FIC: Fimbul (4/?)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Fimbul (4/?)
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: Several characters in this belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I'm poor, I'm harmless, I'm just borrowing.
SUMMARY: The temperature falls: the body count rises. "And if you think I'm doing smoochies in weather this cold, Buffy Summers --- !!!"
SPOILERS: None; not even smut (unless it's hiding somewhere)
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All nice feedback welcome -- thanks for the nice comments so far.   
ARCHIVING: Wait and see if I ever finish the thing
 

 
FIMBUL  
By Soren Nyrond
Part 4 :: Norse Treading
 
 
 
Temporary Principal Ecorcheur wasn't really thinking.
The snow simply shouldn't have been there - back in Montreal, yes, but herein California.
Ahead of him he saw his Head of English, Isaac Seldon, trudging through theankle-deep snow, just about to reach the school doors.
Ecorcheur raised his voice.
"Isaac - hold them for me, please: these books are - "
Seldon had half-turned as the principal had spoken. Automatically his handhad reached for the door handle. And (apparently) the instant his hand reached the handle, a wave of ice enveloped him.
Ecorcheur, only a step or three behind, had barely time to stop before he, too, cannoned into the snap-frozen teacher. One of the boys hurrying to get in, was not so lucky, and he, too, was swallowed up by a similar ice-explosion.
"Get clear !" Ecorcheur called out. "Everyone, stay away ! Someone get the police !"
 
 
"According to the TV weather report," Giles said, "The snow stretches for at least a mile beyond the city limits."
"Bang goes my ice-cream round for today," Xander Harris said, drolly. His basement had been unendurably cold, and he had headed to Giles for coffee and a warm-up (seeing that his mother was now charging him for her coffee).
"It just doesn't make sense," Buffy said.
"Unless this 'Fimbulwinter' means something," Willow added, from where she sat, cuddled into Buffy's side on Giles' couch.
"It's from the Norse myths," Giles said, absently, looking at the print-outshe had passed to him. "It refers to the Eternal Winter that was supposedto follow Gotterdamnerung."
"Was that a sneeze or a word ?"
"Buffy, did you pay no attention - ?"
"Hey, I know that one," Xander chipped in: "That was when the Norse gods got theirs - well, some of them, anyway."
"Very good, Xander - did you learn that in school, or have you been readingmore widely ?"
"It was in old comics I used to read," Xander admitted. "All about Thor and so forth."
"So what's it doing here ?" Buffy asked.
"I have no idea - in the myths, it never happened: the Gods defeated the Ice Giants before Asgard was finally destroyed, and without the Giants' power, the Winter failed and turned to the new Spring of the world, with men taking over from the gods."
"I repeat," Buffy said: "What's it doing here ?"
 
The contemplative mood was broken by the sound of a loud-hailer announcement from outside. The Sunnydale Council had declared an emergency: everyone was to stay indoors unless it was an emergency, and any frozen pipes or sudden outbreaks of ice were to be reported to the police, or to a special army unit that had volunteered to help.
"We'd better scout round, see if we can see anything," Buffy said. "This is the Hellmouth - all the odds say this is nothing natural."
"I'll come," Xander said. "As I said, no-one'll want ice-cream in this weather."
"Well, take care," Giles said. "In the meantime, I'll see what I can dig up . that is, find out."
 
 
Phoebe Greco lived on the east side of town, a couple of blocks short of the Bronze, with her parents who ran one of Sunnydale's Greek-cuisine "restaurants" - which was a euphemism for a hot dog and kebab shop, with three or four tables in back for sit-down customers who fancied moussaka or calamari.
She was halfway to school when she heard the announcement, and she had justturned back when she heard her name being called.
Phoebe had only a few friends at school, but she recognised Angela Morrice (who at Sunnydale High didn't know her) even if she couldn't think why Angela wanted to speak to her.
"Hi, An - Angela - isn't it cold ?", she said, going over to the alleyway between Thurmans' Grocery and the Qwik-ee-Wash.
"Oh, hey, yes," Angela replied. "Listen, if there's no school, how d'you fancy having some fun ?"
She put a spin on the last word that left Phoebe breathless: surely Angela didn't mean what it sounded like she meant ?
Then, abruptly, came the sound of engines and, looking round, Phoebe saw three dun-coloured Army-type vehicles pulling up, and a group of young men infatigues baling out. Some carried what looked like guns, and others had things that looked like Star Trek scanner-thingies.
"Oh, look, I wonder where they - " Then, belatedly, Phoebe realised that Angela had vanished.
 
 
The Scoobs had seen the same sort of vehicles. And the young guys in them.
"Special Forces of some sort," Xander said, relying on his Soldier-Boy reflexes: "Those aren't regular guns: they're something high-tech, and they're not wearing regular unit flashes." He tapped the tops of his sleeves, justbelow each shoulder.
Willow nodded and Buffy nodded. Willow was trying to analyse what was going on, what the soldier boys were doing; Buffy, on the other hand, was concentrating on their slim waists and tight buns: their uniforms weren't baggy like ordinary ones: they looked like they were made to look like ordinary street clothes and just the windbreakers on top made them into military uniform.
 
