New Home
The golden rays from the rising sun pierced the faceplate on Amanda’s helmet, causing momentary pain as her eyes adjusted. She turned off the motorcycles light. The bike had held up rather well; its previous owner must have taken very good care of it before he died.
Amanda still didn’t know where she was going. She had been driving for 3 hours straight without a break. She just had a feeling she should keep going. Like something was watching her, guiding her. She had traveled east instead of continuing south was now in a heavily forested area. She almost considered retracing her route and trying for LA after all, but the thought of driving through all that traffic in the desert heat didn’t appeal to her.
She had begun to really enjoy the feeling of the wind enveloping her body and playing with the long hair that swept out the back of her helmet. A few small insects had already met untimely ends on her faceplate, and it was getting a little hard to see.
Amanda checked the gas gauge again. Not quite empty, but getting there, and she was hungry. It was strange how there were still so few cars on the road. She had seen some, mostly driving north and west opposite of her direction of travel.
Amanda shook her head and continued on. After another fifteen minutes of riding, she finally saw a freeway exit up ahead. “Brasepoint?” She mumbled. “Never heard of it. Maybe they have food.” She changed lanes and took the exit into the town of Brasepoint.
Throughout her trip, Amanda had been contemplating on how best to spend the money she had been given. Soon, she realized it wouldn’t stretch nearly as far as she first thought. She would need some new clothes, food, a place to stay, and, gas of course. Therefore, she would have to keep her spending limited until she got her feet on the ground.
Amanda road through the small town, checking out the sites. It seemed pretty normal. Not a small town, but not a huge one either. It almost reminded her of Sunnydale. She searched for hotels in the area, trying to find somewhere cheap she could live for a little while.
“Sleep Easy Hotel.” She finally spotted. She had had to refill her bike during the search, using the extra can Amos had given her. “Twenty dollars a night, free cable, maid service.” The entire building was almost dilapidated; it had paint peeling off the sides and several of the windows were boarded up. Amanda wondered if it was even still in business. There were some cars in front, so she assumed the hotel was still occupied.
Parking in the front she dismounted and walked into the manager’s office. No one. Curious, she rang the bell. As she touched the bell, dust flew in the air No one had been here for a while it seemed. Amanda walked around the clerk’s desk and searched through the drawers. Keys! Smiling she pulled one out. “Room 64.” It read. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad day after all. Profanity interrupted her musings.
“Whose bike is this?” A male voice sounded from behind her.
“I dunno man; it wasn’t here when we left.” Another voice answered. Amanda turned and saw several shapes approaching the clerks’ office. She immediately ducked under the check-in table; she didn’t want to get into trouble for taking the keys.
“Someone’s here Ralph!” The first man said to the second. More profanity, something about protecting the “hideout.” Amanda scrunched up into a fetal position, hoping she wouldn’t be noticed. Obviously this was some gang’s hideout.
More stomping and smashing, when suddenly, the desk she was hiding under tipped over. “Well looky, looky here, Sammy. Look what I found!”
Amanda looked up from her curled up position and saw two young men, one black and one white, starting at her. The white one was wearing a baseball cap and was grinning ear to ear while holding up the desk. The darker man wasn’t smiling.
“Who are you? Who sent you?!” The black man shouted after making a rather unflattering remark toward her regarding the sacredness of manure.
Amanda nervously got to her feet while the white man, Ralph, laughed at his friend, than said to Amanda “Don’t mind him, he’s a bit paranoid.”
Sammy shook his head, mumbling something about an unintelligent mule. “We don’t know who she is, where she’s been, or what she knows about us!” The black man said. “Let’s get Gideon, He’ll know what to do.”
Ralph smiled. “Come on, she’s probably just another runaway like the others.” He said. “Why do you get so worked up every time someone new shows up?”
“I’m not alive today by being careless Ralph.” Sam said, he finally offered his Amanda his hand. “You have a place to stay?”
Amanda shook her head.
“Well, let’s see what we can do about that. Come with me…” He waited.
“Amanda.”
“Right, come with me please, Amanda. And we’ll see if you’re… worthy enough to come under our protection.” Sammy said, gesturing for Amanda to follow him and Ralph inside.
After being led down several corridors, through a laundry room, and some burnt out rooms, Amanda was finally led into a basement. The scent of human waste and decaying rodents immediately assaulted her senses. She scrunched up her nose in response to the insult.
“Don’t worry” Ralph said, falling back from Sammy and walking in step with Amanda. “You’ll get used to it.” He stepped a few feet closer to her and whispered. “Sorry about Sammy’s attitude when he first saw you, he’s just worried about someone finding out… well, you’ll see.” Amanda smiled nervously and nodded as they continued their trek through the sewers.
