Rumbaugh residence, 1418 Truman Drive, Sunnydale
Saturday, September 12th 1998
9:25 AM
The man looked up from mowing the lawn to see the SUV charge up his driveway. As soon as it stopped, two men in black suits came out and moved straight to him. "Dr. Irving Rumbaugh?" one of them asked.
"Yeah?" he asked as he shut his lawnmower off.
"You'll have to come with us immediately, sir," the second man told him. "There's been an incident."
Rumbaugh didn't even take the time to close his garage door and lock up the house. If these men were here, then chances are he wouldn't be coming back. "Let's go."
--
Home of the Paynter family, 1180 Hadley Street, Sunnydale
The same time
"Director Michelle Paynter?"
Michelle looked up from the deck chair around the pool, instantly knowing who the men were. "Has something happened?"
"Yes ma'am," the man told his superior. "We need you all to come with us immediately. There's been an incident."
Michelle jumped up and grabbed her purse off the patio table. "Rachel, Mark, get out of the pool, we have to go now!"
"No, mom, we just got in!" her eleven year old son called to her.
"I don't care!" the mother told him. "Follow these men to the car, I'm getting your father off the couch and meeting you there."
"But mom-!"
"Now, young man!"
--
Crawford Street, Sunnydale
The same time
Umbrella Agent Mike Friedberger turned to the small cul-de-sac of upscale homes as his partner read off the information. "Who do we have?"
"Charles Ashford," Agent Peterson read off. "Science Level 6 employee. He has at least four high level flags on his file. Someone really wants this guy safe."
"And so they let him live in Sunnydale?" Friedberger asked, amazed. "I wouldn't live in this town for anything."
"I hear that," Peterson replied as he studied the picture of the doctor on the screen. "White, 42 years old, glasses…and has a daughter." He looked at 'more info'. "Carl is picking her up."
"Good," Friedberger replied as he pulled the SUV into the circle driveway. "We don't have much time."
Both men got out and went straight to the glass doors. After only one ring of the doorbell, the door opened and something that was not in the good doctor's file made itself known. "Yes?" Doctor Ashford asked from his computerized wheelchair.
( Damn it! )Peterson swore, before he moved to make room in the SUV for the chair. Friedberger stayed with the doc. "Excuse us, sir. There's been an incident."
Ashford's eyes went very wide. "What?"
"You have to come with us right now," Friedberger added.
"My God…how did it happen?" Ashford said upset.
"We don't know, sir," the agent told him as he moved behind the doctor and started pushing him towards the back of the SUV. "Major Cain ordered everyone out of the city as soon as possible."
"But my daughter's already left for school!"
Friedberger tried to sound soothing when he said, "It's been taken care of, sir."
--
Our Lady of Grace
Private Elementary School, Sunnydale
A while later
All the kids in her class stared at her, as Angela "Angie" Ashford walked to her teacher and the two men in black suits with things going into their ears. "Yes?" she asked meekly. The last time she had seen men like this, Daddy had had a very nasty argument with them.
Her teacher looked down to her. "Angela, these men are here to pick you up."
"Did something happen to my daddy?" she asked him, downcast.
"Your father's fine, Angela, but you need to come with us right now," one of the men said as he extended her hand.
Angela took the offered hand, despite having a bad feeling about it. As she was walking down the steps to the waiting black SUV, the young girl had a feeling of dread slowly come over her. She saw a group of kids that attended a public school enjoying their last week or so of summer vacation, and she felt a chill go down her spine. She'd had an episode like this before, before the accident that had killed her mother and left her in a wheelchair for some time. Daddy said that her mother had the same feelings about things and that maybe she got it from her.
The man leading her stopped and looked down. "Angela? Is something wrong?"
The girl looked around again at the kids, and a man jogging on the sidewalk. "N…nothing."
--
Alamar Avenue, Sunnydale
Five minutes later
Truck driver Scott 'Scotty' Pratt was swearing to himself, as he kept one eye on the road and the other on his bleeding wounded upper thigh. He had a towel wrapped around it trying to stop the bleeding, but that was not working.
"Son of a bitch!" he yelled. "What the hell was that? That jerk-off bit me!"
He tried to keep the blood from oozing out, but it just wouldn't stop. "Where's a hospital in this damn town?" He moved to pull out his state map when he saw it. "Oh damn!!"
Fifty year old Kirby Prechtl turned his head at the loud screeching sound of brakes and his eyes went wide. "Oh no..."
He could only watch as the fully loaded semi truck T boned a black SUV coming from a side street. The SUV spun violently as it hit the center median causing it to roll twice before ending up upside down. The semi itself kept going and smashed into a store front.
Kirby ran over to the wrecked SUV, the driver and the passenger looked very bad, but what stopped the old man cold was the form of the unconscious young girl hanging upside down from the seat. The seatbelt holding her in place as her small arms and the tie from her school uniform hung limp.
"Someone call an ambulance!"
--
Downtown Sunnydale, California
The same time
Major Cain answered his cell phone as his driver sped through traffic. "Yes?"
