Animatus
Notes: Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming! Just to warn you now, I have no idea how gas stations work, so if I'm totally off on this, just bear with me in my ignorance.
Previously:
The two vans slowly ambled down the road in search of a gas station. Faith watched dismayed as Buffy, driving one van, and Jay, driving the other, attempted to pick their way through the jumbled mess of abandoned cars littering the road. "This is going to take forever," she muttered.
"It's not going to be easy to try to leave town," Buffy agreed.
Faith sighed, rolled down her window, and smiled slightly as a gentle breeze blew through her hair. "I never thought that it would be."
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Gas Station:
"You come up with a plan yet?" Faith asked as she slid into a chair in the library. Kate looked up from her stack of books and frowned, noticing the jacket that Faith was wearing.
"Are you going somewhere?" She asked casually.
"I thought I'd patrol," Faith shrugged.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Kate replied cautiously. "Surely Kakistos knows that there's a Slayer in Boston. He may be looking for you."
Faith smiled, touched by her Watcher's concern, but determined to maintain a certain amount of freedom. "I won't go far," she promised.
Kate sighed and leaned back in her chair, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just be careful, yes?" She implored.
"I always am," Faith replied, flashing her a confident grin. "But you never answered my question."
"What was your question?" Kate asked, furrowing her brow as she tried to remember.
"I asked if you had a plan yet," Faith repeated.
"Perhaps," Kate nodded thoughtfully. "We're attacking the warehouse during the day. The front of it is full of windows; though I can't be certain how many rooms the building contains which are not so well lit. However, we could break the windows and, thereby, gain the advantage of sunlight, to which we could always retreat if we encounter any difficulty with Kakistos."
"But," Faith began.
"But we'd lose any element of surprise. The vampires would know that someone was trying to attack them. They would retreat as far as possible from the light, thus drawing us into the shadows," Kate explained.
"So what's plan B?" Faith inquired.
"Plan B is kicking down the front door and taking out as many of them as we can," Kate sighed.
"That sounds risky," Faith replied.
"It is," Kate admitted. "But so is plan A."
Faith sighed and looked out of the window at the moon, which was rising steadily over the treetops. She could see starts twinkling in the sky. "I should get going," she stated absently. Rising to her feet, she smiled back at Kate. "I'm sure whatever you decide will be fine. We'll make it work."
"Thank you for your confidence," Kate replied dryly, but smiled. "I just want to read a little bit more about our adversary before I make any final decisions, otherwise I would go with you tonight."
"Always be prepared, right?" Faith joked.
"Absolutely," Kate nodded, looking back down at her book. "Oh, Faith?" She asked, stopping the Slayer, who had started to leave the room.
"Yeah?" Faith asked, looking back at her.
"Remember…be careful," Kate instructed warmly.
Faith pulled out a stake from the waistband of her jeans and twirled it in her fingers, grinning lopsidedly. "Maybe you should tell that to the vampires."
…………………………………
"Gas station," Buffy stated as she pulled the armored van that she was driving off of the road and into a parking lot.
Faith, squinting from the brightness of the sun, shielded her eyes, and turned to look. Jay had pulled off of the road in front of them and had parked next to one of the pumps. "Do you think they still work?" Faith asked.
Buffy shrugged and parked the van. "I don't know," she replied honestly.
"It's nice," Faith commented, looking up into the blue sky.
"What?" Buffy asked amusedly, her heart flip flopping happily in her chest when she saw the tiny smile gracing Faith's features.
"Today," Faith replied, looking over at her girlfriend. "It's just nice."
"Hey," Jay said, walking up to their van. "Anyone up for stealing some gas?" He joked, though his eyes were twinkling with a repressed juvenility.
Faith laughed and nodded. Opening her door, she stepped down onto the asphalt of the parking lot. "So how do we do this?" She asked, looking at Jay expectantly.
"What makes you think I know?" He asked defensively, though he was smiling.
"Something tells me you haven't always been an order and discipline kinda guy," Faith grinned.
"Maybe not," Jay admitted. "Okay, let me see if I can find a generator or some backup power source that can get the pumps working."
"I'll come with you," Faith replied. "You okay out here by yourself?" She asked, throwing a look back at Buffy.
"Just be quick, okay?" Buffy said anxiously. Complete and utter silence blanketed Sunnydale. She could not hear any birds chirping. The usual sound of traffic on the highway had been replaced by an overwhelming emptiness. The sound of Jay's army boots striking the surface of the road seemed to echo indefinitely in her ears. Grabbing her gun, she squeezed it tightly in her hand. Faith and Jay disappeared inside of the gas station and she was alone.
Though the sun was shining in through the windows of the gas station's convenience store, deep shadows played along the walls and darkened the corners of the room. "I'll check the back," Jay offered, moving away from Faith before she could reply.
"Be careful," she called after him, fingering her gun restlessly. A pool of congealed blood lay behind the cash register. Faith wondered what had happened to the clerk, though she imagined that her first guess was correct. The shelves of the convenience store were still lined with junk food. The refrigerators had died and Faith shuddered when her eyes landed on the warm, spoiled milk sitting in rows behind the glass. The milk within the bottles looked almost green. "Not exactly a health food market," she commented idly, fingering a bag of potato chips.
"I think I found it," she heard Jay call from the back of the store.
"Power this sucker up then," Faith called back to him.
Jay flipped several switches on the panel, glancing up at the lights above his head, but nothing happened. "Anything?" He yelled to Faith. Vaguely, he heard her reply in the negative. "Damn," he muttered to himself. Moving his hand down to a red switch at the bottom corner of the panel, he flipped it. A gentle humming arose and the emergency lights above his head flickered. "I think we're in business," he said and turned, but instantly froze in his place.
