Headhunters

zTiamaTz

=H=H=

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

=H=H=

I woke up with a groan. We had been here a week and a half, and I still expected to see Kristy, this was truly hell. I got dressed into some of the clothes Cordy had picked out, and tried to make sure they matched.

Taking the pistol from my bedside table, I stuck it into the shoulder holster I'd found with the fatigues. After what happened earlier in the week with those things, I wasn't going anywhere without it.

Looking out the window, I guessed it was mid-morning. I headed down the hallway to Cordy's room, and put my ear to the door. I could hear her snoring lightly and moved on. As I walked down the stairs, I remembered how fun, and life threatening it had been to mess with her about that.

I checked the windows to see if any had been tampered with or pried during the night, I had nailed them shut earlier in the week for additional security. I then turned my attention to the fireplace, and tossed in a few more pieces of wood, using my lighter to get it going again.

Making this daily check was something I did to keep my head straight. As long as I was doing something, I didn't have to worry about how deep in the shit we were. I went over to our food and water stash, hoping I would find something decent for both of us to eat.

As much fun as it had been to piss Cordelia off about the lima bean thing our first night, it became obvious by our third night, that I had to put my foot down. I asked her what she would do if she had to run away from one of those things, or get to a portal that could get us home, and she didn't have the energy to do it.

After that, she'd make gagging noises while she ate something she didn't like, and always made sure to let me know how annoyed she was with me. At this point though, I could live with that.

I didn't want to start the day off with a fight though. I knew she'd eat fruit, but that wasn't something I could count on finding on a regular basis. I grabbed a can and hoped for the best. Dog food.

It definitely did not look as edible as the last few cans I had. A quick poke with the knife and I realized it was nothing but a crusty block of meat matter. I tossed the whole thing into a crate we had decided to use for trash, as the tins and bottles started to pile up.

I shook my head and went on to the next can and found green beans. Wonderful. But they were edible, so I put them aside to see if I could find something Cor would actually eat.

As I grabbed another can, I heard someone walking around and a door open upstairs. I figured I'd wait and see if she was more open-minded about green beans, then she had been for the lima variety. I thought it was a better idea then to keep opening our limited number of cans, and hoping for the best.

I looked up as she reached the bottom of the stairs in a tight, gray sweater and black pants. I thought she looked damn good in them too. "Hey Queen C, looking good!" I called out to her as she walked over to the table.

"Quiet peasant. You're here to serve me breakfast, not ogle my body."

Her snark was still present, but the venom rarely showed. A fact I was very thankful for these days.

"Watch your tongue woman," I told her with a smile. "I'm not one of your lowly Cordettes."

"That's right, you're much lower." She retorted as she sat down across from me. "What's on the menu today dweeb?"

"Well, we have green beans," I showed her the open can, I could tell she wasn't exactly pleased with her first choice. "Or, we have the mystery can." I rolled the unopened can over to her. She shook it next to her ear, trying to figure out what was inside.

"So what's it going to be?"

"Open the second can and then I'll decide."

"Uh uh. No way Cor, not today." I shook my head repeatedly to cement my position.

"We've been doing that for a week. Why do we have to do your stupid mystery can all of a sudden?"

"Because every time we eat, you pick the can with the better stuff, and I get the leftovers."

"That's because you'll eat anything loser." She replied with a frown.

"You know you'll get wrinkles if you keep doing that."

"Jerk." She punctuated her sentence by throwing the mystery can at my head.

I barely ducked in time, as it flew over me, and landed in our unusable sink. "Not nice Cor."

=H=H=

After some arguing, we discovered the mystery can was actually clam chowder. We had finished breakfast, and went down to the small pond we had found. We wore bathing suits at Cordy's insistence, but she still found ways to tease me. The fact that the water was freezing cold made me have to avert my eyes quite a bit.

As we jogged back to the house to get out of the cold, we discussed what we had found out from the half-burned files I had saved. We believed we were in a country called Sera. We knew we were in a city called Oltura, which the local newspapers we had found lying around confirmed.

