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Xander sat in the back seat of the Hatchback with Dixon and Glenn, with Glenn in the middle. Rick and Shane were up front, and Shane drove. Besides Xander and Glenn, none of the other men in the car spoke. Dixon was quiet because the guy gave Oz a run for his money when it came to being terse. Rick and Shane were silent because they tried to out-stoic each other. Just plain being real assholes.
Xander was only there because he had nothing better to do, and because Glenn was an idiot. It surely wasn't because he was trying to be brave, or spare anyone else in the camp the danger of going on a supply run—he barely knew most of them. Or liked them. He did like Glenn, and the kid all but swore fealty to Rick, so Xander packed a bag and suited up.
As they drove southbound on the freeway toward Concord, Xander silently questioned Shane finally accepting Rick's offer to go on scavenging runs for the camp. Shane was generally stand-offish with everyone Rick brought in from Atlanta, and had resisted any co-operation, so it was suspicious, at least to Xander, that he acted like Mr. Teamwork all of a sudden.
Shane wasn't stupid. He recognized that Xander and Dixon knew how to keep cool and kill zombies better than anyone else in the camp, and that Glenn was quick and clever, and good at getting himself out of tight spots. Shane understood they could be useful, but it was obvious he didn't trust them enough to take advantage of their usefulness.
Until now.
And when people suddenly change their behavior overnight it made Xander extremely paranoid.
Xander worked out a couple solid theories on what Shane could be scheming: Shane hoped one or more of them had "accidents" during their scavenger hunt. Glenn and Dixon, especially. They were Rick's biggest supporters, and would take his side when the predictable battle for control over the camp came to a head.
Xander's second theory was Shane would cut out the literal middle men, and off Rick with friendly fire.
Either way, Xander was going to keep an eye on him.
It was almost noon when they reached Concord's city limits. Countless abandoned vehicles littered the road, so they hid their car in the impromptu parking lot and crossed their fingers it'd still be there when they came back. From that point on they knew zombie encounters were guaranteed.
The group retrieved their big weapons from the trunk and geared up.
Xander hefted his horseman's ax. It was half the size of the double bladed ax strapped to his back, which is what he used when he needed to mow down mobs. He rarely swung the horseman's ax. He mainly used the spike opposite the blade, and on the hilt, to poke zombie brains.
Dixon had his crossbow primed and ready. Glenn unsheathed his machete. He also had a folding knife on him somewhere. Rick and Shane carried their police issue guns, plus a small wood splitting ax each.
When they set off Xander walked behind Shane, Rick, and Glenn. Dixon brought up the rear.
"Don't forget where we parked," Xander said, eliciting a snort from Glenn and a groan from Dixon.
The going was slow, and the pickings were slim. They were competing with other desperate survivors for ever dwindling resources, so not immediately finding anything useful was to be expected. They came across a few grocery stores and warehouses, but had to pass them up because a sea of zombies surrounded them.
Worse than not finding any bacon to bring home, was was the smell. The stink of raw sewage was so thick it was like being surrounded by rows of toilets overflowing with crap. Add the fetid odor of rotting zombie with human waste, and the unholy stench was enough to make Xander's eye water.
The smell got even worse when the scavengers ran into a large group of zombies. The horde wasn't as large as the ones back in Atlanta, but a good two or three hundred zombies filled out the undead herd. To avoid attracting any unwanted attention from the horde, they cut through a nearby alley that luckily had few zombies loitering in it.
They were still hurrying to put distance between themselves and the horde when Glenn called out to them to stop. He'd halted beside a white van parked in front of an apartment building that had its windows and front entrance covered with sheets of plywood. The van was unmarked except for a decal on the upper right side of the windshield that read:
Inpax.
"What's going on? Why are you stopping?" Shane asked.
"This is a delivery van," Glenn said.
Rick glance at the van. "How do you know?"
"This company," Glenn pointed at the van's logo, "used these vans to deliver sauce to the pizza place I worked at."
