Headhunters

zTiamaTz

=H=H=

ESCORT SERVICE

=H=H=

"It's really not that difficult Cor." I said from the chair I was sitting in, my right leg propped up.

When we woke up, I had suggested to Cordy that we should black out, and board up the windows for extra security. Cordelia then added that we should stuff blankets between the boards and glass for insulation. It was a great idea, she was really surprising me lately.

I had already done several of the downstairs windows, but I wanted to give my ankle a rest. My hope was the more I stayed off of it, the faster it would heal.

"Fine, but if I smash my thumb, you are so going to regret it."

"This is a hammer." I held it up for her, and waved towards it with my other hand like I was in an infomercial. "Those..." I pointed towards the can on the windowsill. "...are nails."

"You take this..." I bent down to pick up a board. As I brought myself back up, I found a very annoyed Cordelia. The knife she was now brandishing in a threatening manner, let me know my explanation had been taken with mixed results.

"Is that really necessary Cor?"

"It is if you keep treating me like an idiot buster." She retorted, one hand on her hip, the other continuing to point the knife at me.

I snorted, thinking how she'd come a long way. From verbal assaults, to threatened physical ones.

"I'm glad you think this is so funny. Remember, you can't run away from me now loser."

"Okay, okay." I held the hammer up, now in self-defense. "Just do it like I did, if you have any questions, feel free to ask."

As she went to work, I wondered what else we could do to make this place more defensible. I'd been running ideas through my head since yesterday, but I decided to slow down when I started thinking a moat was a valid option.

My other big concern was supplies. Food, water, and medical stuff were must haves. Now that I knew we'd have a long winter to look forward to, we really needed to go out scavenging again. But with the Locust now on the hunt for us, things could get complicated.

I looked to where Cordy was viciously pounding a nail into a board. "How's it going?"

"We need more blankets." She replied, not bothering to look back.

I sighed. At least they were easy to get.

=H=H=

"God I feel stupid."

"Oh shut up you big baby." Cordy looked back at me with distaste in her eyes. "I'm the one doing all the work."

I was sitting on top of Cordelia's wagon as she dragged me along down the street. I had the machine gun in my hands in case any more of those Locust showed up. I knew it was a bad idea, but I figured it would be better to do it now before they got too organized.

Cordelia had made it clear she didn't want to go out like this, that we'd be too vulnerable if something happened, and I wasn't able to get away. It made sense, but I was more worried about what would happen if we were trapped inside the house with no supplies.

There was one bright side to this trip though. I had the perfect excuse to stare at Cordy's perfect ass. I'd been doing it since we had left our house.

"Enjoying the view?"

"Yeah." I responded automatically. I was broken from my thoughts by the very sudden stop of the wagon.

"Really?" She asked, as she turned to face me.

I looked up at her and came to the realization that I had messed up, big time.

"Um, I-"

"I have to drag you around this city and dodge a bunch of freaks that want to kill us! And you," She yanked the wagon toward her, and glared down at me. "Just ride along staring at my ass?"

"Uh, sorry?" I didn't know what else to say.

"You're going to be you jerk."

=H=H=

As I sat nursing my bruised ego, Cordy came to a stop in an area about nine blocks away, that we hadn't really explored before. "We haven't been here before perv, you want to check out some of the buildings?"

I saw houses, and what could be a few small stores. "Looks good to me Cor."

She sat down next to me on the curb. "We definitely need more medical stuff." She dipped her head down.

"It's okay," I put my hand on her arm. "We tried, and he didn't die alone. That's got to count for something, right?"

"I guess." She whispered.

I hated seeing Cordy like this. I pulled the pistol out, and handed it to her. "I want to show you how to work this, okay? Until I'm back on my feet, you'll be going into these places by yourself."

She nodded, I could tell she was nervous about it, but ready.

I showed her where the safety was and how to hold it properly. While Cordelia wasn't a small person like Buffy, the gun looked even bigger, with her slender fingers wrapped around it.

"Just be careful if you have to shoot. Have a solid, two-hand grip, and for the love of God keep it away from your face."

"I know which way to point it you jerk, I'm not stupid." She replied indignantly.

"Cor, I'm not saying you are, but I had a hard time controlling this thing. No offense, but I'm stronger then you. When it's fired, it could jump back and hit you right in the face if you're not careful."

Cordy seemed to have it down pretty quickly. She wheeled me up to the door of the closest house, and left me outside to guard the entrance. I wasn't really expecting her to find anything dangerous in an abandoned building, but I figured it would make her feel safer.

As I scanned the area, keeping an eye out for any Locust, I couldn't help but wish Rodriguez and the other soldiers were here. We could have definitely used their help and experience. Since most of my knowledge of guns came from movies, I was sure there was a ton I didn't know.

