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Chapter 9


Angel left, with Riley right on his heels – he banged open the fire doors, and checked to see it was dark enough for him to go outside.

“I don’t see what you think you can do by going out to the base-camp”

“At least I’ll be doing something” Angel said pointedly

Outside, three soldiers were taking their break, talking, standing next to a jeep.

Angel whistled, and the soldiers looked up at him.

“I want one of you to take me to the base-camp” none of the soldiers moved, but they looked towards the Captain for guidance.

“You could even hinder the proceedings!” Riley insisted. Angel faced Riley and said,

“What ‘proceedings? Look, captain, I suggest you get onto who ever it is you have to get on to, and get a search party organised. Meanwhile, I’M going to base-camp 1, comprendez?”

Riley and Angel glared at each other for a few seconds

Looking beyond Angel’s shoulder, Riley sighed, blew out his cheeks and nodded to the soldier whom he knew was the driver.

The soldier jumped into the jeep, and Angel opened the door and left without another word.

Riley turned to see a soldier coming towards him down the corridor, he stopped, snapped a smart salute and said,

“I have the colonel-in-chief on the phone for you in your office, sir”

“Thankyou – I shall come directly”

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


“Where is he, has Angel gone? – I should have gone with him, I might be able to see more if I’m in the jungle – or at least nearer to them, I could be of some use!” Cordelia said to Gunn and Wesley, who were looking at each other.


********

“……………………Yes sir, at eleven hundred hours this morning, they confirmed to me that the beast was dead………no sir, no problems at all, not that I’m aware of – the weapon worked fine……………just after lunch – base-camp radioed to say that they’d lost contact……………well sir, I want permission to set up a search party…………………but sir, they are civilians and - ……………………………………………………yes sir, I understand…………can I at least give them another four hours before we pull out sir? ……………………Um, four soldiers at the base-camp sir, and two colleagues of the two that have gone missing, the other three are here…………………yes sir, of course they were all given security clearance sir, they are classified themselves – the girl is the slayer……………………yes one was a woman, I thought that you were aware of………………yes sir, right away sir, good (click) bye, SIR - and three bloody bags full” Riley hung the phone up and pressed the buzzer on his desk.


A soldier came in and smartly saluted

“Sir?”

“Get those people together and we go to base-camp now, - and soldier”

“Sir?”

“If the colonel rings again, everybody has gone home as far as you know, okay?”

“Sir?” the soldier looked puzzled

“Look, the C-I-C has stated we are not to go searching for the lost civilians, and well………I’ve got to give them a few more hours, even if it IS going against his orders – they did us a great favour killing that beast, I think it’s the least we can do is to extend the search time by a few more hours”

“Sir, yes sir!”


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






“Spike…baby – you awake – Spike”

“Hmm?”

“Come on baby, can you stand – we really, REALLY need to get out of here”

With strength he didn’t know he possessed, Spike managed to get on all fours, then push up to standing position, swaying. Buffy leant him against the earth wall

“Right, can you try and lever me up with your good hand… and I’ll try to climb……………”


After a dozen exhaustive attempts, the roots that Buffy was pulling at to haul herself up the 20 foot drop just kept coming away in her hands, she couldn’t get a foothold on the earth wall, it just scraped off when she tried to get purchase on it with her foot.

Spike collapsed in a heap, he was totally wiped out and exhausted, he hadn’t got the strength to stand up anymore, let alone try and give Buffy a step and boost push up the wall so she could climb out. Buffy slid down the wall sobbing

“Spike! Baby I’m sorry…don’t leave me…I love you”

She felt his good hand give hers a slight squeeze

“Love you, kitten. Try and save yourself baby…I’m sorry I’m bloody useless to you”

“You’re NOT bloody useless – and I’m not going anywhere without you, do you hear me – we got into this together, we’ll get out of this together” **Or not** Buffy thought, but didn’t voice. She cradled Spikes head to her chest, kissing his soft damp hair.


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


“Well, I’M telling you to try AGAIN!”

“But it’s no good! I’ve been trying for the last five hours, and all I’m getting is this – static – they don’t reply!” the soldier said with exasperation to Angel, turning up the volume control on the radio – all that could be heard was static.

Angel walked away disgusted and noticed headlights coming towards them at the base-camp.

“Well thank goodness, here comes the cavalry – NOW something can get done, finally!” Angel said with as much sarcasm as he could muster. When he saw the ‘cavalry’ consisted of Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn and Riley, he frowned

“Where’s the rescue team?” Riley ignored Angel and went straight up to the radio operator, who was sitting in front of the radio transmitter with headphones on to try and catch the minutest of signals

“Anything?” the soldier looked ruefully up at his captain and just shook his head

Catching hold of Riley’s arm, Angel said firmly,

“I said, where’s the rescue team?”

