Thanks for all the reviews! And I should probably say that without the
constant support, help and guidance, and complete edit of the first half
that my bestest pal in the world, Louise Victoria Margaret Sheldrick, this
whole story would be utter drivel. I love ya, hun! (Is that enough
sycophantic obsequiousness now?)
Chapter 1 was set in the now, the rest is seen from Faith's PoV as she
reflects on the past. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
*********
Faith would never forget that first walk. She'd never realised just how far Sunnydale was from LA until she had to walk it. The world seemed to grow as she considered getting around without cars, trains or planes. It was going to take them forever to work their way east. Everyone walked in silence. Willow and Oz's deaths were still fresh on their minds, and most of them hadn't seen the world post-apocalypse. It would be understatement to say the scenery had changed a little. Piles of rubble where buildings used to be, cars overturned, scorch marks and, of course, the skeletons. They had all grown noticeably paler the first time they came upon one of these grim reminders of the horrors they'd lived through. Faith had ceased to notice them in her daily outings, but after that she made a special effort to lead the group away from them. They travelled at night and not just so that Angel could join them. Most of the demons that had arrived after the apocalypse were unaffected by sunlight and at night they had the cover of darkness.
By the time they got to the outskirts of Los Angeles, it was getting dangerously close to dawn and most of them, unfit after their idleness of the last few weeks, were exhausted. LA didn't seem to have been as badly hit as Sunnydale, most of the buildings were still standing and Faith soon found them a place to hide in.
In LA, they'd discovered that there were plenty of humans still alive, hiding in cellars and avoiding death, often extremely narrowly. Sometimes it had seemed like some Hollywood post-apocalyptic blockbuster, with different factions emerging. There was scavenging groups, taking anything and everything they found in case it turned out to be useful, at the bottom of the new social order. They were preyed on by gangs of bandits who stole and murdered in order to survive. Both groups were preyed on by the demons, of whom the vampires were only the tip of the iceberg. They stayed in LA for a couple of weeks, during which they discovered that there was no official, country-wide resistance, only occasional, isolated groups, mostly based on the east coast, which hadn't been as badly hit as the west during the initial period of horror. They slowly began to travel towards New York, stopping at most of the major cities. The further they got from Sunnydale, the more people there were left alive and therefore, the more demons around to terrorise them. They were in several desperate fights for their lives and signs of any other resistance were increasingly scarce. Most people had become shadows, hiding from everything, slowly starving to death.
They were in Las Vegas, fighting against a clan of harpy-like demons who had descended out of nowhere while they were doing their customary search for somewhere to stay, when the next of her friends had died. She'd fired a crossbow bolt at one attacking Xander, thrown a knife at one Cordelia was struggling with and then drawn her sword in order to defend herself from the largest one which was flying straight at her in a dive with talons outstretched, when she heard the scream. She stabbed the harpy and turned to see a limp Jonathon being carried off by one of the others. It gave a scream, and all the others took off and flew away, taking Jonathon's body with them.
Although none of them had been close to him at High School, they had all bonded during the life and death struggle of post-apocalyptic life, and his death affected all of them. They left town as soon as possible, leaving yet another body behind but taking more painful memories with them.
A couple of weeks later, Cordelia became ill and they stopped to look after her. Giles said it was a disease caused by drinking dirty water, but was unable to cure it. She slipped away, coughing and moaning a week or so later. This death of a key, original 'Scooby Member' hit them all hard. They became super-efficient, all training together in hand-to-hand combat, becoming prepared for anything. They continued on their trip across the country, continuing with the original plan although none of them believed there would be anything at the end. They just kept heading towards New York for lack of a better plan and tried not to think about what they'd do once they got there.
Meanwhile, they'd all had to deal with the psychological side effects of the apocalypse and the deaths of so many of their friends. Faith repressed. She didn't want to think about it, so she didn't. Angel became even more brooding and stoical. He remained chillingly calm at all times, even when he was fighting. Xander pulled on all the military knowledge that he could remember from his brief stint as a soldier and used it to his advantage, collecting guns and ammunition whenever and wherever he could. He was tougher, more hardened and his humour took on a bitter edge. After Cordelia's death, Giles became more like Ripper than Giles. The tweed disappeared along with the stuttering and conservative approach, to be replaced with leather, swearing and a tendency to hit the first thing he came across when in a mood. However, he still acted as a father figure towards the others, especially Taylor, who had to grow up extremely quickly. He was 13 when the apocalypse came but after a few weeks fighting for his life on a daily basis, he seemed much older. He had overcome his initial shocked silence and became obsessed with revenge against the supernatural creatures who had destroyed his life. They taught him as much about fighting as soon as possible but the whole group were overprotective him, making him hide or run whenever they were attacked, leaving him wherever they were hiding as often as possible and it became noticeable that he resented it.
