Charlie shifted minutely and winced as her cramped muscles tightened and pinched painfully. What had seemed like a fairly simple in, out, blow the place to kingdom come mission had turned into a nightmare. They were now trapped in a barn, hidden behind a pile of crates, while several inebriated vampires had a loud and raucous party. Her timing could not have been worse. For a reason that she had not yet worked out, the nest had not been at the bar for more than an hour. If they had just stayed away a few minutes longer . . . if she had just set the traps a little faster . . . mentally she slapped herself again. As her father would say, "It's no use crying over spilt milk."
There would be time to agonize over how badly she had misjudged things later. Right now, Charlie had a far more pressing mission. She had to get them all out this barn, preferably before it turned into an outsized bonfire. Glancing at her watch, she stifled a worried groan as she realized that they were running out of time. Dawn was not far off and the charges were set to detonate a few minutes after that to ensure that no vampires could escape the carnage. Charlie did not want to be around when that happened.
She could hear the faint, regular breaths of Pat next to her who had apparently fallen into a light doze. On the other side was Vonnie, pressed close as she tried not to show how frightened she was. The Irish girl was shivering slightly, and Charlie knew it was not just from the cold. Probably if it were not for the worry, she would be pretty damn frightened as well.
If either of her friends were hurt, or worse, Charlie knew she would never forgive herself. This plan, this entire operation, was her baby and the blame for its spectacular failure had to rest on her shoulders. Somehow, she was certain that her parents had never fouled up this badly during their tenure.
Beyond the crates, she could hear the harsh laughter as several drunken vampires concentrated on getting even more sloshed. Maybe their target had got cold feet? That would certainly explain their early return. Loud rock music had been playing intermittently during the night, restarted each time one of the vampires remembered to change the CD, and Charlie almost jumped as the wailing guitars started up again. It was hard to believe that this nest had been around for as long as it apparently had; they were hardly discreet. The racket could probably be heard for miles around.
"Yo, Billy," one of the vampires slurred.
"Yeah?"
"Got more beer?"
There was the faint sound of bottles rolling across the floor. "Nope. 'S all drunked."
"Got 'nything else?"
More bottles were sent rolling across the floor. "Got tequila." Gulp. "Had tequila. Gone now. Bobby, got 'ny beer left?"
"I gots bottles," a dreamy voice announced. "Perty bottles. Nice. Brown."
"Aw, ignore 'im. He's stoned," the nameless speaker said. "Next time, check what the tramps have been sniffing before you feed 'em to Bobby."
"Who made you the boss of us?" A new voice asked angrily. "I don't remember asking you to-"
The voice abruptly cut off, and for a moment Charlie held her breath. Had he heard or scented them in their hideaway?
"Out like a light," Billy announced. " Musta bin that last shot o' whiskey."
"I dunno, Billy, 'm pretty sleepy too," the first voice mumbled. "Think I'll just . . ."
"Looks like the party's over, Bobby," Billy said slowly. "It's nearly dawn. I'm gonna hit the hay."
"Hay." Dreamy giggled. "Fay. Say. May. Day."
"Yeah, th's nice. Go to sleep."
Charlie listened intently for a while, and slowly the barn descended into silence. Every nerve in her body was screaming to get up and run out of there was fast as her legs could carry her, but still she waited. It would be no good to get halfway across the barn and find out that there was one vampire awake and ready to catch them. The jaunt around the barn earlier to lay the trap was already taking its toll. Her ribs ached badly, sharp pains shooting down her side whenever she tried to move her right arm. Jumping down from the loft had been a stupid risk; the jolt had reverberated throughout her body and Charlie had the sinking feel that it had undone all the healing she had managed over the past couple of weeks. There was no time to stop and assess her condition though. She would just have to work through and around the handicap, and try to reverse the damage later.
