Hi guys. You may remember a story with the same name on the old BBCi Cult boards. Well, I gave up on it after a while, but I have decided to re-write it (and hopefully complete it!). Please feel free to comment on it if you wish. Enjoy :)

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Part One – Escape

It was a peaceful June evening in San Francisco. Very slowly, the light was fading as the Sun began to set. However, it was rush hour so the roads were extremely busy and the view was obscured by the mass of vehicles trying to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.

Not so very far away was a darkened street on which stood a Police Station. There was no noise - no sound of birdsong nor was there any movement, until, that was, two young women came bursting out of the doors of the Police Station. One was in her early thirties with long, ginger hair and the other was in her early twenties with brown hair. Both wore faces full of fear and panic as they looked around them.

“We gotta get out of here!” said the brown haired woman very anxiously.
“I know Dawn. I need to find a Car that I can hotwire” replied her friend.
“Willow, what about this one?”
“Seems easy enough”
So Willow got to w**k summoning open the door of a brand new Chrysler. Manipulating electronic systems was something of an easy task for Willow – much easier than casting the spell that had led them to the Lions den in the first place.

She got the Car started as a cautious Dawn, wielding a broad sword and looking nervously around, spotted their first sign of trouble. The ground beneath them was shaking violently. Willow cried out to Dawn to get into the Car, which she did, sword and all.

Willow revved the engine and they sped away from the dark street. However, a Mole-like creature peered over the top of the large hole that it has just created in front of the Police Station and looked evilly at the Car speeding away. It popped back down the hole and started to burrow after the Car.

“How did you unlock the doors?” asked a bemused Dawn.
“Simple, I told them to open. I can do that with these electronic locks” replied Willow. “Are we out of the trouble yet?”
Dawn craned her neck to see out of the rear window. At first she saw nothing and then she saw a mound of Earth gaining on them.
“No!” she cried “It’s coming after us!”
Willow put pedal fully to the metal and drove the Car in excess of eighty miles per hour up a steep hill and, with a very loud thud, it came down the other side of the crest.
“Thank goodness for sport suspension, eh?” said a relieved Willow.
Dawn was looking intently out the back at the Mole-type creature getting nearer and nearer.

Over the crest of the next hill was the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately the road was still very busy, much to the annoyance of Willow as she was forced to slow the Car down.
“What do we do now?” asked Dawn, anxiously.
“Hold tight!” Willow said after a moment of consideration.
The Car accelerated and overtook all of the other Cars queuing for set of lights just before the bridge. She jumped the red light, nearly colliding with several Cars as she did so and sped onto the bridge.

Meanwhile, back at the Police Station a young man staggered out, covered in blood.
“Wait! Wait for me” he croaked before finally collapsing to the ground. A key ring fell out of his pocket. On it was his name, Andrew.

They were half way along the Golden Gate Bridge, dodging Cars as they sped along it.
“Is it still following us?” asked Willow.
Dawn looked out of the rear window. Nothing. It hadn’t followed them onto the bridge.
“No. We’ve lost it” she said conclusively.
“Good” Willow replied and slowed the Car down.
“Where do we go now?” Dawn asked, on the verge of crying.
“We could go and see and see George Xavier” replied Willow.
“Who?”
“Giles talked about him when I was in England. He said he lived near San Francisco. Before we left, he gave me his address”
Willow took a piece of paper from her pocked and passed it to Dawn.
“OK then” Dawn said finally, before she began to re-live the events of the recent past in her mind.

They had rented a house in San Francisco after being told of a Hellmouth existing there. It had been an idea proposed to Buffy by Giles, who said he knew of a watcher living nearby. This watcher had contracted him asking for help as the nearest slayer had been killed in a fight with mortals when she strayed too close to the hideout of some notorious gangsters on the run from the local Police and the FBI. Buffy (being Buffy) accepted and so they flew from New York. The party consisted of Dawn herself; Buffy; Anya; Giles; Willow; Xander and Andrew.

Once they had arrived all of six months ago, they had all taken on part-time jobs to help pay for the rent of a large, six bedroom house whilst they began their intelligence gathering during the night. Dawn herself had been told by Buffy to keep out of the way during the intelligence gathering so she was given a job w**king at the bar of a local nightclub. To keep her in check Xander had agreed to take on the position of night manager there. Dawn hated the w**k as it felt as though she was being permanently sidelined by Buffy, who had always been too over-protective she felt. Buffy had taken on a job at a restaurant serving food and taking orders. As this job was during the day and due to the meetings that took place prior to the night’s intelligence gathering (which Dawn was always shut out from), the two rarely had a chance to talk to one another. Dawn had always wanted to be more independent, less reliant on Buffy. Well, now she was. How she wished she had never thought it.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bridge, the mole-like creature could only look on as the Car sped over the bridge. Its master would not be pleased as it had both drawn attention to itself and had also failed in its mission to kill the Humans. Irritated by its lack of accomplishment, it returned to its lair to receive the fury of its master, leaving anarchy and chaos in its wake.

