DISCLAIMER!!!! Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow, and all the characters, from "Buffy theVampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss and Mutant Enemy. I'm jealous, but what can I do? All other characters, and the story itself are the sole property of ME, and my imagination. Please send all comments on the story to ME! Thank you and come again!
Chapter 19
Maria carried the boy over her shoulder, leaving the zombies to deal with the vampire. She was tempted to watch the fight, but she knew she should get Cristo's sacrificial lamb out of the way first. Plus, if the cops show up I don't need to let them get an ID on me. As she walked toward the truck, she heard the zombies attacking the vampire. I wonder how long it'll take them to eat him, she thought as she neared her transportation. I don't want to wait all night for them to finish.
Opening the passengers' side door, Maria placed the unconscious teenager carefully in the seat, making sure she didn't knock over the silver box that held the four vials of Blue Blood. "Now you be a good boy and stay put!" The rigger closed the door and walked to the driver's side. She listened for a moment, hearing a growl echo down the alley. Maria heard something that sounded like a body hitting the ground come from the other end of the alley. Didn't take as long as I thought it might, she thought happily as she got into the large truck. Starting the motor, Maria allowed herself a small smile as the engine roared to life. Putting her seatbelt on, the drug runner sat for a moment, content at how well the evening had gone. Set up the first part of the plant in record time, got Cristo his plaything for the night, and took out a vampire. "Not bad," she said, looking at the boy in the seat beside her, "If I don't say so myself!"
Lighting a cigarette, Maria waited for the zombies to finish their meal and make their way back to the truck. Not a bad looking kid, she thought as she looked down at the unconscious teenager. A bit too gullible, and in this town that'll get you killed. Cracking a window, the rigger watched as the smoke from her cigarette rose though the air and floated out into the night.
Suddenly, the armband that Charles had given her seemed to tremble, tightening around her biceps and quivering. "What the hell is wrong with this thing," she said aloud as she looked at it. The armband was an ugly thing, made of bones, teeth and held together by strings of hair. "Stupid gris-gris," Maria muttered as the voodoo charm ceased its movements.
Abruptly the retort of a gunshot came from the other side of the alley. Snapping her head up, Maria's senses came on as if a switch had been thrown. She quickly picked up the Uzi that hung at her side, checking the clip and flicking the safety off. Jumping out of the truck, she silently ran down the alley to find the source of the gunshot. "Since when do vampires use guns?"
Hiding herself in a doorway, the rigger looked on in anger as she saw a young man fire a handgun into the head of one of the zombies. My zombies! Another zombie apparently had had its head torn off by someone, and was now crawling around on the ground. The vampire that had almost attacked her earlier was being held against a wall and bitten by two other zombies. "The Slayer," Maria said quietly as she watched the blond-haired girl she had seen before making her way around the fight.
Maria watched as the vampire broke free from his attackers, smashing one of them face first into the wall. It was then that the rigger saw the Slayer move away from the wall she had been walking along and enter the fray. Kicking the zombie that had held the vampire, the Slayer knocked the creature to its knees in a few moments and then stabbed it in the neck with a long knife. Observing her small band of zombies slowly being destroyed, Maria raced back to the truck, trying to think of a plan.
As she started the engine, the mercenary banged her hands against the steering wheel in frustration. "Shit!" she swore, as she heard more gunfire echo though the alley. I can back the truck out of the alley and get reinforcements, she thought quickly as she checked the clip in her gun. Yeah, and tell Cristo that I lost five of his zombies and didn't try to do anything about it! That'll go over real well with him! Maria swore again, looking down at the boy in the next seat. Closing her eyes, she put the truck in gear and floored the accelerator. If I'm going to tell him that, I better at least be able to tell him I killed at least one of them! As she neared the group, she saw that all of the zombies were laying on the ground, with the vampire, the Slayer and the boy standing in a close together, talking. "Well, maybe I can get them all in one shot," Maria said with a grin. Lowering the driver's side window, she leaned out with the Uzi and fired several bursts in the direction of the three figures. "That should make Charles happy."
The boy with the gun pointed at the truck and shouted, bringing his gun up and firing four shots into the windshield. Ducking to avoid the glass and bullets, Maria swerved the truck into a wall, causing the passenger side mirror to be torn off. Swearing as she pointed the vehicle at the boy, Maria started to fire though the shattered windshield. The vampire and the Slayer had dived out of the way as soon as the boy had shouted, and only he stood in between the truck and the exit of the laneway.
The young man continued to fire, this time at the truck's tires. The vehicle shook and almost veered into a wall again as one of the front tires blew. Dropping her gun, Maria used all her strength to keep the truck from tipping over and continued to bear down on the lone figure that stood its ground.