Eventually even Charlie had to admit that the barn was reassuringly still. She carefully shifted until she was crouched, rather than sitting on the floor, and then rose up to cautiously pop her head above the crates that had hidden them for so many hours. The vampires had helpfully lit some lanterns when they arrived, and by their light Charlie could spy six motionless lumps. Two were slumped against the far wall, and she guessed that they were the pair she had heard pass out a couple of hours ago. The remaining four were arranged on the floor in the corner, surrounded by bottles. Beer, tequila, whiskey, wine . . . if it contained alcohol, there was an empty bottle of it on the floor around the quartet. Whatever had happened, they had certainly done their best to get as drunk as possible in the shortest time frame they could. Charlie was only surprised that they had stayed conscious for as long as they had.
She crouched back down between Vonnie and Pat, resting on hand on either of their shoulders. Pat woke up with a start, staring at her in confusion before he remembered where they were and what they were doing. Vonnie just looked up at her, fear and misery etched in her pale face and pleading blue eyes. Charlie smiled reassuringly at her but Vonnie did not look convinced.
"Ready to blow this joint?" Charlie breathed.
Both trainees nodded and waited for instructions. Charlie was beginning to know how her father felt every time someone looked to him for guidance, regardless of whether he was the best qualified to give it. She had already decided that Giles was a patient man for coping with it; she now thought that he was the bravest man she knew. Leading was harder than it looked.
Charlie pointed towards the door and raised an eyebrow. Pat nodded, and a moment later Vonnie reluctantly added her vote. With a grimace as her abused muscles complained, Charlie slowly stood and stretched to her full height to work out the kinks. The other two matched her movements, carefully stretching cramped muscles to get rid of the tight, painful tension.
Nothing else moved in the barn; there were no angry shouts or enraged vampires rushing at them. Charlie placed a finger over lips to remind them to be silent and slowly, cautiously, crept towards the barn doors. The other two followed her as quietly as they were able, the blonde woman wincing at every scrape and scuff they made. Every moment she expected one of the vampires to wake up and begin shouting, or worse. But miraculously none of them appeared to note their careful progress. Possibly it was partially because they were all comatose from the volumes of alcohol consumed, but Charlie was not willing to take any chanced with the safety of her friends. Slow and cautious would win the day rather than fast and fearless.
All three trainees made it to the doors, and Charlie checked her watch. It was just past dawn; the charges would be going off in a couple of minutes so they had to leave now or risk being trapped with angry, burning vampires. She reached out and rested her hand lightly on the large wooden doors. It would only take a slight push to swing them open far enough to slip through . . .
Just as she started to put pressure on the door, Charlie heard an ominous bang from the other side of the door. It sounded like wood grating against wood and then dropping heavily. Gulping, she pressed against the door. It did not move.
Cold sweat broke out as she increased the push, finally putting her entire weight against the door. It did not shift an inch.
"Damn," she muttered, pushing with all her strength.
"Charlie?" Vonnie asked worriedly.
"I never like it when she says that," Pat confided under his breath. "Whenever she says 'damn' it's always bad."
"The door's stuck," Charlie murmured.
"Stuck? How can it be stuck?" Vonnie asked, a note of hysteria in her voice.
"I don't know. If I knew how, we wouldn't be standing here."
"Got a plan B?" Pat asked.
Charlie glanced back at the still-motionless vampires. "No."
But people always have plan B's. Plan B must exist."
"Well, I'm a bad team leader because my plan B did not take into account someone locking us in here with those guys!" She jerked a thumb over her shoulder and quickly lowered her voice again. "Have you got any ideas?"
"No."
Charlie checked her watch. Any moment . . .
The sound of the detonator going off was almost inaudible. There was a quiet hissing sound as, all over the barn, flames suddenly leapt up to begin lapping at walls and beams. The air was filled with crackling sounds from the hot flames and Charlie sneezed as smoke began filling her nose.
"Isn't this taking 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' a little to far?" Pat asked, shouting to be heard over the roaring flames.
Charlie looked around desperately, searching for a way out.