#This is Chopper two sir. Evacuation complete, but Gamma Eight was in a major accident. Unknown on survivors.#
"What else can go wrong?" Cain asked himself before he took a page from his assistant in the seat next to him. "Gamma Eight...Gamma Eight…that's the Ashford brat." Back into his cell he said, "Is it possible to recover them?"
#Negative, sir.#" the voice said on the other side of the line. #A police unit is already on scene.#
Cain nodded. "Then fall back to the camp site to refuel. I want the VIPs to be out of here as soon as possible."
#Yes sir,# the pilot said, before cutting the line.
The Major looked up through the sunroof to see the heavy lifting chopper lowering the large concrete barricades onto the bridge. Turning to his assistant he ordered, "As soon as we're over, seal the city."
"Yes sir," the young woman replied.
Very quickly after that order was relayed a remote single was sent into the deepest part of the infected Hive. Even though the computer screen was covered with blood, the words were still shown clear enough to read. That is, if anything was still living down there to read it.
LEVEL GAMMA CITY CONTAINMENT: ACTIVATED
All along the perimeter of the city of Sunnydale countless long metal poles shot up through the ground, even the areas covered by the cliffs looking over the Pacific Ocean. Umbrella had rigged it this way as part of its contingency plans. Several people watching in surprise as a strange glowing energy field started to pulse between them. One small raccoon ventured up to it and was electrocuted instantly.
Then an even stranger thing happened. The ground around the now dead animal started to glow under it.
--
Room 13, Sunnydale Motor Lodge, Sunnydale
Ten Minutes Later
Former Raccoon City police officer Jill Valentine tossed off her weapons kit. She had been driving all night to get to this stinking place, and another thirty minutes or so to find this hole in the wall motel.
"Who the hell designed this town?" she wondered to herself. "It's like a damn maze."
She checked the TV, but growled when all she found was pay per view porno movies. "Wonder what this place is used for?" she said testily, before she tested the sheets to see if they were okay to get some sleep in.
--
Chase Mansion, No. 4 Parkview, Sunnydale
6:50 PM
This was going to suck on multiple levels, Xander just knew it. ( How did I let myself get talked into it again? Oh yeah, the power of Cordy bosoms and the ideals of President Clinton. )
"Ah, you would be young Mr. Harris?"
"Yeah, that's me," Xander answered the maid named Lupe as he came into the mansion.
"The other children are in the reading room," the woman told him as she indicated the double doors nearby.
"Thanks," Harris said as he walked in and groaned.
"Xander Harris in a suit," Harmony Kendall snarked as soon as she saw him. "Must be weird not wearing anything from K-mart, huh?"
"Ah, Harmony," Harris replied. "Nice to see you off your knees. I almost forgot you can do more than just football players."
The blond growled at the nerve of the nerd talking back to her, but her outrage was cut off by Aura, who said, "I think you look very dashing, Xander."
Harris looked at her in surprise, while Harmony looked like she'd just seen the face of God. "You, ah...look good too Aura," Xander replied while Harmony shot her friend a dirty look.
"My boyfriends always say blue is my color," the black teen said as she did a little spin.
Harmony stepped over. "Excuse us." She grabbed the other girl by the arm, dragged her into another room and closed the door.
"Good evening, Alexander."
He turned towards the female voice and saw Cilia Chase coming into the room in a black dress with a very expensive-looking diamond necklace on. "Evening, Mrs. Chase. And please call me Xander."
The woman looked at him for a moment. "Yes, Cordelia's told us that was your childhood nickname, but don't you think it's time to move beyond that sort of thing?"
He frowned. "No offense, ma'am, but I don't have any good memories of being called by the name on my birth certificate."
The woman nodded, the Harris family was well known for their…habits. "Be that as it may, it is your name though. I mean, does your driver's license have Xander on it?"
"I don't have a license yet, ma'am," Xander admitted. "Kind of no point, when one doesn't have a car anyway."
"You should still get one nevertheless," she said, not liking that. "Cordelia took the initiative and got hers as soon as she could."
"Right. It's on my list, Mrs. Chase."
"Just like finding gainful employment after high school?" the woman asked.
( OH, so it's going to be like that, is it? ) Xander looked at her upset, but kept it down. "Excuse me, ma'am?"
"You have no driver's license, and no decent job prospects...Alexander," the middle-aged rich woman told him disdainfully. "One can not sit at home and watch television all night and day. You don't seem to be able to support yourself much, so then however will you support Cordelia and give her the life she deserves?"
The young man looked at her, stunned. "Blunt and to the point. Yep, you're Cordy's mom." He looked at her and said, "With all due respect, Mrs. Chase, I don't recall Cordy ever mentioning what your job was."
She smiled slightly. Maybe her daughter wasn't slumming it with a complete idiot. "Very well, let's be blunt. You, young man, have been dating my daughter for longer than any other boy that I can recall. She actually was worried about you in Mexico. Now please tell me, why she would need to be so worried? Maybe she felt you were cheating on her? Maybe with that blond girl…what's her name? Muffy, Fluffy?"
He refused to rise to the bait. "You don't like me," Xander replied, his face like stone. "I get that."
"Good," the woman told him. "Now, I am willing on Cordelia's behalf to try to see what she sees in you, but so far I can't even-"
"Xander?"
