Disclaimer: Buffy The Vampire Slayer was Created by Joss Whedon and is property of many companies but not me. The Walking Dead was created by Robert Kirkman and the show, which is the world I am referencing in this, is shared with Production Creators Frank Darabont and Angela Kang.

Arthur's Note: Stalled on the last book for Game of Thrones knowing that G.R. Martin hasn't progressed past it and not wanting to face not having anything yet to look forward to. Keeping my patience… keeping my patience… On with the fanfiction! I do want to note I'm changing something you'd see sometimes in BTVS with varying degrees of inconsistency with vampires getting winded when they don't breathe to begin with, that isn't going to be seen here. I believe they can be over exerted, but they shouldn't be winded.

Also want to point out the company's I refence in this chapter I am in no way affiliated with nor wish to reflect either positive or negative impact on.

[9]

Sardines, he hated sardines, all fish really. They stunk up small spaces even back when there was AC to keep the place cool, but a stale room in the Summer? Spike was just thankful breathing was optional, trying not to think about how the seafood would linger in his nostrils for days. At least the kid had found something to eat, they'd been lucky to find somewhere to hole up after getting turned around…

Finding the trail from the creek, the blonde had quickly determined what had scared the little thing from returning to the road. In the day the creature hadn't broken through the earth but by the time Spike had come across them the cretin was struggling to pull itself out of the soil, "Trouble mate?"

Malnourished, the other vampire was slow to respond, surprise just reaching its eyes as he ran a stake from its chest, exhale sending the ashes to the ground as its body broke apart. If he had to guess, the thing had started to move when it felt the young child's heat above them, the movement under foot scaring them off before they could grab them. Lucky the sun filtered through the trees there, a little more shadow and the group would have been burying a body instead of looking for the girl. From there it'd taken near two thirds the night to spot the child.

The little bird had covered a lot of ground for stumbling around in the dark, not that the distance or time bothered him, but he had begun to wonder why she didn't turn around at some point. Seeing the cluster of dead after her cleared the question up and his superior vision let him count just how many there were and where, unlike her own. Who knew how many she thought there were, panicking like she was, not seeing she was stumbling back towards one. Too far away to get there in time, he pulled the knife from his jacket and locked it open, "Duck!"

Small hands locking over her head, trusting the unknown, Sophia crouched down, and Spike threw the blade forward where it buried itself in the skull of the dead. Shaking with nerves the kid turned blindly in the dark, able to only see directly in front of her under the canopy of trees, rotted body laying still beside her. Hearing her whimper, he called out for her to grab the knife while he moved behind the closest walker, hands grabbing its head and snapping its neck.

As Sophia gripped the handle of the knife, she heard a wet crunch in the distance the man had shouted from but there were other sounds, shuffling sounds that had her trying to pull the weapon free, "Hey!"

Dancing back and forth between the few walkers that he had stolen the attention of, Spike shouted again, "Hey you bloody wankers! Try me!" The last straggler turned at the prompting he grinned, "Now that's more like it!" The fight from there flew by, worry for the girl's safety replaced by the ability to provide it as he wailed on the soft fleshy bodies around him. Victorious, he turned to Sophia, finding the girls arms around his waist even as he turned.

"Come on now," lifting her, he looked around with a frown, moving off in the direction he felt was correct before the girl could question if he knew where to go.

[Break]

Amy would have loved this house. After the brunette that had been hiding on the front porch had seen Glenn and T-Dawg in, Andrea had stayed outside, studying the farmhouse. Two stories of white panel exterior, the home would be beautiful in the day though not very heat efficient if the glass panes were any indication. Still, Amy would have loved it for its wrap around porch and front balcony, she could almost picture the younger blonde standing on the second floor with that stupid smile thinking how perfect it was.

"Hi!" Oh lord, her mirage was talking to her. Andrea blinked, dark stars she had been imaging on the white T replaced with flowers on a girl that may be even younger than her sister had been. Patiently waiting the thin blonde smiled, giving her time for a response until she determined she might not get one and continued, "I'm Beth."

"Andrea," her voice sounded far away but she felt strong despite the momentary vertigo, "I was just thinking," she gestured with a circular motion, "it's a nice place."