There was another hiss as the line of accelerant that she had draped in a semi-circle around the door ignited. On the one hand it cut off the vampires from escape and them. On the other hand, it cut them off from the rest of the barn and any possible escape routes. Charlie spun around, scanning the walls vainly as she tried to spot anything they could use to beat or cut the doors down. There was nothing.
"Charlie?" Vonnie asked, fear dripping from her voice.
"What?"
"Would an axe help?"
"If we had one, it would. The door's made of wood and I could . . ." Charlie slowly turned to follow Vonnie's eyes. "Huh, look at that."
Almost hidden by a crate, hung on a wall, was a large axe. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the wall of flames that were now Charlie's height and completely cut them off from the rest of the barn. The blonde woman knew from experience that Willow's accelerant would burn for some time yet, and every minute they spent in the barn was shortening their odds of getting out alive. Already the flames were licking at the wooden walls and piles of hay were blazing merrily. Acrid smoke filled their noses and lungs, making them cough and hack painfully. Charlie shook her head angrily. There had to be a way.
She looked again at the walls of flame surrounding them. There was no way she could do what she was thinking of. Absolutely not. But . . .
Charlie had seen her mother jump over higher walls than this. She had watched as Buffy leapt onto the roof of a two-story high building, hardly even grunting at the take-off. But Charlie was not a Slayer and there was no way she could do this. Could she?
She was, after all, a Slayer's daughter. Her father was the son of a Slayer. Surely by now, some of that inheritance had to have rubbed off. Charlie knew that she was stronger and faster than most of the other trainees. She had always assumed that was because she had been learning to fight since she was fourteen. Suddenly she found herself, for the first time in her life, hoping that her strength was unnatural rather than the result of hours on the training mats. If only . . .
Vonnie squeaked as, with a roar, a flaming beam crashed to the floor at the far end of the barn. The fear in the girl's face decided Charlie. If she didn't do anything they would die here.
"Stand back," she ordered, backing away from the flames as far as she could.
Pat and Vonnie exchanged glances but pressed against the barn door without questioning. The blind trust they showed in Charlie was both frightening and exhilarating, but Charlie put all extraneous thoughts aside and concentrated on her task. If she pulled this off, they would escape and she could ask questions about herself later.
For a long moment, she stared intently at the bank of flames. Charlie took a deep breath, and another, feeling the tension settle into her muscles. She knew that she would be lucky if this worked; there was no spare strength for the flair her mother would have put into this. Instead, she rose onto her toes for a moment before releasing all the pent-up energy in one incredible, shocking move.
Charlie took two light, bouncing steps to get up some forward momentum before launching herself with all her strength at the wall of fire. She could feel the muscles in her legs pushing against the floor and every sinew of her body strained towards the sky.
There was a brief moment of incredible heat as she passed over the flames, her body instinctively gathering up into a tight, mid-air roll, and then she was falling gracefully on the other side of the flames.
The jolt as she landed sent shock-waves of pain through her shoulder but Charlie barely noticed. Somehow, and she could not think about it too deeply right now, she had managed to jump over flames that reared higher than her head and done it with room to spare.
Quit worrying and get on with it, she told herself impatiently before scanning the barn quickly.
The axe was still hanging on the wall and Charlie covered the distance in a few quick bounds. Then she was loping back to the door with the solid, reassuring weight in her hands. A hand clamped down on her shoulder before she got there, and Charlie knew immediately that their time had run out. The vampires were awake and probably feeling pretty pissed-off right now. Without even stopping to consider what she was giving up, Charlie threw the axe through the wall of flames and turned to meet her undead assailant. Either Pat would have the brains to work out what to do with the axe or they would all be dying in this flaming tomb; Charlie did not have time to worry about that.
She had managed to half-turn towards the vampire when he backhanded her, sending her stumbling painfully towards the roaring flames. Somehow, she managed to regain her balance before she got burned and staggered to a halt, turning towards her assailant. He was already in front of her, and this time his blow sent her spinning towards the barn wall. Charlie cried out as hit the wall with her injured shoulder. Her head hit the wall and for a moment she saw stars before she shook her head and pushed dizzily away from the wall.