Standing before him was the decomposing clerk that had been working at the convenience store on the morning of the attack. Jay grimaced, unable to tear his eyes away from the rotting teenager's blackened face. The boy's skin was stretched and cracked across his cheekbones and through his broken teeth hung his blistered tongue. He was staring at Jay with dead, cold, yellowed eyes that showed no spark of intelligence or anything other than a deep, insatiable hunger. The zombie rushed at him before Jay could raise his gun. The creature's hands slammed into his chest, pushing him backwards against the wall. His hand hit the power box and his gun flew out of his grasp.
"Shit," he exclaimed. "Faith!"
Faith dropped the bag of potato chips that she had been studying, pulled her gun from the waistband of her jeans, and rushed into the back room. The zombie had pinned Jay to the wall and was attempting to bite his face, though Jay was pushing him back with all of his strength. "Hold still," Faith commanded. Raising her gun, she aimed it at the zombie's head. Pulling the trigger, she held her breath as the bullet exploded from the barrel of the gun and rammed into the back of the zombie's skull. Jay ducked when the bullet struck, closing his eyes, and sliding down to the floor. Blood sprayed all over the wall against which he had just been standing and the body of the zombie dropped to the floor in a heap.
"Fuck me," Jay breathed.
Faith exhaled deeply and looked down at him. "Are you okay?" She asked. Jay nodded absently. "Did you get any blood in your eyes or mouth?" She asked firmly. Jay looked up at her and smiled. His face was clean.
"No," he replied, rising shakily to his feet. "I didn't." Moving away from the zombie, he grabbed his gun off of the floor.
"Good," Faith breathed a sigh of relief.
"The power's on," Jay said more confidently. "Let's get out of here."
As Faith and Jay moved back into the store, the little bell over the door sprung to life, and Buffy entered. "I heard a gunshot. Is everything okay?" She asked worriedly.
"Zombie," Faith stated. "I took care of it."
"And you're both fine?" She pressed.
"We're both fine," Jay smiled.
Buffy exhaled deeply and glanced around the store, noticing that food. "Hey, should we take some of this?" She asked.
"We are starting to run low," Jay noted.
"We'll grab as much as we can," Faith nodded. "But let's get the vans tanked up before we do anything else."
Fifteen minutes later, with full tanks of gas and piles of potato chips bags and candy bars littering the backs of the vans, they pulled out onto the road. "You know, Buffy commented as they swung the vans around to head back to the Bronze, "it's kinda nice being the one to drive."
"What're you talking about?" Faith asked, pulling her eyes away from the scenery that was crawling passed them to look at Buffy.
"No one ever lets me drive," she shrugged.
"Why not?" Faith asked.
"No reason," Buffy replied evasively.
"B," Faith said warningly.
"Fine, fine," Buffy caved. "I'm not so good at it."
"At what?" Faith asked.
"Driving," Buffy clarified.
"How can you not be good at driving?" Faith asked incredulously. "It's insanely simple. You just stay in the lines."
"That's the part that I'm not so good at," Buffy smiled over at her.
"And you didn't tell me this because?" Faith groaned.
"I knew that you'd make me stop," Buffy teased. "Besides, you don't have license do you?"
"No," Faith shook her head. "But that doesn't mean I've never driven a car."
"So I take it this means you're not going to let me drive the van on the way out of town, huh?" Buffy asked jokingly.
"Hell no," Faith replied, chuckling. "Giles and your mom are driving."
"Giles goes really slow," Buffy complained, scrunching up her face.
Faith silently laughed to herself, thinking that the blonde Slayer looked adorable. "It's not like we're trying to win a race here, B. I case you haven't noticed, we haven't gotten above twenty miles an hour this whole time."
"Looks like we're home," Buffy commented as they pulled up to the loading dock of the Bronze. Jay jumped out of his van and ran up to the garage door, banging on it a few times. After several long moments had past, Giles opened the door. Jay jumped back into the van and pulled it into the Bronze, Buffy following after him. Once both of the vans were inside, Giles closed the door again and locked it.
"This will do nicely," he commented as Buffy and Faith exited their vehicle.
"We got some more food too," Faith said. Giles looked at her hopefully, but she shook her head. "Just potato chips and stuff like that."
"Bloody hell," he muttered to himself. "If I don't die from a zombie bite, I'll die from malnutrition."
"Get over it Giles," Buffy said, good-naturedly slapping him on the back. As they walked out into the main room of the Bronze, Faith pulled the sheet of paper, on which Jay had written the names and former occupations of the survivors, out of her back pocket and studied it carefully. The band of survivors was waiting for them at the foot of the stage. Faith carefully folded the list again and looked up at them, shoving it into her pocket.
"Everybody, listen up," she instructed. "We've found two armored vans. For the rest of today, we're going to load up all of our gear. We'll be leaving the Bronze tomorrow morning." She heard a collective sigh of relief and continued. "Everyone should to bring all of the food and supplies to the back, except what we'll need during the night. Is there a James here?" She asked, surveying the crowd.
A man in his early forties with thinning hair and a pair of glasses stepped forward and raised his hand. "I'm James," he said.
"And you were an electrician?" Faith questioned.
"That's right," he replied.
"Good," Faith nodded. "I want you to determine whether you can mount some of these stage lights onto the tops of the vans, okay?"
The man nodded, glancing up at the lights hanging above the stage. "Shouldn't be a problem," he stated.
Faith looked over at Buffy, who was smiling both encouragingly and proudly at her, and said, "Let's get to work."