BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
ODIUM
CHAPTER ONE: LIBERATION
Mendez squeezed the last of his rubbery explosive into the one of the gaps between the boulders that blocked the tunnel and ducked back out into the sewage, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he went. Placing explosives could be hard work. Normally he wouldn't be asked to rush something like this. Instead he and the other workers were allowed to take a slower more thoughtful approach to clearing the rubble. However with yet another overly enthusiastic deadline set for a new Sunnydale housing estate the whole workforce had had to come up with a quicker way of clearing the blocked sewage tunnels that were a major aspect of this latest housing scheme. By God did he hate the city council and their pet projects.
"Ready!" he yelled as he reached the clear point just round the corner on the left side of the junction that ran into the blocked tunnel.
"What was that boss!?" echoed the gruff voice of Jim Bernstein. Mendez rolled his eyes. Sometimes he swore Bernstien was deaf.
"I said ready!" he shouted again. He heard a slight thunk as Bernstien pushed the detonator down.
The intensity of the sound made by the blast caught him a little off guard. The whole tunnel trembled as a solid wall of sound roared out of the blocked off junction and down through the sewers. As the sound reached him he slipped on something he'd rather not think about and plunged headfirst into the stinking sewage. His stomach turned as the disgusting water closed over his head and he tried desperately not to swallow any. He was only under for a few seconds but they seemed to last for days as he finally found his footing and straightened, his head breaking the surface of the water and his mouth opening in a desperate gasp for air. He felt a huge meat hunk of a hand slap him heavily on the back.
"Are you okay boss?" asked Bernstien sounding concerned.
"Yeah…" breathed Mendez, all along feeling as if he was going to regurgitate his lunch. "Just…fine."
"Great." Said Bernstien wading past him through sewage. "Let's go check out the hole we just blasted." Mendez watched the enormous brick wall of a man with something approaching envy. He could barely stand to be down here and yet Bernstien was barely touched by the stench. Treading more carefully this time he set off down the tunnel in pursuit of his friend.
The hole was still smoking when they reached it with small chunks of rubble and flaky tile that had been blasted away by the explosives drifting in the frothy sludge that passed for water. Mendez couldn't see very clearly what lay beyond the wall. The darkness there was almost total and creepier still seemed to swallow any light that came near it as if it wasn't welcome there. A sudden feeling of dread surged through him as he gazed into the hole.
"Let's take a look inside." Said Bernstien shining his small flashlight through the hole. Mendez didn't answer. As Bernstien's flashlight cut through the darkness he could have sworn he had he just seen something move in those shadows. He wanted to leave but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't bring himself to move. A strange cloudiness was floating inside his head and all his sensations were becoming duller by the second. It felt as if he'd just drunk all the alcohol in an entire bar and then downed a hundred more bottles on the way home. The sound of another fragment of tile plopping into the water stirred him from his stupor. Bernstien was nowhere to be seen.
Slowly Mendez produced his own little flashlight and shone it inside the hole. It barely cut through the murky darkness. Holding his breath against the disturbed dust that floated in the beam of the torch he clambered through the hole and stumbled slightly as he slid down a slope of rubble into the chamber that lay beyond.
The place was much bigger than it seemed from outside and much older two. Strange symbols were carved all over the walls that he couldn't even pretend to recognise. As his torch beam travelled across the chamber a sense of awe at what he saw before him flooded his being. Mendez had always wanted to be an architect and although his skills in the field were severely lacking he could still appreciate good architecture when he saw it and he'd never seen anything like this. Very little of the chamber was left. In most places the ceiling had collapsed burying those patches beneath it under tons of rubble. Huge boulders were scattered around the floor and the rubble strewn across the chamber made walking perilous at best. What he could see though was amazing. A single pillar stood in isolation toward the centre of the room, covered in the mysterious and beautiful writing that adorned the walls. He could tell there had been more. Another smashed pillar jutted from some of the rubble that had fallen from the ceiling and large chunks of the pillars were scattered in what seemed like a rough circle around the centre of the room. A sudden draft from the sewers blew in through the whole in the room whipping up the stale air around him and awakening his nostrils to fresh scents all around him. The feeling of dread returned. They weren't nice smells.
"Bernstien!" he shouted into the darkness, suddenly feeling the need to leave the chamber. The deathly silence of the chamber was all that greeted him.
"Bernstien, you've got to the count of ten and then I'm leaving!" Still there was no answer.
"One," he began, "two…"
"Three." a strange voice he didn't recognise echoed out of the shadows.
"Bernstien, is that you?" he asked hopefully.
"Four." The voice continued. Mendez shone his torch into the shadows desperately searching for the source of the voice.
"Five." His torch touched on a trace of blood smeared on the walls. It glistened freshly in the light.
"Six." The voice said growing louder with each number.
"Oh God!" Mendez gasped as his torch followed the blood to its source.
"Seven." Bernstiens body was slumped against the wall in a sitting postion. His head had been wrenched clean off and placed neatly on his lap. A slightly surprised expression sat uncomfortably on his face.
"Eight." The voice said. Mendez turned on his heel and dashed for the slope leading to the hole that in turn would take him back into the sewers and away from this terrible place.
"Nine." The voice bellowed. Just as he reached the base of the rubble slope Mendez felt a deadly cold hand clamp across his mouth in a grip as sure as steel while another clutched at the back of his head.
"Ten." The voice hissed in his ear. There was a sudden sharp twisting motion from the hands that gripped his skull and then everything was darkness.
*****
King clambered up through the hole in the chamber wall and out into the rancid sewage that filled the tunnels beyond. The strong smells of the sewer were glorious company compared to the months spent alone in that dank and musty old temple. He licked the fresh blood from his lips, threw his head and back and let out a bellow of laughter that seemed to shake the tunnel.
"At last!" he roared with delight sucking the last of the blood from his teeth. He had been trapped in their so long with barely a bite to eat save the odd rat that had stumbled mistakenly into the temple and now fate delivered him not only his freedom but a wonderful compensation meal to go with it. All right, the two men hadn't been the finest he had drank from. That honour went to the beautiful French noblewomen of eighteenth century. Such feasts were gone from this new world but there were others he had tasted and would taste again. No matter how glorious this moment though his unexpected liberation seemed somewhat hollow. Then it clicked. A celebration of his newfound freedom was required. And what better way to celebrate than with the blood of the girl who had put him down there in the first place. He felt his anger at the little blonde bitch and her loyal lap dog, the Reaver boil up at the memories of his being left to rot in this place. Left at the mercy of the poison that had run wild through his veins. Well now he was free from both of those little torments and he would see that that slip of a girl who called herself the Slayer would suffer like she had never known suffering before.
"At last." He snarled again.