A shorter friend had joined the first vampire, although the rest of them were still lying passed out on the floor. I'll take any blessings I can get right now.
"Charlie!" Vonnie screamed as both vampires broke into a lumbering run towards her.
Even alcohol-fogged and enraged, vampires could do a lot of damage so Charlie dropped into a painful roll and came up behind them. For a moment the two vampires stared dumbly at the wall where their prey had last been standing and then they turned again. Charlie grinned insolently at them, waved and ran further back into the barn. It was further away from escape, but she was hoping to find something - anything - to fight them with.
The air in the barn was getting hot and thick with smoke and flames were beginning to lick at the roof. Charlie estimated that she probably only had a few minutes to get out before the place came down on top of her. This was turning out to be a very bad plan.
Desperately, Charlie looked around and almost crowed with delight when she spotted the handle of a rake next to a pile of crates. Flames had already consumed half of the wooden boxes but the rake seemed untouched so she changed course and ran towards it. As soon as she had the solid wooden length in her hands she felt better, until she realized that the only way she could use it was to pummel the vampires with it. Beating the crap out of them is better than nothing, I guess.
Spinning around, Charlie faced the two vampires in the middle of the barn. Just behind them, she could see Pat hacking at the barn door with grim determination and Vonnie searching through the duffle bag at her feet. Good going, kids. Get yourselves out of here - don't worry about me. I'm the idiot who trapped you in a burning building with half a dozen angry vampires, after all.
Charlie smirked at the two vampires, deciding that a little bravado might confuse them enough to give her a slight advantage. "Hello, boys. Are we having fun yet?"
"Yeah, Billy, is this fun?" the shorter vampire asked.
The taller one - Billy - shrugged. "Nope. But I'm figuring that killing her might make me feel better. Watcha think?"
"Think we might want to give it a go," Shorty said with a vicious smile. "Seeing how she spoiled the party an' all."
There was a splintering crash as Pat broke through the door.
"Bring it on," Charlie muttered.
It sent shocks of pain to use her injured left shoulder but Charlie gritted her teeth and ignored it. She took a firm grip on the rake, holding it as she would a staff in weapons training, and centered her balance. Both vampires seemed surprised when, in a flurry of movement, she whirled the rake and cracked Billy across the temples before slamming the end of the rake into his belly. As he curled forwards, wheezing, she brought the rake up again and dealt him a stunning blow to the face that sent him tumbling backwards to the floor. Shorty gaped at her for a moment before taking a step backwards.
Charlie advanced steadily on him, holding the rake steady despite the pain now burning in her shoulder and down her arm. When she feinted left, Shorty when right and Charlie changed direction with a painful wrench to bring the rake crashing down on Shorty's head. The already-inebriated vampire collapsed motionless to the floor and Charlie propped the rake up on the floor so she could lean against it and catch her breath for a moment.
She was so absorbed in slowing her breathing and pushing the pain away that she did not notice Billy rising again a few feet away. Thankfully Vonnie did.
Charlie heard a startled shriek and looked towards it to find Billy already dissolving into dust. Frowning, she turned her gaze towards the barn door where Vonnie was slowly lowering a crossbow.
"Von?" Charlie called.
"Quit gawping and move!" the redhead yelled.
At that moment, Charlie realized that Pat had the doors open and was standing between them beckoning her forward. Can I do that again? Those flames look even higher than they were a few minutes ago.
The pale light of dawn was just visible through the raging wall of fire but Charlie had no idea how she was going to get to it. Already the pain in her shoulder and arm was like a fiery, pulsating mass and her legs were beginning to turn to jelly from the exertions and pain she had been in. Heaving herself ten feet into the air, again, did not seem possible. But she was not the quitting type so she flung the rake away and trotted as close to the flames as she could. The heat was more intense than she remembered and she knew that the wall was not only higher but also wider than it had been.
"You guys go on, get help - I can't get back!" she shouted across.
Vonnie shook her head, her face white but determined. "I'm not leaving you here."