When the truck was almost on top of him, Maria saw him try to dive away from it toward a dumpster. Turning the truck toward the dumpster, the drug-runner smashed into it and started to push it and the boy down the alley. The boy disappeared under the wheels of the dumpster, and Maria smiled as she felt the truck bounce as it ran over something. She started to slow down.
Eddie watched as the truck barreled toward them, the woman behind the wheel firing what looked like an Uzi at them. "Get down!" he shouted, bringing his gun up and firing into the windshield and shattering it. As Buffy and Angel dived to the floor and against the walls, Eddie continued to fire into the oncoming truck.
Suddenly the vehicle liste to the side and scraped along a brick wall, causing sparks to erupt. The Necromancer continued to fire steadily, this time at the right front tire. The tire exploded with a bang and truck seemed almost to jump away from its wounded tire and tip over, but the driver righted it before it could crash.
Eddie pulled out his last clip and inserted it into his gun, watching as the driver of the truck regained control and aimed to run over him. "Ah, shit!" he muttered before the truck reached him, diving toward the dumpster. Pulling himself up, the male Slayer felt the dumpster slam into him as the woman in the truck rammed it. Eddie grabbed on to the rim and held on for dear life as the truck pushed the dumpster and him down the alley.
Thinking quickly, the Necromancer let go of the dumpster and let it slide over him, grabbing on to the bottom of it. From here, Eddie watched as the truck ran over the body of one of the zombies, causing it to jump up and then back down. She thinks it was me, Eddie realized as he felt the truck and the dumpster it pushed, begin to slow.
Letting go of the dumpster completely, Eddie lay still as it passed over him and the big rig begin to pass. Waiting until the front tires had passed him, Eddie latched on to the bottom side of the truck and let it drag him. Ignoring the burning pain along his back and legs, Eddie pulled himself along the underside of the truck until he was safely away from the huge wheels. By the time he had reached his position, the truck had slowed considerably, and Eddie could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from the cab of the truck. She's firing at Buffy, he realized as he listened to the retort of the Uzi.
Eddie was unable to see if the Slayer was safe, but assumed that she was since the truck was now almost stopped and the gunfire was more intense. Good, Eddie thought, believing that Buffy could somehow hear his thoughts. Keep her attention a little longer, Summers.
As the vehicle came to a complete stop, the Necromancer heard the driver open her door, still firing at Buffy. Knowing that it was now or never, Eddie dropped to the ground and rolled out from under the truck. Risking a quick look behind him, the male Slayer saw that Buffy had taken refuge in a doorway. Bullets were coming closer and closer to finding a way past her cover. Farther down the alley, Eddie could make out the figure of Angel pulling himself off the ground. For a moment the vampire and the Necromancer's eyes caught each others. Eddie pulled out his gun and motioned toward the truck and himself. Angel stared at him a moment, his face human and showing a weird concern. Finally the vampire nodded, his features changing so that now his eyes glowed faintly in the darkness and started to make his way though the shadows toward the back of the truck. In the span of a few seconds and a look, Eddie and Angel had come to an understanding. The woman first.
Giving one last look to Buffy, Eddie quietly climbed toward the passenger's side door, his gun held tight.
"Get down!" Eddie shouted, pushing Buffy to the ground and raising his gun. The Slayer rolled on the ground and jumped up against a wall, just in time to see the truck's front windshield explode as Eddie fired into it.
Realizing that she could do nothing to stop the truck, the Slayer slid against the wall until she reached a doorway. Pressing herself against it, Buffy could only watch as one of Eddie's bullets found one of the front tires, causing the huge truck to slam against a wall. Buffy observed the woman behind the wheel struggle to keep the truck from tipping over, trying to aim the partly disabled vehicle at Eddie. "Eddie!" Buffy tried to scream, straining to be heard over the combination of gunfire and the almost deafening noise of the big-rig.
The Necromancer either couldn't hear her or chose to ignore her, because he didn't take his eyes off the oncoming wall of metal that was headed toward him. Buffy prepared to try to tackle him when Eddie seemed to almost vanish and appear behind a dumpster a few feet away from where he had been standing. Damn he's fast, Buffy thought as she watched the male Slayer grab the edge of the dumpster and suddenly disappear again as the truck slammed into the metal container at full speed.
The sound of crushing metal and squealing tires filled Buffy's ears as she viewed the truck crush the front end of the dumpster and the driver slammed on the breaks. Both the truck and the dumpster kept moving forward, causing sparks to fly as they scraped against a brick wall. She watched in horror as a dark form that could only belong to a body bounced out from underneath the truck's monstrous wheels and lay still. The Slayer stared at the body, unrecognizable in the darkness, as the truck finally came to a stop. Oh no! Abandoning her shelter, Buffy ran towards the body, but soon returned after a hail of bullets began to fall around her.
