Watchers Retreat: Part 4

Maddy waited as long as she could. But when it became fully dark she didn't dare wait any longer. She knew Rupert would already be annoyed she'd let him sleep so long. When she arrived at his tent she looked down at his sleeping form. Then she crouched inside and touched his shoulder. "Rupert."

Giles growled and mumbled something indecipherable.

Maddy grinned and touched him again. "Rupert." In an instant he was awake. She watched his face as he slowly oriented to his surroundings. Then he sat up and ran a hand through his hair. She wished she could help; he was looking rather rumpled. Fighting off the temptation she simply gestured outside. "It's dark."

His eyes widened. "Good Lord. And you're just now getting me up?" Just that fast he was up and brushing aside the netting to his door, heading toward the campfire, running his fingers through his hair again. Giles could only hope that the creatures would give them some time. He smiled at the greetings that met him when he reached the clearing.

Giles looked around with amazement. The clearing was huge. Granted they hadn't been able to do anything with the trees, obviously, but all the scrub and smaller trees were gone. Nothing could get close to the fire without being clearly seen. There was a huge stack of firewood, more than enough to keep a blazing fire going all night; there was a sizeable pile of spears lying to the side and hundreds of good-sized throwing stones.

Daniel handed him a cup of tea. Giles smiled gratefully. Then he turned and smiled at Maddy as she joined them. He took everyone in with a look. "You've done an amazing job."

Nervous grins and flashes of pride met his words. Daniel smiled. "We just did what you told us to do."

Maddy grinned. "We're Watchers. We're good at that."

Giles let out a half laugh. "Yes, I suppose we are." He looked off into the darkness, wondering what fate lay in store for them tonight. Giles attached the scabbard so the sword hung at his back. He practiced withdrawing it a few times to make sure nothing would prohibit his immediate access. Maddy watched him, noting the familiarity he had with the weapon, the way his body moved. She bit back a sigh.

Giles picked up the crossbow and handed it to Maddy. "Please stay by Celiane, and the wounded. I don't know if you'll be able to kill any of the creatures, but a few bolts may dissuade them from attacking that area." Maddy nodded, and took the crossbow and picked up the bag of bolts. Giles retrieved a spear and standing in front of them all he began a quick lesson on the most effective methods of using a weapon in an actual battle as opposed to the controlled environment of a training room.

***

They had no way of knowing if they were making good time. Wendell had been driven up during the day with the rest of the Watchers, and had not bothered to notice any landmarks, not that he would have noticed them now that it was dark. Xander's truck had excellent headlights but they still only lit up the road.

Once it had grown dark, Xander had been forced to slow down. As the road weaved back and forth climbing the mountain there were higher and higher sheer drops on one side of the road or the other. There was no room for error.

Buffy was a wreck. No one was talking. Xander was concentrating with every ounce of his being. Wendell had finally succumbed to his exhaustion and was sleeping in the back seat. The silence wasn't helping. Buffy noted the time on the dashboard. They'd been driving for two and a half hours. She tried to figure out how long it might take them. After a minute she stopped. No matter what, even if it was in fifteen minutes, they could get there too late. It all depended on when the creatures showed up.

Buffy stared out the window wishing there was a full moon. The woods were so dark. Her enhanced Slayer vision only compensated just so far. Suddenly, Xander slammed on the brakes and Buffy put her hands on the dashboard to stop her forward momentum. Wendell woke up with a cry as his seatbelt bit into him. Buffy looked ahead in the road and saw what had stopped Xander. Two bodies.

Buffy got out of the car and slowly approached them. When she saw what had been done to them she turned away. She looked into the woods to give herself a few seconds and saw two more bodies. Buffy found herself afraid to look anywhere else. "God, they are everywhere."

Xander was trying very hard not to puke. He got Buffy's attention. "Help me get them out of the way. I don't want to run them over."

Buffy moved to Xander's side. She looked at his face and gently squeezed his arm. "You okay?"

Xander shook his head. "Not even a little. Come on, we gotta get to Giles." His face was pinched.

Buffy grabbed the arm of the body closest to her. He was lying on his stomach; he'd been cleaned out from the back. As she tugged him she gasped. "He's still warm. This happened recently." She looked down at the body next to his and it made her jump. "Oh, God."

Xander glanced down. "What?" He didn't really want to know. He couldn't imagine anything being worse than what had been done to these people.

"Look who it is."

Xander took another look. He'd been wrong. This was worse. He knew this guy. "Travers."

Buffy nodded. She'd hated him for a long time now, but no one deserved this. Wendell called from the car. "What is it?" He'd seen too many of these bodies already and had no desire to see one up close again.

"It's Quentin Travers."

Wendell let out a long breath. "All the directors were here. I'm afraid they're all dead now."

Seeing Travers had made her momentarily forget. But now she gestured to the other man. "The guy next to him? He's still warm." Against every instinct she had, Buffy reached down and touched Travers. He wasn't at all warm. He was cold and stiff.