"Von, you've got no choice."
"There must be a choice!"
"Pat, get her out of here," Charlie ordered, hoping her mask of impassive command would work on the trainee.
Pat shook his head. "We all get out or we all stay - Von and I made a deal while you were beating the stuffing out of vampires. We're a team and we'll stay together."
"Damn you all! I am not going to be responsible for your deaths."
"So don't be!" Vonnie shouted passionately. "There must be a way."
"Vonnie, if there were a way I'd be taking it. Do you think I want to die in here?"
Suddenly, a look of inspiration passed across Pat's face. "Stay here!"
"Do I look like I'm going anywhere?" Charlie asked as she watched Pat running out of the burning building.
He was back a moment later triumphantly dragging a hose.
"Where was that?" asked Charlie.
He pointed out of the door. "I saw it on our way in. Now, stand back a little while I try something."
Pat concentrated on the hose for a moment, fiddling with the valves, and then a jet of water shot out of it. With a pride shining from his green eyes, Pat directed the water at the roaring flames that separated Charlie from her friends. Charlie knew that there was no way he could put the fire out, but if he could create an opening patch she could get through it. Pat focused the jet of water at the base of the flames and after a minute Charlie could see it was working. The section of fire began the sputter and die, and as he continued to hose it down Charlie felt hope begin to rise.
"Ready?" Pat asked.
Charlie nodded. There was now an opening in the wall of flames and, if she ran fast enough, she would be able to get through. Taking a deep breath, Charlie ran at the gap and jumped through, feeling the heat from the flames against her arms just before her feet were soaked with cold water from the hose. The moment that she was through, Pat dropped the hose and grabbed her arm to pull her out of the burning barn and into the morning light.
"Should we tell anyone?" Vonnie asked as she ran after them.
Charlie glances back at the barn that was now a towering inferno. "I think anyone who needs to know will find it on their own. We have to get out of here before anyone turns up to ask questions.
***
Several hours later, the three friends were sitting sprawled in Charlie and Vonnie's living area with steaming mugs of coffee in their hands. Charlie's arm had been strapped firmly against her chest and she was under strict orders not to use it for at least several weeks. The break in her collarbone had been over-stressed by the night's antics and was now in worse shape than it had been when it was first broken, only this time there was a lot of inflammation to deal with as well. The doctor's painkillers were beginning to make her slightly fuzzy but at least it was not hurting quite as much.
All three had showered and changed, throwing their clothes into the machines as soon as they could and scrubbing until every trace of the burning barn had been obliterated. They were now all pink-faced, tired but satisfied.
There were a lot of things that Charlie needed to think about. Top on her list was who had locked them into the barn, and that was closely followed by wondering how the hell she hand managed to jump over a wall of flames higher than her head. But those worries could be saved for another day; the painkillers were making her head foggy and thinking was getting increasingly difficult.
"We kicked butt, didn't we?" Vonnie asked sleepily.
"Yup, we sure did," Charlie agreed.
"Is it always that terrifying?"
"No." Charlie took a sip of her coffee. "Sometimes it's worse."
"Oh."
Pat held up a hand. "Next time, we have a better plan."
"Next time?" Vonnie asked, peeking over the rim of her mug at Charlie.
"Yeah. You didn't think this would be the last time, did you?" Charlie grinned at her friend. "We're changing the world, here. It doesn't all happen in one night."
***
In another cabin, the water ran noisily in the bathroom. Quiet muttering could be heard and the water in the sink began to run slightly pink as the woman scrubbing her hands broke the skin. She sobbed quietly as she scrubbed, certain now that she was going mad. Why else would she have no memories of the last two days? All she knew was that at one moment she was sitting in her bedroom finishing an essay, and the next she was wandering around a dark forest miles away with sooty hands.
She scrubbed harder, even though her hands were already raw and bleeding. It was compulsive now; if she could only get rid of the soot she would get rid of the feeling that her hands, and her life, were no longer her own.
"I'm not going mad, I'm not."
*finis*