We had a bunch of information, but the problem was that there were too many holes in it to get a complete picture. Even from the files I had recovered, major sections were still missing from them. I just wanted to get more information, before we tried to move outside the city in what could be a worse situation.

What we had found was disturbing to say the least. The most recent newspaper we could find was dated 6 A.E., we had no idea what A.E. stood for though. Apparently, some kind of war had started about six years previous and Oltura was one of the few cities to make it through more or less intact. Most of the people that could be evacuated seemed to have been sent to a city called Jacinto.

The people in Oltura hadn't been given the option because the 'COG' thought it was a safe to stay. The documents from the office showed that it was one of several command centers where soldiers were stationed to help protect the city. From what we could tell, things came to a head when another city called Landown, was invaded by something called the Locust.

The last edition of the paper we could find showed people in Oltura were afraid that they would be next. They were divided on whether they should fight or run.

Looking at the destruction around us, I couldn't tell which option they had taken.

There were things we didn't agree on though. One major point was The Coalition of Ordered Governments, or the COG. When Cordelia thought of government soldiers fighting a war, she pictured something like those Marine commercials with the heroic looking guy in the perfect uniform.

I wasn't so sure if that was the case though. I would have been happy to see a bunch of Marines, heck, I'd even considered joining since I knew I wasn't going to be able to afford college. But I wasn't too sure about these 'Gears' as they were called.

The COG, from everything I had read in the paper, and the documents gave me the impression of a communist government like Russia used to be. Just because I was from California, didn't automatically make me want to jump on the commie bandwagon.

The other big thing was the 'Locust'. I didn't know what to make of the name. Was it the name of the opposing army, or was it just a denigrating nickname? I remembered Uncle Rory talking about his Marine days in Vietnam, he'd referred to the bad guys over there as 'slopes' and other names like that.

What had me worried though was that Locust was just their name for demons. Cordelia seemed convinced that the things we fought were the Locust, but I didn't think so. We had killed them with a knife and an axe. A couple of guys with guns, would be able to take care of ten times that many in a few minutes.

The way the sky looked, how it was never actually, bright and the city seemed so cold and dead had me wondering if maybe a Hellmouth had opened. There was something bigger going on here, I just didn't know what it was.

=H=H=

Cordy and I strode down the streets, on the lookout for the Gear symbol, and wary of another run-in with those hopping things. After going back to the house to warm up by the fire, we decided to go exploring again. We wanted to see if we could find another intact command center to get more info, and supplies.

I had my doubts about it though, seeing as how all but the one I had found half-burned so far, were obliterated. They had a word for it when I had watched Desert Storm on the news, but I couldn't think of what it was.

"Do you think we'll ever get home?" She asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

I had been dreading this question. I knew Cordelia was putting up a strong front to hide the fact she was just as scared as I was. Her pride wouldn't let her show that weakness any more then mine would. Right now I just hoped the answer I gave, wouldn't make things worse then they already were.

"I'm sure Giles is doing everything he can to get us home Cor." It was getting harder to give her the same line, when I was finding it just as hard to believe it myself anymore. "If he can't find the answer, he can always call that Watchers Council he works-"

She stopped, and turned to me. "Just give me a straight answer Xander, yes or no?"

"Honestly, I don't know." I sighed. That fast, she had me on the defensive. "I told you before that there was a possibility we'd be here for awhile. At the time, I really didn't think so. Now, I'm not so sure."

She raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you losers have a plan before we got dragged into the hellhole?"

"Hellmouth." I corrected without thinking.

"Whatever! I really don't care. Don't you think it would have been a good idea to have some way to take care of the monster coming out from the floor?"

"We were expecting Buffy to fight a vampire, nobody saw that coming."

"So Giles' grand-plan ended up being hold on to the freakin' axe!"

"Pretty much. Everything happened so fast we didn't have time to come up with something better." A nasty thought came to mind. "Hell, I almost wasn't there to help you guys in the library."

"What are you talking about?"

"Buffy wanted Angel and me to stay at the bottom of the steps to keep the vampires away from her and the Master."

"Where was she anyway?" She started to pace. "God! I don't know why I bothered to help you losers!"

