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Chapter 4


Spike got into the car, followed by Buffy, but he didn’t start the engine. He sat there rubbing his hand over his mouth and chin, deep in thought.

Buffy said nothing; she knew he was having a crisis of conscience…

Now Spike stood by everything he’d said in the office, about the Initiative and his wife, but as the others were planning on going anyway, he knew that if anything happened to Angel – it was a family thing………oh hell, if the great steaming pillock wanted to walk into a trap, who was he to say don’t?

“Would you hate me?” Spike asked Buffy eventually

“Hate you – what for?”

“If something happened to the poof? If tall dark and forehead got himself chipped or worse while he was there?”

Buffy smiled and looked out of the window across the parking lot.

“Well, would you?”

She turned to face him and leant close

“You want to go, don’t you?”

“Answer me babe, please?”

“No. I wouldn’t hate you…I could never hate you – he made a choice, you can’t be blamed for that” she slid her hand over his and Spike raised it to his lips and kissed it.

“Suppose we’d better go, hadn’t we…knowing those two English prats…god, it makes me be ashamed to be English sometimes…what’s the betting Wes and Rupes do something to, well exacerbate things, and Gunn might have a good legal brain, but when it came own to the nitty-gritty of a fight, well, Mike Tyson he ain’t!”

Buffy had a far away look I her eyes, but she nodded in agreement.

“So, we go then, yes?” Spike sat up from slumping and reached for the ignition key

“If we go, we go with them – here me out” Buffy held her hand up to stop Spike’s protestations

“They have better vehicles, and they’ll take supplies – we can’t just go haring off into the desert, YOU taught me that”

Spike grinned and leant across and kissed her

“Yeah, you’re right…” They walked back to the building hand in hand. When they got to Angel’s office, only Gunn and Giles were in there.

“Buffy?”

“Spike talked me into coming along”

Giles raised a brow and smiled

“Well good, glad to have you on board, as they say!”

“Hell yes – I feel much better now I know you two are coming!” Gunn concurred, making Spike smile

Angel and Wesley came back into the office

“Oh, so you managed to talk him round into doing the right thing then” Angel said, with as much sarcasm as he could muster

Buffy saw Spike’s face and quickly jumped in with,

“Actually, it was Spike that talked ME round, I said to hell with your sorry ass………we will be going in an observing capacity only, any shit YOU get yourself into, YOU’LL have to get yourself out of, got that?”

Spike could have danced with glee at the look on the poof’s face!

Angel blinked and said nothing to her, but instead he turned to Wesley and said,

“We’ll need more supplies now, blood and water, food for Buffy of course … … …we’ll go in the mini-bus, there should be enough room”

“Are we taking weapons?” Wes asked

“Weapons, um…”

“Just carry a stake each, that should suffice” Buffy said

“Well, that’s all very well for any vamps, but what about the Initiative – they’ll have-“ Angel began, only to be interrupted by Spike who said,

“They have enough bloody hard-wear to make El-Qaeda jealous, tasers, lasers, stun-guns, heat-seeking thingies, demon tracers, rocket-launchers, machine guns, the whole bit, nothing you can carry could match their fire-power”

“Oh man, I’m rapidly going off this idea again” Gunn rubbed his face and leant against one of the desks.

“You can sit and observe with us if you like mate!” Spike said, and Gunn immediately brightened at this suggestion.


*****************


“Are we-“

“You ask ‘are we nearly there yet’, and I’ll clonk you one!” Spike said to Angel.

Angel rolled his eyes and said testily,

“I WAS going to say, are we going in like we’re going to the ceremony, or do we go in like we know it’s the Initiative, or what?”

“You do what you like mate, coz Gunn, the Mrs and myself are only observing”

“Yeah, only observing, what exactly does that mean, hmm – I mean, why come all this way just to-“

“That’s it! There, look, over there, a huge circle of stones!” Wesley pointed east out of the bus, and everybody looked to where he was pointing

Spike slowed the bus…

“Right, now we know where the venue is, we can hole-up somewhere until it’s dark”

About two miles on, there was a rocky outcrop that hid them and the bus perfectly, and Spike pulled up in the cool shade. It was a welcome break; they’d been travelling all day, 7 hours with only stops to take it in turns driving.

Having had the AC on in the bus at maximum cold, stepping out in the bright, hot sun was like stepping into an oven, and Buffy quickly bought in a cool-box of supplies from the trunk and closed the door again.

Thankfully by dusk the severe heat had gone, and the cooler evening air was far more pleasant.

“Right then, have we got a plan – I’ve learnt by now you like to plan things, Spike”

Spike held his hands up.

“Told you. Not me, well not this time, it’s your shout don’t forget, observers here”

He pointed to his eyes.

“Well I suggest we drive a little closer, then I can see what I can through these babies” Giles held up a small black leather case

“What’s that?”

“My long-range, night-vision field glasses” Wesley came over and said,

“May I?”

Giles let him take the case and Wesley opened it, took out the binoculars

He looked at the range gauge and then looked through them, jumping slightly when catching Angel in the sights at the back of the bus, all he saw was a giant eyeball.

“Oh – they’re strong, good!”

“I wish I knew what we were up against, I think-“ Angel began,

Spike held his hand up and said ‘shush’

“Do you mind, if you’re not coming-“

“Will shut the fuck up for a minute – what’s that noise?” Everybody stopped what they were doing and listened

“I don’t-“ Gunn began

“SHUSH –there, it’s like drumming or…the sound of running feet”

“I’ll go look” Buffy volunteered

“Be careful babe, don’t let anyone see you”

Buffy nodded as she went down the steps of the bus and stealthily went out to look. She came back two minutes later, puzzled

“What was it babe?”

“Exactly what you said, it was a group of about four dozen soldiers wearing desert fatigues and baseball caps, running, all in a line, three across, four deep, a gap then the next lot - they were going at a fair old pace too, thing is, I can’t see where they came from, no camp, no trucks, it’s just miles of sand as far as the eye can see, with the road running through it – they must be super-fit to be running that distance for any length of time, and they’ve what, got another couple of miles to go yet”

There was an assortment of puzzled looks on everybody’s faces.

“Well, I think we should ALL just observe for the moment, until we know what we are up against” Wesley said, and Angel agreed

“I’ll be completely dark in –“

“LISTEN!” Buffy said, and the sound of more running feet could be heard.

This time Angel and Wesley slipped out to observe, the sound went on much longer this time, and when they came back to the bus, Angel looked decidedly worried.

“Hundreds of them, running in at least double-time pace, in neat little groups, and as you say, we couldn’t see where they came from”





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