Xander gunned the '92 Harley they had picked up in some no name town and sped ahead of the lumbering school bus, he smiled as the wind whipped through his hair and had all but forgotten the terrible events of just three weeks before. When the Hellmouth had fused shut it had taken everything he had with it. His mom and dad had been too busy drinking and bitching in the Harris family home to even notice their end when it came. Anya had died in the race to make it to the surface and from that point on Xander gave up caring for anything, or anyone.
It was his idea to use the remains of his money to buy the 11 year old bike and Giles had agreed with his plan to use it to scout the way ahead and run it as a blocker for anything 'bump in the nightish' as he put it. He had to admit the handicap of having but one eye had its drawbacks but after the first few days he seemed to ride like he was born to it. He mused to Dawn as they broke camp for the start of a new day. "I guess I was born too damn late! I would have loved to have been here at the beginning when the settlers had heeded the words to 'Go west young man'."
Dawn had smiled and nodded. "You would have looked cool on your horse as you rode across the west." She glanced sideways at him. "But this is now and I just got to say..."She turned to him. "Can I have a ride?"
Xander snorted. "That'll be the day! If your sister even thought I was considering letting you ride that bike she would stake me, get Willow to bring me back then stake me again!"
Giles walked over to him, the map a twisted wreck in his hands. "I can't make out where in the heck we are! Haven't they heard of bloody road signs in this damn state?"
Xander motioned with his chin as he loaded up the Harley with his gear. "There's a creek about ten miles along this road, we cross it and take the left fork and that'll put us back on the trans America."
Giles nodded and was about to leave when he stopped. "How do you know this?"
Xander shrugged then Dawn asked Giles. "Was he right about this being the best way to avoid to many populated areas? Was he right about their being a small town just when we needed gas and food?"
Giles shrugged. "Yes well as long as he's right about this." He glanced around the wooded area. "Buffy and the others are saying they can feel something 'creepy' around here and I for one do not want to find out what it is."
Xander waited till Giles was out of site then he took the old Remington Combat shotgun from under his sleeping bag and fed the rounds he had in his pocket into the feeder tube before he slid it into the special holster on the bike. "Why do you empty it if you're only going to load it up again in the morning?" Xander shrugged. "It seems the right thing to do with all you teens around." He chambered a round then replaced it in the tube with another. "Besides it makes it less likely to compress the spring down and cause a miss-feed just when you need it."
Dawn nods. "Soldier boy huh."
Xander shook his head. "Nope 'Tour of Duty' marathon. Soldier boy went AWOL a while back." Xander paused and turned his head to the left. "Do you feel that?" Dawn turned to where Xander was looking. "Nuh, all I feel is hungry, that and the need for speed."
Xander didn't even look at her. "You're not getting a ride so just let it go Dawn." He rubbed his chest and then told her. "Tell the others to move it, I'll go check up ahead for any of life's little problems. I'll meet you by the old bridge on the creek."
He strode over to the bike and kicked it into life then told her. "Hasta manyana."
Dawn waived him goodbye as Willow and Amanda came walking over to her. Willow grinned. "So is it me or does he look damn hot in that get up?"
Dawn blushed slightly and shook her head. "Nah, he's just the Xandman." She turned to look at her. "He's one of the girls." Her eyes then narrowed at Amanda. "So hands off okay?"
Amanda grins. "So the Dawnster still has that crush huh! Well your over the age of consent now, in fact we both are, so make your move or get out of my way!" "He still thinks I'm a little girl."
Willow sighed. "Well from what I saw he sure as hell didn't when you were under that jock's spell." She flicked at Dawn's sensible top. "Maybe if you stopped dressing like his kid sister and started dressing like a woman he'd notice you again."
Xander rode until he could see the 'creek' he knew was just ahead. The Harley pulled up in front of the bridge and he shook his head. "What happed to the creek?" Instead of the gently flowing creek he had imagined there was instead a mighty river. He walked over to a plaque attached to a girder. "Henman Creek Crossing. Henman Bridge opened in 1946 after the Grossman Damn was built and the river was diverted to Henman creek." He shook his head. "So how the frell did I ever think this was a creek?"
He looked across the bridge and rubbed his chin. "I wonder what else I screwed up." He walked back to his bike and rode over the bridge to find out. He rode for ten miles and came to the fork in the road he remembered and saw the sign. "Trans America Highway Ten Miles." He breathed a sigh of relief. "Well not a total FUBAR then." His eyes were drawn to an older sign; one that looked like it had been there since Adam was a boy. "Henmansville three miles, firearms prohibited between dawn and dusk."
