Title: "Statistical Anomaly"
Disclaimer: See Part 1.
Part 13: "Another Fine Mess".
"How much further, guys? My feet are getting really tired", said Willow.
"And mine are soaking wet", Xander replied. "Plus I think I just stepped in something I'd rather not describe - but it definitely wasn't rainwater".
"Would it be in order to say 'Euww!'?"
"Euww!!"
"Sh!"
Everybody stopped, and became silent. They'd come to another fork in the tunnel. Buffy cocked her head to listen, and Scully saw her face screw up in concentration. After a moment the Slayer tapped the big vampire beside her on the shoulder and wordlessly pointed down the right hand branch. Angel raised an eyebrow, and she nodded firmly and punched him on the arm. He shrugged and moved off again in the direction she'd indicated. Everyone else followed as quietly as they could, all strung out in Indian file, but as close to each other as they could be without treading on each other's heels.
They had been following Angel's nose for about fifteen minutes, but so far there'd been no clear trace of their quarry - the last FBI vamp, and what they assumed was it's now greatly reduced gang of minions. At each side passage they'd come to they'd cautiously shone their flashlights into the opening and peered along the beams, but so far without result.
"Are you quite sure we're going in the right direction?" Willow asked diffidently. Angel and Buffy both looked back at her and nodded.
"I can smell them", the vampire said, "despite whatever else there may be in the air".
"But we're following Buffy's choice of direction now", Scully pointed out from just behind Willow.
"Yeah. I can hear something along this branch - I couldn't down Angel's choice", Buffy said quietly. "There's someone talking".
'Remarkably good hearing as well as incredible strength', Mulder thought. 'Very interesting. I wonder how come?'
"How far off?" asked Giles.
"What are they saying?" and "Can you tell who?" Mulder and Scully asked simultaneously. "Does it sound like our missing agent?"
"Too faint to tell. These tunnels can carry voices for miles, but all the echoes just completely confuse the sounds", Buffy replied.
"All right. Everyone hush now. If we can hear them, they can hear us equally well, and we don't want to alert them to our presence", Giles said in a low voice. "We'd have to start all over again, and I don't think any of us wants that".
"Well, I for one want to get this dealt with tonight", whispered Buffy firmly, and Mulder and Scully both nodded vigorously in agreement.
"OK, keep close then. Follow me, and mind out - this side passage is a lot lower than the main tunnel we just left", Angel told them.
-----
They'd gone barely another two hundred yards, everyone stooping to avoid banging their heads on the tunnel roof, when Scully swore quietly, and stopped.
"What's wrong, Agent Scully?" Giles asked her.
She shook her flashlight. The beam, which they could all now see was getting very dim, flickered and brightened for a moment, then died away completely.
"Hey, Nancy Drew", said Buffy, much amused. "Who forget to put new dry cells in before she came out tonight?"
Scully flushed, stuffed the now useless object back in her jacket pocket, and wordlessly took the spare that Giles politely produced from his bag without comment, and offered to her.
They resumed their cautious progress down the tunnel.
"Hey, Scully", Mulder said very quietly in her ear. "If you're Nancy Drew, I guess I must be one of the Hardy Brothers. But which one?"
"Oliver!" said Scully sharply. She was obviously not in a good mood.
It took Mulder several minutes to work that one out.
-----
After another five minutes, voices were clearly audible to everyone, and they had come to a place where the tunnel divided into half a dozen wider passages, each pointing in an entirely different direction, like the outspread fingers of a hand. Everyone had to wait as patiently as they could while Buffy and Angel went a little way down each in turn, trying to determine which one the voices were coming from. After the fourth or fifth the gang saw their flashlights waving, silently beckoning them to follow, and everyone trooped along after them.
"You're quite sure this is the right one?" Giles asked quietly as the two groups joined up again.
"Yup", Willow said. "I can hear them, now. And I think one of them's a girl", she added, sounding quite surprised.
"There are female vamps, you know, Will", Xander said.
"Actually more than half the victims are women", Buffy said.
"Why is that?" Scully asked in a low voice.
