Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.
SECTION 6 - GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

Some boys take a beautiful girl
And hide her away from the rest of the world
I wanna be the one to walk in the sun

Hey now, hey now
What's a matta with ya?
Girls just wanna have fun now
Come on

(Cyndi Lauper, Album - 12 deadly Cyns... and then some)


Chapter 6.11
Wednesday, May 15th, 2002

Dawn stumbled unsteadily from one railway tie to the next. The wound in her thigh was seeping blood, and even though out here the night air was chill, her body was coated in a cold sweat, the salt from which further aggravated her tender flesh. She tried to keep her thighs from rubbing together as she walked, but she was so tired and the monotony of putting one foot in front of the other would lull her into numbness until the pain brought her back.

So much of her concentration was swallowed up by her effort to keep moving that it came as a shock when she realised that she could no longer see the ties beneath her feet. Her focus had been only on matching her steps to their even spacing and the feel of their smooth, slightly oily, coolness beneath her feet. She turned around and could see a vaguely lighter area of night sky framed by the tunnel walls.

Looking back in the direction she had been headed, she could see nothing. Not even a single feature was discernible in the Stygian gloom. She forced herself to walk on into the velvet darkness, her path chosen for better or worse.

What did she have to fear from darkness, for she was Light, formed from the very Light of Creation? She felt no pain, for she had no earthly form. She simply was and always would be.

 

---

 

A frigid wind whistled from the tunnel ahead of them, buffeting the bikers, as they not so much sped as motored toward their goal. Travelling down the outer edges of the track was like one enormous level gravel drive. Neither of the bikes were designed with off-road use in mind, and if the men were to risk too great a turn of speed on the unstable surface, it might result in an accident that would prevent them from reaching their goal. Yet, as the first gasp of air from the tunnel reached them, Spike rolled back his right wrist and gave his bike full throttle.

Raising her visor, Buffy simply asked, "Dawn?"

Spike nodded. "She's bleeding." He had to shout his reply as the speeding air through the tunnel tried to snatch the words away. Wes followed closely behind, coming up on the other side of the tracks, but the humvees had to slow up, their width not so far short of that of the trains the tunnel was designed for.

The time it took for them to traverse the tunnel seemed to go on forever, and then they saw her. Silhouetted in the beams of the bikes' headlights she stood frozen in the middle of the track. Her stance was reminiscent of something in a Japanese animé just before the monster breaks free of its human shell. Her hair straggled around her face in sweat-soaked strands. She held her arms rigid so that her wrists were almost six inches from her hips, but then her hands just seemed to dangle there. Her feet were about a foot apart and she swayed slightly as if her legs didn't want to support her any more. The closer they got the worse the picture in front of them became. First it was the smears of blood on her thighs that they saw. Then, it was the ragged state of her feet beneath their coating of oil and dirt. The worst of all, the vacant eyes of someone completely unaware of the world around them, they didn't actually see until the bikes slewed to a halt just ahead of her. When their lights illuminated her slack features, she didn't even blink.

 

---

 

Just as the four men had pushed the convertible into position across the eastbound track and locked on the parking brake, Lorne's cell phone rang. "Angel Investigations?" None of the men knew why it had seemed more appropriate to push the venerable old car to meet its doom, but somehow lining it up there under its own power would have been like expecting it to assist in its own demise.

"Angel?" Lorne held out his phone to the vampire. "It's Spike, he rang the office number, got diverted to me."

"Angel? We found Dawn. She's messed up bad. She looks like Ronette Pulaski. You and your guys have got to make sure that bitch goes down and find out what the hell they've doped her with. She's not speaking. She doesn't have a clue what's going on around her. It could be shock, but Klinger here reckons that that train is basically a mobile lab where they develop antivenins and antitoxins. That means it has a load of poisonous shit so watch the humans if she starts throwing bottles, but they might just have the antidote to that poisonous shit."

"Spike slow down."