Something pulled at Xander's chest and he rubbed the spot where only two years ago Dark Willow had hit him with all her might. He grimaced in pain and turned to look back. "Shit!" He gunned the bike and spun it around back towards the bridge.
Buffy shouted at Giles. "Will you start this freaking piece of crap already! " As she ducked a bolt from an unseen crossbow. "It's getting hot out here!" Woods tried to help the others as they took cover behind the bridges girders. "What the hell are they?" One of the new Slayers begged.
"Well they ain't freaking Indians!" Rona answered.
Woods looked at the bus then at the girls. "Why don't you guys push the bus across, while someone stays and holds them off?"
Faith looks at him. "You volunteering Woody? Cuz I have to say you're in no shape to hold off a girl scout party let alone a party of demons!"
Faith looked into his eyes and hefted the axe. "But he is right girls." She looked at them. "Go and help Giles get the bus across and then get the hell out of here." She leaned over and kissed Woods. "That's just to keep you in line till I catch up." Woods nodded then left, in his heart he knew he would probably never see Faith again but he was resolved to get his charges to where they would be need the most.
Giles jerked up from the dash as he felt the bus moving, slowly at first but gathering speed. "What the..." He looked in the mirrors and saw the Slayers pushing the school bus as fast as they could. Giles slipped the bus into neutral and turned the key till the red lights came on. He pushed in the clutch and eased it into first gear, waiting for the Speedo to reach the optimum mark before sharply letting the clutch out. The bus coughed and spluttered then roared back into life.
Faith felt the bolt strike home and she cried out, staggering as her leg folded under her. "SHIT!" She dropped the axe and fired the last of her bolts at the onrushing horde. "Well this is another fine mess you've gotten yourself into girlfriend!" She muttered.
Giles put the bus back into neutral and pulled on the hand break as the others caught up. Rona shouted. "We have to go back for Faith!"
Giles looked at the bridge but before he could reply Buffy told her. "NO! If we go back then we all die. Faith knew what she risked when she stayed behind."
Just then Xander pulled up in a whirlwind of dust. "What, do you guys have to piss of every demon community or just the dangerous ones?"
Giles opened the doors to let the girls on, Dawn paused to tell Xander. "Faith staid behind to cover us." She glanced at Buffy. "Buffy says it's too much of a risk to go back."
Xander looked at Buffy then Dawn; he smiled and leaned over to her, kissing her lips. "Nothing is too much of a risk for a friend." He gunned the motor then sped off.
"Xander! " Buffy cried out. "God damn him!" She kicked at the bus then shook her head. "Come on, before he gets himself hurt."
Xander saw the remaining demons mount the bridge and he spurred the bike on, he saw a fault in the bridge that rose into a hump and he grinned as a plan took shape. He bent down and drove the bike for all it was worth.
Faith limped away as fast as she could but she knew she was doomed, she turned to face her death just as her ears picked up the thumping of Xander's Harley. She turned and saw him hit the hump and it launched the bike into the air.
The lead demon didn't know why these girls had to die it only knew the deep hunger that had started the minute they had felt their presence. His mind was working out the best cuts of meat it could get from these scrawny humans when the underside of Xander's bike took its head clean off. Just before the bike hit the group of demons Xander shucked the shotgun from its holster and kicked away from the bike. He rolled adding more scars to his body as he slid to a halt. He stood up and saw Faith then smiled. "Someone call triple A?"
Before Faith could reply he fired the gun, taking the last standing demon out of the fight then pumped another round into the gun. "So you wanna reminisce or run?" He grinned. "Me I'm all for the quiet life so I'm voting for running like a girl till we're out of here."
Faith grimaced. "Running's kind of out of the question till the damn leg's healed."
Xander nods. "So how about you get your pert little butt off the bridge while I bring these demons into the 21st century the hard way?" He fired and smiled. "Ooh that had to hurt!"
Faith began limping away, her eyes met his. "Meet Ya at the bus okay?"
Xander nods. "Sure, we'll chat over a nice hot cup of Giles's tea while General Buffy tells us off for not following her orders."
Xander gave his full attention to the remaining demons. "Okay, who's up for a little military two step?" He fired, changed target and fired again. He was about to fire at another demon when he heard the whine of a bullet as it hit the girder next to him. Xander glared at them and fired. "Who the hell told you this was a two way range!"
