Animatus II: The Descent

Previously:

"Follow me!" Buffy shouted above the din of gunfire and the angry hisses of the zombies. The group advanced toward a door, behind which waited Kate and Paul. The zombies pushed back, momentarily surprised by the barrage of gunfire. But they recovered. Closing into a tight bunch, the zombies began to press forward.

Faith set her lips grimly as the zombies formed a circle around them and muttered, "So not good."

Chapter Sixteen: Surrounded:

Faith was beginning to realize that she needed to pay more attention to her dreams. When she had dreamed of Buffy's goodbye at the perimeter fence surrounding Sunnydale, she had not thought that it would come true. Even when Buffy had been bitten, Faith had not associated the event with her dream until well after, when she was safely inside the army compound outside of town and had been given the opportunity to think. She had known that Slayers occasionally were given prophetic dreams by the Powers that Be, but she had not expected to be on the receiving end of any, considering that her actions in helping the Mayor had placed her contrary to the Powers that Be for a considerable amount of time. Though she knew that she was on the path to righteousness again, she still thought of herself as the dark Slayer, the rogue, or the one second best to Buffy. She knew that both she and Buffy were Slayers, both important in the grand scheme of things, but she could not shake the feeling that Buffy was, perhaps, more important. After all, the older girl had cheated death once and had narrowly escaped becoming a zombie. Someone was looking out for her.

Faith could not feel the same about herself. Bad things seemed to happen to her; yet, good things rarely followed. Buffy was the only beacon of hope in her life and Buffy's love had not been easy to win. They had traveled a rocky and tumultuous road before finally joining together at the end. Faith often wondered what lay ahead for them on that road, or if they would even be given the chance to discern it for themselves. As Faith stood in the main room of the Initiative, surrounded by zombies, and choking on the haze of smoke rising in the air, she wondered if they would survive the night, or day. Faith did not know whether the sun was shining over Sunnydale. She felt like she had been trapped underground forever. She wanted nothing more at that moment than to feel the sun shining on her face, warming her skin, and reminding her that life was still moving in the world outside.

She had lost sight of Buffy. The zombies had surrounded them and they had started firing into the crowd. Through the shield of smoke covering the room, Faith could see little, even with her Slayer sight. The sound of gunfire rang perpetually in her ears. Vaguely, she worried that she might become deaf if the shooting did not end. The gun in her hands vibrated and jerked as she shot into the crowd of zombies closing in around her. The group had become separated. Faith was not certain the direction of the door to which they had been heading. She had spun herself around and everything looked the same. She could not see Jay or Diego. She heard their guns. She saw blood rising into the air with each bullet that pierced the flesh of the living dead. But she saw no one else through the crowd and she was starting to panic.

Reaching the room itself was proving to be more difficult than Faith had imagined. Though she had known that it would be challenging, she did not expect to encounter such fierce resistance from the zombies. They were not afraid of the guns. Though the bullets were tearing them down, they continued to advance. They were so hungry that the thought of permanent death did not deter them, if they even had the capability to think of such things. Instead, they pushed forward, their ravenous eyes locked on her as she shot them down. When she had been required to stop to reload, they made the most progress. She almost had felt their decaying fingers gripping at her skin. When she had looked up, they had been far closer than she had liked. Firing a hole through the zombies in front of her, she had moved past them, closer to what she thought was the door. But now as she stood in the midst of a sea of enemies, she found herself completely lost.

She pulled the trigger to an empty click and she knew that she needed to reload again. Grabbing an extra cartridge from her belt, she let the used one drop to the floor, and shoved the new one into place. Before she could lift her gun again, the icy fingers of a rotting zombie clamped onto her arm. Her eyes rose and met the yellowed orbs of a dead man who looked to have been in his mid-twenties before his life was so cruelly cut short. His skin was rotting and sagging off of his face, revealing his skull and jagged teeth. Faith felt herself stop breathing as she gazed into his eyes. Fear was taking hold of her again. Her heart pounded thunderously in her chest, filling her mind with its erratic rhythm. The zombie tightened its grip, leaning forward to catch a mouthful of her skin. As if coming out of a daze, Faith yanked her arm backward, pulling it from the zombie's grasp. Raising her gun, she fired two shots through his head. His skull exploded, pieces of skin and fragments of bone careened through the air, landing on everything around him.

But Faith knew that she had reacted too late. Already the other zombies were reaching for her. She was trapped. The thought of being eaten alive repulsed her immensely. Shuddering as she imagined the feel of the zombies' teeth gnawing through her skin, she fired wildly into the crowd. A zombie grabbed her from behind and she turned, slamming her elbow into its face. She felt its nose break under the pressure and a squirt of blood trickled down its chin. But she lost her balance in the process and found herself crashing to the ground. She slammed into the cold concrete, the air driven from her lungs, and she stared up into the faces of death. She suddenly realized that she had reached the end. Every Slayer died. She knew that. Throughout history, Slayers had died horrible deaths. She had not imagined that hers would come so soon. Though she had harbored no illusions about dying peacefully in old age, she secretly had hoped that she would meet her end in such a fashion. But as the zombies gathered around her, eying their prey hungry, she realized that she had been hoping in vain.

"Faith!" She heard a voice call above the moaning of the zombies and the gunfire bursting through the air. "Get your ass off the ground!" Straining to see through the smoke, Faith caught sight of a glimmer of blonde hair rushing toward her.

"Buffy?" She asked confusedly.

"Get up!" Buffy commanded again. A barrage of bullets hailed upon the zombies standing directly in front of Faith. They fell in a heap of blood and the zombies behind her began to back away. Rising shakily to her feet, Faith lifted her gun and shot into the crowd behind her. The zombies fell and, finally, she stood safely in a clearing. She felt someone grab her arm, and, turning, she saw Buffy standing next to her, gazing at her worriedly. "What the hell was that?" She asked.

