Primitive

I crouch low in the dirt, scoping out the front entrance. Spike waves a little from the side of the building to get my attention and points at the door, holding up two fingers. The less Bringers we have to fight at a time, the better. I nod, and glance back at my team.



"Kennedy and Rona--you guys back up Spike's team." They nod, creeping along the dirt closer to their target.



If things go according to plan, the Bringers will rush to defend the attack, giving Amanda and I enough time to find whatever we're looking for. Spike and the other girls will keep them busy as long as possible, hopefully without casualties.



Spike and I make some complicated signals back and forth, mostly for show, so the girls think we have the first clue what we're doing. Maybe he's not that bad after all.



Whatever. I can barely blink before they're up and running, taking the Bringers by surprise. Amanda instinctively begins to stand, but I push down on her arm. "Wait."



She chews on her thumbnail a little, whispering. "I feel shaky and weird.. Like I want to.. I don't know."



"Jump into the fray and start kicking some ass?"



She thinks about it, then nods. "Basically."



"Welcome to Slayerhood. But not tonight. Let them take care of the drones. We're going straight into the hive."



Amanda stares at the girls fighting as the other Bringers hear the commotion and abandon their posts. "You know.. we learned in Bio that the queen bee's stinger isn't barbed, like regular bees. So it doesn't tear off."



"So?" I ask distractedly, getting ready to make my move.



"So she can just sting you over and over again without dying."



"It's a good thing I hate metaphors, or I'd be worried right now." I stand up and take off into the now-abandoned front door, with Amanda hot on my heels.



As she runs behind me through the winery, she calls out, "That was an analogy, not a metaphor!"



"Now, see? This is exactly why I'm against educating women." I skid to a stop in front of a tall, foreboding man wearing a clerical collar. Amanda crashes into me and looks at him in fear. "Give woman a fish, and she eats for a day. Teach her to think," he shrugs, smiling a little. "She starts wanting more fish than she's truly entitled to."



"Caleb," Amanda whispers so helpfully behind me.



"Thanks. I got that, actually."



He never breaks eye contact. "Now I believe you girls have come here to take what's not rightfully yours. The Lord, in all His infinite wisdom, laid some rules down long ago. One of them referring to not stealing. Yet here you be, seeking to take what don't belong to you, just like Eve in the garden."



"I never was much for Genesis," I retort. "Too many rules."



Caleb laughs like we're not standing in a life or death face-off, and it sends chills down my spine. "I took you for a Matthew fan, myself. 'Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself..' Seems to fit, being as you're the real Slayer's very own Judas, aren't you? Trying to make up for what's already done."



"What can I say? I'm an optimist." Amanda nudges my arm and glances behind him, where there's a hole torn in the concrete floor. He's standing directly in front of it, as if to shield it from our view. "What are you keeping in there, your altar boys?"



He frowns. "You hold your tongue when you speak to your betters, or I'll cut it out."



I open my mouth to respond, but I'm cut off when the melee from outside suddenly crashes through the side door, a tangle of girls and Spike, and two remaining Bringers exploding into the room. Caleb moves toward the fray and I run as fast as I can, jumping into the hole and hoping like hell that the bottom isn't too far away.



I hit the floor on my feet and look around quickly. About ten Bringers are working with tools, chopping away at a stone block into which a huge axe is wedged.



"Bingo," I breathe.



The Bringers look up, their eyeless faces seeming even eerier than before, and move towards me almost as one. "You guys wouldn't wanna attack me one at a time, would you?" I launch a kick at one of their heads as they rush me. "Didn't think so!"



Several weights behind me hit the ground and I keep my fingers crossed that it's the girls, and not more Bringers.



Everything becomes a blur of fists and weapons, and I get into the zone, fighting wildly. Hitting everything that moves and making my way slowly towards the axe. I try to ignore a few shrieks of pain behind me and focus on getting it so we can get out of here.



I grab the handle of the axe and in one motion lift it effortlessly out of the stone, clutch it tight, and swing it at the Bringers. I decapitate three of them without even trying before going after the others.



I finish them off and stand there, breathing heavily and glancing around. "Let's go!" I call up through the hole, but no response comes. Amanda, Kennedy, and Vi are bruised and bleeding a few feet away.



"What about the others?" Vi asks. She's nursing her left arm, which is twisted at such an incredibly angle that I can't even believe it's still attatched.



I point the axe at Kennedy and Amanda. "Boost me up. Hurry." They rush over and brace their hands against their knees, allowing me to step up, and then boost me back through the hole.



I scramble into the storage room and skid to a stop. Spike's laying unconscious in a huge puddle of what I hope is red wine. Caridad's mangled corpse is in the corner, and I look up in anger as Caleb tosses Rona's body aside.



I grip the handle tighter and move towards him. "I can't even believe how much I'm gonna kill you."



"'And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom..' And they will know the glory, every one of them. You can kill me," he pauses, laughing in that creepy way. "Well, you can try. But there are more, always will be. You can't defeat it. You can't even concieve of its power, little girl."



I move fast, swinging the axe and slicing his head clean off with an angry yell. I stand there for a few moments afterwards, breathing heavily and fighting back tears of guilt and exhaustion.



There's a hand on my shoulder, and I glance up to see Spike, his face bruised and cut. "You got what we came here for."



"Yeah," I respond softly, glancing at the bodies on the floor, and the scared girls climbing out of the floor in varying states of injury. "But at what cost?"



"Slayer does what a Slayer's gotta do. What no one else can," he says simply, reaching over to help Vi out.



I shoulder the axe and start out the door, the girls staggering behind me and Spike bringing up the rear. As soon as we're a few yards away, he stops and lights a cigarette. He flips his Zippo again and tosses it in the door of the vineyard, where it ignites the spilled wine immediately.



Silently, each lost in our own thoughts, we start home.