Faith relaxed when the others stopped in front of her. Buffy told them. "Get Faith back to the bus." She looked at the other end of the bridge where Xander was fighting a loosing battle, she felt her heart miss when she saw him drop the gun. "He's out!" One of the girls cried. Buffy saw him reach for something and her enhanced eyesight saw it was a handgun. She smiled. "Come on girls, lets show him how its really done."
Xander briefly looked over the handgun he took off of the dead demon. "Who the hell is arming demons?" He felt the hot wind of another close round and searched for the demon with the other gun. He heard 'his girls' scream out as they charged down the bridge and he cursed. "Jesus not now!" He saw one of the two remaining demons stand up and aim his gun at the charging Slayers. Xander picked up Faith's axe and hefted before he pulled his arm back to throw it. "Hey ya reject from the Sopranos! Catch this you mutha!"
He threw the axe just as the demon turned. The axe head bit into it just as he pulled the trigger, Xander felt a hammer like blow to his head and everything went black.
Buffy stumbled as she saw the demon reel back from the death blow but she also saw the bullet strike Xander's head. "NO!"
She, and the other's watched as Xander staggered back and over the railing, his body plummeting into the churning river below. Buffy clutched her chest like her very heart had fallen with him. "No, no!" She raced over to where he had fallen from whilst the others quickly dealt with the last demon. She scanned the river for any sign until she saw him being carried face down, his only movement was that being caused by the ebb and flow of the river, his body surrounded by a red halo of tainted water. She closed her eyes and as she did Xander's body throbbed once, twice, three times in a green glow before he was submerged in the river's majesty.
Giles, Willow and Dawn watched as the slayers walked back from the bridge. Dawn felt a heat wash over her as she saw no sign of Xander, she looked at Buffy but her sister was like one of the walking dead.
"Where's Xander?" Willow asked.
Buffy glanced back at the river. "Gone."
"Gone?" Dawn repeated. "Gone where?"
Buffy staggered as her mind finally took in what had happened, her eyes misted over as she asked. "We won..."She looked at Giles. "I never thought he would..."She closed her eyes but all she could see was his body falling from the bridge. "We won...But he paid the price."
Dawn sank to the ground. "No... I...He can't be!" The others helped Buffy into the bus and eased her into a seat. Dawn swatted away her tears with the back of her hand and she did a half chuckle. "I was finally going to go for it...Story of my life, too little to late!" She looked at a visibly shaken Giles. "How can we call it winning when all you love dies?"
Giles and Wood sorted the girls out and they turned the bus around and headed the way Xander had told them. Nothing was said, not a word, until they pulled into a small town on the edge of the highway. Giles pulled into the garage and asked the mechanic to look at the engine. "You people here to see the exhibition?"
Giles shook his head. "No we're ah... on our way to Cleveland."
The mechanic took a cursory glance at the motor. "Distributor's shot, take maybe two, three hours to get a new one and replace it." He motioned to the diner. "Betty Sue serves up one mean pecan pie, while your there you can go have a look see at our little towns history."
Giles nods, his interest for history had been lost back there at the bridge but he thought it might take their minds off of the tragedy for a brief time. After several minutes of haranguing they agreed to look at the exhibition. Dawn, Willow and Buffy had no interest in anything at all until Rona came running up to them. "You have to see this!" She all but dragged them to where Faith was standing and she turned to them with a smile. "Oh you are so not going to believe this!"
Dawn looked at the writing below the costume. "Frank Henman 1845-1906.Civil war hero, carpenter, inventor town sheriff and mayor."
A voice boomed over the room. "Yes sir Frank was one in a million, wounded at Gettysburg."He looked at the enthrawled group. "Mortally we thought, his name was added to the long list of the towns glorious dead until he staggered in nine years later." They looked at the old man. "They do say he had a hole in his head and his memory had leaked out, but he was Frank all right." The man motioned with his hands. "Frank's return gave this town a new spirit, a will to live instead of just survive. He, along with a few others, rebuilt the town and took it back from the dem...Uhh unsavory types that had taken it from us in our time of grieving."
The old man touched the glass in front of a tintype picture. "That's me on his knee; I was six years old when he passed away." The old man offered Giles his hand. "The names Alexander Henman but my Pa used to call me...."
Dawn smiled as she looked from the picture. "Xander."