dragonyphoenix

Title: Lair of the White Worm
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 460 - Jurassic
Rating: PG
Summary: Another chapter for Shanshu
Word Count: 1254
Note: Apologies for Will and Willow. Joss named 'em, not me.

It felt as if they'd been skulking for hours. Will had wanted to make a run for it but Willow had insisted they take it slow and stealthy. She was a smart one alright. So far they'd snuck past out a good dozen set of guards without being seen.

Those guards though … Will was starting to believe that Willow hadn't been lying or insane or something with that alternate dimensions chatter. Not in Kansas anymore didn't even begin to cover it. The creatures they'd seen had looked more like insects than men, like stick bugs or something but no bugs were as tall as a man and no bugs wore armor and carried spears. And no men made sounds like that, like a high-pitched chittering.

They creeped Will the fuck out and he was perfectly happy to put as much distance between himself and them as he possibly could. Hence his preference to get through these tunnels as quickly, not that the tunnels seemed to be leading them anywhere. Paths branched out all over the place down here, tunnels carved out of the living rock it looked like, not rectangular tunnels with nice straight walls. They were more circular, sort of like the tunnels worms might leave behind in the dirt. Will couldn't shake the feeling that these tunnels had been made by something that had eaten through the rock even though that was obviously impossible, just like the buggy guards.

They passed another set of branching tunnels with guards patrolling the far end. Something about the whole situation seemed off, something apart from the buggy guards and Willow's talk of dimensions, something he couldn't put his finger on. “How long do you think our luck'll hold?”

Willow gave him a quick look but kept moving. “What do you mean?”

“We've seen patrols down most of these tunnels. There's been one clear path for us to take but sooner or later that's got to change. We can't keep slipping past them forever.”

“One clear path?” She actually stopped moving which Will wasn't all that thrilled with. The only out of this horror show was ahead of them or at least that was the hope. “Oh, you mean it's like they've been leading us along, making us come this way?”

Shit, he hadn't thought of it quite like that but now that she'd brought it up, it was clear that's exactly what was happening. “What do we do?”

She shrugged. “Keep going. Hope you're wrong.”

“Bloody wonderful.”

Willow started stopping them when they came to branching tunnels. It was as if she was checking her theory. Unfortunately, nothing disproved it. There were guards at the far edge of every tunnel they passed. Either these tunnels were heavily guarded and they'd just been lucky so far or they were being herded someplace, and Will didn't believe in that kind of luck.

The torches ran out with the tunnel at the edge of a cavern which was dark and, presumably, echoey. Will wasn't about to shout into it to find out. “Now what?”

A chittering came from behind them and the shadows were shrinking as if the light were coming closer. “We either let the guards catch up or go forward.” Willow pulled two torches off the wall and handed him one. “Come on.”

The torches did little to dispel the darkness. “Shouldn't we stick to the walls? I feel sort of out in the open here in the middle of the cave.”

“We can find an exit faster from here.” She raised her torch high and turned in a circle, scanning the entire cave. “There.”

Her finger pointed out a dark hole in the side of the cave.

“You sure about this?” he asked.

“Hell no but it's not like we have much choice.”

“That's what worries me.”

The cavern was so silent that their footfalls sounded loudly. “Looks like the guards have given up,” he said, hoping to disturb the uneasy silence.

“Shhh.”

The darkness felt heavy and alive. Will pictured himself and Willow as tiny ants walking into a Venus Flytrap. The lack of guards behind him, the darkness, the stillness of the air, they all felt like a trap snapping shut. It was all too unnerving and so he focused on Willow's back as she led the way, forcing himself to keep his gaze on the gold threads that were sparkling in the torchlight. When she stopped, he almost crashed into her. “What?”

He followed her gaze and the floor seemed to drop out below his feet. That thing was nothing natural. It was big, really big, so big that it couldn't be real except it was moving, maybe breathing sort of, he couldn't be sure. Its skin was pale, a light gray against the dark wall of the cave, and it definitely wasn't part of the cave like a pale rock or something. It was like creature out of Jurassic Park or, no, more like one of those tick creatures out of that old Godzilla movie except this was bigger and more wormy. Wasn't there some old flick with a giant white worm? And he was babbling. He could hear himself babbling although he thought it was all in his head so probably nobody else could hear it which was good because he didn't know how to stop the babbling.

“Come on.” When she grabbed his arm and pulled, he screamed. His torch was on the ground. He didn't recall dropping it but there it was on the ground and flickering out. A sound, like that of flesh grinding against stone, filled his ears. The big gray thing rose up and it was a worm and its maw opened and it was full of teeth, rows and rows of teeth. The stench hit him, like blood that had festered for days. Will heard himself gagging but he couldn't take his eyes off of the white worm, but then there was a pull on his arm and they were running and they were in the tunnel and he hoped the worm couldn't follow.

“What the hell was that?” He sounded hysterical but that was okay because he felt hysterical. At least he wasn't pretending that he was, oh, not hysterical or something.

“Run.”

There was a rumbling behind them. Oh God, the worm did fit in the tunnels. He glanced back and it wasn't the worm but a rock, a round rock rolling down after them, taking out torches right and left. How the hell had he gotten himself into an Indiana Jones movie?

“Faster.”

They were running all-out but the rumbling got louder as the rock gained on them. Up ahead, wasn't that a … He dodged into the side tunnel, yanking the arm and dragging her with him. She plastered herself against the tunnel as the rock rumbled past. “You OK, Red?”

“Spike?”

“Huh? Not that again.”

“But you called me Red.”

He didn't know where the name had come from. “Your hair's Red,” he offered in explanation.

“But that's what Spike called me, or you called me that when you were Spike or when you remembered you were Spike I mean. You called me Red back then as well. Maybe your memory's coming back.”

She sounded pleased. Will could only think of what those three creepy, uh, things had said. “The witch will restore his memory and then he will face his wyrd.” Whatever this wyrd was, he was pretty sure it was worse than a giant man-eating worm.