"Settle down Cor, if you hadn't stopped to help Willow and Miss Calender, they'd have both been dead. As much as it pains me to say this, it means you actually are a human being."

She turned to retort, but further conversation was cut off by a sound from the distance. I knew that sound, and I was actually surprised it took this long for something to show up.

=H=H=

"What's that sound?"

I grabbed the pistol from it's holster, before heading to a low wall. I waved for Cordelia to come over with me.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a note of panic in her voice as she sat, back against the wall.

"We're staying out of view until we know whats going on. Get your axe ready just in case." I looked over the wall and saw three black objects in the air coming in our direction.

Cordelia stood back up, the axe in her hands. "What is going on Xander?" She demanded.

"Helicopters, three of them." I could see them clearly now.

"That's great! We're saved, we can go home now!" Her panic had instantly turned into jubilation.

"Hold on a sec, we don't even know if they're friendly. I don't even think we're in the same dimension, so even if they are friendly I doubt they could help us get home anyway." There, I had said it. Now all I could do is hope she wouldn't flip out.

"Well then what are we supposed to do genius, ignore them?" She smacked me, and then turned to watch them as they drew closer.

"Of course not, but like I said before, we don't know if they're the good guys."

Cordelia started waving her hands back and forth trying to get their attention.

"Cor stop." She ignored me. I looked up, and saw the copters were less then six hundred yards away. "Cordelia stop now!" They were closing fast, more then close enough to see us. I grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged her back down behind the wall.

"No! Xander, you let me go this instant!" She screamed, trying desperately to pull herself free from my grip.

We were on the ground in a tangle, when the copters flew overhead, and kept going towards the other side of the city. They hadn't even slowed down, so I was guessing they either hadn't seen us, or didn't care.

I finally let her go, and stood up, trying to see where they were going to land, but I was interrupted by fists banging on my back.

"You bastard! How could you?" She screamed as I turned around. She continued to pummel me in the chest. "We could have been rescued, instead, you had to go and ruin everything!"

I grabbed her wrists so she'd stop hitting me. "Goddammit Cor, what if they were black hats, huh? If they had landed here and weren't friendly, what would we have done then?"

"You don't know that, what if they were those Coalition guys?"

"You're right, I don't. But we don't know for sure if the Coalition are the good guys. I'm just trying to keep you safe, that's all." I let go of her arms, and stepped back, hoping she'd see reason.

"Keep me safe? Or is it keep me away from other people so I can be your little house woman?"

"That's not fair Cor." I was getting angry, we had moved way past simple name calling now.

"What, you thought you'd be my hero? My protector? That I'd put out to show how grateful I am?" She accused, venom dripping with every word. "I see how-"

"Cordelia, shut the fuck up!"

She stopped mid-sentence, mouth wide open in shock. Right now I didn't care.

"Helicopters that size can carry at least eight guys each, if not more. Everything we have is inside the house. If we had to run, we'd have to leave it all behind, is that what you want?" I asked her calmly, now that I didn't have to yell over her to be heard.

"Take a good look at yourself and think. You are one the hottest women I have ever met in my life. Do you really want to take a chance, and trust in twenty four guys we don't know, that they're going to be perfect gentlemen? I don't like those odds one bit."

She stared at me, tears streaming down her face. Her lower lip was quivering.

"I would die before I'd let some bastard touch you Cor, but all we have is a pistol, and your axe. I agree we should check these people out, but it should be on our terms."

"What are our terms?" She asked in a whisper.

"I want to see where they land, and go there tomorrow, check them out from a distance. If they seem friendly, I'll go over and introduce myself. If they really are friendly, I'll come get you."

"What if they aren't friendly?"

Before I could reply, there was a huge explosion. I looked in the direction the helicopters had gone, and saw two blazing shapes hurtling towards the ground. The third looked like it was smoking, and seemed to be losing altitude fast. I lost sight of it amongst the buildings in the distance soon after.

I looked over at Cordelia and shook my head. "I guess it doesn't matter now." I said grimly.

She suddenly threw her arms around me and started to sob against my chest. I stood there holding her, and told her that everything was going to be alright. I just hoped I wasn't lying to her...

=H=H=

END