I heard Cordelia's footsteps move up to the second floor. I hoped she'd be successful at finding the stuff we needed, because the street was empty and I was bored.

I pressed the button on the comm. :Can you hear me Cor?:

:There a problem dweeb?:

:No, just bored.:

:Then shut up, I'm the one doing all the work here.: She replied angrily.

:Is this about me staring at your ass?:

I didn't hear anything back, so after ten minutes, I assumed she was ignoring me.

:Look up.: She said suddenly.

I did, and something smacked me in the forehead. I looked around on the ground for what hit me, and found a bright orange frisbee. She had written something on it.

[Don't even TALK about my ass you loser.]

=H=H=

We were on our third house, when I heard the scraping sound. Since I was daydreaming, I didn't pay it much mind at first. Then, it suddenly hit me that there just shouldn't be any sound like that. It seemed like it was coming from the left, but I couldn't place where exactly.

:Cordy, are you on the second floor yet?:

:Yes, now now what do you want?: She asked, annoyed at another interruption.

:Look out a window facing the street to the left, tell me if you see anything.: It was getting closer, and I was starting to feel real vulnerable.

After about thirty seconds, I got my answer.

:Xander, get your butt in the house right now!: Cordy's voice sounded panicked.

Oh shit. :What is it?:

She didn't answer.

I got up on my left leg, using the door frame for support. Cordelia was suddenly behind me, pulling me into the house. After shoving me aside, she grabbed the wagon, and drug it in. Then, she quickly shut the door and got down on the floor next to me.

"I think we got inside just in time." She whispered to me.

"What the hell did you see?" I asked.

Cordelia smacked me on the arm and put a finger to her lips. "There's six of them coming around the corner."

That shut me up real fast, there was no way we could take that many. These weren't vamps, they could come into any place they wanted to. With those grenades, they didn't even have to use a door.

We waited for what seemed like forever, but they finally passed by us. We peeked out the window at their backs, and I saw the source of the sound. It towered over the others by at least two feet. It was carrying some kind of shield and dragging a ball and chain down the street.

I looked over to Cordy. "It's a good thing they aren't very bright. If it weren't for the moron dragging that mace, I wouldn't have heard them coming until it was too late."

"We need to come up with a better plan." Cordelia replied with a frown.

=H=H=

After waiting half an hour before leaving the house, we decided to go straight home. Every time we came to a cross street, Cordelia would leave the wagon, and look both ways to see if there were any more patrols.

We were about half-way home, and only had to avoid one so far. While I couldn't believe our luck, Cordy was definitely looking tired.

"Wanna take a break?"

"Yeah," She said as she maneuvered the wagon to the curb. "This is the last time I haul your ass anywhere dork."

We sat there, and talked for a few minutes while she caught her breath. We were almost ready to get going again when we heard it.

"Hun-ger." A voice growled from somewhere ahead of her.

I looked around Cordelia, and saw an eight foot tall Locust lumbering toward us from the end of the street. His chest and shoulders were armored, sort of like a Gear, only black. The weird thing was, it looked like he was wearing an apron. He carried a meat cleaver, and seemed to be dragging something behind him.

She turned to see what I was looking at. "What-"

"Cordy get out of the way!" I shoved her aside with my left hand, and raised the rifle with my right. As soon as she was clear, I aimed and fired into the thing.

The rounds stitched across his chest, but my aim went wild as the kick from the rifle made the wagon roll backwards. I could hear it snorting and wheezing as it continued toward us.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Not now Cor, hold the wagon steady for me."

As she scrambled behind me, I watched as the thing moved closer. I could now see what it was dragging, another Gear, still in his armor.

I felt Cordelia put her weight against the back of the wagon, and I fired again. After multiple shots into his torso, he finally fell down face-first.

"Let's see if we can get him loose." Cordy suggested.

I pushed myself toward the thing with my left foot, while she covered me with her pistol. As I leaned down to examine the Gear, I heard a now familiar sound.

"Hun-ger."

I looked in the direction the first thing had come from, there was his twin brother rounding the corner. There was a high wall there, so I wondered how many more there were, as I raised the rifle to fire. Before I had the chance, Cordelia caught my attention.

"You know what? Screw this!" She aimed the pistol straight at the thing and fired. She managed to shoot it in the thigh, but the gun bucked in her hands. She looked over to me with concern.

"Just take your time Cordy, I've got you covered."

She nodded, and proceeded to empty the clip into the thing. She'd had to adjust her aim after every shot, but the Locust died all the same.

"Nice shooting girl." I was really happy to see her do that.

Cordelia walked back to me, a smile of satisfaction on her face. "How do I reload this thing?"

