Buffy and Faith stared at each other for a minute. There were many mixed feelings going through both of them. Xander was the one to break their stare down. "Either get in or get out of the way!"

Faith shot Xander a look and complied. She reluctantly climbed into the back of the rusty old pickup and took a seat as far from Buffy as she could and Xander hit the gas. Finally Faith spoke, "Long time B."

Buffy decided that there was no point in being mad at Faith with everything else going on. She decided that she would take the high road. It would be the adult thing to do, "Faith. How'd you sleep?"

"Oh, great, except for the reoccurring dreams of you stabbing me."

Buffy smiled, "You shot Angel, I stabbed you and neither one of you died. Seems like a fair trade to me."

Faith conceded with a nod. Chris watched the exchange with growing curiosity, "You stabbed her?"

Buffy and Faith turned toward the man, "It was a while ago."

That brought a question from Faith, "How long ago? The last thing I remember is falling off the building so that you couldn't feed me to Angel and the next thing I know, I'm waking up to some zombie apocalypse."

Buffy thought about it for a minute, "It's been like six months I think. As for the zombie apocalypse, that is new. Some psychotic company created a virus that killed people and turned them into walking corpses bent on eating flesh. My psychology professor, who really worked for Umbrella, took the virus and made it so that it affects demons and vampires too. She also made this uber-demon-Frankenstein thing that we had to kill."

"Where's red? Thought you scoobies were inseparable."

A dark shadow seemed to come over Buffy, "She's dead."

Faith knew better than to push that wound too far so she changed subjects, "And who's this?" The smile on her face made Chris inch closer to Buffy which Faith noted with interest.

Buffy glanced at him before returning her gaze to Faith. "Chris. He's the one that knew about Umbrella."

"That's the company that did the virus right?"

Buffy nodded, "Right."

Faith nodded to herself, "Well, now that I'm all caught up, what next?"

"We leave while the military quarantines Sunnydale. After that I don't know what'll happen." Buffy scratched an itch on her leg that had been bothering her since they left her house.

Once they were out of the city limits, Xander turned down a side road that led off toward a few hills in the distance where he had gone camping as a kid. They drove about twenty miles and parked in a fairly well concealed area where they could still see what was going on in Sunnydale. They watched as military vehicles converged on the town and began setting a perimeter.

While everyone else was watching Sunnydale, Faith turned her attention back to Buffy who was shaking her head. "You okay B?"

Buffy put her hand on a nearby tree for support, "Yeah just a little dizzy that's all." She reached down and itched at her leg again which was really bothering her.

"You're bleeding." Faith reached down and pulled up Buffy's pant leg. "Looks like something bit you."

Chris bent down and examined Buffy's leg. Damn it! He stood up and slowly brought his gun to bare. He was having a hard time aiming it at her though. He finally leveled it with her head and when Joyce saw what he was doing she jumped in front of her daughter, "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"She's been infected." It pained him to say it, but he knew what had to be done. Personal feelings had to be put aside.

Buffy realized what was going on. She knew that Chris didn't want to shoot her and she didn't want her mom or anyone else to have to watch her die. She also didn't wanna become one of those things. "It's okay." Her mom turned on her and Buffy knew that she meant to reason with her, "No mom. I know what you're going to say, but you saw those things down there. You know what happens when someone gets infected." She walked over to Chris and lowered his gun. "You don't have to do this. I'll go back to Sunnydale. I'll cause as much damage as I can to those creatures and then I'll put a bullet in my brain."

Xander grabbed her and pulled her off to the side, "Buffy you can't. I've already lost Willow and Anya. I don't wanna lose you too."

She hugged him, "I love you too Xand. Keep my mom safe."

Giles was standing off to the side. He wanted so badly to tell her to stay and they would find a cure, but he knew better. For once he had no answer. She hugged him too, "I love you Giles. You were always like a dad to me." A tear fell from his eyes.

"I love you too Buffy."

Her mom pulled her into a hug that would have hurt a normal person. "Don't do this. There has to be a way."

Buffy kissed her mom on the cheek, "There is no other way. I have to do this. I love you mom."

Buffy pulled her mother's arms from around her neck and handed her to Giles. She turned to Faith and Chris, "You two get them somewhere safe and don't stop until you are far away from here."

Chris touched her face, "Are you sure about this?"

She smiled and gave him a light kiss on the lips, "Protect them."

She turned and ran toward Sunnydale before they could change her mind. She heard as her mother collapsed in Giles's arms crying for Buffy to come back. She blocked it out. She vowed that she wouldn't lose them and she didn't. Instead, they got to live. If this virus gets out of Sunnydale, then nowhere would be safe. Buffy wasn't going to let that happen.

She used all of her slayer speed to race back toward the hellmouth and toward her death. She covered the distance fairly quickly since she didn't need to use the roads. Memories of her time in Sunnydale were flying through her mind as she made her way closer to the town. The first time she met Xander and Willow, her birthday spent with Angel when he lost his soul, fighting with Kendra against Spike and Drusilla, the fun she had with Faith before she went all evil, Giles and his annoying speeches, and her mom. Her mom who had sacrificed so much for her.

The tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Her thoughts were interrupted by a whistling sound that could only be heard by someone with super sensitive hearing. She looked up and saw two jets coming in fast toward Sunnydale. At first she thought the military had sent them to clean up the mess, but soon realized that they weren't with the military. These planes were black with a strange red and white logo on the side which looked like an…oh shit.

The first bombs hit the city over by UC Sunnydale and continued to fall. She was almost to the blockade when a bomb fell over the military unit stationed there. The blast sent her flying backwards into a tree. She was really going to die and there was no Xander to bring her back this time. Her last thought before blacking out was, I hope they got away.