![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yvi posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yvi_writesTitle: Not Quite What She Expected
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel the Series
Author: Yvi
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katemonkey in the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
apocalyptothon ficathon for the prompt: So what happens when the apocalypse *isn't* supernatural?
Characters: Faith, Anya, Angel
Summary: Number one thing Faith does not expect to find when she returns from a vacation: 90% of the world's population dead or dying. Especially not from a stupid bacterium.
Word Count: 4,000
Warnings: major character deaths mentioned
Spoilers/Timeline: set after Angel season 5, no knowledge of Bufyf season 8 needed, as I don't know it myself
Author's Notes: The apocalypse is fun :) Thanks toafteriwake for beta-ing.
Not Quite What She Expected
by Yvi
Faith did not usually expect a lot. She didn't expect people to like her, she didn't expect them to do things for her, she didn't expect humanity as a whole to cater to her wishes and needs.
What she did expect, however, was for humanity to actually exist. So when she came back from her vacation to find that most of it had vanished? Yeah, she was a bit shocked, to say the least.
The vacation in the Mexican rainforests had been great. Almost no civilization, lots of fun demons to slay and no annoying 16-year-old slayers to herd. Very refreshing. Faith liked working alone.
What was not so refreshing was to come back to the small village she had started her adventure from to find almost all of the inhabitants sick or dead. Faith was smart enough to stay the hell away from all people once she noticed that. Her body was pretty strong, but whatever had effected these people could also easily effect her.
At first, she thought it was just a local thing. She still had enough water and food to get around for another two days, so she just wandered by. Then the next day she hit the next village which seemed to be in even worse condition.
Faith found a newspaper lying around on the outskirts and picked it up. It was dated to three days ago and very thin, just three pages. Faith's Spanish wasn't the best, but she could read it well enough.
Most of the rest of the article was updates on things Faith had no knowledge about, but from what she gathered the disease had first showed up a few days after she left and spread at an alarming rate. It was a variety of tuberculosis, only far more deadly and easily spread. It didn't respond to antibiotics and very few people seemed to be able to beat it, with no apparent reasons. Biologists and doctors were completely overwhelmed.
And by now, they were probably dead anyway.
Faith sat down on the ground. This was a lot to take in and she hoped that any moment now, she would just wake up and find that this wasn't really happening. She was used to the lingering apocalypse, but this? This was completely different.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she whispered. Demons on a power trip? Sure, no problem. The First One wanting to destroy everything? A bit trickier, but ultimately, just another thing whose ass could be kicked. Tiny bacteria causing people to drop dead like flies? Not even remotely cool.
More than 50% infected at a death rate of over 90%... Faith closed her eyes. And that had been three days ago. At the rate that had been spreading...
Chances were, many people she knew were dead by now. Robin, Willow, Buffy, Xander, the Slayers,...
Faith coughed. She got up again, fully intending to do something, anything, not to have to think about this anymore. Surely there was something she could do.
She stumbled backwards as her vision got blurry and knocked against a stone behind her, which sent her tumbling to the ground. Faith felt her forehead with her right hand.
“Oh, fuck.” According to the newspaper, the first symptoms were a high temperature and coughs about 24 hours after exposure. The symptoms got worse after that for two days until, well, the infected person died in a very ugly way.
Faith had not been ill since she had become a Slayer. Illness just didn't happen to Slayers. She got up again, and it took a good deal more strength than it should have, but she managed without falling back down again. Taking a sip of her slowly weaning water supply, she left the village behind her.
Two hours later, she was at the end of her strength. Her temperature had gotten worse and she was coughing a lot now, and even when she wasn't coughing, breathing was hard. The heavy backpack was pulling her down, and she was running out of water.
Faith was almost ready to sit down and rest when she saw something through the thick vegetation and walked towards it. It turned out to be a car, a bulky car that could make its way through this terrain, its owner and the keys nowhere in sight.
Of course, the lack of keys did nothing to stop Faith from opening the car. She had learned that skill when she had been twelve. The car started without a problem and Faith was pleased to see that the tank was almost full. She put her backpack on the other seat, pausing just for a second as the heavy weight was finally not pulling her down anymore. Then she pulled herself together and hit the gas pedal.
Faith knew she was in bad shape when she realized she had no idea where she was an hour later, the memories of which way she had taken to get here blurring together. But the streets were slowly starting to get better and wider.
She had barely noticed anything beside the car and the road. Focusing was getting hard. But now she really needed to drink. After another half an hour, she finally saw a deserted gas station. No cars stood before it and with a look at the gas meter, Faith just hoped that she would still be able to get some new gas there.
