Chapter Four

They hadn't been travelling long when they had to pull over for a snarl on the road. Buffy hopped off the bike and ran up to the car, a new concern marring her face.

"Hey, how far is it to this prison of yours?" she asked Rick urgently, grabbing his arm and walking him away from the others.

"Another hour at most. Why?" He arched a brow, his stance relaxed though his hand rested on the holster at his hip.

Buffy grinned and jerked her head toward Spike. "Don't know how much you know about vampires, but that whole fable about them going up in flames from the sun is so true. He needs to go in your trunk. Who have you got that can ride a bike?"

He had no idea why this girl's easy grin disarmed him, but his own lips turned up at the ends and he nodded toward Daryl. "Daryl does, and his brother. Not sure how we'd go with Merle back in the car, though." They both looked at Glenn, who narrowly missed becoming a snack when he'd opened the car door blocking the road to release the brake and a walker sprung out aiming for his jugular. He yanked the thing out of the car and stomped its head into the ground repetitively, grunting out his anger and frustration every time his foot sunk into its skull.

"Okay, I'll take Merle," Buffy decided, seeing the wisdom in keeping the two far away from each other.

"You sure?" Rick asked, doubt at how such a slight woman could hold her own against someone twice her size and a hundred times as vile.

"Oh yeah. I've defeated Hell Gods. Merle will be a piece of cake."

A bounce to her step, Buffy walked to the trunk and popped the latch. Merle was lying back, one arm stretched out and cushioning his head, his stump resting against his belly and his knees bent so he looked nice and comfy.

"Spike?" she called out, not minding in the slightest the walkers that were heading their way through the woods. She stared straight into Merle Dixon's eyes. The vampire ambled up to her, grabbed the front of Merle's shirt and yanked him out so he could slide into the vacated space. Her eyes softened for the vampire and she wished him goodnight and slammed the trunk down.

Looking up at Merle hurt her neck. "Okay, big guy…time to ride."

He stared at her, incredulous, and then a thunderous expression spread across his face. Lips thinned, anger in every taut muscle in his body, he thrust his ugly metal stump in front of her face. "Used to ride, dollface. Now I don't have the hands for it."

"Oh." Buffy didn't blush, step back in fear or revulsion, or anything else Merle might have hoped for. She walked back to Rick, Merle shadowing her closely, and shrugged. "Looks like you'll have to have him in the car after all, unless your loose cannon and his girl can do the trip on our bike?"

Glenn stepped away from the car he'd been moving off the road. "Sure. Maggie and I aren't staying anywhere near this asshole." He grabbed his girlfriend's hand and they almost ran to the bike, revved the engine and in the roar that still echoed around the woods, they were gone. Rick watched them go, rays of morning finally breaking through and lightening the approaching day. A tree still blocked the roadway and he looked at it and then stared after the couple with a fierce frown. Buffy saw the frown and ignored it, turning instead toward the trees where some walkers had wandered closer to them. She saw Daryl pacing back and forth watching them, staring after Glenn and Maggie, staring at her, and working himself up to a fine sweat over all of it. Buffy rolled her eyes. She'd been so eager to find people—real people—but this wasn't quite shaping up to her expectations. These people were kind of miserable, and were putting her day on a massive downer before it even started. Suddenly she missed Xander and Willow with an aching desperation that left her feeling hollow and emotionally exhausted.

"Where's Michonne?" Buffy asked, trying to at least make conversation.

"She's passed out in the back," Rick said with a certain amount of satisfaction.

Buffy frowned. She'd noticed Michonne had suffered some injuries but the other slayer had put up quite a show of strength so Buffy hadn't thought anything of it. Now she was concerned for her sister slayer and a renewed sense of purpose told her it was time to get moving. Without asking for any help and not even noticing Rick and Daryl's decision to finally move the tree stump, Buffy bent down and grasped the trunk, lifting it until she was able to tumble it down the slight incline on the edge of the road. It hit two of the first walkers that were advancing on them, and while they were taken down she pounced, whipping her scythe from its fastening on her belt and sliced through the top of both heads, then took out another three in a flurry of stabs and slices, the weapon singing in the wind.

