Aug. 10 - Let's Talk
Title: Let's Talk
Author: 3am_moonlight
Crossover: BtVS / The Walking Dead (TV)
Rating: Gen / Teen.
Word Count: 1,427.
Timeline: Post-Chosen / TWD: S01. (01x05 - Wildfire)
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss and TWD belongs to whoever holds the copyright.
Summary: They need to leave the quarry, but first they need everyone to agree.
Author's Note: Follows ' Turn of Events'.
The next morning saw Buffy and Faith keeping watch over the sleeping survivors they'd helped last night. They had chosen a vantage point up in one of the trees surrounding the campsite. After everyone had gone to bed in their tents, or in a few select cases, in Dale's RV or inside the cars, the two Slayers had done a thorough check of the immediate area to eliminate any stragglers or any other unwanted guests. They each ended up killing four walkers and when they were satisfied the area was as safe as it was going to get given the circumstances, they found a large tree and jumped up. It gave them a good view of most of the camp.
As the early streams of sunlight began lightening up the night sky, the two women began a low conversation, "I get that they are civilians, but there's no security here, no one keeping watch at night, and no clear leadership. It's like Sunnydale all over again, just with adults instead of a few twenty-somethings and a group of frightened teenagers." Faith thought about it for a few seconds and then added, "Actually, it's worse. They're sleeping in *tents* for fuck's sake."
"Sunnydale was bad at the end, but we had a plan. It was a bad one, but we were trying, and I did my best to keep everyone safe. These people seem to think boxes on a string is adequate protection against flesh-eating corpses with no understanding of limitations." It had been two months since the global outbreak and ten weeks since they had first heard about the dead rising as something other than vampires. As people kept reporting sightings of these unusual undead. Giles, Xander, and a couple of 17-year-old Slayers had been sent to study the new phenomena. Xander had been the Scooby Gang's first casualty and Giles' their second, but one of the Slayers who had gone with them had also been bitten. No one had told her and Faith if Xander had been reanimated or not, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"It was, and those girls were a lot more sheltered than they should've been. But these people," Faith used her hand to indicate the sleeping people below, "they're adults and they've been living the apocalypse for two months. They should know better. If you want to sleep you do it either inside a safe building, inside a locked car, or high enough up that the dead and other predators can't get you. And you keep someone at guard duty at all times. Always."
The two of them had been sleeping in shifts wherever they could find something sturdy with good locks, preferably on the second floor or higher if it was someone's house. Hotels, motels, hospitals, and all other places which were usually full of people had been avoided. You never knew where a walker might be lurking, or a live human being was looking to take advantage of other survivors. Groups of men, or even single ones, were the worst offenders, to neither of their surprises.
Down below them, people began stirring and crawling out of their makeshift homes. Rick the sheriff was one of the first, followed by his wife, Lori, and their son. In the chaos, they jumped down from their vantage point and walked over to Rick, as he had seemed the most level-head of their two options.
"Are you in charge of these people, or is it the other guy?" It never hurt to be certain.
"Shane was in charge before I got here yesterday. Not really sure who's in charge now." Apparently, their resident sheriff was an honest man, but he was also jockeying for the top spot.
Buffy nodded, Shane seemed a little off-kilter, but that could easily be the walker attack affecting his judgment. "We need to gather everyone and check if anyone has been bitten or scratched, or if they need medical attention. Anyone who has been bitten or scratched need to be separated from the group and watched because they will die soon and they will attack us as soon as they reanimate."
She and Faith weren't at the point where they would just kill someone who'd been attacked, but they couldn't be careless with anyone's safety either. Faith continued Buffy's explanation, "Everyone's infected and if a walker so much as scratch you on the arm you will die and come back as one of them. Unless the brain is destroyed."
The following argument was heated but in the end, everyone was given a thorough check and most people passed the test, except for one. A scruffy man named Jim had been bitten in the stomach but tried to explain it away as a simple accident or someone else's blood. This lead to a second argument, this time over whether or not they should try and get to the CDC or simply kill the man in question before he turned.
The camp had a total of 20 people, including herself and Faith. And Jim, although he wouldn't be with them for much longer. There were also four children, but no teenagers which were strange in itself. Eight men, two boys. Eight women, and two girls. The numbers were strangely even.
