Portal

"Cos your girl's flirting with other people?" Jessie said like it was obvious.

And Buffy couldn't help but laugh at that. "Faith is not my girlfriend."

"Oh," Jessie said after a few moments, sounding fairly confused. "I guess it's just the way you were acting . . . sorry, Buffy. My bad, I guess."

"Don't worry about it," Buffy said. She scootched around until her back was against the same boulder Jessie was resting on. She didn't really want the girl to be able to see her face, even though the chances of that happening were slim in the dark cave. "It's funny; you're not the first person to make that assumption."

"Really?"

"Yep," Buffy replied. But instead of letting the conversation stray into really awkward territory, she quickly changed the subject. "So what brought you out to Hillbilly Hell?"

"My friend Carly. She found out that I got dumped over my answering machine and decided that it would be inhumane to keep me in the city," Jessie chuckled a little when she said `inhumane.' "She got a bunch of our friends together, brought us out here . . . now I'm the only one alive."

"It's not your fault," Buffy said quietly, taking Jessie's hand again. She wasn't sure why she was being so touchy feely but something in her made her want to comfort the girl.

"How can it not be?" Jessie asked, looking over at Buffy with teary eyes. "We're out here because of me."

"You were out here because your friends obviously cared a great deal about you."

Suddenly Buffy looked down at her lap, a feeling of guilt washing over her. Had anyone ever been there like that for Faith? She knew she hadn't, and her friends certainly hadn't; had there ever been anyone to steal Faith away from the nightmare that was often her life? God, it was no wonder they'd had such a hard time getting along before; Buffy had been pretty crappy to her!

"And you care a lot about her, I can tell," Jessie said quietly, having noticed the change in Buffy.

"My relationship . . . friendship with her isn't easy. Never has been, and I'm not sure it ever will be."

She looked up from her lap to meet Jessie's gaze but was surprised instead by a pair of soft lips that instantly sought out her own. To say that she was shocked was a bit of an understatement. In fact, it took her a few seconds, but she eventually responded, kissing back with gentle encouragement. She wasn't sure why this was happening or even if it was a good idea — in fact, she was sure it wasn't — but she couldn't seem to stop herself. This was easy and unassuming and why couldn't it have ever been like this with Faith?

So distracted they were that they never noticed the sound of a few pebbles scraping down the rocks outside the cave, nor had they seen the single torch that danced around outside the falling water.

They only thing that pulled them apart was the sound of the howling laughter that echoed throughout the cave when one of the mutants entered and stood at the mouth. He was lean and shirtless, his dirty and tangled long blonde hair partially hiding his face. Still, with the light from the torch, Buffy could see just how grotesque he was. She was back on her feet in a split second, machete in hand and jaw clenched as she looked angrily upon their intruder.

Jessie squirmed around until she was on the other side of the boulder, just barely able to peek over the top of it.

"Buffy, what are you doing? We need to get out of here!" Jessie said, panicked.

"One of us isn't walking out of here," she said to the mutant, ignoring Jessie's pleas and the crude gesture that he was making with his tongue. "And that's not going to be me."

The mutant grunted and howled a few times, waving his hunting knife around threateningly. If he kept up those crazy noises, the last mutant was going to find them. Taking one on was easy, but taking on two might be a bit overwhelming in the small space.

Thinking quickly, Buffy reared back and tossed the machete through the air, aiming it directly at the mutant's head. It would have worked great, had he not knocked it out of the way with his knife.

"Oh, bad. Bad bad move," Buffy said nervously as she took a step back.

The mutant howled with laughter and Jessie actually had to cover hear ears as the noise echoed loudly in the cave. When he bent down to pick up the machete, Buffy acted quickly and charged him. Her shoulder pushed into his side and sent him stumbling backwards, unable to catch his balance. He flew backward out of the cave and Buffy was barely able to stop herself from following after him. Her arms moved in little circles as she teetered on the edge and the only thing that stopped her from plummeting over the side was the hand that roughly grabbed her shirt from behind. She stumbled back into Jessie and sighed gratefully.

"Is he dead?" Jessie asked.

