I push my foot down even harder than before pressing the accelerator so that it is almost flush with the floor. Tickets aren't exactly my biggest concern at the moment what with living through a giant battle with a really freaking huge snake not a week ago. Still with the car rattling as much as it is at high speeds I should probably slow down a little bit. Maybe to somewhere under ninety.
Yeah, life is, well no. Life isn't really good. I just lost some people I knew in a monumental battle between the forces of good and... not good. Yeah, I'm not really meant for internal monologues.
East was my direction of choice when I set off on this mad journey to get away from Sunnydale for a while before going back. Because I am going back. I know that, maybe I've always known it ever since I first ran into Buffy in the stacks of the Sunnydale library. Because I think that's the one thing that makes me different than the others. Everyone else did the job because it needed to be done. I was there because I needed to be the one doing it. Fighting against the dark brought something out of me. Made me more than a collection of genes from two worthless parents. Anyway that's off the topic. I wanted to go east. So why I'm currently pointed north again is confusing the hell out of me. Not even bothering to stop I pull out a roadmap that I'd found in the glove box and make sure this road goes east at all. I blink slightly. It doesn't.
"Why in the hell am I on this road then?!"
Swearing softly to myself I push my foot down even harder with the decision made to turn right at the next opportunity.
Yeah, there's something hellmouthy going on here. How do I know that? Because no matter what direction I turn I end up going north. But I'm prepared at least. I look over at the passenger seat, which has a shiny single bladed axe lying across it. Graduation present from Giles. Well actually I just think he didn't have a place to store the damned thing and so gave it to me. Still it's the thought that counts, right?
Sunset looks to be about two hours away and I have no clue where I am. Well that's not entirely true, because I used to be on Interstate 5 for some strange reason and got off of that near the Oregon border. I guess I'm going sort of east now. North and east, but still east.
I pass the hitchhiker without even thinking about stopping, my time living on the hellmouth having left me unwilling to trust strangers. Still a vague thought hits me that she was hot, if a little old for me. Long brown hair hangs down her back as she walked down the road without any baggage. Aside from the not trusting strangers thing I don't exactly want to get anyone else involved on what is probably not going to be a fun trip for me.
Ten minutes go by and I pass a second hitchhiker, and surprisingly she's hot too. I chuckle to myself as I drive on by. It figures that I'd encounter two beautiful ladies when I don't want to involve anyone in my troubles. Something though starts to prick at my mind. Looking down at the dash I grunt when I notice that I'm running low on gas. Luckily I see a sign for a station not that far ahead. Still though as I'm pumping gas into the tank that strange feeling of uneasiness doesn't leave me. I'm not seeing something. I shrug and go about checking all of the car's fluid levels, the tire pressure, and that I have an inflated spare with necessary equipment to change it. I do, but still the feeling remains.
Back on the road again I drive along no longer as bothered as before that while I got on the road southbound I'm now headed north. I'm mid yawn when I catch the flash of blue out of the corner of my eye. Turning my head I shake away the sight of...a brunette hitchhiker?
"What the fuck?"
Okay so I'm a little slow on the uptake. Something is seriously fucked up now. There isn't anyway that I could have passed three identical hitchhikers this close together. Willow's often mentioned something about a thing named Occam's razor. Since the simplest explanation that fits the facts would be that the three girls I've passed in my car are in fact all the same person, then that's probably the case. Never mind how that would mean she's managed to get ahead of me twice by walking while I've been going over sixty in my car. Final analysis: keep driving because nothing good can come of this. Steadfast I ignore the figure twice more as I pass her on the highway. Hell, she even seems to be ignoring me. Not once have I seen her turn her head to follow my progress.
The sixth time does me in though. I see her and drive past only to swear and turn around on the highway so I can backtrack and pick her up. Coming up from behind her at a much slower speed than previously I get a better look at her. My first impression was right. She is hot. She's also older than me by almost a decade. But then I once dated an ancient Incan mummy so she's not too old. Her brown hair hangs down to the small of her back. She's athletic though not butch. None of this matters when I compare it to the way that she moves. She's practically gliding across the ground with a skill and grace that I can't help but feel attracted to immediately.
"Hi there. Need a lift?" As pickup lines go it's not the best, but it's all I've got. Besides it's not like I want to date the lady, just give her a ride so that I can drop her off someplace and not have to pass by her every ten minutes. Though I must admit coming up from behind her wouldn't be that bad of an experience.
"If you wouldn't mind? I was getting tired of walking down this motorway on my own." Hmmm, British. Curious.
"Well hop in. I have no real destination so anywhere you want to go is fine with me." She opens the door and looks at the passenger seat for a moment before arching an eyebrow at me. I chuckle weakly. I'd forgotten about the battle-axe I'd set there earlier. "A friend of mine is into that whole medieval reenactment thing and left his axe in my car. I'd forgotten about it completely. Just toss it into the back if you're still up for the ride." Surprisingly she did.
"So you don't have a set destination? That does seem a bit strange."
Pulling back onto the road I shrug from my seat. "Survived my high school graduation and figured I'd see the world before I went back. Name's Xander by the way."
She nods slightly for some reason. "My name is Vivienne. Xander is quite an interesting name. Short for Alexander is it not? A good name that. It has deep meaning. Defender of man. It's a strong name."
I don't say anything at this point because my mind is filled with other times I've heard people say my full name. They aren't pleasant memories. "Yeah, I prefer Xander though. It's easier to say. So you're British? How's that working for you?"
