Timeline: BtVS: S07ish & The Walking Dead: S01.
Disclaimer: Anything copyrighted belongs to its legal owners.
Author's Note: Written for Day 17 of the 2023 August Fic-A-Day.
A/N: Canon? What canon?

"Why are we still here?" Dawn looked at her, but Buffy was more focused on the argument going on between Shane, Merle, Daryl, and Rick.

They ended up staying in the Quarry Camp for two weeks despite their better judgment. Something undefined had caused Buffy to remain there for a while despite the Scoobies prior agreement to go to the CDC within a month if something were to separate them. They had just over a week before they had to be there and while she had gotten a car while they were in Atlanta to get more supplies it was still a matter of getting there. The roads could be blocked, herds could be all over the area, or the living could be causing problems...

"Buffy!"

She turned her attention back to her little sister, "I told you, something is prickling my senses and telling me to stay here for a while." Buffy turned and looked behind them towards the woods. "I'm still not certain, but I'm pretty sure a large herd is heading this way."

Dawn's big blue eyes widened. "Shouldn't we skedaddle then? The last place we want to be is in the direct path of a large group of undead. Especially since we have nothing to protect us here. No sturdy walls to keep them out, and the headless chickens over there will get themselves killed if we stay here. They still believe this is a temporary thing and the government will save us!"

"They don't believe that." Dawn just gave her a pointed look, and Buffy conceded, "Fine, a few of them might still believe that, but most of them don't. Not really."

"We need to leave, like now. If the walkers are on the edge of your senses, they can't be that far away from the camp. Your ability to sense vampires and stuff still sucks."

Buffy sighed in non-verbal agreement and looked over at the squabbling men again. Maybe saving Merle had been a mistake, but no one deserved to die handcuffed to a rooftop. Between the hot sun, no water or food, and the undead trying to break down the door to get to him it just didn't sit well with her. It definitely counted against everyone else who had gone to scavenge in the city, none of them had considered him worthy of saving. Racist butthole or not, slowly torturing him to death was not something she could accept.

Merle and Daryl's anger was justified, Shane was arguing because that was what he did, and Rick was the one who had made the final decision to leave the redneck behind. Everyone else had vanished into the camp to avoid the consequences of their own actions.

Suddenly making a decision, Buffy got up from the tree branch she and her sister had been sitting on and walked over to the arguing men. Dawn scrambled to follow. Rick and Shane immediately glared at her when they realized she was coming towards them, but Daryl gave her a semi-respectful half-nod, while his brother only gave her a quick glance before going back to threatening Rick.

"Listen, I get you're all justifiably angry, but I'm certain a large herd is heading straight for us. We need to go and check it out, and if I'm right we need to leave. Like right now."

It was still light out but her Slayer sense had begun to send her fight or flight signals, and given how bad she usually was with that she wanted to get gone. Not because she couldn't fight, but because she was afraid for her sister's life, and the lives of the group they had (temporarily) joined.

Her statement caused another argument, but in the end, it was decided that Rick and Daryl would go with her, and Shane and Merle would get the group to gather their wayward stuff, just in case. None of them believed her and she was certain nothing would be done at the camp, but at least two of them were sort of willing to come with her to check out the possible danger.

They had been walking for a good forty minutes when Buffy caught movement much further ahead. She promptly retreated into the bushes again, causing the two men to instinctively join her.

"What?" Rick looked around, but not having a Slayer's enhanced vision he hadn't seen what she had.

"There's a herd ahead of us, look in between the trees." She pointed it out for them, and while it took moving even further toward the undead and using Daryl's binoculars, it still took them a few minutes to see them. Daryl cursed creatively when he finally saw what Buffy had seen, and then he handed the visual aid to Rick with a distrustful glare so he could confirm it as well.

They retreated as quietly as they could and hurried back to the camp, where predictably nothing had been done. Well, Dawn had packed what little she and Buffy had left around in the RV and packed it into the trunk of their new car, and Jacqui had gathered her things, but aside from that, no one had done anything.

The Harrison sisters had even gone out in a boat to try and catch fish for that night's dinner. This was a good idea in theory, especially since canned food and deer were starting to taste like paper, except for the part where they were about to get overrun by cannibalistic corpses. It didn't stop her stomach from giving a rumble though, and for her to make a silent wish that they had gotten fish enough for everyone and that it could be preserved somehow and eaten later.

The next hour consisted of loud, obnoxious people who either didn't understand the very real danger they were all in, or, more likely, didn't want to understand it. Darkness had started to fall by the time people were finally getting into the various cars. Which, of course, was when quite a few people decided they wanted to go their own way.

The Morales family were the first ones to speak up, and since they had their old family car no one objected. The problem began when various other people decided they wanted to take their chances elsewhere, and that meant people had to change cars and move their luggage and other things between the cars again.

In the end, the Grimes family got into one car. The Harrison sisters stayed in Dale's old RV. The Dixons and Jim shared a car. The Peletiers shared a car. Which meant that Shane had to share his ride with Jacqui and T-Dog. The Summers sisters got the car Buffy had taken in Atlanta to themselves, something they were both relieved about as it meant they could finally have a private conversation without worrying about anyone overhearing it.

By the time they had finally worked out all the compromises of who went where they could hear the shuffling and groans from the herd. The first ones broke through the tree line as the last few got into the cars, causing a mad dash and a lot of yelling before they were able to speed away.