Finally they had arrived, or at least she assumed this was their destination: A large room with an air vent overhead that led to the surface. A large fan was spinning inside the vent propelling much of the fresh air downward, making the room slightly more bearable. Old boxes and furniture littered the sides of the room, providing many places for the dozens of gang members to sit as Amanda could plainly see.
Almost all at once, all of the young men and women in the room suddenly looked up to the new arrival. Almost all looked like runaways; many looked as if they had not even completed high school yet.
“Everybody, UP!” Sammy shouted as soon as he was sure all had noticed his presence. Amanda began to ask a question when Sammy roughly grabbed her arm and shoved her into the middle of the room.
“This here’s ‘Manda. She wants a place to stay!” Sammy said. Many waved, some said “Hi “Manda,” while other just nodded in acknowledgement. Sammy looked around at the unenthusiastic bunch. “Yo, what’s goin’ on? Ya’ll were so cheerful when we left!” He said, turning to Ralph, who nodded in agreement.
A young, well built young man stood and approached Sammy with a saddened expression on his face. “Frankie… what is it man? What’s wrong?”
The young man, Frankie, lowered his head. “It’s Kim… something got her while she was on watch. She’s dead Sammy.”
Sammy stepped back a few feet, trembling, while Ralph covered his face with his hands, leaning back against the sewer wall, shoulders heaving. Sammy wiped his eyes and tried to regain his composure. “Did… did anyone see w-what happened?” Amanda simply observed, she had no idea what had happened but she was wondered if it was anything with which she could help.
Frankie shook his head. “Sorry man, found her in the north sector this morning, Jamie came to relieve her from her watch and… found her. It…” he swallowed hard, struggling to finish. “It cut her in half.”
Sammy closed his eyes tight, tears starting to stream down his face. After giving himself a moment he opened his eyes again. “Where’s Gideon?” he finally asked.
Frankie looked down one of the many corridors, which Amanda assumed to be the “North” route. “He went after it. He thinks it’s the same thing that’s been making noises at night and scaring away the rats.”
“Well where the hell was he when Kimmy got killed?!” Sammy shouted, his voice cracking because of his grief.
“Man, sorry. Gideon was helping blue group take care of that nest of vamps south of here. He came as soon as he… as soon as he heard what had happened.” Frankie said, now looking past him to Amanda. “Hello there.” He smiled weakly. “Sorry for the rude welcome, we’re dealing with… a pest problem.” He said, a bit nervous, trying to cover what he had just said.
“Vampires?” Amanda asked.
Frankie was taken aback by Amanda’s statement and looked at her in surprise. “Ran into them before, have you?” Ralph had put his arm on Sammy’s shoulder and was now leading him down a different corridor. Where the body is being kept? Amanda wondered.
“No, well, yeah… you could say that.” Amanda admitted. She wasn’t sure how much to tell these people. “Who’s this ‘Gideon’?”
Frankie smiled warmly. “Gideon is our leader. He is a professional… let’s just say Monster hunter.” He turned from Amanda and gestured to the rest of the group, some sitting in silence, some crying, some praying. “We have a bit of a problem in this town. People die mysteriously and no one knows what seems to cause it. But we know.” He turned back to Amanda. “We have a monster problem.”
Amanda gave a huge fake smile, not knowing what to say about the man’s attitude. She had never seen anyone so enthusiastic about living underground in the sewers.
“So….” Amanda stopped, lowering her voice into an almost-whisper. “Why is everyone so young? What brought you guys here?”
Frankie lowered his voice as well. “The reason why most of us are just kids is because, well, we have lost our parents one way or the other to the monsters.” Frankie shook his head. “You see, our organization isn’t exactly what you would call ‘legal’ which is why we hide out here, in the underground. Most of these kids were orphaned after their parents were killed in ‘mysterious’ circumstances. The kids are here because they want one thing: Revenge. We train and exercise to fight as best we can. One day we believe Gideon will lead us into a final battle which will eradicate the monsters from our town forever!” Frankie grinned, completely proud of his little group’s goal.
Amanda raised a brow. She wasn’t sure she quite agreed with their mission statement. Sending a bunch of kids to fight horrible monsters didn’t seem right to her. Of course she did it, but then again, she was a Slayer.
“So when is this Gideon supposed to be back? I’d like to talk with him.” She definitely would have a “talk” with him.
Frankie sighed, shrugging. “As you heard, one of our girls was killed this morning. Gideon is trying to find the thing that did it.”
