Sub-Terrestrial Lifeforms

This began when I heard about how the Initiative was formed to handle "sub-terrestrial" threats, and then watched all four of my Tremors movies one after the other. After thinking about it for a few days, a mini-plot formed in my head during school and I had to put it down on paper.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I do not own Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, or any of the Tremors movies, or any of the characters from the afore mentioned show and movies. I only own the plot.

It had started out like any other demon infestation. People and pets were going missing or being found dead and horribly mangled. The one thing that all the bodies had in common was that they were all missing limbs or heads. The police said that the killings were the work of a serial killer. Giles and the Scoobies felt that they knew better: the deaths were caused by demons.

Despite their search through Giles' collection of books on demons, however, none of the Scoobies could find anything with the same M.O. as the killings without there being any other conditions. Angel had reported that even vampires and demons were disappearing. Even with all of their combined efforts, they didn't even know what the creature looked like until Buffy went out on patrol one fateful night.

She had been on one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries, fighting a newly awoken vampire, when it happened. Buffy had jumped up onto a tombstone to avoid one of the bloodsucker's lunges, when three horned, orange snakes shot out of the ground and grabbed the vamp, coiling around both arms and a leg. Buffy stood frozen on the tombstone, barely breathing, as the vampire struggled in vain against the orange snakes that were trying to pull him underground.

Buffy figured that the snakes were the demons that the Scooby gang was looking for. Therefore, she was not prepared for the armored mandibles, closely followed by a gigantic, worm-like body, which swallowed the vampire the next second. It took Buffy's shock-numbed brain a few seconds to register the fact that the horned snakes weren't snakes at all, but tongues. Tongues that belonged to the monstrosity that squirmed in front of her.

The terrified screams of the vampire in the worm monster's mouth cut off as the monster gave one last convulsive gulp, and the three boney mandibles that were the creatures jaws closed with a click. The demon squirmed some more before the mouth opened again, the three tongues slithering out to wave around as if they were the tongues of snakes, tasting the air. They moved over the ground and tombstones as if looking for something, one passing mere inches from Buffy's body. The near miss, coupled with a closer look at the gigantic worm and its tongues, showed the creature to be completely blind.

A few minutes later, the tongues retreated, the jaws closed, and the worm monster retreated back into its hole in the ground. A few minutes after that, Buffy allowed herself to breathe again. Casting a dubious glance at the ground, she decided that there was no way to determine if the demon was truly gone, and so instead hopped from tombstone to tombstone until she could jump onto solid pavement. She never once stepped off the pavement the entire way home.

The next day, Buffy told Giles about everything that had happened the night before. She described the worm demon in full detail up to and including its smell. Giles listened attentively, asking questions about size, appearance, and if she was certain that the creature was blind. After a few more previously forgotten details, Giles sent the Scoobies looking through the demon books again, trying to find anything the matched the descriptions that Buffy gave. A week later, the only thing they knew was the there were at least three of the creatures. Fed up with the slow pace of the search, and wanting confirmation of the creatures' identities, Giles placed a call.

Over a thousand miles away, in the small town of Perfection, Nevada, population 10, a man in desert fatigues and an Atlanta Seahawks cap sat watching TV in the rec room of his underground complex. One wall of the room was covered in guns and weapons of every size, make, and caliber. The other wall was filled with the mounted head of various big game animals. Directly behind the man's chair was the stuffed and mounted head of a worm monster. This was the domain of Perfection Valley's resident survivalist, world-renowned graboid and shrieker killer, Burt Gummer.

Suddenly, the phone rings, and Burt mutes the TV to answer it. "Yes?"

"Is this Burt Gummer," asks the voice on the other line with a British accent.

"Affirmative. May I ask who's calling?"

"My name is Rupert Giles. I am a high school librarian in Sunnydale, California. There have been some incidents here, along with the sighting of a creature whose description matches that of a graboid."

"You're sure? Could you describe it for me?"