"She dumped Dawn off the train, doped up with god knows what, barefoot and half-dressed, to walk down the line. She hasn't come past us, so she's headed for you, unless you've already missed her. I am going to hunt this cunt down, but for now it's my place to look after Buffy and Dawn, so I'm counting on you to make her regret ever laying a finger on that girl and to find out exactly what she did to her. Clear enough?"

"Crystal."

"Right then, good luck."

Angel leapt into the convertible and drove it off the tracks. "New plan, guys. Dawn isn't on the train any longer. I figure, Connor and I can probably catch a free ride without too much difficulty. Fred, you drive the truck. When the train goes past, just turn onto the tracks and follow on behind, I'm hoping Gunn and Lorne can make the jump to the caboose. There is a woman on that train, name of Sam Finn who has been .basically she has Dawn so messed up on whatever they gave her she doesn't even know where she is."

"The lab could apparently be full of various toxins and hopefully their antidotes. We need to find out what this woman has done to Dawn and how we can undo it. We've got a better chance of catching her unawares this way. If we block the track there's a chance she'll ditch the stuff we need before we can get to her."

Angel looked around the group. "I want you all to be real careful. These guys are humans, but they think that gives them the right to kill anything that isn't-."

"Angel, man, we been through this. Sam woman, evil, needs to be interrogated. Other soldiers, potentially lethal, but we have to try to not play too rough, even if they kill our friends. We get."

The lights on either side of the crossing started to flash on and off and then the bell began to sound as the barriers dropped down to block the passage of any cars until the train had gone through. Finally, they heard the train's whistle and then it was speeding past them.

As the train passed over the level crossing Angel began to sprint along on its left, Connor doing much the same on its right. Angel was surprised to see a sliding door standing open even while the train was moving. He made a leap and grabbed the rail next to the door, pulling himself into the very section of the train where he wanted to be. Connor was less fortunate and made a leap to the top of the final car. Once there, he knelt down and leant over the end of the car above the point where a ladder made its way onto the car's roof. He reached down ready to offer a helping hand to Gunn and then Lorne as they made the jump from the hood of Gunn's pick up truck. Once they were safely aboard Fred dropped back with the truck, but still kept pace.

 

---

 

Sam was just washing the last of Dawn's blood from her hands as she heard the voice from behind her.

"I'd like to be the first to offer my condolences."

"Really, and why would that be?"

"Well, you've lost your little scheme. One way or the other you've lost your husband, and if you," Angel lashed out from his seemingly relaxed position to drive the heel of his hand into Sam's nose. He didn't quite use enough force to drive the bone shards into her brain, but then he had a hundred years of practice to fall back on. Without any apparent break in flow he continued his chat. "don't tell me, now, exactly what you did to Dawn Summers, you can say goodbye to anything that passes for a face."

 

---

 

Spike moved to get in the backseat of the humvee with Buffy and Dawn, but the slayer gently pushed him away.

"Wes can follow us to the hospital. He'll help with what needs to be done. Take the orbs, just in case Riley does switch sides, take Willow and do what you have to do."

"I have to be with you. That's what family's meant to do."

"Spike, she hurt Dawn. We need to find out how. Go kick her lying ass till she tells you how to fix her. Then, kick it some more, just for me. And then, just so long as there's enough left of her to stand trial afterward, you do whatever the hell you want. You hear me?" She craned her neck to whisper the words in his ear too quietly for the vehicle's driver to catch and then she kissed him goodbye. "Sam thinks I'm going to be too busy looking after Dawn to come looking for her. Prove her wrong."

Spike stood up and gave a remarkably authentic looking salute. "Yes, ma'am," he replied before pushing shut the vehicle door.

Buffy rolled down her window, "And as soon as you've done that, soldier, I recommend some R & R. Go see your family. They'll be waiting."

"Sounds like damn good advice to me. I'll be with you soon, love. Watch over her for me."

Less than a minute later the convoy was now back on the road. This time Willow rode behind Spike, and they were short one humvee and one bike. All that mattered to Spike was that he had Buffy's blessing, Red had the barrier spell ready, and he intended to catch up with this Sam before Angel and his crew had all the fun.