"I-I don't know," Faith stammered.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked again, gripping her arm as she dragged the younger Slayer through the crowd. "You got separated from us. We couldn't see you over the smoke, but I caught sight of you just before you fell."

"I froze up," Faith tried to explain. "I don't know what it is about them," she motioned to the zombies, "but when I'm around them it's like I can't breathe."

"It's okay," Buffy reassured her.

"I thought I was dead," Faith admitted.

"You're not," Buffy smiled back at her.

"You don't understand," Faith insisted. "I thought I was dead and I didn't care. I didn't try to fight it. I was just going to let it happen."

"Faith," Buffy said gently as she pulled her toward a door, at which Diego, Spike, and Jay were waiting, warding off the zombies with sporadic gunfire. "I do know what you mean. I felt the same way when the Master killed me. But you have to remember," she said, turning to face her, and gently caressing her cheek with the back of her hand, "you have something to live for now."

"Yeah?" Faith asked, gazing deeply into Buffy's emerald eyes. "What's that?"

"Me," Buffy smiled.

"Oh, right," Faith rolled her eyes. "How could I forget?"

"I really have no idea," Buffy joked. "You know that everything has to be about me."

Faith breathed an audile sigh of relief when she stood again with her comrades, protected by their ring of gunfire and the door guarding her back. Jay glanced over at her and smiled lopsidedly. "There you are," he said, "we thought we lost you for a second there. Never did like to play with others, did you?"

"Can't say I did," Faith admitted. She watched as Buffy moved over to the number pad next to the door. Punching in a code, Buffy smiled when the door slide open.

"Inside people," she instructed.

The group backed into the room collectively and the door slid shut. "Thank God," Diego muttered as he lowered his gun. "I thought we were dead meat out there."

"Keep in mind that we have to go back out there, mate," Spike reminded him.

"Shut up, Spike," Faith muttered, running a shaky hand through her long, dark hair.

"Someone a little shaken up?" Spike grinned.

"Don't mess with me right now, Spike," Faith growled.

"Why's that, Slayer?" Spike asked.

"Because I might just shoot your ass," she shot back.

"People," a new voice interrupted, "bickering only excites the animals." Faith looked up to see a man and woman standing before them, both with tiny smirks gracing their haggard features.

"You must be Kate and Paul," Diego commented.

"That we are," Paul spoke again. "You know," he continued, looking at Buffy, "when you said that you were going to come back for us, I really didn't believe you."

"No offense," Kate added quickly.

"None taken," Buffy smiled. "I wouldn't have expected me to come back either. But, here we are."

"And you're cured?" Kate asked interestedly.

"Completely," Buffy confirmed.

"Amazing," Kate commented.

"Not to agree with the vampire or anything," Paul interjected, "but he had a point. How do you expect to get us out of here? I mean, from the looks of it, you barely got in."

"See?" Spike said haughtily, "I had a point."

"Why did you have to tell him that?" Jay groaned. "We'll never hear the end of it."

"He is right," Buffy admitted. "It was no walk in the park getting in here."

Faith sighed and began to wander down the hallway as the rest of the group discussed their various ideas for escape. Faith thought that they all sounded like suicide. She did not relish the prospect of charging back out into that horde of zombies with guns blazing. Though it had worked the first time, she doubted if it would succeed again. The zombies were aware of their capabilities now. They knew that they had guns and the guns had not scared them. Faith past numerous holding cells as she wandered down the corridor, each containing one or two vampires. She imagined that those vampires more inclined to aggressive behavior had been given private cells, but that some had to be given roommates in order to keep the Initiative from overflowing.

She wondered why Paul and Kate had bothered keeping the vampires alive. Even though they appeared human, they were completely demon. She imagined that their appearance alone was enough to convince the two Initiative employees to try to save them. A compassionate person would have had difficulty watching something that appeared so human starve to death. Faith paused in front of one of the cells and gazed at the two vampires sitting within it. They both looked bored. Suddenly, she had an idea.

"I know how we can get out of here," Faith announced, her eyes never straying from the vampires sitting within the cell.

"How?" Buffy asked.

"We use them," she nodded toward the vampires. "How many of them are in this hallway?" She asked, turning to Kate.

"About thirty," Kate answered.

"I'm sure they don't want to be left down here with no food," Faith said loudly enough for all of the vampires to hear. "We send these thirty vampires out before us. They can fight with the zombies and we can slip out unnoticed, or at least, with a little more help than we had slipping in."

"That's not a bad idea," Spike commented.

"Thanks," Faith rolled her eyes, "I'm so glad I have your support."

"I thought we weren't freeing all of the vampires?" Diego asked nervously.

"If I could," one of the vampires interrupted, rising to his feet. Faith glanced over at him. "I don't want to be stuck down here and I heard what you said before," he motioned to Spike. "If they can't hurt us," he said in reference to the zombies, "than I've got nothing to worry about going out there. I don't particularly give a shit about any of you, but if you don't stand in my way of getting out of here, I'll fight those damn things all night."

"See?" Faith grinned. "He's in."

Buffy nodded and smiled slightly. "I think it's a good idea, Faith," she replied.

"You do?" Faith asked.

"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "What about you guys?"

"I just want to get out of here," Paul shrugged.

"It's fine with me," Kate replied.

"They could be of help," Jay admitted.

"Diego?" Buffy asked.

Diego sighed and smiled warily. "Let's free the bastards," he agreed begrudgingly.

Buffy turned back to her girlfriend and flashed her an approving grin. "Looks like we've got a plan."