| 01 | [HOLO] | ARRIVAL

[couldbeavillain.livejournal.com]

Andrew probably wouldn’t have even opened his eyes to see the difference in his surroundings if the shake of the bus hadn’t ceased. Instead of lying in an uncomfortable seat on the bus, trying to sleep, he was now on a hard floor in a circular room he’d never seen before in his life. And worse than that, he was alone.

Cautiously, the blood-spattered Andrew sits up and eyes his surroundings. Definitely not the inside of a school bus. He can come to this conclusion by the fact that the hard, uncomfortable, synthetic-poly-something-material seats have been replaced with this big round room and the emergency escape on the metal roof is now some weird circular light thing. Not to mention that there wasn’t a pedestal next to him on the bus. Andrew rises now and inspects the device before him. Hi-tech looking thing… more advanced than any cell phones he’s ever seen. Maybe it’s one of the PDA things those business people use. Almost like a handheld computer. It doesn’t belong to him (that he’s aware of, at least), but he picks it up anyway, worrying his thumb against the back as he looks around him again.

Where are the others? Why is he alone? This isn’t cool in any way. “B--…Buffy?” he calls experimentally, and then pauses for a response a part of him truly believes will come. “Dawn? Xander? A—anyone?

“Guys, this—this isn’t funny!” Even though he knows they wouldn’t even consider pulling a prank after the events of earlier in the day. People had just died. Lots of people. Friends. The mood wasn’t anywhere near jokey. In fact, the mood is never jokey with Buffy anyway.

“Is there… anyone around?”

Frightened and somewhat distraught, Andrew continues to turn the cellular-like device over and over in his hands, fingering it nervously. He’s noticed the stairs leading down, and he approaches them timidly just to look, but he’s sure they can’t lead to anything good. Every B-Rated Sci-Fi Horror flick has that scene where the character moves nervously down the stairs or hallway that leads to an undeterminable location and it never ends well.

With that in mind, he wavers at the top of the stairs, staring at them.

“ I just want to know where I am… This is scary. Like waking up on the Discovery One. I’m just waiting for Hal to tell me it can’t do that. Whatever… “that” might be…” He tries calling out to the air, “If I’ve been, like, kidnapped or something? You’re not going to get away with it, just so you know! I’m very good friends—best friends, even, with the Slayer. Or—or with a bunch of Slayers, now! And… and they’ll kick your ass if you… do anything.

“…seriously, there’s got to be someone here. Doesn’t there?”