"A large, worm-like body, about four feet in diameter. The head and jaws are armor-plated, with the bottom jaw separated into two parts with the top jaw in one piece. Inside the mouth are three orange tongues that look like horned snakes. Both the creature and its tongues are eyeless. When one of the monsters retreat back into the ground, they leave behind a hole that resembles a miniature sinkhole."

"'When one of the monsters?' Just how many of them are there?"

"At least three, but there might be more unaccounted for."

"And when did the incidents begin?"

"The creatures were first spotted a little over a weak ago. The killing and disappearances almost two weeks before that."

Burt walked over to the counter at the gun wall and took out a rolled-up map of the United States from one of the cabinets underneath. He unrolled it, setting down items at the corners to hold the map open. "And where did you say you're located at?"

"Sunnydale, California."

Burt ran a finger over the map, thinking, By law, it's illegal to hunt and kill graboids, but there's a loophole to every law. Let's see, the first sighting was over a week ago, and the killing started two weeks before that. So, going by the known progression of a graboid's lifecycle, the graboids will metamorphisize in… "You can expect me the day after tomorrow, Mr. Giles. Until then, try to stay on the pavement at much as possible."

"Thank you, Mr. Gummer. I shall see you in two days."

Two days later, a covered, heavily loaded army truck rolled into the parking lot of Sunnydale's local high school and parked as close to the school library as possible, where there was a small group of highschoolers and a man dressed in tweed waiting for it. A man, easily recognized as Burt Gummer, got out and went to the back of the truck, his welcoming committee following him.

"Mr. Gummer, I'm Rupert Giles," said the man in tweed. "I'm glad that you could make it in such short notice."

"Glad to be here, sir."

"Hey, what do ya got in here," said a brown haired boy climbing onto the back of the truck.

"Hey, hey, hey," Burt said, grabbing the kid's arm. "Don't touch, don't touch. What's your name, anyway, kid," Burt added, untying the canvas covering the back of the truck.

"Uh, Alexander Harris, sir, but I prefer Xander."

"I'm Buffy Summers," said the petite blonde, "and this is Willow Rosenberg," she added, gesturing at the red headed girl beside her. Burt gave them both a curt nod before throwing back the olive drab canvas, revealing various explosives, a multitude of guns, and stacks upon stacks of ammo.

"I've brought a large selection of weapons for you to choose from," he said, opening a polished aluminum case and removing a rifle. "Can any of you handle a firearm," he asked holding it out.

"I might be able to," said Buffy as she took it from him. Almost without thought, she worked the action, checked that the chamber was empty, brought the rifle up, sighted along it, and dry fired it. Giles, Xander, and Willow stared in awe at her, but Burt just nodded, pleased with her handling of the gun.

"A shotgun," Xander said in surprise. "You're not exactly here to shoot rabbits, Mr. Gummer."

"Not shotguns, double rifles," Burt corrected. "Elephant guns, Weasly-Richards four eighty, three-seventy-five H and H mags," he added, bringing them out and handing them to Giles, Xander, and Willow. "Don't forget to hold them nice and tight against your shoulder or you'll break your collarbone." At that, Xander looked warily at the rifle in his hands, while Willow was already freaking out at just holding hers. Only Buffy and Giles seemed at ease with holding a gun.

"Isn't this kinda… overkill" Willow said skeptically, as Burt took out a portable TV and turned it to the local news channel. A news team was on, filming a graboid that was in the park, on the surface. The Scoobies watched in horror as three shriekers tore their way out of the graboid's body and attacked the reporter before the camera feed cut off.

"When you need it, and don't have it, you sing a different tune," Burt replied, lifting out his Grizzly Single Shot 50-caliber BMG and loading it with a solid brass slug (all modeled after an anti-tank cartridge). "If we're lucky, this will be all that we need." He stood up and jumped out of the truck.

"Well, ladies, let's go hunt us some shriekers!"

END

(Because you can guess what happens next)

A/N: Most of the dialogue in the second part is based off of a scene in Tremors 2: Aftershocks