They all looked at the van and imagined the possibilities.
The van seemed like it hadn't been touched since the zombie uprising. No broken windows. Not even scratched paint. Best case scenario there was food inside. Worse case they'd find a zombie and waste a few seconds putting it down.
"That horde is real close," Dixon reminded them.
"It's worth the risk," Rick said.
For once Shane didn't argue and nodded in agreement.
"Do your thing, Harris," said Rick.
Xander walked around to the rear of the van. The others stood with their backs to him to keep an eye out while he pretended to pick the lock. Xander smiled and thought it probably would have been easier to learn how to jimmy locks. The unlocking spell was simple, relatively speaking, but it still took him almost two months to learn it. Another three to master it. He once heard you could learn to pick locks on the internet in less than ten minutes.
Xander placed his hand over the wafer lock and focused his thoughts on the proper incantation. The spell could've been activated instantly if he said it out loud, but then he'd have to explain why he was speaking in tongues. Somehow Xander didn't think acting touched in the head would inspire confidence from his new pals.
After Xander freed the lock he signaled the others. Shane and Rick came over while Glenn and Dixon remained on guard. Xander placed his hand on the lift handle and made eye contact first with Shane, then Rick to make sure they were ready if a zombie jumped out. Both raised their axes and nodded. Xander slowly opened the door.
Shane lowered his ax and whistled when he saw what was inside. Xander totally got it. There was at least five dozen boxes of granola bars and mixed nuts stacked in the back of the van.
"It ain't steak and beer," Shane said, "but I'll take it."
Rick chuckled and gave Shane two friendly pats on the back.
"How we gonna get all this back to camp?" Dixon asked.
It was a lot of boxes. Each of them could carry three or four cartons in their packs. Six, if they took stuff out, but they'd still be leaving the lion's share behind.
"Maybe we take what we can carry, then come back with a charged battery, some gas, and drive the van out of here," Glenn suggested.
Rick rubbed his stubble thoughtfully then shared a look with Shane.
"No one's found this stuff so far. Might be worth the risk," Shane said.
They decided to carry what they could and come back for the rest. One of the boxes was enough to last the camp a week if they rationed. When they finished stuffing their packs with the goods, Xander magically locked the van and placed a see-me-not spell on it as well. It wouldn't work if someone was actively looking for the van, but should make anyone else ignore it.
Xander had just finished the spell when a horde of zombies came shambling down the street.
"Shit!" Glenn exclaimed.
"Let's go!" Shane said.
They took off running in the opposite direction just as the moans, and the smells, of the horde reached them. Glenn led the way. He'd been to this town before, and was their best bet to find their way back to the car without getting turned around.
The zombies slow movement gave them an advantage, but they still had to maneuver through a maze of cars, and dodge or dispatch random zombies that popped up in their path.
They turned onto the next street and came to an abrupt stop when they ran into the rear of an even larger group of shambling zombies. They were far enough away from the zombies that they hadn't been noticed. Yet.
Rick slowly walked up next to Glenn, and Xander heard him quietly ask if there was another way they could take to get back to the Hatchback.
"We'd have to cut through three miles of back streets and alleyways," Glenn whispered.
And they all knew every mile would be infested with zombies.
The horde behind them was fast approaching, and the closer they got the greater the chances of the horde ahead turning around and noticing them.
Dixon tapped Xander on the shoulder and motioned at a burnt out building on their right. It didn't have a door or windows, but it wasn't out in the open. Xander tapped Shane on his shoulder and pointed to the building. He was already trailing behind Dixon when Shane got Rick and Glenn's attention.
The carbonized interior of the building made what it used to be unrecognizable. The floor and the walls had turned into charcoal and ash. At least the burnt smell drowned out the stink of decay outside.
The group moved as far back into the building as they could to avoid being seen through the dark space they huddled in. They could still see outside well enough, and saw when the first horde attracted the attention of the second, and when both merged into one giant collection of rotting corpses.