“He went that way?” Amanda asked, pointing down the corridor that Frankie had mentioned earlier.
“Yeah.” Frankie said, “Why?”
“What kind of weapons do you have around here?” Amanda said, quickly changing the subject.
“Mostly mêlée weapons, they seem to work better on these things than guns and bullets. Crossbows work too. Swords, axes, spears, long knives, even the occasional pointy stick.” Frankie said, chuckling a bit.
“Hey, don’t underestimate the power of the pointy stick,” Amanda said, a dead serious tone in her voice. She recalled how well she had fought on two occasions with a sharp stick. Of course, the last time she had nearly died.
Frankie laughed a bit louder this time. “Of course.”
Amanda ignored his sour attitude regarding her favorite weapon. “Anyway, I’m going to go have a ‘chat’ with your boss. Do you mind?”
Frankie suddenly got very serious. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you ‘Manda, none of us can even hope to fight a monster of that size, except Gideon of course.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “It’s Amanda, and don’t worry, I can take care of myself.” She began walking toward the North corridor.
“Hey, Amanda, wait!” Frankie shouted, jogging to catch up, but it was too late. Amanda took off in a sprint down the sewer corridor.
It was smelly. It was dark. And it was really cold. Those were the only thoughts going through Amanda’s head. She had to slow her pace considerably after it had gotten too hard to see. She had hoped her new Slayer powers included night vision in the pitch dark, but unfortunately, no such luck.
She was close now, at least to something. She could hear loud pounding and the scraping of metal, or was it claws, against the sewer walls. It was also getting a little easier to see, or maybe her eyes were just adjusting to the dark. She could see things in her way, crawling up walls, scraps of metal lying on the ground.
She picked up a metal bar she found and used her Slayer strength to twist one of the ends off, making the edge extremely sharp. She twirled it around and played with it as she continued on her way.
There was a light ahead, she could see much better now. Amanda took off running toward the light, the sounds getting louder and closer. She finally found the source of the light: The sewer entrance was open and sunlight was streaming down. The sounds seemed to be coming from… above?
Amanda ran to the ladder and quickly climbed it. The first thing she realized was she was now in some sort of abandoned building, maybe a mile from the hotel it seemed, or so she assumed based on her walk. The roof had a large hole in it, letting the sun pierce the darkness below. Amanda gasped at the second thing she saw.
There it was. A large larva like beast, at least that’s what it looked like from behind. Two horns stuck out of its head and as she got closer she realized that its upper body was quite a bit different. Its lower half was like a slug, while its upper half was a large head, with spines covering it. Four huge limbs stuck out of the head, two on each side. The limbs were like the claws of a scorpion. They made loud “clacking” sounds when they snapped. The beast was concentrated on the figure in front of it.
A man, much older than the kids she had met earlier, ducked under one of the claws, rolling to the right. He wielded a medium sized double bladed axe. When the next swing came he parried with his blade and attempted to slice through the creature’s claw. The axe bounced off the exoskeleton as if it were plastic.
“So this must be Gideon…” Amanda whispered.
The front exoskeleton was indeed hard, Amanda noted but the back looked much… softer. She smiled and she ran up behind the demon, makeshift spear raised. The beast suddenly moved out of the way, apparently in an effort to avoid another one of Gideon’s attacks, causing Amanda to hit air.
She wrinkled her nose and tried to set up again. Obviously, an attack to the tail wouldn’t do much good; expect to possibly make the monster angrier. She examined its back while it continued to battle the Monster Hunter.
“There,” she whispered, noticing a small crack between its bone structure above its torso. She would have to run up the tail in order to get there, or she could try throwing the weapon, though she was never good at throwing. Then again she hadn’t really tried it again since becoming a full Slayer.
The demon was starting to get the better of Gideon; the man’s axe being batted around like a plastic baseball bat. Amanda made a quick decision. “Throwing is too risky…” she ran to the beast, ran up its larval “tail” and rammed the pipe into the exposed back. Uttering an inhuman roar, the monster arched its body backwards. The more Amanda pushed up, the more the creature would be forced back. She smiled as she twisted the pipe, adding to the creature’s pain.
Gideon, who had not yet noticed Amanda, obviously found this reaction strange, but did not hesitate at its distraction. Gripping his weapon with both hands he ran toward the demon, swinging hard into its abdomen. He felt something give and the creature started to lumber down towards him again, than suddenly was forced upward again, by something he could not see. He swung again, harder, into the same spot. This time he heard a sickening crack as his axe met the exoskeleton. The beast roared in pain as its protective shell was broken.