The pump actually worked and she filled the car's tank again. She hoped it was enough to at least get her over the border, back into the United States. She had no plans beside that, but it was enough for her fever-affected mind right now.
The windows to the gas station were broken and Faith's body tensed as she stepped towards the door, expecting someone to jump at her. The place looked like it had been foraged pretty badly and toys and other non-edible things were lying on the floor. It smelled of food that had gone a few days past its best before date, but Faith could still find some stuff that was good to eat, a few cereal bars and two gallons of water, which in this climate would last her two days. She was past caring whether the water was contaminated, she was sick anyway.
Faith tensed as she heard a sound coming from the door and slowly turned around. A man was standing in the door, his clothes dirty and face unshaven. Mostly, he looked hungry and tired. He stepped towards her and Faith let go of the items she had been carrying, her body preparing for a fight even though she just felt like lying down and resting.
“You have a car,” the man slowly said in Spanish, taking one more step towards her.
“Don't come closer,” Faith replied, talking, especially in Spanish, taking much more effort than it should.
Her American accent must have been very obvious, as now the man responded in English. “Take me with you.”
Faith shook her head.
He came closer, at arm's length and Faith could smell the sweat and despair. Her body tightened even more, preparing for her Slayer reflexes to take over.
“Don't come any closer.” Her voice was low and threatening.
“Please.” He looked at her for a moment and then reached out with his arm, touching her shoulders.
Even if Faith had wanted to, and she didn't, she couldn't have stopped herself. Her right foot left the ground and kicked the men against his knee while her left hand connected with his shoulder and sent him flying backwards against a shelf. He collapsed with a groan.
Faith grabbed her things and ran as fast as she could to the car.
She slept in the car that night, as far away from the street as she could, out of sight of anyone who might be wandering by, in search of food, water and trouble. He fever was bad by now and she tossed and turned the whole night. But when the sun rose and it got too warm to even think about sleep, she felt better than the previous day. Her eyes could focus again and her fever seemed to have gone down. Maybe her Slayer body was actually beating this thing. She downed two cereal bars and a good liter of water just to get her body hydrated again after all the sweating and tried not to think about how she probably smelled by now
She was on the road again twenty minutes later, actually able to read the signs this time. And two hours later, she arrived at the border to the US. Faith remembered crossing it two weeks earlier, being driven there by one of the new Slayers she had found. Mary had family in the area and had asked Faith whether she wanted to be picked up after a certain amount of time. But Faith thought that would spoil the adventure. She'd find a way to get back to Mary's home. Now she hadn't even thought about Mary and what had happened to her.
Where 16 days ago there had been tons of cars waiting to be allowed to leave the country, there was nothing now. No cars honking because everything didn't go fast enough. No people shouting at each other and no border controls.
Faith guessed that everyone who had wanted to leave the country and still had the strength to do so couldn't be stopped now anyway. Besides, it probably didn't make a difference either way where you were now. You were screwed on either side of the border.
There were many empty gas stations where she could get something to eat and new gas for the car on Faith's way to California. She still didn't know why she felt drawn there, but she just went with her instinct.
The second night, she crashed in a deserted house in a small New Mexican town. There were still people around, she even sometimes saw other cars, but Faith avoided any contact. Everyone she saw looked lonely, sad and shocked. She didn't know what she was supposed to say anyway. “I am sorry I couldn't save your family and friends this time?”
It was a small bungalow and Faith carefully checked whether she really was alone. There was a set of keys hanging beside the door and she locked the doors from the inside before checking the house for food and other things she might need. Trying to turn on the tap, she was not surprised that no water came out. Power was also out completely, so she didn't even open the fridge. There was enough water in bottles and dried food around to make her stomach stop complaining, though, and in the end, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep on a dead person's bed.
Faith was woken by the feeling of someone looking at her. Then she heard the other person breathing. She remained with her eyes closed for a moment, weighing her options. Since most people right now seemed to be at least weakened by the effects of the infection, she was probably stronger. Then again, the other person had somehow managed to get into the locked house.
She rolled out of the bed, her body straight and ready to attack until she saw who was standing on the other side of the room.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
The other person grinned. “Surprised you, huh? Try not to kill me, please. Been there, done that, and all.”
Faith blinked, but slowly recognized who she was talking to. “Aren't you, like, supposed to be dead and stuff?” she asked.
Anya nodded. “I was. For a while.”
“And then you got up again and brought the plague down on mankind?” Faith hoped that it sounded jokingly.