They'd been trapped in the burned building for hours, and the sun was beginning to set. The sky grew darker and darker every minute, and so did the group's mood. The horde outside had thinned, but too many (Xander gave up counting them when he reached two hundred) still lingered in front of the building where they hid.
"We should wait until morning," Rick said in a low voice.
He and Shane were at the back of the building hunched over, forehead to forehead, whisper yelling at each other.
"Forget that!" Shane said. "I'm not waiting for those things to wander over and tear us apart!"
Dixon sat on the soot covered floor with his back against the wall and his crossbow on his lap. His eyes were closed, but Xander knew better than to believe he was asleep. Glenn peeked around the lower right corner of the ruined window. He'd smeared ash on his face to make his skin harder to notice against the building's pitch black interior. Xander sat across from Dixon, his horseman's ax propped against the wall beside him.
Xander was all for staying put, but no one was asking him. Not that he wanted to get between Rick and Shane after they started going at each other. That was a straight up fool's errand. Instead he focused on making a mental list of all the spells he knew, and tried to figure which ones could get them out of the mess they were in.
His list was tragically short.
"You think we can fight our way through hundreds of walkers before we got hundreds more coming down on us?" Rick said.
"Between the five of us we might make it clear before that happens!"
"You're crazy!"
It was hard to see anything clearly through the darkness at the back of the building, but Xander definitely heard Shane inhale sharply. He didn't like being called crazy.
"And you're a fucking coward," Shane snarled.
Except for Rick and Shane's angry breathing, a tense silence filled the room. Even Dixon opened his eyes and watched the pair huff angrily in each other's face. Glenn dutifully kept watch.
"Will you two calm your britches?" Xander said. "Or do I have to come over there and…"
Both men stopped glaring at each other long enough to turn and glare at Xander.
"And, uh, give you a very stern talking to."
Xander looked away a pretended to be interested in the wall Dixon was propped against. Which is how he caught the bastard smiling and chuckling noiselessly at him. Xander narrowed a nasty look at him, but Dixon just shrugged and closed his eyes again.
Glenn came away from the window and scuttled to the center of the room.
"Guys, I think something's got the walkers' attention. They're moving up the street. Slow, but they're leaving."
They all went to the window, and sure enough, the zombies were moving away from the building. Only about a hundred or so shuffled around aimlessly nearby.
"So we got a choice to make," Shane said after they all moved to the back of the room. "We wait until they thin out some more, and make a break. Or, we stay the night and hope they're cleared out by morning."
Xander was still for waiting until morning. It was near dark and he didn't like the idea of running around in a zombie infested city at night. The zombies can see about as well at night as they do during the day, but Xander's depth perception in the dark was Magoo levels of garbage.
Ultimately the choice was Rick's, and Xander watched him quietly mull over their options. He looked out through the window before he sighed and said, "We go. But careful. Quiet. Let's avoid fighting if we can."
Of course it went to hell.
The group headed back the way they came and dispatched a handful of zombies without attracting attention. Xander almost believed luck was on their side until they turned the corner and ran smack dab into another horde. It could have been the original horde that chased them away from the van, but who could tell? At its center it looked like something was being torn apart. Bits of pink gore was flung over the undead crowd like confetti. Many zombies on the edges of the horde scrabbled for their share of meat, but unfortunately, not all were preoccupied with fighting over scraps. A dozen or so caught sight of the scavengers the moment they come around the corner.
"Fuck!" Shane said.
It was like a silent rumor spread through the horde, and the scuttlebutt was, 'Suppertime! Come and get it!'. Soon a flood of undead staggered towards them. The zombies in the early stages of decay ran. At that point the group had no choice but wage a running battle through the horde.
Xander took the head off four zombies in a single swing with his double bladed ax, shifted his stance and cut two more in half with a second swing. Killing zombies was easy, even in big numbers, compared to vampires and demons. The latter wanted to avoid getting hit. Zombies not so much. Another big advantage Xander had was he didn't have to worry about scratches or non-lethal bites. He just had to make sure he didn't get dog-piled.
