I'm having some writers block while writing my other story for Avengers. So, here I am…trying out something new.

Enjoy!

Dark Font: Memories.

Supernatural: AU

My life was simple. I had a routine. My life was normal. I was a creature of habit. This stemmed from my father really. Growing up being a US Marshall's daughter, you learned to be efficient, repetitive, and quick. Time was always limited with my dad, but my mother. Well, she was always missing…she was a drunk. Dad, not being home that often, never seemed to notice. So, in return of not having present parents, I took care of my younger brother. Russell was four years younger and he was just as stubborn as my dad. He always insisted that mom was fine and he, of course, viewed dad as a hero. Oh to be that naïve. My brother was too naïve…in fact that was what got him killed.

Sitting my coffee down on my desk I flipped on the light. There was already mail from the weekend on my desk waiting patiently for me to open. I sighed and gave a small yawn as I stowed my purse in the bottom left drawer of my desk. Another day, another dime. I sifted through my mail and stopped at the post card covered in red and yellow swirls against a black background.

Hendrix is CALLING YOU!

Come In to ANY Clinic Today to Get Your ALL Year Shot.

Protect Yourself NOW!

I rolled my eyes. Just another way to get people's money. I haven't had a flu shot in ten years and only had the flu once. Those were pretty good odds if you asked me. I tossed the postcard into the trash bin and kissed the tips of my fingers before I pressed them to the picture that was sitting on my desk of my brother and me.

"Good morning Russ…happy birthday."

My eyes caught the movement outside me office. I tossed the rest of the mail down on the desk and eased my way to my office door.

"She's sick."

"She'll need someone to drive her home."

"I'll do it."

"You shouldn't Hillarie- you're pregnant. God knows what she has!"

"Maybe we should just call an ambulance instead."

I leaned to my left to look outside of my office door. Six people were gathered around Mattie from the obituaries department. Two of them seemed to be holding her up. She looked extremely sick. Her hair was plastered to her forehead, sweat rolling down her face, her knees wobbling. She began to moan before suddenly turning into a vicious growl. She shoved off of the woman, Gale, who was helping hold her up and darted at Dana who was right in front of her. Screams erupted and I ran from the office in time to see Mattie bite down on Dana's arm. I froze in place, mouth wide in shock. Mattie was practically…eating her. I finally moved back toward my office and she caught my movement. It was almost eight in the morning, the offices were clear. There wasn't very many of us here, so of course- I would draw attention while my coworkers were running away in fear. Mattie's eyes were yellow in color, her skin pasty pale, blood running from the corners of her mouth. She snarled. I sucked in a breath and took off running back toward my office. I could hear her breathing heavily as if she were some animal, her heavy footsteps sounded all too quick for a woman of sixty-five. I shut the door behind me and tried to lock it just as she slammed into the door. Her screaming was mixed with a battle cry like roar. One that I've heard on movies, her actions were only those I had seen in movies. I shoved a chair under the handle to barricade the door. I jerked the phone down to the floor and crawled under my sturdy wooden desk. My fingers were shaky as I tried to dial 911. What would I say? 'My coworker is trying to eat me?'

The ring ended and a message came through flooding my ears, making my heart drop, "This is the emergency broadcast system. If you are hearing this- please remain where you are. Please remain calm; we are dispatching someone to your location."

I wiped away tears and let the message play again. The woman's voice sounded cruelly calm, too calm, "This is the emergency broadcast system. If you are hearing this- please remain where you are. Please remain calm; we are dispatching someone to your location."

The roaring became louder, fists were beating against the door, and then someone started screaming. I shut my eyes tightly and pressed myself further underneath the desk.

"This is the emergency broadcast system. If you are hearing this- please remain where you are. Please remain calm; we are dispatching someone to your location."

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I glanced back at the sliding window of the truck as I heard another moan. He was in pain and I didn't have anything for him. Lena, who had reluctantly helped me, was pouting with her arms crossed glaring out the window. What did she expect of me? Leave a dying man in the streets for the Sick to take him? No. I wouldn't do that. Another moan. She sighed again and turned around to stare into the dark window of the camper shell. This wasn't our truck exactly. Nope, we started out in Lena's Prius. We acquired the Ford shortly after crossing the Nevada-Utah state line.

"He needs pain medication."

I glanced at her before turning my attention back to the road. How nice of her to suggest something to actually help the man. I wasn't quite sure of his name. He had no ID on him, but there honestly was a use for it anymore. His jeans looked just as worn as his brown boots. He had abandoned his long sleeve shirt in order to use it for a compress for his wound. The only thing he had was a long ass knife and a worn green surplus jacket. His thigh holster was empty. This made me even more curious to who he was. If a man cared enough to wear a thigh holster…the weapon never left his side unless he was left for dead.