"Damn!" she muttered as she dove into the doorway, putting as much of the wall between her and the continuing stream of bullets that came from the truck. "Damn, damn, damn!" Starting to panic slightly, Buffy caught sight of Angel getting up off the ground. To Buffy it seemed that he suddenly froze and looked in the direction of the truck, his whole body going ridged. Then it was as if some invisible strings were cut and he relaxed. Buffy saw Angel nod and then began to sprint across the alley, zigzagging as the woman in the truck tried to get a bead on him, firing long bursts that just seemed to miss him by inches.
"Lover," the vampire said as he jumped into the doorway beside her. His face was in full vamp mode and the grin he gave Buffy made her step back. "Seems you're friend has some sort of plan to take care of our gun-toting vixen." Angel stared down at Buffy, his grin turning fierce and his eyes burning yellow. "We get to be diversions."
Buffy opened her mouth, about to protest being a diversion, when she stopped. "Eddie's alive?" Her voice sounded strained, even to her.
Angel snorted and poked his head out to look at the truck. A burst of automatic fire quickly brought it back in. "Last time I saw him," the vampire replied as he flinched back. "You ready to be a moving target?"
The Slayer, relieved to know that it wasn't Eddie she had seen run-over, leaned against the wall and looked up at Angel. "And why the hell are you being so damn helpful?" she asked slightly confused.
Angel seemed not to hear her as he peered around the edge of the doorway again. "You want to stand here asking twenty questions or do you want to help the Boy Wonder stay alive?" the vampire asked tersely as another volley of bullets forced him back into the doorway. "We don't have time to do both!"
Within the cramped space of the doorway, Buffy and Angel were pushed tightly together. Even pressing back against the wall the Slayer could feel the familiar form of her ex-boyfriend rub against her body. Angel's afraid of something," Buffy realized as she felt the vampire tremble beside her. Another burst of gunfire seemed to punctuate the thought as both Slayer and demon jumped back. "Ok, let's do it!"
Without waiting for Angel's response, Buffy ran out of the doorway. She didn't know if Angel followed her. She didn 't know what she was supposed to do as a distraction. All Buffy really knew at that moment was if she stopped moving, she was dead. Bullets nipping at her heals like angry dogs, Buffy feigned a move towards the truck.
What the hell am I doing? Buffy asked herself when she realized she had nowhere else to run. Nice planning Distract-O Girl! Abruptly the fusillade stopped for a moment and then started again, this time sounding like if was coming from inside the cab of the truck. Crouching low against a wall, the Slayer took a quick look around. She saw Angel pressed against a wall on the other side of the alley. He was holding his shoulder and in the dim light, Buffy could see blood on his fingers.
Buffy had only a moment to realize that Angel had been shot. She realized two seconds before the truck started to speed away.
With Eddie holding on to the open passenger side door.
Maria couldn't believe her luck.
She had managed to run over the only real threat, the boy with the gun, and now had the vampire and the Slayer trapped in a doorway. "You're going to have to come out some time," she muttered as she fired off another round at the doorway.
Yet the fact was, Maria was getting nervous. If she didn't kill them soon, she was going to run out of ammo. If the cops don't find us first, the rigger thought with some contempt. It had been at least fifteen minutes since the first shot was fired, and she still hadn't heard one siren. The police in Sunnydale were even more incompetent the Maria had first thought.
Her thoughts on the utter lack of proficiency of the Sunnydale PD were interrupted when she saw the vampire stick his head out of the doorway. Maria quickly showed him the errors of his ways with a short burst from her Uzi. After the vampire pulled his head back in, the rigger sighed. "I'm going to have to go out and get them," she told the unconscious boy beside her. Getting only a glassy look in response, Maria pulled her last clip out of a pocket and shoved it into place.
Suddenly, she saw the Slayer run out of the doorway, quickly followed by the vampire. "Shit!" she swore as once again she stuck half her body out of the driver's side window. At first she thought that they were trying to escape, but then realized that they were trying to divide her attention. The blond-haired Slayer was running erratically, bobbing and weaving around the closed space of the alley.
Maria fired at the girl, but had trouble getting a good shot. Every time she expected the Slayer to run through this spot, the girl suddenly turned and ran in another direction. She lost track of the vampire as she tried to get a clear shot at the girl, but soon found him moving quickly along a wall toward her. The Uzi barked loudly as she fired at him. He had tried to duck out of the way at the last moment, but Maria smiled when he crumpled to the ground.
It was as she was turning to find the Slayer that Maria noticed the passenger side door opening. The Slayer and the vampire forgotten, the rigger pulled herself out of the window, swinging the Uzi toward the open door in time to have it pushed away by a pair of strong hands. Maria was surprised to see the boy she had run over, wrestling with her for control of the gun. The boy had grease and dirt on his face, but was apparently unharmed.