Glenn darted around, avoided grasping hands and stabbed rotting skulls with his knife. Dixon concentrated on picking off the faster moving zombies with his crossbow before they got too close, and poked the occasional zombies in the head with a loose arrow when necessary. Shane and Rick fought back to back even while on the move. They swung their axes in manic flurries, yet managed to avoid getting in each other's way. It was impressive, and a little weird, to watch the two work so well as a team.
They fought their way back to the delivery van after leaving dozens of dead-dead in their wake. The alley that brought them to van was full of zombies, and Xander knew it was going to be the most dangerous leg of their journey. And he was right.
"Aw, god damn!"
They were half through the alley when Shane cried out. Xander had been a few feet ahead using the spike on his ax to destroy a zombie's brain, so he didn't see what happened. When he looked back Shane was struggling with two zombies as a third bit and tore into his shoulder.
The others turned and watched in horror as the zombie ripped through Shane's flesh.
"Shane! Goddammit, no!" Rick cried out, his voice full of anguish and loss.
"Go!" Shane shouted at them as he blew the head off one of the zombies.
Rick hesitated, and for a moment it looked like he was about to break towards Shane.
"I said get the fuck outta here!" Shane screamed at them, his face twisted in pain as the zombie that bit him gnawed at his shoulder.
Rick cursed before he, Glenn, and Dixon took off down the alley. Rick roaring angrily as they fought back zombies every step of the way.
Xander ran towards Shane.
He didn't like or trust the guy, and Xander was no hero, but when Shane told them to leave him behind that pretty much meant Xander had to save him. Because even after all these years, after all the death and misery he'd seen, Xander still asked himself when hard choices had to be made:
What would Buffy do?
Xander poked the biter which allowed Shane to twist around and shoot the remaining zombie through the eye.
"Let's go!" Xander said.
Shane looked at him for a beat before he nodded. Xander had to slow his own pace to make sure Shane kept up with him, but they managed to get some distance between them and the zombie parade that fill the alleyway behind them wall-to-wall. It was another spot of luck that Rick and the others took out all the zombies ahead of them, otherwise escaping unscathed would have been impossible.
By the time they exited the alley Rick and the others were long gone. Catching up with them was out of the question, especially with Shane's wound slowing him down more and more with each passing second. Worse still, the gunshots had attracted zombies from all over the area.
Who knew such a small city could have so many zombies?
"Over there," Shane said.
He pointed out a few freshly put down zombies on the sidewalk across the street from them. Guessing that's where the others went, Xander and Shane followed the grisly trail. The path they took was familiar enough Xander was confident they were headed back to the city limits, but he didn't think they'd get there before nightfall. Xander thought it might be better to find somewhere they could lay low.
"Why?" Shane asked when Xander brought it up.
"What if they aren't waiting for us? You want to be out in the open with no escape plan when those things catch up to us?"
Shane looked like he wanted to argue, but his breathing was raspy and he looked extremely pale.
Xander cursed when he realized Shane was already turning. He had to get them somewhere safe if he wanted any chance at saving him. Xander looked around their immediate surroundings. All the nearby buildings were either burnt-out husks, or heavily damaged in some way. There was a wooded area nearby, but an enclosed space would better reinforce the defenses he put up around them while Shane's body purified.
"Just leave me," Shane croaked out.
"Can't do that, big guy," Xander replied as he continued to scan the area.
"Idiot."
"Yeah, I get that a lot."
Wait.
Further down the road Xander spotted a shed next to the burnt out shell of what used to be a trailer home. The shed itself only had minor scorch marks, but otherwise it looked sound. With the sun almost set, it would have to do.
Xander put an arm around Shane and pulled him towards the shed.
"What are you doing?" Shane's voice was weak and his question was barely above a whisper.
"Getting to that shed over there."
"The hell's that gonna protect us?"
