[Reviews - 36]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 2076 times

- Text Size +




Chapter 7


“GET DOWN!”

Everybody immediately reacted to Gunn’s command, and they dropped to the ground as a unit of soldiers ran by

Buffy peeped from behind one of the computers she’d hidden behind to see if the coast was clear

“S’ok, they’ve gone”

Slowly everybody stood

“Look, lets see if we can get a map of this place, and find a way out of here” Wesley suggested, tapping away on a keyboard

As everybody’s attention was on Wes, and not the door, they didn’t notice when a soldier opened the door, and it was too late for them to duck

Spike went to go forward, but Buffy stayed him with her hand on his bicep

“Look at him”

The soldier scanned the room, his head slowly moving left to right, not stopping to look at any of them, and he left.

“He didn’t see us – how could he possibly have not seen us?” Angel asked

“Yeah, and how come nobody followed us through that either?” Gunn said, indicating the air-vent

“I’m sure they’re robots – and if they’re not programmed, then they can’t do what would be a natural human reaction! – Hey, do you reckon that’s it?” Buffy asked grinning

Giles looked thoughtful

“Could be………it might go someway to explaining why they go everywhere at double time too, without getting out of breath”

Angel and Spike smiled and nodded at this.

“Hold on, there’s another one coming in…I’m going to test the theory!” Wesley said.

When the ‘soldier’ entered the room, Wesley stood in front of it, and the soldier took a sidestep, and scanned the room

“Who are you looking for?” Wesley commanded

The robot soldier turned to look at Wesley, and after a few seconds a metallic artificial voice said

“I do not recognise your voice pattern – it is not one I’m programmed to respond to”

“Well that’s tough, mate…where is the exit?” Spike said, and went to walk towards the soldier, until Buffy saw a tiny red beam scan her vampire, and she quickly pulled him down, just before a laser beam fell onto one of the computers blowing it up

“Hostile 17 - destroy” the soldier said

Spike went wide-eyed and covered his and Buffy’s head from the shower of sparks

“Bloody hell!”

Angel thought it best to move from the line of fire

“Where is the exit?” Wesley asked

“I do not recognise your voice pattern – it is not one I’m programmed to respond to”

“Well recognise it now, and-“

“Place your identity card into the information tray, then punch in the voice recognition code”

“Ahh…um – oh look!”

From out of the soldier’s abdomen, a little tray slid out, just big enough to hold a ‘credit’ sized card

“Place your identity card in the information tray, then punch in the voice recognition code,” the robot soldier repeated in its flat monotone.

“You have 30 seconds to comply, then you will be considered hostile” the soldier said

“Oh…shit!” Wesley muttered

“I’ll do better than that” Gunn picked up a chair and bought it crashing down on the robot soldiers head

The soldier remained standing, but crumpled to one side, the face part popped off, revealing a circuit board and two weird looking ‘eyeballs’

The thing started marching on the spot repeating the one word, ‘Error’

It started to smoke and spark, and it was then everybody decided to take cover.

Five seconds later, there was a bang, and peeping from around the door Wesley saw the head had exploded and was now melting in flames. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the robot out.

“We need to get outta here, and fast, HE might not have been programmed to recognise us, but the next lot might, they know we’re here from that message we had in the locker room.” Gunn said

“Hey, look what I’ve found…quick, lets put them on – it might help us disguise us until we can get out!”

Wesley had pulled open a cupboard door and found some uniforms.

Quickly going over to the cupboard, they pulled out a desert fatigue jumpsuit each. After putting them on, Buffy said, (whilst trying to find her hands in far too long sleeves)

“We look ridiculous”

Truth be known, the uniforms only fitted Wes, Gunn and Spike. Buffy’s uniform arms and legs were about a foot too long, Giles’ were about a foot too short…the trouser part of Giles’ uniform stopped halfway down his calves, the top part the sleeves stopped half way to his elbows, and Angel was too fat to get into one at all………

“I’ve got over-developed thighs – the uniform is too small”

Spike rolled his eyes and said,

“Over developed thighs bollocks! Told you before mate, try getting your hands dirty once in a while, then you might not have such a lardy fat arse…to match your lardy fat head”

Angel went to turn on Spike and Buffy stood between them saying,

“Look, we can pretend we’ve got you as our prisoner – lets just get out of………oh shit!” Everybody turned and looked to where Buffy was looking.

“YOU – but I thought, I mean…you’re dead!”

Spike said frowning, pointing to the woman in the white lab-coat standing in the doorway.

The woman smiled, and was joined by none other that Quentin Travers himself.

“Good afternoon…you’ve met Dr. Maggie Walsh I believe – um, oh my – do you really need telling just how ridiculous you look?”

