DR: Once again, I must beg your forgiveness for the delay. With twelve and half hours each week day taken up by my job, any writing time has been swallowed by my 'Legacies' arc. But rest asured, I have been slowly adding to this story, the odd scene here and there when I got a spot of writers block for 'BoB'. But rest assured, I WILL be focusing all my writing attention on this from now on...

And now, we see what happens to the other groups...

Chapter 20

It had taken them less than half an hour to unpack their cases earlier that day. Now, with the sun setting and Willow growing more frantic by the second, it was taking more than twice as long to repack them. Course, Willow losing focus and just standing there shivering didn't help things at all.

Buffy slammed her case shut, using her incredible strength to hold it closed while doing up the zips. Effortlessly she hauled the case off the bed and moved to the main door. Dumping her load there, she turned to Willow's room.

"Will! You done yet?"

"Almost!" The sounds of a zip being drawn punctuated her statement, and a moment later the young witch dragged her case through the doorway.

"All right, let's get out of here." Quickly the two of them made their way out of their room and headed for the lifts. Quickly and quietly they descended to the ground floor, though not fast enough for Willow. Buffy noted that she was leaning from foot to foot, her hand wringing themselves together.

Once they reached the foyer, both young women strode towards the main entrance. As they stepped through a dirty, off white jeep pulled up with five people within. As she waited for Willow to come through after checking out, Buffy allowed her eyes to wander across them. The driver and one other man looked as weather-beaten as the jeep itself, while one of the women had that same air about her. The third man was dressed completely in black, which set alarm bells ringing in Buffy's head. The last person…

Buffy couldn't stop her jaw from dropping. The second women was nothing short of drop dead gorgeous. 'I wish I had THAT kind of figure!' The woman was a good five-eight of pure feminine curves and grace. Long brunette hair done into an elaborate pony-tail ran down her back almost to her wide hips. Her killer legs ran down from beneath her dark shorts into a pair of well tailored boots, and her hands seemed almost delicate. However it was the woman's chest that drew the bulk of Buffy's attention. Even from three-quarters behind, it was clear that this lady was amply stacked up there. Once more, Buffy wondered what she done to deserve getting such a puny bust-line…

Her moment of reflection was cut short when Willow stepped through the doors… then promptly stumbled. A ragged gasp escaped her lips.

"Willow! You okay?" Buffy crouched down by her friend.

"It's started…" Willow half whispered, pure terror in her voice. Buffy was about to question what had started, when screams began to echo from the direction of the beach…

X-X-X-X-X-X

All five of them froze when the first scream cut across the air. As one they all turned to look towards the beach, their hearts racing. And then cutting across the screams came a snarled growl, and then a snarled screech, high pitched and chilling to the blood. Grant, Ian and Sarah all felt the blood drain from their faces: they knew what created that sound.

"Oh please god no…" Sarah whispered, causing Lara to glance at her questioningly.

"You know…" She never finished her question as movement further down the street caught her eye and drew her attention. When she saw what it was her jaw fell and for a second she was speechless. Then she uttered the first words that entered her brain. "Bloody Hell!"

Standing at the end of the street, one foot pressed down on a still screaming man, was a raptor. A good six feet tall and nine long, the darkly mottled brown colour gave it an evil air. With a quick and fluid nature it lowered its head and snapped the poor mans neck, as easily as anything.

As they watched, more raptors appeared, following the people streaming from the beach or leaping out of side streets. For a long moment they could only watch, until Lara saw one of the beasts turn towards them.

"Look out!" she yelled, dragging a stunned Sarah Harding back with her as the Raptor leapt. Both its clawed feet slammed into the jeeps bonnet, the front bumper hitting the ground from the impact. The raptors jaws snapped shut where Sarah's head had been a second earlier, and it snarled down at them.

Indy swung his fist at the beast, striking it across the muzzle. The raptor didn't appear to react at first, but then it turned to him deliberately. And then the really strange thing happened.

The raptors eyes glowed brightly for a second.

Indy was quite understandably taken aback. "What the…"

The raptor prepared to leap, but then the roar of a shotgun was heard, and the beast was thrown off the jeep. Indy glanced across at Grant, looking at the smoking 12-gauge shotgun he held. "Where did you get that?"

"I attached it on the underside of the jeep."

"Fellers, the raptor…" Sarah's voice was filled with worry, her hand pointing shakily. Both men turned to look.

The raptor, despite the gaping wound in its side was getting back on its feet. And even as they looked, they saw other raptors laying into the local population. Blood and body parts flew everywhere as the viscous predators tore into them.

Grant pumped another shell and let fly at point blank range even as the raptor leapt at him. The blast opened up a gaping wound in its chest but didn't stop the raptor from ploughing into him. Grant lost his gun as he ended up lying on his back with the raptor on top.

Lara spun into action, laying a side kick into the raptors wound. It howled in agony, staggering to one side a little. Just enough for Grant to roll out from under it. Indy tried to move in for another blow, but the raptors tail whipped round and struck him across the chest. He staggered back as the breath was driven from his lungs. The motion also put it face to face with Lara. She tired to give it another spin kick, but the beast ducked and then snapped at her thigh, causing her to lose her balance.

As she lay there, Lara looked up at the raptor as it stepped over her. Reacting quickly she rolled left to avoid the right foot claw as it hammered down into the pavement, but she found herself directly underneath the beast. Already its jaws were opening wide and the head coming down. 'Is this it? I survive all those ancient traps just to be killed by some over grown reptile?'

Suddenly a skinny blond girl jumped onto the raptors back. Locking her arms round its neck, she twisted her shoulders violently. With a sickening crunch, the Raptors neck was broken. Its eyes glowed brightly again before it toppled to one side. Dead.

Lara looked up at the young women before her. "Thanks." She said, sizing her up as she did so. The women before barely had any meat on her, nearly all skin and bone, and barely looked twenty. Yet she had just snapped a thick raptors neck.

"No problem." Buffy told her. Then her eyes travelled upwards and an alarmed look appeared on her face. "But I think we'll have one soon!"

Lara twisted to look as she sat up. Three raptors stood further down the street, watching them silently. Then they let loose one of those blood-chilling howls together.

"I think you're right…" She commented as she dived for the back of the jeep where her bag was. Where her guns were. Indy she saw was already pulling an old revolver from a holster, while Grant had recovered his shotgun. With a speed born of desperation and not a little fear, Lara had her guns out and primed in less then ten seconds. Spinning around she brought both guns to bear as the raptors broke into a run.

As one she, Indy and Grant fired…

DR: Next chapter we return to where we left O'Neill, slumped over the bar...