I fucking killed this kid already! Maria swore silently as she tried to regain control of her gun. The boy was only halfway into the cab of the truck, leaning over the body of the unconscious teenager in the passenger seat as he fought over the Uzi. Kid's stronger then he looks, the rigger thought as the boy pushed the gun's barrel away from him and toward the roof of the cab.
I'm losing. She feels her own gun slowly being turned on her. Her wrists are just knots of agony, shooting pain along her forearms. Her hands were sweaty and her grip was faltering. She knew that at any moment, the boy would gain control of the Uzi. Considering the fact that she had tried to shoot him, smear him into a wall, and run him over all in the last twenty minutes, Maria made a guess at what he would do once the gun was his. And I have to wipe that damn grin off his face! So she did the only thing she could have.
Maria squeezed the trigger of the Uzi.
The sound of the Uzi firing was deafening in the enclosed space of the cab. Maria felt as the bullets tore through the roof, adding more noise. Yet she still pulled the trigger again, and again. The boy still held onto the gun, trying to control the direction of the gunfire, but he was losing whatever foothold he had into the truck.
As soon as the gun clicked empty, Maria smiled at the boy and slammed down on the accelerator of the truck. She heard him swear as the vehicle jumped forward like a startled elephant, the roar from the engine replacing the sound of gunfire. Letting go of the Uzi, Maria put one hand on the wheel and used the other to punch the boy in the face.
The young man slid further down the seat under the blow, dropping the now useless gun onto the floor of the truck. While the punches didn't have tremendous strength behind them, they were more then enough to throw his precious center of balance off. With the third punch landed against his jaw, the boy started to slide totally out of the speeding truck.
Eddie couldn't believe his luck.
He had gotten into the truck without incident, as Buffy and Angel played decoy to Machine-gun Kelly in the truck. He saw the unconscious boy. He saw a little silver box that screamed clue. Finally he saw the dark-haired women who had almost killed him, her head out the window. Why do all the babes have try and kill me? Eddie asked himself mentally thinking back to his fight with Buffy earlier that day.
Choices! The Necromancer thought in disgust as he contemplated his next move. I hate choices! Give me one thing to think about at a time! The easiest thing would be to grab the box that sat next to the boy. Grabbing the boy without gaining the unwanted attention of their attacker was next to impossible. Ah, fuck it! he thought as he made his decision. I'll kill the bitch and then I get both the box and the kid. Eddie grinned in the darkness of the truck. Choices ain't so bad after all!
Pulling himself in as quietly as possible, Eddie slowly crawled over the boy, one hand reaching for his gun, the other reaching for the woman. He froze as he saw the woman stop shooting. His eyes fell upon the gris-gris tied to her right arm. Zombies aren't hers, he realized at once.
Suddenly the woman pulled her head out of the window and started to turn the gun towards him. His own gun forgotten, Eddie reached out with both hands and grabbed the weapon, trying to pull it away from her. After some wrestling, Eddie feels the woman's grip on the weapon weakening. Eddie grinned confidently, Your mine!
His grin quickly disappeared when the woman started firing the Uzi into the roof of the truck. Momentarily stunned by the onslaught of sound from the gun, it took Eddie a few seconds to realize what she was doing. Redoubling his efforts to gain control of the weapon, the Necromancer tried to steer the barrel of the gun away from the roof and toward its owner. Just when he felt the gun start to turn, it stopped firing.
Eddie managed an "Ah, shit," before the truck jumped forward. When the woman released her hold on the gun, the male Slayer felt himself start to slide out of the truck. Letting go of the Uzi, Eddie tried to find something to grab onto. His tentative hold on a seatbelt buckle was knocked loose when the woman's fist connected with his jaw.
She hit him again and again, each blow pushing him farther outside, knocking his balance off. With one last punch, Eddie quickly began to fall out of the now speeding truck. He felt his feet being dragged along walls and snagged by passing debris. Eddie grabbed blindly for anything that could keep him from falling under the wheels of the truck. His hands found the small silver box that sat beside the unconscious boy and gripped it tightly. It was caught under the boy's weight and for a moment, Eddie stopped his descent.
Looking up, he caught the woman's eyes. She looked mildly surprised that he was still there, but the look quickly changed to anger when she saw what he had grabbed a hold of. Eddie watched as she reached down into her boot and came back up with a large knife. He looked on numbly as she raised the knife and drove it into his hand and through the box.
Eddie screamed in pain, yanking his wounded hand away, the knife and the silver box still attached to it. He didn't even feel it as he slid out of the truck and slammed into a wall. He didn't notice sliding down that wall, the truck passing within inches of him before it moved past him. The only thing he felt was the pain in his hand and the black rage that filled him.
He howled in fury as the truck disappeared into the darkness, its red taillights staring back at him like a creature from hell.