I quickly showed her the release, before pocketing the empty clip and grabbing another. "C'mon Cor, we've got to get this guy loose, and off the street."

As I turned him over, I was sickened to find a meat hook had been jammed under the helmet and into the poor guy's chin. It took all my strength, just to pull the thing back out. "Bastards."

I got off the wagon, and with Cordelia's help, managed to wrestle his body onto it. She dragged it toward the closest house, while I limped after her.

"The door's locked, do you think you can kick it in?" She asked as she turned back to me.

I walked up to her and traded her the rifle for her pistol. "Go around back and see if it's unlocked, if not use the saw." I quickly showed her how to start it, and she took off.

I kept a close eye out for anything else, just waiting for another call of 'hunger', or worse. I didn't have to wait long though, the saw sounded, and shortly after Cordelia unlocked the front door for me.

=H=H=

We worked together, and brought the Gear and the wagon into the house without too much trouble. As we sat down on the couch, I couldn't take my eyes off of the soldier on the floor.

"Well, this answers the question on where all the bodies went." I said angrily.

"What do you think they're doing with them?"

"Between the cleaver and the apron? It looks like they were going to make this guy dinner."

"I've been looking at that armor, I don't think that's a guy Xander."

"Huh?"

"Look at the armor on the chest, I don't think Gears have man-boobs."

I took another look and realized she was right. The blood-stained chest piece definitely showed the outline of breasts. I moved over to the head of the soldier and slowly removed the helmet.

There was dried blood covering her neck. As the helmet came off, I could see her jaw, ruined from the force of the hook. Red hair started to spill from the bottom, and her pale skin looked even lighter against the blood. Finally, I stared into her green eyes, frozen wide with shock.

It actually made me sick to see her, she reminded me so much of Willow. I worked my fingers under the back of her armor until I was able to get her tag. I carefully pulled it out and read the engravings around both sides of the Gear symbol.

[Cpl. Miranda S. Murphy - Bravo Company - AB]
[Coalition of Ordered Governments]

With my hand shaking in anger, I closed her eyes. I hated these things more then any vampire now. "Mother-fucker."

"Are you okay Xander?"

I got to my feet, shaking with anger. "They stuck that hook in her while she was still alive Cor."

"What?"

"They drug her down the street like a fucking animal!" I grabbed the end table next to the couch and threw it across the room, it exploded into pieces against the wall. The half-broken lamp on the floor was kicked in the opposite direction.

"Xander calm down! What if they hear you!"

I whirled on her. "The first one in, gets the saw up their ass." I growled.

Cordelia walked over to me. "You're being stupid! And that," She pointed at the body on the floor. "Isn't Willow."

"I know that, but we could have helped her. We're only a few blocks from the house."

"They're soldiers, we aren't. They have a better shot of surviving then we do."

"Tell that to Rodriguez." I pulled away as she tried to take my arm.

"Xander, sit down." She placed her hand against my chest, but I wouldn't budge. "Sit down, please." She looked up at me. Please."

I let her push me back, until suddenly I was sitting on the couch.

She sighed. "I know that I'm not the easiest person to get along with, I know that I can be a bitch. But I rely on you Xander, I can't do this stuff alone."

"I don't think-"

"No, I'm talking right now and you are going to listen." She crossed her arms across her chest. "The fact that we're out here when you're limping like that, makes it pretty clear you aren't thinking things through."

"Cor-"

"Stop interrupting." Cordelia glared at me. "We are going back to the house and we aren't leaving until you can walk on that leg. While we're there, we can plan what we're going to do next."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with how I did things this morning." I replied.

Before I could react, she slapped me across the face.

"You bastard." She hissed as she pulled back. "I appreciate everything you've done for me. I felt how heavy that door was yesterday when there was nothing on it. You hauled that thing, loaded with clothes all the way home just because I asked you to."

I finally looked up at her, tears were starting to come down her face.

"You're all I have. Please, can't we just take some time off and rest? You were almost killed yesterday, today, we almost got caught a couple of times. We can't keep this up." She plead.

"I'm not going to hide in the house until spring Cor."

She sat down next to me, and took my hand. "I'm not saying we should, but I want you to be one hundred percent."

"I just think we could be doing more, there could be others out there nearby." I argued.

"You can't save everyone Xander."

=H=H=

We waited two hours to make sure we hadn't attracted any more attention. While we did, I rifled through the house, looking for anything of interest. Several things had caught my eye, and I'd ended up whittling to pass the rest of the time.

Cordelia locked the door as we left. We'd decided to leave Miranda's body there, until I was able to walk properly.

"What are you doing with that stuff?"

"Payback Cor." I told her as I limped toward the nearest Locust.

