chapter 24
Agent Grey fired another shot at the walking dead-person, his mind was reeling from everything he'd learned since his orders to kidnap Willow and Chris- the supposed 'Threat to American civilization'- what a laugh, the only 'threat to American civilization' had been the people giving him, Serena and his other team-mates those orders.
Now Serena, and most likely his other comrades, were dead and they were outside in the freaking pouring rain fighting these Zombie-fuckers while that Jackson guy and little Chris were going to talk Willow down from doing…whatever it was she was trying to do.
This was so FUBAR! Grey grabbed the Zombie's head and whipped it around, hearing the neck snap and then dropping the decayed corpse to the ground. These Zombie-people were pretty easy to eliminate, they were already falling apart before they'd woken up anyway; most of the body had almost completely lost its integrity.
A Zombie-woman suddenly caught him from behind, catching him by surprise, its foul breath washed over him making him want to throw up; he wrenched himself away with little effort and smashed his elbow into the mouth of the walking corpse, "Eat that."
Brains, fluids and parts of it's skull fell from behind the Zombie-woman's head; Grey grimaced in revulsion as he pulled his elbow out of the thing's rotted mouth, "Urgh, man!" his elbow was covered in slimy, decayed flesh and cold, semi-congealed blood.
"That's just plain gross."
The corpse collapsed into a heap on the mud-slick ground; and remained motionless as the raindrops hit the dead, grayish skin.
"Grey, behind you!" yelled Dawn as she grappled with one of the more disgusting-looking corpses. She jammed a thin tree branch into the things eye, spraying brackish oily slime over her; much to her revulsion.
Grey whipped around in time to see the zombie's half-eaten face snarling at him baring grayish, rotting teeth and black gums before the thing bowled him over to the ground, pinning him there.
His right arm was trapped between the zombie's body and his own, using the other arm he grasped the animated-corpse's lower jaw struggling to push it away from him- it was trying to bite him!
Suddenly the zombie's head exploded in a spray of fluid and soft matter, the thing went limp as Grey pushed the dead-er corpse off himself, he stood up quickly resisting the urge to throw up; he grimaced, "Zombie-mince, ugh." He looked ahead and saw that Sam was now turning her gun away from his direction and searching for another target, "Gotta remember to thank her for that."
Just as he wiped the disgusting gunk away from his face another zombie tore its way up through the ground, groaning with hunger; Grey sighed with exasperation, he was quickly losing his patience with these things.
The soldier ran at the zombie as it knelt on the ground, ready to start looking for food, and snapped his foot upwards to meet the thing's head; he heard the neck crunch and break before the zombie went limp.
He looked around and saw that the others were also locked in a zombie-fight, he was surprised that Willow hadn't given them harder obstacles to overcome- though, considering how many zombies there were, maybe she decided to go for quantity rather than quality.
Grey saw Teal'c rip one of the zombies away from Sasha, who had not faired so well against her zombie; he was glad that they had the big guy on their side. He was built like a tank and was just an effective.
He pointed his .45 at a random target- one of the undead that was reaching for Dawn while she wasn't looking- and pulled the trigger; the zombie's head jerked to the side, but it was still standing. Grey frowned as the zombie staggered towards him and away from an ignorant Dawn who was grappling with a woman that looked like someone had stuck an axe in her torso several times.
As the zombie, presumably a former pizza-boy, stumbled towards him Grey sighed and holstered the gun before striding quickly to the walking decayed corpse, grasping its head with both hands and twisting it; snapping it neck and killing it.
Apparently only neck-breakage was effective with these things, so much for guns; he felt almost no fear for these things, they were so slow. But what would the corpses do if they got a grip of one of them?
He'd watched 'Resident Evil' several times, the first, second and third one AND he'd played all the games- would they eat them? Were they contagious?
He didn't think so. Grey grabbed a fallen machete and swung it into the nearest zombie's neck, it dropped to the ground in two pieces motionless once again; where had the machete came from?
Grey shrugged, he was never the one to look a gift-horse in the mouth.
The agent wiped rain from his eyes after a particularly loud clap of thunder, he cringed as a flash of lightening lit everything up momentarily before darkening again. He hoped Daniel hurried up and got Willow down from her dark-magic-high soon; he wasn't sure how many earth-shattering thunderclaps the planet could endure without ACTUALLY shattering.
No way were storms THIS bad, it was unnatural.
The question to Grey's earlier question of 'what would the corpses do if they got a grip of one of them?' had finally been answered as a scream of pain rented the air; his turned around quickly to see Janet smashing the heel of her hand into the walking corpse of a former teenage boy, the zombie-teen had left the bloody imprint of his teeth on the doctor's arm.
