"Dreamchain" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, PG) - Part 3 of 7
Even with my life in pretty immediate danger, it was hard to keep my eyes off Cho. Not because of the gams (well… maybe partly because of the gams), but because she made violence into such a thing of beauty.
I’d never seen anybody move like Cho did when she fought.
It seemed like she was everywhere at once… a handy thing in a ten-against-two situation. She spent as much time on her hands as on her feet, and you could never tell which way she was going to bounce next. These demons didn’t look like very limber specimens to begin with, and they had no idea what to make of this crazy human dame who wouldn’t stop kicking them in the face, and whose neck never seemed to be where it was supposed to be when they reached out to grab and snap it.
Cho formed a one-woman circle around me, kicking and punching and slashing and keeping all ten demons back on their heels long enough for me to draw a weapon. I pulled out my trusty Luger… which actually, now that I thought about it, wasn’t very trusty at all when it came to demons.
Some species of demon can’t really be hurt by firearms, like vampires. But I figured these ones were medieval types, because that’s when Vigeous had bound them into the book with his curse. Demons can usually be hurt by technology that didn’t exist yet when they started out. They’ve got no defenses against it.
So I drew a bead on the one who seemed to be closest to breaking through Cho’s wall of wild-cattery, offered a bribe to whatever Power might be listening at the moment, and let her rip.
The bullet bounced right off it. Armored carapace. Dammit.
Cho cartwheeled right past me, threw herself into the air, and suddenly had her left leg hooked around the neck of one demon, and her right hooked around the neck of the one next to him. She jerked her knees together, and the two demon skulls cracked against each other with a satisfying sound. Cho and the two demons hit the ground. She did a backflip and was in motion again within seconds. The demons just sort of laid there.
“Isn’t she something?” I asked the demon nearest me. “You know, you should be glad you lived long enough to see that.” Then I put a bullet through his eye. It ricocheted around inside his skull for a while, and his day was over.
I was clear for the moment. A few feet away Cho was mauling a confused demon with hands and feet… seemed to have him under control, but another one was coming up behind her. I reached inside my jacket and pulled out one of the six glass bottles I had stashed in there.
I shied that bottle right at the head of the demon trying to flank Cho… direct hit, and the goon found himself showered with broken glass and holy water. He forgot all about fighting, and staggered off clawing at his smoking face and howling.
“Those medieval demons really hate the holy water,” I muttered to myself. Cho was still busy with her demon, and I couldn’t get a clear shot at it, so I just called her name and tossed a bottle toward her. She caught it in midair without looking, like I knew she would, and smashed it right into the demon’s face. Blinded and staggered, he found himself stumbling backwards as Cho kept up an impressive flurry of kicks against his chest. A few seconds later he toppled right over the side of Mount Lee, and down into Hollywood. That’d be the last we saw of him. A glamorous way to go. Probably lost on him, though.
Cho ran up beside me. “That’s five down, five more to go,” I told her. I handed her another holy water bottle, took one myself, and raised my gun to take good aim at the eyeball of one of the remaining, very uncertain-looking demons.
“I always find the first five are the hardest, don’t you?” she asked brightly.
“Remind me to ask you out on a date when we’re finished here,” I said.
“I will accept. You can take me to San Francisco.”
“San Fra-wha?”
“San Francisco. It is where we need to take the book. I will explain on the way. And if we survive, you may take me to dinner afterwards. Hopefully we will be the ones eating, and not the ones being eaten.”
Those last five demons probably wondered why I had such a goofy smile on my face… but then, they had bigger problems to deal with.
* * * * *
By the time they got three blocks away from Giles’s apartment, Buffy’s heart had already started sinking.
It was early evening, the sun had just set, yet there seemed to be almost nobody on the streets… no pedestrians, and no vehicles except for the occasional police cruiser or ambulance, speeding by with lights and sirens on.
Buffy turned the radio on, dreading what she’d hear.
“…saying there has been no intelligence regarding possible terrorist cells based in Sunnydale. However, the spontaneous nature of these incidents suggests coordination and planning, and in the absence of any triggering event that we’re aware of, all possible explanations must be explored…”
Four blocks out - nearly halfway to Dawn’s dance studio - they saw the first of the vampires. It was a middle-aged man, still wearing the suit he’d apparently had on at work. He was still carrying his leather briefcase, as if unsure whether he’d need it or not. The newly-minted vampire seemed momentarily surprised at the sight of Giles’s car, as if he didn’t know what it was. Then he spotted the people riding inside it. A look of animal fury instantly came over his face, and he ran out into the street after them.
The vampire’s ignorance regarding automobiles was apparently total. Giles slammed on the brakes, but too late. There was a soft thud, and the man came to rest twenty feet down the street, on his back. Loose papers from his briefcase fluttered all around like confetti.
“That was Mr. Neuberger,” Xander said. “He used to be on my paper route. Gave me a twenty-dollar tip every Christmas.”
The former Mr. Neuberger was badly damaged, but still struggling to get up.
“He’ll be mobile again in a few minutes,” Buffy said in a hollow voice. “Better finish him off now.” She pulled out a stake and started to open the car door.