Quentin covered his mouth with is hand to smother a grin at the sight of Buffy and Giles in their ‘uniforms’.

His mirth contained, Quentin said,

“You know, this could have been so simple, but you just HAD to complicate things, didn’t you”

“Look Travers, I don’t know what you think your game is, but whatever-“

“QUIET! You know, for a slayer, I thought you’d be grateful to us; after all we’ve just eliminated half the vampire clans in the US for you…”

Buffy scowled at the senior watcher and hissed

“I don’t just stake vampires!”

“No, you don’t, do you? - You bed them too, isn’t that right Miss Summers … really, I despair of the Chosen Ones these days, I really do”

Buffy’s face hardened and she threw off the uniform and came towards the pair, fists clenched


“Why you…”

“Babe, be careful, I wouldn’t trust these two as far as I could throw them” Spike warned

“Sensible words from your pet vampire, I’d listen to him if I were you Miss Summers, because hitting me would hurt you far more than it would hurt me”

“Oh yeah, wanna test that theory do you?” Buffy balled her fist and was just about to punch Travers out, when Spike saw a tiny red beam come out of Travers right eye, and he ducked and ran the length of a bank of computers, each one exploding, sparking and catching fire as the laser beam hit them.

“What the – in the melee, Buffy grabbed the nearest thing to hand, and picked it up and threw it at Maggie and Travers. They both easily brushed off the computer chair and advanced towards her.

“Get out, get out while you can, run!” Buffy urged Spike and the others, but they were having none of it.

“Not bloody likely babe – WATCH OUT!” Spike managed to pull his wife out of the way, as ‘Maggie’ had just reached for the slayer, only to crash against the table, she had bright blue sparks arcing from her fingers that made a sizzling sound.

Angel was cowering in the corner behind Wesley and Gunn, while Giles, Spike and Buffy carefully eased back and away from what seemed super-robots, Quentin and Maggie…

Spike saw his chance and pulled the cable from the back of a working computer. There was a bang and the cable sparked as it was still plugged in.

“Come on then, come on if you think you’re hard enough you bastard!” Spike waved the ‘live’ cable in front of Travers, and Buffy saw the beam from the robot’s right eye,

“Babe, the laser!” Buffy warned, and Spike ducked and managed to touch the cable onto Travers leg. There was a big blue flash, a bang and the whole robot shook as little bolts of yellow lightening covered it completely – there was another bang and the face popped off before the whole thing started to smoke and was then engulfed in flames.

“Quick – come on, lets get out of here!”

Buffy pushed the Maggie-bot into the path of the flaming Quentin robot, and the clothing and hair caught fire – but she carried on after them, flames shooting out until she short-circuited and blew all her fuses…

Everybody ran down the corridor, to be faced with several units of soldiers running towards them.

“Ignore them, with any luck they’ll ignore us!” Buffy said and she was right, the two units ran straight passed. They reached the bottom of the corridor and were in a quandary which way to go.

“I vote left, right seems to take us further in, if you get my drift” Spike said,

“Yeah, I agree, come on” Gunn said, and they all turned left.

They turned down a wide corridor with cage type ‘cells’ either side, the noises and smells were inhuman

“Ugh – ew, oh god, I’m going to be sick!” Giles, Wes, Gunn and Buffy each put their hands over their mouths and noses to keep out the horrible stench

As Spike and Angel didn’t need to breathe, the smell didn’t bother them, and they looked into the cages

“Oh good grief………is that a – it is, that’s a Maharmos demon………my god what have they done to it?” Spike looked horrified at the pathetic lump quivering in the corner

“I think that’s a chaos demon in there, I can just about make out the drippy horns…” Angel said frowning

“Get- out here – arrgh the smell!” Buffy gasped and they started to run

They turned right this time; they had no option, and came to a locked door. Buffy soon made short work of it and it opened out onto two sets of steps, one going down on the left, the other the right, both leading to the same place

There were soldiers milling around, driving forklift trucks, there was a brightly lit room in the middle of everything

“There…that’s where we need to go, that’s the hub of this outfit I’m sure” Giles said pointing to the room

A siren sounded, and suddenly it was like all hell had been let loose. Spike and co watched as barriers came down over certain doorways and a metallic voice repeated, ‘Emergency…Emergency…code red – this is a code red – all robo-diers trained in seek and destroy combat please report to sector Alpha – Repeat, all robo-diers trained on seek and destroy combat please report to Alpha sector as soon as possible’

“Bet that’s for our benefit” Angel said. Spike gave him and incredulous look, and said sarcastically

“Gee, d’you think?”

“I was just saying!” Angel groused

“Well it was a fucking no-brainer – but then again why should we be surprised at you saying something like that…okay kiddies – Old Spikey’s got a plan…”





You must login (register) to review.