The teen's smile never wavered, nodding to the inside, "You didn't want to come in?" The way she pulled back on the railing, Andrea could see she was slightly unnerved by the quiet, asking her to wait a minute before disappearing. A few minutes later Beth was jogging down the steps, glass in hand with what Andrea found to be a light tea,

"Thanks." The surreal feeling didn't seem to be going anywhere but her initial edginess was draining away in the face of overwhelming pleasantness, giving in enough to take a seat on the front steps, "You just, had this ready?"

Beth shook her head at the skepticism she heard in the other woman's voice, "We set pitchers out in the morning, usually with lemon but we still have a few leaves left. Sorry if it's a little watered down, they've been re-used."

The front door burst open, Glenn taking an immediate left as he cleared the doorway, taking no notice of the two as he sat down on one of the rockers, bending his head over his hands and closing his eyes. The two women shared a look, but he didn't appear to want to be disturbed and after a minute they moved carefully from the front steps to the yard to give him additional space.

[Break]

Mr. Greene had assigned watch with strangers on the property, Jimmy volunteering to stay up that night until his girlfriend's dad woke early the next morning. Beth had beamed at the trust they put in him, but he knew it was mostly because everyone else had been so busy fighting to keep the kid alive, keep him calm and clean that they'd worn themselves out. He didn't mind though; Mr. Greene was always saying everyone had their part and he could do his.

Thinking about the surgery he was glad it had been successful. The kid, Carl, had been white as the sheets he'd laid on and small for his age as he understood from his parents talking about him. It wasn't so much that he'd been listening in on them as curious to how he was doing. It'd been a long time since he'd seen his own brothers and when the lawman ran inside, he thought he'd been carrying his youngest sibling for half a second.

Picking his eyebrow, he pinched his skin, pain chasing thoughts of August away and stood from the kitchen chair to walk the first floor.

[Break]

"This doesn't look right." Eyes adjusting under the open sky, Sophia saw the creek was wide, dead trees half submerged in the shallow water. When her rescuer set her down, the ground was sandy instead of muddy and no raised bank in site other than the high cliff far to the right. Feeling the grime on her arms from before, she bent to clean them while Spike kept guard, drinking handfuls once she was done washing.

They found the house not far from the creek when they pressed on, staying put after Spike cleared both floors, returning with a blanket and pillow, "Be light soon. We'll stay here, let them find us."

Through a yawn, Sophia struggled to keep her eyes open, exhausted now that she was sitting, "They'll find us?" Spike nodded, hearing her heart slowing as she passed out, and he moved her to see about making the room light tight for the day.

[Break - Columbus, Ohio]

Waking in the early afternoon following a late patrol, the Slayer found some of the new residents were already busy when she came upon them, "..but the squash will stay good on its own a while. Have you seen any jars? We might try canning the tomatoes." The woman stood just under six foot with a wild mane of black curls that hung down her back, turning as Faith came up behind her answering her question,

"We do but I don't know how good they would do for canning. We've got spice size or specimen size, not a whole lot of Mason." Faith grabbed the large beefsteak looking tomato out of the woman's hand before she could set into the bowl with the others, cleaning it's yellow and orange stripes off before biting, "damn." She wiped her mouth off with a quick swiped looking at the rest of their haul, "There's still more out there?"

"These are from the closest but there are a bunch of Toppers in the area," the two continued to work as Faith ate, wiping her fingers off on the sides of her shirt as she finished and gestured, she could assist, "oh no, we got this if you can get whatever jars are closest to a pint."

"Like I said, anything we have isn't going to work. I can check out the Meijer's nearby, see if there are any there."

Frowning, the blonde's body angled to face her instead of his companion, "That place was pretty overrun last time we were there, that's why we were going to the gardens in the first place."

"Relax, I've been in there before." Directing her attention back to Ana she looked over their cache not sure how many jars she'd need, "How many will we need?"

Wide lips pursed together, dark eyes considering a moment, "We aren't just thinking about these, so whatever they have on the shelves." Dusky almond, the low light played over the skin of her arms, "Actually, there some things I need, I don't mind coming back out with you."

Shifting her stance, Faith considered the lack of runs Ana had been on since her arrival. True the woman went out with Wayland, they'd been together on the road even before they'd met with Robin and his girls, but as far as the Slayer had seen she didn't go out unless it was something that required her to do so. "You sure? I can grab whatever it is for you."