The zombie-teen staggered away from her slightly from the force of the blow, and then was joined by another one of the previously-dead people, a truck-driver; or he used to be anyway, both the undead grabbed the struggling doctor.
Shit, Grey tightened his grip on the machete and ran towards Janet as the torrential rain fell harder; hoping he'd reach her in time.
Just as Daniel was about to come to the conclusion that he'd gone in the wrong direction he passed a mess of trees that were creaking in the wind and passed a small hill, craning his neck in time to see a dark figure standing not twenty feet away from him and Chris.
He couldn't see her very well, he'd had to take his glasses off because the rain was glancing off the lenses and making it hard for him to see anything, his vision was blurry but he could see better without them on in this weather; he walked towards the figure steadily.
"Mommy?" Chris's rain-soaked face lit up like a Christmas tree as he saw the figure; he then flinched as a crack of lightning shook the ground beneath them. "Everything's shaking 'gain."
Daniel looked around, he knew that the shadowed figure was Willow, he looked beyond the silhouette and sucked in a breath as he struggled to stay upright against the hurricane-like winds, three huge, but slim, funnels of darkness moved along the ground ahead of the witch by at least fifty meters.
He swallowed as fear slid down his spine, the tornados were ripping its path into Colorado Springs quickly; he needed to act fast. He lowered Chris to the soaking ground and looked at him steadily, "Chris, I need you to stay here, okay?"
Chris just looked at him worriedly and nodded, "O-okay."
Daniel was about to stand up when his son grabbed his sleeve tightly, he looked down at the boy, "Chris-
"I wanna see mommy," he said, and looked close to tears.
Daniel hated to leave him there, but the tornados quickly moving towards his town weren't going to wait for them, "Chris, I can't explain right now- I don't have any time. Just trust me and stay here; I'll get her back."
The redheaded boy looked at him tearfully and nodded silently.
"J-just…don't go anywhere," the archaeologist said helplessly.
Then he ran towards Willow hoping he hadn't waited too long and climbed the small, but no less tiring, hill to get to her.
As Chris watched his dad partially disappear a small hillock started slowly growing behind him, the events since he and his mom were kidnapped started catching up to him as he sat heavily on the sodden ground, the huge jacket wrapped around him tightly.
Echoes of that 'Kinsey' man's screams ran through the boy's mind as he remembered the monster dragging him into the ceiling, he sniffled in growing fear as he wondered whether the monster was still around.
He hugged his knees, wrapping the coat tighter around himself to stave off the growing fear and coldness now seeping into his bones; his hair plastered to his head by the torrential rainfall, his shook as he struggled to get warm.
He looked up towards the two shadowy figures; oblivious to the rising mound still growing behind him.
Willow raised her arms, wet black hair flapping behind in the wind as she fixed her slightly unfocused dark brown irises on the black sky above her. Several flashes of lightning hit the ground producing a deafening noise that filled the entire town; the streets were deserted but a few stragglers were running around trying to find shelter.
She blinked as she lowered her arms, her gaze found the funnels that she'd made; they were ripping through a parking lot, she couldn't see any people – just lots of cars.
The tornados tore through the vehicles relentlessly, several of them exploded in a flash of orange and yellow light before being sucked up one of the funnels.
The complete and utter emptiness that filled her pushed away any thoughts that might have been filling her head at that moment; her blank look took in the devastation that her creations were leaving behind.
The magic, the darkness, was endless; it whispered suggestions in her ear of all the things she could put right, it made her see everything in a new light; all the evil that walked the earth.
Not just the demons…no THEY were meant to be evil, they were made that way…a lot of them had no choice, it was just in their nature. Like tigers to fawns, they were the hunters because that was all they knew.
But, humans…no, they had their free will, they came into the world with souls and they still committed worse atrocities than even the demon community could ever hope to commit.
And the earth, she could feel it…it was screaming, choking on all the pollution they'd made; crying, devastated at all the wars they were carrying out- ruining what the earth cared for, the inhabitants.
She could feel the betrayal that leaked out of every fiber of the world's being; the planet was dying after it had taken them in, looked after them…provided them with the basics of everything they needed. Food, water, even cures to the poisons that lurked around them.
The earth screamed at the injustice at all of this, the human race was taking and taking and taking, draining the planet a little bit at a time and leaving behind manmade abominations that the humans used to destroy each other and the world that they lived on at the same time.
