this same landmark several times, the two of them began to realise they might be going in circles.
Buffy let out a sigh of frustration and walked over to a stack of crates with Giles. "Come on, let's get you sat down." Keeping one arm around his waist, she guided him towards one of the smaller stacks and let him sit down on one of them. "I think we're pretty close to one of the exits."
Giles began to laugh a little, jolts of pain shooting through his chest as he did. Holding one hand over his mouth, he coughed loudly and grimaced, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall.
"Giles!" Rushing over to him, Buffy placed a hand around his shoulder and pulled him back up into a sitting position. "Come on Giles, don't go dying on me. We're almost out of here… I've got it all under control." She added with a little uncertainty in her voice.
With a weak smile, Giles looked up at Buffy and held up a hand in protest. "I'm fine. You should get out of here Buffy, I can look after myself. Besides, I'm only going to slow you down."
"Oh no. No, no." Buffy shook her head violently. "You don't get to do the dumb action hero thing where I go on without you." Perching herself on the crate beside him, Buffy looked over at Giles and continued. "Besides, you wouldn't last two seconds without me." She teased.
Stifling back a laugh, Giles held a hand to his chest and tried to control his breathing. Buffy watched him for a few moments, making sure he was truly fine and then glanced down at the crates they were sitting on. Furrowing her brow she jumped off the one she was on and turned to face it. Pulling it open she and Giles scanned its contents. Placing a hand in it, Buffy pulled out two flashlights and handed one to Giles. Flicking it on, Buffy shone the light over towards Giles, who held up a hand in front of his eyes and looked away. "Ooh, sorry." Buffy said apologetically, quickly turning the torch away.
Turning his own flashlight on, Giles began to scan the room with it, while Buffy's own flashlight began to flicker. "Oh come on!"
"Buffy."
"You've gotta be kidding me." Buffy tapped the palm of her hand against the side of the flashlight which only made it flicker more intensely.
"Buffy."
"Can you believe this?" Buffy exclaimed as she stuffed the flashlight back into the crate. "Well at least yours works." Buffy added as she looked towards Giles who seemed to be staring straight ahead in shock. "Giles?" She examined him for a moment and then turned around to see what he was looking at. Following the shine of the flashlight, she gasped as she realized what Giles was staring at. At the other side of room, someone stood facing them, pointing a gun straight at them. "Where'd he come from?" Buffy whispered to Giles, making sure not to move in case she angered him.
"I don't know. But I think it's best if we just stay right here." Giles whispered back, not taking his eyes off the man with the gun.
After a few seconds something crackled and the man pulled something from his jacket. Bringing it up towards his face, Buffy saw he had a radio in his hand. She could faintly make out someone was saying something on the other side but she couldn't quite make out what it was.
"Think I've found some survivors." The man waited for a few moments, listening to whoever it was on the other side of the radio. Giles and Buffy exchanged a brief and concerned glance, slowly raising their arms in the air in surrender. "Negative." The man said, keeping his weapon trained on them. "They do not appear to be hostile." The man went silent once more for a few seconds before going on. "Negative. No demons in sight. I'm going to make contact with them. I'll report back in 15 minutes. Evan's out." The man switched off his radio and began to step towards Buffy and Giles. On the way, he lowered his weapon and spoke to them. "What the hell are you two doing down here?"
"We could ask you the same question." Buffy replied.
"Ma'am, I work here."
Buffy raised an eyebrow curiously. "Erm, I don't know if you missed the memo but the Initiative got closed down. You know, there was a big revolt. Lots of people died. We're you on holiday or something?"
"I'm well aware of the situation. I'm here to do the clean up operation. There's valuable equipment down here. We're here to collect it."
"We?" Buffy and Giles asked together.
"Yes, we have three squads, all searching facility as we speak."
"So where were you guys when we were being attacked not so long ago."
"We haven't searched the sub-levels yet." The soldier paused for a moment and surveyed the two of them. "How did you say you got down here?"
"We didn't." Giles answered, jumping off the crates he was sat on.
Buffy stepped towards Giles and held an arm around him, not wanting to leave him unattended for along. "Look, we just need to get out of here. Can you show us the way or not?"
Without answering the soldier raised the radio to his mouth and considered her and Giles for a moment. Holding his finger down on the switch on the side he spoke into the radio. "Command, this is Evan's. I've got two civilians down here. I'm going to escort them out of here."
"Copy Evan's. Be quick about it. We've got a lot of ground to cover."
"Understood. Evan's out." Putting the radio back onto his belt, he looked back towards Buffy and Giles. "Alright, I'm gonna get you two out of here. Just stay behind me ma'am and you'll be okay."
"Oh you don't have to worry about me." Buffy added with a coy smirk.
A/N
Yes that's right folks. It's nearly over, just one more chapter to go.
I've had a blast writing this and it's mostly been thanks to you, the readers. Thank you.