Gideon turned the blunt end of the weapon into the shell, completely smashing it, and than he used the blade of the axe to peel apart the exoskeleton from the soft flesh underneath. He glanced upwards. The demon was clawing at something at his back. Gideon wasn’t sure what was going on, but he certainly wasn’t going to stop and find out. With another powerful swing he plunged the axe deep into the creatures chest, feeling it rip through organs and veins.
With a tortured shudder the creature lumbered forward toward Gideon, who dived out of the way after ripping his axe from the beast’s abdomen. The ground rumbled as the demon finally came to a rest on the hard cement of the warehouse floor. Gideon finally noticed the steel pipe protruding from its back.
It was than pulled out by the young woman standing right behind it.
“I take it you’re Gideon?” Amanda said, directing her eyes from him to her makeshift “weapon” that was now dripping with green blood.
“Yeah. Who are you? I’ve never seen you with my other students before.” Gideon said, speaking for the first time. He had a gentle yet determined tone in his voice. He swung his axe around to his back to a holster worn around his shoulders. He was a few inches taller than her, had a medium build, and short dark hair.
“That’s kind of the reason I wanted to talk to you.” Amanda responded, eyes glancing at the huge form she was standing on.
Gideon gave her a confused look. “What do you want to know?”
“I’ll tell you on the way back.” Amanda said, shoving her pipe one more time into the dead beast’s form before turning and climbing back into the sewer. Gideon quickly followed.
“Look miss, I don’t know who you are, but you have some sort of skill that could be useful to me.” Amanda cut him off.
“Wait, wait, first of all, I’m not going to be “used” by anyone, I came here to find a place to stay and offer my skills.” She said, not appreciating the idea of being considered a tool to be used in this man’s war. “I’m sorry.” She said, getting less defensive. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”
“Clearly,” Gideon said. “Perhaps we should discuss this more back at the hideout.”
Amanda nodded. “Sure. Right.”
“I’m assuming you’ve met the others?” Gideon asked. “Being you know my name and all.”
“That’s right.” Amanda said.
“Well, are you going to tell me your name, or are you going to make me guess?”
“Oh, sorry, I’m Amanda.”
“Ah, so, where did you learn to fight like that, Amanda? No offense, but you don’t look like the type that usually goes around doing this type of thing.”
Amanda snorted. “Gee, thanks.” She chuckled. “I’m a Vampire Slayer.”
“You’re the Slayer?!” Gideon stopped, shock in his voice.
“You know of us?” Amanda asked, surprised that he knew what a Slayer was.
“Who hasn’t? You are a legend! You were the one from Sunnydale, correct? The Slayer for the last seven or eight years? We have always hoped you would one day visit us here in Brasepoint, to help us in our fight!” The previously dour man was now thrilled.
Amanda laughed out loud, filling the dark sewers with a very rare sound. “No, I’m not Buffy.” She shook her head..
“Buffy? That was the name of…the, the one from Sunnydale is dead?” He asked sadly.
“Not to my knowledge, we kind of got separated when the town collapsed into a sinkhole. I don’t know how many of the others made it out in time, or how many even lived to make it out in time.”
“But… I do not understand.” Gideon said, now giving her a confused look as they walked. “There can be only one Slayer at a time, correct?”
“Oh!” She exclaimed with a laugh. “Well, that was right, until a witch made us all Slayers, well, those of us girls who could become one anyway.” She gave a short very un-lady like snort. “So now there are a bunch of us.”
“I see…” Gideon said with a smile. Maybe there was still hope after all. “Well, Amanda, you are no doubt invited to stay with us! We will give you food and shelter and in return you can help me protect these people, as well as help train them. Do we have a deal?” He asked as they approached the exit into the gang’s headquarters again.
Amanda smiled. “Deal.” She reached out her hand and Gideon took it. “But, well, where do we sleep? Down here?”
Gideon chuckled. “Only if we’re on watch. Nasty creatures have a habit of sneaking up from the sewer during the night. We use the hotel rooms above to live in. Everything else goes on down here. We still have power and electricity thanks to a little, ah, ‘computer error’ that one of our boys planted in the local power station and water works.”
“Nice,” Amanda said, smiling. She had always loved computers, and hoped she could play with them some. As they entered the room, the young men and women there immediately gathered around Gideon, propelling him with questions about how the “hunt” went.
“The demon is dead, and we have a new friend,” he turned to Amanda. “This is Amanda, the Vampire Slayer. She has agreed to help us in our fight.” Amanda waved and smiled at the gathering, many who she had just met a short while ago. “Amanda,” Gideon started again. “Make yourself at home.”
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
