Chapter Twenty-Nine – Setback
They made it through the first day unscathed, no battles to speak of. But they needed gas again to make it to their destination. The few gas stations they had tried were totally empty. The tank gage already read dangerously low.
"There's another one, Wes," Dawn pointed to as they headed down a deserted highway.
After Wesley cautiously stopped near a pump, Faith and Connor got out to take a look around the small town.
Wesley checked all the pumps. One actually worked. Their lucky day indeed. He kept an eye out for anything while Faith and Connor played lookout.
"I have to go," Dawn announced from the car.
"Go. Hurry."
Dawn jumped out and ran for the side of the station. The day was nice and sunny, a bit breezy, but not too cold for a late October morning. There were actually birds chirping. The blue, blue sky lulled Wesley into a sense of peacefulness he hadn't felt in ages. Here he was, out in the middle of nowhere, teamed up with a motley crew of characters, having a torrid affair with his slayer, trying to get out of a war zone. Things could be worse.
It became worse when something slammed him to the ground, and it definitely wasn't Faith this time. It wasn't even human. Wesley thought it might be a Schloti demon, but he couldn't be sure. As it raked its long claws down his front, cutting into his skin, he realized that he was vulnerable.
Gas was leaking on the ground where he had dropped the pump nozzle. It wasn't supposed to do that thanks to the state government regulators, but nothing ever went as planned in his world. The only saving grace was the ever- increasing puddle happened to be traveling away from his vehicle. Fortunately he was almost done filling the beast up.
Wesley took hold of the demon's arms, trying to stop its claws from reaching him again. His chest burned like fire. Using his body as leverage, he was able to flip the demon off of him and into the gasoline. So the demon got up pissed and smelling of petroleum.
It took a swipe at him and missed. Although Wesley had his gun available, he didn't want to risk it. What if something went wrong and the bullet smashed into one of the pumps. He wasn't too keen on going up in a ball of fire.
It would have to be his knife. He wretched it from its hiding place. Of course, getting that close to a demon with really long claws would be difficult if not impossible. At least size wise, they were evenly matched.
Wesley took a swing with his fist and connected with the creature's jaw. The demon hadn't expected him to go on the offensive. It looked a little stunned, so he took another shot. He barely avoided getting clawed again.
Dawn had come out and was slowly working her way back to the SUV. She knew Wesley was in trouble, but didn't join in the fight. Wesley slowly circled the demon to keeps its vision firmly planted on him. He did not want Dawn anywhere close to this one.
The demon swiped out again, this time barely scraping his arm, but connecting nonetheless. Wesley punched the demon in the face, then took his own swipe with the knife he had retrieved from his boot.
He injured it slightly, but it kept on coming. Too many more cuts and he'd tire from loss of blood. Right now he was already feeling a bit peckish. Taking the demon down was an immediate priority. It was now or never.
And Dawn provided the distraction he needed to accomplish this. She had made it back to the vehicle, entered it and promptly laid on the horn, scaring the demon. Now Wesley had his opening.
"Connor? See anything?"
"Nope. You?"
"Naw. No food either. We better get out of here today. If you and the Englishman get any skinnier, I'm gonna have to go on a diet just to keep up."
"Ha, ha, Faith."
She thought it was lame too, but what the hell. At least the kid smiled. He'd done a lot of that since she'd first joined the group. Dawn was a major influence on that front. And also, Connor had some very important jobs here, while back with his father he was just one of many fighters.
Was it Faith's imagination or did she hear a rumble off in the distance? Not a cloud in the sky. She stopped in her tracks when her breath hitched. Her chest ached a little, then nothing. But flashes kept coming. Big, ugly monster with long, sharp claws lashing out.
"Faith, do you hear a noise coming toward us?"
She'd tuned Connor out, reaching out to feel the image.
"Faith, we need to go, now."
"Oh God, Wesley." Faith didn't need any encouragement. She and Connor took off running. She needed to find Wesley and fast. He was in grave danger.