"How decent of you. Complain constantly about me helping him and then suggest pain meds. Aren't you a saint."

She glared at me and then shook her head. She wanted it to be just the two of us against the world. Well, the world bit back now. Two of us just weren't enough. If we could find a place to bunker down for a while until this guy got well. That would be three of us against the world. What if he's dangerous Emma? What if he tries to…you know…

"Just trying to help you and your cause out." I sighed at her reply and slowed the truck as we came into the small town. We were passing through quite a few here lately. The Sick hadn't been thick in the smaller towns. I was worried about hitting the larger towns and cities before long. Some of the roads weren't in that great of shape, highways were blocked, and the map we had wasn't exactly up to date. We were almost to the Colorado border. It was already decided that as soon as we crossed we would head north to Montana. Open spaces and hardly any Sick…hardly any humans. Humans are what brought our number down from six to two. The news, briefly before the electricity went, called the Sick the Effected. It seemed fitting.

"There's a pharmacy up on the corner. I'm going to get some supplies."

She looked at me with wide brown eyes, "You're going to leave me here alone?"

I smirked and tossed a quick glance behind me, "Of course not."

Before she could argue, I was shutting the driver door with an empty black backpack in my hand. I looked around cautiously, my fingertips brushing the handle of the 9MM I had holstered to my left thigh. I quickly but carefully made my way through the street toward the pharmacy. I wasn't sure if I would find anything or not, but it was certainly worth a try. If I was going to these lengths to keep him alive…he better be worth it. The fronts of the buildings were beginning to show signs of weather damage and lack of maintenance. Windows were broken and graffiti lined the brick face of the main street. I glanced back at the truck. I could barely make out Lena's face, but she flashed her flashlight at me twice. Yes. She was fine. I turned quickly and marched faster to the white building.

The smell hit me instantly as I stepped over the broken glass of the window. Someone was obviously dead in here….just didn't know if they were still walking or not. I slung the back pack onto my shoulder and grabbed the bowie knife from the holster on my right thigh. Loud sounds seemed to attract the Effected the most. I stepped lightly and quickly down the halls scouring the aisles for things that we might need. I gripped the knife tighter as I placed various medications into the bag. I found gauze and antiseptics. We would need those. I sewed him up as best as I could with a kit that I had found at a sheriff's office back in Nevada. How lucky I was thinking it might come in handy. I peered around the edge of the counter. The high powered medications and antibiotics were in the back. The place looked like it hadn't been ransacked too much. I hopped over the counter and shuffled my way to the rows of bottles. I grabbed a few bottles of antibiotics and some other unknowns. Pain pills…pain pills.

There wasn't any.

I sighed lightly and bent down to look through the packages that were sealed and ready for customers to pick up….obviously though, they never came. I began tearing them open. More antibiotics, heart burn pills, birth control pills….finally…pain pills. Oxycodone to be exact. Thirty count. I shoved them into my bag. I kept ripping open bags and shoving pills in until I heard a scream. I jumped up and ran toward the counter and gave a clumsy jump that almost landed me on my butt. The backpack griped tightly in my hand as I sprinted toward the truck. I skidded to a halt. Lena was standing in the middle of three men…not the Effected kind, but men. I felt my blood boil as I shoved my knife back into its holster. I lifted my gun quickly, "Step away."

The first two closest to me looked startled and then glanced back at what I assume was their leader. He was a tall man, grungy beard, dark eyes…he looked frightening. I fought the chill that started to run up my spine. I took another step forward and repeated myself, "Step away or I'll splatter your brains."

"Really Blondie…we don't have time for games."

I shifted my gun to his buddy on the right, aimed, and pulled the trigger. He screamed as he jerked away holding his ear. Grungy let his smirk go deeper as he watched his team member dance around in pain as he howled like a mad man. If there were any Effected in area, they were sure enough on their way toward us now. The pain in his voice was echoing off the brick walls, the wind wasn't blowing in his favor. It was like a tossing a chum bucket in the ocean. Soon the sharks would be circling.

"I'm an excellent marksman. Step away," I force my face to go hard. I could take down at least two before one got me. I was sure of it.

"I think the lady is serious boys."

Everyone's eyes flew to the man that stepped around the truck. Bloodied dark gray shirt covering his doctored chest and a gun in his right hand. Our gun. We left our bag of weapons back in the bed with him. Really smart Emma. He looked very pale, tired, and clammy. His dark brown hair was matted to his forehead, black circles under his green eyes. Infection or pain may be the cause of that, but I can't be sure until I touch his forehead.