The earth fought back indignantly with storms, flash-floods, anything it could still control, that was its right. But it wasn't enough, the humans were destroying not only the planet but, inevitably, themselves along with it. As fast as the planet tried to heal the Ozone layer, protecting itself and the inhabitants from the scorching sun, the humans were just damaging it again and again.
It was too much, it couldn't keep it up forever.
Soon, the sun would bare itself, full and unhindered. Soon the inhabitants would burn for their careless, thoughtless mistakes.
Willow shook her head violently as the blackness seeped into her eyes, she could feel it- it WAS too much, everything was too much. They spent so long trying to save the world, but the world screamed at them for saving it, for prolonging its torture.
No matter what anyone did the world was going to end, either by demons or humans; all the inhabitants were against the very planet keeping them all alive.
The black-haired witch flung out her hands, angry at the world's people for creating so much pain and agony; the same pain that was tearing at her mind and soul; the whole town lit up as bright as if the sun was high up in the sky, then it darkened as the lightening faded away.
The clap of thunder overhead filled her ears with such a noise they would be ringing for hours to come; the ground beneath her shook from the force of the storm- it literally cracked like an egg being hit by a tablespoon.
The whispering in Willow head grew louder, more insane; it was too much, she clamped her hands over her ears tightly; her eyes wide as she stared ahead. She felt the urge to scream, but she couldn't…she didn't know how to.
"Willow?" a familiar voice flitted through her mind…no, it wasn't in her mind; she'd…heard it…
A bolt of lightening hit the road in front of 'O'Malley's Bar and Grill' splitting stone and slicing a tear straight through the road, stone and dust flew up from the ground by the impact and clattered back down.
The windows to the Bar and Grill shattered along with dozens of other houses as the windows to several houses near to the bar and grill also shattered noisily. Car horns blared angrily filling the streets with the alarming noise.
Willow whipped around in shock as she felt two hands grip her arms tightly, her vision was more than a little blurry, she stared ahead at the person in front of her, unable to comprehend what was happening- there was so much power, she couldn't control it; all she could do was feel it as it focused on the anger of the whole planet.
"…have to stop…everything…want that!?..." his voice pierced through the fog of insanity that was clouding her mind. She didn't understand; her vision cleared for a second; she recognized him…she thought she did…
"….dangerou…have to…Chris…" he shouted at her, but she almost couldn't hear him, the screaming from the planet was too loud; she didn't know anything anymore.
Just pain and suffering.
Wait….Chris?...
Willow frowned as the echoes of the planet subsided slightly, Chris was dead? Was he? She didn't know….she had to find out…
She fought hard to concentrate through the haze of the planet's rage…her own rage at what had happened; was Chris alive?
She gritted her teeth against the echoing yells of everything around her, she needed to know…
She forced the screaming to fade a little for a small amount of time and was able to see Daniel for the first time in what felt like ages; then she concentrated on her son; hoping he wasn't…
/….Chris?…./
Christopher Rosenberg shook violently, freezing cold and terrified as he huddled up tighter inside the coat, where did his shirt go? It had Snoopy on it. He was so cold, he gritted his teeth hard against another blow of the strongest and scariest-sounding wind he'd even felt; he rocked to the side as the wind blew at him and knocked him onto his side.
It was so cold, maybe he should get back up. Maybe that would just make him colder…he should use magic…should he? The screams of Kinsey echoed through his mind again; he shook his head hard, No! he'd NEVER use magic ever again!
It was bad, it made HIM bad; he hurt people…he'd hurt his mommy. Chris sniffled as he felt tears welling up in his closed eyes; he barely noticed the weight on him or the groan.
Magic made him WANT to be bad, he'd LIKED it. Just like his mommy liked it; it was making her bad too…just like him.
He felt the coat being torn slowly away from him, the frozen wind attacked his small body, freezing him. He gasped in horror and pain as his tear-filled eyes snapped open, the widened in terror as the man looked at him.
He was horrible, his eye wasn't right, he was torn; he looked dead. It grinned at him frighteningly showing him a mouthful of grey teeth and black gums; the putrid breath washed over him making him retch in revulsion.
The man gripped his arm pulling Chris towards him, rotted mouth gaping; lifeless eyes wide in hunger; Chris tried to scream but terror choked him, tightening his throat. His couldn't breathe!
A strained croak was the only sound Chris could manage as he stared at the thing with blind terror.
/Chris?/ He heard his mommy; he felt hope light up inside him a second before he heard the screams of many people and the hope vanished quickly as if it had never been there.
Chris let out a straggled choking sound as the screams filled his head; he had to get them away! He had to make them stop!