Hearing the blaring of a car horn frightened her even more. Had someone taken over the car too? Then the station went up in flames.
"No," Faith screamed.
Dawn had given him a distraction, so now he planned to use it. He slammed his knife up to the hilt into the creature's skull. The thing fell over, dead on the spot. He turned to congratulate Dawn on her cleverness when he saw her go to start the car. The puddle had moved to be near the exhaust pipe. There was an off chance that it could spark and explode.
Before he could wave her off, she started the car. She realized almost too late what she had done. Gunning it, she punched through the flames.
Faith saw the SUV fly through the flames. The driver stopped away from the fireball, skidding to a halt.
Dawn jumped out. "Wesley," she shouted.
Faith ran for the flames. He was in there somewhere. She had to find him. She couldn't live without him now just after she found him.
Before she threw herself into the inferno to search for her newfound lover, someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her away.
"Connor, no, stop. It's Wes. He's in there."
Only it wasn't Connor. The lips on hers were definitely not Connor's. Her Wes stood in front of her, a little singed, a little beat up, but alive.
"Oh God. I thought . . . ."
"Can't kill me that easily."
"Let's go," Connor yelled as he seized both their arms to propel them forward. The fireball had drowned out the fact that there were demons coming at them, riding motorcycles.
Wesley jumped in the driver's side, while Faith dived over him to get in. He floored it before the doors shut.
"Oh, I am so sorry, Wes," Dawn screamed from the back.
"Dawn, I need for you to calm down. You can fire that crossbow?"
"Sure." Dawn pulled out her weapon.
"Connor. Take your pick. Do some damage."
Both teenagers looked ready, but were they? They'd battled evil for years now. This was no exception.
"Wes, sunroof."
Faith reached over, hit the button and it opened. She picked up Wesley's shotgun and fired. No hesitation on her part.
"It's got a little kick to it. Be careful."
Faith didn't care. She'd taken down the lead demon on her first shot. And she was never that good a shot. Must be her lucky day. Both Connor and Dawn jumped up through the sunroof and fired their crossbows simultaneously, helping wreck another one.
"Two down, ten to go." Faith told him gleefully. She took aim again, hitting the tire of another motorcycle, flipping it end over end. She thought maybe they'd break off and run. They didn't. They had their own weapons and started firing.
Wesley swerved, knocking Faith off her knees, tumbling into Wesley. She could feel his pain from his chest, arm, knee where he was slammed to the ground from the blast. Then the feeling was gone.
"Faith, get down," Wesley yelled at her.
"Not on your life."
She stuck herself out the passenger-side window and fired again, taking two down. The odds were getting better.
Connor stood up quickly got off a shot, but missed. Wesley threw him his handgun. Which the boy promptly dropped on the floor. Both he and Dawn dove to find it while Faith got off one more shot. She couldn't miss. Six to go now.
"They're not cracking yet," she yelled at Wesley.
"Dammit, we're less than ten miles from you rendezvous point. We need to lose them."
Faith checked for more shells, but found none. "Out of shells." Wesley handed her the other handgun.
"Make it good."
Dawn came up with the other gun. She poked her head out and took a shot. Another demon crashed.
"Five more," she yelled out. "And ouch." Since Faith was turned anyway to fire out the window, she saw the crimson stain spread on Dawn's leg. The bullet had come through the now nonexistent back window.
"Connor, get her down." Connor pushed, taking the gun from her. He then stood and fired at least ten rounds at the same time Faith fired. Two more down.
"Fuck. Still three more."
"Seat belts now," Wesley yelled. Faith tried to comply, but she wasn't fast enough. Wesley swerved to miss a crashed 18-wheeler on a bridge.
Lucky for them it wasn't a very tall bridge. The SUV flew through the air and crashed into the streambed below.
Faith was somewhat cushioned by the airbag deploying, but with no seatbelt, she was tossed around like a baby. Then everything went black.
TBC
OK, I know some parts of this were lame, if not entirely impossible. But the impossible happens all the time in their world. Gotta keep the action going.