Anya folded her arms across her chest. Faith thought that she looked... rather bad, actually. Worn and tired. “Hey, now, I had *nothing* to do with that. As far as I can tell, this is completely natural. And I didn't just get up, I was... gotten up, or something. Only two days ago, actually. Still getting used to this whole corporeal thing again.”
“Corporeal, but not mortal, I guess?”
“As mortal as you are, actually. I was brought back by some of my worshipers. I think they thought that I could somehow help them get out of this crap. But I am not a vengeance demon anymore. Oh, and they somehow missed the whole 'immortal' bit of their invocation. You can imagine that I was pissed when I started to sneeze for the first time.”
“Yeah, sure,” Faith said absent-minded. How the heck had Anya found her?
“You are wondering how I found you.” Anya was drawing back the curtains. It was already getting light outside, and soon it would be warm. Faith shrugged. What kind of question was that? “I did a little spell to see who was still alive that I know, and well, you came up.”
Faith paused for a second. She and Anya had barely known each other, so if she came up... “What do you mean? All the others are... dead?”
Anya's face fell. “Not everyone,” she said, her voice a lot more serious than before. “Buffy and Giles are in England and I located Willow in India. But I hate English summers, so here I am.”
Faith knew what the woman wasn't saying. Anya hadn't mentioned Xander at all.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Anya's voice wasn't angry, but sad, and Faith understood. She wouldn't bring Xander up.
“So, you think this is all natural?”
“I am pretty sure. Looks like humanity got screwed and it wasn't the demons this time.”
“Man, this sucks.” Faith sat down on the edge of the bed.
Anya nodded. “Tell me about it. I was enjoying my afterlife after dying a heroic death defending humanity and then - bang, I get thrown into a pandemic.”
Faith looked around the room. The house was nice enough for now and probably even secure when one disregarded house-crashing ex-demons. But she couldn't stay. “So, any idea on, you know, what to do now?”
The other woman just shrugged and seemed to ponder the question. “Damned if I knew. Surviving, I guess?”
“Do you know anything about the other Slayers?”
“From what I know, they are all still alive,” Anya replied. “You all seem to have a better immunity as... well, the rest of humanity.”
“Hmmm, yeah, we usually do. Anything on the vampire and demon front?”
“Could get ugly in a while. The demons seem to stay healthy and are plotting to take over the world, as usual. The vampires are in a bit of a tricky situation.”
Faith nodded. “Their feeding grounds are getting depleted,” she said with disgust.
“Yep, pretty much.”
They stood in silence for a while, running out of things they could talk about. The situation sucked beyond the telling of it, but that didn't need to be said.
“So, what now?” Faith asked, knowing that she had already asked the question.
Anya shrugged, again. “Going somewhere with more people, I suppose.”
“We could pay Los Angeles a visit, see if Angel is around,” Faith said, wondering why she hadn't thought about this before.
Anya nodded. “Sure, why not.”
*
They arrived in Los Angeles the afternoon of the next day. Anya and Faith switched driving duties and only stopped to get new gas and some supplies. Faith suppressed any comments about Anya's driving skills, which really hadn't gotten better, if Xander's complaints about it had been accurate. But it was okay, as there wasn't much traffic around anyway.
As they slowly went from the rural to the more urban areas, they saw more people around. Some of them they saw driving in cars, but for most of them, going somewhere else seemed mostly pointless and so they just watched Anya and Faith drive by.
Faith was glad she had a goal. She needed to have a goal, even if it was as simple as reaching Los Angeles and looking for Angel and his people that she had so shortly met the previous year. She hadn't really kept up with what had been happening there since she left to look for the other Slayers.
As the surroundings changed, so did the people they encountered. Faith locked the car from the inside when she saw the first man running towards the car, desperation clear in his movements and face. Faith pushed the gas pedal a bit harder.
“Maybe we should just walk from here,” Anya suggested.
Faith took her eyes from the road for a moment to shoot Anya an annoyed look. “Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how big Los Angeles is?”
“Well, do what you want,” Anya replied, rolling her eyes.
“I will.” Faith could just see this working out really well. She hadn't had too much contact with Anya before, but where she had enjoyed the woman's honesty, she had been annoyed by her strange ideas a lot of times as well.
"So, Wolfram and Heart is where exactly?" Anya asked.
Faith sighed. "Just let me drive, I know where it is."