The next two hour passed by fairly quickly with surprisingly very little conversation going on between us. I was staying awake more because of her presence than anything else, which is strange for me since I don't really like driving at night all that much. I'm startled slightly when she speaks up.
"Well, I must say, as fun as this has been I should be going now."
"Hunh? We're in the middle of no where."
She laughs. "Really, Alexander, that's not what's important. What is important is that you are nothing at all like what I'd thought you'd turn out to be."
Okay now I'm starting to get wigged. "Run that by me again?" I turn my head to look around at the surrounding countryside. There isn't even a tree for miles around.
"Perhaps next time we meet, Alexander LaVelle. Perhaps next time."
My head whips around. Whoever this lady is she knows a lot more about me than I've told her because I sure as shit didn't tell her my middle name. I slam my foot down on the brake though because of what I see. Nothing. Not a damned thing. As in there isn't a person sitting in my passenger seat. "Well, fuck me." Looking around I don't see her anywhere in the surrounding area. I've got a bad feeling that I'm not going to like the answer to whatever the hell is going on here so I simply step on the gas and keep going. Oh, and grab the axe out of the backseat.
I don't think this trip is going to go very well at all.
It's late afternoon on Sunday, three days after I picked up Vivienne on that empty stretch of highway. Surprisingly nothing bad has happened. Yet. Then again things have almost gotten back to normal. I really am headed east this time and not even trapped into doing so. I spent a full day driving in any direction I wanted until I became so lost I ended up asking for directions from a chicken farmer. I've been taking my time since that day when nothing was normal. I'm in the Rocky Mountains right now, and I'm loving it. Sure I don't have enough money for a motel room, but it's the summer and I'm not losing any sleep by spending the night in the car.
Zipping down the highway is fun when I can go wherever I want and I grin and pull off of the highway and onto a smaller road that branches off. I have a full tank of gas and food in the trunk so whatever happens I'm good to go. Besides it looks interesting.
It's a side trip well worth it, I decide a few hours later. Enormous trees that look like maple and oak but approach the size of miniature redwoods. Deer cross the path, I don't think it's really a road anymore, both in front and behind the car. The gang will love all of the photos I've managed to take here. I mean hell I've even managed to catch a good shot of a family of moose. Or is it mice? Strange thing is that none of them seem to be afraid of my car or me.
"Holy shit!" A freaking cougar just jumped onto the hood of my car as it chased after a squirrel or something. Looking down at the camera I'm still clutching in my hands I see that I only have one photo left, meaning that I managed to click the other one off when the cat was on the car. "They're never going to believe me when I tell them about that one." Just then a bright red bird swoops down and lands on a nearby stump. Dutifully I take the photo as it spreads its wings out as if showing off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get the hint. You'd think this was a nature show on PBS or something."
Sure enough the camera starts to whirr as the final picture is taken. Seemingly sensing that I can't take anymore photos the bird chirps at me and flies off. Film packaged up and put in my glove box I search around for another one only to remember that I don't have any more. "Rats." With a shrug I decide to head back to the main road since I can't really do anymore sightseeing without a camera. I mean, sure I could just aimlessly drive around in the woods but without pictures to show I was here it would be like it never happened.
Backing up the car until I hit a spot with room to turn around, I start the trip back to the highway. The path looks really different as I drive back to the main road. I spot some things I missed on my way in, some rock formations and the like. But what really grabs my attention is the fork in the road that was hidden from my sight by a large tree draped with vines. Down this path I can spot what seem to be stone blocks way too square to have been naturally made.
The decision isn't tough and soon I'm parking the car and getting out to get a better look. A somewhat wiggy feeling pervades the area and so I grab the axe and take it with me for my explorations. You'd think that I'd stay as far away as humanly possible from anything that gives me the wiggys. Even I think I'd stay away. But the truth of the matter is that even spending all of my life living on the Hellmouth and the last three years fighting demons and vampires has kind of desensitized me to the ganger in these situations. Hell, one of the most memorable nights of my life to date had me running around town with a zombie street gang, attempting to commit vehicular homicide on a demon, getting laid, and saving the world all on my lonesome. Not too shabby for a guy who doubted he'd ever survive high school let alone graduate.
I run my hand over the stone blocks to clear some of them of leaves and dirt. As I'd thought these are definitely not natural rocks. They actually look like they're covered with some sort of writing, and I'm sure they are even if it isn't in a language I can recognize. Pretty obscure one then.
Walking towards the highest concentration of blocks, for some strange reason I can't bring my self to call this rubble, I stop in front of a single smooth block that stretches to over my head like a wall. Whatever the writing on this is it is much more elaborate and ornate here than in the other places I've looked. That whole wiggy feeling is really strong here and I'm starting to think that coming here was indeed a mistake. A big mistake. My eyes trace over some of the lines that don't look like writing and I'm drawn to one that looks like a human hand with the fingers pointed down.
The loud cracking of a branch behind me causes me to spin around and jump so that my back is against the flat surface behind me. My axe is raised for a quick downward swing at ... the large squirrel standing in front of me. Hey, he might be a squirrel but I've sure put the fear of me into him! Chuckling to myself I push myself off the wall with my free hand only to feel a tremor of pure cold run through my body. I only have time to look down and see that I managed to put my hand down directly on top of the drawing of a hand before I fall through the solid stone into darkness.