Timeline: BtVS: S07ish & The Walking Dead: S01.
Disclaimer: Anything copyrighted belongs to its legal owners.
Author's Note: Written for Day 22 of the 2023 August Fic-A-Day.
A/N: Canon? What canon?

What should've taken a couple of hours at the most, ended up taking a day and a half, but they made it to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The stench of rotting corpses was hell on the Slayer's enhanced senses before they even got there, and she ended up placing a piece of cloth over the lower half of her face and then used a bandana to keep it all in place. It didn't stop her from smelling anything, but at the very least it wasn't quite as bad. Dawn had copied her because it wasn't just Buffy's senses who found the smell awful.

Many of the roads were either blocked by cars, MacGyver'd closed by stockades or other kinds of barricades, or there were herds of the undead. Dale's RV also broke down, causing them to lose several hours while Shane and T-Dog went to see if they could get spare parts. They succeeded, but it was only a matter of time before the vehicle gave up for good.

The parking lot and the street outside the CDC were littered with dead, unmoving bodies. Military vehicles, sandbag barriers, and the like were also all over the place showing that there had clearly been a last stand there and the living had lost as evidenced by some of the bodies wearing BDUs. It was an uncomfortably common sight by that point.

Dawn looked worriedly at her older sister, "Do you think anyone made it here, or are we just being stupid for getting this close to Atlanta?"

"I don't know." Buffy gave the carnage in front of them a long, silent look trying to see if there was any sign of living people. Or even the dead or undead bodies of anyone she had known, but there was nothing. "We should probably have chosen somewhere less crowd-y to meet up."

Buffy gave her watch a cursory look as well, even though she knew exactly what it would say since she had already checked it a few minutes ago. It was her mother's old watch, analog, but it did have the date on it. She'd had the battery changed less than a week before the first dream of the non-vampire kind of undead, so it should keep working for at least another year as long as it wasn't damaged.

Today was the last day of the timeframe they had agreed on. She, Dawn, Giles, Willow, Xander, and sort of Faith. They had given the message to Angel's crew before they had left Sunnydale, but as they had decided not to travel through any big cities if they could avoid it they hadn't been able to give the message directly. They weren't even sure if any of Angel's people intended to leave Los Angeles.

People began spilling out of the cars as soon as they stopped, and Buffy barely held back a sigh in annoyance. She was already outside, but Dawn had remained in the passenger seat. "Everyone!" She tried to not raise her voice too much since there were walkers nearby.

"All non-fighters, get back into whatever car you came from and lock the doors. We need to make sure it's safe to get out. There are too many bodies on the ground and we don't know if they're truly dead or if they're going to bite someone. We're not going to risk lives unnecessarily."

They argued, because of course they did, but thankfully it didn't take too long before they retreated back into the cars. It left her, Rick, Shane, Andrea, and the Dixon brothers still standing in the road.

"We need to check for survivors inside the building." Rick was beginning to look frantic as they hadn't had much food in the last few days. The fish the Harrison sisters had caught the day they left the Quarry Camp was long gone, as was what little deer meat and tin box surprises they'd had left. They still had a few bottles of water, but that was about it.

"Even if there's someone in there, they're not going to let us in. Besides, I already told you; my friends and I have an agreement, if we get separated we'd meet here. I need to look around for them."

"Have a look around, but be careful and make sure the bodies on the ground are truly dead. The last thing we need is all those corpses getting back up and attacking us." They didn't listen and went straight for the front doors, so she left them to it and went looking for anyone who might've made it. Or possibly a note somewhere that they had gone somewhere else because of the danger of staying so close to a major city. Buffy swallowed the instinctive desire to start calling out for them loudly, but all that would get her was the nearby herds coming for dinner.

She was halfway around the side of the building when she abruptly heard running footsteps, except it wasn't coming from behind her but from up ahead. Walkers shambled ahead, usually at a slow pace, but if they weren't too decayed they could move quickly. Except, it didn't take her long to recognize the running and breathing pattern and she sighed with relief when her sister Slayer rounded the corner. The brunette slowed down when she saw Buffy, and much to the blonde's surprise she was greeted with a quick hug.