They arrived in a small town in the middle of America after travelling on and off for several months. The trouble started when they were attacked by a group of Hronmet Demons. There were about 10 of the small, vicious pack hunters, but by now the group was experienced and the fight was relatively one sided. Taylor, as usual was at the back of the group, being protected by the others but when the fight began he attacked one of the demons with a knife and after a brief skirmish, managed to kill it. Feeling proud of himself - he slayed! He rocked! - he looked up, to find himself the object of a look of horror on Giles's face.
"You fool! You could have been killed! Give me that knife! Where did you get it?"
After a brief pause, during which Taylor stared up at Giles with undisguised shock, the anger kicked in.
"I'm not giving you the knife. It's mine and I killed a demon with it, all on my own. I don't need your protection and I don't need to be treated like a child!"
"If you're going to act like a child, I'll damn well treat you like one! Now give me that knife!"
"No!"
At that Giles started towards Taylor, who backed away.
"I don't need you. It's your fault we're in this mess anyway! I can survive on my own!"
With that, he turned and ran down the road. Faith went to catch him but he crawled through a small hole in a wall that she couldn't fit through and she lost him.
They never saw him again.
It was obvious that Giles blamed himself but that was inevitable now. All of them were carrying around a great deal of guilt by now. Whether it contributed to his own death, no one would ever know. Did it distract him sufficiently so that at that key moment, the vampire fighting him a couple of weeks later knocked him out? Or would it have happened anyway? Would he still have been dragged away and given as a present to Periculus? Periculus, a powerful hell demon, part vampire, part god, had tortured him for weeks until he was sure he knew everything about the occult that Giles did. Then, he'd tortured him some more, just for fun. It was only when Faith, Angel and Xander had attacked his stronghold with some of the weapons let in a nearby, abandoned military base that he killed Giles, leaving his broken body behind as he fled, laughing. They'd never caught up with him. They hadn't really tried, they didn't have the energy to feel deeply enough for revenge or anger. They just continued the seemingly endless and by now, largely pointless, trip east.
The three of them together had better luck together than the group had had previously, smaller numbers keeping them from the notice of most of the bigger demons. Ironically, it was often from humans that they faced the worst danger; roving gangs attacking them for any food they might have with them. Faith could still remember the horror she felt when she'd had to kill a human for the first time.
They'd been attacked by a leather-clad gang on an empty highway, and had immediately begun to fight back, her and Angel taking the brunt of the attack as usual. They tried to injure them as little as possible but it was difficult to hold back when their attackers were so hell-bent on killing them. One of them had gone for Xander, but she hadn't been worried, he could protect himself, until she saw a flash of metal out of the corner of her eye, followed by a cry of pain. Throwing caution to the wind, she'd knocked her assailant out and whirled round to see Xander on one knee, leg drenched in blood before a man holding a sword, preparing for the killing blow. She hadn't even stopped to think, she'd thrown herself at him, grabbing the sword with ease, and stabbing him straight through the heart. He'd crumpled to the ground, quite obviously dead. She'd stood staring at him for a moment in shock. The other thugs had taken her momentary distraction as an opportunity, and one of them had hit her. Her last thought as she blacked out was, 'dear god, what have I done?'
When she came round, she was lying on her side near a fire, trussed up like a turkey. Angel and Xander were nearby, Xander was still unconscious and his leg was covered in blood.
"Are you ok?" Angel asked quietly.
She struggled to sit up before replying. "Yeah, I'm fine." She looked at Xander's pale face. "Is he?"
Angel looked worried, "He's still alive, but I don't know for how much longer. He's lost a lot of blood."
Before she could reply, two gang members came up to them.
"Better take this one first," one of them said, pointing at Xander, "He's not gonna last long anyway."
"Right," said the other one, "Shall I just take the leg for now?"
"Leave him alone!" said Faith, "What are you going to do with us?"
The first guy gave her a little smile, "We're going to eat you. Now keep quiet whilst we amputate your friend's leg."
It was about that point that Faith ceased to care about the life she'd taken. When they cut off Xander's injured leg without anaesthetic, she began to feel glad she'd killed him and by the time the gang were sitting around the fire, eating a stew made from it, she would have quite gladly killed them all. After they'd gone to sleep, Angel had vamped out and somehow escaped the ropes round his wrists. She never did understand how. He freed her, and together they carried Xander away, into the night. She'd wanted to kill them all, but Angel had stopped her. It was more important to get Xander to safety than to become distracted by revenge.