The car was silent again afterward. Los Angeles looked different without electricity. Everything was so much darker and bleaker. Faith tried to not pay too much attention to the people they saw. She couldn't help them right now anyway. The streets also looked different and Faith got lost twice, which she didn't tell Anya. They had no maps, but somehow Faith managed to find the dark, looming building with the "Wolfram and Heart" sign in front of it. She parked a bit away from the entrance at the corner to a side-street.
"Well, let's check it out," Faith said and got out of the car. Anya followed close behind her as they walked towards the entrance.
Faith eyed the gate."I suppose the bell won't work," she said, but pushed it nonetheless. As there was not one lit window in the building they had probably run out of electricity just as the rest of the city. She looked at the high fences surrounding the premises. They were too high to get in, even with another person helping. Still, she knew that it wasn't like this had kept Angel from entering the building several times. If he could do it, she could as well. She turned around to face Anya, but was distracted by a movement she saw out of the corner of her eye.
"Hey, stop right there," she shouted at the person that she saw doing something to her car and ran towards the figure. Faith could feel Anya following closely behind her.
The man turned around as Faith was only a few steps away from him. He had a gun in his hand, pointed at Faith.
"Whoa," Faith said and stopped dead in her tracks, Anya coming to a halt right beside her. "Why don't you put that down?"
"Why don't I... don't," the man responded. He looked bad, maybe he was even sick. "Go away," he said.
“I don't think so,” Faith said, but raised her hands to show him that she wasn't armed. “Listen, I am sure we can sort something out.”
“Go away!” This time, the man screamed at her and fired his gun. He missed, but not by much.
Faith's reflexes took over and she threw herself to her left, knocking down Anya in the process. She rolled off her shoulders, but still the hard asphalt sent pain through her body.
When she looked up again, the man that had just fired the gun was just being knocked down from behind. A tall figure had appeared behind him and now sent him flying to the floor. The gun slid away from him and the other person kicked it away.
“Don't hurt me,” the man gasped and tried to crawl away from his attacker.
“I won't. Just go away and don't start any more fights,” the other person said and Faith thought that the voice sounded familiar. As the man got up and practically ran away without his weapon, Faith, too, stood up and helped Anya do the same.
The person stepped closer and now Faith could see that she did indeed know him. “Angel?” she exclaimed at seeing the familiar face.
Angel looked at her for a second before realizing who she was. “Faith? Wow, it's good to see you. Didn't expect to see you here.”
The situation was kind of awkward, as Faith was sure that meeting like that at the... well, end of the world or something, was supposed to be accompanied by hugging. She had no intention of hugging Angel, though, and so did he, as evidenced by the fact that he also stood there and looked out-of-place.
"Thanks for helping," Faith said.
"No problem."
Anya saved the uncomfortable situation by stepping forward. "So you're Angel?" she said, and when Angel nodded and looked at her perplexed, she stepped forward and put her hands around him. That did nothing to make Angel look more relaxed.
He patted her on the back. "Nice to meet you, too," he said. "You must be Anya."
Faith almost laughed at the observation. Someone had apparently told him of Anya's social skills.
Anya stepped away from him again.
"So," Faith said. "Any of your friends around?" The moment she said it, she knew she should have just kept her mouth shut. Angel's features, that had shown he wasn't happy before, fell even more. "Sorry, that was a dumb question of me," she apologized.
"It's okay," Angel said. "It doesn't affect demons at all, so Illyria is with us as well. Lorne came back a few days ago to help. But Gunn got sick last night."
"Wait, who's Illyra?" Anya asked.
Angel waved his hand. “That's a long story. I'll tell you later."
Faith nodded. "Let's get off this street first." So Gunn was sick. This was not good news.
"We set up camp in a deserted house not far from here with some people we trust. We couldn't stay at Wolfram & Heart after the electricity failed," Angel explained as they made their way down the street.
Faith could see how in a building like that, with that much added security, the electricity just vanishing could create a problem. Sure, they had emergency generators, but they also couldn't go on forever.
"Mostly," Angel continued, "we are now trying to help others as good as we can. Get food and water and basic medicine to people. And, well, we talk to them. It helps."
"Most of them lost someone," Anya said quietly.
Angel nodded. "There aren't many people who haven't had a loved one die."
"Help the hopeless," Faith muttered. She had laughed about Angel's slogan when she had heard it years back, but now, now she was different. She wanted to help. And even if this time it didn't mean killing demons, she could still help save the world. What was left of it anyway.
END
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel the Series
Author: Yvi
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: written for
katemonkey in the apocalyptothon ficathon for the prompt: So what happens when the apocalypse *isn't* supernatural?Characters: Faith, Anya, Angel
Summary: Number one thing Faith does not expect to find when she returns from a vacation: 90% of the world's population dead or dying. Especially not from a stupid bacterium.