Grungy grunted and then met my eyes. He gave a slight nod as he began to back away. He pointed a grimy finger at me as I kept the gun pointed at his left eye. I have yet to miss a target, "I'll be seeing you Blondie."

I didn't answer him as they all walked back into the building that had Greg's Auto Body written across it. I sighed and slowly lowered my gun. I looked back at the dark haired woman, who had been my best friend for a lifetime, "You alright Lena?"

"Fine." Her hands were shaking. She bent over and picked up her knife from the ground. At least she had tried, I told myself. My gaze moved over to the man. He looked worse for wear. His palm pressed firmly against the hood of the truck.

"Let's get you into the back." I holstered my gun and tossed the keys to Lena. "You drive."

I pried the gun out of his fingers and pulled his arm around my shoulders. It didn't help much considering he was a good six inches taller than me, "I have some pain killers and antibiotics for you."

He nodded and then froze. I was about to ask what was wrong, but then I heard it. Hissing….

"Okay, hurry up now."

He moved quickly, probably faster than he should. He grunted as he climbed into the camper shell. I followed and closed the hatch. I crawled quickly on my hands and knees to the window that connected it to the cab. It was big enough for me to crawl through. I landed with a thud on top of our duffel bags, "Go! Go! Go!"

The Effected were already filtering into the streets. Lena started the truck and practically peeled out. Her eyes were large, frightened, she squealed as she hit two of them with the truck. It bounced and I heard a moan from the back. "Emma…"

"It's fine. Get us out of here. Run them down! Run them all down!"

And she did as I said…with tears rolling down her cheeks.

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We stopped almost an hour later. Lena could barely control her crying and our passenger seemed to be getting paler by the second. I couldn't help it though; I wanted to be sure I had enough miles between us, the Sick, and Grungy back there. Lena pulled over at a broken down gas station, the speed bumps made the guy beside me hiss in pain.

"Hide the truck behind the station. I'll go check it out. You wait here with him. Leave the engine running…just in case."

I started to move toward the door and he grabbed my wrist weakly, "Let me go with you."

I could barely see his green eyes pleading in the dark lit camper shell. Night time was about to fall. The cool night air was beginning to settle in. I shook my head slightly, "You need to stay. At your speed you would only slow me down."

He seemed to agree as I climbed over the tailgate and then lowered the hatch. I met his eyes briefly before easing to the back door. If the Sick were in there, I didn't want to alert them to my position. I drew my knife and grabbed my flashlight from my coat pocket. I glanced over at the truck and found two sets of eyes watching me closely. I eased the door open and slipped inside.

The air was still, no smell though. This was a good sign…sometimes. The store was completely trashed. I listened carefully for any signs of movement. I didn't hear any. The windows were boarded up. I flashed the light around the small storage area and slowly made my way down the hall into the main shopping area. I tapped my knife on the wall and it echoed through the small space.

"Knock, knock."

Anybody home?

Nothing.

Guess not.

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I gave Lena the task of fixing dinner for us which included beans and the last of the stale wheat bread. It wasn't hot, of course, but beggars definitely could not be choosers. The man sat still as I finished up my shotty stitch job and was applying antiseptic. He had already popped a pain pill. He was a lot tougher than I had initially thought. His eyes followed Lena's movements, her hands still visibly shaking. He swallowed loudly and gave a grunt as I cut the thread.

"Sorry," I mumbled. He shook his head and watched me as I taped the bandage to his side. He was lucky the bullet went straight through.

"Is…is she okay?"

I glanced at her and gave a nod as I began to pack up the make shift first aid kit in a large cosmetic bag, "She's fine. Been through a lot."

He nodded and pulled his shirt down as he sat back against the wall, "I appreciate what you and your friend have done for me, but I need to go back- find my brother."

I sighed, "When I found you- you were completely alone. You didn't even have your gun. You were griping that sword thing with every inch of life you had left."

He smirked and took the can of beans and piece of bread from Lena. She handed my ration to me and she quietly sat down. She bit her lip, "We had to fight off the Effected to get you out of there."

His eyes turned toward her and he nodded, "It's a machete...not a sword. Even though that would be awesome to have."

I smiled and shoved a spoonful of cold beans into my mouth. Lena was the first to speak again. She looked up at him under her long dark eyelashes and I prayed that it wasn't just her transposing her feelings after losing Eric, "What did you say your name was again?"

"Dean."

Reviews are welcome.

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DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SUPERNATURAL.

ALL OTHERS ARE MY CREATION.