Xander didn't answer. It took them five minutes to reach the shed because Xander literally had to drag Shane the last fifty feet. He set Shane down and ran up to the shed, which seemed to be the same kind of modular structure as the trailer home next to it, and was half the size of a one car garage. An old, rusted padlock was on the door, and after uttering a few words in old Sumerian Xander had it unlocked in under three seconds. He slowly opened the door and looked inside. To his relief there was just a workbench at the other end of the shed, woodworking equipment hanging form hooks on the walls, and half-completed wooden furniture scattered around on the floor.
He tried the light switch by the door but no lights came on. The shed's only source light came through the small rectangular skylight and a narrow window over the workbench. Once the sun went down they'd have to use flashlights to see with.
When he went back to gather up Shane, Xander saw a good number of zombies were coming right for them, but still far enough away he'd have plenty of time to set up their defenses.
Once inside, Xander used the slide latch to lock them in—just in case. Then he placed his hand on the door and cast the strongest warding spell he knew. When he felt a bubble shaped barrier form around the shed he pushed as much power into it as he dared. Once he finished he quickly joined Shane in front of the workbench.
Shane was on his back, unconscious and barely breathing. His skin was a sickly yellowish-green color now, and Xander figured they had ten minutes before the infection was irreversible. He dug into his bag and took out a small pouch with four rings inside. The rings were forged from pure silver, and each had a tiny garnet setting. The runes engraved inside the bands were there to help anchor spells to them. Xander took one of the rings and squeezed it tightly in his hand as he spoke the words of power needed to imbue the blood purification blessing into it.
Again, like with the unlocking spell, the purification spell was a fairly simple one—if you're Willow Rosenberg. Xander, on the other hand, had to be very careful as he performed the incantation, or he risked using way too much of his own life force. If he did, he wouldn't be able to cast until he fully recovered, which could take weeks, or months depending on how badly he screwed up.
Xander was breathing like he'd ran a marathon when he was through. He inspected the ring and smiled with pride when he sensed he successfully performed the blessing. He looked at Shane and was surprised to see the man stared back at him with yellow, bloodshot eyes.
Damn. That's going to make this harder, Xander thought.
"I need some of your blood," Xander said.
"So you can do some hoodoo on me?" Even though Shane looked and sounded like he was on death's door, the mockery in his voice came out loud and clear.
"That's right."
Shane snorted then pulled his service weapon with his uninjured arm and tried to hand it to Xander.
"Just finish me, alright."
"Sure," Xander said, taking the gun and carefully placing it out of Shane's reach. "But first let me take some of your blood as a memento of how kind and openhearted you've been to me since we met."
"Fuck you."
"C'mon, what have you got to lose? It's just a little blood."
"Why you even askin'?"
Xander sighed, he knew what he was going to say would go over like a lead balloon.
"I need your conscious consent or the blessing could become a curse."
"Bullshit."
"Dude, you are about to turn into a walker right here, right now! So, give me your stupid blood, and stop being an enormous pain in the ass!"
Shane fell silent, then after a moment he shrugged weakly. "Fine."
Xander quickly covered the ring in Shane's blood and held it in his open palm, then placed his other hand over the wound on Shane's shoulder and began to chant. He shuddered when he felt how far the infection spread throughout Shane's body. Half his internal organs were failing and right on the edge of necrosis. The ring would disinfect Shane's blood, but it couldn't repair the damage the infection had done to his lungs, kidneys, and heart. After a moment's deliberation, Xander sent a little bit of his life force into Shane to bolster his natural healing. It was a coin flip if it'd work or not.
The newly fashioned purification ring felt warm in Xander's palm when he was done with the binding, though the warmth would vanish once its intended wearer put on the ring. Shane gasped and almost instantly lost consciousness when the ring started to remove the impurities in his body. His skin was already returning to normal, and so was his breathing. Xander expected him to be out for at least three or four hours considering how advanced the infection had been.
"Bothers and Sisters, let the purification begin," Xander said before he collapsed beside Shane and went into a deep sleep.