The floating dust thinned at a painfully tedious pace but they could see further and further into the room. Eventually a mottled blue sky appeared above them and Buffy turned to Giles, pulling the cloth from her mouth. "Rockslide?" she asked.
Her question was met with a furrowed brow as he couldn't believe she didn't know what happened. "Brought on by an earthquake," he replied.
A sharp intake of breath triggered a brief coughing fit. With widened and watering eyes Buffy scoured the room while the spasms slowly subsided. Visions of demons rising from cracks in the earth filled her mind. "Giles, earthquakes and me…we don't get along."
He patted her back gently in an effort to help with the coughing and also in an awkward attempt at comfort. "It'll be alright. I'm sure it's nothing demonic."
"You always say that." She stood and shot across the short length of the cave, nearly tripping over the pile of rocks and stones left by the new gaping hole in the ceiling. "We need to get out and get back home. Giles, anything could happen. I need to be there." Panic rose in her voice.
"Buffy, we're over 150 miles from Sunnydale. It wasn't a large quake and they might not have felt a thing. The epicenter most likely is nowhere near them."
"Really?" She wondered if it was the truth or an attempt to placate her. She took a deep breath, aggravating another bought of coughing, but it was easier this time. Giles moved to her side and handed her his handkerchief again.
"Try not to breathe too deeply just yet. The air is still heavy in here." Each, unknown to the other, was searching for the entryway. Their eyes met.
"Giles, where's the hole in the wall?"
He looked at the place where he knew it had been, then removed his glasses, still remarkably intact. "I'm not sure. It should be over there." Buffy sprinted to the spot Giles indicated while he fiddled with his glasses a moment longer. He replaced them on his face, only to squint and remove them again. He blew on the lenses and succeeded in removing the only outermost layer of dust. Sighing with resignation, he followed her. They stood looking at what was once the entryway to the cave. In its place was a mass of large rocks.
"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod," Buffy muttered in a desperate chant before determination bolstered her. "Okay, I'll just move them, that's all. I'm like super strong so I can do this."
"Be careful, it may not be stable. More rocks could come down," Giles cautioned. He moved forward to help her then thought better of it and stepped back again to give her room to work.
She approached and nudged her foot against one rock, a good candidate to begin the digging out process. When nothing bad happened, like another rockslide, she gingerly took hold of the chosen one and pulled, stepping back quickly in case they tumbled. Nothing moved. Mumbling, she grabbed onto the rock and pulled with her full strength. Again, nothing happened. She focused in on another. Fierce, shallow breath stabbed at the rocks as she fought to move one just an inch. With a final exasperated gasp she staggered back and looked at Giles with narrowed eyes. "I think it's stable."
His face twitched at her sarcasm. "Yes, I can see that." He moved to her side and wordlessly they chose a rock and put their full weight into moving it. They were fighting an immovable wall that allowed nothing out and nothing in. The irony did not escape Buffy that she now had the closed off sanctuary she had only a while ago hoped for. The implications of the reality were wildly different from her imaginings, as the concept of choice had been removed. A huge cosmic joke, it seemed to her, but she wasn't laughing.
"Giles, we're trapped." She honed an accusing scowl on him. "This is all your fault."
Giles was catching his breath from their last frustrated attempt. "It was my idea to explore a cave? I seem to recall I was in favor of a nice hike in the fresh air."
"Exactly. This whole expedition was your idea."
He walked to the center of the room and peered up at the hole, surrendering himself to their circumstances. "Well, at least we'll have the fresh air."
"I suppose," Buffy muttered as she grabbed her forgotten water bottle and gulped a quick drink before throwing it back to the ground. "And food and water."
He squeezed his eyes closed with sudden realization and said meekly, "Water." She whipped her head around to glare at him.
"Oh no, you didn't. You left your backpack outside!"
"I didn't plan on getting stuck in here; it seemed pointless to drag it in here, so I left it…"
"Great work, Giles." She planted her hands on her hips. "So, tell me, exactly how long can we live without food?"
"With water…an excruciatingly long time." Just as he said it his demeanor brightened. "But it won't matter. We won't be here very long."
"Ooo-kay, and do you mean that in a good way or in a 'there's a big ugly spider in the corner that's going to eat us' way?"
"Xander and Willow know where we are, generally speaking. If we aren't back by nightfall they'll worry and most certainly begin searching for us."
She eyed him suspiciously. "That sounds like a possibility, except how will they know where we are?
"I left directions."
"You did?" Buffy asked with surprise in her voice.
"Yes, of course. We'll be out of here in the morning. I'm sure of it."
"Morning? Giles!"
"Well, the sun doesn't set until 9:30 today, and that's only dusk. It won't be truly dark until 10 or after. If they give us another hour at least for apparent tardiness, it'll be 11 or even midnight. The drive is over 2 hours and it would be very foolish of them to try hiking the trail in the dark." He paused, concerned for them as he envisioned their search in the dark. "I do hope they wait until dawn." His eyes returned to Buffy. "Once on the trail it will be another hour."
"Yeah, but how will they know we're trapped in this cave?"
"My backpack. They'll find it, search the immediate area, find the fresh rock slide blocking the entrance and surmise we're inside." He almost smiled at the inherent logic while Buffy narrowed her eyes at him.
"Great plan, so it's a good thing you left it out there after all." Her voice was edged with sarcasm, honed by yet another crisis to deal with. "They'll just use the dynamite you conveniently packed to blow a hole in the mountain." She walked away from him to the blocked entrance and began kicking at the rocks.
Giles revised his timeline. "Well, maybe mid-morning then. Either way, you know they're very capable people. They'll figure a way out…or in, as the case may be."
"Why can't I figure a way out?" A stony glare bore into rocks at the blocked entrance. "Why can't I have useful superpowers like laser eyes that burn through rock or the ability to leap tall buildings or at least tall ceilings?" She directed her muttering complaints to the wall but Giles knew she blamed him in at least a small way. "I mean, what I got sucks: above average strength and agility. Yippee, I can be a gymnast when this is all over…if it's ever all over…and I'm still alive."
She heaved a sigh and looked up at the now well-lit cathedral ceiling, gauging the distance. At first she'd been enchanted by the possibilities of such a vaulted ceiling, but now it seemed merely to be lording over her, pinpointing her faults, her inability to jump that high or scale the inclined walls. Drawing attention to yet one more of her failings.