The men watched her, riveted with mouths hanging open. They were stunned, first at her superhuman strength and then her amazing fighting prowess.

"Okay, road's clear. Let's get moving." Buffy jumped in the car, sitting in the back seat next to Michonne so that Merle had to squash in on the side. Rick and Daryl got in, slammed their doors shut, and simultaneously looked back at the small blonde girl with the killer attitude.

"What was that you said you were again?" Rick asked, his voice filled with curiosity.

"A slayer. I was the original, only one girl in all the world, yadda yadda, then the First Evil came and we had to step things up a bit and kind of created a world full." She stopped, chewed her lip thoughtfully and looked at Michonne, still unconscious and slumped against the car door. "There's possibly zombie slayers out there now. I really, really hope that doesn't make them a special breed or something."

"And a slayer is a what now?" Daryl asked, his face squinted up with confusion and a small amount of doubt.

Buffy looked him in the eye as she attempted to explain what she was, feeling not for the first time that she was a freak of nature on display, though it had been a long time since she'd felt like that—way back when Riley had introduced her to Maggie Walsh as a slayer rather than your average university student.

"The slayer was made, infused with demon essence, to fight against evil in the world. The official title is Vampire Slayer, but there's all sorts of demons and evil in the world. I've averted at least twenty-five apocalypses, but this…" She looked hard out the window at the new flock of approaching walkers and sighed. "We had no idea this was coming. Spike and I were sent to retrieve a slayer—Michonne—and before we could find her, all this happened. We are stuck here just as much as you are—no way to contact home, no way to know if home even exists anymore." She looked vulnerable for a second and Daryl and Rick backed off a little, Rick finally starting the car.

"Tha's jus' what we need," Merle mumbled. "Another psycho bitch with a sword."

Daryl's eyes widened, wondering if his brother would ever learn the fine art of shutting the fuck up, ready to turn and punch him in the mouth before he caused a new mess they had to clean up, when Buffy smiled brilliantly at his brother.

"Merle, honey, I've defeated a Hell bitch, a giant snake, a suped up guy with rocket launchers for arms, the Master, the First Evil and my first boyfriend." She put her hand on his knee like a lover and then squeezed extra hard, making Merle shout out in pain.

"The fuck you doin', lady?" he spat and Buffy continued smiling.

"Just a friendly warning. I got skills you can't even know, so don't push it or you're gonna find out the hard way."

Merle's whole attitude changed like lightning and Daryl narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"So," breathed Merle in what Daryl could only interpret as a cheesy attempt at seduction, watching closely as his brother's eyes were hooded with sudden sexual interest. "That punk wannabe vampire in the trunk your boy?"

Daryl caught the look of longing in Buffy's eyes before she immediately hid it, but it was enough for Daryl to recognise another comrade, conflicted by their feelings.

"No," she told Merle as she slumped back in her seat, darting a nervous look out the back window. "Spike and I are…"

"Complicated?" offered Daryl, astounded that he might have found someone more like himself than he'd ever thought possible—except this little girl could fight a hell of a lot better than he could. Bet she could throw one hell of a punch, too.

He was surprised how sad her smile was and figured he could read her thoughts before she'd barely had time to process them.

"Spike is my friend, my soul mate. He saves me—every day. He's died for me and every second he's awake he's trying to protect me. But no, we aren't together…like that," she answered Merle, but Daryl could tell by the way her breath hitched in her throat and by the sadness in her eyes, that it wasn't because of choice. He had a feeling these two dumbasses were as stubborn and stupid as he and Carol were, and that felt like an enormous relief.

"Great," he told her, a smirk on his own lips as he shot a sour look at Merle. "More complicated shit is exactly what this group needs."

And Rick kept on driving, his own grin seeming to lift the weight that had been heavy on his shoulders for days.