"HEY!" Faith sort-of yelled in an attempt to both get everyone's attention, but also avoid her voice carrying too far away from the camp. As everyone quieted and turned to her, she informed them. "There's no point in going to the CDC. They can't help; there's no miracle cure. There probably isn't anyone there at all. Chances are it's a crater so whatever they kept there can't get out and make things even worse."
They didn't know for certain if the CDC was truly gone, but it was an educated guess. Most places dealing with diseases, bacteria, and the like had a self-destruct in case of emergency, and the world ending definitely qualified as an emergency. Whoever had worked there were probably either dead, undead and hungry, or had fled a long time ago.
"How do you know? Have you been there or been in contact with them before the phone lines went down?" Lori seemed to be one of those people who just wanted to argue with people, but she did raise some fair questions so Buffy responded.
"Someone we worked with was in contact with them the day before we all lost electricity. They had backup generators, but they only work for so long before they run out of fuel. We were also told that if worse came to worst then they would activate the self-destruct." Then before Lori or anyone else could interject, she added, "They weren't even close to finding a cure, but they informed us it could take months or even years to make a vaccine that would work. If they could even make a vaccine that would be effective against this. They didn't even know where the virus came from or how it was able to spread so fast, let alone how it allows corpses to rise and aggressively eat the living."
Faith took over again, "B's right; the CDC is a no-go, but we need to leave this death trap. More and more walkers are going to leave the cities and we need to be somewhere with fortified walls, food, and water when the increasingly large herds find us."
Buffy sighed, it was true but making them panic wasn't the way to make them cooperate. "Look, you all agree this place isn't safe, right?" Most of them either nodded or mumbled an affirmative, but they clearly weren't happy with having that spelled out. "Right, so we need to go someplace else. Preferably somewhere we can get food; wild animals and fish, if possible. Fruit and vegetables, and easy access to water. We're not familiar with this area, but is there somewhere with all or most of those?"
It was a longshot, but she'd take a maybe at this point, or even somewhere with a few of those. No one seemed to know, even though most of them were local, but at least they seemed to be on board with moving. The thought of more and varied food probably helped. The end result was that they ate a light breakfast, and then all of them began packing. The idea being that once they were done, they would decide what to do with Jim and where they would be going. In the meantime, everyone would think about options of where to go next.
Author: 3am_moonlight
Crossover: BtVS / The Walking Dead (TV)
Rating: Gen / Teen.
Word Count: 1,427.
Timeline: Post-Chosen / TWD: S01. (01x05 - Wildfire)
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss and TWD belongs to whoever holds the copyright.
Summary: They need to leave the quarry, but first they need everyone to agree.
Author's Note: Follows ' Turn of Events'.
The next morning saw Buffy and Faith keeping watch over the sleeping survivors they'd helped last night. They had chosen a vantage point up in one of the trees surrounding the campsite. After everyone had gone to bed in their tents, or in a few select cases, in Dale's RV or inside the cars, the two Slayers had done a thorough check of the immediate area to eliminate any stragglers or any other unwanted guests. They each ended up killing four walkers and when they were satisfied the area was as safe as it was going to get given the circumstances, they found a large tree and jumped up. It gave them a good view of most of the camp.
As the early streams of sunlight began lightening up the night sky, the two women began a low conversation, "I get that they are civilians, but there's no security here, no one keeping watch at night, and no clear leadership. It's like Sunnydale all over again, just with adults instead of a few twenty-somethings and a group of frightened teenagers." Faith thought about it for a few seconds and then added, "Actually, it's worse. They're sleeping in *tents* for fuck's sake."
"Sunnydale was bad at the end, but we had a plan. It was a bad one, but we were trying, and I did my best to keep everyone safe. These people seem to think boxes on a string is adequate protection against flesh-eating corpses with no understanding of limitations." It had been two months since the global outbreak and ten weeks since they had first heard about the dead rising as something other than vampires. As people kept reporting sightings of these unusual undead. Giles, Xander, and a couple of 17-year-old Slayers had been sent to study the new phenomena. Xander had been the Scooby Gang's first casualty and Giles' their second, but one of the Slayers who had gone with them had also been bitten. No one had told her and Faith if Xander had been reanimated or not, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"It was, and those girls were a lot more sheltered than they should've been. But these people," Faith used her hand to indicate the sleeping people below, "they're adults and they've been living the apocalypse for two months. They should know better. If you want to sleep you do it either inside a safe building, inside a locked car, or high enough up that the dead and other predators can't get you. And you keep someone at guard duty at all times. Always."