"Queen Bee, you certainly know how to be fashionably late!" Faith smirked. "How are you holding up?"

Buffy gave her a genuine smile because while the other Slayer was a handful she was a survivor, and unlike most of the people in the group she and Dawn had kind of adopted, she knew how to keep herself alive. "I still have about six hours before I'm late."

Faith looked around and behind Buffy, "Where's Little D?"

"Back there in a car," and she pointed behind her the way she had come, "didn't want her outside with all the possibly deadly corpses."

The brunette nodded, "Good choice. I hear other people?"

Buffy gave a wry self-deprecating smile. "Ran into a group with the survival instincts of bugs on a highway."

"And you couldn't help but be their savior." Faith shook her head.

"Did you find anyone?" Translation, did you find any of the Scoobies or Angel's crew? She didn't really know the latter, but she knew Faith had dealt with them both before and after she was sent to prison.

"Yup, got the G-Man and that stuck-up bitch you went to Sunnydale High with, the one who went to work for your ex."

Buffy couldn't help but stare. "You saved Cordelia?" Then she backtracked, "Where's Giles? I lost track of him after we ran into a huge herd and couldn't find him afterward." The herd had been enormous and she had barely gotten herself and her sister away. They had been searching the area for several days afterward but had come up with nothing. The guilt had been weighing on her ever since, but she had to save Dawn. Her little sister was the only family she had left now, but she also wanted her Watcher/pseudo-father with them.

"Relax, B. Your Watcher's fine." At Buffy's frown, she added, "He's unharmed. No bites, no scratches, not even a papercut."

Buffy's body tension eased a little, "Take me to them. We can't stay here for long, and I don't think the group I brought with me will be able to keep their voices down for long." Faith raised a skeptical eyebrow. "They still haven't learned to NOT scream when they see walkers."

Faith rolled her eyes and then turned around before setting off at a run. Buffy quickly followed.

The other Slayer brought her to one of the smaller buildings behind the actual main CDC building. Soon after they were inside and she was hugging her Watcher and babbling apologies for leaving him behind. "There, there, now." Giles tried to soothe her a little awkwardly, "I am quite all right."

"Yes, Buffy. I'm fine too. Nice to see you." Cordelia said sarcastically where she was standing off to the side looking annoyed and put off by the obvious display of affection she wasn't a part of.

Buffy smiled at her while her arms were still partially around Giles. "I'm glad you're alive and well too, Cordelia. I, um. Wasn't expecting to see you."

"Where's Dawn?" It was Giles' turn to look around for the youngest Summers sister. And Buffy was relieved to get out of the awkward conversation she had gotten herself into.

"She's in a car at the front of the big building, along with a group we kinda joined. We need to get back there before they do something stupid, like get the attention of any of the herds nearby."

It only took a few minutes for the three of them to get what few things they had and get them back into their backpacks, and then they walked back around the large building. Much to Buffy's annoyance most of them had left the safety of the cars and were now standing in front of the doors to the CDC. Her sister was thankfully not among them, although she had her face up against the glass keeping a keen eye on what was going on.

"I found my friends, we need to leave now. There are two different herds on their way toward us, and we need to get gone. Now."

It derailed into another argument, but Buffy gave an ultimatum. "We're leaving. If you want to take your chances on whoever or whatever's in there, you're on your own. My friends and I are leaving.

Buffy headed toward the car she shared with Dawn, and Giles, Cordelia, and Faith followed. Andrea came along after a little hesitation as her sister was still in the RV with Dale. The Peletier family were still in their car.

The door to the CDC abruptly opened and all three members of the Grimes family went inside, as did Shane, T-Dog, and Jim. Daryl and Merle hesitated as well, but something made them head for the cars.

Before the doors closed, Buffy called out a place to meet in exactly one month. If they wanted they could get there, if not, well, she tried.