They'd carried Xander to the nearest town and found somewhere to hide. It was a miracle that Xander survived that night but somehow he had, and, thankfully, didn't succumb to infection either then or any of the nights after, slowly rebuilding his strength and learning how to live with only one leg. Faith found a wheelchair in an abandoned hospital and after a few months, they were able to travel again albeit slightly slower than before.
*********
Faith would never forget that first walk. She'd never realised just how far Sunnydale was from LA until she had to walk it. The world seemed to grow as she considered getting around without cars, trains or planes. It was going to take them forever to work their way east. Everyone walked in silence. Willow and Oz's deaths were still fresh on their minds, and most of them hadn't seen the world post-apocalypse. It would be understatement to say the scenery had changed a little. Piles of rubble where buildings used to be, cars overturned, scorch marks and, of course, the skeletons. They had all grown noticeably paler the first time they came upon one of these grim reminders of the horrors they'd lived through. Faith had ceased to notice them in her daily outings, but after that she made a special effort to lead the group away from them. They travelled at night and not just so that Angel could join them. Most of the demons that had arrived after the apocalypse were unaffected by sunlight and at night they had the cover of darkness.
By the time they got to the outskirts of Los Angeles, it was getting dangerously close to dawn and most of them, unfit after their idleness of the last few weeks, were exhausted. LA didn't seem to have been as badly hit as Sunnydale, most of the buildings were still standing and Faith soon found them a place to hide in.
In LA, they'd discovered that there were plenty of humans still alive, hiding in cellars and avoiding death, often extremely narrowly. Sometimes it had seemed like some Hollywood post-apocalyptic blockbuster, with different factions emerging. There was scavenging groups, taking anything and everything they found in case it turned out to be useful, at the bottom of the new social order. They were preyed on by gangs of bandits who stole and murdered in order to survive. Both groups were preyed on by the demons, of whom the vampires were only the tip of the iceberg. They stayed in LA for a couple of weeks, during which they discovered that there was no official, country-wide resistance, only occasional, isolated groups, mostly based on the east coast, which hadn't been as badly hit as the west during the initial period of horror. They slowly began to travel towards New York, stopping at most of the major cities. The further they got from Sunnydale, the more people there were left alive and therefore, the more demons around to terrorise them. They were in several desperate fights for their lives and signs of any other resistance were increasingly scarce. Most people had become shadows, hiding from everything, slowly starving to death.
They were in Las Vegas, fighting against a clan of harpy-like demons who had descended out of nowhere while they were doing their customary search for somewhere to stay, when the next of her friends had died. She'd fired a crossbow bolt at one attacking Xander, thrown a knife at one Cordelia was struggling with and then drawn her sword in order to defend herself from the largest one which was flying straight at her in a dive with talons outstretched, when she heard the scream. She stabbed the harpy and turned to see a limp Jonathon being carried off by one of the others. It gave a scream, and all the others took off and flew away, taking Jonathon's body with them.
Although none of them had been close to him at High School, they had all bonded during the life and death struggle of post-apocalyptic life, and his death affected all of them. They left town as soon as possible, leaving yet another body behind but taking more painful memories with them.
A couple of weeks later, Cordelia became ill and they stopped to look after her. Giles said it was a disease caused by drinking dirty water, but was unable to cure it. She slipped away, coughing and moaning a week or so later. This death of a key, original 'Scooby Member' hit them all hard. They became super-efficient, all training together in hand-to-hand combat, becoming prepared for anything. They continued on their trip across the country, continuing with the original plan although none of them believed there would be anything at the end. They just kept heading towards New York for lack of a better plan and tried not to think about what they'd do once they got there.
Meanwhile, they'd all had to deal with the psychological side effects of the apocalypse and the deaths of so many of their friends. Faith repressed. She didn't want to think about it, so she didn't. Angel became even more brooding and stoical. He remained chillingly calm at all times, even when he was fighting. Xander pulled on all the military knowledge that he could remember from his brief stint as a soldier and used it to his advantage, collecting guns and ammunition whenever and wherever he could. He was tougher, more hardened and his humour took on a bitter edge. After Cordelia's death, Giles became more like Ripper than Giles. The tweed disappeared along with the stuttering and conservative approach, to be replaced with leather, swearing and a tendency to hit the first thing he came across when in a mood. However, he still acted as a father figure towards the others, especially Taylor, who had to grow up extremely quickly. He was 13 when the apocalypse came but after a few weeks fighting for his life on a daily basis, he seemed much older. He had overcome his initial shocked silence and became obsessed with revenge against the supernatural creatures who had destroyed his life. They taught him as much about fighting as soon as possible but the whole group were overprotective him, making him hide or run whenever they were attacked, leaving him wherever they were hiding as often as possible and it became noticeable that he resented it.