"Two reasons, I guess. One is that they're not as strong as men..."
"...Oh. Right. Yes, thank you", said Scully. "I think I can deduce the rest. OK, I just wondered, because that was one of the things I noticed among the statistics for Sunnydale before Mulder started out. It's also one of the classic warning signs of a possible serial killer".
"Well, that would be perfectly correct", Giles said. "After all, vampires are serial killers. They have to be; it's in their nature. That's how they survive - killing for human blood as often as they feel hungry. Or even just when they feel like it - simply for fun. Sunnydale is absolutely crawling with them", he added, "as you may have already noticed".
Almost imperceptibly, Scully shuddered.
"Um... you guys. That girl's voice sounds awfully familiar", Willow said hesitantly.
"I agree", said Xander. "I'm beginning to get a bad, bad feeling about this".
The two agents looked at him enquiringly.
"I think I know why Cordelia didn't meet us at the cemetery gates as planned".
"OK. Stay here, everyone", said Buffy. "I'll go take a look".
She handed Giles her longbow, and took Mulder's crossbow instead.
"Angel, please stay with them - I won't be long".
"Buffy, you will be careful?" Giles and Angel both said together, and then gave each other identically eloquent dirty looks.
"I'll be back!" she said in a gruff, mock-German accent, and giggled. "And turn off the flashlights, please guys", she added quietly in a more normal tone. "We don't want to attract attention to ourselves, do we?"
With that, she moved to the inside of the tunnel's curve, and followed it round the bend and out of sight. One by one everyone else turned off their flashlights, and bit by bit the darkness became more and more impenetrable.
They started to wait.
-----
Mulder decided to check how long it took before Buffy returned, looked at his watch, and realised that it was useless in the blackness, so he started to count his heartbeats.
He'd been doing this for several minutes, had lost count twice and had to start again, when he detected a slight movement next to him. Then somebody nudged him gently in the ribs.
"Scully? Is that you?" he murmured as softly as he could. There wasn't a direct reply, but a hand discreetly slipped itself into his and gave a slight squeeze. In the darkness Mulder smiled, and gently interlaced his fingers with hers in reply.
"Just checking your pulse", came a ghostly whisper.
-----
"Guys? Anybody there?" said a quiet voice.
"No. I'm tucked up in bed, having an exciting dream about Amy Yip".
"Xander! I'm shocked".
"And I'm not really at home in bed, Willow. Unfortunately".
"I should hope not! I'd far rather you were with me than with Amy Yip. Here. With us, I mean", she hastily corrected herself, hoping he wouldn't notice.
"Yes, yes. We're all still here, Buffy", Giles said impatiently. "Did you find anything?"
Everyone started to speak at once, and the Slayer immediately had to shield her eyes from the sudden glare of all their flashlights.
"Whoa, careful with those! OK, Giles. About two, three hundred yards further down the tunnel there are several chambers on each side. The vamps are using them as a series of nests".
"How many of them, Buffy? We need to know numbers".
"Sorry Giles, I couldn't see very well, but it sounded like a whole lot of them - a regular army. It looks like someone's been organising them. They seem to have guards out - they were patrolling up and down like they were sentries or something. There was a lot of talking going on, especially in the second chamber on the left. I think they have someone held prisoner in there - it sounded like a woman".
"Just the one?" Giles asked, and the Slayer nodded.
"Was it...?" Xander said anxiously.
"I'm not absolutely certain - all the vamps were making a whole lot of noise and I couldn't hear properly, but I'm pretty sure that it was..."
She was interrupted by a distant scream.
"Cordelia!" exclaimed Xander. "It is! They're killing her. Come on!" and he charged off down the tunnel.
Then - "Ow!"
There was a sudden thud, and a certain amount of indistinct swearing, as Buffy dived for his legs and brought him down in a perfect flying tackle. She dragged him to his feet again but kept a firm grip on him with one hand and muffled his shouts with her other.
"Xander! Wait! We've got to have a plan!" Giles said hastily. "Buffy, which chamber is she in?"
"Second left - I told you already!" she said quickly.