Word Count: 4,000
Warnings: major character deaths mentioned
Spoilers/Timeline: set after Angel season 5, no knowledge of Bufyf season 8 needed, as I don't know it myself
Author's Notes: The apocalypse is fun :) Thanks to
afteriwake for beta-ing.by Yvi
Faith did not usually expect a lot. She didn't expect people to like her, she didn't expect them to do things for her, she didn't expect humanity as a whole to cater to her wishes and needs.
What she did expect, however, was for humanity to actually exist. So when she came back from her vacation to find that most of it had vanished? Yeah, she was a bit shocked, to say the least.
The vacation in the Mexican rainforests had been great. Almost no civilization, lots of fun demons to slay and no annoying 16-year-old slayers to herd. Very refreshing. Faith liked working alone.
What was not so refreshing was to come back to the small village she had started her adventure from to find almost all of the inhabitants sick or dead. Faith was smart enough to stay the hell away from all people once she noticed that. Her body was pretty strong, but whatever had effected these people could also easily effect her.
At first, she thought it was just a local thing. She still had enough water and food to get around for another two days, so she just wandered by. Then the next day she hit the next village which seemed to be in even worse condition.
Faith found a newspaper lying around on the outskirts and picked it up. It was dated to three days ago and very thin, just three pages. Faith's Spanish wasn't the best, but she could read it well enough.
New Tuberculosis bacterium still spreading fast
The recently discovered new strain of Mycobacterium pneumoniae is still spreading at a fast rate. Death rates are now confirmed to be in the high 90-s and the disease has now spread to all continents despite all efforts to contain it. The most highly affected areas are the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico, with more than 50% of the population infected so far. Western Europe, Japan, and China are quickly reaching equal levels of infection.
WHO officials keep suggesting for people to stay calm and inside their homes as much as they can. Avoid all direct contact to people you suspect of being infected...
Most of the rest of the article was updates on things Faith had no knowledge about, but from what she gathered the disease had first showed up a few days after she left and spread at an alarming rate. It was a variety of tuberculosis, only far more deadly and easily spread. It didn't respond to antibiotics and very few people seemed to be able to beat it, with no apparent reasons. Biologists and doctors were completely overwhelmed.
And by now, they were probably dead anyway.
Faith sat down on the ground. This was a lot to take in and she hoped that any moment now, she would just wake up and find that this wasn't really happening. She was used to the lingering apocalypse, but this? This was completely different.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she whispered. Demons on a power trip? Sure, no problem. The First One wanting to destroy everything? A bit trickier, but ultimately, just another thing whose ass could be kicked. Tiny bacteria causing people to drop dead like flies? Not even remotely cool.
More than 50% infected at a death rate of over 90%... Faith closed her eyes. And that had been three days ago. At the rate that had been spreading...
Chances were, many people she knew were dead by now. Robin, Willow, Buffy, Xander, the Slayers,...
Faith coughed. She got up again, fully intending to do something, anything, not to have to think about this anymore. Surely there was something she could do.
She stumbled backwards as her vision got blurry and knocked against a stone behind her, which sent her tumbling to the ground. Faith felt her forehead with her right hand.
“Oh, fuck.” According to the newspaper, the first symptoms were a high temperature and coughs about 24 hours after exposure. The symptoms got worse after that for two days until, well, the infected person died in a very ugly way.
Faith had not been ill since she had become a Slayer. Illness just didn't happen to Slayers. She got up again, and it took a good deal more strength than it should have, but she managed without falling back down again. Taking a sip of her slowly weaning water supply, she left the village behind her.
Two hours later, she was at the end of her strength. Her temperature had gotten worse and she was coughing a lot now, and even when she wasn't coughing, breathing was hard. The heavy backpack was pulling her down, and she was running out of water.
Faith was almost ready to sit down and rest when she saw something through the thick vegetation and walked towards it. It turned out to be a car, a bulky car that could make its way through this terrain, its owner and the keys nowhere in sight.
Of course, the lack of keys did nothing to stop Faith from opening the car. She had learned that skill when she had been twelve. The car started without a problem and Faith was pleased to see that the tank was almost full. She put her backpack on the other seat, pausing just for a second as the heavy weight was finally not pulling her down anymore. Then she pulled herself together and hit the gas pedal.
Faith knew she was in bad shape when she realized she had no idea where she was an hour later, the memories of which way she had taken to get here blurring together. But the streets were slowly starting to get better and wider.