Both people in the room turned at the sound of the voice from the foyer. They walked out and looked up the curved staircase and saw Cordelia slowly walking down to meet them. Harris's teenage brain stopped for a few moments at the sight of his girlfriend's tight dress and showing cleavage.
"Cordelia. Nice dress," Harris said slowly as the blood rushed south and his girlfriend came over to them.
"I thought you'd like it," Cordy laughed before she frowned. "Darn it, I thought I showed you how to tie a tie right?" she asked as the cheerleader started to fix his tie like a mother correcting a child.
The elder Mrs. Chase watched the scene, a little annoyed. Her daughter always did act like her boyfriends were giant Ken dolls. The mother was surprised her daughter hadn't started dressing the young man much sooner. ( She always did like playing with designer clothes on her Barbies... )
Mr. Chase then came down the stairs. "Everyone, are we all ready to go to the club?"
"Of course, dear," Cilia said as she took his arm.
Aura and Harmony came out a moment later. Aura had a look that Xander often had after a long lecture by Giles. "Sorry, we just had to discuss something."
"Well then, the limo is waiting," Mr. Chase told the group. "Let's go."
--
Channel Seven Studios, 314 Crescent Avenue, Sunnydale
A short while later
"Come on, Mark…" Terri Morales pleaded with the station news director. "You need everyone out there."
"No," Mark Tigle said as he kicked his filing cabinet. "What I NEED is for someone to get to the damn tower and fix the damn SIGNAL! We've been off the air since this morning!"
"Everyone is," Terri replied as she tried to ignore her boss's normal upset rants. "Something big is going on out there. TV, cell phones, Internet, land lines…they all went down at once and the police have rioters all over the city!"
Neither of them knew that this had been Umbrella's doing, because the town had to be sealed off and it wouldn't do any good to let people be able to call for help within the doomed city. The older bald man just shook his head, "Kid, this is Sunnydale."
She looked at him, confused. "So?"
"So," Mark told her. "Stuff happens here all the damn time, but it's always the same old, same old. This or that stupid PCP-addicted gang is causing trouble while…" the man struggled for an explanation for the day's events. "I don't know. There must be a power outage at a relay station."
"A relay station?" Terri scoffed. "Everything is down…" she pointed towards the static on the TV screen. "The cable company might be out, but we should still have a signal on the air!"
Her boss sighed. "Look kid, I don't know what they taught you at that high up school you went to back east, but you're the weather girl." He held out his open palms in front of him. "Who do you think knows more about this stuff? Me, who has been here for years, or a girl whose main skill is to tell people how much rain we get a month?"
Terri took offense to that. "I am not a girl!"
"Sorry," Mark replied, amused as he made air quotes with his fingers. "Meteorologist."
Terri slammed the bastard's office door as she stormed out. ( I need to do something about this, God damn it! )
"Told you."
She looked over towards the older secretary. "Bite me, Janice." As she stormed away she didn't notice the older woman's look to that particular insult.
As she passed the small news room, Terri heard the police scanner roar into life.
#Backup! We need backup now!# a panicked voice came through the speakers. The scanner was so low-tech and limited in range, Umbrella had basically dismissed it as having a threat potential. #This is Detective Stein. We need a location on the Mayor, I repeat we need a location on the mayor right now!#
#Dispatch! We need an ambulance down on Clover street! Multiple victims… STOP! I am a police officer, don't come any closer… I said STOP!#
Terri jumped as she heard gunshots followed by screams through the scanner. ( What the hell? )
Making a decision, Terri walked quickly over to the equipment cabinets. She grabbed one of the newer small hand-held camcorders, two blank tapes, and a backup battery before she left to go do some real news reporting that might help her get away from this dump.
--
Room 13, Sunnydale Motor Lodge, Sunnydale
7:30 pm
Jill came out of the shower, with just a towel wrapped around herself. After being on the run from a ruthless multinational corporation for months…she had learned to appreciate simple things like a long sleep and a hot shower. The former cop quickly dressed in her only clean clothes. A blue tube top, and a black mini-skirt. Not the best outfit to go out in a town known as the Mouth of Hell, but it wouldn't do to meet the group she'd been sent to contact with clothes covered in mud.
She quickly checked out the pictures of the group she was looking for, that Chris had sent to her PDA when he'd ordered her out here. An old English guy, a blond, redhead, brunette...and two guys. She had names for the Brit and the girls, but the guys were another story. From the limited info she got, she knew the leader was named Xander…but no one had bothered to label his photo. "Willow, Buffy, Oz, Xander, and a Cordelia, yep, I'm in California."
Doing one more check to make sure she had everything and what needed to be concealed was, Jill went outside. She immediately tensed up when she saw the burning car down the street, it looked like it had gone out of control running over someone's lawn. But no one seemed to be doing anything about it.
Quietly she came down the stairs to street level, moving to get to her black Ford pickup when she stopped dead in her tracks. The well trained woman quickly pulled out her nine millimeter pistol as the three zombies started shuffling towards her.
"Looks like Umbrella's rolled out the old welcome wagon," Jill snarled, before she started firing.
TBC...