The two of them had been sleeping in shifts wherever they could find something sturdy with good locks, preferably on the second floor or higher if it was someone's house. Hotels, motels, hospitals, and all other places which were usually full of people had been avoided. You never knew where a walker might be lurking, or a live human being was looking to take advantage of other survivors. Groups of men, or even single ones, were the worst offenders, to neither of their surprises.
Down below them, people began stirring and crawling out of their makeshift homes. Rick the sheriff was one of the first, followed by his wife, Lori, and their son. In the chaos, they jumped down from their vantage point and walked over to Rick, as he had seemed the most level-head of their two options.
"Are you in charge of these people, or is it the other guy?" It never hurt to be certain.
"Shane was in charge before I got here yesterday. Not really sure who's in charge now." Apparently, their resident sheriff was an honest man, but he was also jockeying for the top spot.
Buffy nodded, Shane seemed a little off-kilter, but that could easily be the walker attack affecting his judgment. "We need to gather everyone and check if anyone has been bitten or scratched, or if they need medical attention. Anyone who has been bitten or scratched need to be separated from the group and watched because they will die soon and they will attack us as soon as they reanimate."
She and Faith weren't at the point where they would just kill someone who'd been attacked, but they couldn't be careless with anyone's safety either. Faith continued Buffy's explanation, "Everyone's infected and if a walker so much as scratch you on the arm you will die and come back as one of them. Unless the brain is destroyed."
The following argument was heated but in the end, everyone was given a thorough check and most people passed the test, except for one. A scruffy man named Jim had been bitten in the stomach but tried to explain it away as a simple accident or someone else's blood. This lead to a second argument, this time over whether or not they should try and get to the CDC or simply kill the man in question before he turned.
The camp had a total of 20 people, including herself and Faith. And Jim, although he wouldn't be with them for much longer. There were also four children, but no teenagers which were strange in itself. Eight men, two boys. Eight women, and two girls. The numbers were strangely even.
"HEY!" Faith sort-of yelled in an attempt to both get everyone's attention, but also avoid her voice carrying too far away from the camp. As everyone quieted and turned to her, she informed them. "There's no point in going to the CDC. They can't help; there's no miracle cure. There probably isn't anyone there at all. Chances are it's a crater so whatever they kept there can't get out and make things even worse."
They didn't know for certain if the CDC was truly gone, but it was an educated guess. Most places dealing with diseases, bacteria, and the like had a self-destruct in case of emergency, and the world ending definitely qualified as an emergency. Whoever had worked there were probably either dead, undead and hungry, or had fled a long time ago.
"How do you know? Have you been there or been in contact with them before the phone lines went down?" Lori seemed to be one of those people who just wanted to argue with people, but she did raise some fair questions so Buffy responded.
"Someone we worked with was in contact with them the day before we all lost electricity. They had backup generators, but they only work for so long before they run out of fuel. We were also told that if worse came to worst then they would activate the self-destruct." Then before Lori or anyone else could interject, she added, "They weren't even close to finding a cure, but they informed us it could take months or even years to make a vaccine that would work. If they could even make a vaccine that would be effective against this. They didn't even know where the virus came from or how it was able to spread so fast, let alone how it allows corpses to rise and aggressively eat the living."
Faith took over again, "B's right; the CDC is a no-go, but we need to leave this death trap. More and more walkers are going to leave the cities and we need to be somewhere with fortified walls, food, and water when the increasingly large herds find us."
Buffy sighed, it was true but making them panic wasn't the way to make them cooperate. "Look, you all agree this place isn't safe, right?" Most of them either nodded or mumbled an affirmative, but they clearly weren't happy with having that spelled out. "Right, so we need to go someplace else. Preferably somewhere we can get food; wild animals and fish, if possible. Fruit and vegetables, and easy access to water. We're not familiar with this area, but is there somewhere with all or most of those?"
It was a longshot, but she'd take a maybe at this point, or even somewhere with a few of those. No one seemed to know, even though most of them were local, but at least they seemed to be on board with moving. The thought of more and varied food probably helped. The end result was that they ate a light breakfast, and then all of them began packing. The idea being that once they were done, they would decide what to do with Jim and where they would be going. In the meantime, everyone would think about options of where to go next.