In their haste to escape from the chaos that had continued to follow them down the hallway, the boys ran at the door ahead of them and the force of the collision broke the door from its frame. Wood splinters flew as it all came crashing to the ground. Sam and Dean scrambled back onto their feet and only the noticed they were not alone.
There she was, cowering against the back wall, gripping tightly onto a hand, the arm of which lay at an awkward angle, with no further information as to whose it was. She watched them through wide eyes, breathing in tight patterns, with alarm colouring the edges of her face. The two boys turned their backs on her for a moment or two as they built up a barrier in the doorway. Within seconds of their mission being completed, the girl was at Dean's throat with a silver knife. There was a certain wildness in her eyes, but he was far from alarmed. It was a look that accompanied a feeling with which he was very well accustomed: desperation spiked with anger and determination.
Sizing her up in a matter of micro-seconds, he knew that he could fight her slight form off without much trouble if need be, but he allowed her to maintain the power for a moment longer. He nodded minutely at Sam, who, acknowledging his brother's decision, lowered the gun he had aimed at her back.
Unsure of how to take this latest development, the girl spent a second or so looking first at Dean and the to Sam, as if hoping to ascertain further information from their straight faces. Dean felt a peculiar surge of pride as he watched her shake her head a little, as if to clear a thought, and then press him a little more firmly against the wall that she had backed him up against. Without relinquishing her hold on the knife that she still had at his throat, she reached behind her into a back pocket and withdrew a flask which she uncapped with her teeth. She flung clear liquid into his face, waiting to see if he had any further reaction than to flinch a little as he closed his eyes. Upon seeing none, she nicked the softer skin of his throat under his chin, drawing a thin line of blood droplets to the surface.
Sam started forwards toward her but before his hand reached her, Dean waved him back. After a pause and a series of hasty eye communications, he complied and Dean returned his gaze to the girl.
"You about done now?" He asked.
As a response, she pulled out a fistful of salt and crushed it against his lips. He took a deep breath, anger slowly beginning to boil in his stomach, climbing its way up to his chest. He raised his eyebrows at her.
"You're human." She said.
Dean nodded and she crumbled. He managed to catch a hold of her elbows just in time to prevent her from falling to the floor. She had gone so limp in relief that he held her tight against him, wrapping his arms across her shoulders to support her. The two boys remained silent, allowing her time to regain herself.
They stayed like that for a few long minutes. Dean could feel her hitched breathing against his chest, and her fingers gripping onto the weathered cotton of his t-shirt. He only looked down as she pushed her forehead against him for a second, before shakily pulling away from his support.
Colour was climbing its way up her neck and extending across her face as she sheepishly returned her eye-line back to the boys. There was no doubting her embarrassment at her near-breakdown, but Sam and Dean merely smiled encouragingly at her.
"Sorry," she said. "I'm not normally like this, but it's been a living hell here."
Sam laughed a little as Dean snorted, and they shot glances at each other.
"So, you're one of us." Dean stated. "A hunter."
The girl nodded, "Yeah. Born and raised, I guess."
"Well, I'm Dean Winchester. This is my brother, Sam."
"Winchester? I wasn't sure that you guys weren't just urban legend." She said shyly. "I'm Hailee." She raised her hand to shake each of theirs in turn.
"So can you tell us what's going on here?" Sam asked.
"I'm not entirely sure," Hailee replied."I would have said that it was the Croatoan virus hitting us up again, but this is different. It's more of a mutation - physically I mean - than the Croatoan. You'd pick one of these guys out from a mile away."
"Okay," Sam paused. "Are you with anybody?"
Hailee froze and a wash of emotion shot across her face, slightly scrunching her nose as it passed. She shook her head.
"No offence, but aren't you a little young to be out on a job by yourself...?" Dean pushed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and leaned back on his heels a little to see her face a little more clearly.
"I'm nineteen," she interjected, a little more indignantly than either of the brothers were expecting. But then she dropped her gaze and her attitude, suddenly engrossed in brushing dust off her laddered tights. "I came here with other people," she said, shifting uncomfortably on her feet, before laying the knife she still held on the table by the foot of the double bed. "But the chaos here... Well, it kind of took over."