"I thought we agreed-"

"We did. Don't worry, this won't take long." I got down on one knee, and pried the huge cleaver from the thing's hand. I placed it against his neck, and pressed down with my other hand, swiftly decapitating him.

"That is just sick Xander." She said as she came to a stop with the wagon in tow.

"I'm sure Miranda would agree with you, if she still had a working jaw. Or maybe if she were still alive." I stuffed the head into the pillowcase I had found in one of the bedrooms.

"Miranda? How come Rodriguez, Sanders, and Hall weren't Jonathan, Paul and Lawrence?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" I asked as I got up, and started toward the other one, leaving her standing there.

"You're making this way too personal." She called out.

"It is personal."

She easily caught up with me. "Just because she kind of looks like Willow doesn't mean you have to freak out like this."

I stopped and turned to her. "I'm not freaking out, just committed. When I dusted Jesse, I decided right then and there that killing vampires was what I was going to do. New place, new enemy."

"But-"

"No Cor, now it's my turn." I was surprised to see her actually wait to see what I'd say. "This isn't just because that Gear has a vague resemblance to Willow. She had armor and training."

"But we already knew that Xander..."

I shook my head. "Come on Cordy, let's keep moving." I turned toward the Locust she had killed.

"You aren't making any sense." She grabbed my arm and spun me back around.

"That's because you don't get it, I almost got chainsawed in that alley yesterday! Then they would have hunted you down!"

"But everything worked out, we-"

"Only because that thing was a sadistic asshole! Like I said, you-don't-get-it. All I can see in my head is you being dragged down the street by a fucking meat hook."

"I killed that Locust thing myself though, I didn't have to hide behind you or sneak up on him."

"I'm glad you could do that, it makes things a lot easier. That doesn't change the fact that they're going to keep looking for us."

=H=H=

"What? So cutting off their heads to hang on a fence is going to help. Why didn't I think of that?" She said sarcastically.

"It might make them think twice, demoralize the enemy."

"I don't understand."

"My Uncle Rory told me about it when he was talking about his time in Vietnam. They'd leave playing cards on the bodies, or take ears as trophies." [See A/N]

I started to walk again, and she joined me. We both realized how stupid it was to just be standing out there.

"My uncle was stationed in I Corps, part of a battalion that fought to keep the Vietcong out of the country along the DMZ. They were on the front line, and they needed any edge they could get."

"How?"

"Think of it like this Cor, how did you keep your Cordettes in line?"

"If they pissed me off, I'd ream them in front of the whole school."

"Exactly, soldiers know they face death. But beheadings, or other nasty things like that are something else."

"So if we leave the heads where they can find them..."

"They might think twice about taking us on. Especially since they don't know how many of us there are."

She sighed. "Okay Xander, It's nasty, but I guess it's worth a try."

"I'm glad you think so." I held out the cleaver to her, as we reached the second body. "Your kill, your chop."

She took it in her hands and looked down at it. "I don't know-"

"Come on Cor," I interrupted. "These things were dragging that poor woman around on that hook while she was still alive."

She knelt down at it's side and raised the blade over her head. After taking a few seconds to aim, she brought the cleaver down, and sawed through the rest of the way.

"Nice cut." I said simply.

I grabbed the poles I had whittled from the wagon, and limped toward a nearby yard. Tossing the head aside, I planted the broken mop, and broom handles into the ground a good foot and a half.

I slowly walked over to her and grabbed the head and a can of spray paint. After jamming the heads onto the poles I knelt on the pavement and made our new mark in red. A large 'C' with an 'H' inside of it.

She stood there, staring at the heads when I got back to my feet.

"You ready to go Cordy?" I asked, as I tossed the second cleaver into the wagon and grabbed the handle..

"I still think that's nasty." She turned, and saw me with the handle. "Aren't you getting in?"

"Fuck it, I'm gonna try walking for a while."

=H=H=

Finally, we started moving towards the house again. We walked in silence, both keeping an eye out for any more Locust.

"Hey Xander, since we're taking a few days off, can you show me how to work those guns we've got?"

"I thought I already did?"

"No, not this thing." She pointed to my holster. "The long one, with the lens thing on it."

I grinned, the Locust were in deep shit now.

=H=H=

A/N: The mutilation of enemy combatants in Vietnam has never been proven. Xander's uncle simply embellished such things, to liven up the story.

A/N 2: I realized that while I try to be as descriptive as possible, sometimes it just isn't enough. If I'm reading a story with an unfamiliar crossover, I like to look the characters up on YouTube or a Wiki.

Hopper/Skipper - Wretch

Helmet - Cyclops

Goggles - Sniper

Ball and chain - Mauler

Cleaver and meat hook - Butcher

More will be added as they are encountered, I hope this helps.

=H=H=

END