Title: Runaway

Chapter 7: Chaos

Disclaimer: They're not mine

Feedback: Always welcome!

Buffy carefully licked her dry lips and held her hand up against the sun. Even for California it was unnaturally hot. The sun was beating down on her, heating everything, and she only had a small amount of water left in her bottle.

She was on the way to Sunnydale and she hadn't seen a car for almost eighteen hours. The last one had been full of reporters and going the other way, so no chance of a lift there. In the car it was normally a just over a two hour drive to Sunnydale, but without she had already been walking for two days. She wondered how far she'd walked, and how far the overall journey would be. A hundred miles? Two hundred maybe?

It was only because she was the Slayer that she had even managed to get this far so quickly. She had been walking for twenty hours a day, taking a four hour nap near the hottest part of the day, and preferring to walk in the cool night because of her lack of water.

Buffy took a quick sip of water, just enough to keep her going. She hadn't eaten since lunch time on the day she had left her apartment in such a hurry; she wouldn't help anyone if she collapsed of dehydration before she reached the Hellmouth, and disaster zone.

A little over a day later, her water totally run out, Buffy finally caught sight of the police barricade around the town.

Damn! How am I going to get past them?

She decided to go for the direct approach and if they weren't helpful, well she was the Chosen One for a reason right? Her supernatural powers could be very useful.

She casually sauntered up the barricade where some policemen were arguing with a bunch of reporters.

"Look," one of the reporters was saying, "all we want is to be let in, so that we can film for maybe half an hour. The world deserves to know what's going on in there."

"I'm sorry, sir, but nobody is allowed to pass here. It's too dangerous."

"Well, you just let those lot in didn't you? Why are they allowed to film when we're not?"

The policeman looked a little uncomfortable. "It was, ah, a special case. They had permission you see."

A massive argument broke out as Buffy approached.

"Excuse me? Excuse me!" Nobody seemed to hear her. "Oh for god's sake, EXCUSE ME!!" she yelled. Everyone froze and turned to stare at her. "Thank you. Look, I really need to get into Sunnydale."

"Miss, like I just told these reporters nobody gets in with special permission."

Buffy's mind raced as she tried to think of an excuse. "Erm, I'm, uh, I'm with the Watcher's Council." Not a totally lie, exactly.

"The Council didn't mention anything about anyone coming today," he replied doubtfully.

"Oh well, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this," mumbled Buffy. Her fist connected solidly with the poor guy's face. The second that he was out cold, and before anyone else could react, she sprinted with full Slayer speed through the barricade and towards Sunnydale. There were yells and even one or two gunshots but she didn't turn around or even slow down.

As she got to the edge of the town Buffy finally slowed down to a jog. All of the houses were black and a little damaged, but so far nothing was too bad. Still remembering the streets that she hadn't set foot on for a year Buffy turned right which would take her towards the centre of town, and stopped dead.

Total devastation. Where before most of the houses had been standing, on this street there were just piles of charred, blackened rubble. Hesitantly she walked towards one of the piles and carefully looked. Her stomach churned as she saw the thing that she had been hoping not to - a body, as burnt and black as the ruins it lay in. Buffy looked away, trying to deny what she had just seen but her mind refused to let her.

Who was that? Someone I knew? Someone alone? Someone with family to mourn for them?

The next house was even worse. A body, half covered by rubble, was unmistakably that of a small child. As the little girl's glazed, unseeing eyes stared straight at her Buffy's feeling of nausea doubled and then tripled.

If I was here, in Sunnydale, could I have saved her? If I hadn't abandoned the Hellmouth, run away from my problems . . .

She stumbled away from the remains, and started running blindly through Sunnydale, her only thought to get away from the wreckage. Buffy didn't know how far she ran - it could have been a minute , or an hour – but as she ran round one corner, hugging the wall, she smashed into a huge body.

"Oomph!" She reeled, the breath knocked out of her and she would have fallen if hands hadn't reached out and caught her in a gently grip.

When she was steady again Buffy looked up into the most soulful pair of eyes she had ever seen. Eyes that she thought she would never see again.

There, standing in the full sunlight of a bright Californian afternoon, was –

"Angel."

~

dun, dun, dun! angel finally makes an appearance, okay it's a short one but still. kind of a nasty place to stop don't you think? plus i reckon that i've gotten great feedback on this story but i'm not gonna write anymore unless i get at least (bare minimum) two more reviews. horrible, i know, but i wanna make sure there's any point keeping writing . . .