Mulder stepped forward.
"Only a few vampires actually out in the tunnel?"
"Yeah", said Buffy. "Oh, hey! I see! We can trap most of them inside their nests while the others rescue Cordy. Right, let's go!"
"Come on, come on!" Xander mumbled in agonised impatience. "They could be draining her blood right now!"
'Would she notice?' Willow thought to herself, and then felt dreadfully guilty.
By this time the whole group had started moving along the tunnel, and was picking up speed. Meanwhile Mulder was hurriedly digging in his jacket pockets, and produced a couple of small, dull green canisters, which he passed to Scully, who nodded her understanding. These were followed by two more for himself.
"We'll deal with the first chamber on each side, once you've disposed of the guards out in the tunnel", he said quickly to Giles. "You take the second chamber with your friend in, and we'll move on to deal with the rest of the chambers if necessary".
"It seems your surviving ex-colleague has been organising as many vampires as he can get hold of, if the ambush back in the cemetery is anything to go by", Giles commented, drawing his sword as he ran. "Need any extra weapons?"
"We'll stick to what we know", Mulder replied, and briefly turned his flashlight on one of the canisters so that the Englishman could see the stencilled lettering on it.
Giles laughed, a humourless sort of sound, and said simply "I hope you've got plenty more of those. Guaranteed to make every party... etc, etc".
Mulder patted his jacket and nodded.
"I called in at the National Guard Depot on the north east side of town this afternoon. I think I picked up more than enough".
"You may need every one you've got, even so", said Giles. "Make the most of them".
A moment later there was a twang as Buffy disposed of the first of the guards with her crossbow. Then - mayhem!
-----
Mulder briefly put his head round the doorjamb of the first chamber on his right. There was a whole crowd of vampires inside, all of them arguing loudly, nineteen to the dozen. Luckily none were looking in his direction. He couldn't see anybody else, no obviously human prisoners that is, so he pulled the pins from both the canisters he was holding, gently rolled them in at the doorway, and quickly ducked back.
There was a huge, brilliant flash, a satisfyingly loud double explosion which made his ears ring, and a great big gout of flame and smoke, which billowed out past him into the tunnel. Faintly he could hear yelling and screaming, and a couple of figures came staggering out, burning furiously, and promptly collapsed into dust. Smoke went rolling along the roof of the tunnel.
Behind him he heard another explosion, then a fourth, and hot blasts of smoke and debris came scorching by - Scully had apparently decided to space her grenades out. He staggered, regained his balance, and felt in his pocket for another. Someone, presumably Scully, pulled him along the tunnel, past the melee in the doorway of the next chamber, to be met by a crowd of vampires streaming out of the third and last one. For one frozen moment both parties stared at one another, then someone shouted, "It's the National Guard!", and all the surviving vampires promptly turned and fled.
"Be a pity to waste these, don't you think?" Scully said, taking more grenades from Mulder's jacket pockets, though Mulder could hardly hear her through the humming in his ears. He grinned, pulled out the pin from his own grenade and tossed it after them, aiming low and making it leap and skip down the tunnel like a stone flipped across a pond. Bounce, bounce, bounce it went, hopped into the air one last time, right into the receding pack of the undead, and went off with a huge blast of flame which scorched his eyebrows. Once again smoke rolled out along the tunnel ceiling, and bits of cement fell down, and as things cleared, they could see a small number of scorched survivors trying to pick themselves up and stumble away as hastily as they could.
The two agents looked at each other.
"It's quite a way, can you throw that far?"
"Let's shorten the range a bit", said Scully, her eyes gleaming. She was clearly enjoying herself. Mulder nodded, and the two FBI agents went striding briskly off down the tunnel.
"Don't get lost, now!" someone called out from behind them, and Mulder nonchalantly waved an acknowledging hand without looking back.
In the next couple of minutes there were several more loud bangs, and shortly afterwards they came strolling back together, arm in arm, with big grins on their faces, looking around hopefully to see if there was anyone or anything else they could blow up.
END OF PART 13. TO BE CONTINUED...