Sam and Dean glanced questioning lay in each other's direction, and together their brows furrowed in the family way.
"How do you mean?" Sam asked, pulling a rickety chair by the boarded up window further into the room and then seating himself on it.
Hailee took this last movement as an invitation and backed up to collapse in the edge of the bed. The old and beaten-up mattress groaned in protest, springing back to half-catapult her slight frame back up into a standing position. She regained her balance on the edge and gathered the sleeves of her hole-ridden sweater over the backs of her hands, until only her fingertips were showing, before clamping her fingers between her knees. She continued to be incapable of meeting either of the boys' eyes, even as she spoke: "Those things... Out there... The ones you had to kill?"
Both boys nodded frowning deeper and deeper as the truth began to dawn on them little by little.
"They... They, uh, used to be..." She paused to try and clear the tremble out of her voice, but instead had to bite down hard on her top lip in a futile attempt to set a flow of tears that balanced on her eyelashes. One large fat tear rolled down her cheek, weighted with intense emotion. "They used to be my family."
Dean licked and then bit his lips, shoving his hands even further into his pockets, while Sam's brows furrowed further and sympathy filled his eyes before he dropped his gaze.
"And," Dean ventured, subdued, "the person over there?" He motioned in the vague direction of the hand that remained lifeless, and only slightly visible from behind the other side of the bed.
Hailee hid her face in her hands, resting her elbows on her knees, before moving her hands to hold either side of her head. Not-so-subtly wiped tears continued to crawl down her face. "My dad."
Dean pulled up the other chair, a little closer to Hailee than Sam had, and leaned his arms on his knees with his hands clasped in front of him. "I'm sorry. Is he...?"
"Dead?" Hailee let out a strangled chuckle. "Yeah. I put the bullet in his head myself. Just like he taught me." She paused to swipe at her face as tears continued to fall. She sniffed. "I was just about to start lighting him up when you guys came in."
Dean leaned over and placed his hand on her knee. There was a moment of silence as she eyed him up. He started to retract his hand, but she grabbed a hold of his fingers, squeezing them tightly, before letting out a quavering breath.
"I'm sorry." She said, running her hand across her face again.
"Don't be," Dean replied after a moment's pause. He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb before taking charge of the situation. "Listen, grab all your stuff from in here. My car's in the lot." Hailee nodded, trying not to think if the other cars that were going to be left standing abandoned. "Can you drive?" She nodded again. "Okay, there's a diner about a quarter-mile down the road. Take my car and go and grab some food. We'll meet you in the parking lot there. We'll eat on the go."
"What about...?" She gestured to where her dad's body lay, then to the building in general.
"We'll meet you at the diner." Said Sam. He stood up to reach into his back pocket for his wallet. Pulling out two twenty dollar bills, he continued, "He'll have a double bacon-and-cheese burger with extra bacon, and I'll have a chicken burger. Both with everything." He handed the money over to her. "Get whatever you like."
"Thanks." Hailee stood up and started to gather her various belongings from around the room, throwing weapons into the bottom of a backpack that looked like it had seen life before beginning to roll items of clothing to fit in on top.
Looking around, Dean was suddenly aware that outside of the room everything had fallen silent. "Where'd they all go?"
Hailee glanced up from her meticulous packing, in order to fit her life into one small single bag. "They disappear when they eventually find someone new to play with. I'd assume they're all in the basement, audiencing whatever horrific show is going on."
"Is that why you came out here?"
"Yeah. We thought numbers would be enough..." She paused, intent on flattening a wrinkle out of a shirt. "Obviously we were wrong." She pushed the clothes further down into the bag, closing it up. She stood and slung one strap over her shoulder. "Your best shot is to trap them while they're occupied, and burn this place to the ground. Fire's the only thing that works en masse."
"But you shot your dad." Dean wondered aloud.
"Silver works if you get it fast enough, before the mutation takes hold. Otherwise it just knocks them out for an hour or so."
