On the Mountain 2

Part 1 : Chapter 11

Xander came out of the office barely a minute after he'd entered, with a room key. "Let's grab a room with a door you can lock before I start poking around rather than leave you outside and strapped down.

"Oh, thank god," Cordelia said. "I was getting twitchy and it hasn't even been that long."

"Let's not tempt fate," Xander agreed, wheeling her around the side of the building and seeing the parking lot was nearly full. "Room 108 is open, it's a single, but better than nothing."

"All the other rooms are full?" Cordelia asked, just to have something to say.

"It was the only room that still had keys on the pegboard," Xander explained. "If it's occupied they had a spare set of keys. Guess we'll find out," Xander leaned her against the door to 110 while he unlocked 108. Looking inside he sighed with relief. "Empty," he told Cordelia wheeling her inside.

Cordelia looked at the room. It wasn't the Ritz but it would do. "It's… warm," Cordelia said in surprise.

"Yeah," Xander agreed, leaning her against the wall and closing and locking the door.

Cordelia tensed up at the sound of the deadbolt and really hoped Xander was the type of guy she'd thought he was, cheating aside, because there was no one around and she wasn't exactly able to fend him off at the moment.

"OK, let's unstrap you and move you to the bed," Xander told her, freeing her arms and leaning the makeshift stretcher against the nightstand. "I'll move your lower body first and you hold yourself up with your arms. This should minimize the jostling."

Cordelia braced herself with her arms. "Ready," she said nervously, waiting for the pain.

Xander unstrapped her legs and grabbing her belt and the bottom of her jeans quickly lifted and moved her over to the bed.

Cordelia groaned a little and grit her teeth as he grabbed her waist and completed the move almost overbalancing and falling on her, but catching himself on the bed. He stood up and moved the stretcher to the corner of the room. "Better?"

"Yeah, thanks," Cordelia said waiting for the throbbing to subside and relieved nothing else had happened. In fact she felt a little silly thinking about it now.

Out of reflex Xander hit the light switch and they both froze when the lights came on.

"We have power?" Cordelia asked. "Quick try the TV!"

Xander walked over and turned on the TV, but nothing happened. He checked the plug and flicked it on and off a few times but nothing happened.

Cordelia reached over and turned on the lamp on the nightstand and it lit up. "Try this plug," she suggested.

"I'll put the TV on the nightstand," Xander said, moving the nightstand and pulling the plug on the lamp.

"Xander!" Cordelia said urgently.

"What's wrong?" he said looking around for what had alarmed her.

Cordelia simply pointed and Xander looked from the plug in his hand to the still lit lamp on the nightstand.

Xander picked up the lamp and shook it. "Feels like your average lamp. I don't think it has a rechargeable battery pack inside, though I may check for that later."

"Does this fit into any of your theories?" Cordelia asked.

"Not a one," Xander replied. "Do you want the lights on or off while I'm gone? They may attract something if I leave them on."

"On, I'm not waiting alone in the dark," Cordelia said firmly. "Except the lamp, you can turn that off."

Xander turned it off and it went dark. He turned it on and off a few times checking to see that it still worked without being plugged in. "I'll take it with me."

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

"I'm going to lock the door behind me," Xander said, before pausing and checking the closet, under the bed, and the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" Cordelia asked.

"Just occurred to me that before I locked you in a motel room, I'd better make sure there was nothing else in there," he replied. "Anyway, nothing's in here and I'll try and get back as soon as I can, OK?"

"OK," Cordelia agreed. "Keep an eye out for painkillers and bottled water while you're out, please."

"I will," he promised before walking out with the still lit lamp, locking the door behind him.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Cordelia looked around the room. It wasn't a bad room, though it was a tad dusty. It looked like the maids hadn't been here in a couple of weeks, or anyone else for that matter. It certainly beat laying on the road with an injured leg. Of course it'd also be better to be stranded with anyone but her ex-boyfriend who cheated on her with that backstabbing bitch Willow! Like Wesley. A couple of weeks in a secluded resort, with that accent certainly wouldn't be turned down.

Of the list of people she'd least like to be trapped on a deserted island with, Xander was… about number five right now, if she was honest. The first two spots were taken by Willow and Harmony, number three was Snyder, and number four was… Cordelia sighed and enjoyed laying still and not being forced to move her injured leg.

OK, number four was a huge list of people who were useless in a crisis, which Xander wasn't, and she was pretty sure she wasn't heading up many of Xander's favorite lists at the moment herself. At least she was pretty sure she wasn't, considering the way he was acting.

Hopefully Giles and Wesley would figure out what happened before too long so she wasn't stuck here with him long enough for one of them to kill the other.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Xander frowned for a moment as he noticed the temperature outside. The motel room wasn't exactly warm, but it wasn't cold either and it should have been. It had been a comfortable temperature inside and the heater hadn't been on. He wasn't sure what was going on, they had lights and heating without power, the people were all dead, but there was no signs of what killed them, it was like they'd all just dropped dead at once with no warning.

Looking around he could see that there were lights were on here and there, they just weren't obvious in the daylight. He walked slowly to the front, stopping at the soda machine that looked to be still on. Setting the lamp on the ground he looked behind the machine and saw where it was plugged in.

Giving in to temptation he pulled the plug and checked it. Yep, it was still on. Almost absently he fed in a couple of quarters and hit the button for a root beer.

*CLUNK!*

Xander picked up his grape soda and opened it. It was nice and cold as he took a sip. Picking up the lamp he continued to the front. None of this made any sense to him, hopefully there was a newspaper or a scrawled message in the lobby somewhere that would help.

Typing by: Bankrupt Samurai!

AN: Yeah, I haven't really given out any clues that would identify what's going on. I like a good mystery every now and then.