She had barely noticed anything beside the car and the road. Focusing was getting hard. But now she really needed to drink. After another half an hour, she finally saw a deserted gas station. No cars stood before it and with a look at the gas meter, Faith just hoped that she would still be able to get some new gas there.
The pump actually worked and she filled the car's tank again. She hoped it was enough to at least get her over the border, back into the United States. She had no plans beside that, but it was enough for her fever-affected mind right now.
The windows to the gas station were broken and Faith's body tensed as she stepped towards the door, expecting someone to jump at her. The place looked like it had been foraged pretty badly and toys and other non-edible things were lying on the floor. It smelled of food that had gone a few days past its best before date, but Faith could still find some stuff that was good to eat, a few cereal bars and two gallons of water, which in this climate would last her two days. She was past caring whether the water was contaminated, she was sick anyway.
Faith tensed as she heard a sound coming from the door and slowly turned around. A man was standing in the door, his clothes dirty and face unshaven. Mostly, he looked hungry and tired. He stepped towards her and Faith let go of the items she had been carrying, her body preparing for a fight even though she just felt like lying down and resting.
“You have a car,” the man slowly said in Spanish, taking one more step towards her.
“Don't come closer,” Faith replied, talking, especially in Spanish, taking much more effort than it should.
Her American accent must have been very obvious, as now the man responded in English. “Take me with you.”
Faith shook her head.
He came closer, at arm's length and Faith could smell the sweat and despair. Her body tightened even more, preparing for her Slayer reflexes to take over.
“Don't come any closer.” Her voice was low and threatening.
“Please.” He looked at her for a moment and then reached out with his arm, touching her shoulders.
Even if Faith had wanted to, and she didn't, she couldn't have stopped herself. Her right foot left the ground and kicked the men against his knee while her left hand connected with his shoulder and sent him flying backwards against a shelf. He collapsed with a groan.
Faith grabbed her things and ran as fast as she could to the car.
She slept in the car that night, as far away from the street as she could, out of sight of anyone who might be wandering by, in search of food, water and trouble. He fever was bad by now and she tossed and turned the whole night. But when the sun rose and it got too warm to even think about sleep, she felt better than the previous day. Her eyes could focus again and her fever seemed to have gone down. Maybe her Slayer body was actually beating this thing. She downed two cereal bars and a good liter of water just to get her body hydrated again after all the sweating and tried not to think about how she probably smelled by now
She was on the road again twenty minutes later, actually able to read the signs this time. And two hours later, she arrived at the border to the US. Faith remembered crossing it two weeks earlier, being driven there by one of the new Slayers she had found. Mary had family in the area and had asked Faith whether she wanted to be picked up after a certain amount of time. But Faith thought that would spoil the adventure. She'd find a way to get back to Mary's home. Now she hadn't even thought about Mary and what had happened to her.
Where 16 days ago there had been tons of cars waiting to be allowed to leave the country, there was nothing now. No cars honking because everything didn't go fast enough. No people shouting at each other and no border controls.
Faith guessed that everyone who had wanted to leave the country and still had the strength to do so couldn't be stopped now anyway. Besides, it probably didn't make a difference either way where you were now. You were screwed on either side of the border.
There were many empty gas stations where she could get something to eat and new gas for the car on Faith's way to California. She still didn't know why she felt drawn there, but she just went with her instinct.
The second night, she crashed in a deserted house in a small New Mexican town. There were still people around, she even sometimes saw other cars, but Faith avoided any contact. Everyone she saw looked lonely, sad and shocked. She didn't know what she was supposed to say anyway. “I am sorry I couldn't save your family and friends this time?”
It was a small bungalow and Faith carefully checked whether she really was alone. There was a set of keys hanging beside the door and she locked the doors from the inside before checking the house for food and other things she might need. Trying to turn on the tap, she was not surprised that no water came out. Power was also out completely, so she didn't even open the fridge. There was enough water in bottles and dried food around to make her stomach stop complaining, though, and in the end, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep on a dead person's bed.
Faith was woken by the feeling of someone looking at her. Then she heard the other person breathing. She remained with her eyes closed for a moment, weighing her options. Since most people right now seemed to be at least weakened by the effects of the infection, she was probably stronger. Then again, the other person had somehow managed to get into the locked house.
She rolled out of the bed, her body straight and ready to attack until she saw who was standing on the other side of the room.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
The other person grinned. “Surprised you, huh? Try not to kill me, please. Been there, done that, and all.”
Faith blinked, but slowly recognized who she was talking to. “Aren't you, like, supposed to be dead and stuff?” she asked.