Both brothers nodded, taking the new information on board, before Dean fished the Impala keys out of his jacket and threw them underarm to Hailee.
"See you, then." She said, heading to the door and beginning to break the obstruction apart. She moved items around to make a hole large enough for her to fit through, dropping her bag through first.
"See you," Sam called, watching her disappear. "Be careful."
"Always am." Came her smart reply.
Half an hour later, Dean and Sam walked down the road, away from the smoking block. They had taken time to make sure that the blaze had taken hold on the lower levels, ensuring that the basement and all it's inhabitants were obliterated.
As agreed, Hailee had parked the Impala towards the back of the parking lot beside the diner, separated from the other cars. She was sat on the divider by the front bumper of the car with her back to the boys as they approached, an iced coffee stood next to her, her bag by her feet, and a cigarette was dangling from her fingers.
It seemed to be that she was entirely in a world of her own, as she jumped when Dean passed by, squeezing her shoulder as he went.
She took one last drag on the cigarette, before putting it out and throwing it to one side. She gathered herself, but it was obvious to see that she had been crying before she swatted the tears that still balanced on her skin.
"The food's on the front seat," she said as she stood, brushing down her leggings. "I didn't know about drinks, so I got two cokes."
"That's great, thanks," Dean said, yanking the driver's door open and retrieving the bag of food. Before Sam had got to him, he was already tearing the paper away from his burger. Sam shot him a look as he took his first big bite, and after a brief non-verbal battle, Dean lowered his head a little, chewing quickly on his mouthful. He swallowed hard.
"Okay. So let's go somewhere. New plan of action."
"I need to do some serious research," Sam volunteered. "I hear there's a good library not too far outside of town, so you can drop me there. I won't say no to help though."
Dean smirked. "Okay, Sammy. Bookworm new moon. Got it."
The brothers swung themselves into the front seat of the Impala, slamming their respective doors behind them. Dean found the keys already hanging from the ignition, and with the contented smile he always wore at the wheel, he started his baby up. They both looked to Hailee.
She was stood frozen. Completely riveted to the spot, she watched as smoke billowed higher into the sky above the motel block. Sirens were slowly becoming more and more audible, but she hoped they'd wait a minute in order to allow the flames to do their job.
Tears were crawling down her cheeks, completely silent. It didn't even appear that she was breathing.
After a moment or two, she closed her eyes and turned back to face the car. She made no attempt to dry her face this time, as she leant down to pick up her drink cup and bag, the latter of which she threw across her back, and walked to the driver's side of the car, stopping by Dean's open window.
"Thank you," she murmured, catching his eye. "I'm not sure I could have done that alone."
"There's no way." Dean said, with a small sympathetic smile playing in the corner of his mouth.
"Yeah..." Hailee smiled a little in return, dragging her gaze from his lips back up to his eyes. "Well I guess I should probably get going. There's still a lot of work left to do. You guys should probably be moving too, right? I mean when aren't the Winchesters busy?" She paused. "Just give me a second and I'll be out of your hair."
Dean's eyebrows knitted closer together. "What are you talking about? Get in the car."
"No, I couldn't..."
"Look, we're staying on the case. It would be pointless to split up now."
"Come on." She raised her eyebrows and rubbed the backs of her fingers along one.
"Sam, would you back me up?"
"Hailee. Dean's right. It would be better to work together on this. And we're not leaving you to wander alone right now - not after everything that you've just been through."
Hailee shifted her eyes to the ground, nervously shuffling her feet. "Look, it's really nice of you to worry, but I'll be fine. It's the risk of the job, right? I don't want to impose."
"We're sticking together." Dean interjected gruffly. "Now get in the damn car before I throw you in." He turned to face forward and wound his window up, effectively drawing the matter to a close.
Sam watched as Hailee visibly considered the situation, before moving slowly to join their bags on the backseat. Dean rolled down his window again as she moved down the car.
As soon as her door was closed, he hit the gas, roaring out of the parking lot and away from the flames that continued to climb higher.