"Are you ready?" Buffy asked as she adjusted Liam's sweater.
Liam, who was forced to an wear additional three sweaters and five pairs of socks on top of his normal attire, nodded. Buffy was dressed equally as warm with a few tee shirts, a sweatshirt, and two pairs of sweat pants.
After the Master's appearance the two nights ago, Buffy begun to concoct an escape plan for her and her son. They could no longer stay trapped in this prison. Liam needed to go to school, make friends, and be a kid. There was no way to accomplish any of those things inside the metal box they lived in.
Buffy's plan solely rested on breaking the two locks that held her and Liam inside. The first was on the interior of their cell. It was a four-digit combination on a keypad which she had memorized after six years of watching the Master type it in. The second was a lock and chain system on the outside of the doors. At night, whenever the Master would leave, Buffy could hear the rattling and the tightening chains.
She went over to the keypad and typed in the code. Once the light on the keypad turned from red to green, the first step was complete. The second step would prove to be more difficult. The door opened slightly to reveal metal chains restricting the door from opening any further.
"Liam? Can you hand me the frying pan?" Buffy asked her son. Liam followed his mother instructions as she continued to push against the door to loosen it up. He found a dirty pan in the sink and handed it to his mother since it was the only one he could reach.
"Stay back," Buffy ordered. She raised the pan in the air and swung it down to the exposed chain.
It didn't budge.
She continued to do so repeatedly as the pan slowly started to chip away the metal. After every ten swings, Buffy would recruit Liam to help push on the door with her in hopes to snap the chains and break free.
"Mommy, I'm tried," Liam complained rubbing his eyes. It was way past his bedtime as Buffy waited until the dead of night to execute her plan. She wanted to make sure no one, including the Master, would know of their escape. They had to do so quietly to be successful.
Buffy crouched down to meet Liam at eye level. "Baby, I know, but we have to get out of here. It's now or never," she said. Buffy kissed Liam on the forehead and went back to swinging the pan against the chains.
Liam sat at the kitchen table coloring as his mom hacked away at the chains until the pan broke from its handle. "Shit," Buffy cursed beneath her breath, praying that Liam didn't hear her utter such profanity.
Buffy was too close to freedom to give it up. She could smell the grass and feel the cold, November air hit her face. Sensations that had been lost to her since her six years in isolation with Liam.
"Liam, pack up your coloring book and any other toys you want to bring with you," Buffy told her son. She knew that would keep Liam distracted as she created more chaos. Buffy switched her attack on the chains from a pan to a dining chair and began to hit it.
Liam's glance occasionally drifted to his mother as she tried to break the chains to free them, but he was more concerned with what to bring. He threw his coloring book and crayons in a plastic bag along with his favorite books. Their was space for more, so Liam went through the VHS tapes and snagged Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.
He stood with his bag in hand as his mom pushed on the door with all her might. She stumbled back and almost fell when the chains broke and the door swung wide open revealing the backyard they were held in.
Buffy froze in sheer shock. She did it. She escaped. Not once in six years had she thought that she would have found it in herself to break free. Buffy had waited so long for someone to come and rescue her when she could have done it herself.
Liam slowly approached his mother in awe at the outside world. It was his first experience ever. He didn't know what to say or think. He was immediately distracted by the starry sky that he dreamed about.
While Liam was preoccupied stargazing, Buffy ran back inside the metal box, which was made clear to be a storage container upon escaping, to grab the other dining room chair. Though they had freed themselves from their confines, they were still trapped by the high fence in the Master's backyard. Buffy placed the chair behind the storage unit and closed up the door hoping that the Master would not immediately catch on to their escape until his next visit in four days.
"Liam!" Buffy yelled in a hushed whisper to grab her son's attention. Liam went to his mom as she took the bag from him and threw it over the fence.
"Those were my toys," Liam complained. He was afraid he would never see them again.
Buffy rolled her eyes as placed Liam on the chair and ordered him to get on her back. Though he was in a sour mood over his toys, he was a sucker for a piggyback ride. Making sure Liam was secured Buffy went to get on the chair herself. "Hold on tight," Buffy said.
She pushed herself off the chair and onto the fence hoping to hop over it with ease. But she underestimated the fact that she had a young child on her back. Through her miscalculation, instead of landing on her feet she landed on Liam's arm causing him to wail.
Buffy tried to soothe Liam as she held him in her arms, but the lights coming from the neighbors started to worry her. What if the Master heard? What if he caught them? What would he do once he found them? Buffy could not risk those what ifs. She picked up Liam's toy bag and pulled Liam up by his good arm and started to run.
At first, Buffy wasn't sure where she was at. She didn't even know if she was in Sunnydale. The neighborhoods looked too generic to be identifiable to Sunnydale, but that was the least of her concerns. Liam was still crying. Buffy had a gut wrenching feeling that she broke his arm - that needed to be tended to first.
"Mommy! It hurts!" Liam wept. He never knew so much pain in his life and on top of that he was exhausted. It was late and his mother was forcing him to run around these random neighborhoods.
Buffy wanted to stop and coddle her son, but was too fearful that the Master would catch them. No wrong steps could be taken. "I know. Just hold on for a few more minutes. Everything will be better once we get you to a hospital."
After fifteen minutes of running around town, Buffy was pleased to find herself in Sunnydale General. Typically the type to abhor hospitals, she was thankful to be in one. It wasn't until she pushed open the glass doors did she truly feel free as she was now surrounded by other people.
Buffy ran to the front desk to immediately seek help for her son. "Can you please help me? My son broke his arm and he won't stop crying," Buffy explained to the secretary. Buffy wished she could make Liam's pain go away, but he needed to be looked at by a professional. Not only was his arm most likely broken, but he was five and had not had a single shot in his life nor had he been exposed to disease. His immune system was weak.
The secretary half paid attention to Buffy, as she was swamped with work, and handed her a clipboard and pen. "Okay, just fill this paperwork out and when you turn it back in I can send you to a doctor," the secretary said.
At one time Buffy could easily fill out the information the woman was asking for, but after six years she doubted she was still covered by her insurance. Plus, more importantly. how could she explain that this kid wasn't even in the system due to being born whilst in captivity. "Look, I don't have any insurance. I just escaped being held in my own personal prison for six years with my son. I'm desperate," Buffy pleaded.
The woman looked up from her paperwork and eyed Buffy quizzically. That was not something usually heard on the job. She knew Buffy looked familiar, yet she couldn't place where she knew her from. "What did you say name was?" The secretary asked.
"Buffy Summers," Buffy answered.
The secretary's mouth hung open agape. She had remembered the name Buffy Summers. Though she never met the girl, her name had been the talk of the town. People didn't go missing in Sunnydale, especially for six years. "I'll get you a doctor," the secretary assured.
"Thank you," Buffy said. She led Liam to the waiting room and sat him on her lap as he cried into her chest. Buffy rocked him in her arms and tried to calm him down while they waited for a doctor.
The secretary kept glancing over at Buffy as she pulled up an old news article about her. There was no doubt that that girl was Buffy despite the aging and loss of weight. The woman immediately contacted her superior asking how to proceed. She was delegated the task to take this one step further while the hospital pulled any and all medical files they had in relation to Buffy Summers and this mysterious son of hers.
The phone rang in the secretary's hands. She wasn't even sure if she would get a response until she heard on the other end of the line, "Hello, Sunnydale PD. How can we assist you?"