They arrived in a small town in the middle of America after travelling on and off for several months. The trouble started when they were attacked by a group of Hronmet Demons. There were about 10 of the small, vicious pack hunters, but by now the group was experienced and the fight was relatively one sided. Taylor, as usual was at the back of the group, being protected by the others but when the fight began he attacked one of the demons with a knife and after a brief skirmish, managed to kill it. Feeling proud of himself - he slayed! He rocked! - he looked up, to find himself the object of a look of horror on Giles's face.
"You fool! You could have been killed! Give me that knife! Where did you get it?"
After a brief pause, during which Taylor stared up at Giles with undisguised shock, the anger kicked in.
"I'm not giving you the knife. It's mine and I killed a demon with it, all on my own. I don't need your protection and I don't need to be treated like a child!"
"If you're going to act like a child, I'll damn well treat you like one! Now give me that knife!"
"No!"
At that Giles started towards Taylor, who backed away.
"I don't need you. It's your fault we're in this mess anyway! I can survive on my own!"
With that, he turned and ran down the road. Faith went to catch him but he crawled through a small hole in a wall that she couldn't fit through and she lost him.
They never saw him again.
It was obvious that Giles blamed himself but that was inevitable now. All of them were carrying around a great deal of guilt by now. Whether it contributed to his own death, no one would ever know. Did it distract him sufficiently so that at that key moment, the vampire fighting him a couple of weeks later knocked him out? Or would it have happened anyway? Would he still have been dragged away and given as a present to Periculus? Periculus, a powerful hell demon, part vampire, part god, had tortured him for weeks until he was sure he knew everything about the occult that Giles did. Then, he'd tortured him some more, just for fun. It was only when Faith, Angel and Xander had attacked his stronghold with some of the weapons let in a nearby, abandoned military base that he killed Giles, leaving his broken body behind as he fled, laughing. They'd never caught up with him. They hadn't really tried, they didn't have the energy to feel deeply enough for revenge or anger. They just continued the seemingly endless and by now, largely pointless, trip east.
The three of them together had better luck together than the group had had previously, smaller numbers keeping them from the notice of most of the bigger demons. Ironically, it was often from humans that they faced the worst danger; roving gangs attacking them for any food they might have with them. Faith could still remember the horror she felt when she'd had to kill a human for the first time.
They'd been attacked by a leather-clad gang on an empty highway, and had immediately begun to fight back, her and Angel taking the brunt of the attack as usual. They tried to injure them as little as possible but it was difficult to hold back when their attackers were so hell-bent on killing them. One of them had gone for Xander, but she hadn't been worried, he could protect himself, until she saw a flash of metal out of the corner of her eye, followed by a cry of pain. Throwing caution to the wind, she'd knocked her assailant out and whirled round to see Xander on one knee, leg drenched in blood before a man holding a sword, preparing for the killing blow. She hadn't even stopped to think, she'd thrown herself at him, grabbing the sword with ease, and stabbing him straight through the heart. He'd crumpled to the ground, quite obviously dead. She'd stood staring at him for a moment in shock. The other thugs had taken her momentary distraction as an opportunity, and one of them had hit her. Her last thought as she blacked out was, 'dear god, what have I done?'
When she came round, she was lying on her side near a fire, trussed up like a turkey. Angel and Xander were nearby, Xander was still unconscious and his leg was covered in blood.
"Are you ok?" Angel asked quietly.
She struggled to sit up before replying. "Yeah, I'm fine." She looked at Xander's pale face. "Is he?"
Angel looked worried, "He's still alive, but I don't know for how much longer. He's lost a lot of blood."
Before she could reply, two gang members came up to them.
"Better take this one first," one of them said, pointing at Xander, "He's not gonna last long anyway."
"Right," said the other one, "Shall I just take the leg for now?"
"Leave him alone!" said Faith, "What are you going to do with us?"
The first guy gave her a little smile, "We're going to eat you. Now keep quiet whilst we amputate your friend's leg."
It was about that point that Faith ceased to care about the life she'd taken. When they cut off Xander's injured leg without anaesthetic, she began to feel glad she'd killed him and by the time the gang were sitting around the fire, eating a stew made from it, she would have quite gladly killed them all. After they'd gone to sleep, Angel had vamped out and somehow escaped the ropes round his wrists. She never did understand how. He freed her, and together they carried Xander away, into the night. She'd wanted to kill them all, but Angel had stopped her. It was more important to get Xander to safety than to become distracted by revenge.
They'd carried Xander to the nearest town and found somewhere to hide. It was a miracle that Xander survived that night but somehow he had, and, thankfully, didn't succumb to infection either then or any of the nights after, slowly rebuilding his strength and learning how to live with only one leg. Faith found a wheelchair in an abandoned hospital and after a few months, they were able to travel again albeit slightly slower than before.