"I don't know." Buffy quickly extinguished the fallen torch in the water, hoping that even if the last mutant was in the area he wouldn't be able to find them. "Stay here," she said, then maneuvered out onto the ledge from behind the waterfall and looked down below them.

It was darker than she'd expected when she looked down, the moon's reflection on the pool of water doing little to illuminate the bottom of the cavern walls. She squinted and focused her eyes, trying as hard as she could to look for any movement below. It took nearly a minute of active searching until her eyes found the vague shape of a body on the rocks below. She leaned forward just a little bit more and saw exactly what she was looking for. The mutant was lying awkwardly over the sharp rocks, his head bashed in almost unrecognizably.

"It's sad that that's actually an improvement," she said and shook her head. She turned and walked back into the cave, coming face to face with a worried Jessie.

"He's dead. The body is out in the open though so we probably need to keep moving before his friend finds him and figures out where we're hiding."

Jessie nodded, the pain in her leg almost forgotten now after the sudden rush of adrenaline. She looked down at the ground and frowned.

"Where's the machete?"

"I think our friend took it with him," Buffy said dryly. "It's okay, I can improvise. Come on."

Jessie took her hand and they made their way across the narrow ledge and down the rocky slope back down to the ground. Buffy was fairly certain that she could see the dimmest flicker of torchlight in the woods above them but she didn't say anything, deciding that frightening Jessie even further was pretty pointless.

They followed the water downstream, staying near the bank but close enough to the tree line that they were mostly hidden from plain view. Buffy made sure to stop as often as possible to let Jessie rest and even offered to carry the girl when it was obvious that the lack of sleep was getting to her, but Jessie just looked at her like she was crazy and carried on like a tough little trooper.

Okay, so maybe she was a little like Faith after all.

Neither girl brought up the kiss that they'd shared even though it was pretty much all Buffy could think about. It had been sudden and unexpected but not entirely unwelcome. That much had been apparent by the way she'd kissed back without really meaning to. Unfortunately for her, it meant that she and Faith were going to need to have a long talk once she got back to Cleveland.

If she got back to Cleveland, that is.

At this point, she wasn't so sure that would happen.

They walked for hours until Buffy could sense traces of dawn through the treetop canopy. Feeling no sense of immediate danger, they stopped to rest against the thick trunk of a towering cottonwood tree. Jessie was panting lightly, her brow creased from the pain she was obviously in.

"I should check your leg again; clean it," Buffy said. She moved to kneel down in front of Jessie but the girl stopped her, lazily slapping her hands away.

Buffy wondered why the girl was stopping her but when she looked up at her face, she saw that Jessie was looking off to the side, squinting as she gazed through the trees.

"Please tell me that's not a mirage," Jessie mumbled.

Buffy stood and followed her gaze. It was hard to tell in the dim morning light but she was pretty sure she was seeing it too.

"It's not," she said, her heart starting to beat excitedly.

"Looks like the overgrown road my friends and I tried to take as a shortcut," Jessie said. "If we follow it down, we can get out of these hills and into the open. Pretty sure that the last hillbilly freak won't follow us out there."

"Do you have a car there?"

"It was totaled," Jessie said with a sigh. "It doesn't matter though. If we can make it out of these woods and to the highway, we can hitchhike. There's a little half-assed store at the base of the mountain; they have a map. We'll be able to find our way."

"That wouldn't be the same map that led you up Mutant Mountain in the first place, would it?"

As she turned to gaze over at Jessie, Buffy caught the slightest of a whirring sound coming at them. Quicker than Jessie could anticipate, Buffy grabbled her by the shoulders and pushed her down to the ground just as an arrow whirred over them and lodged itself in the tree they'd been stood against. They scurried around and looked behind them to see the last mutant just across the stream, quiver of arrows on his back and a bow pointed directly at them.

"Move!" Buffy yelled.

They scrambled to their feet and began to run through the woods, hoping that the trees would afford them a bit of cover. Buffy zigzagged and encouraged Jessie to do the same but the girl was clearly struggling with her injured leg. Breathing hard, Buffy doubled back and grabbed Jessie by the arm, then began pulling her along again.

Another arrow zipped over their heads and thunked loudly in a tree trunk they'd just passed.