The Police had arrived on the scene. Outside a Police Station, they had found the dead body of a man and also a long tunnel of Earth, which the Helicopter had followed all of the way to the Golden Gate bridge. A large number of emergency vehicles had lined the route as several people were badly injured as the mole-like creature burrowed under their Cars, uprooting them as it did so. They suspected around a hundred people had been seriously injured. One of the policemen attending the scene felt the ground shake beneath him. The creature – whatever it was, was heading back. His fellow officers felt it too and drew their guns. The ground opened up beneath him as the creature swallowed him whole. The others could only stare as they discharged their guns with little effect whatsoever. Then it burrowed deeper underground.

Dawn and Willow were now far outside San Francisco on a highway passing through a forest. Dawn still didn’t feel completely safe as the night began to draw steadily in.
“How far away is this place?” she asked.
“I don’t know” Willow replied. “Just doing what the sat-nav tells me”
This wasn’t much consolation to Dawn who could only hope for an end to what was a very tense journey.

Fifteen minutes later they were driving up the driveway to the house of George Xavier. It was a long driveway, fenced by tall evergreen trees either side, all of which, Dawn had noted, had crosses on them. The idea being that it would prevent the Vampires creating an ambush.

When the Car came to a halt outside the house, Dawn and Willow noticed that it was eerily quiet. There were no lights on and no-one appeared to be home.
“Great!” said Dawn annoyed. “Where do we go now?”
Willow wasn’t sure, so she decided that it was best to ensure that George was in fact out.
“Lets ring the bell and see. He could have done this to make sure that the Vampires wouldn’t think he’s in” she replied.
Willow picked up her axe from the back seat.
“Just in case” she noted, so Dawn also picked up her sword and they walked cautiously towards the front door.

Willow pulled the chain next to the door and they heard the loud, low ring that it made. After a short while, she tried again, but there was no reply. The house appeared to be empty.
“Right. He’s not in. Let’s just go” said Dawn, eager to get away.
But as she leant against the door, it slowly began to creak open. The door had been left slightly ajar.

They both pushed the door until it was fully open. The moonlight lit up an unwelcome sight in front of them. The lounge was pitch black. The curtains had been drawn and it had been ransacked. A television lay smashed on its side, a sofa shredded to pieces and there were broken ornaments on the floor.
“Hello?” called out an apprehensive Willow.
There was no reply.
“Perhaps we should go. I don’t like this” Dawn said, now afraid standing in the doorway of the house.
“Let’s have a look upstairs” Willow whispered.
Seeing Dawns fearful face, she added “Don’t worry. If anything was here, they would have shown themselves by now”

They walked cautiously up the stairs, the only light aiding their ascent was the moonlight shining through the open front door. Once upstairs, they edged towards the master bedroom, the door of which was slightly ajar. Willow pushed it open and they edged in.

The bedroom was a scene from hell. Lying there, laying on his back was a man in his fifties covered in blood with a crossbow bolt through his chest and what looked like bite marks on his neck.
“Is that him?” asked Dawn.
“I think it is Dawn. He fits the description of the man Giles told me about” Willow replied.
“How long has he been dead?” asked Dawn again.
“Not long. Maybe about an hour”
Just then, they heard a loud noise. They both turned around and heard the front door creak shut as the landing darkened. Willow turned on the bedroom light in the hope that they would be able to see whatever it was that closed the door. They looked at each other and stepped out of the room, keeping their backs to the wall.

Willow had spotted the light switch at the bottom of the stairs as they climbed down. So, when they got to the bottom, she turned on the light. They turned around. Dawn screamed. Standing in front of them was a tall, thin young man of Dawns age. In his hands was a crossbow, which he was pointing at them.

End of Part One

:thumbsup: and again great story, look forward to the next :D

Thanks :)

I'm currently writing part two of the story. Hopefully it will be posted on Saturday.

Pretty good yarn. I like it that Andrew seems to have bit the dust in a seemingly Police Squad scenario.

You might change a few typos. Such as pedal instead of medal. Also walked instead of watched and finally ensure instead of insure. sk

Thanks :)

Sorry for the spelling mistakes. I swear I did enter them in correctly in the first place... it could have been Word's annoying automatic spelling correction function :rolleyes:

I hate Andrew, so I wrote him a short death accordingly :lol:

this is fantastic :thumbsup:

Thanks :)

Episode two is here: http://s7.invisionfree.com/Cult_TV_Boards/...?showtopic=5960

sorry for the titles being the same, which is confusing :(

Good start :D Am off to read part 2 now :D