"We should keep out of their way," she said. "They either know what they're doing, in which case we can let them get on with it, or they don't, in which case, we don't have time to show them."
"I'd agree . " Xander broke off what he'd been going to say, as a flurry ofactivity took place. One of the soldiers was carrying some sort of scanning device; he pointed, and at once three others took up firing positions. His hand was raised - then suddenly fell back, limp.
"Whatever it was, it went," Xander said.
Buffy and the others quietly withdrew a different way.
"If we knew what it was, or how it worked," Buffy said.
"It's cold," Xander said.
"And - " Willow began, before, suddenly, the sky turned white as the piled grey clouds let loose with a blizzard of gigantic snowflakes, settling everywhere. What had been an icy Sunnydale turned into a whirling white-fog labyrinth.
"Stay together," Buffy called. She reached out and tagged Willow. For a moment they panicked, and then Xander turned up out of nowhere.
"Anyone got any ideas where is warm ?" he said, plaintively.
"Back to Giles's, I guess," Buffy said.
"Which is which way ?"
"Third left, three blocks and through the archway," Willow said.  
Buffy hugged her: "Memory Girl to the rescue."
They were about halfway there when the driving snow suddenly took on a frightening shape.
 
 
The fire brigade had finally arrived at the High School. They could hardlysee ten feet in front of themselves but they were determined to do what they could Warned by Principal Ecorcheur, they weren't risking anything shortof poles - even swinging an axe seemed a little risky - but they were there to try to recover the bodies of Isaac Seldon and the boy - Richard Agnew.
"You're sure they're in there, only I can't see - "
"I was here when they were enveloped, and I know just where - "
A cry of alarm, a screech of brakes - whatever the car (or its driver) had been trying to do, it had skidded, and was lurching out of control out of the driving snow and straight toward the side of the Vas Complens warehouse.It hit, hard, punching into the ice coating the wall. The driver baled out at once, as soon as he could, and a few moments later the inevitable explosion occurred.
Flames leapt up and a wash of sudden heat swept out, melting the falling snow.
But then the flames seemed to die away, almost as though the ice were swallowing them, and the heat, so sudden, stopped dead, as icy cold swept in once more. The snow reasserted itself, implacably.
Then the ice seemed to leap out, and suddenly the car was enveloped it in, a small berglet on the side of the ice-wall.
The driver staggered to his feet and looked, disbelievingly, through the blizzard, at where his car had been,
"That's what happened - " Ecorcheur was saying, when cries of panic drew his attention and that of the fire brigade chief.
 
Officers were throwing themselves back from the school entrance: among the snow flakes they had been assaulted by a rain of ice needles: several of the men were down, having to be helped away.
"It's no good - the ice is just too tough," one man was saying, when cries of "Look Out !" drew more attention.
The ice covering the school door suddenly exploded outward, leaving a long tunnel leading inwards.
Of Seldon and Richard Agnew there was no sign.
"That's where they were," Ecorcheur said, uncomprehendingly.
"Well, they ain't there now, and there's no sign of them."
"They were frozen solid, I tell you," the Principal insisted, walking closer to see for himself.
The doors, he could now see, were open, and behind them the school appearedice-tombed and motionless.
The brigade chief took a fire axe from one of his officers and followed.
"Do you want us in there, chief ?"
"No - stay here for now. Fewer of us at risk . " He accelerated slightly to catch up to Ecorcheur, who was carefully threading his way into the school itself.
 
Sound echoed weirdly in the ice-crusted corridor - the wind whistled, and the ice seemed to creak.
Then there was a shuffling, scraping sound and, from a doorway, Isaac Seldon emerged. But he was a changed man: his skin wore the blue-white pallor of frozen death, his eyes were staring, and he walked with a zombie-like automatism.
"Isaac - you're still alive - "
"Get back, Principal !"
The chief's shout was too late - man and zombie had closed and the ice-death swept over Ecorcheur, sucking warmth and life from him, rendering him a statue of himself.
Seeing this the chief turned to flee, before Seldon could reach him.
Richard Agnew was waiting - he had been standing, motionless, among the icepillars by the doorway and now he stepped into the hurrying man's way, andspread his arms. 
Off balance on the ice, the chief had no chance to stop, and he, too, was engulfed by the ice.
And, outside, voices were already calling out to see if the men had discovered anything.
 
 
The frenzied battering at the door, and the voices, alerted Rupert Giles tothe fact that something was awry, and he unlatched the door, in time to let Buffy, Willow and Xander fall in.
"Shut ! . Quick ! . On our heels !"
Gathering that there was something outside which the Slayer and her friendsdid not want inside, Giles reclosed the door, and looked at the three panicked teens.
"I take it that things have become more serious," he said.
"Wolves !" Xander said.
"There are no wolves in California," Giles retorted. "Except in zoos."
"All right," Xander said, exasperated: "Pit bulls that had a run in with a tyre inflator - industrial strength."
"They were wolves, Giles," Buffy said, seriously, and Willow nodded.
"I had hoped not," Giles admitted: "This only goes to confirm what I had hoped wasn't true. You'd all better get coffees or something, and I'll explain."