/STOP IT…NO…STOP…/ his mind shouted to anyone, anything, who would listen.
He felt his power ignite and strike out…Chris barely noticed that the zombie-man had exploded in a cloud of bone fragments, soft matter and dead flesh…in fact, he completely forgot about the thing.
The tortured screeches of everything around him pushed every thought from his mind; the primal fear inside him tasted of copper.
/STOP IT...NO…STOP…/ Willow flinched back as her son's pained voice slammed into her mind; she could feel him…his terror…his guilt…
She had to stop it, she had to stop everything…he was so scared…
But she couldn't stop it, it was too powerful…she didn't know how to control it anymore…to pull back inside herself…
Daniel was staring at her in puzzlement, she focused on him, confused, and heard his thoughts in her own head.
/please stop this, stop it, Chris needs you; he's scared…/
Looking at his earnest gaze she felt the guilt slam into her; the knowledge that Chris was alone outside in the freezing cold…that the zombies she'd…God, the dead people she'd forced magic into…to attack her friends…the father of her son…
Willow felt the magic dotted around where she'd left them to fight her family; she felt the magic that she'd used to create the tornados, the storms; she drew in the magic, knowing she couldn't control it…that it was too much…
The magic filled her, Willow screamed and threw it, and everything she felt, up towards the heavens where she knew Chris would not be.
Everything went white….
And then she knew no more.
Daniel grasped Willow's arms tightly, yelling at her, "Please, just stop this!"
He watched her eyes, a few times he'd seen her eyes clear; he knew he was starting to get her attention; what was wrong with her? She was completely out of it.
He felt his heart skip a beat as Willow's eyes focused on his own; he could see the terror and the helplessness in them, "Willow? Chris needs you. I know you want to stop-
He frowned in confusion as Willow cringed, his confusion strengthened as she seemed to be in a lot of pain; he stared at her as she turned her wide, agonized, darkened-green eyes onto him.
Then he felt a powerful force blow him backwards off his feet and onto the muddy ground, then he heard the scream; full of raw emotions and dark power.
The emotions behind the scream made him jump up, to help her; he had to help her.
Daniel's eyes widened and then everything around him went white…
…then black.
Janet Frasier twisted the head of the zombie around ninety degrees and felt the satisfaction of watching it fall to the ground; she looked around.
The ground around them all was littered with the bodies of the dead, hillocks were still growing quickly and pushing out the abominations; she was exhausted.
The things they were fighting might have been easy to kill but there were SO many of them, they came non-stop; as soon as one was down several others popped out of the earth; this was all like something out of a bad horror movie.
Grey was nearest to her and had been there after he'd helped her fight off a surprise attack from another of the walking corpses, after this was over she had to remember to thank him.
The laceration on her arm was hurting like hell, she hadn't had any time to use something to stop the bleeding and had to alternate between staunching the flow with her other hand when she wasn't fighting.
That hadn't been very often. The blood streamed down her arm in a spider web pattern of fresh blood.
Her head snapped to the side as she heard an almost-inhuman scream come from the direction that Daniel and Chris had gone in.
She hoped that they were alright.
A growl of hunger caught her complete attention, she saw the animated dead-person run at her unsteadily and was about to fend off the attack when, to her shock, the thing fell to the ground.
She stared at it, waiting for it to move. It didn't.
"What the hell?" she heard Grey say, she looked up and saw that he was staring at two of his own zombie-pals, they were both lying unmoving on the ground.
All of them were.
Janet saw everyone look around in confusion, the zombies were all dead…or, um…dead-er. What had happened?
She looked at Sam, meeting her tired and perplexed gaze over the innumerable crowd of dead bodies littering the ground around them all.
Before she had any chance of thinking anything else the world around her lit up so bright that she was almost scared; she screwed her eyes shut against the blare and, after what seemed like years, then she opened them again.
What she saw made her gasp with surprised disbelief.
Chris lay, stunned, under the coat as the light filled his vision; the tortured screams of everything around him had left him stunned, shivering with fear and shock. He wasn't cold anymore, there was no wind.
His empty stomach growled; it sounded like the man from a few minutes ago; he just curled up tighter, crying, and hoped that someone he knew would come soon.
Xander pulled himself from under several limp zombies, breathing heavily, and climbed to his feet. He gaped as he looked around, then he shook his head.
"She always was an overachiever," he muttered to himself as he looked up at the calm, cloudless sky above him.
Chris? Willow? Xander looked in the direction that he'd seen Daniel and Chris go in and made a tired run towards his friends, he hoped they were alright.