Anya nodded. “I was. For a while.”
“And then you got up again and brought the plague down on mankind?” Faith hoped that it sounded jokingly.
Anya folded her arms across her chest. Faith thought that she looked... rather bad, actually. Worn and tired. “Hey, now, I had *nothing* to do with that. As far as I can tell, this is completely natural. And I didn't just get up, I was... gotten up, or something. Only two days ago, actually. Still getting used to this whole corporeal thing again.”
“Corporeal, but not mortal, I guess?”
“As mortal as you are, actually. I was brought back by some of my worshipers. I think they thought that I could somehow help them get out of this crap. But I am not a vengeance demon anymore. Oh, and they somehow missed the whole 'immortal' bit of their invocation. You can imagine that I was pissed when I started to sneeze for the first time.”
“Yeah, sure,” Faith said absent-minded. How the heck had Anya found her?
“You are wondering how I found you.” Anya was drawing back the curtains. It was already getting light outside, and soon it would be warm. Faith shrugged. What kind of question was that? “I did a little spell to see who was still alive that I know, and well, you came up.”
Faith paused for a second. She and Anya had barely known each other, so if she came up... “What do you mean? All the others are... dead?”
Anya's face fell. “Not everyone,” she said, her voice a lot more serious than before. “Buffy and Giles are in England and I located Willow in India. But I hate English summers, so here I am.”
Faith knew what the woman wasn't saying. Anya hadn't mentioned Xander at all.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Anya's voice wasn't angry, but sad, and Faith understood. She wouldn't bring Xander up.
“So, you think this is all natural?”
“I am pretty sure. Looks like humanity got screwed and it wasn't the demons this time.”
“Man, this sucks.” Faith sat down on the edge of the bed.
Anya nodded. “Tell me about it. I was enjoying my afterlife after dying a heroic death defending humanity and then - bang, I get thrown into a pandemic.”
Faith looked around the room. The house was nice enough for now and probably even secure when one disregarded house-crashing ex-demons. But she couldn't stay. “So, any idea on, you know, what to do now?”
The other woman just shrugged and seemed to ponder the question. “Damned if I knew. Surviving, I guess?”
“Do you know anything about the other Slayers?”
“From what I know, they are all still alive,” Anya replied. “You all seem to have a better immunity as... well, the rest of humanity.”
“Hmmm, yeah, we usually do. Anything on the vampire and demon front?”
“Could get ugly in a while. The demons seem to stay healthy and are plotting to take over the world, as usual. The vampires are in a bit of a tricky situation.”
Faith nodded. “Their feeding grounds are getting depleted,” she said with disgust.
“Yep, pretty much.”
They stood in silence for a while, running out of things they could talk about. The situation sucked beyond the telling of it, but that didn't need to be said.
“So, what now?” Faith asked, knowing that she had already asked the question.
Anya shrugged, again. “Going somewhere with more people, I suppose.”
“We could pay Los Angeles a visit, see if Angel is around,” Faith said, wondering why she hadn't thought about this before.
Anya nodded. “Sure, why not.”
*
They arrived in Los Angeles the afternoon of the next day. Anya and Faith switched driving duties and only stopped to get new gas and some supplies. Faith suppressed any comments about Anya's driving skills, which really hadn't gotten better, if Xander's complaints about it had been accurate. But it was okay, as there wasn't much traffic around anyway.
As they slowly went from the rural to the more urban areas, they saw more people around. Some of them they saw driving in cars, but for most of them, going somewhere else seemed mostly pointless and so they just watched Anya and Faith drive by.
Faith was glad she had a goal. She needed to have a goal, even if it was as simple as reaching Los Angeles and looking for Angel and his people that she had so shortly met the previous year. She hadn't really kept up with what had been happening there since she left to look for the other Slayers.
As the surroundings changed, so did the people they encountered. Faith locked the car from the inside when she saw the first man running towards the car, desperation clear in his movements and face. Faith pushed the gas pedal a bit harder.
“Maybe we should just walk from here,” Anya suggested.
Faith took her eyes from the road for a moment to shoot Anya an annoyed look. “Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how big Los Angeles is?”
“Well, do what you want,” Anya replied, rolling her eyes.
“I will.” Faith could just see this working out really well. She hadn't had too much contact with Anya before, but where she had enjoyed the woman's honesty, she had been annoyed by her strange ideas a lot of times as well.
"So, Wolfram and Heart is where exactly?" Anya asked.
Faith sighed. "Just let me drive, I know where it is."
