it took them fifteen minutes to walk up to the base of the hill. Giles had found plenty of Slaying equipment in a cupboard under the stairs, so they were all tooled up with stakes, knives and silver crosses. Well it was better to be safe than sorry.
There were no streetlights up by the hill, luckily Giles had the presence of mind to bring a flashlight with him, the two Slayers could see perfectly without them as they climbed over a low, wooden fence onto the common that formed the Northern side of the hill.
"Apparently," Minty whispered. "There are supposed to be catacombs under here. There is an underground reservoir though."
They crept across the common, Buffy at the front following a track, then Minty, Willow, Xander and Giles brought up the rear. Eventually, they reached a tarmac road and they followed that past a small car park and along the side of a huge steep slope. "That's the reservoir." Minty told them.
Soon they past that and the ground opened up again. On one side of the path there was a hedge with fields on the other side that sloped back down to Streetly. On the other side of the path was the rest of the hill. It was totally flat, at the far end Buffy could make out a small children's playground and to the side of it a small copse of trees. However, her eyes were drawn towards the bronze monument that she had seen form the motorway. In the darkness it seemed to glow faintly, but that could have been the reflected light of the city. The view from up here was amazing, all Buffy could see were the orange lights of the city and directly to the south the city centre.
There was a movement in the wood. As Buffy crept towards it all hell was let loose.
Something leapt down on top of her. She instinctively ducked and rolled and she could tell that Minty had done the same. Before she had finished her roll she was on her feet again twirling her stake in her hand. Minty was to her left and Giles, Xander and Willow had formed a protective circle. In front of Minty crouched a vampire, he face twisted into an evil leer. Minty looked frozen in fear.
Buffy didn't think, she threw the stake in her hand straight at the vampire. It buried itself into its back and then it exploded into dust. The shock of its death brought Minty out of her shock, she screamed. Buffy leapt over to her. "Are you OK?"
"oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Minty whispered.
"Come on, snap out of it. I'm going to need you." Buffy gently shook the terrified girl. "Come on, you can do this, this is what you have been training for."
The others crowded up to Buffy and Minty. "Looks like we found us the right place," Xander drawled. Willow kept glancing about, but it was so dark that she couldn't see a thing. A rustle caught their attention. "In the wood." Buffy hissed. As a group they made their way over to the wood. Minty seemed to be getting control of herself now. She pulled a stake out of her belt and held it tightly in he hand.
All of a sudden they were surrounded by vampires. One of them reminded Buffy of Spike but he was in Sunnydale. She shook the thought from her mind. The vampires circled them warily, they were a lot more cautious than the usual vampires she usually encountered. "Hello, boys," she tipped a cheery wink at them. The circle was slowly closing. The odds were god, there were only ten vampires, two each. She pretended to clean dirt out from behind her nails with her stake, never taking her eyes off the circling vampires. "What are nice guys like you doing in a lonely place like this?" still they remained silent.
Minty was watching the vampires in fear. These were dead people! Her mind screamed at her. There was another feeling, bubbling just out of reach. It was anger. Why was she so scared of them. They were dead after all! But her eyes were being drawn to their shiny, pointy fangs. She shuddered.
The vampires were now close enough to touch. Buffy started to twirl her stake in her hand again, taunting the vampires to get too close. An owl hooted in the distance. Then one of the vampires leapt, heading straight for Minty. Some instinct took over then, her hand shot out and she caught the vampire between the ribs as he fell down on her. The look of shock on his face disappeared as he exploded into to dust. Minty was covered in vampire dust. She dropped to her knees still holding the stake in her hand. Xander and Willow moved over to her to cover her.
Buffy tutted. "You guys are so impatient," she chided them and let fly with another stake. This time it passed straight through her target and embedded itself in a tree forty feet behind him. His death was a signal for the eight remaining vampires to attack. Willow and Xander were slashing at any vampire that got too close and Giles was stabbing with an efficiency born of practice. Buffy flung another stake and it went through one vampire and into the chest of the one behind him. They both exploded at the same time. The small group of vampires that were attacking Willow and Xander were covered in cuts and slashes. They did not heal where they were injured by wood.
Soon there were only three vampires left. One got under Willow's guard and sent her flying through the air. Luckily, she landed in a bush so she was just winded. Buffy had run out of stakes so she was kicking trying to push the vampires back towards the wood, there would be plenty of stake-shaped bits of wood there.
Minty was still crouched on the floor, she was obviously in shock. Xander stood over her, with Giles guarding his back. Xander's hand slipped on the stake he was holding and it went flying through the air. By some quirk of fate it impaled one of the vampires, unfortunately Xander was now weaponless. He cursed loudly. Giles scurried over to Willow and guarded her form any attacks and Buffy was still busy with a particularly stubborn vampire.
"Oh why won't you just die?" she asked him. The vampire just leered at her. She swung her leg around and roundhouse him. He crashed to the ground.
Meanwhile a vampire had crept up behind Xander and Minty. He leapt onto Xander's back and tried to bring him to the ground. Xander's cry of help! Woke Minty out of her trance and she leapt up, swung round and kicked the vampire in the face, ripping him off Xander. Xander and the vampire fell to the ground. Xander had enough presence of mind to roll out of the way as Minty jumped onto the vampires stomach and with both hands around her stake, plunged it into his chest. The vampire howled as he exploded. On the other side of the battlefield Buffy impaled the last vampire onto a handy tree branch. They had won.
The hill was silent. Willow was helped out of her bush by Giles and they hurried over to where Minty was sitting on the floor, Xander and Buffy crouched by her.
Buffy brushed the hair off Minty's face. "You did great, hon." She gave Minty a huge hug.
"You saved my life," said Xander. "For that I'll be your willing slave forever."
"Are you OK?" asked Willow.
"Please, everyone," Minty whispered. "I failed you. I put everyone in danger. I'm so sorry."
"You didn't fail," said Buffy, taking one of Minty's hands. "You did great. You bagged two on your first go."
"My first time I ran away like a girl." Xander confided. That made Minty smile.
"Come on," said Giles. " let's go home."
* * *
Xander was woken up by his stomach rumbling. He got out of bed and padded downstairs. There was still some fudge brownie left in the fridge. He padded into the kitchen and helped himself. He knew Willow wouldn't mind, it was going to a better place. While he was there he poured a glass of milk too. He was just about to go back to bed again when he heard a noise coming from the living room. He cracked the door open and saw Minty sitting curled up on the sofa sobbing her heart out.
Xander was in a quandary -well, he would be if he knew what the word meant. Should he go and comfort her or should he leave her be? He decided to comfort her.
"Hey, are you OK?" oh great start, he thought.
Minty sniffed and looked up at him. "No."
"What's wrong?" he sat down next to her and offered her some brownie.
"I failed you. Because I froze up you could have got hurt and it would have been my fault." She began to cry again.
"No no," Xander said. "You didn't fail. You did really well, especially as it was your first time." He boldly gave her a hug. "Come on now. Tomorrow is another day, let's enjoy it, OK?"
"OK," she sniffed.
"Promise?"
"Promise." She went up to bed. Xander felt quite proud of himself. He'd helped, and he'd done it well. He was glad, also. She was a nice girl and he knew how hard Buffy had it, even with them. Minty had no one. It was worse for her. Xander polished off what was left of the brownies and went to bed.
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