Timeline: BtVS: S07ish & The Walking Dead: S01.
Disclaimer: Anything copyrighted belongs to its legal owners.
Author's Note: Written for Day 11 of the 2023 August Fic-A-Day.
A/N: Work is still not working because people are not coming to work so those of us who are at work have to do four times as much. So sorry if this doesn't make sense.

Keeping in mind that the phone conversation was both being taped and in all likelihood had someone listening in, Buffy Summers tried to keep it vague enough for her fellow Slayer to understand what she was trying to convey, but not so clear that the police would understand.

"Queen B!" Faith Lehane said semi-enthusiastically when the line finally connected. "Wasn't expecting you to call. What's wrong?"

That was Faith, straight to the point. "I've been having some unsettling Dreams lately, you know, the kind I had back in the day?"

"Right," she'd changed her attitude to a much more wary approach, but she still tried for a little levity. "Have any wet dreams about me?"

"No, you're missing certain body parts to get that kind of reaction out of me."

"Damn girl," and the brunette gave a dirty laugh. Buffy realized a little too late what words she had chosen and face palmed on her side of the phone. Trust the other woman to let her mind wander in that direction.

"My Dreams have been more in line with the movie Xander kept talking about before you ended up in a coma. It was incredibly realistic and it has woken me up several times."

Despite being in different cities, and it had been several years since she had seen the other woman, she could still tell when she was trying not to roll her eyes at her. It probably meant that Faith either didn't remember or didn't pay attention to Xander's babbling about the latest horror zombie flick he had watched.

"And X-Man's movies giving you nightmares is important enough for you to call me in prison because?"

Maybe she should've let Giles do this, he had volunteered after all, but she had insisted. Her Slayer Dreams had been plagued by zombies for over a week and he had made some calls to see if there was anything anywhere to back it up. There had been a number of them all over the world. At the moment, it was mostly whispers; blog posts, comments on message boards, and videos all being removed as fast as possible.

It was real and it was getting worse. Faith might not be her favorite person in the world, but she did not deserve to be stuck in prison when the rotting dead was trying to consume all of the living. Hence the cryptic phone call.

"Giles got word from the PTB that we should head toward Atlanta as soon as possible, so that's what we're going to do. We'll be leaving in a few days, a week at the most. We have to tie up some loose ends here first, but then we're leaving."

It had actually been one of her Dreams, but Buffy was sure Faith would understand that part at least.

"Right. Gonna stop by the CDC and have your paranoia checked out?"

"Very funny. They can't do anything about this, and even if they could it would be too late by the time they realised. Random people, especially random science people don't tend to believe in other people's nightmares."

A warning beep was heard on the line. "That's our cue to hang up, B. I'll see you on the flip side." And then she cut the connection without waiting for a response.

Either she got the message or she didn't, but at least she had tried. Her phone call with Angel had been a lot more direct and he had promised to personally make sure Faith understood the seriousness of the situation and that she had to get out right away.

...Eight Weeks Later...

The Summers sisters were the only ones left. Xander and Willow had been bitten within two weeks, and both had turned into flesh-eating zombies because none of them had realized that they needed to destroy the brain for the body to be completely dead. It had been an incredibly hard-learned lesson for Buffy, Dawn, and Giles.

Vampires had abruptly gone poof on their own unless they were at least a century old, and the centennials had somehow become slower and less able to think. According to Cordelia, Angel had fortified a room in the basement of his hotel and then he had instigated a kind of long-term slumber only the older vampires were capable of. He'd told her it was an attempt to keep himself undead until whatever was going on was over.

That was the last they had heard before the power went down, other than that Faith had escaped before anyone had risen in her prison. That had been of the good at least, even if they didn't know where she was.

Right at that moment, Buffy was aiming her sweet little crossbow directly at a dirty but kind of good-looking redneck who was pointing his own crossbow right at her.

"Lower your bow girlie before you hurt yourself."

Buffy glared, "You did not just call me 'girlie'! And I so know how to use this!"

She was playing up her hair color, which the redneck was clearly judging her by, but it had been long enough since the world had collapsed that he should've realized that two young women traveling alone needed to have some kind of skill to make it that far on their own. Unless he really was that dense.

The man put more authority into his voice and demanded, "Put that crossbow down!"

She didn't move, but beside her, Dawn was giving the annoying man a supremely bratty look. "My sister isn't going to do that, so stop yelling. You're just going to attract the undead to us."

Buffy smiled innocently, "Or you could raise your voice even more and we can make a contest out of it. Whoever kills most of the herd shambling their way toward us wins and the other has to put down their bow and surrender."

The man's eyes widened a little, but he kept his hands steady on his choice of weapon. "There's a herd coming?"

"A small one, no more than eight or ten."

"Are they heading directly for us or will they walk by if we don't make a noise?"

Buffy cocked her head to the side a little as she listened more intently. "They'll walk by if no one makes a noise to distract them. Actually, they're headed away from us, so if we're quiet they'll never know about us."

The redneck lowered his bow a little but was still looking at them with distrust. He beckoned them to follow him, and with nothing better to do, they did just that. After all, if he turned out to be a creep they would easily be able to get away.