Suddenly they heard the cry of one of the creatures and Buffy felt her blood freeze. Wendell yelled out. "Don't run. You must fight it." Buffy hung on to Xander and just stood there, waiting for the panic to fade. It seemed to take a very long time. The cry repeated and this time Buffy was able to pay more attention. She pointed back in the direction they had just come. "It's down there." Buffy glanced at Wendell. "It's farther down the mountain."

Wendell got out of the car and ran over to the other body. He looked at the man's face. "Some of them must have decided to leave after I did. This guy was with us this morning. Some, or all of them, must still be on the mountain. One of the creatures must be going after them."

Xander swallowed. "Boy, they really don't want any Watchers to get away, do they?"

Buffy let out a cry. "If they're attacking down here, they may be attacking up there. We've gotta go." She yanked on the bodies, pulling them to the side of the road. Xander and Wendell were already in the car when she hopped in. "Go."

As Xander started to drive they kept seeing bodies. Only a couple of the corpses were in the road and Xander managed to steer around them. As they drove, the entire night took on a surreal feel, and Buffy kept hoping she'd wake up from the nightmare.

***

Giles and the rest of the Watchers heard the cry from farther down the mountain. Giles closed his eyes in pain, wondering if anyone had made it down, or if they were, right now, being picked off, one by one. Suddenly he felt anger shoot through him. He stood up tall and spoke to the Watchers. "You mustn't run. If they make that cry again stay in your teams and talk to one another. Make them bring the battle to us. Our goal is merely to survive the night. No one need try any heroics by trying to kill the creatures. We must simply keep them at bay."

He walked over to Celiane. "How is everyone?"

She hadn't wanted to announce it to the group so she spoke softly to Giles. "We've lost two more. The infection, it's overwhelming their systems. Their claws must release a toxin into its victims. I simply can't fight it."

Giles put his hand on her shoulder. "You've done everything and more that you could. Most of them would already be dead without your expert care."

She smiled at him. "The same could be said of you."

"I have been fighting demons for six years. It is simply something I know how to do. Nothing more."

Celiane put her hand over his. "It's much more than that. You have a way…"

She didn't get to finish her thought as another creature let out its shriek. Giles had to fight its influence and he began to walk amongst the Watchers, much as he did last night, talking to them, giving them something to focus on. One tried to break for it and Giles caught her, grabbing her around the waist. He hung on to her, feeling her body shiver with the need to escape.

The panic faded. The woman rested her head against Giles' shoulder for a moment, composing herself. Then she flashed him a rueful look. "I'm sorry."

Giles graciously shook his head. "Nothing to apologize for." He smiled briefly down at her. "Are you all right now?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm all right." She picked up the spear she had dropped and held it with some resolve and repeated herself, sounding almost as if she meant it. "I'm all right."

Another brief smile crossed his face. "Good." He watched her for a second, his lips pursed. "It's Maria, right?"

Maria nodded, pleased he'd remembered. She had to fight off the urge to just stay standing by him. Telling herself to stop being silly she went back to her spot. Giles watched as her team welcomed her back without any remonstration. He was glad of that. No one should be made to feel bad for reacting to that noise.

That sound was like nothing Giles had ever experienced. It seemed as if it crept inside through his pores, oozing through his nervous system. Giles didn't think a deaf person would be immune. He was sure it was magic and he wished again for some ingredients, for a spell book. Or Willow or Tara. He'd even take Ethan.

He continued to walk the perimeter of the circle, watching the woods, waiting for the next stage of the attack. Giles thought again of Buffy, of how many times they'd waited like this. A sense of sadness permeated his being as he realized that it was more than likely that he'd never see her again. He was afraid that he would die on this mountain and never heal the breach between them. She'd be notified by post of his death, as she was his beneficiary. He'd never even told her that.

A noise made him spin around, one hand reaching for his sword. It was Daniel. Giles let out a sigh of relief. "Please warn me next time, Daniel. I'd hate to skewer you accidentally." The fact that he hadn't even heard him approach made Giles aware of the fact that he'd been dangerously woolgathering at a time when he could ill afford to do so. Pushing thoughts of Buffy aside he concentrated on Daniel. "Is something amiss?"

Daniel let out a harsh rasp of a laugh.

Giles shook his head at himself. "I suppose that's a fairly silly question to be asking."

"It's just the way you asked it. As if perhaps you were concerned that we'd run out of tea."

"Now that would be a crisis." He smiled at Daniel, absurdly grateful, somehow, for this inane bit of conversation. "Let me try again. Do you need something in particular?"

Daniel shook his head. "You're making people nervous walking along the edge. I've been assigned to you as bodyguard."

Giles looked startled. "That seems a bit excessive."

Daniel disagreed. "Rupert, if something happened to you, we'd all be dead. We know it even if you don't."

The cry split the darkness again. It was much closer now. Giles kept walking until he got around to the wounded. Most of them had been tied down so they couldn't get up. But they still felt it. He walked among them, touching their shoulders, or their arms, trying to reassure them. Celiane was doing the same. The silence after the cry died away was unsettling. The woods should never be that silent. There should be owls hooting and the sounds of small animals scurrying through the undergrowth, but right now there was nothing. Giles had to fight an absurd desire to start singing, just to fill the air with something.