Riley stopped, turned and said out loud,

“Okay people, listen up………” Everybody stopped what they were doing, and listened

Riley looked at his hands for a few seconds and said,

“I’ve been onto the colonel-in-chief…and I’m afraid you’re not going to like this, but he said……………he said, we can’t waste any more man-hours looking for them, when they are obviously dead, so I’m afraid we’ve got to pull out – I’m willing to give it a couple more hours, which could get me a court marshal if I’m found out, but-“

“Afraid we’re not going to like this? You bet your bottom dollar we don’t bloody well like this! There are two people out there – well one person and a – a nevermind – and as much as I don’t like Spike – he went with his – with Buffy, and you OWE THEM- do you hear me, YOU OWE THEM!” Angel strode forward towards Riley angrily until two soldiers drew their pistols and aimed at Angel

“Okay now sir, that’s far enough – we know you’re upset for your friends, but the Colonel knows what he is talking about”

Angel glared at the soldier, while Riley physically lowered the soldier’s guns trained on Angel, saying quietly to them,

“Believe me, it wouldn’t do any good. Angel – I know how you feel – I feel just as bad, REALLY I do, but it’s out of my hands now – and if the C-in-C found out I was here, well that would be my career up the-“

“You THINK, for one minute, that I, or any of us here give a TOSS about you stupid career, hmm, that we care at all, huh? – I CARE about Buffy, I CARE now that’s she done the dirty work for you, you are abandoning her and Spike – without so much as a backwards glance, a so long, or even a farewell, you’ve served your purpose – we don’t give as fuck what’s happened to-“

“ARRRGGGG!” All eyes turned to Cordelia, who was holding her forehead

“Cordy?” Wesley and Gunn both had an arm around her

“Time is running out…so…so weak I …………can’t try anymore………leg – ow, oh …………gods that hurts – wound, leg - ”

“Who hurts, Cordy – can you tell us?”

“It’s…um…I can’t – “ Suddenly in her vision, Cordelia saw a bush, a smoking gun, Buffy’s agonised face as she fell, clutching her thigh.

“It’s Buffy, she was shot in the leg”

“Who in the hell would do something like that? – Are there any locals out there?” Angel asked angrily

“No! Look, they don’t go in that part of the forest – ‘There be dragons’ is what they say – well, what it translates to” Riley stated

“So look, say if she was shot practically straight after they killed the beast, that was…(Giles checked his watch) – nearly nine hours ago now…her healing would have barely had a chance to kick in with a bullet wound”

“Who says it was a bullet wound? – It might have been Spike” Angel said

Giles and Wesley frowned

“What do you mean, it might have been Spike?”

“It might have been Spike, with that bloody laser gun!”

“Don’t be so stupid – you have to switch the thing on first, then you have to press a button and hold down a trigger too, you couldn’t do that by accident!”

“I bet Spike could…just a thought anyway” Angel said

“Man…I thought just for once he was on Spike’s side!” Gunn said quietly to Wesley

“Oh my god!”

“Cordy?” She was staring into nothing – still seemingly having visions

“Spike – his – Ew, his hand, it’s grotesque - it’s about this big and it’s a funny colour – it must have been him bitten by the snake!”

“Snake?”

“Yes! Snake, earlier on, my vision in the dining room – snake!”

“Well a snake bite shouldn’t bother him” Giles said

“Sir, there are many, MANY deadly poisonous snakes in the rainforest, if Spike’s been bitten, then I’m afraid he could be well dead by now!” One of the soldiers said

“No, you don’t understand, Spike’s already –“ Giles went to say ‘dead’ – until Wesley jumped in and said,

“Spike is already been given anti-venom – before he left, w-wasn’t he?”

Suddenly realising it would be for the best that these soldiers didn’t know they’d been working with a vampire – or a hostile 17 as they called them – Giles pretended to have ‘forgotten’ that information

“Course! Silly me! Now – what are we going to do – sit and wait it out?”

“Wait what out? – Sir, I know it’s hard, but it looks like our C in C is right, they are probably both dead – if Buffy was shot, then she most likely has died from blood loss”

Angel rounded on the soldier and said,

“Look, there are things you don’t know and couldn’t be expected to understand – but right at this minute, I know…I KNOW they are both alive”

“How, how can you possibly be sure?”

“I’d know…” Angel said, looking towards the dense undergrowth of the forest.

Riley’s radio beeped, he unclipped it and answered, walking off out of everybody’s earshot.

“Is he – I see, no, don’t worry, we’ll be there directly, over and out”

Riley walked back and said

“The colonel in chief is on his way to our head quarters, we have to go.” Angel went to say something, but Riley held his hand up and continued,

“I know nothing I’m going to say is going to convince you otherwise, so I shall leave you the basic equipment, one of the radios, and leave you to it, when he’s gone, I shall send the jeeps for you – most probably tomorrow evening. That’s the best I can do”

“That’s it, go then, scurry away with your tail between your legs – bloody coward!” Angel sneered.

“Look Angel, I’ve had about as much as I’m going to take from you, I’ve already put my career on the line just by being here, tell me, are YOU going to give me a job if this army career of mine goes down the pan, huh – no, thought not?”

Angel turned his head away, it was all he could do to look at the guy a second longer than he had to, let alone employ him!

Five minutes later, all the soldiers had left, leaving Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Giles and angel wondering what the in hell to do next………





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