"Just keep running," Buffy yelled, "he has to run out of arrows soon."

"How do you know?"

"Because he had three in his quiver and the one in his hand he just shot at us. That means he has three left."

They continued running, trying hard not to look back despite the fact that they could hear the mutant pursuing them. It seemed as though they'd reached a clearing but when they got closer, they saw that the grass suddenly ended and dropped down a rocky wall to the stream below.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Buffy said, barely keeping her footing as Jessie slammed into her from behind. "We can't go down there. It's too dangerous and we don't know if we'll be able to get back up here and back to the road."

"Then what do we do?"

"Duck!" Buffy yelled and pulled Jessie down to the ground again. Another arrow whirred above them but they weren't quite safe yet as another arrow charged at them, much lower to the ground this time. She grabbed the collar of Jessie's shirt and rolled them to the side just in time to avoid the arrow slicing through both of them at once.

No sooner than they rolled to the side did Buffy stand and start running again, dragging Jessie with her.

"He's just got one arrow left," Buffy panted, hopping over a fallen log. "Once the arrows are gone, I can fight him."

"Buffy, don't be ridiculous!" Jessie exclaimed.

"You saw me take the other two. This guy should be easy."

"He's the biggest of the three!" Jessie said, cringing when she thought of the hideous and massive man.

"Yeah, but now I'm pissed!" Buffy yelled. She glanced down at her jacket and glared at the huge grass stain on the elbow. That had been her favorite jacket!

They were back in the woods now and dodging in and out of trees, no longer holding hands. Buffy made sure Jessie stayed ahead of her, knowing fully well that she could heal from any superficial wounds much faster than Jessie ever could. There was a small clearing in the trees and they ran through it, the road just ahead of them. Buffy heard the ping of the bow and the whoosh of the last arrow. It flew directly at her and only missed her head by an inch. The arrow sailed across the road and plunged itself deep into another cottonwood tree with a loud thunk.

"That was the last one," Jessie said breathlessly, bent over with her hands on her knees.

"My time to shine," Buffy said with a maniacal grin.

She turned around and ran back to the tree line and stopped dead when she saw the last mutant standing there with his bow drawn and one last arrow perched in it. He was aiming it directly at her and Buffy dropped to her knees, eyes wide.

The mutant made a crude gesture with his tongue — how charming — and drew back the string even harder, ready to let the arrow fly. She couldn't make it to him before he fired it off. If she jumped up, he might aim it at Jessie. Breathing deeply, Buffy closed her eyes and waited. She could hear the birds in the surrounding trees singing their song in the fresh morning. She could hear Jessie's harsh breaths. She could smell the mutant's pungent odor.

And she heard the miniscule movement of the string before the arrow even shot forward.

Her hand snapped up and she caught the arrow just an inch away from her face. The mutant grunted in surprise but that sound was nothing compared to the howl he emitted when Buffy reared back and sent the arrow flying at his neck just as hard as a bow could have. The iron tip caught in his throat and the mutant struggled, falling down onto his knees. He was eye-to-eye with Buffy when he grabbed the shaft and yanked the arrow out, tearing most of his throat along with it. He gurgled and spluttered, then fell face first into the deep grass.

"How did you do that?" Jessie asked as she hobbled over and dropped to her knees beside Buffy, making sure she was okay. She eyed the mutant warily, afraid he would spring back to life at any moment.

"Lucky catch," Buffy replied, still staring at the corpse. After a moment she shook her head and then gazed over at Jessie. "Come on, let's go."

They stood up using one another for support and made their way to the road. It was overgrown and unkempt but Jessie was sure that it would lead back down to the shop and eventually the main road. Sure enough, a few hours later the old wooden building with the rusted tin roof came into vision and both Buffy and Jessie sighed with relief. Even if they still had a lot of walking to do, at least they were out of the woods.

"So what happens now?" Jessie asked.

Buffy shrugged and drew in a deep breath, "We find our way to the main road and get the hell out of West Virginia."

"Where are you going to head to?"

Again, Buffy shrugged. "Back home, I hope. I really don't have any control over that though."

"So are you crazy or were you just messing with me when you told me that whole deal with demons and portals last night?"