Giles looked at his watch. Eleven o'clock. The sun had risen at close to six this morning. Seven hours. They had seven hours to get through.

***

Buffy looked at the dashboard clock for the fifteenth time in the last thirty minutes. She almost felt like smashing it, so it couldn't keep mocking her with the time. Eleven o'clock. She was tempted to jump from the car and run. She knew the car was going much faster than she could, but at least she'd be doing something. They had all heard the cries heading farther up the mountain. She knew at least one of them was heading for Giles, maybe was already there, maybe was already killing him, gutting him. Buffy's jaw was clenched so tightly her teeth hurt. She couldn't ever remember praying so hard.

***

After a while the night noises started up again. Giles could hear the collective letting out of breaths of all the Watchers. No one was foolish enough to think that it was done, but they were all thankful for the reprieve, even if it was just for a few minutes.

Giles caught some movement through the trees. He took his glasses off and tried to determine what he'd seen. He shook his head after a minute. Whatever it was had moved, or had never been there to begin with. Giles resisted the urge to check his watch, knowing that only minutes had passed since he last looked at it.

There was a commotion in the area where the wounded were. Giles walked over to see what was happening. Daniel was right behind him. Celiane was doing chest compressions on the man they'd found last night complaining of severe chest pain. She caught Giles' eyes and shook her head. Giles closed his eyes for a moment. Another Watcher dead.

It was as if someone was watching, knew there was a distraction, and knew when to strike. The deadly voices filled the air, seeming to come from all around. It sounded as if there were hundreds of them. Giles could feel his skin crawl, could feel the overwhelming need to get away, to do whatever it took to be free of this noise. He let out a groan, the effort to stay in control excruciating, and fought against what his mind and his body were screaming at him to do.

He might have been lost but for someone bumping into him. The force of the contact almost knocked him down. He spun around and saw two of the Watchers running, heading out of the clearing, running on pure instinct. Instinct that would get them ripped apart.

Giles yelled after them. "Stop, they'll kill you." He was ignored. They kept running. Giles took off after them. He got about ten feet when he was tackled and slammed to the ground. Giles didn't even know who had attacked him but he fought to get back up. He felt another slam, and then another, and found himself at the bottom of a stack of Watchers.

He was furious. "Let me go, I have to get them back."

Daniel was the one who had first tackled him. "You can't. You'll just be killed too."

Giles still fought, even though he knew it was too late. "You can't just let them die."

"I can, to keep you here, to keep the rest of us alive." Daniel didn't want anyone to die either, but he was very clear about whom he needed to keep alive.

The reverberations of the cries were winding down. But instead of a respite, all it did was make it easier to hear the tortured screams when the creatures struck. Giles pounded his fist on the ground in frustration. "You should have let me go."

Daniel shook his head. "You'd be dead right now. And then we'd all die."

Giles knew Daniel was right, but he couldn't stand it. Two more Watchers. Is this how the night would go? One by one, watching them die? For a moment he wished he had run, that he'd been killed. At least it would be over. Knowing how endless this night would be caused a sense of helplessness to drive like a fist into his gut. Then the moment passed. He let out a breath. "I'm all right. Let me go."

Daniel looked at him, caught his eyes, and assessed him. Then he nodded. The other two men climbed off and then Daniel got up. He offered a hand to Giles to help him up and Giles took it. Once he was standing he felt anger sweep through him again. He was glad of it. He'd take the anger over the helplessness any day. He pinned the rest of them with his glare. "No one else dies. No one. Not a single damn one of you. No one runs, no one leaves the safety of this group. Are we clear?"

Everyone nodded. Giles had an odd feeling that he was talking to a class of children, warning them about the consequences of some infraction, one school mate bullying another, or stealing someone's lunchbox. Giles bit back the hysterical laugh that was threatening to escape. They might as well have been, as poorly equipped as this group was to deal with this crisis facing them. If he had control of the Council, even for a day, he would change so much.

Giles felt someone move to his side. He looked and saw it was Maria. He raised his eyebrows, silently asking what she needed.

She spoke quietly. "Don't look, but do you see that man, the one in the denim shirt, the one on the end there?"

Giles nodded, wondering what was going on.

"He did it."

Giles looked at her. "I don't understand. He did what?"

"He pushed those two. I saw him. He told them to run. He egged them on."

Giles shook his head. "I don't…I can't believe that."

She looked at him, her countenance grave. "I've been standing there fighting with myself. Trying to convince myself that I was wrong, that I didn't see it. But I did. You have to believe me."

Giles could tell that she meant what she was saying, but he hoped she was mistaken. The thought that one of their own, that someone who had seen how these creatures killed…it made him sick to his stomach. He could hardly bear to think about it let alone deal with it. The problem was that he couldn't afford to avoid it. If there was a traitor in their midst, he had to know. Giles glanced up at the man, only to find him staring back at him.

End of Part 4