Daniel opened his burning eyes and stared straight ahead, he was lying down on the rain-soaked muddy grass beneath him; he focused on the motionless person a few feet away from him and slowly sat up.
He blinked and then his eyes widened, "Willow?" he jumped up, exhaustion still weighing him down, and ran to her side; he knelt down and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Will?"
Nothing. No response.
A fear similar to what he'd felt when Sha're had been hit by a staff blast the first time he went through the 'gate to Abydos hit him with the force of a dozen Jaffa; he put two fingers to her neck and above her pulse-point.
There was a beat, he could feel it! Relief flooded through him as he turned her over onto her back; he gasped as he saw the blood flow from her nose, her mouth, her…her eyes?
Daniel shook his head, "She's okay…you're okay…"
He pulled her up into a sitting position and held her against him protectively, "You're okay…" he didn't want her to choke…all that blood.
Daniel noticed suddenly that Willow's hair lacked the black colour it had been several minutes ago; it was now red. He smiled…lovely red...not the black.
Always red.
Xander finally saw them, he stopped as his body sagged with tiredness; he fell to his knees and then sat down as he looked at them. Daniel was alive…obviously; and Willow…was looking very unconscious.
The dark-haired man got up quickly, so quickly that the blood rushed to his head; making him dizzy. He shook it off and walked forwards- then he stopped as he saw the wet coat and the lump underneath it; the leg poking out from under it.
Chris!
Xander ran to the coat and pulled it off the young boy, "Chris?"
Chris lay on his side, staring blankly up at him; his skin was pale with shock and his lips were tinged with blue…but he was alive.
Xander wrapped the coat around Chris again and picked the boy up carefully, he didn't want Chris to get pneumonia; he turned around and looked at Daniel and his best friend.
He hoped Will was alright.
As he walked towards the pair he felt Chris move his head, a light brush on his arm, and looked down at him- still walking-, "Chris?"
The boy upturned his head to look at him; wary-relief shone in his eyes but Chris remained silent and tired-looking; he reached up and grabbed Xander's sodden collar.
Xander got the idea and hitched Chris up into a different position so that the boy could wrap his arms around his neck, Chris hugged Xander tightly and buried his face into his shoulder, sniffling tearfully.
Xander hugged his nephew as he finally got to Willow and Daniel; he looked at her fearfully, "Willow?" blood streamed from her nose, eyes and mouth.
That didn't look too good.
"Daniel?" he looked at the man questioningly. "Is she-?" did he want to know? What if she was-
Daniel swallowed hard and smiled slightly, "She's alive."
Xander sagged with relief, sitting down heavily, "Thank god…" If she'd died…he didn't know what he'd do; she was his Willow.
Daniel looked at the boy in Xander's arms, "Chris?" he looked at Xander; their eyes met in a kind of mutual understanding.
Xander nodded and stroked Chris's soaking-wet hair back from his face, "Chris? Look at me."
Reluctantly, Chris lifted his head from Xander's shoulder and pulled away from him, he looked up; Xander felt his face soften as the four-year-old's tear-streaked face looked at him; he met the boy's scared eyes, "Wanna go with your dad?"
Chris turned away from him and looked at Daniel, then he turned back and loosened his death grip from around his Uncle Xander's neck stating his answer without words. He nodded and reached for Daniel, who grabbed his son with his free arm.
Chris hugged him, wrapping his arms around Daniel's neck, now, and sobbing as he looked at his mom; he reached out an unsteady hand and touched her bloodied face gently.
Red stained his fingertips; the kind of red that must have become so familiar to the child over the past few days; the boy looked up at his dad anxiously, the look that asked him whether his mom was alright or not.
Chris's attention snapped to his mom as Willow groaned quietly, he stared at her silently, hopefully.
Xander also looked at her, was she going to wake up? "Will?" please wait up, please wake up, please-
She opened her eyes slightly, her eyes glinted out from beneath her eyelids; she groaned again and then her eyelids drooped, now unconscious again.
Chris looked at Xander, then at Daniel, then back at Xander again, looking scared.
Xander looked at his nephew, "She's just tired; she'll be okay. Just sleeping." They ALL needed to sleep. Like for a MONTH!
Chris nodded, accepting the answer.
Footfalls caught their attention, Xander looked up and saw Buffy, Grey, Giles and SG1 looking at them; now standing there. Giving them some space, he looked at Buffy and smiled.
Buffy smiled tiredly back at Xander, relieved, their eyes met and they nodded to each other. It was going to be fine.
Their family had remained intact.