There was a look, just a small movement of Wayland eyes from herself to Ana that Faith tried to place, but Ana was already pushing the remaining items toward Wayland to finish, "I'm sure."

"Alright, I'll tell G-man, grab a pack and we'll hit it."

Wayland waited until the muscular brunette had disappeared down the stairs, "Are you out?"

Ana shook her head, still going through their earlier haul, "No, but better to go now then wait. I think that one has a pharmacy I can check."

[Break]

The red lettering of the Meijer's store front was visible a block away, but the women circled the building, heading for the back. Wayland had been right about the dead surrounding the building, the street was peppered with dead, not so many as had been after the group when Faith had spotted them but more than she wanted to take head on for some jars. Still there were ways around them, "You bring a light?"

Ana reached into her bag, the torch in the side pocket easily accessible, and in her hand as Faith moved low behind the vehicles lining the sidewalk. Hunching over, Ana followed close behind, studying the woman as she led them to a small grouping of stragglers. Seeing Faith prepare to attack, Ana shifted her stance, reaching for her weapon rather than the flashlight to help but Faith was already in motion. A leg sweep took out two, the falling body of one knocking into the other, and as they struggled, she brought a blade down into one skull and then the other. The corpse that was reaching out for her was struck in the temple as she turned and then Faith was motioning for Ana as she sunk her fingers into the circular cut out in the ground.

The manhole cover looked cast iron, undoubtedly heavy, but Faith pulled it to the side and jumped in, "Light." Ana bent overlooking into the darkness and dropped the torch already lit after a moment. Slim fingers flashed in the strobe before the beam pointed down the sewer tunnel, "Come on."

Tightening the straps of her bag, Ana reached for the rungs of the ladder rather than risking the jump. As her head cleared the pavement, she reached up for the manhole cover, struggling to pull it back into place, The Madison Fndry Co. logo all that was left for the other walking dead to look at by the time they got to the spot they'd seen their meals at.

What Ana thought was half a block later she cleared her throat, "How'd you know it was clear down here?"

The other woman's outline shrugged, shoulders lifting, light bobbing ahead of her, "Didn't, but it's usually quieter down here. Mainly only the city workers tried to come down here." As though sensing her next question, Faith pushed on, "They knew the lay out and didn't make it, I wouldn't try for longer than the block I can see. Sometimes that's been no guarantee either."

Ana nodded though she knew the motion wasn't visible. Feeling strands of hair get caught, she ran her hands up and over it, clearing out what felt like a web and tied it back, "Where we coming up?"

Judging the distance, Faith swung her light up, keeping an eye out for the next opening while keeping her extra sense open for their surroundings, "Truck bay, there's another opening. I ran by it the last time I was here."

While Ana had known the woman had been around the city on her own, she hadn't considered just how much she'd had to commit to memory. The other one, Giles, didn't seem to go out at all, "How far do you go every night?"

Faith paused, spotting the circular outline in the ceiling and she handed the flashlight back to the other woman to keep it steady as she climbed up, "Depends," she braced her feet on the ladder, pressing her palms flat on the underside of the cover and shoving until she felt it give just a bit. Working on lifting the opening enough to see the immediate vicinity she slid it back once she was sure it was ok, and cleared the ladder with Ana trailing immediately after, "Our block every day, from there I pick a direction."

The door to the loading dock was already open, wedged between two cinderblocks, one that kept it open and the other that kept it from swinging wider. By the wear along the cement, the blocks had been moved many times and Faith moved the outside one another waiving her inside. Beyond the trucks bodies shifted at the sound, crossing into the area as they disappeared.

The loading area was pungent with rotten fruit, buzzing emanating all around the darkened room. Holding their breath, they moved past the soured perishables and through the doors leading to the main store where they could see more clearly. The air was stale but bearable, shoppers had either cleared the food aisles at the beginning of lock down or looters ha since then. The frozen cases were off, but the glass sealed whatever rancid odor existed in them and neither of the women disturbed them. Nodding, Faith indicated the direction she was heading, and Ana went the other eyes scanning the outer wall for the Pharmacy.