Giles put his hand on her shoulder. “Buffy, perhaps we should leave him be until we’re certain we have no way of reversing the Fire. There may be a possibility that we can save him and the other victims. If not… I’m afraid there will be little we can do to deal with the problem more effectively than sunrise can.”
“There’s a happy thought,” Willow said.
“I’d like to petition for a little more advance warning with these Slayer dreams,” said Xander. “I mean… the night before the apocalypse? That makes about as much sense as an air raid siren during a nuclear attack. Just enough time to duck and cover…”
“…And kiss your ass goodbye,” Willow concluded.
“Yes, well. Let’s not kiss any asses prematurely,” Giles said. “Our concern right now is to see that Dawn is safe.”
“Better gun it,” Xander warned. “Here comes Mrs. Neuberger.”
An attractive fortysomething woman had appeared on the sidewalk. She was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Soccer Mom” with a picture of a cartoon lady in a pants-suit kicking a soccer ball. She glanced uncertainly at the weakly flailing body of her husband out in the street, then looked at the car and snarled viciously. Giles drove off, courteously driving around Mr. Neuberger.
They saw a few more vampires on the way to the dance studio, but thankfully none who were menacing any actual humans.
The studio itself seemed eerily quiet as the four of them cautiously went inside. It seemed to be deserted, although the door was unlocked and the lights were still on. Buffy tried calling Dawn’s name, but her voice just echoed loudly in the empty building.
“She’s not here,” she said, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. “She could be anywhere.”
There was a bloodcurdling shriek, and a girl about Dawn’s age appeared in the doorway that led to the locker room. She was dressed in blue jeans and a bra, and had obviously been in the process of changing clothes when the Fire had taken her. Without another sound, she charged across the parquet floor at Buffy and her companions.
“Don’t let her touch you,” Giles shouted. “Buffy… your cross!”
Buffy yanked the silver cross pendant from around her neck and held it out in front of her, letting the fluorescent light glint off it. The vampire girl - only a few feet away now - skidded to an abrupt stop, falling on her butt as she did so. She threw up noisily, all over herself and the floor, and scrambled on her hands and knees back the way she’d come, sobbing in terror. She didn’t know why that horrible shiny thing frightened her so, but she knew that she had to get away from it.
Buffy and the others watched as the girl finally found her feet, and fled whimpering back into the locker room.
“That was Gina Bruni,” Buffy said. “She’s been over to the house a few times. She’d dress up as Velma to Dawn’s Roxie. Nice kid. Former.”
“We’ll figure something out, Buffy,” Willow said. “Maybe there’s a spell…”
“Yes,” Giles agreed. “We’ve never been in the business of giving up. Buffy, these characters you keep mentioning… Roxie and Velma somethingorother. These are from a show of some sort?”
“Chicago,” Buffy said. “Dawn’s favorite.”
“And do you think Dawn might actually be wearing this blue dress of yours? It should make her easier to spot if she is.”
“I guarantee you,” Xander piped up, “if that dress is out there, I will find it.”
“I dunno,” Buffy sighed. “I think I’m just paranoid about that dress. I really like it, and she’s gonna ruin it. I even dreamed she was wearing it the other night.”
“Another dream? Buffy…”
“I know, I know, but trust me, Giles, this was just a regular dream. It was kind of stupid and goofy. Not an apocalypse in sight. Do I have to report every single dream I have? Because if I do, you’re gonna spend a lot more time fumbling with your glasses.”
Giles fumbled with his glasses. “No need for that, but I think you’ll agree that any possible clues we might have are worth mentioning. Is it safe to ask what this dream involved?”
Buffy took a deep breath and concentrated on remembering.
“We were standing by Dawn’s locker at school. Not her current school, but Sunnydale High… which is pretty odd, since it’s a pile of rubble now. She was wearing the blue minidress, and being all smug about it. She said Don’t worry, Buffy, I’ll be okay. And I said, No you won’t, unless you take off that dress, and she said Should I take it off right here? Because she’s a wiseass. And I told her to finish up in her locker and come right home. And she said, I have everything I need right here, and showed me the inside of the locker. There was nothing in it but one of those Harry Potter books she’s always reading.
“Then she closed the locker, and on the front of it there was no number, but just a letter Z. Dawn pointed at it and smiled, and said Zzzzzzzzzzz. And I said, What the hell does that mean? And she said It means you’re asleep, Buffy. Wake up. And I did.”
Xander and Willow looked at each other and shrugged. “You’re right,” Xander said. “That dream was wise in the ways of goofiness.”
But Giles seemed to be deep in thought. “Buffy,” he said. “Are you certain Dawn’s locker had a letter zed on the front of it?”
“Nooooo. It had a letter zee.”
“And you’re certain it was located at Sunnydale High?”
“Absolutely sure. I could even smell that stuff the janitors would put down when some kid barfed in the hallway.”
“A universal Sunnydale memory,” Willow agreed.
“We did a lot of barfing at ol’ SHS,” Xander added. “Good times.”
“What are you thinking, Giles?” Buffy asked.
“I’m thinking we should go find Dawn,” he said. “And then go and break into the construction site at Sunnydale High.”
“Sober?” Xander asked. “That would be quite a break with local custom.”
“Dawn first, trespassing later,” Buffy declared. “I want my sister back. And don’t tell her I said that.”
Continued in Part 4...