The car was silent again afterward. Los Angeles looked different without electricity. Everything was so much darker and bleaker. Faith tried to not pay too much attention to the people they saw. She couldn't help them right now anyway. The streets also looked different and Faith got lost twice, which she didn't tell Anya. They had no maps, but somehow Faith managed to find the dark, looming building with the "Wolfram and Heart" sign in front of it. She parked a bit away from the entrance at the corner to a side-street.
"Well, let's check it out," Faith said and got out of the car. Anya followed close behind her as they walked towards the entrance.
Faith eyed the gate."I suppose the bell won't work," she said, but pushed it nonetheless. As there was not one lit window in the building they had probably run out of electricity just as the rest of the city. She looked at the high fences surrounding the premises. They were too high to get in, even with another person helping. Still, she knew that it wasn't like this had kept Angel from entering the building several times. If he could do it, she could as well. She turned around to face Anya, but was distracted by a movement she saw out of the corner of her eye.
"Hey, stop right there," she shouted at the person that she saw doing something to her car and ran towards the figure. Faith could feel Anya following closely behind her.
The man turned around as Faith was only a few steps away from him. He had a gun in his hand, pointed at Faith.
"Whoa," Faith said and stopped dead in her tracks, Anya coming to a halt right beside her. "Why don't you put that down?"
"Why don't I... don't," the man responded. He looked bad, maybe he was even sick. "Go away," he said.
“I don't think so,” Faith said, but raised her hands to show him that she wasn't armed. “Listen, I am sure we can sort something out.”
“Go away!” This time, the man screamed at her and fired his gun. He missed, but not by much.
Faith's reflexes took over and she threw herself to her left, knocking down Anya in the process. She rolled off her shoulders, but still the hard asphalt sent pain through her body.
When she looked up again, the man that had just fired the gun was just being knocked down from behind. A tall figure had appeared behind him and now sent him flying to the floor. The gun slid away from him and the other person kicked it away.
“Don't hurt me,” the man gasped and tried to crawl away from his attacker.
“I won't. Just go away and don't start any more fights,” the other person said and Faith thought that the voice sounded familiar. As the man got up and practically ran away without his weapon, Faith, too, stood up and helped Anya do the same.
The person stepped closer and now Faith could see that she did indeed know him. “Angel?” she exclaimed at seeing the familiar face.
Angel looked at her for a second before realizing who she was. “Faith? Wow, it's good to see you. Didn't expect to see you here.”
The situation was kind of awkward, as Faith was sure that meeting like that at the... well, end of the world or something, was supposed to be accompanied by hugging. She had no intention of hugging Angel, though, and so did he, as evidenced by the fact that he also stood there and looked out-of-place.
"Thanks for helping," Faith said.
"No problem."
Anya saved the uncomfortable situation by stepping forward. "So you're Angel?" she said, and when Angel nodded and looked at her perplexed, she stepped forward and put her hands around him. That did nothing to make Angel look more relaxed.
He patted her on the back. "Nice to meet you, too," he said. "You must be Anya."
Faith almost laughed at the observation. Someone had apparently told him of Anya's social skills.
Anya stepped away from him again.
"So," Faith said. "Any of your friends around?" The moment she said it, she knew she should have just kept her mouth shut. Angel's features, that had shown he wasn't happy before, fell even more. "Sorry, that was a dumb question of me," she apologized.
"It's okay," Angel said. "It doesn't affect demons at all, so Illyria is with us as well. Lorne came back a few days ago to help. But Gunn got sick last night."
"Wait, who's Illyra?" Anya asked.
Angel waved his hand. “That's a long story. I'll tell you later."
Faith nodded. "Let's get off this street first." So Gunn was sick. This was not good news.
"We set up camp in a deserted house not far from here with some people we trust. We couldn't stay at Wolfram & Heart after the electricity failed," Angel explained as they made their way down the street.
Faith could see how in a building like that, with that much added security, the electricity just vanishing could create a problem. Sure, they had emergency generators, but they also couldn't go on forever.
"Mostly," Angel continued, "we are now trying to help others as good as we can. Get food and water and basic medicine to people. And, well, we talk to them. It helps."
"Most of them lost someone," Anya said quietly.
Angel nodded. "There aren't many people who haven't had a loved one die."
"Help the hopeless," Faith muttered. She had laughed about Angel's slogan when she had heard it years back, but now, now she was different. She wanted to help. And even if this time it didn't mean killing demons, she could still help save the world. What was left of it anyway.
END
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-19 02:23 pm (UTC)Thanks!